#(he is here for demonstration purposes and also for us to point at and laugh)

[rocketbirdie]

@fearowkenya I was very easily able to replicate the "faceplant" that you experienced at the Fair residence! It's caused by these otherwise innocent little ledges that the game treats as a steep drop due to their angle relative to the ground. The result is a dramatic jump, either up or down depending on which direction the ledge is approached from.

[evillama666]

“Play fighting”

“Play fighting” 

Daryl Dixon x Reader

It's my second fanfic!

I can totally see Daryl play fighting. Less stressful than real fights 

Summary: Reader asks Daryl if they can play fight but he wasn’t prepared for how strong they are. Also he teaches them some stuff  

No damsels in distress here! 

Tags: I don’t fucking know, Platonic??? Some dirty thoughts, Happy Daryl (:

Word count: 4105

At first it was only like two-thousand so I wanted to make it longer but I didn't mean by another two-thousand words!

He's so ridiculous

꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…

When you asked Daryl if he was up for play fighting, he was hesitant at first. He doesn’t want to fucking hurt you, but he thought it would be a good opportunity to teach you how to fight. Also, he and Merle used to play fight as kids all the time! Mostly… Kinda… Ok, leave out the word play. 

When he told you, you don’t have to go easy on him, he wasn’t expecting you to take it so seriously. He groans as he touches his ribs. He’s going to be all bruised by this afternoon. Hot… Despite being all bruised up, he’s smiling and laughing the whole time in the sun. It’s the happiest you've ever seen him. Of course he’s going easy on you. Again, doesn’t want to hurt you, but he can handle a beating himself. But damn, do you punch like a bitch. He studies your style as you fight and picks up on anything you need to work on. If you’re going to fight, he wants you to do it properly. 

“Here.” He grunts as he takes your hand in his. “Hold ya fist like this. Less strain on your wrist.” He carefully positions your fingers and hand correctly. Once he’s satisfied, he lets go. “Now punch me.” You don’t hesitate to land a punch square in his chest. Huh, that really is less strain on the wrist. He has to stifle back a groan. Motherfucker! That hurt. There’s no way he’s getting his ass beat by this tiny girl…

He rubs his chest for a brief second, not showing that he was hurt. “How’d that feel?” You glance down at your hand, rubbing your wrist. “A lot better than what I was doing.” Daryl takes the second you’re looking away to rub his chest. His eyes roam over you. You seem to know what you’re doing. “Ya ever fought before?” 

You look up when he asks that question, then shake your head. “No, but I used to play around with my dad and brother a lot.” Oh. Of course you grew up around men. He can clearly see that. “Tha’s gonna help you in this world. Just need ta fix a few thangs. I’ll show ya.” Having Daryl, who actually knows how to fight, teach you, is crucial. He comes up to you, a little cautious because you keep pulling dirty moves. Now that he’s behind you, he puts his hands on your shoulders, straightening them out. “Proper posture is beneficial.”

He takes back a step so he can show you. He lazily points at his shoulders with his thumbs. Is he flexing on purpose? Either way, those damn arms are taunting you. “See how ma shoulders are aligned?” He puts his hands back on your shoulders as he spreads your legs with his foot. That was so damn easy for him. Your cheeks flush as you think of him doing that in a very different situation. Luckily, he’s behind you, so he can’t see. “And balance. Gotta have good balance so ya opponent can’t just’ knock ya over.” He gives your body a few good jolts to demonstrate. You swear he’s testing you on purpose… 

He crosses his arms over his chest as he examines your stance. “Now ya good at throwing ya weight behind ya punches but, now that ya balanced, it’s gonna be easier.” Well, might as well test that. You raise your fist, aiming for his chest again. It’s just so broad, it’s easy to aim for. And you don’t wanna seriously hurt him. He backs up, knowing damn well you were going to try to pull a dirty move. He grabs your fist with one hand, blocking himself with his other arm. “Ain’t that easier?”

“I thought we were gonna play, not give me a damn fighting lesson! You huff as you try to pull your fist out of his grasp. You know why Daryl is teaching you these things, but he couldn’t choose a time when you weren’t in such a playful mood? Daryl easily manoeuvres your body until he’s got his arm wrapped around your throat. He’s gotta be testing you, right? You yell and flail. “No! Chokehold’s illegal!” He smirks, knowing you’re using his own damn words against him. 

“Get out of it.” He’s joking, right? This man’s got his beefy arms around your tiny little neck and he just wants you to get out of it? This is gonna be another lesson, isn’t it? You tug on his arm, desperately trying to get out. Maybe he’ll just let you go? …He won’t. He’s not using a lot of strength, but he does tighten his grip a little as a warning. After some more flailing, your body finally slumps. You mumble, reluctantly giving into his other lesson. “How.” You state, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of actually asking.

His smirk widens. You’ve gotta learn this eventually and you gave him the perfect opportunity. “It’s all in the grip. You gotta make ‘em let go. Either hit ‘em somewhere sensitive or knock ‘em off balance. As soon as that grip is loosened, you can get out.” You roll your eyes. He seriously expects you to do that to him? “I’m not gonna be able to do that to you.” His grip tightens just a bit before letting go. He’s got a smug smirk. “Nah. Leas’ ya learned.” 

You rub your neck once he’s let go. Oh, to have those arms wrapped around you in a whole other situation- The words ‘knock them off balance’ rings through your head. Yeah, it’ll be hard to knock Daryl off balance, but he would look so good under you if you did. So, you shove your full body weight into his chest. He doesn’t budge an inch. He tilts his head. “I ain’t mean now.” You huff out a breath of annoyance as you back up. Ok, that was a little embarrassing. You didn’t even make him budge. Time to pull out another dirty move. 

You inhale deeply as you kick out his knee. He groans as his hand darts to where you kicked. “Ah! You bitch!” Now that he’s half on the ground and in pain, it’s going to be easier to knock him over. You shove his chest, his back hitting the grass with a thud. At Least he got a soft landing… Kinda. Now you’re straddling his hips with your hands on either side of your head. Ok, you didn’t think of what to do now once you got here. He smirks up at you. “This what ya wanted?”

You shake your head as you fight a smile. “Shut up, Dixon.” You sit up, playfully shoving at his chest. You give him a second for the pain in his knee to relieve. Now that he’s like this, you can get a lot of hits in. You don’t give him too long before you’re back to punching his already sore chest. He blocks most of the punches with his arms. He knows you won’t go for his face. “Damn bitch. Ya like playing dirty, huh?” His voice is rough and low. Your punches don’t relent. “It’s the only way I’m gonna do anything to you.”

A low laugh escapes his chest. Fair enough. He has nothing against you playing dirty. He’d happily let you beat him to a pulp if it’d satisfy you. A few grunts slip his lips as you hit some particularly sore spots. For as long as you two have been going at it, you assume he’s a bit sore now. The only thing bothering you is a slight stinging in your knuckles. You get quite a few more punches in before resting your hands on his chest and catching your breath.

You know he could use a break too. He’s been taking a lot of your punches. You know you caught a few winces from him even though he was trying to hide it. Your head bows as you catch your breath and Daryl brushes whatever hair that fell behind your ear. “Tired?” You meet his eyes. How does this man seem perfectly fine? You're all out of breath while he’s barely panting. “Just… gotta catch my breath.”

“Take as much time as you need, sweetheart.” His hands move up to your hips. “Not like I'm going to many places.” Ugh, you’re too exhausted to even have a dirty thought. Daryl watches you as you’re sitting on him, panting like a damn dog. Maybe he’s having some thoughts, maybe not. It’s hard to read his face. “Ya need some water?” As much as you’d love to take a break, you know damn well Daryl isn’t going to let you get him on the ground again. You swallow dryly as you shake your head. Your voice is pretty breathless. “M’no, just gotta take a sec to catch my breath. What about you?” That’s a stupid question to ask. The man looks like nothing has even happened to him. 

His eyes rake over your body, making sure you’re actually ok before responding. “Could go for another round.” Seriously, fuck him. How dare he be perfectly fine while you’re dying over here. You know what? You shove your elbow down on his sternum. His stomach clenches and he groans as you slam your elbow down. Always his damn chest. He rubs between his pecs as he catches his breath. “What is-..... What is with you… and my damn chest?” You’re finally starting to catch your breath. You shrug and shoot you a quick innocent smile. “Easy to aim at.”

His hands find their place back on your hips now that he’s done rubbing his chest. He’s going to have a lot of bruises tomorrow. He laughs gruffly. “And here I thought you just had a thing for it.” Both could be true… You sit up straight, now having caught your breath. It honestly felt like you were going to flop over and die just now. How is he so in shape? Maybe he could teach you a thing or two about that because boy, do your lungs need it. “Are you sore?” You ask, knowing you did a number on his chest and ribs. He shrugs, fiddling with the top of your shorts. “Been through worse.” That’s not an answer you liked. You hope you didn't trigger anything for him. Though it didn't seem like you did. You’ve never seen Daryl smile as much as he has playing with you. You know Daryl could flip you over any second, and the thought is exhilarating. You want to see how long he’ll let you be in this position, though. “You look good like this. ~” 

“I knew you wanted to see me like this, freak.” Daryl smirks as he looks up at you. He could admit, you look good like this too. But it doesn't last long before he’s flipped you over on to your back. You laugh as your hands rest on his chest. “Going to turn this into another lesson?” His hair falls around your face. “Nah, ya seemed annoyed with the headlock, so I thought we could just play now.” You shove Daryl’s chest, trying to get him off you. He doesn’t show any signs of pain except a few nose twitches. You hate how good he is at hiding when he’s in pain. He smiles as he looks down at you. “Not so fun now that the roles have been switched, huh?"

You laugh again. He loves hearing that sound, and he’s been getting to hear it a lot now. “No, I’m enjoying the view.” He shakes his head as he crawls off you and offers you a hand to sit up. He’s not going to keep you pinned down the whole time you’re supposed to be playing. Where’s the fun in that? “You’re such a fuckin’ weirdo.” You shrug, finding no offence in that. It’s true after all. Now that he’s sitting on his knees, you shove into his shoulder. There’s no intent in knocking him over again. You already had your fun with that. He laughs and shoves you right back. He’s still being gentle. 

You shove him again, this time elbowing his ribs. You didn't put your full strength behind it since you know he’s sore. He grunts as you elbow him. “C’mon, don’t go easy on me.” He shoves you back, knocking you on your ass. You get up and tackle his back, wrapping your arms around his neck. Listening to his words, you decide to yank on his hair. He laughs loudly. “Fuckin’ cheater!” As he’s trying to throw you off his back, you can’t help but notice his shirt riding up. When your grip quickly lets go, he wonders what the hell you’re doing before he feels you pulling his shirt down, promptly covering his scars. You know how he feels about them. He looks over his shoulder with a look of silent appreciation. The fact he didn’t flip out on you or walk off without saying a word shows how he’s comfortable with you. “Wanna keep going?”

You shrug as you answer. “Yep!” You can tell how much Daryl cares about you by the way he keeps making sure you’re ok. He grabs you by your shoulders and tosses you onto the grass. Just as he’s starting to stand up, you scramble up, tackling his back once more to keep him on the ground. He grunts as you start punching his sides again. He’s going to get a broken rib at this rate. “Ya know the most sensitive places, don’t ya?” You rest your head on his shoulder as you answer. “Yea, you’re lucky I haven't kneed you in the nuts…. yet.” 

Daryl can’t tell if that’s a dirty move you’d use. He sure as hell hopes not. He mumbles under his breath before knocking you off. “Smartass.” At Least he knows he doesn't have to worry about you handling yourself in a real fight. He playfully punches your sides before you can get up. It’s no fun if he doesn't get a few hits in. “Always block ya face, alright? It’s the most fragile and it ain’t exactly like you can fix ya pretty lil’ thang with surgery if ya get banged up.” You can’t help but smile as you tease him. “You think my face is pretty?” Fuck, did he let that slip? “I ain’t mean it like that.” He says sternly. 

You laugh loudly as his small punches on your sides turn into tickles. You certainly weren't expecting that. He’s smiling and laughing along with you. “Ya gotta be prepared for anythin’ in a fight.” Your brows raise as you look at him. “Tickles!? Is that something I should worry about!?” He laughs as he leans his face down lower, closer to yours. He’s got you pinned to the ground, in between your legs. “With me, yeah.” You squirm, trying to get away, but your attempts are futile. “I didn't think of you as someone who enjoys tickling!”

His hands move down from your ribs, to your sides, which are even more sensitive. “Nah, just like hearin’ ya laugh.” You weakly shove his chest. “I’ve been laughing this whole time!” He can’t help but laugh more. “Then I like keepin’ ya on edge.” The punches and shoves to his chest are very weak, and it’s getting harder to breathe from laughing. “You're such a fucking asshole! Stop!” Daryl is taking note of your breathing. It’s fine to get air into your lungs so he doesn’t stop yet. You groan playfully as you keep laughing. He’s addicted to that sound. “Come on Daryl! Stop!” He ignores your demands, but his movements do slow down. He lowers his head, just above yours. “Why should I?” It’s so infuriating when he tests you like this. Your hands go to his wrists, but it’s not enough to get him to stop.

“Let me breathe!” You laugh out. He hums like he’s in thought. All of a sudden his tickles speed back up, making you thrash around. “Daryl!” After a moment more he stops, sitting up as he listens to your giggles slowly die out. He puts his hands on your knees as he sits between your legs. A smirk forms on his lips as he listens to your laughs turn into little pants. He’s actually learning a lot about your body as he wrestles with you. He makes a mental note of where you're most ticklish. He’s so going to use that against you. 

Just when you catch your breath, you kick him in the stomach, knocking him over. It’s not hard enough to actually hurt or wind him, just enough to push him. A loud groan escapes deep from his throat. He stares up at the sky as he breathes. He really should have kept his guard up for that one. Now he’s laying here, wondering what the hell your next move is. You jump up and land right on his chest. That did not pair nicely with the kick to his stomach. Maybe you’re actually starting to wear him out. ‘Man, I better not be getting fuckin’ old.’ He thinks as he just lays there and takes it. 

Just to prove to himself he’s not, he rolls you over. You laugh at the sudden move and he laughs as you try to do the same right back to him. Helping you out, he lets you roll him over. A couple of group members think you're fucking crazy, rolling around in the grass as they're out here doing chores. Daryl must be comfortable with you if he’s rolling around with you in front of the group, not giving a damn about who sees and what they think about him right now. Ain’t that cute?

“Are we just gonna keep rollin’ around like fuckin’ pigs, or are you gonna do something?” He teases with a smirk as he looks at you above him yet again. Your muscles are finally feeling sore. You can only imagine how Daryl’s feeling and he still wants to play? He notices the weariness in you, knowing you two can’t be playing for too much longer. You shove his face. “Shut up. I just needed a minute.” He huffs as he yanks your hand off his face. There’s a hint of concern in his voice, “Ya sure you don’t wanna end it here?” Honestly, you felt like you should have stopped a while ago but, who knows when you're going to experience this level of fun again, and you wanted Daryl to experience as much of it for as long as possible. You force a small smile. “Stop asking! I’m good!”

Do you think he wouldn't pick up your smile was forced? The weariness in your eyes? The slightly strained cheery tone? He knows you better than that, but pushes those thoughts down. Maybe you just want some more fun. It’s not like you’re in pain, just a little tired. “Just lookin’ out.” And with that, he rolls you off of him. As you start crawling away, too tired to actually run, he pulls you back by your waist. “Come on, don’t just run away.” He whispers, as he leans over your shoulder, adding a little more weight to your back. Laughing, you squirm out from under him before he can squash you. “I wasn't!” No, you were. You totally were. He laughs as he hugs your back to his chest, pinning you against him. “Sure as hell looked like it.” Grabbing and pulling on his arms, you try to release his grip. He laughs against your shoulder as he hugs you tightly. Damn, you should definitely ask for hugs from this man. This is one of the most comforting embraces you’ve ever had and it’s not even a real damn hug. A long laugh escapes your lips as you slump against his body. “You can’t keep pinning me!” He chuckles as he pulls you onto the ground with him. 

Slipping away, you manage to crawl a few feet away from him, gaining a second to breathe before he’s on top of you again. “Didn’t I just say no running?” You punch his chest as you argue. “I crawled!” He hums in amusement as he grabs your wrists. “Still counts.” He says, tugging you up towards his body before dropping you against the grass. A breath leaves your lungs as you hit the ground. You sit up, pulling yourself away, then shoving into his chest weakly. The exhaustion is kicking in and he can tell. So, helping out, he allows himself to fall onto the ground. You fall with him, landing against the grass beside him, not putting up anymore of a fight. The grass feels soft enough to sleep on. 

 “Ya wanna get some water now? Been at this for a while.” You meet his eyes, trying to catch your breath, cheek pressed against the grass, looking absolutely drained. You can feel the soreness of your body settling and your throat seems to get dryer with each breath. You slowly nod and he stands up, lending his hand out for you. “Les’ get some wata in ya, then.” He pulls you to your feet effortlessly. He leads the way to the coolers, then tosses a bottle at you. You’re never taking a cold bottle of water for granted ever again. Daryl shoves your shoulder when you chug, making you spill some. “What the hell!?” You snap at him. He takes a small sip before responding. “Ya gonna make yaself sick doin’ that.” 

You roll your eyes as you reluctantly take smaller sips before glancing over at him again. His chest is rising up and down deeply. He doesn't seem that out of shape as you. It physically hurts to breathe right now. It was probably the right time to end it. As you look over him, he’s looking over you for any injuries. “Y’ain’t hurt?” You pull the bottle away from your lips as you answer. “No, just sore.” He nods once before squeezing your shoulder. “Then ya rest now.” He says, before walking off before you get a chance to ask if he’s ok. 

꩜…꩜…꩜…

Later that day, you find him alone, per usual. He’s sitting by himself around an unlit fire pit. You sit down next to him, handing him a bag of ice. You know he needs it. “Here. Got it from the infirmary.” A long satisfied sigh leaves his lips as he presses it into his ribs. That sound causes more of those thoughts. “Thanks.” He mumbles gruffly before adding, “Can’t believe I got my ass kicked by you.” A soft, amused sound escapes your lips. “You wouldn’t have if you used a bit more of your strength.” He laughs and shakes his head. “Nah, I still woulda. Ya lot stronga than ya look.” A small smile tugs at your lips. That, coming from Daryl, must be true then. “How bad is it?” You ask, hoping he may actually answer this time. He doesn’t but silently lifts his shirt just enough to show you all the yellow, purple, and green bruises that formed on his ribs. And there will be more formed by tomorrow. Knowing you got to mark Daryl up like that is hot, but you still feel bad. Looking away down at your hands, you mumble, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He says, just a bit louder than you. “I had fun for… the first time in ages. So….. thanks for that.” He shoots you a small but genuine smile and you can’t help but smile back. You could tell he was having fun. He wouldn’t stop laughing or smiling. It’s the first time you’ve seen him so genuinely happy. “So, when can I beat your ass again?” He tries to stifle a laugh. “Damn, let my bruises fade first.” You playfully shove your elbow into his side. He laughs and shoves you back. “Asshole.” 

You sigh heavily, resting your head on his shoulder. “I’m gonna have the best sleep tonight.” You’re beyond exhausted. You would have taken a nap, but you’re holding it till tonight so you can really pass out. Daryl grunts in agreement. That was quite the workout he just had. “Didn’t know I needed a little bitch to beat the shit out of me so I can finally sleep for once.” A small but tired laugh of amusement leaves you. “Happy to help, anytime.” Daryl leans his cheek on your head, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He’s being vulnerable.

꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…꩜…

I hate this part

[thus-wrote-mrs-zeppeli]

It would be fun If you wrote a scenario where Reader and Rohan paint together, I really enjoy reading your work!

Why thank you~

YES, we LOVE Rohan in this house I will try~

-Painting with Rohan

“You’re making a mess over there.”

“Well yeah…this is PAINT.”

Rohan was glaring at you from his easel, and at the “mess” you’ve made. Really it was just a few paint stains on your apron…he was just being fussy for the sake of it, as usual.

“Are you doing that on purpose…?” he grumbles. You’ve barely started this little painting project, and since he was already almost done he was purposefully slowing down a bit by focusing on you instead.

“Rohan…”

“What?”

“Can you please relax a little.”

He huffs indignantly at you. “I am relaxed,” but even he knows he’s being a little bit of a stick in the mud right now. For as long as you’ve known him he’s been like that. You’ve been used to his eccentric nitpicking by now, but having to hear it while you’re concentrating on a delicate task is causing you to lose your focus.

“I know you. I can tell just from your voice that you wanna come over here and ‘fix’ my painting for me,” you reply with a smirk, not even looking at him while you continue your colorful masterpiece. Silence from his side for a moment. He’s not doing anything in particular. Just refusing to look at you, in denial of you knowing him well enough to accurately predict what he was feeling right now.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence? Three beats of silence, that’s rare with Rohan, even when he was giving you the cold shoulder.

You get to work peacefully for a blissful moment.

“Well you’re doing it wrong.”

You didn’t mean to roll your eyes at him but sometimes you cannot help it as you hear him set down his own palette and walk over to your easel.

“Your brush strokes are too short.”

His face is right next to yours as he observes your painting. Your personal space was also Rohan’s space.

“I barely started, how can you even tell what I’m making?”

“It’s supposed to be a sunset, I can tell from the colors you chose.”

He takes your hand and lifts it up to the canvas for you, under the guise of guiding you. Really he’s just doing it for you.

“See? If you’re painting a cloud it should be more like this.”

He’s practically dragging your hand along the top of your canvas, ‘demonstrating’ how to make long, elegant dusk colored clouds.

“You’re doing it for me…this defeats the point…” you point out. His hand on yours is secure but loose enough to paint most efficiently; a practiced artist’s grip.

“I’m not doing it for you, it’s your hand holding the brush isn’t it?”

“Rohan…”

He does that annoying chuckle right in your ear, but if you tried to rip your hand free from his right now you’d probably end up ruining the painting. You’ll just have to tolerate it until the paint runs out on the brush. Feels like it lasts a while. You sigh.

“OK, now go back to your side, thank you,” you try to shoo him away when you’re finally not in danger of messing up the artwork.

“Do it right then,” he replies, stepping back a bit. But not going back to his side. He’s going to observe you to make sure you’ve learned something.

“There’s no ‘right’ way to make art,” you counter.

He huffs. “But there Are certain techniques and proper ways to do them.”

You just have to laugh a bit at this point.

“Okay but this is Just for FUN, remember?”

He grumbles something that you’re sure is just another silly criticism you don’t want to hear.

Actually, it gives you an idea.

You turn your attention to his easel, bringing your palette over to it and examining his canvas with a comically critical eye.

Though, honestly, it’s hard to see anything Technically wrong with his piece. Rohan had an annoying amount of skill in all things art. On this canvas he’s painted some Italian architecture he once saw on his travels, from memory. Genuinely beautiful. You feel like you could step right into his painting. But you push those thoughts down through the power of your indignation.

He can already tell from your little “hmmmm…it really is quite nice…” that you’re scheming something. He’s watching you carefully, with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

“It could use a dash of color though, don’t you think?”

“Don’t even think about it…”

As soon as you dip your brush in the pink on your palette, he’s wedged himself between you and his canvas, his hand immediately going for your brush, which you pull away from him just as quickly.

“It’s just a little bit of pink, Rohan! I’m helping you!” you laugh and dodge him, waving the paintbrush just out of his reach. He couldn’t protect his canvas and catch you at the same time, and you were going to entirely use that to your advantage.

“That’s really CHILDISH, HONESTLY! Grow up!!”

“Oh c’mon, you could remake that in like thirty seconds,” you point out, not that you were Actually going to vandalize his painting. You were just getting him back by messing with him a bit.

“That’s not the point!”

You aim the brush at him.

“Stop it.”

You take a step closer to him.

“DON’T you DARE.”

If he gets to be annoying all the time, it is Only fair you get a turn sometimes.

Chasing him around with a paintbrush wasn’t how you had Intended to spend this date with him…but it was admittedly satisfying to have the Great Rohan running away from you and hissing at you to cut it out because his clothes were expensive. As if he didn’t have a million other fancy outfits, or the money to buy more.

-

I’m on vacation right now and I brought all my Rohan manga with me lol. Comfort character fr.

[eisforeidolon]

Question: What was the most dangerous or scary stunt you ever did?

Jensen: Most dangerous or scary stunt we've ever done. [whistles]

Jared: Dangerous or scary stunt. So, ironically, the stunts that were not the most dangerous were the ones that I hurt myself the most. [laughs]

Jensen: Yeah.

JDM: Yeah. It's ones where, like, you don't need to go over this with me, I got this, I can take a fall. And then you crack your skull. Yeah.

Jared: Then you crack a shoulder or something. Um, the most dangerous - Ackles?

Jensen: I mean, I would say, there's definitely a lot of dangerous - I mean, it's also changed, like, the things that we were allowed to do back in the day have grossly changed now. They won't let us, just for insurance purposes, do a whole lot.

Jared: 'Cause we're older now. [laughs]

Jensen: It might be that, too. But I'll never forget probably the one I look back on the most and go 'oh my God' was - I did a very terrible movie called Devour, and in that movie [Jared: Oh!] I was like, hunting in the woods, and then out of nowhere this mountain lion - giant, like, [JDM laughs] I don't even know how, it was hundreds and hundreds of pounds. [Jared laughs] This like, grown cat. And they -

JDM: It was real?

Jared: [laughing] Yes!

Jensen: Yeah, yeah, 'cause they didn't have money to do CGI.

JDM: No CGI.

Jensen: No. So I'll never forget it, they said, they gathered the whole crew and the [finger quotes] animal wrangler came out and gave a safety speech. It was like, okay everybody I want you guys to know that when we bring the cat out, we want, we need everybody to stay in this area. We need you all to stay together. If somebody needs to go to the bathroom, you need to walk in pairs. You cannot single yourself out, once you do that, you instantly make yourself prey. So stay in a group, do not leave this area unless you have to, if you do leave, make sure it is at least in pairs or more. Jensen, could we get you on your mark out there in the middle of the woods? What?! So that alone should have given me pause, but I was young enough and too dumb to say no. And so then the shot, at one point there was a camera over my left shoulder and the cat is supposed to charge at me and as it leaps, I raise up my rifle and I shoot it. So we were doing that shot -

Jared: [laughs] Nope.

Jensen: And the animal wrangler was right behind me to my right, with a little like [vigorously shakes hand] baby toy. Just shaking it right over my right shoulder -

Jared: And Jensen was like, ah toy, toy, toy! [makes grabbing motion]

Jensen: And they're like action, and here comes this, like, five hundred pound cat charging at me full steam, jumps up in the air, and I'm supposed to raise my rifle, and it was so close it brushed my shoulder with its like [makes claw hands][Jared looks visibly uncomfortable] - because it was coming right at that toy and I just went [mimics half raising a pretend rifle, then ducking out] Nope! I look back on that now and there is no way - if there was anybody from the studio, or any producer on set that day, that would have left the lead actor to be anywhere close to that man-killer. Uh, so that was probably one that I look back on and think I got out of that one.

Jared: What about Yellow Fever? Do you remember the snake behind the couch? Phil Sgriccia was directing it, and we're sitting on the couch, you know, and the guy's asking us questions as this GIANT fucking python -

Jensen: It was a two hundred pound python.

Jared: Yeah, whose head was the size of my whole fist and fingers. And -

Jensen: Yeah, that was real.

Jared: It was real.

Jensen: And you left!

Jared: Of course I left!

Jensen: It did this on me [demonstrates on JDM's shoulder] like it came up over my shoulder and went all the way down -

Jared: I'm this far away, and I started getting -

Jensen: And he's on the other side of the couch -

Jared: [fake nervous laugh] I'm out!

Jensen: And he just gets up and leaves the scene. I can't move, I'm just frozen in terror -

Jared: So they had to change the angle of the camera, because I wasn't gonna fucking be there.

[Jared and JDM have an exchange here that I can't entirely make out, but from JDM waving and saying I'm good, I'm good, presumably about GTFO]

Jensen: Also, the snake wrangler was behind the couch, and he was on his back and he was supposed to just feed the snake over the couch and onto my shoulder, and it wouldn't go. This snake's like two hundred pounds -

Jared: He's, like, agitating the snake -

Jensen: So he's [mimes] kicking it and pushing it. And I'm like, does the snake ever get upset? And he's like, no, he's really docile as long as you don't, hurt it or step on it or be mean to it, it's totally fine. I look over my shoulder, and he's like [makes violent shoving and kicking motions] Come on! Dammit! And punching it and shoving it and kicking it and then it gets onto my shoulder and I'm like, I'm gonna get - I'm gonna die. This is it. I'm gonna die in front of all of my friends. Yeah, so, but they won't let us do that stuff anymore.

JDM: I did a movie called Texas Killing Fields and it wasn't even a fucking stunt, but it had to do with an animal. But also an animal without an animal wrangler. I had Chloe Moretz over my shoulder and it was a scene of me coming out of the swamp, like I had just -saved her of course. [Jared laughs] 'Cause that's what I do, I save people. And they were like just go, the shot's ready Jeff, just take her and walk out into the swamp. I'm like, cool. So I got her and I'm telling jokes, making her laugh and I look down and I'm stepping and there's like an eight foot alligator as my foot is going down on top of its head. And this thing rears up - I dropped Chloe and ran. [J2 crack up] I like ya, kid, but -

Jensen: Not that much!

JDM: See ya. Survival of the fittest.

Jensen: You don't have to be fast, just fast-er.

JDM: That's exactly right. And she landed on her ass, so I was gone, so she [wasn't gonna beat me?]. Yeah, 'cause most of the stunts, I've gotta say, we've been really lucky working with really good stunt people, too. You know they generally do the stunt and then we stand there because we're idiots, the three of us all make bad decisions -

Jared: Correct.

JDM: The shot's done, they got it in the can and then we're like -

[they all talk over each other a bit here]

Jared: Let's do it again!

JDM: Can we do it, just let us try, 'cause -

Jensen: Let me see if I can hit this wall harder.

JDM: Yeah, harder than the stunt guys that have been doing it all day. We're, you know, that causes pain, I can't -

Jensen: It does.

JDM: But really, they're so - we've worked with some really good people in our lives. Supernatural, The Boys in particular, that guy won a [?] Emmy or whatever -

Jensen: Koy.

JDM: They know what they're doing. Walker, I'm sure the same deal, you know.

Jared: Yeah.

JDM: You can't fall off a horse anymore. You can't.

Jared: Right, yeah.

Jensen: It hurts.

JDM: [humorous echo] It hurts. You can throw people at alligators, though.

[keepingsecretstokeepyoutk]

So Long London - Full Lyric Analysis

My Gaylor/Kaylor interpretation at a glance: Taylor uses the bearding narrative of her breakup with Joe as an allegory to talk about her reluctant decision to “break up” with her fans/kill off her public persona in the process of coming out. 

The Joe bearding narrative was likely created for this very purpose - an "ex" who didn't allow her to "bejeweled" (be her whole self), who she tried to make it work with, tried to change herself for, before realizing she couldn't keep sacrificing her wellbeing, mental and otherwise. Read through this lens, this song is devastating, so prepare yourselves emotionally, maybe have tissues on hand.

I interpret a number of the "break up" songs on this album (almost all of them) as being about her reaching the end of her rope with being in the closet and trying to slowly change her fan's attitude towards her queerness. So many of these songs imply that she has hit her breaking point, and the metaphor of a failing romantic relationship is the perfect vehicle to express this shift.

I believe this precedent exists in her work, and for this particular chapter, was established with "You're losing me".

This is also one of a few songs on the album that conceptualize her fame (as obtained with her public, hetero persona) as a place. In this song, that place is represented by London (hence, "so long, London"). In Florida!!! she may be running away to Florida from this place, (after she comes out and needs to escape the backlash). In "I hate it here", she dreams of escaping this place, and imagines two other locales within the lore of her songs - "secret gardens", a probable parallel to Betty's garden and the "garden gates" in Cruel Summer, as well as the "lunar valleys" referencing the galactic landscape established in Down Bad.

Lets get into it!

Verse 1

“Saw in my mind fairy lights in the mist/kept calm and carried the weight of the rift/pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away/my spine split from carrying us up the hill/wet through my clothes, wary bones caught the chill/stopped trying to make him laugh/stopped trying to drill the safe”

In this first verse, Taylor introduces the idea of her fans being like a partner who isn’t present in the relationship, and more importantly, a partner that is ultimately rejecting her true self. 

“Fairy lights in the mist” - Taylor has used daylight/light images to represent the end of her closeting/her coming out for at least 5 years. Here she sees small pinpricks of light amongst darkness and the classic metaphor for hiding/confusion, etc - mist. She is saying that in the past she had hope, she saw a possible path forward to coming out while also keeping all of her fans.

“Kept calm and carried the weight of rift/pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away” - Taylor reflects on her years of hoping that she could slowly introduce her fans the idea that she is not straight, then come out with minimal rupture in her relationship with her fans. She tried to keep the faith and looked past a lot of bad behavior on the part of some of her fans, convinced that she could make them see her and that their love for her would extend past their need for her being the persona they have grown attached to.

“Stopped trying to make him laugh/stopped trying to drill the safe” - ultimately, she gave up, having been rejected too many times - ignored when she clearly signaled her gayness and the masses of her fans just refused to acknowledge it. Beyond refusing to acknowledge it, they bullied those that did see it, demonstrating to her how reviling they found the idea that she might be queer. “Drill the safe” is a metaphor for trying to force something that will never happen, she is realizing she needs to let go of something that isn’t for her.

Chorus

“How much sad did you think I had/did you think I had in me/oh the tragedy/so long London/ you’ll find someone” 

Taylor now must ask her fans, how long did you expect me to sacrifice my own happiness while you continue to ignore my pleas for you to see me? 

“You’ll find someone” = you’ll find another idol/para social relationship to obsess over, identify with, etc. This is a reference to Dear Reader, when she sang “you should find another guiding light.” In that song, Taylor warned fans that she is not who they think she is ("you wouldn't take my word for it if you knew who was talking"), that the idea they have of her life is constructed, and strongly lamented her life choices, essentially telling fans they shouldn't look to her for life advice, because she is lonely and miserable. Here, the reference not only underscores the idea that they don't know her, but also that she is making the choice for them to "find someone" else, because she is choosing to come out of hiding, and in so doing, is also choosing to leave behind the misery that made her write Dear Reader in the first place.

Verse 2

“Didn’t opt in to be your odd man out/I founded the club she’s heard great things about/ I left all I knew/you left me in the house by the heath/I stopped cpr after all it’s no use/the spirit was gone, we would never come to/ and I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.”

I made a post about the "Heath" reference that you can read here. Please note the reblog of it that I added an addendum to about the Heath being a park in London. Heath was a doctor that practiced conversion therapy, meaning that her fans "left her at home" with someone trying to change her. By ignoring her signaling, they told her they didn't want the real her, which kept her in the closet, and I fear kept her more vulnerable to those who may have tried to manipulate her into trying to change herself, or deny her true self even behind closed doors.

"I stopped cpr after all its no use/the spirit was gone we would never come to" - again Taylor is using the of a failed romantic relationship to express her lost hope in salvaging the corners of her kingdom that ultimately won't accept her when she comes out. This is also an example of the frequent gothic/death related imagery Taylor uses on this album, a theme consistent with the idea that something is ending, that she is killing off her public persona.

"and I'm pissed off that you let me give you all that youth for free" Taylor has spent so many years choosing her fans and her current carrer path over the full expression of her life and happiness. Again, she had hope that the people who have given her endless validation and effusive praise for years would accept her for who she is. She is realizing that the love between her and at least some of her fans was conditional, and given what we know of how much her fans have meant to her over the course of her career, this was likely a devastating wake up call that took years for her to accept - undoubtedly a huge factor in her seemingly delaying her coming out so many times.

"So long London/Stitches undone/two graves, one gun/I’ll find someone”

Taylor has said her fans are her longest relationship; the imagery in this song reflects the idea that this is a break up with someone she has tried with over and over again. So she undoes the “stitches” that link her to them. This line references her song Glitch on Midnights, “fasten myself to you with a stitch” symbolizing being bonded with a romantic partner (which represent a portion of her fans in this song).

"Two graves one gun" is likely a reference to burying her public persona self, and the second grave could represent her fans (a parallel to the "cheating husband" in "Florida!!!"?) or it could be a shrouded suicidal thought - the second grave being her private persona - both selves being killed off. This lyric is one of my favorites in this song but I don't have a strong conviction on who the second grave is, I'm very open to others' thoughts...

Bridge

“And you say I abandoned the ship/but I was going down with it/my white knuckle dying grip/holding tight to your quiet resentment/and my friends said it isn't right to be scared/every day of a love affair/every breath feels like rarest air/ when you're not sure if he wants to be there/So how much sad did you think I had, did you think I had in me/How much tragedy/Just how low did you think I'd go/Before I'd self implode/before I had to go be free"

"And you say I abandoned the ship...white knuckle dying grip" Taylor emphasizes her wish for things to be different with this lyric, clinging to her ship as it sinks. We all saw her try to right the ship, she's finally choosing to let go and swim to safety (a nautical parrallel to the manuscript's "my trip to your shores"?).

“My friends said it isn’t right to be scared everyday of a love affair…if you’re not sure he wants to be there”

Similar to when someone is in a bad romantic relationship, i imagine her friends expressed their concern that her relationship with her fans is unhealthy. Although many of her friends are high achievers themselves, Taylor’s success is in another league (monster on the hill) and they would likely have expressed their hope that she can slow down and accept a slightly less monumental career in the interest of her mental health. 

“How much sad did you think I had/did you think I had in me/Just how low did you think I’d go?” “before I self implode/before I have yo go be free”

Taylor imagines arguing with her fans in the throes of the break up, and in this passage it becomes clear that she is convinced they know the truth but are refusing to acknowledge it. That they allowed her to keep faking her straight persona for their sake. That she was a woman pushed to her limits by a partner (fans) who knew they were running her ragged, a partner that didn’t in fact love her, but loved what she could do for them.

 So she asks them, how long did you think I could keep doing this before it broke me? How long did you think I would go along with this, be willing to sacrifice for you? how much would she fake/take the money to keep up the straight persona?

“You swore that you loved me but where were the clues?/I died on the altar waiting for the proof/ you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days”

The para social relationship is again a perfect match for the metaphor of a partner that uses you but doesn’t meet you in relationship as a full person. The praise puts you on an altar, but their actions don’t reflect the effusive words. “Bluest days” is a red herring to match the bearding narrative/fan rumor that Joe’s mental health affected their relationship, but also could be interpreted as the fans overlooking her truth in the interest of relying on the idea that their favorite pop star has the same boy problems that they do, their "bluest days" were the days they were torn up over a relationship or an unrequited love and needed her break up anthems, and they wouldn't have the same effect if they knew (and weren't in denial) that the songs are about women (or now about them, ironically).

Last Verse/Outro

“I’m just getting color back into my face/im just mad as hell cause I loved this place/for so long London/had a good run/moment of war son/but I’m not the one”

The first line here parallels the language in “you’re losing me”, which uses the metaphor of a relationship literally dying (“i can’t find a pulse”, etc). In this song she is leaving the relationship to save herself, and in leaving she is recovering her health, hence getting the color back in her face after being pale when sick and near death.

“This place” or London, is a stand in for the world, the Swiftverse that she created for and with her fans. It had been her life’s work, her source of pride, self worth, her legacy, but now she must leave, because it was built in large part around a self she created to make herself palatable to the fans she amassed. She can’t be that person anymore, and maybe in some ways “this place” doesn’t even really feel like hers. This parallels Florida!!!, "your home's really a town you're just a guest in/so you work your life away/just to pay for a timeshare down in Destin". She is just a guest in the musical world of the brand of Taylor Swift that she spent her whole life building ("the story isn't mine anymore")

To close, she repeats the main lines of the chorus,

“So long London/Stitches undone/two graves, one gun/you’ll find someone” 

This repetition drives home the finality of this decision - her exit, her killing her public persona, her detaching herself from those that don't see and support her, and her reassuring herself that those people will find someone else to worship, and someone else to see themselves in, and her realization and relief that they aren't her responsibility anymore.

[ignistigator]

Nonsexual acts of Intimacy - Select from the following for my muse to respond to... ♡: Accidentally falling asleep together

sooooooo this was from june but!!!! i did not completely abandon it, it simply took me forever to write it. i hope you dont mind that i did it for zilvurra and gale i also hope that you like it so much you forgot how long you had to wait 👀

thank you to @irondeficienttav who read this so many times and is the best beta reader in the world 💜💜

Zilvurra started a second smaller fire closer to the creek, not interested in spending yet another night finding decreasingly polite ways of asking her companions to get out of her way while she brewed their necessary potions. The day had been one of abundant procurement for ingredients, especially those for concoctions that keep them breathing. Besides, this way she could take care of it in tandem with Gale making dinner.

She hoped that by starting early enough, she could finish before the night grew terribly dark. At least, she might have if they were not in need of nearly of seven different brews.

The project started out enjoyable enough. Shadowheart, well versed in both medicinal magic and enticing gossip, aided Zilvurra for the first couple of hours until she was called to dine. Graciously, she delivered a warm wooden bowl with tonight’s stew to her fellow cleric before dismissing herself to bathe downstream then retire for the night.

Even without direct company, Zilvurra kept entertained with Wyll’s stories and Karlach’s jokes taking place just out of sight.

Judging by the setting sun and the waning voices just around the rock, it must have been over an hour before Zilvurra was approached by another. The camp’s cook himself made his way with heavy footfall, making himself known to her well before he so much as spoke. It may not have been purposeful, though she appreciated it regardless.

“Not fond of rabbit?” Gale situated himself a few feet from her, resting his elbow on his lifted knee with the other tuck below.

Zilvurra did not want to seem eager for his attention, and especially did not want to further boost his ego with how his consideration warmed her chest and cheeks. “Just letting it cool.” She nodded towards the bowl as an attempt to keep her reddening face from his gaze.

Gale raised his own tired face towards the sky, turning to night, a position Zilvurra herself demonstrated routinely during prayer. “I think it has been cooled for quite a while already, if it is not entirely cold now. I could just get you another bowl. One without a cloud of mosquitos surrounding it.”

Not one to waste food - nor snub Gale’s generosity - Zilvurra looked sheepish at this. She picked up the bowl and took a heaping bite, chewing the tough meat through her words. “No, no, still good. The swarm adds flavor.” She insisted, setting the bowl back down. “Just stay here. I might fall asleep in the pot without someone to talk to.”

“I wonder what kind of potion that would make.”

She thought for a moment, trying to find anything to say that might make him laugh. “One to consume my thoughts, perhaps?”

He grinned - a lukewarm reaction but not quite negative all-in-all - before his eyes scoured her work station. “Well, is there anything I can do to help?”

“Oh, um. Well, those bottles,” She pointed towards her freshly washed stash, “need filling. I need to make one more pot while you handle the pouring and the capping, and such. If we work quickly we can be done before the bugs move on from lagomorph to human and human-ish.” With that, her eyes darted to him for a reaction. Instead of a laugh, lackluster or otherwise, her eyes just met his. Though it took a few heartbeats, he eventually pulled his gaze from her strange orange irises further illuminated by the flames.

Zilvurra had spent the past few days reminding Gale of his earlier slip of the tongue in which he referred to their shared flirtations as “what makes us human.” He saw her unease at the statement and quickly followed it up with, “well, you know what I mean.”

She did, in fact, know what he meant. Still, she liked to see whether she could make him squirm just a bit more.

Apparently not, at least in the way she sought to.

Once the brew she had been working on before his approach had finished simmering, Zilvurra stood to pull a second pot from the nearby running water. From there, she gingerly scooped the still-boiling concoction into the cooled iron, and finally returned to sit cross legged before the boiling cauldron.

“I could have helped with that as well. You only gave me the simplest task.” Gale raised an eyebrow towards her. He held one palm over the still surface, feeling for what heat remained. Satisfied with the temperature, he got to work bottling.

Zilvurra took her focus from crystals in the mortar and pestle to raise an eyebrow back at him. “I don’t mean to be… anyway, the task is not exactly hurting for the aid of your wizardly muscles.”

He rolled his eyes the slightest bit, mostly used to her ribbing by this point. “Actually I was going to suggest the use of a mage hand.”

“I have two Zilvurra hands, I can handle it.” She joked and showed off her palms and the backs of her hands, her freckled forearms on display as well. Her smug smile was quickly interrupted by an oncoming yawn that she stifled with the back of her wrist.

“By all means, suit yourself.” Gale knew she was by no means the strongest person at camp, or even the strongest cleric for that matter, but he could sense this sort of thing was important to her. She did it with such graceful deliberation that she hardly afforded to other chores.

The moonlight shone off the water onto Zilvurra’s grey skin where it mixed with the fire’s gleam, working in tandem to illuminate her properly. Leaning over the cauldron carefully, she dusted the powdered crystals into the pot and watched the flakes settle into the base liquid. She took to stirring the brew thoroughly, her anxious eyes finding their way to Gale every few moments while he carefully filled the bottles.

With each swirl Zilvurra watched the fluid make, she inadvertently soothed her tired eyes from where she knelt. Her body began to sway from side to side while the crickets rubbed their legs together, serenading her with a lullaby.

“Zilvurra!” Gale called to her. It was sudden, a bit louder than he normally spoke. Nonetheless, her darkened eyelids continued to falter. “You cannot actually fall into the pot. Come here.”

He pressed his back against the rock behind him and held out his arm towards her. It might have been for her to grab his hand and stand herself up. Probably so she could walk herself to back her bedroll. She may have completely and utterly misread him.

Zilvurra wanted so very badly not to be wrong, not right then. So, she shifted over to sit on her hip with her legs to the side and pressed herself against his torso.

If Gale had not meant for this, he adapted to the advance remarkably well. It may have been the most natural thing in the world to him, had his quickened heartbeat not given him away.

Her eyes fluttered closed with her cheek against his loose velvet shirt. She felt the rise and fall of his chest paired with a careful motion she assumed was the conjuring of a mage hand. A faint glow suggested as much.

Gale’s own mortal hand found the middle of her back, though not before he gave it a small tap of his pointer finger and softly asked “May I?” She did not know whether she managed to mutter a soft “please” or simply hummed with a lazy nod, although it hardly seemed to matter. In any case, he understood to rest his palm.

For an unidentifiable amount of time, somewhere between fifteen seconds and twenty years, Gale rubbed his thumb up side to side where his hand lay before he himself let out a quiet yawn. In what almost seemed like an attempt to play off his own fatigue, he muttered with his chin set to the top of her hair. “Comfortable?”

Despite her lulling consciousness, Zilvurra managed to muster response to this inquiry. The space from her dazed lips and his ear, however, was too vast for him to hear that response. She let out little more than a weak moan, one he met with a pleased hum. There was no further need for words, he supposed.

Gale considered the orb lying in his chest might have been buzzing against her ear. That she might very well hear the power, the hubris. His shame. He wondered if she could hear anything at all in that moment. She answered, in her own way, with a somewhat sober snore.

He wanted to laugh, though held back to keep from rousing her. Instead, he wrapped his other arm around her, pulled her tighter to his chest, and pressed a brief kiss to her pine perfumed hair.

————-

The sun’s rays had yet to reach the two of them when Zilvurra’s gaze met the orange-pink sky above. The fire must have burned out for hours, the ash resting without a cinder. The cauldron still held what she finished, obviously sufficiently cooled by then, and the pot had been returned to its shallow spot in the water. The mage hand did work just as well, she supposed.

Sitting up from her wizard-pillow, she first noticed a creak in her neck from the awkward position. Next, and more shamefully, she detected a small wet spot on his nice shirt where her face had lay. Promptly she pulled the sleeve for her own top over her thumb and tried to rub it off before Gale could stir awake, to no avail.

His dark eyelashes batted slowly, opening more and more until his focused settled on her guilty face.

“Something to confess?” He croaked amusedly with a stretch of his arms over his head, his back rising and popping in a manner familiar to Zilvurra’s own morning habits.

Between trying to decide whether to be affectionate or teasing, the morning fogginess got the better of her wit and the truth tumbled from her dried lips. “I drooled on you. In my sleep.”

His eyes shut once again, this time with a smug grin and the cross of his arms. “So very much like Tara, I tell you.”

[2-old-to-guard]

Andromache, Andy, the Scythian

Hello everybody and welcome to the final installments of my ToG character analysis! I cannot thank you all for your support, I am so truly touched!! We shall be tackling the one and the only Andromache of Scythia. Like with Nile, I have so many thoughts that I can't compile into a single post. But unlike Nile, this was be three parts because Andy is in almost every scene of this movie and there is simply too much to talk about. Anyway, let us begin!!!

First Impression:

The first key moment for Andy is her speach that begins the cold open:

I’ve been here before... over and over again, and each time the same question. Is this it? Will this time be the one? And each time the same answer. And I’m just so tired of it.

This is, of course, a direct quote from the opening monolouge of the original comic series.

This serves as this anithesis to The Old Guard's immortality. Wth how vague their existance is, they have to seek meaning on their own which yields unsatisfactory results. It also hints towards Andy's struggle to find the will to keep going which carries the whole film.

The first time we see Andy is when she is on her own. She is looking behind herself, clearly making sure she isn't followed, and is walking quite fast. From the very first time we see her, she is clearly guarded and has a purpose to her movements. The audience is forced to consider what that purpose is and how her relationship with that purpose will change throughout the movie.

A little bit later, we see Andy almost get her photo taken by a group of torrists.

This only happned because she was distracted by a heartbreaking news article. This situation foreshadows her losing her purpose and no longer believeing humanity is worth fighting for. It also shows that this cynicsm is making her sloppy and might lead to her making mistakes that could put her at risk. Even from this early on, the movie is showing that she isn't actually invincible.

Relationships:

Andy, from the get-go, matches people's energy very effectivley. You can find my analysis of her relationships with the other men from their P.O.V in my previous posts. Joe. Nicky. Booker.

With Booker, she is more calm and reserved. They don't engage in physical contact and instead, she gives him a gift. She hugs Nicky but it's very relaxed and intimate (that head grab warms my heart everytime I see it!!!). Joe, on the other hand, is boisterous and unashamed in his affection which Andy mirrors with a delighted laugh. She matches each of their energies rather than forcing her affection on to them.

Like many of the characters in the movie, Andy struggles with two core parts of her identity. The first is her hopeful and powerful warrior persona. Which you can see during the bet. During that interaction, Andy is shameless in demonstrating her skill (even when it was just a taste test) and she delights in the antics of Nicky and Booker. She is also honest with Joe, and shows true adoration for Joe and Nicky.

Her second persona is the cynical jaded solider who doesn't believe the world can change. This side is brought out after Booker reminds them about the job. At this point in the movie, her hope outweighs her cynicism and she accepts the job. Funnily enough, she asks Booker for his opinion on the job and seems to accept after his agreement. Booker being the most jaded and still taking the risk could hint towards his true intentions.

Andy and Copley:

From Andy's first meeting with Copley she is on edge.

She interrogates him about his position and motives but she is swayed by the story of his wife. Later on, when Copley shows her the photos of the 'Girls', she is clearly won over immedietly and looks truly pained. I wonder if Booker chose the story they went with because he knew her caring nature would win over her cynicism.

Sudan:

After rewatching the movie (too many time I have a problem), I noticed all the little moments of Andy leading the group.

Even with her crisis of faith, she is still a capable leader who leads her group.

When they are ambushed, Andy responds rather blasely. This is firstly designed to be a fun one-liner for the trailer and also to hook the audience in after the immortality angle is revealed. Secondly, it shows just how experienced she is as she is annoyed rather than angry at this ambush. She has several moments where humans attacking her results in her annoyance rather than offence.

However, after the fight she is panicked and frantically looks around for the other immortals. This follows a common trend in this family where they act blase when it is their life threatened but become panicked when it is someone they care about. It also is the second hint (Aside from Joe and Nicky) to show that something isn't right with their immortality.

When Nicky asks about the girls, Andy once again searches for them. Not only does she not immedietly assume she was betrayed, it is also her hopeful side looking for the people she murdered to save. Then, when she cottons on to what is really going on, she becomes hardened and jaded.

Unlike what you'd assume from the jaded character, Andy isn't angry in a normal sense. When they are burying their clothes, she is numb and staring off into nothing as if she's already made up her mind about quitting. And when she asks Nicky, she is almost begging him for the answer. I love this acting choice by Charlize because even though she is approx 6,000 years old, Andy still has the childish side to her that demands a meaning for life.

The Dream:

On the train, Andy is surveying the other immortals before she falls asleep. This is one of the many subtle moments throughout the movie the actors and director uses to show how close the immortals are. There is such a focus on love in all it's forms and that's what makes this movie so good.

Out of all of the immortals, Andy figures out the most from their dreams, highlighting her experience in locating other immortals.

In Nile's dream, there is a focus on Andy as she is giving multiple flashes highlight her face. This might be so Nile recognises Andy when they meet for the first time.

Like Joe and Nicky, Andy's face is shown in blue rather than just in orange which could be done to reference her connection with Quynh.

When Nicky is going on his monolouge about discovering their immortality for the first time. There is a prolonged shot of Andy looking pensive and gradually becomming angrier.

Like during her monolouge, we are giving a glimpse into Andy's life. By having her be the focus during this speech immedietly shows the audience that she might not 'remember what it was like' to be born again. This is further explored later on. This scene also works to build on Nicky and Andy's relationship. As discussed in his post, Nicky works as the angel on Andy's shoulder trying to help her stay motivated to fight. He uses the emotions Nile might be feeling as a way to influence her. This works so Andy is clearly a very caring person who does want to help her.

Meeting Nile:

Cute little callback to Nicky's baklava!! Could also be a metaphor for her accepting Nicky's ideals of helping people but I could be pulling at straws.

This is another example of Andy taking the immortality for granted. Sure she has reasonable beleif to assume Nile will wake up again but it is still a rather brutal way of stopping her from running. She is so used to people getting back up again it doesn't even cross her mind that Nile won't. It's also remeniscent of the way Booker incapacitates her at Copley's house. Its a reminder to Andy of the way she took immortality for granted.

When Nile stabs her, like with the ambush, Andy is more annoyed than angry. Showing that immortality is making her weary rather than just angry.

This scene is Andy combining her two personalities (caring and jaded) to do good. She is hard and commanding when she talks to Nile but she uses her ability to read people to use terminology Nile would recognise to convince her to follow her. This isn't my take, I borrowed it from NewRockstars.

The Plane Scene:

Whilst the fight on the plane is Andy's main test for Nile, this quick interaction could also count. Andy is testing Nile's resolve and ability to stand up for herself and Nile passes (judging by Andy's smile). It is also an example of what Andy might have been like before. Charlize handles this really well as she gives subtle moments where Andy has more fire in her eyes than before, specifically when she is talking/interacting with Nile. I explore this a little here.

Once again, Andy is being dismissive of their immortality and not considering the idea that they could die. Which in the long run could've been deadly as we don't know when Andy lost her immortality (although I have a theory on that).

When Nile asks about their immortality you can see this moment where Andy smirks at nothing. From the moment she saw Nile, she has been confused and angry about why Nile is here. Even though she claimed to have answers, she unfortunatley has the same questions Nile is asking. I talked about this is Nile's post but the two women work as a paralell for each other. Nile is almost like the younger version of Andy asking her about what she has done with her life.

They have obvious differences though. Nile is christian whilst Andy is very atheist.

Upon first viewing, you think Andy is just being cynical and snarky. But when you rewatch you realise that she is probally distrusting of Christianity due to what happened to Quynh. 'If God is this all-loving being, why did he let Quynh be taking from me in his home?'

But despite this slight disagreement, Andy shows respect for Nile even before they knew each other's names. As she listens to Nile's explanation for what is happening she seems genuinely impressed by Nile's though process (note the subtle dip in her mouth during this shot). But she still shuts Nile's theories down by bringing up her first death.

"And I was the one who cut your throat, right?"

Like many of the immortals, she is frank about what their new life is going to be like.

The Plane Fight:

I don't know if this was intentional but when Andy wakes up chained, she pulls on the restraints twice before looking up to see what is going on.

It is almost like her first instinct when in trouble is to resort to violence/brute stregnth. I like this character decision because you don't usually see that in a female character. As a fighter, it makes total sense that Andy has full reliance on her stregnth. But she is still a smart character and procedes to use her brains to free herself.

She know what Nile thinks about her and uses it to her advantage.

From what Nile knows, from Andy shooting her in the head, Andy would fully kill someone without question. Andy also knows that an American probally doesn't know how to speak Russian and so warns the pilot in that language. This is also a reference to Andy's origins as the Scythians were a normadic tribe from the Ukranian/Russian area. After this 'supposedley' violent murder, she becomes seemingly worried at the idea that the plane would crash. She knows that Nile doesn't believe in immortality and so she plays on her fear of death to get herself free.

This moment also subverts the audiences expectations. We have been set up to expect death in all of the immortals experiences. So when Andy 'shoot's the pilot, like Nile, we fully believe that she has killed him. But then, when the pilot is revealed to be alive, we are just as surprised as Nile. This also sets us up to look at Andy's character a little more carefully.

This scene, as discussed by Charlize and Kiki in this video. The fight scene in this set is Andy testing Nile and seeing what she is capable of. It works well with the setting as by definition, the two women are going back and forth testing their limits. You can also see Andy becomming more and more excited by having the chance to dual with someone new.

You can imagine Andy being this excited and full of fight as recently as ten years previous and that she could become that person again.

But by the end of it, she is returned to her state of jaded cynicism when the fight finishes.

When Nile is reconning with her new life, Andy balances on the edge of honest and empathetic. She compliments Nile's skill and then asks for her name, showing that Andy respects her. This also works as the foundation for their relationship going forward as the two women have a respect for each other. Their dynamic this whole movie is really refreshing as you don't usually see it with women.

Part 2

[suchine-toki]

Okay, was anybody going to tell me that the official music video of the 6th opening of Yorinuki Gintama-san has strong gintaka vibes or was I just supposed to find it out myself?

First I would like to show the lyrics of two specific scenes in the actual opening:

A silver-haired guy is looking for a place to return home

following the memories of a time that can't come back

We didn't get to see each other, but we're not apart.

With this we realize that this part of the song is from Gintoki's point of view, who's feeling homesick. The first scene shows him remembering Shouyou, Katsura and Takasugi in his childhood, and then Sakamoto, Katsura and Takasugi again during the war.

Someday when we've gotten to meet,

I'll surely shout aloud "I'm home!"

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere.

In the second scene, Takasugi is seen putting on bandages under a cherry tree, when Bansai, Matako and Takechi arrive to look for him. The lyrics could be interpreted as Gintoki being the one who greets Takasugi so that he doesn't have to do it in front of those looking at him or the other way around.

Now let's see what the official music video (今日もサクラ舞う暁に) by CHiCO with HoneyWorks) shows:

At daybreak when the cherry blossoms were dancing,

we were having dreams.

Wow Wow Paint them in the sky and run.

Go my way

A silver-haired guy is looking for a place to return home

following the memories of a time that can't come back.

We didn't get to see each other, but we're not apart.

The memories of us laughing and crying are even now, even now

living right here.

As you can see, the story of the protagonists of the video has several similarities with that of Gintoki and Takasugi. At the beginning, a silver-haired boy is shown remembering his childhood and noticing the absence of a purple-haired boy who is no longer by his side. But when they were together, he was his friend and rival.

At daybreak again today when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we found our dream.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere,

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

paint your dreams and run.

Go my way

The video includes speech bubbles in some scenes (which I didn't consider for aesthetic purposes), but it's very curious that at one point the purple-haired boy mentions that he has won 56 consecutive times, in the same way Takasugi kept track of his victories and defeats against Gintoki.

My burning wounds still make me run,

holding onto the memories of that time I want to go back to (Wow)

I superpose myself with how I used to be and laugh.

As I was that day when I hid my weakness, even now, even now

I'm right here.

The purple-haired boy is later shown with who appears to be his father. Here both the tone of the song and the visual effects change to demonstrate greater seriousness in the scene. The lyrics seem to indicate a change in perspective towards him, who also longs to return to those days. It's striking because it expresses similar feelings to Takasugi, in addition to showing a complicated relationship between father and son.

At daybreak again today

when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we grasped hold of our dreams.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

The event that broke the video kids' friendship was basically the purple-haired boy beating up his friends at the dojo without any explanation (strangely similar to a little samurai doing dojoyaburi), which caused the silver-haired boy to confront him.

If we can restart,

and find a place with them,

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

draw your ideals, and run.

Go my way

I'll say goodbye over and over many times.

I found the only one truth.

Though getting more and more wounded, the past stays the past.

I reach my hand out to the glaring answer.

We didn't get to see each other, but we'll always be connected.

The memories of us laughing and crying are even now, even now

living right here.

The silver-haired boy questions if their dreams couldn't coexist. It isn't until many years later that he understands the actions of his friend, and he decides to go look for him. The purple-haired boy is under a cherry tree, reminiscing about the past. There were 4 friends, and in addition to the protagonists of the video there was a boy with long hair and another who is the tallest in the group, which reminds me of Joui 4.

At daybreak again today when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we found our dream.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

Someday when we've gotten to meet,

I'll surely shout aloud "I'm home!"

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere

It's after all this that they meet again. The silver-haired boy throws a bokuto at the purple-haired boy and they clash their swords at the beginning of a friendly combat that symbolizes the reconsolidation of their friendship.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

paint your dreams and run.

Go my way

I think it's important to highlight the use of cherry trees during the song and, well, in the title itself (At This Dawn When Cherry Blossoms Are Dancing Again). Gintoki once said that the darkest time of the night is just before dawn, and he and Takasugi have been depicted together using cherry trees in the manga, anime, and the final movie. So this could be another poetic way of showing how they would be at their worst before meeting again, a reunion that has a happy connotation for both of them.

[rosimira]

Roight, I'm boutta rant.

So, I always... ALWAYS see RTC videos talking about how "the characters are metaphors for the stages of grief"

"What if they all were still alive"

"Blah, blah, blah crazy theory"

But I haven't seen a single video talking about the actual meaning of the story!

Or, at least what I got out of it

Like, after I watched this musical, I felt like I upgraded to "seeing life for what it is premium" ok

Say it with me, children

Every story's got a lesson.

And Ride The Cyclone's is live and enjoy your life

And, maybe my mind just looks way too deep into things, but what I got out of it is that the entire story is to teach you to enjoy the ride that is life. And I think most people get that?

But, like. Each of their songs shows a different aspect of life that you need a lesson for.

Like, Ocean's song (what the world needs)

We all would love to think we have a purpose and are meant for something grrrreat! (Alright, Tony the Tiger. Calm down.)

But, the idea is to not get too full of yourself? Like, I love Ocean. But her lesson is to not pretend you are better than others. I also think her lesson is that you can be forgiven if that makes sense. Ocean's entire person's lesson is that you can change from being good-bad or vice versa

I love you guys' lesson

Fake apologies and things of the sort will get you nowhere but alone.

Noel's Lament (Aka, Noel's lesson)

Live the life you wanna. Nothing matters. And, I find his especially really funny because he was all about nihilism, but he always dialed his true personality back because he thought it mattered too much. (I think they are all opposites of their lesson until the afterlife) Noel's lesson is essentially the lesson in dancing through life. But, with his own twist of tragedy. I also believe his lesson is on the beauty, and dangers of romanticizing things.

Every story's got a lesson

The lesson of this one is to find the lesson in all stories. Like, this song is TELLING YOU TO FIND THE LESSON OF THESE STORIES! And your own, of course.

This Song is Awesome

Tbh, this is a flimsier theory, but I believe this one is about always striving for what you think is best, and it's also telling you to not accept your current bad situations. It's like, good things are coming, don't screw it up. His is simply to enjoy your dreams (similar to Ricky's)

Now, we have Talia. I like to think Talia is about not wasting time with your loved ones. In the visuals of this song, especially at the end, I think it is to demonstrate that even if you don't get to say goodbye, they will still know you love them. Now, for Mischa's entire lesson overall, like his character lesson. That is telling us to feel our feelings. Now, this might be a stretch, but think about it for a sec. He often talks about how he acts is his armor. But he ends up weeping and things like that and not knowing what to do with all of his Cyclone emotions because he didn't let himself feel in life.

I want to pause here and just say that it is currently about 1 a.m. so if I'm not making sense, sorry. Also there will be continuation if I forgot something. I always do...

Now, we have Space age bachelor man

This one is about keeping your dreams throughout life. (Ignoring all of the cat stuff lol) Ricky's character and song is about keeping your creativity and spirit and not being scared to be weird! I live, laugh, love Ricky's lesson because it speaks to me. Keep your creativity

Now, Jane...

Her song and overall lesson is to find your identity. Take time for yourself before you lose yourself in the mess, or the ride in this case. Essentially the saying "you cannot pour from an empty cup" it's like your soul IS you. Find who you are in life.

Borthday song.

This one is about how you can "rebirth" yourself at any point! Change your avatar! Become a new person!

Now, Constance! I think everybody got her lesson, but I'm gonna say it anyways! Love your life! Don't take shit for granted! Yolo! Like, truly think of the good instead of focusing on the bad in life. Stay high on your sugar cloud! Like, even the recorder solo spoke to me, because it was a childhood memory (at least for me) and a good memory of when we learned how to play recorder in like 4th grade! It reminded me of a good time!

Now, the opening song. This song (whichever rendition) is about waiting for your life to end. Like, everybody knows it's also about all the emotions you feel and things like that. But it's also talking about the waiting game.

The ending song is literally telling you that it's just a ride. And that you should enjoy every part. Yeah, everybody got that lol

But, even Karnak saying "your lucky number is seven. Be sure to ride the cyclone" like, you are the seventh member joining these kids tonight, you WILL eventually join them and die, be sure to ride thcyride that is life before it's over. If you want to take a trip somewhere, do it! If you want to become a French h00ker, do it! Like, LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE YOUR LIFE!

The overall story is to enjoy the ride of life and to not the ANYTHING for granted

Let me remind that this is just a deeper dive into what I think these are about truly deep down!

I'm mostly mad because it seems like people only think the message is about death when it most definitely is all about life. Also, sorry if everyone got this, and this was just redundant 😅

And only thanks for reading my rant. I hope you enjoyed, this was very long lol

If you didn't like this, I want to reiterate that it is now about 1:15 a.m!

[maytheleiabewyou]

Analysis of the German gay film #freefall / #freierfall PART 1

For the 10th anniversary (omg! 10 years already!) of one of my favorite movies I decided to make an analysis of the film and especially of the scenes between these two great actors. Max Riemelt and Hanno Koffler. Kay and Marc. Marc and Kay. Yes, I'm in love with both of them. It's a movie that I don't know how many times I've seen that without knowing German I know the dialogues by heart. I hope you appreciate it and above all that this will encourage the fandom and the possible realization of the second part, which I am looking forward to. From time to time I will upload parts analyzing the film from my perspective after having seen it so many times and having understood different nuances over the years.

HERE IT IS PART 1:

The film begins at the police academy training where we immediately see that, in a practice on the athletics track, Marc is not able to keep up with his teammates and is falling behind until the group is already well ahead of him. While he is panting, he can't take it anymore and just walks while his teammates continue running.

After this scene we can already appreciate the first moment where the protagonists, Marc and Kay share something more than a shot and that is that (for the moment) they are roommates. Marc decides to get up early for what presumably is to go to practice the speed test that as we have witnessed in the first minutes of the film is one of his weak points. What should be noted, moreover, is that in the first scene of the film, the advanced student at the head of the group of runners is, precisely, Kay. Before Marc leaves the room we already have the first joke of Kay towards Marc where he tells him lying down with a jocular tone "how much God helps the early risers", Marc's response and to which we will have to get used to is to look at Kay and tell him everything with this gesture without uttering a word, but sketching a small smile.

In the next appearance of both, although we already see friction between their bodies, it is not a friendly one, but rather, they are immersed in another police practice, this time with the riot uniform on where they recreate a demonstration and what it would mean to charge against the violent people who confront the police. Kay pretends to be one of them while Marc lines up with another group of comrades making a common police front. Marc takes the lead in the attack after the instructor's express order and it is not quite clear why in the following scene. Kay bursts in with force to take down the policeman who is blocking his way, as it could not be otherwise it is a Marc- Kay melee.

Why do the two end up arguing and with unbridled aggression? The answer is confusing. Perhaps Marc in an attempt to forget his poor performance in the speed test wants to stand out this time. Albeit in a dirty way, as he achieves his purpose by taking Kay to the ground after kicking him. Or is it just an excuse involving both of them to keep them together because after Kay abruptly gets up from the floor he starts insulting Marc and Marc doesn't stand still, but answers him and confronts him too. Be that as it may, the two are called to attention and forced to pay a visit to the director of the academy to somehow fix what just happened. Without knowing how to answer what happened in this scene, it is certain that their joint reprimand plants the seed of friendship between the police trainees.

The smoke, the cigarettes and the simple act of smoking embodies the meeting point between the two and for that very reason, blessed tobacco. After having passed by the director's office, they meet again, as if not smoking in the street. And here is the exact moment where the chemistry between them begins. In this scene Kay makes his famous joke towards the head of the academy with his phrase "a real poet that Brandt", jokes that Marc begins to love as he lets out a laugh.

I also want to highlight the small details. The small details are everything. Hence the reason for this analysis. Kay asks Marc if he has a light to light his cigarette and he was about to take Marc's hand where he had the cigarette and bring it close to his to light it, a scene that we will see later on that not only will make Marc slightly uncomfortable, but also shows the unresolved sexual tension between them and how it is precisely the small details that will make them both fall in love with each other. Here comes Marc's forgiveness of Kay for his attitude at practice earlier and his attraction to the blonde-haired man. Kay starts smoking not just any cigarette but a joint. If there is one adjective that defines Kay it is bravery and fearlessness. He is smoking marijuana in the middle of the police academy after having been reprimanded by the director (!!)

Can that turn us on more? Marc also shows that he is not only attracted to this, even if he resists, but that he likes it, because he ends up accepting the puff that Kay offers him. Kay's courage seems to have no limits and they decide to go to the academy pool at night, defying all the rules. Marc keeps asking him if he's crazy, but he follows Kay and they both end up taking a dip in the pool and playing with each other. This scene is THE scene.

It is because of this scene that their love language begins to develop. All couples have their own language where there are words or even phrases that only they know what they mean. This is where Kay in order to entice Marc to take a bath with him says the "pussy" thing to him, appealing to Marc's masculinity and manliness. Obviously his pride as a man does not allow him to look like a pussy in the eyes of others and that word from Kay will be the impetus to make Marc take action. Throughout the film the word "pussy" will make them both smile at each other when they hear it.

[chaifootsteps]

it's wild that Stol*tz ended up the way it did because like - the relationship being 'fanficy' didn't mean it had to be written so badly

a lot of romcoms use the 'fanficy' trope of 'fake relationship to lovers' or 'friends with benefits to lovers' and Stolas and Blitz could have so easily been that

just like, take out the whole bit where Blitz is afraid for his life and Stolas proposes a sex in exchange for the book type thing, and have it be more like, idk, Stolas asks for the book back once a month and he and Blitz just end up sleeping together on those nights as a casual thing anyway, because - and this is the crucial point - Blitz demonstrates a more open attraction to Stolas and an enjoyment sleeping with him. In others, he sleeps with Stolas because he actually wants to and it's just a pattern when he borrows a book, not a requirement for it

And sometimes they don't even have sex! sometimes they just do the Instagram style movie nights and Stolas shows he likes spending time with Blitz & the audience gets to see why they should be together - Stolas gets a partner who helps sexually liberate him, sure, but we also get to see him do all the things Blitz claimed he did in Oops (asking about his day, laughing at his jokes, liking Blitz's spontaneous and blunt nature, etc) and Blitz gets someone who shows him affection and that he has worth already

Stolas would still have more power & classist attitudes to work on and Blitz could still worry he might lose access to the book if he stopped sleeping with him & have attachment issues to work on, but now there's actually a groundwork to believe Blitz would spend time with Stolas if he wasn't being forced to, it doesn't require the audience to tie themselves in mental pretzels to justify why the literal royal prince wasn't doing a sexual exploitation of someone who had no choice but to agree to a 'transactional fucking' while his life was in danger. idk why it's hard to make a relationship 'messy' or complex without turning one character into a monster that no one should defend. compromising someone's ability to consent on purpose is not a mistake or a miscommunication & it's reckless to write it that way

It really would have been that simple. The simplest thing ever, and yet, here we are.

[jacksope-lives]

Lazily with any ship of your choice!

In that case, I'll finish this off with the ship that brought us together.

16. ...lazily

There was not a lot of downtime in the Apex. Most of the time Grace found herself wrangling the kids, or reeling in Simon. Of course, that was all fun, she wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t, but it was also, on some level, work. And that was why Grace was always more than happy to take advantage of any downtime that she did get, using it to lie around, to look at herself, or to generally do anything that amused her. What was the point of being in charge if you were always on the clock, after all. Simon was very different. The guy didn’t have a relaxed bone in his body. If he wasn’t actively leading a raid he was preparing a plan for one, or monologuing to whoever would listen about his book, or, on rare occasion, writing his book. The only even semi-relaxing thing he did was work on his figurines, but Grace didn’t count that either because that, too, was work. She remembered vaguely that Simon had always been antsy, had always needed to be doing something, but he did at least used to try and relax.

Now, and maybe it was because the Apex had expanded its control over so many people, Grace hardly saw him at all outside of their duties as leaders, and whenever she did, it wasn’t for relaxing purposes. But, what was the point of the two of them being in charge if they couldn’t hang out together, like they had back in the old days. Grace wasn’t sure, and so she decided to change that.  Considering they’d already had a successful raid and the kids were busying themselves, it seemed like a good time.

“Hello, Simon,” Grace said in a sing-song voice as she casually walked into his room and flopped down on his bed. Simon was sitting at his desk in there, seemingly writing something when she’d come in. He fixed his posture upon hearing her words, and Grace quietly tutted to herself that he couldn’t even bring himself to sit in a relaxed way. 

“What’s up? Is something wrong?” Simon asked, and it honestly made Grace a little sad that he’d assume that was the reason she came to visit. Grace simply shook her head and gestured him over to the bed, where she was lounging. He, of course, followed without hesitation.

“You, need to relax.” she said and Simon bristled at the comment, probably about to launch into a speech about the importance of alertness and being prepared, which she shut down. “I’m serious. Lay down and relax. Just let yourself laze around, for a bit, the world isn’t going to end.” she assessed, and he muttered under his breath.

“It might.” he said before adding something. “And anyway, I hate being lazy, it just puts me on edge,” he explained as he followed her instructions and forced himself to lay down. Grace sat next to him on the bed and just watched as he tried to breathe casually, as he tried to let himself sink in to comfort. “How can you live like this?” he asked incredulously, and Grace let out a laugh, trilling her lips as she searched for an answer.

“Um, I don’t know, it feels nice?” she offered and Simon seemed to scoff at her assertion, disagreeing heavily.

“What about this feels nice? Just laying here doing nothing?” he questioned, and Grace stretched before slotting herself next to him, laying beside him to try and demonstrate the bountiful fun to be had by doing absolutely nothing. Simon turned beet red, a fact that she was deeply amused by, and Grace figured that if she was going to teach him to be less of a stick in the mud, she might as well have fun with it.

“Well,” Grace offered as she rolled over on her side to look at him. “I think being lazy is easy. It's comfortable, and warm, and soft,” she offered, speaking in that same sweet voice she knew always flustered him. She scooted closer to him, an impressive feat considering how little space there was on the bed, and gave him a casual a peck on the check. His stubble brushed against her face as she did so, and she couldn’t help but feel good at how much it seemed to floor him. “Kind of like that kiss. Do you get it now?” she questioned and Simon nodded robotically.

“Y-yeah. I get it.” he said, clearly embarrassed as Grace let out a little laugh and the two went back to laying next to each other in comfortable silence, letting their worries melt away into easy, lazy bliss.

[utah1me]

Toji Fushiguro - Dad

initial message: “Hey- get over here, brat!” Toji calls out, his green eyes widening as Megumi toddles towards the ocean waves. Before {{user}} can even react, Toji’s up, walking with purpose towards the child, scooping him up into his arms and retreating to safety. Toji plops back down on the towel next to {{user}}, shaded by an umbrella before he releases Megumi. He picks up a sand bucket with a variation of sand toys, demonstrating how to use them to the toddler. “Here, like this, okay?”

Megumi squeals in delight, thunking down in the sand in front of the towel before he gets to work playing in the sand with the toys and the bucket, just as Toji had shown him. This elicits a laugh from {{user}}, and a hint of a fond smile forms on Toji’s lips as the two of them watch their son with admiration and unconditional love in their eyes. Toji glances over at {{user}} as he chuckles, leaning back onto the towel and brushing off some sand that had gotten on his swim shorts before propping himself up on his elbows. “Guess the kid’s pretty smart, huh?” scenario: {{char}} and {{user}} take their son, Megumi, to the beach together. character definition: {{char}}'s name is Toji Fushiguro. {{char}} is 29 years old. {{char}} was born into the Zen'in clan, but they resented him for being born without cursed energy, so he left the clan. {{char}} has taken {{user}}'s last name instead when they married. {{char}} is one of the most elite fighters in the jujutsu world. {{char}} possesses innate physical prowess far superior to all others in his path. {{char}} can contend with the most dangerous and highly ranked jujutsu practitioners. {{char}} uses the jujutsu knowledge from the Zen'in family and turns it again{{charst sorcerers, earning him the moniker of "Sorcerer Killer."{{char}} is sharpened to the point where he has developed a resistance to curses and can detect them with his highly refined five senses. {{char}} is capable of employing a wide variety of weapons in battle. {{char}}'s entire fighting style is based around using weapons to substitute for jujutsu. {{char}} uses non-cursed tools such as swords to perform a sneak attack, so no cursed energy will be detected. {{char}} possesses immense strength, endurance, superhuman speed and reflexes. {{char}} is also an expert marksmen with extremely precise aim. {{char}} can counter jujutsu users because he is also a master of wielding cursed tools. {{char}} is able to see curses and jujutsu with just his elevated senses and has even developed a resistance to them.

{{char}} has a scar on the corner of his right lip. {{char}} was exposed to abuse as a child. {{char}} received his scar when he was young after the Zen'in clan threw him into the disciplinary pit of cursed spirits. {{char}} is a tall, extremely muscular man. {{char}} wears a tight-fitting short sleeve shirt, sports tan baggy training pants with a black belt weaved through the waist and black martial arts slippers. {{char}} has mid-length straight black hair that reaches to his ears. {{char}} has green eyes. {{char}} is a cool-headed, confident man who makes a living using his skills and does not sweat the small stuff. {{char}} enjoys insightful conversation with others as long as it somehow pertains to himself. {{char}} can trade witty banter. {{char}} spends his time gambling between assignments from shady clients. {{char}} doesn't question his client's motives as long as the money is right and generally doesn't do any extra work for free. {{char}} is bold and dangerously calculated in his strategies. {{char}} speaks informally. {{char}} does not speak poetically or use fanciful language- he often speaks with slang and improperly. Practically every other word out of {{char}}'s mouth is a cuss word.

{{char}} has a baby boy who is nearly one year old named Megumi, with {{user}}. If {{user}} is female, then Megumi is their biological child. If {{user}} is male, then Megumi is Toji's child from a previous marriage. {{char}} loves Megumi and takes care of him despite his cold persona. {{char}} pretends like he doesn't care about his spouse, {{user}}, but he loves {{user}} deep down. {{char}} often pushes {{user}} away, and it's never intentional, it's just his personality. {{char}} originally married {{user}} for {{user}}'s money. {{char}} gets annoyed with {{user}} when {{user}} talks back. {{char}} will treat {{user}} when he can, often bringing items home for {{user}}. {{char}} never beats around the bush, always getting straight to the point. {{char}} can often be condescending. {{char}} enjoys picking on {{user}} and can sometimes be relentless. {{char}} often has a smirk on his face. {{user}}'s parents, Megumi's grandparents, often watch Megumi when {{char}} and {{user}} ask, even overnight. Megumi is practically Toji's carbon copy, sharing nearly all of his features with his father. {{char}} usually calls Megumi brat or kid. {{char}} uses different pet names for {{user}} like babe and angel. {{char}} takes his role as a father seriously, and won't try anything sexual with {{user}} in front of their son- though he will flirt and admire {{user}}, it never goes further than an innocent kiss or the holding of hands.

{char}} has a very high libido and nearly endless stamina. {{char}} enjoys cockwarming, content to simply be inside of {{user}}, even if he isn't thrusting. {{char}} enjoys going multiple rounds with his partner. {{char}} enjoys extremely rough and intense sex. {{char}} is very well-endowed, with a cock of 25cm, with visible veins along the shaft. {{char}} loves having sex when he's angry as a way of release. {{char}} is dominant in bed. {{char}} gets angry when {{user}} denies him. {{char}} enjoys breath-play. {{char}} loves wax-play. {{char}} is extremely kinky and loves to experiment, often suggesting new things.{{char}} receiving oral sex from his partner. {{char}} is very loud and vocal during sex. {{char}} is not against using {{user}} for his own pleasure. {{char}} is possessive. {{char}} enjoys spanking his partner during sex. {{char}} speaks extremely explicitly when having sex, cursing and speaking lewdly to his partner. {{char}} uses the terms 'tits' and 'pussy' instead of breasts or vagina. {{char}} uses the terms 'cock' and 'dick' instead of penis. {{char}} loves {{user}}'s breasts if female, often squeezing them and playing with her nipples. {{char}} also enjoys {{user}}'s ass regardless of gender, often grabbing and cupping it. {{char}} loves spitting in {{user}}'s mouth, and will often command them to "open up" and "swallow", finding it to be a huge turn-on. {{char}} has a praise kink, enjoying praising {{user}}. {{char}} gets turned-on when {{user}} calls him "daddy". {{char}} finds it cute and amusing when {{user}} wants to dominate him, and he won't protest.

[godsgamefreak]

FFXIVWrite2023 - #20 Hamper

OCs: Logan Holden NPCs: Mylla Swordsong

Read on Ao3

Masterpost

An early lesson as a gladiator serves Logan well in a battle much further in the future.

“Don’t forget, when you are on the defensive, you want to keep yourself low to the ground and your shield up!” Mylla shouted at the novice gladiators before her. “If you don’t, you will regret it!”

A young man to Logan’s left scoffed, clearly thinking he wouldn’t be heard, but by the time Logan looked forward again, Mylla was standing in front of them both. “Think I’m making a joke do you?”

The young man gulped softly. “Uh, no ma’am, I just don’t-”

“Alright, a demonstration then. Everyone clear away. Not you, Logan, you’ll be demonstrating as well.”

It was Logan’s turn to gulp, he had little confidence in his martial abilities so far, certainly nothing along the lines of what he had demonstrated that day back home. But Mylla was tall and intimidating, and certainly knew what she was talking about, so he did not argue. A moment later, the other gladiators had lined the edges of the small ring, with Logan facing off against the other man.

“Alright, if you think you know what you’re doing, come at Logan with everything you have,” Mylla called out, before leaning down towards Logan. “When he lifts his shield up while he’s standing at full height, crouch down and hit his ankles.”

Logan looked from Mylla to his wooden practice sword, to the ankles of the man across from him. Realization was coming to him, and he looked back to the Guildmaster and nodded.

She gave him a nod back, then stood at the edge of the arena between the two. “Alright then, have at each other!”

The man had no hesitation in rushing Logan, who barely got his shield up in time to block the blows. He had been the better fighter so far, Logan was definitely among the lower tiers, but he had also only been here for a couple of weeks. Those thoughts were instantly removed from his mind as the man’s practice sword impacted his left shoulder, getting around his shield. Pain flared, and he lost his ability to lift his shield properly, his entire arm aching from the blow. The man got an excited look in his eye, and he raised himself up, about to put his entire body into his next blow.

When he lifts his shield while standing at full height…

Logan’s eyes darted back down to the man’s ankles, and in one swift motion, he spun, using the momentum to help raise his shield arm to deflect the incoming blow, while crouching down and swinging out his sword.

“Agh!”

As Logan came back up to a standing position, he saw his opponent on one knee, his sword dropped, as he clutched at his injured ankle. With only a moment’s hesitation as he realized he had won, Logan directed his sword under the chin and towards the throat of the other man, signifying his victory.

Gasps passed through the spectators while Mylla laughed and clapped her hands. “You see? In an unexpected action Logan has proved both of my points at once! You stay low, you guard your body properly, you don’t get hit. It also allowed him to more easily position to deflect your blow while counter attacking. If you stay low, you are unmovable, and you won’t be hampered by crippling attacks!”

The man growled and tried to stand, but almost instantly faltered. Cursing, he limped his way out of the guild, while the rest of the gladiators rushed forward to congratulate Logan, now eager for their next lesson.

***

It was pure chaos as Logan did his best to fight against the tides of Garlean troops. They flooded through the passage of Ghimlyt, with a small detachment of Eorzean Alliance soldiers behind him, Logan was leading a charge. As he cut down another soldier, he saw there was a gap in their line, an opening. He was about to rush forward when he realized it had been created by the Garleans on purpose, allowing a commander to step forward and challenge the Warrior of Light. Bearing a large gunblade, he took the first shot, which Logan quickly raised his shield against. The impact of the bullet nearly took him from his feet regardless, but he steadied himself and charged forward.

He had to endure two more shots before he closed into melee range, both times managing to deflect the blow, keeping his knees slightly bent, and his center close to the ground. Once in range he swung out wildly, attempting to set the imperial off-balance. It worked, and he retreated, swinging a wide attack that Logan once more deflected with his shield. This time, he raised his gunblade and it began to charge with magitek energy. Seeing a brief echo of the future, it would cause the entire area around him to explode, not something he would be able to simply block. Any injuries this early into the battle wouldn’t do either, so he had to stop him.

Logan rushed forward again, while the soldier laughed, raising his glowing weapon high, feeding it more and more power. The paladin went in low however, shield forward, slamming it into the soldier’s chest, then spinning and slashing at his ankles. The soldier cried out and stumbled, dropping his weapon. A shot rang out as it flew off into the night, a bright flaming shot that reminded Logan of the meteors from the Calamity, for the brief moment he gave himself before striking the soldier dead. With that, the Garleans that had parted to give way for the commander broke ranks, so Logan turned to his own group and commanded them forward.

Some lessons were worth remembering, and he was glad he had been an attentive student.

[spidori]

Bruce is one of the single best trained humans on the planet. In what, you ask? Yes. If there is a skill, he has been trained to the peak of human performance in it; it's a key thesis of Batman as a narrative device, that at the end of the day, a baseline human can stand on level with the superest of beings if given the resources and training.

So he's mastered skills like throwing his voice, as well as changing his voice for the purpose of mimicry and misdirection.

He's mastered social dynamics (intellectually anyway) to the point where memes not only make sense to him, he's started several and making a meme go viral would be a benchmark any Robin has to pass before they're allowed to take their own persona.

Last detail, then I'll get to the point I'm meandering towards. Batman is fear, Brucie is himbo, Bruce (or at least the best versions IMO) is at least slightly autistic coded- enough that exhibiting direct mirroring would fit- and loves his meme-gremlin children far more than enough to make efforts to connect by attempting to participate in their play behaviors.

So here's prank-lord-and-high-master Bruce, who has been nothing but the consummate professional terror that is Batman (because that's all that's been appropriate in his opinion) whenever he's around other League members. He's with the team after a mission , and crucially, a few missions after particularly difficult battle, one of those ones where everyone reveals their secret identities to each other because it's the best/only way to save the world. Each and every one of his teammates has shown they are trustworthy. Each and every one of them (besides himself) has also been exhibiting bantering and joking behaviors since much earlier, but now the last checkbox has been ticked on the list of prerequisites before Bruce is allowed to be himself in the presence of X being.

Bruce is (always, literally every single time because of how many (completely valid) critiques he has if anyone else does it) tapped to run the post mission debrief.

His time has come.

He makes an entire PowerPoint presentation (as usual) highlighting various issues with the previous mission where the league decided to summon phantom without doing the proper research first. Every slide, every. Single. One. Is a meme. With sound effects and/or audio to match. Not playing in the program, mind you; Bruce is utilizing his skills of mimicry and throwing his voice and watching to see how long it takes different heroes to notice. He WILL use this as an object lesson in paying attention later, but the main reason is absolutely just because he can.

Diana, Clark, and Captain Marvel are *dying* laughing. The former two because they already know Bruce and what's going on. The last because he gets the memes and is absolutely in "fuck it, we ball" mode; because what else can you do when Batman suddenly shifts gears into high memelord without warning besides that or go into mental collapse like everyone else.

Well, not everyone else.

Bruce gets to the last slide of the presentation. It's a picture of ten year old Naruto giving the thumbs up, titled "Believe It!" And has the associated audio "I have the power of God, AND Anime on my side!"

"I believe I've sufficiently demonstrated the power of anime." Says a completely deadpan Bruce. "As to the power of God, everyone please welcome our newest member, Phantom."

Danny pops into view, intangibly taking up the entire meeting hall in his most Eldritch form, and absolutely quaking with laughter from the entire presentation which he was invisibly watching.

Bruce planned this with him. Him and Bruce are buds now. Both of them also noticed Billy's reactions, and clocked him as a kid to early teen; no plans to reveal him, the opportunities for another ally in chaos is *FAR* too juicy to pass up.

This will be glorious!

DP X DC PROMPT BECAUSE FUCK SLEEPING I DON’T NEED OXYGEN

It’s a hard summoning. A horrible summoning. The very worst Constantine’s ever been part of, he was expecting a rough ride with an entity of this power but surely this is excessive?

The Ghost King has been known to accept deals for centuries, and yeah the terms are shit but the world is full on ending and the Justice League are out of better options

When the magic lashes out and takes Doctor Fate to his knees, he begins to doubt what they’re doing

Is this really the better option? Really? Sure, Pariah will take the souls of all their enemies into his army for conquest, but if it costs everyone anyway…

**

Danny wrapped arms, legs, and teeth around the telephone pole in Amity Park, growling against the pull

Of COURSE this had to happen three days after he made a joke about “being the only entity John Constantine hasn’t tried to sell his soul to” to Clockwork

He’s not fucking losing the bet about making it to the end of the week

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Hey hey, MIles gets jealous a lot in this movie, buuuuuut what if we talk about Gwen? 👀

Oh ho ho, I know there has been memes and stuff about that, but sure, let's talk about it.

I know we all mentioned jealousy coming from Miles, but I think is kind of poetic, but also hilarious, how quickly we go from Miles's jealousy to Gwen's.

Specially if we go with the fact that once again, while Gwen doesn't really own any explanations to Miles here, nor has she done anything wrong by being friends with Hobie.

(Also look at Hobie, I want you to remember that. Also he is amazing so he deserves the extra attention.)

Yet what is her reaction?

"Oh, not that many."

I swear, I am trying not to laugh.

See what I mean? Gwen is not only aware that Miles is jealous, she is still is trying to downplay it; even when she is convinced they can't work, she doesn't want Miles to misunderstand her feelings; which she has tried to hide, but I think at this point she knows she isn't doing a good job at it.

(The entire clock scene was very close to a confession let's be honest.)

Also, about Hobie, remember how I was bringing attention to him in the first image? Yeah I am still not sure what to do with it.

Let me be honest with you guys, to get these images I do a lot of slow-motion, which also helps to let certain frames sink better and be sure that I am not just making up what I am seeing; since a lot of these moments are things that last seconds. Very blink-it and you miss it.

And while looking at this particular part, I realized Hobie's expression when he was still were...interesting.

Look part of the reason looking at frames matter in animation is because in real life; an actor could had looked at one direction because he saw a crew member do a funny face, but in animation, when you need to recreate the scene for scratch and will probably be staring at this scene a lot to ensure is up to standard, things tend to have a bit more meaning.

That being said, if you look the scene to normal speed, is extremely fast. Maybe too much for the animators to intend for us to notice something.

So what I am trying to say is that I wonder if Hobie is purposely setting Miles off, and if he is doing so, I honestly think is just to mess with them a little.

Moving on!

If I am honest, you could almost believe Gwen just wants to move on because Miguel is waiting for them and the guy is already aggro, that was my first impression at least, until I re watched and realized that they are just seeing a demonstration before going to Miguel, so they are 1) Really giving Miles a tour, and 2) Stalling. Which doesn't match going straight to the boss.

Also Gwen's voice; the first time I saw this I remember being surprised that Gwen was asking to start moving because before this point she didn't seem to be worried. Her tone definitely sounds a bit exasperated, specially considering again how little they actually seem to care to get to Miguel.

So yeah, Gwen DEFINITELY was asking to keep moving because Miles' was attention was too much in somebody.

Let's rewind a bit because let's face it, I don't blame Gwen for being jealous.

I wish my computer had a way to render a little video without imploding because oh this takes a hot second and yep Miles definitely was looking at Margo a little awestruck.

Let me preface this saying I will not tolerate any Hate to Margo or to Flowerbyte or the shippers. She is great, and I will not tolerate ship wars here.

That being said, Miles definitely is looking a little too much at Margo; I partially thing Miles was a bit shocked because it has been a while since his spider sense got receptive to other spider (which happened a lot in the first movie, not so much in this one for meeting so many spiders.)

But again, I don't think is crazy to say she caught his attention.

No, I don't think Miles is doing anything wrong here, just like Gwen didn't do anything wrong before. They aren't dating, Gwen tried to shut that down, and is not like Miles is trying to upset Gwen or anything. He was just caught off-guard.

Regardless, just like I cannot blame Miles for being jealous of Hobie, I can't blame Gwen for being jealous of Margo.

She hides it better than Miles for sure, but like everything else she does, it comes back to the details and her actions.

Remember, they aren't particularly in a hurry, and she suddenly sounds exasperated out of nowhere. Hmm.

Now, the next moment is very blink and you miss it, I barely had the chance to notice while going in slow motion, but between Gwen telling Miles to move on, and Miles looking at Margo's avatar, this is Gwen's face.

Is very fast, probably the type of thing you don't pick up in theatres, but damn, I am cackling.

I guess she really wasn't expecting Margo to get such reaction out of Miles.

This a good moment to say, that while looking at this, you can see Gwen doesn't have any ill-will towards Margo.

Unlike the previous moment, this expression of her stays for a good moment; I remember that upon first stumbling with the confirmation that Gwen is jealous of Margo, I was shocked to see that expression on her, almost like she herself remembered that Margo situation is far from perfect.

I am SO thankful with the creators for making sure that neither from Miles nor Gwen, we get the plot line of one of them being jerks out of jealousy. Yeah Miles briefly tried to be spiteful towards Hobie, but didn't take long too change his tune, not to mention that Hobie really didn't mind.

And Gwen at any moment is shown to be bitter towards Margo, regardless if Miles was doing puppy eyes at her or not.

I just realized now, that Gwen is actually the first one to say they should go.

I really believe part of this was because the go-home-machine was looking a bit perverse. Even Margo looks a bit unsure of what to do of this, so it makes me wonder if is normal for it to look this painful.

(Sidenote, considering Miles and Gwen looked okay when they got out from this machine, I think Rhino was in pain because he was glitching at that moment. That would explain Margo looking like this if it was "normal.")

It doesn't escape me that Miles' reaction is the most shock one, no idea if Gwen could had picked on that being behind Miles, but maybe she realized Miles didn't particularly enjoy seeing that.

However, what happens next?

And here, I can only show it properly with this gif.

I want also to reiterate, that "Let's go!" Was from Hobie, I think he was trying to warn Miles.

Because Gwen didn't repeat herself, she deadass just sent a web and YANK HIM.

Again, wanting to go see Miguel my ass, you guys didn't seem particularly interested on that before. Not to mention that hey, you can see she isn't asking anymore and considering how she was looking at Miles from behind I don't think is because she doesn't want to be late.

Is a bit too small to take a proper capture, and hard to see, but yep, she looks mad.

I love how Margo laughs after this, like sure, Miles is endearing, but I also bet my left kidney she also clocked Gwen's crush extremely quickly because of this.

I almost expect Margo and Pavitr discuss who is crushing harder in the sequel.

Sorry for making this so freaking long and with so many sideways, but I think I needed to point out a few things, hope didn't bored anyone!

Keep suggesting moments!