#(which is what happens‚ I've read the ending and apparently he just disappears and doesn't write)

[piratefalls]

“You are", he says, "the absolute worst idea I've ever had.” - me @ ao3 after watching the movie and thinking "there's probably fic for this."

i like lists. i've lost sleep reading fic like it's gonna disappear the second i look away. i'm making my problem yours. i'm sure a lot of these won't be new to people since they pre-date the movie and it's far from comprehensive but. i'm late to this party. i also can't make gifs, so enjoy the basic canva header.

(baby) don't make me spell it out by extasiswings

One night near the end of first semester 1L finals, just a few weeks before the two-year anniversary of their first kiss, Alex finds himself looking up from his desk with its messy piles of color-coded notes and tabbed textbooks to see Henry asleep on the couch, clearly having dozed off waiting for him to come to bed, and unbidden he thinks, God, I’m going to marry this man. It startles him, the spike of adrenaline that floods through him waking him up and bringing the parts of his brain turning over concepts like proximate cause and strict liability to a standstill as he stares at Henry. I want to marry this man.

God Save the Blessed American President Mom by zipadeea

["June stopped by at lunch; she showed me a delightful channel called Hallmark, which repeats the same story every hour after they swap one round of white, straight, small-town conventionally beautiful actors for another. It was entertaining.” “June and I used to play a drinking game with those. Take a shot every time someone goes ice skating, sledding, or leaves the big city for their tiny hometown.” “Good lord, you must’ve been sloshed in the first ten minutes.”] -- On December 4, 2021, an attempt is made on President Ellen Claremont's life. Alex gets shot instead.

Familiar Gravity by cmere

“Yeah,” Alex breathes, and he pulls back to look Henry in the eyes. “I’ve been fantasizing about you fucking me in this chair for, like, weeks. Every time you sit down here with your stupid book.”   Henry likes it when Alex speaks Spanish and Alex has a request.

Am I the Asshole? by everwitch

AITA for spending Valentine’s Day with my roommate instead of my boyfriend? It’s well past midnight on a Saturday and hardly the first time Alex has scrolled aimlessly on his phone instead of trying to sleep, but it’s definitely the first goddamn time Alex has discovered his roommate has made a lengthy post about last night’s curry debacle to r/AmItheAsshole — a post that’s apparently gone fucking viral. -- In which Alex and Henry are college roommates, and a few thousand strangers think they should fuck.

Everybody needs good neighbours by railmedaddy

To nora(9.37pm): So a funny thing happened My hot neighbour brought me the mcflurry i ordered and we fucked From nora (9.38pm): WHAT DETAILS NOW Which neighbour? Wait, you only have one hot neighbour. Alex, did you fuck a guy?!?!?! ALEX Or Alex meets a hot new neighbour. Shenanigans ensue.

A Picture on Your Corkboard by bleedingballroomfloor

It happens on a random morning in May when Alex, age fourteen, pads into the kitchen to greet his mother and steal a waffle from June's plate and sees a man sitting at their breakfast counter, reading a newspaper, a cup of coffee raised to his lips. Like he belongs. Like it's the most natural thing in the world. June doesn't seem to give the man a second thought. She merely flicks Alex on the forehead and takes back the waffle. Ellen isn't worrying, either. In fact, she's talking to him. Asking what his schedule is like. Making plans for dinner. Alex has never seen this man before in his life.

this is the worthwhile fight by dearhappy

It's not that Henry's scared of their future, he's never been more sure of anything in his life. The thing is they're still trying to figure out how that future is going to look. And he worries about how it'll affect Alex's career in politics.

Déjame Ver Cómo Es Que Floreces by 14carrotgold

Oscar gets in close and bluntly asks, “Earlier. In the bathroom. Did you do it?” Alex scoffs, “No. Don't be a perv. Why would you wanna know that anyway?” Oscar rolls his eyes. “Mind out of the gutter, chamaco. Did you propose?” Ah.  - Henry is introduced to the extended Diaz side of the family at their matriarch's birthday. Shenanigans (and romance and feelings) ensue.

Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood by chamel

“I’m glad you both see it that way,” Dr. Chen says. Then she closes her notebook and folds her hands on top of it. “I think I’m starting to get a sense of where the issues lie. The good news is that you’re both here, and you’re both willing to work on this relationship. That’s promising. Not all of the couples I see are even at that point.” “Sorry, what?” Henry says, voicing Alex’s stuttering thoughts as well. (After one too many fights at work, Henry and Alex are assigned mandatory reconciliation therapy by their boss. Except the therapist thinks they're there for couples therapy... and surely, a bet on who will break first makes more sense than actually correcting her, right?)

Such a Burden, This Flame on My Chest by allmylovesatonce

Alex Claremont-Diaz is relocating back to Austin to join his dad's firehouse. His days as a firefighter in Washington D.C. ended badly, but no one knows that, or knows why. And he plans to keep that close to his chest. He has to shove it back down if he wants to seem like a normal person, if he wants to do the job, if he wants to get along with his new crew, and most of all, if he wants to get to know the hot British firefighter on the squad. No one can know what really happened.

thinking (about last night) by rhosyn_du

“I hope you know that I am literally never going to stop reminding you that you said that. I’m going to, like, take out an ad in the student paper. Maybe hire a skywriter or something. I am definitely telling Pez." "I hate you," Henry tells him. "Lies," Alex says, still laughing. "You know you love me." Henry lets out a heavy sigh. "Well," he says softly, "that's rather the problem, isn't it?" “What, you think we’d be better off if we still hated each other?” “I think," Henry says slowly, "I’d be better off if I could figure out how to stop being so stupidly in love with you.” It takes a few seconds for the words to really register, as distracted as Alex is by the heat of Henry’s breath and wondering how much it would cost to actually hire a skywriter. Once they do, it takes a full minute before Alex can move. Can breathe. Can think. Finally, he forces out a whispered, “What?” When that gets no response, he tries again. This time, his voice actually cooperates. “Wait, what?” The only response he gets is a soft snore and Alex realizes that Henry, the utter fucking asshole, has passed out on his shoulder.

you're the reason i let myself fall by perfect-porcelain (tedddylupin)

Alex doesn't quite know what to expect when he walks into a room with a glowing screen separating him from the person in the other pod. The entire experience makes him skeptical. How can you fall in love with someone you've never met? Or: Love is Blind AU

Sharper Head, Wilder Heart by Dawg1515

"This could work out,” Henry offers. “It could,” Alex replies. “That’s good, then. Someone’s going to have to walk me through the brilliance of Empire Strikes Back, after all.” “Sweetheart, if we’re legitimately dating now, I’m forcing you to watch every movie that has Harrison Ford in it.” “Duly noted.” Or: When the Queen decides it’s time for Henry to settle down with a woman, she arranges a courtship between him and Alex Claremont-Diaz, closeted political powerhouse. Alex secretly tells Henry he’s trans, and Henry tells Alex that he’s gay. To say they become an amazing couple would be an understatement—but nothing is ever that easy for a prince and a president’s son.

every version of you (i love) by coffeecatsme

“So,” the voice narrates as the man squishes the dog’s cheeks and laughs at himself. “There’s this guy that lives next to me with the cutest beagle in the world and this little guy climbs to the fence every day to drop his toys off at, like, 5:30 on the dot, I’m not kidding.” The camera shows the man boop the dog’s nose and press a little kiss to his forehead. There’s a ball in his hands that he hands to the dog, but it slips from his mouth all over again, making the man reach down to grab it. He glares at the dog, but even then he’s still smiling. “And this guy always walks by and picks up the stuff and it’s the cutest fucking thing ever you have no idea.” The camera zooms in farther into the man’s smile, genuine and wild, as he pushes his wild curls away from his face. His eyes flicker up when another figure walks into the frame, his blonde hair falling over his forehead in waves. The man’s smile, impossibly, widens. “Oh. I’m also pretty sure he has a crush on my neighbor.” Or, 5 times David greets Alex with something that belongs to Henry, and 1 time he greets Alex with something that belongs to both of them.

The Duke Who Loved Me by annesbonny, Inareskai, schmulte

This Author knows as well as anyone how much you, gentle readers, enjoy a scandal and a love story. And what could bring more delight that two young gentlemen who bring both of those wherever they go? Join the Duke of Mountchristen and the, untitled, Mr Claremont-Diaz as they attempt to find a Love Match amongst the gossip of the ton.

The Edge of Glory by politics_and_prose

Subject: CD-10 To: Alex Claremont-Diaz (acd@cdlaw.com) From: Natasha Wallace (nwallace@txdems.com) Alex - You know how you jokingly told me to let you know when Mayfield was vulnerable and/or not seeking re-election? Tash

lying in the low light by smc_27

The thing about having a one night stand with the guy your sister is close friends with and gatekept from you is that it becomes really fucking important that she never knows. Or, Alex and Henry have a one year stand. Or, Alex and Henry are in a relationship, only they’re the only ones who don’t know it.

what we might do (if we stop keeping a secret) by indomitablelove

'This isn't how I wanted to tell people. I thought we'd get the chance to do it right.' - Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston, p.327 --- or, in another world, Alex and Henry get to do it right.

Who Could Love You The Same as I by MariaDmitrievnaLikesSundays

Inside was exactly what Alex had found himself dreaming about ever since that night at Kensington. The kind of dreams that he forced himself to forget once he woke up, but dreams all the same. A gold band, simple and smooth, with a single square diamond embedded on top. It was small, modest, exactly to Alex’s taste. ”Holy shit,” he said again. “Holy shit.” That was a ring. That was, unmistakably, an engagement ring. Hidden in his boyfriend’s coat. And he had just found it.

—— Or, Alex finds the engagement ring that Henry had hidden, and does exactly what you’d expect him to.

As the World Falls Down by 3bowtruckles

So while we all knew that the 2020 written in the book would be glorious fiction, we didn’t realize that reality would throw us something to take 2020 even further away from the book’s events. This story is where I attempt to merge our 2020 reality and the fiction of RWRB, using research (a LOT of research) to try to figure out what the trajectory of reality might have been. The story starts picking up the timeline after their late-February trip to Paris. After that, it's strictly AU, but I try to keep a lot of the intents of the events in the book (for instance, Alex's trip to confront Henry in Britain after the lake) while still making them fit the narrative I've created.

We'll Change the World Yet to our Dessire [sic] by cresswells

Alex and Henry are engaged and ready to share their announcement with the world, but after the media circus surrounding their forced outing Queen Mary wants them to do things properly this time. To Alex’s surprise, ‘properly’ apparently means taking a Royal Tour around Europe as an official couple. Ten days, five countries and lots of unnecessary wardrobe changes. What could possibly go wrong?

where clouds look like mountains by weather_stained

Four months after the election, while still learning to navigate the complexities of being in a public relationship, Alex finally has the chance to show Henry around Austin.

We'll Invite Something In by smc_27

Alex is grinning a little too hard.  This is absolutely idiotic and pointless and fun.  The cover of Hello UK with a photo of him pulled out and a photo of His Royal Highness Prince Henry Fox-Mountchristen whatever the hell the rest of his names are (Alex knows; he being a dick) with the admittedly stupid but flattering headline which reads: His Royal Highness: He’s just like us and crushes on Pres ACD.

Henry's Cold, Empty Tower by DracoWillHearAboutThis

“I want you,” Henry said, slowly but clearly, “to leave.” When Alex storms Kensington Palace, Henry sends him away. Then, their relationship gets leaked, and it's Henry's turn to fight for Alex.

behind the diamond-shaped glass by Celaestis

Five times Alex and Henry used tea and biscuits to communicate, and one time they don't need to.

The Byline by rosetintednerdglasses

Press Secretary Alex Claremont-Diaz serves at the pleasure of the President, and he does it excellently until a new White House correspondent darkens his press room: Henry Fox, The Guardian.

we've been here forever (here's the frozen proof) by r_holland

Objectively, I am aware that you – a stranger – cannot tell me my own sexuality any better than I can, however... Can you, please? Tell me? It’s 4am and I have been thinking about this for hours, and I can’t sleep. Warmest regards, ACD *** It’s four in the morning, and Alex Claremont-Diaz has managed to follow a research spiral straight down into a personal crisis. It isn’t the first time.

words on the tip of your tongue (but please don't say them) by viciouslyqueer

So close. He was so close to saying those words that have lived inside him for so long, and now it's gone, a moment that slipped right between his fingertips before he could grasp it. Now he’s floating in the middle of the lake alone, the ghost of Henry’s touch still lingering on his skin and an unknown, heartbreaking feeling in his chest. — Or: canon-divergence where Henry doesn't leave the lake house.

The Grand Tour by lucky (revolutionbarbie)

When Henry returned from an audience with Queen Mary looking stony faced and grim, Alex had immediately feared the worst. She had requested to see Henry – and Henry alone – the moment their plane had landed at Heathrow on a visit to Pez’s new shelter in London.  Alex had suggested that they go to see her together just to spite the old hag, but Henry wanted to keep the peace. Since moving to Brooklyn, they had entered into an uncomfortable détente with Queen Mary and Henry was loathe to be the one to break it.  “She wants us to go to Australia. It would be an unofficial Royal Tour, of sorts, with stops in several cities and a short visit to New Zealand. Three and a half weeks in total.”  “She wants to send us on an all-expenses paid Australian getaway? Count me in.”

come and get me by rizcriz

The email arrives 8 days after Henry left the lake house. He contemplates deleting it without reading, but it sits in his Alex inbox, where there are over seventy emails favourited, and somehow it feels wrong and weirdly impersonal. As if leaving without a note were any different. He stares at the from line with an aching longing that seeps into his veins. It settles on his heart like a tangible thing; something warranted and cruel that casts shackles around the aorta and locks them tight so that he might never love again. -- or, alex sends an email instead of flying to KP.

Never Did Run Smooth by clottedcreamfudge

"You and me? Best friends. Stellar. Love that for us. But we could absolutely fake being in love. Dating. Whatever. I know literally everything about you—" (No you don't, Henry thinks firmly) "—and you know everything about me. We would absolutely fucking annihilate the other contestants.” "You're too drunk to apply," Henry points out, like he himself isn't about as wasted as it's possible for him to be without curling up and going immediately to sleep. "I doubt you could spell your own name right on the application. Or mine." Alex grins and pulls something up on his phone; it looks like it takes him a few tries. "Wanna fucking bet?" *** Or: Henry's life is a comedy of errors; a patchwork of oopsie-daisies; a quilt stitched together with hauntingly terrible mistakes. And at the centre of it all is his best friend, Alex Claremont-Diaz; director of said comedy, threading together his oopsie-daisies into a flower crown, rolling around in the quilt of his own making, and this analogy is going to shit because Henry's so in love with him he wants to die.

idk I'll do a part two if anyone wants.

[dummy-draws]

I just realised I never posted these here lol-

These are D&D characters I've had the pleasure to play as during the last couple of years! Three of them are retired by now (as in their campaigns have ended lol)

Also yes, most of them are either big and muscular or smol and weak, except for one of them lol

Willow Above the Void of the Fanged Moon Clan (long names are fun), a tall himbo paladin who's strangely comfortable with violence and goes to a high school for adventures. Likes to work out and may or may not know how to read? Newest character of this bunch! Campaign just started, can't wait to see what kinds of shenanigans he's gonna get himself into lol.

Icarus Tempest, wizard baby (literally) who loves magic and is a huuuuuge nerd. Also his parents and family were killed by templars and he was raised by his human teacher, master Tempest. Has a mouse familiar named Peanut and an awakened spellbook he calls Mr. Edward. Campaign ended and he's currently studying at a magic college.

Bucket, chaos goblin thing, cleric but multiclasses as a wizard to get access to the Fireball spell and Staff of Power. Is an alcoholic, has chronic pain and does weird shit cuz it's funny. Likes to pull pranks on others, once landed a ligma balls joke on a Red Wizard leader. Currently living with his two adopted sons he won when gambling on two separate occasions, yes it happened twice, they had horrible parents apparently.

Lumiran Thuumderax, Crystal dragonborn from a noble family but with a red dragon sorcerous origin so some of her scales are turning red, which didn't sit well with her purist family. So she was prohibited from leaving their mansion and bullied every day by her family, all the way up until she was an adult and kicked out. Doesn't know how to have fun and has huuuge trauma from how badly her family treated her. Campaign ongoing, currently she's in the Feywild, looking for a missing Archfey after being almost kicked out of a magical carnival with her party.

Vologath, Volo amongst friends (not affiliated with the other Volo) is a biiiig guy, like even for a Goliath. He's pretty chill, doesn't like slackers tho. He died like many years ago but was reincarnated into a Goliath. Left his clan when he had an argument with the leader. Lived alone for about a year before he met the party and the story started and stuff. Ongoing. Has an odd connection to Owlbears, it's like he can talk to them or something.

r'En'r'En is a funky frog man, was a shaman student who was framed for the murder of his clan's leader by his teacher (and he also accidentally helped with the murder but it was a pure accident lol). So he had to run away so the rest of the clan wouldn't kill him. Likes mushroom wine. Campaign ended, is now... Somewhere?

Draphixolash Wyvarum, Draphi among friends, is a big dragonborn paladin man with a major case of social anxiety. He was haunted by a shadow demon who talked to him in his head. He is also a weretiger (like a werewolf but tiger, and also not a human but a dragonborn, so a... dragon-tiger??) And a follower of Selûne. Campaign ended, he spent years as a royal knight before disappearing for almost a 100 years, but then appeared in the campaign Bucket was in as an admiral of the royal army! (That was a cool moment)

[orangetintedglasses]

Anonymous said: 😊[ Rem! ] Anonymous said: 😢 FEED US Once Upon a Dream // dream prompts

Whenever he greets her with such enthusiasm, she's always so amused. Perplexed and amused as she wraps her arms around him and asks if he's had a bad dream-- he just whimpers in response and hugs her back tight.

Today, they talk about plants. Not the Plants, but the plants all around them in the observation area; the lush green grass and the big tree... which has a very important job, apparently.

"Trees were what supplied the Earth with oxygen. They're a precious resource, and wherever we end up, we'll be sure to plant lots of them. We wouldn't want to have to rely on the Plants for that-- there's no way they'd be able to produce enough for an entire planet, it'd be too exhausting~!"

Vash nods. Trees are very important; he makes sure to remember that. But why is oxygen so important...? The Plants don't need it, do they? Rem laughs.

"Oxygen is part of every aspect of life, Vash. Our bodies need it for everything inside of us to function-- yours and mine."

Wrong. We don't need it like you do.

... that's not... what he meant to say. It doesn't even sound like his voice, either, not really. But Rem just... hums. Her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes anymore, but it's still there.

"I know you two think that you're entirely different from humans sometimes, but all of the check ups I've done on the both of you read exactly like a human child... just a little more advanced~."

Is that what you learned when you tore Tesla apart?

Rem's eyes go wide for a moment, a flash of hurt barely hidden behind them, and she turns towards him head-on. But it's not Vash that she's looking at. No, she's looking somewhere behind him, brows furrowing as her lips press into a tight, grim line.

"... Nai, what are you doing to your brother?"

Vash stares at their mother with wide, owlish eyes, glassy and unseeing; something writhes behind him, just out of sight before it disappears, and pain blossoms all over the right side of his body. The something twists, and he stands up. His mouth moves again.

So tell us, Rem. What happens when something doesn't get enough oxygen?

Their voices are layered over one another, speaking as one. Acting as one. The both of them walk forward and take the same, slow steps towards her... but it's Vash who lunges forward and gets Rem to the ground. It's Vash's hands that wrap around her throat and close her airways in a warped mockery of their lesson about trees. He feels a hand touch his back, and he knows Nai is there, watching as their surroundings shift and change, and Vash strangles the woman who took him in after the crash. It's not Rem anymore. They're not kids anymore.

Pain ebbs through him, and his hands wrap tighter around Luida's throat.

Do you know what happens when a human can't get oxygen, Vash?

--

It feels like he can't breathe when Vash jolts out of this nightmare-- sucking in a loud, ragged gasp as he sits up with a start. Something tore out of his throat at some point while he was still asleep-- a scream, a cry, something that makes his throat feel awful now, painfully swallowing and taking greedy gulps of air that burn his throat as he clutches at the front of his shirt.

Nightmare. Just a nightmare, j-just...

[ghost-bison]

Well I'm actually pretty impressed that you took the time to read everything, thank you! <3

Sorry, my bad, I misunderstood you! :) I just didn't want you to think I was one of those people who hate on the female character because their poor little meow meow, who (surprise!) happens to be a male presenting white dude, can obviously do no wrong lmao. Like, I love Ten dearly, but he was a selfish bitch with how he treated Martha and I think this is a good part of why I love Donna so much: cause she put him in his place, kept him grounded, called him out on his bs while still showing him the compassion he needed without babyfying him. I personally, even though I ship them, am glad they didn't end up together, but whether or not their relationship was more than besties is I think up for interpretation (I mean, Tennant himself seems to ship them so it's not that far-fetched).

But, I feel like a lot of Donna lovers or TenDonna shippers seem to forget that although Donna was so good for him, it doesn't mean it was her job to fix him to begin with. I think that's what a lot of fans hold against Martha: that she wasn't what he needed. But bro, let's be real: a good-looking, nice, charismatic alien shows up in his cool spaceship that also travels in time, and asks you to come with him.... are you gonna say no? Like, fr? Martha didn't know about everything he'd just been through, he kept it all to himself. And then made her feel guilty because she didn't understand everything like Rose did. Martha literally had to sit down and force the story of the Time War out of him. Like, personally, I would like to know if I was traveling with a mass-murderer, even if he had all the good reasons. It's totally NORMAL. Rose didn't have to force it out of him, Nine just came to the conclusion that he needed to tell her if she was going to travel with him. And he was FRESH OUT OF THE TIME WAR. Ten didn't try to hide it from Donna, either. In their first episode he admitted to the Empress of the Racnoss who he was, knowing that it would lead to certain revelations, and then he apparently told Donna about Gallifrey in between Partners in Crime and Fires of Pompeii because at the end of Pompeii Donna seemed to know about it. So that means he literally told her off-screen.

So yeah, I don't get why it's so hard for people to acknowledge that their fave character can sometimes be a fkn arse, because it's not hard for me!

"And truly her strength in confronting him with his selfishness changed him so much for the better." Yes! People give Donna all the credit and yes of course she's a queen and helped him a lot but Martha put a dent in his arseholery and paved the way for him to change and it's just as important!

"Ten was definitely an idiot for sticking her with his clone, but it was probably from a place of self-loathing. He feels so guilty for not being human, for letting her down by virtue of who and what he is." OMG THIS. This is smartly put cause it doesn't excuse what he does but explains perfectly WHY he does it. Well done. That's why he never says I love you. He's afraid of making it real for everyone, including himself. That's probably why he refused to tell Martha about the Time War, because Rose had just shown him he could be loved and he was afraid Martha would stop loving him if she knew, and that she would leave him. I don't think he ever planned on taking Martha home after one trip, he kept delaying it, cause he appreciated her company deeply but was also deeply affected by Rose's disappearance. This show honestly. Wtf.

About what you said, that you wouldn't be as much of a hater if it wasn't for the truthers, bro, that's what fandom life is all about unfortunately. I've talked to people who have stopped watching shows because the fans were being immature. Some people think it's a competition, that you can't possibly love Donna AND Martha AND Rose. Some fans FORCE their ships, which sometimes aren't even CANON, onto others, in the rudest ways imaginable, and I'm like, get a life? It's meant to be fun? What would we get to talk about if we all agreed on everything? Nothing, it'd be so boring. Does me not particularly liking tenrose mean my personal preferences are threatened? I don't think so. But if you start sh*tting on a character for no good reason (and writing cringe fics about it where Rose for example is totally out of character just to put your ship on a pedestal), then it just shows you're insecure about your own tastes and, on top of everything, ruining other people's day (read: just because I love tendonna doesn't mean I wanna see Rose get turned into an immature imp in fics about them, it's that simple). -> I'm not talking about you btw, you've been totally respectful and given good, valid arguments, I'm just explaining why some fans can indeed be a problem. Like look at us, we're having a nice, respectful conversation, sharing opinions that aren't necessarily positive, but that doesn't mean we had to sh*t on anyone to make our opinions live. THIS is the kind of thing I want to see in the anti-[ship/character] tags. Not stupid arguments about who's better because "I said so", you know?

Thanks for reading my previous one. It was so long and all over the place lmao. Your opinions are well put and interesting to read, it feels good <3

Hey random sorry but I love your account

THANK U SO MUCH!!!! I was looking at the tags u left on my Death and The Queen essay the other day and I was like !💖!

mad respect for the nine/rose content btw, they really were phenomenal. I try to be the change I want to see (read: shamelessly stanning tendonna) but I adored the relationship between rose and nine.

[kittycatchan16]

Okay... Oh wow. I don't usually write a post right after reading new chapter BUT. Holy Guacamoli that was intense. (Warning: Spoilers of chapter 55)

So:

The Shapeless One (aka Noe's teacher & Domi's grandfather) appears after Mikhail loses control...And some things are revealed, some questions are answered and more questions appear. Maybe let's start with big reveal:

The Shapeless One saved Mikhail

He told Mikhail that V!Vanitas can be brought to life (whether that's true or not remain to be seen)

But there was even bigger ta-dum moment:

1) SO (Shapeless One) met Vani before; Vani didn't recognize his name nor his looks which means he had different identity when they first met. I'm 99.9% sure that wherever he met Vani, was also when he met Luna and Mikhail.

That would explain why he decided to save Mikhail, he knew that Mikhail belongs to Kin of Blue Moon (methinks this was the reason).

2) He has a new name "The Comte De Saint Germain"; Comte in french means "Count", so "The Count of St. Germain"

(An interesting real-life fact; anyways)

3) He apparently has one blue eye and calls Luna "the most beautiful creature in this world". I'm not sure (yet) whether he calls her creature as hyperbole or because of this:

^Chapter 50

(I'm also unsure whether "Blue" is just a short for Vampire of the Blue Moon or it means sth else)

4) And then SO (Shapeless One) ominously announces their next meeting and disappears with unconcious Misha.

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

Thoughts & theories:

I have to say this chapter(and the ending of the previous one) surprised me. Ever since I learned someone saved Misha, I thought it was Lord Ruthven and that he was on their side. Though, in retrospect that doesn't really make sense, unless Ruthven would have saved Misha and didn't say anything to Moreau 🤷‍♀️.

And I've thought that Shapeless One was shady ever since I saw him, so maybe it wasn't the biggest plot twist nevertheless it was surprising.

The big question is: What now?

To be honest, I'm hoping that next chapter will give us some answers, our crew is a mess right now (understendable given everything that happened) but that doesn't mean any flashback or discussion about what has just happened won't occure (also bonding- yes).

There is also an interesting detail I noticed while reading this chapter (Idk, how I missed it during my first read of this arc, maybe it's the fact I changed the page on which I read mangas-and so the translation changed a bit or I was just too preocupated with what was happening and didn't register it but-)

"I've been working to erase her existence entirely"

But Vanitas...All you did was curing Curse-bearers... Are you trying to say that remains of Luna's consciousness is the Curse itself?

Does this mean that Shapeless One told Misha the truth? That Luna can be somehow brought back to life?

Although judging by his reaction, it's more adequate to say that Vampire of the Blue Moon would be brought to life, which doesn't equal with Luna being brought to life (even though they're technically one and the same).

There's also new power balance in our cast:

1) Our main crew:

Vanitas (who will still continue curing vampires)

Noe (who will probably continue helping Vani)

Dominique (and she will side with Noe)

Jeanne (who, as long as Ruthven doesn't interrupt, will side with Vani)

Dante (and probably Riche &Johnann)

2) Charlatan:

Lord Ruthven

Gano

Monsieur Spider

Naenia (Queen Faustina)

Moreau

They're ones causing increase in Malnomen(/Curse Bearers) by corrupting Vampire's True Name.

We have yet to learn why.

3) SO group:

Shapeless One (or "The Comte De Saint Germain" as he prefers to be adressed now)

Mikhail

Their goal is unknown. To ressurect V!Vanitas (possibly)???

They were content to just sit in the background until now and will probably continue to do so until sth big happens. Or they will plot sth on their own. It's hard to say rn.

Anyway that's how I see the whole situation for now, we will wait and see what's next but I have a feeling there will be answers soon (mostly because we're closing to the number of chapter in which there was a big plot-twist in Pandora Hearts, I can't say for sure that everything will be revealed on exact same chapter number but there's a good chance- the layout of action is similair enough)

[dragon-kazansky]

Made with love | Helmut Zemo

Chef Zemo AU! 👨‍🍳

Gender neutral reader

Collage by @realremyd

[Previous chapter] - [Next chapter]

Part 11

Helmut took Tony into the back and proceeded to push him back against the wall. Tony barely flinched, just fixed his suit.

"What is this?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Why are you doing to this me?" Helmut demanded.

"You know why."

Helmut grabbed Tony's shirt and pulled him closer to him. He was seeing red. He was pissed. Beyond that.

"Just leave me alone."

"No, can do, Zemo."

"You already ruined everything once before. Why must you come back and so it a second time?"

"Because no man like you deserves happiness, Zemo. Your father knew that."

Helmut proceeds to punch Tony squarely across the jaw. He ignores the throbbing of his fist as he glares at other man, who was now cradling his face.

"Why is she even here?"

"Because I invited her. Because I want to make your life miserable. Because she wanted to see you again."

Helmut growls. It was taking everything within him not to straight up commit murder here and now.

"I have Y/N."

"I know. After tonight, you'll be lucky if you still do."

Helmut stepped back and looked back at the door. Damn it! He had just left you without word. You must be worried.

"I will end you, Stark. You and your empire will fall."

Stark laughs.

"I'd like to see you try."

Zemo gives Tony a good kick before he leaves. He rushes out of that door faster than anything and instantly scans the room for you.

He doesn't see you.

He spots Sam and Bucky standing alone. He makes his way over to them, but hands gripping his arm stop him. He turns sharply to see who dared get in his way.

He had to find you.

Heike.

"Helmut."

He stops.

"Let go of me."

She let's go, lips tugging into a frown.

"It's good to see you."

He stares at her silently.

He ignores how Tony exists the back room behind her, trying to fix his suit and pretend there wasn't a horrible bruise forming on his face. Pepper hurried over to him to ask what had happened.

"Helmut, say something."

"What do you want me to say?" He asks, voice sharp and unkind.

She flinched a little.

"I thought you might be happy to see me."

"Happy?"

He turns his whole body to face her. Helmut is taller than Heike. He has to look down a bit to see meet her eyes. The way he stands over her is intimidating and not at all what she had hoped he would be like with her.

"I've ruined everything, haven't I?"

He scoffs.

"What do you think? Of course you did. You and him. Did you know my father died? The restaurant is mine now. I already have to deal with Stark trying to buy it off me, and now I have to deal with you being here. Why did you come back?"

"To see you. And no, I didn't know about your father. I'm sorry, Helmut."

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Nevermind. I have to go," he takes a step back.

Heike reaches out again.

"Helmut."

He doesn't listen. He moves his arm out of her reach and marches away toward Sam and James.

The boys straighten up when he approaches.

"Where did they go?"

"Outside," Sam replies.

"Do they know?"

"Yes."

Helmut wants to make a snide comment, but doesn't. He leaves instantly, heading outside. He pushed the doors open violently and looks up and down the street.

He only sees Natasha.

"Where are they?" He asks, coming to a stop in front of her.

"At home."

He's about to head back himself, but Natasha forces him to face her. He stares back, but whereas her gaze is judging and harsh, his is desperate and pleading.

"Did you know?" She asks.

He shakes his head, quickly.

"No."

Natasha let's go of him. Helmut doesn't anything as he rushes off. He heads straight back to the apartment.

It's quiet.

Your bedroom door is closed. He walks up to it and pressed his ear to the cold wood. He can't hear anything, but he knows you're in there.

"Y/N."

Nothing.

"I didn't know she was going to be there. Really, I didn't. It's been years since I last saw her. We were engaged. I loved her dearly, I was devoted to her, but Tony Stark saw to it that ended quickly."

The door swings open unexpectedly.

You stand there and stare at him.

"What?"

A little startled that you actually had opened the door to him, he didn't answer right away, but his soon realised you were waiting for an answer and gathered his thoughts.

"My father and Stark's father, Howard, we friends. Howard was my father's business party when Escorpión Morado first opened up, but eventually Howard signed all rights over to Heinrich. Howard married and not long after they were expecting, so he moved back to the States where he was originally from. He wrote to my father and one day cane to visit him. Tony and I were children. We used to play in the restaurant."

"You and Tony grew up together?" You asked.

"Not quite. They went back to the States and I didn't see Tony Stark for years. By the time he did come back, as I was working for my father, learning to cook just like him. The Stark's returned to see my father. We got on, for a while. The next time Tony came back, his parents had died. A car accident. He came back with this woman. Heike. She was beautiful. I fell in love with her instantly. Tony had brought us together, but soon she had to leave. She promised to come back."

You stay silent.

"She returned, again and again. We were in love. I decided I wanted to marry her, so I asked her and she said yes. We were engaged for a year and then that day came. I was standing at the alter, waiting. She knew showed up. I didn't find out until much later that Tony Stark had whisked her away back to the States with promises of happiness and money. She didn't love me. If she had, she would have been my wife that day."

"Helmut..."

"I would have told you, but I hadn't had a reason to bring this up. Not until tonight."

You look at those big sad eyes of his.

"Do you still love her?"

He looks at you.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

He nods.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm looking at you and I know for a fact I'm in love with you. So, unless you're going to run off with Stark and leave me here alone and heartbroken, I want to take my chances with you. My special and incredible darling."

You smile.

Helmut opens his arms as you fall into him, hugging him tightly. He holds you close to him, not wanting to let go. You're the best thing that had ever happened to him, and though he feels like he doesn't deserve you, he wouldn't change it for the world.

"I love you too," you whisper in his ear.

He kisses you. Oh God, does he kiss you.

You pull away and look at him.

"You do realise this gives us all the more reason to kick him off his pedestal, right?"

Helmut nods.

"Let's show Stark what happens when you mess with Helmut Zemo."

He grins.

"What would I do without you?"

"God only knows."

You kiss him again.

The bedroom door closes behind Zemo as you pull him inside. Neither one of you planning on getting much sleep tonight. You needed to make this man feel loved and treasured. Show him that you weren't her and that you weren't going to abandon him like she did.

In the morning you wake up alone. You reach out to his side of the bed, but it's empty. Waking up properly, you sit up and sigh. You had hoped to wake up beside the man you loved for the first time, after your first time~

You hear music playing from the kitchen and smile.

Oh, he's making breakfast!

You can forgive him for that. You let out a content sigh and grab the nearest item of clothing, which just happened to be Helmut's shirt from last night.

You narrow your gaze on it. His trousers were on the floor. He must have gone to his room for fresh clothes. You bottom the shirt up and grab some underwear, leaving the room just like that.

The sight before you was a welcome one.

You grin as you lean on the door frame.

Helmut Zemo had his back to you as he fried some eggs in a pan. He was completely naked, apart from the little apron around his waist.

"Hello handsome."

Helmut chuckles deeply, slowly turning his head to look over his shoulder at you. He smirks.

"Good morning, liebe."

"I would say so." You look him and down.

"How did you sleep?" He asks, not at all turning to face you.

"Really well, thanks to you."

"I do my best."

You make your way to the table and Helmut serves up the food. He puts a plate down in front of you and pours you some juice.

"I'll be right back."

He kisses you before leaving to put some clothes on. You begin to dig in, but there's a knock at the door.

You figure it's either Wanda, Natasha, or one of the boys. You hadn't checked your phone to see if anyone had messaged you after last night.

You get up and go to the door.

Opening it, you startled to see Stephen Strange there. You look him up and down, confused.

"Hello?"

"We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Can I come in?" He asks.

"No."

He sighs and holds out an envelope to you. You sigh and glare at him.

"No more invitations! We're not returning to that blasted restaurant."

"It's not an invite."

You snatch the envelope from him.

"What is it then?"

Stephen takes a peek around you, checking to see if anyone else is home. He clearly didn't want to run into Helmut.

"It's a warning."

"Warning?" You glare at him.

"Just read it when you're alone."

With that he turns away and disappears around the corner. You close the door and look at the envelope in your hand.

Helmut returns fully dressed and smelling wonderful again.

"Who was that?"

"Strange, he gave me this." You hold it up.

No way are you keeping secrets from Zemo, not after everything. Helmut walks over to you and takes it from your hand.

"What is it?"

"A warning, apparently."

He opens it and takes out the paper within. He reads it, burrowing his brow. He growls, crumples it into a ball, and then tosses it to the ground.

"What did it say?"

He looks at you.

"That bastard was going to try and lure you into his lies, just like he did back then."

You pick up the paper and open it.

Helmut Zemo is a fraud who can't offer you anything other than misery. Say the word and I'll have you on the next flight to the States. Don't waste your breath on him. He's only going to use you.

You are at the words.

"What the Hell?"

Helmut grabs his coat and turns to you.

"Meet me at the restaurant in an hour."

"Where are you going?" You ask.

"To kill Stark!"

The door slams shut behind him and you're left in a confused state. He wouldn't, would he?

You rush to get dressed.

@namethathasnotbeentaken @belle82devart @cathrin2405 @lieutenantn @wilder-fangirl @latenightartist-author @lucky-luck-lucky @hb8301 @charistory @thatoneartgalsstuff @thesuitkovian @malkaviangirl @zemosimp420 @realremyd @the-chaotic-cow @lostghostgirl94 @zafiro-draco @lazygurl05 @pinkcutiepiee @goddessofmischief03 @whovianayesha @myybebe @awesomesauce-abbie @that-stupid-head-tilt-thing @swooning-for-mc-avoy @nonamec0s @apparrio @scuttle-buttle @alex-the-nb @my-blood-is-maple-syrup @greeneyedblondie44

[eddiemunson-thehero]

hey there I've an idea for a bucky request, just an idea though if you don't wanna write it that's completely fine! : ) so im thinking super angst with a sprinkle of fluff maybe? bucky either has a nightmare or some type of episode as the winter solider and attacks reader but doesn't remember doing it, then when he sees reader again he keeps pestering her asking what happened to her bcuz he can see that she's injured. she doesn't want him to feel bad so she tries her best not to tell him but he keeps asking and wanting to talk to her to see if she's okay and she eventually tells him that he did it

Why of course! I hope this is something along the lines of what you requested. I ended up getting a bit carried away hahaha.

Here is Line Without A Hook

You, Bucky, and the rest of the team had just returned from a grueling mission infiltrating a Hydra base in Russia. To be expected Bucky was a bit shaken by being back there, he was quiet most of the ride back in the Quinjet. Deciding that a nice scalding long shower would not only ease your tension but also Bucky’s, you began to light sweet smelling candles along the sink and warm two towels in the dryer.

“Bucky come here my love,” you called out as you were discarding your tactical gear and stepping into the shower. After a few minutes of no response from your blue-eyed lover, you peek your head around the shower curtain, glancing around the room in search of Bucky. Not being able to find him made your heart drop to the depths of your body, slipping out of the shower, wrapping your body in a towel, setting off to find him.

When you enter your shared bedroom that is attached to the bathroom your nerves settle, finding your lover stationed stagnant on the bed as if he had fallen asleep sitting up. You walk over and place your hand on his shoulder, only to be met with his metal hand gripping your wrist, twisting your arm behind your back and up against his chest. 

“Bucky what’s going on?” you question, confused by the sudden force of violence he has used upon you. Apparently talking to him wasn’t the right move, seeing as you were now being shoved face-first against your bedroom wall, picture frames falling down from the force, glass shattering around the two of you. Gashes and cuts litter your face as blood begins to trickle down, seeping its way onto the white towel.

Your blood begins to run cold, soon realizing what exactly was going on, the mission had affected Bucky more than he had let on, more than you had realized. Being back in the cold of Russia, in the Hydra base had weakened Bucky, letting The Winter Soldier take main control of his mind and body. Struggling against the grasp that he had on you was no use, as the Soldat roughly turns you around shoving your back against the wall, bringing his metal appendage to wrap around your throat. Before his grasp became too tight you let out a blood-curdling scream, hoping someone would hear and come to your rescue. Black spots begin to speckle across your vision, breathing becoming more ragged as your limp body falls from the grasp of your lover.

________________________

Bright shining lights, hushed conversations, and the scent of sterilized tools are what you awoke to. Blinking slowly, allowing your eyes to adjust to the light you saw that you were in the infirmary located in the compound. Steve and Nat were at the door, indulging in a hushed conversation that you weren’t able to make out. Gently raising your body to sit up caused alarms to sound on the countless monitors that you were hooked up to, which made Steve and Nat’s heads whip around to see your terrified eyes.

Steve rushed to your side, “Y/N, are you okay? How are you feeling?”

You opened your mouth to speak, only to realize the tightness and dryness in your throat. Slowly you reached over to grasp the cup of water next to your bed, bringing it to your lips carefully, gulping down its contents quickly. “I’m okay, what happened” you rasped.

“You don’t remember?” Nat questioned, leading you to shake your head no. “Bucky attacked you, something from the mission…” she hesitated, “caused him to lose control on his mind and body, allowing for the Winter Soldier to resurface.” 

“Where is he?” you didn’t care what had happened to you, bruises and cuts would heal with time, the emotional turmoil this would cause Bucky would simply break him. You needed to get to him before he realized what the Winter Soldier had done to you, ripping out your IV and removing your nose cannula, you swung your legs over the edge of the bed ready to find him.

Steve grasped your arm, pulling you back into bed, “He’s in bed, he hasn’t woken up yet, he doesn’t know…” 

“Don’t tell him,” you begged, “Please don’t tell him, he will never forgive himself, let me handle it.” Steve and Nat shared a concerning glance between each other before slowly nodding, knowing that if and when Bucky finds out what happened, he would never forgive himself and would surely disappear. 

After a few hours of tests, you were discharged and were able to go back to your room. Walking down the hallway your breath hitched as you hesitated opening up the door to your shared bedroom with your lover. Hearing his soft snores is what pulled you from the trance, twisting the knob and slipping in quietly. Discarding your clothing in the laundry basket, you crawled your way into bed, next to the man you recognized, smiling peacefully to yourself, you know in your heart that you two will be able to overcome this, as long as he never finds out he was the one to inflict so much harm upon you.

____________________________

The next morning you awoke to soft feather-light kisses being pressed along your spine. Contently you rolled over to snuggle closer to the warmth that radiated off of Bucky, welcoming arms encased you bringing you closer to his chest. Opening your eyes and slowly looking up at Bucky, you heard him inhale harshly, eyes filled with terror and worry. “What the hell happened to you doll?” he stuttered.

“Oh you don’t remember?” you questioned hesitantly, “I got caught up during the mission, some Hydra agents got to me but, you rescued me, my knight in shining armor you.” Letting out a breath you did not know you were holding, you stared at Bucky, praying to God that he believed you.

“No, I don’t remember that, I don’t remember much of the mission…” he trailed off, looking at you questionably. Slowly removing yourself from his grasp, you left the warmth of your bed, extending a hand out to him. “Come on, let's go eat,” you whispered, hoping he would drop the subject. Bucky intertwined his hand with yours, pulling himself out of bed, trekking down the hall to the kitchen where Steve, Nat, and Tony were chatting over breakfast.

“Good morning everyone,” cheerfully you skipped over to the fridge to get out the jam while Bucky grabbed the bread and peanut butter for your breakfast meal.

“Y/N what the hell happened to you?” Tony gasped when your mangled neck and face came into view.

“Oh nothing, just a few scratches from the mission, don’t worry I’m okay,” you replied, hoping everyone would just drop the subject.

“It wasn’t on the debrief, I read it just a few moments ago, care to explain this?” you felt four sets of eyes on you as you slowly turned around, hesitating on your next sentence you locked eyes with Nat and Steve wordlessly begging them for their help.

“Doll…” Bucky moved slowly near you, grabbing both of your hands, pulling you to look at him but, you couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes. Steve and Nat ushered Tony out of the kitchen with hushed whispers. A metal hand reached under your chin, lifting it and making you hold eye contact with Bucky. You open your mouth to start to try and explain but nothing comes out as tears slip down your cheeks. That was an answer enough for Bucky, to realize that the gashes and cuts on your face, the bruise that cascaded down your neck was him. “Did I…” Bucky’s eyes shifted to the floors, dropping your hands from his as he began to step back from you.

“Buck, honey it’s okay I’m okay,” you rushed out moving towards him, which only caused him to back himself up against the wall away from you. “It wasn’t you, this wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know how going there would affect you, no one could have predicted this.” As soon as those words slipped from your lips he was gone, rushing away from you. 

_________________________

You didn’t see Bucky for the rest of the day, you decided to give him the space he needed, hoping that by the end of the night he would come back to you. Wait, that was all you were able to do. When dusk fell your day spent walled up in your room became unbearable, you slipped out of bed, letting your legs carry you to the living room of the compound where you found Steve. Sitting next to him startled him, causing him to look up at you with glossy bloodshot eyes.

“Steve, where’s Bucky?” you question, unsure why the soldier broke down in front of you. Mindlessly you wrapped your arms around him, cooing gently to him.

“He’s gone…” he muttered, “Bucky left this afternoon, to Wakanda.” Steve glanced up at you to see a play-by-play of your heart-shattering. “Shuri said she could get the Winter Soldier program out of him within some time, so he left.”

Wordlessly you curled into Steve’s arms, slowly realizing that the love of your life left you, without even saying goodbye or a promise of returning.

[six-of-ravens]

*kicks open door* AND ANOTHER THING--

so I was reading again in the bath and I realized this book is just.....very badly plotted. and I know because this is a hole I've fallen into with my own writing. the author had a beginning (all the character intros, basically), and an end, but absolutely nothing in between, and no idea what to put there. the middle of the plot is that the characters are just doing independent study on one very broad topic of magic. except half the group is doing nothing because they don't do that kind of magic. so it's freaking Sideplot City. Libby has her wormhole (though that's only mentioned in past tense, we don't get to see her and Nico actually working on it), Tristan is slowly losing his mind realizing he can see particles (?), Nico is wrapped up in this Gideon/Gideon's Mom drama, Reina is just reading books, Parisa apparently did Nothing for several months and then fucked Dalton to get Plot Relevant Info We Already Know, and Callum is causing Tristan to lose his mind, presumably for the lulz.

Since the fight against the FBI/CIA/MI6/mercenaries/other random thieves, these people haven't interacted as a group at all. No bonding. No getting drunk together, no adventures, no nothing...everyone has just apparently been Doing Their Own Thing for months. So....the main plot is not advancing. We're not seeing group dynamics, and there's barely any character interactions that are relevant to anything except one character's side quest. There's no joking, no fun, no intimacy, no becoming friends shown on-screen. Callum toying with Tristan is the most productive character interaction we get. Even Parisa only superficially manipulates Tristan into sleeping with her, but she doesn't actually seem to like him or trust him with her Plot Relevant Info.

So basically the author didn't have a middle to her story, and instead of having the characters bond or, idk, giving them more random encounters with weird magic or monsters or the fucking Special Ops, she just made up individual sidequests that take like, 3 days each, and bullshitted that nothing else interesting happened, or anything to drive them together as a group, in the rest of the 3-ish months they've been there.

Which is deeply unsatisfying!! One of my favourite things about dark academias like The Secret History or When We Were Villains (or hell, it's not DA, but Gideon the Ninth!) is the character dynamics. You take a group of people, usually very close, but possibly just united by circumstance, and break them. See how they break, if they stick together, who trusts who, who is reliable, who immediately starts day drinking....These people have almost nothing to do with each other, and don't even seem united in their common goal of independent study (?) so the murder (disappearance?) that inevitably happens will have very little emotional impact. Unless in the next hundred pages they all do a heel-face-turn and start acting all buddy-buddy, but it's TOO LATE in the story for that. You wasted my interest on boring subplots and isolating everyone instead of showing dynamics and growth and, hell, giving me a magic library that was more cool and fun than a regular library (where are the nasty evil spell books????? the ghosts and monsters?!?!?! why can't Dalton and Atlas be a little more overtly evil or have any personality at all instead of just being fucking exposition robots????)

[fics-n-stuff]

Empty Castle

Pairing: JJ x reader

Summary: Three weeks after John B and Sarah Cameron were lost at sea, Kildare is still reeling from the dramatic events surrounding the death of its sheriff. JJ in particular has been struggling to get back to normal, so Y/N goes to try and help him get back on his feet. Sequel to Holding Cell.

Warnings: tiny bit of swearing, v sad JJ

Word Count: 4.2k (about double what I originally intended)

A/N: This took way longer than expected and I didn't mean for this to be so sad but it got real sad, so there isn't really anything beyond platonic until towards the end. I would highly suggest that you read Holding Cell first (perhaps because I worked hard on it and I want people to read it) but if you really don't want to then all you really need to know is that JJ and Y/N were childhood friends but hadn't spoken for two years until they both got arrested on the same day and they decided to be friends again. Cool, enjoy! :)

The bell for the end of school rang and the crowd of teenagers swarmed out, and you made your way to the bike rack along with your friends.

"So, my house for movie night?" Jess said, and the rest of your friends chorused in agreement.

"Actually, I have something else to do." You replied, fastening your helmet. "I'll come by after if I finish up in time."

"What are you doing?"

"I need to go see someone." You replied, quickly getting on your bike before any further questions could be asked. "Later guys."

You cycled out to the house that you knew was where John B lived - basically the entire island knew where he lived after everything that had happened - and left your bike on the porch. The front door was open.

"JJ?" You called tentatively. "Are you here?" You heard movement from one of the rooms and turned towards it, seeing JJ walk out a few moments later. He looked disheveled, shirtless and with messy hair.

"Y/N?" He asked, surprised. His voice was slightly gravelly, like he'd woken up not long ago. "Why are you here?"

"I came to find you, JJ. School started on Monday, you've missed the whole week."

"School started?" His question made you frown in worry. "Wait, how did know I'd be here?"

"Because you're not anywhere else." You answered, putting down your school bag. "Nobody's really seen you. I stopped by at your house and your dad said-"

"You did what?"

"Relax, JJ, it's not as if he has any idea who I am. And he told me that you haven't been home in two weeks."

"I'm surprised he's kept track." JJ muttered.

"Clearly you haven't." The comment made JJ pause. He ruffled his hair and let out a long sigh, looking down at his own appearance. "What have you been doing these past weeks?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It's kinda blurred. I go to work, I go fishing, I smoke. I really didn't realise that school had started." He crossed the room to the sofa and grabbed a tank top off of the back of it, throwing it on before making his way to the kitchen.

"So I take it you've just been living here." You stated, looking around the mess that had accumulated in the house.

"Yeah. Pope and Lie have been staying away from the place ever since, uh..." He trailed off, pushing his tongue against his cheek and clearing his throat. "But me, I'm here basically all the time. They use Heyward's boat so I've got the HMS Pogue all to myself; they use Kie's car, I get that busted up van." He laughed, but there was a real sadness behind it.

You watched JJ as he made himself a sandwich, and even from a distance you could tell that there was barely any food in that kitchen. A few seconds passed and you spun on your heel, starting to collect empty food packages from around the room.

"What are you doing?"

"Cleaning." You answered matter-of-factly. "If you insist on staying here, I insist that you keep it clean."

"Why do you even care?"

When you turned around to face him JJ was leaning against the kitchen door frame. He wasn't looking at you, rather he was staring at the floor. His body language was relaxed but you knew that that wasn't how he was feeling.

"What happened to the 'giving to whole friendship thing another try' deal?" You replied. "I'm just trying to live up to my side of the agreement."

"Maybe that wasn't such a great idea."

"Okay." You muttered after a stretch of silence. "Let's try this again later. You go off back to your bedroom or whatever, I'll clean up here and we can reconvene at a later time." You pushed past him into the kitchen to look through the cabinets for trash bags, and when you found them you pushed past him back to the living room.

"Y/N-"

"I'm not leaving, JJ, so don't even try it." You interrupted, throwing empty bottles and cans into a trash bag. You heard him mutter something under his breath and disappear down the hall, slamming the door shut behind him. You scoffed and continued clearing the house.

You got rid of all of the trash from the living room and the kitchen before knocking on the door to the room JJ had shut himself in. By now he'd had about half an hour of preparation for a civil conversation.

When you opened the door he was lying on his back on the bed with a hat covering his face, but you knew he was awake because he kept fiddling with his fingers and tensing and untensing his jaw.

"You ready to talk about it?" You asked softly, taking a seat at the foot of the bed.

"No." He mumbled, his response muffled by the hat over his face.

"Want a hug?" He didn't answer, so you took his silence to mean 'yes but I don't want to say it out loud'. You kicked off your shoes and shuffled up the bed so that you were lying beside JJ, draping an arm over his body and resting your head on his chest. He let out a long sigh and slowly wrapped his arm around your body, pulling you in closer.

You stayed like that for a long time, just listening to yourselves breathe while you waited for JJ to be ready to talk to you.

"We really ran off a cliff, didn't we?" He finally broke the silence, his voice quiet and full of emotion as he removed the hat from over his face. "Pope lost his scholarship, I've become a complete pothead, John B and Sarah are missing. We don't even have the gold."

"Gold?" You questioned.

"We found the wreck of the Merchant, Y/N." He whispered, staring up at the ceiling. "And we found the gold, underneath the Craine house, and Ward Cameron took the whole lot out from under us while the town was on a manhunt for John B."

"Oh my god, JJ!" You exclaimed, sitting up. "You seriously found the Merchant gold?"

"Yep. To finish what Big John started. But it doesn't matter now, it's gone. Just like John B." His voice broke as he said his best friend's name, and you lay back down beside him.

"I'm sorry."

"They could still be out there, right?" JJ murmured. "I mean, they found the Phantom but they didn't find John B and Sarah. Maybe they got picked up by a ship."

"Yeah of course, that's totally possible." You nodded. The silence stretched out again, JJ sniffling every now and then as if holding back from crying.

After a while you sat up, getting JJ's attention and he turned his head to look at you.

"Let's go grocery shopping." You said. "There's barely any food in this house, you need some supplies."

"I haven't really got the money, Y/N."

"My parents just left town and I never spend all of the money that they leave so we can use that." You replied adamantly. "You need to get some human contact, okay? So let's go."

You climbed off of the bed and put your shoes back on before pulling JJ up as well. Reluctantly, he put on some shoes and grabbed the keys to John B's van.

+++

The two of you were out for about an hour. You stopped off at your house to grab the cash before going to the grocery store, where you ended up leading the shopping trip because JJ apparently had basically no knowledge of nutrition. Being with another person seemed to bring JJ out of the haze that he had been presumably for the past few weeks; he even smiled at a joke you made while you were at the checkout.

"I didn't expect you to have enough money for a full grocery shop." JJ said as the two of you packed the food away in the kitchen.

"Well, because my parents don't talk to each other they also don't coordinate their trips out of town which most often results in them both leaving money for me." You explained. "I never tell them, I just keep the extra cash as compensation for the neglect." You smiled, closing the cabinet you had been packing things into and turning around to take a seat on the counter. JJ finished putting away the last of the groceries and leant against the wall opposite you, folding his arms over his chest.

"Why'd you really come find me?" He asked.

"Well, after John B and Sarah got lost in the storm it was obvious that you weren't going to be doing the best." You answered, watching him carefully to gauge how he was feeling. "And when you didn't show up for school all of this week, I figured that you might need a friend to bring you back to reality."

"I, uh, I appreciate that." He nodded, his lips turning upwards into a small smile.

"Happy to help." A silence settled between you again, as it had many times throughout the evening, but it felt a little different this time; slightly more tense, but not in a bad way.

"Do you wanna go out on the boat?" JJ suggested. "The sun's about to set."

"Sure. Sounds nice." You replied, hopping off of the counter. His smile grew and he kicked off the wall, adjusting his hat on his head as he headed back to the front door, you following after.

You took a seat on the bow of the boat while JJ got it going, and you stayed in silence as he drove you out into the marsh. The sky was orange and violet when he anchored the Pogue, and he came to take a seat beside you.

"It's nice, isn't it?" He said quietly, looking out at the sun setting over the water. "I come out here most nights if I'm not still at work."

"Yeah, it's beautiful." You nodded. "What's your job?"

"Busboy in a hotel restaurant. You got a job?"

"Nah, I've got my absent parent money." You looked over at JJ and you could see sympathy in his eyes. "Don't feel bad for me, it's really not so terrible." You chuckled. You didn't need sympathy; certainly not from JJ, who was in a far more difficult situation than you.

You talked idly as you watched the sunset and when the sky turned dark you had settled into silence and lay back on the boat to look up at the stars. The two of you were lying with your hands on your stomachs, your elbows touching with the proximity in the small boat.

"What if they're not out there?" JJ whispered, barely audible.

"Then... we learn to keep going." You answered, turning your head to look at him. "Look, JJ, I was never as close to John B as you were, and I have no idea how you guys became friends with Sarah Cameron, but whether they're out or not, and whether they cane back, you'll always have them with you."

He turned to look at you too, tears shining in his eyes, and you reached a hand out to grab his and interlocked your fingers.

"I know it's cliché, but it's true." You smiled reassuringly. "They left you a piece of themselves to keep in your heart, and nothing can ever take that from you." He held onto your hand tightly, a single tear escaping his eye as he tensed his jaw to try and hold back any more.

"I really miss him, Y/N." He sniffled. "He was my brother, you know." You quickly moved to hug JJ, your body half on top of his as he wrapped his arms around you tightly and buried his face in your shoulder as he started to break down.

You maneuvered the two of you into a sitting position so that you could wrap your arms around him properly, cradling his head in your hand. He held onto you tightly, his tears soaking through your t-shirt and his body shaking with his sobs.

Minutes passed before JJ calmed down, and you held onto his shoulders as you broke away from the hug.

"You'll be alright. Okay?" You said softly, and he nodded. "I'll drive us back." You wiped away the tears on his face with your thumbs with a smile, before getting up to bring up the anchor.

JJ stayed where he was sat while you drove the boat back to John B's house. You docked the boat and went inside, the atmosphere heavy. He took a seat on the sofa while you flicked on the lights.

"Can I tell you something, Y/N?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"I used to have the biggest crush on you when we were kids." The confession left you a little shocked, but you didn't show it, and JJ continued. "John B used to tease me about it all the time. When we were thirteen, after, like, four years of pining after you, he told me that I just needed to man up and tell you... but I never did, and then our friendship kind of just fell apart."

"Why are you telling me this now?" You questioned, and JJ let out a sigh before shrugging.

"I don't know. With John B missing and you suddenly back in my life... it just feels weird." He answered. "But I'm glad that you're here. I think I really need it."

"I think you do too." You chuckled. "Now, I'm gonna make us something to eat."

"Us?"

"What, you don't want me to stay?"

"No!" He defended himself loudly, making you laugh. "No, that's not it at all. I just wasn't expecting you to."

"Well, I have nowhere else to be." You smiled before disappearing into the kitchen.

You busied yourself in cooking, cutting up some chicken and vegetables and throwing them into a stir fry. You were completely absorbed in what you were doing, humming to yourself while you pushed the food around the pan with a wooden spatula, so when you felt a hand on your shoulder it made you jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." JJ apologised quickly, taking a small step back. "I said your name but you didn't hear me."

"Oh, really? Sorry." You chuckled. "What did you want?"

"Just... You weren't weirded out that I used to have a crush on you?" He asked tentatively.

"No, of course not." You shrugged turning back to the pan. "I'll admit it was a little surprising, but we were kids and we were super close. Jess used to tease me about that all the time."

"About us being close?"

"Yeah. I remember one time she totally freaked out because you called me pretty. Can you get a couple of plates out for me please?" You heard JJ open a cupboard and take out a couple of plates.

"For what it's worth," He said, setting the plates down on the counter beside you and taking out some cutlery. "I still think you're pretty."

"Aw, thanks JJ." You smiled. "You're not too bad yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He countered, feigning offense, and you laughed.

"Nothing. You're a good looking guy; not at all like the chubby cheeked little kid that I used to know."

You dished up your meals and you and JJ went back to the living room to eat. You kicked you legs up onto the sofa with your plate on your lap and tucked in. It was later in the evening than you would usually eat, so you were eager to get some food into your stomach. Even still, JJ practically vaccumed in the food and finished before you did. He took the plates back through to kitchen when you finished.

"You gonna head home any time soon?" He asked.

"I'm not in a rush." You shrugged. "I'll just be going back to an empty house." JJ hummed in acknowledgement. He lifted your legs up to sit on the couch beside you, putting them back down on his lap once he'd gotten himself situated. Maybe him being in such a vulnerable situation earlier had accelerated your connection, but it was like those two years that you didn't talk at all never even happened; you were just as close as ever, if not more somehow.

"You're gonna stick around, right?" He said, turning to look at you. You tilted your head slightly.

"Of course." You reassured, smiling. "I'm not gonna leave you now, of all times. Besides, I missed you and we were supposed to be trying the friendship thing again anyway."

"Yeah, the friendship thing." He muttered, downcatsing his gaze, and you frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"JJ, you can tell me." You took your legs off of his lap and crossed them under you, shuffling forwards towards JJ and lowering your head to try and catch his gaze.

"I..." He began but trailed off immediately. He let out a loud sigh, running a hand over his face and through his hair before taking a deep breath. "I know that I might just be saying this because I'm kinda fucked up in the head with my friends being lost at sea and all, but I think I still like you Y/N. As more than a friend." He rambled.

"JJ, we didn't speak to each other for two years." You replied, taken aback by what he was saying and trying to introduce some reason into the conversation.

"I know- I know that, Y/N, but... it doesn't feel like anything has changed for me." He explained, mirroring your body language and crossing his legs under himself to face you. "I get it, it's stupid, but I can't help that. I mean, I know that we were literally twelve years old but when we were friends before I think that there was something there. Maybe I'm biased because I liked you, but maybe..."

He looked at you, his eyes searching for any tell of what you were thinking, and there was a long pause while you thought.

"Even if there was something." You started slowly. "We were kids, JJ."

"We still are kids. We're sixteen." He argued. "When we were at the sheriff's station I felt something there, even though we hadn't spoken for two years. Tell me you didn't feel it too."

You looked away from him and took a deep breath. You would be lying if you said that you never had any feelings for JJ - he was probably the first real crush that you had - and it was probably your feelings for him that made you react so strongly when he would get himself into trouble. And you did think that being with JJ again felt much the same as it had done back then; plus, you hadn't been lying when you said that he'd grown up to be pretty handsome. Even still, he was going through an incredibly difficult time and you didn't think it would be a good idea to start any kind of relationship.

"Maybe... Maybe there might be something." You mumbled. "But right now really isn't the time to try it."

"Why not?"

"Because... well, you..." You struggled to articulate what you wanted to say.

"Y/N, I know it's a really messed up time, okay? Two of my best friends are lost at sea and I haven't spoken to the other two in weeks. I have lost all of the people closest to me and I feel completely alone, so maybe the fact that you're literally the only person that I have right now is making my feelings more extreme - I recognise that - but that doesn't mean that they're not real."

"JJ, I can't in good conscience agree to pursuing anything with you right now." You replied softly, shaking your head. It hurt you to have to say no.

"Don't you want to try?" He asked, voice a little weak as he looked into your eyes. "It doesn't need to be a huge commitment, we can just give it a try."

You looked over his face, the cogs turning in your mind as you thought through the situation. You really did want to give it a try, you were just worried that it might do JJ more harm than good. But the longer you ĺooked and him and the more you thought about the possibility, the more you wanted to pursue it.

"No promises, no big commitments... but I'll stick around." You smiled slightly, and you put a hand gently against JJ's cheek when he smiled back. "I just don't want you to get into something that's not good for you." He chuckled, taking your hand from his face and holding it in both of his.

"You've always been looking out for me." He mumbled, brushing his thumb over your knuckles. "Where would I be without you?"

"Somewhere messy I'm sure." You smiled.

"Definitely."

You sat in silence for a minute. You were watching JJ's face while he fiddled with your fingers. He let out puffs of air every once in a while like he had just remembered something funny, and it made you smile. You yawned, suddenly realising that you were actually really tired.

"Since I'd be going home to an empty house anyway," you began, breaking the short silence. "Would you be alright with me maybe staying here for the night?" JJ looked up from your hands with an amused smile.

"Of course." He answered happily. "I could use the company."

"Great."

He stood up from the sofa and gently pulled you up after him. Your hands remained connected as he walked you through to the same bedroom as earlier and flicked on the lights.

"This is where I've been crashing." He said, quickly scratching the back of his neck. "You can stay here with me if you want, or you can stay in the other bedroom if you'd rather do that." He became noticeably more tense at the mention of the other bedroom, and you just knew that it was because that was John B's room even though you'd never been there before.

"I'll stay here." You smiled, giving his hand a comforting squeeze. "Can I borrow a t-shirt?"

"Yeah, sure." He let go of your hand and crossed the room to a duffel bag in the corner. "There's stuff in all the drawers so I've kinda just been living out of this thing." He pulled out a t-shirt and handed it to you.

"Thank you." You smiled as you took it. JJ nodded awkwardly and shuffled past you out of the room, pulling the door shut after himself.

You quickly rid yourself of your school clothes and put on the t-shirt that JJ gave you - which was long and baggy on your body - before hopping onto the bed and covering your legs with the covers. He came back in not long later carrying two glasses of water.

"I figured you might want a drink at some point." He mumbled, setting the glass down on the bedside table. You gave a grateful smile and quiet thanks as he turned on the bedside lamp and then went to turn off the main light.

"We used to have sleepovers sometimes when we were kids." You mumbled as he walked around the bed and climbed in beside you. "Do you remember?"

"Yeah, of course I do." He smiled, lying down. "We used to stay up until midnight thinking that it was a big deal."

"It was back then. Midnight is really late when you're ten years old."

"I miss when little things like that could be so exciting." He sighed, staring up at the ceiling. You looked down at him thoughtfully, absentmindedly reaching out to brush a piece of hair out of his face.

"Well, anything can be exciting with the right company." You said softly. His eyes shifted to connect with yours and he smiled ever so slightly. "We have the whole weekend ahead of us, maybe we could do something fun. Go surfing, like old times, maybe?"

"That sounds nice." He murmured.

You shuffled down the bed to rest your head on the pillows and reached over to flick off the table lamp. You lay on your side facing JJ as he remained looking up at the ceiling. With the moonlight coming through the window you could just see the silhouette of his face and a slight shine where the light reflected off his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?" You whispered after a while.

"Lots of stuff."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Maybe tomorrow." He answered with a sigh, turning his head to look at you. "But thanks."

"No problem." You smiled. "We'll talk tomorrow." You shuffled towards JJ and curled into his chest as he wrapped an arm around you. You felt him press a very light kiss to the top of your head and it made you smile. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." He replied, holding you a little tighter, and you fell asleep in each other's arms. For the first time since John B and Sarah went missing, JJ had some comfort and you were happy to be the person to provide that for him.

[fireopal-tash]

Chapter 1

In a garden, located somewhere in space, there was a figure observing something in the distance. With one hand on their chest, the figure began to move and run with difficulty toward the source of light.

(changing the scene; on Earth)

After giving his message to the entire universe, Steven Universe said goodbye with great difficulty to the Diamonds and headed home. To his home.

Steven arrived back on Earth, warping into a glass dome at the back of the beach house. Connie, his best friend, was seen sitting on the floor reading a magazine, as Steven arrives on the warp pad inside.

"Steven! What took you so long?"

Steven leaped over to Connie and the two embraced, before starting to explain with a sigh.

"The Diamonds. They really want me to move in"

"Why?"

"Because they want to smother me with attention 24/7" he complained.

Connie could only giggle at the sight of her best friend's grimace.

"Sounds fun~"

"No, it doesn't" he complained even more. He found it hard to believe how anyone could think that spending all their time with the Diamonds could be fun.

"Well, I'm glad I got to see you before heading out" said the brunette, relieved. If she was honest, their relationship was something that worried her greatly. But even more so the health of her best friend.

"You're really going through with it?" Steven tried his best not to sound sad. Too sad.

They both left the conservatory, and begin descending the stairs to the balcony outside Steven's Room

"Of course" she replied with resolution "I've always wanted to go to space camp"

"But you've literally been to space multiple times" he pointed out, confused "And you've done way cooler stuff than just camp there"

Connie understood Steven's doubts, but she was ready. And her parents supported her, something she would never forget. And that's exactly what she said to the boy.

"My parents are doing what they can to support my interests. It's sweet" she enters the room and picks up her duffel bag" Plus, I get all the freeze-dried ice cream I can eat"

Steven soon found another reason for her to stay, apparently.

"But Sadie Killer and the Suspects are playing tonight. Isn't a rock show a little better than space camp?" he almost begged.

Connie looked at him, with a small smile.

"It's maybe equal to space camp"

Steven couldn't help but chuckle as Connie pulled out her vibrating phone from her pocket.

"That's my mom. I should get going"

Connie and Steven embraced each other again. Connie briefly turned away, blushing with her arms crossed, and seeing her opportunity, she gave Steven a quick peck on the cheek, causing him to blush as well.

"Okay! Bye!" Connie proceeded to run down the stairs and out of the house.

Steven put his hand to his cheek grinning widely. However, the hybrid felt a strange and alien sensation, which disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Thinking it was just his imagination, he ignored it, and then ran out onto the balcony to bid Connie farewell.

"Tell everyone at space camp that space used to be super scary and dangerous, but it's great now!" he exclaimed from where he was standing.

"I will!" The girl replied, waving goodbye.

As Connie left, Steven sighed contently and thought about expressing it with a song. But then something stopped him. A feeling foreign to him. Again. If Steven was happy, then why was he suddenly feeling so miserable?

The boy stopped for a few seconds, contemplating what he felt and what it could mean. Something was definitely wrong, if it was the second time he felt it. And the worst part is that now he was sure it was not his imagination. He looked worriedly at the bright sky and ran to his room. He looked at a photo frame of the crystal gems and floated on his bed, lying on it. Then he sat down and thought about telling the gems about this new development. Maybe they would know what to do about it.

The young boy petted CatSteven on the porch, and ran out onto the beach, where Pearl, Greg, and Lion were by Greg's van.

"Hey, Pearl! Hey, Dad!" he greeted them.

"'Ey, schtu-ball"

"Steven! I'm learning to play the "bass""

"I keep tellin' her it's "base""

"Excuse me, b-a-s-s spells "bass""

"You're the boss!" Greg finally gave up.

"Heck yes, I am"

But before Perla could start singing about her story, Steven had an urgent need to stop her. He had questions that needed answers.

"Pearl, wait"

"Steven?" At first, Pearl was confused, as Steven never missed an opportunity to sing or enjoy letting others sing. But seeing his worried face, she gave up and became more serious "Tell me what's wrong.

Noticing the ex-servant difference in tone and demeanor, Greg paid more attention to his son.

"I-I don't know how to explain it. It's... a very unpleasant feeling that appears out of nowhere. It has only happened twice, but it has been during the times that I have been happy. The strangest thing is that it showed... as if it were not part of me?"

Pearl tried to make sense of Steven's words, but without much success.

"So, what you're saying is that you felt something that could belong to someone else?" she asked at the end.

"Something like this? I'm not sure"

Steven was frustrated at not knowing how to explain himself better. Sure, it was not the first time that he had experienced a similar event. However, last time... it was different. Had he discovered a new power, as a manifestation of his subconscious? Whatever it was, it was not the same as what happened to him that last time. After all, he was awake.

"Steven, maybe you should ask Garnet to see what she sees in your future. Maybe you will get an answer" the pale gem tried. Greg could only listen, not knowing how to help.

He hummed before nodding.

"Good idea, Pearl. But if you remember something related to this, do not hesitate to come find me. Any answer is better than nothing"

"Of course. Be careful, Steven" said the tall gem, worried about Steven.

Steven, who did not want to worry his family, smiled at them gratefully, before entering Leon's mane, who approached Steven at some point during the chat.

Once on the other side, Steven emerged from Lars's head, Garnet catching him in time.

"I've saved you a seat" was the first thing she said, seating the teenager next to the Off Colors, while Lars served the sweet known as Ube Roll, his specialty.

"Thanks Garnet" the boy thanked her with a smile, before remembering why he was here. Noticing the change in Steven, Garnet sat next to him, waiting for his explanation. "Something has happened ... I explained it to Pearl, but she seems to have no idea what it is about. That's why I came here" then he looked at Garnet "to see if you saw something bad or strange happening in my future.

The fusion seemed to be thinking for a while, before frowning. Not that it was visible through her visor.

"I'm not... sure" she admitted reluctantly. That worried her. There were many probable futures, and some of them didn't make sense. Maybe she hadn't seen far enough?

Steven dropped his shoulders, disappointed.

"I don't know if it will help you, but I have already twice felt the feeling of being unhappy when I feel the opposite of that. And like it's not part of me"

That left a contemplative expression on her part, but without getting the answers her adoptive son was looking for. Except one, there was a good chance it would happen.

"Someone is going to visit us. What I don't know is if it will be with good or bad intentions" she decided to say for the moment.

"A visit? You mean a gem? A new one?" That worried him even more, recalling his bad experiences with visits from other gems. A hand on his shoulder stopped him in his negative spiral of thoughts.

"Steven, whoever they are, they will need your help. Everyone's help. They are hurting. I still cannot find out who they are, what they look like, and why they feel that way. But I do not doubt that something horrible has happened to them" she paused, her gaze somewhat lost, before returning her attention to the hybrid "Prepare yourself for anything that may happen"

Steven could only nod his head knowing it was the only advice she would give him. Before leaving, however, an idea occurred to him. Which didn't surprise Garnet.

"I'm going to look for Amethyst, so we can get together and make a plan"

The Off Colors and Lars stood aside, noticing the seriousness of the situation. However, if something happens, they were going to be there immediately. And that was exactly what they communicated to their young friend.

"Thank you guys" smiled the young Universe, gratefully.

To be continued...

[the-trashy-phoenix]

Supernatural season 4 review (part 2)

Link to part 1:

Irene and I have finished season 4, finally, and I was surprised I still liked it like the first time I've watched it. I couldn't wait to get there (who knows why?) and I was actually afraid I wouldn't get as excited as I thought I would; but fortunately it still gives me the idea that it is one of the best Supernatural seasons.

It all starts with Dean coming back from hell and being clueless about how he did it. He soon finds out the Angel Of The Lord Castiel held him tight and raised him from perdition and that he has a fundamental role in the intent to stop Lilith's plans to free Lucifer from his cage and unleash the Apocalypse.

Will this review (and probably the next 11 ones) most likely be a little bit biased for Destiel? Definitely. Will I try to stay as objective as I can? Yes, but this doesn't mean I'll be very objective, after all I'm writing this review knowing what is going to happen in the next seasons (and, more precisely, in the scene, you know which one I'm talking about).

I honestly don't even know where to start, so I'm going to comment on what I think is important as the season goes on.

I believe 04x01 is one of the best episodes of this season (and maybe even one of my favourite episodes ever) for several reasons. We have Dean coming back from hell and meeting again with Bobby and Sam (and both of these moments are very touching, especially Sam's one). Although the reunion might be heartwarming, Sam is already keeping secrets from Dean: he is collaborating with Ruby to defeat Lilith (and in the meantime he's using his powers, which are stronger than ever, cause he's drinking demon blood to increase them). He lies to Dean, telling him he stopped trying to use his abilities against the enemy, and that causes the biggest drama between the two brothers this season (that will continue on the next one). Dean (and the others) wants to find out who's trying to contact him and who brought him back from hell: I love the way Castiel is slowly introduced during this episode. At first with the ultrasounds and the handprint (which is definitely a fantastic touch, that kinda shows a little possessive side if you think about it, and it is inevitably funny if you know everything that happens later on), then through Pamela, showing already all his power, and at the end of the episode there's a "dramatic" moment where Dean (and Bobby) finally meets Castiel (in his vessel) for the first time, and this might be one of the most epic and iconic scenes in Supernatural. The dynamic between these two is fantastic from the beginning (am I saying this because I'm totally biased?) and the line "What's the matter? You don't think you deserve to be saved?" shows how Castiel has already understood Dean Winchester from just a look (and he's an angel who's not supposed to feel or understand feelings! Wow, the power of Destiel).

Moving on from this episode, in the second one we find out from Castiel that Lilith wants to break the 66 seals, foretelling the Apocalypse, in order to free Lucifer. On a side note, I like how bitchy Castiel is towards Dean at the beginning of their relationship ("Read the Bible. Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier", "You should show me some respect, I dragged you out of hell, I can throw you back in").

I love episode 04x03 because I usually adore time travel (it often leads to some funny and very unusual situations) and I find this one extremely sad and touching, mostly because Dean has the opportunity to meet his parents when they are still young (and Mary and John's sides he didn't know about) and finds out how their family became cursed (and the worst thing is he can't change its destiny).

In episode 04x04 Dean finds out Sam has been working with Ruby this whole time and gets mad about it, which is pretty reasonable. As much as a part of me hates when Sam and Dean fight, another part of me loves it, especially in this season, and it's probably because I think both of them are right and wrong at the same time. Ruby seems reliable (for now much more than the angels) and Sam truly did some good with her, so it is logical for Sam to trust her, since she apparently hasn't done anything against him and she has also saved him (which Sam confesses to Dean on episode 04x09). On the other hand I understand why Dean wouldn't want his brother to continue his process of strengthening his powers: he's afraid Sam won't be the same. Plus his brother lied to him, so it becomes hard for Dean to trust him, and this episode marks a pretty sad change in their relationship that will only get worse later in the season.

I should also mention 04x07 in which two witches want to bring Samhain, a celtic god, back from the dead. By doing that another of the 66 seals would be broken so Dean and Sam, who were working on the case, are told by Castiel and Uriel (another angel) that Uriel has to destroy the city, since the two brothers can't stop the witches from bringing Samhain back. Dean wants to prevent Uriel from doing a massacre and convince Castiel to wait for a few hours and let them take care of the witches. They can't stop them and Sam confronts Samhain using his powers, although he promised Dean he wouldn't use them anymore. At the end of the episode Castiel confesses to Dean that his orders were to follow Dean's instructions and admits he has doubts towards God. I consider this conversation very important, since this is the first time Castiel lets Dean have a look at his inner thoughts, even if Castiel himself is afraid of them, which gets me thinking that he already trusts Dean.

I also wanted to point out that Dean starts calling Castiel "Cas" pretty soon, even if he doesn’t want to trust him yet (although I believe he already does unconsciously). And what's even funnier is that, by calling him "Cas", he removes from his name the part that means "of God", which kinda gives you already an idea of what it's going to happen to him.

In episode 04x09 we meet Anna, a fallen angel, who doesn't even remember she has ever been one, since now she's human and has lived a human life for years. Dean and Sam meet her because she seems to be capable of getting in contact with the angels and is suddenly wanted from both angels (who want her death because she rebelled from heaven) and demons (one of them is Alastair, who knows Dean from hell). Anna and Dean form a sort of bond and she tells him she fell from heaven because she fell in love with humanity (they also have sex in the Impala, but that's way less relevant, although I want to point out that she covers Castiel's mark on Dean's shoulder with her hand, which is a bit disturbing). They can't stop the angels from coming for her so when they arrive we see a beautiful totally not programmed and still hilarious scene of Dean and Anna kissing and Castiel looking at first intensively at them and then shamefully at the ground. I mean, what was that? I understand that Anna and Castiel are sort of parallels, because they are both two angels falling from humanity (they also talk about feelings and Castiel confesses he has already started having emotions), but isn't it the whole point of Destiel? An angel that falls in love with humanity because of one man (Dean, if that wasn't already obvious)? And we get this concept involuntarily since season four? That's… funny. Apart from all of that, Anna manages to get her grace back and hides from Castiel and Uriel.

Another important element in this episode, and in the whole season, is Dean's experience in hell, in which time works differently (four months equivalent to forty years). He finally tells Sam what it has been like and totally breaks down as he says he has spent thirty years being tortured and, since he couldn't resist anymore, the ten left torturing other souls. He also adds in the next episode, with shame, that in torturing souls he felt pleasure, because all the pain felt as a victim disappeared: this is what devastated him the most. I feel like Dean's time in hell inevitably shaped his personality a lot in this season, but it's a thing that changes him forever. He is more mature and somehow self-aware (and I love this aspect), but he's also way more desperate and hopeless (a trade I think characterises Dean way more than Sam in every season, but that's definitely more persistent in this one than it's ever been). I might be a bit sadistic, but I don't mind the bad parts Dean has kept from hell either: they show us a vulnerable side that Dean has always tried to hide. There's also the evident contraposition between Sam's physical power and apparent strong state of mind and Dean's unstable, weak and soft one (also relative to what Dean's big role is in this season and what Sam is actually capable of doing to prevent the apocalypse).

I'd talk about episode 04x14 just to mention the fact that the siren (who's supposed to turn into the person who should most sexually attract his victim) decides to show himself to Dean as a man. I get he was supposed to replace Sam's role as a brother, but the whole setting, the fact that sirens' attractiveness is usually sexual and the fact that even the actor who played the siren admitted the whole scene was a bit sensual should tell us something (it also seems funny that they had to precise multiple times he was trying to be his brother because otherwise that would have seemed too gay, it still seems gay, but whatever).

In episode 04x16 someone is killing the angels and Castiel asks Dean for help to find out who the killer is. The angels have the demon Alastair captured and Castiel tells Dean he's the only one who can torture him. The angel seems to be really upset about it, because he knows how this could hurt Dean, since this is what he has been doing for the past ten years in hell. Dean decides to do it anyway and he finds out from Alastair, during the torture, that he is the one who has broken the first seal (by deciding to torture souls) and made the first step to bring Lucifer back. This obviously breaks Dean even more, since he already hates what he has done in hell, and makes him believe he's not capable of doing what the angels want from him (and he admits it to Castiel, and in the next episode his superior Zacharia tries to convince Dean he's the right man by showing him that even in other realities he would end up killing monsters). We later find out that the one who killed the angels was Uriel that, hating humans, was on Lucifer's side. He asks Castiel to join him but he refuses and Anna, saving Castiel from a fight with Uriel, kills him. I don't have much thoughts on Uriel, I didn't like him even when he was supposedly on the good side. The only thing I like about him is that he had already acknowledged the fact that Castiel likes Dean (who would've thought?).

I have to mention episode 04x18 as I think is one of my favourites of the season and that starts a series of other fantastic episodes (and basically another reality). Sam and Dean find out their life has been written (and published) by Chuck, who's apparently a prophet of God (and turns out to be quite useful later on). This is one of my favourite things Supernatural likes to do: metanarrative. In my opinion it really brings out something new and extremely funny (especially since I know this won't be the last time the two brothers will have to deal with Supernatural).

Another important episode is 04x19, where Sam and Dean find out they have a stepbrother, Adam, who doesn't know about their dad's secret life of hunting. It's obvious the most hurt by the situation is Dean, who would have never thought John could lie about something like that and who's somehow jealous of Adam, since he had the opportunity to live a normal life that could have been possible for him and Sam as well. The one thing that surprised me was that he didn't want him to learn how to hunt (unlike Sam, who thought it could be a good idea for Adam to know how to protect himself). I think Dean shows how he has changed throughout the years and now believes that, since the kid had the opportunity to live a normal life, he doesn't want him to experience what they have. He's more mature and he has become way better than his father and it's funny how now Sam is the one who thinks more like John (although I think there is still a relevant difference between the two of them, fortunately). We eventually find out that it wasn't Adam, but the monster they were fighting, and that Adam is already dead: at first I was a little bit surprised because I remembered that Adam would be in the next season, but it's Supernatural, so I should be used to it by now.

The next episode is important especially for showing us sides of Castiel's life that were not entirely clear before: in this case we find out how the angel reached out his vessel, Jimmy Novak. As much as I can see why Castiel had to occupy Jimmy's body, it's totally understandable that the man wants to go back to his life and that he doesn't want anything more to do with Castiel and everything about him. I also understand that he doesn't want to be with the Winchesters, although objectively they are right to want to keep him away from his family. In general the situation is definitely complicated and, from Jimmy's point of view, quite tragic. We can also tell Castiel, as much as he is already more empathic than the other angels, is not human and can't quite think like one, even if he has Dean who shows him his perspective. Knowing everything that happens to him later on makes me understand how much he has changed throughout the seasons (and knowing who has made that change possible warms my heart). It was quite strange to see Castiel acting like this since at this point I'm used to the Castiel in the latest seasons, but overall I like him a lot in the earlier ones as well.

At this point of the season, drinking demon blood for Sam has become like a drug and Dean can't continue to let his brother ruin himself like that, so with Bobby he decides to lock him in Bobby's panic room. I understand Dean is scared of what Sam could become and is becoming, but at this point Sam is at a level so high that he can't make it without demon blood, and staying for a long time without it could really hurt him further. It also seems that Sam is the only solution to kill Lilith and end the arrival of the Apocalypse. Of course Dean continues to argue that it's best to exclude Sam from this matter given his status, but Sam runs away and tracks down Ruby, with whom he's been working all season trying to be as discreet as possible so as not to worry Dean.

Sam's series of lies, the concern that he might become a monster, and the close collaboration with Ruby increase Dean's anger and disappointment with his brother throughout the season. He no longer trusts him and this deeply saddens both Sam and Dean himself, because he realizes that something has broken between them by now. As much as Sam may have his good reasons for wanting to work with Ruby (and he has), I think he's handled this situation in the worst possible way and that Dean is right about not trusting him anymore (or maybe I'm just a little conditioned by my love for Dean).

I think another reason that has increased the anger towards Sam is the fact that he has repeatedly admitted that he has been decidedly stronger than Dean since he was in hell. It's probably something they both agree on, but Dean is used to considering himself weak and not strong enough to sustain a certain situation. The thing that saddens Dean the most is the fact that his brother thinks so too.

However, this conflict ends with a fight between the two after Dean is able to find his brother. As much as I'm on Dean's side, I hated it when he called Sam a monster, because he knows that's the biggest fear that haunts his brother and calling it like that must have really destroyed him. After the fight everyone goes for his path: Sam with Ruby and Dean, finally convinced by Castiel, with the angels.

Shortly after, however, he discovers that his real role is not to stop the Apocalypse but to stop Lucifer, because he will be Micheal's vessel, and that when Lilith is killed the last seal will be broken, giving way to the Apocalypse. Dean disagrees with the angels and tries to convince Castiel to side with him and abandon the angels to try to stop the Apocalypse.

The twist itself is well constructed, although in my opinion, to make it even better, they could have shown angels as decidedly more reliable creatures, and then break all our trust (and with it also Dean's hopes). During the end of the season, apart from Castiel, the most reliable one seems to be Ruby. And that's why I think this is a much better twist: Sam completely relied on the demon, who always proved to be there for him, and to kill Lilith seems like the most logical move to make to prevent Lucifer from resurrecting. Even when I knew Ruby was cheating Sam the dynamic seemed so unexpected to me that I didn't even remember how she would do it. On top of that Sam's willingness to kill Lilith (mostly for revenge) and to stop the rise of Lucifer is actually what permits Lucifer to rise. So I can only imagine how guilty Sam felt after he realized what he had done (and the worst but best thing at the same time is that it's not even his fault, not entirely at least). Eventually the two brothers open and close the circle of the Apocalypse's arrival, which adds a touch of perfection to the whole situation.

Dean, after convincing Castiel to side with him, goes to Chuck to find where Lilith, Ruby and Sam are. Castiel transports Dean to Sam and tries to stop the angels who want the Apocalypse to begin, losing his life. This is another great step Castiel takes for Dean against his own brothers, proving that he now considers himself at Dean's side more than any other person's side. Dean arrives too late to stop Sam, who has already killed Lilith, and the fourth season ends with a confused and desperate Sam, an angry and desperate Dean, and Lucifer returning.

In the end I believe that this is the best season of Supernatural so far for several reasons: the arrival of Castiel who adds new aspects both to the Supernatural universe (talking about angels) and to the character of Dean (and later also to that of Sam), the continuous struggle between the two brothers, Ruby's character (which I think has been made quite effectively and which has also improved this season, as well as her relationship with Sam), the plot twist and the change that hell caused in Dean.

Usually this is considered one of the best seasons of Supernatural, and I completely agree, but having seen the series with long time gaps I feel I'll be able to judge only at the end of the fifteenth if this (and the fifth) are actually the best seasons of Supernatural, at least for me.

- Carly 💚

[junionigiri]

BNHA 229 - ahhh!!!!

So! We skipped a certain flashback but this week we are treated to a very good one for a very great character.

Last week we see Twice being attacked by what looked like his clones, but are actually puppets by that dude from QLA. The fact that they are made to appear to look like him is enough to throw the already unstable Jun off, and it is later confirmed hat this was done on purpose:

And apparently they got the idea from Giran and they're rubbing it in his face. Admittedly they are very good villains because every move they make appears to be designed according to tedious data gathering--knowing their enemy so to speak. Doesn't make it any less creepy.

It sucks that they're thanking Giran for this info specifically. Twice after all was the most vocal in the league to help him out and from his inner monologue it seems that Giran knows enough to be seriously concerned for him :(

Shit, this is rough to watch. The clones are seriously killing her :( she's still alive, she's still flinching and her neck is about to be broken and Twice, in his confusion, can't do anything but watch and scream :( I feel so bad for him, if the puppets did their job really quickly here he would have blamed himself for Toga's death!!!

So a flashback scene on Jin's side occurs; we see that he's blamed for an accident involving his client and is fired from his job. He is also orphaned during his middle school years with no close relatives or friends and has always been alone. Loneliness is really the worst enemy for a lot of people--heck he makes clones of himself just to have someone to talk to and it helped somewhat but as we see later that isn't the solution. All he has to blame is himself again--his bad luck. It is a consistent theme for him it seems.

Even though this flashback scene is so hard to read... Gotta admit it's a little easier to look at because young Twice is good-looking isn't he? I don't see why they said he has a bad face??? He really looks like John Constantine, especially with that coat and cig, but without eyebrows!

Agh poor dude. How many times did he watch himself die over and over? The mental load on him must have been so bad

And we see here why Giran is so important to such a lonely man who has to resort to putting a bag on his head to avoid losing himself--he's the first person in a long time to offer friends, a place to belong, a place where he can be trusted (and not the other way around--a refreshing take on trust in my opinion!) I love that Giran describes the LoV as "a pretty lively group" (even though their goal is murder and chaos!) because they are a pretty interesting bunch who argue a lot but the Dynamics are getting more and more familial

The puppets break his arms and almost his legs, but he starts screaming that he's not disappearing. If I understand correctly, he's vindicated that he is actually the original Bubaigawara Jin and not a clone? And he finally realized that the puppets are not him either. And also,,, Toga is so important to him T_T from someone who felt perpetually alone, to have someone else he could consider important!!!

Now this scene is interesting to me for many reasons. One, hot damn Twice's potential to wreak havoc!!! I can't wait to see what his intact clones can do!!! I wonder now how it works, because even tho he is unmasked and fractured his clones do not seem like they are. So does that mean his injuries do not carry over to his clones?

Also the quote from The Killing Joke--"All it takes is one bad day". From what I remember, the Joker says this in the context of ordinary people down on their luck turning into villainy. Jin has had a lot of bad days and has continuously descended down and down to lunacy... and probably this is the worst day ever. But his burst of energy comes from a renewed desire to help save someone--which,,, isn't bad??? Or villainous? And he seems to have a renewed sense of self at the end! So did Hori turn that quote around? If so very interesting use of the quote lol, I wonder how much of it was done on purpose

So, even though I am miffed that Dabi is obviously not getting a flashback soon, I am happy about what I've read this week! I wonder what will happen next!!

[caranfindel]

Recap/review 14.06: “Optimism”

THEN: Starts out pretty ominous, with clock-ticky music, Jack's grace getting sucked out, "this is the end of everything," and Jack considering himself useless. We're reminded that New Charlie exists (aw, Dean looked so pretty in AU Land) and Jack has "the mind of a hunter." Michael hurting people and Dean feels guilty (aw, Sam's Beard of Despair, how I miss you). Sounds like we're in for a real downer of an episode, friends.

NOW: Nebraska. Happy music. A cheerful librarian opens up shop, and she's cute as can be but I wore that blouse in the 80s and it needs to stay there (JUST SAY NO TO THE RUFFLED YOKE, LADIES). Her name is Harper, and she has a kind-of-date with a guy named Winston tonight, though she is clearly Not Into You, Winston. An (apparent) coworker named Miles hears her "scream" and comes to her aid, brandishing a stapler, and is reminded that he needs to mind his own business. Winston leaves, clearly walking on air, and then STAYIN' ALIVE STARTS PLAYING and we focus on Winston's feet just like the iconic opening scene of Saturday Night Fever (if you're too young to remember, watch this, IT'S IMPORTANT CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE and there WILL BE A QUIZ LATER) and y'all don't even know how much I love this song. YOU DON'T KNOW. I can't help it. My mom was a huge Bee Gees fan, partially because she was very into Barry Gibb.

Coincidence?

What can I say? I am my mother's child.

Now, where were we?

(Pretty much where we always are, so could you please just move this along?)

Sorry for the digression. Anyway. Now I suspect this isn't going to be a downer episode after all. (Turns out it was directed by Richard Speight, which would have been a clue if I'd known that earlier, bless him.) While I've been digressing, Winston has happily bopped down the street, only to have a hand cover his mouth and drag him off-screen. There's a record scratch and a squirt of dark goo and a scream, so I guess it did turn out to be a downer for Winston, but not for me.

Title card!

{Sidebar: I didn't realize Saturday Night Fever was directed by John Badham, who went on to direct several episodes of Supernatural.}

Jack's drinking coffee in the bunker. He takes a sip and then pours a huge amount of sugar into it, which immediately makes me think of this scene from The Fly when Jeff Goldblum, who does not yet realize that he is turning into a fly, does the same thing.

(Spoiler alert: Ahem.)

Dean walks in and asks what he's doing, and Jack explains that everything tastes different without his powers, and he can't get the coffee to taste the way he likes it. That's because coffee is nasty, Jack. (And also, thanks to the Continuity Fairy for remembering that food tasted different to Cas when he didn't have grace.) Dean asks if Jack has seen Sam, because that's what Dean does; he probably walked in the door and felt a disturbance in the Force and realized he didn't know where Sam was. From Jack, we learn that (1) Dean went on an overnight run to Mobby's love shack cabin and (b) Sam went on a hunt with Charlie without telling Dean. Is Dean okay with this? Are we gonna okay with this? Couldn't he have at least sent a text message? He's supposed to be setting an example!

"Explain to me again how you just let Sam LEAVE."

I guess Sam had to go himself, rather than send someone else, because this is one of those times when there's no random hunters in the bunker. (And where's Rowena? Did Charlie abandon her in the Southwest? Did they have a fight?) Jack imagines Sam and Charlie are doing something "really exciting."

Cut to Sam and Charlie sitting quietly in a truck outside Memphis, bored out of their minds. Hee! It's the kind of crappy old truck I always want Sam to drive, so I love it. They're staring at a bus stop with an ad for Pete the Pestinator, who seems to be an insect exterminator. (Spoiler alert: ahem again.) Sam confirms that "this is where all those people went missing," although if he's been sitting in that truck long enough to be bored, he really should have nailed that down by now. Charlie says "yep." More silent sitting.

Back to the bunker. Dean seems surprised that Sam left Jack there alone (where's Cas?) and Jack says "Sam wanted someone around when you came back. He's worried about you."

"Yeah, that sounds like him," Dean grumbles, and hello, kettle, the pot just called, and said you're black. Jack offers some encouragement, telling him no one blames him for Michael, and Dean says "Cool. Well, I blame me, so." His self-flagellation is interrupted by Jack's Cough of Great Concern. "Maybe I'm allergic to sitting around doing nothing," Jack snarks.

Dean sits down for a heart-to-heart, and Jack says he's been hunting with Cas and wants to do more. Dean says "No offense, Cas is an insurance policy on those hunts." Jack looks hurt. I don't understand this at all. Why wouldn't Jack already know that Cas is there to protect him? And why would this hurt his feelings? I'm so confused. But I immediately forget it, because Dean says "Sam's just trying to keep you safe, okay? He's a smart guy." AND THEN WE CUT TO THIS.

Bless you, Richard Speight, writer Steve Yockey, bless you both.

I literally did burst out laughing at Sam and his fidget spinner. Charlie is not amused, and Sam puts his toy away with some embarrassment.

Bunker. Jack's found a report on our dead friend Winston, who seemed to have human bitemarks taken out of his corpse. And others have gone missing in the area. We skip part of a conversation, but whatever it was, Dean says Sam won't like it. "Sam's not here," says Jack. Oh, no you don't, Jack. Don't you go ignoring the Chief's directives just because he's not here. Dean says he'll go check it out alone, but Jack suddenly remembers Sam's Law and reminds Dean about the Buddy System.

We can be hunting buddies!

Okay, uh, (a), don't call it that, and (b), YOU'RE gonna back ME up?

Oh, Dean. You didn't do the (1) and (b) thing that I love so much. Jack gets to be the one to bare a little bit of his soul now, telling Dean that he also feels guilty about Michael, because he could have killed him but he was "distracted and stupid." He doesn't want to sit around feeling guilty all day, he wants to hunt.

Looks like that was the right button to push, because we cut to Sam on the phone, clearly not a fan of the plan and telling Dean to be careful. I assume his reluctance is because he doesn't trust Jack to watch Dean's back. But Sam, if you can trust Maggie to hunt alone, you can trust Dean with a novice backup. (I know, I know, Dean is more important than Maggie.)

Sam asks again if Charlie is sure this is the right place, and she says it's where four people disappeared. And while she was scouting around, she found a mason jar full of goo. Is this the same goo we saw when Winston was killed? (Spoiler alert: no.) And now she's trying to figure out what they're hunting, so she's reading. I'd have done my reading before the stakeout, but that's just me. (I'd also have done some reading instead of sitting there glaring at Sam while he enjoyed his fidget spinner, but that's also just me.)

(I also might have thought of more interesting things to do while I was stuck in a car with Sam, but they would have interfered with the stakeout. And they aren't anything Charlie would have been interested in anyway.)

Cut to Dick's Red Rooster Diner (ha ha, I see you, Speight). According to Winston's obituary, he had breakfast here every morning. Jack agrees with me that it's an odd thing to put in an obituary, but Dean says that when someone dies young, you don't know what to put in those things. (Oh, think of 20-something Dean's obituary.) He introduces them to the waitress as Agents Berry and Charles, and the only thing I can think of is Chuck Berry, so if someone has a better idea, let me know. He asks for details about Winston, and the only detail she can provide is that he's dead. Jack dutifully writes that detail in his little notebook. (BLESS.)

This waitress is wonderfully snippy, knows her rights, and isn't the least bit interested in talking to these FBI agents, but when Dean hands her some cash she changes her mind. She says they should should be more interested in Harper, who Winston just started "courting," and Jack is confused.

What's courting?

It's what you do before you start dating.

Ah, and that's the thing you do before the sex.

Sometimes you just have the sex.

Okay, Dean's wrong, courting is what you do instead of dating, but this is still a wonderful exchange. And the next part is wonderful too, cutting between the waitress and some customers explaining that Harper was popular in high school, but her boyfriend ran off, and now all these men connected to her have died, and she's really into romance books, and ending on I've heard too much Dean and I'm confused Jack.

Love this.

Back at the stakeout, Sam's biting his nails, which I also love for some reason, and of course the only time we've ever seen him bite his nails was when he was worried about Dean. New Charlie picks right up on it. She tells him Dean will be fine, and comments that he's got other friends, right? Which I don't understand, because it doesn't matter what other friends he has, he's not hunting with them. He's hunting with Jack. "He used to have a pretty damn good wingman," Sam says, and I think no, Sam, what are you saying, he still has you. She says he should call "that guy" to check on him, and Sam says "that guy was you." Charlie gives him a look. "No, it wasn't." And she's right, Sam. SHE IS NOT YOUR CHARLIE. And also, was Charlie ever really Dean's wingman? I don't think so. Sam, of course. Cas, literal wingman. But not Charlie. Charlie was the little sister.

Sam apologizes, and then says "I'm just saying, I'm not surprised you survived the apocalypse." Which isn't what you were saying at all, Sam. Charlie is surprised she survived, because she was just a programmer at Richard Roman Enterprises (Dick Roman! I wonder what happened to your AU version), living with the love of her life, Cara. My heart skipped a beat because I was so ready, guys, for the love of Charlie's life to be Dr. Cara Roberts from Sex and Violence, but apparently not. {Sidebar fic prompt: Sam. Charlie. Dr. Cara. Three-way.) Charlie's Cara was a baker. Charlie tells a sad story about waiting for help that never came, and Cara eventually being killed by people, not angels. Society falls apart. (Or, as Dean once said, demons I get; people are crazy.) Sam insists society isn't falling apart here, and Charlie says "not yet."

Just like last week, we're getting some needed differentiation between the characters we lost and their AU counterparts, which I appreciate.

I also appreciate pretty, attentive, sympathetic Sam.

Diner. Dean calls Jack "Mighty Mouse," for some reason, and congratulations him on finding a case. He tries to teach him about the importance of pie, but Jack's more interested in courting. He's never been exposed to off-screen romance, unless Gabriel and Rowena counts (Dean assures him it doesn't, but how would Jack have been exposed to Gabriel/Rowena anyway, since it happened while he was in AU Land and Gabriel didn't make it back?) Dean promises he'll give him The Talk when they get back, but right now they need to concentrate on finding Harper. {Sidebar fic prompt: Dean's and Sam's versions of The Talk. Would Dean's be like Dean's speech from Rock and a Hard Place?} Jack speculates she might not be human, and Dean says they're going to find out, and it's going to work like a romance novel. Hmm!

Cut to the library, where Harper is working. Dean enters and identifies himself as FBI, with questions about Winston. She doesn't want to talk, and he pushes. Then Jack shows up, asking for a book about the area's history, and defends her against the big mean FBI guy. Dean says "why don't you back off, kid" and Jack responds "No, you back off, old man" and DEAN'S FACE. This was clearly NOT IN THE SCRIPT. I love it. Dean slinks off, dejected, to examine his gracefully-aging face in the rear-view mirror. {Sidebar: I honestly think Jensen is aging a lot better than Dean is. Dean looks tired a lot of the time, and I'd like to believe Show is doing that on purpose, but I don't think it's the case. Jensen always looks awesome.} Harper is delighted, and apparently smitten, judging by the music. Jack introduces himself as "Jack Smith" and she invites him to her apartment, where she has the perfect book.

Why does this library have those convenience store perp measurements at the door? Does it get robbed a lot? Also, how many episodes have signs in the background with the title of a different episode? Not very many, I'm guessing.

As they leave, Miles the Stapler Guy follows and asks where she's going. It must be close to closing time, because Harper says she'll come back and lock up. Miles, who's carrying a bag of trash, refuses to shake Jack's hand. As Jack and Harper go one way, he stomps off in the other direction. I'm suspicious, and so is Dean, who gets out of the car to follow him. As Miles puts the library's trash in an inappropriately small residential bin, he hears a noise. We then cut to Dean, who hears Miles scream but just keeps walking? But then a trash can is knocked over and that gets his attention. He finds Miles dead, and we get a monster POV shot watching him.

Stakeout. Charlie's still reading. Apparently she brought all the books. She says she hates hunting, which surprises Sam, because she's so good at it. She points out that she's good at it because the alternative was death. "I mean, no offense, but who wants to be a hunter? This job, just a lot of tears and death."

Sam says "you said something like that to me once, long ago, about hunting." He quickly apologizes for once again conflating her with Our Charlie. At first I was annoyed at him, but then I started thinking about how awful Our Charlie's death was for him, with the MoC, and the fear, and the worry, and the guilt, and his brother saying he should be the one on the funeral pyre instead, and you know what? I'm gonna cut him some slack for trying to forget all of that ever happened. A lot of slack, in fact.

Charlie casually drops that she's glad this is her last hunt. Did you give the Chief your two week's notice, Charlie? I DON'T THINK SO. She plans to get away from monsters and people, and "live on a mountaintop or something... as long as there's good wifi." I'm sure Sam can get you set up with his magical wifi, Charlie, if you stay on his good side.

Harper's apartment. She seems to be all about love, with a decorative "amore" sign in the kitchen and a big red heart hanging on the wall. She suddenly realizes it's weird that she brought him to her apartment, though she's thinking "putting the moves on you" weird and I'm thinking "inviting a potential serial killer into your home" weird. But maybe I listen to too much My Favorite Murder.

She leaves the room to get the book (odd that it's not on the stuffed bookshelves in her living room, but they're all full of romance novels). Jack asks why the FBI was "hassling" her, and she tells him about Winston's death as he surreptitiously puts a silver coin on the floor and splashes holy water all over his hands. A call comes from Dean, but he ignores it. When she comes back with the book, she notices the coin on the floor and picks it up. She touches his hand when she gives him the coin and notices that it's wet. I would have put the holy water on the coin, although a wet coin on the floor might be as weird as wet hands. He just laughs weirdly and then does a fake cough AND SAYS CHRISTO. SOMEONE FINALLY REMEMBERED CHRISTO. Oh, my heart. I've been waiting 13 years for this moment. She doesn't react to it, so she seems pretty human. He says he's nervous, so she sits on the couch and pats the seat next to her.

Stakeout. Charlie has found something in the books called a Musca. Sam already knows it's a man-fly hybrid (IT'S THE FLY; OUR MONSTER IS JEFF GOLDBLUM) and that no one's seen them, so if they do exist, they keep to themselves. She's impressed with his Sammy smarts. He says he's read all the books, but if he'd read this one, he'd know that every few hundred years a male Musca can't find a mate and he "abandons his community and starts using people's bodies to nest, binding them together with a viscous goo." Ew.

As they walk, in the background we see a figure approaching the two women who are sitting on the bus stop bench. It's clothed in black, carrying a black briefcase, and it has a giant head. At first I think it's literally a giant fly's head. But when Charlie notices it, we get a closer look, and it's a large black hood, like a beekeeper's outfit. It sits down and then casually scoots closer to the women, who scoot away, and it's hilarious.

Harper's apartment. She asks Jack where he's from, and he tells her he lives in Lebanon, Kansas. NO, JACK. DON'T TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU LIVE. Jack coughs some more and then notices a picture of Harper with her boyfriend, Vance. She says he left town after high school because he wanted to see the world, and Jack seems astonished that anyone would leave her. And that was when her bad luck started, but she tries to stay optimistic. "Me too," Jack says. "I had some not-so-great stuff happen in my past. Trying to be positive... it can be hard." Oh, Jack, sweetie. They gaze into each other's eyes and it looks like they're going to kiss. Jack's phone buzzes with a text from Dean that says CALL ME NOW.

Jack? Do you believe in love at first sight?

Do you... (music swells)... mind if I use the bathroom?

Ha!

Jack hides in the bathroom to call Dean. He tells him Harper isn't a monster, and he thinks she's in love with him. Although Dean's sure that's not the case, Jack says "but if she is, I need to know everything about sex. Go." Ha again! Dean tells him about Miles's death, which makes Jack wonder if she's cursed. Dean says it's more like all the guys around her are cursed. "Like me," Jack ponders, just before we get another monster POV shot and a strangled shout from Dean. The phone goes dead.

Jack comes back into the living room and Harper asks if he's okay and if he wants to go for coffee. Then the door bursts open and Dean comes in, and I wonder why she's freaking out until I remember that Dean is Bad FBI Guy to her. He quickly blocks the door and tell her they're here to save her from... whatever it is that's suddenly growling and banging on her door. "At first I thought it was a ghost," he says, "but then it punched me in the face." She's freaked out about a ghost, but Jack reassuringly (NOT!) tells her that he's saying it's NOT a ghost. Dean recognizes a photo and it turns out the monster is her old boyfriend Vance, who she didn't even realize was dead.

For some reason Dean isn't carrying a lot of weapons, but he has a silver knife and finds a silver letter opener on Harper's desk. Silver will slow it down, he tells them, but there's only one way to kill the undead boyfriend. Vance breaks the door down before we learn what that is. Dean starts fighting with the silver knife and tells Jack to get Harper out of there.

Stakeout. It's nighttime now. A lone man sits at the bus stop as Sam tries to convince Charlie that she can't drop out of society. She needs people, and also, it's hard to walk away from being a hunter. "I tried. Our Charlie tried." You know, for someone who did want out of hunting, and did try to get out of it, Sam spends a lot of time convincing others to do it, or at least enabling them. I mean, Dean was all "Patience, if you can live a normal life, do it," and Sam was all "well, Claire, if you're gonna hunt, I guess I should show you how to hack." Although that (and teaching Ghoul!Adam to shoot) was more about protecting someone determined/forced to be a hunter than recruiting. So maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, if anyone recognized the futility of getting out of the life, it would be him.

Jeff Goldblum shows up again and sits by his next victim. Charlie wants to go for the kill, but Sam thinks they should wait for him to make his move, in case he's just into weird fashion. Look, Sam, if a guy likes wearing a black beekeeper's bonnet and sidling up to random strangers at bus stops, he deserves to be hunted, whether or not he's actually part bee. When the bus shows up, it blocks their view of the duo. When it leaves, the bench is empty. Which could mean they just got on the bus, but we see something disappearing behind the stop. Sam decides it's a go after all.

Let's stick with this story, rather than cutting back and forth between them like the show did.

Sam and Charlie find a door with a bunch of goo on the handle. Sam says Charlie found something in the books that theorized a brass nail dripped in sugar water would kill a musca. Because yes, of course sugar water, WHICH FLIES EAT, would kill a fly man. (Rolls my eyes at this otherwise delightful episode.) Charlie reminds him they have neither of those things. "So we get creative," Sam says. I'm expecting some kind of MacGuyvering involving a can of Coke, or Sam's sugary coffee. (Spoiler alert: I'm wrong.)

{Sidebar: Why are all the methods of killing monsters so weirdly specific? Chopping off the head should kill ANYTHING.}

They go through the door, which surprisingly leads them into an abandoned warehouse. It's full of flies (normal ones, not half-man flies) and smells like pine cleaner and rotting meat. Yum. Eventually Sam finds the briefcase, which is full of what looks like candy wrappers and also has a white cloth, which he sniffs to discover chloroform. Dude. Don't sniff the chloroform rag. Charlie finds the most recent victim, still alive, by a pile of bodies. Something grabs Charlie's hand. She pulls loose, but falls off a low platform (seriously, it's like two feet high) and... loses consciousness? Okay. Maybe he chloroformed her and I missed it. I'm old and decrepit and this would have barely bruised me. He must have chloroformed her.

Sam tries to wake her up, but is interrupted by the WORST MONSTER COSTUME EVER. Oh god, you guys, this fly man head is so bad. SO BAD.

{Sidebar: Did you know that you don't see much of the shark in Jaws because the model was so bad, Steven Spielberg decided he wanted to shoot it as little as possible? And it actually made the movie better because the unseen monster was so much scarier? Just saying, Speight.}

(Um, have you watched any movies that were made before 1980?)

Well, that was uncalled for.

Jeff Goldblum attacks Sam and gets goo on him, and if this were really a fly, wouldn't that goo be digesting him? Isn't that how flies eat? (Why yes, it is.) Charlie regains consciousness and stabs it with something, which gets it off Sam long enough for him to shoot it in the head. Creativity in action! So, I guess I got my wish. Interesting that, just like last week, the guys figured out that there are actions that will kill anything.

Aftermath! Charlie and Sam are driving, and Sam says he feels bad for the Musca, which could have been happy if it had stayed home with its people. Subtle, Sam. Charlie's all, yeah, okay, I'm like the bug, except not so much. As we see the Musca family coming to retrieve their brother's body, Sam asks Charlie not to leave. "If we help people, then maybe they'll help people, and all that, and that's worth it. Even with all the tears and death, it's worth it." Oh, Sammy. {sniff} She says she'll think about it.

Back to Jack and Harper. It was broad daylight when they got to her apartment, so I don't know why it's nighttime now. How long did he spend in the bathroom? No wonder she asked if he was okay. Cut to Dean gleefully fighting the zombie, who suddenly stops fighting and runs off.

Jack and Harper run to the library, where she struggles with the keys until Jack remembers she left without locking the door. They scurry inside and he locks it. As they hide behind the counter, they see Zombie Vance run by. Jack tells her not to worry, because he locked the door, and she asks if he flipped the switch under the lock? Obviously he didn't, and she goes to do it herself. As she stands, looking out the door, Vance shows up. She unlocks the door, which Jack obviously DID lock, and opens it. He hands her the history book - I guess Jack dropped it - and they kiss.

Um. whoops. Vance is actually still Harper's boyfriend. And he has to eat human flesh. Like, Jack's, for example. Vance lunges for Jack, who hides in the stacks as Harper gives him the villain dialogue over the library's PA system. She likes Jack, but he's obviously a hunter, and she comes from a long line of necromancers, so it would never work out between them. She killed Vance to keep him from leaving after high school, and killing every other guy in her sights is just a fun little romantic roleplay for them. We get a little scare when a hand appears on Jack's shoulder (been a lot of that going around lately), but it's Dean. He tells Jack they have to get Vance back into his grave and then drive a stake into his heart to keep him there. And they're going to convince him using another romance novel method.

Jack tells her he wants to do things Vance can't do - walk her down the aisle, raise a family. This draws Vance out, who lunges at him but finds himself facing Dean. Vance gets Dean against a wall, and Harper calls out to him. Dean thinks she's going to call him off, but she says "Baby, kill him!" and Dean's "huh" look is precious to me. Instead, Dean slaps a handcuff on his arm and cuffs him to a pole or something. Jack cuffs his other arm to a library cart, I think, which is mobile and therefore defeats the purpose of cuffing, but good try, Jack. The cuffs burn Vance, so they're silver or enchanted or something. Seems like a successful hunt, but when the guys look up, the door is open and Harper is gone.

Later we see Harper and her suitcase at a cafe, writing a letter to Jack. So she had time to go home and pack a suitcase, and Dean and Jack didn't go to her apartment and look for her? Guys. Come on. She's sorry she's going to have to kill Jack, but it means she can bring him back to life and they'll be together forever. See you soon, she writes, sealing the envelope addressed to Jack Smith, c/o the Lebanon, Kansas post office. I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET HER KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, JACK. Is Harper going to be a Big Bad this season? Or maybe a Little Bad? I wouldn't mind seeing her again. She's a charming little villain.

Finally, Jack's drinking coffee again, probably with a lot of sugar, in the bunker. This scene, with them facing each other, is a nice callback to the beginning of the episode. Dean tells Jack he did good, and Jack pushes for more hunts, because he was right. It's not about being right, Dean tells him, it's about what you do after you're wrong, after you've made a mistake. And about not beating yourself up, Jack points out. Dean tells him he's pretty smart, and Jack smiles and coughs and Dean promises to talk about getting him on more hunts when Sam gets back (BECAUSE SAM IS THE ONE TO ASK, YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT) and Jack lies about being fine and then coughs some more and shows Dean his bloody palm and collapses on the floor with blood oozing from his mouth and nose and WELL. THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY.

And the episode ends, without Sam and Dean sharing a single scene. Has that happened before? It's unsettling. I like the ep, though. I liked the relationship focus - Sam bonding with New Charlie, Dean bonding with Jack. I liked the humor. I liked that Sam wasn't ignored, even though the brothers had separate storylines. I liked the continuation of things that have been happening this season, the gentle reminder (but not constant siren) of Dean's guilty feelings and Sam's leadership and Jack's issues. And, of course, CHRISTO!

And there was one weird thing I noticed on first watch, but it didn't jump out at me on rewatch so I don't remember when it happened... Dean said "Son of a B." This is the second episode where they said something weird instead of bitch. What's going on there? Is Dean never going to say "son of a bitch" again? Because that's not good.

What did you guys think? And please help me stay unspoiled; thanks!