#BUT HEY I DID IT!!! AND I LIKEY A LOT!!

[skitskatdacat63]

Happy birthday to my forty three shades of Fernando 🥳🎉

Let me know which is your fav variant!

Top from left to right: Matador, Nnadopoleon, Aston(obv), Boy King AU, Bond AU

Bottom from left to right: Ferrari, Post Retirement Vegas Magician Fernando, Renault

[arolesbianism]

Every now and then I get haunted by my past as a dr fan because someone mentions it or smth and lemme tell you the worst case scenario is if they bring up v3 in an even slightly positive light because nothing will make me start giving a shit abt dr again except for my burning hatred of that damn game, I just spent like 30 minutes ranting to myself about how much of a nothing character Kokichi is in the bathroom after showering just to vent it out because if I don't rant abt v3 every now and then I'll explode and kill someone

[arc-misadventures]

The Fashionable Date

Jaune walked to a dorm room used by one of his upperclassmates. He knocked on the door with a hint of hesitation. He wasn’t worried about talking with her, but considering the nature of what they were about to talk about he couldn’t help, but be a little worried.

The quickly door opened, and he was face to face with one roughish smirk from one hell of a beautiful gal. The one, and only, Coco Adel.

Coco: Well, well, well, look at who we have here? Hello handsome, what can I do for you~?

Jaune: Hey, Coco, are you busy today?

Coco: I’m free as can be. Why do you ask?

Jaune: Well, after recent events I need to buy some new clothes. And, since I’m more, or less a fashion slob, I thought I should ask, Beacons fashionista for some advice. So what do you say, Coco; Want to see how well you can dress up a dragon?

Coco: Oh hell yeah I do! This is going to be so much fun! Now, how can I dress up a handsome blond like you? Oh so many choices, so many decisions… Well, regardless of whatever choices I make, I will have to factor in those horns of yours. Can’t wear anything like a teeshirt anymore; You would probably tear it up trying to put it on…

Coco: …

Coco: Wait… Horns…? When the hell did you get those?! They’re quite fetching~!

Jaune: Oh thanks… I got them yesterday after we did some tests to see how effective my fire breath can be.

Coco: And, how did those tests go?

Jaune: Well… considering how… devastating my flame can be… honestly I’m hesitant to use it on, Grimm.

Coco: So since you were testing your ability to breath fire, does that explain why you were walking around, Beacon with nothing but your breast plate, giving everyone such a tantalizing view of your body~? Because I must say, you really filled out~!

Jaune: O-Oh… T-Thank you… But, uhh… It’s, Weiss’s fault all my clothes go incinerated.

Coco: Oh, really?

Jaune: She helped test my ability to withstand fire, and extreme heats. So, she set me on fire…

Coco: She did?

Jaune: Yeah, she incinerated all the clothes I had on during the test. All that survived is my armour, but all the leather straps have burned up as well, so I might as well replace my armour while I’m at it. So… you know anywhere I can find some, Fire Dust fused clothing so that doesn’t happen again?

Coco: I do, but it’s gonna cost you.

Jaune: I’m one of the richest men in the world; So long as they’re functional, I’m good.

Coco: Oh yes, you mentioned you were a rich dragon when you showed off all those gems of yours. Tell me, Love, how rich are you? I want to know what our spending range is.

Jaune: Ehh… I’ve never looked to see how much money is in my account. But, I know my, Net Worth is an estimated 787.5 Billion.

Coco: 7-787.5 B-Billion?!

Jaune: You can make a lot mining raw metals, gems, and dust. Also, constructing infrastructure, military bases, machinery, aircraft, armour…

Coco: Y-You’re rich! You’re filthy stinking rich! You can but anything you want, and you dress like a country bumpkin?! WHY?!

Jaune: Comfort over style?

Coco: This is a crime against fashion! Come on, Arc! It’s time to get you some style!

Jaune: Whoa, HEY?!

~~~

Jaune was standing in the open doorway to a changing booth, giving, Coco a spin as he showed off the apparel she recommended to him.

Coco: Oh yeah… Mama likey~!

Jaune: It’s pretty nice, but it’s rather tight.

Coco: Just like, Mama likes~!

Coco raised her hand up, and brought it crashing down upon, Jaune’s tight butt.

“Smack~!”

Jaune: AHH! Hey?!

Coco: Gotta say you got one hell of a nice ass~!

Jaune: Only because these pants are so tight…

Coco: Why do you think I told you to wear it?

Jaune: To check out my ass?

Coco: And, loving it~!

Jaune: Haa… They’re nice… Everything looks great. But, my hair… Did they really have to cut my hair like this? I didn’t invite you out to get a hair cut.

Coco: What’s wrong with it? It’s a shaggy brush cut, simple, stylistic, and really fits you. Plus it really shows off your horns.

Jaune: It does show off my horns… Glad the sash I found matches them.

Coco: You know, I’m usually against sashes, but that white, with golden fringe really blends together nicely.

Jaune: And, you said I didn’t have any style.

Coco: And, I stand by those words! You were dressed like an absolute slob!

Jaune: But, now?

Coco: But, now after some proper guidance from yours truly you look ready to slay ‘em with your handsome looks, and winning smile~!

Jaune: I don’t think my looks will help me kill, Grimm, Coco.

Coco: I wasn’t talking about, Grimm.

Jaune: Then what are you talking about?

Coco: Haa… Still as dense as ever, Handsome.

Jaune: What?

Coco: So armour, any plans for that upgrade you mentioned?

Jaune: Something more form fitting, that covers more of my body. Something I can put on without worrying about my horns. Going to get some gauntlets, but they’ll probably be fingerless so I can retract my claws. I probably should get some measurements done for that soon…

Coco: Most likely, you’re not your lanky self you were when you first came here. Hence the tight pants.

Jaune: No, that’s so you can stare at my butt.

Coco: Still loving the view.

Jaune: You’re just jealous you don’t have a butt like mine.

Coco: Excuse me?! I have a great ass!

Jaune: No, pretty flat looking.

Coco: You wanna go bud!

Jaune: As in go into a arena for a fight, or go into a supply closet like you did with, Pyrrha?

Though most couldn’t see it, Jaune’s enhanced eyes could easily see the brief moment of shock that flashed in, Coco’s eyes. Just as easily as he saw the lighest of blushes that was spreading across her face.

Coco: What are you talking about?

Jaune: Don’t play coy with me, Coco it’s not going to work.

Coco: I’m not playing coy, I have no idea what you are talking about.

Jaune: Oh, so nothing happened between you, and Pyrrha in the supply closet outside the biology classroom then?

Coco: Wait?! How did you know he had sex there?

Jaune: You had sex? I thought you said nothing happened.’ Does that mean something did happen?

Coco’s face was flushed red as she looked around for an excuse to draw his attention away. But, finding none she finally relented, and told him the truth.

Coco: Okay… After you left, Pyrrha asked if I wanted in on your little harem thing, and I asked if I joined if that meant I could also sleep with her… So we went into that supply closet… and, had some fun. There, happy?

Jaune: I’m surprised you were so hesitant to tell me. I thought you would brag that you banged the, Invincible Girl.

Coco: I’m a kiss, and don’t tell kind of gal. Spoils the mood if you go about bragging about it.

Jaune: Plus it’s polite. Though, every faunas I’ve met knows we did it… Faunas stuff.

Coco: Yeah, I remember, Velvet glaring daggers at her. But, how did you know we did it? Did, Pyrrha brag about us having sex?

Jaune: No, Pyrrha likes her privacy more so than you do.

Coco: Hold on; if, Pyrrha never told you about us, then how did you find out about us?

Jaune: Oh, that? Quite simple really.

In a flash, Jaune reached out, and grabbed, Coco’s ass, pulling her close to him until their bodies were flush with one another. Coco yelped as he grabbed her ass, and was about to yell at him, to slap him, but his grip tightened upon her ass as she stifled a moan at his touch. But, before she could make another sound, Jaune’s head dipped lower until he growled softly in her ear, and simply said:

Jaune: I knew you two had sex, because I can still smell her on you.

A wildfire being propelled by a strong breeze was slower than the deep blush that quickly spread across, Coco’s face.

Coco Adel was the one whose teased others into a blushing mess. She could flirt one into a stubor. She new how to make anyone, man, or woman utterly flatfooted with her seductive teasing. But, she had never been put on the backfoot like, Jaune had done with that simple sentence.

Coco: Y-You could smell us?!

Jaune: Shhh… You don’t want others to hear us now do you?

Coco could only stifle a moan as, Jaune pulled her closer, giving her ass a tight squeeze in the process.

Coco: S-Sorry… B-But, you can really smell her on me? We did that a week ago?!

Jaune just smiled, showing off his fangs as he chuckled as, Coco’s composure was swiftly crumbling.

Jaune: Don’t worry, only I can smell it. No one else’s sense of smell is strong enough to pick up such subtle smells. But, I can easily pick up, Pyrrha’s sent from all the time we’ve spent together. And, there is only one person I know that smells like mocha, and gunpowder~!

Coco’s face was flush red as her voice fled her. He mouth hung agape as his voice echoed in her mind.

Coco: T-That’s what I smelt like to you; Mocha, and gunpowder?

Jaune: It’s quite the tantalizing smell. However, you’ve recently acquired an all the more intoxicating smell upon you.

Coco: Oh, that’s just some perfume I put on earlier…

Jaune: No, not that. That barely has any noticeable scent to it.

Coco: Then… was is it… what do you smell?

Jaune’s eyes look around behind her, before he pushed her inside the changing booth, he quickly shut, and locked the door behind him. As, Coco righted herself she felt, Jaune’s hand grab her, and turned her to face him as he pushed her against the wall. His hands holding her tenderly, one along her waist, while the other cupped her cheek, forcing her to stare directly at, Jaune’s predatory expression.

Before she could utter a word, Jaune used his finger to pull of her glasses, letting them gently fall to the floor with a dull thud. Her face was red, her breathing was heavy, and her eyes were lost in his. All she could do was stare on as, Jaune smiled at her, and spoke those few simple words she never wanted to hear.

Jaune: I smell desire, hunger, and lust… It’s such a tantalizing smell~!

Coco knew, Jaune; If she said the word, just one word, he would pull off of her apologizing all the while for what he did. Just because he had a throng of woman willing to throw themselves at him at the drop of a hat did not mean he would just bed any woman. He would treat them with respect, and he wanted to know if they truly wanted this. So if she said the word, just one word he would back away, no questions, no pleas, no begging. He would just leave her be, and that would be that.

Those were the thoughts running through her mind as she grabbed his golden locks and pulled him into a deep, searing kiss.

Coco had fun with someone in a changing room before. They we’re usually girls insecure about their sexuality, or curious what it would be like. So since she was up for a little tumble now, and then she helped them find the answers to these burning questions of theirs. However, when these little escapades happened, she was in control; she set the pace, she set the mood, she was the one in control. And yet, she was completely helpless under the onslaught, Jaune wrought upon her. And, she was loving every second of it.

Jaune grabbed, Coco by her waist, and pulled her in for a hungry kiss that dominated her lips causing her to moan in wanton lust as her fingers intertwined with his hair as she pulled him closer, deepening their kiss.

Jaune soon pried her mouth open with his tongue, shoving his tongue into her mouth, and her in turn. Their tongues swirled around one another as they duelled for control. Coco relished in the icy cold flavour that hung about his mouth, while, Jaune in turned savoured the sweet taste of coffee that hung about hers. The duo were falling into a drunken stupor as the drowned in the pleasure of one another’s mouths, but it was soon brought to an end as, Coco remember something very, very important about, Jaune’s tongue.

It was long, incredibly long at that.

In order to stake his claim, Jaune pushed his long tongue deeper into, Coco’s mouth, at first she gave a squeak in shock as she felt his tongue seemingly coil around hers, and push deeper into her mouth as a guttural moan escaped her lips between baited breaths of air. Sadly their fun was brought to a swift end when, Jaune’s tongue had pushed just a little too far, and, Coco started to gag from it.

Jaune quickly removed his tongue from the depths of her mouth as, Coco reeled back, and coughed almost roughly from having the invading organ within her.

Coco: “Cough, cough!” Holy hell… Did you literally shove your tongue down my throat?

Jaune: Haha… Sworry…

Jaune’s tongue was hanging several inches from the bottom of his mouth before slurping back inside. Coco could only wonder in shock how he hid such a massive appendage.

Jaune: Pyrrha likes it when I do that to her, I got so into the kiss I forgot I wasn’t with, Pyrrha. Or, you for that matter. I just fell into the moment of it all.

Coco: Well… If I didn’t start gagging on it I don’t think I would have minded really. But, you better be careful with that thing; you’ll break a girl if you’re not careful.

Jaune: Oh really now~?

Jaune licked his lips with a predatory gaze as he moved closer to, Coco.

Jaune: In that case, lets see how hard it is to break you then~!

His hands reached for her belt, and undid the buckles, the buttons, and lastly the zipper before kneeling down before her as he dragged her pants, and her underwear down in one swift motion until she was bare before him.

Coco’s heart was racing, her breathing heavy, and quick. She knew what was going to happen, and just like before she knew how to stop it, and as she looked down at those deep blue eyes staring back at her she said the words she had to say.

Coco: Please… Please break me…

Jaune chuckled as he got to work. Coco’s hand immediately cover her mouth to stifle the yell that threatened to escape her lips. A yell that swiftly gave way to deep, gasping moans of pleasure as he began to eat her out.

Coco could barely contain the guttural moans that escaped her body as she bucked against his face. She bit her lips to hold them back as her hands grabbed a hold of his horns to steady herself, and pull him deeper into her welcoming opening.

Coco: MmmMMM~! How… Ahh~! How are you…?! Mmm~! So…! Ahhh! Good at this~?!

Jaune laughed softly as he pulled away, licking his lips with his long tongue before smiling up at, Coco’s blushing face.

Jaune: Most people don’t know this, but Pyrrha wasn’t my first time.

Coco: S-She wasn’t?

Jaune: Nope~! Case in point…

Jaune drove his head back, and went to town on, Coco. Her hands quickly cover her mouth as, Jaune attacked every her lower lips, basking her in unending pleasure of the body.

Coco: Fuckfuckfuckfuckfucyk~! Who taught you how to eat out a girl like this, a lesbian? Only girls are this good at eating out other girls! MmmmH~! I should know, I’ve… Ahhh~! Done it myself~!

Jaune: Actually yes, a lesbian did teach me. Well, she wasn’t a lesbian by the time we were done.

Coco: You turned a lesbian straight with your tongue?!

Jaune: She was more of a bisexual than a lesbian, I just made it a fact. Now, if you’ll excuse me; my meals getting cold.

Coco really shouldn’t interrupt him anymore, every time she interrupted him only denied him that exquisite tongue of his from caressing her body. And, to emphasize that he picked up his speed, and ravenously ate her out.

A hand clamped over her mouth while the other held him by one of his horns keeping him in place. Behind a flush face she looked down at him to see his deep cerulean eyes giving her a dangerous, and mischievous glint to his eyes.

She would swiftly learn how dangerous that glint in his eyes is.

Both of her hands were on her mouth covering up the guttural moan that if she removed her hands would be a moaning scream for all to hear, and all to be envious off as she felt him insert his long tongue into her precious depths. There are things in life you never expect to experience; the mind numbing pleasure of a faunas with a long tongue have a meal with you was something profound to experience.

She could feel his tongue swirling around her depths, mapping her insides out with his tongue for minutes that felt like they lasted for millennia’s. At long last she felt a quack in her hips, and she would relish it’s arrival. And, when it did she awoke with her butt on the ground, staring at, Jaune’s cocky smile as he licked his lips.

Jaune: Well, looks like I broke you.

Coco panted heavily as her mind raced to find where it had fallen off. And, she knew precisely where; At her peak, as soon as she had her mind numbing orgasm she blacked out, and was left here in a dazed state, but thoroughly satisfied state of mind.

She told him to break her, and good gods, he broke her.

Coco: I said that tongue of yours would break a girl… But, gods… You can break a girl…

Jaune: I aim to please~!

Coco: That’s an understatement if I ever heard one… H-How long was I out?

Jaune: Not long, about a minute, or two.

Coco: And, while I was out, you didn’t decide to keep on having fun?

Jaune: You wouldn’t be around to enjoy it; where’s the fun if you’re not enjoying it too?

Coco: Well, in that case…

Coco slowly rose on shaky legs, shaking from the unbridled pleasure, Jaune just assaulted her with. As she stood up, she turned around, and pressed her body to the wall, shaking her tantalizing round butt towards him, inviting him in.

Coco: Shall we continue~?

Jaune laughed softly to himself as he stood up, and stood behind, Coco’s plump rear, caressing it softly with his hand.

Jaune: We shall, butnot here.

Coco: What?! Why?!

Coco nearly shouted, but this time she remembered where they were. She look over to, Jaune, and saw him giving her an amused smile.

Jaune: Because, as nice it was hearing you trying to stifle a moan like you did, but what I really want to hear… Is you screaming my name~!

Jaune grabbed, Coco by her neck, and pulled him flush against her hotly whispering into her ear those few words that brought her over the edge again in seconds.

Coco: T-T-Then what are we waiting for; come on, make me scream~!

And, that is what she did, scream his name until she could scream no more. And, she loved every agonizing, intoxicating second of it.

~~~

Juniper: You’ve got to tell her to reel it in; Jaune doesn’t like a girl who screams at him to give her his babies, he finds that extremely off putting.

Kali: I’ve been trying to tell, Blake. But, does she listen? Noooo… She all about him pinning her down, and knocking her up on the spot. Where is the fun in that? I blame her choice in literature, there’s nothing romantic in her books, it’s just kinky self indulgence for inexperienced lovers.

Juniper: That’s my daughter’s target audience after all. You have to go with the easy marks.

Kali: Yes, but their not, Jaune’s type. I sear, if I could I would chase after him myself.

Juniper: What’s stopping you?

Kali: I’m a happily married woman, but if I wasn’t, I would be pregnant with his first child right now~!

Juniper: Second actually.

Kali: He’s already a father?!

Juniper: He’s the donor actually, they say it wasn’t him, but I know it was him. It’s cute they think I don’t know, but I…

Juniper: Hmmm…?

Kali: Juni? Is something wrong?

Juniper: My grandmother senses are tingling…

Kali: Well my aren’t! Ahhh! That means it’s not, Blake getting any! Haa… Best get, Sienna to get his kids then. One of my kids is going to give me adorable grandchildren, I don’t care which, but I damn well will get them!

Juniper: I know in mixed faunas families the baby’s faunas traits are a roulette wheel of possibilities, but I really want blond cat eared grandchildren.

Kali: Me too! Oh they would be so adorable~!

Juniper: I know right~?

[woniverse-writes]

Hey so I’ve been a huge fan of all your works with Bada and I was wondering if you could do a request for me with bada.

So reader is in BEBE and is born in 1997 which makes her the 2nd oldest in the group but she tends to be almost like the maknae ,always laughing (obviously very serious when it comes to dancing) smiling (not always acting cute it annoys me 🙃) and like how Bada, Lusher, Tatter, Kyma, Minha, Cheche, and Soweon always look at her in like adoration.

Obviously you can change it/interpret how you want too.

And I’m very sorry if it doesn’t make sense

Thanks ☺️

“Sweet Bebe”

bada lee x teammate!reader

summary: being one of the oldest members of your crew typically meant you were supposed to look out for the younger members, which you still do! except everyone seems to be looking out for you more due to your clumsy and energetic personality.

word count: 3.3k

warnings: the first 600-ish words have like- nothing to do with Bada and it's all backstory i'm so sorry lmao, i don't really like how this turned out but i hope you do, not proofread

Typically being one of the oldest members of any team or crew meant you had to carry some sort of authority or responsibility… that was not the case for Y/n. being the second oldest member of the dance crew Bebe, meant absolutely nothing to her on most days. She did happen to take on the motherly role a lot of the time, but more so in a fun, cutely caring for her members type of way. It was almost as if she took care of her members by letting them take care of her. The youngest teammates specifically liked to baby her, getting a kick out of their cute older sister.

Even before it had been decided that the crew would come together for Street Woman Fighter season 2, the girl had been just as lively and attentive to her friends, always making sure to have a positive energy and smile on her face when in the studio.

Y/n and Bada had known each other since the younger was in college. She had begun training under SM in her last year of middle school, focusing on becoming a vocalist at the time, but transitioned into focusing on dance in her second year of high school. Y/n was a part of SM Rookie and had almost debuted with Red Velvet at the same time as Yeri, but ultimately the company decided they only wanted to add one member and thought Yeri was a better fit. When she entered university, she stopped training to be an idol but decided to stick with dance, majoring in performance and choreography. By the time she was 19 she was already choreographing for some big groups. 

Y/n’s first step into the kpop industry was when she worked with Lia Kim on Twice’s “TT”, coming up with the iconic hand gesture herself, but many don’t associate her with the dance since she wasn’t credited at first as a rookie choreographer. By the time she did receive credit, people already knew the choreography as solely Lia Kim’s. But the younger girl wasn’t phased, seeing as she was invited back a little less than a year later to choreograph Twice’s “signal” all by herself.

The young choreographer began to gain even more recognition after working on “Likey”, coming up with three different versions of the dance break and eventually posting all three to her social media accounts. She continued working with Twice and choreographed for “Heart Shaker”, “Candy Pop”, “What is Love”, “Dance the Night Away”, and “Yes or Yes. She secured a position as an in-house choreographer for JYP, specifically Twice at such a young age, and national and international supporters alike were impressed were her skills. What many people didn’t know was that she was invited to choreograph “Red Flavor” by Red Velvet and initially agreed, and choreographed the routine, but SM ended up not using her choreography. The poor girl was really starting to think they had some hidden agenda against her.

Y/n’s popularity was on a gradual upward incline and suddenly boomed when “Fancy” was released, seeing as the song was a turning point for the group. It was also the first time she took on a director position instead of just a choreographer. Y/n was offered the role of creative director on top of main choreographer. Things only continued to get better for her career after she produced the moves and creative brief for “breakthrough”, which caused people to realize the girl was capable of doing more than just cute dances. As soon as “Feel Special” was released, y/n was getting calls left and right, especially from SM.

They offered her the main choreographer position for Red Velvet’s next comeback, “Psycho”. She was skeptical at first due to their lackadaisical behavior when working with her but ultimately agreed since she had nothing else at the time. Y/n submitted her dance, expecting to not hear back after that and be left to assume they went with another choreographer. So when she got a phone call a couple of days later asking her if she’d be able to begin teaching the choreography the following day, the girl just about died on the spot. “Psycho” was released and everyone was OBSESSED with the choreography.

This was about the time when Bada and Y/n first met. At the end of 2019, SM was having its annual end-of-the-year celebration, inviting all of its artists and staff, including any choreographer who worked in-house or was brought in specifically at any point. Y/n originally intended on not going but ultimately decided she would after realizing it could be a good networking opportunity. 

Y/n wasn’t cocky by any means, but she was confident. The girl was bubbly and charming, so naturally she attracted people, including Bada Lee. the tall dancer approached the younger girl and professionally introduced herself. 

“You’re Y/n L/n, correct?” to which the younger smiled even wider and nodded enthusiastically. Bada couldn’t help but giggle at the girl’s bright energy, liking how it stuck out against the blandness that typically came with business parties. 

“I really love your work. It’s so refreshing, and even your more mature choreographies have this energizing quality to them…” the tall dancer complimented and y/n could feel her face heat up, eyes widening, and mouth falling open. She stammered for a moment, overjoyed with the compliment.

“Thank you so much- I- you don’t understand how much that means to me. Truly, thank you.” her smile was so huge that Bada thought if it got any bigger the poor girl’s face would split open, but the older of the two was simply endeared. They stuck by each other’s sides practically the whole night after that… and they haven’t parted since.

“My sweet angel dearest… can you please sit down?” the Bebe leader jokingly requested as she and her teammates observed their second eldest member bouncing around the room at lightning speed. They all stifled giggles and wore smiles of adoration as they continued to watch Y/n smile and explore their new team space. The girls loved how energetic and bubbly she was, thinking of it as a strength since the rest of them were more chill and reserved. Having y/n around kept the team’s morale high, since she’s always the one to check up on everyone, always first to cheer someone up, and always making sure everyone is taken care of before and after they start practice.

“Unnie- you know I can’t just sit and do nothing while we wait. This is all too exciting!!” which caused Bada to just smile and shake her head. The leader loved all of her crew members but had a specific soft spot for Y/n seeing as she’d known her the longest out of all of the others (and the girl may or may not make her heart flutter).

The monitor lit up and an announcement popped up on the screen. The girls all made a noise of shock, and Y/n quickly ran to seat herself in the empty space left between Bada and Tatter

“Our baby” the blonde patted the older girl’s head endearingly, causing her to giggle

“Noooo, you’re MY baby, hmph” she retorted, wrapping her arms around the other and squeezing her gently while fake pouting. The screen told them they were now allowed to head down to the fight zone and Y/n sprung back up with a small noise of excitement. She and Bada were the first two to lead the group down, the older one smiling softly at her slightly younger teammate who looked around with wide sparkly eyes. Once they were in the center of the dance floor a video began playing.

“Their team was just formed within the last year…they can’t have very good chemistry”

“People only know Bada and Y/n”

“Bada is more popular than her talents”

“Y/n won’t be able to keep up… she’s a good choreographer but she’s too soft for a competition like this” Y/n laughed loudly at this one, not being able to take anyone seriously, especially Mina Myoung who found an issue with everyone. Bada on the other hand was far from amused. The leader glared at the screen until the video ended, then scoffed as she began heading over to their team’s designated seats.

“Unnie, don’t get so worked up- they’re obviously just trying to get a reaction and it’s clearly working, so don’t let them see it…” the second oldest gently comforted the leader with a hand on her shoulder. Y/n had taken her seat right next to Bada, which had become the usual for them. No matter where they went, whether it was just the two of them, all of team Bebe, or even them and some other people; Y/n always found her place next to Bada. Y/n and Bada had become practically inseparable since that night they met.

Bada grabbed the hand that was on her shoulder and gently began stroking the back of it with her thumb, and Y/n’s immediate response was to plop her head down as a replacement. The leader couldn’t help the chuckle that left her at the girl’s reaction, she could practically see her tail wagging if she had one. The other Bebe members loved to call Y/n “baby-unnie” or just “baby” because of how soft and cute she was, but they often called her “puppy” as well due to her energetic and bright personality. It was typically the younger members who called her this, but occasionally Bada would take part in the teasing, loving how flushed the girl’s face got when she specifically called her by those names.

The other crews arrived and of course, Bebe held up their chill, cool-girl image. Even y/n looked intimidating with how pretty she was and how relaxed her smile had become. After all the other videos were played, the teams changed into more relaxed clothing, preparing for the no-respect battles. When they returned the leaders of each crew handed out the ‘no-respect’ stickers to each dancer. While most of Bebe didn’t have any Bada and Y/n were the only two who did, with the leader having two and the second oldest having five.

“I still can’t believe you got that many votes…” Kyma mumbled in astonishment as she watched Lusher and Tatter place the stickers all over their member. Y/n just laughed and shrugged.

“They don’t think I can battle, that’s why- but it’s okay cuz now I get to show everyone how wrong they were…” she calmly and cooly explained, patting Kyma on the head as the other two members finished with the stickers. The battles began and the first dancer called was Redy from 1 Million.

Redy chose Bada as her no-respect dancer due to some personal issue that occurred between the two at some point. The younger dancer did put up a pretty good fight, but Bada was practically untouchable. Y/n was jumping up and down and screaming as loud as possible at her leader, the smile on her face almost painful at this point. 

When Bada finished she cooly headed back over to her team and Y/n pounced on her, wrapping her arms around the older girl's neck. The leader laughed and loosely wrapped her arms around Y/n’s waist, the two staying like that for a few moments until the applause died down. Once it was time to announce the results, Bada headed back to the center while her crew waited patiently behind her. When the judges announced her as the winner of the battle, Y/n was jumping seven feet in the air, rushing to cling to Bada again.

A few more battles went by before Y/n was called for her first one, the challenger being Gooseul from Deep n Dap. The Bebe dancer was a bit shocked, not knowing much of her or the crew besides Mina Myoung. The battle started with the pink-haired dancer- she wasn’t bad, but still very obviously an amateur. Her 40 seconds went back and it was Y/n’s turn. “One Dance” by Drake started playing and the girl immediately got into the vibe. She sensually grooved to the rhythm and naturally hit every beat, creating a dynamic performance. Her facials were completely different than usual- eyes taking on the look of a siren instead of the angel Y/n usually appeared to be. 

“Oh my god- her face totally changed…”

“I knew I was gonna regret picking her…”

“Bebe is really just a team full of dancers that know how to attract women-”

Bada smirked picking up all the little comments she was hearing from around the arena, but ultimately focusing on her girl tearing up the stage in front of her. The battle ended and as soon as she was done dancing, Y/n blinked and was back to her sweet self. Sparkly eyes and a bright smile taking over, the second-oldest Bebe member turned to her members who all embraced her in a giant hug, squeezing her and squishing her face, cooing and awing at her.

“Unnie- how dare you dance like that! You’re just a baby!” Minah joked while holding Y/n’s face in her hands, causing the rest of the team to laugh and tease her. The winner was announced, and when the judges all held up team Bebe’s blue card, the members stormed the stage and cheered on their member once again. When Y/n had to go over to Deep and Dap and place the loser plaque on their board, she made sure to thank Gooseul and shake her hand. She returned to her team and they all made sure to pat her on the head or shoulder, showing their final bits of appreciation for their baby-unnie.

“Isn’t Y/n one of the oldest?” JJ turned to Mina after watching Bebe act affectionately toward her.

“Yeah- it goes Bada then her then the others… why?” the DnD leader questioned.

“She just seems so young… and they all treat her like their baby- I would’ve guessed she was the maknae” the expressive girl seriously remarked in an entertaining matter, genuinely surprised at how old the other dancer actually was.

When Bada and Redlic faced against each other, Y/n was interested to see how it would turn out seeing as Redlic didn’t really seem to be on her game today. The second oldest Bebe member was used to the blonde being a pretty good dancer and decent at improv, so her performances today were really disappointing and confusing. Y/n lost interest after Redlic’s second spin around, but then got all up in Bada’s face putting her hands all over the tall dancer, getting more of a reaction out of her team member than her.

“What was that…” Y/n and Lusher were side-eyeing each other, not liking the interaction at all. the younger of the two being the only one to know about the leader’s and second oldest’s true feelings for each other, was a huge supporter of them- even though everyone else thought she was delusional.

“Unnie how are you not losing your shit right now…” Lusher mumbled, eyes trained on the blonde dancer still all up on Bada. when she didn’t get any response, the younger member looked over and was immediately shocked by the expression Y/n had. An icy glare and condescending smirk took over her features, hinting at the slightest bit of disgust. When Redlic’s turn was over Bada’s music started playing and her body immediately reacted to the beat. She walked around a bit to really get into it, turning to meet her teammates’ gazes briefly. She makes eye contact with Y/n, who has a very serious (and lowkey scary) expression

“Eat her up… or I’ll kill you” The other members struggled not to react to the out-of-character comment and keep up their hype, but Bada was completely unphased. While others only saw the refreshing side of Y/n, Bada got to experience just how serious and sometimes vicious the girl can get (especially when threatened). So instead of having an internal panic like the others, she just smirked slightly and continued to get in the groove.

Bada began dancing hitting every mark and beat, facials on point, and truly getting into the rhythm of the song. It was like the music was inside her with how easily she reacted. Her team’s screams and cheers carried her through the rest of the performance and the second her music ended she circled back around to her team, stopping at Y/n who stood with a satisfied smile. They all stood together as they awaited the results, the leader standing tall and relaxed with her arm draped over the second-oldest member’s shoulders. Y/n stood intimidatingly with her arms crossed, glaring at the other team until Bebe was once again announced as the winner. Her eyes quickly lit up and her smile returned, turning in Bada’s hold to wrap her arms around the older girl’s waist.

“I wasn’t worried at all, but I really hated watching her dance…” she mumbled into the leader’s chest, who just laughed loudly and patted her head before squeezing her tightly. Bada placed the loser plaque onto Mannequeen’s board and calmly strutted back over to her team. She took her place next to Y/n who leaned into her side with a pout, causing the older to roll her eyes and chuckle before wrapping her arm around the younger girl again.

“You’re never this pouty- what’s up?” the leader whispered gently, playing with the ends of the other girl’s hair

“I just don’t like watching people dance with you like that… it’s annoying” Y/n mumbled, still pouting with arms slightly crossed. Bada tried to stifle her laugh and avoid teasing her teammate, but she honestly couldn’t pass up the opportunity. 

“Ayyyye… are you jealous?” the leader tried to tease and get a reaction out of her, hoping to see the younger dancer blush

“Yes! I didn’t like that…” Y/n admitted, not meeting the older girl’s eyes which were now boring into the side of her head. Bada tilted her head, a bit shocked at the statement and how open the younger was being. She was used to Y/n’s honesty, relying on it often, but the girl was never really open about her own feelings. She looked after the team with a gentle, motherly aura, allowing the girls to tease her and baby her in order to feel more relaxed. Y/n never seemed tired or upset when practices were harder than usual, so in all honesty, it was rare to see the girl in a mood like this. Bada knew the pout was mostly for show, but she could tell how serious Y/n was about being jealous. 

“Don’t worry, you’re my only baby…” She squeezed her shoulder and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head before looking back toward the next set of dancers who were preparing to battle. Y/n’s eyes went slightly wide as she glanced over to the leader and her pout was broken after seeing the light blush on Bada’s face. She huffed out a soft laugh and snuggled back into the leader’s side, the rest of her team sitting behind them smiling with love and adoration at the two.

permanent taglist: @uwulyn @luvjanexx @randomhoex @1luvkarina

[ermine-57047]

i am going to! do this!!1

spoilers follow. also long post obv

(also, a lot of caps. I'm very excited)

LAST SPECTER THEME (i fucking love the last specter theme. something in the piano just. HITS)

LMAO WHY DID HIS FACE HERE MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD-

NOT A THOUGHT BEHIND THOSE EYES

wauuuuuaauuuughahahhhhhh i love Layton's voice SM!!!!! it's so gentle and comforting <333 makes me so happy

WHYYYY ARE THEY DRAWING HIM LIKE THATTTT

HIS EYES LOOK SO SILLYYY

FLORA??????

HELLO???? HECK I THOUGHT THIS WAS SET BEFORE CV????? BUT I WAS WRONG IG

"Flora, you stay here" LET HER LIVE, LAYTON!

oughhhh babyyyy she looks so sad ;A;

Luke. Luke my baby boy. LUKE. LUKE MY BOY .I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HE'S SO PRECIOUS.

i am. vibrating with excitement right now because OHHHH BOY THE AUTISM

BUNDLED

THE DOUBLE COLLAR ON LAYTON LOOKS SO SILLY SLDJKFNLSKDJF

ohhhh okay this is indeed set before cv, this is just intro scene is just a setup

what the hell is this contraption

OHHH JANICE IS ETHEREAL!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

RIDDLETON SPOTTED????

EMMYYYY <33333

ohhhhhh her voice is different here.... i don't. i don't think i likey....she sounds too soft :[

oooo I LOVE the subtle puzzle theme playing in the background here!!!! the music in this is so GOOD!!!

POINTS. I RECOGNIZE THIS ONE FROM FANART

DESCOLE SPOTTED

this guy looks like he's being puppeted. i don't trust it

!!!! GROSKY!!!!!

oh so i was right about that guy being a puppet. nice :]

HIS FACEEEEE OH MY STARSSS

D:<

BOAT????? WHAT???????

lmao with inspector grosky they really took the term "barrel-chested" literally

stars this man is getting thrown into the ocean TWICE???'

i LOVE THIS MAN

okay i'm sorry but like. previous statement was funny to me when viewed from the outside perspective. i show you a character i like and it's this just this plain lookin guy :tm:

wait holdon . this guy's glasses are ABOVE HIS EYES????? WHAT THE FUCK????

HELLO???? DIEGETIC PUZZLES REAL???? THAT'S REALLY COOL

hey descole WHAT THE FUCK. okay . the people getting yoinked by the floor are definitely still alive because i don't think this series would get THAT dark but STILL

AWWWWW HE'S SO PROUD OF HIMSELF!!!!

LOOKA HIM!!!! <3

she looks like a bug /aff/aff/aff/aff

to quote Jelloapocalypse, "Japanese artists stop drawing lips like this challenge impossible"

i am . SO weak to Layton being protective.

CLAUDIA CAMEO!!!!

also, is the child who went missing . uh. heck i forget her name. Janice's friend who died. is that her?

ELYSIAN BOX SPOTTED

"Wine? Good, I'm simply dying of thirst!" Sir do you know how alcohol works because alcohol is ANYTHING but hydrating

"the sea taught it to me" oh you mean it's like a son/ a song. a song of .a song of th. of . a Song of the S- [gunshot]

:0

Pubbies!!!!!! (they are not that but eh)

wow if i had a nickel for every time professor layton build a Thing that Serves as Airborne Transportation to Escape Encroaching Peril i'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

"Hang on tight!" "NOT TO THE PILOT!" LMA:FSDHFGKSJDFH:ASLKJDF

JEAN WHEN I CATCH YOU JEAN. JEAN WHEN I CATCH YOU

alllright ending this here for now because boy's gotta sleep but i'll be continuing this tomorrow!!!

watching eternal diva...... i think i might liveblog this

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 3, Episode 12, The King George Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

John: Hey I'm John Rogers, executive producer.

Christine: Hello I'm Christine Boylan, writer of this episode.

John: And unfortunately the fantastic director, Millicent Shelton, of this- of this episode could not join us.

Christine: Because she's working all the time!

John: She's working all the time.

Christine: She's amazing!

John: Christine, how did this show come about?

Christine: I am obsessed with- [Laughs] a lot of things that are in this episode. And I begged you to let me do them.

John: The only thing missing from this is bustles and parasols, really.

Christine: It's true! It's true, we had everything but bustles and parasols.

John: James Frain.

Christine: James Frain! Obsession. [Laughs]

John: Great actor, yes, that wasn't creepy at all on set.

Christine: He became one.

John: Yeah, there you go. No, it was- we had been- we wanted to do a Sophie backstory episode for a while.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: We had been wanting to talk about- since we had been addressing - all year - everyone's reason for being on the show.

Christine: Obsession.

John: Obsession?

Christine: Eliot in a pilot outfit.

John: Eliot in a pilot outfit? Really? I did not know that.

Christine: [Laughs] Look guys, hot guys in pilot outfit? That's hot.

John: I was not aware.

Christine: I'm just saying.

John: And, you know, as you'll see in the finale, you know, we really get into why Eliot is trying to redeem himself. And in this was our chance to kinda see- to have Sophie realize what a lot of grifters sorta push off, is that it's not a victimless crime.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: You know, that you rip off institutions and you rip off insurance companies, so it's all kind of a chess match with giant corporations and you know, that there is some human fallout. Which is something shes not dumb enough not to realize before, but she’s always emotionally quashed.

Christine: She's been able to turn a blind eye to it before now.

John: Exactly, because she’s evolving. She's actually- that's something we talk about in the Sophie/Nate relationship all the time is part of the problem is, Sohpie’s actually becoming a better human being faster than Nate is.

Christine: Hmm.

John: And that's one of the reasons they can't actually ever quite make it work.

Christine: Mhhm, mhmm.

John: She's farther along her sort of, you know, decency evolution.

Christine: This, look- this was, all day this large choreographed scene where they said, “You may as well have written The Music Man.”

[Laughter]

Christine: It's a lot of moving parts, a lot of people doing a lot of simultaneous things, and it had to play out almost like a little play, which was a lot of fun for me.

John: Yes. You love little plays.

Christine: I do love little plays.

John: Camera people when you have three or four cameras in there at the same time, not so much.

Christine: No likey. Camera people no likey.

John: Big thing for the fans, kids- people dig Eliot Spencer helping adorable war orphans.

Christine: I know, yeah, they really do. And how cute is this kid, she's so cute.

John: She was adorable, she was really great.

Christine: She was wonderful. She was wonderful.

John: And this was also- it was interesting we were breaking this episode, it was so plotty that it was one of those things where we realized we just have to jump in the middle.

Christine: Just- I love starting in the middle. Oh my god, great, staring.

John: Just immediate - we’re up, we’re running.

Christine: We’re up and running.

John: The audience knows the show by now, we’re well into third season, you'll figure it out!

Christine: I mean yeah, look it’s James Frain, do you think he's the good guy? No!

[John Laughs]

Christine: No, he's not the good guy!

John: He's a sinister Brit in a suit! Come on!

Christine: He's a vampire sometimes, sometimes he's a, you know, renaissance villain.

John: We did do the take where James kissed Aldis like in True Blood, and that's on the servers somewhere.

Christine: That's on my reel at home. That's a private reel.

John: By the way, having just flown through, this looks distressingly like the actual customs arrival at Logan.

[Laughter]

Christine: Yay!

John: Yeah, it’s actually pretty close, it’s actually-

Christine: Did you get caught with some contraband?

John: I did not get caught with some contraband.

Christine: Illegal lion statues?

John: No. 

Christine: Tiger statues?

John: No, I- all my illegal stuff is virtual.

Christine: I am also obsessed with antiquities trafficking. Because it is something that drug lords do to make money to move drugs, which is a lot fun! 

[Christine Laughs]

John: And we've mentioned on a couple of the commentaries, we spend a lot of time- and this is one of those weird things, you know, people that write shows are human and they get into their little sort of obsessions. And we got really deeply into money laundering and the ways in which you launder money this year. And it just so happens that some of them are very glamorous.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Like antiquities smuggling.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Yeah, it's not just for giant nations pillaging other giant nations.

Christine: It’s true.

John: Antiquities. It's for individuals too.

Christine: That was-

John: We gave her a bear! A little bear of peace to hug!

Christine: Come on, how cute is she?

John: She's adorable.

Christine: Adorable.

John: Adorable. An accessory after the fact, I'm sorry she's going to jail. 

[Christine Laughs]

John: That was another thing, too, by the way. I love watching the arc of audience research on the boards and forums.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Cause I do go and watch, and as people know I’ve got the blog and ask questions. And this was one of those things where it's like, ‘Well I love the episode, but I don't know about- can they really take kids and keep them in custody? Can ICE really do that?’ And then about a day later- it's the same on all of them, a day later it's like, ‘Well, I'm doing some research,' and then about a day later, ‘Oh god, this is horrible!’

[Laughter]

Christine: Oh it's real!

John: ‘It's real and horrible!’

Christine: It's real!

John: Yeah. We do a lot of research into horrible things so you don't have to.

Christine: Mhmm.

John: And bang, we’re into the credits.

Christine: And here we are. That was very wonderfully cut together, wonderfully directed, vital kind of- they did a great job.

John: Truly difficult. That whole teaser, that happens in one scene.

Christine: They gave me so much shit on set. Paul Bernard just looked at me with the eyes of death like, ‘Come on lady! Nine pages, huh?’

[Christine Laughs]

John: Nine pages. You do write big scenes.

Christine: Look at this!

John: I adore you, but you do- you don't write television scenes.

Christine: Look at this shot!

John: Keep talking about the shot.

[Laughter]

Christine: This is Shanga Parker, he’s a great actor.

John: How long was the first act you ever gave me in the first script?

Christine: Twenty pages!

John: Twenty page act.

Christine: Twenty pages in The Miracle Job, act one.

[Laughter]

Christine: First draft.

John: There were some beautiful speeches, they’re lovely.

Christine: Some beautiful speeches, they moved to like act three mostly, so.

John: Now I'm sorry, what was I talking about?

Christine: This was Shanga Parker, he is a fantastic local actor who we worked with.

John: Where were we by the way? We are at the convention center?

Christine: Also a professor. This is the convention center.

John: In Portland. This is great.

Christine: Yeah, not overrun by comic book fans, which is usually how I see a convention center. So this was, you know-

[Laughter]

Christine: This was nice.

John: It's like, ‘Oh, this is what it looks like when normal humans walk through?’

Christine: Yeah! It's what- they look like airports!

John: Yeah theres no chunky transgendered Wonder Woman in here, it looks like an airport.

Christine: No. Oddly enough there was, actually.

John: That was odd, actually on the set.

Christine: I brought her with me, she was my assistant.

John: Really? There you go. Doing a lovely job, just- you know there's a lot of good people in the system, and doing their best to help people out. And, you know, it's one of the things we talk about the morality of the show. It's like, are we good guys, are we bad guys? Well, you know, sometimes the system needs a little kick in the ass, cause there are good people who are too good to kick it in the ass.

Christine: Absolutely. Immigration advocates, these guys work really hard.

John: That's a nice bit of staging, by the way, having the couple passed out on the couch.

Christine: Yeah.

John: That's a beautiful little bit of airport detail.

Christine: It was tough, we had to kinda cheat a little bit to make sure they weren’t distracting, but I learned a lot about what to put in background and what's already in the shot and- Millicent’s a great teacher, and she didn't mind me- my shadowing her like a little duckling for most of the shoot. It was really helpful.

John: That is also one of our first sort of great- we got in fast, and now we're doing a lot of backstory to reconnect this episode with the season arc.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's one of those weird things- and this is how it falls out. We had planned to salt the Moreau plotline about every third episode, but due to actor scheduling issues and a rewrite it just wound up being on either end of the season.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: So, you know, this really had- this episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do, which was kinda reintroduce this entire plotline. And Derek Frederickson of course doing great work on the graphics in order to make it clear.

Christine: Fantastic. And not only is he incredibly prepared and does a lot of research and does great work, you know, before, in prep. But when you show up on the day and you want something different, he can whip- he’s magician! He's a magician.

John: Yes, he's actually sitting there with a laptop and I said, you know, “Give me something that looks entirely different.” Five minutes later, “This?” “Oh my god!”

Christine: I have not bought him enough cocktails, that’s the- [Laughs]

John: I think- that has to be a digital shot. Because- yeah.

Christine: Yes.

John: We were shooting through the TVs at that point, and I don't think we’re capable of doing that.

Christine: No.

John: This was also very cunning of Millicent, to break our five up into twos in a way I don't think we'd done before by shooting straight at them.

Christine: Yes, yeah.

John: Usually we rake. Claridges, real? Made up?

Christine: Claridges is made up. A lot of the stuff in here is real in the Leverage world.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Some of the royal stuff, we wanted to- I love the royals. Don't you, John?

John: I hate the royals.

[Christine Laughs]

John: I hate the royals. It’s-

Christine: It’s class warfare.

John: It’s absolutely class- 

Christine: Class warfare.

John: If I could watch that castle burn to the ground�� Anyway.

[Christine Laughs]

John: No, it was.

Christine: See I’d like to, you know, get them out and live in the castle.

John: Yeah, no.

Christine: It’s two different approaches, same result.

John: I am personally- level that ground and build a school on it.

Christine: More of an opportunist myself.

John: This was actually fun, was giving her the, “Can I brood here, too?”

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: It's, you know, people are not unaware of the fact that Nate is a moody bastard. 

Christine: Mhm.

[Laughter]

John: And this is one of the- another great things in the third season where they are pairs, they are partners, they're, you know, they're equals here. This is, again, not a scene that would have happened in the first two. And part of the fun of doing television, you can develop relationships over a long periods of time.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You can't do this in a movie.

Christine: No, you absolutely cannot. That's why movies will always be the inferior.

John: Really? Wow.

[Christine Laughs]

John: There's a reason you're my favorite!

Christine: Ohhh, that's right!

John: Nicely done!

[Christine Laughs]

John: There you go.

Christine: This was a lot of fun to shoot; this was rewritten. Like- I try to rewrite everything on the day, that's the- [Laughs]

John: Really, make it easier for yourself, Boylan.

Christine: Yeah, except for those big Music Man sequences. But this, you know, Gina and Tim know their characters, they wanna play and we can- this scene always gets ten times better when you sit down and just read it with them, you know?

John: It's always fun, too, because I remember the first time I was on set and they came up and they're like “John, we think we're rewriting this scene”. It was- I think it was in the military one first season, oh my god we made enough of these- Homecoming. Where we want to change the nature of this conversation, and I was bracing myself for the giant actor thing of a total rewrite but they just [unintelligible] two sentences later. ‘That's it?’

Christine: O-ok?

John: Alright, fine!

Christine: Sure!

John: And, you know, they- yeah.

Christine: There's a respect that goes both ways, and I think the writer needs to be present for the actor and vice versa. And it really-

John: That's what the writer’s on set for.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: You know-

Christine: And to learn directing secretly!

[Laughter]

John: Don't get seduced by directing. 

[Christine Laughs]

John: A monkey could direct. [Monkey noise] “Ahhh ahhh!” Pointing at- there are the actors! What else are you supposed to point the camera at? It's not hard, people!

Christine: But here is another one of these- this was- we shot it at a college?

John: Yeah.

Christine: Beautiful location.

John: Lovely establishing. Wow, her in that dress is kinda amazing.

Christine: She’s amazing. Oh my goodness, and this- this office. I mean we turned it into an auction house, everybody did such a good job just dressing it, and already a beautiful location.

John: Dressing on this was great. Yeah, Becca and the whole production design team doing an amazing job.

Christine: Becca's another one who’s just, you know, a magician.

John: Yeah.

Christine: [Laughs] like pulling it out of a hat, I don't know how she does that.

John: I love that you've got a picture of Queen Victoria there, cause that really establishes exactly the tone and the style of the auction we’re gonna be doing.

Christine: I think so, it certainly made me feel comfortable.

[Laughter]

Christine: Loyalist that I am.

John: I know. You understand that blood isn't special. You understand that, right?

[Christine Laughs]

John: And Frain with the ascot! How perfect is that!

Christine: Look at Frain! Nadine really had to sell me on the ascot, but once she did- once he walked in she looked at me and she said, “Right? Am I right?” And I said, “So right, Nadine.”

John: So right.

Christine: So right as always. That's- playing the thug there, Ollie Trevena. Hilarious, and-

John: Really great.

Christine: Good with the stunts.

John: And it's tricky too, cause we had to have one of the funnier thugs we've ever had in this one. He really had to be able

Christine: He got a little speechify later on.

John: That bang over from there to there, that’s- this what I really like about this episode in- you know, it's great - this is the first episode Millicent’s directed for us, and so she brought a subtly different style to the show.

Christine: Mhhm

John: And watching it, it made- I really enjoyed it, because we’re in London, it feels like our ‘we went to London’ episode. 

Christine: Yeah.

John: It has a tonal difference, and part of the fun of doing the show is it's a different movie every week.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And this is one of the ones where it really feels like it's a different movie. You know, now we're doing our Thomas Crown.

Christine: Yes, absolutely.

John: You know, the other one you did, it's our Friends of Eddie Coyle, you know.

Christine: Mhhm. And once again, Portland did provide.

John: Yes. Absolutely. 

Christine: Portland gave us London, so thank you, Portland.

John: White gloves.

Christine: Just put gloves on this guy, we’re in London! There you go!

John: Now wouldn't you take the gloves off in order to-

Christine: Absolutely not, he would not.

John: Oh this was great, this may be the single sexiest scene in the entire show.

Christine: Oh, she’s like, ‘could this be longer?’ But she was great.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Actors- they all want monologues, and then the monologues are too long.

Christine: Oh I know, Gina said the same thing.

John: You can tell I'm in the second Guinness cause I'm starting to bitch about them.

Christine: No, I love them.

John: No, this- I love this scene. 

Christine: She’s amazing.

John: Because, again, this is how Parker sees the world. Inanimate objects and people are both- you're capable of relating to both of them on exactly the same way.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: No. 

Christine: She's manipulating them as well.

[Christine Laughs]

John: Wow, I don't know where that came from.

Christine: John!

[Laughter]

John: This was a ton of fun, doing the auction research, and figuring out how that worked. All these- also the antiquities research, although you had a lot of that from your previous stuff.

Christine: I had brought a lot of that with me, but it was fun to kind of- I had mostly looked at, you know, older stuff. Really just stuff from antiquity. But looking at the kind of newer things in the King George stuff, and the, you know, the signet rings.

John: Yeah, and we have to give- and as part of the whole we use all the parts of the buffalo, we have to give a shout out to the wonder twins.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: Cause the wonder twins had originally come up with the idea of a treasure hunt episode.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And they put it in Boston, which naturally put it in revolutionary times.

Christine: Right.

John: That led us to King George, but then we shelved that episode-

Christine: Right.

John: So years later when we came into the antiquities, you jumped on that, and it was-

Christine: Let us do King George, yeah.

John: It was great.

Christine: See, they would go for the revolutionary side of things, and I went for the the-

John: I know.

Christine: Red coat side.

John: Really?

[Christine Laughs]

John: Really.

Christine: That's why we’re a good team!

John: Go live in Acadia.

Christine: We’re a great team!

John: We are a great team.

Christine: Look at that statue, statue of Ra. 

John: I love that you can just ask Eric Bates: we need a statue of Ra, and he's like “I've got one on the truck.”

Christine: Yup, patted me on the shoulder, “Alright, Boylan.” With that look of ‘You're crazy, but alright. Let's do it.’

John: No, well it's not quite as bad as when he walked in the first season finale and went, ‘how many tiny statues of David?’

[Laughter]

John: ‘You realize these don't exist, actually, anywhere?’

Christine: Oh, man.

John: It's never boring on Leverage.

Christine: Having Sophie figure out, you know, Frain’s character's heart desire on the fly.

John: Yeah.

Christine: That is- that was fun.

John: That was- this episode, interestingly, really benefits, because it's not a particularly action filled episode. It benefits from the density of the investigation.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Because a lot of these- a lot of these scenes, a lot of these acts, and this is why you rewrite and stuff. Really in the outlining and the breaking we’re like “OK, this is gonna wind up being two episodes.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, and just crunching it and churching it and crunching it, really gave you exactly what everyone's job is at all times, and really made you understand why Sophie is a crucial part of this team. Sophie is a genius in her own way, as much as Nate is.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: No one else could pull this off.

Christine: And this is her area of expertise. I do like going into, you know, each of their areas of expertise in different episodes. It's nice to kind of- Parker's role for a while as we did in yours and Geoffs.

John: That was kinda fun in Gone Fishing, you're in Eliot's world. 

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Eliot- if you're gonna be running around the woods with people trying to kill you-

Christine: You wanna be with Eliot.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Christine: It's true, if you were gonna be in an auction house, you wanna be with Sophie.

John: Exactly. This was fun, this was-

Christine: Tim, looking dapper.

John: Exactly. And interesting- I had actually pitched this originally, when you were breaking this, but actually happening in the mens room.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then- 

Christine: We couldn't find a good location, so we had the mens room lounge. This is like the right outside of the toilet.

John: As one does!

Christine: As one does.

[Laughter]

John: Absolutely. Also you can rough a man up in a lounge and people won’t pay attention, in the mens room, it’s expected? I don't know-

Christine: It's England, you expect Michael Caine to walk in and gut punch somebody, come on.

[Laughter]

Christine: Come on.

John: Michael Caine, great in an interview, the best advice about playing a villain I ever heard, which is the scarier the guy is, the softer he talks.

Christine: Oh I love that. Well Frain’s definitely got that down.

John: Yeah, Frain’s playing that. It's really is- he has no need to threaten someone because he is, himself, threatening.

Christine: And by the way, there's no nicer person in the world.

[Laughter]

John: Than James Frain?

Christine: Nicest guy in the world. And completely menacing.

John: Yeah, I love the way he picks up the physical cues. Coming up with the physical cues was fun.

Christine: That was fun. Ok, so this is where we went off and we worked on two different scenes.

John: Yes.

Christine: That had to connect, and we basically wrote exactly the same thing.

John: The same scene, yeah exactly.

Christine: Which was- made me feel like I learned something. I feel pretty good, you know.

John: It was- you know, the writers know this show by now. 

Christine: Yeah.

John: You know, and also I would say, temperamentally, you and I are probably the most similar- 

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Style-wise.

Christine: Yes. We’re both haptic, we like, you know, we like using all the senses, but having the object in your hand?

John: Yeah.

Christine: That's what this episode is about.

John: Exactly. And the- also that was kinda fun was coming up with, when we were first breaking it, trying to figure out what Hardison's job was.

Christine: Yeah.

John: And coming up with Hardison- that Hardison became- hacked history. That was-

Christine: That was-

John: That's my favorite part of the episode.

Christine: That's your most shining moment right there, by the way. That he hacked history.

[Laughter]

John: Thank you. That’s- we just, it- we’re kinda talking inside here, because of the nature of scheduling, Boylan and I wound up working on this one a little bit more cause I'd come back from directing-

Christine: Absolutely.

John: The other episode, and so I was out of the loop on another episode so I ended up jumping in on this one.

Christine: It was not a huge [unintelligible] with this one.

John: And also, you did back to backs.

Christine: I did, I did.

John: You were actually producing-

Christine: Yeah.

John: And being on set for-

Christine: Three-Card Monte.

John: Three-Card Monte. So I actually wound up hanging out and doing a little bit of the research before you came back, and you came back, I'd crunched a little bit of this.

Christine: Yeah. And it helped that it was this one, because at least I had done all that work, like, prior to going to Portland.

John: No, that's the thing - you had broken the plot, and just left me with the all the little research-y bullshit to come up with. Which I love doing.

Christine: You do.

John: I love- part of the fun for me in the show is finding everything out that's true that we can put on the air that people don't believe. She's amazing in this scene.

Christine: She's amazing. The two of them? Wow.

John: Yeah. Look at that kinda- she's a totally different human being here - that kinda bored, looking off a little to the left, the little head tilt.

Christine: And the genius of Gina, which some people are going to sort of recognize here and some people are not, but the way she slightly alters her accent. Just slightly goes for a more refined, different class.

John: Yeah, just the way she carries herself, the way she's thrown on the little sweater around the- she's wearing a knockout dress and by putting the little wrap on-

Christine: Changes everything.

John: Changes everything.

Christine: And again-

John: And look at that! She looks imperious there.

Christine: Oh, god.

John: You know. And meanwhile, in real life she's a really sweet, kinda goofy, you know-

Christine: Absolutely. ”Ooh Christine, another monologue!” That she had perfectly memorized and performed brilliantly. 

John: Yes, you know.

Christine: Of course.

John: They have to complain.

Christine: Of course. 

John: And again- I will say again, Nate in a chair getting beat up while Sophie runs a con, I have no problem saying this is one of my favorite recurring themes of the show.

Christine: I told Tim it was a dream of mine.

[Laughter]

Christine: Tim really enjoyed this episode, I have to say - he had a lot of fun on set.

John: Now, it's- well, you know, he looks great, by the way. That's a great look with the little- and he's hooked, and he's back in.

Christine: Yeah. And yeah the two of them had a lot of fun with this. Yeah, the hook- I love the walk away and then coming back.

John: Yeah, and also, again, one of the things you can do in third season, but also one of the things we try to reinforce now that she's his peer, when she says, “You know what I'm running here”, and he goes, “Yeah, but it's dangerous.” 

Christine: Right.

John: We don't wanna- don’t need to explain it to you, all you need to know is these two people know each other well enough to know what they're playing-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And what the risks are. And it's a shorthand between peers.

Christine: Yeah.

John: Does she throw that- was she wearing that necklace in the other scene?

Christine: She was.

John: She was.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's amazing.

Christine: It looks different against the black than it does against the- yeah.

John: Amazing how different it looks.

Christine: And that's a fantastic sweater.

John: And Nadine throwing together a great little ensemble.

Christine: Oh, Nadine's amazing.

John: And the evil look there, and this is a bad idea.

Christine: Oh no.

[Christine Laughs]

John: This is a bad idea is one of our- now here's a question. Everyone else is dressed for the weather. Was it hot in that office?

[Laughter]

John: Is there- did he nearly pass out from the heat?

Christine: It sure was! Really hot in there.

John: Was it hot because they were trying to put on the lamps to make sure the gun show was bright enough?

[Laughter]

Christine: It was!

John: I remember-

Christine: I promise certain things!

John: Coming into the writing room, and on the wall it's like, it was you know, the priorities-

Christine: Strip Aldis down to his underwear.

John: The priorities for the episode, and one of them was Hardison in the t-shirt for the fans.

Christine: Yes.

John: Like alright, there you go.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Aldis not complaining.

Christine: This is my favorite scene ever. [Laughs]

John: Ever?

Christine: Until now.

John: Yeah, there you go. No this is-

Christine: Until the one we’re performing right now.

John: This one right now?

Christine: This one we’re doing right here.

John: This is a great roundy round. This is interesting, this- we don't usually go around the circle on this type of-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: On this type of scene. But we were not in our usual set.

Christine: Yes.

John: So this table kinda demanded this geography.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And giving- again, Sophie, this is competence porn. This is pure competence porn.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Giving Sophie the ability to instruct everyone else, ‘You’re in my world, these are the rules.’ And yeah, and then coming up with the physical aspect of exactly why the, you know, why the statue was unfakeable.

Christine: Right.

John: Absolutely lovely.

Christine: Why had we failed, how can we succeed, basically.

John: And now- and then, I think it originally started with a knighthood.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then when we were doing the research we had no idea knighthoods were so cheap.

Christine: [Laughs] Knighthoods are pretty cheap.

John: Knighthoods - twenty six hundred. We actually used the line in the show. And it was just deep in the guts of doing the research we spent some time on the royal boards, and there are actually forums and websites of people dedicated to watching royalty. And not just famous royalty, but keeping track of the second cousins, and the third cousins.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: And the people who are, you know, dukes four times removed. And that was fascinating!

Christine: Mhhm.

John: The idea that like, for example in New York, there are- there's royalty walking around that you would not recognize in any way shape or form.

Christine: Oh yeah. They have jobs, they live on the upper east side, they're, you know, wherever.

John: Yeah and they're, you know, seventh in line to succession someone.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And that was- and that led us to the lost baronies.

Christine: Yes.

John: The lost- and-

Christine: And there are so many we thought about planting some of our-

John: Yes, exactly. 

[Laughter]

John: It didn't really look all that hard to tell you the truth.

Christine: Just don't tell them we’re Irish. It’s fine.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Don't tell them they're Irish. They don’t understand the horror of what's going on.

Christine: Smelling the statue.

John: Smelling the statue. And it was also a very nice beat you did here by giving each person- separate person a clue, so it wasn’t static.

Christine: Mhhm, yes.

John: And again, one of the things that the third season, discovering stuff during the scenes, makes exposition part of the conflict more. And I'll say this- no one comes to a show the best writer they are. You know, we definitely- the first season and second season were great, but I look back at them now and realize they gave us tools to do, you know, some great stuff in third season.

Christine: Completely.

John: Yeah. 

Christine: I'm constantly- I just learn on the job. I don't know what I'm doing on any given day.

[Laughter]

John: Well that's you. I'm talking about other professional writers.

Christine: Oh other professional writers.

John: You are-

Christine: Well I-

John: I'm basically stunned you're working.

Christine: I just walk in saying like, “Hey, look at this great statue. Let's do a-” [Laughs]

John: Yeah, exactly.

Christine: I mean, you know, all joking aside, having the audience as involved as possible is one of my constant goals. I want the audience to be a little- not even a little bit ahead, a little bit behind, but there.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Present, you know?

John: You like a lean forward episode.

Christine: I do like a lean forward episode, you know, there's nothing worse than being spoon fed information.

John: Yeah. I'm going to give a giant shout out to the greatest antiquities crime show of all time, Ian McShane in Love Story.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: For giving us some of the ingredients on that list.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Because I'm pretty sure when we were breaking this it was like, “And here's the Love Story moment.”

Christine: Absolutely, yeah,

John: I remember being boggled when I was a kid watching that show like, ‘You can do this? Really?’ And, you know, we talk a lot about the influences on the show but Love Story is not not in the canon. It’s-

Christine: No, it's not.

John: It's in there, it's a big part of it.

Christine: Well I was also thinking because, you know, we had watched Three-Card Monte, and I'd written a little more investigative stuff this year, and I think it's because you made me watch Jonathan Creek.

John: Yes!

Christine: There was a lot of Jonathan Creek going on when I wrote this one, so.

John: Yeah. You know what, there's a lot of good stuff up there.

Christine: Yes, a lot of good stuff out there.

John: It’s people.

Christine: Most of it coming from Britain.

[Laughter]

John: No, well no. No, I mean it’s- we’re about to go on a giant side thing. Every country makes great television.

Christine: It's true.

John: They just don't export the bad stuff.

Christine: You know, well said. Well said.

John: Yeah, no, Jonathan Creek, created by David Renwick - great show. If you have a chance to get our DVD, and then get your friends to get our DVD, but then go get Jonathan Creek.

Christine: Go check that out.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Also a great show.

John: Also Millicent, great job here making a very static scene be fraught with parallel.

Christine: She's not afraid of the long scenes, John.

John: Yes. Long scenes are death in television, Christine.

Christine: Long scenes can be amazing as long as they have, you know, breaths and moments in fits and starts.

John: We actually talked about this one one of the other commentaries where the wonder twins were saying to Marc, “God, this scene is so long.” And he went, “No, directors love this! Gives us a chance to park the camera and work with the actors.”

Christine: There's an arc in the scene.

John: There is an arc in the scene. And that's the trick is writing is fractal. We get very geeky when it's just you and me.

Christine: I know, I kinda miss this, we haven't done this in a while, it’s fun.

John: Yeah, writing is fractal. Every show has a three act structure, every act is a three act structure, every scene has a three act structure.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And, you know, if there's not a goal-

Christine: Whether it’s three lines or no lines or-

John: Exactly. If there's not a goal and not opposition, then you shouldn't be watching it happen.

Christine: Absolutely. And these two really dug in and it was magic to watch. I mean some of the best times were just sitting there watching them.

John: And I also love when Gina gets to do this, when she gets to do the lean forward hook.

Christine: Oh, man.

John: Because a lot of times she's playing slightly bitter characters, so she can't play the physical intimacy.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: I remember when we did the pilot, and she did the similar thing to Saul Rubinek.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Who of course has been acting for ages. Saul is one of the best actors I've ever seen in my life.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And we broke and walked over and Saul was leaning against the railing. I said, “You ok?” He went, “You have no idea what it's like to have the full force of that woman's attention.”

[Laughter]

John: “I just- I need a moment.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: She's great in this.

Christine: You know, we know why she's the greatest grifter, this is why. And these two. Hilarious.

John: Always hilarious. You cannot go wrong with a Hardison/Eliot scene. Oh and the little throwaway- by the way, this is nice, too, because it's not bickering.

Christine: Right.

John: You know.

Christine: They are working together, and-

John: If you go back and look at the season, you can see that to a great degree, their relationship has evolved.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And when they’re arguing, it’s because Hardison, quite frankly, is doing something stupid or dangerous.

Christine: Right.

John: All Eliot wants to do-

Christine: Well Eliot cares about him!

John: Eliot has wanted to have one job: keep all of these idiots alive.

Christine: Right.

John: That's it. It's just- keep them alive until they get- you know, until they are finished with the con.

Christine: He is the rational center.

[Laughter]

John: Eliot has the best sense of judgment on the crew. I say this constantly. Nate Ford is not good at escape plans.

Christine: No.

John: No. Eliot has the hardest job on the crew.

Christine: Parker can escape, but you know, by herself.

John: This is why I know, by the way, it’s you and I doing this because we're such writer geeks, we’re not really talking about the actors as much as we do on the other ones.

Christine: I know! We really should be!

[Laughter]

John: It's like right now in the internal life of the character.

Christine: Right! So. No, but I will say the Hardison/Eliot stuff- it was nice to have Millicent there. She's directed so many different, you know, various things, but she's also directed a lot of 30 Rock. That helped.

John: Yeah.

Christine: The kinda comic pacing and timing, It worked with the boys’ sensibilities. We had a nice fun set, and stuff moved along at a nice clip. Which is good considering it was a breakneck schedule.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah it's always a break- yeah, it's always horrible.

Christine: As usual, it's a breakneck schedule.

John: No, if you were to play this whole scene back to back it'd be- it’s an act!

Christine: Yeah.

John: It's almost an entire act, isn't it?

Christine: You look at me like I should be surprised at that.

John: Yeah, it's like a ten page scene.

Christine: I am not surprised at all! [Laughs]

John: And now the we think things have gone horribly wrong.

Christine: Janet Penner, she's lovely! Lovely local actress

John: Who's that? I'm sorry?

Christine: Janet Penner, local actress who was wonderful, and imperious in ways. Just, you know, yeah, she scared me.

John: Where do we come up with this twist, that she knew her? I'm trying to remember-

Christine: Well, we had talked about- it’s coming off of the Jimmy Papodakalis thing we'd been talking about earlier that, you know, they've got these personas. 

John: Yeah.

Christine: And to get that deep into a grift-

John: Yeah.

Christine: You know, she'd been running this-

John: Sophie was the long con.

Christine: For a long time. Yeah.

John: Exactly.

Christine: This is a long con.

John: And this is also something that- this is some backstory Gina had given me first year.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Gina has an entire Sophie backstory in her head. And we talked about how actors prepare, you know, Gina had the backstory. Beth has a little bit, Eliot has a very- Christain has a very detailed backstory. Hardison has a little bit. Tim, it’s very organic, he kinda plays it every year.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And fills in the backstory as he wants to evolve the character. Again, t-shirt really? That warm in that hotel room?

Christine: Uhh, look at all the work he's doing. 

John: Yeah? Really?

Christine: Yes.

John: Good to know. 

Christine: It's England. The AC doesn't work there. Also it’s winter.

John: I didn't know that. Huh.

[Laughter]

Christine: This hotel because it's very old, and it's hot.

John: Oh wow, good way to fill it in.

Christine: It’s not wired for that.

John: I'm just saying.

Christine: You know.

John: If I put Beth in an outfit like that, I’d-

Christine: I would like- exhibit A, Beth's outfit.

John: Oh, there you go.

[Laughter]

John: What's always also fun is we don't often play a Parker and Eliot versus Hardison scene.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's usually the other way around.

Christine: That was fun.

John: Yeah, it was a lot of fun just realizing he's a little overinvested. And the big thumbs up! I love the big thumbs up.

Christine: Oh man, hilarious. The IV pole with ink made me laugh so hard.

[Laughter]

Christine: That was a lot of fun to put together.

John: That was great set dec, that was really nice.

Christine: Oh man, they're great.

John: And now a big giant bombshell about Sophie's past; this was a lot of fun.

Christine: In a big giant hat as well. You had to have some big giant hats, or else this whole episode wouldn’t work.

John: Seriously, it's just- this thing is one long-

[Laughter]

John: Working at your subconscious in one long thing in this episode. And now we mention that we both plant the Moreau, remind people about Moreau, also I plant San Lorenzo.

Christine: Yes.

John: Which is important.

Christine: All leading up to the explosive finale.

John: The explos- wow. That- you really sounded like an announcer.

Christine: [Laughs] I can do a sound bite, I can do it.

John: There you go. I love how Tim’s playing this revelation. He's not being judgemental-

Christine: No.

John: But he's finally- he's got a giant chess set in his head of trying to put together Sophie's life, and this falls in.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: You know. It was tricky to figure out how to make sure it wasn't her name. And it was actually Gina who gave us the answer.

Christine: Yes, absolutely. And this is why you have to have intelligent actors to work with, who can participate.

John: Because we had this great bit and it was all “How do we write around her never saying her real name?”

Christine: Right.

John: And it was all this sort of dancing, and then Gina said, “Well it’s my stage name.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, she met me when I was an actress, and-

Christine: It's perfect.

John: Thank you so much.

Christine: And there was a lot of discussion about the lines of succession, and the royal houses, and yes, ours are a little bit- these are the royal houses in the Leverage-verse.

[Laughter]

John: Yes. There was a slight- there was a slight hiccup in the Edwardian succession that really- 

[Laughter]

John: It changed the Leverage-verse history slightly. Also zeppelins. Which you don't usually see cause we don't shoot the sky.

Christine: Yes. Also steampowered things.

John: This is- Leverage-verse is a little steampunk.

Christine: It is a little steampunk-y.

John: You hear- you see the great thing I heard the other day I put it on the- steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.

Christine: Ohhh, wow.

[Laughter]

Christine: That's fantastic. 

John: Great- is that another white scarf? That is gorgeous.

Christine: Yeah, look how nice.

John: That is a great outfit.

Christine: Look how nice. He really, you know, he just looked great. [Laughs] Between takes I'm like, “Tim, beautiful.”

John: I know.

Christine: Beautiful. He enjoyed wearing nice clothes.

John: And then we had the full- this one, again, could be two episodes crammed into one.

Christine: I don't know what youre talking about. [Laughs]

John: We do a thing at the airport, and then we do a blown con, and then we do a hook-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And we forge an antiquity, and now we steal an auction.

Christine: Right.

John: And we’re in act three.

Christine: Yes. I mean we bury the real bait inside the thing.

[Laughter]

John: Yes, exactly. No, and it was a lot of fun too, was coming up with the way that fourth act paid off.

Christine: Yes, brilliant.

John: That was nice.

Christine: That was- that was-

John: We’ve been wanting to do that for a while- well we'd been wanting to do that for a while, because Russian icons always kinda fascinate me.

Christine: Yes.

John: The idea of art that doesn't look like art.

Christine: Oh, is this something you're obsessed with?

[Laughter]

John: No not obsessed, just I have a big-

Christine: Super interested in.

John: Chris Downey calls it my big doctor's bag of bullshit.

[Laughter]

John: I have a giant doctor's bag of just random stuff that I've picked up from being odd. I also love that- just the- him drying it.

Christine: Oh man, manicure dryer.

John: The manicure dryer. Great bit.

Christine: They- the props, oh my god it's just- oh my god. Props and set dec working together to create genius in that whole sequence.

John: And that's great, all you have to do is pan across one- just one car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and you're in London.

Christine: That’s all you need, you're in London, look at these toughs.

John: And having been to London, by the way, yeah that's pretty much what it looks like.

Christine: I mean, Portland giveth.

John: Portland giveth. I also love the- this is kind of a callback to the overly loquacious villain in The Future Job.

Christine: Little bit.

John: A little bit.

Christine: Little bit. [Laughs] A little bit.

John: This may be related to, occasionally, when I drink the room I go into the villain speeches.

Christine: Yes, and they're long!

[Laughter]

John: They're long. They're long villain speeches. I think villains have rich internal lives.

Christine: Also, we like British thug movies. We like these kind of, you know-

John: Yes, exactly, this is where the show becomes snatched. Just for like-

Christine: A little bit.

John: This side of it.

Christine: Kinda love that.

John: Also we got the ‘very distinctive’ joke back.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Which I always love. 

Christine: Yeah, that worked out really well. And Ollie and Christain had a good time with those-

John: Yeah.

Christine: With all those takes and- hilarious for us.

[Laughter]

John: And now the stall. It's tricky, it's one of those things where the audience- television is tricky in that shows really are- the fates of shows- you generally know what's gonna happen in a show. And so trying to figure out how to create obstacles without them being schmut bait.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, is it a stall? Is it really something going wrong?

Christine: And there are moments that just rest entirely on Sophie's ability to charm the pants off of him.

John: Yes.

Christine: And it works!

John: It works, absolutely. Yeah, and then she drops back into the other character. No, it's lovely.

Christine: Just so easily.

[Silence]

John: We’re doing that thing where we just watch the episode.

Christine: Yeah, it's really good, right?

[Laughter]

John: I hate when that happens.

Christine: Ah, I love that angle, and this.

John: Yeah and this.

[Laughter]

Christine: Also fun.

John: Honing door rule by the way - if we can avoid it, we never show Parker arriving in a scene.

Christine: Right, she appears like a sprite.

John: Ye- like a sprite? Really? I was gonna say ghost or wraith-

Christine: Sprite! Sprite’s are terrifying.

John: This was fantastic!

Christine: Oh.

John: We had like a whole mini con set up, and- how did we- how did that happen?

Christine: Ok, that was a joke- you know what? That's my husband's joke.

[Laughter]

Christine: That's weird! Yeah, it was a joke that Eric and I-

John: We should say Chrisitne got married, like, three days ago.

Christine: I got married a couple days ago, yeah. It's a joke Eric and I had thrown back and forth, and I believe he had made to you. We were having dinner with Wil Wheaton one night, and he made that joke in the parking lot.

John: That's right.

Christine: And we had been bantering it back and forth and then I'm going over the script and I thought, “Ooh, right here!” And he said, “Yeah, use it! Do it!” I said, “Wait, is that somebody else's?” He said, “No, I think that's ours! Or mine! Or somebody’s!”

John: All good things come from Wil Wheaton.

Christine: So there you go, yeah.

John: There you go. So if you wanna write, Wil Wheaton.

Christine: Go have dinner with Wil Wheaton, and he will inspire you to great jokes.

John: And if he says he's busy, just don't listen to him. Just break into his house and have dinner with him and good things will happen.

[Laughter]

Christine: He’ll love- he’ll respond to that.

John: This was a ton of fun.

Christine: Oh man [Laughs]

John: This came out of the original scene where she said, “Ooh, the last time I saw you was in The Louvre.”

Christine: Right!

John: The idea of Parker doing an auction of stuff that she at some point had her hands on? Lovely.

Christine: And it comes back to, you know, the theme of these are objects you can touch. These are objects that she has touched and moved at some point.

John: Well, it- also we had talked about the idea, we had had to create Parker's living space for episode five, and the idea that just in the darkness past that, there's just piles of this stuff!

[Laughter]

Christine: Yeah!

John: She has priceless artifacts sitting in a warehouse in Boston.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Because she likes having them.

Christine: That's right, why not?

John: And then we wound up paying it off in Ho Ho Ho when that's the stuff she hangs on the Christmas tree.

Christine: They do pay off the storage units.

John: We do, the storage units-

Christine: Full payoffs.

John: I have a storage unit, so I know how-

Christine: So do I.

John: Oh you have a storage unit now?

Christine: I do. I'm a married woman now; I have a storage unit.

John: Exactly, had to move all your stuff.

Christine: How else to lure the young unsuspecting-

John: No, don't! Don't go there!

[Laughter]

Christine: Boxes of comic books! Into your storage unit!

John: Oh, I was thinking of another one.

Christine: Oh.

John: And I love- you know what? We talk about the different moods of the actors, Aldis’s ability to make Hardison convey that no one appreciates he's a genius is just great.

Christine: Ohh.

John: It's my favorite recurring bit on the show. That's a great shot, by the way.

Christine: Ooh, ooh, great shot.

John: That's a gorgeous shot. 

Christine: Sexy. Wow.

John: I wouldn't have thought of that shot in a million years, that's really nice that light coming through.

Christine: She really uses the room, and she and Dave Connell worked really well together to design these shots.

John: Also a good reminder that Hardison is not necessarily the most athletic guy in the world.

Christine: Right.

[Laughter]

Christine: He looks really good, but he's not out there running all day long like Eliot is.

John: He's not- yeah. 

Christine: Finding the right pair of glasses, that was a lot of fun..

John: Yeah.

Christine: Some were too insanely comic, some were too serious, these were perfect.

John: And his frustration- just take the damn thing! I'm sick of your toying!

Christine: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, and that's, you know, one of the reasons I think he wants to- that character wants to run his own crew is he’s sick of, you know, he's sick of being unappreciated.

Christine: Mhhm absolutely. Well it's- when you're the youngest person in a group, it can be- it can be difficult.

John: Yeah. And the little tap, the little little push, yeah paying off the NLP and the other stuff. This was great.

Christine: Oh, he's lovely.

John: Casting- how is he referred to in the script?

Christine: [Laughs] What did we call him? Pretentious…something?

John: Yes, he's like eurotrash.

Christine: I- he said, “How do I play it?” I said, “Like a Whit Stillman character.” And not a lot of people knew who I was talking about.

[Laughter]

Christine: Cause he's quite young, this actor.

John: The pink shirt really lands it.

Christine: The pink shirt really, yeah. And he was lovely.

John: And then again, the same thing, trying to create an obstacle in order to-

Christine: American fop?

John: American fop! I think it was that.

Christine: I think it was American fop.

John: And this was interesting, too, one of those things where we were trying to figure out- we had to have a problem during the auction, and so why would there be a problem? Well, we had to create one, we had to create an obstacle for the other character, which meant we had to create parameters. Parameters gave us the $250,000. 

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's amazing how much you work backwards.

Christine: Yeah.

John: You know, you work backwards from the conflict, and come up with the rules for the conflict and around the most interesting version.

Christine: And then it feels like the most natural thing in the world. 

John: Yeah.

Christine: Which is a great moment. Many scotches later.

[Laughter]

John: Many scotches.

Christine: Oh the storage unit!

John: Mostly Irish whiskey this year. Ah, the storage unit. And again, this was fun because really trying to figure out- we had originally broken this to be on the docks.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then when budgetary constraints said perhaps we could not go and fake up the docks of London, we went back to the ending of the season one finale, where we established that she had the storage unit and that she was- it was one of many.

Christine: Yeah, why wouldn't she have many all over the place?

John: Yeah.

Christine: Smells the book.

John: We use all the parts of the buffalo.

[Laughter]

John: And the little bit of joy there. The little- the victory lap, yeah.

Christine: He made that from nothing!

[Laughter]

Christine: It is one of my favorite things I've ever written if I do say so, was the “I have gone from apprentice to journeyman to master.” And he did such a good job [Laughs] on that!

John: He really did.

Christine: Cause it was the- it felt very analogous to the writer's career.

John: Well, it was very- he really dug in on the mania of it.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then Sophie being left behind. Now-

Christine: Yeah.

John: I always wondered, did we- was an integral part of the con? No, he bailed on her.

Christine: No, he bails on her. Cause, I mean, you know, scorpion’s a scorpion.

John: Yeah. Exactly.

Christine: [Laughs] Always count on a scorpion to be a scorpion.

John: Also, I remember we had a long discussion about exactly what- how she would feel about this moment. I mean, on one hand, it's getting her off the hook, on the other hand, it's kinda a painful reminder exactly why she became a grifter.

Christine: Absolutely. And that's the part I wanted to deal with, was the latter. Because this persona’s taken a lot of beatings.

John: Yeah.

Christine: She had a hard time with this. With this long con, and revisiting it is not something I think she thought she would ever do.

John: Yeah. And that's the mistake you make, you get too close to Eliot with a gun.

Christine: Mhhm. Oh, oh sad.

John: And the out. You can never go wrong on an act out with a guy drawing a gun.

Christine: Take the gun out!

John: Now, he's drawing on Eliot so we all know how this is gonna end. But the fun was coming up with a creative way to beat the hell out of three guys.

Christine: Oh, yes.

John: Belt fu! First time we've done belt fu.

[Laughter]

Christine: Belt fu!

John: First time we've done that. That was-

Christine: But he does try to explain first. [Laughs]

John: Yes it's like he’s- actually grown to like this guy-

Christine: Yeah!

John: And would prefer not to beat the hell out of him.

Christine: They have a professional respect, but you know, the job’s gotta be done. There you go.

John: Yeah. And the belt!

Christine: Mhhm.

John: This came out of, I think, the big bag of old Jackie Chan writing.

Christine: This was- yeah. Mhhm

John: This- I think we use this on a Jackie Chan animated episode.

[Laughter]

John: I think I went in there. No, this is a great fight actually. And the snap! That's gotta hurt.

Christine: Oh man. And it's funny. I do say that action’s not my strong suit, but fights I love.

John: You do love a good fight. 

Christine: I love fights.

John: Well, you know, what if they had swords, you'd be the happiest girl in the world.

Christine: Absolutely! Well ‘cause fights are about character.

John: Yes.

Christine: Fights are all about character.

John: How someone fights, how they handle the geography, the choices they make-

Christine: Absolutely.

John: How they escalate violence. It's one of the things we talk about with Eliot, we never try to give him just a fight scene, he always has an attitude on the fight scene.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And hoisted by your own petard, sir.

Christine: Ohhh

John: Hoisted by your own petard.

Christine: Basil Harris, local actor, nice guy.

John: Oh yeah, no really- nice guy, nice performance.

Christine: Yeah, he's really good, right? But he's really-

John: And this looks sufficiently different from the other airport.

Christine: Look at that! This was late at night. [Laughs]

John: How late?

Christine: Very late.

John: Yeah. We tend to go a little late.

Christine: Those were late days.

John: No, coming up with- it’s interesting, it's one of the recurring themes of the show- that's me rubbing my face, by the way, cause my voice went weird cause lord, I'm tired of doing this.

[Christine Laughs]

John: Is how you move stuff.

Christine: Yeah.

John: How you move stuff- when we did Rashomon Job, at one point we had four little paper cups with different things simulating the object moving around.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: You know, it's a lot like- it is- you know what? That's why, I suppose you watched Jonathan Creek, it’s like a magic trick.

Christine: It's a magic trick, yeah.

John: It’s a magic trick. And no, it's a lot like designing a magic trick from the ground up.

Christine: Yeah. 

John: And-

Christine: And again, it's the physical object of it all.

John: Yeah. And we talk about this actually on another commentary when we did Scheherazade Job, it’s like when you do a high concept episode, you need- when you do a heisty episode, you need something you can hold.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: Like it was diamonds for that one. You need very clean simple goals.

Christine: Mhhm. The audience can track.

John: Alright, this actually- you wrote this.

[Laughter]

John: At a ridiculous time of night. At a ridiculous time, and you wrote the whole, “What's all this, then?”

Christine: “What's all this, then?” Come on, I did that on purpose!

John: Which- on purpose. And you gave me the draft and I laughed my ass off. I'm like, “Now you're screwed, cause it's staying in.”

Christine: Of course!

John: And is the classic Monty Python- that is the classic 1930s stage show arrival of the cops.

Christine: Of course!

John: Really mandatory.

Christine: Absolutely mandatory.

John: For the arrival of the police.

Christine: I write to make you laugh, sir.

John: Thank you.

Christine: I write to entertain you. Look! Look, she's ok!

John: She's being reunited with this lovely- her aunt and uncle.

Christine: She's gonna go live in New jersey!

John: Oh that's great.

Christine: It's fine!

John: She's got an education, maybe go to Stanford.

Christine: Aww, that's great!

John: She's got a beautiful future because-

Christine: She's gonna go fight for women's rights in the middle east, it's gonna be wonderful!

John: Exactly, because of our horribly immoral, immoral, crew.

[Laughter]

Christine: Yay bad guys! Who are good guys! Yay!

John: Yay!

Christine: Also-

John: It gets a little fuzzy at the end of the season this year.

Christine: Having Eliot speak Arabic, super hot. On a list of hot things.

John: It's interesting-

Christine: Languages you didn't know they knew, but you assume they knew.

John: Always interesting doing the commentaries with a female writer. 

[Laughter]

John: There's a lot of stuff I didn't know we did just cause it was hot.

Christine: The ladies do things that are super hot.

John: No, no, I'm very scrupulous.

Christine: Everything Gina does in this episode is hot.

John: Yes, but that's because she's hot. That just happens.

Christine: Yes, correct.

John: No, this is a great walk away and a great acknowledgement of- and the great ‘Screw you that you don't really know my name.’

Christine: Mhhm. Millicent came into, you know, she was- it was her first episode, she directed the hell out of this.

John: Oh I could not be happier. This feels- and there's- yeah, she's actually handling the dog tags!

Christine: Mhhm. yes.

John: There, which are- which do not- which are blank. And we wound up- although the audience doesn't know they are blank, the crew does. It's interesting she was actually playing to the cast at that moment, not the characters. We wound up writing it into the Ho Ho Ho Job, because Gina came up with the idea that she wears blank dog tags so we wrote it into an episode.

Christine: That's great.

John: Great. This is the only time I think ever, other than the two part season finale, we hint at the next episode.

Christine: Mhhm. That was fun hinging-

John: Yeah. There was a lot of- there’s advantages to serialization, you're always tempted, it just carries momentum forward. I love Parker's smile at the end of that. That’s-

Christine: That was a lot of fun!

John: That was your last episode for this season.

Christine: That was my last episode for the season.

John: You did a great job.

Christine: It was a fun season.

John: I hope you enjoyed that. This is John Rogers.

Christine: This is Christine Boylan!

John: And stay tuned to put another DVD in, because it is a lot more, including explosions.

Christine: A lot more.

[milkiane]

hope ur ok; rafe cameron

» address the letters, to the holes in my butterfly wings.

SOUR COLLECTION

summary: a box from the past and a walk through memory lane made you realize that a lot of things changed, but no one would ever replace the boy that still held a special place in your heart.

warnings: profanities, mention of spider lol??, rafe’s full name is rafael because mama likey, mentions of food & alcoholic beverages, no obx 2 spoilers!!

word count: 4765

“hey, y/n?”

you looked up from your phone as you heard the sound of your mother’s voice. she has been rummaging through her drawers for a solid few minutes now, and she still hasn’t found whatever she was looking for. “yeah, mom?”

“do you have some envelopes i could use?” she asked, wiping the sweat that formed on her forehead. “i just need to send something important, and i couldn’t find any.”

“i think so. i’ll go check my room,” you offered as you hopped down the stool.

“please,” she sighed, though an appreciative smile graced her lips, “thanks, hon.”

you hummed, running up the stairs to your room. you pushed the door open, and your nose wrinkled at the sight of your messy room.

you needed to do some cleaning -- and soon.

you went through your study table, your folder organizers, and under your bed, but you never found them anywhere. you swore you had them in here somewhere.

you grabbed the ottoman from your bedside and placed it in front of your open closet. even with the added height, it was still too low for you to reach the top, because you had to blindly pat around for something.

you managed to grab a hold of a box and a packet, which you assumed were the envelopes. you pulled them both from their confined place, but as soon as you brought them down, you let out a scream at the sight of the spider on top of the envelopes.

the ottoman rocked from the sudden movement, which resulted in you falling off with a loud thump.

“fuck,” you cursed, watching as the spider crawled away.

“are you okay?” your mom called out as you eyed the familiar shoebox that cracked open from the fall. “did you find the envelopes?”

“yeah…” you trailed off, eyeing the contents of the box as you pulled it towards you. “and more.”

“what was that?”

“nothing!” you exclaimed, grabbing the packet and handing it to her. “here’s the envelopes.”

“thanks, y/n,” she said as she placed a kiss on the side of your head before waving you off.

you walked back to where the box was, and you ran a finger through the numerous designs that it adorned. from stickers to doodles, the sight brought a smile to your face.

you looked through the entirety of its contents; photos, letters, movie stubs, receipts, and old drawings. it all brought you a wave of nostalgia and heartache.

there are a myriad of polaroids of you and rafe, each tugging a string of your heart. the photos did not only capture the raw bliss of the both of you, but also the story behind it.

the movie stubs and receipts from friendly date nights slowly faded away from age, but it still held a value that only you and him would ever appreciate.

and the love letters that were creased and folded from being reread time and time again. you grazed your thumb over the rumpled texture of one of the letters, ‘open this as soon as you get on the plane’.

dear y/n/n,

in this letter contains the words i was too afraid of telling you, so if you’ve managed to get a hold of this sap, then i probably chickened out.

in all honesty, no words can describe how much you mean to me. but for you, i’ll try to muster up all the right ones.

y/n, you’ve given me a new meaning to my existence and i couldn’t imagine a life without you in it. if anyone was going to ask me, i’d say that you and i were made to be together— forever, wherever that may be. you, and loving you was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me. you have a very special place in my heart, and no one could ever replace that, be it in this lifetime, or any other lifetime.

so you moving out of the obx will never change the way i feel about you. we’ve been friends for too long and if this letter will somewhat be the reason why it’d be ruined, good thing you’re miles away from me haha :’)

— and if not, by any means, if you like me, too, then i’ll give you my word and promise that i’ll wait for you. no matter how long that may be, i’ll wait for you.

love,

rafael.

P.S. the writing classes dad (forcefully) made me join finally came in handy ;)

you let out a watery chuckle, no matter how many times you’ve read it, the words of rafe cameron always got to you.

you sighed, delicately putting everything back in the box as you leaned against the side of your bed. you looked up at your ceiling, which adorned a few glow-in-the-dark stars that he also gave you.

you wonder how he’s doing.

it was just another evening for the cameron family, but instead of having dinner at home where their personal chefs could cook something up for them in at least an hour or two, ward made them dress up for the dinner reservation he made at the new fancy brasserie.

and they were gracious enough to invite you along.

when rafe came to pick you up, the both of you burst out laughing at the sight of your coincidentally matching attires. once the laughter died down, he offered you a stem of rose he plucked out of, well, rose’s garden on the way out.

rafe took a separate car from his family, opting out as soon as he was given the opportunity. he’d rather scream the lyrics of a trashy pop song with you than sit in silence with his family in the limousine.

the trip to the brasserie was fun and short-lived, and the both of you had to switch characters from young and blithe to mature and professional in a matter of seconds. and what bothers you the most is that it’s his family.

no one should be feeling tense and antsy around their family.

but you’ve been welcomed to their family long before rose even entered the picture, and you knew how ward cameron was. he cared more about their money and reputation on this small island than being good to their own child-- unless you’re sarah.

when the both of you arrived, the waiter led you to where they already were. an unamused expression on his father’s face as he saw you both arrive a little bit later than they did.

“now that they’re finally here, can we please get those menus?” ward asked the waiter, who awkwardly distributed the laminated folders and backed away to list your orders.

you ordered the meal you deemed adequate for yourself and waited as the others cited theirs.

“uhh, can i have the smoked chicken quesadillas with the side dish of shrimp scampi?” rafe stated, looking up from the menu.

“oh, can i have what he’s having, too, please?” sarah smiled, placing the menu down.

the waiter pursed his lips, before speaking up, “i’m sorry, but i’m afraid only one of you could have it, unless all of you are willing to wait another hour for the quesadillas?”

ward sighed and turned to look at his son, a stern look on his face. “rafe, how about you be the best brother there is and let your sister have it?”

rafe scowled but nodded nevertheless as he muttered under his breath, “always sarah, it’s always sarah.”

you placed a comforting hand on his knee as you frowned at the older man a few seats across from you. “your dad’s being stupid, you can just share with me.”

“shut up, y/n.” he gritted his teeth, moving his leg away from you to withdraw the hand you placed on his knee. “don’t talk about him like that.”

you opened your mouth to say something but decided against it as you took notice of his clenched fists and hard expression.

the rest of dinner was tense as rose tried to keep the atmosphere light, but she should’ve known better not to try. rafe’s mood only worsened as soon as ward talked about business and sarah’s choices for her future.

his hand kept fidgeting, and you slowly placed yours on top of him. he tipped his head to look at you, and you offered him a small smile as you finished your food with your hand intertwined with his.

when rafe dropped you back at your house, he pulled you into a hug and apologized.

“i’m sorry for snapping at you, y/n/n,” he sighed, resting his chin on top of your head. “you know how i feel about my dad. he’s not the best dad out there, but he’s still my dad…”

“yeah, i understand.” your words were slightly muffled into his dress shirt.

rafe doesn’t know where he’d be without you. he felt as though he was slowly starting to lose himself under the pressure of his father and always wanting to be worthy of his attention. despite having everything, it’s still not as much as what his sister gets.

and he’s not talking about the money, but it’s about the love and support that his father constantly showers her with.

you slowly walked down the stairs as you gripped the newly folded parchment in your hand.

you approached your mom and watched as she hastily penned something you couldn’t quite fathom. “hey mom?”

“can i have one?” you asked as you pulled an envelope out of its packet.

“yes, sure,” she murmured, doing a once-over at her work before turning to you. “do you want me to bring that to the post office, too?”

you nodded, writing down the important details on top of the envelope before passing it to her. “thanks, mom.”

rafe cameron

#68 vespucci st., tannyhill, obx. north carolina.

butterfly mailbox.

to rafe,

hey, long time no talk.

i just came across the shoebox filled with the things we kept back in the obx -- brought me too much feels. i don’t know if you’ll write back, but i do hope so. i missed you so much, i have so many things to tell you.

i don’t know if i’ll see you again someday, but if you’re out there, i hope that you’re okay!

all the love,

y/n.

rafe didn’t know what else to do. it was a nice afternoon out, but he wasn’t in the mood to spend his time outside so he declined the plans that he had with topper and kelce.

everything was the same every day, anyway.

he sighed, walking towards the balcony to breathe in some fresh air, having been cooped up in his room for hours now. he watched as kids raced on their new shiny bikes across the street, their laughter filling in his ears.

rafe furrowed his eyebrows as he eyed the mailman approaching the mailbox that he hadn’t touched in months. his confusion grew as the mailman shook his head with the same confusion.

he sauntered down the stairs, earning a cheer from wheezie, who was residing on the couch. he ignored her and went straight outside.

rafe didn’t know if he even wanted to open it.

the mailbox that he stood in front of was assembled by you and him when you were both sixteen. the mellow white box that adorned the painted butterfly wings and both your initials were slowly fading from age.

he slowly pulled on the mantle, his face falling at the sight of what was contained inside. he grabbed every single letter that was sealed and delivered but never read.

rafe went back into his house as he shuffled through each envelope, a soft smile gracing his lips despite the heavy feeling in his heart.

06/08/20

to rafey,

guess you did like me after all, you sap! and don’t worry, i like you, too.

life in new york is… new haha but seriously, it’s a big change, and i’m still trying to get used to everything. it’s weird not having you around, i miss you too much. didn’t think i’d miss you pissing me off every second of the day, but well, here i am.

take care of yourself for me, won’t you? and be nice to your sisters, you’re still their brother at the end of the day, and believe me or not, they love you just as much as i do.

hope you’re not missing me too much!

xx y/n

06/09/20

to rafael,

mom said i had to attend pre-college next week! can you believe that? i mean, it’s just like a seminar and how life in uni is but like- :/

anyway, i don’t know if you’re getting my letters, but it’s only been a day since the last one so i’m not that worried.

i miss you! please write back <3

- y/n

06/15/20

rafe!

hey there, kook. you know, i can’t believe we’re caring too much about the whole kook v. pogue fiasco back at home. there’s a whole new world beyond the obx, and it amazes me that no one really cares about whatever’s going on with other people’s lives.

i’m going to attend the seminar tomorrow, wish me luck aaaa

hope you aren’t getting into trouble, rafael.

write back soon!

y/n

06/21/20

hey rafe,

it’s been at least a few days since the last letter, sorry for not writing.

i don’t even know if you’re getting this, or if it got lost in the post, but i need you to write back, please.

i haven’t been feeling my best these past few days, it’s so hard making friends here at uni. i kinda miss having you by my side, my personal guard dog haha

missing you as always,

y/n

06/22/20

rafe!!

i made a new friend! her name’s ves. well, not really, but she told me to call her that. she’s cool-- chaotic. somewhat like me haha i think you’ll get along with her.

i hope you’re doing well <3

xoxo, y/n.

P.S. did you see the envelope? i drew a wolf in class ‘cause i remembered you. still can’t believe that your name means wolf, now stupid, little me can’t help but remember you whenever someone mentions a wolf.

06/24/20

rafeyy

our professor assigned us our first project and i honestly can’t wait to start it.

have you been receiving these letters or are you keeping them to yourself? i think you forget that you have to write back, too.

y/n <3

06/30/20

rafael cameron,

i have so much to tell you! so today the bell rang (well, duh) which means my eng lit class was over and i was packing my things up, right? and then the professor called me and said that i should stay back for a while because she wanted to talk to me. so i agreed, of course, and i was so fucking nervous. i tried to think of something that i did that could possibly upset her, and i couldn’t think of anything as the class walked out for their next class.

and when she finally called me, you wouldn’t believe what she just asked me!! she offered me an internship at this company her husband worked for. she told me that she loves my written works and how i had a way with my words, so she showed it to her husband, who showed his boss and i guess you’re talking to an intern at adornia now!! omg

sorry i realized that i rambled, but i was just so excited to tell you!

write back, rafael, i need to know what’s going on in that kooky life of yours.

lotsa love,

y/n :)<3

P.S. i just realized how many letters i’ve written to you, there’s at least 6/20 envelopes left.

07/23/20

hi rafe,

haven’t written to you in a while, but to be fair, you haven’t written back either.

how are you? your sisters? i also miss them.

a month into uni and i’m… hanging in there. i feel homesick every day.

lots of love,

y/n.

07/28/20

i miss you, i still like you.

08/06/20

write back, please.

rafe let out a shaky breath as he held the most recent and last one in his hands. it was different from the rest. it lacked the usual goofy doodles and colorful fine liners. it was just… plain and sophisticated.

he took his time reading it, taking in your handwriting and the slight smudges on the paper. he let out a heavy sigh as he finished it, looking through the envelope to see one of the few polaroids you sent him.

you were balanced on his shoulders, his hands gripping on your thighs as you had a hold on his hair. the both of you had goofy smiles on your faces, a cowboy hat on top of your head. yeehaw, cowboy! was sloppily written at the bottom, no doubt his handwriting.

rafe stared at the letters for a few more seconds, a few of them were wet, and he had a hard time deciphering the words written on them.

truthfully, he never expected you to write to him. the only reason he had the mailbox was because you pretended to be pen pals when you were younger, even though your houses were not less than a five minute walk away.

he’s given you his number with the usernames of his socials, and he kept guard of his phone ever since, expecting you to pop up in his notifs with a text or a reaction to the farewell letter he gave you.

but it never came.

and it took him months to accept that you wouldn’t give him a call or text.

rafe realized that you must’ve been feeling the same disappointment and chagrin as he did when he never wrote back to you, and he felt bad for never checking the mailbox.

he laid in his bed wondering how you’ve been doing the past few months you’ve lost touch. sure, he got the smallest glimpse through your letters, but he knew you, and he knew that there was something much bigger than what you’ve chosen to share.

he’s wondering if you knew how proud he is of you, not just your accomplishments, but you. he’s so proud of the person you’ve become.

but why would he spend time wondering about everything and anything when he can just find out for himself?

friday game nights with you was rafe’s favorite night.

he brought out the classic monopoly from the board room and plopped down next to you on the living room’s carpeted floor.

as rafe arranged the pieces by its respectable places, you leaned back on your arms and took in the familiar surroundings of his home.

your eyes settled at the childish drawing on top of the fireplace’s mantelpiece. an amused smile grew on your lips, which your best friend immediately took notice of.

“what are you smiling at, you idiot?” he asked as he looked at you oddly. the piece in his hand hovering over the board.

you lifted a finger up to show him what you were staring at. “who drew that?”

rafe rolled his eyes, going back to fixing the game as the frown on his lips deepened. “sarah.”

you hummed, eyebrows slightly furrowed as you wondered, “where’s yours?”

“what?”

“your drawings.” you shrugged, finally helping him with the last few parts. “i doubt you don’t have any.”

he sighed, running a hand through his hair as he let you finish it up. “i dunno, probably hidden under sarah’s. always been.”

you stood up from the floor and walked towards the frames, grabbing each of them that contained sarah’s drawings.

rafe had a panicked look on his face as he watched you grab them from its place. “what are you doing?”

you ignored him and sat back on your original place, unlatching the locks from behind the frame.

and surely enough, there were drawings hidden. every art work of rafe’s had been signed by younger him with a sloppy signature, and it brought a huge smile on your face. “i’ll keep them.”

“what?” rafe asked in disbelief, staring at you as you delicately placed his drawings in a pile for you to keep.

“i’ll keep them.” you repeated, putting back the frames where you found them, and returned beside him. “are we gonna start this game, or what?”

at that very moment, rafe was sure of one thing: he liked you.

wheezie watched in amusement as her brother started to rummage through every cabinet and drawer for something. he even looked under the couch’s cushions, dumbly enough.

“do you… need anything?” she finally asked, arms crossed as she looked at her brother for an explanation as to why he’s close to wrecking the whole house just to find whatever he was looking for.

“yeah,” he nodded. “envelopes, you got any?”

“jeez, is your ego really that big that you couldn’t have asked me that in the first place?” she muttered, her face scrunching up at the sight of her brother’s bored expression. “yes, it’s in my room.”

as soon as rafe was handed the packet of envelopes, he unwittingly planted a sloppy kiss on his sister’s cheek, which made the both of them freeze.

“don’t tell anyone i did that or i’ll wipe your whole face off.” rafe threatened, shooting her a menacing glare before rushing back to his room.

“it’s not like i’d ever tell anyone about that.” wheezie shuddered, wiping the slobber off her cheek.

rafe drove down to the post office with the sealed letter stuck to his hand. his mind filled with the thoughts of you and the letters that he didn’t even realize that he arrived until he parked the car.

before he could enter the small building, his eye caught the sight of a flower shop across the street, making him pause and draw a decision to enter it.

so back in the post office, instead of just a letter that was long overdue, rafe also had a bouquet of your favorite flowers.

“hi, i’d like to get this rush-delivered to this address,” he said politely as he slid the card with your address across the counter. “preferably now so the flowers will still be fresh.”

the clerk he was talking to frowned at his request, “i’m sorry, mr. cameron, but i’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to get this delivered to new york as you wished. our trucks are filled to the brim until tomorrow.”

rafe blew out a low whistle and grabbed the wallet from his pocket. he pulled out three hundred dollars and discreetly slid it towards him. “take this, and have it delivered today.”

his frown only deepened and declined the offer. “it’s all honest work here, mr. cameron, i’m sorry, but you’d have to wait until tomorrow.”

“fine, i’ll take matters into my own hands, then,” he huffed in annoyance and shoved the money back into his pocket. he grabbed the flowers and the letter from where it stood

y/n l/n

atlantic ave., 115th st., new york, new york.

hey y/n,

i’m surprised you still have that shoebox, but i’m glad you still have it. at least you have something to remember us by.

i’m sorry for not writing back y/n/n — am i still allowed to call you that? — i never expected you to write me letters. i knew i gave you a paper with my contacts, if i remembered correctly, so i kinda expected to hear from you through the phone. guess not.

we lost touch, i know, but i just gotta say that i miss you, and i hope that you’re okay.

yours, and only yours,

rafael.

ever since you sent the letter yesterday, you couldn’t help but peek through the window every other hour— just in case he finally decided to write back. although you knew that the chances were low.

your mom was out for work, which left you to fend for yourself for the time being. you’ve done your assignments early, so that means you’ve got the rest of the day slumming around.

you already had your netflix on when the doorbell rang. you grabbed your purse on the island counter and pulled out the money you needed to pay your take-outs.

as soon as you swung the door open, you nearly dropped the money you were holding. though despite your initial shock, you were able to mutter, “you’re not the pizza guy.”

rafe laughed, and oh, how you missed the sound of that. you immediately leaped into his arms for a hug. the sweet smell of his cologne filling your senses.

“you better not be greeting the pizza guy like this, y/n/n,” he teased, pulling you in closer to reciprocate the tight hug.

“what the fuck are you doing here?” you asked as you pulled away from him, slapping a hand over his arm.

“ow,” he mumbled, rubbing the area to ease the pain. “came to see your mom, duh.”

you rolled your eyes in annoyance, but the growing smile on your lips said otherwise.

“these are for you.” rafe handed you the bouquet of your favorite flowers, they were slightly wilted, due to the travel, you assumed. but they were still beautiful nevertheless.

“thank you, rafe,” you smiled at him, pulling him into your house. you momentarily disappeared into the kitchen to find a vase as he rolled his suitcase into your home.

“why didn’t you ever call me?” he asked as soon as you entered the living room.

“why didn’t you ever write back?” you playfully shot back, though you both know that you were still hurt from his sudden ignorance.

“i didn’t think you’d write to me, honestly.” he admitted, rubbing his hand at the back of his neck, and that’s when you finally took in his appearance. his usual slicked back hair lacked the gel, which made his hair look tousled and soft, and the polo shirt and khaki shorts combination were replaced with a comfortable hoodie and sweatpants.

“well, i did.” you shrugged, sitting back on your spot on the couch. “i lost the paper you gave me, i told you that in one of the letters, if you ever bothered to read them.”

“to be fair, we haven’t used that mailbox a few months before you even left, and phones exist for a reason,” rafe sassed, flopping down next to you. “i only found out about the letters yesterday after i saw the mailman drop a letter in it.”

you hummed, unsure of what to say next. you just let the comfortable silence take over the both of you as you basked each other in.

“do you still like me?” he finally asked after a few more minutes.

you risked a glance at him to see that he was already looking at you. you bit your lip in hesitation, but you didn’t know why you were hesitating. you knew the answer to his question. “yeah.”

“do you still want to go out on a date with me?”

“yeah,” you nodded your head as you grinned at him. “you still have any questions to ask?”

“nah,” he grinned back as he pulled you in to wrap his arms around you. “just that i love you, and i’m glad that you’re okay.”

he tilted his head down a bit as he glanced at your lips, you took the hint and slowly leaned in as he did. although before your lips could even touch, the doorbell rang, and you leaped away from him.

“oh, i think that’s the pizza!”

“y/n!”

“sorry!” you laughed, you paid for the pizza and shut the door. you walked back to where a pouting rafe was sitting and lowered the box on top of the coffee table.

“fuckin’ pizza guy’s a cock block.” he muttered, as he tugged on your arm and brought you to his chest. he cupped your jaw with his hand and slowly brought his lips to yours.

the kiss was soft and sweet, and everything about it screamed perfect. everything was finally coming together after years too long of pining and slowburn.

when you pulled away, rafe leaned in again to catch your lips into another short kiss. “okay, how about that pizza now?

“hell yeah.”

general taglist: @tatesimper @bluvclouds @i-love-scott-mccall @miraclesoflove

sour collection: @ifilwtmfc @dumbasscorn

obx taglist: @maybanksslut @angelixcpixies @oldschoolkiddo @iwritesiriusly @natashxromanovfreads @nyxie75 @stylesyourmine @gabiatthedisco @taylathornton @bury-my-love-inthe-moondust @queen-asteria04 @aliyahsomerhalder @wolfstar-lb @mrs-cameron @golden-hoax

[flameboyace]

hey! can i request straw hats with a teen reader? reader gets pretty close with robin?

if you dont like these type of requests, please dont hesitate in deleting

Hey hey sorry if this took me a lot of time to write, I had no motivation to write at all and did just what I had to, but here I am finally.

□ they took you in as one of them without esitating

□ even if you're a teen and are supposed to have a lot of energies, you spend more time with Robin, mostly reading or studying what she is interested in

□ the two of you started talking when you asked to her one time what she was reading, since then you keep asking for books or just asking question when you're curious about something

□ they're not more older than you, but everyone of them treat you almost as a kid, in a good way tho

□ every single one of them pamper you, from food to training, they help you at their very best and always also you what you need

□ if you need to slit up in some town you and Robin are almost likey together, not that you didn't want to go with the others, but robin just always looked at you almost asking if you were ready

□ living with them is definitely something out of this world but they love you and they always make sure to let you know

□ always ready to protect you no matter what

□ they all have nicknames for you and don't care if you like them or not tbh

□ free hugs 24/7, you can't escape them

_____________________________

[12th-shavie]

[90 hours in]

I remembered... I coerced the demon out and got the fancy staff... why does that kid still have his STuFfeD ToY...?

I also finally led the clock tower guy to said clock tower, the boss sure stood in my way (the cracked Osvald nuke team do be working out fine) so that's fun

I found a bunch of next chapters for npcs, it's pretty neat that they're a thing, it'd be a shame not to see these guys again

Melia's was cute if not a little baffling, how did that guy even think of taking over the town when he's unable to even help with anything ??

The Mira and elderly guard one was a little more interesting, I was in fact pretty curious to see if Mira would be a small boss fight or something but I'm glad with what I got (family...)

Thurston and Floyd's was fun, how did this guy become such a reasonable manager (also holy shit Floyd you are terrifying me)

I tried beating the Deep One with the team I was trying to level a bit since they wouldn't be in the next chapter but hum... yeah that didn't work out so well

I did beat the dino dragon though ! Not all is lost this time around

Time to shine do Agnea's final chapter ! It starts of all nice and sketchy, with reunions aplenty !

Oh hey it's Giselle's Traveling Troupe again thanks for the help by- oh hello again Gil thanks for the help byy- oh hi Laila again thanks for the help byyye

Will Gil ever go a conversation without ever saying that something's hot I wonder

He does have a pretty hot jazzy tune on the keys tho (and it carries in the theater, neat)

Dolcinaea and Veronica do have a nice little something going here... me likey

Oh wow the manager boss is such a loser lmao he doesn't even see how significant he truly is

And cut ! Thanks Veronica for shutting that idiot up before he started becoming aggravating <3

Damn, Dolcinaea, girl, what a sprite ! I'm not her biggest fan but I'll be damned, the spritework in this game is gorgeous... and phase one done, that's what happens when Osvald hits the field now (and it wasn't even my best version of this team)

It took me an extra attempt to beat her out of bad luck but phase two also got a quick demise in the end, I love my Osvald nuke setup

Agnea is so precious, her story was wholesome, and her end card ? With everyone who rooted for her (eventually) and her sister giving her the bouquet ? And she's crying tears of joy ? We're crying tears of joy...

Oh I can take Agnea off the team now ? Hmmm how about no I like my overlevelled supportive queen just where she is

I did finally beat the Deep One, thanks Osvald <3

I couldn't resist the temptation and went on to do the long awaited final chapter of Osvald's story

I'm not immune to the precious memories of the past with his family

So you're telling me Harvey would give anything to beat Osvald ? Ha, better give the fuck up then, scumbag

Truly the One True Magic was the power of love we remembered along the way (150 sp cost is a lot, but arcanist support skills are one hell of a drug though and I will not go back to lower damage)

My Osvald nuke setup was absolutely flawless, beautiful, and destructive~ Anything to beat some sense into that delusional asshole

Did Harvey just fucking explode ??? Man, I would've hoped he'd pay a bit more before biting the dust

Osvald please go see your daughter she deserves this, even if she needs some time to process the events, don't make her wait too much

Love that end card, it is both dashing (extremely stylish fit on Osvald) and tugging at my heartstrings

Next thing I did was the next chapter for Misha (and Alrond) which was quite cute so that's a win

I finally caved in and decided to start doing the second chapters of crossed paths I had unlocked before finishing Temenos' story

Started that off with Ochette and Castti's, and I had nearly forgotten how adorable it is that Ochette calls Castti "Ma" so naturally

Oh hey that's the third time I see this spooky aura in the environment with the spooky music and the shadow creatures (except the first two times weren't scripted and were over when I beat the spookster) I wonder what that's about

Callbacks to Trousseau's purple rain of death, neat

Castti corruption arc- oh okay we're not doing that thanks Ochette

What was that at the very end ??? What do you mean the quest is over ???? What was it ?????

Surely the Agnea and Hikari follow-up won't do this to me, right ?

So far so cute, Benkei just really wants a festival

Can't say I expected to fight this girl over her dead twin but that is a good new learned skill for Hikari so I ain't complaining

These lyrics are quite ominous huh... and of course the quest just ends here once more

Guess that's just how these quest are all going to give me : a fine tie-in and suspense

Octopath Traveler II delayed playthrough blogging

[10 hours in]

Contains light spoilers of some early chapters I guess

I started the journey with Agnea because she looked like a sweetie (and she is) and she really has the most jrpg "leave of this small village to see the big wide world to make your dream come true" beginning

I got her to allure a villager that replenishes SP with every dancer skill she uses and she's been the cornerstone to most battles ever since

The second traveler I got was Partitio and he's a funny lad, I love his vibe, hat, jacket, and speech ! Also, the atmosphere of his storyline was a nice dramatic change of pace after the cozy first one I got

I headcanon that Roque's betrayal was in fact very much a divorce with Partitio's dad and I cannot wait to see how that applies to future chapters (I do hope it ages like fine wine rather than milk)

Partitio's combat performance was pretty solid despite a lack of AoE but the weapon variety for breaking was the early highlight

I ignored the fork in the road that lead to Hikari in favor of recruiting Castti because I wanted a healer and I feel slightly guilty (but also not at all)

Castti is literally so nice to people I can't wait to see if she really has an extremely shady past that will torment her for at least 1 chapter before she decides that she's going to be a good noddle in spite of all

Her concocting is pretty fun but I wish I had more diffusing serum (I can make do with latent power for now but it'd more fun to let her do some fun nuking)

Castti is also extremely tanky (she's the only one I have with over 1k HP so far) so she was a very welcome addition to the party

The next step in the journey was recruiting Osvald (I wanted to start with him but the 2 forced chapters made me decide to instead make him the reward for reaching the eastern continent) after I ignored the boat that lead to Ochette and wandered around until I stumbled upon a boat that lead really close to Osvald on the map and eventually found him face-down in the snow (which makes my decision to no start with him even better)

His first two chapters cemented him as one of my favorites beyond the visual vibes I got from the first selecting menu, and his skillset was a cherry on top

AoE magic nuking when I already have some buffing and BP donating in my party ? I'm sold. Free weakpoint reveals every battle ? Even better ! Osvaldo battle voicelines ? Yes please !

After that I found the scholar license and decided that Agnea should also learn to buff spell intensity to make my Osvaldo nuking engine even stronger (she's been doing great and I'm very proud of her)

Since it was on the way to Agnea's second chapter for which she was at the recommended level, I went on to recruit Temenos and he did not disappoint ! He really gave me an impression of being a seemingly upstanding fellow who is in fact not only shady but just the right blend of ambiguous tease with genuine words thrown in (props to his voice acting that really sells it)

His detective moment was also pretty cool, especially after seeing the duality of his abilities to get people to follow him without risk of failure and his (very shady) coercing to get more intel

I considered replacing Castti with him as my party healer but he is very squishy compared to her, and she also has weapon diversity and more consistent debuffing over him so for the time being he's just chilling at the tavern waiting for a party composition that makes him shine

On my way to the big city I found the inventor license and could simply not resist giving it to Partitio it simply fit him too well (and more weapons to break with is very nice), although I'm thinking of changing it later to try a Temenos build that would allow him to break even more and coerce better

Now onto the big city to recruit Throné and let Agnea's story unfold further !

[anime-grimmy-art]

your post featuring the funny train men, is great

i love it lots and im telling you here rather than the tags because the tumblr app HATES that post

to many gifs maybe?

either way tumbr dont likey and each time i try and reblog and add any tags it crashes

i can fast reblog and like

but i cant view the images individually without tumbr crashing or add anytags or commentary to the post

i could view it via my computer but thats effort

so without further ado

YOU DID AN AMAZING JOB AND I REALLY LOVE THE POST U MADE IT IS VERY POGGERS

Hey, thanks for the info! This actually probably proves sth Ive been noticing, and that is tumblr not putting posts into the tags at ALL. And that's mostly with video and gif posts.

But yeah, maybe I should have scaled them down, I made the gifs on a whim and kinda didnt think that the canvas size was still rly BIG.

But again, thanks for the heads up, for other gif set posts Imma try to make em less and smaller as not to kill someone's app! XD

AND GLAD U LIKE MY SHITTY HUMOUR

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

Can we please talk about how Carlos is the most beautiful and supportive partner to Tk? Like he doesn’t drink because he wants to support his sobriety, he cooks amazing meals for him, he will literally stop what his doing if Tk doesn’t feel good and he is all about communication. That whole episode with Cooper just solidified for me just how amazing Carlos is. The fact he stopped doing his Yoga because Tk felt restless and focused all his attention on him. THEN even though he was a bit jealous that Tk was going to Cooper instead of him, he put it all aside because he knew that’s what Tk needed. Not to mention him moving them into a beautiful home, making it comfortable for both of them because it was something Tk was so apprehensive about.

I mean are you fucking serious? Could he get anymore sexy? I think that’s one of Carlos’ most attractive qualities, how much he cares for the people he loves. He’s got this authoritative cop vibe but when it comes to Tk he is just sooooo soft 🥺

Me likey, a lot.

(*side note: they need to do the ‘hey baby’ thing more because…..yes)

^^^^

I don’t know what more can I add to this because it’s perfect and you’re right, Carlos Reyes is perfect.

Carlos’s character arc is so beautiful and important to me like they show this guy who seems like he is very composed and has all his shit together. But then there’s 2.04 and 2.08 and you see that’s actually not true. He’s a very complex character with his own issues and traumas. He’s a control freak and he doesn’t do well with situations where he can’t help which we dan see again and again in S3.

I didn’t think I would love the breakup storyline initially but I did. I think the reasons were very realistic. Carlos is a control freak and TK is somebody who runs away when shit gets tough. They specifically addressed that thing this season which I think was great.

3x13 is actually my favorite epsiode bevause it showed a healthy portrayal of a relationship. TK stated that Carlos can’t be his everything and while Carlos had difficulty accepting it initially- he did realise that TK was righr by the end which is a great character developmenr.

P.S. food and touch beinf his love language is my favorite thing and yes they need to do the “hey baby” thing more. It’s never enough ekwhwkwkwn)

[merakiui]

Hey Mera! I just saw Milk Crown anon's twst concept and it kinda reminded me of the pixar theory, idk if ur familiar w it but basically it's how all the pixar movies connect and that movies like cars and monsters inc (movies w/out humans) take place in the distant future where humans no longer exist. (it's acc quite interesting i recommend checking it out if u haven't already).

(This is such an oc type of theory and most likey vry untru but I want to share it w u so ehe), kinda like what Milk Crown anon said, but what if MC acc came from the past (which would be our present time) and that twst is set far into the future. During MC's time, scientists discovered (or created, but in supernatural ways bc I like to believe that magic has always existed) a powerful substance that holds powers similar to the magic in fairy tales. At first the substance didn't serve as any threat and was experimented on, but it did radiate vry low and harmless energy that covered a wide radius (coming back to that ltr). However, over time the substance became dangerous and they weren't able to contain it anymore, and resulted in a giant explosion that affected everyone on the planet. It wiped out most living things on the planet and caused a lot of land forms to deteriorate, w many cities breaking from land and sinking into the ocean (cough twst ocean cities cough); we haven't seen twst full map of the world but from what's shown so far, a lot of them look like islands so hmmmm. The damage caused civilization to reset to the beginning (oh what if the explosion cased ppl to forget everything about human civilization and brought them back to primitive times). Most ppl that were near the explosion and w/in the "deadly" radius (like a nuclear explosion) died, however those that survived developed physical mutations that resembles that of fairies (wink wink) and the ability to control the substance, which would ltr be known as magic. Basically for those that survived, the closest ppl became what would be known as fae w the most magical energy (radiation lol), and from there it varied. Ppl that were farther away would develop magical abilities too, albeit not as strong in comparison to the former, with some developing physical mutations (ie. animal features), and other's retaining their human biology but still possessing magic. Ofc there were also some ppl who were immune to the explosions effects and remained magic-less humans. Same thing w animals and plant life w some staying the same and some becoming magic-like. (Idk but blot could be a side effect for using magic bc of it's overall deadly effects it had on the planet and that no one's biology is compatible enough w the magic so it festers in blot(?)

So what if , while the magic was being contained, MC was w/in the radius of the harmless range and absorbed some of the low energy, but didn't exhibit any side effects from it. However, when the explosion occured MC was put into a preservation pod, which would ltr be what we know as the black coffin from the beginning of the game, which protected them from the explosion and preserved their body for years. When they wake up in twst they are surrounded by a new world flowing w magical energy, which triggers the energy they previously absorbed to manifest into their ability to see those visions in their dreams.

Also as someone that was part if the fandom when the game first came out, then kinda left (bc of gneshin like most lol), but is coming back bc eeeee they're finally updating again! I rly do love this game, I remember interacting w other's in the fandom about theories, characters, events and stories ahhh such good times.

:O that’s a really neat theory!! Thank you for sharing it with me!

[zutaraplatter]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Critique

There are already a million of posts like this one, and I might be saying things that’ve already been said a million times but I’ve recently become reheated about the ATLA ending and wanted to let it out -_- No one asked, this is true, and this may or may not be a way to stall from this final project I still have to complete, but here’s 10 things I didn't like and/or would change about the show that likely shouldn’t need changing because they should have been done in the first place.

1. Katara should have apologized to Sokka after TSR

It should have happened and it didn't. In my canon-avoiding mind, Katara and Sokka have a heartfelt conversation where she apologizes for the awful things she said, Sokka says he forgives her and he's sorry if he wasn't as there for her as much as he should have been, which he follows up with "but I'm happy you listened to Aang and took his advice," leading into my next point

2. Katara should have said that not killing Yon Rha was her choice

And thats why it was the right one. Not because Aang already said it was wrong. No no. It was the right choice because that's what she chose. I love my mom to death and can't imagine losing her in any way, let alone the way Katara did. And I can't say for sure that if I was in her shoes that I know what I would have done f that yes I do I would have killed that motherfucker. But I also know that if Katara decided not to kill him, then that was one of two correct choices because they were Katara's choices to make. Not Aang's or anyone else's and this should have been clarified. I know it's a kids show but I said what I said. Next point.

3. Katara should have said more after telling Aang she was unsure at the Ember Island Players

Katara hasn't had any trouble saying how she feels, especially when it comes to helping others and making them feel better, whether she was right or wrong. But she holds back or overly softens blows and seems to even shrivel up at times when it comes to Aang. And me no likey. I had a boyfriend who I adored and admired and just genuinely looked up to. I'm also a shy and anxious person who hates confrontation, but because I loved him, I never refrained from telling him when he was wrong. I might have been a little shaky about it but I did it tho because when you want to be with someone you walk through the grass and stomp through the mud. And I personally feel like either in that moment or later on in an added scene that Katara should have voiced to Aang how unheard and disrespected she felt about his words before TSR and his actions on the balcony. I hate being uncomfortable and my secondhand embarrassment is toxic but I would love to see a scene of this. I always imagined Katara saying stuff like "But I'm not you Aang, and I'm not an Air Nomad," or "Zuko could understand why I needed to go, and I'd hoped you would too," or...I'm out of ideas but you get the idea. And you know what, I know I'm a hard Zutara shipper, but them having this conversation would honestly make me respect their relationship a whole lot more should it be believably written to end on a good note (I don't see how it could be but hey I'm an open minded person and I did think they were cute together once upon a time). Basically, all I'm saying is that Katara is no small voice and she should have been written that way when with Aang. Boyfriends can make you shy but should never make you weak. Period. Next point.

4. No rock! ONLY GROWTH!!!!!!!!!!!

I still squint my eyes whenever I remember that rock that unblocked Aang's chakra. What even was that? The laziest writing possible in my opinion. That's what. And Aang deserved better. What should have happened should have been that Aang started to lose to Ozai. And then as Ozai's about to deliver the finishing blow, Aang has flashbacks of everyone he's trying to save and honor, ending with a very prominent flashback of Katara with the guru's disembodied voice reminding Aang to let go of his attachments to become all he needs to be...then BOOM! Baby boy is back on his feet, chakra unblocked, he kicks Ozai's ass, I'm crying hysterically on the floor, as are the rest of us, and he wins. Then at the end of the series, instead of a kiss, he gives Katara an apology. She accepts, everyone else comes to join them on the balcony, cinematic group hug, camera pan into the sun. I don't know lol. Basically what I'm saying is that Aang did not deserve some deus ex machina. He deserved to grow and become his best self like everyone else got to.

5. Aang should have heard differently in The Storm

Katara is a very fate-minded person and this is when I saw potential for her to become a toxic character in regards to Aang. When he admits that he ran away from home 100 years ago, Katara tells him that that was basically a good thing because he was meant to be here and now. Like...no? What Aang did, though understandable for someone so young, was still wrong. Yes he would have maybe been killed but I'm like 10000000% sure they had a plan to protect and evacuate the literal avatar. And what was technically "meant to be" was a new avatar. But hey, what's done is done and kicking Aang while he's down is a no-no in this household. But that doesn't change the fact that Aang needed and deserved honesty. Maybe the fisherman could have said this, I don't know, but I feel like Aang should have been told by someone that although running away was wrong, it's a blessing he and Appa were able to survive and be able to help save the world now with his amazing friends found-family. Maybe this is too harsh, and maybe even outright wrong, but I felt like Aang deserved a truer answer here to support and comfort him.

6. MAILEE!!!!

Do I even need to go into detail?

7. Spiritual sigh*

Don't make me go into detail -_- I will say though that although Aang and Katara are both amazing individuals capable of earth shattering things, they were not a healthy fit for one another. This is evident in the original series and especially in their children from LOK. They both deserved the best but better than one another.

8. ZUTARAAAAAAA

This is a Zutara blog you KNEW this was coming, as it should. There's just too much. There's too damn much. I would give a real paragraph to this too, but, I mean, there's already so much proving that this was the pair. Fics, metas, rants, this site. Scroll through my blog or any of the ATLA related blogs I follow and...dude. These two were meant to be together and I'll mourn the narrative brilliance WASTED for no good reason every day for the rest of my life. No reason these two shouldn't be married with three kids. sob. I will take this part to say thank you to the amazing fic writers that gave Katara, Zuko, Mai, and Aang what they deserved that the writers didn't have the guts to give them themselves. Next point tho.

9. AANG AND ONJI

Good God almighty. Why not this? WHY NOT THIS? I'm putting on my bullet proof vest and I'm going to say this; Aanji is cuter than Zutara. Now before you scorn me or whatever, let me explain. Zutara for me is like steak. No. Chicken parmesan. I like chicken parmesan better. The point though is that Zutara is savory. You know? I don't see them as cute, I see them as Obviously. Aanji on the other hand is like a bag of my favorite candy. They are like a brownie. A cookie. Girl Scout Samoas!...I don't know what words are anymore. This post got way out of hand. I guess what I'm saying is that for Zutara, I scream, but for Aanji, I squeal. I hope that makes sense. But here's the main point I want to make. Onji never knew who Aang really was. And Aang was always, at his core, himself. She very obviously had a crush on Aang for his personality and that was crazy cute and frankly preferable to Katara's "I...guess he is." (you know exactly what I'm talking about) Anyway, I kept wanting more of them together. I wish all the time that we'd gotten to see her again, with a more fleshed out character and all. And in the way that I imagine the show should have gone, she could have been the perfect love interest for Aang, during this episode or way later, even in the comics! Another WASTED opportunity for greatness and I will, again, never recover T-T

10. Iroh get your ass back here

Maybe this is a misguided critique but I hated that Iroh just left Zuko alone in the fire nation at the end of the series. Baby was in trouble in every sense of the word and Iroh was just like "See ya! You got this nephew." I'm expected to believe that? I'm expected to accept that? No no no. He should have at least stayed for a few years to help Zuko stay upright and, you know, alive. And by "upright" I don't mean "good." I just mean been there to support him because Lord knows he needed it, at least in the beginning of his reign. It was cute that Iroh was able to settle down with his own teashop after all those years of violence and mourning and running and this and that. I was more than happy for him for being able to have that peace finally. But I still think it could have waited a little while longer so he could support Zuko.

That's it I guess. I know not everything I've said makes the most sense in one way or another, but I enjoyed putting it together all the same. Thank you for reading and have a great day. I'll go finish my final now.

(Edited for a typo)

[toukenramblings]

Clingy S/O | Genji Bros

After 50 years, I'm writing again. I'm so sorry for not being able to write for a while y'all. I've been...blergh. ANON WHO REQUESTED THIS, IM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT HGIUDHGUGHU

Warning: Nothing but cute shit, and sometimes man, you need soft cute shit. LEAH, BABY, DARLING I HOPE YOU LIKEY!! @10cm i know you love hiza, pls take some hiza hiza

Higekiri

BOUNDARIES? WHAT'S THAT???? HIGEKIRI KNOWS NOTHING LIKE THAT. I joke though, Higekiri is like, a naturally physically affectionate person. Yes he'll cater his affection to your habits and ways and habits but in general, Higekiri is also...pretty....clingy

And you just so happen to ALSO be clingy as fuck? Hell yeah. Hige's gonna have a FIELD DAY. Along with saying shit like; "Aww, did you miss me that much, love? I missed you too~!" or "You just hugged me two minutes ago, no matter, I love it either way!"

Higekiri is also about surprise affection, most of the time he'll sneak up on you with a darling hug from behind and press a kiss to the back of your head/hair.

He loves it when you do the same to him! He doesn't jump or anything, he just...meLTS into your embrace? Hello???? It's oh so comfortable!

Oh and playing with your fingers whenever you two cuddle, admiring the differences between yours and his; comparing sizes, so on and so forth.

Listen Higekiri is the kind of clingy that the minute you come home he's already waiting for you at the door like a cat/puppy that you see in youtube vids. Or like he just zones in on the gate like he knows that you're about to appear. It's like...a psychic sense.

Oh but most of all, Hige Hige loves the fact you're clingy as shit. As said above, Hige is the same. If anything, you two just bounce off of each other's general lovey-dovey clinginess.

Hugs? Check? Cuddles? Check. Hand holding? My friend, your hand will never be lonely. ALL THE KISSES? NOTHING BUT KISSES YOU TWO ARE JUST KISSING IN PUBLIC LIKE NO ONE'S BIZ

Higekiri is also the cheeky little bastard who's just...holding your hand one sec and then using the said hand to pull you in close for a hug and a kiss and then when you two part he's just smirking.

"I just missed you, that's all~<3" bastard

Hizamaru

Hiza on the other hand, isn't as clingy as his brother who lives off of physical affection. Oh no, he adores it too! He just goes at his own pace. Yes even after you two begin dating for a long time, there is this little dreamy look in his eyes and faint tinge to his cheeks whenever you two do PDA

It's not like he dislike it or anything. He has nothing but respect for boundaries and such. He doesn't wanna do shit to make you uncomfy but he also is the kind of person who caters his physical affection to how you are!

Hizamaru isn't as spontaneous as his brother when it comes to this, so it'll take time before he'll fully like....falls into the routine I suppose?

It's totally fine that you're clingy as heck though! He loves it! He's lowkey clingy as well, and as your relationship further progresses, Hiza's hand will always seek out yours.

Yes he does get all flustered whenever you surprise him with a hug from behind, stiffening just a bit before melting into your embrace like it's the most natural thing in the world.

Like Higekiri, Hizamaru will also happily wait for you to come home. He's a lot more attentive than his brother and honestly gives me some adorbs house!husband vibes but hey that is another story and while Higekiri bounds to your side the minute he senses your presence, Hizamaru is honestly kind of the same? Is a bit more timid though as he walks towards you, not at all rushing to your side like his brother but a languid roll of his hips and a bright smile - puppy like, you can say.

Oh my God man, the hugs. The hugs he gives you? So fucking warm???? Hello???? My sweet darling Hiza. Going back to what I said before, Hizamaru is lowkey pretty clingy and he doesn't realize this until after you two start dating. But instead of the physical clinginess that Hige has, Hiza's is more...verbally clingy? He's the kind of dude who just calls you while you're away just to listen to your voice and tell you that he loves you.

Daily reminders of the fact that he loves you, can't forget that.

Private cuddling though? That's when clingy Hiza Hiza shows up. He just...always has an arm wrapped around your waist or something and whenever you hug him from behind and wrap your hands and arms around his waist, Hiza will begin a habit of playing with your connected fingers; he, too, fascinated by your fingers.

Though Hizamaru may be shy about PDA with a rather clingy you, but in the end, Hizamaru adores it! He just melts into your embrace and touches like the most touch-starved man known to this world and honestly? It's cute as hell. You're his rock after all~!

[i-am-totally-a-human-being]

Nagito with an s/o who likes to listen to lofi hiphop?

Not gonna lie, had no idea what lofi hip hop was until now.

But!!

I’m listening to a livestream of the stuff rn, and me likey!

So if I get anything wrong about what it’s like, you can blame this stream.

But I really like the style and listen to it a lot now lol

Did this as Headcannons, all under the cut!

When you introduced the style of music to him, Nagito instantly fell in love with it

It’s so soothing and calming and makes his eyes heavy instantly

He first encountered it when he was bringing you some lunch since you were busy at home studying for an exam

When he walked into your room he was greeted with calming music filling the air

You saw him and paused your music, waving

“Hey babe! Got the food?”

“Yes, my love. Can I ask what you were playing?”

“Oh! It’s called lofi hip hop. I like to listen to it when working because it doesn’t distract me and calms be down if I get stressed. Do you want to listen to it?”

He nods and sits in your bed with you, happily eating lunch together as you play the music again

He can’t help but fall asleep after he eats, the music is just so calming!

He feels bad, but you tell him it’s completely ok, you listen to it to help you sleep too

If he’s having a bad day with his luck or just a bad day in general, he’ll curl up in your arms on your bed and go “can you turn on the playlist?”

You already know what’s up

You grab your phone and press play on the lofi playlist you made just for him, kiss his head, and rock him to sleep

You fall asleep soon after, holding him in your arms as the gentle beats lull you into sweet dreams

I know this was kinda short, but I also didn’t know where else to go with it. Hope you enjoyed nonetheless!

Thank you for coming to my TED talk,

—🐝

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being Best Friends with Lila Pitts

Lila Pitts x reader

warnings: tua 2 spoilers! guns, knives, violence

a/n: 💖💖

prompt: @cullens-stuff: “Can I request a HC of being bffs with Lila? Please and thank you! You have a Lovely day!”

you were the child of a commission member

ironically, a commission member that the handler could. not. stand.

you and lila snuck around a whole lot during your childhood

but the handler always found out one way or another

i mean, you weren’t “special” like lila, but you were of use to the handler since you and lila got close

“i might as well train the both of you”

“really?! that would be amazing!”

“yes, it would. especially since it gives me an excuse to shoot you”

“you won’t regret this!”

“sweetie, i don’t regret anything”

you and lila just trying to be kids in such a tough environment

“wanna sneak out for a bit? try something new?”

“uhhh, depends? what year is it again?”

stealing candy from the handler’s desk

and anywhere else you may find candy

there was an abundance of candy at the commission, kinds from different time periods

training with lila was very stressful at first

“why dont you keep up, y/n?!”

“im trying! tell you mom that i don’t want a bullet in my leg!”

“if i do, she’ll aim higher!”

laying in the grass and taking a breather

occasionally the handler permits a sleepover

but only at her house and most of it is off-limits

better than nothing?

you have access to any and all programs and movies ever created

“pick a year, any year”

“uhhh, nineteen-seventy......five!”

“how do you feel about wonder woman?”

“count me in!”

lila wasn’t allowed to have popcorn

dont ask me why i just feel like she wasn’t allowed

tbh she probably wasn’t allowed to have candy either, that’s why you guys constantly snatched it up

you went on missions before her because you were “disposable”

lila got very jealous

“i just don’t understand why my mum would clear you for missions, but wont let her own daughter do an ounce of work!”

“i mean...she’s pretty protective of you. really sorry, lila, wish you could come along”

“no, it’s alright. i’m not mad at you, just be careful”

“psh, what am i, an amateur?”

her wanting to know every detail of your missions when you get back

“did you stab anyone? shoot? punch? maim? tell me all of it, please!”

and you always did, and she was always at the edge of her seat for it

she really did wish that she were there, too, though

“god, i wish my mum would trust me to go on a real mission someday, it’s not fair that you get to see all the action”

“give it time, lila, she’ll come around”

lila and you were together when you found out that the handler had been shot in the head

“oh, god. what am i going to do without her?”

“hey, dont think like that”

suddenly finding out that a bullet to the head wasn’t enough to kill that crazy lady

visiting the handler in the hospital during her recovery

she wasn’t happy to see you

but its okay :,)

lila finally got a mission! well, sort of

it wasn’t an official commission objective, but it was given by the former handler

and you got to be in on it!

“when and where are we going?”

“dallas, texas. 1963”

“any idea why?”

being separated from lila

but visiting in the asylum for updates

you met with other hargreeves siblings

*searched for

they weren’t very available

luther was working for a...dangerous man. no more dangerous than yourself, really. you could end him in a swift second.

diego was lila’s mark

allison was working in a hair salon, you’d be on your way there soon enough

klaus was leading a fucking cult, it would be difficult to get close to him

five, still nowhere to be seen

ben...still dead

vanya was difficult to track down, but there were a few missing ads popping up in the papers that fit her description. check back later

lila calling you up later to let you know she was out of the asylum

the story at elliott’s: “lila, oh, my god! when did you finally get out, i was so worried about you! i was just about to go visit you again. this must be that ‘diego’ you were telling me about”

“oh—you, you told them about me?”

making buddy-buddy with diego for the operation

teasing lila about him cuz you could tell she was starting to like him

“be quiet, y/n! let’s keep things professional”

“yeah, right! tell that to yourself!”

scheming

the good ol’ scheme team

yeah

having to cover for each other pretty often

“five knows”

“what?! how?”

“mum told him”

“what?? is she trying to get us killed?”

situation is weird, me no likey

watching diego and her get ~closer~

“awe, you two are soooo cute”

“cut that out”

to diego: “if you hurt my best friend, she’ll kill you”

“oh, i don’t doubt it for a second”

after the handler got what she wanted (AJ the fish), the mission was just about done

the commission got all wacky and you were starting to get a lot more cautious

lila got promoted!!

“y/n, what would you think about a security job?”

“i dont know...i mean, i’m already an field operative”

“and a damn good one! what if i brought diego in to be on my security team?”

she fuckin did

“i dont know, lila, can we trust him?”

“of course we can trust him!”

lila saw the report on her parents

something felt off about the whole thing, though...lila said her parents were killed in an armed robbery, so why did the handler lie all these years? and why was the handler there to take lila in?

final battle-type thing

it was interesting, indeed

all the agents in the same place

something just didn’t feel right

you were, of course, shielded from the blast

and got to see lila’s powers up-close

five explained some things in between the fighting that started to make sense of the whole thing

“lila, maybe we should listen to him?”

“no! he killed my parents and i’m gonna kill him”

“yikes”

you ended up trying to pull her away from all this, but she knocked you away

you ended up watching diego try and help her, which was a bit heartwarming tbh

until the handler shot you all

(new timeline)

until the handler was shot and you were all saved

before you could even get to lila, she time-traveled away and you were left with the umbrella academy

you ended up going back with dot and herb to fix up the commission a bit

until next time, i guess

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @cullens-stuff // lotsoffandomrecs // @takethebladeawayfromme //