#Because it got repeated so many times that now it's indelibly linked to him

[irenespring]

Today I would like to shout out that one random Twitter person who made up that JD Vance bragged about fucking a couch.

Imagine making a random shitpost and less than two months later your joke is being used by a major party nominee for Vice President on live television at his introduction rally, earning him thunderous applause.

That poster must be having quite the experience.

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

Done on request (out yourself if you dare): What if Geralt receives fan mail? Well. Have 2317 words of  corniness. On AO3 or below the cut.

It began, of course, by accident.

Geralt now spent almost half the year in Vizima, less when he was on contract or on his vineyard or Emhyr was called to Nilfgaard by matters that could not be postponed. So Emhyr had a room set up for him in the palace. Geralt used the place to make potions when he needed them; he kept a second armor set there (after some events had taught him that this might be necessary), and at some point even had Eskel send him some books from the old fortress.

That evening, Emhyr found him in that room. Geralt had not bothered to arrange the chamber in any way to his liking. This was an indelible trait about him, a habit with such a pull that even the – compared to the capital palace – rather modest luxury of the surroundings did nothing to change it. In principle, Geralt knew all facets of comfort. Still, he had slept outdoors longer in his life than in a bed with silk sheets, so perhaps it was no wonder that he didn't value the furnishings in this room. There was a kind of work table against one wall, a few bookshelves, an armchair, and a desk, which he at least used occasionally to write letters. It was austere and utilitarian, more a place of work than relaxation, so Emhyr was almost surprised to find him sitting in an armchair reading.

"Please tell me this is not another one of those erotica slush from that anonymous hack," Emhyr said as he entered.

Geralt looked up in surprise. "If I were you, I wouldn't be so disparaging about the author – as far as I know, you've profited from his fantasies," he replied with a wink. "And no, it's nothing salacious."

He lifted the booklet so that Emhyr could read the title. As he did so, a slip of paper, apparently used as a bookmark, fluttered out of the pages. In a fit of gallantry, Emhyr bent down and picked up the sheet. He glanced at it, suddenly frowned.

"What's that?" he asked, his voice a mixture of amusement and, oddly enough, nearly accusation.

Geralt shrugged. "You remember that tournament I told you about?"

"In Touissaint? Hard to forget, since you won it – and are fond of telling about it when you've had too much to drink," Emhyr replied dryly. "However, there had been no mention of love letters in the stories so far."

"That hardly passes for a love letter," Geralt replied.

Emhyr turned the paper back in his direction and read aloud, "To the owner of those strong arms, men like you drive me wild. I want to have a herd of your white-haired, scar-faced babies. Signed by an enthralled admirer."

"I got another one that describes me as perfectly muscled," Geralt said.

Emhyr's raised brows might indicate surprise or disapproval; it was hard to tell.

"Flattering, I'm sure. But why did you keep the letters?"

Geralt thought about it for a moment. "I don't really know," he finally admitted.

"You use them as bookmarks."

"Fine, let's say they're flattering," Geralt replied lightly. "You should have seen the ones in Palmerin de Launfal's tent."

On the surface, that was the end of the matter. But somehow, it wasn't. The sex they had that night was... interesting. They were often tempestuous, usually of a fervor that was difficult to contain, and it was noticeable that Emhyr's lust was not infrequently linked to his moods. When he was troubled inside, for whatever reason, it always showed in their love life. But this was different. It was rough, hard, but in a different way than usual; wilder, downright dominant – and above all, extremely exciting.

The following day, they did not address it, although they both seemed utterly satisfied. On the other hand, they were usually easy to please as far as that was concerned; they fitted each other like lock and key, were almost physically addicted to each other. The fact that they sincerely loved and adored each other was like icing on the cake that no one had expected because the filling was already so satisfying. It had taken them a while to realize that that one did not work without the other because that's just how they were.

Despite everything, it was hard to define what had been different, and everyday life left them little opportunity to delve deeper into it, even if it had been significant enough to them at all. Life went on as usual, as far as could be said in this case, when one ruled the greatest of all empires and the other willingly threw himself in the way of monsters.

Neither Geralt nor Emhyr were really convinced of the power of coincidence, and yet Emhyr stumbled upon a little secret purely by chance. That day he sat in his study, as usual, alone in the contemplative quiet that came both from his surroundings and his work routine. The things he did here – reading, evaluating, deciding, signing – were little different from anything he did in the many hours he spent in public; here, however, there were not the manifold distractions of the overloud, exceedingly annoying courtiers and his advisors, who were always trying to outdo each other in their boot licking.

There was something familiar and reassuring in the stack of papers on his desk. There were always a good number of letters among them; petitions, invitations, reports, and the like. One of the envelopes caught his attention. It was narrower than the others, inscribed in fine, delicate handwriting, and surprisingly, a slight hint of a rosy perfume emanated from it. Although Emhyr made a point of handling his mail almost ritualistically from top to bottom as it was presented to him, he pulled out this envelope and noticed to his surprise that the letter was not addressed to him at all. It was for Geralt.

What exactly was it that drove him to pull the ornate knife through the envelope and open a letter that was obviously not meant for him? Emhyr preferred to ignore a certain voice inside him, too tempted by the scent and the handwriting. It was, of course, a love letter, a many-line ode to white hair and, by the great sun, strong thighs.

He did not even try to claim that he had opened the letter by mistake, and strangely enough, there was no expected accusation from Geralt as to why he had read his mail. Emhyr felt strange as he presented the letter, and his tone sounded rather strained with amusement as he said, "I guess you have more admirers than you think."

Geralt said nothing to this; he took the letter, skimmed it, made some mocking remark, and put the paper aside. They spoke no more about it, but that night they loved each other again with that distinct fierceness. Their passion was almost painful; still, at the same time, of a kind that needed no words, no explanations. But once again, neither of them drew a connection or wondered what exactly was so different. Those were unprecedented, memorable moments, and in the face of permanent, smoldering danger, they had learned to live in the present: to enjoy what they had, to appreciate when times were quiet.

They might never have talked about it because it might never have happened again – and it would have been all right, a special gift at an ordinary time; a surprise no one expected and could never hope to repeat. Until that particular evening, which seemed almost like a repetition of the first event, a strange deja vu. It had been a particularly long day, a day full of things that threw Emhyr out of his usual routine, and as for Geralt, he had spent hours poring over an old potion recipe that Eskel had sent him and asked him for an opinion on. That they found time for each other was more than a welcome change, and the kisses they exchanged were a mutual assurance that their companionship, their love, would always be their common refuge.

How exactly it came about that Emhyr stumbled upon the pile of letters was hard to reconstruct later, and it was not important. As a matter of fact, a loose piece of paper and a note in a fragrant envelope had turned into a whole bunch of love letters. A pile of love vows, adorations of pale skin and milk-white hair, of tight muscles and... well, powerful privates.

"When did they all arrive?" asked Emhyr, a little stunned, although always trying to keep his composure.

"In recent weeks. Well, months," Geralt admitted bluntly. "Basically since the wedding... I hardly get any to Corvo Bianco, but they seem to find it kind of stimulating to send them here."

He actually seemed blatantly amused by this fact, and Emhyr didn't ask why he had kept the letters. Instead, he pushed Geralt onto the desk, and then across it; and what happened next had as much to do with the word lovemaking from one of the letters as a body of stagnant water has to do with the ocean. It wasn't just rough, it was close to absolute ruthlessness, and it didn't stop at the desk.

The polished stone floor of a plain study room was hardly the appropriate place for the conversation, but now seemed like the right time, and they realized they had simply been delaying the inevitable. It was the floor where they ended, breathless and amazed.

"I don't know why you're angry, but.... could we do this more often?"

Emhyr appeared taken aback as he replied, "What makes you think I'm angry?"

Geralt looked at him for a long moment. His hair was a mess, and he lay there almost shattered. It wasn't true that witchers couldn't blush; there was this particular spot on Geralt's neck that bore witness to the past few minutes. Emhyr couldn't stop staring at it.

"I don't know," Geralt finally replied, "but if that wasn't rage sex..."

"You're still reading those stories," Emhyr sighed. Then he half straightened, propped himself on his elbow, and admitted, "I don't know what that was."

Geralt shook his head. "Are you perhaps jealous?" he asked frankly. "Don't get me wrong; I really want us to do this again. But didn't you notice that it has something to do with the letters?"

"They're love letters, Geralt."

"Yes, and they're flattering, sure, but..."

"Is that what it is about?" asked Emyhr. "Do you want me to compliment you? You're as romantic like an old ass, Geralt, but maybe there's more to you than…"

The words came mockingly, but Emhyr broke off when he saw Geralt's perplexed face. Then he smiled one of his incredibly rare and special smiles.

"You have no idea," he said. "After all this time, you still have no idea how beautiful you are, and that's why part of you doesn't believe that anyone could give you an honest compliment. But another part of you wishes that's exactly what happened, and that's why you kept the letters."

"Men are handsome, not beautiful," Geralt said evasively.

"I suppose it depends on who's looking at them. Anyway, there are obviously more who appreciate your features than you think," Emhyr said as he ran his fingers over some of the scars on Geralt's chest, causing the latter to shiver with pleasure.

"Jealous after all," Geralt returned, almost sounding as flattered as he was by the stately number of letters he had received.

"Stupid after all," said Emhyr, tenderly knocking his fingers against Geralt's sweaty forehead. Considering the fact that he extremely rarely joked, that was almost an accolade. Then, suddenly, he became serious. "You're right," he admitted unexpectedly, "it has to do with the letters. My life is predictable to a certain extent, Geralt. Determined by routines, rules, and regulations, full of constants, and that's good, that's... order. And then there's you. The one undeterminable, the unknown in the equation."

"I bring chaos?" Geralt teased, but Emhyr didn't buy into it.

"You bring life. A whole other constant. Trust without rules. I don't know what it is that keeps you, but it's not power or wealth or prestige. To try to hold you anywhere at all seems to me like trying to... well, let's save comparisons with wild animals. But you could always decide to leave, couldn't you? You are not bound by any etiquette, tradition, or rules."

Geralt shook his head, almost indulgently. He took Emhyr's right hand in his, pressed a kiss on it, and then held it in front of his face.

"Isn't that a bond? Is that not a promise? I don't even know who you think less of, me or yourself."

"I think very highly of you," Emhyr said softly.

"Well, I guess the feeling is mutual. And if I had known that love letters would spur you on like that, I would have written some myself. Besides, you get mail from admirers yourself, my dear."

"In which I am not usually promised kisses on my white neck," his spouse replied dryly.

"Unimaginative," Geralt returned, and his smile shone up to his eyes. "Maybe I really should write some of these letters myself and mix them inconspicuously in with your mail. I could praise myself being a white stallion..."

Emhyr raised his brows and sighed. "You have been reading those books again, haven't you?"

"I don't know where you get that idea. But if you need inspiration outside of corny letters, there's this one, it suggested…"

Geralt leaned forward. White hair and warm breath brushed Emhyr's ear, and at a few whispered words, his eyes widened. He pressed his hands against his witcher's chest, pinning him to the floor.

For this, he did not need instructions.

[jarienn972]

A Simple Spell - Chapter Ten

A Captain Swan Supernatural Summer Tale

I had planned to have this chapter of my @cssns​ story completed a lot sooner than this but a stressful trip to Texas and a sinus infection threw those plans right out of the window. I finally got this chapter done and it picks up inside Regina's vault after Emma's statement that it might already be too late, implying that the third challenge may have begun. As they prepare to search for the missing Killian Jones, Emma is going to have to deal with her decision to cast the spell and uncovers a piece of the past.

Once again, I’m going to thank @lassluna​ for all of her beta assistance and @cocohook38​ for her amazing artwork!

From the beginning on Tumblr: One  Two  Three  Four  Five  Six  Seven  Eight  Nine       Also on AO3 and FF.net

**********

“What do you mean it might already be too late?” an agitated Regina queried as the vault fell under an eerie silence.

Emma flushed with guilt, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach and hyper-critical of her earlier decisions.  She slumped against a bare chamber wall as her head struggled to process the potential ramifications of her actions. “I think I may have inadvertently fallen into the third challenge…” she confessed as a multitude of thoughts bombarded her.  Was history about to repeat itself? Had she just set herself upon the same path as her mother? “What the hell have I done?” she sighed, squeezing her eyes closed in a foolhardy attempt to make this all go away.

“What?” Regina pressed, needing a lot more information to even begin to figure out what was going on. “Emma - just what the hell did you do? And what makes you think that it has anything to do with the warlock’s challenges?”

“I cast a spell the other night,” Emma stated, not that her answer was going to give any clarification to her fear. “I think that spell might have triggered the third challenge…”

“What sort of spell?” Zelena questioned, her curiosity piqued as to how a novice witch like Emma would have stumbled upon a spell powerful enough to garner the warlock’s attention.  Yes, Emma’s mother had been the last victim, but Ava had been a seasoned practitioner, more worthy of a battle.  Choosing Emma would almost be cheating for such a powerful warlock.

“It was a love spell, okay?” Emma replied defensively, although now  cringing with embarrassment over how ridiculous it sounded. 

“You cast a love spell?” Regina scoffed, but Emma cut the mayor off before she’d allow herself to be berated.

“Yes - a love spell!” Emma snapped back at her cousin. “Laugh all you want, but I knew I wanted someone in my life… I live with my brother and Mary Margaret and honestly, some days it’s like living with Snow White and her Prince Charming and yeah, I got a little jealous. I just want what they have - what you and Robin have… I just wanted my own true love and maybe taking a shortcut was too good to be true, but when I stumbled across that spell, I knew I had to cast it.  Maybe it was a bad idea in retrospect, but I did it.”

“So what about it makes you think that the spell might have been a part of the warlock’s games?” Zelena asked. “Can you show it to me?”

“The whole issue with my mother having to make a choice…,” Emma responded, scurrying back into the anteroom towards the towering bookshelves. “Let me show you…” She quickly located the volume she’d used and carried it to the potion table, dropping it rather indelically so she could flip through the pages searching for the specific spell. Despite her recollection of how many pages into the book it had been, Emma couldn’t locate it.  “What the hell? I can’t find it…  I know this is the right book - Zelena used it for one of our lessons in incantations a while back, but now, the spell isn’t here… I don’t understand… I swear it was here…”

“It’s alright,” Zelena offered her some comfort, but Emma could hear the faint air of disdain behind her words. “Do you remember what it said?” She hoped to garner enough information to determine what Emma had potentially conjured, but before Emma could answer, Regina unleashed a tirade.

“What were you even doing with those books?” Regina demanded. “I warned you not to get into any of those advanced spellbooks. That one’s written entirely in Latin!”

“And I’ve been studying Latin!” Emma angrily retorted.

“Ladies!” Zelena shouted, throwing up her hands in frustration. “Bickering isn’t going to get us anywhere. Let’s just try to figure out what happened…” She returned her attention to Emma and asked her again, “Emma, do you remember what the spell said?”

“I think so,” Emma replied, taking a deep breath to calm herself while she thought about the exact wording of the spell. “It was a short one… Verus amor occurant, which means to encounter true love. Verus amor reveles, to discover true love.  Verus amor agnocis. This was the only phrase I wasn’t really sure of.  I didn’t have an exact translation for agnocis, but everything else fit so I didn’t question it.  The last phrase was Confirmare verus amor which I know means confirm true love.”

“So you went ahead and cast a spell without knowing what the whole thing meant?” Regina questioned, shaking her head condescendingly at Emma’s impetulence.

“It was only one word.  I was only unsure of that single word and within the overall context, I didn’t see it as a problem at the time,” Emma replied.

“The problem is that single word changes the context of the spell.  It means identify. The phrase is identify true love and it takes this from a simple spell to discover true love to one that requires you to be able to distinguish your actual true love,” Regina explained.

“So, then it really is a choice…,” Emma sighed. “That’s why they both showed up in my life. “I’m supposed to choose between them…”

“Both who?” Zelena queried. “I know that our missing sailor is one of them, but who’s the other?”

“He’s an old friend from Boston, well, technically, an old lover.  I ran into him the same day I met Captain Jones and I didn’t really think much of it at the time.  It was a bizarre coincidence, that’s all I thought it was, and I went out to dinner with both of them.”

“And you have feelings for both?” Zelena asked, to which Emma nodded. 

“Okay, so then if the spell is to be believed and if, by chance, this is the same spell that led your mother into the warlock’s challenge, one of them is your true love and the other is a fake that will allow the warlock to steal your powers.”  Regina made it all sound so simple but Emma was struggling with the complexity of the mess she’d unexpectedly created. “Now do you understand why we wanted you to learn more about magic and its consequences before you learned about our family and all of the proverbial skeletons in the closet?  You needed a lot more knowledge to prepare you, but you got too curious for your own good!”

“Regina, enough!” a man’s voice boomed from the stairway behind Emma. “We should have told her the truth from the beginning.” Even though she already knew his voice, Emma was still slightly surprised to find David descending the steps. “We’re all equally culpable, so let’s just figure out a way to help Emma.  If this really is another challenge, you know as well as I do that the entire town will be affected, so we all need to work together.”

“Fine,” Regina relented with a huff. “But how are we supposed to help Emma figure out who her true love is, especially if one of the potential suitors is missing?”

“By first finding that missing captain. I’ve got calls in to organize a search team, provided I have a valid area to search,” David responded.

“Do you think his disappearance has anything to do with the choice I have to make?” Emma asked anxiously. “Do you think that maybe the warlock had Killian abducted because he’s really my true love?”

“Possibly,” Zelena stated before frowning and adding: “Of course, it could also be a ploy to make you pity him so he can garner favor…”

“Well, that’s encouraging…,” Emma sighed disparagingly. “But David’s right - we still need to find Killian first.  The locator spell indicated a spot out in the woods northeast of town.”

“It’s out near John’s cabin somewhere,” Regina explained. “I was going to call Robin to see if he and John can shed some light on what’s out there.”

“Sounds good,” David replied. “I’ll call Belle and see if she can locate any property records out in that area.  Maybe that will turn up some link to someone tied to this abduction. We’ll find this captain, Emma, but can I ask you a question - where’s the other guy?”

“We were having breakfast together when Graham called,” Emma responded. “I really owe him an apology…”

“Don’t hate me for this, but as Sheriff, you know I have to ask - do you think he might have had any involvement in Captain Jones’ disappearance?”

Emma honestly hadn’t anticipated that question.  “Walsh?” she asked incredulously. “He and Killian don’t know each other.  Why would you think he would be involved in this?”

“You don’t think jealousy could be a motive?” David asked her.

“I can’t imagine why it would,” Emma answered. “As I said, they don’t know each other.”

“Do you know where Walsh was last night?” was David’s next question.

“No,” Emma responded, now beginning to doubt her own resolve. “I didn’t see him last night. After our blow-up here, I went straight to Killian…”

“And that apparently upset someone,” Regina commented.

“Well, until we know more, we’re just going to treat this as a missing person case,” David stated. “Emma, meet me back at the station. I’m going to check in with Leroy to see how many people he was able to round up for our search party and I still want to get in touch with Belle to see what the town records will turn up about property owners out in that neck of the woods. It may not lead us anywhere, but it certainly can’t hurt.  Regina, let me know what Robin and John have to say.”

“I’ll call Belle,” Emma offered as she collected Killian’s compass and prosthetic hand, shoving them back into the leather pouch Mr. Smee had provided. David nodded in agreement as Zelena spoke up.

“What else can we do to help?” Zelena wondered.

“Right now, the best thing you can do is try to find out as much as you can about the warlock and the challenge my stepmother faced.  We need to learn everything we can,” David told her. “Whatever you can remember from what your mother told you will help.  Talk to Gold and Ingrid too. Maybe they can fill in some holes for us?”

“We’ll see what we can uncover,” Regina stated, although clearly not enthusiastic about the task.

“Thanks,” David replied, smiling despite the seriousness of the situation. “Now, let’s find Captain Jones and then we’ll deal with the rest of this.”

**********

Remembering that she still needed to reclaim her car from the cemetery parking area, Emma was able to return to the station in a matter of minutes, but what she really wanted to do was drive out to the forest and start hunting for Killian.  It took all of her strength not to keep driving past the station toward the woods, but she knew that they’d have more success working as a team.  It was simply too much territory for a single person to cover, logic dictated that fact, but it wasn’t going to make waiting for the search party to gather any easier.

She had contacted Belle, librarian and unofficial town historian, the moment she sat down at her desk, leaving a detailed message with precisely what they were needing in hopes that she’d get a response back rapidly. Despite the new developments that had occurred since she’d left the pawn shop that morning, Emma had an inkling that Belle might already be aware of some of what the deputy had requested - at least those pertaining to her mother and the warlock.  Gold had already provided quite a bit more information than Emma had expected from him, but she was hoping that Belle might be a bit more forthcoming - if the younger Mrs. Gold had any additional details.

Now she found herself with too much time to kill while she awaited David’s return with the search party.  She’d stared blankly at her computer monitor for several seconds, trying to decide what to do next, but she was facing a stalemate.  She wanted to search for more background on the warlock, but she realized no one had even given her a name.  Where would she start her search if she didn’t know the damned warlock’s name?  She toyed with the thought of calling Walsh to apologize for their interrupted breakfast, but since it was unlikely that she’d be able to reconnect with him at all today, she decided against it.  She simply couldn’t bring herself to dial his number because now she found herself wondering where he had been last night. Everything had suddenly become so complicated and she was feeling a fool for not recognizing that she’d fallen victim to a very clever trap.

One thing she could do with her time was to examine the one piece of evidence she had in her possession, one that she’d set aside earlier - the second book that she’d obtained from Gold this morning. The leather-bound volume that was currently occupying the upper right hand corner of her desk.  Picking it up, she could find no visible markings on it that would easily identify its purpose, but the wear along the spine and covers indicated that it had been handled regularly. The conundrum came when Emma attempted to open the damned thing. There was no flap on the cover to lift, no latch or lock anywhere on the burnished leather and it had her completely baffled. How did this blasted thing open?

Unless…

A blood seal?  Her mother had been a witch so perhaps she’d utilized a blood seal?  If this book contained some of Ava Nolan’s biggest secrets as Emma suspected it would, her mother would likely have thought to protect them with a seal that only she or those with like blood could open.  Emma had seen Regina and Zelena draw blood from their own flesh to open a bronze chest in the vault that housed several powerful amulets so the idea wasn’t out of the question. It seemed that Emma would now need to do the same to break into this mysterious book.

Yanking open the top drawer on her desk, she started digging through the office supplies and random junk in search of something sharp enough to draw a little bit of blood. The best object she could find was a plastic headed push pin from the bulletin board which wasn’t going to give her more than a miniscule bubble of blood but she was going to have to make due.  She didn’t have time to waste so push pin it would be.  She lifted the pin from the drawer thinking it would probably be best to sterilize it first, especially since she didn’t even know what all was in that drawer.  She squeezed a dollop of hand sanitizer from the dispenser on her desktop and smeared it all over the push pin and her fingertips.  Once satisfied that it was usable, she pressed the business end of the pin into the pad of her left middle finger.

A tiny crimson bead erupted to the surface of her skin and once she felt it was large enough, she drew her bloodied fingertip along the edge of the book that had the most visible wear. To her surprise and delight, the flap popped open and provided her access to the pages within. With a hint of trepidation, she raised the cover, thoughts of Pandora’s Box swirling through her overloaded mind.  She wasn’t going to stop though as she forced herself to skim through the pages of handwritten text.  She immediately recognized her mother’s handwriting as she gazed upon the words that had gone unread for decades.  The earliest entry was from nearly 40 years ago - the ramblings of a barely twenty year old Ava Blanchard whining about being overshadowed by older sister, Cora.  The jealousy was obvious in her words.  Ava envied her sister’s marriage and her status - being groomed by their father to succeed him as Storybrooke’s next mayor. But there was also some clear dissent between the sisters - Cora wanted to expand the town’s magic and open its borders to more like beings, not just their fellow witches and warlocks.  Ava voiced her disagreement, believing that the town’s magic was too much of a burden, essentially a curse upon them - and that was apparently long before she’d fallen victim to the warlock.

Emma found it to be an interesting insight, especially considering what would later befall her, but since she didn’t have time to read all of this now, she decided to skip ahead a few pages, landing on a journal entry that confirmed one of Emma’s own suspicions.  In this entry, Ava laments her loneliness and her belief that she was failing her family.  Cora had just given birth to Zelena and Ava worried that she couldn’t even keep a steady boyfriend. She believed that her one true love was out there but she was growing impatient and bored with her small town so she’d decided to cast a spell that would bring true love to her.

Emma could only speculate as to whether or not her mother had cast the same spell since the journal entry didn’t elaborate, but she could tell by skimming through the subsequent entries that the spell seemed to be successful. Ava wrote eloquently about the two men she’d developed feelings for. Robert Nolan was the sweet widower she’d grown up with.  They’d been friends since they were toddlers but as her attraction to Robert grew, Ava strangely began to fear that Robert’s one true love had been his late wife, Ruth.  She worried that she’d always be second, never measuring up, which began to push her towards the mysterious outsider she referred to merely as Ozzie. He was more cavalier and daring, taking her on trips to the bigger cities and showering her with the affection she craved, and she found herself gravitating towards him.

There were several more entries discussing both Robert Nolan and the man known only as Ozzie but so far, Emma found no mention of Ozzie’s surname. Her mother’s words did lay out her eventual decision though - believing that Robert had already found and lost his true love, Ava, she had decided that Ozzie must be the one for her and planned to seal the choice with their first passionate kiss the evening she’d written this.  Emma couldn’t help but think about her interactions with both Walsh and Killian where they’d shared little pecks on the cheeks over the past few days, but as of yet, no kisses on the lips.  Of the two, only Walsh had expressed any outward disappointment, perhaps simply due to their prior relationship, but his reaction, even after an apology, weighed on Emma’s mind as she flipped the page to her mother’s next entry.

Several days must have passed between Ava’s journal entries because the next one was visibly different in both content and appearance. It was written in a much sloppier script and spoke of betrayal and stupidity and of utter failure, yet surprisingly, it also spoke of hope. She wrote of choosing Ozzie, the more enigmatic of her suitors, but the moment she’d kissed him, he was gone. Vanished in a puff of grey smoke - along with her magic.  She was left feeling drained, hollow and empty, but she made no attempt to hide her fault. She’d made a poor choice and fessed up to it.  She’d gone to Robert and explained everything, including all of her shortcomings, and to her surprise, he’d forgiven her, going so far as to ask her to marry him right then and there.  True love had won after all, but at a hefty cost.

Hyper-focused on the journal, Emma failed to hear David and Graham returning to the squad room until one of them called her name, instantly snapping her back from the 1970s to the present - and to the current challenge facing them.

“Emma? You alright there?” David asked, slightly concerned when his sister didn’t respond immediately.

“Sorry, David… I just got a little caught up reading through this old journal of my mother’s while I was waiting for you,” she explained, closing the cover instinctively as if to protect it from prying eyes.

“Where did you find that?” David wondered.

“I got it from Mr. Gold at the pawn shop in exchange for a book of his that I retrieved for him from Regina’s vault.  He’d been holding on to some stuff mom had sold him for decades.”

“Well, unless you’re planning to continue reading, Leroy is assembling the search team he rounded up out at the farmhouse at the end of the paved stretch of Highway 3,” David said. “It’s as close as we’re going to be able to get to the area Zelena circled on a town map. Robin and John are lending us a couple of ATVs and Graham is using his own 4x4, but most of the area will still need to be covered on foot.  Have you heard anything back from Belle about properties and possible buildings out there?” 

“Haven’t heard from her yet,” Emma replied, “but what did Robin have to say?”

“Well,” David began as he unfurled the map Zelena had provided onto the top of an empty desk. “According to Robin, it’s mostly dense forest out there, but he did say there are a handful of cabins scattered throughout the woods. I guess there are some people who really like living off the grid because I don’t think the power lines extend that far out of town.” David stabbed an index finger into the center of the circle drawn in what looked like bright red lipstick. “We’ll have a team of ten, plus the three of us, available to search the indicated area.  Hopefully Belle will get back to us quickly and let us know more specifics on people who might be living out there.  It’s a long shot to think any of the owners could be connected to Captain Jones’ disappearance, but I’d still like to know what we’re up against. Now, let’s get stocked up on flashlights and make sure we have enough two-way radios because cell service is going to be spotty at best out there.”

“Alright, let’s get going then,” Emma stated as she sprang to her feet. There was still a little nagging voice in her head that had her fighting conflicting feelings about Killian’s role in the inevitable choice she was going to have to make, but no matter what, she still had to find him. Whatever she’d set in motion by casting that stupid spell wasn’t going to stop until she’d made her decision. If this was all a part of some deranged warlock’s game to steal her magical powers, Emma had no intention of giving up without a fight and when David wasn’t looking, she casually tucked her wand into the inside pocket of her leather jacket and then zipped it up before heading to the stockroom David jokingly referred to as the armory to gather the rest of the supplies they’d need.

Hang in there, Killian, she thought to herself. I will find you.

[thegeneralsnotebook]

July Feature: History of Colours Part 3 -- Purple

One of the things that I was a little afraid of going into this series about the histories of each of the main colours was that after the first few entries, the series would start to get a bit dry. I would have already talked about the big decks and so the later colours wouldn’t have a whole lot left to mention that hadn’t already been said. So far at least, I’m glad to say that this hasn’t happened, and now it looks like maybe it’ll be okay. After all, we’ve got a lot of important cards to mention when we get to Pink, and again when we get to Orange, and again when we get to Blue. So I don’t think that we’re going to run into any problems on that front at all. In any case, this month is about Purple, and it’s a colour that has its own narrative to tell.

That, by the way, is another thing which has surprised me so far in my research. Each of the colours so far has had a relatively nice theme emerge around their history as I pulled it together. Yellow’s was a tale of a brilliant beginning, a long period of loss, and then a slow but strong rebirth. White’s was a surprisingly thematic tale of a colour that, while it had given up the spotlight, had never given up the stage. For Purple, things are a little different, but no less appropriate, especially given the colour’s new royal connotations. Purple, I’ve found, has been a colour all about establishing dynasties, lines of decks passing a torch from one generation to the next, traceable back to a touchstone concept from older times. It was impressive how far back some of these lines reached, and indeed a few decks that I had thought emerged from whole cloth were actually perched on the shoulders of past giants that I had never even heard of before. 

Before we get started, I want to again extend heartfelt thanks to my source on all matters of the predate my experience with the game’s competitive scene: the one and only Emperor Bugle. This time I really would have been up the creek if not for him, though we’ll get to that particular event in its due time.

For now, come along with me, as we unveil the saga of the Dynasties of Purple.

Two big cards with big effects, but generally used for slightly different things.

Formative Days

As with all of the colours, the story of Purple has to begin at the beginning, at the dawn of Premier. There were three major decks featuring Purple at the time, but I have covered Royal Guidance and Taxes in the Yellow and White articles respectively, and I won’t be going into further detail on them here. Instead, let’s focus on our first touchstone, though in this case the torch first lit by Big Bombs was not to be picked up by Purple, and instead was eventually passed to a different colour, which we’ll talk about in its due time.

Now, I would not be surprised by a slight sense of deja vu encountered when first clicking on that link, because indeed this early deck does bear a striking resemblance to some Harmony Purple Farming decks that have been active as recently as this year’s Winter Store Championships. The modern versions have significantly less Friends, different Epics, and some useful Resources in them, but the basic idea is absolutely still the same. PR Twilight contributes well to fighting Epics when paired with a lot of extra flip Events and a high-flipping deck in general. In addition the deck features a good host of what Purple control tools existed at the time, capped off by the brilliant Ursa Vanquisher, a card which may or may not be showing up again in this article a little ways down the page. Indeed, this was Farming before the term “Farming” was even part of the CCG vernacular. And, your eyes do not deceive you where that Full Steam in the upper left is considered. Once upon a time, a 4/0/4 vanilla actually did deserve to be a Rare, and especially in a deck so focused on its flips it was an excellent card to have.

As we move along into Canterlot Nights, we come to a deck that I’ve mentioned before, in the moment that it came during White’s article. I gave it little more than a footnote at that time, but I don’t believe that this time I can get by without giving it a full treatment. Unfortunately, I am also not qualified to properly discuss the minutiae of its construction, so for that I will defer to my source, who has written rather extensively on the topic. I refer of course to One Pace (and seriously do block some time from your schedule if you intend on clicking that link; when I said Bugle had written extensively I wasn’t kidding). One Pace is an important deck for a lot of reasons, and probably could serve as the basis for a whole article all on its own. From my research I can confidently enough say that what you see in there is the foundation upon which combo was built, a formulation of reduced-cost Events and deck-thinning that rings eerily recognizable even today. History may not repeat itself, as Mark Twain said, but it sure does often rhyme.

Finally, we close off these early days with a little list that may not have ever captured much in the way of tournament success, but certainly captured a fair few hearts and minds in its time in the public eye. This being the Antisocial Luna Farming deck that first came at the concept of building a deck with no Friends, and was a popular-enough topic of discussion.

The times, they were a’changin, and Purple was finding its stride.

The Great Realignment

Every one of these articles, I’ve realized, is going to contain a section that could plausibly be headlined by DJ and Maud, even in the colours other than Orange and Pink. Simply put, Rock & Rave was such a momentous and seminal event in the history of the game that the time before and the time after it must be kept separate from each other.

In Purple’s case, however, there was at least a small amount of time before the Great Pink & Orange War fully took hold where one new dynasty was able to be laid down, and what an important dynasty it wound up being. At this point, we have advanced to the 2014 NA Continental Championships, and within the Top 8 of that event there were two important Purple decks.

The first was the winner of the whole thing, a deck named Maudlike, notable for being one of the very first competitively successful tri-colour lists, and itself a harbinger of things to come with its relatively slow, Farming/Control oriented playstyle. Indeed, while Maud was to become best-known in a pure Farming context, her strengths in a Control deck willing to use her Power to consistently confront Problems have also been broadly recognized throughout history. And yes, here we see Ursa Vanquisher again, still devastatingly effective at defending Troublemakers in a world so lacking in other ways of dealing with them.

But in actuality I think that it is the other Purple list that appears in the Top 8 that is the more important one to take note of. It’s a deck that I personally had never heard of before doing this research, but it appears that it may be the progenitor of the Vinyl/Purple control dynasty, which as we all know eventually led to brilliant success. Unfortunately the original primer for the deck has since been removed from Reddit, but here again Bugle saved me, and so I can present to you Charlotte’s Tower. The key theme that I would pull from this deck is repeatability, as so many of its key control features are repeatable, and especially difficult to deal with in an era where Resource removal was not always considered quite so essential as it is today. It’s easy to see the hallmarks of features that we would come to expect in a modern control deck, with targeted answers against opposing Troublemakers, limited but effective removal, and so much value generation, whether it be AT with All Team Organizer, or cards with DJ. It’s an important piece of history, so I was very happy when this decklist surfaced.

Now, as we move on to the Absolute Discord era, it is true that Purple’s fortunes fade somewhat. Pink and Orange rose to the fore, and there will be more to write about this time as we get to those colours. But I do want to make two important notes here.

The first concerns Princess Luna, The Setting Moon, a card which entered the game in Celestial Solstice and left an indelible impression, particularly in the field of combo. I don’t believe that I’ve managed to avoid mentioning Dragon Express in any of the previous articles, but I’ll save the full writeup for one of the most infamous decks in history for the Orange article.

The second is about a deck that I discovered while hunting around for decklists of the other items on this list. It hadn’t come up in my discussion with Bugle, but the contemporary sources mentioned it as a “meta” deck of the time period, so I thought it was probably worth including. It went by the name of Dusk Radiance Mastery, and is mostly closely viewed as an evolution of the ideas first expressed in Royal Guidance, though with a few key updates. Most notable at the time was the inclusion of Twilight Sparkle, Friendship is Magic as the Mane. It also included some fine tech to deal with the meta, like Critter Stampede to crush One Pace’s needed 6 AT to play its Element of Magic. A fine inheritor of what was at the time a flickering flame. Not to fear, though. Unlike Yellow, Purple’s time in the shadows turned out to be very brief.

Stride found.

EO Block: The Age of Legends

EO Block is where the modern Purple story really starts. All at once, the colour got a lot of amazing cards. And then it got even more in HM. And then even more in MT. The result was a colour that was a juggernaut in competitive play, with multiple viable archetypes, and a foundation for a dynasty that was set to last a long time.

Before we talk about decklists, there are a number of individual cards that need to be mentioned. The first is the new Mane Character that the colour received in EO: Princess Twilight Sparkle, Ambassador of Friendship. It didn’t take long for people to realize that Purple’s new keyword in the set, Meticulous, was an excellent ability for Control, and this card’s ability to start making it happen on Turn 2 when paired with Ancient Research as a starting Problem was a great starting point for any Control deck. Plus, Twilight got you extra AT too, a theme that was going to keep building as more sets came out. HM granted the colour Princess Twilight Sparkle, Cover to Cover, an absurd value generator that quickly earned a reputation as an automatic inclusion in virtually any Purple deck. And finally, there is the Purple EO Event suite, backstopped by the card that eventually got banned, Interdimensional Portal.

Portal, by the way, was already doing unfortunate things as soon as EO released, though at the time everyone was blaming the new Pink/White Bulk Biceps. All Tied Up, which made a strong impression on the scene before being quite swiftly banned, offered only a taste of what was to come. In addition to using Portal for its more traditional Control roles, that deck was able to take advantage of a fortuitous interaction with Bulk to create an infinite supply of 2-AT Immediate speed removal.

HM and MT were where the colour really hit its stride though, with HM offering us another touchstone, Zipporwhil and the dynasty of classical Purple/X control that followed it. By the time MT hit and gave us Purple/White multicolour cards for the first time, White was cemented as the dominant secondary colour for Purple, and the combination became a mainstay in tournaments all over the world. The two colours admittedly suffered somewhat from being incredibly slow when paired together, and often failed to win within the allotted time limit even if they would have theoretically pulled ahead if given infinite time. But Purple had established one of its most successful dynasties, and one that would continue right up to the establishment of Core.

However, Purple/White was not the only important multicolour combination that we got from MT. Indeed yet another dynasty was going to be founded, this one utilizing Orange, and blazing a trail for classical Chaos Control, best typified by Grand Pause’s Waking Nightmare, here depicted in its 2016 NA Continentals T8 form. Similar to how archetypal Purple/White control relied on Eff Stop to replay control-oriented Events, so too could these make use of cycled Chaos effects to frustrate an opponent’s attempts to break down its walls. This also maintained its form for quite a while and inspired many successors, including (one assumes) the Chaos Control that New Dawn seems likely to bring us.

Oh, by the way, Tantabuse was somewhere in here too, and included some Purple, but I will get to it in its own due time.

Finally, rounding off the EO Block, there was another entry in the 2016 NA Continentals worth mentioning, Too Spoopy, placing in the T16. This Blue/Purple combination was something of an oddity for its time, playing Purple at an extremely anomalous speed. Even so, its combination of large amounts of frighten synergy and strong Events from both of its colours proved potent.

Some dynasties are built to last.

The Modern Era

The start of Defenders of Equestria, even though it wasn’t actually the beginning of the Core format, is still the point I use as the beginning of the current “Modern Era” of the CCG. And from this point forward, most of the decks being covered here should be relatively familiar to most of the readership. Essentially through this era Purple remained the King (or should I perhaps say Princess) of value, though Ambassador began to fall off somewhat in favour of a resurgent DJ Mane. While DE may be remembered generally as the era of Hot Wings, and of Pink in general, Purple still managed to feature on both sides of the 2017 NA Continental Final.

Bugle’s eventual winning deck Vinyl’s Bag of Tricks was already mentioned in the White article, and will get its full credit in the Pink article. Instead, I want to dedicate this space to discussion of the deck that got 2nd, the one simply and poetically called Butts.

In some senses, as a DJ/Purple control deck, Butts appeared superficially similar to the broad direction that Purple was going in around this time. Indeed, watching the Finals match between these two offered a… qualified form of thrills, but I can personally attest that it was a grand thing to watch. When we dig closer into Butts though, it becomes plain that this is a deck absolutely going its own way. Most obvious is the 53 card total, even now an extreme anomaly, and quite a bit more so in an era where consistency was absolutely everything when playing control. But probably even more important than that is the fact the deck is only playing two colours, and bucked the by-then nearly-universal trend of splashing White for Eff Stop and point acceleration. Instead, eminently_sensible committed to making it work with only two colours, and it’s a testament to his own skill that he was able to make it work so well. Per usual on these important and highly-technical decks, I defer to the author himself, in the link above.

Now, that brings us to the Beyond Block, and, thankfully for me, brings the end of this article into clear sight. Not so quickly though, because no sooner did Seaquestria get started than we saw another dynasty laid down, its echoes and heirs still making themselves felt in the present day. That deck was BRB, here depicted in its 2018 NA Continentals incarnation, reaching second as piloted by George Z. Purple and Pink yet again come together, but in the new Core format and so decidedly changed from their past allegiance. BRB was a cornerstone deck in the realignment of the Control playstyle that was happening in the aftermath of the first Core rotation, and while honest debate persists as to whether it can be correctly referred to as a Control deck, I personally fall on the side that says it is. This simply was what Control had become in the new era, no longer so reliant on Troublemakers but much more keen on removal and taking its points from confronts and faceoffs when they were available. It’s even perhaps somewhat fitting that it passed its torch on to the same three colours that Bugle had won with in 2017, completing a thematic loop as Tempest Pink/White emerged as the Control standard-bearer in a meta that was getting swamped by the resurgent Yellow. Notably, there was a Blue variant as well that managed to reach 2nd Place at the 2019 EFNW tournament.

Finally, rounding out the notable modern decks, we do have one more that could form a dynasty all its own, that being Alicorn Tribal as popularized by i8Pages in an Everfree Northwest T4 from 2019. Certainly it’s an open question for the future to see if that style of deck will see any heirs, but in a world where tri-corns are going to keep being a thing it’s a reasonable guess to make that there exists some potential for it.

New Dawn: Looking Ahead

Purple has enjoyed an amazingly storied history over the course of the development of the game’s meta. Many trends and larger arcs owe their beginning to an idea that was originally expressed with a Purple deck, and in the present day the colour has a well-earned reputation for being very good at the things it does: control, Troublemakers, and value through AT generation. What this means though, is that New Dawn is shaping up to offer an exciting, if uncertain future. Current signs point to some novel directions to the colour, with a firmer eye toward farming, and some legitimate arrows pointing in the direction of aggro. And if there should be any theme that jumps out about the history of Purple, it should be the relative lack of effective aggro. Thus the onset of New Dawn appears to be precisely that where Purple is concerned, and who knows if next year we will even recognize the colour that it has become. Yet even then, I think we can rest assured when we look back on this era, we’ll be able to trace a line of decks owing their inspiration and substance to an important foundation that emerged somewhere in the mists of the new set.

[naruhearts]

OKAY SO I've just spent the best part of an hour scrolling through your blog and reading a bunch of your destiel meta and I HAD to message you... I was one of the many people who STRONGLY believed destiel had a chance of being canon after season 8 (more like season gr8 am i right), but throughout the years I slowly lost all hope. However, S14 has made me 110% invested in the show again and YOUR META IS GIVING ME HOPE FOR DESTIEL, which is TERRIFYING. Your writing is wonderful and I'm STRESSED.

Got back from Washington late last night!

Oh my gosh @alovelikecas, your message really made my day and I’m SO glad you enjoy my meta xox (even when most of my meta looks like, to me, sloppy-ass writing, haha! I’ll probably make an end-season meta post after 14x20 — if I have the time — that touches upon SPN’s current and repeating themes since Season New Beginnings S12/Dabb Era, not to mention I have, like, some more unfinished meta in my drafts >.>)

Yeah I mean, I didn’t join Destiel land until Summer 2016, and before that, I was late to the Season 11 party, so I basically had no narrative context for anything, and I’ll copy-paste what I said here: 

Looking back, one significant thing I recall? S11 gave me a sense of Destiel’s true narrative validity (as not a ‘fanon’ ship but organically developed in the canon) when I perceived it as a season that was ‘missing something’. Keep in mind I had no idea about Destiel yet while watching S11 at the time.

I was literally asking myself — repeatedly — why Dean/Amara seemed to contain odd narrative holes, considering A. Dean explicitly said that the non-consensual attraction he felt for Amara was NOT love and “it scares him”, B. Amara told Dean that ‘something stops you - keeps you from having it all’, C. Djinn!Amara stated that she can: ‘feel the love [Dean] feels, except it’s cloaked in shame,’ and D. Mildred’s iconic ‘You’re pining for someone’ —> which did not logically correlate with A and C, meaning: since Dean doesn’t freely love Amara and thus isn’t possibly pining for her — with female love interests as currently non-existent (I remember crossing off the dead/gone girls on a piece of paper lol) — who the hell was he pining for, then?

Originally posted by elizabethrobertajones

Obviously, without writing long-ass paragraphs of meta about it again in this post, S11 made sense as soon as I watched it within the Destiel context (especially after I read up on some grandiose pieces of Destiel meta (@charlie-minion was the very first person who inspired me to write meta; I followed her once I joined the fandom Oh my god, here we go, holy crap this subtext – I’m invested in this godforsaken ship because they’re in love with each other and I’m not getting off any time soon. The rest is history.

I’m aware that I do come off as positive (and I’m still Destiel-positive; whatever happens in 14x20 this week may or may not change that), but I hope you don’t mind if I use your lovely ask as an additional opportunity to clarify my meta standpoint: no one’s saying Destiel WILL become text. 

The general Destiel meta community (all subfactions: Destiel-positive, -negative, -neutral, and in-between) is not the Most Holy Canon Word, and we aren’t SPN writers, and again, we can’t actually speak to the veracity of Destiel as guaranteed-gonna-go-textual, but we — a diverse pool of critical thinkers from all walks of life: particularly those who have some degree of experience in literary academia/English literature studies (fun fact: I was actually pursuing a Minor’s in English until I changed my mind - my first love’s Health Science/Biology, which I stuck with, but here I am doing lit-crit analysis on the side *wink*) — can speak to the veracity of Destiel as a real, palpable, and ever-substantial long-running romance narrative aka the love story between Dean and Cas IS THERE. I see it. We all see it. We didn’t pluck it out of the random ether one day. It naturally evolved across the show’s overarching narrative like some vast spiderweb, linked together by numerous character arc amalgamations of Dean Winchester and Castiel as separate individuals who were then brought together — who brought themselves together, by the sheer force of free will and choice — and are now inherent parts of the other’s story (and respective character progression).

I say this too many times to count: the entire point of writing meta? Personally, it enables me to appreciate the literary gorgeousness of Dean and Cas’ relationship as, first and foremost, a tentative alliance offset by the very moment Cas raised Dean from perdition (it’s a poetic beginning). Their alliance then inevitably proliferated into a rocky — at times, necessarily turbulent — friendship, then a deep profound bond…one that crossed platonic boundaries since S7/8 and is, ultimately, indelibly rooted in romance. Together, Dean and Cas build up each other’s strengths, complement each other’s flaws, and narratively motivate the other to self-introspect — to become the best version of themselves that they were always meant to be: self-actualized entities who let go of their painful, horrifying, psychologically/emotionally destitute pasts.

These above reasons and more are why I think Destiel belongs right up there on the shelf of Ye Olde Classics, similar to epics by John Milton, Shakespearian tragic dramas, Homeric characteristic cruxes, and the great Odyssey journey: a legendary journey, fraught with circumstance, that finally ended with Odysseus (now an enlightened man) returning to Penelope, the love of his life.

Channeling the scope of Homer’s Odyssey, Destiel is an incredible storytelling feat of obstacles, both internal and external, romance tropes, mirroring, foreshadowing, and visual cadence/emotion, enhancing SPN’s already character-driven main plot in that Dean and Cas try to make it back to one another; like Penelope, their love holds true despite everything. If Destiel were an M/F couple, we all know their love story would be absolutely undeniable to the GA.

I do understand the bitterness S14’s fostered in some viewers, though. I do understand that Dean and Cas seem distant (and yeah, it’s a noticeable difference compared to S12/S13), but I believe the Destiel subtext is still heavy and holds steady.

Right now, at this point, there remains multiple personal issues for the characters to solve, you know? Dean and Cas aren’t talking properly; their love languages stay mistranslated, although we’re persistently shown that they still understand each other on a certain level that no one else can, and the visual narrative keeps framing them as on-the-nose solid counterparts: a domestic-spousal romantic unit independent of Sam.

Originally posted by incatastrophicmind

They want to be there for the other. They need to quash the final remnants of their respective internal loathing (Dean’s self-worthiness, Cas’ self-expendability) before they’re able to give the other 100% of their time, efforts, attention, and love (as flawed and complicated but compellingly beautiful as it can possibly be). During the times Dean and Cas do try to talk shit out, extraneous issues continue to get between them.

As other friends/meta pals discussed with me, S14 is like S10 in that it’s confusing the cast/audiences. And exactly: S8, besides S11/S12/early S13, also belongs in the close-to-canon serious Destiel narrative transition! I can discuss the showrunning/writer problem of SBL (Singer + Bucklemming; @occamshipper hits the nail on the head) that tugs subtext – especially subtext linked to Destiel – back and forth, sometimes in the weirdest nonsensical ways, but I won’t go too far into it here. I agree, however, with the recent idea that Jensen does seem a bit confused as to where he should bring Dean emotionally this season (don’t get me wrong, I do NOT believe Dean is OOC; OOC is a completely different concept vs expected character behaviour). And if Dean’s consistently romance-coded past interactions with Cas are any indication, Jensen would also — in the same vein as all of us — want Dean and Cas to start getting their shit together. Long-running fictional characters like Dean and Cas, conceived over 10 years, are so well-written to the point where you, the author, can predict what they’ll do even if you just plop both of them inside a room and give them no direction, and I personally feel that nowadays Jensen is prevented from achieving Dean’s further internal growth/unsure how to act in the moment because of some dumb SBL scripts saying one thing while his character’s heart says another. Wank aside—

Season 15 should hopefully convey a much more logical subtextual perspective e.g. unbelievably amazingly cohesive Season Destiel 11 that aired after choppy S10. Not all hope is lost!! I also want to clarify that I personally LOVED Season 14 in general. It’s been mostly Emotion-centric constant, with Yockey, Berens, Perez, and Dabb usually making my top-rank SPN writer list.

Currently the narrative’s still allowing pretty significant (imho) wiggle room for the lovers to fracture apart and get back together, where their miscommunication comes to a dramatic head. We just saw Dean and Cas argue over Jack’s well-being in 14x18 and 19. Dean — besides putting Cas at the top of his You’re-Dead-to-Me-Because-You-Lied-but-I-Still-Love-You-Goddammit hitlist (for clear spousal-coded reasons) and taking Cas’ actions to heart (he’s the person he trusted the most who lied to him) — no doubt blamed himself for what happened, and Sam was, like I said, the mouthpiece of truth. TFW were all culpable. They all failed Jack in some way, shape, or form.

I’m not expecting anything for 14x20, but I’m nervous either way! Thanks for sticking with my long answer