#Because screw whatever the writers did to them

[sundaynightlive]

Character Development (Steddie)

“If I were you… I would get her back.”

Steve snaps suddenly out of his trance—Eddie’s a pretty boy to look at. Dangerously so. In fact, half of this conversation has gone completely over his head, which is probably why he’s misinterpreted it completely.

“Hold on—pause,” he says, perplexed, “We’re not flirting?” They stop walking in unison, Eddie freezing out of shock, Steve anticipating it. Eddie looks at him, wide eyed, jaw going slack and then taught like he can’t decide which conveys his surprise better.

“I… what?”

“I was just making eyes at you,” Steve says, and then groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “God damn it, I’ve really lost my touch.”

“No!” Eddie exclaims quickly, “Ah, no.” He’s flustered. Steve sees the flush in his face—he’s not trying to hide it. “No it’s… it’s working. I just didn’t think… you’re into guys?” Steve shrugs.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

They stand there awkwardly for a moment, and then Eddie bumps his shoulder into Steve’s and they continue walking, easing out of the tension.

“So… how long?”

“How long what?”

“Have you known?” Eddie clarifies, and Steve notices their knuckles are brushing between them. He gazes up at Rob and Nancy, who are blissfully unaware.

“Well… someone came out to me recently so I started looking into it, called my uncle—man, that was an awkward conversation.”

“Your uncle?”

“Oh—he’s gay—has a partner and stuff. They live in California and we visited sometimes when my parents still took me places, you know.” Eddie blinks at him, nodding his head a little bit, but doesn’t look like he’s fully comprehending anything Steve’s saying at all. Steve takes a turn bumping Eddie’s shoulder, thinking maybe it’ll jolt awake some of those gears in his brain.

Their pinkies hook.

“So… what was the conclusion?” Eddie asks, like he doesn’t already know.

“I’ve had nasty thoughts about Harrison Ford way too many times to be straight,” Steve admits cheekily, “He said I’m bi, I guess. It means—“

“I know what it means, Steve.” Steve grins at him, a little sheepish, and Eddie smiles back, something soft and personal. It’s an expression Steve hasn’t seen him make yet, even with all his damn theatrics. To be fair, Steve’s growing quite fond of those theatrics, premature as it might be.

“So, go on,” Steve teases, “What were you saying about me getting back with my ex?

“Hmm, I don’t recall saying anything like that,” Eddie responds.

“Oh really?”

“Really. In fact, that’s a terrible idea. Bad for character development.” Steve laughs then—fully laughs—a sound that must be revolutionary for the Upside Down. No one has ever laughed here, no way.

“Character development?”

“Indeed.”

[nenoname]

Gravity Falls DVD Commentary Highlights

(just a huge, and I mean huge, dump of random quotes that stuck out to me, which I sorta separated into characters+their relationships and it's probably gonna be obvious that Stan is my fave lmao

I dunno how to make this legible for anyone but whatever, just take all these rando character tidbits. Stan Twin pranks! Sonployee essays! The concept for a post-Weirdmageddon episode that Alex insists is just too miserable but I want it anyway! The Pines family making me cry!)

Stan

"We love the idea of Stan [in Boss Mabel] having a minute to uh, having a context where we want to see him be his worst self and seeing his big brash personality in like a setting that everyone can understand, because the Mystery Shack is a little bit ungrounded because he's in his world of his characters, but seeing him out in the outside world is funny weird."

We really enjoyed the fact that he's as awful as ever and he's rewarded for it. We like those anti-morals where Stan uses his terribleness to succeed incredibly well.

I think it was a little hard for people to understand in the writer's room at the beginning of the series was that, even though Stan is following a lot of these tropes of being a miser, he's not grumpy. Like he actually loves being himself. He really revels in it like even though he's got some kind of sorrow inside, his kind of day-to-day like he's more about just the uncle who loves to hear himself and make dumb jokes than he is somebody who's mean or cruel or cynical per se.

The [NWHS] storyboards managed to make Stan this awesome action hero while still keeping him Stan. Like I like the fact that he steals a wallet in the middle of it. He steals a wallet, he smashes somebody against the wall, he sasses him but he also has this just great Inception moment. And it's because we're building to a big question about “who is Stan?”, I felt a moment of seeing him be kind of awesome further increases your “who is this guy?” He keeps going back and forth between like “oh geez my back” and you're like “all right that's the Stan I know” and then like “whoa, he just did an awesome jailbreak! Is he some kind of super villain? Who is he really?

There's more of Ford in Stan than I think Stan realizes that I think only comes out in certain moments.”

Why did Stan keep a clipping of himself titled “grifter at large”? I think he thought he looked cool in that picture. “You know I kind of have a Clint Eastwood look in this grifter at large photo. I think maybe I'll use this as an About the Author one day. I gotta hold on to this one. You know what, I'm a criminal but I'm a nostalgic criminal! Loving the past is my greatest crime now!”

I know how Stan feels in this [Principal talking to his family] scene, when somebody comes in and says like “You know what? There was a race you didn't know you were running and you're already behind, way behind.” 

And you know even though Stan is a guy who looks like he's having a fun time, I always, in my gut, thought of him as somebody who is a huge well of sadness, a loss of human connection. And that need to please, that trying to get laughs from the crowd and constantly telling dumb jokes and you know putting on a big show in the Mystery Shack, he's trying to get from them the affection that he never got from his family and lost with his brother.

Stan has been waiting for years to have a reunion with his brother. He's always felt like a screw-up. Stan once again had an idea of how he thought things were going to go. He thought that his brother was saying “I need your help��� for the first time. He's going to go up there, they're gonna have some drinks, they're gonna catch up and instead he ended up shoving his brother into another dimension and running out of food and money. It's sort of his worst nightmare. But this was Stan's entire character, from the very beginning of the series, was built around this idea that he's living with this tragedy. He's a guy who outwardly seems like he doesn't appreciate family but in fact wants it more than anything in the world and feels like maybe he's not worthy of it and would do anything to prove that he is.

Seeing Stan figure out what he's good at felt important to me. Like he's never been good at anything in his life and he makes a stupid hokey joke and it suddenly turns into a profit. I felt like without [showing how the Mystery Shack was created], I was missing something and understanding why he would do this, how this would be the solution to his problem.

We would like the idea that Stan appears to win through dumb luck, that it's sort of Intelligence versus Guts but Stan wouldn't actually bet everyone's life on a dice roll. He's a cheater! At the end of the day, I believe Stan has been thrown out of Vegas for counting cards and for weighing dies and I believe he could con his way out of any game, particularly for an obnoxious wizard like this. The idea that Stan would gamble everyone on pure chance is like no. No, he's got a plan. This is the guy who escaped prison using gravity leaps, he's got a way out.

The one big thing [The Stanchurian Candidate] does is really highlights Stan's inferiority complex compared to his brother. Part of what he's doing is he's trying to be an important man here and this episode is actually a pretty good setup in many ways for Weirdmageddon Part 3. When we see Ford they're all going on this rescue mission to rescue Ford and this episode shows you just how much Stan wants to be the hero like the reason that he can't shake Ford's hand when they're in that circle.  The cold open of this where he sees everyone loves Ford and now that Ford's back, he's the best. Stan's like “well, how about I run for mayor!” It's just to boost his ego and make him feel better about himself.

Dipper and Mabel

“Straight man protagonists are really hard to write because every other character had a comedic hook. We understand that Soos is kind of this weirdo, his brain is in another place. Mabel has this exuberance and sees the best in every situation and is very creative. Stan is a crooked conman. Dipper is… the normal guy and a character like that can often feel like they don’t have agency, start to feel just reactive.

Waddles is Mabel's only love that lasts the summer. Mabel is very prone to love at first sight and Waddles is able to love back with Mabel's degree of love.

[In Sock Opera] Mabel's in love with Gabe, Dipper's in love with the Author and they're both willing to do something crazy to get get closer to that thing

There kept being layers of adjustment to make it, “okay what would it take to get Dipper to make a deal with Bill?”  1: He would have to not understand the rules of the deal. He's been tricked, he thinks he's just giving a puppet, he didn't know was himself. Classic genie rules, you get what you wish for in a way you didn't expect.  2: There's a little ticking clock that just started, which if he doesn't do it by now, he's gonna lose all this.  3: Bill rightfully points out that Mabel has been kind of not sacrificing for him and he maybe needs another ally right now  4: He was sleep deprived and actually you'll notice that Dipper blinks right before Bill arrives and that's our way of suggesting that that countdown might not have even existed

I think Dipper and Mabel are of equal exact intelligence but Dipper's insecure. He sees his accomplishments as a way to make himself better and thus is motivated to focus on things that are accomplishment type things. And Mabel is very confident and likes having fun and when she's having a good time, she has a little tunnel vision for the people and the things around her. That's one of her biggest flaws. She's actually really, really sweet when she notices and understands your pain but not when she's doing a bit, when she's doing a scene, when she's doing a gag.

Ford

Originally [the fake Author] looked a little bit more like an oddball wacky inventor and I felt he had to be pretty idiosyncratic. There's certain color things about him you'll notice. He's more or less got the color scheme of the Journal, you know maroons and golds, so that you kind of feel instinctively like maybe that's him. A lot of these motifs though we would end up using in Ford's design, as well the gloves and the coat and all that but much cooler later on but preparing you, it's Ford Lite. 

Now this is there's no logical reason that Ford would break [the warnings about the portal] up into all these books this way but up until this point he's been shown as this sort of all-knowing mysterious Puzzle Master that it felt appropriate, even though it's not logical.

It works for the storytelling so when Ford wrote that, that's when he was super sleep deprived. He realized that Bill had betrayed him, he was starting to have a hard time differentiating between fantasy and reality, he was losing sleep and scribbling all sorts of lunatic serial killer looking stuff about the end of the world.

In Time Traveler’s Pig, we see what should be a young Stanford Pines even though again, the design's a little off but we knew big sideburns, bushy hair. Although that Stanford looked a little bit more swole than this guy and that's one of the what we thought were very subtle clues in season one that helped a lot of fans figure figure everything out way too soon.

[Using the memory gun on the agents scene] needs to show that Ford's really awesome and so we could get rid of the agents and show that Ford can pretty much handle anything that Stan can't and also call back to our memory ray all in one.

There was a lot of fan speculation when we first met Ford. Generally when television shows introduce a new mysterious character late in the game, they turn out to be a villain like 9 out of 10 times. They turn out to be a villain or they're there to get killed off to show the stakes of something and like we could have made Ford evil but I always felt that that would be less interesting. The point that I was trying to get to is that Stan and Ford had this relationship that fell apart and it was both of their faults and I thought that if I'm Stan, I'd be more frustrated if Ford is actually a good guy. It would drive me insane if he's pretty reasonable, pretty rational, better at me than everything.

So we've flirted with this brief moment where it seems like he's a villain and we worked really hard to make it so that like his eyes are being covered by the reflection of the light. His dialogue is ambiguous enough here that for a moment you believe what Dipper believes, which is “maybe he's possessed by Bill.” You just saw him shaking Bill's hand, what is he supposed to believe?

I like that Ford has this photo with him, he had for a really really long time all the way through multiple dimensions. And he's probably told himself- I almost imagined if McGucket found that photo in his coat while they were working on the portal or something, like “What's this here?” and Ford would say “oh yes, that's a photo of a very important moment! That's when I…  that's when I first decided I want to be an inventor!” There would be no reference to the real reason he's keeping it. “This is me and my brother.” It would be like, “oh yes I was thinking about science as a horizon, a frontier to reach towards– you know like a boat, like a ship, like science! It's about science!”

Soos

You choose family. That you create over the course of your life and if that somebody earns being your family, like the Mystery Shack. These kids and Stan, they’re Soos' family and he's happy about that.

I feel like Soos gained something out of [Blendin’s Game]. He gains the knowledge that like “I'm tired of thinking about this man who I'm missing, who doesn't care about me. I'm going to concentrate on the people in front of me, the people that are my true family.”

Soos is a fan of the show even though he's in it. He's a big fan of Gravity Falls and [NWHS] killed him.

I always knew what I wanted Soos’ end to be Soos running the Mystery Shack. I imagine that Soos is actually way better at giving tours than Stan is because he loves all that stuff truly and he believes it. That's part of the difference. Stan’s like “um, all right suckers, this stagnant puddle is the befuddle puddle!” while Soos is like “yeah, one time I looked in there, I think i saw like a cyclops dude. Like, I really think I saw one! Like it might have been a reflection combining my pupils, but like?” and people are like “Whoa, really??”

McGucket

They hired a bunch of people and then they erased their memory. That’s my explanation for why there's like such amazing inventions that would take whole teams of people. McGucket secretly hired a number of contractors and erased their minds. Like I think of McGucket as being like a really sweet nice guy completely in over his head who just like “oh well, once I've erased one guy's mind, I gotta erase ten more guys’ minds to cover it up” and it just sort of builds into like “I guess I'm kind of this kingpin of crime and I'm starting a cult I didn't mean to. Whoopsy daisy!”

When we get to Ford and see their backstory and see their relationship, it just makes all the stuff that happens with the portal and what happens with Ford and all that more poignant that he had someone there who was not only his friend but also a voice of reason and telling him to stop and that he wouldn't listen to him, as opposed to Ford being down there on his own with nobody to bounce off, anybody to say “hey wait a minute, is this a good idea?”

“McGucket was the assistant and he was maybe this assistant who was sort of put upon and Ford kind of brought a college buddy together with him. You know Ford as somebody who lost Stan, and even though he rejected his brother, he kind of needs that other person and he tried to find that in this kind of sweet prodigy and he just pushed him too far.

[The test scene] is meant to show sort of what it was that McGucket needed to erase, what it was that drove him to madness. It was partially seeing the Nightmare Verse and the way it messed with his head and also partly just realizing that this thing has apocalyptic consequences and he doesn't want to be a part of it. And if he can't destroy it or talk Ford out of something, he can forget about it.

Because If Ford's weakness is pride, McGucket's weakness is weakness. He's got a kind heart and he can't stop people, he can't destroy things. I mean he should have basically knocked Ford out with a wrench and take this thing apart piece by piece. He's the one who understood how to build it but I think he's kind of a follower and I think he's the kind of person who could get suckered in by a cult leader. He’s the kind of person looking for instruction and he really respects Stanford and can't bring himself to uh, he's like “I just got out of a bunker! I don't want to go work for another guy down in another bunker! This is my third doomsday cult this year!”

Stan and the kids

Stan and Mabel have such a different life perspective it seemed natural that at some point they would get to a major conflict

Seeing Grunkle Stan and Dipper bond like, I sort of believe that both of them are bad with women and both of them would rather believe there's a giant conspiracy than that they have they just can't get ladies 

Can this idea about Mabel's relationship with Waddles actually reveal a rift between Mabel and Stan where Mabel and Stan actually get along pretty well in the series you know? When they they're both such strong stubborn personalities that when they conflict, they conflict hard like in Boss Mabel. But this idea that Waddles is sort of a metaphor for what Mabel loves and Stan loves Mabel but he doesn't really think that anything she thinks is necessarily smart or right. He loves her like “guys she's my sweet niece but she doesn't know anything you know? She doesn't know anything about a pig” She forgives a lot with Stan but like Waddles sort of represents like the purity of her deepest love and the idea that Stan would threaten that is genuinely a shock

In the previous season it ends with Dipper giving up his journal and there was a lot of argument about “oh is it lame if he just gets his journal back?” Another thing we struggled with, we knew that Stan knows the importance of this journal he wouldn't give the journal back to Dipper so it was a bit of a convolution we'd written ourselves into a corner. We wrote ourselves out, we said “okay he's photocopied it. he's giving it to Dipper because he knows that Dipper's really precocious and he'll never stop asking.”

“We knew that we wanted everything to come to a head when the kids are going to discover Stan's secret and they're going to discover it in such a way that they only get little bits and pieces and they have to decide for themselves based on the limited information. Is Stan's a good guy or if he's a bad guy? Ultimately that decision will be a decision of heart versus mind. And Dipper's mind, Mabel is heart and they're fighting with the scraps of information they have.  Should we trust our heart about how we feel about this guy over the course of the summer and everything we've been through or should we trust the clues? That seemed like a believable way to get Dipper and Mabel to begin a rift between them that is resolved by the end of the series.”

The way Stan acts in [NWHS] is like, to me part of what feels so grounded about it is like I'm a child of divorce and like I know that when parents or parent figures know that hard times are coming for the kids. They kind of lay it on thick they're like who wants ice cream you know what I mean? Like Stan being extra nice to them at the beginning is like it's kind of a realistic thing that that adults do when they know like big changes are coming.

I felt it was really important that we added the scene where they're at maximum bonding. They're up on the roof, they're shooting firecrackers. Stan knows in his heart that when his brother arrives everything is going to change in ways he can't predict and he's really savoring this moment because he knows, even if things goes completely smoothly, which they don't. the kids are still going to be mad at him, especially Dipper for basically lying.  They had this big meeting after the end of Scaryoke where of course Dipper also crossed his finger but Stan crosses his fingers and says “oh I'm telling you everything” and he knows that the kids are not going to be happy about the fact that he's been keeping this all from them because they've done amazing things together already and he should have trusted them before now. 

This act break is them saying, “wait, Stan might be a random grifter who maybe killed our real uncle!” That's pretty heavy for any show let alone a cartoon show.

What that would mean for them if all this stuff is true is so much further than just like, “oh he lied to us about a couple things.” It's just like, “no he's straight up just some random dude that we don't even know uh and the guy that I've been pining for this whole time is dead!”  We really try to stack the deck so it's like Mabel's perspective and Dipper's perspective are both kind of racing to see who gets in front and there'll be a moment where it's like yeah you kind of buy with Mabel she feels good about about Stan and then this scene is the most you’re ever with Dipper where we discover this huge crazy curveball and this feeling that you have looking at this newspaper and looking through these fake IDs this is how Dipper feels all the time.  If you want a window about what it's like to be Dipper, this moment where a giant conspiracy reveals itself out of little pieces and seems to suggest that no one is trustworthy like that's that's where Dipper lives and this to him confirms every bit of suspicion and every bit of paranoia he's ever had and he's willing to run with it. 

I love these characters so much that, for me I was like “I need to see Stan saying goodbye to the kids at that bus. And I don't want him to be some guy who isn't Stan, who doesn't even remember the kids.” That would be really dramatic. It might make you cry more but to me it doesn't actually mean anything. Their relationship which they've built, he was willing to sacrifice his memories to save them. That's how much they meant to him but because he was willing to do that, I think he deserves to get him back.

Stan and Ford

But I think Stan's hope is, that in Stan's mind this is going to play out one way which is that; he's going to free his brother, his brother's gonna come out of that portal after 30 years. Stan's probably imagining that Ford is weak, emaciated, wrapped in a blanket, that he'll stumble forward, through a beard. through blurry eyes, he'll be “my brother, is that you?” He'll embrace Stan, he'll hug him, he'll say, “all these years I thought I was goner but you saved me! I was wrong to mock you, I was wrong to call you the stupid twin! Dad was wrong about you! You're the greatest man and let's be friends again and who are these niece and nephew?” Like that was what Stan was kind of hoping. He knows it's there's a million things that could go wrong, including potentially the destruction of this dimension, but he so desperately needs to believe that he can make up for the problems of the past. He's hoping for this but he knows that things are going to change

When I started the series, I always knew Stan had a twin but all I knew about Ford from the jump was that he's everything Stan Isn't. So Stan is a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder, he's kind of a loser at life. There's somebody who is a winner at life or at least was a winner in all these ways that Stan wasn't.

We realized that in order to bring out the maximum amount of frustration in Stan, [Ford] needed to have a bit of a heart. Like here we see him being kind to the kids, he's not he's not all bad which is what's so infuriating to Stan. The idea that he would quickly get along with the kids when he can't get any respect from them. Ford is designed for what would bring out the most amount of conflict in the family. What would be Dipper's hero, what would be Stan's rival and who's somebody that we could empathize with. I mean, it’s  hard to empathize with a character that comes out and punches one of your characters in the face, basically before he almost says anything.

You see that at this age, that all the stuff [in their room] that would cross over, that would appeal to both of them. It's not just like “there's science stuff here” and then there's “what Stan would be into.” but no, they both like all this.

There was also a version [of ToTS] where early on, they'd rigged the school water fountain. They did sort of like a caper, it was science and a scam together when they were in elementary school but we decided to save the science for the science fair stuff.

We played around with the idea that you would see them working together doing little science games or pulling little pranks. There was actually a scene that some of it was even storyboarded where they're in a treehouse together and Crampelter and his friends have tracked them down and are begging for their lunch money and Stan and Ford have used their jerkiness and geniusness to rig up like a water balloon throwing machine that knocks Crampelter in the head. I remember him saying, “oh no, my old-timey paper crown!” We were really hanging a lampshade on all these sort of Little Rascal cliches.

Ford's not a villain. You know he's getting in Stan's face and saying “I want my life back” but hopefully by the end of the episode even though you don't root for his perspective, you understand his perspective where it's like Stan ruined his science project, Stan shoved him into the portal, Stan took over his house. He’s not completely unreasonable to want it back and he's not completely unreasonable about his request. He says “okay you've got till the end of the summer” and Stan's little look there tells you everything you need to know about how he feels about the situation.

We needed pressure to be at the point where Stan and Ford recognize their lifelong rivalry and Ford does a sincere apology to Stan and almost more importantly, he acknowledges Stan's intelligence. He says “you wouldn't have fallen for Bill's nonsense.” He recognizes that his brother has a kind of intelligence he doesn't.

I always imagined that as kids, Stan and Ford were like this dynamic duo. They were getting into scrapes and like planning pranks and with Stan's creativity and Ford's genius that they were an unstoppable awesome team, before life turned them against each other. I imagine that as kids they were always swapping glasses and tricking their parents so that they could get double presents. And this is a move they did back in New Jersey constantly. We had to figure out who's gonna make a sacrifice and how and even though it's Stan who agrees to be “I'll be the one erase my mind, it's fine, it's worth it”, it's a sacrifice for both. Ford at this point is willing to get his brother back and he has to lose him again. 

Stan and Ford, when they can finally work together, do bring out the best in each other. They just have been missing it for so long.

Post-mind return, Stan and Ford get along and that scene where they both threaten the bus driver gives a hint of what would happen if their powers were combined. We've never seen them working together as adults, they would be a really formidable duo.

Pines Family

[The Blind Eye has] such a great scene between Mabel and Wendy. We don't have a lot of scenes that are just them hanging out and she can kind of be like the cool older sister. Mabel's so obsessed with boys and Wendy's just like "yeah, whatever. They're a dime a dozen."

“in the storyboard, the postcard that Soos is holding up from New Orleans actually said Vegas and at the last minute we got really worried that people were gonna see that and think that that was a clue that Stan was Soos's deadbeat father. And because like our audience, we've trained them to look for clues and to connect dots, they start connecting dots that are not connected. And I called a late retake because, and I see people be like, “wouldn't that be cool if Stan was actually Soos's father” and I hate that headcanon. Whoever's listening and you think “that's a great idea!”-- that's a terrible idea!! Because it means that Stan ran out on his kid and then came back in his life. And weirdly pretends to not be his dad. It flies against the moral of this entire episode which is like, you know this guy who is Soos’ blood relative like cast him out and didn't come back and didn't make time for him and all these people did. These people are Soos’ real family and to say “Stan would be Soos' real father more if he was genetically–”, I'm like “no, no forget that!” Like relationships are about what you do. To me friendship is thicker than water and family is something you can create so I really didn't want anyone to think that we were suggesting that because to me, it actually wasn't just the wrong idea, it was like thematically against what the show's about.” "

"[In NWHS] Every character faces their worst possible choice, which is “Mabel must choose between Dipper and Stan” and “Soos must choose between Stan and the kids,” like “guard that thing with your life. I'm not going to explain to you why.” I believe that Soos would do anything to guard Mr Pines's secrets and these are the only two characters that could possibly make him doubt Stan, these two kids that he loves so much."

"For [DD&MD], you want to set it up as being like [Ford]'s like the coolest toy that's down in the basement that Dipper really wants to play with and he is not allowed to play with him."

"The first three quarters of the series are sort of about Dipper's crush on Wendy and this final quarter is sort of about his crush on the Author. He's such a fan of this guy and he's so used to being denied that which he's a fan of and he's never found anybody who cares about his nerdy stuff. Mabel doesn't care, Stan doesn't care, Soos cares but on a different level. He's so hungry for the approval of somebody like Ford This idea that they would bond over a nerdy board game felt like sort of the way to do this big idea in a sort of grounded way that I like better than like Ford presented Dipper with the Five Trials of the Genius Boy. “I passed these when I was your age! Can you do it too?” and it's like nope he just likes the same dork game that he does."

"The arrival of Ford is creating the two sets of twins starting to pair off between the Brainiacs and the Maniacs"

"Actually I enjoyed that [Ford putting the die in a cheap plastic case] got a little bit of a reckless side because it shows you the Stan part of him. The Stan part of Ford, the little bit that likes a little bit of danger, he likes a little bit of risk. If he would show that side, it would be in when he feels at ease, with a kindred spirit. Around Dipper he’d be like “isn't this pretty cool?” He'd never be that irresponsible around Stan.  I like that Dipper is sort of a little bit of a Achilles heel for Ford as well. Ford has certain blind spots and Dipper exacerbates some of those just because he's willing to encourage, he's willing to “yes and” Ford towards whatever dumb idea he might have."

"Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford, they're all characters who need each other. Without Dipper, Mabel's just in a fantasy land. Without Mabel, Dipper is just sort of just spiraling into misery, spiraling into his own neurosis and not being pulled into those social situations, not growing as a person."

"You want [Stan] to be true to our various awful grandfathers, so I feel like for the most part you know that [being shitty to women] a plausible thing for Stan to do, that you only forgive because you know he's not a role model. Nobody wants to be like Stan. The kids never look up to him. The only person who looks up to Stan is Soos and Soos is enough of a comedy character that you understand the joke is “oh this guy thinks the worst way to live is good.” And then at one point you realize why. We made it clear why Soos looks up to Stan is because he gave him his job. He gave him a father basically, he’s essentially Soos’ father. And of course Stan who's had a life of just chaos and disappointment, the only person who would be a surrogate son is [Soos] but also Soos has the biggest heart in the world. So only the biggest heart in the world could forgive all of Stan's many flaws and also if Soos can love Stan, then maybe there's something in there worth loving, then maybe we can too."

"Stan, even when he's sweet, he still has to threaten to murder his niece and nephew."

"I do think the value of [Stanchurian Candidate] is that we're learning just how important it is that [Stan]’s seen. At this point, the kids have become a surrogate family. At the beginning of the show, they were just kind of a little nuisance and then he kind of tried out getting the family from them that he never got from his brother and the idea that he would lose them to his brother is his greatest nightmare and the only way he can really express that is by trying to be impressive to them and trying to be his brother's rival."

"Ford offers Dipper this apprenticeship because Ford sees Dipper as somebody who's special like himself. That Ford's great flaw is arrogance. He believes that there's special people and everyone else and that you can be held back by your siblings. That human attachments are actually weaknesses. The song and dance that he's giving Dipper right now is the exact song of dance that he gave McGucket back when they were younger which is like “sure you could continue working on your job and computers but you and me are different. We're better than everyone else, we have a path that no one else can understand. Only us can do this.” And it’s a very seductive idea for Dipper but he starts to be a little insecure here. He’s kind of “I can't believe it” and he's sort of right to be suspicious because Dipper is a smart kid but Ford's projecting. Ford loves Dipper because he sees someone who tell him yes to everything. He'll never challenge him and if Dipper had taken Ford's apprenticeship,Dipper probably would have gone the way of McGucket, turned into a kind of insane paranoid hermit with no friends, just kind of losing his mind. Like it's a seductive offer but also ultimately Dipper needs to learn not to try to grow up too fast."

"This entire time Dipper's been having this journey of self-discovery and seeing his future as this wonderful thing that he can't wait for. Mabel has been, piece by piece, seeing her idea of the summer fall apart."

"As Ford and Dipper's relationship grow stronger, Stan and Mabel also find much more sort of connection. They both feel like the sibling that's getting kind of sidelined."

"I think [amnesiac!Stan] would be hardest on Soos, second hardest on Ford but Soos would show it. Probably third hardest on Mabel, fourth hardest on Dipper just because where their hearts are. Dipper's not heartless, that's a testament to just how heartbroken those other characters are."

Series goal+ The Finale

"So our idea was; the memory gun can erase a concept as designated by the dial. It stores it. It records you and it keeps that recording and that if you watch that recording things start to come back a little bit, that it hasn't actually completely erased it from your mind. It's more sublimated somewhere where it's really really hard to reach and in the series finale, my concept of Bill is that; if he hadn't gotten in all those forms and fought Stan, Stan is the one that destroyed Bill. Were it just the mind eraser itself that he would be sublimated somewhere but he was weakened in the mindscape and destroyed in the mindscape. But Stan's memories were being sublimated and by looking at the scrapbook in the same way that McGucket's memories come back, they start to come back to the surface."

"I think part of what makes [NWHS] work also is that it has the strongest ticking clock. Yeah, I mean. it has a literal ticking clock. Also the sun is going down it's also, the town is starting to drift apart as the characters are starting to drift apart. There's just such a sense of Doomsday and even though we have like a three-part apocalypse, to me nothing feels as apocalyptic as this episode now."

"The entire purpose of [ToTS] is that Stan and his brother have had this huge rivalry that remains to this day and threatens to tear apart Dipper and Mabel and briefly does, and then Dipper and Mabel are able to find their way together, which is meant to repair Stan and his brother's past."

"Here we're teeing up the rest of the conclusion of the series which is just “whoa this is different. The status quo is shifted and is it going to shift us?” and that was the mission of this entire story was shift. Shift things such that it pits Dipper and Mabel against each other so that they can ultimately make things right and fix their uncles’ trauma in the process."

"“Let's try to set things into motion such that all of these characters who we love, who love each other are placed at maximum odds”. So Ford's entire existence in the series is basically a wrench in the relationships between Stan, Dipper and Mabel, that Stan has had a sibling who he didn't get along with and they've grown up having this horrible rift. Dipper and Mabel are these two twins who love each other but are very very different and are at this sort of volatile growing up moment where if something goes wrong could they turn out like Stan and Ford."

"[The convincing Gideon] scene works for me because it sort of represents the full completion of Dipper's Wendy Arc. Even though he's talking about Gideon and Mabel, he's really talking about himself. That idea that you can't force someone to love you but you can strive to be someone worthy of loving. It really does come down to like be the best you, you can be and the right person will see and feel that."

"It was gonna be W1, W2, W3 and then some kind of goodbye story. I remember it being something vaguely about some sort of other time travel. Bringing Blendin back because he just kind of vamoosed in the middle of this big story. There was that discussed like time traveling back to the first day when the kids arrived. The challenge was thinking of a valuable arc. So like each episode needs to have like a new problem and a new resolution and I was trying to brainstorm what's something that could feel valuable for like a final episode after the apocalypse, after Stan's mind has been erased and he's in the process of getting it back. "

"The thing I remember I wrote one out it was it's the last day of summer. Dipper and Mabel are packing uh they're planning to go home, they're feeling like nostalgic, they kind of don't want to leave. Blendin shows up and he explains that there's all these time bubbles left over, these weird anomalies because of all the time business and what Bill has done and just to watch out and be careful. Then Dipper and Mabel actually accidentally trip into one of these bubbles that are sent back to the very first episode or actually beyond the first episode, their first day in Gravity Falls um and somehow this was meant their character arc was to go from being like a little sad that they're going to leave Gravity Falls to seeing what it was like on the first day. When they were scared to be in Gravity Falls. The idea is like their first day they're like “oh Grunkle Stan, he's this weird old man and we hate living in this house and like we missed our place of comfort back home! And this is a kind of scary new adventure that we don't like.”  The kids see their own growth and realize like “the way we felt about going to Gravity Falls like we don't think we can handle it, is how we feel about leaving.” That feeling of going into a new experience means that something new and exciting is going to happen you're going to grow. There was some thought that maybe over the course of that episode, Stan would get his memory back and something that the kids had done in the past would help him in the present, get his memory back.

"What's supposed to be happening here isn't that Stan's entire memory reappears in an instant. It's supposed to be a couple days of work and we see the beginning of that process when he looks at the scrapbook and then we're kind of jumping ahead a few days. maybe a week of just intensive memory therapy with Stan before he gets there."

"When we were trying to crack the half hour episode after Weirdmageddon, it felt like we were just kind of wallowing and Stan not having his memories. It was a very depressing thing. And we didn’t get to have Stan for the last episode, which was like “it's a great it's great i think you get the emotion like in this episode. It tears you apart when you see it. You could last a little bit longer on it. But going much longer, then you just feels like well what are we doing? Why are we just kind of wallowing in our own sorrows for no good reason.”

"When we had discussed the idea of an episode beyond this episode, a fourth episode, it was basically 20 minutes of [amnesiac!Stan]. This is so intense, you might think you want it but good lord, this is enough."

"Bill singing “We’ll meet again” was something that just felt like the perfect reference because this is kind of an ending about endings in a lot of ways and we know we know Bill's going to be defeated. We know that people like Vill and have grown attached to him and for him to sing “We’ll meet again” is sort of the perfect mysterious way to say like “I might be going, I might not be going.” It’s a reference to Dr Strangelove, a movie that famously ends with nuclear apocalypse and the song “We’ll meet again” so it's for those pop culture savvy. It's already tinged with a kind of a fear and an irony and the apocalypse built in, so it's perfect on a number of levels."

"The concept of the Zodiac as existing in our current canon is this idea that the prophecy was that friends and enemies would need to come together, seemingly impossible alliances would need to be made to stand up to Bill for this prophetic moment. You know that characters like Gideon who was who used to be an enemy, characters like Pacifica, like Robbie, that we've reached the point where thanks to the kids’ kindness and growth, they are now friends with Pacifica, they've resolved Robbie's jerkiness, they've helped McGucket with his memory. They've even overcome this issue with Gideon in W1 and so it seems like friends and enemies have all been restored, leaving only one thing which is Stan and Ford have to shake hands. And their pride once again is what dooms the entire world but they get so close."

"It's clear Stan, even though he's being stubborn here and holds things up, he's ready to do it.  He clasps Ford's hand and then Ford can't help but correct his ignorant brother with something that doesn't matter at all after professing how important all this is and how important it is to put pettiness aside, he's the one who ends up being petty in the end."

"I like that Stan [during the deal] is just thinking “all right, think white, think white, think white.” He's like “think about nothing but sitting on your lazy boy.” "

"Stan and Bill had never interacted in the series up until this moment  because he had just been taken over when he was asleep. We'd seen a lot of Ford and Bill, but Stan and Bill has never happened. And Bill sort of represents all the mystery and weirdness, and Stan is the guy who just wants to have a good life and protect his family. He's the one who never invited Bill in but he's willing to take Bill out."

"If Mabel's going home with a pig, Dipper's going home with this symbol of his friendship with Wendy. And even Stan he's wearing that Mabel sweater. That's a visual symbol of; he's softened up, he's embraced family, he doesn't need to be the tough guy all the time."

[prettyboykatsuki]

ITOSHI SISTER AND TRYING TO SNEAK ISAGI OUT? you are getting caught

sworn secrecy | i. yoichi.

✮ tags ; fem!reader(referred to as little sister but otherwise no gendered language), little sister itoshi (rin / sae are your big brothers), boyfriend!isagi, aged-up charas, use of honorfics for rin / sae (sae-nii / rin-nii), sneaking out, very silly. not nsfw but it's there implicitly

✮ wc ; 2k

✮ a/n ; have had bad writers block but this was a lot of fun.

✮ synopsis ; rin has made it very clear that isagi is strictly off-limits. you are not very good at listening.

It's a miracle you haven't died.

Isagi sits on the edge of your bed, wet hair and shirtless while watching Youtube videos while you stare outside of the window of your bedroom. Both of your brothers cars are still parked into the driveway.

You're screwed, actually. There's no hope for you anymore. You freeze as you hear footsteps in the hallway, shooting Isagi a look. He shrugs at you, a sly grin on his face. Unbothered and amused by the entire situation.

He's not going to be any help either it seems. You step away and crawl over to him in distress, throwing yourself into his lap. He drops his phone on side of the bed with a laugh, as you sit your knees on either side of his thighs.

His hand goes instantly to rest on the small of your back, knocking his forehead to yours. He has the audacity to giggle at you.

"Yoichi," You bemoan, clinging onto him for comfort even though he's most of the problem "How can you laugh in these conditions? Do you know how fucked I am?"

He gives you a wry grin "Well in a way,"

You hit him softly for the crass comment before clinging onto his shoulder. Isagi holds you comfortably, kissing whatever part of your shoulder you can reach. He traces little patterns into your skin, and you let yourself lean into the touch because you're unsure of when the next time will be if either of you happen to get caught.

"Yoichi," You whine again, frustrated and huffing "If Rin-nii catches me he's going to kill me."

He has the nerve to laugh.

"He'll be pissed but he's not gonna say anything to you. He's gonna kick my ass though."

"That's what I'm worried about, you dummy."

"Aw, you're worried about me? Hm? My baby is worried about me?"

Isagis coaxing helps soften your nerves even though it's not fixing the problem. You giggle quietly at the feeling of his lips on your neck and decide you're going to see him again at all costs.

It's a bad situation to be in. Surprisingly, while both of your older brothers are protective of you - Rin is the most strict about why you're not allowed to date his friends. Sae is a lot more lax about it, maybe because he's the oldest with the worst tendency of spoiling you. The only person he refuses to let you get involved with is Oliver and Shidou - but he doesn't particularly care about his other teammates if you're interested.

Rin, on the other hand, has been very verbal about you dating his teammates. A strict no on all of them, every last one - even the good and nice guys like gorilla-king Barou or Musclehead Kunigami. Chigiri is off-limits, Bachira is definitely off-limits, and the list goes on and on.

Of all of them though, Rin has a special disdain for the boy currently sitting half-naked in your bed after having sex with you the night before.

"If I ever catch that fucking freak looking at you, I'll kill him. You're not allowed to date Isagi ever."

When you were a little younger and it mattered to you more - you did try to stay away from them altogether. As the team went pro and Isagi came around more often to practice or bother Rin, the more difficult this ask became.

Isagi is two years older than you, and he's always been so nice to you. You'd only started speaking to him recently. He's attentive and charismatic, and awkward in an attractive way. All of that along with how he is when he plays - nauseatingly arrogant and cocky and so impossibly sexy made in impossible to stay away.

He wasn't always so tempting. But as of a few months ago, you couldn't take his eyes off him. So, at a party and away from your brothers view - you came onto him. He was even nice enough to try and stop you since he probably knew the outcome.

But your crush was only growing in size and you were determined to fuck him at least. So fuck him you did. You'd half been expecting your brothers gloom and doom to come true. You thought you'd wake up to an empty bed and no phone number - figure out why he'd always been so adamant on it.

Your bed was empty, but Isagi wasn't gone, he was making breakfast - grinning at you as you padded downstairs. You realized later that you'd be wiped down and changed sometime in the middle of the night. Turns out Isagi had his eyes on you for a long time, but per Rin's insanity decided not to approach. And now that you'd gone this far, he was determined to keep you.

Bridges burned, you started dating in secrecy. The only person who knows is Bachira. You kind of think Sae found out months ago, but chose not to let it slip. He just occasionally gives you knowing glances and tells you to be safe more often than not.

It's been 6-months and the two of you have been so careful. Isagi is mostly careful for your sake. He's told you more than once that he doesn't care who knows, even if it's Rin.

But you know your brother, and how fucking deranged he tends to be about stuff like this. So you've been sneaking around, doing home-dates or long-drives to avoid things that are too public and it's worked. You've been extra careful when you bring Isagi home - usually choosing to stay at his place.

Rin isn't supposed to be here. He went on a daytrip with his team for some photoshoot and was supposed to be home tomorrow. Sae was supposed to be in the gym. Now they're both at home, and Isagi is sitting in your bed while you're covered in hickies.

And you have not the slightest fucking idea how you're going to get him the hell out without being caught.

"I'm worried Rin-nii is going to fist-fight you." You say sincerely. Isagi laughs.

"I forgot he almost got into with Shidou. And Sae."

You sigh a deep sigh as Isagi rubs a circle into your back.

"I love you," You say with another frown.

"I love you too. Stop worrying so much. It'll be fine."

"You're only saying that because you don't know how much Rin lectured me about you specifically."

"Me specifically? Seriously? Am I that much of a villain to that guy?"

You laugh a little wetly "Yeah, kinda."

"Damn. Tough crowd.'

You both sit together in silence for a minute before sighing.

"Do you think I should enlist Sae-niis help?"

Isagi gives you a confused look. "I thought he didn't know?"

"I never told him but," You shrug sheepishly "Pretty sure he figured it out."

Isagi gives you a little kiss on the cheek "If you trust him, I trust him. We don't talk much but he seems cool to me."

You nod a little before grabbing your phone from next to Isagi - pulling back as you look for Sae's contact.

(sent 11:34am) : my beloved flesh and blood you know i love you with my whole heart yes.

from sae-nii (sent 11:34am) : how much money do you need? (sent 11:34 am) : no no its not that this time.

(sent 11:35 am) : uhm. isagi is in my room. and i need to sneak him out so rin doesn't see. help me. please please please. from sae-nii (sent 11:38 am) : ... you're such an idiot.

from sae-nii (sent 11:39am) : ill distract him. come down in 5 minutes exactly. and don't do this stupid shit again. im not helping you next time. (sent 11:40 am) : thank u i love you ur the best ever. favorite midfielder in the world.

You moan a sigh of relief as you drop your head onto Isagi's shoulder.

"Sae-nii is helping us. We're saved. Didn't even ask about anything."

"We'll have to make it up to him sometime." Isagi offers. You nod emphatically. You're sure he's going to interrogate you later but it won't be nearly as bad.

"We only have 5 minutes. I'll help you get your stuff."

"Thanks baby."

In 5 minutes, you help Isagi get dressed, pack of his stuff in the drawstring bag he brought with him, and give him a few kisses goodbye. You get a text at 11:44 on the dot saying Rin will be distracted for a little and to head down.

Your door creeks as you poke your head down, looking both ways before opening it completely and letting Isagi out. He does the same gesture as the two of you quietly make your down the stairs, Isagi's hand in yours as you trail behind him.

When you're finally downstairs, Sae is waiting at the end of the steps with a very unimpressed expression. You give him a look of gratitude, and he merely shakes his head. You're feeling especially lucky today.

Isagi comes all the way down and you stand next to him. Sae puts a hand on his shoulder and leans in.

"I called an Uber. It'll be waiting at the 7/11 on the corner..." A slight pause "Treat her well or I'll ruin your entire career."

Isagi swallows awkwardly.

"Y-yeah, of course."

Sae gives a satisfied nod before looking at you "I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, got it. Thank you nii-san." You reply. He softens before shaking his head.

"Go say your goodbyes outside. The Uber will be there soon and he still has to walk down there."

You usher Isagi outside, mouthing one last thank you to your brother before gently shutting the door behind you. Finally at your front door, you get a good look at your boyfriend under the early morning sun.

You give him a long hug, squeezing him tight as the wind passes by. He returns to the gesture, smiling in a goofy way as he pulls away from you.

"Stop looking so sad, baby." He reaches for you, cupping your cheek in his palm as he rubs his thumb underneath your eyes "I'll see you again soon, yeah."

You nod. You really don't want to part with him. Strangely the whole fiasco is only making you feel more fond. You hum, then sigh - giggling a bit.

"Mm, okay. Thanks for being you. Sorry your in-laws are insane."

"In-laws? Oh, am I getting proposed to first? That won't do."

"Stop that, I'm kidding."

"I'm not," He says with a light laugh "Let me win the World Cup first once though." He pulls your hand to his lips, kissing your ring finger and feeling for the size. You flush.

"Stop being so romantic and go home."

He laughs a little again, kissing your hairline and temple before kissing you once on the lips.

"Message received. I'll text you. Love you. Bye baby."

"Bye,"

You part with one last kiss, watching as Isagi walks down the sidewalk and disappears around the corner without looking back. A wave of relief passes over you but you'd soon find out how short-lived the moment would truly be.

You feel your phone buzz in your pocket.

from sae-nii ( sent 11:57 am) : i tried to keep him from going outside but he..

The message cuts off as a sense of dread fills your stomach. You turn around slowly only to see Rin at the window, fuming.

Oh, you're so absolutely screwed.

__

AFTERMATH.

Isagi slides into the Uber with a heavy sigh, before sliding his phone open. A flood of messages awaits him all from the same time. Some from you opening with an apology - more from Rin that are a variety of threats.

He starts laughing in the back of the Uber, barely able to contain himself.

from evil twin (sent 11:56 am) : im gonna fucking murder you.

from evil twin (sent 11:56 am) : i already told her. no you especially. im gonna fucking flay you as soon as i see you.

Isagi laughs as he types back a reply, shutting his phone after putting his airpods in and playing music.

sent 12:08 pm : looking forward to family dinner otouto

[ms-cartoon]

I've been coming across a bunch of Hazbin spoilers and decided "screw it" and found the leaks to the full episodes. (I don't care how sensitive you leak haters are about it)

Of course, as expected, this show is already turning out to be trashy as I would expect it to be. Little retcons here and there, shitty writing, some crappy and pathetic characters who already lost whatever mojo they had back in the pilot, voice-acting is bitter as it will always be, etc.

There are a lot of issues with just these two eps, but I'm just gonna point out the ones that got my attention the most.

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS/ MENTIONS OF HARRASMENT AND ALL THE 18+ BS.

-- Charlie- "Once upon a time, there was a glowing city protected by golden gates, known as Heaven. It was ruled by beings of pure light. Angels that worshipped good and shielded all from evil."

I beg to differ since it's established already that angels from heaven are nothing but fakes and are evil as hell, probably proud of it. Exhibit A: Adam and Sera. Now if they were anything like Frollo (someone who believes they are doing good but are not) I might be okay with it. Like say, they only resort to extermination because they're from heaven, they feel it is their job, and they have to do it even though it's wrong. Instead, however, I assume they exterminate because they just like to do it and they're evil like that. They probably have a feeling that some sinners are still good people on the inside and just don't care.

-- Charlie: As the numbers of Hell grew, so did its power. Threatened by this,

Heaven made a truly heartless decision that every year, they would send down an army an extermination to ensure Hell and its sinners could never rise against them.

I hear with my little ear another retcon!!

In the pilot, the only reason why extermination was a thing was because of overpopulation in hell. Now they're saying heaven is exterminating sinners cuz they're threatened by the overgrowing power and they don't want to be rebelled by it?? I going to guess that they only made this change so they can force evil on heaven while making Lucifer the innocent one. This is exactly what they did with Stella in the HB series where it was brought up that things were okay between her and Stolas only for the second season to say Stella hated Stolas the whole time they were together and treated him badly just so the writers can tell us viewers that she's evil.

Is this gonna be a thing now?

-- Angel: I'll have the horniest sinners knockin these walls down to get in!

This body was made to be exploited!

Seriously, guys, this is the same pervert we're supposed to feel bad for BECAUSE he's being exploited!

And leave it to Angel to completely miss the point of this hotel. What they want is to convince sinners to REDEEM themselves. Banging them is not a way to go about it, bud!

-- My predictions about Angel being a sex joke are correct. I'm mean- they've always been correct, I'm just saying I had a feeling they were going to show it off more in the show.

-- Vaggie: "No, we can't force sinners to stay here. They need to choose to."

Angel Dust: "Well, I chose to stay here and I think it's all stupid."

No shit- The only reason why u agreed to stay is for the free rent. So don't go marking yourself as a good example.

-- I don't totally have a problem with this show being a musical as long as the timing is right. Charlie is so quick to tell Vaggie about a meeting she'll participate in and is excited about, but before Vaggie can even question it and talk to her, Charlie immediately starts singing without even hearing Vaggie out. They kinda rushed this musical number a little too quickly. Which only goes to show how fast-paced this episode is. It's always fast-pacing with these shows.

-- I have the sudden urge to jump inside this show and beat the ever-loving crap outta Angel if keeps on moaning and getting horny . . .

-- Angel continuously flirts and touches an obviously uncomfortable Husk and fans are going to look at this as "cute" while I look in annoyance and disgust. And once again, this is the same guy we're supposed to feel bad for because he has a pimp who inflicts the same actions that he does and fans will choose to ignore it.

-- Adam is practically the most irritating character in this series so far. I was right with what I said about him before. For someone who's supposed to be an angel he sure as hell doesn't act like it. The whole time he's on screen, he's just making jokes, ridiculing the hell out of Charlie, and not listening to her at all. Continuously cussing and talking about dicks??? He has the most cringiest dialogue ever and I had the urge to skip it every time he's on screen. Something tells me he and Lute should switch positions since she seems more professional.

-- Charlie: Sinners make mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes.

Charlie, I know where you're trying to get at sweetheart, but I really hope you don't include all the rapists, murderers, abusers, and pedophiles down below. Do you really think they qualify as someone who can be redeemed? If so, I would have to side with the angels here despite their antagonistic behavior. I would understand trying to rehab drug addicts, alcoholics, robbers, etc. but definitely not the former.

Now that I think about it, Charlie is kind of acting like Viv in this scenario where she tries to excuse these criminalistic behaviors most of her characters committed when they really don't deserve anything good happening to them. That's like trying to redeem Valentino for pimping and abusing Angel Dust. Do we really think Val is capable of redemption??

Sorry to burst your bubble Ms. Morningstar, but the angels are in the right here. Hell exists for a reason and people who do bad things and like to do bad things deserve to be there. I wouldn't bother trying to rehab sinners who don't deserve it or are not going to try to fix their behavior.

-- Lute: Angels don't make mistakes . . .

Then what does that say about Lucifer? He was an angel who caused some actions that you guys would count as mistakes therefore expelling him from heaven. You guys never even attempted to exterminate him yet.

-- I'm sorry, I don't like Brandon Rogers as Killjoy. It's literally just a demon version of one of his characters. It's nothing original like the pilot.

So that is what I think about the first episode. If I forget to mention something, i'll just edit the post. Won't be too long before I make some comments about the second one, but for now, the gist of everything is . . . it's bleh.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!!

[thefiery-phoenix]

Hi I have been reading all your works and I'be got to say that its really good I mean like wow anyways I would like to request a platonic y'know fix with the oldies of lookism I mean Charles and tom Lee meeting up and Charles bragging about his child (the reader) there new awards , involvement in the business or you can do the geniuses instead of the reader being a genius she's named as the prodigy and is literally so smart like 400 IQ type shit and she literally saves the company's reputation, every genius admits shes smart and kinda like a learning genius where she doesnt have to copy it but masters whatever she wants to learn isnt a copy genius btw but can you like make the personality of the reader a bit like James like reserved nonchalant etc anyways thank you

Hello and thank you for liking my work, it really does mean a lot to have your support❤️

THE PRODIGY

"Long time no see Choi'' spoke a hulking and imposing man that stood tall and towered over the frame of the CEO of the HNH group as Charles glanced up from his newspaper to see none other than Tom Lee, the owner of the White Tiger Job Centre (Baekho HRM), known for being the best in the business to get rid of people in a sneaky and quick manner. "Oh please, you act like we haven't seen each other in years when we just met 2 months ago'' scoffed Charles slightly but a small amused smirk formed on his face. "You look happy...whose life did you screw over, you old crone?" chuckled Tom as he took out his grey bottle from his trench coat pocket and gulped a large sip of his alcohol from it. "Oh come now, you act like I'm a criminal or something...but I didn't screw anyone over yet...for now'' said Charles as he headed over to the table nearby and shuffled a few papers till a picture of you fell out from the stack of papers as Tom's interest piqued up and peered at your picture in an interested manner

"I didn't know you started hiring girls to do your dirty work Choi...props to you for following gender equality and such'' grinned Tom as he stared at the picture. "Ah, that's my newest recruit. One of the prized gems I've had the fortune of stumbling upon. Her name is Y/N L/N'' spoke Charles proudly as the lines around his eyes crinkled slightly out of pride for you. "This is the first time I've ever heard you praise someone other than those brats Gun and Goo...I wonder what makes this one here so special that has you singing her praises'' questioned Tom as he raised a brow in curiosity, awaiting for Charles' explanation. "In a way, she's kind of like James Lee...an exceptionally skilled and talented fighter, I daresay even stronger than Gun and Goo... she has training of the Indian martial arts called Kallaripayyatu along with Krav Maga which makes quite the deadly combination when used in combat. The advantage of her using her skills is that no one can predict what she might do next. She's even more unpredictable than Goo and James because if someone faces them a couple of times they'd be able to read their attack patterns with ease. But it's different for Y/N, you'll never know when she'll whip out a chain or a knife or just fight with her bare hands... that's what makes her quite the enigmatic fighter, she isn't afraid to fight dirty as well''

"She sounds like quite the catch then...'' muttered Tom as he continued to drink his drink and stared at your picture. "She's even won an award for her literary works as a writer, the Lindenberg award and is quite the over achiever if I must admit...a real prodigy of a girl. My daughter took an instant liking to her as do I. She simply cannot stop singing her praises'' replied Charles as Tom had an amused smirk on his face. "Neither can you and the amount of stalking you do makes me look sane'' answered Tom with a cackle. Charles smirked as he replied "That was mere research...her personality is a literal carbon copy of James, completely reserved and shy and nonchalant'' "Ah, so you're dealing with a touch me not of an introvert then eh, good luck getting that one to open up to you'' said Tom as he snickered and gulped down the last sip of his drink before he stuffed his bottle back into his pocket and glanced at Charles

"Doesn't matter though, I'll have to make her open up...what she's achieved to do for my company was more than what any of the Worker's affiliates could do, they're all mere useless inexperienced children in front of her...'' scoffed Charles as he hummed slightly and his gaze left your photo to focus on the view of the night city before him, several feet below him, taking pride in the fact that he'd gotten to a point where people had to look up to HIM. "You better be careful though...a little birdie told me that Steve Hong was looking forward to meeting with Y/N L/N'' said Tom with a slight grin as Charles' posture stiffened and his jaw clenched as he narrowed his eyes. "What did you say?" he asked in a soft voice, his tone laced with malice and hidden fury. 'That old bastard...if he ever thinks he can have Y/N and steal MY prodigy from me, he's got another thing coming...he can't have her..no...I'll make sure of it...' Charles thought to himself as Tom smirked, looking like he'd just read Charle's thoughts. "You look awfully nervous of losing your beloved little prodigy...wouldn't it be a shame if someone were to snatch her up like the little feather that she is for someone else to use?" asked Tom, his cheshire cat like grin evident on his face and his eyes glinted with malicious amusement, enjoying the sight of Charles Choi on the verge of losing his cool and his patience on the line

"Let me enlighten you with a little story...a while ago Eugene tried to recruit Y/N to join the Workers and he somehow thought he could keep it quiet from me but failed. Why else do you think I decided to meet with Jake Kim, the son of Gapryong Kim that night? We both know it wasn't out of sheer pity...Y/N is my ticket to destroy the crews and the Workers and expand my empire'' said Charles as he continued to stare at the city beneath him, just how he liked it, everyone underneath him, serving him. "I sometimes forget you're more unhinged and ruthless than me...I can't say if I'm shocked or proud'' spoke Tom as he trailed off and looked like he was pondering about something. "This is coming from someone who strips his clothes off and challenges his employees to a fight to the death. It's a miracle your so called employees lasted for so long'' replied Charles as he smirked at Tom. "Touche old Choi'' grinned Tom

"I'm planning to make sure she stays close to us...to me...at my residence. Of course, I shall fund for her schooling and such'' said Charles after a few moments of silence. "Doesn't she have parents?'' asked Tom with a quirked brow as his amused smirk grew even wider. It was such a sight to see someone like him be so obsessed about someone like you, and rightfully so, Tom could understand his friend's obsession with you. You were a natural gifted fighter, the sort of fighter people would literally KILL and spill blood to have on their side. "Do you think that concerns me? Her father is a software engineer and her mother is a stay at home housewife...hardly what I call a challenge. Her potential will be wasted if she continues to live with them. I've tried to convince them before to send her to me and they had the guts to refuse me even after offering them a fortune...I am Elite...if it means I have to get rid of her parents and have their blood spilled then so be it. It will also prove as a warning for anyone foolish enough to attempt to lure her to them. Besides, I've already spilled blood before, it's nothing new. What's a bit more going to do?'' answered Charles, his eyes glinting with malice as his smirk widened. Tom was now convinced you really were the prodigy he'd heard so much about from the people around who kept on yapping about you. He was just glad he managed to wring out the information from Charles which saved him tons of amount of research as he mentally decided to pay you a visit some day...even if it meant dealing with Choi's wrath which he could always deal with later. The main goal on Tom's mind now was how to get you on HIS side...

[botnasty]

Part Four: No More Theory

Roommate!Bucky Barnes X F!Reader

Summary: Gone are the theories...

Words: 1,2K words

Warnings: ANGST, THIS IS ANGST CITY, then fluffy cheesiness :)

Note: All mistakes are mine and please tell me if I’m missing any warnings. Also sorry on the wait for this part, completely had a writers block.

Not proofread

Series Masterlist

Laying in bed, you never felt more defeated in your life. Your mind was screaming at you for being stupid for thinking what you and Bucky had was exclusive. You couldn’t be mad at him for going after someone else tonight, you two never talked and made what you had/did more than what it really was: two friends having fun without any feelings. You didn’t want to believe it, but what happened today at the Halloween party made you open your eyes. You were just his friend with benefits. 

You whipped the tears falling on your damp cheeks and pulled the duvet closer to you. You didn’t know how tomorrow was going to be fairing, but one thing for sure is, you were going to stop whatever that was happening between you two before you got hurt. Never once had you let a man hurt you before, it won’t start now.

You picked up your phone from the bedside table and you could see so many texts. 25 from Natasha, 3 from Sam, but none from the person that mattered the most. Whatever, he was probably busy with that girl. In your mind, you hoped she was taking good care of him, but your hurt was aching. Why did you have to screw your friendship with that “Theory” bullshit? 

You closed your lamp and purged you into the peaceful darkness that is sleep - when the door opened. Only one other person other than you had the keys to the apartment and - because you didn’t want to deal with it right now - you fastly put your head on your pillow and closed your eyes, trying your hardest to regulate your breathing as you could hear footsteps coming closer. 

“Toots?” Bucky whispered. “Are you awake?” The footsteps stopped. Why was it so hard to breathe normally in his presence?

You felt a slight touch on your cheeks. “My beautiful, beautiful, toots.” You could feel his breath on your forehead and the slight touch of his lips on your nose. “Wake up.” He  said softly. You didn’t want to. You feared what you were going to say or do if you did. A kiss on your forehead. “Wake up, beautiful.” On your eyelid - which you couldn’t help but move. “Come back to me, toots.” And lastly on your lips before you couldn’t take it anymore. Your eyes felt like burning from holding your tears.

You slowly opened them. He was kneeled down right at the side of the bed. Just his smile alone made you want to just forget it happened and continue whatever it is you had. You waked and pulled yourself into a sitting position, pulling your cover closer to you like it was some sort of shield for your emotions. You almost jumped when he cupped your jaw and kissed your forehead. “I missed you, toots.” You looked at the clock, it hadn’t even been 2h since you left the party.

“I’ve only been gone for 2 hours, Bucky. I’m sure you would’ve been able to find more important people to spend your night with.” You rubbed your eyes to remove any trace that you were about to cry. Not in front of him. Never. 

“Toots, look at me.” You placed your hand down your lap and looked at him, his eyes were still bloodshot from all the weed he had taken during the party. “I love you.” Your heart exploded. It was not what you expected and you were mad. How dare him.

How dare him!

Fucking flirting and using the same technic he did on you with someone else not even a few hours before he said those words to you. What a fucking fraud of a man you were living with. You fought yourself to scoff at his words. 

He placed his forehead on yours. “I love you a whole lot. That’s why I can’t bear not being in the same room as you. You make everything so much better, you know.” Now that was just high person talk. 

You let out a small smile. “Come sleep, Bucky. You are high right now and are saying a bunch of bullshit. It’s time for you to sleep.” You went from your bed to drag him to your room. You wouldn’t let him sleep in yours when you barely could stand him right now. 

But Bucky didn’t move one bit.

“You don’t believe me…” Is what he said almost to yourself. 

Now the scoff escaped your mouth. “No I do not, Bucky. For so many reasons.”

He got up and tried to get close to you, but you stopped him with your hand.” First, you are high. And you know how you get when you are high. You ramble about things over and over, tell everyone you love them and you hug them. So, this certainly doesn't make me special.”

“You know—”

“Second, we never established what we had. All we do is fuck. Sure, you sometimes kiss me, we cuddle, but we never specify what’s going on between us.”

“I thought it was—”

“And last, you were literally flirting and using that ‘theory’ bullshit on someone else two hours ago. How can I believe that you love me when all this tells me otherwise, Bucky?” He stayed silent, looking down. His eyebrows frowning. “Do you see where I am coming from?”

“What girl?”

“The girl at the party! The one wearing a nurse costume. After you went to the bathroom, I tried to look for you and I found you being all cozy with her.”

“Oh, her.”

You placed your hands on your hips. “Yes, her.” Anger was bubbling inside of you wanting to come out like a volcano. 

“I thought she was you. You know I am not wearing my glasses.”

You shook your head. “So you were wearing contacts, what does it have to do with anything right now, Bucky.” You said desperately.

“Yes, I was wearing contacts, but those that make your iris look red, for my costume. So, I could barely see.” Your arms falling beside your body. Bucky placed his hands on your cheek, your eyes directly looking in his and he was right, his eyes were completely red, not from the weed, but because of the contacts. All anger vanished and all you could feel was shame. Shame for thinking he was playing you, for thinking he was just like the others that had hurt you. “I thought she was you, toots. I genuinely thought she was. I love you and I don’t see myself with anyone but you. Do you seriously think that, after years of trying to get your attention, I would mess it up for a random fuck?” You shook your head. “Exactly, my love. So please, believe me when I say this : I love you. I have loved you since I met you and I will love you until you let me.” 

You placed both hands on his wrist and looked deep into his eyes. “I love you too. Maybe not as long as you did, but I love you and I want no one else but you.”

And you kissed as the moonlight shines upon the two of you.

Thank you so much for waiting and reading:)

[rr311]

❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 ? ! ❞ - 𝐙𝐎𝐑𝐎 𝐑．𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟔 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝟑 𝐡𝐜

⇨⚠︎︎ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 !¡⚠︎︎⇦ masturbating, riding, hair pulling, top!zoro, bottom!reader, black!reader

𝐀𝐍. welcome to day 6 week 3 my spooky ghosts 👻. If we’re gonna be honest, I skipped over the jean story because i had writers block but i have a ton of ideas for the one piece characters 😈.

－ 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐳𝐨𝐫𝐨’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐨𝐧.

- 𝐙𝐎𝐑𝐎

Maybe i should put this back…

But it looks so cool!.

You smiled to yourself turning side to side as you examined the big green Hoari that was placed on your body. It smelt just like him too..gah! I should put this away before he comes back…but his smell is just so good..God. You always admired the green Hoari Zoro always wore wondering how you would look if you wore it, and pretty much you looked just how you would imagine! You bit your bottom lip continuing to look at yourself in the mirror letting your thoughts run, what if…you guys did it while you wore his Hoari..? Would he be into that? He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to do that..but again he looks like the type of guy to do that.

Zoro was big too..his broad shoulders, his 8 pack, big arms…you were getting horny just by thinking about him. You were so long into your thoughts you didn’t realize he was coming back. Zoro walked sheepishly back to his room drying off his hair but stopped in his tracks to spot you in his Hoari. He raised a brow throwing the towel down as he leaned against the door looking at you checking yourself out in his clothes. You were lost in looking at yourself, that when you looked up you shrieked catching him in the mirror turning around to look at him quick to cover your breasts, “Zoro!.” You said in surprise. he hummed in response, “I can explain-.” You tried saying but got interrupted by him walking towards you, hearing his heavy footsteps come closer and closer, stopping in front of you averted his eyes up and down your body.

His Hoari was a little big on you for the bottom part but the top part your breasts sat perfectly pretty in view as you tried to hide them with clenched hands around the fabric. He didn’t say anything but grabbed your hips dragging you with him as he landed on top of the couch with you on top, you gasped in surprise but kept holding the fabric together keeping your breasts from exposing. Zoro trailed his fingers along his green Hoari up to your thighs to your hips then to your lower back pushing it in some making you arch a little, feeling you shift from your arch he felt your cunt rub against him. You weren’t wearing anything. He clicked his tongue in amusement, by his reaction you knew he caught on of you not wearing anything underneath, you didn’t expect him to come back to his room this early! He usually stays out at night drinking with Nami, Sanji and Usop.

You were screwed.

Zoro was still quiet as he brought his hand to the end of the Hoari lifting it up to reveal your bare pussy sitting directly on top of him. He cussed mentally to himself starting to get hard under you, his cock twitch slightly feeling you squirm on top of him, you could feel his cock start to get hard from it moving upwards hitting your pussy making you throb around nothing, you bit your lip biting back an obvious moan letting him do whatever. You were so fucking hot in his clothes damn..the way it hugged your lower body but barley covered your chest was making him horny, he brought your body closer to his leaning close to your ear leaving small pecks and bites. You hummed in his embrace knowing exactly what’s gonna happen…

Whenever he starts biting and pecking at your ear that only means he’s turned on and you have a pretty good idea of what that is. You lifted your hands to lay them on his shoulder letting the fabric fall, revealing your chest gripping his shoulder feeling yourself throb, “Mhm..you like this?” You asked with a question tone hearing him grunt pulling your hips down practically making you grind against him. Guess i’ll take that as a yes, you thought giggling to yourself letting your hips grind down against him feeling pleasure run through your throbbing pussy. He grumbled leaning his head now towards your jaw pecking it all the way towards your exposed neck to your breasts, he hummed trailing his hand to your ass pulling his Hoari up to reveal your thicc thighs and bare ass. You shivered from the sudden air hitting your butt but gasped feeling his lips onto your breasts starting to suck and bite against them. You moaned quietly feeling him leave a hickey on your chest as he trailed his hands to your pussy slowly starting to rub it, you jerked forward from the sudden surprise but couldn’t help but groan feeling his big veiny hands put into work.

He was going a decent pace still sucking on your breasts, beginning to grind against his hand getting more friction below. Zoro groaned to himself feeling your cunt drench his fingers, you already so wet..he couldn’t help but chuckle pulling back all together to get himself situated beneath you. You whined at the lost of contacted but when you realized what he was doing you lifted your hips all the way up so he could pull down his own pants, soon taking his cock into his hands jerking it slowly lining himself with you. You almost let a moan slip but was quickly silenced by him placing his lips on top of your own drowning your sounds with his groans. You closed your eyes leaning more into his lips gripping his shoulders for support, grunting feeling him push inside you. inch. By. Inch. He moaned feeling how tight you were as you gripped harder digging your nails into his shoulder. “F-Fuck.” You moaned in between his lips pulling back to lean your head against his shoulder adjusting to his size, “You’re so big..” You panted with a small chuckle biting hard onto his shoulder holding back tears from mix of pain and pleasure, Zoro grinned holding your hips in place letting you get used to it, “You’re acting like you haven’t taken my dick before.” He chuckled rubbing your hips with his thumbs as you hit his shoulder with a groan.

“Oh shut up..” You said with a small whine leaving after, he continued caressing his thumb on your waist pecking the sides of your neck, “You okay baby?” He asked in your ear, nodding your head. “Uh huh..I’m okay” When you felt as if you were adjusted right you started to slowly move your hip grinding against him to get used to it more, he sucked in a deep breath leaning his head back against the seat letting his eyes close furrowing his eye brows, “Fuck..you’re doing so tight.” He hissed gripping your waist tighter, you hummed feeling yourself clench around him starting to lift your hips up and down riding him. There was nothing but wet, heavy breaths and skin slapping filling the room, you tried to keep yourself quiet as Zoro was digged into the crook of your neck muffling his grunts and groans. You kept riding him feeling his dick push in and out of you hearing mixtures of moans and groans, you kept moving on top of him but after a few seconds your eyes widened feeling his hand grip the ends of your hair tugging it back as he started attacking your neck thrusting up into you at a harsh thrust, “Oh!-“ You gasped eyes rolling back as your g-spot got abused over and over again. “Zoro..wait a sec-“ You called but got caught off by his hand tugging your head down, causing you to choke a grunt “Don’t pretend you don’t want my cock.” He chuckled, “You and me both know you been wanting this right?.” Your eyes fluttered feeling his other hand start rubbing your clit mumbling a weak shakily “Yeah..,” He grinned pulling your body closer whispering, “Good..”

“Now take what I give you.”

[foone]

So if Threshold happens to different Trek crews, who gets who pregnant? Voyager is one of the few shows where it makes heterosexual sense, (for lack of a better word, "sense" not being the word anyone would use to describe threshold)

So for Voyager, it being Paris (pilot) and Janeway (captain) makes sense through that lens. Paris, sure, because he is a pilot. We could pick a Science Guy to do it, but then it might be B'Elanna who does the flying fast, and then who is she going to kidnap for Lizard Sex? Harry? ... Yeah it'd be Harry. Anyway once you've picked Paris, you've got to figure out which woman is funniest to have him abduct into Lizardry. B'Elanna? No, not funny enough. She'd be a Klingon lizard and beat him up instead of mating, even if they did get married later. Besides, what if she evolves into a super-advanced Klingon, not a lizard? *claps* PUT TUVOK ON THE SHUTTLE. Kes? No, they already did a Tom v Neelix episode. Seven of Nine isn't on the show yet, so Janeway it is.

Ok so for other shows, we gotta pick a pilot or science guy (who might be screwing around with transwarp, and thus get Lizarded) and someone they could turn into a lizard to have babies with. The show is assuming heterosexual pairings here, but we know about things so we are not so limited.

The original series: as much as I'd love to say Sulu and Uhura ("I'll save you, fair maiden!" "sorry, neither"), I think TOS was much less of an ensemble than later Treks, so it'd need to be Spock. Spock is doing some science stuff, he gets hyper-evolved, and he picks someone else to hyper-evolve and turn into his lizard bride. As much as I want to say "Kirk", I think it's more likely that he runs off with Uhura and then Kirk has to rescue them. Kirk was always about being the one who rescues people, having the Enterprise come rescue Lizard!Spock (is that antisemitic?) and Lizard!Kirk and it's called commanded by McCoy? Nah.

TNG: the direct analogy to VOY would mean we have Wesley and... Picard? No, no, and no. Sorry. Frankly, we already had this plot on TNG (Genesis), and canonically the answer is Worf and Troi. The problem with it being a pilot thing is that Wesley is a child and Data (the official science guy) is an android, so he can't really be hyper-evolving. We could go with Geordi, the other Science Guy, but then we've got the image of a black man kidnapping a white woman. Uhhhh no. We already did that episode and it is an example of Deep Shame for the show. So Worf and Troi it is.

DS9: so this is what inspired me to make this post. We all agree Sisko would be a damn good father to his lizard babies, but would it be him? If so, with who? You could have it be Dax, and she lizards first and kidnaps him, which makes some sense given that she's a Science Guy. But you also have to consider Weird Guys. Every Trek series needs a Weird Guy so that whenever an ancient alien artifact turns the whole crew into Muppets or whatever, they can be the one who isn't affected and can thus solve it. This is all to say, Odo/Kira could be done. We've had a few episodes where he's been shown to do very extreme things out of his pining for her, so it makes some sense. Odo/Quark would be funnier but given how the DS9 writers handled Profit and Lace, I really don't want to see them do a gay mpreg episode.

ENT: the series with canon mpreg! Direct translation of would be Mayweather/Archer. Mmm. Probably not. I think it's gonna be a rarepair: Trip/Hoshi. Trip/T'Pol is too canon to be funny. The next best option is Archer/T'Pol and that's just kinda bleh. It makes sense but it's just the kind of thing they'd do and it'd be bland. We can do better. Honorary mention: Trip and Reed.

I've not watched enough of the New Treks to have an opinion there. Maybe SNW: Ortegas and La'an. Don't ask why.

[soullessjack]

so im on s5 of miraculous and i keep thinking about cat noirs whole “kept at a distance” arc bc it’s genuinely really interesting but gets so wasted by always winding up with him basically validating ladybugs nonsensical decisions and treatment—the same treatment that we were already shown upset him enough to destroy public properly about it. the most consistent reason LB ever gives cat about why he can’t be fully trusted or relied on is that he’s too much of a liability for their partnership to work—either because he’s too reckless, too in love with her, or his cataclysm would be too dangerous to use.

whatever it is, the baseline is that she thinks he’s a liability, and obviously that’s like salt in the wound for cat since he genuinely loves her and enjoys being partners with her, but it’s also just sad to see him continue to respect her decision and act like it isn’t a problem for him when he’s literally upset enough to physically lash out and use his powers to do so. and I know a lot of it can probably be explained by ladybug’s experience in the cat blanc timeline, but 1) she starts holding him at a distance way before that even happens, 2) she’s actively making it worse by not telling cat noir about cat blanc and why she thinks she has to exclude him for his own safety, and 3) SHE SHOULD HAVE TOLD HIM ABOUT CAT BLANC TO BEGIN WITH BECAUSE IT’S LITERALLY A WORLD ENDING SITUATION INVOLVING HIM DIRECTLY‼️‼️‼️‼️

instead she just allows him think he’s unwanted and unnecessary, calls the shots on how he should feel about “having more free time” and ironically makes him even more susceptible to being Akumatized because of it. ladybug might not be aware that cat is adrien and has a terrible home life he actively uses his miraculous to escape from, but she’s playing right into all the key aspects that adrien resents from his father; she decides what he wants without considering or asking him, she trusts him conditionally and still distances herself enough for him to just not know certain things. it’s done with good intentions, but it still clearly affects adrien very poorly, and it’s just such a frustrating glass-chewing miscommunication that only needlessly complicates the situation

don’t even get me started on Kuro Neko where ladybug falls head over heels for the changed version of her partner and narrowly avoiding her having to actually screw up and learn a lesson about accepting cat for who he actually is because catwalker is just “too perfect” for her to function—instead of being an obedient idealized version of her best friend who lets her be in control of everything (WHEN ADRIEN LITERALLY USES HIS DOUBLE LIFE TO HAVE THE CONTROL HE DOESN’T GET AT HOME).

theres so much potential for the base concept of the miraculous of destruction and its Kwami/holder being distrusted outliers among the rest of the Kwami/holders, but the magic system sucks and it kind of loses any chance when the other Kwamis are established to be catastrophic if they use their powers without a holder. and it gets even more confusing if you consider that Fu specifically chose adrien to hold that miraculous, but then encourages Marinette to keep her distance from him and barely acknowledges him as a hero in general. Like why did you even bother testing adrien for his worthiness or whatever if you obviously don’t think he’s worthy of knowing anything about you or the rest of the miraculous OR his best friend’s identity??? but you’re totally okay with her just giving them out to anyone in Paris who’s conveniently around and having her know their identity???? master fu when I catch you master fu

auugghhhfgg I don’t know the magic system thing could be its own separate post but likeeeeee I just think the miraculous of destruction whos constantly mistrusted for no reason and goes Kamehameha Krazy in another timeline is very special and could be treated so much better if the writers were good at their job and didn’t make every character’s sole purpose be validating ladybug/marinette even when she’s in the wrong

[astraea802]

Merlin "Rewatch" w/ Mom -- 5x10

("Rewatch" here meaning "Mostly first time watch, but with the knowledge of what happens.)

First of all: WHAT THE HECK WAS UP WITH THAT HORRIFIC FACE DISFIGUREMENT THING AT THE END?? I've never seen ANYONE discuss how messed up that is, and they SHOULD. I know this aired in the same time slot as Doctor Who, but Mom and I were NOT prepared.

Second of all: Uggghhhh

We're coming into the final three episodes.

Mom doesn't want to know what's coming, but knows it won't end well. She suspects Arthur's going to die (but we all know it's the execution that's the real kicker).

I will say, I was surprised Season 5 has actually had a lot of nice moments I never knew. It's a little moodier than I'd like, and Merlin as a character makes me sad, but there's still some nice comedy and character moments. Like Arthur saving that woman from being burned at the stake, that was so good! (Maybe it's easier for me to appreciate certain scenes knowing what's going to happen? I'm not as tense?)

(It also helps I sat out The Disir and The Dark Tower since I was walking the dog. I don't know I could have bore either without spoiling the finale out of pure frustration)

Mom's been just absorbing it all. She's had a lot of questions, like:

Mom: Why did Aithusa join Morgana? Me: We don't know. They never told us. 😒

Mom: (after The Dark Tower) How did Gwen turn evil? Me: Magic. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Mom: Oh, for gods sake! 🤦‍♀️

Mom: When do they find out about that bracelet Morgana gave Gwen to make her love Lancelot? Me: They don't. 😤 Mom: ...Are you kidding??

The deaths have been a little tougher this season, especially Elyan's. She liked the Dolma, but rolled her eyes a bit at Merlin trying to "act like a woman" instead of just getting on with curing Gwen. And she was NOT happy with Uther's ghost (who was??) or Gaius telling on Merlin and endangering Finna.

But god... watching Merlin's struggles, I just keep thinking, what was the point of it all?

There's so much back and forth the whole season, the whole series really, about destiny and duty and following your heart, and I just... what's the moral here? Follow destiny and get screwed? Follow your heart and still get screwed? It's good to know prophecies and Merlin just didn't know how to handle it? It's bad to know prophecies because you cause them to happen? If that was the case, why did Finna die to pass that last prophecy on? Also, you deserve to die, even when you haven't done anything wrong, because a prophecy says you will? You have choice? You never had one? Some will say the point is "the friends we made along the way", or there doesn't need to be a moral, but there's just no consistency, except whatever keeps the drama going.

It doesn't help that, except for the Camlann prophecy, we never actually hear any of the other prophecies everyone talks about. So we never know for sure if the problem was a misinterpretation of the prophecies in terms of what the Golden Age looked like, or if Merlin failed because of his choices, or if he was ALWAYS going to fail no matter what he did, or if he even failed at all! Because the dragon tells him he didn't in the end, but it doesn't make much sense.

Did the writers even know? They have admitted in interviews they were working nonstop on the show for five years, at grueling pace, so I forgive them for being fuzzy, but it seems like the show's moral code and prophecy lore really depended on who was writing the episode that week.

What I've always loved about Harry Potter is that while prophecies exist, the power of choice is emphasized. Prophecies can be, and often are, misinterpreted. Not every prophecy in the Department of Mysteries was ever fulfilled, so destiny is not the be-all end-all. It's made very clear that it's whether you act on prophecies or not that matters. The characters' beliefs and convictions still matter. It's consistent, it's clean, and it leaves the characters' agency.

In Merlin... you can interpret it a million different ways and still be wrong. And maybe part of the issue is that while Harry agrees to be the Chosen One since he already wanted Voldemort dead, Merlin's heart and destiny are so often divided. And that's what makes it so darn frustrating. And why I believe they gave Merlin too much of a burden for one person. No "almost" about it.

(We'll see if I revisit this after the finale)

[arriaryu]

For the fandom ask, Dresden files & Dragonriders of Pern!

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Donald Morgan

Least favorite character: Thomas Raith

5 favorite ships: Donald Morgan/Justin DuMorne, Simon Pietrovich/Donald Morgan, Donald Morgan/OC, Donald Morgan/Anastasia Luccio, Paolo Ortega/ Anyone

Character I find the most attractive: Justin DuMorne

Character I would marry: This is a hard one but probably... Simon Pietrovich. I adore the others but he seems the most grounded.

Character I would be best friends with: Luccio, I too love a good database.

A random thought: I wish more stories focused on characters other than Dresden. It's why the short stories are so much fun to read.

An unpopular opinion: The White Court is the absolute worst group in the series. I can understand murder but rape is unforgivable.

Canon OTP: Morgan/Luccio

Fanon OTP: Harry/Marcone

Most badass character: Nicodemus or Gard

Pairing I'm not a fan of: Thomas/Justine I hate both these characters and hate them together even more.

Character I feel the writer screwed up: Ebenezer McCoy, he is either a villain or absolutely incompetent as written.

Favorite friendship: Harry and the Alphas

Character I want to adopt: Mouse, 1000% the best boy!

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Menolly

Least favorite character: Camo, not his fault he just brings up bad memories

5 favorite ships: Menolly/Robinton, Menolly/Sebell, Lessa/F'lar (post Dragonflight), Sorka/Sean, Jim Tillek/Theo Force

Character I find the most attractive: Robinton

Character I would marry: (I'm cheating on this one a bit) Whatever dragon would want me as it's rider

Character I would be best friends with: Joel Lilienkamp, I too am insane and like inventory management

A random thought: dragonriders don't marry because no bond can come close to the one with their dragon.

Unpopular opinion: I actually like Todd's books too

Canon OTP: F'lar/Lessa

Fanon OTP: Robinton/ Menolly

Most badass character: Ramoth, seriously give the girl more screentime!

Pairing I'm not a fan of: Kylara/Meron, because fuck that guy. Dishonorable mention goes to Sharra/Jaxom, She could do so much better than his dumbass.

Character I feel the writer screwed up the most: So so many due to the writer's very obvious biases. F'nor, Kylara, Brekke, F'lar in Dragonflight, Mardra, Nemorth, and most of all poor Jora. (If you ever want to see Jora written well and done justice to I can't recommend Bitter Herbs by MzMinola highly enough)

Favorite friendship: Ruth and the firelizards

Character I want to adopt: Prideth or Wirenth, the writer did you you two so very dirty and you deserve better than you got. I just want to wrap them in blankets and feed them buckets of chicken soup.

[kalolasfantasyworld]

Three times thing...

Summary:

Nozel has many bad days, but he had found a shameful way to relieve his stress.

Third of the Kalola BC Ships Art series one shots ^^

I needed to make a second fic on Ao3 in the series, because this is not fluff.

Ship: Nozel x Vanessa

Type: One shot

Genre: Mature?

Warnings: swearing, sexual themes,

Word count: 671

Author's note:

I'm giving a bit of background here, since Nozel is obviously my blorbo. I chose this pose reference and had an idea for this one shot months ago. It was before my "great Nozessa research" to try to understand the appeal of this ship. I only heard of it back then so I tried to piece them together in the only way it would "canonically" make sense to me since they never interacted.

Keep in mind here that as always the Nozel I write is far away from a fluffy, sad, prince charming. I never take away his cold, arrogance and simply being an asshole. That's why it took me so long to write this, because I was trying to make it fluffy and it just didn't work. Fluff with Nozel is more of a rarity for me and I like to keep it as something special.

I dedicate this one shot to my good friend @f-oighear, because it was through discussions with her that I came to realise my stand on this ship. 💕🦅

(All Nozel ships are just those I have strong opinions on, they're not mean or anything, but I have my preferences and they're more dependant on how Nozel is portrayed in them not whoever the other person is. This means I can like a ship in one's writing and dislike that same ship written by another writer, because Nozel just doesn't feel right to me. Overall I'm very open to discussions and closed to hate or ship wars of any kind. Toxic fans stay away.)

Anyway after these long notes enjoy my take on Nozessa ^^

Ao3

Nozel was swearing under his breath, cursing himself for once again giving in to the temptation… but it was bad. The day was shit, his squad was failing on all fronts, a screwed up mission, Solid made mistakes in the paperwork leaving Nozel to deal with it and then the cook actually overdid the roast duck. Everything in the span of a couple hours. 

Nozel needed to wind down. He had a way. A very, very unfitting way. Unbecoming of a gentleman. Was he really one though? Did he deserve that name? He pulled on his hood deeper covering the silver braid. If any peasant saw him walking through the streets it would cause quite a commotion. Nozel needed to tone down his mana to not stick out within these worms. How disgusted he was he had to walk past them. 

One time thing. It did not work. It became a two time thing and a three time thing. That first time was almost an accident. She was drunk and he was no better, additionally another bad day. Oh hey a pretty face, a pretty face that wanted to go down on him? Even better. Nozel was disgusting and he knew it. He despised himself enough. 

He walked inside a familiar bar. One peasant brushed passed him and Nozel needed to control himself to not reprimand him. A frown on his face as silver brows furrowed… but then he saw her. She was right there on the stool, pouring herself another drink. Her cheeks flushed and rosewood hair let loose. Vanessa was chatting with a bartender. Why was she even gracing him with a conversation. Nozel did not understand. 

He approached her. A mysterious figure in a hood brought attention, but no more than a Royal captain would. The bartender stopped talking. 

“Upstairs,” Nozel hissed to Vanessa’s ear placing his arm on her hip. 

“Hi handsome,” she giggled. “My hot date is here,” she winked at the bartender. “No interruptions until this morning, ignore the sounds.”

A hook up. That was what it was. He was not her first one and she was not his. They simply stumbled upon one another. Physically compatible, Vanessa called them. Fine whatever that witch said… and yet maybe he could agree. 

Vanessa grabbed a glass still filled with wine as she made her way upstairs from the bar to the hotel room. He followed her quietly, as a cold shadow. However once the doors closed behind them he took off his hood. Nozel fixed his hair putting it up and approached the dresser. He folded his cloak and placed it on top. 

When he turned around he saw Vanessa had already taken off her witch hat. She was finishing sipping on her wine.

“Bad day handsome?” She smirked as she approached him.

He did not answer, she knew it was. Nozel did not have many good ones. A low growl escaped him. Get it over, make them both feel pleasure, go back home. That was it. 

Nozel reached out his hand impatiently. He slid it so that it would settle on the small of her back and pulled her closer. Vanessa smirked. The glass in her hand. 

He was about to lean down to kiss her, to go on with the deed… but he paused. There was something about that smirk, something about the way she looked at him. It made him want to stare longer, linger on her features and he did not understand why it felt warm. He did not know much warmth, even more how to interpret it. 

One night stand. Two times stand. Three times stand. He kept on coming back. 

The corners of his mouth gently tugged up. He did not even realize when that happened. She was close, her heartbeat fast and she continued to stare at him with hunger, but also something more, or was he imagining?

Fuck it! He was not going to ponder. No feelings, just a shameful fling. He leaned down making their lips meet. 

[ananke-xiii]

As much as it pains me to say it (because of my visceral dislike of the BMoL storyline), “The Raid” is a good episode. So far in the season the BMoL hasn’t succeeded in recruiting any American hunter but Mary Winchester. We’re mid-season now, it’s time for The One where the BMoL seduce Sam and Dean. And Mary is the key. And Sam picks a side. And he’s wrong, of course. (in a cruel twist of fate, I’m starting to suspect I should be “grateful” to SPN writers for writing a main character who’s always so blatantly wrong. Like, without Sam (and Cas) consistently screwing things up we would have no plot and therefore no SPN, so thank you??? I guess???). Anyway, let’s see what this seduction is about.

Quick note before I continue: as per classic SPN, the ones that die.die.die are women and black people. This episode is, sadly, no exception. Billie, Benjamin, The Vampire Alpha, the “Death Siren” music producer + other extras. I mean, come.the fuck.on. Ugh.

“I’m not just a mom”.

Mary is this episode’s (well, obvs primarily this season’s) keystone. She came clean to Sam and Dean about her involvement with the BMoL in “Family Feud” and now she’s facing the consequences of her actions. Her sons (well, mostly Dean) throws her out of the bunker. Dean is pissed, Sam is… how is Sam?

Sam: Look I-I am pissed and – and frustrated and confused, too. But we've frozen her out for days.

Firstly, let me say that the use of the verb “to freeze” in relation to Mary The Fridged-Unfridged-Refridged-Character-Of-All-Time is… hilarious, not gonna lie.

Secondly, Sam is pissed, too, okay? But he’s not THAT pissed. He wants to hear her out. This is big because, so far in the season, Sam hasn’t exactly showed a propensity towards communicating with Mary. She wanted space, he gave her space. She didn’t text him, he didn’t text her. So why is Sam suddenly so interested in Mary? I think it has to do with the fact that she has clearly stated that she’s their mother but she’s not just a mom. I’ve talked about how Sam is subconsciously very VERY VERY pissed at Mary, specifically at her role as his mother. Sam is known to be able to easily compartmentalize events, things, people, feelings into what he can handle and what he can’t. He can’t handle his mother right now but he thinks he can handle Mary.

Dean calls bullshit on his excuse:

Dean: She lied to us, Sam. Sam: I know. Dean: For months. Sam: I know, but it's Mom! I mean, whatever she was doing, she must've had a good reason. Dean: A good reason? A good reason for working with those ass clowns? Sam: Look, I hear you, all right? But – but at the end of the day, she's family. We owe it to her to at least –

In “Lily Sunders has Some Regrets” Sam says something similar about Kelly and Jack: “at the end of the day it’s a mom and her kid”. I mean, this starts to sound like a mantra he tells himself in order to avoid sorting out his feelings. Of course, she had her good reasons, but can Sam accept those reasons for what they are while disagreeing with his mother and being pissed at her for making wrong decisions? Spoiler alert: Sam cannot. So, at the end of the day what can he do? He can play neutral and, again, Dean calls bullshit:

Dean: And this whole peacemaker shtick that you've been running, first with Cas, now with Mom, it's getting old, man. Sam: What's that supposed to mean? Dean: You're always playing the middle, Sam. For once, why don't you pick a side?

(And, again, it’s just hilarious that Dean’s saying this, Mr-Pick-A-Bloody-Side, lol, Bob Berens knows his references)(also, wait so is it Sam who’s stuck in the middle with them (ep12, Sam: “Mom... what the hell did you get us into”)? Oh-oh, yeah guys, Sam is very VERY VERY pissed at Mary)

Picking a side.

If it wasn’t clear, Mary is not a saint, okay? And the previous episode did show us a mother, Rowena, being cunning and evil and getting her revenge. You don’t mess with mothers in this show, cause they are not “just moms”. So Mary plays her “Sam we need to meet. It’s urgent” card and boom, Sam is baited. She didn’t send the same message to Dean, we have two clear shots of her text chats with both her sons. Mary is smart. The only good thing Ketch has ever said in the whole of SPN is that they [the BMoL] didn’t need Sam and Dean because they already had the best Winchester, i.e. Mary. He was not wrong.

So now the brothers are split and the seduction game can begin.

In order to seduce the brothers, Mick and Ketch must find out either what they want or what they need. To be fair, Ketch is better at this than Mick, Mick so completely lucks out in this episode, like he literally cannot believe that, in the end, he’s the one who’s succeeded in attracting Sam (he really, really needs to send a fruit basket to Mary for this). What do Sam and Dean want? Well, good question, let’s skip it for now. So what do they need?

Let’s start with Dean cause it’s easier and he literally tells us. He needs to hit something. Now. Oh, and he also needs drinks, plural. But, he hasn’t been able to find a case and he’s alone in the bunker with no alcohol around. (so reminiscent of s11 Crowley drinking alone vs Dean and Cas on a fake beer run, Berens did study). The magic can begin: knock knock who’s there? It’s jolly good pal Ketch with a bottle of great scotch, a nest of 10 vamps to kill and a lot of fun toys to play with. This is the perfect recipe for Dean but Ketch still fails at seducing him and we’ll see in a moment why.

On the other hand we have Sam, what does Sam need? To be honest with you, I don’t really know. Like, textually, Mary tells him three times that “he needed to know” and she successfully baits him and is able to give him her sales pitch so I guess she was right, that’s what Sam needed. And knowledge is a huge part of who Sam is, this episode in particular shows us how his knowledge is far superior than any other hunter and how it’s the only thing that saves them (well, that saves only Sam, Mary, Mick and the Hunter King of Baton Rouge ‘cause the rest of the BMoL is dead). The show is ambivalent in this regard, sometimes I think Sam wants out, sometimes I think he wants to keep hunting but in a different way, sometimes I think he’s more or less fine with his life… I mean, really, I don’t know. But the show ended with Sam getting out of the life so I must presume that Dabb’s endgame was exactly that.

Anyway, let’s go back to the seduction thing. Mick, by pure chance, manages to seduce Sam with the illusion of organization and method. Sam wants to be a part of it because he thinks they’re changing the world which is ridiculous because the audience has literally just watched how unorganized and unprepared the BMoL are. And I’m not talking about the vampire attack against the base, but we see Ketch going on a hunt certain of his intel but when he arrives at the supposedly vamp-infested motel he finds only one of them. So I think that, all in all, even if I don’t know what Sam needs I think I know what he wants and he wants power (the knowledge he has, the power he wants). He sees the results: the Alpha is dead, doesn’t matter how bad the night was, he sees it as an opportunity and he wants in.

Mick thought they had failed to “attract the, uh, top shelf of American Hunters. Like you” but he actually managed to work well with Sam, they worked in sync to kill the Alpha and that’s not something that goes unnoticed. A connection has been made between the two and Sam picks a side.

On the other hand Ketch’s seduction fails. Dean and Ketch don’t work well together, they’re not on the same page. Ketch reminds Dean that he’s a killer (“You’re a killer, Dean Winchester”, the same line Rowena uttered in “Regarding Dean”) and that they share the same “inclinations” but he’s wrong. What drives Dean is not a crazy impulse to kill but it’s family.

Dean: (to Mary) When I thought something might've happened to you, nothing else mattered. Mary: Dean, the things I said – Dean: No, Mom, you were... It's not your job to make my lunch and kiss me good night. It's – We're adults. You're gonna make your own choices, even if I don't like 'em. Even if I really, really don't like 'em. That's just something I'm gonna have to get used to. Okay, Mom?Mary: Yeah.

(I really really wanna ask: whose job is it to make you lunch and kiss you good night, Dean? 'Cause I know you've given that a thought and you might have an answer, share with the class, maybe?)

And just like that, even if this was an episode where Sam and Mary finally have some screen-time together and manage to somehow connect, we are once again reminded that Dean is the only one who’s putting in the work to establish a relationship with her and who’s willing to sort out his feelings about their frankly messed-up situation. Dean is growing up a lot, being in your late thirties changes your perspective on life, man. Ain’t nobody got time for bullshit anymore.

To the way things are supposed to be.

I love when Sam delivers his little manipulative speech and people fall for it. every.time. He’s that bitch, after all. So one thing is sure now: although Sam has picked the wrong side, he’s aware that they cannot go back to how things were, how things were supposed to be. This will be incorrect as far as the BMoL storyline is concerned (voice of the narrator: things will go back as they were, hunters and vampires, cops and robbers, a fair fight), but it’s correct in terms of Sam’s relationship with Mary: it’s a small step compared to Dean’s emotional growth this season, but Sam is also (slowly) starting to realize that they are indeed adults, Mary is indeed not just a mom and, more importantly, he doesn’t want to go back, he wants to change the world (voice of the narrator: or so he thinks, poor Sammy).

So yeah, good episode. The Mick/Sam-Ketch/Dean parallels worked really well (Ketch invading the bunker and Sam infiltrating the BMoL’s base is visually cool), the family theme smoothly underpins every dialogue, every character has changed (to varying degree) by the end of the episode and the acting was solid. Cool.

[wrencatte]

I'm having a bad week. Like really bad. I think it's because I cut something unhealthy but addictive out of my diet, cold turkey. I've been more fatigued, more easily distracted, unable to focus, and my feelings are all over the place. I hope this is just temporary, but if it turns out it was actually helping me with my adhd I might actually be screwed because I have no idea what I'm going to do then.

I don't want to ask people if I'm annoying them because that just makes them uncomfortable and sets up a bad feeling in whatever relationship I have with them which is the exact opposite of what I want. I just have to accept that I'm not because if I was, they wouldn't keep talking/pinging me, right? And even if I am annoying, they still like me enough to ignore it.

I know I'm a good writer, and I usually feel like I am, but I cannot for the life of me like anything I'm writing right now. I have 7 different fics to write, 1 by april 27th and 6 by may 12th, and I'm just completely -tears hair out-. I would be less stressed if ckw wasn't something I made and was pushing, but it's literally my own fan week. How can I not participate in my own fan week? I wanted to write something tragic for the 28th, but I get one paragraph down that I like, and then the rest literally doesn't come. I stare at my screen, brain working, and my fingers don't make the words.

I hate feeling like this and I thought I was getting better. I really did. And I know there's ups and downs and I have no control over it but I'm just so...sad and annoyed that I'm sad and frustrated that I'm sad and just grrr.

Anyway. I just need to rant.

[lemonyinks]

losh (001) for the ask meme?

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Jenni. There is just something about her that touches my heart. She's so scared, but so full of bravery and love. She's doing her best.

Least Favorite character: Wimena Wazzo. She just made me mad every time she was on screen.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): jenni/imra, brainy/lyle, jan/candi, zoe/salu/ayla, rokk/gim

Character I find most attractive: none of them really

Character I would marry: also none of them

Character I would be best friends with: Salu. I think we would get along really well.

A random thought: I think about Lori Morning a lot. She was such an interesting character to me and I would have loved to see them do more with her. I would especially like to know how the hell she ended up being the time trapper as an adult. I REALLY wish they had expanded on that. It also kinda haunts me that it is unclear what happened to her after the outpost incident. She obviously didn't die, but where did she go??

*bonus thought: I think it is interesting how similar Brainy and Imra are. I've been meaning to make a post about this for like a year now but have never gotten around to it. But, like...they're both gifted kids who grew up in non-ideal situations (to put it lightly) and dealt with a lot of social isolation that affected how they interact with people and how they view themselves. Obviously its not a 1-1 similarity between them, there are major differences to their backstories and them in general, but the similarities that are there fascinate me so much.

An unpopular opinion: While there are parts of it that I really like (Bart and Brainy friendship for example), for some reason i found a lot of the trapped in the past arc just a lil bit boring.

My canon OTP: Do Jan/Candi count? If so, them.

Non-canon OTP: Jenni/Imra. It's insane how much I think about them.

Most badass character: this is hard for me because they're all pretty badass and they all have their moments, buuuutttt I have to say Imra. The "step away from her" scene lives in my head rent free.

Pairing I am not a fan of: I am an avid Tinya/Jo hater. I'm their number one hater in fact.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Tinya. I hate whatever her and Jo have going on and I fully believe she did not need the teen mom arc she had for some reason. The issue where she gives birth made me laugh, it was so ridiculous, I hated it so much.

Favourite friendship: Maybe Lyle and Ayla. I just think they're neat. Honestly my answer to this question will probably change depending on the day. I love a lot of the friendships in this series

[clumsiestgiantess]

After much anticipation, I give you season 2 part 2 of the Shrinking/Disappearing cabin series! This was the most voted-for story I put on the potential continuation list, and after a bit of writer’s block I’ve finished the next part! Enjoy!

My mouth hung open in too much shock to even be upset about my new height.  Silently, I reached over and grabbed a tree branch to examine, threading the now incredibly tiny leaves between my fingers.  I just kept staring, not quite able to grasp what had happened to me.  “Daniella?”  In a slow turn, I faced Rey.  He stepped closer and I took a large step back.  Confusion fell over his features and he stopped.  “Are you ok?”  

“Do I look ok?” I asked, still dazed, but growing angrier by the minute.  “Why does the world have a grudge against me?  Every time I think I’ve solved a problem, it gets screwed up again!  I- I can’t even get in the car!  Nevermind the town or back home!  This is worse than when I was small!”

“A- Alright, it’s ok Dani,” he told me gently, lifting his hands up innocently, “We can figure this out together.”  “We did!  We just did!  I was at my own size again and now it’s gone!” I sobbed, stumbling backwards.  “Look at you, you’re so small!  No, no I’m huge!  And now I can’t reverse it because this was our last resort!”  Rey shook his head forcefully, again trying to come closer.  Again, I stepped back.  “There has to be a way!”  “Why?” I challenged.  “Why shouldn’t there be a way?  If there’s a way for this to happen, and a way to make this entire cabin disappear, then why shouldn’t there be an option for you to shrink back down again?”

My panic dwindled for a moment.  What Rey said made sense in a sort of nonsense way.  Logically, if the place where the real cabin used to be can grow me, then…  “Oh no.”  Rey halted in his tracks as I looked up again.  He’d been quietly trying to get closer to me while I thought.  “What?”  If this place is where I can grow, the other cabin is where I need to go to shrink.  “I’d have to go back to the miniature cabin,” I told him numbly.  “I- I think it would shrink me.”  “Good, then let’s-”  “I can’t get there.”  Rey faltered, realizing it would be an impossible journey for me at my new size.  “Well, maybe I can get it for you and bring it back?  Where is it?”

A teary wheezing breath dragged itself out of my throat.  My eyes began watering again.  “I don’t know.  It’s a- about an hour away from the boardwalk where you found me, I think.”  “In which direction?”  “I don’t know!  I was rarely ever let out of whatever apartment I was in!  I know what the view looked like from the window, but I don’t know what city it was!”  Rey reached forward to try to comfort me and I stepped back again, tripping over a few gnarly bushes and falling over backwards on the ground.  The impact shook handfuls of pinecones loose from the evergreens around me.  They rained down as I shielded my face from them and from Rey, who rushed towards me.

He got within a foot of me before I lept upward away from him.  “WOULD YOU QUIT IT?!  Just leave me alone!  Stop trying to fix things that can’t be fixed!”  I fled the clearing and the road, tearing a path through the trees and underbrush as I ran.  My insides churned awfully.  When I yelled at him, Rey had scrambled away from me in shock and fear.  My shadow had completely engulfed him as I stood.

What do I do?  What’s going to happen to me?  Everyone who sees me will be scared!  Where will I go?  I don’t fit anywhere anymore!  At least when I was small I still had places where I fit — Rey’s pocket, the little bed he’d made on the nightstand, even the miniature before it broke!  Now there’s nothing!  Nothing!

I kept running; there wasn’t a thing in my path that could slow me down.  Even accidentally hitting trees just caused them to topple over, and left me with only a few scratches.  The scratches added up over time, though.  Winded and cut up, I fell to my knees only to flinch at the pain caused by pressing my open cuts to the earth.  Rolling onto my side, which wasn’t as badly cut, I finally let my tears fall.  Happiness and calm seemed like such scarce things to come by ever since I walked into that damn cabin.  I don’t know how long I sat there and sobbed for.  It felt like Casey’s place all over again.  I was helpless to do anything for myself no matter what happened to me.

A branch snapped behind me and I quickly sat up, frightened it might be a bear or mountain lion or hunter with a gun.  It was Rey.  I flopped back to the ground, relieved it wasn’t anything else yet angry that he was seeing me like this.  He walked around to my face and I slowly sat up, knowing he’d probably want to talk.  Even sitting on the ground I was a foot or so taller than him.  With my head bowed, I didn’t even realize what he actually intended to do.

Hands so small they barely stretched over the length of my cheeks gently brushed against my face, guiding my head up slightly until we locked eyes with one another.  “Rey, I-”  His lips caressed my face before I could finish.  “Don’t say anything,” he told me quietly, breath hot on my skin.  His chest was still heaving — winded after running all the way here to catch up with me.  “I’m going to help you, Daniella, whether you believe I can or not.”  A tear or two managed to slide down my face as he spoke.  “Of course I believe in you!” my voice came out whispery and thin.  “Just.. not me.”

Another kiss, this time to my forehead, caused my heart to skip a beat.  “I believe in you.”  A shuddering breath wracked my lungs as he stepped closer and pulled as much of me to himself as he could.  My eyes squeezed closed as more tears leaked out of them.  Rey doesn’t let go of me until they stop.  When they finally do, he releases me gently, and I take a moment to calm down and clean my face.  We can figure this out together.  I’ll stare at every map website until I find the streets I saw before.  Vaguely, I feel the ground shift beneath me, but I don’t think anything of it until my bleary eyes open again and I’m sitting on the ground below Rey — his face a mixture of confused shock.

I’m.. my own height?  I’m my own height!  Jumping up from the ground, I hug Rey tightly as he laughs in surprise.  “I’m back!  I don’t know what happened!  Maybe your kisses are magic; but whatever it is, I’m just glad it’s over!”  He holds me tightly so I don’t collapse in relief.  “You had me scared there!” he gasps, “Please don’t-”  In seconds, I’m no longer holding Rey.

I gasp as I fall to the ground.  “Oof!  What the-?”  I’m cut off by a muffled noise and flinch as I feel something squirm beneath me.  I haul myself onto my knees and gasp.  Rey lays on the ground where I fell, a foot and a half tall.  

“Rey?”  My voice slips from my lips in a shocked whisper.  He picks himself up, staring at me all the while.  Slowly, his gaze falls down to himself and his jaw drops open.  “N- No way.  Am I.. small?”  I blink confusedly and bring my hand over his head to measure out his height.  “Smaller,” I amend, “You aren’t as small as I was, but-”  With weakened legs from both running away and trying to comprehend what was in front of me, I try to stand and nearly topple over.  Rey rushes closer to me with his arms outstretched as if to catch me, but backs away almost immediately after — realizing I would crush him if I fell on him.

When I do manage to stand, I’m finally able to take in just how much Rey shrunk.  He’s standing almost level with my kneecaps.  “But why me?” he wonders aloud, glancing around worriedly.  “I’ve never seen either of the cabins.  I hadn’t even set foot in this town until-  ..oh.  You know where I did step, though?”  I gasp and smack my palm dumbly to my forehead, “The same place I stepped to grow.”  Rey nods.  “The cabin’s clearing,” we sigh under our breath at the same time.

“But wait!  Why didn’t you grow too, then?” I ask.  Both of us think for a moment.  “I don’t know, but I think it’s an awfully strange coincidence that I shrunk just after you did, and we’re at the same level of height difference we were when you were bigger.”  We are?!  I hadn’t let Rey get close to me while I was that size, but now that he mentioned it, our heights are almost the same, only at a different scale.  “So,” I begin hesitantly, “When we were in the place where the cabin was, only I grew — makes sense because when I first came into the house I didn’t turn giant or anything.  I guess it only grows people if they’re not normal-sized.  Then, when I stepped back out at a much bigger height…  Maybe I broke it.  Maybe no matter what happens to me, whatever difference in height we stopped at together when we left, that’s- that’s our new difference in height no matter what.”

I watch as Rey’s eyes slowly squint, trying to think everything through.  “So i-if you get bigger I get to be normal-sized.  And if you become normal-sized I become small?  I’m starting to regret coming into that cabin area.”  He’s silent, then quickly shakes his head.  “Actually, no I’m.. I'm glad I did.  You were scared; I’d rather make sure you’re ok.”  Aww.  “But this still.. isn’t great.  Now what do we do?  And how’d you even change back?!”  

Oh!  Right, what happened just now?  Rey only changed after I did.  The only thing I can think of is that I changed after he kissed me.  Wait!  “Maybe you can try growing with the same spot?  Alone?” I offer. If my theory was right, it would work on him now that he wasn’t his normal height.  

Rey shrugs, “It’s worth a shot.”  The journey back was so much longer than it had taken to get there.  Not only was I smaller — making my steps shorter — but Rey was even smaller than me, so he slowed things down even longer.  Eventually, we realized we’d have to speed things up if we wanted to get back before dark, so I ended up carrying him the rest of the way.  It was rather uncomfortable too; at his small-ish height there was simply no non-awkward way to carry him.  He was unusually silent tucked beneath my arm.

When we arrived through my previous destruction, he slid out of my grasp to the ground, coming to a stop right at the edge of the field.  He whispered something hopeful under his breath, then stepped in.

Before my eyes, he grew taller and taller.  “It’s working!” we both gasped at the same time.  Once he seemed about the same height as his normal self, he quickly scrambled out of the mystifyingly magical area.  Finally, it seemed as if nothing could go wr-  NO!  No, don’t even think something like that unless you want to jinx yourself!  

I tried to keep calm as we quickly embraced and headed for the car.  At last I sat down in a comfortable, normal, perfectly-made-for-my-height seat.  The car rumbled to life, and we headed down the long driveway, Rey chatting excitedly all the while.  However, once I noticed the several tire tracks tearing up the gravel road before us, my mood darkened.  Who were those secretive people here yesterday?  Do they know what that place can do, or are they just concerned over the fact that the entire cabin completely disappeared?

My worry must’ve spread onto my face because the car dwindled into silence.  “Dani?  Are you.. alright?”  I glanced over at Rey, then nodded — trying not to think too much about potential awful things that might not even happen.  Things are normal for once!  I should be celebrating!  I should be-  “WOAH!”

Rey slammed on the breaks as a large deer practically threw itself into the road and scrambled hastily for the other side.  Some new familiarity seized my brain, and the car began to feel cramped.  Before Rey or even I realized what I was doing, I unbuckled my seatbelt and threw open the door, falling out onto the ground as my body stretched and grew to the same size as the car itself and then some.  

Excitement.  It’s excitement.. or.. before it was fear and possibly even anger.  Anytime I’m not happy and calm I- I grow.  “Daniella, what happened?!”  I held up a hand, “Wait, Rey, I think I understand it…”  He slows to a stop beside me and nods for me to continue.  Closing my eyes, I concentrate on breathing softly.  The gravel lurches around beneath me as I begin to shrink, then grow excited again at the thought of doing so.  

Slowly I find my shrinking coming to a stop.  I open my eyes at a normal height.  However…  “Damn, this is really gonna happen every time, hmm?”  I turn to Rey.  He’s only about a foot tall again.  Right, he shrinks when I do.  I quickly apologize and try to explain what I hope is the answer to our dilemma, or at least some sort of solution to it.  “I can drive us back and you can grow again,” I offer.  “And we’ll start from the top!” Rey adds.  I nod, helping him up into the passenger seat.

On the way back, I let out a sigh.  “Thanks for putting up with all of this, Rey.  It’s not fun being small.. and honestly it’s not much better being giant.”  He shrugs, offering me a smile, “For you?  I would go through ‘all of this’, and more.  I have an idea that might help things, but it might be stupid.”  I chuckle, “Anything helps at this point.  What is it?”  My answer led to sitting in the passenger seat with a large plastic bag filled with dirt on my lap.

After a strange while of shifting up and down in size as both of us tried to dig up some dirt from the cabin’s place, we managed to get a bag of it to go.  Anytime Rey needed a way to grow back, he could have one.  At the time, I was certain I’d never have to use it.  Rey had a way to get his height back — I just needed to focus on keeping mine.  

With hope restored, we pulled out of the rocky driveway and onto the actual road back into town.  “Think about it,” I gasped, “My old life back!  I can finally do things on my own!  I mean, obviously we’ll still have to live together, but everything will be my own height again!”  “Obviously?” Rey questioned with a smirk.  I caught myself and quieted, glancing over at him shyly.  “I- I meant.. we should in case I grow or you shrink but you- you don’t have to.”  “I’d love to live with you,” he replied almost wistfully.  “The only question is: my house or yours?”

We eagerly planned what lay in store for us.  Soon enough, we were back at the hotel.  It was a lot smaller than I remembered it being, but I guess it had looked bigger when I was only a few inches tall.  “Here, take the room key and head inside; it’s room 206,” Rey told me, “There’s a shard of gravel wedged in this tire and I want to pick it out in case it tears a hole in it.”  I nodded, heading inside.

The interior of the hotel was reminiscent of a log cabin to give it some rustic charm of sorts, but it put me on edge almost immediately.  The cabin was so similar… Uneasily, I made my way down the hallway to the room, but paused as a framed picture stopped me in my tracks.  All across the hotel were various black-and-white photos of several old buildings around town.  There, in front of me, was the clearing.  It was the clearing — I’d just been there, and it looked almost the same.  The only difference: there was a well in the middle of the field, right where the cabin used to be.

The sight made my heart pound in my chest, and that strange shade blotted through my mind.  I gasped, realizing I was about to grow gigantic in the middle of the hall and probably become claustrophobicaly stuck inside.  My body crushed in.. and shrunk.  I landed on the wooden floor at only five inches tall.

Yelping in confused fear, I quickly righted myself and dashed into a nearby doorway to keep out of the open.  I had more experience being small — as much as it angers me to say, I know better how to deal with being small than I did being gigantic.  It’s alright, no one saw that, the hallway’s empty, I assured myself.  Concentrate on being calm, like by the car.  With deep breaths, I felt myself hesitantly rising to my normal height.  Thank god whatever curse the cabin put on me lets my clothes come with me when I change sizes.

With my height returned, I caught my breath leaning against the wall — a few paces further away from the strange picture.  Why the hell am I shrinking now?  Whatever, as long as I keep my head clear I won’t grow or shrink anymore.  With a tired sigh, I pulled out the room key and reached to open the door.  Wait.. if I changed size, then that means…

With a gasp, I rushed back down to the lobby as quickly as I could without setting off my stupid size-shift curse.  If our sizes were connected.. and I was only a few inches tall…  Good thing Rey brought back that little bag of dirt.

Outdoors once again, I stepped back to the car to find Rey missing.. or was he? Cautiously, I stepped around the tire he’d pointed to. I couldn’t see him. Quickly swallowing my nervousness so I wouldn’t grow or shrink or something, I knelt and quietly called his name. “Rey? Rey, where are you? It’s alright, I shrunk in the hotel — don’t ask me how — but I’m here to help you.”

I knew from experience that being so small was frightening, and he was even smaller than I was, but it was only me, he shouldn’t be so scared he’s hiding from me. Lowering myself to the asphalt, I peered under the car. He wasn’t there either. It took me a moment to search, though, and within that moment there was a slight squirming against me from below. Gasping, I lifted myself up.

Sure enough, Rey lay there directly beneath my squatting body. Actually, he’d probably been pressed directly against my abdomen when I lay down. The very faint noise of shouting finally reached my ears. “Rey!” I gasped. My hands shot after his tiny form splayed out against the ground, but I pulled back at the last second, remembering how terrified I’d been when Casey used to do that to me. “Here,” I offered him my hand palm-up instead, “Get on.”

It took him a while just to hoist himself over the width of my fingers, but finally he managed to get on and I held him up to my face as I stood. He was absolutely so tiny! To think not too long ago I could be stashed easily in his pocket. Now he was just barely an inch tall, tucked up safely in my palm. “Daniella?” he gasped, “You- I- What?”

“It’s ok, let me get that piece of cabin lawn for you,” I told him. “You’re so cute like this, though! I almost don’t want to bring your height back! Look at you!” Lovingly, I pat his tiny little head, “So small!” Peering closely at him, I could see the teeniest little grin on his face. I giggled, “Let’s.. go back to the hotel room first. To- To not raise suspicion, you know?” “Sure,” he offered me, though his tone said he didn’t believe me.

Sweeping up the bag of dirt for.. probably much later, I swept him up into a light fist and slid inside, disappearing behind the hotel room door.