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artyrogue · 4 years

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Blind Date Gaming: Konami GB Collection Vol. 3

Boy, I am WIPED after my date last night. It all started out as it usually does -- a quick visit to PRANG for an introduction to my next potential video game suitor. Who could have guessed that I would served up 4 dates! They all came together at once under the guise of Konami GB Collection Vol. 3.

I was greeted at first by an anime schoolgirl with a huge hand and quite possibly a contender for the weirdest hairstyles I've seen in a while. What is that, a grass-inspired mohawk laid over top a normal haircut?

Is this what the cows that make cowlicks eat?

What happened next was an eventful set of speed dates. This onslaught left me with no down time, thus the exhaustion. However, I did end up meeting some nice games. I'll speed through them each quick-like to keep this from being overly long. Luckily each of the games are pretty short (as expected from Game Boy games)!

First up is Gradius II! Now, I've never actually played a Gradius game, so I can't say if this is a port, some reconfigured version of Gradius II, or what. What I CAN say is that it has tight controls, beautiful graphics, interesting bosses, and some fun gameplay.

Looks like a rocky magic 8 ball

You start off hangin' out with what I assume are your dad and mom starships. Aww, family time! Soon, however, someone decks your old man and blasts your momma fulla lasers. Obviously disturbed, you fly forward and get chased by the perpetrator through a buncha rocks until you escape.

Good thing this guy doesn't feel like firing at me for whatever reason

...Except you kind of don't? You end up going through a bunch of planetary landscapes, shootin' dudes and grabbin' powerups that let you fire lasers and stuff. Pew pew! You eventually get captured, break out, and summarily fly through a ship, an asteroid belt, and I think some alien's guts? I'm not sure; I never went to med school for interplanetary digestive systems. Bosses fight you at every turn, and they are so sweet. Like, I don't always know what I'm attacking, but it just looks so cool that I really don't care!

Ever want to fight a kneeling, fanged alien stuck in a wall with detachable mouthy-brains? Yeah, well now you do, obviously!

In the end you find the enemy ship that assassinated your nuclear family with nuclear weapons, commit your own brand of galactic revenge, and I assume go on with your day in a half-arsed way, never addressing the journey you just went through for fear of sparking up some majorly weird PTSD.

Next up is some Castlevania game! It claims to be Castlevania II, but don't think it's Simon's Quest since it doesn't have slow-scrolling text boxes telling me that night is a poor time to explore the world when suffering from a magical adversary's angry sentiments. Instead, you just go about whippin' junk. Alright, I can be a lion tamer for the undead.

Why do cultists always gotta wear hoods? Can't they wear like a polo and some comfy slacks?

So in this installment, you can apparently shoot fireballs from a fully-upgraded whip, so it's instantly MUCH easier than most Castelvania games. The list of enemies is kind of lacking, but it was enough to feel competent. The level design was pretty spot-on, which is par for the course, though for some reason this game has a love affair with ropes? They're EVERYWHERE, but there's enough variation in the levels to give them pass. For example, some areas have auto-directional-pulling ropes, some ropes are spider webs made by enemies, some require quick sliding to avoid obstacles, etc.

You gotta wonder, does the guy living here have to go through all these traps every day just to get his mail? And how does he carry groceries back to his (probably rope-decorated) kitchen?

The boss fights were definitely memorable. Some of their designs were flat-out brilliant, and they were all pretty fun! Your sub-weapons weren't really that useful here, but that's fine. The bosses, too, were made a little easier with the projectile whip, but the designers struck a good balance between fun and hard.

These guys shoot out vertebrae in an arc, transferring them from one head to the other. I don't have a quip here, it was just a stupidly awesome designed boss that I wanted to gush about for a bit!

Well, perhaps I spoke too soon. The bosses were all fun except for the last 3 in the game. Allow me to whine and complain about them for a bit, if you will! The first was a tunneling snake on a forced scrolling screen that made you take damage unless you memorized where he was going to surface next (I HATE memorization-by-death gameplay). The next was a fellow Belmont who would relentlessly whip the crap outta you, throw swords all over the screen, and would probably be nigh impossible if I didn't have Holy Water. The final was Dracula, who I suppose gets a pass for being hard since he was the final boss...but he, too, was pretty much a memorization-by-death fight, too. The dude has 6 orbs revolving around him that spread out, essentially making 85% of the screen unsafe. Unless you know the specific spot to crouch down for the given position he's in, you get hurt, and you get hurt pretty badly. Oh, and you can really only hit him once per attack, so you'd better learn the safe spots for all 8 of his attack spots and hope you can hurt him and get into your safe position before taking damage.

ouch ouch ouch OUCH

In the end, it was overall a pretty fun time. Konami definitely knows how to make a good sidescrolling action game, which is probably why they're half of the name of the 'Metroidvania' genre. Go team Belmont!

Next up: Yie Ar Kung~Fu! What is this? I've never heard of it. It's a simple fighting game where you face off against 5 fighters, each with their own weapons and special moves. You play as a normal weaponless guy who can only kick and punch, because that's fair? Regardless, you must persevere through 4 rounds of these 5 fights, each time with your foes getting slightly harder.

Mmyep, this is fair.

My trademark fighting game strategy of sweeping seems to work for the most part, though as the difficulty ramps up, the other fighters move with ridiculous speed between attacks. Eventually, the game just becomes 100% about approaching a foe with more range than you, which obviously is the main focus of fighting games. What's that? Combos? Pffft, those are lame, just have the enemies fly across the ring like a sugar-high Jack Russel Terrier.

So this guy's power is to propel himself like a missile and look like an absolute goon while doing so

There's also a mini-game where you hit things thrown at you, but like they show up so quickly and your animation speed is so slow that it's impossible to do very well. It was an okay game overall, though, but I can sort of see why it isn't as well-known as Gradius or Castlevania.

Last game: Antarctic Adventure! It's a penguin-based racing game! I think? Does this count as a racing game? Well, you race against the clock, so sure. You gotta move at top speed through an icy wasteland, avoiding sea lions and holes in the ice.

I like how this sea lion looks after getting plastered in the face by a penguin moving at ~120 km/hr. Is he in shock? Is he alive? Should I notify his next of kin?

The lore is actually pretty deep in this game. The world has fallen into ruin due to global warming, and the glacier sheets on Antarctica are slowly melting away. As a penguin trained in espionage and terrorism, you must travel to the different embassies that many countries have propped up in an attempt to stake a claim in possibly the only livable area in the near future.

The french are planning to build replicas of their famous landmarks here, like the Ice-full Tower and Arctic de Triomphe.

You're not exactly racing as much as you are keeping ahead of the authorities pursuing you for planting bombs in the embassies. If you successfully plant your payloads in all of the embassies across all of Antarctica, you destroy their chances of bringing cultural imperialism to the local wildlife. Your customs are at stake! You must cast your empathy aside for the greater good of penguin-kind!

Also, you can sometimes turn into a helicopter? Not sure what that was about.

Okay, okay, yeah, I may have embellished a bit there. No, it's not as cool as that. You just run from one place to the next and heck if I'll ever find out why miscellaneous countries happen to have little castles in a barren arctic wasteland. People's taxes at work, I guess!

Oh right, there's also a fifth option on the main menu. It's Ms. O.C. Anime Girl explaining things about the games to you. I can't read anything she's saying, though, so I can only imagine the shady koala statue in the back has some relevance to her dialogue.

So that ends an exhausting series of dates. Whew! Glad you toughed it out with me. As I've completed all of the games this time, I didn't think another date was warranted. However, Gradius and Castlevania were fun enough to say that sure, I guess, it's worth going on another date in the future. Maybe it'd be better to find the original games, though, instead of this particular port. I can only assume the extra screen real estate, better sound effects, and greater ROM size would only enhance their experiences. And speaking of experiences, grab a Sprite of Passage from the jar over there on your way out! It's mint-flavored and can double as a water purification tab if you're ever stuck somewhere in the wilderness!

Man, I would kill to watch a skeleton ballet

#blinddategaming #gameboy #gradius #castlevania #otherdumbstuff

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Spider-Man 2099 v4 #1 and 2099 Omega Thoughts

This is literally the third time I’ve purchased a comic book called Spider-Man 2099 #1 in 5 years. Technically more if we include reprints. Isn’t that kind of ridiculous?

Fun fact, I wasn’t buying any comics (sans some pre-OMD Spidey and Deadpool Classic trades) between 2009 and 2014. It was the 2014 Spidey 2099 run that got me back into the game, for good or ill.

This issue wasn’t nearly as good at series. And Omega was…lol…it was so bad and essentially an extension of Spidey 2099 I’m covering them together.

I remember fondly my hype when I saw Miguel in ASM v5 #25 and my hype for this one shot, back when I didn’t realize it was just part of a larger event.

Oh boy did this let me down.

Let me start with some superficial praise.

The art for Spidey 2099 and Sandoval on Omega were decent. And there was some interesting ideas pertaining to the world of the future, such as the removal of money and instead having everyone’s value depend upon what they can contribute. A society built upon meritocrisy, albeit with harsh reprisals if you can contribute little. Also the idea of corporations fixing things so only insiders can gain employment speaks to the corporatocracy of the 2099 universe (one severely undermined when we consider Doom is ultimately in charge anyway…). People intentionally using drugs to keep up their work productivity is another great idea, and a genuinely interesting twist upon the original depiction of the rapture drug from Spidey 2099 v1 #1. Finally people essentially enabling identity theft in exchange for drugs was an interesting sci-fi concept.

But beyond that…this was bad.

When I began covering this event proper with 2099 Alpha my dominant critique was ‘who is this for’.

A reboot of the 2099 line over 20 years since the original line ended and less than 3 years since the revival of it ended? A reboot intended to modernize the 1990s’ take on the future, a take that frankly proved 99% accurate anyway. And finally a reboot that alternated between doing spotty world building, killing off new characters, tie-ins to modern canon events and most of the time communicated its ideas in confusing and baffling ways.

I put forward that it was doomed to displease the old 2099 fans like me because it was erasing what we knew and loved. But it was also so poorly communicating its rebooted vision that new people were going to be alienated.

I’m only slightly going to backtrack on what I said. Because the Punisher 2099 issue was if you like the greatest argument in favour of the reboot. It wasn’t just the best issue in this mess, it was a bona fide awesome story just in general. It actually dived into an aspect of futuristic sci-fi that the 1990s 2099 series (to my knowledge) would’ve struggled to cover as it pertained so much to 2010s life and technology.

More poignantly though, the problem with this event is that there was no over arching vision between the titles. Not every one shot had the same problems but they all in different ways displayed problems that smacked into the very premise of this event.

F4 2099 was literally pointless as it spent a whole issue introducing a new F4 then killed them.

Conan 2099 could’ve been virtually the same if Conan was like 20 years in the future not this new future we rebooted.

Arguably Punisher 2099 relied upon familiarity with the Jake Galloway Punisher 2099 before it subverted your expectations.

Ghost Rider 2099 was fun but the writer clearly LIKED the original take on the character to the point where he essentially minimized changes to the rebooted version making the act of rebooting the character pointless in the first place and failing the mission statement of the event.

Venom 2099 was a weird tie-in for Cates current Venom mega arc involving Knull that was nonsensical as it proposes that Knull is still en route to Earth and thus in theory there is no tension in Cates’ run. Moreover it wasn’t much of a futuristic take on Venom himself and fundamentally hurt as there was no Spider-Man for Venom to act as a dark reflection of.

Doom 2099 in fairness had a cool twist, but a cool twist that didn’t make sense in and of itself and was also reliant upon familiarity with the original 1990s character.

And then we come to these issues.

These issues I’m sad to say just absolutely fundamentally fail conceptually.

He’s incredibly passive and very bland as a character so newer fans coming in with no knowledge or attachment to the Miguel O’Hara of old are unlikely to warm to him. His defining trait is being someone who cares enough about the suffering of others that he will not actively take part in it, but will also not actively do anything to help like his brother Gabe. This is then set up for his brother to die, cue a less good retread of Peter Parker’s origin story but minus much action of Miggy in costume. On paper the idea of a guy experiencing Peter’s ultimate failure and from this being motivated to OBTAIN super powers is interesting but it’s just not examined all that much in the story. What I’m saying is at a time when there is a sea of Spider-Heroes to read about on the stands this version of Miguel O’Hara is lame, derivative and the execution of his character half-hearted.

Then on the other hand you have the older fans’ perspectives. Obviously old Spidey 2099 fans are unlikely to take to this new version just on principle. But when you realize you lost the old character for THIS guy…oh boy does that sting.

Original recipe Miguel O’Hara was cool because he zigged where Peter zagged. He was kind of an asshole, but one with limits on how little he cared. And he became more heroic over time, but never the same type of hero as Peter. And above all he was a sarcastic, sardonic, cynic who you could tell was thinking ‘I can’t even with this Spider-Shit right now’. Case in point, he was okay with straight up killing opponents. He was more unique and much more compelling than this version, as were his cast. Lyla is basically the Aunt May of this story and not the source of humour that she was even in the first 3 issues of the 1990s run. She also lacks her iconic Monroe look, and isn’t even consistent with how she looked in ASM v5 #35.

Losing a cool character for a lame one would be bad enough but then the story straight up invalidates both itself and the entire goddam event.

It does this by having the rebooted Miggy start to see visions of the pre-rebooted (prebooted?) 2099 timeline, meet an aged version of his prebooted self and then have even more flashes of the prebooted timeline. *

Wow…Just….Wow…

Let’s pretend that the vision of 2099 in this event was a temporary thing, an Age of Apocalypse or a House of M just for 2099 and the plan was always to go back to how it was before when the story wrapped up.

That makes this entire event pointless. See the reason AoA worked (and HoM in theory could have worked) is because it was a temporary change of pace.

That doesn’t apply to the 2099 line, a nostalgic, discontinued line of comics and characters that are unlikely to get a full on revival and who’s last attempt at a revival wrapped up over 2 years ago.

THIS event should’ve been a nostalgia trip for the old fans and a chance to introduce that line to a new generation. Instead it discarded the old in favour of something new which was seemingly intended to go nowhere.

Good job Marvel, any new fans you MIGHT have gotten hooked just got fucked over and people like me who pre-ordered this event thinking we were going to get the characters we knew and loved also got fucked over.

And in fact the entire exercise was an example of intentional redundancy.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Oh and it doesn’t make a lick of sense.

So Miguel was thrown back in time when his timeline was starting to be erased and replaced with the rebooted timeline, then he was erased in ASM v5 #34, which began this new rebooted timeline…but he is alive in it, remembers it, can give his past self visions from the old timeline...

…I’m a Doctor Who fan and that’s not any kind of wibbly wobbley timey whimey nonsense. It’s just regular ass nonsense, just like the Man-Spider monster Miguel encounters who repeats ouroboros to him, the same word ReedDoom said in the Doom 2099 issue. How and why would the Man-Spider creature say that to Miguel. How would prebooted Miguel know it said that? How and why would rebooted Miguel see Spidey 2099 in costume spray painting that?

Shit what the fuck does ouroboros even mean?????????

*one google search later*

A snake eating its tail as a symbol of endless infinity…what the fuck does that mean?

That Miguel makes himself Spider-Man 2099 always?

There was a cool idea in the Omega issue wherein we learn Doom essentially erased everyone’s memories with magic so they’d forget the Age of Heroes altogether, but the rise of the characters in the one shots represented that spell breaking down. Too bad it doesn’t add up given how Venom was always going to exist and existed SINCE the Age of Heroes and people obviously remember Thor as there is an entire tribe dedicated to him!**

However the Omega issue’s biggest sin is showing us how truly pointless most of the issues of this event were. Honest to God you only need to read Doom scenes from Alpha and then Spidey 2099 and Omega. Those are the only plot relevant issues out of this whole event.

Over all, these issues and this event have been a humungous, insulting disappointment. Check out some of the art but literally nothing else sans the Punisher.

*I mean if you want to get technical the 2099 universe has technically been rebooted multiple times. The version of it presented from 2013-2017 actually differed from the original 1990s version in various ways, e.g. Miguel’s love life panned out very differently. When I refer to the pre-rebooted/prebooted timeline I’m referring to the version from 2013-2017, just to be clear.

**There are other contradictions in these 2 issues as well, like how poverty and bad health have been erased but…we see they haven’t as there are multiple examples of both in the one shots.

#2099 #Marvel 2099 #Spider-Man #Spider-Man 2099 #Miguel O'Hara #Doctor Doom 2099 #Doom 2099 #Doctor Doom #Victor Von Doom #Peter Parker

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megacircuit9universe · 4 years

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25 45 Hutt!

THU OCT 08 2020

13 members of a right wing militia group in Michigan were rounded up and indicted today for a plot to kidnap their Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. The plan, apparently was to kidnap her, put her on trial for treason, and then execute her.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi announced today that Congress will create a commission to invstigate and discuss the rules for removing Trump under the 25th ammendment... citing his apparent, “dissociation from reality,” over the past week.

And news broke that Pence, has cancelled campaign engagements for the near future to return to Washington DC.

So, what it’s looking like tonight, is... Trump’s about to be forcibly sidelined.

But how can it be? Pelosi doesn’t have that kind of power!

To take Trump off the field using 25A, she’d need the cooperation of both the white house cabinet and the senate! And that’s never gonna...

...Oh, wait!.. didn’t Mitch McConnel pop up in the news today saying he hasn’t been to the White House since August 6th, because he didn’t agree with the way they were blowing off the risk of Covid?

...Oh, wait!.. didn’t we hear today that the number of White House staff who’ve tested positive for Covid is now up to 34?.. and that the White House is nearly empty, with those essential staffers left, being required to wear plastic gowns, and face shields, in addition to masks and gloves?

Maybe Nancy Pelosi DOES have the cooperation of the White House cabinet, and the Senate!

Let’s do a thought experiment here; Imagine your uncle tests positive for Covid and goes to the hospital for it. Okay? Now imagine this same uncle not only elopes from the hospital two days later, but shows up that night in your house, because he knew you had a spare key under the welcome matt... and now he’s in the kitchen, defiantly removing his mask, and telling you how he feels like a million bucks, and he’s gonna be staying in the spare bedroom for the next couple weeks.

For real here... imagine it! How terrified would you be, that he’s giving you Covid right now, in your kitchen? And how angry? You’ve been quarantining here for months. This is your sacred cold zone... the one place you know you’re safe from the virus, because you’ve taken every precaution to keep it safe.

This uncle was always a jerk, but you tolerated him, because he’s family, but now?.. how long will you hesitate to call 911 and have paremedics... accompanied by cops if necessary... haul his ass the hell out of your house, and back to the hospital?

You hesitate. You think maybe if you can get him to quarantine in the spare bedroom, and if you just double down on the PPE, maybe it will be okay.

But the next morning he’s walking all around the house in his bath robe, and he’s jacked up on coke... invading everybody’s personal space, spouting manic nonsense about how your neighbor should be arrested because he’s spying on him, and he’s a perfect specimen who is still 25, and by the way... he has a gun.

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna shoot anybody, but I like to have a gun with me, because you know...

You go to the clinic with your kids to get tested, and both your kids are now positive. You come home, and your uncle is shout-rambling to himself, “GRITS AND BACON! VOTE! JEWS AND TOP HATS! VOTE!..” while staring out the window at your neighbor, gun in hand.

Are you going to get back in the car... drive around to the other side of the block, and call 911 now?

I feel like you probably are.

And this is pretty much the situation for everybody in the White House tonight, from the lowliest staffer, up to the cabinet appointees... interim as most of them now happen to be.

Crazy Uncle Donald was flown out last Friday with Covid to the hospital, where surely he would spend two weeks under the finest care... and be out of your hair until he was over it, and no longer contageous...

But SURPRISE!.. he came back two days later, ripping off his mask, declaring himself cured, and rambling like 2011 Charlie Sheen in the peak of his Tiger Blood breakdown*

He’s infecting everybody and calling for Bill Barr to arrest both Biden and Obama, for spygate, saying that Barr could be remembered as the greatest Attorney General ever... or... or... it could end very sadly for him.

And he’s got the nuclear launch codes!

Tell me... somebody did not call Nancy Pelosi directly on a hotline today, crying out for help with 25A!

We need to do 25A right now but we don’t know HOW! WE’RE ALL JUST INTERIM APPOINTEES WHO DONATED MONEY TO HIS CAMPAIGN BUT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE LAW, PLEASE HELP US, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU IMPEACHED HIM!

Meanwhile... over at the Pentagon... the Chiefs of Staff are starting to test positive, and manic Trump just tweeted today that he’s gonna have all the troops out of Afghanistan by Christmas!.. something the Taliban was celibrating online today.

So you know both Pelosi and McConnel got an earful about that from more than one livid five star general.

The FBI crackdown on the Michigan militia conspiracy, going public today, was also probably not a coincidence, and would have to have been okayed by Barr, who was in attendance for the Coney Barret ceremony and... if he didn’t get Covid there... only narrowly escaped it by the grace of God, and he knows it.

McConnel was smart enough to keep his distance... and while he must be mortally torn between his mission from God to pack the Supreme Court with hard right conservative judges... and his own self preservation...

...self preservation may be winning out in this moment... when Covid is landing very close to home, and... in his home state of Kentucky, a full blown KKK rally happened today, in support of Trump... threatening to end his career in the Senate.

For McConnel the calculus is incredibly complex right now, because if Pence takes the reigns, he loses that tie breaking vote for Coney Barret’s confirmation, even as he loses two other GOP Senator votes to mandated quarantine because they’ve tested positive.

Is there enough time in the lame duck session to confirm CB? Maybe! Maybe even if they all lose the election, there will be time for Trump to recover, and Pence to return as the tie breaker, and the other Senators to come back with a clean bill of health.

Maybe maybe maybe!

But also, maybe preventing a nuclear war in the next two weeks is also prudent.

Lastly... in this analysis of the emerging situation...

...Pelosi does not bluff. I wrote all about this a year ago, when the impeachment hearings were going on. Pelosi does not gamble.

She would not have teased publicly a commission into 25A unless she knew it was not only warranted by the circumstances, but also had the necessary support from all parties involved, to result in swift, decisive action.

She only went ahead with impeachment last year, because she knew there was an iron clad case, and that it would pass the House. And she did it fast!

No, in that case the Senate did not remove Trump... and she had no control over that aspect of the process... but she nonetheless impeached him, and forced the Senate to hear the case for removal... putting the burden on their shoulders to either do the right thing, or not... in a vote that is NOW coming back to haunt them HARDCORE!

Tell me that doesn’t make it easier, a year later, to get the same Senate to play ball on a measure to temporarily suspend the President... who’s tested positive for a deadly virus with no cure, and is contageous, and being given mood and mind altering drugs to fight it... resulting in a state of delerium that threatens himself, the government, the nation, and the world.

Nobody loves Mike Pence, but... if he were in charge until after the election... maybe a civil war might not break out in November, and maybe we’d wind up with a semi-peaceful transition of power in January?

Maybe?

And I thought I’d be able to take the night off, eh?

Not in October of 2020!

Go to bed, and I’ll write again soon.

*In a January 2017 article in NME (New Music Entertainment) Charlie Sheen blamed his Tiger Blood breakdown from 2011 on accidental roid rage. He’d been using a topical steroidal cream to keep up his libido, and wasn’t aware of the possible side effects.

In Sheen’s case, steroids cost him his leading role on Two and a Half Men... an insanely popular show at the time.

He was later diagnosed with AIDS, which lead him to become temporarily suicidal, until he learned that AIDS is now survivable with modern drugs, and... he’s still alive today, if living under the radar.

This lends all the credibility to the idea that perscription steroids (much stronger steroids than anything Sheen was taking) have driven Trump into a psychotic split with reality.

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takaraphoenix · 7 years

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My Relationship with Teen Wolf

“It’s complicated” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I discovered the show when it was roughly a three months wait until season 3 would start.

I binge-watched all there was - the first two seasons. And then I, right away, watched it again because it was that good. And then I literally watched it for a third time in a row.

I just completely fell in love with it. Sterek fast became my OTP, I loved the fandom because it was a warm, beautiful place filled with the most amazing headcanons.

I even liked the canon straight couples. Jackson and Lydia were just so beautifully perfect. And Scott and Allison were probably the best example of “soulmates” - because literally nothing else would ever justify the shit they went through for each other.

Even the smaller roles like Danny and the Sheriff and the Coach were just so cool.

I loved it. I loved everything about it. And I was so ready for season 3.

I mean, Derek had Boyd, Erica and Isaac now. Jackson was now finally a wolf and could join the pack. The pack was growning.

Everything went downhill starting with season 3. Now, season 3 in itself wasn’t bad, but it was definitely the start of “bad”.

Writing Jackson, Erica and Boyd out just like that was displeasing at first - it became a bigger issue the more the show went on.

What is the key-element of why season 3 started to be bad however is the True Alpha crap they came up with.

Part of what I enjoyed about the show was the fact that Scott was just this average teen wolf, a little bumbling and awkward but with a good heart. He didn’t have to be the leader. I expect an Alpha to be a leader, a fatherly figure, someone older. Not an awkward newbie wolf who literally learned how to control his wolfiness from a human boy.

That they had to force not just “Scott is main character. Scott needs to be Alpha”, but also “Oh shit, we made it so you gotta kill to become Alpha but Scott is main character, so Scott can’t kill. Hurry up, writers, invent a creative way for him to still become Alpha”.

It’s a load of horse-crap is what it is.

The show would have worked so much better if they had cut that crap. Kept Derek around - as the Alpha - and allowed Scott to slowly learn what it even means to be a werewolf and to then, through character development, become Derek’s second-in-command.

Now. They wrote all those characters out of the show, but they started establishing the twins as potential new pack-mates. And okay. They slowly started to become... interesting characters, the more we learned about them.

And then they were written out of the show too. And that was when it became a real problem with this show.

They want a pack. But they keep writing any character who has the potential of becoming pack out ASAP.

The whole... Isaac/Allison romance, I am still wondering where they pulled that from. Like? She literally tried to kill you an literally all your friends before and she’s basically the big love of your new Alpha? What is wrong with you, Isaac? Do you need therapy? Oh, right, you do. Yeah.

Setting it up that Danny knew all along what was going on just to write him out too.

Killing off Allison. Writing Isaac out of the show.

Basically. We had the “Alpha”, his human best friend, a banshee, a kitsune and a coyote. In a fucking show called Teen Wolf. I mean. Yeah, they kept true to the name and stuck with only ONE Teen Wolf. Because who wants to see an actual pack in a show about werewolves? Oh. Right. Everyone.

Season 4 was just bad. It was lame, it was weird and it had zero pay-off when Peter was suddenly the bad guy again. I had been a hundred percent sure that Gerard was behind this and that this was the reason they kept him alive.

Gerard, other reason for why it became bad. How did no one make sure to kill him? And then, when it’s revealed that he’s alive and basically dying slowly which is cruel, no one finishes him off either. You can not argue the “The good guys don’t kill” thing because keeping him alive while he is slowly dying from the black goo is so much worse than just a mercy-kill. And if you’re setting your good guys up to be cruel assholes who torture their enemies like that... you don’t get to play the “He has True Alpha potential because he’s such a goodie-two-shoes�� card. And I am terrified to see what he does in season 6.

Kira was a cool addition, mainly. She... didn’t really get much personality development beyond the point of Scott’s New Love-Interest, but the mere concept of her was cool.

I dislike Malia and will always hate how they shoehorned her in. “Hey, look! Another living Hale! And it’s Peter’s daughter! Wow!”. That she spent basically a decade in the forest as a wild animal but they just pretend that it’s possible to re-introduce her not just into society but high school - whereas she is completely lacking all middle school and half of elementary school education, honestly, can she even read and write? Because she shouldn’t be able to. Even if she learned that ten years ago, she’d have forgotten simply by growing up as a wild animal in the forest. Granted, her behavior is at the very least well-written and animalistic, but that just makes me question the weirdness of Stiles going “Oh, she’s basically a wild animal. Let’s start dating”. Right. Away. If they had taken the time to, you know, re-introduce her to society properly and learn things and her and Stiles falling for each other along the way, okay sure. But this “We just met. Let’s have sex in the basement of the asylum” thing was so weird and so forced.

Season 5 might just be one of the - if not THE - worst thing I’ve ever witnessed on television. If something has that crappy level of quality, I normally turn it off and stop watching.

But the masochistic part of me kept whispering how much I loved season 1 and 2 and that 3 wasn’t so bad and, sure, since season 3 it’s been declining, but they did so well in the first two seasons, maybe they’ll turn it around again.

They did not turn it around.

Season 5 was just... really, really, really awful.

The over-loaded plotlines that kept getting entangled.

The fucking awful new characters. Like. Liam was always and will always be only Scott 2.0, a very, very cheap rip-off of their own main character - and who even does that? But in season 5, he was just awful. That he threw his temper-tantrums and turned his back on Scott and was just generally a pain in the ass.

Allison 2.0 was even worse though. I legit do not bother remembering the name of Liam’s girlfriend, because she is so flat and... unlikeable. Her only reason for being in this was to create the tension between Scott and Liam.

And Liam’s best friend made them feel like “Oh boy, we cut out the jock and his lovable gay best friend. Let’s replace Jackson and Danny with those two!”. Honestly, they really gave up trying to come up with individual, interesting characters.

And casting showed that too. At least Liam’s best friend is black. But literally everyone else they cast after season 3 was two things - white and brunette. This show started out with such an individual, diverse cast - black male Boyd, blonde female Erica, blonde male Isaac, redheaded female Lydia, polynesian male Danny. And now they basically just cast dark-haired whites and the guys even all look the same. This Theo-guy and that... other... wolf... guy... thing... I honestly don’t remember but the guy who had something with Liam’s best friend, they basically looked the same to me.

The decline in character development and design, as well as the decline in story-telling was only topped off by the dreadfulness.

This show used to be bright. And funny.

As in: It took place during the day too. There used to be colors. In season 5, in many episodes, I could barely tell what was going on because it mainly took place during the night and in total darkness.

And I didn’t laugh once in season 5. Absolutely nothing was funny. It didn’t help that comic relief guy Stiles got kicked in the balls by the writers when they decided they also needed tension between Scott and Stiles.

No, fuck you, you don’t.

The friendship between Scott and Stiles has been the backbone of this show since the very first scene of the first episode. And now you decide that Scott should be stupid, shallow and trustful enough to trust Theo instead of Stiles? Really? That... That’s so OoC. Those are your characters, don’t write them OoC.

The fact that Derek and Peter too became characters who just... disappeared for long periods of time was just ridiculous too. It’s like this show is deliberately trying to sabotage itself and to remove good characters.

Lydia, Stiles and Scott are essentially the only characters left from the... bigger ones. Derek, Peter, Isaac, Boyd, Erica, Jackson, Allison, Aiden, Ethan, Kira, Danny.

Instead we get to keep Malia around who, sure, ist still the best of those new additions. Liam. Liam’s girlfriend. Liam’s best friend. Fucking Theo gets to stay?

And Parrish, who... honestly just gives me the creeps because the dude is old enough to have been to war and to now work at a police station as a deputy, which I really hope for the sake of the safety of the people does require some years of training before you get handed a gun and a badge too, but thinks it’s in any way or shape appropriate to date a high school student? Like, sure, it may be legal but that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Especially not if you’re a police deputy. And I don’t care if that sounds like a hypocrite thing to say because I ship Sterek and that might be the same age-difference. I ship Sterek in fanfiction and fanarts. If fans go ahead and ship Lydia and Parrish sure, cool. Everything goes in the fandom. Not everything should go in canon, because there should be some kind of... moral... behind decisions made. Do not romantize adults dating teens.

So. Yeah.

If they hadn’t announced that season 6 is the final season, I would have turned my back after how bad season 5 was. But... cue in the voice in my head that’s still whispering how much I loved season 1 and 2. And this is the grand finale. It’ll be over after this. Just 20 more episodes, I can watch that. And then it’ll be finally over and they can’t ruin it any more.

The grand finale airs in four days. So I’ll be rewatching the first five seasons now and then I will start watching the final season. I’m terrified of it.

And am I the only one who felt like many decisions made were just made to snuff out Sterek? I mean. Stiles who didn’t have any romantic plotline before, all of a sudden having sex with basically a random stranger in a basement and Derek literally fucking the enemy while he’s half-bleeding to death, but let’s just hurry up and make sure they have female love interests...?

#Teen Wolf #Time to rewatch #Please be good #I beg you #Sterek #I really miss my Sterek #TV Rants #Fandom Rants #Phoe Rewatching Teen Wolf #part 1

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danrdarrenc · 7 years

Text

From the Ashes

anonymous asked: WilSon fic where Will is alive, and knows how everyone reacted when he died. Will sees Paul/Sonny in a relationship, gets confirmation that he was right, leading him to feeling even more insecure. He shuts himself off from everyone, and either moves in the dimera mansion with Chad, or own apartment, and will only see Ari. It will end with Sonny and Will talking and Sonny confirming that he came back to Salem for him, and they get back together. Will/Sonny/Paul are all on good terms.

A lot had changed in the two years that he had been dead. His cousin Abby had faked her death; Hope had murdered Stefano, only for them to find him alive in Prague; his uncle Eric had drunkenly killed Daniel Jonas in a car accident and gone to prison and been subsequently pardoned and released; his father Lucas and his mother-in-law Adrienne were engaged (that was the shock of a lifetime); and that was only a few of the crazy things that had happened while he was gone.

Most importantly, though, Sonny had returned to Salem from Paris, a year after he had walked out on Will and their marriage. Sonny was now CEO of Titan Industries also dating Paul.

Will was sitting on the couch in Horton Town Square reading a book, a week after his somewhat shocking and unexpected return to the living and to Salem. He hadn’t seen Sonny yet, didn’t even know if Sonny had been aware of Sami and Lucas’s plot to bring him back to life; if he was being honest with himself, he was a little terrified to see Sonny again. He’d been warned by Lucas that Sonny and Paul were together, but it didn’t really register with him until he glimpsed them walking into the Square hand-in-hand.

Will swallowed thickly at the confirmation. Heart thumping painfully in his chest, all Will could do was stare. From what he had gathered from Lucas and Adrienne, Sonny and Paul had started dating around New Year’s, ten months ago. That would have been not even a year and half since his own death. He didn’t begrudge Sonny moving on and loving again - he thought he was dead, after all - but seeing Sonny with Paul so openly left him feeling justified in his actions those last few months. Will knew Sonny had always harbored a burning torch for Paul and he had refused to be with him out of an obligation to Will and Ari; all it took was an appropriate amount of time of grieving before he felt comfortable giving in to those feelings.

A loud shout of “Sonny!” pulled Will from his thoughts. It had come from Paul who had caught Sonny before he collapsed to the ground. Sonny had spotted him sitting on the couch and nearly fainted.

Taking a deep breath, Will made his way across the Square to where Sonny and Paul were standing.

“Will?” Sonny croaked.

“Uh, yeah. I guess your mom didn’t warn you. Can we go somewhere to talk?”

“I’m gonna go,” Paul said.

“No,” Will said firmly. “It’s okay. You can come too. Better to explain it all once anyway.”

“I have a room at the Martin House,” Paul offered. “We won’t be interrupted.”

Will nodded, and followed Sonny and Paul to the B&B.

When they were all settled in Paul’s room, Sonny with a bottle of water to calm his still shaking hands, Will filled them in.

“So from what I know about what went on, my parents were tired of having a dead son. So they heard about this doctor in Tennessee who could bring people back to life. When they tracked him down, it turned out he was Dr. Rolf, who used to work for Stefano and had done some crap to John and Grandpa Roman and stuff. Anyway, they were there and they asked him if they could resurrect me. And he did,” Will finished rather lamely. “I don’t really have much more to say about it. That’s the story I got.” Will shrugged.

No spoke for a minute or two. Then Paul said, “So you’re here now.”

Will nodded.

“And you remember everything?”

Will eyes drifted to Sonny, who still hadn’t said anything, “Yeah. I remember everything. I don’t appear to have any lasting effects from having been dead for two years.” He chuckled. “I’ve just got a lot of town gossip to catch up on.”

Paul’s lips twitched up into a tiny smile just as his phone buzzed. “Damn. It’s Steve. I have to go. Will you be alright, Sonny?” Sonny nodded, his eyes wide. “Don’t be a stranger, Will.” He grabbed his jacket off the bed and left Will and Sonny alone.

With Paul gone, the air in the room became stifling. After a beat, Will said quietly, “Are you okay, Sonny? You haven’t said anything.”

“You’re alive.”

“And you’re with Paul. So I was right.”

“What?”

Will sighed and ran his hand over his face. “About you being with me only because Paul had said no to you. I’m sorry you felt like our marriage was an obligation you couldn’t get out of. You should have just told me you wanted to be with Paul. It would have made things a lot easier.”

Without giving Sonny a chance to respond, Will left.

Chad (and Gabi, who was apparently still living with Chad even after Abby and Dario’s plot with regards to her blew up in his face) had graciously allowed him to crash at the Mansion. He’d been away from Arianna Grace for so long, that he could barely stand to leave when she was there.

Following his encounter with Sonny and Paul, Will holed himself up in the DiMera Mansion, seeing no one but Lucas and Marlena (and Kate who was also living in the Mansion as Mrs. Andre DiMera). Adjusting to life back in Salem had not been as difficult as he had imagined. The town was essentially the same as when he had died. What he was struggling with was his feelings about Sonny.

He had died still in love with Sonny and with a stupid fantasy that maybe Sonny would come back to him one day. But he had known even then that that he’d been foolish to believe Sonny wanted to be with him when he could be with Paul. Sonny and Paul’s current relationship was proof of that. In all honesty, he didn’t think he’d ever be good enough for anyone’s love. He had Sami to thank for that.

Sonny had moved on, and now it was his turn to do the same. He would try to find someone who was maybe just as messed up as he was. Maybe then he could have a lasting relationship.

About a month after the talk at the Martin House, Will was sitting in the DiMera’s garden enjoying the last remnants of fall before it turned into winter when Harold announced that Sonny was at the front door.

“He’s looking for me?” Will asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Blinking, confused, Will followed Harold into the house. “Sonny?”

“Hi. Can we talk?” Sonny asked.

“Okay.” Will led him into the living room and sat stiffly on the blue couch.

“I haven’t seen you around,” Sonny said.

“Yeah. I’ve kind of holed up here with Ari.”

“Are you really okay? You’re not like a zombie or a vampire or something?”

Will actually laughed. “No. I’m fine. I still have some nightmares sometimes,” Will admitted. “But other than that, I’m okay.”

“I’m sorry, Will.”

“For what?”

“For everything in those last few months. I was pretty terrible to you.”

Caught off guard, Will said, “I deserved it.”

“No. No, you didn’t. I could have handled it better.”

“But you couldn’t deal with your feelings for Paul, I get it, Sonny. You never really loved me.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” Sonny shook his head a little as he spoke.

“Because it’s true.”

Sonny frowned. “I was destroyed when you died. I cried non-stop for a week. I was literally about to make a flight back to Salem when Uncle Vic called me to tell me what happened.”

“You were coming back?” Will asked, shocked.

Sonny took a deep breath and sighed. He looked away when he said, “I was coming home to tell you I loved you.”

Will’s heart jumped into his throat.

“I buried a piece of my soul when I buried you,” Sonny said shakily, turning his gaze back on Will. “You funeral was the worst day of my life. So don’t you dare tell me I never loved you.”

“But you’re with Paul now,” Will said slowly.

“I know.”

“And you love him.”

“I know.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“I don’t know.”

Will lay awake for a long time after Sonny’s visit and confession. In fact, he didn’t get much sleep at all over the next couple of weeks. His mind was plagued with thoughts of Sonny and the last eight months of their marriage, and the what ifs: if he had not been in Ben and Abby’s apartment that day; if he had left a half hour or ten minutes earlier; if Sonny had caught an earlier flight back to Salem.

Could they have fixed their marriage? Would Sonny have been better able to deal with his feelings for Paul? Would he himself have been better able to deal with his insecurities? Or would Sonny have continued to drift towards Paul? Would Sonny have ended up sleeping with Paul too?

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, and Will and Sonny had not broached the subject of their relationship again since that day in the DiMera Mansion. Will no longer secluded himself in the Mansion, however, and the three of them had bumped into each other around town, sometimes Sonny and Paul together, sometimes individually. They were always civil to each other but they never passed beyond pleasantries; if Paul knew about the conversation between Sonny and Will, he gave no indication.

On Christmas Eve, Will intentionally sought out Sonny for the first time since being back. He found him at the Kiriakis Mansion.

Shaking away memories of their wedding, Will announced himself. “Hey.”

“Will! Hi.” Sonny smiled at him. “What brings you here?”

“I was wondering if you had plans for tomorrow.”

“I think we might be having dinner here but that’s it. Why?”

“I thought you might like to come to the Horton tree trimming. See Ari put her ornament on the tree. And maybe hang yours,” Will added tentatively.

“Oh. I, uh, yeah, I’d like that.”

Will frowned for a second at Sonny seeming to be flustered but said, “You can bring Paul. Aunt Jen said it’s okay.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He left.

Christmas at the Horton House was the same as it had been for as long as Will could remember participating. Aunt Jen had made Gran’s famous cookies and doughnuts and Abigail had made eggnog. There were a few new additions since the last time Will had been there: Thomas, of course; Eli Grant, Julie’s grandson; Valerie, his mother and Abe’s girlfriend; Gabi had brought Chad, who was also there as Thomas’ father; Lani Carver, JJ’s girlfriend and Abe’s daughter; and John and Marlena had been invited to be with Paul, Will, and Eric who was dating Jennifer.

It was a little bittersweet hanging his ornament next to Sonny’s when they weren’t together anymore, but he nearly cried when Arianna Grace tenderly placed her ornament on a low-hanging branch. She’d grown up so much in the two years he’d been dead, and he wondered if this was how Lucas had felt when he’d first found out he was his son. He’d have to remember to ask how Lucas has coped with knowing he’d missed out on two years of his child’s life through no fault of his own.

Throughout the day, Will caught glimpses of Sonny and Paul talking quietly with each other and generally seeming to really be in love. His heart ached, but the ache was softened by the knowledge that even though Sonny had loved him, he had always loved Paul more. In a way, it made it easier for him to try to stop loving Sonny.

Towards the end of the evening, Will found himself alone with Paul in the kitchen cleaning up. Will’s eyes searched Paul; he looked the same as before, if maybe a bit more confident in himself. It was that confidence that Will had found so attractive so long ago in that hotel room. Will felt its pull even now.

“Thank you for taking care of Sonny,” Will said, as he dumped dishes into the sink.

“What?” Paul paused in his cleaning of the dishes in the sink to look at Will.

“While I was...away. Thank you for taking care of him.”

“I love him.”

Will knew it wasn’t meant to hurt him - he didn’t think Paul had a mean bone is his body - but it stung anyway. “I know. He deserves someone like you to love him.”

Paul blinked at him and his brow furrowed. “Will?”

Will looked away, blinked away tears that were suddenly burning his eyes. “I knew I was never good enough for Sonny. I almost - I did - chicken out of our first date because of it. We wouldn’t have gotten together if Sonny hadn’t tracked me down and insisted.”

“I didn’t know that,” Paul said quietly. Then, “He can be very persuasive,” Paul said with a grin.

Will smiled at that. “Yeah. He can be when he wants.”

“Anyway, I wanted to apologize for the way I behaved to you after...” Will trailed off, the implication clear. “None of it was your fault. Of all of us, you were the innocent party.”

“I maybe could have backed off Sonny a bit,” Paul conceded. After a beat, Paul said, “He really loved you, Will. I saw him when he came back for your funeral. It really cut him up.”

“Thanks,” Will said. He leaned his back against the cabinets as Paul finished cleaning the last of the dishes. “Promise me you won’t screw it up like I did? You got a second chance. I know from experience how rare that is.”

Paul dried his hands on a dishtowel before answering. “I promise.”

Will nodded. “I should get back to Ari. It’s getting late. See you around?”

“Yeah.”

Will gave Paul another little awkward nod of his head and went off to find his daughter.

January and February passed uneventfully for Will. He remained living in the DiMera Mansion, mostly because he wanted to be where Arianna was and because he didn’t have enough of his own money yet to get his own place. Lucas had graciously offered him the second bedroom in his apartment but he felt less like an intruder in the Mansion than with Lucas and Adrienne who were preparing for their Valentine’s Day wedding.

Chad had offered Will a spot on the Sonixx staff but Will declined, having gotten into so much trouble there the first time. Instead, he asked Jennifer and Adrienne if there was a spot for him at the Spectator. He didn’t want any favors, but they wouldn’t hear of his concerns and promptly made him a section editor. (The staff was running low anyway).

Grateful, and feeling like a real reporter, Will buried himself in his work. He spent time catching up with Gabi, Chad, and Abby (separately, of course), when he wasn’t working or playing with Ari, and he even volunteered for Eric at the Horton Center on the weekends sometimes. Overall, he was adjusting quite nicely to life back in Salem. It almost felt like he had never left.

Once a week, Sonny had dinner at the Mansion with him, Gabi, Chad, Thomas, and Arianna. It was strange in the beginning, their attempts to fall back into the tri-parenting routine they had had so briefly before Gabi had gone to prison. It was like riding a bicycle, though, and Gabi seemed grateful that she now had another built-in babysitter. Will never passed up an opportunity to take Ari off of Gabi’s hands. Sometimes Sonny even joined them, and Paul.

It crossed his mind occasionally that maybe he should hit The Spot, have some fun with people outside his family, but the idea of picking up guys still didn’t feel right. His love for Sonny still burned in him, and after the fiasco with Paul, it would feel too much like infidelity.

The day before their parents’ wedding, Sonny caught Will leaving the Spectator office.

“What’s up?” Will asked, falling into step beside Sonny as they headed to the Square.

“All ready for the wedding?”

“I still can’t believe we’re going to be stepbrothers,” Will chuckled. “My parents were stepsiblings for like a split second when Grandma Kate and Grandpa Roman married. They never talked about it.”

Sonny grinned. “Are you...are you bringing anyone?” Sonny fished.

Will looked at him curiously. “Does Arianna count?”

Sonny smiled wider. “No!” Sonny laughed.

“Why? You’re going with Paul, right?”

Sonny’s smile faded slightly. “He’s actually away on a mission with John. Steve came back for the wedding, but Paul stayed.”

Will stopped walking and grabbed Sonny’s arm. “Is everything okay between you guys?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Why would you ask that?” Sonny asked, not looking at Will.

“I don’t know,” Will said, as they started walking again. “He hasn’t been with you the last couple times you visited with Ari and now he’s missing your mom’s wedding.”

“Life with a private detective.” Sonny smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes.

Will let the subject drop.

Lucas and Adrienne’s wedding went off better than the last one had. Justin did not interrupt and Adrienne didn’t faint. Surprisingly, Kate made no effort to derail the ceremony, and she was uncharacteristically calm at the reception.

The ceremony was a small affair at Chez Rouge, Maggie having gone full out for her nephew. The place looked incredible and the food was delicious.

“Dance with me?” Sonny asked, holding his hand out to Will as a slow dance started to play.

It was getting late and Gabi and Chad had already taken Arianna and Thomas home.

Will blinked up at his former husband. “Okay.”

Will followed Sonny onto the dance floor. Heart thumping wildly in his chest, Will wrapped his arms around Sonny’s neck while Sonny gripped him tight around the waist. It was an old pose between them, borne out of lazy nights in their apartment, music tinkling softly out of the radio, Ari asleep in the other room. Will swallowed his heart and didn’t dare pull his arms any tighter for fear of getting to close to Sonny.

They swayed silently to the music for a minute or two. Then Sonny said, “How’s work at the paper?”

“It’s been great. I’m not destroying any lives so I’m already off to a good start.”

Sonny grinned. “Are you...are you seeing anyone?”

Will cocked his head in curiosity. “That’s the second time you’ve asked me that in twenty-four hours. Are you sure everything is okay between you and Paul?”

Sonny didn’t answer right away. The song changed over to a slightly faster one, but Will and Sonny remained swaying where they stood. Eventually, Sonny answered, “We’ve just been fighting a lot recently. That’s all. Nothing major.”

Will searched Sonny’s eyes. He knew Sonny still wasn’t being completely honest with him. “You know you can talk to me, right? I mean, we used to be best friends. Talk about anything. We’re still those people, Sonny. At least I hope we are.”

This time, Sonny didn’t respond at all. Instead, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against Will’s. It was an echo of the kiss Sonny had given him all those years ago in the alcove off Horton Town Square, the kiss that had sent him spiraling into Gabi’s bed.

“I can’t,” Will whispered, breaking the kiss but leaning his forehead against Sonny’s. “We broke because I cheated on you. I won’t do that to you and Paul too.”

Will dropped his arms from Sonny’s neck and pulled away completely. “You need to figure what - who - you want. You have for awhile now, I think you know that. And if it’s me you still want, you know where to find me.”

Will bowed his head, as he always did when it was too difficult to look at Sonny, sighed, and walked away.

Will didn’t see much of Sonny following their parents’ wedding; they hardly ever bumped into each in town anymore. Will had a sneaking suspicion that, apart from their weekly dinners with Ari, Sonny was avoiding him.

Will ran into Paul at John and Marlena’s loft around the middle of March. Will arrived to visit Marlena, as Paul was getting ready to leave with John to go to the Black Patch office.

“Oh, hey,” Will greeted when Paul opened the door.

“Will, hi.” Will didn’t miss the way Paul’s smile faltered for a second. “You here to see Marlena?”

“Yeah. Is she here?”

Paul nodded and stepped out of the doorway to let Will into the apartment.

“Everything go okay with your mission?” Will asked.

“What?”

“Sonny had said you were on a mission with John. That’s why you weren’t at the wedding.”

“Oh, yeah. Everything went great.” Paul smiled but Will could tell it wasn’t sincere.

Will’s brow furrowed. “Everything okay? You don’t seem like yourself.” It was so unlike Paul to be anything other than sincere and chipper. In all of the time that Will had known him - before, in the hotel room, in the time since he’d been back - Paul had always been kind and true.

Paul blinked at him and frowned. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this but Sonny still loves you and wants to be with you. I don’t think he realizes it yet.”

Will’s lips twitched into a tiny smile. “That’s a thing he does. He loves someone he won’t admit to loving and pretends he doesn’t realize it yet.”

Paul smiled sadly. “He’s been pulling away from me. It’s why we’ve been fighting so much. He won’t talk to me.”

Will smiled wryly. “How did we end up here? With me and you reversed?”

“You died,” Paul said, and they both laughed.

Before either of them could say anything more, John and Marlena emerged from the kitchen. Paul waved goodbye and followed his father out of the loft.

“Will? Is everything okay?” Marlena asked.

“I think it will be.”

As the first week of April dawned bright through the curtains in Will’s new apartment near the DiMera Mansion (he had finally gathered enough money to put a deposit down on a place without help from Lucas), Will did his very best not think about the fact that his and Sonny’s anniversary was in a few days. It was the first anniversary he was spending separated from Sonny.

He occupied himself with extra shifts of work at the Spectator and extra dad duty with Arianna. For the most part, he succeeded in passing the first couple of days without remembering his wedding.

But on the morning of April 3rd, he woke with a heavy weight in his chest and a knot in his stomach. Sighing and running his hand over his face, Will forced himself to get out of bed. It was only 6:30 in the morning. He wasn’t expected at the paper for over an hour, but going in early would take his mind off being without Sonny.

He showered, washed, and dressed quickly, and left his apartment, too anxious to eat. Ten minutes later, he was unlocking the Spectator office.

He’d been focused on an article he was writing for a half and hour when there was a knock on the door. Frowning in confusion - Jennifer and Adrienne were the only ones who came in early and they both had keys - Will cautiously made his way to the front door.

Sonny was standing outside. He smiled and waved when Will approached.

“Sonny?” Will asked, surprised, when he opened the door.

“Can I come in?”

Will hurried to let him inside.

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah.”

The words was barely out of his mouth before Sonny had stepped into his personal space and pulled him into a hard kiss. Will gasped against Sonny’s mouth, instinctively grabbing Sonny’s waist and pulling him closer. Sonny went willingly, his fingers finding their way into Will’s hair.

It was a long time before they broke apart.

“I broke up with Paul,” Sonny said when he’d caught his breath. “I love you.”

“So what does this mean?” Will asked.

Vaguely, he thought his (their) aunt and stepmother (Sonny’s mother) would be arriving at work soon, and they should move out of the doorway to one of the back rooms, but Will couldn’t find it in him to care, not when Sonny was in his arms again after so long.

“I want to be with you.”

“What about everything that happened?” Will searched Sonny’s eyes. “Me cheating on you hasn’t gone away.”

“I reacted badly. I’m sorry. You were right about me not dealing well with my unresolved feelings for Paul.”

“And now? You’ve been in a relationship with him for over a year.”

Sonny pulled away and sat down on the couch that was in front of the window by the door. Will sat down next to him,

“I’ll always love Paul. He was my first love,” Sonny admitted. “And I definitely had to resolve the feelings I left in San Francisco when I left him. But - I loved you so much, Will, that a part of me died when you did, and I changed. I...hardened. Paul noticed. My dad noticed. I think Uncle Vic even noticed. I’d felt the change in me for awhile but I didn’t realize how much different I was until I was sitting in a jail cell waiting to be charged with my uncle’s murder. I guess after your funeral, I didn’t really want to be me anymore, so I turned myself into something completely different. I’ve tried the last few months to get myself back to that place before I lost you, but I haven’t quite managed to get there yet.”

Sonny laced their fingers together where they rested on top of Will’s knee.

“I haven’t been right since I went back to Paris after your funeral. I’ve been carrying around the pain of your death for so long. It’s affected every aspect of my life. I haven’t been fully committed to Paul since we got back together. Paul knows it. He wasn’t surprised when I told him I still love you, that I want to be with you.”

“I know. He told me a few weeks ago he knew.”

Sonny gaped at him and then had the grace to look ashamed.

“Can I ask you something?” Will asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

“What happens now?”

“I don’t think we should get remarried right away,” Sonny said almost immediately. “I think we should date again. Start over. Abby and Chad jumped back into their marriage when she came back and, well, you know how well that worked out.”

“Okay. Good. I was going to say the same thing,” Will said with a soft smile.

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

“No. I wasn’t very hungry this morning.” Will didn’t elaborate as to why.

“Well, it doesn’t look like there’s anything going on here yet. So, you want to head to the Square to get something to eat?”

“Is this our first date?” Will smirked.

“Maybe,” Sonny teased, standing up and holding out his hand for Will.

Will’s lips stretched into a smile, as he slid his hand into Sonny’s. He locked the door behind them and let Sonny lead him away from the office.

“Hey, Will.”

“Yeah?”

“Happy anniversary.”

It was strange to be dating his husband. To be fair, their marriage had been invalidated by his death, but in his heart Sonny would always be his husband. They continued their weekly dinners with Chad, Gabi, Thomas, and Arianna Grace, but in between they found themselves going to movies, going to The Spot, and hanging out on a regular basis.

It was an echo of the last time they were boyfriends, except neither of them had illusions of perfection anymore and neither lost sight of the fact that forever might not be attainable. They also learned to carefully and painstakingly re-build a relationship founded on trust and honesty. They told each other everything, even painful things, even when they knew it would brew into a fight.

The morning after Sonny’s visit to the Spectator Will had asked Marlena for a recommendation for a marriage counselor or couples’ therapist. Things were good between them but Will wanted the number so they could forestall any issues that might blow up into something big.

He also began talking to Marlena regularly, and steering clear of asking Kate for any personal advice. Marlena had been his saving grace during his coming out and Kate had been his downfall in keeping the Paul fiasco from Sonny. Marlena never complained about being Will’s personal therapist; she was simply too overjoyed to have her favorite grandson back to care that he had essentially become her patient.

In deference to Will and their new relationship, Sonny eased off things at Titan. He remained CEO of the conglomerate but he dragged Philip out of hiding to be his second-in-command and he gave Brady the responsibility of handling international affairs. After the shock of being arrested for Deimos’s murder, Sonny had already begun to question his decision to be involved so heavily with the company; the reestablishment of his relationship with Will only solidified the matter.

* * * * * * * *

Falling back into their relationship had been relatively easy, picking up each other’s habits again like riding a bicycle. Despite a desire on both their parts to not rush into things, they found themselves reigniting their sex life rather quickly. A simple touch of the hands lit their skin on fire, or a soft, chaste kiss turned heated hastily. They relearned and reclaimed each other’s bodies, even as they discovered new ways to push each other to their limits, drive them over the edge of pleasure-pain.

Will found himself happy in all aspects of his life: he was alive, he had his daughter with him regularly, he had a good, secure reporting job with a reputable newspaper, and he could freely give his heart to Sonny again.

Sonny, too, found himself happier than he had been in three and half years, if he was being honest. Will was alive, he was succeeding in overseeing Titan Industries, he no longer feared his lingering feelings for Paul, he had his daughter as regularly as Will did, and he could feel himself becoming once again the person he had been before Will had died, before Will had cheated, before Will had left for Los Angeles so long ago.

They were both in good places individually, and it made their relationship easier, less pressured.

Will and Sonny didn’t interact with Paul too much until a month after they started seeing each other again. Rafe and Gabi were hosting Arianna’s fifth birthday party at TBD, and Paul had been invited.

“Are you nervous to see him?” Will asked, fixing Sonny’s tie.

“A little.” A shadow crossed Sonny’s face. “I just...I feel like I should have treated him better.”

Will looked at Sonny curiously.

“With the whole Titan thing. I was pretty wrapped up in Deimos and Titan for most of the time we were together. I was kind of one-track minded.”

Will’s face softened. “He’s always loved you, Sonny. He was probably just glad to have the chance to be with you again.” It didn’t hurt Will to admit it, not the way it would have once.

Before Sonny could respond, Ari pulled their attention away by attacking Will’s legs. Will grinned and picked her up. She was almost getting too old and heavy to be carried, but he still couldn’t quite stop holding his daughter.

Just then, John and Marlena walked into the club, Paul right behind them. Will felt Sonny tense beside him as Paul made a beeline for them.

“Hey,” Paul said. He didn’t seem any worse for wear for the break up with Sonny. In fact, he seemed like his usual chipper self.

“Hi,” Will said.

“Hi,” Sonny said softly.

“How’ve you guys been?” Paul asked.

“How are you?” Sonny asked, deflecting Paul’s question.

Paul’s eyes flickered between Will and Sonny for a brief second. Then he said, “I’m okay. Working a lot with my dad and Steve.” His smile didn’t appear to be anything but sincere.

There was a crash in the kitchen. “Excuse me,” Sonny said and left Will and Paul alone.

They stood in silence for a minute. Will broke first. “How are you really doing, Paul?”

Paul’s smile faltered. “I won’t lie and say I’m not hurting. But if I’m being honest with myself, I knew from the moment Sonny told me he was married that I’d never get him back.”

“But you did.”

Paul huffed out a laugh. “Not really. You were always a cloud hanging over us.”

“I’m sorry,” Will said kindly.

Paul waved him off. “I can’t blame Sonny for falling in love with someone else. It’s my own fault. And I can’t blame you for being the one Sonny fell in love with.”

Will was silent, overwhelmed by Paul’s generosity. He knew he couldn’t have been so kind if the roles were reversed, as much as he had stayed away from Sonny in the time since he had been back.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Will asked, “So what are you going to do now?”

“Work. Maybe coach a little league team this summer. Thought I might hit up The Spot. I think it’s time I tried to move on.”

“Paul...”

Paul cleared his throat to forestall whatever it was Will was going to say. “I, uh, I think I’m going to go find my dad.”

With a tight smile, Paul walked away just as Sonny appeared beside Will.

“Everything okay?”

“I hope so,” Will answered, his eyes on Paul’s back. “We should probably bring out the cake. Ari’s getting antsy.”

Sonny agreed with a grin.

A week into June, Will said rather randomly, “I think we should set Paul up on a date.”

Sonny’s hand stalled where he was stirring pasta in a pot on the stove. “You what?”

“I think we should set Paul up on a date,” Will said again, coming to stand next to Sonny in the kitchen.

(After Ari’s birthday party, when they had been standing outside Will’s apartment kissing lazily, Will asked, “Move in with me?” It hadn’t been planned, like Sonny had once planned it, with a key wrapped in a box, but it felt right.

Sonny’s face lit up. He nodded and crashed their lips together. Will laughed into the kiss and somehow managed to unlock the door and fumble them both inside.)

“Why?”

Will made a face and sighed with mock annoyance. “Because he’s lonely and nursing a broken heart? And I feel bad for being the cause of it?”

“I don’t think we should get involved,” Sonny said, not looking at Will.

Will frowned for real. “Are you getting jealous on me?”

“No. I’m not,” Sonny insisted. “I just don’t think Paul would appreciate it.” He dumped the finished pasta into a colander to drain the steaming water.

“I do,” Will responded, handing Sonny their bowls. “Paul’s famous and it can be hard for famous people to know who’s after their fame or them as a person.”

Sonny huffed. “Who would we even set him up with? Neil and Brian aren’t in town anymore. And all of my old friends have boyfriends.”

“I was thinking about Derek,” Will suggested, following Sonny to the table. “They dated a little bit. They seemed to like each other. They just never really got a chance to try things for real.”

“Because I was hanging around Paul like a puppy, right? That’s what you’re implying.” Sonny was smiling, so Will knew he wasn’t offended.

“You said it, not me,” Will said, grinning back around a mouthful of pasta.

“Okay. You win. We’ll set Paul and Derek up on a date.”

Will’s eyes twinkled with glee and Sonny’s heart swelled.

Since their anniversary, Will and Sonny found themselves often at The Spot on Friday nights. Gabi and Chad had agreed that they would watch Ari and Will and Sonny would take her on Saturday, to allow Chad and Gabi their date night.

During those Fridays, Will had seen Derek at the club almost every week, so it was a safe bet that he would be there that night.

“Do you see him?” Will said loudly into Sonny’s ear so he could be heard over the music.

Sonny shook his head. “I still don’t know how you convinced Paul to come out with us,” Sonny said.

Will grinned sheepishly. “Don’t hate me. But I kind of roped Grandma Marlena into convincing Paul it might do him some good to get out. He said he might come here when I spoke to him at Ari’s party but we’ve never seen him here so I thought he might not have followed through.”

“You’re evil, Will Horton.”

Will shrugged.

Sure enough, they spotted Paul walking into the club. He saw them first and made a beeline for them.

“Hey,” Will said, forestalling any awkwardness.

The three of them hadn’t seen each other too much since Arianna’s birthday party. Will thought he looked a little paler than usual, but it could have been the flashing lights of the club.

“How are you?” Sonny asked.

Paul put on a smile that seemed genuine, and said, “Working a lot. Keeping myself busy. I’m starting a little league coaching job next week.”

“Paul, I -” Sonny started but Paul cut him off.

“Don’t, Sonny. It’s okay. I’m fine. Really.”

The three of them stood in a thick silence despite the music for a minute. Then Sonny said, “Hey, isn’t that that bellhop from the Inn?” Sonny pointed to a place across the dance floor.

“Oh, yeah. It is,” Paul said, following Sonny’s gaze. “Derek.”

“You liked him when you dated, didn’t you?” Will asked.

Paul turned his attention back to Will. “Yeah, I did.” Paul’s face split into a real smile, seemingly almost involuntarily.

“Go talk to him,” Sonny encouraged. “If he’s here, he probably doesn’t have a boyfriend,”

“You’re here,” Paul pointed out.

“We’re here together,” Sonny countered. “It looks like he’s alone. What harm is there in trying?”

Paul studied Will and Sonny. They had such earnest and friendly looks on their faces that Paul gave in. “Alright, alright. I’ll go talk to him,” Paul mumbled and walked away.

“I saw Paul this morning,” Sonny said, his fingers running lazily through Will’s blonde hair.

They were curled up in bed, Will’s head pillowed on Sonny’s chest. A fan was blowing air on them, the apartment stifling in the Midwestern mid-July heat. They were both naked and a thin sheet was the only thing covering them, their legs criss-crossed underneath.

“Mmmm,” Will hummed, halfway to sleep.

“He was having breakfast with Derek.”

Will shifted his head at that, so he could look at Sonny. “Really?”

Sonny smiled and nodded. “I didn’t talk to them, but they looked happy. Paul was laughing at something Derek said.”

Will’s face lit up. “See.” Will poked Sonny’s chest. “I told you it was a good idea.”

“We’ll see,” Sonny joked.

Will stuck his tongue out at Sonny.

“Wanna get some brunch at the Pub?” Will asked Sonny one Saturday towards the end of September. “Ari’s staying with our parents, so we don’t have dad duty today. Let’s go out.”

“Alright,” Sonny agreed with a smile.

* * * * * * * * * *

“This was a good idea,” Sonny said, lacing their fingers as they left the pub an hour and a half later. “You might be a Brady but you don’t cook like one.”

Will threw his head back laughing. “Yeah, well, my mom once almost blew up our apartment trying to microwave popcorn so you know where I get it from.”

Sonny shook with laughter but stopped abruptly when he realized Will had stopped walking and was staring at him. “What?” Sonny asked, alarmed.

“We’re good, right, Sonny? You and me?”

“Yeah, of course.” When Will didn’t say anything, Sonny asked, “You okay?” His face was all concern.

“Yeah, I just - I love you,” Will said, gathering his thoughts.

“I love you, too.” Will smiled. “I want us to work this time, Sonny. I want us to last.” He ran his free hand over his eyes and laughed nervously. “This isn’t coming out like I wanted it to,” Will mumbled to himself. Then, louder, to Sonny, “When you left for Paris, I really, I really didn’t know what to do with myself. All I knew how to do was love you. And then when I came back after...you know...You were with Paul and it felt like I was vindicated in everything I’d felt and done with regards to you and Paul.”

“Will, I know all this.”

“Sonny, please let me finish,” Will begged. “So I tried. I tried so hard to move on, I did, but I guess that hope that you would love me again never really went away. And then you were kissing me on our anniversary and telling me you still loved me and wanted to be with me again and it felt like a dream.” Will was rambling now, his thoughts moving faster than his mind could create coherent sentences. “And we’re both in better places than we were back then, with our jobs, and you with Paul, and Paul has a boyfriend, and we’re all friends and everything is just so good. I’m so scared, Sonny. I’m so scared that the other shoe is going to drop.”

It wasn’t at all what he had planned to say this morning when he asked for brunch at the Pub.

“Hey,” Sonny soothed, taking Will’s free hand in his own. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere this time, I promise. I mean it, Will. No more running away.”

Will searched Sonny’s face. It was open and honest and earnest in a way it had never been since Will had followed Sami to LA.

Letting go of Sonny’s hands, Will reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box. With a deep breath, Will fell onto his knee and flipped open the box to reveal a silver band. Looking up at Sonny, Will asked, “Marry me?”

“God yes,” Sonny breathed and leaned to down to kiss Will’s lips, his hands on Will’s face.

Will grinned into the kiss, standing up and circling his arms around Sonny’s waist. It was a new beginning, same as their first kiss in that spot had been so many years ago, Will’s heart beating a steady drum against his chest same as it had then too.

Sonny broke away first, a smile tugging at his lips, his arms draping around Will’s neck. “You got a new ring.”

“To be honest, I don’t know what happened to my ring,” Will replied. “And I didn’t have yours. Besides, I want this to be a new beginning for us, one that we don’t mess up. I thought the best way to do that was with new rings.”

To emphasize his point, Will pried himself away from Sonny so he could take the ring out of the box. Sonny held his left hand out for Will. Will obliged and slid the ring onto Sonny’s finger, where it sat snug like it had always belonged there.

Before Sonny knew what happened, Will had produced another ring box from inside his jacket. “Do you want to -?” Will started to ask, but Sonny was already taking the box from him.

Will laughed and held his own hand out for Sonny. Like Sonny’s, the ring fit snug on his finger as if it should have always been there. He never planned for his finger to be empty ever again.

Sonny grinned at him. “I love you, husband.”

“We’re not married yet.”

“You were always my husband, even when you weren’t.”

Will blinked back sudden tears. To hear Sonny say that was overwhelming. “Me too.”

Sonny’s arms found their way around Will’s waist; Will’s found their familiar place draped around Sonny’s neck.

“I love you,” Sonny said.

“I love you, too.”

#wilson #will horton #sonny kiriakis #my fic #i can't believe what this prompt produced #mywilsonfic

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