#I STILL do not trust Nicholas either

[zomboivex]

Aha theory time (half cracked because I’m at work and can’t actually scrape the details but I needta get it off my CHEST)

Hyde is the spy that Taiga is referring to.

Why?

Campus hangout with Taiga he states “don’t fuck with me” to Hyde.

Hyde also pretty much is friendly to MC right off the bat.

But he’s hiding something (and not just his eyes y’all).

I just don’t trust any staff at Darkwick at all.

Hyde is also overly friendly but makes calculated choices on his part. (Especially with this new chapter).

And even Sho seems frosty towards his own brother. Granted- that could be for a multitude of reasons (of which being a younger sibling could def do)

Speaking of- secret missions? Hmm…….

Interesting way to end there…

Anyways .

I’ll elaborate further

And also leave you with a crack theory that I have 0 backing on-

But I think Hyde is the reason both Sho & Leo made demon pacts (and survived and came to Darkwick). My gut just tells me.

Gonna scream into the void now while I furiously writhe in pain at work

[oldsoul007]

taste

nicholas chavez x ex!reader

a/n: no disrespect to either of them or relationship all of this is just fiction!

Nicholas and y/n had a special connection when they dated. Their time together was filled with laughter, shared secrets, and memorable moments. However, as life moved on, they drifted apart, and Nicholas eventually found himself in a new relationship with a girl named Victoria.

Victoria is wonderful—kind, smart, and everything Nicholas could ask for in a girlfriend. Yet, despite his happiness with her, y/n is always in the back of his mind. He often finds himself reminiscing about the times he spent with y/n, the unique bond they shared, and the way she understood him like no one else.

Even though Nicholas tries to focus on his present with Victoria, there are moments when a song, a place, or a random memory brings y/n back to the forefront of his thoughts. He wonders how she's doing, if she thinks about him too, and whether their paths will cross again. This lingering presence of y/n in his mind makes him question if he ever truly moved on, or if a part of him will always belong to her.

Nicholas and Victoria were out for a casual stroll one Saturday afternoon when they unexpectedly ran into y/n. The encounter took Nicholas by surprise, and he felt his heart skip a beat. Y/n looked as beautiful and confident as ever, and seeing her brought a rush of memories flooding back.

"Hey, y/n. It's been a while. How have you been?" Nicholas asked, trying to keep his composure.

"I've been good. Just busy with work and everything. How about you?" Y/n replied with a warm smile.

"I've been alright. This is Victoria, by the way. Victoria, this is y/n," Nicholas introduced them, his voice slightly shaky.

"Nice to meet you, y/n!" Victoria said cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you too, Victoria. So, what have you been up to, Nicholas?" Y/n asked, her eyes lingering on him.

"Oh, you know, just the usual. Work's been keeping me busy. It's really good to see you, though," Nicholas responded, feeling a mix of emotions.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too. You look well," y/n said, her smile softening.

"Thanks. You too," Nicholas managed to say, his mind racing.

Victoria, sensing the tension, chimed in, "We should catch up sometime, all of us. It would be fun."

"Sure, that sounds nice," y/n agreed. "Well, I should get going. It was great running into you both."

"Yeah, take care, y/n," Nicholas said, watching her walk away.

As y/n disappeared into the crowd, Nicholas couldn't help but feel a pang of longing. He realized that his feelings for her were still very much alive, leaving him deep in thought about what to do next.

Victoria and Nicholas had been having a wonderful evening at home when the topic of y/n came up. It started innocently enough, with Nicholas mentioning their recent encounter.

"You know, it was really nice seeing y/n the other day," Nicholas said, trying to keep his tone casual.

Victoria's expression changed slightly. "Yeah, it was. But, Nicholas, I've noticed you talk about her a lot lately."

Nicholas looked puzzled. "What do you mean? She's just an old friend."

"Is she really just an old friend?" Victoria asked, her voice growing more tense. "Because it feels like there's more to it."

Nicholas sighed. "Victoria, you're overthinking this. Y/n and I have history, but that's all in the past. You're the one I'm with now."

Victoria shook her head. "I don't know, Nicholas. It just feels like there's something unresolved between you two. And it bothers me."

Nicholas's frustration began to show. "What do you want me to do, Victoria? I can't erase my past. Y/n is a part of it, but she doesn't have to be a threat to us."

"I just need to know that you're fully committed to us," Victoria said, her eyes pleading.

"I am committed to us," Nicholas said firmly. "But I can't change the fact that y/n was a big part of my life. You have to trust me."

Victoria looked away, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's hard to trust when I see how you look at her."

Nicholas softened, stepping closer to her. "Victoria, I love you. I'll do whatever it takes to make you feel secure. But you have to believe me when I say that Lauren is just a friend now."

Victoria nodded slowly, wiping her tears. "Okay, Nicholas. I believe you. But let's not talk about y/n anymore. Let's focus on us."

"Agreed," Nicholas said, pulling her into a hug. "Let's focus on us."

As they held each other, Nicholas hoped that this would be the end of the tension between them. He knew he had to prove his commitment to Victoria and make sure she felt secure in their relationship.

Nicholas and Victoria were at the local bar when they unexpectedly bumped into y/n again. It was a moment of surprise for all three, but Victoria's reaction was different. As she watched Nicholas and y/n exchange warm smiles and familiar glances, something clicked in her mind. She realized that the connection between Nicholas and y/n was deeper than she had ever imagined. It was in that instant that Victoria understood the true nature of their bond, and a mix of emotions washed over her, leaving her both intrigued and contemplative about what this meant for their future.

Nicholas and Victoria were sitting in their living room when the tension that had been building up finally reached a boiling point. The topic of y/n had come up once again, and it was clear that Victoria was not happy about it.

"Nicholas, I can't believe you're still hung up on her," Victoria said, frustration evident in her voice. "Every time we run into y/n, you act like she's the only person in the room."

Nicholas sighed, rubbing his temples. "Victoria, it's not like that. Y/n and I have a history, yes, but it doesn't mean I'm still in love with her. We're just friends now."

"Friends? Really?" Victoria shot back. "Because it sure doesn't seem that way. You get this look in your eyes whenever she's around, like you're remembering something more than just a friendship."

"That's not fair," Nicholas replied, his voice rising. "I can't control how I feel. But I'm with you now, and that's what matters."

"But is it really?" Victoria asked, her eyes filling with tears. "Because it feels like I'm always competing with her ghost. I need to know that you're fully here with me, not just physically but emotionally too."

Nicholas took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Victoria, I care about you a lot. I don't want you to feel like you're second to anyone. I'm sorry if I've made you feel that way."

Victoria looked at him, her expression softening slightly. "I just need to know that I can trust you, Nicholas. That you're not going to run back to her the moment things get tough between us."

"I promise you, Victoria," Nicholas said, taking her hand. "I'm committed to us. I'll do whatever it takes to prove that to you."

As they sat there, holding each other's hands, they both realized that this was a turning point in their relationship. They had to work through these issues if they wanted to move forward together.

Nicholas had been feeling increasingly guilty about his relationship with Victoria. He knew deep down that he couldn't continue pretending everything was fine. One evening, he finally mustered the courage to talk to her.

"Victoria, we need to talk," Nicholas began, his voice heavy with emotion. "I can't keep doing this. It's not fair to you or to me. I still have feelings for y/n, and it's not right to lead you on."

Victoria looked at him, her eyes filled with a mix of hurt and understanding. "I knew this was coming, Nicholas. I just hoped things would change."

"I'm so sorry," Nicholas said, his heart breaking at the sight of her tears. "You deserve someone who can give you their whole heart, and I can't do that right now."

After the difficult conversation, Nicholas felt a weight lift off his shoulders, but he was also filled with a sense of loss. He decided to reach out to y/n, needing someone to talk to.

"Y/n, I ended things with Victoria," he confessed over the phone. "I couldn't keep pretending. But now, I feel so lost."

Y/n’s voice was gentle but firm. "Nicholas, I still love you, but we can't be together. Not right now. You need to figure things out for yourself first."

Nicholas sighed, feeling the sting of her words. "I understand, y/n. I just needed to hear your voice."

They both knew that this was a time for healing and self-discovery. Even though they couldn't be together, their connection remained a source of comfort and strength for Nicholas.

[mr-ys-phantasma]

🌙 Moon Phases 🌙

Agatha Harkness X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1376

Chapter 22:

After Agatha confessed to you, things seemed to be better. With less worry and jealousy in your heart, you found sleep coming for you faster than you anticipated.

Agatha has chosen to rest a little further away from the rest of the coven, and you had followed suit, her warm body spooning you from behind was the lullaby you needed to close your eyes and relax.

Time passed oddly for everyone, no sign of sun or anything to indicate how long the group had been asleep.

The first to wake up had been Agatha, whose dreams were haunted by bitter memories of her past; this time, about Nicholas.

Having almost lost Teen and then having Rio telling her the boy was not hers... it unlocked some dark moments from her past, and unfortunately, not even your presence could truly help.

Thus, she found herself the only one awake; her hand gently brushing your hair as you had subconsciously leaned more on her folded lap and presence.

Agatha observed you as you slept, a small warm smile forming on her pink lips as she observed you; looking so peaceful and trusting her so much... not to mention yearning for her touch, even while asleep.

When she was away, when she was faking a new identity in Wanda's hex; she often felt how empty the bed was. Often, she would lay there, extending a hand and wondering how you were; and if you would take her back when she would come to your doorstep once again.

She had been thinking about you, she was not going to lie but she could not just bluntly confess it. That was not her.

A part of her always fighting to protect her by hiding her weakness by preventing her from confessing how she felt and maybe that was okay because you understood her.

Agatha sensed when someone approached, not surprised to find Rio coming your way. She had not slept like everyone else but had sat down close by, especially after you had fallen asleep.

Ironically, it was her unique danger that had made you snuggle closer to Agatha; a subconscious needed to be closer to her.

Now was it because you were seeking protection or to simply protect Agatha, no one truly knew.

"Funny. I remember you giving me the same smile," Rio commented, her tone a mixture of mockery and maybe even slight jealousy.

Agatha looked up at her. "She came first, and you know it. I had made it clear to you back then, "

Rio scoffed faintly. "And yet you still don't want the three of us as one." She folded her hands in front of her chest. "That's fine by me. Keep your little moon girlie. "

As the Green Witch started to walk away, Agatha dared to move and actually stand up. She carefully walked around your sleeping form and trailed after her former lover.

"I will, but first I want some answers," she said in a hushed tone, making Rio halt. "How do you know her?"

Agatha faced Rio's back for a few seconds before the Witch graced her by turning to face her. They locked eyes as they stood in front of one another, merely a single step separating them.

Rio tilted her head faintly to her side, her thin dark locks following the movement of her head as she did so while she played with the curved knife in her hands.

"I found her," she started, observing how Agatha hung from her every word. "After she took care of those witch hunters. Kept my eye on her, talked... you know the drill. You and I met under similar circumstances. "

"My case was different," Agatha argued. "And you didn't exactly make it clear who you were either."

Rio shrugged and glanced at your sleeping form above Agatha's shoulder. "I wasn't with her, either. She found it out on her own, but I will give her credits for her determination in doing so. "

Agatha frowned. "How did she find out?"

Before Rio could answer, he shouts of Lilia reaches them. It disturbed the silence existing in the forest and was enough to even wake you up.

You took a moment to process where you were, and when you did, you noticed Agatha and Rio standing not so far away; clearly discussing something private.

Before you could ask what had taken place, the distant sound of a howllong wolf reached you, and you swore you also heard a raven as it flew above you.

"The Salem Seven," you exclaimed, standing up so fast that you almost tripped.

You looked at Agatha, whose eyes were wide with fear. She didn't have to say anything as she gabbed her discarded purple coat and rushed towards the coven, you close behind her.

Rio just casually followed, unbothered by the presence of the cursed seven witches that wanted Agatha dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you approached the coven, you heard Lilia explaining to the rest of the witches what she saw and who was after them.

"Scary black dresses?" Teen asked, recalling the creepy figures he saw in Agatha's House before he rushed to find them in the basement.

"When Agatha killed her original coven..." Lilia started.

Once again, Jen had to comment. "By stealing their power." She added, making you wonder what Agatha did to her to have such hatred and anger against her.

"Because her own mother tried to have her executed." Rio suddenly added, having managed to reach the coven around the same time you and Agatha did.

Even though she was further behind.

You didn't stay nor bothered to question, somehow having an explanation already.

After all, it was Rio you were thinking about.

"Are you really defending a noted serial killer, you creepy lurker?" Jen asked, taking a few steps closer to Jen.

Something seemed to snap within you. You were not sure if it was Jen negative attitude, her tone, or the unnecessary name calling, but you found yourself standing between her and Rio.

"Back off, Jen. Direct your attitude elsewhere for this is not the point" you barked, one hand extended to keep Rio further behind you while your other had a single digit pointed at the Potions Witch.

She pulled her head faintly, surprised by your outburst and sudden change of character for the new Witch. After all, just a few hours ago, you had been glaring nonstop at her, and now you were opening defending her.

Jen opened her mouth, feeling insulterd and ready to serve you some attitude as well when Teen interfered; once again, stopping things from escalating too far.

"Come on, someone finish the story." He said, glancing at the rest of the coven.

Lilia took her gaze from you and focused on the boy. "When Agatha murdered her sister witches, she spared their young children."

"Yeah, and then they became a feral, hive-minded coven bent on revenge." You argued, showing where you stood on the topic.

"Whoa, ah!" Agatha exclaimed as she finally managed to wear her coat, all this time comically fighting to put the second sleeve on. "The moral of the story, kids, is always finish what you started. Also, mercy is overrated. All right, everybody, pack up your shit! Let's go!"

You started to fix your tie that you had loosened before you slept and buttoned up your black vest while everyone gathered and wore their stuff.

Before you were even fully ready, you had to run and follow Agatha; only to hear the same wolf howl from the path up ahead.

By instinct alone, you chose to run the opposite way, but the sound of a raven made you realize you were practically trapped.

"What about a hexenbesen?" Teen suddenly suggested, earning negative answers from everyone but you.

"Guys, I think we -" before you could voice your opinion and perhaps persuade them to change their mind; the Salem Seven did it for you.

An inhumane screech reached you, like claws against a board or wood. Your hair stood on end in response, and you all had this innate feeling of pray caught in the line of sight of a predator.

"No, brooms are great," Agatha exclaimed, and you hummed in agreement.

Chapter 23

[worth-this-and-more]

thoughts and opinions on bree's birthday gifts!!!!

[spoilers for legendborn and bloodmarked, read at your own caution ;)] it's been long since i got to do long ass posts hehe i'm back in the game yall

first of all, happy birthday bree!!!! (real footage of me making cakes)

starting off strong with alice chen;

that's so cute?? and two gifts!! bree gonna keep that gift card close to her heart!! like common we all know they are book besties like awwieee so cuteee!! and tickets to eras tour?? keep up with the spoiling your bestie i love you alice!!

then we have edwin matthews;

this is so him tho, ofc he's gonna take care of his lil girl for the winters. that winter coat is gonna be very handy on the run. and bless his soul i hope he doesn't have to find out what the battle is-

our golden boy, nicholas martin davis;

that is so thoughtful tho?? and it's so cute he had it handmade like damn dude, and with her initials too. and what did you say about late-night sword training sessions you mean they trained whennnnnn we have been robbed????

our favorite sorcerer, selwyn emyrs kane;

the coupon?? that is so fucking hilarious, imagine selwyn drawing that coupon and smiling to himself like "ahh the perfect joke" comon this is so cute and i bet bree loved it. and the rose?? got me giggling and shit like dude i had headcanoned something like this as like a ring during bree's college trips but comon a rose is so much better?? ahhhhhhhh I'm in looooooveee say what you want this is so cute mann (and the rose kinda reminded me of the rose in tracy's insta story?? is this something or am i too obsessed??)

our rootcrafting companion, mariah;

lmaoo she is not wrong about the reasons tho. bree definitely needs that spa day. maybe add in a braiding session too. she needs those curls fresh and on for the newest adventure.

the cutest legendborn!! greer taylor;

oh my gosh that is so cool bree in training gear yalls I'm so pumped for bree's 1v1 fights with anyone honestly like my oh my!! good job greer!!

our deadliest softboy, william sitterson;

william is a tea guy for sure, ofc his birthday treat is at a teahouse!! spending the day enjoying william's favorite tea and maybe a lil bit of teasing on both sides?? what will be the treats tho him baking his favorite biscuits or a luncheon with his king, i say bothhh

now there are a two people that i really wanted to see;

larkin douglas; yes he hasn't been around in bloodmarked too but comon even he would know sometime from William hehe about bree's birthday what would he gift her?? he did gift her those leather gauntlets, an updraged version of them?? metal gauntlets?? now if bree has her powers in control ofc she doesn't need the gauntlets but it could be a gesture of trust, for the old days sake

valec; like comon i do think he'd just give her a chocolate or a life advice and move on, but given that he has taken a liking to her and has become very protective (as his baby sister okay guys he's not in love) he might offer something else. his knowledge maybe, he has been around for 200 years you bet he has a lot to tell. or like he could answer three questions she wants the answers to, we all know our bree is best at questioning everything.

my thoughts??

can the order of how the people are placed have any correspondence to how events have passed or any foreshadowing to what could happen?? because i am the type of person who likes to order things like that; so if this is foreshadowing, because for the past events we need to put sel after alice and all that yk, does this mean we are going to start oathbound with a different pov?? because alice and edwin are shown first so it is possible oathbound can start from the new pov (either nick or selwyn)

nick giving bree a scabbard, foreshadowing?? i still have to read on arthuriana more, so i can't say for sure but please enlighten me is this related to the legend. all i know is that excalibur's scabbard was gone which is why arthur fell in camlamn. so that means nick giving bree could potentially symbolize him protecting her?? but from what?? selwyn?? shadow king?? who??

also, from the whole order apart from the found family, only greer is mentioned. now i was assuming that sarah will be in charge now after tor has been "betrayed" aka kicked out of gc. so if greer is mentioned does this mean greer will be in charge?? but aren't they kinda young in the whole order, like young as in new?? and if they are in charge, then what will sarah do because by the order of lines sarah should be after tor, right??

and if this order of names thing is correct, we will be seeing mariah yayy but William is last, so is this for the whole book or like the first half?? because there's no valec no lark (my babies i wanted to see themmm??)

or maybe im just reading too much into this

[multifandomimagin3s]

Chaotic Co-Worker

Requested by Anon

Summary: Reader is a Spider-Person, and is best friends with Deadpool.

Idk what this is. But anyways, I'm alive. Hope you guys enjoy.

Miguel O'Hara

Both you and Wade give this man chronic, back-to-back migraines.

As soon as Wade somehow manages to get to the Spider-Society HQ ((*cough cough* he snuck in through a portal with you)), Miguel can't get five minutes to himself.

Miguel's been around the Multiverse, so he's probably encountered various Deadpool variants on his travels - and he claims that none of them were anywhere near as annoying as the one that you happen to be best friends with.

He basically just treats Wade like he treats Hobie - actively trying to ignore him and not lose his shit.

It only works 30% of the time.

Regardless of how many times he literally kicks Wade out, he always finds his way back in.

God help him if Wade ever gets it into his head that Miguel has a crush or something on you - I mean, you're Wade's best friend and probably would get up to some shenanigans with him... and you haven't been fired? Suspicious.

He would probably ask Miguel if there's a 'casting couch' involved when he does his 'interviews' for joining the Spider Society.

And he'd probably try to grab his ass.

Peter B. Parker

I think he would find Wade's antics funny, until he's on the receiving end.

Tries not to laugh when Wade's clearly pushing Miguel's buttons on purpose, but as soon as Peter starts being called Spider-DILF, he doesn't know whether to be flattered or weirded out. Or both.

Doesn't know whether Wade can be trusted around Mayday or not - I mean, Wade's not a bad guy and usually has the best intentions, but I can just see Mayday picking up some of his coarse language after hanging around him.

Probably would be as confused as Miguel when Wade keeps popping up out of nowhere - like, how tf does he keep coming back??

But all-in-all, I don't think he would really mind that much about Wade being there.

I mean, I'm pretty sure Miguel hired Kaine. So it takes a lot to shake Peter B.

Ben Reilly

Ben would instantly get annoyed when Wade mocks his broodiness.

And Wade being Wade, the fact that he got a reaction out of Ben would just fuel him more.

"Emo Ken Doll" is his new name.

I think that Wade's more brutal way of doing things would kind of pique his interest though - not that Ben would admit it since he'd still probably be annoyed at being the butt of his jokes.

It would also make him more interested in you by proxy - whether you're secretly similarly natured to Wade, or if you're complete opposites.

You'd know this, of course, because of his monologuing.

Ben: Deadpool is brutal. But he's their best friend. Hm, thinking.

Spider Noir

I think it would be 50:50 as to whether he and Deadpool would actually get along, at all.

On one hand, he'd get annoyed when Wade insults him - especially when Wade called him Nicholas Cage, despite neither Noir nor you knowing who he was on about.

But on the other hand - Noir canonically likes punching Nazis and isn't opposed to violence, so him and Wade would probably find some common ground there.

Since the Deadpool from the movies lost Vanessa, but did everything he could to protect her, I think Noir would sympathise with that - he's from the 1930's, so those old-fashioned ways of looking after your partner really resonate with him a lot.

Basically, Noir would either hate him, or they would be the most unconventional friends that you'd ever see.

Jonathan Ohnn / The Spot

**[Contains some spoilers]**

Okay, so depending on which version of the Spot that you two encounter, really determines his reaction.

If it's Jonathan, or the initial version of the Spot we meet in ASTV, he's arguably more tame in his reaction - I mean, you're a Spider-person, so he's going to be annoyed straight away.

And Wade would most likely give him some verbal taunting and 'mild' abuse.

He'd just be like >:( ... well, he doesn't actually have a face so it would just be a squished 'O'.

But if you two were to encounter him after he went to the collider in Mumbatan...

If it's one of those BookTok scenarios where he secretly likes you, then you'll probably be fine...

But he realistically would try to kill you. And Wade... and would be equal parts fascinated and annoyed when he can't kill him due to his healing factor.

[sitkowski]

got me so tethered (nicholas x cam [ofc] for baddestomens)

a prompt request for the lovely @baddestomens! comes from the inexperienced smut prompts, with "i never thought you could make such sweet noises." - "Me either…" and "Do that again".

cw: 18+ MDNI ⚠️ praise kink, overstimulation, oral sex (f receiving), facesitting,discussions of anal fingering (m receiving), pegging, a smidgen of size queen nicholas hello. title comes from "roommates" by the home team. set in the same universe as just crash!

divider by @cafe-kitsune.

word count: 2k

⇉ masterlist | taglist signups

The last hour of work has been dragging by, and Cam contemplates just making a run for it. They’re down to the last few regulars lingering at the bar, nursing the same drinks, and she leans against the counter, blinking up at the clock. All she has to do is make it through the rest of her shift and then she’s home free for the weekend. Nicholas has a few weeks off tour, and she’s been enjoying having him home.

It’s been a year, to the day, since Cam flew out to Wyoming to reconnect with him. To say that it’s been perfect would probably be a cliche, but she’s never been happier. They make their schedules work together, ever so often she’ll spend time out on the road with the band. He’ll venture into the bar on some nights just to play pool with the guys and drive her crazy from across the room, simply by existing. Whenever he comes home, it’s to her and the cats and their apartment.

As if she summoned him, her phone chimes with a text notification. When Cam pulls her phone from her pocket, she finds a picture message waiting. She opens it, and immediately feels her heartbeat thudding in her ears. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the picture, except that she knows this picture of a simple black gift bag contains something special that she and Nicholas had been talking about for weeks.

 Cam takes a deep breath, before texting him back. She puts her phone away and tries to put it out of her mind, but it’s not easy. He knew exactly what he was doing when he sent her that, knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to leave work yet. She fully plans to make him pay for it. At the other end of the bar, someone calls her name and she takes the distraction gratefully.

It’s well after midnight by the time she lets herself in their apartment, but she knows that Nicholas is still up. She can hear the shower running as she shrugs out of her coat and kicks off her shoes, and her eyes immediately go to the bag sitting in the middle of their dining room table. Walking over to it, Cam opens it and peers inside, and even though she knows the plan she’s still a little surprised by its contents. She’d trusted him to pick out everything he wanted.

She doesn’t take anything out yet, instead she carries the bag into their bedroom and puts it on the bed. She thinks about going into the bathroom and joining him in the shower, but she lets him have that time to himself, especially since she told him in her text that he should get himself ready for her. Cam takes her time removing her makeup, changing into something more comfortable—one of Nicholas’ old t-shirts, well worn and soft.

Finally, she sits on the edge of the bed and opens the bag, reaching inside. The box she pulls out is heavy in her hands, and she runs her hands over it almost reverently. Lifting the lid, her eyes wide a little at the size of it. She knows they’d talked about ordering something custom to his size, and she’s obviously seen him more times than she can count, but holding it in her hands feels like something else entirely. Absently, she traces a finger up the length of it and she feels herself flushing bright red.

She’s still holding it in her hand when Nicholas comes out of the bathroom, a billow of steam following him as he knots a towel around his hips. He stops short when he sees her sitting there, obviously not knowing she was home yet. His eyes drift from her face to the box in her lap.

“Hi.” he says softly. “I see you found my present.”

Cam’s eyebrows raise and she laughs softly. “You mean your present for yourself. Is my baby a little size queen?”

It’s Nicholas’ turn to blush and he comes over, sitting down on the bed beside her. Droplets of water drip from the ends of his hair and onto her arm as he leans into her, his nose nudging against her cheek. “It’s for both of us, Camille.”

Letting out a breath, she nods. He did this while they were on tour, and she wants to tease him mercilessly about that, but she just finds the whole thing hot. Cam reaches into the bag again, pulling out the harness. It’s simple enough, and she holds it up with one finger, meeting his eyes again.

“Tell me what you want, Nicky.”

Nicholas doesn’t hesitate, “I want you to fuck me. With this.”

“You want me to fuck you with your cock, baby? I can do that. Whatever you want. Did you get yourself ready for me like I asked?”

He nods, tongue gliding along his bottom lip. Cam nods along with him, before setting everything aside. She likes the way he sits up a little straighter, the way he picks up on the shift in the atmosphere. They’ve always been so good at switching it up, reading each other. This is no different. She reaches out and winds a lock of his hair around her finger, giving it a little tug.

“How did you get yourself ready?”

It’s not as if this is something entirely new to them, she’s fingered him before while giving him head, they’ve played around with a few toys, but she’s never done this. Never fucked him. She loves the way the blush on his face spreads and he shifts around on the bed, the towel doing nothing to hide his growing arousal.

“With my fingers, like you told me to.”

She doesn’t need to imagine it, she’s seen it firsthand, the way he’s writhed on his own fingers, begging for something else and her promising to give it to him. She’s going to fulfill that promise now.

“Can I help you put it on?” he asks. Cam nods and stands up. She starts to take off the shirt she’s wearing but he shakes his head. “Leave it, I like seeing you in my clothes.”

She reaches beneath the shirt and takes off her panties, kicking them aside. Nicholas scoots forward on the bed, picking up the harness and the fake cock. It’s easy enough to fit together and put on her, and he adjusts the straps so they sit snugly on her hips. Her breath hitches at the weight of it, and not just in the physical sense. Nicholas is staring up at her in something close to awe, thumbs rubbing over her skin below the straps.

“Get the lube for me, baby.” she says softly and he moves back, tossing aside his towel as he goes.

Cam waits until he’s settled back against the pillows before she gets onto the bed with him. He makes a noise high in his throat as she crawls over to kneel between his thighs, and when she looks down, she sees the dildo alongside his own cock. She can’t help but roll her hips forward a little, rubbing against him, and even though she can’t feel it she knows that he can.

“Do that again.” he moans out, hands pulling desperately at her hips, trying to get her closer.

She rocks against him a few times, before leaning back and grabbing the bottle laying by his side. It’s a strange feeling, rubbing the lube over the fake cock and feeling nothing. But she still feels her skin prickle hotly just from the way Nicholas is watching her, one hand fisting in the sheets, the other wrapping around his cock and stroking it slowly. She nudges his legs further apart, eases a pillow beneath his hips, before leaning back over him to kiss him softly.

It’s a gradual process, him relaxing beneath her, practically melting into the mattress as she reaches down and guides the toy inside of him. Cam takes it so slow it’s probably considered some form of torture, but even though he said he prepped she doesn’t want to hurt him. She watches Nicholas’ face intently for any signs of discomfort, but all she sees is his eyes roll back as his head digs into the pillows beneath him, a strangled moan falling from his lips.

“Is this what it’s like for you? Every time?” he asks breathlessly, voice rising as she pushes all of the way inside until they’re flush together. “I don’t know if I should apologize or say thank you.”

“Not exactly like this, but something like it. Are you okay? Are you feeling good, Nicky?”

He lets out a disbelieving laugh, and she rubs her thumbs over his hips, wanting to give him a few moments to adjust. She can feel his thighs trembling on either side of her, sees the rapid rise and fall of his chest and when he fists his hand in the front of the shirt she’s still wearing to pull her over him to kiss her, she goes willingly.

Cam moves slowly at first, little twitches of her hips that make him squirm and gasp against her mouth. She pulls his bottom lip between her teeth, tugging, and he whines, trying to get her even closer as if that were possible, hands pawing at her hips and thighs.

“I never thought you could make such sweet noises.” she says, kissing his forehead before she slowly shuffles back to her knees.

Nicholas sighs, raking his hands through his hair and arching up into her. “Me either.”

Flicking her hair out of her face, Cam snaps her hips forward harder than before. He lets out a yelp and for a second, she thinks she’s hurt him. His nails dig into the skin of her thighs and she opens her mouth to tell him she’s sorry but he speaks before she can.

“Fucking do that again, Camille.”

She takes him at his word, putting as much strength as she can into each thrust. Nicholas slides a hand beneath her shirt, cupping one of her breasts and pinching her nipple, each helpless noise he lets out louder than the last. Cam leans down, licking the sweat from his collarbone and scrapes her teeth up his throat. She can feel his fist shifting against her stomach as he strokes himself.

It’s a surprise to both of them when he comes all over his hand and his stomach and the bottom of Cam’s shirt. He gasps for air and she moves back, rocking into him a few more times until he shakes his head and squirms a little more. She pulls out gently, and then he’s trying to pull her up, hands fumbling with the straps of her harness.

“Get this off, come on, come up here baby please…” she manages to wriggle out of everything and tosses it aside on the bed. She lets him pull her where he wants her, up until she’s straddling his face. Nicholas pulls more, insistent. “There we go, good girl, you were so fucking good to me. Let me return the favor.”

Cam doesn’t have time to do much more than grab onto the headboard before he’s yanking her down to his mouth, licking his way inside of her like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do. He leaves no space between them and she cries out, fisting a hand in his hair. When Nicholas wraps his lips around her clit and scrapes it with his teeth, she outright screams, slumping forward against the wall as she comes against his mouth. She tries to raise herself up, but he doesn’t stop, not until he’s pulled a second orgasm from her.

She’s finally able to collapse against his side, and she laughs shakily as she wipes tears from beneath her eyes. “You’re a fucking menace.”

He reaches down, hand wrapping around the side of her face to kiss her. “Happy anniversary.”

⇉ taglist:

@baddestomens @circle-with-me @deathblacksmoke @ladyveronikawrites

@malice-ov-mercy @dominuslunae @collapsedglasshouses @collidewiththesavannah @thatchickwiththecamera

[danieyells]

I find it funny that out of the teachers Dante, who looks like he doesn't give five inches of a fuck, is the most likely to believe one of his students molested the reader. Hyde looks the other way when you tell him about his dorms or brother, dismissing it with a 'I'll have a chat with them later, don't worry' but it is never brought to their ears; Moby feels it for you but him doing anything about it would mean either telling the chancellor and possibly getting his salary reduced or going to hotarubi or obscuary to chew them out but we all know how he refuses to go there; Nicholas, as freaked out as he might feel, excuses his ghoul's behavior saying that they spend a lot of time together and might forget normal boundaries so he will tell them that stripping the patient down bc they were taking a while isn't alright, accidentally gaslights them like, Yuri is only focused on his research and Jiro hardly even cares about staying alive and well!

Dante on the other hand believes fully anything about vagastorm, with how badly he already thinks of them, Leo took a photo while you changed? Believable enough. Sho groped you? Pervert like his brother. Alan cornered you and he had a hard on? He will talk with him. His punishments if it was Leo or sho or even an npc would be a lockdown of RdR for everyone on the dorm. But if it was Alan he might face him and tell him to not waste the chance Darkwick gave him commiting another crime.

He probably doesn't think much better of Frostheim either. Jin and Tohma are trying to 'train' you in Jin's room? Of course they are, one's a spoiled brat and the other is a delinquent. Kaito or Lucas harassed you? Kaito is a pathetic, desperate lost cause and Luca is a foreigner British prone to being inconsiderate by his own admission--no real surprise if they bother you either. The general students are harassing you? They're a bunch of entitled rich kids. Dante 1000% believes anytime someone molests you because he didn't trust them in the first place. Really, he wants better for them but he's never surprised if anyone in his houses prove his judgement right.

Also "pervert like his brother" implies so much that he knows about Hyde like. Do you wanna talk about it, Dante? You just got here yourself what have you seen what have you heard--

But yeah Dante will punish everyone collectively until the situation improves. They will hear from him, one way or another. He doesn't want to go as far as threatening to 78 them but he will if word gets to him that they're going too far.

(You end up feeling an awful lot like Dante is the only person you can trust here some days. He doesn't mind you hanging around the staff room as long as you're working either, so if someone needs you for something that's actually important they can come and ask while he is there. You try and do Dante any favors to show your appreciation and he refuses. He is doing his job. You do yours. There's no need for either of you to get too friendly with one another. The way he keeps you at arm's length reminds you a bit of Alan and the way he doesn't want people involved with him. . .but with the way some of the ghouls mess with you it's kind of refreshing, the professionalism. You never learn anything in particular about Dante--but you still like being around him. As long as you do your job, he doesn't mind being around you, either.)

Nicolas' excuse for not believing that Yuri harassed you is that Yuri acts like a deer in headlights if he so much as thinks too hard about exposed shoulders, so there's no way he sexually harassed you. If he was touching you it was probably for some research related reason. Jiro is Jiro, he doesn't know what he's doing--he doesn't think anything of nudity or certain kinds of physical contact if they can have medical purposes, he surely doesn't even realize he's doing something uncomfortable. Have you tried asking him to stop?

[boombox-fuckboy]

archive 81 for the ask meme?

Podcast I feel sooooooo normal about.

The medium is integral to the narrative. I've really only seen this executed so well in comics, but A81 also ties it in thematically as well which is very neat.

Soundscaped body horror. But also, body horror of a sympathetic character serving as an effective parallel to disability, as well as being an actual disability. He ultimately grows to feel netural about his "new flesh", without losing the frustration that it happened, it was done to him against his will, or that it changes the way people see and interact with him. Not all of the ways its changed him are for the worse, but it makes his life harder, yet at the end of the day it's still just his body.

I adore that Season 2 considers kindness a strength, but also that Season 3 makes it clear that violence is just as useful an option.

But the story itself builds its surprise in kindness. A horror story using kindness for its narrative twists! It seems obvious written out like that but I'd never encountered this before and got such a kick out of it.

Also, ever notice how many characters get what they want in the end? Either in a good way or an awful one?

It taught me a lot about what I like in a story. I also inadvertently expanded my ability to analyse media because of it.

Clara is such a fascinating character to me. It's arguably implied that her brother started to become "weird" (the way Dan, Rat, Suit, the Rep, Kara, etc are) and got LMG's help to reverse it and that's why she's in their debt. And this is part of the reason Dan makes her so uneasy at first: he's not a person so much as a weird, obsessive, corrupting entity, who she's led to believe chose this. And then he stands up for himself she decides she needs change if she's going to survive. And she does! And they start worrying about each other. And by the time she sees Suit again, it doesn't matter that's Suit's weird: she's a person Clara decides she can trust. Clara's an abrasive character who's fear makes her vicious and is, by extension, constantly working to be better under terrifying circumstances.

^ This was arguably my first successful in-depth character analysis maybe ever. Clara is still very compelling to me, possibly in-part because of it.

Also the S2 straight-bait lmao. Gosh it was a relief they didn't shoehorn in a romance.

I quite like the genre changes between seasons. Feels like the creators are having fun with it. Creating what they want to.

Even the character change going into S3. Chris and Nicholas are really compelling right off the bat.

And Static Man & Nicholas' weird friendship. Do you have to be a good person to be a good friend? Are you bound by circumstance or choice? Dedicating so much of your life to someone you're still a stranger to in so many ways, but closer to than anyone else. They're fascinating.

How complicated and obsurd the rituals are. Also, did you notice in S1 that Jesse is often running weird and specific shit to particular apartments? What's the bet those are ritual components.

Following in from that: great relisten value. All the little details?

I could go on. But I will spare you.

[cookiesupplier]

I saw your post and want to throw a request your way.

Noah Sebastian x reader

The reader has been struggling with depression and decides that she wants Nick to give her her first tattoo. Something that she would be able to look at when she is going through a rough time mentally and remind her that she matters. Noah would be there with her while she gets the tattoo. Maybe have it be on her ribcage or something like that.

Okay, so I’ve never gotten my ribcage tattoo’d personally, but from what I’ve been told it can be a painful/sensitive area to tattoo so I’m going to go with that. I am going to play on the face that my first tattoo was quite large and everyone tried to talk me out of it for my first one lolll This is only a blurby, but I sort of used a tattoo idea I really want to get for myself.. and I went with first person, which I've never done before.. so I hope I didn't do too badly for you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Noah squeezed my hand tightly, and I looked up to him where he sat in his chair by the tattoo bed looking over me. I was laying on my side, I’d worn a halter top to make it easier for Nicholas to access the skin along my ribs without having to take my entire top half off. Not that I’d have a problem with it, some might think my boyfriend might, but the fact that it was his best friend that he trusted most in the whole world that was the one tattooing me, well, I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem. We’d already had this discussion, and I’d been sure to talk to Noah about it first. I was the one that asked him to be here. He wasn’t here to be the overprotective boyfriend, he was here as emotional support. He was here for me to break his hand if the needle gun got too much. After all, it was the very first time I was to get a tattoo. It was understandable I was nervous. After Nicholas had rubbed the cool gel into my skin, both Nicholas and Noah checked if I was okay. I told them I was. After he placed the stencil, peeling it back to reveal the transferred imagery that included the fated lyrics that spoke to me so intensely. Seeing them there on my skin, even if temporarily for the moment, my breath caught and I could feel my eyes sting with slight tears and that was when Noah squeezed my hand so tight, “Are you sure you’re okay Baby?” Resting my head back down on the tattoo bed, looking up to Noah as he look down to my, smiling even as my  eyes glazed a little, “Yea, I’m great.” I wasn’t lying either, smiling a bit more, excited as Nicholas reached for the tattoo gun. “This is really going to hurt you know…” You couldn’t help but laugh a little. Noah had reminded me so many times ever since I’d told him what I wanted to do. “I know, I know! Geeze, it’s like you’re trying to talk me out of walking the plank!” It was a tattoo, my first, and yes it was my ribs. At least he hadn’t once tried to talk me out of getting lyrics from one of their songs, knowing what they meant to me. Careful What You Wish For, had been a song that had gotten me out of such a horrible place in my life, the whole second album had in a way. I sometimes found it hard to express just how much outside of that song, which was why I wanted to immortalise it on my skin. Most of the tattoo was inspired imagery that Nicholas had designed, he was an amazing artist, but he had slipped some of the lyrics in there, the ones that meant the most to me.. This tattoo was to remind me that tough times didn’t last forever, and to always keep going. After all, the man that took part in writing the very lyrics I was inking to my skin, the man that held my hand and supported me even if I was jumping in feet first for a tattoo that most people wouldn’t choose for their first.. At all.. He still was right here beside me. Nicholas started up the tattoo gun and the buzzing filled the room, “Let’s do this.” Grinning brightly as I looked from Noah over my shoulder to Nicholas with a nod, I was  ready when he was. The way Noah gripped my fingers too tight, I would swear he was more nervous than I was. That thought made me giggle a little. “Are you alright Babe? Don’t need to lie down with me, do you?” Smirking as he rolled his eyes, “Don’t laugh, you need to lay still.” He nodded to Nick, “Go on, she’s good.” Smiling down to me fondly. I loved him so much. I was glad I was careful what I wished for, because I would never want to miss one day with this man for any stupid mistake in the world.

[kissorkill16]

If Bubba Had Lived In WWWOH: AHNF

By JJ

Summary: The title says it all.

A week had passed, and Nicky has been slowly turning back to his normal, coherent self.

But after the incident, he was more quiet, more jumpy, less energetic, and more tired.

Bubba understood that recovering from whatever he went through is difficult, and she knew that he wouldn't be the same again, but seeing her grandson like this really broke her heart.

So she'd been doing everything to try and be a better grandmother for Nicky. She practically never left him alone, but when she did, she'd ask either Jay or Luanne to keep an eye on him, despite not trusting them after the incident.

One particular afternoon, Bubba had decided to let Nicky go out after he practically got down on his knees and begged her, saying that he'd been cooped up in the house for too long. Reluctantly, Bubba agreed, but only if he was home by dinner.

As the elderly lady was finishing dinner, she heard a loud slam at the door, startling her and nearly making her drop the plate in her hands. She went to see who it was, and Nicky stood at the door, completely drenched and covered in small red scratches.

"Nicholas, what happened to you?", she asked in worry. But Nicky just stormed past her and stomped up the stairs to the bathroom.

After a silent moment or two, Bubba had went upstairs to the bathroom, with the door slightly ajar, she saw that Nicky was drying his head with a towel. She knocked before pushing the door open.

"Nicholas, what happened? Why are you so angry?", she asked. Nicky sighed and threw the towel on the toilet.

"I feel like my friend is replacing me."

When he said that, he sat down on the toilet and explained the situation to her.

"Me and Trinity were just hanging out, and I told her that I was still kind of recovering from the whole Mr. Peterson incident, and then she mentions that she invited this other kid named Delroy.", he said, the word Delroy sounding like venom in his mouth. "He's just a dumb jerk, and she knows we don't get along, but I guess that doesn't matter to her. The moment I mention I couldn't hang out much anymore, Delroy tells me to step!"

He rung out his wet clothes as he ranted on.

Meanwhile, Bubba had taken out some disinfectant pads from the bathroom sink, and she gently cleaned the scratches on Nicky's body.

"Darling...", she started, "I don't think your friends are replacing you. I think that maybe they're worried about you ever since the incident, so they're trying to invite someone else into their group to fill that empty space in their hearts that you once filled. But they know it's not the same."

Nicky looked at his grandmother with shiny eyes, "You really think that?", he asked.

"Yes, little wolf.", replied Bubba. "Your friends love you so much, especially that little Trinity girl. If she didn't, do you think she would've saved you?"

Nicky looked down at his shoes, "No, I guess I didn't think about that."

Bubba put away the pads back under the sink. "Just try not to think about it too much, dear. Maybe you might like this Delroy once you two get to know each other."

Nicky nodded, "I guess you're right. Trinity did mention that she was going to try and help us get along more."

As they continued this conversation, they went downstairs for dinner.

The next day, Bubba was finishing up with the dishes. Just as she was about to dry them off, she heard a knock at the door, so she put the dish and the drying towel down, and went to answer it.

She was greeted by a woman with black hair, a violet jacket, and white pants.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Is this the Roth residence?", she asked.

"Yes.", replied Bubba, "Who are you and why are you here?"

"My name is Amanda Bales. I moved to the neighborhood not to long ago with my husband and daughter, and I need to talk to you about Nicholas Roth.", said the woman. Bubba's eyes widened slightly. "That's my grandson.", she said.

"Yeah, may I come in? I'd prefer to have this conversation inside."

Bubba was reluctant for a moment, but she stepped aside and let Amanda walk through the door.

The women went to the kitchen, where Bubba continued drying the dishes as Amanda sat at the table.

"Now, why are you coming to me about my grandson?", asked the elderly lady.

"Has Nicky ever mentioned my daughter to you? Trinity Bales?"

Bubba nodded, "Yes. One visit at the nursing home.", she said. "But what does your daughter have to do with this?"

"Apparently, she had a hypoglycemic attack at her after school club today. I'm sure Nicky has mentioned this to you, she's diabetic, can't have sugar. But the thing is that I know my daughter is always so careful, so I find it highly suspicious that she went into a sugar coma when she told me that there was sugarless cookies at the little get together her and her friends were having."

Before Amanda could say more, Bubba slammed down a glass cup, and turned around. "What exactly are you trying to say here, Amanda?"

She set down the towel and stormed closer to the woman sitting at the table, "Are you implying that my grandson is responsible for your daughter going into a sugar coma?"

"That is exactly what I'm implying.", said Amanda, "Not sure if you know this, but Nicky is a constant troublemaker and is always making bad things happen. Just ask Principal Abanate -"

"I don't need to ask Principal Abanate!"

Amanda was startled by the elderly lady's sudden outburst, but she stood her ground. Bubba continued on.

"Just who do you think you are, coming to my home and accusing my grandson of such a cruel act without any evidence to back it up whatsoever?", she said, pointing a finger to her chest. "What's worse is that you're accusing a child of this. You accuse children of such crimes? What is next? You accuse a couple of children for burning your house down too? You're disgusting, woman. Disgusting."

Then she pointed to the door, "You should go.", she said, her voice deep. When Amanda didn't move, she said more sternly "Immediately."

This time, Amanda did move. Before she walked out the door, she growled at the elderly woman, "This isn't over."

Bubba slammed the door as soon as she was completely out of the house.

"Things go wrong, and the first thing people do is blame a child?", thought the elderly lady. "More so, my grandson? These people are horrible."

Next part:

[power-chords]

Some Miami Vice Thots*:

Big Screen, I Notice More Stuff: That club is called MANSION. Linkin Park (from Agoura Hills, or what seems to me to be the Westchester, NY of the San Fernando Valley — Californians please correct me if I'm wrong), mashed up with Jay-Z (a Black billionaire from the mean streets of Bed-Stuy, the New New Gatsby/Big Joe Turner). Relevant to bullet point immediately below.

According to Michael Mann Miami in the mid-aughts is Age of Discovery (Digital Edition) meets Crime Family Feudalism in recursive recurrence, multiple timelines and identities inhabiting the same geographic vectors (everyone is always forever in motion). The very first interaction Sonny has with someone who is not a team member is a bartender who says she is from Lisboa, to which Sonny replies, "But you got your tan in Miami." This is what I read: She's the "reformed" Portuguese equivalent of the character in this Butch Walker song. She came from money, she lost it perhaps, but she's been since... repossessed? There's a more sinister interpretation under the surface, since she is under the roof of a powerful (and possibly related) employer whose business operations require unwavering loyalty + utmost discretion in exchange for protection (which in this case is also exploitation). Tan, in other words, as a form of Midas touch. Sacrifice to a sun(/SON!!!) god (or is Sonny more of a defecting Samson figure, speaking to an inert "Neon" Delilah who will only feign at seduction/betrayal, moving through the moves?). So already these two characters are speaking in code to each other, which is an amazing storytelling device on Mann's behalf, and you can shake so much out of that.

Derived from the above: "My Mommy and Daddy know me," hilarious line btw, becomes double-doublespeak, quadruple-speak! Not only is he pretending to tell the truth under a fabricated fundamental, the statement itself is yet another subtextual lie. His parents don't really know him, they just thought they did, which is why he's run off to become what he's become. Rico is the partner who acts out of duty first, love secondarily; Sonny is the Byronic inverse. Diaspora southern gothic. I like to think this is the mythic re-interpretation/inspiration Mann wishes a certain American population would draw from, in lieu of... current political/pop cultural figureheads.

Gina tenderly comforting the injured Zito... this shot is seconds long and yet captures my heart every time! Where is the backstory fic for these two!

Once again, the Rico/Trudy sex scene is a definite contender for the most affectionate, respectful, and sensual one in Hollywood history

Oh, Isabella. My girl Isabella. I overheard someone in the lobby call this film "such a guy movie." I don't know what drugs these people are on. Especially when counterpart to the hypermasculine satirical camp is the sensitivity and sympathy with which Mann portrays the situation of women, how we are exploited either way/anyway, deprived of romantic trust/human partnership by being put at risk by men and also by them denied the agency of taking risks for ourselves. There's both heartbreak and hypocrisy in how she attacks Sonny at the end, screaming "Who are you!" (The audience's heartbreak is: We have an instinctive uneasy sense of the systems that force her, and the rest of us, to live as hypocrites. Who are any of us, anymore, really!)

I was like MICHAEL DO THE GARMENTO CRIME DRAMA W/ ME and he was like "I made Miami Vice already, dummy! Pay attention!" Me: "OK!!!" [Pays a visit to Auerbach's Keller in Grand Central Terminal and then stays up until 5 AM playtesting West Village: Walpurgisnacht/watching the Chicago & Miami Postmodern Pseudepigrapha about Non-Recourse Factoring]

The "color coding" in this film is bonkers. More on that eventually, I'm still chewing on it.

The duality of Man(n)ager: the tragic pathos imbued to Alonzo vs. the vaudevillian coercion of Nicholas. "Why is this happening to me?!" cracks me the fuck up. This most powerful, literally biblical quandary of them all, the whole of Mann's filmography boiled down to its most singular and direct (I.E., truthful) expression, in the form of a persecuted exclamation, and it's played for laughs. Because what can you do except laugh! It's Job(/lowercase job) as circus performance, as a cabaret act. Job's poetry parodied into factional slogans and Shandyan-American dick jokes. I can't believe people think this is a stupid movie, it's pretending to be stupid!!!

*The appropriate spelling for this film in particular

[ofwrxth]

+ NICK / ASPHODEL

"Good, you're still here," Nadia says, stopping short of the volunteer office in the east building. It's already late, but the night seems likely to drag on with recent developments. Thankfully, at this hour, there are far less people milling about. "I need your help." She says without explanation, already gesturing at him to follow her. An explanation might have been nice, however, considering her singed hair and the bit of soot staining her cheeks. "We've a bit of a situation," she says, glancing at her son. "And your discretion is absolutely necessary. Understood?" Nadia asks without waiting for a reply. She strides down the hall, the spark of magical energy at her fingertips as she leads him towards an unidentified room.

Before she opens the warded door, Nadia turns to him, finally catching her breath. "There's a cursed object in this room, Nicholas. And a witch who's bound to it. I've put her to sleep, but I don't know for how long." Which is why she needs his help. Nadia begins to deliver crystal clear instructions, calm as ever under pressure and trusting her son to be the same. "I need you to keep her under while I try to break the bind between her and the object." A witch with cursed magic was incredibly dangerous. "If she wakes...we'll have more than the object to deal with." And there are still many questions that linger, like how she'd even gotten ahold of the cursed object apart from the alchemy labs. Or why she'd chosen to wear it. Foolishness comes to mind, but Nadia's gut tells her it's more than that. Either way, it doesn't matter until they've broken the curse. "Can you do that?" She beseeches her son. He's more than capable in Nadia's estimation, but her belief in his skills only go as far as his own belief in himself.

@manybcdthings

[hypnotisedfireflies]

I wondered if in the Driftverse had either Sarah or Nico (Mike can stay dead) survived, would Joel and Tess connect. From your recent posts I guess yes in the case of Sarah. But, if it had been Nico who survived would Joel want to get involved with a woman with a toddler?

I’m starting to think that you’re all out to get me. 

I’m sleep deprived but I don’t think this paranoia is misplaced??  You are all out to get me with your prompts and your plot bunnies and asks that make things happen in my brain that I can't control and then want to write about. 

The short answer is Joel would get involved with Tess probably a lot earlier (not that they wasted much time) had kids been involved. I'm thinking of this through the lens that Sarah also lives, because let's go full happy here.

I'll bullet point how Drifters might have gone had Nico and Sarah survived:

(Also can I point out the Nico Servopoulos – Nico Parker thing was a coincidence.  I called the kid Nick which I was then like, that’s short for Nicholas, that’s TOO many S’s and so changed it to be short for Nico and then later clicked with the Nico Parker connection.  Funny how these things work out.  ANYWAY).

Tommy, Joel and Sarah eventually come to the Lake Michigan camp – the brothers want to get off the road for Sarah’s sake.  They’re not as hardcore do-it-alone when they’ve got her to protect.  The priority is just finding somewhere safe to be. 

Tommy and Tess don’t meet up as early contacts and the windmill stuff never happens, because Tess isn’t trading.  She’s grounded at the Lake Michigan camp with Nico.

They start to interact with Tess through Sarah.  Tess is struggling.  She had started to find her rhythm with Nico before the Outbreak happened, but that’s all gone out the window. 

I kind of think having Nico is almost an Achilles Heel for Tess rather than a serious motivator as it is for Joel.  Like, she’s already struggled so much to function as a mother and now she has all these other issues to contend with.  When it’s just Tess, she can be as selfish as she needs to be.  But the pressure of looking after someone who she already feels like she’s failing would be such a stressful, frightening situation for her. 

And because she doesn’t trust anyone, she’s not really getting any help and she’s just kind of heading toward some kind of serious crash.

There’s no other kids at the Lake and Sarah, who is in that twilight between childhood and adulthood, starts spending time with Nico and Tess.  Sarah has never been around little kids so she’s not like a star babysitter or anything, but it gives her something to do - and someone to talk to who isn’t an adult who talks over her head and makes decisions for her all the time. 

Joel meets Tess and can tell right away that she’s not coping.  He makes some gentle suggestions to which she is not amenable, but Sarah’s in earshot so she reserves her right to tell him what he can do with his advice. 

Joel would start coming by, helping out.  They’d take Nico sometimes so Tess can just rest.  And he’s just naturally good with kids, right?  Daddering just comes easily to him.

They probably end up in the Chicago QZ with Ash’s group.  They’re not going to risk travelling far with kids.

Thanks for the ask, anon! It’s interesting exploring the Coulda Beens.

And then ... Idk, maybe they never get to Boston.

Or maybe they get to the Appalachian Mountains? There are a few prompts floating around to this effect ...

They'd become a tight family unit. Nico's going to call Joel Dad and Joel would see him as his kid. I've never thought Ellie would call Tess Mum, but maybe Sarah would.

Oh and Tommy probably doesn't leave. He wants to, but Sarah won't let him. 🥺

If Sarah wasn't alive, Joel would still become involved with Tess and provide that support, but it would take longer. She'd get a lot closer to that crash.

[hikennosabo]

trimax volume 6 random thoughts

chapter 1:

oh, hey, it's the guy from the 98 anime!..... or not?!

i'm not keeping track of this TOO closely, so there may be other instances of this that i missed, but the guy from 98 episode 1 also showed up in trimax chapter 7. it makes me wonder if nightow provided character designs/ideas to the 98 team, or if it's the other way around and he decided to incorporate anime-original characters into the manga. either way: neat!

HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE MERYL, BY THE WAY.

i love the bits of characterization we've been getting for her. she (and milly) are our tie to humanity, after all

i must say it is nice to have a goofy fight after... all that in volume 5. and before... the rest of volume 6.

chapter 2:

aaaand now we start the next chapter with wolfwood's nightmare/flashback! hurts just a little bit! (the trio IS kinda serving tho ngl... when you have a fashion show at 7 but need to terrorize the orphanage at 6)

^ completely and 100% unironically, they were in love here.

i just... ugh. this is such a vashwood chapter. the absolute trust and fighting together completely seamlessly, they are just. ugh. ughhhhh. this kind of trust just GETS to me.... sorry. i'm normal about them. i'm NORMALLLLLLaauughghghgh

ANYWAY. chekhov's table made me laugh

i am physically restraining myself from going crazy over vw again as i reread this chapter to write this post.

anyway anyway. ww calling himself "nicholas" is cute :)

just kidding one more vw comment as a treat

HE'S SO IN LOVE. FUUUUUCK.

chapter 3:

legato continues to be fascinating to me. i'm observing him like a bug in a jar. which is appropriate, considering...

WHEN I CALLED HIM A BAGWORM IN THAT ONE POST I WAS JOKINGGGGG I WAS JOKING!!! THIS MADE ME LAUGH FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES STRAIGHT WHY DID SHE HANG HIM FROM THE CEILINGGGG IT'S SO FUNNY

this is actually making me fucking cry.

...i got so distracted laughing at bagworm legato that i almost forgot to say literally anything else about the chapter, but anything else i have to say mostly boils down to "wow, legato is such a freak (affectionate)"

also, whenever something that was in tristamp is brought up i feel like the leonardo dicaprio pointing meme. like "oh hey, i know this!" going into this manga with prior knowledge from stampede is... an interesting experience. all that being said, i can't WAIT to see more of the manga version of double fang. oh nightow we're really in it now

chapter 4:

oh, finally, FINALLY!!! last volume i asked where the knives nuance was and now we're FINALLY getting some knuance, thank god. seeing knives react to just how badly humans treat plants is SO effective. and we're not even up to the juicy part yet. it makes me want to eat glass.

speaking of eating glass.

i thought something like this might've been the case, but still... this hurts to read.

i want to eat glass!!!! fuck!!! this reveal is so insane, it's like monkey's paw of "this is a way knives can be defeated, but by the same method, vash is closer to death than knives is." WE don't want vash to die, and neither does knives, and this chapter is the first (and possibly the only, idk) time the reader's feelings and knives's feelings are... well, aligned. at least in a sense.

chapter 5:

this chapter is really something, because it starts off almost seeming like another lighthearted "we're in a random town fighting a goofy enemy of the month" romp much like the early chapters were, heck like chapter 1 of this very volume. but it's just wearing the skin of that. which is, y'know. the thesis of this entire chapter. smiling to hide the pain and all that.

i don't think i can really... articulate anything of substance. the chapter just kind of... speaks for itself, i think.

although i DID laugh at ww trying to enjoy his noodles and failing, and also the phrase "needle-noggin-isms." thanks for providing some levity, we actually really do need it.

chapter 6:

ohhh boy we are REALLY in it now!!

i enjoy seeing knives ponder like this. legs crossed, arm slung over his face... i don't know. maybe it's because i myself sometimes lounge in this pose.

what exactly is he thinking about, i wonder. that in awakening/forcing vash to use his powers, he unintentionally pushed him closer to death? maybe? i don't know. either way it's very on-the-nose for what their relationship has been like.

and then of course we cut to this shot of vash, looking in a mirror created by knives's slice

this shot is making me think a lot and i'm reading too much into it, but- obviously the reflection puts vash's beauty mark on the opposite side, so there's the knives resemblance, so also, i suppose vash must see knives every time he looks in the mirror, right? also vash looking at his reflection featuring his own black hair- which we're all still thinking about... i dont know. i dont even know if this is anything LOL. i feel like i have the dots but i'm failing to articulate the connection. anyway

this made me laugh. thanks for the levity again, wolfwood :)

BECAUSE WE'RE GONNA NEED ALL THE COMIC RELIEF WE CAN GET, BABY!!!

maybe i'm just insane for this because it's Generic Party Imagery but the specific combination of rem flashback + party popper + funny glasses makes me think of the similar scene in 98 when the seeds crew celebrates finding planet gunsmoke. like is this another instance of nightow nabbing stuff from 98 or am i just making things up.

the twins are so cute and baby knives smiles so much, i want to microwave myself.

knives wants to believe in humanity. man. MAN!!!!!

what comes next... i'm absolutely carrying my prior stampede knowledge into this, but fuck, man. fuck. even then, i know that stampede didn't show everything, so i don't even fully know what to expect. which is fun! but i can't believe the volume ends right in the middle of the flashback, MAN!!!

[postguiltypleasures]

My Peak TV Journey *Betty la Fea La Historia Continua*

I need to say upfront, that I was really excited about this series, and I remain mostly satisfied. I look forward to the second season continuing (and wrapping up?) this story. I also finished watching the edited-for-Peacock version of the original.  I will say that the sequel is for people like me, people who think the original loses steam after the return from Cartagena. Also, while they can show Armando in touch with his emotions, they don’t show him having any idea how to act on them in a healthy manner. Despite this he and Betty accept that they’re still in love, generally better together so they get together without resolving Betty’s deep trust issues, or how Armando still needs to learn anger management and better communication skills. It’s amazing they lasted as long as they did.

I don’t want to fight anyone over the quality of the series, but there are some things I have to defend. Namely the structural differences between the sequel and original. By structural, I mean mostly pacing, cast size, and how information is revealed. The differences between setting up a story that will most likely run through through hundreds of episodes more or less uninterrupted for over a year vs something that the two episode once a week, for a total of ten where continuation will be indefinite continuation is essentially a change of medium. The techniques and rules for storytelling change. The now de-cannonized sequel spinoff Ecomoda is criticized for being too much of a sitcom when figuring out how to deal with this.  La Hisotria Continua is more like the original telenovela in tone and plot points, but it has to unfold differently than the original. (Also in being more like the original, it’s going to torture its main characters a new. If you can’t accept it, don’t watch and don’t comment.) In the original an early episode is dedicated to Betty and Nicholas reading a magazine covering an event Ecomoda had, with flashbacks to event, where we really get to know many of the major characters, what they are up to and then we watch what’s happening next. This season comes with the assumption that we are familiar with most of the characters, but we don’t really know what they’ve been up to, and most importantly, we don’t know how they relate to the new ones. Crucially, it isn’t laid out so we know what kind of danger Betty is walking into like in the original. In the original the intrigue was “what will happen?” Here it’s more “what has happened?” This comes with mixed results. The first episode especially felt needlessly confusing. And even by the end of the season, there were things, like how and why Majo got involved with Ecomoda, that I wish had been clarified by then. However, there was a moment in the second episode made it more clear that they knew what they were doing. This starts with Betty telling Bertha and Sandra that she was not a good president of Ecomoda because she only made the rich richer. I took this as a sign that this was taking on the extreme classism in the original, how it was mostly treated as “that’s the way the world works” kind of way. 

The series opens at Don Roberto’s (Armando’s father) funeral. Armando’s relationship with his father was always  fucked up though the original series seemed to lose interest in the more negative aspects of his character as it went on. One of the messed up things about their relationship was how accommodating Roberto was to Daniel, so of his former business associates and Armando’s rivalry. The not too subtle subtext is that Roberto thought of Daniel as a more serious minded person for business and wished Armando was more like him, while also showing little to know interest in anything else about who Armando is as a person. He didn’t have much interest in who Daniel was as a person either. This all business approach helped him appear to be out of the fray, when he really very much was in it. In the new series, through  a video of his will, Roberto sets up a plan for Ecomoda that manipulates a reluctant Betty back while telling Armando how he once again failed as president.  No wonder after Roberto’s death Armando is haunted by visions of Roberto saying he should have spent more time in prison, and that he doesn’t deserve someone as wonderful as Betty. The latter statement is ironic, given that Roberto treated Betty pretty coldly. Everyone ignores the fact that in the original series when they first met he refused to shake her hand. Roberto definitely deserves some of the blame for how Marcela became a lingering presence over Betty and Armando’s marriage, and Betty never feeling entirely welcome in the Mendoza family. And of course as we later learn, her fired Betty to appease Marcela, when that was bad for everyone.

Looking back after the season, I think Marcela might have been the character who most benefited from the changes in structure. The story was put into motion by her worst qualities, her anger, lack of curiosity, the ways she isolates herself. But she didn’t have enough air time to for these traits to become too tiresome and have us give up on her. And she is left in a position where she has to make some life changing decisions. We learn early on Marcela blames Betty for Daniel’s downfall. Betty was aware that something was wrong with the company financially, alerted the police and the investigation led to Daniel being arrested for money laundering and then being murdered in prison. But, for the plot of this series, the real issue is how aggressively Marcela only sees what she wants to see. Marcela seems to have natural blinders towards so much in life. She wants vengeance of getting rid of Betty and Armando and then taking over Ecomoda with Ignacio. But she is not paying attention to what Ignacio is doing. When she learns if a lot of it in the last episodes she’s appalled. But she mostly doesn’t want to. Her relationship with Ignacio is the inverse of how she treated Armando as a boyfriend. But it is reminiscent of how she never had interest in the running of Ecomoda, never checked in on Armando and Mario’s business schemes and ignored how her brother sexually harassed her best friend. So her not checking in more on Nacho feels in character, but is part of her character that’s always been frustrating. After the reveal that Ignacio is her half brother, instead of her nephew as she believed, I began to wonder if it was a revelation to force her to change this aspect of her character? Does knowing her father had a second family make her aware that this isn’t just keeping her head high out of the muck? (Or whatever she says to herself.) She’s ignoring things that matter. It also made me think are we supposed to reassess her constant monitoring of Armando during their relationship as some kind of subconscious way of making up of all the ways she ignored the poor behavior of the men in her immediate family? For most of the season the relationship between Marcela and Nacho was treated as a mystery, much of the office assuming that he was her boyfriend, while fans knew he was a secret member of the Valencia family and having the full answer include how much Marcela doesn’t look at or explore things involving her familys interesting. I hope the next season follows up on this. Some of the follow up will involve Pascual, Nacho’s secret parter and Marcela’s new love interest. I’m not sure Pascual will actually be good for Marcela in the long run.  She needs to have her single minded desire to hurt Betty and Armando broken by other desires. And I don’t think she’s thought of wanting anything else for a while. But he gives mixed messages all the time. As a secret patter who express interest in becoming part of the high society fashion world. But in his first scene he says the line “Para mi papero y papito son los mismos nombres.”  Indicating he’s not that interested in changing his identity.  He has a couple of ugly divorces and says he wants to be fawned over by models, but he also is instantly smitten with Marcela and pursues her with the most blunt and crass language I can imagine.  He also has as little interest in remaking Ecomoda’s image as he does his own image, to Nacho’s presumed chagrin.

Marcela also had surprisingly little interaction Patricia, which did affect a lot of the show. It’s an interesting way showing of how people have changed and stayed the same. During the first episode I hated Bertha and Sandra’s jokes about Patricia’s husband. They were gross and agist.  (Later meeting him at the quinceñera flash back made Patricia’s relationship  seem like elder abuse. But, I kind of like that Patricia’s in a relationship that she wants to be known, but doesn’t want to bring attention to. It’s a change of pace from the original where she was single, desperate and frequently saying how she could have a boyfriend whenever she wanted. The change seems like an appropriate response to Daniel regularly offering to pimp her out to his friends. I also like that she was promoted to Gutierrez’s position as a way to show everything being different but similar. Patricia was always about bossing around el cuartel. Gutierrez also seemed to think of his job as chiding people back into looking busy whenever. The change in position a good reason for Bertha and Sandra’s renewed hatred for Patricia a fits with the ways Gutierrez was awful. Bertha’s obsession with “chisme” might actually make her good at the job, She can make people feel seen and heard and communicate between workers and executives. People could feel more motivated to work when they understand more of what is going on in the company. But it doesn’t fit with the intense classism that rules Ecomoda. It would be a view of the position completely alien to Gutierrez.  

As I was saying earlier, whatever is going on with Majo, Mario and Armando seems more needlessly confusing than intriguing. Why is Armando friendly with Majo again after her kiss at the end of the first episode causes such disruption? Those scenes with the them at the club were weird. I don’t for a second believe she’s an alternate love interest, but why should I care? As the season went on I find myself more intrigued by the lack of scenes between Majo and Mario. He talks her up whenever he’s alone with Armando and even expected her to have a conjugal visit with him in prison. Yet she never talks about him, and they never talk directly to each other. I’ve come to think of her as not so much wanting Armando, as wanting Armando to want a divorce because that what Mario, her secret real employer wants. But this is based on absence, rather than what’s on screen. For what does Mario want control over Armando? And why is he still so bad at vetting potential business alliances? I hate the character of Mario, but the season could have improved by filling in some gaps about what he’s up to.

Betty’s alternate love interest, Esteban, isn’t a better defined character than Majo, but at least he’s not supposed to have created some kind of bond with the main characters off screen in the time between series’s.  He’s a better alternative love interest than Michel in that he’s a better listener and has more in common with Betty. But he’s still too boring to compete with Armando.

As someone who always thought Armando didn’t show up enough what he learned, of that he necessarily knew how to be, I kind of loved events on the third and fourth episodes as revisiting things in the original series, including punch Esteban like he punched Nicolas in the original for being a perceived romantic rival. While that was a new low originally, it didn’t motivate Armando to change his behavior. If anything, the original series suggests that violently lashing out is fine when you’re lashing out at the right people as demonstrated by him later punching Mario. His attempt to change includes joining a group therapy with Freddy. This leads to revisiting Armando in drag, only this time to better understand Betty’s point of view, not simply be emasculated for the failures of his toxic masculinity and homophobia as in the original. In some ways I felt for him more in this series than I did in the original. He just seemed so lost, but also not putting himself at the center of everything as he did in the original.  Betty briefly made him VP of Finances, a roll to which he is not suited, but doing so gives him the time to confess to his misdeeds on his own time. I found myself wishing that they made Armando majoring in something more mechanical a bigger part of his character. Then I could say “that’s what he’s good at.” But he seems otherwise most interested in maintaining vendor and supplier relations which seems closer to Marcela’s specialty. Being at Ecomoda is bad for him as a person. During the flashback to the fight while Betty left him he says he sacrificed his social circle for their relationship. There is a truth to this. Mario’s ability to slip back into his life is a sight of how real it feels. But the bigger truth is that between the hours he spent at Ecomoda, and the class rigidity of the institution, he never had the opportunity to make new friendships. This is poignantly present in his scenes with Freddy, where we see how hard it is to accept Freddy as a friend. 

All this talk about how social hierarchies having ruinous effect on personal it’s time to do a brief, segue about the uses of “usted” and “tú” in both series, with the caveat that I am neither a native Spanish speaker nor a Colombian nor someone who’s ever been to Colombia. I know I’m missing a lot of cultural context. I have heard that Colombia uses “usted” more than other Spanish speaking countries. Still, the use in the original seemed extreme. It helped illustrate the ingrained classicism of the original. Betty and Armando reverting to “usted”  even en a flashback to happier times, after beginning to use “tú” near the end of the original is a bad sign. It adds opportunity to misunderstand one another and hints that they haven’t quite gotten over the class divide after years of marriage. In the original it sometimes seems like one has to be upper class to deign tutear. The Cuartel, Betty’s parents within their relationship with each other and with Betty, as well as Betty with Nicolás all use “usted” with each other despite being personally close. In contrast to this Patricia’s use of tú comes off as impudent, and Nicolás only uses tú when trying to impress Patricia by pretending to have more money than he’s worth. This language barrier, in the original Betty sees herself as an extension of Armando who always had to prove herself. (This is common amongst Ecomoda employees, see Berta’s reluctance to share Gutierrez’s home phone number while he was sexually harassing Aura Maria and Sandra’s self-flagellation after lying to Mario.) By the new series Betty strongly associates more with the employees of Ecomoda than any of its owners. Which explains her return to “usted,” and Mila’s regular use of “tú” as a sign of how hard it is for them to get each other. The continuation seems pretty aware that this emphasis on formality was a not great set up for life.

Mila starts the season very angry with her mother and ends angry with her father. While taking notes I surmised that all the hurtful things Mila said to Betty early on showed a fear of understanding what happened between her parents. She knew it was too potentially painful. She chose to support Armando because she thought he wanted to reconnect in a way Betty didn’t. This fear is completely founded, and when she does find out about her parents history, the reason her mother quickly abandoned trust in her father, she switches allegiance. Though this happens right around the time Betty is starting to consciously realize that her reaction 

Early in the season Betty says something about needing to break vicious cycles. She’s right about that need, but her technique of just cutting off all contact is by now her own contribution vicious cycle, and therefore counter productive. She would have known more about what she was walking into returning to Ecomoda if she opened those emails. Also, while she definitely had the right to be angry with Armando about how his failed negotiations with Roberto and Marcela affected her, and the way she was cut out of them, it would have been better for all if after a couple of days of cooling down they decided to meet for counseling. The extended radio silence was just bad for everyone. Also I would like more detail on what Betty and Nicolas were up to in their time away from Ecomoda. I am under the impression that Doña Julia was ill and died during that time period, so Betty spent a lot of time with her mother during her last days and shut off any contact Armando tried to make simultaneously. But what else? What was she thinking about as possible futures? Nicolas is even more of a blank slate. All I know is that Mila has apparently t been telling I’m for yeas that the amount of hair gel he uses makes him look older than necessary. She is right, see any picture of Mario Duarte out of character. 

While I wish more detail was given to Betty’s life away from Ecomoda, I like pretty much everything about how she acts after she returns. As I said before, I like how explicitly she relates to non share holding staff instead of favoring the actionistas. This includes her room ring Freddy and demoting Mario. I hope there is more follow up on that next season. More concerning this season’s plot, I like that Betty got the heads up about financial shenanigans from Hugo. It was unexpected, but in character for both. Also it reflects poorly on Marcela, who could have gotten answers to what Armando was doing if she just talked to Hugo like an equal. 

I don’t know anything about the Colombian’ legal system. So I can’t say anything about how realistically or not Armando turning himself and Gutierrez in between the episodes. The important thing is how it plays in comparison to his downward spiral after Betty exposed the Terramoda scheme in the original. Which is that he’s more willing to take responsibility for his actions, go public and not pick fights. Betty also has changed since then, demonstrated by going to visit him in jail and talk. Then they have sex in a scene reminiscent of their first time in the original, only with some roll reversal. This is emotionally confusing for Betty. In someways exactly the situation that she thought of to justify cutting him off with no contact. On the other hand she gets to speak to someone who cares about the real emotional turmoil affecting her and learns more about Ecomoda’s quagmire. 

Another aspect recently revealed aspect of Betty I would like to see more of is the things that led Betty to tell her father that he wasn’t a great husband. He wasn’t, but it was something that couldn’t be articulated outside of some face making Doña Julia did, and the way Betty and her mother hid things from him. It fits with a theme of the series of saying things they couldn’t say in the original. Hermes’ dogmatism is in conflict with Betty’s journey of becoming more of a humanist. 

I’m now going to wrap this up by writing about the new generation followed by some thoughts on finish the original series in a more complete way than ever before.

Other than Mila, Ignacio is the best defined of the new characters. Viewers were quick to say he has the Daniel Valencia role of the original. After all he is someone aligned with Marcela acting antagonistically towards Betty and Armando. And while this series played with that assumption, the two characters are most interesting in their differences. Ignacio is charming while Daniel was aggressively not. To the extent Daniel had charm, it’s based on the idea that he’s saying to your face what other people say behind your back. As a guy setting up a mass surveillance program through Ecomoda, Ignacio not going to pretend that he’s the one person telling the truth to your face. But he sincerely does like Mila, even though the circumstance means he’s betrayed her before anything started between them. At the end of this season I found myself wishing that there was more time spent on Jeff and Carmen so that the love quadrangle that Mila and Ignacio are with them felt juicier. It’s got long running soap potential. 

Finishing the original while watching this has brought back some of the dread that I had going into the last section of the novela. Much of the post Cartagena plot feels like the show is spinning its wheels before deciding how to hastily rush to the finish line. Contributing to this feeling is the over reliance on flashbacks. The scenes involving Betty’s return to Ecomoda are particularly bad with this, and they didn’t even cut them from the Peacock edits. (These would have been some of the first edits if I were supervising it.) This section drops  various subplots, including Inesita’s estranged husband coming home to die, which real does make the way the series doesn’t know what to do stand out. Theresa are some high points likeel desfile del Cuartel. But that is also supposedly the resolution of the Sofia/Jenny plot, and it’s not satisfying as such. I get that the cast and crew were exhausted, and some of them had signed contracts to work with other tv networks lessening their availability. But on a level of pure drama, these plots points are simply inexcusable. Also dropping the cuartel’s pilots makes them worse friends. They suddenly only have gossiping about Betty going and no respect for boundaries or treating her like an actual person, instead of the lead in a telenovela. Equally inexcusable is how because Armando now is conscious of his feelings for Betty, the fact that so much of the way it’s shown involves violating her boundaries by stalking her on meetings he wasn’t invited to and secretly steeling and reading her diary, is why I can’t be too angry at Betty for dropping him the way she did.

This time around I was aware of how often real life designer Bettina Spitz had her name dropped and showed up on screen. Didn’t even realize I was missing that before. 

[toaarcan]

I want to get back to writing eventually, but this is just on my mind at the moment:

Re-integrating a character like Fiona into the Freedom Fighters post-Mecha Sally is weirdly easy, just because of how much shit they’ve been through in the past few weeks.

Fiona: You're being weirdly nice to me. It’s kinda confusing.

Sally: Last month Eggman shot me, rewrote the universe, roboticized me while trying to do the same to the entire planet and nuke every piece of technology on its surface, peeled my skin off with a blowtorch and shoved a bunch of guns in me while I was still awake, rebooted the universe again and tried to kill me with a failsafe when he lost. And while that was happening the council I set up to limit the power of the crown gave said crown to Ixis Naugus, who proceeded to exile one of my best friends from the city and make an alliance with Eggman to assassinate my brother. I'm finding it really hard to care about the small shit* these days.

Fiona: Are... are you okay?

Sally: No.

(*I’m referring to Fiona’s betrayal as “small shit” for a few reasons, 1) People in-universe don’t like or respect Scourge and treat his actions with appropriate scorn, and 2) Sally in particular has recognised that she was an abuse victim and so she’s more vigilant when it comes to other people in similar positions, which includes Fiona (do not challenge me on that, I have receipts), so she is substantially more willing to offer an olive branch than she otherwise would be. Also, 3) It had basically zero impact in the comic itself. Sally already didn’t like or trust her, Amy was upset about what Fiona said for one issue and then immediately got over it and also never exchanged words with her again, Ant took it as motivation to propose to Bunnie and then neither of them ever mentioned it again either, Tails was more angry about Sonic dating Fiona than he was about anything Fiona did within seven issues, and Sonic himself stopped giving a shit after 172 itself closed. Least impactful betrayal ever.)

I have it in my head that Mecha Sally was the turning point. It changed things. These characters just went through an intense amount of trauma, and it’s altered a lot of their perspectives. I recognise that, had this been an official continuation, they likely would’ve snapped back to normal fairly quickly. But I’m not trying to write an official continuation, I’m doing my own thing. And I say “Trauma responses for everybody!”

Eggman overstepped the line at warp speed, and that’s going to cause him problems. And not just because he pushed them so far that they decided that “Waking up the 3000-year-old apocalypse robot” was a risk worth taking.

(Art by @nicholas-anderson)

Fiona either escaping from her previous situation, or being forced to return by circumstance, would be coming back to a group of people who aren’t the same as they were when she left, and are in a position where they’re a lot more capable of understanding her perspective too.

And also, like, Sonic not going back to save her when they were kids is actually addressed. And explained.

(Sidenote: The explanation is that he did go back and save her, but it was actually Auto-Fiona 1.0 that he found. Being young and not knowing what an Auto-Automaton was, he assumed that Fiona had always been a robot and gave up on trying to save her. He didn’t know she was real until she turned up in Knothole after he came back from space.)

Things between her and the FF would still be fairly rocky in places, but honestly that has more to do with Fiona’s own trauma response being anger and self-isolation than anything else, and that the last people who were unexpectedly nice to her really didn’t have her best interests at heart.