#I finished according to the series the first episode and this is the start of the second episode

[fadelsburger]

there's a german show called 'Türkisch für Anfänger' and there's a scene with a girl and a boy which are interested in each other and they have a moment where he keeps looking at her and she says 'Hör auf mich so anzugucken!' - 'Stop looking at me like that!' Which he replies 'Ich kann aber nicht anders...' - 'I can't help myself...'

and this scene reminded me so much of the HillEaster moment in the novel (which yes I'm currently reading)

[angel-princess-anna]

Hugh Bonneville promises 'new elements' and 'thrills and spills' in Downton Abbey 3

The actor tells Yahoo UK that he thinks the new film is the "best" of the franchise

Downton Abbey made some big changes on the big screen with 2022's A New Era, but Robert Crawley star Hugh Bonneville assures Yahoo UK that the upcoming third film will be even bigger and better than anything that has come before it.

Speaking with Yahoo UK for a Role Recall interview, the actor shares that the film feels like a "lovely coming together of people". Fans will be rivetted by what is to come for Robert and the Crawley family because the film is full of "spills and thrills" according to Bonneville, who took a break from production to promote his new ITV series Douglas is Cancelled.

"For my character, I think the usual [can be expected], which is that he's a sort of dinosaur trying to be led into the future reluctantly, and then eventually he stumbles forward a bit," Bonneville teases.

"So as always, there's that rhythm of things changing with glacial slowness, and Robert finally accepting that things [are changing] — it's time to move the story on, so to speak. It's got the usual tropes, if you like, of thrills and spills in a very Downtown [sic] way, which means spilling a tea cup pretty much!

"People who've watched the show over the years and have loved it will miss Maggie Smith's presence. She doesn't step out of the shower and it's all been a dream, she is gone.

"But, I think there's so much warmth and fun to enjoy, and new elements as well — which I won't spoil — that I think it'll certainly be the best iteration of the film versions yet."

The third Downton Abbey film will see the original cast return including Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Jim Carter and Laura Carmichael, while A New Era's Dominic West will also reprise his role as Guy Dexter. They will be joined by a host of new characters played by Paul Giamatti, Joely Richardson, Simon Russell Beale, and Alessandro Nivola.

Details of the story have not yet been revealed, but Bonneville's positivity about it seems like a good sign. The actor also spoke of how it still surprises him that the franchise has become as beloved as it has since the show first premiered in 2010 because it didn't originally seem like it would.

"It never ceases to amaze me, it did when it first started in 2010 and here we are, 14 years later, we're making a third movie," he explains. "At least one of our producers said, 'well, it's never gonna last beyond seven episodes anyway so don't lose too much sleep about this', and here we are all those years later still together.

"What's been really interesting is there's a whole new generation of people watching it and still finding it engaging, and also what's been rather touching, particularly over the pandemic, [was] when people were stuck at home and they revisited a show that had finished five years before.

"Each of us have had lots of letters from people saying: 'I used to watch it with my Gran', or 'my son who is now married', or 'my husband, who's now passed on', or whatever. It had an emotional resonance for the period of time that it was on, and people find comfort in it, and revisited it like a warm bath.

"I'm not complaining because it's been a wonderful part of my life and we're filming the third film at the moment, it's a lovely coming together of people I care deeply about, and that's just the fictional characters."

[antiguagealach]

THE ARTFUL DODGER DESERVES A SECOND SEASON

To begin with, I want to clarify that Spanish is my native language, so I will try to express myself as best I can in this post.

I'm a little late to this series, as it premiered about a year ago. At some point I assumed, wrongly, that it was released in the first half of the year. Despite not having had time yet to see your posts, tweets, nor videos about the series (I will do it because I am obsessed with this series), I have read some fanfics, and I must say they are a real chef's kiss!

My interest in this series came about while I was still going through the “grief” of a cancellation. I recently finished watching My Lady Jane, a wonderful series that they cancelled for no reason. So, when I started this new series and was hooked from the first episode by its plot and characters, I asked a friend to research if there was going to be a second season or if it had been cancelled as well. To prepare myself emotionally, I wanted to know if I could expect a conclusion or at least a sequel. However, my friend told me that there wasn't much official information: some rumors indicated that it was cancelled, while others mentioned that it might have been planned as a short series. I decided to assume it was a short series and told myself that, if that was the case, it was fine. But then I saw the ending… and I just can't accept it.

After all the tension of the plots, the operation and the evolution of the relationship between Jack and Belle, I can't settle for such an open-ended closure. How can it all end with a simple “Jack” uttered through thick glass, followed by his incarceration? That ending seems made for a sequel.

As I mentioned before, I'm aware that I'm late to this fandom. All I know is that there is a fan petition for a second season. However, there is a silver lining: according to several people on social media, this series has not been officially cancelled. In addition, the creator continues to share content and give “likes” to those who ask for a second season, which is a good sign. I also consider it positive that it is not Amazon but Disney/Hulu who are behind it, as this could give us a chance. Another inspiring example is Good Omens, a series that, although initially conceived as a single season based on a book, was eventually greenlit for a second season (after years).

I imagine this idea has already come up among fans, but I propose that we make more noise, following the example of the My Lady Jane fandom. The Artful Dodger has enormous potential to explore different avenues in a second season, and I'm sure James McNamara already has some great ideas in mind.

[sam-keeper]

Susan Twist: Word Lord?

Many* people** are wondering about the theory held by certain Doctor Who fans*** online that the actress Susan Twist in the new season of the long running franchise is playing what's known as a "Word Lord".

Now, granted, many more are wondering whether she might, in fact, be Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter. That, my friends, is exactly the kind of question a Word Lord would want you to be asking.

Lemme break this theory down for you.

Throughout this whole new season of Doctor Who, the protagonists have been haunted by the recurrence, in different roles, of a stage and character actor who happens to have the delightful name Susan Twist. Like, not in the show, in real life. According to Russel T Davies, she was the only actor they could get due to an "actor shortage", which seems like a pretty terrible and even implausible dilemma, but luckily Davies has made lemonade out of this very real production constraint! Twist popped up in every episode this season, in some form or other. That's versatile writing! No wonder they brought Rusty back as showrunner.

But perhaps there's more to the story than just the unfortunate realities of filming in a country ruled by a failed regime...

The Doctor and his companion Ruby started noticing Twist's recurring roles over the past few episodes, though the plot of each episode intervened before they could put anything definitive together. It's one of a number of nods to the metatextual content of the show--literal winks to the audience, another character (Mrs Flood) directly addressing the viewers, a whole musical number about how there's "always a twist at the end"--that suggested maybe some authorial tomfoolery was afoot, that maybe something a little tricky or tongue in cheek was happening.

But what could the explanation be? Could Susan Twist really be playing THE Susan, a relative of the Doctor's that hasn't been seen in the franchise since the 60s? That seems a little silly, surely! Or could she be playing another character, like... the Rani? or the Monk? Both of them got namedropped alongside Susan at one point. Or maybe she's the portended head of Maestro and the Toymaker's extracosmic family. I guess there's a theory this is Sutekh, the evil alien god from Pyramids of Mars? Sure, seems fun.

But no. Fuck all that noise. I know what's really going on here and it just coincidentally involves a character that I'm feral about, and that no one else has even heard of, a guy called, somewhat fittingly, Nobody No-one.

No-one shows up in just one and a quarter stories by Steven Hall for Big Finish's series of audio dramas, first as a minor opponent (in 45) and then as a much more motivated and fearsome one (in A Death in the Family). In the latter story, he manages to--no points if you worked this out from the title--kill the Seventh Doctor. How did a character with such a low profile manage such a feat? Well, Nobody No-one has powers comparable to a Time Lord: he is a Word Lord.

Word Lords are one of the most delightfully bonkers concepts to come out of the early exciting and experimental period in Big Finish's line of audio dramas. Hailing from another universe, they're the equivalent of Time Lords for a reality where narrative rather than chronology drives all existence. It's like if the Anchoring of the Thread established not linear time but, I guess, TV Tropes instead. Nobody No-one regenerates like the Doctor, and has his own equivalent to the TARDIS: the CORDIS, or Conveyance Of Repeating Dialogue In Space-time, which is a memetic construct transporting the Word Lord through repeated phrases, jokes, coincidental number recurrences, and so on. The CORDIS is heralded by the number 45 popping up, and you'd better believe I sat up and noticed how many times that number recurred in the code pattern in Dot and Bubble! In Death in the Family there's a whole military organization the Doctor's mucking around with--No, not UNIT. No, not Torchwood. A different thing, one run by a human supremacist vampire hold on we're getting off topic--and Nobody casually reveals at one point that his CORDIS was bouncing around inside their "For King And Country" mantra for years.

Nobody No-one's real fun as a villain comes from his special Bullshit Powers. He's a Word Lord, so he's basically a memetic being, right? He IS language in some sense. Like, apparently his CORDIS crashed into the alphabet after his first encounter with the Doctor, annihilating the 27th letter of the alphabet and causing the English Great Vowel Shift. This story does a ton with the concept of "what if a guy was words".

But what makes him so dangerous is a quirk of his own identity. To grasp what a Word Lord can do, you have to think linguistically, dialogically. Imagine someone haplessly says: "but, nobody could have gotten into that locked room to kill the ambassador!" What would that allow a Word Lord to do? And imagine further:

"No-one tells the sun whether or not to shine." "Nobody could survive that!" "Nobody could just kill the Doctor!"

One slip of the tongue, that's all it takes for Nobody No-one to gleefully command godlike power.

That's Nobody, though. I don't think Susan Twist is just Nobody. I mean, No-one could seriously ask you to believe that this character who appeared in an (unfairly, given its quality) obscure audio adventure, written by an author who only ever wrote those two stories for Doctor Who, with a bunch of wild over the top and no doubt difficult to write around powers, is going to suddenly come back as a major character in the third tv revival of this 60 year old franchise. Like, Nobody would expect Davies to start referencing, I don't know, the Shalka Doctor either, surely. And I wouldn't ask you to make that kind of totally absurd leap, not even if I happened to be writing some sort of tongue in cheek article.

No, what I'm--I mean, what the fans are suggesting is that this concept of a Time Lord but for stories, who comes from a Borgesian narrative dimension, appearing in one and one quarter obscure audio dramas by an author who never wrote anything else for Doctor Who... what the theory proposes is that there's a SECOND one of those guys.

Just think about it, think about it like a Word Lord. What has the fandom asked itself about this season? Surely, one of the foremost questions is simply: what about Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter? She's been name dropped a few times, the Doctor doesn't say she's definitively dead... could there be some reveal here that Susan is alive? There's got to be, right? That's what they're leading up to!

There's just got to be a Susan Twist.

That, my friends, is exactly how she snuck into this reality.

Now, maybe the "Susan Triad" slated to appear next episode isn't this Word Lord proper but a kind of, I don't know, fictionsuit or vessel or entry point. I'm also not sure what a "Susan Twist" would even want, what the grand scheme would be. Unlike Nobody No-one, there's not a lot of word games you can play with "Susan Twist" beyond the obvious. But, maybe that's part of the point. Nobody No-one was a megalomaniac, a guy who really did just want to watch the world burn. The Doctor's companion Hex accuses him of being "proper mad", and he responds, "Mad? I'm FUUURIOUS!" followed by an explosion from the grenade he had tossed into the duck pond. Nobody is a brash, arrogant, chaotic, and... probably not that bright guy, who has the advantage of his CORDIS's many tricks and his incredibly versatile name. Perhaps this new Word Lord wants something other than chaos and destruction. Maybe she simply wants what we've already seen her achieve in the show: universal ubiquity. There's always a Twist at the end.

Actually, this would weirdly parallel another beat from Death in the Family. In order to trap Nobody, the Doctor weaponizes his own narrative against the Word Lord, tapping into the universal internet and googling himself in order to build a whole proxy universe based on his own life. From another perspective, he basically uses the entire narrative of Doctor Who--all the episodes, all the Big Finish audios, all the Doctor Who Monthly comics, all the Virgin New Adventures--as an ideatic missile. This is such a cool concept I'd feel guilty about giving it away, only it happens about a fifth of the way through Death in the Family. Seriously, this audio GOES places. Anyway, the suggestion is that the Doctor is so entangled with the history of the universe, so threaded throughout all these other narratives, that his history effectively is a world unto itself that a being of narrative like Nobody might get completely lost in.

That's a kind of narrative ubiquity if there ever was one. If I was a Word Lord I'd be sorely tempted by that. Nobody is: he appears a perverse counterpart to the Doctor (and personally I think David Tennant would do a GREAT job playing him if he ever appeared in the show). I can't help but notice, incidentally, that we just got an episode where the shapeshifting Chuldur quickly became obsessed with cosplaying as the Doctor, and Wild Blue Yonder also introduced a couple of not-things trying to copy him. Could this Word Lord be seeking to build a narrative as strong and inescapable as the Doctor's?

It would be an interesting way of incorporating some of these meta elements without slipping too far into a kind of self-referential morass. It feels like Davies has been dancing right up on that line this entire season in a way that's exhilarating, but that also has been a bit nerve wracking for me. The more metatextual storytelling has exited the realm of weird independent art and entered the mainstream, the more cloying it's started to feel. Like, when you engage the audience, entreat them directly to care about the characters or write tearful paeans to the necessity of the Hero as a Symbol, the more it can start to feel like a bit of a desperate exercise in brand management. Clap if you DO believe in fairies, and all that. Doctor Who certainly has some history of guilt here--sorry, Steven Moffat, but sometimes it does get to be a bit much. And it does risk standing the purpose of literature on its head, where ironically through characters lauding the virtues of storytelling within society, the virtue of having participated in a transaction consuming art becomes the foundation of fandom, and the actual literary content is assumed, but treated as an afterthought.

Davies has thus far instead treated the meta content in two ways: as a unique physics to be solved, and as a way of exploring a particular bit of social commentary (sometimes more than one at once). Goblins use a "language of luck" and a physics of rope and knots, the Toymaker brings the world into a State of Play, and Maestro introduces a State of Musicals. To challenge these beings, the Doctor must understand their particular ontology and exploit it. As soon as the Bogeyman in Space Babies faces real peril, all the children who were afraid of it rally to its defense, which doubles as both a commentary on the "Teatime Terror for Tots" charge thrown at children's media like Doctor Who--children LIKE scary stories and creepy, gross monsters!--and reinforces Davies's acidic anger at social and political abandonment of people who are inconvenient to the bottom line. Rogue plays gleefully with fanfiction tropes, and its positioning of the Chuldur as "cosplayers" would riiight up to the edge of being a little too navel gazing about toxic fans... if not for the fact that the Doctor and Ruby are also explicitly cosplaying as Bridgerton characters, and the episode is still giving fans exactly what they want in the form of a whirlwind gay Doctor/Rogue romance. This season is concerned with these sorts of metatextual games, without being subsumed by them and becoming entirely about self-referential brand building.

A Death in the Family is also, notably, only partly about Nobody No-one and his machinations and the counter-machinations required to stop him, set into motion by the Seventh Doctor and carried out beyond his death by companions Ace and Hex. Like I said, a lot of the seismic action of the story is over within the first 25 minutes. The Word Lord is really just used as a jumping off point to talk about a bunch of other stuff: truth, lies, choices made for ourselves or made for us by others... we see multiple information-worlds built in the story, some of them more subtle than others. At one point Ace tearfully proclaims that traveling on the TARDIS with the Doctor "is the only life I've ever wanted!" The Seventh Doctor retorts, with some audible guilt and distress, "No, it's the only life you've ever HAD!" In a very real sense, the Doctor has created the notional worlds that Ace and Hex inhabit, defining the contours of Ace's life since she was a teenager, and deliberately staying silent about Hex's traumatic family history, deciding for both of them "what's best". Nobody No-one in that sense is a pretext, in the best tradition of Doctor Who, to dig into questions about power.

The metafictional is risky, but it's a narrative tool like any other, and it fits with a long history of Doctor Who as a franchise reflecting on itself and its place in culture, with everything from the Mind Robber's suggestion that the Doctor himself might be an escapee from fiction, to Vengeance on Varos and Trial of a Time Lord's dramatization of Doctor Who's conservative culture war critics, to the Last Great Time War as metaphor for the show's cancellation. In a sense, behaving as though cosplay or fandom or whatever don't exist and couldn't possibly be the idiom through which characters--even weird alien characters--interpret their reality and act upon it might equally alienate the show from being about any wider culture beyond itself, endlessly, the same dalek and cybermen and Master stories recycling forever. My hope is just that as Davies barrels into the finale at full speed, it's this sense of a meaning for Doctor Who beyond its own lore driving him. The anger we've seen from him about social issues, the commitment to changing the show where it needs to grow, and the willingness to take big swings at continuity all give me some reason to feel confident.

Confident, of course, that he has seen the wisdom and logic of building his arc around Susan Twist being a Word Lord. What? That's what this article is about, remember? That didn't stop being a thing. Anyway, I'm excited for friday, when all of us pulling for this theory will be proven indisputably right, and you will all, in deference, subscribe to my Patreon.

* alleged ** hypothetical *** me, specifically

[buckets-and-trees]

First Night

I promised two anniversary fics this weekend, and it's still "this weekend" in a couple of time zones...

Series: The Brooklyn Boys Characters/Pairings: Stucky x female!Reader Word Count: 2.3k Summary: Takes place immediately after the events of the final part 10 Steve and the Best Friend. Dinner and a movie and...

Content Warnings: fluff, feelings, soft semi-retired superheroes

Additional Notes: Filling my ninth square for Bucky Barnes Bingo @buckybarnesbingo - U1 "Galaxy" and is the much spoken of (by me) PROMISED ANNIVERSARY EPISODE TO CELEBRATE POSTING PART ONE FOR THIS SERIES A YEAR AGO! These boys meant a lot to me back then and writing for them again to celebrate this with all of you has been a dream.

↠ Masterlist | Aspen's Ask Box | Field Guide to the Forest

Bucky kisses the back of your hand, then stands from the couch, checking his watch. “Dinner’s about ready. I’ll go finish it off.”

As he leaves the living room, Steve scoots a little closer. He pulls you into a short kiss, then rests his forehead against yours, eyes closed, and you breathe in the moment.

“I know it’s so predictable to ask you about your day,” he says, “but I’ve been waiting for weeks to just have these everyday conversations with you.”

You smile, though you know he can’t see it. You’re sure he can feel it because you can feel it coming from him, too.

“When we went to dinner that night, I thought that was going to be the beginning of so many days like that, seeing you, texting with you, just sharing everything with you.

Your heart stutters and leaps, “I wanted that, too. I’m sorry it wasn’t–”

He stops you with another gentle press of his lips to yours and cups your cheek. “No, I didn’t mean to bring it up to make you feel guilty. Tony would say if you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs. I think we’re coming through for the better.”

In the time that you’ve spent with Steve, you’ve become aware of how influential and powerful his mood is in any situation, and right now he’s feeling a contentment that really does envelop you.

So you sit back a little in the armchair, but take his hand, and start talking. He holds your hand in both of his, idle stroking of the back of your hand with his thumb as he listens. You talk about the bookshop. Bucky has become a regular, but Steve hasn’t been in yet. You’re eager to share that with him soon, too. You tell him about an upcoming book launch event you solidified today with a local author – it’s their debut novel, but they’ve been a frequent friend of your shop for a few years. “Oh,” you suddenly remember to ask, “you mentioned before that you were getting a lot of chatter about some things happening in Turkey. Is that where you and Bucky went?”

“Yeah.” He grins, probably pleased that you remembered. “Turkey was… interesting.”

“I’ve wanted to go to Turkey! Mission stuff aside because I know that’s probably classified, did you get to experience anything?”

“Not too much, but we did get to see a little of Istanbul. It was beautiful.” He tilts his head a little. “I… would like to go back and see more.”

You plant your elbow on the armrest of your chair and prop your chin on the hand Steve’s not holding. “Steve, have you even been on a vacation?”

He shakes his head. “Only day trips or weekends once or twice upstate when I was a kid. We kept on the move and covered a lot of territory when we didn’t agree to the Sokovia Accords, but that was survival and trying to be of use while keeping a low profile, not traveling. And during The Blip, it never even crossed my mind.”

You squeeze his hand.

“We should go.”

“I’ve never done as much traveling as I wanted either. Couldn’t afford it when I was starting out, then… yeah, The Blip, and since the Second Snap, it’s been busy, but now…”

“Now maybe we have even more reason to make it something to prioritize.”

Butterflies flare in your stomach when he smiles at you like that. Your chest gets that happy tightness. This was why you said yes to them.

“So, Turkey,” you say, a little breathlessly.

“I’ll put it on the list.”

You’re melting.

“Dinner is almost ready!” Bucky’s voice calls from the kitchen. “Steve, come set the table!”

“France should probably go near the top of the list.”

Steve nods in agreement and pulls you up as he stands. He keeps your hand in his as he walks both of you into the kitchen.

“Bucky won’t let us eat in the kitchen, not even at the stools at the counter,”

“Damn right I won’t!” he says, already catching your conversation. “The French wouldn’t hear of it, and I worked hard enough for us to eat at the altar of a proper table.”

“Everything smells incredible,” you gush when you enter their beautiful kitchen. Every part of the brownstone you’ve seen so far is beautiful.

Bucky turns and flashes a devastating grin before turning back to his prep. “Glad you think so.”

Steve brings you to a stop right next to Bucky, who is fully occupied whisking egg yolks one at a time into a custard on the stove, a separate pan with melted chocolate set off to the side. You lean your hip against the counter so you can watch.

Standing behind him, Steve puts a hand on Bucky’s shoulder on the other side and leans over the stove to stick his finger in the chocolate, getting his taste before Bucky can stop him.

“Rogers!” Bucky growls.

You laugh, and Steve grins wickedly.

“It’s good.”

“Get to setting the table. Food’s already set, just going to finish this off and put it in the oven.”

“And pour the wine?”

“We’ve got a Syrah, right? Or any Bordeaux blend.”

“I’ll look and see.”

“Can I help?” you ask.

They both immediately frown at you. “You’re not lifting a finger the first dinner you’re eating here with us,” Bucky says adamantly.

You hold your hands up quickly in surrender. “Understood,” you laugh.

“Good girl,” Steve says, his smile immediately returning. “I’ll go sort out the wine.”

He squeezes Bucky’s shoulder before he leaves the kitchen.

It hits you out of nowhere. There’s a short constriction in your chest at seeing how easy that casual intimate gesture was between them. They’ve known each other for years and years longer than they’ve known you. You’re nowhere near close to that ease and familiarity with them yet. Will this work?

“Come here,” Bucky invites you in closer, and as you step forward, he tucks an arm around you and pulls you securely into his side while he continues whisking with his other hand. Did your insecurity show on your face? Did he merely suspect it? Or maybe he just wanted to hold you for no other reason than wanting to. Whatever the reason, it does soothe away that doubt that had tried to creep in. He presses a kiss to your temple. “I missed you. I don’t know if I would’ve been patient enough to wait much longer. Steve was adamant we had to wait for you to set the timing though.”

Your chest blooms with warmth. You’re glad they did wait – you had needed the time to think and sort out your heart so you could feel secure jumping all in – but it also made you feel good to know he’d been eager. You circle your arms around his waist and look up at him. “Thank you.” You could say more, but you think he knows. His eyes and a squeeze of his arm around you say that he does.  “Kiss me?”

“Always,” and he does. It’s a swift kiss because he is in the middle of the complexities of whatever he’s cooking, but he makes sure even the short kiss takes your breath away.

You only just manage not to whimper when he draws his lips away. Instead, you content yourself with resting your head against his chest. “Now what is it you’re making?”

“The boeuf bourguignon was easy to finish off, and I had decided something decadent for dessert was in order. Chocolate soufflé.”

“Damn, Barnes, you know how to impress a girl.”

He laughs. “Honey, get ready for a lot more of this.”

Your stomach flips, but he doesn't leave you flustered for long, diving into normal conversation while he continued working, Steve coming in and out of the kitchen to set the table. Bucky allows you to assist him as sous chef for only a moment, letting you to open the oven door when he was ready to carefully put the chocolate delicacy in to bake.

Then the three of you sit down to dinner, and it wasn’t an oversell to say it is one of the best meals of your life. The food is incredible, and simply being there with the two of them with the conversation, the laughter, the way they look at you, the way they look at each other, all of it is bliss. That bliss bleeds into Bucky taking the chocolate soufflé out of the oven and the three of you devouring the rich masterpiece. Then you settle in to watch a movie together, you tucked between them.

When you wake up, you are no longer tucked between your super soldiers, but instead tucked beneath a set of soft sheets and blanket that are unfamiliar to you, your head rests on a comfortable but foreign pillow, and your body feels the awkwardness of having slept in your jeans and button-down blouse. The latter wasn’t awful, but never ideal. Why were you asleep in your day clothes? You shift and yawn and sink a little more into the pillows and mattress, appreciating how cozy they are but wondering where exactly you were. You rewind your memory and start to recall a few of the last details in your mind – leaning up against Bucky’s side, Steve pulling your legs up across his lap and giving you a foot massage while the opening scenes of a movie played out.

They had let you choose the movie, and you’d gone with The Count of Monte Cristo, one of your favorites, but now you weren’t certain you’d even made it to the Chateau D’If with poor Edmond Dantes before falling asleep. Actually, you were pretty sure it was that soothing foot massage that had you lost to the land of the waking. You do have a vague half recollection of being scooped up from the couch into someone’s arms, but that was it.

It's clearly what landed you here.

You roll onto your back and smile. The ceiling is littered with carefully mapped out constellations, a glow in the dark replication of the galaxy. Adorable nerd, you think, and with a look around the room, the shelf full of books that covers an entire wall of the room and a neatly stacked pile of three books on the bedside table let you know you must be in Bucky’s bed. There is a low level of moonlight casting a glow across the room from the windows, and you remember the distinct thought you’d had about wanting to see how this man kept his books and what else was in his collection, but that would need to wait for daylight. You never would have dreamed this was how things would have played out all those weeks ago.

A little more alert, your throat feels a little dry, and knowing once the thought has crossed your mind you wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep without a drink of water, and it was clearly too late to go home (or late enough to absolutely justify staying in this very cozy place for the rest of the night and seeing your boys in the morning), you pull back the covers and shift out of bed. Sitting at the foot of the mattress you see a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt that are clearly meant for you, and a huge sleepy smile splits across your face. You discard your clothes, feeling immediately comfortable in the alternative – which smell like Steve.

Bucky’s bed but Steve’s clothes.

Your head spins happily as you pad quietly into the hallway and make your way to the kitchen.

Once properly watered, you make your way back to the bedrooms, carefully bringing the partially-refilled glass with you just in case you get thirsty again. It is so quiet in their home, but comfortably so. You will get to see more in the daylight, but you love how it feels already. You pause at the doorway to Bucky’s room, bite your lip, and turn to look across the hallway at another bedroom door.

You don't want to sleep alone in Bucky’s room when they are together in Steve’s.

Heart pounding just a little, you step across the hallway and slowly turn the doorknob, trying to open the door as quietly as you can. You step inside, but then stop and look around. This was an unoccupied bedroom – it had a bed, but that bed was empty, and this room didn’t seem to have much to it. It was a guest bedroom. A little bloom shoots through your heart at the thought that while they had wanted to give you every bit of privacy – leaving you clothed, giving you a bed to yourself – it felt intimate in its own way to know that they’d tucked you in in Bucky’s room, not the guest bedroom.

Not at all nervous now, you step back into the hallway, close that door, and make your way further down the hall, eager to find where these two impossibly wonderful men were slumbering and join them. The next door on the left was a bathroom, but the door on the right is Steve’s. Bucky is asleep, but Steve is sitting up against the headboard and had been engrossed in scrolling in something on his phone, earbuds in, but looks up when your movement pulls his attention. He grins and pulls the buds out, “Hi, Sweetheart.”

“Hi,” you breath, padding toward his side of the bed.

He nudges Bucky as you make your way over. Bucky groans.

“Told you our girl would make her way to us before sunrise,” Steve says to him, and that seems to bring Bucky around slightly.

Steve sets his phone on his bedside table, takes the glass from your hand to set it there as well, and pulls back the covers so you can hop up and crawl in and join them. Bucky immediately pulls you in to his chest, kissing the top of your head. You sigh as Steve closes in behind you, and between your two super soldiers, you quickly drift back to sleep, held safely in their arms.

↠ Main Masterlist | Aspen's Ask Box | Field Guide to the Forest

I do not do tag lists, but FOLLOW @buckets-and-stories and TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS to be updated any time I publish a new work!

[chronicallyonlinewriter]

Hiii for the ask game pls 3,6,9,12,15,18,21, 24, & 27 tee hee heeee

Dear lord, woman. 3.) how you feel about your current WIP?

I have four, so you'd have to be more specific. I'm currently chugging away on Stand on the Rock, because I am a little stuck where I am with Bleed to Love Her (I know where I need to go, I'm just a little slow at actually getting there). I write little snips for Everywhere whenever I feel like it, because that is a low-stakes series. I'm currently writing a bit for Silver Springs, which will be my next full-length multi-chapter fic - it's a modern / no outbreak retelling of GYOW (and is also a bonus foster! Ellie story). I would love to dedicate more of my time to it, but SotR and BtLH are hanging over my head and so I'd like to finish those, first, before I truly dive into it - but I like what I've written so far, and am excited about it! 6.) the word that appears the most in your current draft? I have the next chapter of Stand on the Rock open, currently. According to wordcounter, that word is "Tommy."

9.) start to finish, how long did it take you to write the last fic you posted?

If we're talking completed fics, I suppose that would be As Long as You Follow, which took a solid 14 months to write , at 322k+ words. The most recent thing I posted was the first chapter of Everywhere, which took about a month to write. 12.) a trope you’re really into right now? I don't know - I'm not really "into" tropes and thus can't think of one? Like, I don't actively look for tropes or seek out fics with specific ones, I just like to read things that seem interesting and well-written in general. 15.) Favorite weather for writing? I don't think I have one? I guess I like it when it's a little colder, because then I curl up in my writing nook and don't sweat my ass off because I always have a heating pad on my back (and usually, a heated blanket over my legs), haha. 18.) if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic. Girl I have like 80 pages of deleted words that I never used for GYOW or ALaYF. Have the tiniest snip:

“Please,” she snorted, eyes rolling to the ceiling. “Like you don’t beg for it. ‘C’mon, darlin’,’” she mewled, her voice low and gruff, an exaggerated southern twang dragging across every syllable, “‘do it f’me?’” Joel huffed in impatience. “Ain’t what I sound like.”

21.) when did you publish your most recent fic?

24.) how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative? I melt onto my couch and either play video games, or watch episodes of a television show I have already seen a dozen times before.

27.) your favorite part of the writing process? Sharing snips in the TLOU discord, lmao.

❤️❤️❤️

[panpraja]

✎Writing With the Moon ◯ ☽ ◑●◐ ❨ ◯

Trying to work on fiction regularly again, so I present to you my 'Writing With the Moon' guide. These are my interpretations according to her different phases. Check which phase the moon is in right now and start from there.

🌑 New Moon

Dump all the ideas and things you plan to happen. Brainstorm, set goals, and just start writing. This is the best time to free write, sprint and even writing my hand. Prime time for new ideas!

🌒 Waxing Crescent

Focus on character growth, and when you write really think of each character action as a challenge-reaction-lesson (good or bad) that solidifies the direction in which they're going. If you're plot-oriented, write what will put you back on track.

🌓 First Quarter

Good time to focus on catalysts and moments that change the tone, direction etc. So if you were focusing on romance, you might benefit from switching to action, for example. Tackle that scene you've been avoiding writing because it needed so much focus. Pick up the pace.

🌔 Waxing Gibbous

Start closing your mini arcs, culminate a recent series of events into it's inevitable milestone. Write climactic moments, the 'oh no' moments, the 'this changes everything' moments.

🌕 Full Moon

Assuming the above series of snippets were related and somewhat chronological, you just finished a mini arc! Perhaps a whole chapter, maybe an episode, maybe several. Whatever it is, it's time to share your work. Any of it, some of it, all of it, but SHOW IT. Celebrate what you've done!

🌖 Waning Gibbous

Now's a good time to tackle writers block. What obstacles are in the way of the plot? Do some planning. Reflect on what parts were hard to write and explore those. Reflect on what worked as well!

🌗 Third Quarter

Generally a shrinking or warning moon is best for deep editing. That being said if you're not looking to edit these two weeks, get feedback or tie off loose ends! Reassess the plan. Look back at your plot's actions and see if they still align with the goal.

🌘 Waning Crescent

Now's a good time for research or rest. Take a break if you need one! Now that you have a feedback, a plan and any friction removed, when the moon is new, you'll be ready to dive right back into it!

[noona96n]

Yoh & Segasaki's timeline

According to Episode 7 (around the 00:33 minute mark), Yoh and segasaki have only been living together for four months. And Nikke-sensei's tweet, also clarifies that the proposal was made 3 years ago and that they’ve only been living together since March or April; which explains, in part, their shit communication lmao. 

Series timeline: June to July of year zero 

Ep 1: June 3rd (Sat)

The sunny weather forecast with Segasaki and Takatsu Reiko around the 12:30 minute mark in the latter part of Episode 1 is for 6月3日 (土). That means the present timeline, as in the drama, starts at the beginning of June; which tracks with the weather in the current episode and the weather in future episodes. Rainy season (梅雨 tsuyu) in Kanto (that includes Tokyo and Yokohama) usually starts in early June and lasts until mid-July, and, by then, typhoons already started ravaging the nation every two days lol 

Ep 2: June 8th (Thur) 

At the 8:03 minute mark, we find out that Hiyoshi Aika starts her job at EW (AHAHA WHAT A GOOFY ABBREVIATION) on the 8th of June (Hiyoshi Aika starts the broadcast by announcing the date: 六月八日). By June 10th, Yoh full-on became a sad, sulky puppy who’s pouting cutely as he made his sad stir-fry pork dinner (Yoh’s phone screen at the 9:05 minute mark reads ６月10日 土曜日). 

Around 9:56 minute mark the in-universe weather forecast shows forecasts for the 12th (Mon), 13th (Tue), 14th (Wed), 15th (Thur), 16th (Fri), 17th (Sat), and 18th (Sun) in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Naha, suggesting that the day that Yoh resorts to making the Teru Teru Bouzu is June 11th. (Teru Teru Bouzu is a small ghost-like white doll people hang around the house in the hope of stopping the rain and bringing about good weather. Yoh’s desperate for some dicking down lol.) So, the day Yoh got frustrated and masturbated for erotic manga inspiration is at least a day after June 11th. Yoh and Segasaki’s clothes changed by then (the most noticeable is Segasaki’s shirt and tie). 

Since the tail end of Episode 2 probably takes place on June 12th, at the earliest, we can only assume that Episode 3 and 4 take place over the weekend of the 17th and 18th. Or the next weekend after. I’m tempted to even suggest that both episodes take place on the weekend of 24th (Sat) and 25th (Sun) because of how loud the cicadas were in the background in the 4th episode with Man-san. Cicadas in Japan are no joke, guys, they are so fucking damn loud, RIP ears, you will be missed. 

Ep 6: July 24th (Mon) 

*** I think canon dates broke down from Episode 5 onward… Around the 14:47 minute mark of Episode 5, Segasaki and Hiyoshi were presenting the weather for the 7th (Thur). There’s no monthly indication but we can assume that it’s in July; July because we were just in June in the first four episodes but also because (the beginning of) July is when the (awful, terrible, no good) heatwave starts taking Japan by storm (it lasts until fucking August and even spills into September this goddamn year, I kid you not; it was horrible). But, in Episode 6, the weather forecast at the end of the episode (around the 21:33 minute mark) was for 24th (Mon). If the 7th was a Thursday, then the 24th should be a Sunday, not a Monday. 

That’s why I’m just gonna disregard the 7th (Thur) in Episode 5, though I do think it takes place at the beginning of June or the end of July. Also, if we disregard that and count the days from Episode 1 (Saturday, June 3rd), then Monday, July 24th would make sense in Episode 6. So, let's go with that.

By the end of Episode 6, it’s the 24th of July. I know this is a while from Episode 5 but if we consider Man-san’s My Idol Boyfriend manga, then it makes sense. Yoh was ‘offered a job’ by Man-san pretty much immediately after he got dropped by his editor and by Episode 7, their manga was already in print. It would take them some time to finish their manga; less than a month is a very tight time to write, storyboard, edit, and have it approved but let’s make believe lol 

Ep 7: Typhoon No. 5

At the beginning of Episode 7 (around the 00:09 minute mark), Typhoon No. 5 was forecasted to take Tokyo by storm tomorrow. That kinda checks out, to be honest. Typhoon season in Japan could start as early as mid-May and could last until mid-October, depending on how early or late the heat begins and how long it’ll last. So I do think Episode 7 takes place some time after July 24th. 

Interesting tidbit: typhoons in Japan aren’t given names but are usually referred to by numbers. 

Personal (interesting?) tidbit #1: the first year I came to Japan, the super typhoon Hagibis made landfall in Japan. It was the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in decades and it was one of the strongest and biggest ever recorded. It was hella scary, not gonna lie lol and food was all out, even from the convenience stores. Fortunately, I was living in central Tokyo and wasn’t affected. Still scared though…. And, the crazy thing was, an earthquake struck the coast of Chiba before the typhoon hit so the typhoon’s effect was compounded. Wasn’t a fun experience, 0/10, do not recommend. 

Personal (interesting?) tidbit #2: my parents visited me this passing late May to early June, around the time typhoon Mawar wasn’t waging war in the Pacific. It was not a fun experience… we weren’t directly struck by it but the effects were kinda crazy: roads were closed, trains were suspended, rivers were flooded, and shops and restaurants were mostly closed. Felt really bad cause I took my family to Hakone (booked everything ages in advance and couldn’t cancel our reservation RIP) and we were just stranded up there… thankfully the sky cleared by our last day there and we were able to catch a glimpse of Fuji on our Ashi-no-ko’s cruise and on the train back to Tokyo. Still, wasn’t a fun experience, 0/10, do not recommend. 

Japan’s a wonderful place to visit though! Just… pick the right time. (I recommend autumn (Oct-Nov) because the weather’s great, the food’s fucking amazing, and the autumn foilage’s pretty rad.) 

Ep 8: July 28th 

The date after their (mildly) kinky sexy time was July 28th (Fri). The date can be found on Man-san’s phone around the 11:00 minute mark (7月28日、金曜日). 

There’s also another time indication later in the episode around the 17:13 minute mark where Yoh and Segasaki last texted on July 26th. Segasaki was telling Yoh about the rain and Yoh’s responses were pretty frosty if I’m being honest. Their texts go like this:

Segasaki: 今日午後から雨降る (It’s gonna rain this evening) Yoh: ありがとう (thanks) Segasaki: 洗濯物取り込んどけよ (bring the laundry in) Yoh: うん (k) 

It’s… frosty. Bare minimum from Yoh. Ofc he’s just feeling guilty (about the manga situation and stuff) but, y’know… it feels cold to Segasaki. I honestly feel really bad for the guy lol, especially because, from his perspective, Yoh’s only thinking about leaving and Yoh’s touchy-feely with that editor guy, and Yoh smiles happily and fully at and with that editor guy, and Yoh’s tired from being with him. 

Anyway, the series takes place from June to July of year zero and that’s canon. There, I said it. 

Yoh moving in: April of year zero

As you can see from my shittily drawn ‘graph’, I place Yoh’s moving in with Segasaki at April. This tracks with the timeline and Nikke-sensei’s clarification as well as in-universe narrative of them only been living together for four months. But, I’m extra so I’m gonna explain why (I found out about sensei’s tweet after figuring out the timeline lol)... and it’s not just backtracking from July. 

So, in Japan, the year usually ‘starts’ in April; as in the school year and the fiscal year ends in March and starts in April. This applies to leases as well: contracts are usually for 2 years and will likely end in March. Housing is in very high demand during that time and the prices for each unit are also very expensive because of that. Of course, you can rent a unit any time of the year but the good ones are also mostly available and up for grabs in the March-April period. (Renting a unit in Japan is… an experience lol and not a fun one. My being a foreigner does not help one bit because many landlords do not accept foreign tenants no matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you’re in Japan for.) 

Anyways, as Yoh can see, I think that Yoh graduated in year zero… so, that’s a winter graduation some time in February. (People also graduate in summer some time in August but it’s much rarer because most Japanese enter uni in Spring (April). People who graduate in September are either those who extend their uni year or foreign students who enter during the Autumn intake in September because that’s when the English program school year start (in my department, at least… I entered in April and graduated my Master's 3 years later in February but it’s a somewhat special case.)

Anyway!!! Yoh graduates ‘this’ year so, that means his lease will be up too and it makes perfect sense for him to move with Segasaki around late March or early April. 

The proposal: mid-Feb —  late-March three years ago

I place the proposal at the end of Winter, beginning of Spring in year minus-three. Weather-wise, it’s plausible because we know that the day of the proposal was unusually warm for the time and February is easily one of the coldest months in Japan. And, even though Spring starts in March, warmth doesn’t really come around until later in the month or even April. (It snowed in March, once. In Tokyo. It rarely ever snows in Tokyo but it’s been snowing every other year since I came here.) 

I also headcanon that Segasaki graduated (his Master's) that minus-three year while Yoh is only in his second year of bachelor’s. My logic is that because he’s graduating, this could be his last desperate attempt to lock Yoh down and make sure Yoh’s spoken for (Yoh’s just a dumb-dumb who doesn’t recognize a proposal lol). It also makes sense for the proposal to come up at that period if we think about it… Mizuki’s graduating and Yoh could be asking him about his jobs after graduation and whatever else which, in turn, allows Mizuki to start a conversation about Yoh’s plan for the future. It’s also not uncommon for peeps to hang around uni before they start their jobs (for whatever reasons) so it makes sense to me that the proposal was in some time between Mizuki’s graduation in mid-Feb till late-March, when Yoh’s about to start his new school year and Segasaki will have to start his job. (This could be when Yoh finds out Segasaki will be working with EW and starts watching the broadcast religiously.) 

Job prospect-wise, it’s pretty solid. Segasaki’s confident that he’d be working in a high-paying job when he proposed to Yoh. If Segasaki’s graduating in year minus-three, then he’d extremely likely to already have a job lined up for him; he’s just gonna immediately enter the workforce right out of uni. This is very common in Japan. University graduates are socially expected and pressured into working immediately after finishing their studies which is why it’s common practice for them to start their job-hunting process during the second to last or last year at uni. It’s generally advised that they start second to last year in uni (B3 if you’re in your bachelor’s and M1 if you’re in your Master's) because the process is long and drawn out and it could be a very long time before a job is offered. It’s also ill-advised to do your job-hunting in your final year because final year can be very hectic for some; some B4 and M2 students need to write their thesis, do graduation projects, finish up their experiments, etc. it’s not fun to add job-hunting into the mix. So, even if the proposal happened right after Segasaki’s graduation, Segasaki would be confident that he’d be able to support both of them just fine. 

Why I don’t think Yoh did his job hunting 

I honestly don’t think Yoh did his job-hunting because:

As I talked about here, Yoh became anxious about jobs and job-hunting in general in Episode 5 and this could imply that he didn’t go through the process while he was in university. You could do it on your own, but it’s difficult. That’s why many students take advantage of the recruitment offered by universities. Many also make use of other public recruitment services. 

Yoh’s the kind of person who does things at his own pace and does what he wants. I.E. 1; Yoh is a slow walker who has always walked slow. Segasaki made a point of commenting about his pace but instead of increasing his speed to match that of his sempai’s, he continued at his own pace and said he’s been told that before, and Segasaki was forced to match his pace. Yoh’s aware of his snail's pace, he was criticized for it but said fuck all and went about walking at his speed anyway. This is very not-Japanese. I.E. #2; He doesn’t really care to socialize. That’s it, that’s the reason. I.E. #3; my guy used 俺 (ore) with the stranger seniors. Peeps aren’t expected to drop 俺 (ore) and go for 僕 (boku) when talking to seniors anymore but they’re strangers… he should be using 僕 (boku). I.E. #4; he made fucking curry rice for a sick person because that’s the only thing he can make. Curry rice. He could’ve googled how to make porridge but nah, curry rice lol. I.E. #5; arguing with his editor that the ‘I love you’ dialogue is necessary in his 20 pages long porn manga. I don’t man, Yoh’s not afraid to do his own shit and he totally seems like the kinda guy who’d fuck around and find out when it comes to his career. Which I think is why Yoh’s secured that he has a patron in Segasaki and decided not to do his job-hunting. 

Yoh & Segasaki’s first meeting: May —  June four years ago

I think Yoh first ‘met’ Segasaki four years ago; that’s his first year in university, and that would explain why he hasn’t seen Segasaki sooner. I placed their first meeting in May — June mainly because of their outfits. Everyone was wearing a Spring palette when we first saw them at the cafeteria, but they weren’t wearing any thick outer layers so that’s probably very late into Spring and early June. Their clothes also became progressively lighter throughout the flashback and, by the time Segasaki was sick, there were more layers on everyone again, esp. Segasaki, indicating that Autumn could’ve been around the corner. (Though this could just be due to the timing of the filming!)

Also, Segasaki’s friend asked for his notebook, implying that there’s a report/assignment/quiz coming up that he needs to prepare for. So, at least we know it’s definitely not the start of the semester.

On Mizuki’s Master’s level education 

I’ll be real… I’m entirely biased when it comes to Segasaki’s educational level. I have a Master's and I’m an old, I want my fav to be an old too haha. (I’m currently doing my PhD, it’s… going somewhere lmao) 

Anyway, I didn’t make him have a Master's just because… I think Segasaki has a position of seniority in the workplace despite his young age: he led the discussion and (I presume) implemented the new weather reporting system thing. He was also comfortable with rejecting the welcome dinner (歓迎会 kangeikai) for Hiyoshi… and his co-workers, who are obviously his seniors, just accept it as it is. You don’t just reject invitations to after-work dinners/parties, 飲み会 (nomikai), especially not the kangeikai. It’s a party to welcome new members; rejecting it means you’re not a team player and unwilling to bond with your co-workers to cultivate a harmonious workplace relationship, which is a no-no in Japan (please read up on 和 (wa) if you’re interested in learning why), and definitely a no-no if you’re not high-up in position. (There’s a lot of politics going on in the background that I’m not very familiar with. I understand the most basics; like filling superior’s glasses, ‘hanging out’ with superiors, being frank and up-front and coming away unscathed, power-harassment bosses forcing people to drink, etc.) So, Segasaki must’ve entered the workplace in a relatively high position; which is achievable with a Master's. 

Interesting tidbit #1: did you know, you don’t get fired from a workplace in Japan? If the company wanna lay off people, they usually just close the entire department lol crazy, I know, but it’s legit. It’s why people can be employed for life at work.

Interesting tidbit #2: not many Japanese students go for a Master's but when they do, they usually enter right after their Bachelor’s. However, there are certain majors where having a Master’s is advantageous and students are generally encouraged to go for it. I.E. my major, Architecture and Urbanism, and Civil Engineering. These majors typically take 5 years of undergrad for students to qualify as practitioners. In Japan, their Bachelor’s only lasts for 4 years and a 2 years Master’s will put them on the same level as other practitioners from abroad. (I did 5 years of Undergrad in Architecture and Urbanism and another 3 years for my M.Arch degree lol and there are years to go until I get my Doctoral RIP)

wrote this whole thing bcs of this silly lil fic lmao

[ladyorlandodream]

As most fans remember, on October 3, 2004, the pilot episode of a series that entered the hall of fame aired. Today, we celebrate its 20th anniversary. Wow!

The first time I saw the image of Bree, Lynette, Susan, and Gabrielle was in a TV series magazine showcasing "what would soon arrive in Italy." I was 15 years old, in the midst of adolescence, but there was something in that image—the colours and faces—that made me think, "This looks interesting." I have to be honest; the pilot aired on free TV in Italy on November 14, 2005, so I was late to the party, but let's overlook that.

A year passed, and as a 16-year-old, I could finally watch the first episode. To say it was love at first sight might be an understatement. Lynette threatening her kids by claiming she has Santa Claus's number, Susan's mac and cheese mishap, Gabrielle mowing the lawn in high heels, and Bree's legendary muffins—which I learned to make.

I was in my third year of high school, and while my classmates watched more teen-oriented series like The O.C., I was eager to find out how the mystery of Mary Alice's suicide would unfold. Those weren't good years for me for various reasons, including psychological bullying, but every week, there was an hour of comfort in my life thanks to Desperate Housewives.

These characters, as unique as they were desperate, accompanied me all the way to my high school graduation exams; in their company, I defended my bachelor's thesis. I still remember watching episode 100 during a break between classes: I was in the study hall, and it might have been the first time I cried over a TV show episode. A classmate saw me sobbing and worriedly asked what was wrong; explaining that I was crying over an episode was quite something.

Desperate Housewives accompanied me well beyond the series finale on May 13, 2012; that year, I was finishing my first year of my master's degree. It was the first series I started watching in English; in Italy, they were delaying the dubbing a lot, and I had to make do with watching it online with subtitles. So yes, the adventures on Wisteria Lane are the primary reason I now speak better English.

Desperate Housewives means the world to me; I literally grew up with it. Each character has taught me something—including Edie!—especially the importance of friendship (and talking to your friends—secrets are a big problem!), embracing change and evolution, and understanding how some changes are for the better. To seize opportunities even if they scare us: "We all have moments of desperation, but if we can face them head-on, that's when we find out how strong we really are."

According to the internet, Susan was 35 years old in the pilot. It's funny that I am that exact age as we celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Time flies.

Twenty years later, we still use Desperate Housewives memes to express our thoughts. I still believe that Katherine's declaration to Robin is one of the most beautiful on TV, but I might be biased. I haven't yet gotten over the fact that the girls didn't get to play poker together again, but as Mary Alice said, "It was not meant to be." In my mind, they still talk to each other on the phone, through messages, and via video calls.

A heartfelt thank you to the amazing cast and crew for bringing these characters to life and creating a timeless masterpiece that continues to touch lives even after two decades. To the community of fans who, like me, have been shaped by this show, here's to the memories made and the lessons learned.

The women of Wisteria Lane will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Happy 20th anniversary, Desperate Housewives!

And remember, "Even the most desperate life is, oh, so wonderful."

[mylittleredgirl]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @geneeste. :) i may have done this one before, but tumblr blog search was traditionally unhelpful and i have several very important things i should be doing, so here we are <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 219

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 655,471

3. What fandoms do you write for?

stargate atlantis is the runaway lead, then sg-1, 90s/00s treks, the x-files, and a grab bag of other things. only two fics so far for m*a*s*h but the forecast looks good!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

no sooner met (star trek voyager, j/c, eight years of friends-to-lovers in 5k or less)

career day (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, damn that sure was a choice to go back to high school amirite)

next chapter (the good place, chidi/eleanor, the intimacy of reading)

first date (star trek voyager, j/c, falling in love again)

occupational hazards (the good place, chidi/eleanor, eleanor would rather not be the architect)

5. Do you respond to comments?

eventually!!!! i tend to keep nice ones on my home page for a while to cheer me up and then sometimes they get buried. i wake up nights like "damn the good place fandom really went all out with amazing comments on that random fic in like 2018 and i never replied," so maybe i need to go through my inbox and belatedly clear my cosmic debts.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

twilight (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, what if john didn't break the cycle). strong on style but real weak on comfort.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

weaving loose ends (stargate sg-1, sam/jack) ends with a wedding! in twenty years of writing romance fic, that has maybe only happened once?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not yet! but the year is young.

a fic of mine did cause a dramatic fandom schism once, in the dancing with the stars fandom no less. a splinter fan group created in exile! a mod claiming to be personal friends with the stars! everybody storming out and then blocking each other! so my fic did cause hate, but somehow i personally escaped unscathed. i didn't even get blocked. (lesson: in some spaces, rpf is encouraged until They Fuck. second lesson: if you start a fire and then stay very quiet, everyone forgets about you.)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do!! i guess!! but i'm struggling with it right now and it's giving me a complex. and "what kind" is like......... vanilla het fic for the most part tbh. gauzy curtain vibes, even. basically, i have to really sit and think about whether to rate something M or E, you know?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

yes, but not since the x-files days. rip geocities webrings we salute you for your years of service.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, but i think i'd like to! passing chapters back and forth sleepover style like "haha write your way out of THIS" would be fun. (or collaborating in a more mundane way, i guess....)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

john sheppard/elizabeth weir (stargate atlantis). first fic in the tag and i'm still fuckin there. three years on tv and a lifetime in my goddamn brain.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

realistically, i'm feeling pretty down on the chances that i'll ever finish ANY wip that's longer than 20k, but the two long ones withering on the vine that i'd like to finish are a sam/jack sg1 episodic soulmate fic and "what if janeway went undercover with the maquis instead of tuvok: the novel."

16. What are your writing strengths?

stealing one of geneeste's answers because "character complexity" is a good one! i don't feel satisfied with any fic unless i feel like i have learned something new about a character, or highlighted it in a new way.

my more specific strength, according to @coraclavia, is missing-scene fics that weave through an entire series canon to make a thesis statement (they are In Love).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

😭 i can't write anything long 😭 i really wish i were different 😭 i envy those of you with staying power who can return to a story after going to work or writing something else and keep plugging away at it. i used to write sprawling things when i was a teen, but since becoming Adult With Job now many years ago, i've totally lost that skill!!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

haaaahahahaha. talk about a weakness. i literally couldn't bring myself to write a fic that required dialogue in Ancient from stargate, a language that -- i cannot stress this enough -- is not even real. i'm like "well maybe i'll study latin for three years and then analyze all the episodes where they speak it to reverse engineer the differences so i can write the bastardized space latin correctly" GIRL WHY. JUST FUCK IT UP.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

first completed story that i recall would have been star trek voyager in my early teens, and by the grace of rural internet and some kind of prescient sense of self-preservation, it does not live online. first internet-published fic was several years later, for the x-files. for better or worse, that one can still be found.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

i think pieces (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, catharsis through sex pollen) might be the new best, and i had a lot of fun writing erasers on pencils (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, catharsis through truancy).

--

i am sure many of my fic-writer-meme friends have done this already but @ussjellyfish if your answers have changed since whenever you did it last; i'd love to hear how @havocthecat, @anretc, and @coraclavia would answer this; and blowing dandelion meme seeds over the fence to the mash fandom: @remyfire!

[killerandhealerqueen]

Oh...oh I have so many feelings.

So, I just finished binging the One Piece Live Action.  And as someone who has never seen a single episode of the One Piece anime nor has read a single page of the One Piece manga...I really really really loved this live action.

First of all, I love the story.  I think it’s really well done and the plotting works for the adaptation.  Second of all, I love the characters (and I will do a whole section on them in a minute) and I love the cast.  My god the cast.  They each played their roles so fucking well and I’m glad they chose who they did because I really can’t see anyone else playing these characters.  Also, the backstories man.  Look, I am a sucker for backstories and they delivered on them.  And also, also, the fucking flag at the end?!  The icon flag with the skull with straw hat on it?  Bitch, I am emotions

ANNND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE RELATIONSHIPS THROUGHOUT THIS SHOW…the relationships make me emotional

Now, for the characters (at least the mains and maybe like the villains):

Mains:

Luffy: I love how he was portrayed in this.  I’ve seen gifsets of this guy and he is both so loveable but also a gremlin and a little shit and Iñaki played him so well.  I couldn’t stop cooing over how fucking cute he was.  My god.  I think the CGI for his rubber was actually quite cool/good.  Really unnatural looking but hello...the dude’s skin is fucking rubber, it’s gonna be unnatural.  And it worked

Zoro: He was badass and a cunt and a bitch and I love him.  The middle finger in the first episode?  A man after my own fucking heart.  I also really liked Mackenyu in the Fullmetal Alchemist series as Scar, I thought he played him really well.  I think he did a really good job (and I’m excited to see him in Knights of the Zodiac whenever that comes out)

Nami: Her actress reminded me a lot of like a younger Jennifer Chastain (it might be the orange hair) but I really liked her character.  A badass but with a good heart and also a little bit of a bitch.  (If a character is a little bit of a bitch, I’m going to like them, that’s just how it is).

Sanji: I loved his actor.  And I know him and Zoro a little bit better than the other characters and I know that in the anime he’s quite a ladies man.  Like a lot of a ladies man but I like that they kind of toned that down here.  He’s also another bitch and I love him.  I’m also very glad they kept his eyebrows normal and didn’t do the spiral because I don’t think that would have translated well

Usopp: He has a lot of heart.  I really liked how he cared for Kaya and how he cared for his friends and yeah he was a bit of an exaggerated, he’s really just trying to make people smile.  But damn if that little fireball thing that he made wasn’t fucking cool as hell as it exploded that fish guy.  Like get fucked

Garp: I liked his actor.  I don’t know much about the character himself but I liked his actor and I thought he was pretty cool for a Vice-Admiral.  But I have to ask the fans...what is up with the dog hat?

Koby: Apparently according to fans he’s not that big in the anime/manga but I liked him here.  I thought he was cute, in a bright-eyed, bushy tailed kind of way.  A good kid.  And I’m glad he and Luffy became friends

Villains:

Alvida: Oh, she was cool.  Her and her big ass spiked clubs?  Fuck yeah, my dudes.  That was fucking cool

Buggy: Loved the actor, hate the character.  Buggy is just creepy as shit.  But I also hate clowns so there’s that.  But the actor really did bring something to this guy where like...you definitely got that there was something off about him but he wasn’t overbearing.  The CGI for him was *shudders* but also really cool

Arlong: Oh my god, I hated the character but the actor’s voice????  Hello???  I could listen to that man speak all day, holy shit, I could not get over his voice.  His character though, was a dick and I’m glad he got his pagoda fucking smashed on his fucking head, he deserved it after what he did to Nami and what he fucking put her through.

Now, will this live action make me want to read the manga or watch the anime?  No.  But did I enjoy the fuck out of it?  Yeah, yeah I fucking did.  I haven’t screeched with laughter in god knows how long and it was really good to watch/binge and while I may not understand a lot of the background or the plot, I still really enjoyed it and could follow along pretty well.

But also, for the fans because I am genuinely curious...does Luffy ever find the One Piece?

[ncisfranchise-source]

NCIS over the years has been through numerous cast changes. In fact, no one on the cast in its 21st season was a series regular for its first. But the actor who has been there the longest is Sean Murray, who first played Timothy McGee (he was a probie!) in Season 1, Episode 7 “Sub Rosa.” But he only recurred throughout the first season, and his journey to becoming a series regular was “an interesting one,” as he tells TV Insider (ahead of a turn in his character’s life, with McGee learning he has a relative he never knew about in the March 25 episode).

Murray’s stepfather, Donald Bellisario, created NCIS and Murray had worked with him on JAG. (NCIS is a spinoff of JAG.) “There was a one-time guest star appearance for a rookie agent. Don asked me if I wanted to do this. It was an interesting character, total rookie, total kind of stumbling over himself, trying to learn what he’s doing sort of thing,” Murray shares. “It goes well, I get along with everyone. We finished the end of that episode, and my character is neither a bad guy nor arrested nor killed, which is a good sign.”

He was brought back when they were three minutes short on an episode soon after that. Someone said, “Let’s bring McGee back, put him with Tony [Michael Weatherly] because that worked really well when we did that in that episode,” he recalls. He became a series regular for Season 2.

It was soon after that, at the end of the second season and leading into the third that the cast “felt like we were onto something,” he says. “We were still trying to find our footing, and we did something pretty heavy duty at the end of Season 2: Our female lead, Caitlin Todd, played by Sasha Alexander, took a bullet in the head. We kept that a secret because we wanted that to be a surprise when it aired, and people really were surprised by that. Between the end of Season 2 and Season 3, a lot of interest started to drum up with the show, and I think that was part of it, knowing that we were doing things a little differently than a lot of network television shows would. Cote de Pablo came aboard Season 3, and as we got going during that season, we could feel things picking up and things were clicking and the audience was starting to come and hang with us.”

While NCIS has ended seasons as the number one show, “which is amazing how many times that’s happened, we try not to think about that too much,” according to Murray. “I know that’s funny, but it’s also something that was sort of instilled in us early because you don’t want to get complacent. If people are tuned in and invested, you want to make sure to keep bringing the goods, you really do, even more so than usual. So we feel a responsibility to keep the quality high, and we always have. Twenty-one years later, we’re still hopefully doing that.”

Watch the full video above for more, including the Season 1 episode Murray says was “the turning point when we kind of felt that McGee could be a real part of this team,” signing on full time, and more.

[gaycrouton]

When is the “Real” Anniversary of Mulder and Scully’s Partnership?

In The X-Files, March 6th marks the anniversary of when Dana Scully became partners with Fox Mulder. 

While you can anticipate many commemorative tweets, you might notice a discrepancy when it comes to the year. Is it the 30th or 31st anniversary?

Find out in the following exploration 🔎

[As always, because of Tumblr’s photo limit on posts, this thread looks a lot better on Twitter]

The Pilot episode of "The X-Files" aired on September 10th, 1993 on the FOX Network, but it took a long time to get there.

Chris Carter first conceptualized the idea for the show in March 1992, and he began working on the first draft in September 1992 (Lowry, 16). The FOX Network ordered a script by November 1992 (Lowry, 13). The first draft of the script was submitted in December of that year. Further revisions – from which the shooting script was compiled – were made in March of 1993.

Principal photography took place over fourteen days in March 1993 (Lovece, 47). Post-production work on the episode was finished by May 1993, with the final version of the episode being assembled only three hours before its preview screening for FOX executives (Edwards, 37). With that, "The X-Files" was slated to join the 1993-1994 FOX Network lineup.

While many television shows are flexible with timelines, "The X-Files" tends to generally reflect real-world time. So with most production occurring in 1993, what's the problem?

According to research done by avid fans at Eat the Corn, Chris Carter set the "Pilot" in March 1992 to honor when he first conceived of the idea. A small ode to the birth of "The X-Files."

While a small detail, the 1992 v. 1993 debate has plagued fans every March for decades.

While the timestamps in the "Pilot" indicate 1992, there's a plethora of in-show, direct references to support that it's canon Mulder and Scully started working together in 1993.

In honor of Mulder and Scully, let me present you with the facts so you can make an informed decision

To begin, here is a screenshot from the "Pilot" that indicates 1992. Mulder and Scully met the day before they begin investigating the case, so they were partnered together and first introduced on March 6th.

While "Deep Throat" (1x02) doesn't reference a date, a timestamp in "Squeeze" (1x03) indicates 1993. You can also see/hear references to 1993 in "The Jersey Devil" (1x05), Shadows (1x06), "Ghost in the Machine" (1x07), "Ice" (1x08), "Eve" (1x11), and "Lazarus" (1x15).

This is a trend "The X-Files" typically follows. The first half of the series is generally set in the fall while the latter half is set in the spring, mirroring the traditional television schedule (barring finale/premiere two-parters and post-production changes in episode order).

Based on "The X-Files"’s tendency to reflect the year a given episode is airing, it can be presumed the "Pilot" is included in that (barring Carter's self-referential Easter egg).

While I recognize the hypocrisy of saying "don't believe this timestamp" by providing evidence of other timestamps, I hope to demonstrate that if you believe it's 1992 solely because it was shown in canon, there is an overwhelming amount of similar evidence to prove the contrary.

Additionally, if they met in 1992, that means there is a whole year of their partnership we never see.

Many of the lines in season one were written to highlight the newness of their relationship and would sound awkward coming from partners of over a year.

In seasons one and two, there aren't many allusions to the "Pilot" or Scully being assigned to The X-Files. However, as I'll demonstrate below, there are several references made in every season for the rest of the show's run that solidify 1993 as the correct date.

Keep in mind that "The X-Files" generally uses the year of the episode's airing as the in-show date, so while many of my examples will only have a Month/Day reference, we can assume from the airing year.

Syzygy (3x13)

Written By: Chris Carter

Airing Date: January 26th, 1996

SCULLY: Look, we’ve been working together for, what, two years now? We have different opinions, but I didn’t expect you to ditch me.

Evidence: Presuming the three-year mark is March 1996, this indicates 1993

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Written By: Glen Morgan

Airing Date: November 17th, 1996

While watching CSM's history, we see the moments leading up to his appearance in the "Pilot" wherein the 1992 appears on screen once more.

Evidence: 1992 Timestamp

This moment of Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is the piece of evidence (often the only) that pro-1992 fans use to justify the 1992 date. 

It could be said that, while writing his connections to the "Pilot", Glen Morgan rewatched the episode and used 1992 to keep continuity.

Tunguska (4x08) and Terma (4x09) - Same Dialogue

Written By: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter

Airing Date: November 24th and December 1st, 1996

SCULLY: I left behind a career in medicine to become an FBI agent four years ago because I believed in this country.

Evidence: 1992

Tempus Fugit (4x17)

Written By: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter

Airing Date: March 16th, 1997

SCULLY: Mulder... you have never remembered my birthday in the four years I've known you.

MULDER: [...] It's every four years, it's like dog years that way.

Evidence: 1993

It is valid to point out that this one could be discounted being that we know Scully's birthday is in February and they met in March -- meaning that they would've only been together for three of her birthdays. 

However, her line is very explicitly "four years I've known you"

Elegy (4x22)

Written by: John Shiban

Aired: May 4th, 1997

MULDER: What is that look, Scully?

SCULLY: I would have thought that after three years you'd know exactly what that look was

MULDER: What, you don't believe in ghosts?

Evidence: ... 1994 (we can discount that one haha)

Gesthemane (4x24)

Written By: Chris Carter

Aired: May 18th, 1997

SCULLY: Four years ago, Section Chief Blevins assigned me to a project you all know as the X Files [...] I come here today, four years later...

Evidence: 1993

Redux I

Written By: Chris Carter

Aired: November 2nd, 1997

This episode has multiple

SCULLY: That would mean that for four years we've been nothing more than pawns in a game. --- MULDER'S VO: In four years, I have shared my partner's passionate search for the truth.

-----

BLEVINS: Agent Scully. Please have a seat. Some time has past since you were first in this office.

SCULLY: Yes, sir. Four years.

Evidence: 1993

Redux II

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: November 9th, 1997

This episode also has multiple

SCULLY: He's been in a position to know everything from the beginning, everything that we've done over the past four years.

----

MULDER: Four years ago, while working on an assignment outside the FBI mainstream, I was paired with Special Agent Dana Scully, who I believed was sent to spy on me.

Evidence: 1993

Patient X (5x13)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: March 2nd, 1998

Multiple references

WERBER: It's been some time.

MULDER: Almost five years.

-------

MULDER: I've had my head up my rear end for the last five years.

Evidence: 1993

The Red and The Black (5x14)

Written by: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

Aired: March 8th, 1998

Another episode with multiple.

SCULLY: Mulder, when I met you five years ago, you told me that your sister had been abducted ... by aliens.

----

SKINNER: Over the past five years I've doubted you, only to be persuaded by the power of your belief in extraterrestrial phenomena.

Evidence: 1993

Folie à Deux (5x19)

Written by: Vince Gilligan

Aired: May 10th, 1998

MULDER: Five years together, Scully. You must have seen this coming.

Evidence: 1993

The End (5x20)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: May 17th, 1998

Multiple references

MULDER: That’s all I do. That’s all I’ve been doing for the last five years.

-----

SCULLY: This would be quantifiable scientific proof of everything Agent Mulder and I have investigated over the past five years.

Evidence: 1993

Fight the Future (1998)

Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Released: June 19th, 1998

MULDER: Five years together, Scully. How many times I been wrong?

Evidence: 1993

Tithonous (6x10)

Written by: Vince Gilligan

Aired: January 24th, 1999

We can see Scully’s career timeline on screen, but I, personally, cannot discern the date. Maybe it says 1992, maybe it says 1993, maybe it gives me cataracts.

Evidence: ???

Field Trip (6x21)

Written by: Frank Spotnitz

Teleplay by: Vince Gilligan and Chris Carter

Aired: May 9th, 1999

MULDER: Scully, in six years, how... how often have I been wrong?

Evidence: 1993

Hollywood A.D. (7x19)

Written by: David Duchovny

Aired: April 30th, 2000

GARRY SHANDLING AS MULDER: You know, seven long years I've been waiting for just the right moment, Scully.

Evidence: 1993

Fight Club (7x20)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: May 7th, 2000

MULDER: No, the interesting thing about these agents is they had worked together for seven years previously without any incident.

SCULLY: Seven years?

MULDER: Yeah, but they are not ... romantically involved if that's what you're thinking.

Evidence: 1993

A tounge-in-cheek reference to Mulder and Scully’s relationship taking a sexual turn a few episodes prior.

Je Souhaite (7x21)

Written by: Vince Gilligan

Aired: May 14th, 2000

SCULLY: You know, Mulder, in the seven years that we've been working together I have seen some amazing things, but this?

Evidence: 1993

Requiem (7x22)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: May 21st, 2000

Multiple direct references to the pilot

MALE VOICE: (on phone) My name is Billy Miles. I don't know if you remember me.

MULDER: Oregon, seven years ago.

-----

SCULLY: I watched Agent Mulder paint that there seven years ago.

------

MULDER: Seven years ago you came to Agent Scully and I for help.

Evidence: 1993

Per Manum (8x13)

Written by: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter

Aired: February 18th, 2001

DUFFY HASKELL: I contacted you about my wife About eight years ago because she was an alien abductee.

SCULLY: That was before my time here.

This episode is one of those “back from break” episodes that takes place in Fall of the previous year, so the “present day” parts of this episode occurs in 2000 -- meaning the eight year anniversary hasn’t happened yet. It more than implies 1992 would be “before her time.”

Evidence: 1993

DeadAlive (8x15)

Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Aired: April 1st, 2001

DOGGETT: What?

SCULLY: I heard the same speech come out of my mouth seven years ago.

Evidence: Would you look at that, two accidental 1994 references.

Three Words (8x16)

Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Aired: April 8th, 2001

Multiple references

KERSH: From this report, you and Agent Scully have had more arrests on percentage than she and Mulder over seven years.

-----

MULDER: Truth is, this is a bullet that was fired about eight years ago.

Evidence:  Mulder went missing in 2000, so for Kersh’s statement to be correct, they had to have worked together from 1993-2000. 1993 is further backed up by Mulder’s line.

Dæmonicus (9x03)

Written by: Frank Spotnitz

Aired: December 2nd, 2001

SCULLY: Dr. Dana Scully. I have just been assigned to the Academy as a forensic investigator. For the past eight years I was part of a unit known as the X-Files.

Evidence: 1993

Sunshine Days (9x18)

Written by: Vince Gilligan

Aired: May 12th, 2002

SCULLY: It very well could. I mean, I've... I've been working this unit for nine years now. I-I've investigated nearly 200 paranormal cases. We are due for some incontrovertible proof. I want vindication, for ... for Mulder and ... for all of us.

Evidence: 1993. This was the 200th episode of the show, meaning we’ve watched nearly every case they ever worked together.

The Truth (9x19/20)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: May 19th, 2022

Several references

SCULLY: My name is Dana Katherine Scully. I was assigned nine years ago to the X-Files to spy on Agent Mulder whose methods the FBI distrusted.

------

MULDER: Because this is greater than you or me. This is about everything we worked for for nine years.

------

KALLENBRUNNER: She gave up the miracle child? The proof of everything that she and Mulder claim that they've risked their lives for over the last nine years - she just sent it off to some strangers?

------

REYES: You don't care what these people have sacrificed over the last nine years - what's been lost to their cause.

------

MULDER: I'd like to congratulate you on succeeding where so many before you have failed. A bullet between the eyes would have been preferable to this charade. But I've learned to pretend over the past nine years - to pretend that my victories mattered only to realize that no one was keeping score.

Evidence: 1993

My Struggle (10x01)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: January 24th, 2016

MULDER: In 1993, the FBI sought to impugn my work, bringing in a scientist and medical doctor to debunk it, which only deepened my obsession for the better part of a decade, during which time that agent, Dana Scully, had her own faith tested.

Evidence: Can’t lay it out much more than that. 1993.

Babylon (10x05)

Written by: Chris Carter

Aired: February 15th, 2016

SCULLY: Nobody but the FBI's Most Unwanted. I've been waiting twenty-three years to say that.

Evidence: Direct reference to the “Pilot.” 1993.

To sum it up, there are 23 episodes (over 1/10th of the series) that reference 1993 as being the year Mulder and Scully met, 4 episodes (technically 3 since it’s a repeated line in Tunguska/Terma) that indicate 1992, 2 that imply 1994, and 1 that I can’t read.

It is worth noting that many television pilots end up looking different than the rest of the show (I mean... we don’t even get the classic X-Files theme in the Pilot, and Scully’s hair isn’t quite the red we’ve all come to know and love). Pilots are the ‘pitch’ in the hopes they’ll be approved for more, and sometimes the network exectutives say “okay, but change xyz,” resulting in actor changes, character alterations, and pivoting directions. One could say the Pilot date shouldn’t be taken at face value for this reason.

Also worth noting, 1992 isn’t treated like an accident. Like many other shows, The X-Files has made alterations to certain details they wanted to change before the DVD releases. One such example is that Gillian Anderson’s wrist tattoo was accidentally left in during a scene that aired, but you can see it has been edited out on subsequent releases because Scully doesn’t have a wrist tattoo. This proves that they want the show to be as accurate as possible when they release it. Since they haven’t changed the 1992, it serves to illustrate that it is likley a meaningful Easter Egg for Chris Carter, and not a true canoncial fact he sticks by seeing as many of the above references to 1993 were made by Chris himself.

Despite my 1993 propoganda, I know damn well we will all see a bunch of “Happy 31st Anniversary” posts here in a few days. I’ve been on those X-Files Facebook fanpages enough to know that if you post “Happy 30th Anniversary,” an angry, self-righteous bro will post a screenshot of the timestamp and say “Actually, it was 1992.” The X-Files’ popularity made it a hit with general audiences who see 1992 on screen and take it for what it is, and The X-Files’ appeal to cult fandoms inspired anal-retentive fans like myself to look deeper and find the 1993 written in the margins (over-and-over). 

Above all else, I encourage everyone to celebrate it however they want, at the end of the day, I think it’s beautiful that a thirty year old show is still being celebrated by its fans and recognized as an important piece of pop culture and television history. 

I will end this thread with one final quote from Scully: “The truth is out there... but so are lies.”

[pink4rt25]

"When you run away, head to the North"

Heyo! This is different post from my artwork. I should probably make a new blog for this, but for now I shall post such wandering thoughts here. This is a post about my thoughts on a part of a manga. So if you don't want to read a post on such melancholy wanderings, you can go. It's gonna be a looong post. If you are a bartender this might interest you. (I hope)

The quote above is from Bartender by Araki Joh and Nagamoto Kenji. It is manga series about a bartender who aims for the "Glass of Gods". (Spoiler warning for those who have not read chapters 121-127). For those staying on, the intro is going to be a bit long. Bear with me.

So for those who don't know, "Bartender" is a manga series about a young bartender who returned to Japan from France after studying there. Sasakura Ryū is a qenius bartender who aims to serve the right drink at the right time, to help with the customers' problems, aiming for "the Glass of Gods". When he came back, he works at different bars, before settling down at Eden Hall.

"Bartender is predominantly an episodic series, and although the clients and problems vary, each story revolves around problems being resolved through the right drink. Alcohol is not depicted as a potential problem that might have negative effects such as drunkenness in the series; instead, "Bartender insists the right drink at the right time ... is about starting an earnest conversation with oneself. "To know which beverage is the most appropriate, according to the series, a bartender must be more than a liquor connoisseur; he or she must be a good observer. For example, Ryū deduce one's feelings by looking at one's hands and can know if someone is telling the truth or not.[As such, it is not just about drinking; "the stories of the customers are sometimes, if not almost always, as important as and at times even parallel to the history of the liquors imbibed." ( from wikipedia, sorry for the long intro! I just want you all to know how great this series is)

In the middle of the series, he takes a break, going to Sapporo, Hokkaido, which is in the north of Japan. He went there for 3 days. The chapter( Vol 16 Chap 122: Sauve Qui Peut) starts with these words:

"Does everyone know why the kanji for defeat (敗北) uses the character (北) ?

(北) resembles two people standing back to back, which symbolises running away with your back towards the enemy (敗北) doesn't just mean defeat. It means defeat and running away.

So when you run away, you should always head North(北)."

He went there before 6 years ago, as a sort of pilgrimage, wondering about his life's path as bartender. He now went there again, probably to renew his conviction to be a bartender.

First, he went to a bar he visited 6 years ago, Bar Yazaki. There, he confided in the old bartender about his troubles. He asked him on whether he has thought about quitting as a bartender when he encounters the strong negative emotions of the customers and whether running away is a sin. He replied that this kind of pain can hone the soul. Later on, after finishing his cocktail and he started to leave, he broke the glass. The bartender did not scold him, but told him "Sauve Qui Peut".

"When a captain goes down with his ship, regardless of it being a commercial cruiser or a battleship, helplessly sinking after a gruesome battle, the captain always lives and dies with the vessel. As the ship sinks, the captain will say this to his subordinates, "Sauve Qui Peut" which means...."

" Every man for himself...in other words live on if you can"

He then replied to his second question : "A bartender is like the captain of a sinking ship, no matter how painful it gets, you cannot abandon ship. We encourage our customers to live on. People who survive have the duty and responsibility to live on. ......Normally I keep these words to myself, but will say it in my heart as I watch my customers leave."

At these, Sasakura- san left, leaving with tears in his eyes. The old bartender's words touched him, and helped him to continue the path of a bartender.

Next, he went to buy liquor from a local liquor store. "When bartenders travel, they would always visit a certain place, a local liquor store. You want to find one that that has been in business foe more than 20 years and hasn't been remodeled. It's even better if it doesn't exclusively sell foreign liquor. In these stores, you can sometimes find rare whisky and liquor that are out of production for a bargain." (Vol 16 Chap 123 : The Clown of the North: Part 1)

Thirdly, he went to a whisky distillery, the first whisky distillery to be opened in Japan. He met an old woman and her grandson on the train and went with him. As they went along, she told the story of the person who opened the distillery and his foreign wife, Rita who he met in Scotland. Homesick and alone, he met his boss's family and fell in love with his daughter, Rita. He then brought her to Scotland, and opened the distillery. They went through many trials: waiting for the whisky to mature, selling apple juice and cider while waiting,and of Rita being a foreigner etc. But their love for each other helped them through, even until her death. ( Vol 16 Chap 125-127 : The Story of Taketsuru and Rita (Part 1- Part 3))

He finished off the trip by going back to Bar Yazaki (with the old woman and her grandson). He finds old friends: the man met earlier on in the bar, who turned out to be the old woman's son, the "18 till I die" old man (who he met in Tokyo in an earlier chapter) is her husband, and a young woman who is a colleague at the hotel he worked at, who was engaged to her grandson. They begged Sasakura-san to make cocktails for them. He conceded, and first made cocktails for the ladies : Rita's Bell, also known as Wedding Bells.

So I was thinking: if Sasakura-san was in England, he would have gone to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. One of the things Newcastle is known for is brown ale. And if he was in France, he would have gone to Lille, Hauts-de-France. Who might he have met and which distillery would he have gone, I wonder?

I know most people do not have the same conviction as Sasakura Ryu and the old bartender, but I hope this post has helped inspire you to continue being a bartender, or to continue helping others even when the whole world does not seem to care. Ganbatte! (Never give up, good things come to those who wait!)

Also, Sasakura-san informed his apprentice and friends he was going away, so if any of you want to have a break from life and want to go off, please inform your friends and family properly. Please don't just leave a 'Oh, I'm taking a break so I'm leaving for a bit' note and go off without warning.

Compared to the other manga, this series is rather low key and doesn't have the high jinks of most manga. So if you want something slower and like Tales from the Cafe: Before the Coffee gets Cold, please read it. Also there is an anime adaptation (not really faithful to the storyline, but still great). Do go watch it.

I am but a greenhorn in life, but I hope I have made your day more interesting.

Ciao!

[fantazulio]

i haven’t made a proper toh text post in a while but i was going off about this on discord and twitter so now i am bringing it here:

What the hell happened with Luz’s cape?

Just like. everything involving it. It was heavily underused in the series (Luz herself only wore it in four episodes, three of them being in Season 2A) despite its importance as a representation of Luz’s connection to Eda (and in my opinion, the demon realm as a whole), and was later passed down to King, only for it to inexplicably disappear anyways.

So under the cut, I’m gonna provide a detailed history of the cape and every instance in which it was used, to try and make any sense of what happened to it.

Starting with Agony of a Witch, Eda is first seen preparing witch’s wool to knit a cloak out of. According to her, it “repels powerful spells”, so it apparently has actual function aside from looking cool as shit. Luz wants the cloak, but Eda insists that she herself needs it to ward off the increased attacks from the Emperor’s Coven. However, later thinking of Luz’s kindness and devotion to her wellness, Eda decides to make the cloak for Luz instead, as a gift.

Next is Young Blood Old Souls, where Eda is currently captured. Finding the finished cape (I’m gonna call it a cape from now on), Luz is inspired by Eda’s gift and their bond to go on a rescue mission to get Eda back. This is the first episode where Luz herself wears the cape, but it’s also this episode where there’s a noticable flaw; the cape just looks cool.

We skip to Lilith and King getting captured and the “fight” between Luz and Belos, and he opens by teleporting behind Luz and flinging her against the wall with magic of his own. The cape seemingly does nothing to hinder this.

Here, you could probably chalk it up to Belos’ red magic being artificial (since he’s a human and all), which is why it was able to pierce through the cape that was made to counter magic. Fine. So Luz rescues Eda, King, and Lilith and that wraps up Season 1.

Fast forward to Echoes of the Past, the third episode of Season 2 and the first one of the season in which Luz wears the cape. She goes to King’s old island along with Lilith and Hooty to find out about King’s past and stuff. The biggest threat of danger they face there is Jean-Luc, who attacks not with magic, but with polymorphism by shifting into various shapes to attack. No magic involved means no chance for the cape to do its thing.

Fast forward again to our next episode, Hunting Palismans (or Palismen, whatever). In this one, Luz goes out at night in her cape and pajamas with Flapjack and later gets scooped up by Hunter along with the rest of the palismen. Once again, the wonkass red magic that Hunter also uses pierces through Luz's cape. The later fight with Kikimora (who uses actual magic) doesn't count, as Luz had put her cape away.

Fast forward yet again to our next episode: Yesterday's Lie, the last episode of Season 2A and the very last episode that features Luz wearing the cape. In this one, Luz is in no inherent danger, as she spends almost the entire episode in the Realm of Inbetween while Vee and Camila must contend with Jacob’s nonsense. Sometime during Luz’s final conversation with Camila before being pulled back, though, the cape itself gets stained and torn with several holes in it.

And such is the last time we see Luz wear the Witch’s Wool cape. It had a good run of four episodes spaced out from eachother, but you may be wondering, “What happened after this?” That is where things get… ehhhhhh.

The next appearance of the cape is about halfway through Season 2B, in Hollow Mind. Near the beginning of the episode, Luz, Eda, and King go out to the Night Market to buy some Witch’s Wool to repair the cape. Unfortunately, Prim the shopkeeper closed up to join the Oracle Coven. Oopsie poopsie.

That’s all we see from the cape this episode. Which brings us to the very last episode that the cape appears in, in the strangest situation possible: Clouds on the Horizon.

In their last moments all together for a long time, it is shown that Eda fixed up the cape herself by shortening the cape to remove the torn bits. It’s also here where the cape goes to its final owner: King. Everything looks spelled out clearly; the cape is now too short for Luz to wear ( D: ), so it goes to King. Simple right? Surely it will come up later as a plot point. King will at least be shown wearing it throughout the episode, right?

Wrong.

Not even a minute after King is given the cape, it completely, inexplicably disappears during the commercial break. When we cut to Luz, King, and Katya descending into the forest, the cape is literally nowhere to be seen. Actual video proof.

And this is the last time we ever see the cape. No seriously, it never shows up again. Not with King during his stay with the Collector. Not with Eda as she hides out with Lilith in the Archive House up in the sky. Not even four years later, when Luz is seen packing up her closest belongings as she prepares to attend the University of Wild Magic, does it even make a cameo.

I think this might be the owl house equivalent of Araki Forgot Syndrome. How the hell does one introduce a physical attribute of Luz's character that represent not only her ties to the Demon Realm, but her bond with Eda, the witch who guided her through this new world, only to severely underuse it, show nothing of its function, write it off as broken, and then have it disappear from existence. We had a good thing. We had a badass cape, it had meaning, we had everything we needed and it all ran like clockwork.

And it was hyped up, too. The original poster for Season 2 of the show had Luz front and center wearing the cape, and it was even included in the brand new animation provided for the same season's opening sequence.

Alas, the show has been over for a long time now, so there's not a lot that can happen now. We can only hope that in some post-canon spinoff/continuation or another Reddit AMA the whereabouts of this marvelous piece of fabric are addressed, because I will continue to rag about this at any given chance. Be thankful that I don't use the rest of this post to rag about what happened to any part of Luz's original outfit to begin with.

[londonspirit]

Spoilers follow for the season finale of Our Flag Means Death.

After starting the season with its lovable cast split in two, Our Flag Means Death concluded its second season with the entire crew of the Revenge sailing off together into the literal sunset—well, almost the entire crew. With Rhys Darby’s Stede and Taika Waititi’s Blackbeard staying behind on land to make a go at being innkeepers, they’ve found their happy ending, which could be where the story of Our Flag Means Death finishes for good.

But according to series creator David Jenkins, there’s still more story to tell, and the fans rallying behind a third season may just help make that dream come true. After witnessing the filming of the season finale on the show’s New Zealand set—including Black Pete (Matthew Maher) and Lucius’s (Nathan Foad) emotional knife-swapping wedding—we caught up with Jenkins to discuss the most emotional moments of the finale, the dramatic action sequences, and what might come next.

Vanity Fair: What did you hope to achieve with the ending of season two?

David Jenkins: It’s bittersweet. There’s death and there’s the rebirth of Stede and Blackbeard’s relationship; there’s a funeral, there’s a wedding, and the idea that this family is going to keep fighting even as they lose members. And then it’s about belonging to something. It’s not just a bunch of people who are desperately stealing from each other and killing each other. There’s a way of life that they’re fighting for.

You’ve talked in the past about a season three. Fans are already circulating petitions, hoping there will be a third season. Will we get to see these pirates again?

There’s always a chance, if viewership is good. I think we all need to figure out what era of television we’re going to be in when we come back and who can afford what. I like our odds. It’s a cool show. We have a really good following. We have a passionate fan base. Max has been great in terms of publicizing us. I’d love to do another season of the show. I’m sure they’d love to have a reason to do it again. You can feel like it’s special making it. It would be nice to be able to get everybody together again for one last shot at it.

So despite the happy endings in the finale, you’ve left things open for a third season.

A lot of times, with this narrative of characters, same-sex relationships end on a dour, downbeat note, where one of them dies and it’s unrequited or it’s unrealized; something horrible happens and they’re punished in a way. So it was important to leave it open and a lot more show to go, but also leave it in a place where it’s happy. The end of the first season isn’t a happy ending. It’s kind of happy. Stede learns what love is and that’s happy. But I think it was important to be like, Okay, these boys did their work this season. They get to have a little happiness at the end of it.

I visited the set when you were filming one of the final episodes. Izzy (Con O’Neill) had been killed off, and he couldn’t talk too much about that. But now: Why did Izzy have to die?

There’s a trope that I like with mentor stories, where the mentor dies in the second act. Our protagonist outlives the mentor and then they have to go on. We felt like Izzy’s story had reached its conclusion, where we put him through enough. And then there was the realization that he is kind of a mentor to Blackbeard and that he is kind of a father figure to Blackbeard. It felt nice to have him die and have Blackbeard be upset by it, because Blackbeard killed his father. But this is a father figure that he’s losing that it’s hard for him; it's sad and he doesn't want him to go. Izzy has such a beautiful arc in season two; he does a lot of the things, has a lot of the breakthroughs that you want that character to have. It felt like: It’s time to give him a full meal. And it’s also a pirate show, so he’s got to die.

How would you describe the filming of season two?

It was good work, but it was hard, hard work. It’s a big show; it’s basically a one-hour show that we’re doing on a half-hour budget. So everybody has to work triple time keeping up with it. There were tactical challenges in season two. Now we’ve got two ships and two crews, and we had the unique challenge of filming the mermaid scene in a tank, and a storm in one episode. I love the fourth episode, and Buttons turning into a bird, and Izzy losing a leg. Blackbeard is saying: “I want to turn into a bird.’’ He’s kind of saying, I need to change. The idea that if you want to have something with this guy (Stede), you’ve got to change. And that seems to me to be the key to the season.

As a New Zealander, I loved seeing the scenery on the big screen—the lush bush, big, windswept beaches, and wild, expansive landscapes. How were you able to use the setting in season two in New Zealand?

It was jaw-dropping. In New Zealand, you go out the west side of Auckland, and it’s like the most beautiful beach you’ve ever seen. You go to Bethells Beach, and you can turn the camera here; you can shoot the entire thing. You’d shoot it a little bit this way, you’ve got, like, a Bergman movie. You go to the ocean, you’ve got From Here to Eternity. The freedom that you have and the beauty, I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

The battle scenes seemed to be far more elaborate and really felt like the show was leveling up. What went into filming those?

Jacob Tomuri, our stunt coordinator, is exceptional. He did Mad Max; he’s Tom Hardy’s stunt double, and he’s just so capable and good. And so a lot of it this season was that we have a short time frame, we move very quickly, and, again, we have a half-hour budget. We don’t have a one-hour budget, and we don’t have a one-hour shooting schedule. So a lot of it was just picking our shots and saying, Okay, we’re going to do a battle sequence. Let’s storyboard it. Let’s make sure that we know what the stunts are going to be, and let’s make sure that the location is spectacular. So we shoot it on that sandbar behind Bethells Beach, and it was like a dune which went on forever…. A lot of it is just seeing what New Zealand has to offer geographically. And then deciding, yes, let’s do that, and then building it around that, and then making sure that we’ve planned enough, that we can pull it off in a way that’s safe but also has enough size.

What was the idea behind having Stede as a merman in episode 3?

The idea was to make something that was just beautiful, and to get beauty and have beauty around them seeing each other again and their need for each other. To do that and to do it in a way that it’s a comedy, but to do it in a way that’s earnest and genuinely doing it and singing a Kate Bush song. We hit on the idea of a mermaid early on in the season two room, and [we said], Oh yeah, well, we have to put that in. There can’t really be mermaids on the show, but there can be in limbo, kind of purgatory, brain-damaged land as Blackbeard’s dying.

I particularly loved Zheng Yi Sao and the new female characters. I know that she’s based on a real-life pirate. Tell us a bit about the character of Zheng and how she came about.

Zheng Yi Sao is the most successful pirate in history. And we never knew anything about her in the West. She was so talented and so good at what she did that the Chinese government had to broker a treaty with her. She was about 100 years apart from Blackbeard and Stede. So we’re making that up, that she’s in this world and that she’s in the West. But it just seems like there should be so many stories. What she did was amazing. Her crew was largely female and largely women that have been discarded by society.

She was doing a social movement on top of robbing shit and doing everything that pirates do. Her reasons for doing it are more impressive and perhaps can be read a little bit more as altruism than somebody like Blackbeard, who is not a good guy. Or Stede, who’s probably not the best guy. And it just felt fun. It’s like, Well, who’s a cool third captain that we can put into this season that would give Blackbeard and Stede a run for their money?

As a female heterosexual viewer, I particularly loved that storyline. Were you wanting to reach a broader audience?

The first season is a lot of dudes. And so it’s nice to think, Okay, who else can we add into the stew? I started thinking about her while we were shooting season one. And it looked like perhaps we could get a season two, and she seemed like the most formidable person to add.

How do you feel about the attention from the fans?

I love it. I can’t possibly hope for this to happen again on another project. I hope I make things that people like and they want to engage with. But I would say the thing that separates this fandom is the level of positivity, like almost uniform positivity that just makes it nice to be able to engage with. And I think that’s rare. They’re so kind and interesting and talented, and so why wouldn’t you want to engage with that? It’s an honor.

Do you think of Our Flag Means Death as primarily a queer romance?  For this show, it’s important to me just to write a really bold-bodied romantic show that happens to be between two characters of the same sex. I think that the story beats don’t matter, because if you’ve been in love and you’ve been hurt and you met someone you love—hopefully we all know what those feelings are. And then in terms of listening to the room and having a room that’s on a spectrum of queerness and has nonbinary writers, if it's working for everyone in the room, the story’s working. And if it’s bumping for anybody, then you go in and retool: Hey, what should we do here to make sure that we’re getting all of it right and we’re not just assuming that?

Because on some level, love is love. And on another level, I get to see myself in a rom-com all the time. Someone who’s nonbinary and someone who’s queer doesn’t get to see themselves in a mainstream rom-com pirate thing almost ever.

Are there any other characters you want to talk about in terms of their development in season two, that you feel are relevant to the script?

Izzy’s the big one of the season. Just to give him a whole meal and see that character go from a villain into somebody, really, that you can identify with and care about. And Con O’Neill did such beautiful work. I love him as an actor. His character is a joy to write. And maybe it’s masochism, but I do feel like the character that’s a joy to write often dies.

How about Blackbeard and his arc?

He’s a damaged guy. He learns to love and he almost dies. And he comes back. He kind of goes through rehab. He has to wear a bell on his neck like a cat. No one trusts him. He’s like in Superman 2, where Christopher Reeve loses his powers, and he’s immortal. What happens if Blackbeard loses his powers and his outfit but still has to be in a pirate world? Who is that guy? The first season is about Stede Bonnet’s midlife crisis, and the second season is about Blackbeard’s midlife crisis. And then when they both have their midlife crises, they can open a B&B together. The chemistry between Rhys and Taika, and that friendship of 20 years, is key to the season.

How would you describe Blackbeard and Stede’s relationship in season two?

I don’t think Stede and Blackbeard are ready to be married. They’re emotionally saying: “Let’s give this a go.’’ Black Pete and Lucius are a little further along, and I think a little more mature. And yeah, it was also nice to see a formal union, I think, and between those characters. I love that relationship, and I love Matt Maher and Nathan Foad together; they have such a wonderful chemistry. It’s nice to see that couple kind of come to the fore in terms of maturity, that they are in fact a little more mature than Stede and Blackbeard.

A left field question: What level of research have you done on gay relationships on pirate ships? How common was queer romance among pirates?

Pirating has been so whitewashed and straightwashed, and it’s guys on boats confined to small spaces, and they’re also people that didn’t fit into normal culture. And so I do think there’s a history of same-sex romance at sea because it’s people who don’t fit in on land.

To not talk about that in a pirate story is to not really tell a pirate story. They’re criminals and did some really terrible things, but also, like, they were counterculture, and there was a reason they’re on those boats beyond the fact of being poor. I have to believe that in a society that has a term for marriage between crew members, same-sex romance was common.

The season’s third episode is called “The Innkeeper,” which fans definitely took as a hint toward a potential fate. How did you seed that outcome for Stede and Blackbeard through the season? And did you want fans to see it coming in a way?

I don’t know that you could really see it coming. We like the idea of Blackbeard pining for something. Beyond lighting ships on fire and shooting people, he’s longing for a normal life. We knew where we were going with that, and we knew that they would eventually end up perhaps opening an inn.

Back to the whole community around OFMD: Did you feel an enhanced level of responsibility, because people are feeling so seen by the show and have an affection for the show, when you were creating season two?

As opposed to responsibility, it feels more like relief—that people feel seen and they feel good about it and they liked what we did. And so it feels like, Okay, somebody’s out there and wants the show. The makeup of the writers room looks a lot like the makeup of the fan base. So as long as we’re true to our stories in the writers room, I think we just feel excited that there’s somebody waiting on the other end to enjoy it.