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soveryanon · 4 years ago

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Reviewing time for MAG199! ;_;

- That discussion was a lot, and raised a lot of interesting points, but wooftie did the beginning show characters going back to their bad reflexes out of habit and stress. Melanie and Jon were quick to get snappish at each other, and we know from MAG186 that Martin making tea is also his way of avoiding conflict:

(MAG186) ALSO MARTIN: We could. [SIGH] But we both know that loved ones make the worst therapists. They’re too wrapped up in trying to stop you hurting, to actually help. But hey: we know all about that, am I right? MARTIN: There’s nothing wrong with comforting people. ALSO MARTIN: A cup of tea isn’t a resolution. At best it’s a… a plaster; at worst… a muzzle.

So the fact that the sequence began with Martin asking about tea?

(MAG199) MELANIE: … So… ARCHIVIST: … Yeah. [UNCOMFORTABLE PAUSE] MARTIN: Anyone want another cup of tea? [SOMETHING WOODEN SCRAPES ACROSS TUNNEL FLOOR] Well, heh, I say “tea”, it’s har– GEORGIE: We can’t keep putting it off. We need to talk about this. About what we’re going to do.

Aouch. (I wonder where the tea came from: from the London supermarket? Or were those the bags he had packed before leaving the Scotland cabin?)

- Meanwhile, Basira was providing out-of-the-box ideas or possibilities and Georgie acted a bit like a debate mediator, laying options down and trying to keep things on track. I’m especially glad that she was the one to point out that there were actually three options, counting inaction (letting the world slowly die out) as one, since, as she pointed out, she had felt guilty for not having helped Jon back in season 4 – she had told him so, she had to reexplain to Melanie again this episode.

- Although he had begun the season correcting Martin about Elias actually being “Jonah”, Jon mainly used “Elias” to refer to him this season, until they reached London and he was oscillating between the two. But since Jon told Elias Bouchard (the real one)’s statement, it’s been “Jonah” without hesitation, to the point that he corrected Georgie about it:

(MAG193) ARCHIVIST: I could kill his body, sever the link, break The Eye’s power, and… Jonah Magnus would die.

(MAG194) ARCHIVIST: Look. Right, when I said that I would “replace” Jonah in there, that’s not… I m– … That place, the centre of The Eye, i–it’s… it wasn’t made for him.

(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: I see. Destroy the Panopticon, and you release its power. Kill Jonah, and you cut the connection between the Fears and the world.

(MAG198) ARCHIVIST: Had a blazing row? MARTIN: I, uh… eh… Yeah, that. BASIRA: What? ARCHIVIST: About what we should do with Jonah. With… the Panopticon. BASIRA: Oh, about whether you should, uh…?

(MAG199) GEORGIE: One. We follow Annabelle’s plan. We destroy the Panopticon, kill Elias– ARCHIVIST: Jonah– GEORGIE: Whatever– ARCHIVIST: –Magnus.

It feels like knowing about the real Elias helped Jon distinguish the two, since he could now put a story and a personality on “Elias”?

(I’m still laughing a bit that Jon had to be That Person and interrupt Georgie. Not the point, not the moment, Jon.)

- Overall, I like how we could clearly see what was prioritised by everyone amongst the options they explored and how they approached the problem. Basically, the unknown factors came to whether other worlds were already impacted by the Fears or not, and whether the Fears would contaminate all of them or just a portion, which led to a few scenarios showing what they feared and hoped for the most:

-> Keeping the Fears in their world and sacrificing it in the process: hoping that the Fears were intrinsically tied to this world in particular, that this option would mean their absolute annihilation, and fearing that other worlds getting contaminated by them would lead to these other worlds experiencing their own apocalypse, thus perpetuating a cycle they could have stopped.

-> Throwing the Fears into other worlds to save their own: hoping that the Fears already existed in other worlds, that it would only impact some amongst an infinity of worlds, and fearing that sacrificing their world would be a pointless sacrifice if the Fears happen to exist elsewhere anyway.

Jon was behind the first plan, with a few variations (offering to accelerate the death process if necessary… which, indeed, was chilling, and Basira’s firm opposition against actively contributing to people’s murder was very necessary, but made sense as an option if the scenario was to doom this world). The others federated for the second with various priorities: Basira sounded like she could have accepted the sacrifice of this world if it came with the certainty that it would eradicate the Fears everywhere (but they do not have that certainty), while Melanie insisted on people’s own responsibility when it came to bringing around an apocalypse and the fact that hypotheticals could go both ways, while Georgie seemed more receptive to what would happen to this world for sure vs. the unknown in other universes, while Martin was refusing Jon’s option to take Jonah’s place and was receptive to other ideas. From Georgie&Melanie, there was the additional fact that they had recently witnessed the survivors, who trusted them and were under their protection, getting snatched away without them being able to do anything; from an emotional point of view, it might have pushed them to… do something, anything, that could indeed save people, while they hadn’t been able to be active until now.

* I really like that Basira was the one to point out and reiterate how unfair it was of them to take this decision, that they ultimately were very privileged compared to the main victims, trying to find ways to get people involved in the process. It does feel like she’s learned during the journey…

* Jon’s voice (weary, miserable) when he explained that he already knew what people wanted, and that it was for their suffering “to stop”, broke my heart into pieces ;_;

* Martin’s main argument (“I’d rather live the rest of my life lying awake wondering if I made the right choice, over… lying awake listening to the screams of everyone on Earth being tortured!” really echoed what had happened with Annabelle on their journey to Hill Top Road: that he couldn’t help making additional stops to relieve people’s suffering for a bit, and that he briefly lamented Salesa’s death despite Annabelle pointing out that he had made victims, since Martin “didn’t know them”. Martin reacts more strongly to what’s in front of him, uh…

* Georgie felt very End-touched this episode? “until the end”, “towards the end”, just like Beholding avatars had occasionally been punning about their patron…

* Melanie, sayer of “fuck” /o/

(MAG131) MELANIE: Oooh, fuck off?!

(MAG199) MELANIE: But if you think that’s all I care about here, then frankly you can fuck off out my tunnels on your high horse.

Jon still in the lead with four over the course of the series, we’ll see if anyone else takes the lead with MAG200…

- Overall: what was the most striking was how, at this point, Jon was indeed too disillusioned to hope for any possible positive outcome. They all made good points, about what they knew and didn’t know, about the worst and best cases scenarios – but from Jon’s point of view, it feels like the guilt has been heavy enough already, and that he couldn’t stand to add to it anymore.

(And ;; It’s especially cruel that he stuck to his line of trusting the others, that he shared the information with the others and counted on them to make a collective decision… but that he was the only discordant voice in the end. That was the risk! And it just cruelly (for him) turned out this way.)

- Amongst the points that weren’t mentioned, I’m curious that the followings didn’t come up:

* They barely talked about The Web or Jonah as, well, being the main factors resulting in the current apocalypse – as the people who wanted it to happen and worked for it. They all were ready to take the blame but… the apocalypse wouldn’t have happened if The Web hadn’t wanted to control its escape by backing up Jonah to make it happen, and if Jonah hadn’t worked for it. Yeeting the Fears into other worlds also means yeeting The Web, who now knows for sure how an apocalypse can happen, which means it will search for a crack to widen as its next escape pod as soon as it arrives somewhere else, thus repeating the cycle probably much more faster…?

* They all seem confident that once the Fears leave, they’ll be gone forever. But Gerry had raised the point in front of Jon that nobody can tell really which came first, if the Fears originated from people or caused their fears. What if the problem in the TMA world is that the Fears are produced by people – what if they would be recreated as soon as they leave (especially now that people are left traumatised and hurt)?

* They weren’t sure whether the other worlds would be very similar to theirs (“Assuming time even works the same in different dimensions.”) but… the two examples of people crossing the Hill Top Road line had come from very familiar worlds: Anya’s was almost identical (except that there was no Magnus Institute in hers – maybe no Jonah Magnus at all?) and Eowa was killed by the same army he had tried to flee. The examples both Jon and Martin read about felt really similar to their world; those could be drops in the bucket, but still…

* There was absolutely no mention of the people they lost in the course of the series. It’s a strange feeling, because when it came to it, their conclusions seem pretty disconnected from everything that had happened to them, to the point that Melanie could blurt out “We all lived with monsters in the shadows, and we just got on with it.” without being countered by anyone – although it was the most obvious lie ever (and Melanie had to be aware of it, given how she blinded herself to escape The Eye). Melanie knows in detail how her father suffered because of The Corruption at Ivy Meadows before dying. Georgie lost Alex and her ability to feel fear. Basira had to hunt and kill Daisy after she got lost to The Hunt. Jon was traumatised as kid, witnessed Helen Richardson getting taken by Michael in front of him; Martin was preyed on and groomed for The Lonely for months by Peter; Jon&Martin both lost Tim and Sasha. They know how damaging the Fears can be even at the lurking stage. I wouldn’t have been surprised if, even taking this into account, they’d still have gone with the plan to yeet the Fears (since in the best case scenario, Fears would already be present in other worlds anyway, or whatever inhabits them would be insulated to them), I’m just surprised that the topic of the people they have lost didn’t come up as a potential counter-argument, especially since we’re at the end of this journey.

- Oh gods, Jon leaving for a smoke…

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: Fine. I’m going for a cigarette. [DEPARTING FOOTSTEPS] [CLICK.]

… sounded like a very bad omen, given how las time he had left people alone to smoke, it had gone, uh, pipe-murderly:

(MAG080) ARCHIVIST: I’m going to have a cigarette. Don’t… [DOOR OPENS] Don’t. [DOOR CLOSES]

Surprised that nothing bad happened when he left; if it had been at the end of an episode, I would have panicked for a week about the Watchers coming back for the others while Jon was away.

- It was the first time we’ve heard Jon smoke on tape! We knew he did thanks to a few mentions (him announcing his cigarette break to Leitner in MAG080, the fact that Daisy had found Silk Cuts in his bag in MAG091, when he had tried to give a cigarette to Gerry in MAG111) but we hadn’t heard him taking a smoke.

* … How long has Jon carried these cigarettes? Did they come from before the Change, did Jon restock at Salesa’s, did he get some from Leitner’s stashes of stuff? Or does his own stock never truly deplete, The Web providing an infinite supply of cigarettes just like the recorders keep spawning?

* We could hear the whirring sounds and the drones, Georgie joked about an “indoor smoking ban”, Jon commented he could think better here, we heard Georgie climbing stairs to reach him, so I’m guessing he was at the bottom of the tower? I like how this scene managed to feel nostalgic despite of it, with Jon being somewhere between inside and outside and hiding for a smoke – we don’t know for sure where he used to go to smoke, but Gertrude had mentioned the Institute has a courtyard.

* And just the location highlighted Jon’s situation: not “human” enough anymore to be in the tunnels, but refusing to embrace what is at the top of the tower. So, alone in that in-between.

- Gods, the Georgie and Jon scene began so adorably?

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [LONG EXHALATION] GEORGIE: You do know there’s an indoor smoking ban, right? ARCHIVIST: They’ll make an exception for me…! GEORGIE: [FAINT CHUCKLE] ARCHIVIST: Besides, I can’t really think down there. [DRAG ON CIGARETTE] That’s not true, I can, it’s just… exhausting. Puts me in a foul mood. [INHALE] It’s better up here, close to The Eye. Thoughts come quicker. GEORGIE: … If it’s any consolation, you seemed pretty on the ball earlier. ARCHIVIST: It isn’t really but… thank you.

Friendly exes! It really took me back to the familiar bantering they shared in season 3 – except that, back then, Jon was trying to hide what was truly happening to him, and this time around, Jon was shown more open and direct about what was on his mind.

- Again, I love and hate what the scene said and showed, reminding us that… even if the plan they have chosen goes accordingly, Jon won’t be okay, as Jon had explained to Martin:

(MAG181) ARCHIVIST: Uh, these last few days I–I’ve been… getting weaker. Dizzy spells, vagueness, you’ve seen it. Being cut off from the Eye, i–it’s not good for me. MARTIN: Yeah, but if… [INHALE] If you’re that connected, that… dependent, what happens if we actually, y’know, do manage to– ARCHIVIST: We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I just need us to be moving on.

(MAG191) MARTIN: … Jon. If… When we defeat The Eye, the Fears… What happens to you? [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: Nothing good. I think it depends on what actually happens. […] If, however, we… find a way to destroy or, uh… eliminate the Powers… I’m not going to be okay. There’s… too much of me that’s part of The Eye now. I don’t… know what would be left of me without it. Maybe I just… die. Maybe I survive, but I–I lose… something. My identity? My mind? My… memories? I don’t know.

(MAG197) ANNABELLE: Most would simply lose whatever power they have been gifted. Jon would lose much of himself, the parts of him that are The Eye. But he would survive. And perhaps, more importantly, he would remain who he believes himself to be. [TAPE SQUEALS]

His moment of rest consists of coming up under Beholding’s radar again; but if they succeed, there won’t be that anymore. At best, Jon would be like he was in the tunnels, at worse, he would wither away like he did at Salesa’s, losing grasp on his memory and unable to focus. It wasn’t mentioned as a factor in their discussion (Martin and Jon had already covered this privately earlier in the season, after all), but it’s likely not something Jon has forgotten.

- Oh GODS, Georgie, no!!

(MAG199) GEORGIE: … Can I have a cigarette? ARCHIVIST: [AMUSED SNORT] … Sure. [PASSING ONE OVER]

(MAG001) ARCHIVIST: “I picked myself up as best I could, checked I hadn’t seriously injured myself, no broken bones or anything, and decided to roll a cigarette to calm myself. That was when I heard it. [STATIC RISES] “Can I have a cigarette?” [STATIC FADES]”

Given Jon’s reaction, he had picked up on it. You either die an Archivist, or you live long enough to see yourself become the Anglerfish’s victim.

- Georgie used to smoke, and Jon knew that about her! They might have been smoking together as students, given Jon’s official chronology regarding smoking?

(MAG080) ARCHIVIST: I’m going to have a cigarette. Don’t… [DOOR OPENS] Don’t. […] Sorry, I’ve been quit for five years now, but th– [STUNNED SILENCE] … Oh. Oh god… I need to… Uh… I need to, um… [TRAILS OF ALMOST INCOHERENTLY]

MAG080 had taken place in February 2017, so five years ago was 2012, which is roughly when Jon joined the Institute (in MAG051, he had mentioned “One of [his] first cases as a researcher for the Institute in 2012”). Although, well. Jon saying that he had “been quit for five years” wasn’t super convincing when he apparently had cigarettes on him at that moment, but it’s a bit difficult to guess when Jon went back to smoking in the series (Elias’s “He’s not smoking again, is he?” in MAG039 could have been referring to him knowing that Jon used to smoke, or to Jon having started again as soon as he got the lighter; and Tim’s “I don’t mean like ‘sneaking a cigarette’ bad” in MAG079 could have been a random example, or referring to the fact that Jon was indeed having cigarette breaks in season 2 and not being super subtle about it).

- Aouch about the theme of shattering illusions and your heroes being people above all:

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: I thought you quit? GEORGIE: I did! For my health. But… it’s already the apocalypse so… I’ll need a light too. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. [LIGHTER SNICKS OPEN] [GEORGIE LIGHTS UP] GEORGIE: I tried to avoid it in the tunnels, when we had our, uh… When the others were here. […] ARCHIVIST: You didn’t want to tarnish the image of the prophets? GEORGIE: Just didn’t think they wanted one of their “revered leaders” puffing away in the corner. ARCHIVIST: [MURMURS AN ASSENT] GEORGIE: Saw a bishop smoking once when I was a kid, full Easter regalia and all. Really weirded me out.

The comparison hurt a bit by likening the survivors in the tunnels to… children who can’t really tell decorum apart from reality, but there sure was an interesting theme of Georgie being aware of how she was seen, and trying to not hurt the survivors while at the same time indirectly feeding their perception of her as “holy”.

- Okay, so. Probably what felt the biggest, most important thing in this episode was… Georgie taking the lighter, how it happened, and whether or not it will be narratively relevant.

(MAG199) GEORGIE: … Can I have a cigarette? ARCHIVIST: [AMUSED SNORT] … Sure. [PASSING ONE OVER] I thought you quit? GEORGIE: I did! For my health. But… it’s already the apocalypse so… I’ll need a light too. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. [LIGHTER SNICKS OPEN] [GEORGIE LIGHTS UP] GEORGIE: I tried to avoid it in the tunnels, when we had our, uh… When the others were here. [LIGHT METALLIC SOUND] Nice lighter. [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: Hmm? [STATIC FADES] […] I should probably quit myself, then. [LIGHT METALLIC SOUND] GEORGIE: Then, you won’t mind if I hang onto this? [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: [DISTRACTED] Hmm. [STATIC FADES] GEORGIE: … I’m sorry. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: I know you hate what we’re doing.

* Static when people mention the lighter and Jon not being able to focus on it is far from new:

(MAG111) GERARD: Nice lighter. You a spider freak, then? ARCHIVIST: What? Oh! Er, n–no. I–I, I never really, uh… I never really thought of it. I–I’m Jon. I’m with the Magnus Institute. … I–I’m the Archivist.

(MAG136) DAISY: [SCOFF] She’s… Web. Spider’s sneaky like that. [PAUSE] Like that lighter you’re always using. Where’d you get that? ARCHIVIST: Mm. [STATIC RISES] Good point. We should keep our eyes open. [STATIC FADES] Anyway, how’s Basira doing?

(MAG162) MARTIN: You said this place, the–the cabin was… [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] It, it’s feeding on us, right? ARCHIVIST: Yes… MARTIN: … So should we… destroy it, before we go? […] We’re not even gonna try? We, we’ve got your lighter, maybe we could just– ARCHIVIST: We can’t fight the world, Martin.

(MAG197) ANNABELLE: And it just so happens that the perfect tool was once delivered to you as a token of appreciation. Though you really do need to learn to keep better care of it. Somehow, it always seems to slip your mind, doesn’t it? ARCHIVIST: What…? BASIRA: Jon, it’s that stupid lighter of yours. ARCHIVIST: [INDIGNANT] My what? I… [STATIC RISES] [PULLS THE GOLD LIGHTER WITH EMBOSSED SPIDERWEB FROM POCKET AND FLICKS IT OPEN] Oh? … Oh. [STATIC FADES]

What is surprising is that it still happened even after Annabelle pointed out the purpose of the lighter. If Jon is supernaturally compelled to not pay attention to it (by The Web, to ensure it stays with Jon? By Beholding, out of self-preservation, like it tried to push Jon away from Eric’s tape that explained how to quit the Archives?), how the heck was Annabelle expecting him to use it in the tunnels to explode the Archives with the gas main?

* At the end of the episode, the others explained how they would proceed, and it’s presented as a given that Jon wouldn’t be in the tunnel team – but rather, that he would go with Martin, despite being unnecessary since Martin would take care of the Jonah murder. It’s rather strange that the others didn’t ask for the lighter directly, but that Georgie took it in the flow of the conversation and in a way Jon barely noticed… as if she wanted to take hold of it sneakily because it was necessary that Jon didn’t really notice. Plus, as was explained, Melanie is supposed to be the last person standing to ignite the gas main: Basira is supposed to be a planned distraction, and Georgie is a back-up distraction in case things go sour. If the point was to get the lighter for the gas main, then Melanie should have been the one to get hold of it.

(* It’s additionally rather strange that Georgie said she had “tried to avoid it in the tunnels” when the survivors were around, implying it was a conscious choice but she might have been smoking outside when patrolling with Melanie… yet had to ask Jon for a cigarette and for a light, as if she didn’t have these things on her.)

Overall, I see three options:

* Total coincidence, red herring, Georgie just didn’t take her own lighter along because she wasn’t planning on smoking.

* Since the beginning of the episode implied that Jon&Martin&Basira had given a complete recap of what had happened to Hill Top Road before the tape recorder clicked on, Georgie took the lighter on purpose to free Jon from The Web’s potential influence. She hasn’t gone back to smoking during the apocalypse; she lied about it to lower Jon’s guard by telling a convincing story, given that Jon knew she used to smoke. Likely meaning that Georgie&Melanie&Martin&Basira have another plan in Jon’s back, but couldn’t share with him due to both the tape recorders and Jon’s connection to Beholding – if Jon knows something, then Beholding might be knowing about it too.

* It’s… actually an End thing. There was a feeling of finality when Georgie took the lighter, as if she might be taking a step that would irrevocably lead to her own death? (“The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.”) She said the exact same thing (“Nice lighter.”) as Gerry, who was dead when he said it; she took the lighter for a dangerous mission; she pointed out her own regrets due to her inaction, and was the one to mention that they had to pay the cost, whatever it was, for this plan to succeed. I don’t know, I got the impression that things might be slotting into place, that her own mechanism had set into motion – that things in the tunnels will go awry, and that she won’t make it out.

- Overall, I like the different approaches characters had about their own guilt and Jon’s in this episode:

(MAG199) GEORGIE: … I’m sorry. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: I know you hate what we’re doing. ARCHIVIST: I hate all the options, I just… It’s all my fault, you know? GEORGIE: What, because you weren’t able to outsmart the literal embodiment of manipulation and scheming? ARCHIVIST: Mmm. GEORGIE: We all make bad choices, Jon. It’s not your fault some eldritch horror decided yours were going– ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: –to affect the whole world…! ARCHIVIST: They were still my choices. GEORGIE: … Yeah. And you live with them. Or you don’t. That’s all there is, really. ARCHIVIST: Hmm.

For Jon: what was the most apparent is that he was adamant about presenting what happened as his choices. It could be a remnant of Elia’s gaslighting about it (MAG092: “You never wanted this, no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, Jon, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean. But we make them nonetheless.”), but also a sign that Jon had been struggling about (what he perceives to be) The Web’s hold on his life: if The Web had indeed manipulated him all his life, since he was eight, puppetting him like Francis or the kids at Ray’s house, then what is left of Jon? What is his, who is he? Jon clinging to his own guilt, his own responsibility, the idea that he made his own choices at every turn, might be his way to not fall into the other extreme, the idea that he has been nothing but the Web’s marionette all along and that he’s nothing without it.

It’s also striking that the others have told Jon that the apocalypse wasn’t truly his fault, that they knew Jon hadn’t wanted it, but that Jon redirected the blame on him every time anyway. Georgie tried two other approaches in quick succession: taking The Web into account, with the idea that Jon’s particularity was that he was preyed upon by it, that the consequences were only more dramatic than regular “bad choices” because something was planning to use them anyway; and then, something that resonated more strongly with Georgie’s own experience. As she told Jon, she had regrets about not helping him, felt like she had failed him and had contributed to the steps leading to this apocalypse: she knows what it is to carry that sort of guilt, although on a smaller scale. (And her last sentence felt… extremely End-touched, too.)

- The moment of Georgie introducing that Martin (“your next appointment”) was there and that it was her cue to leave was so sweet ;_; Jon’s ex to Jon’s current partner, and both Jon & Georgie being cool about each other’s new partner in their lives…

- And gooods, Jon&Martin’s conversation ;_;

(MAG199) GEORGIE: He’s all yours. MARTIN: Thanks. [GEORGIE’S FOOTSTEPS DESCEND AND FADE] … You all right? ARCHIVIST: Yeah. Sorry it got so heated in there. MARTIN: Don’t be. I’d have been more worried if you were super calm about it. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. MARTIN: … I’d understand if you hate me right now. ARCHIVIST: What? No! No, Martin, I love you. I always will, and I know you love me too, I mean… [SIGH] That’s it, isn’t it? That’s… the real core of it. You want to save me. MARTIN: I want you to save yourself.

* The fact that Martin was ready and understanding that Jon might hate him for the option Martin defended, that he was expecting Jon to hate him for it, and that he still stuck to it… Oh, Martin… (It’s not the first time a Magnus moment made me think of the When They Cry series but… this one was peak Federika’s poem: “Don’t be sad. The world may not forgive you, but I do. / Don’t be sad. You may not forgive the world, but I forgive you. / Tell me. What must I do to earn your forgiveness?”)

* So many “I love you” coming from Jon this season…

(MAG161) MARTIN: I’m sorry. ARCHIVIST: No, it’s– [SIGH] I love you, I just… I need more time.

(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: “The screams may linger on the distant breeze, and your eye may wander beyond the curtains from time to time, but you and the one you love are, it seems… safe. […] There within the thing that pretends to be a cabin is the one you love. […] The one you love is always near, so close that refuge sometimes feels a prison.”

(MAG183) MARTIN: … I’m sure I love you. [FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST: I love you too. [FABRIC RUSTLES] Let’s go.

(MAG191) MARTIN: … I promise. I love you, Jon. ARCHIVIST: [FOND HUFF] I love you too.

(MAG199) MARTIN: … I’d understand if you hate me right now. ARCHIVIST: What? No! No, Martin, I love you. I always will, and I know you love me too, I mean…

I really wasn’t expecting it when season 4 ended, and yet!! Jon has been so soft and open about it with Martin this season…

* I really like the nuance Martin insisted on, that he mostly wished that Jon would want to save “himself” – it’s not necessarily that Martin is right about it but… from his point of view, he might still be suspecting that Jon is still pretty much self-destructive (although in indirect ways), as Daisy had pointed out in season 4, and that his way of engaging in dangerous missions is still tainted with guilt, with the idea that he has to compensate for something:

(MAG142) DAISY: Not like there’s… “normal” trauma, you know? But it’s pretty common. The most important thing becomes control, engaging on your own terms. Even when it’s stupid or dangerous. Anything to not feel helpless. MARTIN: Oh, god… DAISY: And of course, for Jon, there’s survivor’s guilt in there, too. He thinks he’s not human. Makes him very… self-destructive. MARTIN: Yeah, well. We’ve all had trauma. DAISY: And everyone’s changed.

(And gods. Maybe the problem this season for Jon is that Daisy wasn’t there anymore to at least point out these things. She hadn’t really managed to take Jon’s mind off of it (and he hadn’t opened up enough with her to confess that he had been attacking people) but she might have been able to lay it out, at least, if she had been there…)

- I’m really glad about the contrast between Jon and Martin when thinking about hypothetical scenarios!

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: … Sometimes… I imagine if none of this had happened. If we had just… met. Been together, w–without… all of this. MARTIN: [SOFTLY] Me too. … But we wouldn’t have, would we? Been together, I mean. ARCHIVIST: Huh? W–what do you mean? MARTIN: Well…! We had that, didn’t we? Almost a year of just working a normal job together and… you hated me. ARCHIVIST: I didn’t “hate” you. MARTIN: No–no, no, no, I listened to those tapes. At one point, you explicitly said you’d be fine with me being chopped up by that old jigsaw lady. ARCHIVIST: Oh, god, Angela! Ha! She’s still about, you know? Lording it over a nasty little Flesh domain. Anyway, I didn’t explicitly say it, I… implied it. MARTIN: Face it, Jon, it took almost two years of crisis and trauma to even make us compatible.

* Jon truly is the romantic in that relationship.

* I’m very glad for Martin pointing out that he remembers how Jon used to treat him, and that he doesn’t really believe that they could have gotten together without the circumstances they experienced. I don’t think we’re meant to take Martin’s words exactly at face value (the circumstances allowed them to open up to each other and get closer, they didn’t necessarily turn them into whole other human beings), but it makes sense that, from his perspective… it’s hard to romanticise the past:

(MAG014) ARCHIVIST: I sent Martin to look into this “Angela” character, not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.

Jon was absolutely awful to him back then, and ranting about him on tapes was textbook workplace bullying since he knew the tapes were semi-public (as in MAG032, Tim reported to him that researchers and students had been pointing out mistakes in his recordings). Off-tape, just from Martin’s point of view, we know that it was so pervasive that he remembered about it when left alone, tormented by his worst memories and feelings:

(MAG170) MARTIN: … Oh, I, I met someone! Did I tell you? He’s… [SHUFFLING] I, I don’t know. I like him. He doesn’t like me, though. Not really. I don’t blame him. I don’t like me sometimes, and I am me! Plus, he’s… he’s my, my boss? Is that right? [CREAKING] Ei–either way. It’s probably for the best? Wouldn’t really be appropriate, eh…!

(MAG186) ALSO MARTIN: Or… does it just keep paralysing us, make us shrink back and wait, hoping things work out? Like with Jon when we thought the worms had got him. MARTIN: Hey, to be fair, he still kind of hated me back then. I’m really not sure it would have been the best time to take my shot. ALSO MARTIN: … Fair. He was projecting hard.

Season 1 is not a time Martin would be eager to go back to, because it’s when Jon was at his worst against him (and Martin lived in fear of his fake CV being discovered), while for Jon… it was before Prentiss attacking the Institute, before his scars and before losing Sasha. It makes sense that Martin would want to defend what they got, to defend this world over others, given that from his point of view, it might be the only configuration possible that made his relationship with Jon possible – which, once again: might not be necessarily the truth, but makes sense from Martin’s point of view.

* Though, Martin, sweetie, the “normal job” included you getting besieged by Prentiss for two weeks and having to eat canned peaches. It’s never really been a “normal” job.

- Jon lightening up at the mention of Angela and immediately infodumping about how she was doing was so bittersweet to me, since it emphasised (once again) how deep Jon is in the Fears’ society by now. Those are familiar names, familiar figures, doing terrible things, but it still feels like his own universe when he mentions them, when he explains what he knows about them. Once again, it makes me wonder what will be left of him once all those things are just… gone.

- Martin listened to so many tapes, uh?

(MAG142) MARTIN: I listened to your old statement. Wasn’t your partner down there? DAISY: Yeah. Didn’t find him.

(MAG188) MARTIN: Plus, I… I was a little bit jealous as, well. ARCHIVIST: Of what? MARTIN: Of Helen. Well, the, the real Helen. I found the tape when you were on the run and… I don’t know. Something about the way you two seemed to connect when she came in. ARCHIVIST: [HUFF] Before she was eaten by a door. MARTIN: Well, yeah. It certainly seemed to have a pretty deep impact on you.

(MAG199) MARTIN: No–no, no, no, I listened to those tapes. At one point, you explicitly said you’d be fine with me being chopped up by that old jigsaw lady.

He listened to the one involving Angela (MAG014), to Helen’s statement (MAG047), to the events that got Daisy section’d (MAG061) – that last one being even more interesting since it explicitly mentioned that Basira&Daisy were giving Jon the tapes, which means it was from the stash Jon was recording secretly. I’m back to fearing a bit about Martin as a back-up Archivist: he used to read statements and to take a few live ones, Annabelle made him read her statement in MAG197, he’s been listening to tapes… just like Jon.

- Martin has been good at finding loopholes in mutual promises:

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] That’s very sweet of you, Martin. Sort of. … Thank you. MARTIN: Wherever you go, I go. That’s it. ARCHIVIST: You promised to let me go, if I had to. MARTIN: And you promised not to go if there was any other choice. And there is. So that’s the deal. ARCHIVIST: … That’s the deal.

Martin said that he wouldn’t “doom the world” over Jon: he’s still respecting that in a way by prioritising Jon and this peculiar world (and as the others had pointed out earlier, they weren’t sure whether their actions would doom others or not).

I’m super afraid about that “Wherever you go, I go” which sounds like something that could suddenly come to a stop. Martin had pointed out multiple times that he was “following” Jon (MAG170: “I was following, al–always following, never leading; never leading.”), but recent episodes have operated a bit differently – Jon didn’t follow Martin to his domain, respecting Martin’s wish to confront it alone, and Jon followed him to Hill Top Road. At this point, Jon has been following Martin, too…

- I got a first impression of Martin’s words before understanding that it could actually be referring to multiple things:

(MAG199) MARTIN: I guess that’s why it really bothers me, you know? [SAD CHUCKLING] I try, but I can’t actually imagine… ever making a decision that I knew meant losing you. And it… It hurts to know you can.

At first, I thought Martin was saying that he felt like Jon would be ready to sacrifice Martin or his relationship with him for a greater good, while Martin definitely couldn’t (as he pointed out to Also Martin, his limit would probably be to sacrifice Jon), but… it could also be a reference to Jon’s self-hatred, the fact that Jon would sacrifice himself so easily. In that case, it’s a bit hypocritical of Martin indeed (since he had told Also Martin that he was ready to sacrifice himself too), but I still feel like there might be a difference between the two – Martin would do it to save the world or Jon (or to not live on the pain of his domain’s victims), while Jon… would likely do it out of self-hatred and because he feels like it’s his responsibility to make up for the apocalypse.

- The contrast between Georgie’s scene and this, when Jon finally broke ;_;

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: I hate all the options, I just… It’s all my fault, you know? GEORGIE: What, because you weren’t able to outsmart the literal embodiment of manipulation and scheming? ARCHIVIST: Mmm. GEORGIE: We all make bad choices, Jon. It’s not your fault some eldritch horror decided yours were going– ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: –to affect the whole world…! ARCHIVIST: They were still my choices. GEORGIE: … Yeah. And you live with them. Or you don’t. That’s all there is, really. ARCHIVIST: Hmm. […] You didn’t damn the world, Martin. MARTIN: [SIGH] We all– ARCHIVIST: [HARSH] No! “We all” nothing! I… I’m the one who caused all of this, that’s just the truth of it! I’m the one whose whole life has been nothing but one – long – setup – to this. MARTIN: Jon… ARCHIVIST: [WITH SADNESS] You didn’t speak the words! You didn’t feel them move through you, vomiting out of you like…! [SHAKY BREATHING] … I did this. It’s my fault. And I don’t want… I can’t let anyone else feel that, that… helpless, enormous guilt. Ever.

Both Georgie and Martin beginning by “We all”, but Jon’s reaction being so hugely different when he heard it for the second time.

* I wanted Jon to have a breakdown, I got the breakdown, I’m still sad about it ;_;

* Jon had been very susceptible to the rhetoric of being “chosen”: he had wondered about it in season 3 and 4, until Jonah had concluded that if Jon had been “chosen” in any way, it was by him when he decided that Jon’s Web mark made him prime for his plan and that it was mostly just due to Jon’s “own rotten luck”. It might have been easier to swallow for a while, technically, until Annabelle reactivated all those fears about being “chosen” but from even longer – since childhood, since he was eight, since he was just a kid who just survived a Fear encounter. I do feel like there was a lot of bullshit in what Annabelle told him, in the way she framed it; she had also told Martin that a web couldn’t be “precious about a single strand” and I feel like it was more likely that there were multiple potential Jons, or that The Web had already tried to get someone (Gertrude? Her assistants, with Emma pushing them into danger?) marked and prime for the final ritual. But Jon has been very vulnerable to the idea that there could be something wrong inherent to him, that things he had no power over had to be his fault somehow, such as not being able to rescue his bully, or Sasha getting killed by the Not!Them, or the apocalypse (while he had more trouble accepting his own blame for things he was directly responsible for).

* I was wondering recently if Jon might have finally accepted that he wasn’t responsible for the apocalypse, that it was Jonah’s fault (since he hadn’t mentioned it for a long while at this point) but… nop. He didn’t really change his mind about it since the start of the season, just got better at hiding it:

(MAG161) MARTIN: Jon, it’s not your fault… ARCHIVIST: Martin, can we not do this again. MARTIN: Sorry. ARCHIVIST: I’m just… I’m mourning a world I killed…! MARTIN: I know… ARCHIVIST: And we’re all trapped in its rotting corpse…!

* ;_; My heart broke when Jon recalled the experience of reading Jonah’s letter, and how traumatising the mere action was. We could hear him struggle and try to stop speaking in MAG160, and yet the letter was following its course…

* Just like with The Web’s clutch on him yet Jon still defending that he made those “bad choices”, it’s heartbreaking how Jon seems to be stuck on the paradox of being conscious that he couldn’t stop reading the letter, that something awful was done to him, yet still defends that it’s his fault and his responsibility. Jonah was barely mentioned this episode (and not as the man who chose to unleash that apocalypse), but he was still… very present in the multiple ways he fucked Jon over.

* It’s extremely sad that their current plan requires to trample on precisely the thing Jon didn’t and doesn’t want (to inflict what he experienced over someone else)… and yet, as sad it is, it also needs to be seen in the whole situation. Is guilt the worst thing that someone can experience? What about the people currently being tortured in their domains? (Or is there something coming up, such as Jon’s guilt being one aspect of his “domain” all along?)

* But still. Sobbing over the fact that Jon didn’t even blurt out out that he couldn’t allow anyone else to be hurt and fucked over by another Jonah like he was, but that the worst thing, for him, still was this “helpless, enormous guilt”. Not the pain, not the constant anguish, not the people he lost, but the guilt of having been used to end the world.

- There have been a few mentions revolving around Jon’s voice lately:

(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: As far as I can tell. I–it’s hard to s–… If I look too closely at them, my own voice, things get… recursive. Hard to follow. […] ANNABELLE: [CHUCKLING] I am sorry you find them irritating! They’re a side effect of the very specific way this web has been spun. I thought you liked his voice? MARTIN: I do when it’s his voice. I’ve never liked the statements. It always felt… Yeah. ANNABELLE: Well… you can trust me when I say you’ll be hearing his real voice very soon. […] We found the one we believed most likely to bring about their manifestation. We marked him young, guided his path as best we could. And then, we took his voice. ARCHIVIST: No… ANNABELLE: His, and those he walked with. We inscribed them on shining strands of word and meaning, and used them to weave a web which cast itself out through the gate and beyond our universe. So that when the Fears heard that voice, and came in their terrible glory, they might then travel out along it. [TAPE SQUEALS] Or be dragged.

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [WITH SADNESS] You didn’t speak the words! You didn’t feel them move through you, vomiting out of you like…! [SHAKY BREATHING] … I did this.

And once again, there was the “For the silence” coin Albrecht discovered in the tomb of what was likely to be an old Archivist. Whatever happens in MAG200, I wonder if Jon won’t lose his voice in the process? Wouldn’t be the worst thing and, anyway, he will lose his voice symbolically with the end of the podcast (even in the case where he wouldn’t be straight up dying) but… I don’t know. The end of the episode had Jon exceptionally withdrawn and silent while the others discussed, so it already felt like he was falling “silent” in a way, and I wonder if he’ll lose his voice in a more literal way during the crisis, especially if the Fears are following “his voice”…

- Martin was so soft… and the Fabric Rustled again.

(MAG158) MARTIN: I see… [INHALE] I see you, Jon. [BREATHLESS CHUCKLE] [PRESENT, ECHO FADES] I see you…! ARCHIVIST: Oh, Martin… [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: I w–I was on my own…! I was all on my own…

(Season 5 trailer) MARTIN: You know I’m here for you. ARCHIVIST: [LONG SIGH] … Yes. Yes I do. [RUSTLING OF CLOTHES] MARTIN: All right. All right. ARCHIVIST: Thank you.

(MAG170) ARCHIVIST: [CLOSER] Oh! Martin, hold on, I–I–I’m coming, I just… [STATIC REACHING A PEAK] [FOOTSTEPS] Oh, Martin! Thank god, I, I was… I–I thought you were behind me. [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: I thought you’d left me behind…! Gone on without me.

(MAG177) ARCHIVIST: … I’m sorry. [SILENCE] MARTIN: [SIGH] It’s okay. I understand. [BAG JOSTLING] [FABRIC RUSTLES]

(MAG183) MARTIN: … I’m sure I love you. [FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST: I love you too. [FABRIC RUSTLES] Let’s go.

(MAG187) ARCHIVIST: [GROGGY] Oh. Martin, good! [BAG JOSTLING] [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: Wh–, wh–wh–what happened? Th–th–there was the hotel and then…

(MAG191) MARTIN: No, I, I know, I know. I’m sorry, it’s okay. [SIGH] [FABRIC RUSTLES] ARCHIVIST: … Bad dream? […] Maybe I just… die. Maybe I survive, but I–I lose… something. My identity? My mind? My… memories? I don’t know. [FABRIC RUSTLES AS THEY EMBRACE] MARTIN: [LONG EXHALE]

(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: Martin! [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: … Oh god, I’m sorry, I– ARCHIVIST: It’s fine.

(MAG199) MARTIN: Hey. ARCHIVIST: [SNIFFS AS IF TEARING UP] MARTIN: Hey, hey, hey, hey, come here, come here. [FABRIC RUSTLES] ARCHIVIST: [SNIFFS] MARTIN: We’re going to fix it. ARCHIVIST: No…! [HUFF] … We’re just going to pass it on…! MARTIN: You don’t know that.

It might have for the last time ever…

- What was that sigh, Martin.

(MAG199) [SILENCE, AS THEY BOTH COMPOSE THEMSELVES] ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] Come on. The others will be waiting. [SHUFFLING] [FOOTSTEPS DESCEND] MARTIN: [HEAVY SIGH] [CLICK.]

Was it “just” the sigh of knowing the current plan is making Jon miserable, or is it the sigh of someone who knows that something could comfort Jon, yet can’t share it with him yet…?

- Logistic of things in the next scene was that Jon&Martin came back to Georgie, who explained to them that Basira&Melanie had gone scouting, and the tape recorder clicked on when Basira&Melanie arrived:

(MAG199) [CLICK–] GEORGIE: I’m not sure, they said they were out– Oh, hey. [DOOR CREAKS, FOOTSTEPS ENTER] ARCHIVIST: There you are. I was getting worried. MELANIE: We were scouting. I was showing Basira where we think the gas mainline is. MARTIN: And? BASIRA: Not good. You know those Eye things? ARCHIVIST: The old Archivists? BASIRA: Yeah. I think they know something’s up. The place is crawling with them, it’s like they’re looking for something. MELANIE: Or patrolling. MARTIN: Hmm. GEORGIE: That’s why the stairs were unguarded? BASIRA: It looks that way.

* I’m still not sure what the point of the lighter is in relation to the tape recorders and The Web. Annabelle implied that the lighter had acted as a tracker or would act as a tracker (MAG197: “A little anchor of our power, so that we, and our tapes, may follow wherever you go.”) but we’ve had various examples showing that it wasn’t exclusively the case: the tape recorders had turned on and off in the Archives and in Elias’s office while Jon was away in season 3, they turned up around Martin and in Elias’s cell in season 4, one popped up to record Melanie&Georgie at the end of MAG191 while they were walking in London. What it might be able to do, however, is allow the tape recorders to reach places that should be insulated from other powers (such as within the Coffin, or when Jon was Nikola’s prisoner, or at Upton House)? I’m not sure. Anyway, Georgie took the lighter, has the lighter, and the next scene included Georgie, so I wonder if something will change in the POV of the action next episode, or if the team wasn’t suspecting that The Web still had another use for Jon.

* Why are the Archivists acting up? Is it because Beholding is getting impatient and wants Jon as its pupil? Is it because Beholding is sensing that something is threatening its position? Is it because Jon knows about the plan and the potentiality of Beholding losing its hold over this world, therefore allowing Beholding to know about it and making it react in self-defence? Are Jon’s own feelings about the plan influencing Beholding? Jon said that he didn’t feel like it could think but, if The Eye was indeed behind Jon’s difficulty to listen to Eric’s tape, that showed that it still has instincts and a capacity to try and protect itself.

- As mentioned above, I’m surprised that the last person standing to ignite the tunnels is supposed to be Melanie:

(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: So what’s the plan? MELANIE: I reckon me and Georgie go for the mainline, and hopefully they won’t notice us. GEORGIE: I’ll need a torch. They might notice that. BASIRA: I’ll give a diversion. I’ll try and draw them off. MELANIE: And if they see Georgie’s torch, we just go to Plan B. She becomes another distraction, and I go solo. GEORGIE: I don’t like the thought of you going on your own. MELANIE: And I don’t like the thought of you being chased by manky old archivists, but there it is. MARTIN: Okay. [EXHALE] So what are you going to do when you find it? GEORGIE: We’ve got some old tools. I guess we just… mess with it until we smell gas, and then… back off, set something burning and leg it. It can’t be that hard to break a valve.

… since Georgie had been the one to take the lighter, and didn’t present it as an element she would require in their plan. It’s possible that she’s going to give it over to Melanie and just retrieved the lighter for that goal but mmm, I’m still having doubts about it.

* I love Melanie’s “manky old Archivists”, I’m going to miss her so much ;_;

* … screaming a bit because GEORGIE, if you smell gas, it’s TOO LATE to ignite something without getting caught in the middle of an explosion…………. It’s gonna go very wrong, isn’t it.

* Sob, Melanie&Georgie had been resolute about doing something in MAG191, and Georgie still wanted to be careful about the old Archivists at the beginning of MAG192… but now, they’re really ready to risk everything, uh…

- Melanie was way more careful (and less confrontational) with Jon now that they had to establish the plan, and I wonder if Georgie asked her to tone it down or if Melanie made a conscious effort since they needed to pool their resources and collaborate? I’m really curious about Jon’s wording here:

(MAG199) MELANIE: … Jon, you’re sure about this whole gas main thing? It just seems… I don’t know, really mundane. ARCHIVIST: It’s what Annabelle said. And she wasn’t lying – at least, she didn’t think she was. BASIRA: Well, it’s a bit late for second-guessing.

Because what Annabelle thinks and the reality of things could be very different things. I’m still having some doubts about Oliver and her explaining how their patrons work and presenting them as Fears-that-can-think – it’s fitting in a way but… we also had examples of older avatars (Simon, Arthur) pointing out that they couldn’t guess what their patrons wanted except for some cravings. Something I could see is about the relation between avatars and their Fears (between humans and fears): the idea that the Fears might be… whatever people project on them, and them modelling themselves in turn. Could The End kill people in this world if Oliver wasn’t convinced that it could do it? Could The Web feel so omnipresent and powerful if Annabelle and Jon weren’t projecting their own fears on it?

- Georgie gave me so many red flags this episode…

(MAG199) GEORGIE: Well, we’ll do what we can but… this is it. Whatever it takes, right? If there’s a price, we pay it. No hesitations.

And that one was especially bad by itself, but it also echoed Gertrude’s last instructions to her potential successor:

(MAG161) GERTRUDE: You are entering a new world, a place I’ve lived for most of my life. A place… [SIGH] A place that will often demand a high price from you. Pay it without hesitation, because one way or another, the world is now on your shoulders.

Basically paraphrasing what Gertrude said? Bad sign. Baaad sign.

- There might have been a small misunderstanding between Melanie and Jon there ;;

(MAG199) MELANIE: Sure he can! Just magic-laser-eye zap him or whatever, same as with all the others. MARTIN: [SIGH] MELANIE: Like he did to Helen. ARCHIVIST: Listen, Melanie, I– MELANIE: It’s fine. If we all get out of this, we can talk it through, and, if not, well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? ARCHIVIST: I suppose not.

Since Jon had been unaware that Martin had broken the news to her already, and that Melanie already knew that Helen was bad news… but had learned from Basira that Melanie used to be close to her:

(MAG190) MELANIE: Oh! Oh, I nearly forgot! Careful of Helen, if you see her. MARTIN: Mm? MELANIE: Uh, she turned up a while back and tried to eat Celia. MARTIN: She was here? MELANIE: Yes… A few times. [INHALE] Looking back, I was so stupid! MARTIN: Because you kind of liked her? MELANIE: Yes. Yes… Honestly, I had started to think she was on our side. MARTIN: Yeah. MELANIE: [SIGH] MARTIN: Jon killed her. MELANIE: [SPLUTTERING] Uh, sorry, what?! MARTIN: Yeah, she tried to– I wasn’t there, but they got into a standoff and he… he destroyed her. MELANIE: He can do that? MARTIN: Mm! MELANIE: Well! I mean that’s… that’s interesting to know.

(MAG195) ARCHIVIST: … I also killed Helen? BASIRA: Oh! Right. ARCHIVIST: Yeah… [CONSIDERED ROWING] BASIRA: Didn’t expect that. ARCHIVIST: She was dangerous. And not like the others out there. It was only going to be a matter of time before– BASIRA: No, no, I get it. Honestly, it’s kind of a relief. How did Melanie take it? ARCHIVIST: Melanie? BASIRA: Yeah, she and… she and Helen were pretty tight back when, uh… Oh… ARCHIVIST: What? BASIRA: Back when you were in your coma. ARCHIVIST: I see…! Well, I haven’t told her yet, so… I suppose I have that to look forward to when we get back.

So: from Melanie’s point of view, she used to be close to Helen but learned independently that Helen wasn’t her friend and was actually dangerous for them. From Jon’s point of view, Melanie used to be close with Helen and might have just learned that he had killed her (and might be sad about it). But Melanie was dry about it and it came as an accusation, which immediately made Jon defensive about it. They can’t really manage to interact without making a conscious effort to not rub the other the wrong way, uh…?

Cries, still, because they’ll never talk it through, uh. ;;

- I am REALLY concerned about Martin being adamant that Jon couldn’t be the one to kill Jonah because of the potential consequences…

(MAG199) MELANIE: And it’s hardly going to be a picnic for you either. You’re going up that tower to kill Elias, and if we muck up the timing, you’ll be up there when it blows. MARTIN: … Jon can’t do it. ARCHIVIST: What? […] MARTIN: You’re not listening. I mean, if he kills Jonah, then knowing our luck he’s just gonna end up taking his place in the Panopticon, isn’t he? GEORGIE: [SIGH] Good point. MARTIN: He can come up with me, but when it actually comes to Jonah… BASIRA: You’ll have to be the one to do it. MARTIN: Yeah. ARCHIVIST: Martin… I don’t– BASIRA: Have you got this? We can trade if you don’t think you can do it. MARTIN: No. No, I can do it.

… because it’s not what Jon had said:

(MAG193) MARTIN: So not that then, but… wh–what about something, like… physical? ARCHIVIST: I… What? MARTIN: Look, I know it’s all about… dream logic and metaphor and all that… stuff, but, you know, what if we just… what if we just grabbed him and, you know, pulled him down? Or, or just threw something heavy at him? ARCHIVIST: Uh… […] You were right. MARTIN: About what? ARCHIVIST: His body is vulnerable. A–at least to me. MARTIN: … What’s the catch? ARCHIVIST: I could kill his body, sever the link, break The Eye’s power, and… Jonah Magnus would die. MARTIN: Okay, that sounds good but…? ARCHIVIST: But… that wouldn’t actually harm The Eye itself. And with him gone it would… it would choose a suitable replacement. MARTIN: Oh. ARCHIVIST: If we kill Jonah Magnus… I take his place. MARTIN: Oh, god… ARCHIVIST: And I think… that’s exactly what it wants…!

Jon said that killing Jonah would lead to Beholding taking a replacement, not necessarily the person who’d kill Jonah… and regarding “suitable replacement”, Martin was emphasised as Eye-aligned this season (and Lonely):

(MAG183) ARCHIVIST: Well, you’re a watcher, Martin. You worked for the Institute, you read statements, The Eye is… fond of you. You’re not getting thrown into your own personal hell, which means… MARTIN: [QUIETLY] That one of them belongs to me. But that’s… Ho–how can I be a “Watcher”? I, I didn’t even know it existed! ARCHIVIST: But you’ve suspected for a while now, haven’t you? MARTIN: Maybe? But that’s not “watching”! ARCHIVIST: Do you want me to tell you about it? MARTIN: No. … Yes. N–no, no, I don’t know, I don’t know. [SIGH] [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: It’s a small domain. A swirling mix of The Eye and The Lonely.

And was supposed to take Jonah’s place at the end of season 4 precisely thanks to his connection to Beholding:

(MAG158) PETER: I want to use the powers of this place to learn about The Extinction: what it’s doing, where it’s manifesting. Then we can stop it. MARTIN: And you need me for this? PETER: Correct! Without a connection to The Eye, any attempt to use it would likely end… very messily indeed! But thankfully, it just so happens that you hold such a connection. MARTIN: So that’s it… Both “lonely” and “watching”. PETER: You must admit you’re the perfect candidate. […] You’ll have to dispose of the current occupant. MARTIN: Curren–… [QUICK FOOTSTEPS] [SHARP BREATHING] … Who is that? PETER: Jonah Magnus! His… body, at least. Sitting here; watching; binding it all together; growing ever older. If you want to take his place, well… MARTIN: … I’ll need to kill him. PETER: Yes. Don’t worry, though. I brought a knife. […] Martin. What are you doing? MARTIN: I’m… saying no. I refuse! Game over. [KNIFE CLATTERING ON THE GROUND]

Jon hadn’t mentioned whether Martin would be able to hurt Elias (just that he could), but we’ve seen that dream-logic could be a factor to hurt each other: Basira could kill Daisy, Daisy could hurt Jon through their connection. Given that Martin was once expected to kill Jonah (did Jonah fear that Martin would choose this?), and that Martin has felt guilty all season about the fact that he feels like he could have stopped things if he had just knifed Jonah:

(MAG174) MARTIN: All those lies you told me… You helped to do this, you turned the world into your… your playground! SIMON: Hum… Not to be a pedant, but if you recall, I was actually doing a favour for Peter. And if Peter had won, none of this would have happened.

(MAG186) MARTIN: [HEAVY SIGH] If we’re glad, why do I feel so… ALSO MARTIN: Guilty? Because you feel guilty about everything. MARTIN: That’s… That’s not– ALSO MARTIN: […] The end of the entire world? MARTIN: If I’d done what Peter had asked… If, if I’d not chickened out, and just killed Elias when I had the chance…! ALSO MARTIN: Really? Really, that’s how you’re choosing to remember it? “Chickening out”? MARTIN: I remember it was the wrong choice…! ALSO MARTIN: You choose to remember it that way, and so the guilt– MARTIN: [SIGH] I–I get it, all right? But I need it, I, I choose the guilt, because… ALSO MARTIN: [LEADING] “Because”? MARTIN: Because it motivates me to do better!

I could see Martin managing to hurt him thanks to this. But regarding what could come afterwards:

I’m concerned about the fact Jon tried to object during the discussion and that nobody listened to him… as if Jon was already anticipating something to go very badly because he knows something the others don’t. Overall: what if Martin can’t kill Jonah? What if Martin kills Jonah and Beholding takes Jon anyway? What if Martin kills Jonah and Beholding picks Martin as a replacement?

(Mental picture of Jon screaming “Take me, not him!”, since we’ve been in the season 1 nostalgia this episode… ;_;)

- Aouch for Melanie falling back into old habits…

(MAG199) MELANIE: Make sure it hurts. MARTIN: Oh, I will. MELANIE: … Good enough for me.

(MAG117) MELANIE: I have my own stuff to take care of, they think they’re giving me a chance to “face my demons”, by helping to take down Elias. They don’t get that the only way to deal with something like him is to watch his eyes go dead with your hands around his throat. [SHAKY INHALE] I’ll… play it their way, for now. But when it comes down to it… I want – to see him – dead. […] [INHALE] So… yes. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting, because it hurt like hell to live through, and I didn’t do it so you could stroke your chin and call it fascinating. … Good luck, Jon. I do hope you win. [INHALE] But I also hope it hurts…!

- So, resting time:

(MAG199) GEORGIE: Okay. Sounds like we’ve got… something like a plan. MARTIN: [SOUND OF ASSENT] BASIRA: Makes a nice change. [VARIOUS SOUNDS OF ASSENT] MELANIE: [BRIGHTLY] It does, doesn’t it? Eh! Uh… so. When do we actually do it? GEORGIE: First thing tomorrow. That’ll give us time to prep and rest.

Georgie had already explained how they evaluated “tomorrow” in the tunnels and without any clock:

(MAG190) GEORGIE: Look. We’re all tired, and you still seem a little… disoriented by the tunnels. Let’s get some rest. We can talk about next moves tomorrow. ARCHIVIST: And how do you know when tomorrow is? GEORGIE: We generally err on the side of caution and sleep in…! ARCHIVIST: Sounds good.

So they’ll probably do the same ;;

- Basira thanking Jon for helping her with Daisy (and for helping her personally) made my heart break a bit and really made it sink in that it was likely the last time some (most? all?) of them would talk to each other, or that they won’t be in any state to discuss things like this afterwards. It was also fitting that Jon got his private moments with Georgie, with Martin, with Basira… but not with Melanie. That bridge burned, uh.

- Overall, although with interesting points and heart-wrenching and bittersweet and tender and intimate moments, it was… quite a depressing episode in the whole scale of things?

* The episode gave the impression that it was validating everything about The Web: that Jon had indeed been “Chosen” as the bringer of the apocalypse and had been a right pick for it; that Annabelle had been right when she told Martin that she just needed to tell them the truth for them to do what she wanted; that The Web scheming for centuries to open the crack and prepare its escape, and bringing the apocalypse about just to escape and infest other dimensions… worked. That everyone, regardless of their motivations and feelings, has indeed come to the conclusion that arranged The Web and served its plans, that The Web… is very casually winning just as planned.

* The episode didn’t talk about what would come after, for the characters. Jon briefly explained to Martin what was likely to happen to him, Annabelle confirmed it, but… the episode gave the impression that characters weren’t truly expecting to come out of this alive in the first place.

* Jon’s silences in the last sequences were so sad? He barely managed to sneak in a few words. He couldn’t contribute to the plan. Martin presented him as optional while others are taking care of the action. Yes, it used to be all on Jon but the fact that he couldn’t even contribute and that others ignored him when he tried to object about Martin being the one to kill Jonah was just so heartbreaking, as if he was already silenced and once again not in control of things that would happen…?

- I want to err on the side of caution but, despite it, I can’t help but wonder if some of the Team Archive interactions weren’t… staged a bit for the tape recorders. It’s very suspicious that they apparently got updated on the Hill Top Road situation, but that nobody commented about the tape recorders turning on (although they now know that it means The Web is spying on them and/or that their tapes will be heard by other people in other worlds and associated with the Fears). Melanie and Georgie had taken notice of them when Jon&Martin had arrived in the tunnels for the first time, Melanie was good at hearing the tape recorder turning on… but nothing this time around. Is it possible that they’re planning something else, too, and that it required The Web and The Eye (the tapes and Jon) to not know about it, a bit like how the assistants had put on a show in front of Elias in season 3?

(MAG116) ELIAS: Now! If you’ll excuse me. [DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES] BASIRA: Do you think he bought it? MARTIN: We’ll talk about it later. ARCHIVIST: I doubt we’ll get time, we need to go. MARTIN: It’s fine. We’ve got this, okay. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … Okay.

Is it why Georgie took the lighter?

I don’t want to bank on it but the fact that nobody has commented about the tape recorders since Annabelle revealed what they were and their purpose has been any nagging at me, so, mmmm…

If MAG200 actually shows the action as it happens, I’m wondering about a few things:

* How are they planning to time up the explosion and the Jonah murder? Jon couldn’t know about the tunnels when he was outside of them, and according to what we’ve heard in MAG192, climbing the tower was a very long process. It’s possible that Jon actually has some awareness of the tunnels as long as he’s in the tower (since both are connected), or that they’ll go for the murder once they hear the explosion coming to them, but how would Georgie&Melanie coordinate to not do anything before Jon&Martin are the top? (When I’m wondering about it, I can think of a few options: Jon&Martin dropping something once they’re at the top, to convey they’ve arrived, or maybe relying on whether a tape recorder clicks on, as a signal that Nothing Interesting Is Happening Up There And It’s Your Turn To Do Something, etc.)

* Will we hear Rosie again? Jon&Martin might have to pass in front of her again to reach Elias. Will they evacuate her, will she stay with them?

* … Surprisingly and yet fittingly: we might hear Jonah/Elias in the last episode. (And funnily enough: it would be the 4th episode where he would talk this season, which means this wouldn’t even be the season with the least amount of Elias appearances! He was in 3 episodes in season 1 (MAG017, MAG039, MAG040) and in 4 episodes in season 2 (MAG048, MAG060, MAG067, MAG080). Season 3 was an outlier that really got us used to hearing him a lot.)

* I’m still squinting about the fact that Annabelle told them to “destroy the Archives” and that they translated it into “destroy the Panopticon” while both Jonah and Oliver designated Jon as the “Archive(s)”…

* If they succeed, and if it all goes accordingly, I am really wondering about the state of the world post-Fears – and it might not be something we’ll get to witness. But mostly, I’m curious/concerned about the complicated cases: if people do remember what happened to them and who were the rulers, wouldn’t it be likely that things turn into chaos as people get back at the people who hurt them? What about the cases Basira mentioned of rulers who hated being in that position? What about, for example, Callum? (Who is currently doing horrible things and… is also a traumatised kid.)

* I wonder if the episode will have an actual date as the case number, and if it would correspond to another world’s timeline or this one. “0181810–B”, as things pick up from the point Jon had read Jonah’s letter (MAG160’s was “0181810”)? “0212503” to play with the release date, since it’s the same release date for everyone for once (no early access for Patreon)? “0111507” to play with the date of Jacob’s statement, heard in the very first trailer? Something beginning with “015” as, in another world, someone (Jon or Sasha or someone else) becomes a new Head Archivist after Gertrude’s death?

* If The Web succeeds and leaves with the tapes, will they be like the Fear Books used to be perceived in this world? Will Jon’s voice be perceived as a bringer of disaster and tragedies? What will happen to Jon’s voice is an interesting question given that this episode ended with… Jon being withdrawn, barely being part of the conversation, trying to object and not being heard, as if his voice was already partially silenced by the others.

* Technically, since the tapes are supposed to leave with The Web, the series might cut off with the tapes leaving, but… other configurations are possible. We could finally hear something without the mediation of the tapes. We could get a new point of view from another world, inheriting the fears. We could be deprived of the action, since the plan was laid out, and have someone (Martin?) recalling what happened, much later, etc.

In previous seasons, the 40th episode was more about the aftermath of the action and posing elements that would be fundamental during the next one: MAG040 explained how Prentiss had died, what had happened to Jon&Tim, but also confirmed (to the audience) that something had replaced Sasha without the others noticing, and revealed that Gertrude’s obviously-murdered-body had been found in the tunnels, leading to Jon’s secret investigations in season 2; MAG080 showed Leitner explaining to Jon who was likely to be Gertrude’s murderer, what the Institute was about, that Jon was now a servant of Beholding and that a Fear ritual was incoming, leading to Jon’s quest to stop the Unknowing; MAG120 confirmed who had come out of the Unknowing alive, revealed what Jon’s dreams were about, had Peter replacing Elias as Head of the Institute and confirmed Peter’s interest in Martin; MAG160 had Jon&Martin running away, Jon receiving Jonah’s letter hidden amongst the statements (and a few tapes likely sent by The Web) and being forced to read his incantation, provoking the current apocalypse.

MAG200’s title has been made public on twitter, so – “Last Words” it is. It sure feels like the series is ending ;; It’s fitting for both the characters and the podcast itself, and I’m screaming that it had appeared in the first episode of this season:

(MAG161) ARCHIVIST: Hang on, have you been recording this? [RUSTLING OF CLOTHES] TIM: Oh, yeah! I… just thought it might be nice, you know, something to look back on when we’re all old and sick of each other…! […] Now, all right, all right; fine! Look: I’m turning it off. Any last words for your future selves?

… in the specific context of leaving a message for the future.

#yaayyyy i posted it more than 17h before the ep release! (shhhh that it would be Late if we had gotten an EA release)#i have absolutely no idea how i'll manage to get 200's done given how i had finished the last episodes pre-hiatus #at the end of every hiatus every time. i'll try but. deadlines are my worst enemies and my best friends.#mag199 #tma liveblog #tma season 5 #long post/#the magnus archives #overall: CRIES CRIES CRIES i'm gonna miss these nerds.............#and WorriedTM.........

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thedreadvampy · 4 years ago

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look it's very simple most main cast tma characters (except possibly Basira and Sasha and MAYBE Tim) are reacting to not just supernatural trauma but clear, explicit childhood trauma and I think that's important to take into consideration.

Jon evidently came from a difficult place in the first place, and he was taught that he was an unwanted annoyance who'd derailed his grandma's life, that his intelligence was unpleasant, arrogant and inconvenient, and that the worst thing he could do was get in a grown-up's way. Of course he's bad at talking to people about his feelings. Of course he apologises for seemingly random things and tries to hide big problems and power through on his own. He had a really lonely childhood where he felt like an inconvenience, and now in adulthood it's deeply difficult to believe that anybody will help him and not hold it against him. Of course he comes across staid and aloof - he doesn't believe that anyone will like him if he isn't Doing Everything Right. It's so easy in that situation to worry so much about not being a burden that you freeze your friends out even as they can see you spiralling and you end up hurting them when in fact they'd be more than willing to offer help and get you out. It's why addiction is such an easy hole to fall in, because it feels like a way you can be self-sufficient and deal with your feelings without being a burden. Jon ISN'T a very closed off person naturally, he wants to reach out and be close to people, but he's been taught over and over (as many autistic children are) that he's too much, that he takes up too much space, that it's unfair for him to expect people to go out of their way to help him, so he boxes it away and shoves it down and turns to cigarettes, paranoia and denial in an attempt to manage the problem by himself. He's trying so hard to not be the Weird Kid, he's trying to play the part of what he thinks an archivist and a boss should be and blah his way through; he knows believing in weird shit opens the door to all sorts of stuff so he sticks his fingers in his ears and goes LALALA. he's deeply avoidant which ironically is why he often ends up diving in recklessly - it feels safe to only put yourself at risk (you who think you don't particularly matter, are unloved, and are an annoyance anyway) rather than wait and let others get involved and either judge you or get hurt. He didn't tell ANYONE that his encounter with Daisy had hurt him for SEVERAL YEARS because he didn't want to upset anyone. This speaks to me so much of a kid who growing up was always treated as underfoot, in the way, abnormal and with emotions and problems that weren't nearly as significant as the Important Grownup Things. I don't think anyone knew how to help 5 year old Jon with navigating his parents' deaths, and his grandmother's grief at losing her child probably made it very hard for them to connect whether or not she actually resented him the way he thinks she did. He was treated with bitterness and coldness his whole childhood, and he's never been given space to be angry about that because she was doing her best and dealing with a difficult situation, but it certainly left him with an expectation that trying to turn to anyone for emotional help and support will get you in trouble AND is unfair on them. Being with Martin, and indeed all his friendships and relationships, is hard to navigate when you've been taught for so long that exposing your vulnerability will get you yelled at or will upset people. You try to harden up and develop an exoskeleton but you're so chronically soft and in need of help and love so it spills out messy and you don't know how to take the walls down or build better ones up.

Martin's obvious, because his parental abuse is at the centre of his arc and is explicitly spelled out by Elias. He's so sure it's something he's done that's made his dad leave and his mum despise him, and he's hoping against desperate hope that if he can be Good Enough, little enough of a problem, helpful and invaluable, he can make up for whatever chronic flaw in his personality makes him unlovable. Of course he ISN'T unlovable, and none of his parent's treatment of him is his fault, but it's much safer to believe it's your fault and you can change it than it is to believe people who are meant to love you can just not hold up their end of the bargain for reasons totally outside your control. Much like with Jon, Martin has been taught to believe that he's a Problem - where Jon puts up walls and tries to be aggressively separate, Martin tries as hard as he can to prove himself Useful and Valuable while walling off an excess of humanity. Honestly though Martin's coping with it better than Jon throughout the series because he knows what it is and he's TRYING to push past the impulse to Not Be A Bother and actually let people love him. But he's still seeing the world through the lens of someone who's spent his whole life believing that the only way he'll deserve love is to become invaluable, to be useful, to be caring, to be needed, to be all give and no take, and that's not sustainable. And how much must it knock him back from trusting enough to ask for help when his boss (leave aside the love interest bit) talks about him like he's a buffoon and a waste of space however hard he's trying to be helpful and valuable, just like his mum has for years? Finding out that you matter enough to that person for him to risk his life to save you, and to really truly see you, goes a long way towards showing you that you're not always right to assume that people are lying when they say nice things about you and honest when they say cruel things about you - sometimes you are genuinely loved by people who ALSO see you as flawed. and while obviously after that the circumstances are very different I think we've seen Martin become more comfortable with his own tendency to acidity and sarcasm, anger and messy feelings, around not just Jon but in general (although also I can't talk about this without as usual observing how weird it is that people read Martin as sweet, servile and wimpy when he's consistently tough, sarcastic and brave AS WELL AS deeply lacking in confidence, afraid of conflict, emotionally giving, and terminally people-pleasing. He's right when he repeatedly says people underestimate him and don't see him - it's weird that the fandom is a big culprit of that)

Speaking of characters whose trauma responses are often overlooked, Melanie doesn't talk much about her pre-statement life but she's clear that it hasn't been good, and that other than her dad she's had nobody in the world she can trust. I am positive that her childhood was marked by parental abuse/neglect to at least a certain degree, because she was willing to kill her mum/let her die without much compunction (I THINK that's the implication of Elias' line about her mum's life insurance paying for her dad's care). To me (projecting), Melanie's fear of losing control of her own anger speaks to somebody who grew up in a volatile and probably physically violent home, and I suspect her mother was struggling to cope and lashing out at Melanie and her dad. (I also think that while it's unlikely to be made explicit because Jonny generally shies away from talking it writing about sexual abuse, that it's very probable that Melanie experienced adolescent sex abuse from some source and wasn't protected or supported. That's pure conjecture though based on how she acts.) I think she's definitely had issues with everyone in her family except her dad when it comes to her sexuality and that she's been largely estranged for a long time, and I think those are the kinds of things which, coupled with abuse and sidelining in adulthood, leave you with a lot of rage and nowhere to put it, and with a huge amount of difficulty trusting people. Undeniably, Melanie has been on the sharp end of other people's violent anger often enough to be really, really wary of ever giving her own anger free rein, or losing control of herself.

We don't know much about Daisy's childhood beyond what happened with Calvin (Pretty Damn Traumatic), but I think what I find interesting about Daisy is that she's definitely someone who, like many girls, struggled with that point in childhood where you're supposed to Stop Liking Boy (Fun) Things and Become A Girl. I think it's safe to say that Daisy was fairly subject to bullying and alienation in primary school, and I think people often overlook how badly that affects you your whole life. But also to be severely injured and traumatised, to tell people what happened, and to not be believed? That leaves marks. Marks that teach you that you can't trust that justice will be served, and you have to take the law into your own hands. I think there's also a lot of the Gendered Traumas happening around Daisy - she clearly has a conflicted relationship with femininity - but that's another post.

#tma meta #csa mention #abuse mention #jon sims #martin blackwood #melanie king #daisy tonner

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worldwidemochiguy · 5 years ago

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Tag, You’re It ~ Part I of the Play Date Trilogy

The Play Date Trilogy Masterlist

Warnings: Kidnapping, slight violence, slight gore (it’s barely graphic I’m just tagging to be safe)

Word Count: 1.5K

Masterlist for all of my fics

Requested by @just-another-fangurl21

‘Tag, you’re it by Melanie M and y! Taehyung or y!Jungkook pleaseeee ❤️❤️❤️’

Thank you for requesting and I’m so sorry I took so long to do it pls forgive me 🥺🥺🥺🥺

“Fuck.” you muttered, letting the hand holding your now-dead phone fall listlessly, brushing your side. Your boss had somehow, yet again, wrangled you into working much later than you intended. So late that the bus you had planned to take home had come and gone, and you couldn’t even call an uber because your phone had decided to be absolutely useless and run out of charge. Perfect.

You had just started to shiver when you saw the headlights of a car illuminate the road from behind you. For a second, you thought about walking back to the car and asking if they could give you a lift because you were pretty sure the temperature was in the negative numbers and you couldn’t feel your toes anymore. You quickly quashed the thought, You can’t just get in a strangers car, what if they kidnap you? You chided yourself.

After ten seconds, the car still hadn’t overtaken you and you glanced over your shoulder in curiosity. The car — a black jeep with tinted windows, you registered distantly — was cruising along at a sedate pace. Almost as if it was stalking its prey. With a mounting sense of fear, you cast your eyes around your surroundings, hoping to see a person, or literally anything to give you some sense of security. It was difficult to see in the darkness, the only source of light being the car headlights, ironic given they were the thing you were trying to evade but as far as you could tell, you were completely alone. The only thing accompanying you was the noise of the engine, growling like a wild animal.

Fear quickened your steps into a slight jog. You noticed the car wasn’t speeding up with you and thanked every God you had ever heard of, appreciating the distance that grew between you and the jeep with every passing step. The driver probably realised I was scared and stopped, you mused, What a nice, considerate person.

Then the car started again.

It was driving fast, and you exhaled in relief thinking that the car would overtake you. It didn’t. In fact, it reached the exact point where you were and stopped. You carried on walking, faster this time, and watched as you left them behind. Again, they waited until you were fairly ahead of them before they sped up to get to you directly. They were playing with you, like a game of tag, and it was only a matter of time before you heard the words “Tag, you’re it”.

You heard the cars engine rev again, a telltale sign they were about to close the distance between you, and you acted. Launching into a sprint, hindered by your stupid heels that you hadn’t thought to take off, you frantically tried to find somewhere to hide. To the side of the road you saw a parking lot with its barrier down. If the driver wanted to get to you, they would have to get out of the car, meaning they would lose their unfair advantage. You had a chance to escape. The lights shining behind you grew brighter and brighter, and you knew by now the car must be almost on top of you.

You finally reached the barrier and ducked under it, running through the parking lot. Behind you, the driver — a man judging by the voice uttering those low curses — had gotten out of the car. He was chasing you.

He was chasing you and he wouldn’t stop.

This harrowing thought caused your focus to slip slightly, just for a second, and you fell. You had maybe twisted your ankle, and it sent shooting pains up your leg as you tried to get up, and failed, and fell back down. You heard a low laugh behind you, and reinvigorated your efforts into crawling away. It was useless, though. He caught you.

Your arm was extended, trying fruitlessly to drag the rest of your body across the unforgiving asphalt and away from the even more unforgiving man, who was approaching you with lazy steps. Without warning, though perhaps you should have anticipated it, he grabbed your hand and pushed you down, flattening your body against the ground. Before the scream building in your throat escaped, he took it right out of your mouth, replacing it with a hand covering both your airways. You tried to struggle, but the black spots in your vision multiplied as your strength deserted you, and you fell limp in his arms, his cruel, triumphant laughter lulling you to sleep.

When you woke up, you almost wanted to go back to sleep. To let a dream whisk you away from the nightmare that had become your reality. It seemed like you were in a basement of some sort, the room empty of any windows to let in natural light, and just generally empty. Of course, you screamed. You screamed until your throat was raw and bleeding, and after that you tugged on your restrained wrists and ankles as hard as you could, the sound of your pained whimpers the only thing in the room. Like you were talking to yourself.

You couldn’t say how long it was before he came. Light spilled in from the top of the staircase at the leftmost corner of the room and you winced, letting out a small sound of pain as your eyes adjusted to the light after being in complete darkness. The noise would have been louder, but your vocal cords were probably too exhausted after all the screaming. The man, the same one who had driven after you like a cat playing with a mouse, appeared in front of you. You had no choice but to look at him, so you did.

He was handsome, and tall, and muscled, and the look in his eye was the most terrifying thing you had ever seen. On the surface of those wide doe-eyes there was joy, affection, and perhaps even worry over your raw wrists and ankles, but beneath that… nothing. He truly was a psychopath.

“Oh no, baby, what have you done?” He questioned in a sweet voice, kneeling down to run his fingers over the bloodstained restraints he had tied. You whimpered slightly, and his eyes widened. You could swear he pressed his finger harder for a second before he withdrew, looking at you with a sympathetic expression.

“I know it’s hard, little one, but don’t pull at your restraints, ok? They’re just there to keep you safe.” You could do nothing but emit a low groan, and he obviously took this as consent to check your other wounds. He cleaned them all — you hadn’t realised he had a first aid kit with him — including a cut on your forehead that you must have sustained when he shoved you to the floor.

It was like he was two different people. That night, he had been terrifying, hunting you down like a monster. But when he took care of your wounds, he was sweet, and gentle. Talking to you in a hushed voice filled with love.

“I’m Jeongguk. Don’t worry, you don’t have to introduce yourself to me, I already know.” A short giggle. “I can’t believe I’m finally speaking to you like this, I’ve waited for so long, but I’m glad you didn’t make me wait much longer. Thank you for leaving late at night like that so that I could take you home. You’re such a good little girl.”

Jeongguk never apologised for kidnapping you. When he apologised it was because he hadn’t factored in your shortcomings.

Oh, I shouldn’t have tied these so tight, I should’ve known you would be a silly girl and tug on them too hard. You are too rebellious for your own good, huh baby? You won’t make this mistake again though, right?

He seemed to take your silence as an agreement, growing more and more excited each time he put words in your mouth and you didn’t spit them out. At the end of your little doctor’s visit, Jeongguk rested his forehead against yours, eyes closed, sighing deeply.

“I love it when I hear you breathing.” He said, exhaling softly just as you inhaled so you shared a breath. Obviously this was his intent as his eyes opened and he surveyed you almost reverentially.

“You’ll never leave me, right?” You couldn’t speak, so you just gazed at him blankly, head lolling to the side. His expression sharpened, and he reached for your damaged wrist.

He tightened his hand around the wound, fingers digging into the fresh cuts and getting stained with blood.

“You’ll never leave me, right?” He repeated, but it wasn’t a question, it was a command. “You love me, and you’ll never leave me, right?”

“No,” you croaked out, your throat on fire. “I’ll never leave you J-Jeongguk.” He tilted his head, waiting. “I love you.”

At that, his face lit up into a grin exposing bunny-teeth. An innocent face covering a sadistic monster.

“Thank you so much baby! I promise I’ll never waste the gift of your love. Don’t worry, you won’t have to stay here long. Just until I know for sure I can trust you.”

You didn’t hear any of his words, too lost in your own thoughts. He had chased you. He had caught you. The refrain repeated over and over in your head like a nursery rhyme — the prelude to this nightmare.

Tag, you’re it.

Tag, tag, you’re it.

#yandere #yandere jungkook #yandere fic #yandere bangtan #yandere bts #jeon jungkook #jungkook fic #BTS jungkook #yandere jungkook x reader #jungkook #jungkook x reader #bangtan boys #yandere kpop #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook reader insert

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literatehiss · 4 years ago

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Rendezvous

Read on AO3 here Day 1 MartinElias Week Martin goes home with Elias and judges him for his lack of basic necessities. Slight NSFW maybe? Their “relationship”, as much as it could be called that, was relatively new. A month or so of tense office meetings and brief breakroom rendezvous. Martin wasn’t an idiot, he knew Elias didn’t love him or anything like that. He didn’t think the man capable and to be honest, he wasn’t sure he wanted the man’s love even if he did have room for anything other than his own ambition in his heart. It wasn’t even Martin’s worst relationship and he felt that his ex-boyfriends’ should really feel bad about being worse than his serial killing, monster of a boss.

Elias was good enough to keep his sharper edges turned away from Martin, no ripping his secrets from his own memories and forcing him to face them, no smug hiding of knowledge, though it wasn’t like there was nothing wrong with the man. Of course, there was also the small issue of his co-workers, it was one thing if Tim or Melanie found out, Martin wasn’t exactly excited to have their anger pointed at him for once rather than Jon and Jon was his own problem. Despite their dalliances, neither Elias nor Martin could avoid the fact that they both were drawn to their fair Archivist and neither of them were prepared for the fallout of Jon finding out about it.

Anyway, their relationship was new and Martin didn’t expect the normal things he usually would because at the end of the day his boss was a fucking evil monster, more so than a normal boss too. That didn’t seem to stop Elias from inviting Martin around to his home one Friday afternoon. It was, on paper, for dinner and a drink. In reality, Martin knew there was little to no chance that he was going back to his dingy flat before Monday night from the look of Elias’ smirk as he had informed Martin of his offer.

Martin had clocked off work as early as he could but he still wouldn’t have time to go home and grab a bag, and realised as he stepped into Elias’ car that he was going to be entirely dependent on Elias’ mercy for the weekend.

The trip to Elias’ home wasn’t far, clearly the Head of the Institute paid well enough for a flat much closer to the Institute than the paycheck of his employees was capable of. Martin was pretty sure he had read erotic novels with very similar premises to this as he felt the warmth of Elias’ hand brush his thigh as the older man changed gears. A more inappropriate man might have placed his hand on Martin’s thigh but Elias was as proper as ever and his eyes never strayed from the road, or, at least, the eyes in his head were looking at the road, who knew where else the man was looking. A quick little grin on the man’s handsome face told Martin where at least part of the man’s immense vision was laying and he scowled at him which did nothing for Elias’ weaponised smugness.

The house was old, very old and Elias spoke up as he unlocked the front door.

“Another thing I inherited with the position I’m afraid, it turns out being the Head of the Institute has a few perks.”

“Something else funded with the Lukas’ money I suppose?” Martin scoffed, following Elias into the sitting room.

“I don’t know what you are suggesting Mr Blackwood. Is it me, your boss, or Jonah Magnus himself you are accusing of sleeping around with the Lukas’ for money?” Elias said with a smirk.

“Can it not be both?” That caused Elias to genuinely laugh this time but he gave no answer. He didn’t need to, Martin had seen the Institute’s finances. He trailed after Elias as the man stripped out of his outer layers, only his trousers and shirt left, top few buttons undone. Martin shucked off his coat but kept his jumper on over his shirt, a layer of armour that he knew did nothing versus Elias’ gaze but it made him feel better if nothing else.

He fiddled with the sleeve of his jumper while Elias ordered dinner, the man couldn’t cook for shit as Martin had found out when he had asked the man to make him toast in the breakroom once. He jumped as Elias addressed him while still flicking through his phone.

“Go make yourself some tea or something Martin, you are being delightfully distracting but I suppose you will want to eat first.”

Which meant that Martin was now free to snoop around in Elias’ kitchen. His cupboards were practically bare apart from a few essentials and Martin baulked at the price of the tea he found, the pricing sticker still stuck to the side. It was practically unused, the coffee that stood next to it clearly providing Elias with the caffeine he needed in the morning for a hard day traumatising his employees. He had a faint thought that he was being unfair before a second, more sensible, thought reminded him that he was very much not being unfair and this whole deal was a terrible idea. It was at this point Elias had finished whatever intricate menu he had been ordering in and came into the kitchen, his arms wrapping around Martin’s middle and slipping down into the top of his trousers as he watched Martin make his tea from over his shoulder and his grip didn’t falter as Martin picked up and drunk the gently steaming liquid.

“How do you have no cans in your entire kitchen?”

“I don’t cook, I much prefer to order in.”

“But what if you have no internet connection.”

“... I think you have forgotten who I am Martin, I Know their numbers and ring the restaurant directly.”

“No phone connection?”

“Then I just won’t eat, I can always pick something up on the way to the Institute.”

“I cannot believe you would rather not eat than learn to cook. I have never heard something so pointlessly posh in my life.”

“Really? It doesn’t seem that odd to me. No one has ever mentioned it before.”

“Elias. Please. Your last relationship was with Peter, let’s not pretend the Lukas’ have any idea what people normally do.”

Elias shrugged a vague agreement and his head turned to the door moments before the delivery driver actually knocked on the door.

It was alright.

That was a lie, it tasted delicious but Martin wasn’t going to tell Elias that, he had seen the tip of the receipt and felt a little nauseous at the total cost. It wasn’t even that much food, Elias just had high standards apparently. He picked at the remainder of the food on his plate, Elias already done and looking at him with obvious interest. The grin that lit up his face as Martin finally pushed away his plate caused an entire kaleidoscope of butterflies to flutter in his stomach.

I wasn’t like they hadn’t done this sort of thing before, but there was a vast difference between quickies in Elias’ office or in abandoned meeting rooms, and fucking in Elias’ home, in his bed.

It was weird, out of everything that should have caught his eye as he entered the bedroom, it was the fact that all the furniture actually matched that brought Martin out of his own thoughts. He had never owned an entire suite of furniture, neither did anybody he knew. It was normally random pieces of whatever he could find cheap in car-boot sales. It was this distraction that allowed Elias to get Martin’s jumper off as well as most of his shirt buttons before the younger man even noticed.

Martin found himself flat on the soft bed, Elias pinning his arms to the bed as he sucked a line of bruises down Martin’s chest. He tried to buck up and turn them over, so maybe Elias’ wouldn’t be in charge for once in his life. It turned out Elias was much stronger than he looked, the older man just grinning down at him before leaning down for a kiss.

Monday morning, Martin’s jumper collar was pulled high up his neck when Jon strolled into the Archives and past him, stopping for a moment, brow furrowed in confusion.

“What is it, Jon?”

“Nothing, you must have picked up the same fabric softener as Elias is all. You smell just like him.”

Martin kept a rictus grin on his face until Jon had entered his office, then it fell at the same time as he dropped his face into his hands.

#MartinEliasWeek

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coulson-is-an-avenger · 4 years ago

Note

Can we make a deal? I'll send you a tma character, and after you answer you do your hw! I know I have no power to make sure you uphold your deal, but it is pretty unfair of me to offer with no prior warning, so maybe that makes it even? So here goes: Melanie King! Good luck with your hw!!!!!!! 💜💜💜💜💜💜

firstly thank you my friend i love you!! secondly fjkldsfh i saved your ask for last so i could actually finish my homework first so thank you <3 that being said. MELANIE!!!!!!

my otp: melanie/georgie obviously but also melanie/healthy recovery god bless im so proud of her

my notp: melanie/men <3

my brotp: MELANIE AND JON DUDE they are siblings. also her and basira had such a fun dynamic i miss them so much

how i picture them: I forget who it was but someone said Melanie King looked like Eva Noblezada and I’ve absolutely never looked back since

my favorite fan art: THIS ONE. THIS ONE I LOVE HER

my favorite quote: “when did I start to lose the parts of myself that weren’t anger?” i lost my fucking mind at this line i think about this every day. ma’am. MA’AM when I say I would do anything for her

my favorite episode ft. them: she’s really hard to pin down character-arc wise but I super love her in 106 when she just chats with Basira, it’s a great scene. i am directly ignoring the rest of the episode

what song i associate with them: TAKE ME TO WAR BY THE CRANE WIVES i cannot stress enough how much this is a Her song

headcanons: melanie king is a lesbian, also I LOVE the headcanon that her surname is an anglicized version of Qing, that’s so fucking good, Chinese Melanie rights

my opinion: i literally would do ANYTHING for her she has such a good fucking story and such a wonderful personality and genuinely I love her so fucking much. QUEEN of taking her healing into her own hands

how hot they are: 100/10 MA’AM I'M FREE ON SUNDAYS

#answered #I LOVE HER SO MUCH

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episodechooseyourpregnant · 6 years ago

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THE EPISODE STRIKE DISCOURSE

Sorry about the wait guys I’ve been so tired since I got off work, but here it is the entire sins of Episode laid out in front of you. There’s a lot of stuff to unpack, but you can read the basics at the end.

- Sunny

Fair Warning

So, this is a long ass post with lot’s of detail regarding Episode Interactive guidelines and the current reason of the strike currently taking place on instagram.

AKA: People hate episode and here’s why.

If that doesn’t intrest you then skip this post. \/(0.0)\/

So what’s exactly happening?

Currently, the strike is taking place do to unfair treatment of the content guidelines set on Episode (Well, there’s a bit more detail than that, but that’s the basics of it).

The guidelines in question are:

Crossovers between two different authors are no longer allowed. For example: Bad Boy in Town and Zezzy Montero crossover episode would no longer be allowed. Another example: The Teenage Viligante and Matched would no longer fit the guidelines.

You are only allowed 5 punches per story. (No action genre here!)

Using Episode Assets to create custom content is no longer allowed.

There has also been some internal issues with enforcing these guidelines.

Featured Stories have been known to get away with stuff

Allegedly- INK authors have been recieving harsher enforment of the general episode community guidelines while Limelight authors who produce the same content are given the go.

Popular Authors have also been known to get away with way more while smaller authors get dinged hard.

Episode Official Stories have broken the rules as well. (literally just wait...)

Pretty much all these issues came to a front when this post (the original forum post is now deleted) was made in the forums on April 19th, 2019 by Mod Melani:

In short: this is basically saying crossovers are no longer permitted on episode because it infringes on copyright.

People were up in arms do to this being a massive change in the rules, and it could potentically effect a large population of already published stories. As people started to feel quite pissed with episode, this was posted by a popular Episode artist, @schittwriter on her story.

It basically goes like this:

Her first cover for her story Bad and Badder get’s approved:

but her second cover for her INK story gets rejected.

Here’s the kicker:

Schittepisode uploaded two OF THE SAME cover to be reviewed for the exact same story (The same story was made for LL and for INK). The Limelight cover was approved and the rejected one was in INK. The email she recieved for the rejection of the INK cover stated that:

“Please adjust bra strap so it isn’t falling down her arm. Disrobing underwear in a sexual situation breaks the Episode guidelines”

I asked her basically what happened and she replied by DM:

She’s absolutely right that it’s unfair.

I haven’t seen the covers because she hasn’t released them, but from the way the DM sounds her the cover had two fully clothed people, but the girl was wearing a tank top with a loose bra strap.

It gets pretty laughable because we’ve seen what the romance section looks like. It’s also quite funny (hypocritical) that one of the most read stories on the platform, Chain Reaction by Miss MJ, has a cover that looks like this:

So, after these two massive bombshells of ‘injustice’ by the episode creators it lead instragram user @bukki.episode (writer of ‘My Psycho’) to post the infamous ‘strike’ photo.

Sidenote: Is INK treated differently than LL?

Short Answer: Nah.

Long answer: This is really an issue of the rules not being clear. Episode has stated before that INK is just old and outdated software that is hard to use. They switched to LL to produce content faster. They are obviously going to promote LL because that’s what they’ve been working on for ages. (not a style that they are never going to update again)

But, that doesn’t mean I can’t still hate LL and all it stands for

Read this for more on INK: https://forums.episodeinteractive.com/t/petition-more-ink/2325/122

More on the Guidelines

Basically, after I read about Schittwriters’ situation, I was actually wondering where in the guidelines state half of these things: Particuarly:

Does it say we can’t have disrobing in the Official Community Guidelines?

What are it’s rules on sexual situations?

Is the 5 punches per story rule real?

Is the crossover rule real?

Is using episode assets to create new backgrounds against the rules?

So, after some digging I realized that alot of these ‘new rules’ just flat out don’t exsist or have been miscontrude a bit. Not only that, but there is some SERIOUS miscommunication in the Episode review staff.

So, there’s two sets of guides we can look at: The one on the creator portal (the rules that are (should) be set in stone by Episode), and the guidelines that have been stated by the mods (Rules that have been stated by the mods in the forums, but not in the offical content guidelines). It’s hard to communicate with a large bunch of people who are running your site. It’s natural that rules will be kinda like a game of telephone, and that certain things will become subjective. So, I’m just gonna preface that because just because one mod makes a comment doesn’t make it automatically FACT.

But here’s what the offical content guidelines in the portal on sexual situations:

“

If stories contain objectionable or offensive content, we may not be able to feature or host them on Episode. Stories must always be appropriate for readers ages 13 or older, which means content would be objectionable if it, among other things:

(...)

+ portrays adult themes, including pornographic content, nudity, or prostitution;

+ includes excessive use of profanity or sexually explicit phrases;

Censor Bar Use, Nudity, and Sexual Content:

Depiction of sex (or anything suggesting that sex is occurring at that moment) in any form, including but not limited to, gyrating bodies, oral sex, or moaning/groaning is not allowed.

Explicit details of what is happening or has happened off-screen is also not allowed.

Any nudity on cover art is strictly not allowed.

Frontal nudity is allowed in a story if it is not excessive, only used in non-sexual situations, and always accompanied with censor bars or scenery to censor.

Posterior nudity in a story is only allowed in a tasteful and non-sexual context.

“

Reading these rules posted, there’s no rule stating that a bra strap or any sort of underwear can not be shown on a cover. I’m just a bit confused and where the line is because we have certain Episode employees approving some questionable covers like Chain Reaction’s, and covers like Schittwriters’s that are not being approved.

Is The Five Punch Per Story Rule Real?

No it’s not real. There’s no evidence or screenshots stating that this has ever been a rule.

The only source of evidence is a rumour that there was a screenshot of an episode employee telling a creator this rule on their instagram story. I can pretty much tell you that five punch rule is just wild rumour.

But after further investigation, I found that the actual rule is FIVE PUNCHES PER SCENE. Five punches per scene is a lot different than five punches per story. You could end up with ten action scenes and five punches per scene, so in theory you could have fifty punches in one chapter to stay within guidelines.

Here’s that screenshot of an episode employee (I redacted for privacy) messaging @bukki.episode on her story:

Using Episode Assets to make Backgrounds / Overlays

This ‘new guideline’ basically states that you can no longer use Episode Official backgrounds or overlays to make new or original backgrounds.

Once again, this is also a rumor that’s not true. In the episode guidelines they say that Episode assets are for non-commercial use only. Now, if an episode user had used episode assets to make backgrounds and sell them- that’s against the rules. This rule is stated in the update on the forums.

“Our Terms of Service indicate that Episode characters, materials and platforms (forum, portal and app) are a free service, and the use of these characters and materials provided are solely for personal and non-commercial use. Selling art or images with Episode assets counts as commercial use. This includes edits of Episode characters, altered renders, and composites. Any art sold must be entirely original artwork and cannot use Episode’s art at all.”

Again, I’ve heard rumours that this rule has been enforced, but I didn’t find a screenshot or any source of this being true.

The Crossover Discourse

Now, this new rule has caused quite a bit of stink do to valid reasons brought up in the forums (I’ll get to that). Now, I’m not gonna post the comments but you can read the thread here if you wish.

The crossover rule basically says that do to copyright laws Episode can no longer allow crossovers because there is no way to prove both parties are consenting to crossovers. Episode makes it very clear that if you publish a story with Episode - you own it.

“ Who owns my story? In a nutshell, you do! We can't sell the rights to your story to a movie or TV studio, make it into a book, or hire some new writer to write your story for you without your permission. You should review the Terms of Service, however, as we are licensed to promote your story and use it in advertising, among other things. We also own all the animations and art provided by the Episode platform, so you won't be able to take those with you. For more information, please read the Episode Terms of Service. “

source - (x)

Since people own the rights to their stories there adds the element copyright to anything people publish. Basically the Episode team is trying to think like this:

How can you prove on Episode that you aren’t stealing someone else’s work?

How can you prove that both parties are consenting to the crossover?

Mod Melani put this concern in her update on the original post:

“What if my friend gives me permission?

Even if your friend gives you permission, Episode has no way of tracking or enforcing this. Because of this, crossovers are not allowed on our platform. This is to ensure that your stories and characters don’t end up being misused! “

source (x)

I’ve heard rumours that there has been issues with stealing ideas, stories, characters from other authors, so this most likely to prevent stuff like that from happening. But, it seems a bit overkill to remove stories because of something that isn’t done with malicious intent. In fact, Episode should only respond to authors that want crossovers taken down, or authors that feel there is possible infringes in their copyright directly. Don’t throw out the whole carton just because there is a couple of bad eggs.

Another issue brought up with the crossover rule is the protection of stories that already have crossovers built into them. Many people brought up the fact that their favourite stories could be taken down because of this rule.

Mod Mel basically posted this:

“There is no deadline to remove stories that feature Episode-centric crossovers.

If authors would prefer to edit or archive these stories on their own schedule, rather than waiting for the possibility that we might ask them to do so in the future, they can do it whenever they want. The only thing that might happen to an author who has written a crossover story is IF we come across it, we may ask you to change or remove it.

We don’t want to “punish” authors who have previously written crossovers.

Authors should be concerned with not writing crossovers moving forward.

I hope this clears things up!”

source (x)

So...

Authors could in theory have their story removed if they did not know about the rule, or Episode could crack down on it before they had a chance to change it. One commenter brought up a good point that creators spend weeks coding crossovers or planning one- only to have it taken down.

Not only that, but these rules are a bit confusing...

We don’t want to punish authors, but we still might take down your story! :)

Episode has been known to take down stories without notice, so this could be a whole new can of worms to unpack.

Using Celebrity or Episode Author likenesses:

Melani3:

This is a really good question. Based on our content guidelines (below), you also should avoid featuring other authors in your story, as they’re real people. The same guidelines I mentioned above for changes apply if you already have a story that features another author, but please keep this in mind going forward!

“In addition, by publishing your story, you agree that it does not include any content that infringes the intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy of any third party. This may include using any of the following without permission:

any works of authorship of other parties, including excerpts or passages taken from literary works, television or film; any trademarks or references to corporate or business names; or any references to real persons or places.”

source (x)

Episode has also started to enforce no longer using celebrity or episode authors likenesses on the platform.

I think this issue also stems from the issue of concsent. I think the Episode Team is worried about being liable for slander or online bullying, so that’s why author likenesses will be prohibited.

As for the celebrity likenesses, it’s the same issue of slander and consent. Episode can use the Dolon Twins, Demi Lavato, PPL, because they bought the rights and arranged contracts.

However, that basically means stories like Pregnant with James Charles’ Baby will be removed... (oh god, oh god, oh gOd, it’s already been removed....)

Episode gives Special Treatment (what else is new?)

*Without a doubt, Episode does not enforce their guidelines properly.*

I’m usually a pretty fair person, but Episode totally cherry-pick their rules. They have no concrete set rules, and most of the rules that are enforced are subjective. They need to state exactly what is and what isn’t allowed. I’ve seen and heard of small authors getting their stories removed without notice for swearing, but large authors with massive fallowings have never had to change due to the rules. I’ve also seen featured stories and episode official stories stay break they damn rules as well.

For example:

Sore Loser stayed up for a longer than it needed to (+All of Noob Loop’s story)

Pregnant by My Student is still top 10 of most viewed stories

(If I remember correctly) Toriah had her story removed / repremanded for excessive swearing???

No rules seem to apply to Gang Leader stories

As much as I love her, Kayla Sloan’s ‘War Dogs’ could promote excessive violence & ‘Adrenaline’ by Evil Ebonni & ‘I Despise You’ by Costa could as well, so why aren’t they removed??.. oh yeah they’re popular :/

Sex scenes are legit all over episode and they are the reason this company is still in business

In My Bed?! was an Episode Official story.

The Bad Boy Stole My Bra has so much sexual nonsense I mean c’mon

POSTIVELY PRINCESS HAS A CROSSOVER IN IT! ROYAL BABY MAKES A CAMEO AND HAS A PLOTLINE

Faking Death has sexual nonsense in it

FORBIDDEN LOVE (AKA THE NAZI STORY) IS STILL UP

Body Tangle

Off Limits (may I say more...)

Also this:

^ Literally a direct rule violation!

Episode’s Response

So that’s basically all there is to it. Hopefully things will become more clear in the next couple of months, but I highly doubt it...

TLDR; Episode published new guidelines stated that crossover episodes are no longer allowed, a rule with only 5 punches per chapter, and background and assets are no longer allowed. People were super up in arms because Episode has been know to remove stories without warning, so crossovers could possible discontinue a whole bunch of stories. Not only that, but a Episode Creator posted screenshots of her cover for her Limelight Story being accepted, but her INK cover being rejected due to a ‘bra strap’. It madeit seem that INK was being unfairly treated agaisnt LL. People started going strike for those reasons. However, the backround issue and 5 punches per chapter issues were just false rumors. Episode responded, but it’s clear that most of their guidelines are bullshit and there is special treatment going on. We’ll see how the guidelines are written these next couple of days.

#episodestrike #episodeinteractive #episode+choose+your+story #episodememe #episode choose your story #episode drama #episode #strike #drama #tea

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tg-fal · 5 years ago

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Character Introduction via Old Art

I just want to introduce the Team we’re dealing with

I will draw them all (hopefully soon) with my improved art but for now, I can only offer art from 2014 or 15 or something ; 7 ;

For Starters: The Team’s name is 1.FC Lachshafen

Short explanation: 1.FC is short for 1.Fußballclub (so 1.Footballclub yeet). “Lachshafen” is the made-up town the team plays for. It translates to “Salmonharbor” in English. (As mentioned it’s up in the north of Germany and right at the North sea, by the way. So yes, it’s also partly a harbor although a very small one)

So now onto the 11 losers:

Mia Sommer

Full Name: Mia Antonia Sommer

Age: 16

Birthday: 19. May

Height: 1.57 m

Position: Defense

Skills: Barely there

Tricot Number: 6

Due to her bad luck in pulling raffle tickets, Mia became the captain of the football club. She’s not very enthusiastic about it, as the sport doesn’t interest her at all and she also has not much of an idea about it. Mia’s interests are stereotypically girly. She likes pink, flowers and old Barbie movies. One thing that is consistently on her mind is the topic of love. Mia is awfully romantic and daydreams of roses, kisses and sunsets with the credits rolling over them. She strongly desires to experience all that herself, but at the same time her shyness keeps her from talking to boys her age. Mia is rather insecure and cares a great deal about what others might think of her. She’s easily nervous and can be a bit of a coward. She’s overall friendly and a caring individual however, who shows herself helpful towards her friends. Her dream is to become a famous singer in the future and she truly has a beautiful voice.

Eric Parker

Full Name: Eric Anselm Parker

Age: 17

Birthday: 7. February

Height: 1.83 m

Position: Attack

Skills: Great

Tricot Number: 3

Eric quickly gets recognized as best player by the team, which simultaneously earns him a ton of admiration by most of the teammates. He and his two friends came out of the neighboring town to join the team. As Eric is very reserved he rather stays around those two certain friends named Mariella and Lars. He’s not very talkative and does not make much effort to get to know the rest of the team. To some his aloof behavior makes him come across as arrogant, to other’s he’s intimidating. He’s quite oblivious to all of the admiration or other mixed emotions the team has about him. Eric is helpful though and does state his opinion here and there if he feels that it helps. He's not arrogant at all and actually very self-critical. Despite popular belief his greatest pleasure is not football, but music and his guitar.

Polly Joslawski

Full Name: Polly Angelina Joslawski

Age: 16

Birthday: 7. September

Height: 1.63 m

Position: Defense

Skills: Medium

Tricot Number: 17

Polly is Mia’s best friend who follows her to the small village. She’s a very energetic and joyful girl, who always tries to search for the bright side of everything as she is also very optimistic. Polly is very supportive towards her friends and often behaves like some sort-off cheerleader to them. She's great at cheering people up and giving them an encouragement-talk. She loves good jokes and makes many of them herself. She’s also rather hyperactive and very bouncy, not liking to sit still for long. Polly doesn’t care if you insult her and shows a very long temper when it comes to that. However, if you greatly insult or hurt any of her friends she becomes furious. It takes her a long time to reconcile with people who have greatly wronged people close to her. However when it comes to people who have wronged her, she can be way too forgiving. Her favorite animals are frogs.

Melanie Lieske

Full Name: Melanie Lieske

Age: 17

Birthday: 16. March

Height: 1.78 m

Position: Defence

Skills: Bad

Tricot Number: 24

Melanie, usually called “Melly”, is a warm and caring young lady who also shows herself as rather selfless. She’s quite mature, well-mannered and usually stays out of unnecessary conflicts, rather searching for ways to solve them. She looks out for others and their well-being, offers help when she feels someone needs it while also making sure to not make them feel uncomfortable. She’s patient and has her temper under excellent control. However she is not afraid to scold and nag people here and there. All of this gives her a sort-off motherly vibe and she is generally well-liked by basically everyone. She tends to forget to look after her own well-being sometimes, however. She’s greatly passionate about gardening and baking.

Emma Herbst

Full Name: Elisabeth Emma Herbst

Age: 17

Birthday: 27. September

Height: 1.70 m

Position: Attack

Skills: Very Good

Tricot Number: 25

Emma is bold and daring. She is rather impatient and energetic and often acts without all too much thought behind it. Adding to that her temper is very short and it does not take all too long to make her snap, if you pull the right strings. She’s much of a tomboy and rather uninterested with most stereotypical “girlish” interests. She has a strong sense for justice though and his never afraid to speak up for what she believes is right. Emma also has a good sense for motivating people and get them to actually act instead of sulking in the corner. She herself hates not acting on problems immediately. She also hates the feeling of being chained down and is free-spirited. When she was a child she wanted to be a sailor and holds a fascination for the roaring seas to this day.

Mariella Caivano

Full Name: Mariella Alexandra Dorotea Caivano

Age: 17

Birthday: 17. August

Height: 1.75 m

Position: Middle

Skills: Medium

Tricot Number: 34

Mariella is confident with herself and shows that a lot. To many she therefore comes across as highly arrogant but Mariella does not really care about what people think about her, if she’s not trying to impress them. She knows her skills and talents and how to utilize them. She was spoiled by her parents and is used to getting whatever she wants. Should a situation occur in which that is not the case, she will desperately try to flip it around in her favor. Sometimes she does fail to realize when things go too far however. She enjoys being envied but can become greatly jealous herself. While she’d never attack someone for no reason, she’s not someone pleasant to have as enemy. She aspires to be a make-up artist in the future.

P.K.

Full Name: Patrick Karl “P.K.” Müller

Age: 17

Birthday: 23. February

Height: 1.90 m

Position: Middle

Skills: Medium

Tricot Number: 19

P.K. is a laidback and friendly young man, who has a good understanding on how to socialize. He is open and extroverted and not afraid to take the first step. He's an optimist who perfectly understands how to cheer people up and also pretty well-mannered. At the same time, he’s much of a jokester and always in for some good fun. He always stays true to himself and does not care the slightest what others may think about him. He has a long temper and it takes a lot to actually make him dislike someone. Although he will always stand up against unfair treatment against others. He's also helpful and a great listener. He wants to work for his family’s hotel in the future as a chef, as cooking is his greatest passion.

David Fischer

Full Name: David Martin Fischer

Age: 17

Birthday: 27.April

Height: 1.83 m

Position: Goalkeeper

Skills: Very Good

Tricot Number: 1

David is P.K.’s cousin and despite being the same age, David is a lot less mature. He’s one of the more skilled members of his team and greatly annoyed by the team’s overall lack of skill. At the same time, he himself is quite cocky and arrogant and often acts all mighty and smug. He does not take any damaging of his pride lightly and is also rather easily jealous. He hates when others steal his attention. He’s also one to often voice his opinion without thinking about consequences or wether it’s appropriate or not. Combined with his rather short temper it makes him a person who easily runs into troubles. He can be a bit of an Elitist and hard to get along with first, but deep down he learns how to care about his team more and more and becomes a lot more loyal and protective over them. He can be fun and also brave. Also he loves video games.

Lars Geist

Full Name: Lars Geist

Age: 16

Birthday: 9. October

Height: 1.68 m

Position: Middle

Skills: Bad

Tricot Number: 15

Lars is antisocial and uncommunicative. He’s greatly uninterested in making new friends and rather stays safe in the small friend circle he already has. At the same time he’s greatly desperate to keep the friends he already has as his friends. Lars is always nodding along to whatever his two closest friends, Mariella and Eric, say and agrees with them on basically everything. As he is also crushing on Eric, he generally follows him around pretty much everywhere. He can be a bit possessive over the people close to him and is often jealous whenever they make new friends. This can even result in him becoming rather rude towards the new persons. Lars also lacks self-confidence and does barely ever stand up for himself. He loves painting.

Maximillian Beckert

Full Name: Maximillian Beckert

Age: 15

Birthday: 24. August

Height: 1.65 m

Position: Attack

Skills: Good

Tricot Number: 9

Maximilian is an optimistic young boy and pretty much the sunshine of the group. He hates seeing people being down and sad and often goes to make them feel better, even if he should not know them very well personally. He’s a great listener and a good shoulder to cry on. Maxi does care a lot about what others think about him though. Whenever he attempts to make friends he desperately tries to come across as hip and cool instead of just being his normal, much more charming self. This often results in some very awkward conversations. He does always stands up from failures however and takes it on a new with a smile. He owns a dog who he is very enthusiastic about and he would like to work with animals in the future.

Annika Förster

Full Name: Annika Luise Förster

Age: 15

Birthday: 3.March

Height: 1.50 m

Position: Middle

Skills: Bad

Tricot Number: 13

Annika is insanely shy and also greatly antisocial. Aside from her childhood friend Maximillian, she barely ever interacts with any member of the team and rather admires most of them from a far. She does not think very highly of herself and is also very soft-spoken. She would never stand up for herself and does not speak up if something bothers her, which some people do see as an invitation to walk all over her. Annika is actually very intelligent and well-read. She reads novel after novel and secretly writes herself, dreaming of being an author someday. Annika is pretty gloomy and melancholic but still caring and always there when Maxi needs her.

#There you go !#Team: 1.FC Lachshafen #Mia Sommer #Eric Parker #Polly Joslawski #Melanie Lieske #Emma Herbst #P.K. Müller #David Fischer #Mariella Caivano #Lars Geist #Maximillian Beckert #Annika Förster #TGFaL

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thedreadvampy · 4 years ago

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So this was sent to me by @atiredpan weeks ago when the White Jon conversation was very live and I'm posting it (belatedly) with their blessing (they didn't want to put it up publicly and have it seem like an attack which I really very much appreciate but wouldn't have minded) and I percolated for a few days and then got very busy for a few weeks. Response follows.

So I feel weird about how I'm responding to this stuff, I'm launching rapidly into taking about/explaining my own experience in a way I'm worried maybe comes across as a direct comparison. It kind of feels like I'm talking in a way that's like brushing off your experience and saying OK BUT HERE'S WHY I'M RIGHT and that's not what I'm trying to do, it's just that there's not much I can usefully add to what you've said - you know your experience better than I do, and I'm not gonna go around trying to read into it or reexplain it. So I'm going to talk about where I am/have been coming from, but not with the intention of countering your points, all of which I think really resonate.

First off, the post where I was like "Jon is white and if you disagree you're Wrong" was, unreservedly, just a shitty post and I'm not suprised it upset a lot of people. I'm really very sorry about that, it was thoughtlessly written and pretty stupidly posted.

I totally get that my whiteness has fed into how I hced Jon (and as I think I've said before I saw Jon a certain way well before I engaged with any fanworks, just as you did). There's a lot of reasons I imagined Jon as white from pretty early on, a non-negligible one of which was like...That's Jonny. This is a podcast by Jonny, about a character with the same name and mannerisms as Jonny, and Jonny is extremely white. It would have felt weird, when I was listening to TMA as a Friend Podcast, to stick a brown face onto what at least appeared at the time to basically be a self-insert character of my white friend. Now that's a really personal thing informed less by the story and more by the circumstances under which I've interacted with it, but it certainly laid a baseline. I didn't really have a clear mental picture of Jon (or most of the characters) for a looooooong time (for an artist I'm really not a very visual thinker) but I had a few sort of mental sketches (Jon is short white balding and awkward, Martin is tall biracial and scruffy Basira is fat and somali Melanie is my friend from work etc) which I developed a long time before I encountered fanworks.

I saw the alienation you mentioned and I connected it to class and gender, not race, because I’ve met a lot of cis men, white and otherwise, who interpolate trauma, class insecurity, insecurity about their own abilities, and so on into withdrawal, denial and snappiness. So for me I had an interpretation of that element of his personality which was pretty much race-neutral, and then I had these existing cues leading me to assuming he was white (largely that Jonny is white, but also wee stuff in the story that...it’s not like anything substantial enough to remember, let alone justify, but there were certainly interactions that pinged whiteness for me personally)

There are actually iirc a few throwaway references to Jon being promoted above more qualified candidates throughout (or at least I thought I knew that before s5), but the time I decided I thought White Jon was an obvious conclusion was of course the conversation where Sasha expresses frustration about it. and the context of that conclusion (at least as far as I can see) wasn't "people of colour can only exist in subservient positions/defined by oppression" but was informed by two things that were going on with my life around the time that episode aired

I had been having several conversations with friends of mine (and largely friends of Jonny's) who work in London in the museums/archiving sector and who are the only women of colour in whole departments or even whole museums, and who experience so little career mobility compared to their less-qualified white counterparts (we're talking about women graduating top of their class at Oxbridge with anthropology or library science masters and stellar original research, with a decade or more of impeccable work experience and acting up, being left in internship and low-grade positions, while white men who "fit the culture" but have 0 museums experience sail into upper management positions and then stay there until they retire). So I'd come almost directly from these conversations into what to me sounded like exactly the same gripe in TMA.

I'd been at that point working for about a year and a half on co-coordinating the anti-oppression committee in my workplace, which was a very Good Progressive Activist Charity with Good Lefty Principles, and over the course of experience sharing and discussions both with colleagues of colour and along lines of wealth, disability, class etc, I was very much confronted with the realisation of how much 'being adequately qualified' meant different things for middle-class good-university white men vs much more highly skilled and hardworking women of colour or people of different class and wealth backgrounds. Obviously I'd known that before in principle, but not really having been in Salaried Workplaces (as opposed to like. service and retail hourlies) I hadn’t got so up close and personal with it. So that was also very fresh in my mind, this like...big substantial experience of how Good, Well-Meaning, Caring, Thoughtful, Woke white men just........did not need to think about this. at all. and were startled and discomforted to face it. and that this was also true of most white middle-class women. and these conversations were really carved down the middle between white middle-class European women saying ‘this is such a surprise when we have such an equitable hiring policy and diverse staff, that there’s this gender gap’ and women of colour in the room wearily saying ‘yeah, there’s a gender gap, there’s always a gender gap and it is always a racialised gender gap’ so yeah I was definitely thinking about the intersection between being passed over at work because of gender and because of race.

The point about Tim is interesting because I think for me what’s getting lost is that I don’t think Jon is entitled as like...a Character Trait. He’s not like...Toxic Masculinity Man. He is very anxious about boundaries and about his own capacity to do harm. But it has to be pointed out to him where he’s doing harm. He doesn’t notice where he’s been unfairly advantaged, and that’s to me much more reflective of most people’s relationship to white or male entitlement.

As I say, that exchange with Tim and Sasha cemented the Jon Is White hc in my head specifically because it was so reflective of conversations I had had with women of colour working in similar workplaces, about white men, usually about white men they generally liked or at least didn’t have beef with beyond their unfair advantages.

It seems odd to me to frame ‘bitching about your boss on your friend’s behalf to make her feel better’ as more similar to white entitlement/white privilege than any of that tbh? That’s just...being friends with someone?

Anyway I recognise that it’s not white entitlement to accept a job. Obviously it’s not, it’s just sensible under the circumstances, you get lucky and you grab it. For me my sense of Jon as white-because-of-this is not “he took a job he shouldn’t have taken,” it’s more about his obliviousness to the impact he has on others, and also primarily how people react to him. The interaction between Sasha and Tim is saturated with the of course it would be him I mentioned above, but even before that he walks through the world not expecting to have to think about anything but his conscious decisions, and he’s caught aback when people see him as out of place or as having power above his station.

I think it’s impossible to extricate ‘this is where my head was at’ from that interpretation, and also like obviously my own whiteness is a big factor. And not just my own personal whiteness but the place I grew up (which was 98.3% white) and the world which reflects back whiteness. So this is in no way intended as a bolshy This Is The Correct Headcanon the way my Bad Post was bc examining it I’m like...yeah I mean this is about how I personally interpreted this based on where I was at at the time. But I do feel like there’s some communication gap in what it is about this unqualified promotion thing that pinged me - it’s not that All Bosses Must Be White And All Brown People Must Be Downtrod, it’s something quite specific about the tone and tenor of the interactions around the getting-a-job.

But also? Idk. Kind of unrelatedly, and people obviously should feel free to disagree with me on this, it feels kind of off to frame this as defaulting to a white Jon? I sort of think that my idea of Jon as white is very much not ‘white until proven otherwise’ - part of the reason for my original strident tone was that I felt that I was being expected to drop a headcanon I had for specific reasons and default to the fanon version of Jon without actually having any reason other than ‘this is how the community thinks he should look,’ and without really understanding anything about what that means, and while obviously defaulting to a non-white headcanon isn’t like...entrenched in the way that defaulting to a white headcanon is, it does seem to me like this is perhaps part of why white fans slap brown skin onto a character without thinking into what that means or why they’re doing it.

The thing I’m struggling with as regards my personal headcanon here is that I could decide to only ever draw Jon as Fanon Jon, but it wouldn’t be because I had strong reasons to see him that way, it wouldn’t be the same as why you see Jon as brown, or why I see like...Melanie as Indian, it would literally be Default To Standard in a way it isn’t for you. And I don’t feel that I have Defaulted To Whiteness, or where I have it is for reasons specifically to do with Jon (I visualised Jon as white because I visualised him as Jonny, who is white), not because I think every character is White Until Proven Otherwise. Like, my reasons for understanding Jon as white may be bad reasons, but they are reasons, not post-hoc excuses (I can’t like...prove that. but I know it to be true at least on a conscious level). I didn’t go Oh Jon Is White Because Everyone Is Unless I Have Reason To Think They Aren’t, Hooray, Here Is A Post-Hoc Justification For Why It Isn’t Racist To Think That. So while I am totally on board with the idea that it may be shitty, harmful or poorly thought through to hc Jon as white, I’m not sure I can fully see it in myself as being default. But I do understand that that isn’t necessarily what came across in my original short post.

Honestly, the reason I took issue with Fanon Jon and Fanon Martin in such a bolshy way in the first place was that I didn’t get why these characters were universally seen as Asian and white, respectively, and had such strong and consistent fanon images, when none of the other characters did, and when I was seeing people drawing people like Sasha and Melanie and Tim as white way more when in my mind there was no reason to assume they were white. On an emotional level I guess I think either there’s Fanon As Lore, or there’s no fanon (and I prefer the latter) and my discomfort came from the place that the one character I absolutely saw as coded as white in the core cast had this one really specific Ambiguously Brown Fanon Look (which from what I’d seen at the time didn’t seem to be like...backed with anything or coming from any personal interpretation for most of the white fans I was seeing on like Twitter and Tumblr) but white headcanons are everywhere for characters like Melanie or Sasha or Georgie, who seemed to me to be unambiguously people of colour, or characters like Tim or Martin (who could perfectly reasonably be people of colour and who I hc as Rroma and biracial respectively)? I don’t know, it’s difficult to express, but I find it frustrating.

#tma #White Jon #idk sorry to post this so separate from the rest of the conversation I have been Busy

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jess-the-vampire · 6 years ago

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Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 7

Previous / Next

Sky pressed her ear to the dojo door, trying to listen into the conversation, which was a little hard with Melanie trying to listen in too. Not that she minded, she was pretty nosy in wanting to know everything anyway, but she kept moving around, trying to find the perfect spot for her ear. To be fair, Sky could pretty much guess why Hekapoo was here, the archives were gonna be discovered eventually, not like there was much she could do about it. Especially when you draw the entire universe to it by setting off traps, Sky was probably only surprised it took this long for them to show up at all. Their voices were muffled, but when they yelled it was easier to make out their words, and boy was Hekapooo pissed. Well, normally she was pissed almost every time Sky saw her, but that was usually cause whenever she did see her, her mom and her would argue. No doubt still not on the best of terms from times in the past and the Eclipsa trial. Honestly the commission was probably better off sending Rhombulus for this stuff, but then again he might've forgotten why he was here or spilled some secrets if he did show up. Though he did yell louder then hekapoo.

"I can barely hear them...." Sky Shhed her, listening closely, she heard only little bits and pieces, but she had what she could assume to be enough. " THE ARCHIVES-.....COMPLETE WRECK....." "WELL-....LOOK-.....THE WAND IS FINE!" Sky grumbled, this was so annoying, if only she knew a spell for this... "Mel, you got your phone?" The girl's eyes shifted, "Er.....yes?." Sky sighed, "What's the catch?". "My phone might be....dead?" "MEL!!" "Aw c'mon sky you know how much i love mobile games....it's s addictingggg...." Then someone tapped her on the shoulder and she grumbled to see Bernard handing her his phone, "Honestly it's probably bad for me to be helping you spy on a private conversation, but after witnessing magic, and a crazy weird demon lady exciting a fiery portal, sounds like this might be worth hearing about... tie something around it and slip it under the door after you hit record...". Before Sky could even begin to respond Melaine had already untied her whole shoelace, tieing it tightly around the phone, hitting the record and slipping it under the door to catch anything going on in the room. "Thanks bernie!!", He sighed, "Well, your phone went dead and there's no way her strange communication device is fitting under there..." Sky stopped pressing her ear against the door, rubbing her wand with her cheek, "Um...thanks dude...?". He shrugged, "It's not a big deal, a friend of mel's is a friend of mine.....as long as i get that phone back after you finish listening to everything....that's probably gonna take a lot of space on it...". Sky stood up, watching mel clutch the other end of the shoelace to stand next to him, she pulled out her compact for new updates on her friends. She eyed the boy, "You know, you're taking the whole "Magic" thing a little too well....for mel i get it, you look...." "Unfazed? Sorry, you missed my initial reaction the day the Diaz's grandkids came over and a blast of fire like a volcano brought about a demonic carriage with a bunch of half-demons inside, at this point I have no reason to be surprised...", She pointed at him, her voice becoming more awkward, "Oh....right....that...". "I assume you come from somewhere similar? Though i will say you look nothing like a demon..." "No, my kind, we live above that world....long story....we'll have to tell you some time when i'm not cut for time myself", he smiled before pulling out a small bit of rope from his pocket, and proceeded to tie it and tie it until he made a curious knot and placed it in her hands, "There, when you see that knot, you'll remember to explain to me....well, you'll remember me at least....". She awkwardly pocketed the trinket, "Um....thanks.....", he didn't see to be bothered by her tone though, maybe he was used to that kind of reaction? "I'm sure you're curious why i'm helping you spy?", Bernard crossed his arms, watching melaine as sky glanced to him. "Yeah, i think that's worth asking....you some sort of trickster?", he smiled, "Oh, i'm no trickster, never been much for pranks or messing with anyone....". He closed his eyes, smile remaining, "I'm mostly helping because whatever was going on back there....sounded like you should know about it. Parents shouldn't be keeping secrets like that personally...". "You're helping because of that?" "Ok, technically i may be helping because melaine would be upset otherwise if i did nothing, but to be fair, since you're a princess..right? Kinda seems unfair she'd kick you out of something should concern you too...", he wasn't wrong, sky shrugged, "It's something I'm used to, it's not fair, but it's what you get when you're the most incompetent princess ever..". Suddenly Mel pulled the phone out and scrambled to get away from the door before it burst open, Star angrily stomping out first, Hekapoo afterwards, "WE NEED TO CONSIDER IT AS AN OPTION!! STAR!!". The queen turned around, furious, her face reddened, "NO WE DON'T!! NOW LEAVE!!!!". The woman sighed, "Fine, we'll see what the rest of the commission and the other kingdoms have to say then!!!". Star grumbled at her, "FINE!!!", the other woman left quickly and Star turned to her daughter, "Sky, let's go home, it's getting late, we have dinner to get to, you're friends have things to do....let's go....". She reached out for her arm but Sky pulled away, she couldn't leave now, the recording! "Wait mom, let me just...say goodbye to my friends real quick....ok?", Star palmed her face, clearly still pent up about whatever she'd been arguing about. "Sure...sure...go ahead...just...sorry...", She sat down on the ground, the redness fading and her voice growing more soft as Sky pulled the humans aside. Whatever she'd be yelling about, it must have made her furious. But Sky'd have to figure out later as she talked to the humans,"Ok, we can't listen right now with my mom there so here's this. bernard, send mel the recording, she can report back to me what it said, we good?". "Spying on the business of people I don't know, meeting literal demons and queens, watching people conjure clouds from nowhere, I've only lived in echo creek for a little bit and it's already more interesting then back home.", Sky snickered, before holding out her compact to show him something, "Here, that's Landon's compact number, i dunno if it works with your phones but it's worth a shot...". He looked her over, suspicious of her actions, but his smile returned as fast as it went, "You know something...don't you?". "Just write down the number, you and landon wanna clearly hang out again, and i'm giving you an offer, take it.....consider it my sorta "thanks". Sky probably should know better to get this new kid involved in any of this, but at the same time something about him felt trustworthy, it was odd. Then again anyone who was crazy enough to be friends with melaine was probably worth trusting to begin with. The boy scribbled it on the back of his hand as Sky pulled from them, turning to her mom, "Ok....let's go....". Then melaine wrapped her arms around sky, hugging her, "Call me soon ok! I wanna know how the thing is going....". The princess sighed, turning around to give her a proper hug, "I'll make sure to tell you everything we learned when I can ok? In the meantime keep theorizing alright?". The human smiled, "Well I have been considering the idea of you from an alternate universe showing up here to-". Sky hugged her to lightly hit her, "Ok mel, I'll see you soon...". Star grabbed her daughter's arm and sky waved back at the human as she was dragged through a portal. - The sound of almost ear killing barking could be heard echoing through the dark corridors as Landon took his company down to Lucy's den. She was allowed to walk around the underworld when she felt like it but her size meant to always keep an eyes on where she was at all times. Lucky for him, she was always waiting in her den when it was feeding time. So i'm assuming based on the fact that your castle was moving earlier cause of her....she's pretty big?", the boy sighed, "Too big to handle honestly, we all wanted a pet but mom is allergic to cats and though my dad has like...ALOT or rabbits, we were kinda hoping for a pet of our own....so i guess dad thought..."HEY! Three boys? Three headed dog!"." He shook his head and though she couldn't see Celeste could tell he was rolling his eyes, "Dad's weird....though honestly Lucy's great....just...she was bigger then we expected. Though she is smaller then our grandmother, so i guess if she gets loose we always know who to call...". The brunette looked around as she descended some stairs behind him, "So....your mom likes living down here?". "Likes it? Yeah kinda, Mom never minded Dad being like, a monster....they sorta got used to it after awhile. Mom even eats the food, though they kinda avoid anything that probably still alive...", He proceeded down the stairs, "What's it to you?". She rolled her eyes, "None of your business, your guests can ask questions y'know...", but he snorted, "Oh really? Then i suppose if you just ask to know all the secrets of the kingdom i'm obliged to tell you or something right miss teardrop?". "Don't test me....", Landon turned right around at her words. "This is MY kingdom!". "Pfft, I thought it was gonna be your brother's kingdom...?" Landon looked about to strnage her until Galexia suddenly popped between them, "Hey now, no need to get upset. We came to see the puppy right? I wanna see your puppy!". Landon huffed and turned around, "Fine, let's get back to chores before....my parents lecture me.....". He proceeded to give Celeste the cold shoulder as he approached a rather large door, opening it up to reveal a rather large room with a gigantic dog bed in the corner, and quite a few large dog toys spread about, only making the girls wonder where you got something like this on mewni. Landon put a couple of fingers inside his mouth and let out a whistle, and before his fingers left his mouth the ground started to shake as a large three headed, black dog bounded it's way over. She was wearing a red spiked collar, she had pointed ears and dark spots on some of her eyes. Her middle head having spots on both eyes but the other two only having one, and not on the same eye either. She procedded to give landon a rather large smooch, one of her tongues being about the size of his head. "She's....smaller then I thought...", the girl with the currently hidden tear cheekmarks remarked, "She's only four times your size....". "Doesn't make her any less trouble....", landon said, petting one of her heads gently, "Hey girl.....sorry judas got all lazy about your food today, but i'm here....". He looked back at the girls, "You aren't allergic to dog hair are you?". Galexia shook her head, Celeste didn't bother to answer. "Then go pet her....", Landon headed off to the side near her bowl as Lexi stepped forward and hugged lucy's third head, "She's so cuttteeee!". She patted Lucy's head as Landon tugged on a rope, hard, as a door on the ceilign opened up and a rather large pile of meat feel down into her bowl. She practically knocked the princess out of the way as she excitably went over for her dinner, all three heads munching happily. Landon brushed his hands together as he walked over to his companions, "Ok, that's done....I guess we can head to the gardens now...". "That was it?", Celeste's hands fell on her hips, "You dragged us down here for THAT?". "I thought you didn't want to do my stupid chores?", he shot back as he opened the door to head out. They glared at each other, lucy munching in the background with all of her heads, "I didn't....It just feels....boring...like, you dragged us down here for what now? We didn't even do anything! ". He stepped back into the room, "Boring? Ok, fine.....let me "Jazz it up" for you....".. He waved his hands at her as he made his way over to his Cerberus, the dog finished munching down to excitably turn to her demon owner. Tail wagging and eyes glowing in excitement, she looked positively adorable and it was almost hard to believe she caused such a ruckus that morning, "Lucy, here girl!!", She bounded over and the demon waved his hand, making her stop in her tracks and sit down in front of him. "We've trained her to do all kinda of things, even fight just in case of an invasion, not that you care....."..He pointed his fingers as a gun and the three-headed dog immediately fell onto her back, playing dead, as she got up the demon snapped his fingers and a dog treat big enough for the large dog was thrown into one of her mouths. "We keep treats in their own special room otherwise she'd eat them all, but magic makes things better...", Galexia clapped her hands, "Oooo, she's so talented! Can we ride her?". He only shrugged, "Sorta? I mean me and my bros have been on her back but to be honest it's not recommended, you'd probably fly off her...". "What else does she do exactly?", Celeste looked the dog over, "I'm sure having three brains probably helps store lots of tricks or...whatever dogs think about.". Landon patted one of the heads, feeling her soft fur under his claws, "Just a lot of tricks, but she also eats everything, wrecks the castle sometimes, gives kisses, and plays a lot....". He left a kiss on the pup's head, "She does what you expect a dog to do....though the two extra heads must mean she has a lot of thoughts...". He glanced to her, "You sound actually interested for once, about something that's not nosy I mean...". The girl walked over and pushed him aside to look up at the dog, who instantly gave her a long wet slobbery kiss, and considering the size of the tongue, it covered he whole face. Landon snorted and Lexi laughed next to him as the girl cringed, "UGHHHHHHHHHH!!". "She likes you...", he remarked, the girl stormed out, "Ok.....let's get back to chores....i'm out of here...". Landon patted his puppy, kissing her head before following her out, "What? Don't like dogs?". The girl yelled behind her, "If she infects me, i'm blaming you..". "Hey, you wanted to stay and meet her....", He quietly closed the door behind him to head back up the stairs and lock the door behind them,"And besides, consider it a blessing, a cerberus is kinda hard to befriend usually, they usually get along better with demons then mewmans....". "Lucky me...", she grumbled. "So garden time?", Lexi somehow already made it in front of both of them, "I KNOW WHERE THE GARDEN IS!!!". She was walking up the steps backwards, not missing a single step as she kept going up and up the stairs and landon gaped at her, "Uh...yeah, garden time, but can you let me lead? If you run off and get eaten by one of our plants i'm pretty sure i'll be grounded for life..". He rushed past her, "And....please...don't do...whatever you're doing....ok?". "Doing what?", She reached the top and turned around, smiling. Landon decided to drop it, no point in asking any further. "Look, when we get to the garden, no magic and whatever, just....keep quiet and...", He froze, looking at Celeste with an odd expression, the girl stared at him with a annoyed look, "You mind?". He bit his lip "It's uh...just....your makeup?". Celeste felt her cheeks, the makeup have been licked off my Lucy, no longer hiding her cheeks like it was suppose to, "Oh, well that's fantastic....". She placed her hands on her marks, covering them with her hands to the best of her ability, "Ugh...y'know what, forget makeup....". She reached out for her wand when a blast of light entered the room and she was sent back, falling down hard. She sat up, breathing heavily from the shock to see three familiar faces. "There you are.....", Judas stomped forward to help the girl up, and she reluctantly took it as she was helped to her feet. Landon scoffed, "Let me guess, something wild and exciting went down?" and his brother rolled his eyes. "No we got my compact back soon enough, though I may have been a little too caught up to text our folks back right away....heh....sorry..". "Why? You don't look beaten up...?", celeste looked them up and down, "Did you losers get captured or something?". Judas pulled out his compact, "It's dying on power, but i'll take care of that in a sec, anyways no we didn't get captured...we...might have stayed for a bit because Sunny wanted to...". He pocketed the compact, "Thanks for feeding lucy, wait...y-you did feed her right?", he gave his brother a look and Landon rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah yeah, we fed her, what happened to being the responsible one jude?". "You know as well as I there are so many thoughts going through my mind....it can be too much, but don't worry, i told mom and dad i'm fine....hopefully everything should be...in order.....", He was still in a bit of a huff, and he perhaps had a bit of a headache if him rubbing his head was anything to go by. "You weren't in your room, so i could only assume you were around here to feed lucy...", he took a looked around them to make sure no one was listening in, "Mom and dad...and....no one knows right?". "Yeah, my mouth is sealed....you owe me a pretty good bow for this one...", He nodded towards galexia, "That one....that one's a wierd one....". Galexia waved, "Did you have fun?!", and the small demon spoke up before the older kids could. "Yeah, it WAS fun, i got to eat bugsss and their queen is so PRETTY!! I even got to color!", that last part seemed to make galexia happier, "Color?! Awesome we should color together!". They exchanged laughs and luna ignored them to focus on the fact two royal blue teardrops were fully present on Celeste's face. "No one saw those right?" "No, their stupid dog licked me and.....ugh...you couldn't have given us something more moisture proof?", she looked down at her slightly wet clothes, "I smell like dog and rotten meat....". Luna came forward to pull out the make-up, "Hey, i pulled this from ...Sky's room, get angry at her she didn't have better stuff then this...". She had met so many strange people today she could hardly tell who was who for the most part, remembering these names were gonna probably take awhile. She helped put it back on, "In the meantime....avoid getting wet, if someone saw them, well we'd be in a tight spot......especially since you're so reluctant to wipe memories...". Her brown eyes dimmed, "You treat mind erasing like it's something small thing to do....what if we did it and we erased all of Landon's memories before? How would THAT have made things better?." "I've had to erase minds before...", Luna sighed, "It's not pretty, believe me...but sometimes it's the best course of action....". She finished putting on the makeup before turning to the tall boy with the purple skin, "Ok, what's our next course of action? We outta charge your compact and go through it to see where Angel tampered with it perhaps...". "No no no...", Landon interrupted, "Mom and Dad are making us meet them in Mason's gardens to help with the plants and i'm not doing it alone, and these two aren't even allowed to use magic! We're getting that done so our parents don't get on both of us today....". "Well, what about the compac-",Then he felt Luna snatch it from his hands, "How about this, you go help your folks, i'll hide in one of your rooms and charge and check your compact....it's no biggie, i can take care of myself.". The boys exchanged awkward glances and her confident smile fell from her face. She looked them both over, "You both still aren't sure about trusting me, are you? Can't say I blame you.....it's...". Then the compact started to ring and Judas snatched it back to answer it, "It's Sky, I gotta take this...", he walked off to a nearby wall and he felt a little relieved when he heard Sky from the other side considering god knows what Queen Star did for her "Training". She started talking as soon as he placed the phone to his ear and as per usual, she sounded upset. "JUDAS!! THE MALL, SHE TOOK ME TO THE MALL!! And MEL was there! And then HEKAPOO SHOWED UP!!", The boy had to pull it away from his ear a bit because she was yelling so hard, "S-sky....SKY! Hey, take it easy, what's going on?". She huffed, "I'm home, mom took me to your mom's like...old dojo, and then we got food, and mel and landon's boy toy were there, also he's cute but also a little odd and has no problem getting into trouble, maybe you should be concerned about landon's taste in guys, anyway...hekapoo showed up and she and my mom got into some kind of fight i could barely hear....but we got a recording of it i'll get back soon and-". "Wait? Hekapoo?" "Yes, HEKAPOO, red-head with horns and who has the weird relationship with your mom hekapoo. She busted in to talk to mom and mom seems pretty angry with her.....she was raging at her!! Like, what the heck even happened?! Mom wouldn't be so upset with her if she was just talking about the archives right?", Judas eyed his companions before glancing back to his compact. "Where's the recording?" "Bernard, like recorded what he could on his phone, but we didn't have time to listen to it, mel is gonna give me the details later....whatever it is, mom's not happy....what happened with angel? What's he up to?", Judas grumbled, "Wish i was any more helpful, i got my compact back but he got out of the room before i could question him, his parents may not be happy with him but they sure would never let me just go into his room and scare him until he says something....and we need a case here before we even try to tell him he's up to anything...". "How's his parents?", her voice was more soft, and a little concerned. "Well, his father is alright, as usual, though intimidating...but i think you really want to ask about his mom.....we saw her, she's...well she doesn't say much, doesn't talk much, has a hard time eating and....she seems so distant....i guess...." the boy sighed, "But at least Sunny got a laugh from her, made her smile.....so I guess that's something...". "Huh.....cool....so what now?". "Well, me and landon are kinda caught up in something with our folks and we better not get grounded if we're gonna get wrapped up in your newest adventure, so....". He eyed luna, "We still need to see why angel needed my compact, and charge it, so luna....is gonna come to you, with my compact, and you two can look it over together...". He heard sky groaning from her end. "Not a fan of her?" "Not a fan of being treated like i'm extremely stupid...". "Well she's....not that bad, just work together on this and i'm sure you guys will be fine.....", he heard another groan from sky and he sighed, "C'mon....you owe me, remember? Just work on this, you want dirt on angel right? We find out what he did, we might have a culprit...". "Yeah but, we know he couldn't of destroyed the archives because you were there to see him stuck to the castle gates! Even if he somehow got in there's no way he could've done that much damage and be there at the same time!"., Judas smirked on his end, ears flickering. "Yeah, but....if he needed my phone to make some kind of call...". "Then he might have an accomplice...", Sky finished for him, "Ok, fine, i'll make a portal and bring her in...but it's gonna be dinner time soon, don't think we're gonna solve this mystery before the moon gets out.". Judas snorted, "Wow, What gave that away? Anyways, i suppose you'll have to take lexi and luna back in while I take in the other two for the night....like it or not....they're safer in a castle then anywhere else...". She huffed, "Yeah, I know....i'll....cover them up better this time...maybe say they're like...in training by me or something?" "Training for what?" "Uh.....maids?" "Eh.....sure whatever, i'll try to figure something out with my folks over dinner...or maybe during chores.... take my phone to my room after you finish with it, and text me what you found, good?". Sky sighed, "Yeah we're good....so where are you?", Judas turned to his group, "that spot right outside lucy's room, the one that leads to her stairs?". Suddenly a blue portal cut it's way inside the room, the group stepping back to avoid it, "Yep, you got it....see you soon sky, you better bring me back my compact, i'm not losing it twice today...". She snickered on her end as he hung up and placed it into Luna's hand, "You and Sky go through it, bring it back and text me what you find, sky knows my password....don't ask why." "What about us?", Celeste crossed her arms, "So she gets to leave but we're all stuck doing your chores? What about lexi? If she's staying on mewni why isn't SHE going?". The older teens shot her some dirty looks as judas pinched the bridge of his nose, "Look, would you rather sit in a room doing nothing? Or would you rather go into our gardens and deal with our plants? Luna Offered, and I'm going to guess Lexi here wants to see our garden?". Galexia nodded eagerly, and Celeste glanced to landon, who was giving her a challenging look, clearly thinking of earlier on her complaints about going from room to room. "Look, if you have anything you can use to help them, then fine, go with them, but if you don't.....then just stay close to me and our family, and help us deal with our plants. It's dangerous, but it's more exciting then you all being held up in Sky's room for the rest of the night...and you're staying here anyway so...". "Fine, whatever.....", She waved them off and kept her mouth shut as Judas resumed his talk with Luna, shaking his head. "Ok, compact, look for stuff that looks strange, Sky can help, we'll bring galexia to you after chores....see you later...", Luna glanced back at the group as he turned to the portal, taking a deep breath, "Just get through tonight..". She left through the portal and it closed behind her, Judas relaxing before leading what was left of his group down another hall, "C'mon...let's go...". - Luna found the blunette on her bed, staring at her in uneager anticipation. "How were the lessons?", Luna started, noting the tension between them. "I learned stuff, do you got the compact?". The blonde held it out to her, "Well, judas really wouldn't send me here without it....". She took it from her hands, plugging a charger into it before opening it to type in his password, luna had already taken a seat next to the girl and she noted the typing of letters. "His password is password1?", sky snickered, "He wanted to be clever with his password but he couldn't come up with anything and thought the one would throw people off, pffft, he's kinda a noob...". "How'd you figure it out?" "He literally wrote it down and stuck it in his underwear drawer since he does his own laundry, and if you want to know what caused me to end up in his underwear drawer....well that's a story for another day...", She started to swipe the screen, "Ok, last calls is a good place to start...". She started swiped and looked to luna, "Y'know he should've started this already, it doesn't take much effort here....", and the girl shrugged, "I get the feeling your friend didn't want to be on his compact during our visit to the queen out of respect...". "Yeah, i guess that would kinda be rude..considering the situation......", She kept scrolling, "aha here....ok so that's, well that's me when i called him just now but.....ok that's kinda odd...". Luna's eyes dimmed, "Odd? What do you mean...odd?", Sky rolled her eyes and showed the number, "He used Judas's compact to literally order takeout....are you freaking kidding me?". Luna took the compact from her and sure enough, a restaurant was under the number, "Well, what if it's a cover up? C'mon going through the effort of taking a phone for this would be utterly stupid...". "Like angel's that clever, c'mon he doesn't even own his own compact how do you think he's gonna come up with something like that?", The girl crossed her arms, "How can i think? I BARELY know him, we've known each other a day, I barely know YOU!". Sky started going through the phone some more, "This can't be it, there's gotta be something else here to this...". She started looking through pictures next, skipping through a bunch of pictures judas took of her, his brothers, his parents, grandparents, even a few lucy ones in there, but nothing yet of any suspicion. Sky's frustration was apparent on her face and then luna took over, "Let's try a spell....my way....". She pulled her wand out, transforming from a ring to it's normal form and placing the compact on the bed, a blue beam shot out from her wand onto the device and it rose in the air as data was presented before the girl's eyes. Sky failed to try and look unimpressed as the girl 's magic dug deep into the phone to find anything potentially dangerous. "So, this angel guy.....tell me more about him? I'm assuming he's like....your enemy of some kind?", She glanced over to the princess playing with her fingers and heard her groan, "He's just this annoying prince who keeps messing with the kingdom to get my mom to listen to him, look, my family kinda hurt his family alot and he's still just kinda bitter about it......i mean...understandably bitter...but...it's complicated...".. Luna hummed, "So he's almost a bit of a thug kinda?". "Maybe...". She scratched her cheek with her wand, "He's...not really an evil mastermind....". "Well, I've dealt with thugs before....frankly.....it's a good thing he's only a thug....rather not end up in some alternate reality where mewni is in ruins and in danger of a powerful enemy...", she glared as the phone swiped through more and more data, "Hmm......". "Hmm?" "There's...nothing.....it's just...that call really just seems to be it.....i'm looking at anything that was done within the time span he had it and that's about it...". Sky stepped forward and snatched the compact, unplugging it, "C'mon, no...that's.......". The girl in front of her huffed, "I hate false leads too, but this one looks like it might have honestly just been your prince there doing something....less then scary...". "But it's like...it's angel!", Sky practically yelled, "I mean, sure yeah he's not that great at anything but taking a phone just for a bite to eat!? He's like....he's still a prince!!! He went through all that effort of taking his compact just to get food!?". She plugged the compact back in and resisted clawing her face, "WHYYYY, and i thought we might've been getting somewhere with thisss!!!!". She fell on her bed and she felt luna take a seat next to her, "We still have the high commission...and frankly, they're more suspicious then him anyway if what you said holds any truth...". The girl pulled her face off the bed, "Ugh...wel...Mel needs to contact me first....". "What?" "Hekapoo and mom had a fight, we got a recording of it, mel needs to send me the deets...." Her brows lowered, "When did they have a fight exactly?", Sky gave her a dumb look, "While i was out today, when do you think? I'm gonna assume she and the rest of the commission saw the archives after we set off every stinking alarm we could on the way out.....but....for mom to be pissed with her.....yeah we need to know what she said...". Luna tapped her finer on her chin, "Well Hekapoo has made your...our...mom mad before, so it's not exactly out of the ordinary for her to behave this way but....how does mom usually act around them here?". "Doesn't hate them, doesn't like em either, though she hasn't got that angry at the commission while I've been around since the time I lost the wand in the underworld and they considered maybe i shouldn't have it at all....", She tapped her fingers together as luna threw her arms up, "You lost it in the underworld?!" She was met with an awkward laugh, "Same story as the password/underwear drawer story, i'll have to tell it to you sometime, anyway can we get back to the point?" "Fine fine, how soon are we going to hear that conversation?", Sky could only shrug, "As soon as we can get it i'm afraid......mel has other things to take care of as well, but....if anyone can help us crack the case, SHE can and i know it!". Luna looked doubtful, "She can? Last night she thought I was a shapeshifter! C'mon she can help collect info but her cracking this is probably unlikely...". The princess shrugged, "Well y'know, it might've sounded silly but it was totally possible!". "Well what do we do now then? If one lead is busted and another in waiting what exactly are we supposed to do until then?!" Then a strict knocking could be heard on the door, "Skyler darling? Dinner is starting soon, hope you can make it!". Sky froze, luna shutting her mouth right away, she managed to speak up only slightly to get her mom away from the door, "OK I'M COMING!!!". She heard footsteps leave her door and she turned back to the blonde, hoping her mom didn't hear the girl in her bedroom with her. She gulped, "Ok so.....I guess I better head to dinner....then....". "I'm coming with you...", Luna then said much to Sky's surprise. "And before you say something, i haven't eaten all day....and I have an idea what we can do....". "Do...what?". "Question our mother." - The underworld wasn't much for plants,, mostly because honestly what could grown in such a hot and barren environment to begin with? Only certain plants ever managed to survive and even the the kingdom wasn't known for it's green thumb to begin with. Unless you were Mason Lucitor-Diaz, the youngest brother of the ruling family. Then, you were well known as the demon who held the most elaborate garden in the entire underworld. It was in a dome of course, a dome that seemed to help with temperature and humidity of the environment, but a dome no less. The Lucitors always had a garden that was useless except for some barely living roses in the past, but now, they had more plants then they could imagine. And every single one, was raised by Mason. You had flowers, and vegetables and fruits, but then you had large thrones vines and potentially poisoness plants and plants that ate giant bug meat. There were plants mason of course wasn't supposed to have and would never be approved by his parents, but then again where those were planted weren't to his parent's eyes. His pointed ear twitched as he heard someone enter, turning around from his watering to see his parents walk in, ducking under vines and prepared for anything. "Mason, hey sweetie...ready for some weeding? Or at least some trimming?", He put down his watering can and flapping his wings over to them before landing softly on the ground. "Awww again? But she was just getting bigger!". They exchanged looks, "Yeah bigger, big enough to start wrapping around the castle mason.....we gotta trim her before she causes damage...". The boy sighed as his parents admired the garden around them, their touches delicate and careful. "I know you're not a fan of it mason, but you knew it was coming....your plants get out of hand sometimes...". The small boy failed to try and ignore them, flapping his wings and obeying, "I know mom.... but Ima loves to spread out her vines!, she just wants to stretch!". Tom closely examined a rather lovely rose patch, enjoying their scent, "Well, then perhaps we then find her a new home then, because if she's going to stay in our gardens we can't have he accidentally take down our castle or harm the rest of the garden can we?". "Move her? Where?" "You'd know better then us mason, if you really want to do it, we can, but for now we just have to give her her monthly trim ok?" Mason nodded, understanding, though still saddened. Which lead to his folks wrapping him in a small hug, "Don't worry, tonight we're going to have dinner and maybe play some games together? I know ping pong always cheers you up..". The wings instantly wrapped around his parents, "Can I ref?". "Yes of course you can ref, but no messing with your older brothers this time, got it?" The little demon giggled as his parents stopped their group hug, "awwww fine....". "By the way, We also called your brothers....hopefully they'll be here any-". The door swung open and the trio watched as landon and judas, plus three extras, entered the room. Judas put his hands out before they could say anything or question the situation, "These are some...friends of sky's, we've been hanging with them all day and they wanted to help. Anyways i got my compact back...sorry for worrying you guys...". His folks quickly pulled him into a hug, hands brushing his hair, "It's perfectly fine, we're happy to see you...and don't worry, we've already met your knew friends...". As they pulled away from their son, marco eyed Sunny, "Well, except for that one, but it's a pleasure to meet such a lovely young demon as yourself....". Sunny smiled happily at marco but her eyes were especially focused on Tom, with his long parted hair, gold cape, and dark outfit lined with blood moons. It must've been surreal to see her father look so different then he probably was back home, not to mention him being married to someone else with other kids. "Thank you....", Marco smiled and returned back to their task at hand, "The more hands the merrier...alright so you see those red-greenish vines up there?". They pointed above them to some larger then normal sized vines spreading across the dome, "Those vines are getting lose and they need a trim, now lucky for us these vines themselves aren't dangerous, but the plant who owns them never enjoys being trimmed so best to be careful....we'll split into teams and an adult will handle each one to make sure everyone is safe, got it?'. They all nodded, even Celeste, who still looked less then pleased to be here. "Ok so Landon, and Celeste was it? Can come with me, Mason and this lovely little lady can work with Tom, and Judas? You and Galexia i believe was her name, can be a team, you two look about the same age anyways.". Judas eyes towards galexia who was in the middle of getting way too familiar with a stink plant, "Oh trust me, that isn't going to matter much....". Marco snorted as tom and them lead their groups off to a different part of the dome to teach them how to handle the plant and Judas pulled galexia away to his spot. "Alright, the task is simple, he snapped his fingers to hand him and lexi a large pair of shears, "You're not going to be allowed to cut these vines slowly i'm afraid, when we cut them we need to do it as if pulling off a bandage, doing it slowly gives the plant more time to freak which makes it worse for us....". Lexi blinked, "But aren't all the plants in here safe?", he made a face, "Technically yes, they should be, but we mean safe for a demon, we can get out of this stuff in a tangle, but you can't use your wand, hiding your magic during a situation where you need it will....yeah...". He gave her a comforting look, "It's fine, we've done it many times before, and the plant won't eat us.....it more has a tendency to potentially strangle then anything....so just begin chopping at our level till all the vines in this section have been cut, then run with me to the next....got it?" She nodded, seeming to understand much to the boy's relief, he got his shears ready and open and galexia followed his example, "Ok, wait for my father's signal.....because we all have to go at the same time....and you'll know the signal when you see it...". Judas took a deep breath and only minutes later the two could feel something hot and bright behind them, which could only be the signal they were looking for, galexia followed judas's orders and cut through the vines in on sharp cut with him. She could only assume these shears were enchanted to cut through things in one fell swoop. Judas pulled on her arm as they ran to the next set of vines, which were moving much more then the last one, meaning the plant they belonged to was more then aware of what just happened. There was no waiting for a signal this time, Judas urged her to cut with them and they did before moving to the next vines, which were starting to retreat and attempted to wrap around the pair before Judas sliced through them. He panted, "Ok, that should be enough on this side....c'mon...we gotta check on everyone else....". The chopped vines squired on the ground, and in a way it was kinda horrific, but at least they weren't going to get strangled with them like that. Judas carefully pulled her among the jungle of strange plants, careful of what he touched before they came to his father's group. Tom expertly sliced through, and though mason and sunny were equipped with the shears as well, it was clear the king was doing most of the work. Most likely in concern for his protective fatherly instincts. Then again, he did take the two youngest kids with him to begin with. Mason still looked sad about having to trim his plant but Sunny still was looking at Tom in immense awe. The king panted, "Last....one......", his ears twitched as his oldest son approached with lexi and nodded to him and then his attention drawled to where Marco was. "Ok, we're all safe so far.....let's just....go check your mother and-". Then a scream came from the direction of Marco's group and tom's eyes widened as the kids all followed after to him to find Marco jumping and stabbing into a vine that was clutching onto Celeste tightly. The vine fell quickly and the girl was freed, though both shaken up and scared. Marco wiped their brow before turning to tom who looked both relieved and still impressed, "You've still got it....". The human smiled, walking over to help celeste up and check for cuts before walking over to their husband and kissing their cheek lovingly. "We've been married how long? You calling me old tom?", Tom wrapped his arms around marco and smooched their spouse right on the lips, much to the disgust of Landon and especially the beaten up brunette who almost got destroyed by a vine. "Alright....good....good....now we'll just collect the vines we chopped and send them to the kitchens....",The mewmans in the room eyes him oddly and he explained, "Oh, these vines are edible, probably the biggest reason we keep this plant, it provides a good portion of food...maybe we'll have some for dinner tonight...though we'll have to call your parents first...". They unhanded each other and Tom started gathering up the vines surrounding them, "Let's get them in a pile and call for some servants to get them..". It was much easier with such a large group to help him, but Celeste looked like a wreck, today had been a long day and it was only getting worse for her. By the time they got everything in order, and the king called for a servant to pick the vines up, marco had already promised the girl to give her a new dress and had asked her a dozen times if she was sure about not needing to go the the medical ward. "I'm fine....", she wasn't even looking at marco, and her bitter attitude returned quickly after the queen started worrying over her. Marco was a parent of three, and boy did it show. Celeste swatted Marco away and they prompted maybe it was best they leave the girl alone before turning to their sons. Landon partially wanted to laugh at Celeste, but at the same time kinda felt bad for her considering her situation being topped with all this misery. "Mom...about her parents uh....Celeste is, well her parents are out on this uh...extended trip, and er.....we were wondering if maybe she could uh....stay with us?", the queen's eyes widened, "Stay with us? Doesn't she have another place to star? Certainly her parents didn't leave her behind right?". The Queen then felt someone tap her leg and she turned to find the small demon girl at her feet, "Our families are on vacation together and left us with a sitter, but the sitter got hurt and our parents are somewhere we can't contact them easily, can we stay here till they get home?". Marco bit their lip, but couldn't deny the little girl's big puppy eyes and patted her head, "Well, we have plenty of rooms, i'm sure we can let you stay for awhile till we get in contact with your folks...". Sunny smiled happily and the rest of the kids looked shocked at how well she pulled that off. The queen tapped Tom ont he shoulders and whispered something into his ear and he smiled at the girls, "Ah guests eh? That sounds lovely! Been awhile since we had dinner guests!". He gave a toothy grin before looking to his sons, two of which were nervous and one of which looked incredibly confused about what exactly was going on. "But, since you persumibly invited them to stay, that means you're going to take full responsibility for them? Got it? I don't want to wake up one morning to find out your friends here got kidnapped or pickpocketed me or....who knows what..", Celeste looked slightly insulted at the notion she was a criminal but then again knowing her she'd probably say the same thing. And right now, she'd like nothing more then a room to lock herself inside and a clean dress. Tom seemed to be reading her mind as he clapped his hands together, "Oh, and we'll make sure your friends here get some nicer clothes! It's the least we could do after the vine situation......". Marco took Tom's arms and they each ruffled their sons' hair before heading out, "Dinner will be soon, help the girls get settled and we'll meet you there!". The coupled proceeded to head out, most likely to get ot of their current more causual wear into something nicer for dinner. Mason, being the only one left who wasn't in on what was going on, blinked at all the strange girls around his with his soft brown eyes. As if not even believing they were there, then again he wasn't exactly used to his brothers hanging out with so many girls so it probably wasn't a surprise. Now as long as he didn't jump to conclusions or started looking too far into it, they'd be fine. "So....who are y-", the boy started to ask right on cue. Judas clapped his hands together, breaking interrupting his brother before he could question further, "So, rooms!". Then Celeste spit on the dome's floor, stopping out of the room in a state of anger and frustration. Judas could swear she said something rather appalling on the way out and he put his hand out to try and stop her, "CELESTE!". But it was too late, she was already gone, and judas was about to chase after her when Landon stepped in front of him. "Dude, just...stop, i'll go talk to her....you'll just make things worse...", the older brother crossed his arms, glaring landon down, "Excuse me?". "When you get involved in stuff like this, either it gets you into a stupid amount of trouble, or your lousy curse donks it up....", Sunny could see Mason visibly flinch at his brothers entering an argument, his soft brown eyes looking at the floor as Judas stomped forward towards his younger brother. "Landon i'm really not interested in dealing with your attitude today, my schedule was thrown away, i had to travel to another kingdom to get my compact back, and i got seriously injured and dealing with your uncaring attitude is not an improvement by comparison....". Landon was silent for a moment before speaking again, "I'm offering to go help and calm her down ok?" "And how is that supposed to make me feel better?" Landon sighed, eyes shifting, "Look, technically it's my fault she's so angry...so just....let me talk to her instead." Judas's frustrated face moved around, considering it as he looked at his brother, landon wasn't technically good with emotional situations, but then again he's spent more time with her then judas has. The boy gave in, brushing him off, "Fine, go talk to her....just.....make sure she doesn't break anything....". Landon started walking backwards and shrugged, "Eh, she can't be more reckless then you...." Judas grumbled as his brother left after as he turned his gaze over to Mason, who was looking between him, galexia and sunny. "Ok, So what exactly did i miss this time?" - Sky went through an annoying amount of effort to pick a dress within her closet for luna to wear, but she supposed it was worth it to make sure luna didn't look like a mess when seeing her parents. She'd look more suspicious that way, not to mention he parents would ask her about why her clothes were such a mess in the first place and sky was lying enough as is. Eventually he found a fitting blue dress with waves and little fishes that seemed to fit her fine and luna had already found her way to sky's make up and stuff to fix her face and hair. Sky didn't use makeup often so it didn't bother her too much, though she did roll her eyes a few times as luna scoffed at her taste in dark eyeliner and dark nail polish. Luna seemed more used to being well kept then sky was, who rarely made as much of an effort to look like a princess judging by how she got herself ready as if she did it daily. "You know, my mom's not gonna wait forever....", Luna stood up and ignored her comment, "Alright, now this time I'M making the cover story, we're not screwing this up again...". "Well i may have said to judas you could pose as a maid in training?" "A what?" "Errrrr......", Luna crossed her arms before brushing it off, "You know what? Whatever, a maid is better then...whatever cover you had for us before....". Her face then twisted into a thoughtful look, "Actually....being a maid or servant does give me the excuse to listen to gossip and access anywhere...". Sky almost smiled, this was the closest thing to a real compliment Luna had given her since they met. Luna patted her shoulder as she headed for the door, "hmm, decent idea....i'll take it...though....your parents might find it weird i was invited to dinner...". "Pffft....", Sky make a hand movement and laughed, "I've invited weirder people for dinner, if anything, you're an improvement...". Luna made a mental note to ask her about some of these bizarre "Adventures" as Sky opened the door for her and walked to their dining hall with her. Luna knew the way, making it clear it was still in the same place in her dimension, though that itself made sky wonder if meteora wrecked half the castle like she did there was well, which changed the dining hall's room a bit. She didn't spend a ton of time thinking about it before, but she was indeed in the presence of someone from an alternate reality. An alternate reality involving her parents, and Judas's parents, and maybe almost everyone else she knew. Did her mom make her do crazy tasks? Did Luna feel pressured too? Did she go to the same balls and events? They weren't important questions for their task but they were in her head nonetheless, and she couldn't help but wonder just how much was different. Luna caught her staring and she gave her a look before walking a bit more ahead of her, which made sky's thoughts stop, focusing back on their current mission. Luna put her hands behind her back and ushered Sky to go first when they found the door. Sky stretched her arms before pushing the door open to her waiting mothers, already conversing happily with each other as their daughter entered. "SKY!!! HEY! Alright, now we can get some foooood in here!", Star excitably banged her hands on the table and Sky had to awkwardly raiser her hand to get her attention. "Uh....moms? Wait I uh...", Star stopped her excitement to question her daughter's odd expression, "Sky? Did something happen?". Sky opened the door behind her, "Well,I might have brought a guest for dinner tonight....if that's ok...". Luna stiffened at the sight of her mother, thoughts running through her head. How different she looked, how surprised she was at the sight of her, how she was holding someone's hand who was not her other mom's. It was a strange and uncomfortable situation to say the least, utterly surreal. She'd normally see a scene like this and call it a dream, but this was not a dream, and her biggest concern by far should be for her mother to not be suspicious of her presence. Star blinked at the strange girl, but her lips soon curved into a smile at her sight, "Skyyyy, whose this?". The princess answered quickly before either of her moms jumped to conclusions, which her moms could be fairly good at. "This...is luna, she's a girl i met...and she's interested in...well...in working for us...and stuff like that...", man sky sucked at this kinda stuff, but luna made up for it with her polite demeanor as sh walked over to shake the queens' hands. "Pleasure to meet you your majesties....", Star gushed and Janna smirked, eyeing towards Sky as if wondering just when she starting making friends like this. Sky huffed but then again in reality most of her friends seemed to be boys except for Melanie, maybe Coral, and kinda sorta Nora. As long as her mom didn't get creepy abut it. "The pleasure is all mine luna-?", Star's eyes twinkled, her day had been rough and seems dinner was only getting better and better for her. Luna took a seat politely at the table across from the ladies, trying her hardest to look normal . Sky took a seat next to her and star happily rung the dinner bell as servants poured in to place food down on the table There was alot of corn, as expected, but there was some turkey and some pudding, and sky happily piled more of that on her plate rather then the 10 different variations of corn laid out. Luna didn't seem to mind all the corn though, as it took up most of her plate. She ate quietly and eyes to sky, they had some prep on how to speak to star, but how they were going to do it without worrying whether queens would be tricky. Though at least they both seemed to be rather interested in luna, so that at least was a good start. "So luna? What made you interested in working for the royal family? Tell me all about your talents..", the girl took a deep breath and remained calm as she spoke, careful of her choice of words. "Well, you see, my family wants me to succeed, or rather...I want to succeed, and I simply feel as if my talents would be more useful here. I am...decent with my fighting skills, I believed to be well-informed on mewnian culture and history, and...I work really hard?". Star blinked at her for a moment but smiled, "Fighting huh? Well well, perhaps if you can give me a demonstration, a knight would be perfect for you, i mean jackie is still out but you'd be wonderful under her command..." Luna almost spit out her tea. "J-Jackie?" "Jackie Lynn-Thomas, our head Knight, she's been out on a special job for us for awhile but hopefully she'll be back soon to train our new recruits! ", Luna was so in shock she almost lost her cover, still processing what queen star had just told her. She shook it off and replaced her shocked face with a smile, "Ah, lovely....can't wait to meet her...". Which wasn't a lie of course, but sky could feel the girl trying to figure out exactly how he mom ended up in such a position. She was bound to have dozens of questions herself about this dimension very soon. Sky took this time to quickly change the subject back to their investigation, "So mom...anything been crazy today? I mean, besides our lesson, and angel, and-". Star shrugged, "Nothing that concerns you sky, no need to worry....". Then luna spat something out from her cornbread as janna laughed, a gobstopper falling out of the girl's mouth. Luna shot her a look but janna looked more then pleased, "Good, i was wondering which one of us was gonna hit the candy i put inside..". Star laughed and hit the woman next to her playfully, "You sneaky fox, that's why you went to the kitchens earlier didn't you?". They shared a cheery laugh and star took the loaf of bread to inspect it for more gobstoppers placed inside, they were so small you could barely see them, not to mention they were all the lemon flavored ones. Janna popped a gobstopper in her mouth happily in response. The girls didn't seem to feel as happy, both unamused and a bit annoyed. "So, sky, what were you saying?", Sky relaxed to keep herself from getting upset or angry. Luna was glancing at her, as if asking if this is normally how life was with her parents before politely laughing and going back to eating. Sky took another breath, no pressure right? She ignored her mom's silly prank and got herself back on track before they got distracted again. "Like....y'know....about anything crazy? like have you dealt with anything...strange today?". Star's face was half amused and half confused, she shook her head, "Sky, we deal with strange things everyday, what are you trying to ask about young lady?". The gaze luna was shooting at Sky right now wasn't helping, but Luna couldn't exactly ask this stuff without looking suspicious. Nonetheless, looks like she'd have to take matters into her own hands, "Your majesty? If i was to take your knight suggestion? What do you imagine i'd be involved in? Magic? Other dimensions?". Sky sipped her tea and happily answered the girl much to sky's slight annoyance, "Ah well? It depends on your skill, though we rarely need to send you all out to other dimensions, we don't end up in too much of those kinda situations.." "Ah? Though I suppose you normally ask the commission for missions like that?", Luna scanned her kinda sorta mother, looking for any facial ticks, cues she could take advantage of. "Yeah, usually they're better for that stuff....though it's rare...", she took another bite of food, "Mostly because they kinda are the only ones that really can do it....wouldn't send a solider through most of the things they do...". Luna already knew enough from her moms back home Omni was the keep of alternate dimensions, she kept her innocent curiosity up, avoiding the gaze of a surprised sky. "Understandable my queen, though...I know you've had troubles with them before...from Sky here, how come you can't replace them? You could train them!", Janna snickered and Star shook her head, "nope nope nope nope, if i could, i would, but glossaryck made them for their roles...and i can't really do that myself, only hekapoo can make the scissors, only rhombulus can do his weird crystal thingy, and only omni can manipulate other realities and stuff..". Luna nodded, "fair enough..". Sky made a mental note to herself, as the high commission only rised higher on her suspicion list. Janna crossed her arms, looking over luna, "You're asking cause you wanna be the next MHC member? Trust me, i tried to make that happen myself, actually i'm still trying, but those guys are kinda butts." Star nodded in agreement, "So anyways Luna, If you're interested in working here, well Sky can find you a room for sure and you can sign of for knight training, when jackie gets back i'm sure you'll be a good student...". The girls glanced to each other, sky was going to have to ask what luna observed later. "I will make sure of that....queen Star.."

#star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #sky and the forces of the multiverse #fanfiction #starkie bby #tomco bby #janstar bby #ostar bby #tomstar baby #starco bby #fanfic

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