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mysteriouslybluepirate · 1 year ago

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So... Can we talk about Zheng Yi Sao please?

I absolutely adored her and she was so much fun (and love the polycule) but I am absolutely failing to see what her role in the larger narrative was.

She unites the pirates only for everyone to get blown and the pirate republic destroyed in one stroke? Because the woman who conquered China is stupid enough to trust a"gifts" British Navy minor prince whom she is blackmailing?

She is basically Stede's more competent side kick for the rest of the episode?

Another one I'm sure will be a controversial opinion! I'd love to hear what y'all think, don't be afraid to leave a comment below.

Funnily enough, my 2 remaining asks are both wanting to discuss Zheng Yi Sao (and to a lesser extent, Archie) as how both of these characters were meant to impact this story and/or failed to do so! Given that the writers looked at the limited amount of time they had and decided to write BRAND NEW characters instead of further developing the people we already liked.

I will be combining the asks, as the other person was anonymous but they spoke more to how Archie and Zheng didn't add much that was new to the story. If that anon would like me to still post their thoughts, let me know!!

First: Archie

I hate to say it, but for the most part, she feels like the response to the common criticism that S1 didn't have any leading women.

Which, yes. Is absolutely valid. This is where I feel we can sit with Archie. She's fun, and hot, and has the same Violent energy Jim had in S1. But by the time episode 8 rolls around, what is she? We know almost nothing about her, to this day. She was in a snake cult...um. She can fight, and is Jim's arm candy? Beyond that, it feels a bit hollow. Especially as Archie enters a relationship with Jim before we as the audience know Jim and Olu are in an open relationship. Yes. Jim thought Olu was dead, but I didn't really like Jim joking about Archie's tits when bringing up the fact they were dating Archie as well now.

NOW-

Onto Zheng Yi Sao! (and to a lesser extent Auntie)

Zheng had 2 rolls to fill this season, character and narriative. Her character roll was-

1.) To be an Ed mirror. She's a badass with a record, a Navy at her back, and yet we can't make her a badass without giving her the same romantic arc as Edward fucking Teach. Seriously. I was bored watching her scenes as soon as it was obvious Olu liked her. Because I could put the pieces together.

Auntie is Izzy trying to hold the legend together, Oluwande is Stede a stranger to this brand of piracy, and Zheng is Ed 1-1 from S1ep4. Congrats welcome back to Season 1, but this time faster, and with a more interesting side interrupting it every other scene.

Zheng is open to new experiences, letting herself be soft, when it comes to her new boy toy. Cool. We're repeating story beats, which I don't love... But then she gets defeated by Olu distracting her and leaving her behind mirroring Ed in ep 10. Stede and Ed's romance is condensed into 3 ish episodes. When we see her again, her arc isn't focused on her conquering the sea. Not really. It's more on how she really misses Olu. For a badass pirate we enjoy watching, I cared more about her slipping into good graces with the pirates of the Republic than her missing her 'quiet part of the day'.

The story also felt a need to parallel the mentor relationship of Zheng and Auntie, with Ed and Izzy. A thing that for the most part I don't agree with. Zheng respects and mourns Auntie in a way Ed doesn't to Izzy. Rewatch S1, does Izzy EVER change Ed's mind? Or does Ed talk down to him like he's a pesky mosquito in his ear. Ignoring him and trying to show off to Stede.

Zheng's personal arc repeats that of a character we had a lot more time with. I wish they just stuck to the cool strategy shit with her. Ironically she's a strong character because she can fight and because she cares about Olu. Which...ew. Just make her a threat, y'all. That's all you had to do.

BUT I FELL IN LOVE WITH HER IN EPISODE 7/8. OMG.

I went from being all right with her and Olu's story to seeing her as her own person. Someone who is very overwhelmed and competent. I also love her actress, so that always helps. It just sucks that she starts to have her own things going on at the very end of the story. Again, we get the Ed parallel of her throwing herself into a suicide mission after Auntie dies, but it doesn't FEEL like a direct mirror the way the romance obviously was.

She was always going to be a plot device, just like everyone else this season because-

2.) She's the reason Stede goes from being stranded on land back on the Revenge. This is the OVERALL reason she was needed here. I wish they handled this differently. I've seen some say the reason she didn't see Ricky as a threat is because the 'point' of Ricky was that you shouldn't underestimate people. But given how she treated Stede's crew like criminals awaiting trial (besides Olu), I fail to see how she would 'underestimate' the people whose claim she was trying to take over. All the characters of this season exist to push the plot forward, even if it doesn't align with how they should behave.

Given that yes. England had a STRONG foothold in the colony of a colony called 'Carolina' at this time(Florida and Georgia were held by the Spanish until the Spanish-American war), the English Navy specifically could send enough troops to push her out in around 2 months. Or hell. Maybe they'd team up with the Spanish and finally clear out the republic.

Zheng needed all the pirates in the area to match the power of their army, and at this point, she didn't have that yet. So why was she so cocky? (Oh. This show ignores history, right.)

[Fanfic concept of an alternate story for this season where Zheng isn't just another love interest that wasn't properly built up]

Personally, if I knew my budget was slashed, I'd save money by cutting unnecessary sets and using the actors I have VERY wisely. So. REWRITE TIME. In episode 1 Stede struggles to make ends meet. ACTUALLY struggling not comedic struggling. Working all hours of the day, not seeing an end in sight, the crew not wanting to go back and find Ed. Hell, some of the crew threatened to leave and get on new ships. The works. Then suddenly he is given a deal from Auntie. She knows who Stede is, and wants to bargain. He'll get a small ship, in return for his future loyalty, and potentially that of Blackbeard. Hint that this was all from the 'Pirate Queen', and BAM. No need to have the entire plot on Zheng's ship, a plot that dragged compared to that on the Traumatized Revenge, and it gives the audience something to get excited about!!

Who is this pirate queen? What will this 'loyalty' mean for the next few episodes? Etc. Maybe find Lucius early in Ep 1 at the Republic recovering, having recently been left for dead by his nearest pirate ship. This way we have another thing Stede is keeping secret from the crew and Ed, and show how Stede would react in this situation. PLUS! Epic badass Zheng slowly being hinted at taking over the Republic from episodes 6-7 before she's foiled at the end of episode 8? Yes, this gets rid of us DIRECTLY SEEING that she was betrayed by Ricky, but instead of focusing on Zheng, focus on Stede and Ricky's dynamic in ep 1. Make us see how slimy he is. Then in ep 7 show Ricky making a deal on a ship we've never seen. Think Ed in ep 3 S1, dark, smoky, and when he enters the office? ZHENG YI SAO! Badass pirate trying to expand her grasp across the ocean to fuck over the worlds militaries.

THAT is a pirate threat. Not like Jack and his story of a mutiny, or Anne and Mary of however they left the life. Or Ned whose crew was a singly conversation of Mutiny. Pirates are clever bastards who aren't to be fucked with. Zheng is new, and a different way to control the area than we're used to. Then, we the audience can see JUST how fucked over Zheng will be. Zheng goes to land and still wipes up Stede's crew thanks to legend, and maybe a betrayal after finding out about the deal. Ep 7 bar fight, leading into episode 8. Hell, maybe have her and Olu flirt. This way the audience already knows Jim's alright with it AND we get to see more wingman Jim. Which was already a DELIGHT.

My big issue with Both Zheng and Archie's romances is that their Olu and Jim didn't feel like our Olu and Jim. Oluwande S1 was nervous, clever, and good with people. Very protective of Jim, I always got the opinion that if shit ever started to look bad, he'd do everything he could for him and Jim to flee. Jim was a hard egg to crack, but sarcastic and closed off even when you got to know them. Which they RARELY did.

In S2, Jim and Olu almost feel like the same goofy characters. The twist is that they still love each other and love someone else. Which is cool, just an odd choice. Given that their reunion felt...dull. But it's obvious the writers will only develop a character if they are in a romance. (Lucius and Pete? Let's talk about trauma and recovery. Olu and Zheng? Let's discuss kindness and softness? Jim and Archie? Loyalty and compassion built by blood.) That's all they had time for, and honestly, I'd rather deepen what we know about characters like Frenchie and Wee John than see another shallow romance. Lucius and Pete worked better because, AGAIN, they were ALREADY ESTABLISHED.

Much like how the rest of this season is too fond of callbacks, Zheng's entire character can be summarized by 'diet Ed' and I hope the fandom sees her harsh, willing-to-do-anything to get the job done, attitude and expands on THAT versus a carbon copy of the main show's romance. Her roll was to get closure with Auntie in a way that Ed couldn't with Izzy. Which...yikes.

tldr: good characters, but were sadly thrown away without much development.

#ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd critical #zheng yi sao #archie ofmd #ofmd season two #ofmd s2 finale #I would add ship names but TBH I don't know the main ones for the poly group #AGAIN I LOVE THE IDEA- But the execution of the relationships fell flat to me

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jade-of-mourning · 8 months ago

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okay sorry hi I know I just sent you an ask about my cat being alive but you’re like,, my favorite internet stranger so I thought you should know. I calmed down a little bit and read your response to my fourteen page ask

IM SO HAPPY I HYPE YOU UP‼️‼️ I love being peoples’ hypeman and you’re like,,, awesome so that’s super cool. don’t rush yourself but if you’re feeling pumped to share I will be your #1 fan. I’m probably gonna finish a little 4+1 thing and post it to my blog as a little grand reveal as snailon if that’s cool :3

ALSO I’m so happy you posted the cat thing on ao3 it was really nice and super well written and thank you for the suggestion! the cat is being washed thoroughly right now and I am on guard duty of the bathroom door. he was (we guess) stuck in the sewage of the construction sight beyond the wooded area behind our house.

SO MORE LOK THOUGHTS

you exactly caught my vibe (again) when you mentioned the insane repression mako and bolin are doing in canon. I honestly think there’s nothing more than elevator music behind bo’s eyes in canon because if the creators allowed anything else it would solely be The Horrors and they needed someone on that godforsaken team to be emotionally available and somewhat happy. and try as he might, mako will always be uncontrollably feral. I know by b4 he just has an all out brawl every morning fighting to get his hair presentable. give up and be the scraggly, strange detective that somehow knows everything that you were always meant to be.

which, for the record, is not to say I like his hair. I want him to grow it out more so he stops looking so fucking dumb with his stupid pointy ass hair (I really really really hate mako’s hair) but I also think it would grow out kind of wavy/curly which. yeah. I will be coming back to this later when I yap about avatar mako btw.

also PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEE write mako absolutely losing his shit he 100% so much deserves that. he cries maybe once yearly and it is scheduled so I think he should get to murder y’know. just a little bit. he’s just a girl (insert sad coquette hamster)

makos hand being fucked up is the Vision. you understand so much. the gloves are so suspicious (the same way the shirt-on-at-the-sauna is in the comics. i see you, you little transmasc) and going off the logic of the last ep that with enough charge/consistency, lightning output can scar/mangle the exit point of the bender so. mako learning to use his bending mostly on his own fucking up and rocking his own shit until zolt shoves someone over to go clean up the rookie cause finding someone new is a pain. of course it’s a patch job (as you mentioned everything for them would be) so I imagine it’s like. pretty mangled. like stuff just slightly out of place, lots of raised skin and discolored patches and generally like uncomfortable to look at. I’d bet (like you said) bolin is really the only one he’d trust to see his hands unless makorrasami became like. a thing.

also if you have any,, fic recs,, I would be very not opposed,,,,,

OKAY OKAY SO AVATAR MAKO THOUGHTS. I’m actually going insane about this au.

so for 1: this idea was mostly a silly little ha-ha but imagine raava gets really fucking confused being in their first ever mixed kid and just. skips right back to air after mako. would that not be the funniest shit ever. like the earth kingdom would already be pressed that their go was a mixed kid who was a criminal firebender for the first bit of his life, but imagine how the FIRE NATION feels having their avatar “skipped over” because mako (again, CRIMINAL FIREBENDER) was technically a fn avatar.

and this keeps happening. more mixed kids. mixed kids out of the cycle ordered pairs become avatar. raava gets fucking lost. everyone loses track of whose element is next and world leaders everywhere are sobbing. mako would be so very pleased with himself. he and the half-avatar water tribe person would be clinking together glasses of alcohol in heaving and watching it all go down.

I was also thinking about this half-avatar playing a role in mako’s journey. They would be roughly fifteen years younger than the gaang, so it would make sense for them to still be alive (since raava could return to aang and still maintain them well enough) during mako’s era. do you think they could take on a mentor or distant relative role for mako? maybe being half-avatar would make them the world’s only dual bender, and they would understand mako’s struggle with wielding more than one element in a way no one else would be able to. bonus points if the styles they maintain are either earth and fire or the ‘opposite’ elements (like air+earth/water+fire—water+fire would be good to use to teach balance and that fire is not only to harm but to nurture, and that water parallels it as not only to nurture but to harm)

and that brings me to my third thought; both avatars followed in series have had a conflict or struggle with their bending. aang had to learn the other three types of bending—his conflict was finding teachers. korra needed to find it in herself to flow with the winds of airbending. but copying korra would be lame. so what’s mako’s conflict?

there’s where my pitch comes in (and kind of the point of the half-avatar); mako figured out how to use air, earth, and water as well as he uses fire (if with less refinement) within maybe a week (if that) of being discovered as the avatar. he’s a scraggly street kid used to clawing at what he can get and holding on tight: being discovered means he doesn’t have a particular reason not to make use of the other elements if need be, so he figures out how.

but the key words there are if need be. he absolutely can lift a chunk of earth five times his size, or entirely soak a full grown adult in pond water, or slap someone around with a strong gust of wind or power a building for a month with a bolt of lightning. will he be doing any of this? no. not unless his or bolin’s lives or livelihoods are threatened. mako’s struggle is that outside of life-or-death combat? he’s about the same as a nonbender. because bending has always been a risk—a life threatening and life ending risk—and one he isn’t willing to take unnecessarily. his journey is learning that bending can be used for more than harm or to enforce fearful order.

fourth and kind of final thought for avatar mako for now—he’s the earth avatar in this, but he looks very fire nation in canon (at least, my understanding of ‘fire nation’ v ‘earth kingdom’ features) so I was thinking, the avatar represents the four nations (kind of five now if we’re counting republic separately) (oh my god new thought what if there was an rc avatar ‘whose avatar is it’ ‘air by my guess’ ‘nah it’s republic city’s turn now’ ‘how does that even make sense? their blood is of the four nations.’ ‘I don’t make the rules man. ask the spirits, they’re right there.’) but they always look like the nation they’re from so. what if all the avatars look a little mixed but just lean heavy into native. so mako looks like a mixed kid already (though I’d make him more ek—will specify in a sec) but then just gets more mixed from. everywhere. but it’s not even generalized like,,, he looks like he’s from specific subcultures the last avatars came from. earth part looks kyoshi even though his dad wasn’t from the island. fn part looks like caldera city even though mom wasn’t. air—less noticeable, but he looks like aang, in a way. very temple-kid-y and less nomad-y. if that makes sense. and I’d say water part is kuruk but there’s also the ‘avatars look like their past life’s lover’ so. katara (ADDING TO THE PARALLELS IM GOING INSANE)

so this is the part where I elaborate on the ‘more earth kingdom’ part of mako’s design in my head. this also is part of the avatar-looking-like-lover thing. so ek complexions are pretty ranged, but a good deal of them are darker skinned. mako’s pretty fair, but I propose as a kid whose dad is white-brown (he’s an Italian farmer boy who tans heavy and he looks brown) and is also white-brown when I spend too long outside (ten minutes) in the summer; mako who tans so quick into a more typical dark ek tone. also bolin is darker because he deserves melanin. he gets to keep gold eyes cause they’re cool but I propose.. heterochromia!!! green/gold, could be some grayish/blue? js an absolute melting pot in there. then I associate ek with less pronounced but boxier facial structure, so either his face stays like,,, long, and is softer or stays sharp and is boxier like bolin’s. honestly prefer the first one but both are neat. also hooked nose. I don’t make the rules. katara also has a hooked nose btw it’s real I saw it.

also mako and katara have the same glare (sokka told me) and they scrunch their faces up like little carbon copies of each other when they’re focused. by the way I love to parallel the shit out of katara and mako can you tell,,

I just realized I wrote a longpost length ask. I’m so sorry.

I think I had something else to say but it’s getting late and it’s a school night 4 me so I’ve gotta get to sleep.

rest well! your favorite anon,

🐌

ah hello sorry for the extremely late response snailon!

I honestly think there’s nothing more than elevator music behind bo’s eyes in canon because if the creators allowed anything else it would solely be The Horrors

tbh you're so correct about this. let bolin have Feelings, 2024!!! (i find it so interesting that the general consensus is that bolin is more well-liked by the lok fanbase, but mako's fans are deep in the trenches whereas it's a lot harder to find active bolin fans. i stay forever respectful of the even fewer of them out there. not entirely sure how to articulate it, but yeah. bolin deserves better both from canon and the fanbase and one day i'll have to deconstruct his entire existence because he's just a fascinating creature who represents sort of a paper cutout of a stereotype

which, for the record, is not to say I like [mako's] hair. I want him to grow it out more so he stops looking so fucking dumb with his stupid pointy ass hair (I really really really hate mako’s hair)

HAHA that's valid. tbh i'm pretty neutral towards it; i like s1-s3 hair better than s4 hair because while i think that mako's poor attempt to comb himself into some semblance of Proper Society is pretty accurate to his character, i'm just not a big fan of it (though the fact that it looks bad is probably a further testament to his character never finding proper integration into society)

he’s just a girl (insert sad coquette hamster)

again. coughing at the essay i'll never finish writing on this. (okay off topic but i really really love transfem mako so much but also just fem mako in general and i need to put this out into the world. early lok fandom was on a seriously good kick when they were all drawing and writing lesbian makorra is my confession. mako being a girl makes my brain whirr)

also if you have any,, fic recs,, I would be very not opposed,,,,,

fic recs list i've written up but there's a lot of other good ones out there. immediately off the top of my head, people whose writing on mako i really like in general include slacktension (incredible author & artist from original airing with a mako voice of all time and great character dynamic exploration), rockingthegraveyard (best mako & bolin dynamics), wastetimeandtype (i especially like their casual ship fics and they made me an accidental fan of huan/mako), deerstalkerdeathfrisbee (wuko author but their mako voice is impeccable), bobtailsquid/steinbecks (another author from original airing whose writing style is just so poignant and accurate to character), themanofmanyhats, and velkynkarma. idk how you feel on makorra specifically but i confess, i accidentally really do like them and there's a lot of good stuff on ao3/ffn for them that i could share :P and i too am a fan of makorrasami but tragically, there's not a lot of that out there; however, all of old_and_new_friends' makorrasami works are fantastic. they're a multishipper who writes a lot of mako and very well, and while while i haven't read a lot of their fics because not all the ships speak to me, the ones i have read are all great. so yeah i'd suggest you take a look to see if there's anything there up your alley!

raava gets really fucking confused being in their first ever mixed kid and just. skips right back to air after mako. would that not be the funniest shit ever. like the earth kingdom would already be pressed that their go was a mixed kid who was a criminal firebender for the first bit of his life, but imagine how the FIRE NATION feels having their avatar “skipped over” because mako (again, CRIMINAL FIREBENDER) was technically a fn avatar.

okay this is actually so funny what LMFAO i didn't take into consideration that the avatar of the generation being from your nation is probably generally a point of pride and that mako's general existence is like,, the greatest possible insult to that in all the ways khsjdfbhfhsdbh i might have to casually include that in some outsider pov because the sheer comedy potential oh my god

do you think they could take on a mentor or distant relative role for mako?

i realize i probably didn't word it very explicitly in my initial explanation of this au, but what i actually meant was that raava couldn't leave the non-aang host entirely until their death because her presence was vital to their living. it's casually playing off the theory that yue was meant to be the water avatar, and so she was born sickly because of the absence of spiritual energy her destiny had intended for her — that raava's presence plays a role in the sustaining of her host's life. to sum up what i mean: raava is the vital life juice infused in the destined avatars. (roughly. it's been a while since i looked at this theory lol) therefore, while they continue to live independently of aang's actual death, raava can't move onto the next avatar until this not-avatar also dies. so they are very much dead as mako's immediate predecessor. but it's a great idea and i love that your brain thinks this way!

mako’s struggle is that outside of life-or-death combat? he’s about the same as a nonbender. because bending has always been a risk—a life threatening and life ending risk—and one he isn’t willing to take unnecessarily. his journey is learning that bending can be used for more than harm or to enforce fearful order.

oh interesting take. i can see that. in planning this au, i was thinking more among the lines of him only viewing bending other than fire to be a risk, and that he only ever figured out earthbending up until the point of where the story starts, but yeah i didn't really consider which element would be his block. he's honestly a pretty versatile guy in my opinion — i feel that he moves in a very airbender way (read: korra's spiral-motions in a leaf in the wind are meant to demonstrate her picking up mako's style of deflection, evasion, and waiting to strike), but his mannerisms are very earthbender in his stability in reality/rooted nature despite his lack of general stability in life. obviously he's got the firebender in him; i think he has a lot of pent up emotions and he generally represses them very well, but when it does get unleashed then he has a very typical-firebender explosive sort of manner. (i'm still adamantly against the take that he's a hotheaded no-thoughts raging firebender man though LMAO i don't understand how it's such a thing. sorry for the tangent. i'm resigned.) and for water, i feel it's adjacent to air in being less about head-on motions, and it's pretty reflective of mako's tendancies of roundabout-ness when it comes to matters of the heart. i don't really know how to articuate it but he has the most waterbender vibe. it's the katara so what i'm saying is that i don't really see him struggling with any of the elements in the way aang struggled with earth and korra with air, and you pose an interesting point. i'm not sure if your proposal would be in line with my current planning of this au, but it's still a really interesting idea that i'll mull over! it's a neat segway into the whole amon/equalists arc that i'd never cover but would still be set in the near future and i like the concept. thank you for sharing :)

but he looks very fire nation in canon

oh yeah i agree LOL i've seen edits of switching mako & bolin's eye colors (+ that iconic screencap from s1e2) and as much as it doesn't suit him i still stand by that he SHOULD'VE had green eyes and bolin gold. it's a small detail i've seen randomly included in a couple fics from way back when and it always makes my heart happy haha. i agree that lok dropped the ball in terms of portraying all the mixed families that exist in the series and that there was so much potential there, both with mako & bolin as main cast characters and background in the kataang kids (plus by proxy the airkids) — not just in the crossover of cultures, but just physical character design as well.

(also katara & mako parallels actually drive me crazy too lhfdhgksfjd)

(gonna be real dude by the time we finish feeding off of each other we're going to have oc-ified mako so much that he's not even from the legend of korra anymore)

i really love receiving your asks!! <33 but yeah this was a long one so it took a while to find the time to sit down & deconstruct into halfway cohesive responses. i'd love to chat about mako with u more in greater detail but it's a little bit tough with these longass askbox exchanges </3 i'll just put it out there — if you're comfortable, feel free to reach out to me from your main and we can talk through dms! and if not i'll always be happy to receive you in my inbox; just know that my responses will tend to be delayed because i have a lot going on in my life haha. it's lovely to hear from you again :)

#lychee acquires and answers asks

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mejomonster · 2 years ago

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Midnight Museum ep 2 was SO scary and So sexy for it uvu

I'm totally serious, yeah the special effects aren't the best in the world but moments of it reminded me of Manner of Death, of Strangers from Hell, I LOVED the fucked up monster body horror designs they reminded me of Junji Ito stuff, the ACTION fighting (it was so cool and fun to see fluff romcom BL actor Winny as a thief who ends up monstrous and the horror chasing and terrifying WOOH. So cool to see the twins in a HORROR and looking so satisfyingly terrifying after so often seeing their face in fluffy comedies. Seeing Mike who I'm also used to in comedy wirh his tits out, looking more likely to kill someone than the killers in 3 Will Be Free or the Player, turn into a spider monster. Dome TAKING HIM TO THE VOID with his shadow monsters. DOMES EYES TURNING BLACK AND HIM CONTROLING THE FORCES OF WHO KNOWS WHAT

So sexy. I can't overstate that. I am a way bigger fan of action and horror than fluff romcom and for me? This kind of plot is just a lot more rewarding to me to watch I'm screaming and laughing it's great >o<)/

If there's an immortal secret bl situation I'm gonna break over this show is already such a COOL concept such a fun execution, if you add this mysterious immortal guy who comes alive every midnight? And his DEMON CONTROLING lost love??? Ohhhh sexy sexy I'm beyond hype

And I'm really curious what the plot setup for those 2 is because I'm comparing to Hotel Del Luna, Guardian, Goblin, and Fairyland Lovers...so far this show doesn't match any totally. Khatha is able to be injured so probably not super-powered (but maybe? I'm not sure if he's stronger than the average human but he's certainly as vulnerable when injured). He IS regenerating whenrever midnight hits in the hotel so maybe more of a Hotel Del Luna cursed spirit lingering on thing? He has a magic cane with an orb on it that looks so much like Shen Wei's amber necklace it intrigues me greatly. It seems to be the source of magic (and rhe museum regenerating him is the other), so maybe his loved one he lost gave him the orb in the cane?

Dome meanwhile. Oh man. I get the vibe he's like Wu Xie - a nice helpful mortal guy who takes responsibility and Wants to help others and ends up somehow pulling shit together, inexplicably tied with an immortal Khatha (like wu xie is to Zhang Qiling). But khatha already recognizes him from something... and Dome has powers, implying there's more to him than "simple human who can see ghosts." So I can't rule out he's immortal too or magic or SOMETHING so it's not a full parallel to wu xie/Zhang qiling. Book Guardian kunlun/shen wei might be closest to their current dynamic?? But Khatha refreshingly, despite some similarities to rhe Hotel Del Luna and Goblin immortal leads... feels unique. He's got some elements to him I don't usually see or at least not in this specific combo. If anything, he reminds me of a more kpop esque style modern version of Bulgasal's lead guy... which is absolutely wild because visually you wouldn't peg Khatha for THAT kind of protagonist immortal, but that's the vibe he gives me. Stoic, angry and with some private goals, but once he's decided to protect someone he can honestly say it even if it's awkward ("I came to save you" "It's not your fault" "I'm sorry" they all feel more like Bulgasals lead then the tsundere Ness of Hotel Del Lunas girl, or the Absolute Commiting to sucky lies that Shen Wei commits to for a while).

It's all really unique world building so far surprisingly? Like it reminds me of a few things I love, but I can't say it's ripping tjem off either because it doesn't feel like it's following their lore or worldbuilding enough to be "the same kind of story." Yes ep 1 could be in any supernatural case show almost, like Hotel Del Luna or Guardian easily. But ep 2? It distinguished itself as something that can be terrifying, and have a whiplash kind of blend of Girl From Nowhere IM ON EDGE with Guardian level almost whimsical comic book level fantasy in the real world. I think maybe partly that's why I oddly get a Bulgasal feel.. nulgasal didn't have Guardians almost campy bits, but it had a level of Gory Horror and Realism in the world building that stuff like Goblin, Hotel Del Luna, Fairyland Lovers stayed a bit too polished and light hearted to do much of. Guardian did ir a little but they had real cheap cgi and blood and sets which limited how Gory Terror it could actually manage and toned it down a lot (say in comparison to the novel).

Such a cool concept so far... basically my point.

Also. The main assistant and Bam? Very cute. I ship them. I love Foei in cute kind Roles I eat it up and I love Bams actress so I'm quite smitten. I also love when the investigator in these kinds of shows is a woman (cop in The Guest, cop in Flower of Evil, Zhu Hong in guardian, Lang Qiao in Justice in the Dark, cop in Strangers from Hell) like if there's gonna be an investigator aiding the magical bitches on the down low? I like the choice of Bam.

Casting is FUN. Again it was so Cool to see Winny from My School President in such a different role, I appreciate actors getting a wide range to do genre wise and casting wise. And I saw that next episode Bright and the guy who played Neo in 3WBF are in it?!!! Every ep is gonna be cameos of actors I love apparently! And it looks like the trend of case eps will continue, which is great for Me!

#lb #midnight museum #im eating it up WHOEVER came up with the concept of Gun leading this type story?#bless them give them a raise give them a long vacation let them know theyre Inspired Talented Dreamworthy

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cryingatships · 1 year ago

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I've watched till ep 4 of Love Tractor and omg What Is This?? I can't believe I waited this long to watch it. mg Love Tractor, baby, ily ily ily.

This is so silly yet gosh-

It's like 3 am and I'm cackling madly in my room. Pretty sure my cat is convinced I've finally gone bonkers. (she's giving me a look of concern and annoyance cause I woke her up lmao)

So, ep 1. If I hadn't seen some spoilers on tumblr and knew for a Fact that this is a ql show, I'd be Sure that the Guy Who Came Up At Night was a killer. (Also, when are we getting a murder mystery/thriller ql from Korea? With explicit queerness this time? I'm looking at you Mouse, Beyond Evil.) And the cinematography!! Is!! Beautiful!! Is it gonna be same for the rest of the show?

Guy goes to live alone in a remote countryside where his car breaks down on rainy night. A suspicious stranger comes to help him. Weird chains (mind automatically goes to VegasPete). A cute dog (first victim?).

Except this is a bl, unless?

Ep 2. Prickly city guy feels Deeply Uncomfortable upon learning that friendly people aren't fictional unicorns, they exist. Also dude, just drop the honorifics. Yechan is begging you. (Is Yechan's mum trying to set him up for a date????) The GOAT.

I have an urge to drop out of uni and run away to the countryside too. Except every single of my relatives were born and brought up in the city. Pain. Should I just go poking my frnds??

Ep 3. We Learn Empathy and Love. (Don't waste that drinkkk. Side note- is that drink korean rice wine??) Joohee my darling. Yul isn't wrong per se but he needs to learn to be Less Prickly. Why did he faint tho? How medically accurate is this? (not that I'm desperate for medica accuracy in my bls, hell, they can have wings n stuff and I'd be ok, but it'd be nice to know)

Also I want that jam. Looks so yummm. I wanna run to the country noww. (Except it's monsoon in here and everything is so. muddy.)

Why does everything in this show look so delish? I just had dinner and yet-

Ep 4. OMG.

Nagging parent vibes but instead of parent make it ppl-who-have-an-unacknowledged-crush. WHAT IS THAT YECHAN. I know he's a caretaker through and through—he takes care of Everyone in the community as well as visitors, but let me scream ok. (My cat just left the room Too annoyed lmao)

Just Stay Still.

My mind is a horrible, horrible place. I blame years of readings fics

in my defence, I think SeonYul is also thinking. Things.

Blow your nose

I'm dead.

Trying To Cut Your Hair (and making you look like a clown on purpose) vibes. Except Yechan does it in good faith. And SeonYul doesn't look like the clown. He looks very resigned tho. Suffering.

Do You want me to brush your teeth.

No, Yechan, i don't think he wants to. Also Yechan.... too kind.

The people at the beds next to them tho. I'd be thriving on the drama if it was me in that ward XD

Yechan needs to be protected at all costs. No one hurt him or you're gonna catch this hands. (Looking at you, SeonYul)

Ok, no, SeonYul is out of danger for now. Such a soft moment ueueueue

SeonYul's walls are high af. I'm blaming the father for now, but let's see.

Gonna end it here cause I *do* need to sleep. What a pity that I'm not a vampire :')

#once again I'm asking why parents irl and in bls only give ppl pain n trauma #ik there's some supportive ones but.#love tractor #it's so soft and tender :')#korean bl #kbl

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feuqueerfire · 2 years ago

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Happiness Live Blogging

After the bland Island, I hope I love it

I’m not super into zombies but from what I’ve heard about it (marriage of convenience and interesting human relationships), it feels like something I’d like

Ep 1 (Mar 18)

lovely beginning hehe

Sae Bom’s mannerisms remind me of Im Jugyeong from True Beauty

she seems capable in multiple ways just from the first half of the episode, I desperately need that after Island’s Miho

oh she got bit

they’ve been really good friends for 12 years then if he’s calling her mom

oh wtf she’s in an apartment filled with people zombies in isolation that’s scary

interestingly she’s not infected despite the bite

so they feel thirsty before becoming zombies

it’s interesting and scarier that it’s not like the people become zombies and are like The Undead but these people can talk normally and be rational but then become irrationally bloodthirsty

every show has redevelopment strangers from hell beyond evil and now this

heheh the “Do you wanna date me?” “Should we get married?” coming around 12 years later at the beginning and end of this ep

This first ep was better than entirely of Island lol I liked the setup and friendship of Sae Bom and Yi Hyun, I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy has liked her for these past decade; she’s “his saviour” and the way he looked when she asked him whether they should get married. I also like the characters so far: Sae Bom is very non-chalant and Yi Hyun seems capable as well. also, they’ve mentioned her being in the hospital for two years and being behind too much to not have that be the the reason she is immune. I’m liking the setup of the zombies too.

Ep 2 (Mar 18/19)

oh homeless man was given pneumonia medicine and became a zombie - Next is used for that

why does that man keep touching his neck?

i love how she’s convincing him to get married like yep i totally mean it

oh Seung Hyun gonna spill and he has a gash

ah he’s literally hanging up a photo from that first day, he must be so in love fr like i’d be surprised if he hasn’t been pining

cute kid who is so observant and is in awe of Seo Bam kicking open the door

lol the attorney with his suit jacket and pajama pants

naurrrr the red top lady skincare woman is taking medicine Next ma’am you’re gonna be a zombie soon

lmfao i was like hm he is in his underwear and is probably hiding something but i was somehow expecting porn or smth not him cheating and hiding a woman under his bed but that makes sense

ah be diligently organized the rooms including the twin beds beside each other

aw her wanting her own place so bad because her family had to move into smaller and smaller places as a child

ah unlikely partners Yi Hyun and Tae Seok

i can’t tell if Tae Seok will end up being kinda evil or not like he worked at some pharmaceutical thing, does he have connections to Next?

I have returned home, so this is my third attempt at finishing this episode cuz i watched a bit last night and this morning at someone else’s house

hehe i like Sae Bom and the tiny sick girl hanging out together

damn, the guy who got scratched has 21 missed calls from his wife and also slit his wrist

damn, he slashed his wrist and is getting that checked out instead of the scratch at his collarbone hm

we could’ve had some lesbian enemies to lovers with Sae Bom and the short haired officer medic at the hospital prison place

oh his name is Lee Seung Hyun

refrigerator truck omg

bruh soooooo many ppl zombies in that truck and it’s just one of multiple

damn they got a zombie in the truck and Tae Seok shot him to death

Tae Seok also casually water boarding the guy

damn Seung Hyun still managing to talk in the truck they haven’t eaten him yet

lol why is it so quiet in the truck

oof, so those zombies didn’t eat him cuz Seung Hyun also a zombie

Ep 3 (Mar 19)

O.O my god when Sae Bom went in I was like D: but at least she's immune or something but then Yi Hyun going in?!

ah, we get to speak to Seung Hyun again, rip him being like "they were all crazy... will I become like that again?"

hm I think it's annoying when characters want other people to put their lives in danger to save a person the MC cares about - so I kinda get where Sae Bom's coming from that they should've tried to get Seung Hyun out but he was also a beginning-stage zombie and is on his way to becoming like those full on zombies and other people also got scratched/bit to stop his dumbassery so like - consequences of his own action

so yknow that woman that we briefly saw in Tae Seok's memory his wife/sister or anything? Did Yi Hyun's comment about family sting?

okay but the man with the mask who glares at people without masks is relatable though? why are you not wearing masks in elevators and why would you take off your mask to speak, that makes no sense

lmfao all these neighbours in the elevator together is giving me slight Strangers From Hell vibes. the cannibalistic desires will be unintentional later on whereas in SFH were very intentional lol

kljsadf Yi Hyun is so in love with her fr like he must be right? tbh he's better at hiding it than other main male leads because he doesn't do the longing stare as much but his actions... ah

pls Sae Bom's Yi Hyun's mom talking to them excitedly but Sae Bom and Yi Hyun being awkward lol

I like the girl from 401

Even the "noise from upstairs" reminds me of Strangers From Hell

why is she just going to check on the zombie woman without any backup or anything T.T like she doesn't have any weapons, it's not like at the police station or university facility where there were so many trained people

is that man giving incorrect address? 102 101 instead of 601?

this old lady having to live with her old husband whose first words to her are "why aren't you feeding me?!" and her useless son who says she doesn't have nunchi while doing a vlog around the house while she's just trying to tell them about the zombie woman from 601 is gonna be my breaking point fr

okay idk why him being so into her secretly is making me feel completely insane like at 39:28 when he looks away fast when she almost catches him watchiner her?! meltdown okay I don't think that's actually what happened, he looked in same direction as her but i'd paused too early cuz i died

i think it's funny when like every man in a drama is the Worst except our main male lead. Min ji's husband? a cheater and perhaps an abuser. the old lady's husband? deserves death for how he treats her. Seung Hyun? not the worst but greedy and reckless nonetheless. I don't trust the man who's the attorney in like 602 or smth and also Tae Seok is suspicious

damn Tae Seok wife still alive but is sleeping in 3C like all the other late stage zombies

oof yaeh mans sold it at Le Ciel - which is the gym where the people who bought their apartments (not leasers) took

oof so the apartment is gonna be quarantined. everybody trapped

alksdf them hugging

pls the arrested man running away while they're hugging

I don't really get the quarantine/trapped thing tbh like okay we're trying to trap the zombie people but it's like the middle of a day, possibly a weekday, aren't many of the people going to be at work or just outside?

Ep 4 (Mar 20)

damn so the woman that the dude was cheating with is also suspicious

no but i seriously love the way he says "Sae Bom-ah... I have to catch the man though..." but doesn't push her away or anything it's so cute idkidkidkkk

anyway, this man Yi Hyun's partner rice cake guy is fr gonna be trapped in this apartment too lol

poor dear little girl crying T.T and hiding it T.T

oof this awkward apartment meeting pls

Ahn Guk Jin/Andrew - is he gonna be just another regular guy and they're making Yi Hyun kinda suspect him to throw us off?

pls Sae Bom and Yi Hyun are lowkey cops who use their powers

Sae Bom's mother warned her against becoming like her and saying to be happy hm

okay hm so Tae Seok apparently assaulted the Chairman and so was let go of or smth but he and Chairman are clearly speaking and Chairman had recommended Tae Seok to some high position, so was the assault fake? he seems sick but not from the assault? and Tae Seok's saying the chairman released Next to the public

oh i see lmfao chairman is sick from Next, infected Tae Seok's wife by drinking her blood/biting her, now he released it into the wild because that means the cure would be found faster. He wasn't assaulted, he just went out of the limelight because he's such a zombie and they're just letting him eat people lmfao

the other buildings in the complex fucking them over, so Sae Beom using the gun to scare them and Mr rice cake guy tell Seo Yoon to not learn from it but her being delighted at how cool Sae Bom is

I can't remember who the people they showed in the montage buying Next at the gym were but was the business woman lady one of them? she's taking medicine but i can't see which

bro these last 6 mins? so who was the person infected? that was hunting down the people in the garage? i don't know who was got by them either. and Andrew just watching people being chased ah scary and the old lady was scratched as expected and Seo Yoon texting her mom oof

Sae Bom is very brash and impulsive and bold, I hope something bad happens due to it because it's a very big character flaw that needs to have consequences.

Ep 5 (Mar 20)

so we're gonna not have any follow up for who Sae Bom heard at the end of last ep?

ah the wifi and phone and TV all gone is actually fucked

these residents who aren't believing them that there was a real zombie and keep trying to open the door are actually killing me so bad

alkdsjf wtf not the mistress of the dermatology mans tryna play footsie with the attorney? i didn't like the attorney but is he also a cheater?

oof, true the zombies will become humans again

so the dealers are also all becoming zombies oof

lol the woman defending her older brother after hating on him this whole time is so funny and real

fuckkk the creep dermatologist possible murderer is offering 300k won (~300CAD) to someone who will figure out what's going on outside so of course the 2 cleaners and their Andrew are volunteering fuck this

oh the bastard's name is Oh Joo Hyung

scratch, bite, NEXT

ah the cleaner getting blood all over his gloved hands cuz there's blood on the door handle oh fuck also does touching the blood like that also infect your or anything? the short-haired woman didn't say so but yknow

oh damn the building representative and the gym suspect are siblings - that's his secret

Hyun going fucking whack on Joo Hyung is so satisfying, I actually need that man brutally murdered by the end for sure. like is the building representative the most irritating person? do i wanna slap that old man's neck who treats his wife like trash and has one braincell? yeah but Joo Hyung needs to die ripped apart piece by piece

no but acc I wish they came up with a way to give the people food and stuff even if it's like drop some food from an airplane or smth

Tae Seok had an emotional attachment to his wife and so wants this to end and there to be a cure but he's so good at being detached and not do the emotional-driven brash things Sae Bom or Yi Hyun do. He's such an interesting character with his ability to remain cold and put many above others (well it'd be diff if his wife was on the line I think) and how to navigate this situation in regards to what info to give to those officials about the antibody and how to instill fear and complicity in the protestors

Ep 6 (Mar 20/21)

ah 6 months ago. Tae Seok's wife speaking about the baby

oh yeah I forgot until now that Tae Seok at first was like 'hm medicine/pills? I don't think so' at Yi Hyun when he knew about Next the whole time

lol I also jumped a bit when he had the fast reaction when she startled Tae Seok

ooh what is Joo Hyung's mistress girly looking for? she's bypassing the money

please it's killing me so bad that Joo Hyung is pelting the gym guy (representative's dongsang) with balls and Yi Hyun is just watching

omg wtf gym mans really was infected, I really was also hoping that he wasn't infected and really didn't know lol rip but he was looking for those meds in the garage back then oof

oh gym mans name is Kim Seung Bom

lmfao them being like who’s gonna be the good cop bad cop and both wanting to the bad cop like you guys already areee bro

bruv not the attorney inviting joo hyung’s mistress and her hugging him and then his wife smelling her on his jacket a bit before getting distracted

joo hyung rlly got his hands on the Next polls in Seung Bom’s car agh

oof the building rep wants seung bom gone goddamn are they not siblings?

Andre didn’t vote i don’t think?

pls not the building rep being like i’m glad we don’t have to throw him out :>

miss girl attorney’s wife made the wrong choice marrying him rip

omg so the 1501 hazmat suit guy could become a zombie and he invited Sae Bom into his house bruhhh

the annoying blogger mans is so horrible

not the siblings fighting and leaving seung bom by themselves and also the brother is such a pos

bro so many things going on. letting zombies into the building bc of vlogger’s phone and writer girl watching her brother get bit and dragged away by one and seung bom boutta transform and sae bom is in 1501 hazmat’s house and he might also transform

why is 1501 being so crypticccc

Ep 7 (Mar 21)

ah fuck this creep mans almost getting Seo Yoon but she's a little smarticle, much more so than the dumbass adults

no novel writer pleaseeee don't fall for gym mans like be serious you saw your brother get bitten by a zombie why tf would you listen to this man begging rn and you didn't see him finish driving everything ah fuck

and when she goes to run away she goes to the parking lot?!?!

not Tae Seok coming in to kill the gym zombie

I know the novel lady is in shock after seeing her brother + seeing that guy get shot but one less person would've died if you hadn't given him the fucking handcuff keys so I'm too annoyed for sympathy right now

damn, does the priest's cross actually work?

I slightly got spoiled that Andrew isn't a good guy, I do wonder what he's hiding under the mask

I guess Seo Yoon reminds Tae Seok of his own possible child

I don't fully get why Tae Seok wants Seo Yoon to come outside now when previously he didn't?

Why is Joo Hyung so fucking happy I need him to die so bad at this city lockdown and martial law

I don't get why they don't want to tell people about Next now like it could make people sure to not take it, right?

damn bruv Tae Seok really wants to let a zombie bite Sae Bom to see if she can avoid turning after that

oh they cut out the gym zombie's brain - needed for antibody probably

the shot of Yi Hyun running down the stairs from outside of the building is so fun

so is the blood Sae Bom's? The zombie mans? Sae Bom did say Tae Seok didn't kill the guy, though he shot him. So did he bite Sae Bom? If not, wouldn't she have taken the blood test regardless in order to find a cure?

what exactly does the mistress woman want with the attorney

motherfucker Joo Hyung is putting Next is the water? he's gonna fucking try to get mistress to drink that water? his plan to kill her?

so is the mistress really actually wanting help to escape Joo Hyung and his murderous intent?

damn novel writer's brother is actually like? an upstanding person even after turning? like he's a zombie who left and has been staying out of the apartment building

ah fuck electricity off

oh yeah how will building representative and her husband use jeong gook and his power via gun due to his devotion to the priest

did joo hyung open the fucking door for novel writer's brother even though he didn't even want it?

tae seok is interesting - he wants to develop an antibody using Sae Bom but doesn't want higher-ups to get wind of it

Ep 8 (Mar 22)

ah she's hiding her infected brother in the abandoned 1102 apartment?

so did Joo Hyung mans do anything other than give the food? ah tried to convince him to come inside

Sae Bom is really brash with her actions since the beginning but it's been interesting to see how Yi Hyun is also getting slightly more brash or rude each episode

lmfao ya Yi Hyun, getting married was surely the right decision

calling it D-Day when it's supposed to be the last day of quarantine is ah

omg not the doctor guy giving everybody drinks? must be him and there must be Next in it

lmfao and he even got the building rep to lie that its hers

did joo hyung really think it'd be lifted td n he cud escape n avoid them

i get why the son is selfish enough to not want to stay in the same house as his mother when she could become a zombie again anytime but he really raided their food storage lmfao

so some ppl know sae bom was bitten

i wanna trust Andrew n will be sad if he's evil

lmfao Joo Hyung drank it but threw it all up but what's gonna happen to Yi Hyun? Sae Bom could be immune

okayyyyy I'm glad that the gym trainer telling Yi Hyun he's got Next in his car than Joo Hyung was asking about and Yi Hyun saying he'll "take care of it" has come around lol

so Yi Hyun had switched the pulls multiple episodes ago. Hope those Next pills are somewhere safe though

ah the jeong gook hyung this turning against Sae Bom and Yi Hyun with the guidance of religion isn't surprising at all

Tae Seok using these old rich men to "gather data" oof good, they literally injected themselves with a potential cure by sneaking it out but didn't know that the cure failed in the second trails dumbasses

oof Tae Seok's wife Young In is awake and speaking now

Ep 9 (Mar 22/23)

they're really quarantining them to the apartment so that they can't meddle oof

lol Yi Hyun being like it's okay Seo Yoon, they're not all mean just mostly scared EXCEPT Joo Hyung or whatever, he's the devil

ah they're so dramatic, making their hands bleed

Joo Hyung dropped his knife

but I wish Yi Hyun dropped his knife

oof rip grocery girl

oh yeah we're still looking for a bloodied towel, I thought it would've been the novel writer and her brother but maybe it's the old woman who knows or somebody else infected

bro wtf why was the priest boutta lick the blood off the floor? is he just fucked in the head or is he also a zombie to be and that's why those other zombies didn't wanna eat him? <- maybe Andrew is that way too

please I'm actually dying at how cutely Yi Hyun's trying to defend himself and his decisions and saying he's fine despite the cut and Sae Bom's so mad that he did that

oh I see so there's a mutation where they only show their zombie-self when they timely want to + Tae Seok thinks it's probably occurred in Seyand Forest already (it happens when a lot of the zombies are at one place?), so I'd guess the priest is that way + maybe grandma old lady? idk

I have 15 mins before class so I was like Ill watch some before then but I watched 3 ads, moved to 35 mins, watched 3 ads, watched 15 secs, watched 3 ads like vikiiii brooooo

is the pastor not being attacked because he’s devout and spiritual or because he’s also a zombie oh jeong gook my guy

is the pastor gonna lick the blood on the wall do it do it do it

oh he’s drinking so much water

lmfao his smiley blood mouth

so the pastor was the one who had the bloody towel thrown away

oh this lady loves the possibility of being the resident representative so much. wouldn’t even let her husband go to the gym to isolate, she wants him in their room

lmfao this priest literally ran outside and is wreaking havoc on residents so funny i want him to kill joo hyung so bad

plsssss not joo hyung listening to attorney and his mistress having sex and them putting their clothes on with excuses while mans locks himself in a room so funny

yi hyun making his hand bleed again so funny

can jeong gook come with his fucking gun hes so useless fr

lmfaooo jeong gook managed to get priest to throw himself off the balcony

of course she’s gonna say sae bom and yi hyun killed him

mistress is looking for Oh Joo Hyung’s bitcoin account password - is that tattoo on his arm his password lol that’d be funny

Yi Hyun has a lot of insight on the fear of somebody infected not wanting to tell, i guess it’ll come in handy later when he also probably gets infected

i should be more annoyed at Yi Hyun being jealous over Sae Bom and 1501 but i’m just like hehe cute

Han Tae Seok crying at his wife’s bedside

save the mother obviously if it’s baby vs mother

oh the hand washing in the sink water is

oh lmfao the words of wisdom came from Yi Hyun already being scratched the day before, not for future

Ep 10 (Mar 23)

bro so many things: 1501’s penthouse seems suspicious and ominous, Yi Hyun scratched, Tae Seok lying by saying Sae Bom doesn’t have antibodies and keeps wanting Seo Yoon out for some reason (is he gonna fucking experiment on her or something)

oh 1501 captured? or did he leave? was forced to leave? i wish they’d also check the roof maybe

oh is the door beside their building open so that zombies can leave? is that was Tae Seok was talking about last ep? or two eps ago

okay it is very possible Andrew saw him leave because Andrew watched everything from balconies and roofs (also is he infected too? since the zombies had walked through a door bc he said so?) but that one reddit comment had made it seem like he’s up to no good later on in the show so did he capture 1501

Joo Hyung still wears his wedding band also did he really not see attorney and mistress together or he’s just pretending? i’d guess the latter. also he surely wants from her and she’s also wanting his bitcoin password

Yi Hyun and his water ah also people have all been noticing his weirdness like Tae Seok in the walkie talkie and Joo Hyung in 1501 apartment

ah Yi Hyun sitting and thinking about moments with Sae Bom

noona ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

pls literally alskdja attorney and mistress having sex in 1102 for a sec i was like ?!1501 with zombie man??? D:

is 1501 dead or smth why are there flies

oh my fucking god somebody bit and killed the old cleaning lady and covered her with the lime powder in 1501 house

asking oh joo hyung for help is so

lmfao pls they even went to the dead body room but left cuz it smelled

where did i previously see the guy go plays novel writer’s brother. true beauty? no… but he’s familiar somehow

lol was Andrew gonna actually run away with the food or what

also what happened to like vlogger and his parents

oh his wife Young In.

i wish they’d just somehow tell Sae Bom to come in and give blood like she would do it for sure

damn vlogger finally has enough of a heart to give his parents food. though i wish he’d tell sae bom and yi hyun to give his parents two head counts of food instead lol

are we gonna finally find out if andrew is good or not like i’ve had sort of confirmation that there’s something off about him since like ep 4 on-air thread or smth so pls

well no proper confirmation but ominous music while Andrew sits on 1501’s throne so

oh yi hyun can control his turning this like the mutated zombies

did oh joo hyung know about the generator electricity from 1501?

the cleaning husband is so annoying

goddamn yi hyun healing too fast so cutting his palm

i thought Tae Seok told there to be a way for zombies to leave will we ever come back to that? i thought maybe 1501 left that way but seems not

more Andrew lore nowwww pls

not the flu in EPS door

oh Ahn Guk Jin/Andrew is not who he says he is

oh fuck 1501 dead and stored in EPS by Andrew. he killed cleaning lady too and he killed another man whose identity he presumed

oh fuck poor Seo Yoon

oh the way all the neighbours are standing in front of the door with their bags is so Strangers From Hell

are we supposed to know him when he takes off his madb? Andrew?

a serial killer, wasn’t expecting that but interesting. so he’s been just going around slashing people in the middle of this zombie apocalypse.

Ep 11 (Mar 23)

some of these fuckers knew Andrew was threatening people or killing them broooo death fr

fucker is taking Seo Yoon?

is Yi Hyun gonna be able to be able control himself around all this Jeong Gook blood

these people are so fucked in the head like i get survival mode maybe but Joo Hyung and Building Rep rlly planned on how Andrew will kill sae bom and yi hyun

oh Andrew with the hammer and bloody hand on his conquered throne

Yi hyun realizing that he too is probably gonna turn out the same way as the zombies

why have we not had a single satisfying kill yet like the vlogger had stopped being a pos a while ago so them surrounding his unstarting car was just horrifying

the cleaner husband genuinely has rocks for brains like everybody dumb for working with Andrew but he’s yelling that “Andrew is a nobody” 2 metres away from him like be fr

she knows about his zombienes now

ooh she confessed

joo hyung tryna fucking kill jeong gook with a pillow

lmfao pls the blockchain stuff attorney keeps spouting

yeeee attorney wife !!

but also i’m nervous that andrew can see the elevator going up and down

bro jeong gook is bleeding don’t let bo ram grocery girl close to him

not this old video confession to sae bom

Ep 12 (Mar 23)

final ep ah

oh Seo Yoon getting to see her mom after so long

i kinda get it, kinda don't like they're using up the antibodies on the wife and Seo Yoon's mom

okay she's saying there'll be other people with the antibodies but ??? man idgi how will you find these people and when?

why did they change clothes

"I always knew we had a connection" wow lesbianism

please this beating up funny lass

I don't get it like okay I get being emotional over your beloveds but you kinda do need to see people as numbers when it's come to this like how to get the least people killed even if it means killing a few people to make sure more people don't die like idkkkk with the cure being used, more people are obviously gonna die and stuff right? am i wrong? is the cure like non-reproducible unless it comes directly from Sae Bom's body and she has no more left? but shouldn't they try?

oh please please I hope they all tear each other apart and rip each other limb by limb

lmfaooooo please Joo Hyung doing all this when he's not even a zombie yet, just sane and munching on people so funny

please why is this episode randomly so funny like the brother-sister author zombie argument about blood-drinking

everybody taking pulls, like the cleaning wife feeding it to his husband

oh she really beat Andrew dead with a bat that's pretty fun she's so fucked in the head

oh she didn't succeed in beating him dead

pls Joo Hyung clutching the notebook like a child

there's only 30 mins left, what's gonna happen?

lol the building representative laughing is pretty fun

why is Joo Hyung so funny, him wanting to be but unable to become a zombie is so funny

kiss tiny peck

pls not the attorney calling Soo Yoon after treating her like trash and cheating on her and everything

lol the loss in bitcoin is expected

lmfao that's really funny the old couple and vlogger family being like wow they could knock on our door right now and the soldiers really do lol

pls the way they're taking away the novelist's brother is pretty funny

the way the cleaners are literally so fucked in the head with greed and stuff

all of them really are like the fucking building representative wanna lady is really wild her mental breakdown has been pretty fun

lol ofc Andrew in 1501. yknow he doesn't have any actual reasoning like why does he wanna kill these 2 501 folks so badly compared to the other people in the apartment?

6 minutes left they're not gonna kill off Hyun right now right like they won't right? that makes no sense right? no they wouldn't right? the soldiers are in the building and they're taking novelist brother antibody carrier so he can't actually die right? I feel like it would've ben more dramatic if so

bruh Building Rep Wannabe and Joo Hyung on trial ah

oh it's been a year

bro what I feel like there's some scenes missing hmmm I should go see what scene tVN has that's not in Viki <- couldn't find anything

Overall:

Good but not great. I liked the first quarter and last quarter most because there was more action and things happening, whereas the middle half was slower, had less action, and was more people-based. There were different characters and they had distinct personalities and circumstances and I like the fucked-in-the-head neighbours trope but most of the side characters were pretty one-dimensional. I also wish we got to see some actual proper satisfying murder.

The romance was barely there but it was still cute. I liked how comfortable they were with each other and I liked the platonic/non-romantic moments as well. Usually, I don't like it when the male lead forcefully moves around or orders the female lead but it's not too bad this time because I think 1) they're friends and it kinda makes sense if friends are so aggressive and 2) she kinda does the same to him, though more with words and less manhandling.

Rating: 7/10

#ep by ep commentary #happiness

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winters-blue-children · 7 years ago

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“This is a character who... is not a murderer, but you could see him accidentally taking something too far, and you could see this ending up with Steve being permanently brain-damaged. You hear those stories.”

Ten years later, Billy finally returns to see Steve Harrington.

AO3

The gates open and there’s no one to meet him on the other side. Not that he expectedly anyone to be there. Billy hasn’t had a visitor in years. No family, no friends. Just too much time alone with his thoughts.

There are faces that have haunted him for years. A father who screamed in his ear. A step-mother who turned the other way. A sister whose last words to him were that she hopes he dies in this prison. He remembers her young face twisted into a mask of hatred. It was the day of his sentencing. There were tears in her eyes, running down her cheeks. But it wasn’t sorrow on his behalf. There wasn’t a single person in that room who didn’t think he deserved it.

The face he sees most often in his nightmares is covered in blood, broken under his own hands.

Ten years he got for what he did. His lawyer tells him he might get out in eight for good behavior. He’s getting off easy, is what he was told. Ten years. It doesn’t come close to what he took that day.

He swallows the freedom around him. It feels like bile rising in his throat. Billy shudders and takes one last look at the prison he rotted a decade of his life in. His lungs ache for a cigarette. He starts walking towards the bus stop, and he doesn’t look back.

He’s got sixty dollars in his pocket. He’s carrying everything he owns in the world on his back.

There are days when he misses the roar of the Camaro’s engine. The screech of her tires. The smell of rubber burning in his nostrils. He would drag on a smoke, his eyes landing across the parking lot, on a young man with dark hair, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a brilliant smile, leaning against a maroon Beemer with a pretty girl on his arm.

He liked that smile. And he broke it a couple weeks later.

Faintly, he wonders where that girl is now. Nancy, her name was. He wonders if she ever got out of this town. She broke down in tears after the judge announced his sentence. Relief mixed with painfully lingering sorrow, probably. Her small shoulders shook as she buried her face in her hands. She looked up from her mother’s embrace just in time to see the bailiff walk him out, hands cuffed behind his back. Another face that haunts him.

The world’s changed in the time he spent behind bars. The town he called home for such a short while looks different now. Brighter, somehow? Or maybe he’s just accustomed to the grey of the prison walls.

On good days, the grey actually helped. On bad days, he couldn’t stop seeing red. Red on his knuckles that wouldn’t come off no matter how harshly he scrubbed. Red on his palms, red on the floor. Red on that face that won’t leave his thoughts alone.

His stomach grumbles painfully. He thinks now that he’s out, at least the food is something he can look forward to. Prison gruel always tasted like ash in his mouth.

There’s a strange nervousness in his gut as he walks into a fast food joint and orders himself a burger. He never got nervous before. But nowadays, he doesn’t know how to interact with society anymore.

He feels out of place. Older, and more tired.

Disappointment sets in when the hot burger doesn’t taste any better on his tongue. He’s perceptive enough to know the fault lies within himself.

He thinks something might have broken inside him that day. Maybe a part of him got left behind on that bloody floor. In the lights of the police cars and the siren of the ambulance, some part of his soul died. Something he can’t ever get back.

He watched them take him away. He watched the paramedics perform life-saving measures, moments before he was dragged away by the police.

Billy finishes his burger and continues towards his destination, with one more stop along the way.

He uses his pocket change to buy flowers. He can’t show up empty handed after all these years.

The hospital walls are so white. His eyes wince under the bright fluorescent lights. His voice is hoarse when he says the name at the reception desk. He hasn’t heard that name spoken out loud in years. His heart thunders in his chest as he waits for a room number.

The endless hallways blur together as he passes. Every instinct screams at him to run in the opposite direction. But he knows he has to face this. Even if he’s ten years too late, he has to face this.

“Get out.”

He should have left when Harrington told him to go.

Instead he laughed. He laughed after Harrington punched him in the face. He laughed again when he felt blood on his teeth. The sound of a plate smashing over the other man’s head echoed in the room. And then he was lost in the oblivion of his rage. He fell deep into the darkness and he couldn’t claw his way back out.

Something died that day, something within him. The other man wasn’t so lucky.

For a moment that stretched too long, he’d forgotten himself. He didn’t recognize the face he was beating. He didn’t think about what he was doing. He couldn’t hear the screams, the cries begging him to stop. The pounding that was his own fists, he couldn’t feel any of it.

And then it was over.

The body beneath him twitched. The eyes were closed, blood seeping into the floor. There was a horrible gurgling noise nearly drowned out by the sound of screaming children. It was a mockery of breath, the sound of a throat filling with blood.

His stomach churned as the clarity of his actions slowly washed over him.

Someone was crying.

“Call an ambulance! Call a fucking ambulance!”

Max finally pushed him out of the way. He fell onto the floor, staring in shock at what he had done. But the bitter reality was that whatever he had taken, it was already gone.

On the very worst nights since, Harrington would visit him in his dreams.

Today, Billy returns that favor.

He slowly pushes open the door of the room the receptionist had given him. He had thought about this day for ten long years. But none of it prepared him for this moment.

There’s hardly a sign of life on the bed. The ventilator and the machines make a steady hum. The sheets are so white. Flowers and cards and dusty photos with happy, smiling faces decorate the window sill.

Steve Harrington spent ten years in this bed. Billy can hardly recognize him.

He lets the door click behind him before he slowly approaches. He trembles with each unsteady step. The pain he feels hasn’t been lessened by time. The guilt and the regret eats away at him with every single passing second. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t wish he could take back what he did. Ten years isn’t enough-he would do a thousand if it meant it could bring back Steve Harrington.

He was told that Steve would never wake up.

Brain-damage, they told him.

He would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Lying on that bed, kept alive by a feeding tube and a ventilator. Life support could keep his body going for decades, just… wasting away on that bed.

The flowers he holds in his hand is such meager recompense for what Billy did to him. He ruined two lives that day.

Billy draws a shuddered breath as he watches him. Heavy tears roll down his cheeks but he doesn’t bother wiping them away. There’s no one to see him cry.

“Goddamnit, Harrington,” he gasps weakly. “Fuck.”

He shoulders shake and he collapses into the chair next to the bed. Tears blur his vision and he squeezes his eyes shut, but nothing can drown out the pain of this moment.

His sobs sound like a dying animal over the pounding of his heart. In a moment of weakness, he takes the other man’s hand. The flesh is cool to the touch, skin far too translucent to be healthy. But Billy grabs his hand and squeezes until his own choked breaths eventually steady.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, broken. He takes a shaky breath as his fingers trace over Steve’s knuckles.

Ten years. Ten years ago, he felt those knuckles on his face. They were both different people back then. He was filled with so much anger. And Steve… he was full of so much love.

Maybe if things had gone differently… maybe Steve could have even loved him.

But this was the path they were on. And that path led them here. Billy’s never known anything but violence. His collision with Steve was no exception. At the time, the violence was easier to comprehend. It was easier to feel anger over any other emotion. He had wanted comfort that night, and this was how he dealt with it.

Forgiveness isn’t in the cards for him, he knows this.

Their fates are sealed. And he can’t take back the evils he’s done.

The tears continue to fall as the ventilator beside him hisses rhythmically.

“I’m so sorry, Steve.”

#Stranger Things #Steve Harrington #Billy Hargrove #Harringrove #Harringrove fic #my fics #I watched ep 3 of Beyond Stranger Things #and immediately wrote this afterwards #I couldn't stop thinking about it #if things had gone a little differently #it's sad #very very sad

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liyazaki · 3 years ago

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Reveal Your Watch & Rewatch Drama List

thank you @billlkin @itoldsunset @villaneelle & @spicyvampire the tag! 💖 I was watching seven shows at once (help) until a bunch wrapped in the last week or two, so don't be fooled by the short list.

currently watching

Cutie Pie- I'm just having so much fun watching Cutie Pie... they're giving me everything I wanted & I'm loving every minute.

Cherry Blossoms After Winter- too many people are sleeping on this sweet, gorgeous little show. The romance is so tender & I would lay down my life for the precious baby boy that is Haebom- just look at him (& no- the mains aren't actually stepbrothers).

starting soon

KinnPorsche- I felt pretty neutral about the show, then that trailer dropped & hello, insta-feral. I'm beyond ready for a dark, twisty BL clearly made for the grown sluts out there with nary a university campus or engineering gear in sight. (Apr. 2nd)

Gameboys S2- I was starting to lose hope we were ever going to get a second season (fun fact: they shot the movie & S2 at the same time), so I'm feeling blessed that I even get to write that. (May 22nd)

Cherry Magic: The Movie- *insert high-pitched 'eeeeeee' squealing ad nauseam* (Apr. 8th)

GAP- this blog's about to be one big sapphic free-for-all when this starts. abandon all (non-wlw) hope, ye who enter here. (start date: ??)

Oh! My Sunshine Night- I'm so excited to see OhmFluke my beloveds in a drama that was quite literally made for them. (start date: ??)

To My Star S2- another one I'm vibrating with anticipation for- we are truly being blessed in the year of our BL Lord 2022. (start date: ??)

Between Us- excited we finally got a release date (Nov. 2022) & it's going to be long- as in UWMA long (16 eps!)

rewatching

I've only had one 'true' rewatch recently (i.e. watching a show all the way through) so except for #1 & #2, these are just go-to comfort shows I'll sporadically watch an ep or two of for my mental health.

I just finished a random Gameboys rewatch, ironically on the same day IdeaFirst announced S2. I'm not saying I single-handedly manifested this; I'm just saying stranger things have happened.

@flukenatouch & I will be starting our own little UWMA rewatch soon involving Thai desserts, bingo cards- the works ✨

Love By Chance (AePete/some Tin/Can scenes only)- I have no clue how many times I've rewatched LBC for the mind-melting sweetness that is AePete...honestly, I don’t want to know.

History 3: Trapped- another one I have rewatch amnesia for (ignorance = bliss), mainly for the Jack & Zhao Li scenes.

Cherry Magic- CM is the visual equivalent of a warm hug for your soul & I will never not want to rewatch it.

I'm really missing my Light On Me boys lately & the most perfectly-executed love triangle of all time. maybe a rewatch this week- before even more new shows kick off- is in order (she says like she isn't a working professional with 10,000 obligations).

I will rewatch ITSAY & IPYTM until my dying day- that being said, I've got to be in the right headspace to rewatch (i.e. in the mood for total mental-emotional-spiritual annihilation #angstwhore).

no-pressure tagging @nanons @jaehwany @rose-nebulijia @lettucebeshrimp @icouldhyperfixatehim @suzukibeanes @snimeat @aheartandashirt @ommited-miscellaneously @rashfcrd @absolutebl @negrowhat & anyone else who wants to join in!

#tag games #tag you're it #cutie pie the series #cherry blossoms after winter #kinnporsche #gameboys #cherry magic the movie #gap the series #oh my sunshine night #to my star season 2 #between us the series #love by chance #history 3: trapped #light on me the series #itsay #ipytm

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liesoverthec · 3 years ago

Photo

9-1-1 on FOX Relationship Analysis, season 1 graphics.

- all relationship analysis graphics -

Do not repost my graphics.

More graphics and a discussion/explanation of the data under the cut.

Hi y’all, welcome to the relationship analysis!

The relationship analysis data is a recording of every interaction on the show, who all is in involved in the interaction, and how often that specific combination of people interacted throughout the season. Most of the time, we have more than two characters on screen, so most interactions are between multiple people at once. An important thing to note is that even if the characters aren’t directly and actively contributing to the conversation (eg listening and contributing every once in a while but not doing the bulk of the emotional work), they still get an interaction counted b/c people are ALWAYS building relationships w/ one another, whether or not other people are around. And especially on a show like this, where people are constantly growing and learning (and being traumatized lol), seeing that happen in each other develops their connections and their understandings of one another.

This lends to the data making the most impact when it’s divided into two parts - when two characters are alone together, and when they’re together but other characters are there as well.

Data should be read like - “Bobby and Buck had 15 interactions alone together this season, but another 44 interactions where Hen or Chim or some combination of mains were also there.”

I actually keep detailed notes about where each and every one of these interactions come from, so please feel free to ask me when characters interacted, or just more details about the data collection if you’d like.

Bobby

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Bobby’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall on the show.

My man Bobbyyyyyyyyyyyyy. The most interesting thing about Bobby is that his interactions are almost ENTIRELY restricted to the 118. No one else on the entire show is QUITE that isolated. It definitely makes sense given the context of the season - Bobby is extremely closed off, and is not inviting relationships beyond the ones he formed through his team being irresistible, until the end of the season, which is actually where ALL of his alone time with Athena comes from (one interaction in ep 9 and then 3 in ep 10). It also makes sense with his and Buck’s stories this season for Bobby to interact the most with Buck - between the sex addict plot, Buck’s first at-work death, and then the development of Buck’s relationship with Abby and him asking Bobby about it.

Also interesting - while Buck had more interactions this season, Bobby had more screen time. Which means that while Buck talked to a larger combination of people, Bobby spent more time than Buck did actually interacting with those people.

Also Bobby is one of only two mains to interact with every single main one on one.

Here’s a final look at how exactly Bobby’s interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Bobby’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he had the most interactions with Hen, Chim and Buck as a group (20 interactions over the season).

As you can see, his top 3 most common interaction groupings all include Buck, which is why Bobby spent more time w/ him than anyone else.

Athena

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Athena’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall on the show.

There are two things about Athena’s data that I think are worth pointing out. Number one: Athena has the most varied interactions out of any of the mains on the show. This means that out of everyone, she has the most connections, and her personal life is the most developed of the core 6 (duh 😂 but love when the data proves it - esp when she interacts second most w/ Michael TOTAL, which I’m not sure I would have guessed just based on casual watching.) The other thing worth pointing out is that she almost has more interactions where she’s interacting w/ complete strangers than with the other characters of the show. The nature of her being a solo lieutenant isolates her quite a lot.

She has the same thing going as Bobby in regards to screen time however - she might have the second least amount of interactions for the season, but it just means she spends, on average, more time with the people she does interact with.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Athena’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she spent the most time with Hen alone (12 interactions).

In addition to her being so isolated b/c of work, she spends most of her time alone with other main characters when she’s with them - 4 of her 5 most common interaction pairings are with people alone.

Hen

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Hen’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time alone with Athena, but had the most interactions with Buck overall.

Just as with Bobby, most of Hen’s interactions are with the other members of the 118. While Athena spends the most time with Hen, period, Hen spends the most time with Buck, although she is alone with Athena more than anyone else. The interesting thing to me is that I might not have guessed that she spent so much time with Buck, just based on casual viewing, so that was a really interesting reveal in the data! She also actually has the most “home life” outside of Athena and Abby, despite the fact that only ~10% of her interactions aren’t with the other first responders.

Hen is in the opposite boat from Bobby and Athena - she’s higher up on the interaction chart than she is on the screen time chart, which indicates that she spent less time in each interaction on average than other characters did in theirs.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Hen’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she spent the most time with Bobby, Chim and Buck (20 interactions).

As you can see, 3 of her top four interaction groupings include Buck, which is why her relationship with him was her top one for the season!

Chim

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Chim’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time alone with Bobby, but had the most interactions with Hen overall.

Honestly the most I can say about this is yet again that Chim was stiffed in s1. The most interesting thing however, is that through Chim you can see the shift in focus to his and Hen’s friendship as the show goes on - in that most of his interactions come from the last five episodes after he comes back from the rebar, and they start to develop Hen and Chim as a paramedic duo who are a little more independent from the station as a whole. The reason Hen didn’t have most of her interactions with him is that she still had interactions while he was gone 😂

It’s also interesting to me that we literally only see him with Tatiana twice but she creates such a huge impact on him.

Here’s a final look at how his interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Chim’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he spent the most time with Bobby, Hen and Buck (20 interactions).

I’ll be curious to see if Chim’s “number of interactions alone w Buck” goes up once Maddie is introduced or not!

Abby

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Abby’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. She spent the most time both alone with Buck and overall.

I’m going to be really honest with y’all - most of the reason I’m interested in Abby’s data is to see how it compares to Maddie’s. 😂 Abby is an interesting contradiction bc she is at once, got some very developed relationships, but she’s also incredibly isolated. For one, she spends more time talking to strangers than she does to any one main character, which is not true for ANY other main, even Athena who also has a solo job. But then at the same time, she has the second most developed “outside of work” life out of any of the mains.

The most interesting thing here though is that her relationship with Buck is the single most common interaction for the entire season. I know we all know this, but it’s crazy to think about when the second most common interaction is the 118 together, and their number of interactions is that high bc they WORK together, so it’s a mix of professional and personal interactions, whereas Buck and Abby’s relationship is purely personal.

Second most interesting thing would definitely be that even though she spends time with Buck both alone and with others around, she still spends more time talking to total strangers than him.

Here’s a final look at how her interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Abby’s most common interaction groups for s1 - she had the most interactions alone with Buck (22 interactions).

As you can see here, they just. Put so much more work into her relationship w/ Buck even than her relationship with her mom. Most likely bc both Abby and her mom were moving on at the end of ep 10 but it’s still interesting!

Buck

Alt id: A segmented bar graph showing Buck’s total interactions in s1 with the other mains. He spent the most time with Abby alone, but had the most interactions with Bobby overall.

Last but not least! The stark difference between the time he spends with Hen/Bobby and everyone else is so interesting to me, and it’s mostly b/c eps 4 and 5 (while Chim is gone) focus VERY heavily on Bobby, which drags Hen and Buck into more interactions since he’s so isolated from the world and they’re really his only connections.

Bobby and Buck are actually the only relationship where they both have the most interactions with each other (although Buck spends more time alone w/ Abby than he does with Bobby, whereas Bobby is still alone with Buck most). It’s a little hilarious to me though, that they work so hard on the Buck&Abby relationship and then Bobby still ends up being more present in his life, and it feels very indicative of where the series goes next.

Buck is in the same boat as Hen - he has the most interactions out of anyone, but not the most screen time, which means that he’s spending less time interacting with the other characters on average.

Here’s a final look at how his interactions broke down -

Alt id: A bar graph showing Buck’s most common interaction groups for s1 - he had the most interactions with Abby alone (22 interactions).

This breakdown shows a little better why Bobby beat out Abby for relationship development this season with Buck - top interactions 2-4 all include Bobby, which adds up over the season.

----

Well, that’s all folks! (If you made it this far, I’m both very impressed and very thankful - I hope it was worth it!)

Please let me know if you have any questions about this, or really anything about the show in general! (Seriously I mean that 😄)

Lots of love, and I’m marginally started on s2 of this, although doing screen time for s5 will probably slow it down, so keep an eye out but not TOO closely! 😂)

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

#911 fox #911 relationship analysis graphics #9-1-1 #911 on fox #bobby nash #bobbynashedit #athena grant #athenagrantedit #hen wilson #henwilsonedit #chimney han #chimneyhanedit #abby clark #evan buckley #evanbucklyedit #daily911 #911verse

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animecampaigngen · 3 years ago

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“hey Candaru what were your favorite episodes of a/c listed in order of best to worst?” wow I’m so glad you asked random stranger

(edited to include Gameshow Arc, which I forgot)

Prison Arc (ep 3) — best group, best vibes, literally every character had a good dynamic with every other character, overall the most fun to watch

Endgame Arc 1/2 (ep 7) — second-best group, TONS of fun setups, especially early on with Charles and Zora as bosses, has the single best joke of the series (Ramsey’s “so let me get this straight...” speech while Trixie is climbing out of the vent)

Magical Girl Arc 2/2 (ep 6-2) — weirdest setup, but most epic vibes, super unique aesthetic and setting, toes the “lighthearted goofs suddenly get serious” line that I love without crossing it like ep 8 does, also Percy and Alcatraz interact and what more could I want

HPC Arc (ep 4) — correctly described as “more fun to watch than play,” a lighthearted mystery (my personal favorite genre), the IDEAL combat system, makes me wanna play a game with the same interrogation/improv combat segments

Endgame Arc 2/2 (ep 8) — simultaneously has the BEST and WORST moments of the whole series rapidly thrown together with no rhyme or reason; the endings are all either Beyond Satisfying (e.x. the chinese food ending and the Naven epilogue) or the Worst Possible Thing

Magical Girl Arc 1/2 (ep 6-1) — surprisingly good considering my low expectations, lots of good moments for fleshing out characters, turned Rook into a party member. had the most epic final combat that was interrupted in the least satisfying, least fun way possible

Gameshow Arc (ep 5) — tons of fun moments and one of the BEST setups honestly, but the best party dynamics only exist in the RP session, and none of them are serious enough to get emotionally invested in

Redwood Arc (ep 1) — blew my mind when I first watched it, which is great seeing as it is the first episode. watched it during a time I desperately needed to forget everything else and it filled that purpose well. lots of good OOC moments and laughs, pure, has good friendship energies. plenty of “first-time GM” problems and to me that is comforting

Toystore Arc (ep 2) — the worst episode. fun setup, mostly fun individual characters, terrible party with next to zero dynamics, unlikeable villains

#a/c rambles

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tsarisfanfiction · 4 years ago

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Grounded pt4

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family Characters: Scott, Tracy Family

7k words later and this thing that was supposed to be a short explanation for what I saw as a plot hole in Venom is finally at an end. Got rather out of hand but since when is that unusual with fics? This’ll be proof read, edited, and then posted on AO3/FFN soon; I’m still undecided if I should chapter split it or have it all as a oneshot but it won’t be exactly as it’s been split here because I’ve posted this as I wrote it.

Someone mentioned ‘what if the ep was really like this’ so I’ll reiterate some of my earlier notes: this fic is a reaction to the lack of TB1 or Scott doing any sort of piloting in the S3 Venom despite it being a rescue where speed was important. All the events in part 2 fit around the events we see in the episode seamlessly (I literally watched it in 5 sec bursts as I was writing to make sure of that), so to them and everyone else who thought that: this fic is designed to be that episode, just viewed through a different lens. And then I made it worse after the episode was over because why not.

The reaction to this has been fantastic so far, way beyond anything I expected! Thanks for that, and I hope you enjoy this last installment as much as the rest of it.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

There was a steady beeping, calm and methodical. Beep… beep… beep… it went, more of a reassurance than an irritant to the dregs of his consciousness. Scott recognised it, but couldn’t place it, and found himself more interested in the fresh air flowing around his mouth and nose. That was more immediately familiar, a constant from his last bout of consciousness, and it didn’t take his stirring brain long to label it as a rebreather.

Was that really necessary? Frowning slightly, he lifted a hand to his face and tugged the machine away, fresh air replaced with warmer air that had just the faintest tang. The air of the sea. He’d been on Thunderbird Two, but Thunderbird Two’s air didn’t taste of warmth and salt, rather the recycled air of an enclosed plane in flight, crisp and just a little bit off. If this wasn’t Thunderbird Two and he was tasting sea air, there was only one place he could possibly be.

He smiled, hand still holding the rebreather falling to his side limply. He was home.

Opening his eyes was a little more of a challenge, eyelids still heavy and eyelashes catching on each other, but as he blinked his way into awareness, beads of moisture forming in the corners of his eyes but not falling, he realised that he was almost sitting upright, the bed raised to its full extent so he was facing the wall with its fake holographic window rather than the plain and boring ceiling.

Scott appreciated that, letting the rebreather fall from his fingers as he wiped the sleep and moisture from his eyes. He’d spent far too many hours staring at the ceiling that never changed, and at least the hologram could change. The actual reasoning behind his positioning was more likely his rib, which Scott would worry about later. It wasn’t his rib that had tried to kill him, and he looked down at his left arm.

A neat band-aid – a childish one, decorated with bright red biplanes soaring across a blue background that he’d always fought for as a kid – stood out against his bare skin, just below the elbow, and he smiled, wondering which of his brothers was responsible for that one. On that same forearm he also saw a cannula, attached to tubing with translucent liquid passing through, and grimaced. He never liked being on a drip.

He was no longer in his uniform. Part of him – the part that contained his pride – bristled at that, wondering who had stripped him while he was unconscious and why, but the clothes he was wearing were comfortable, well-worn, and unmistakable as his favourite pyjamas even without him looking at them. His comfort-pyjamas, although he was fairly certain he’d never made the mistake of letting that slip to anyone. The ones he turned to whenever things got particularly rough, a plain unassuming dark grey with worn patches from the times he’d needed all the support he could get.

It could just be a coincidence, although Scott was uncomfortably aware that if there was one person he couldn’t keep anything truly secret from it was John, but whatever the reason, he was glad of them now. There was nothing like comfort clothes after a near-death experience.

Considering he’d just had a near-death experience, the lack of anyone in the room with him was somewhat unusual. Virgil in particular he’d expected to see, his younger brother blaming himself for bringing him out on the mission even before he’d been bitten, let alone afterwards. Kayo hovering unassumedly in the corner, sharp eyes full of concern. John flickering by his side, watching him for the slightest change. Grandma, retired from caring for strangers but never too old to stay up all night with her family.

Scott eyed the drip. If none of his family were with him, physically or virtually, then that meant something else was going on that trumped his condition. In their family, there was very little that trumped an unconscious brother or grandson. And if they weren’t with him, he had no intentions of staying put.

He’d removed drips hundreds of times – his own and other peoples’. By this point, he had it down to an art, even if his sneaky family had tried to make it harder on him by putting it in his dominant arm; there were benefits to being ambidextrous. He reached across with his right hand, fingers gently probing the needle, and had just found the sweet spot when there was the unmistakable hsss of the door sliding open.

“What do you think you’re doing, young man?” Grandma demanded, striding in and gently but firmly forcing him to release his grip. “That’s there for a reason.”

“Hey, Grandma,” he greeted, grinning at her and ignoring that she’d just caught him trying to escape. “How long was I asleep?”

“Your siblings brought you back four and a half hours ago,” she told him, picking up the discarded rebreather and placing it on the bedside table before perching on the bed. Scott watched her carefully, accepting the hand cupping his cheek as a thumb swiped at what was presumably some sleep he’d missed. “Trust you to wake up the one time I have to use the toilet. This old bladder can’t hold it in like it used to.”

Scott grimaced good-naturedly at the tmi and she chuckled at him, patting his cheek lightly twice before letting her hand rest.

“You gave us all a scare there, Scott,” she said softly, eyes running over him once before meeting his own. “You don’t have to try and beat Gordon on that score, you know. It’s okay to let someone else have that crown.”

“I’d appreciate it if he never gave me another scare in my life,” Scott admitted, before glancing around the room again. “Where are they, anyway? Not to sound self-centred, but I don’t usually wake up here alone.”

“Alan and Kayo are dealing with a stalled freighter just outside of orbit and Gordon and Virgil are responding to a sinking cargo ship,” Grandma told him. “They’ll all be back soon, and delighted to know you’ve decided to re-join the land of the living.” She tangled her fingers with his, pressing them to her chest with a hand that was almost trembling. “It was a close call, Scott. Your brother almost didn’t make it in time.”

His brother? Virgil? John? John had had a plan, he remembered that much, although he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard the details. Wait…

“I heard Thunderbird One,” he said, recalling the roar that had soothed him to sleep like a purr. It could have been a figment of his imagination, but he didn’t think so. A smile spread across his grandmother’s face.

“Of course you did,” she laughed. “You boys and your machines. Well on your way to see your mother and you still recognised your ‘bird.” The smile was bright for a moment before it dimmed again. “Alan flew all the way to a lab in China to collect a dose of the antivenom before rendezvousing with Thunderbird Two to deliver it. I’ve never seen that ‘bird fly so fast without you in the hotseat.”

Alan. Scott could well imagine his youngest brother, face screwed up in concentration and fear, sat in the pilot’s seat. The idea tied a knot in his chest, but at the same time there was pride, and an unexpected thankfulness for the rib injury that had kept him grounded and subsequently given Alan more flight hours in his ‘bird. Without that…

Without that, he might well have died. The realisation doused him like cold water, his eyes leaving his grandmother’s to stare blindly at his lap. He’d known he was dying, remembered a desperate fight against whispered promises of the stars and seeing his Mom again, but sitting in the infirmary, home and safe, it carried a different weight.

“Oh, Scott,” Grandma whispered, releasing his hand and cheek only to draw him in to a careful hug around his shoulders. “It’s okay. It’s over.” After a moment his hands found the back of her always there purple onesie, fisting around the fabric as his head rested in the crook of her neck. “It’s okay.”

There was the slightest of cracks in her voice, a reminder that no matter how much steel she was made of, she wasn’t immune to the idea of loss. Her parents, long ago, before Scott’s memories began. Her husband, daughter in law. Her son, who might still be alive and waiting for them.

“I’m okay,” he repeated, as much for her benefit as his. “I’m okay.”

Her hand found the back of his head, fingers threading through his hair softly as though he was a young boy woken from a nightmare again. It was the sort of treatment she didn’t give him in front of his brothers, knowing that he preferred to keep up the illusion of strength in front of them, no matter what.

“I want you to take it easy,” she told him after a minute or so, releasing him and instead gripping his hands in hers. One pair was trembling, but he didn’t know if it was his or hers. “I know that’s not in your vocabulary, but I refuse to let you throw yourself back in harms’ way until you’re fully recovered after what happened today.”

“But-” Scott protested, complaints and reasons why he shouldn’t be bedbound queuing up one after the other on the tongue. A single look from his grandmother quelled them all before he could vocalise any.

“If you can’t do it for the sake of your own recovery,” she said, something in her voice implying that she thought he should treat himself better – he treated himself fine! – “then do it for our peace of mind, Scott. We were all terrified when we heard what happened. Virgil was stuck watching you slip away with no way of stopping it. That fear doesn’t magically go away, Scott. We all know that.”

He was saved from answering by the swish of the door opening again. He glanced over, wondering who it could be when he hadn’t heard any Thunderbirds come in to land. Brains and the Mechanic were the only others on the island, and while it wasn’t unusual for Brains to check up on the infirmary, Scott didn’t want the Mechanic near him in his current condition.

It wasn’t the Mechanic. It wasn’t Brains, either – or MAX, for that matter.

“h’Oh, you’re h’awake!” Parker said with a surprised but delighted grin as he fumbled his way into the room carrying a tray laden with food. “h’I was just bringing food for Mrs Tracy…” he trailed off, but continued to approach the bed.

“Parker, you shouldn’t have,” Grandma smiled, releasing one of Scott’s hands to move the rebreather off of the bedside table. The older man set the tray down before stepping up to Scott’s side. He didn’t reach for him, keeping his hands loosely behind his back, but sharp blue eyes raked him up and down.

“’Ow are you feeling?” he asked after a moment.

“I’m fine,” Scott replied, ignoring the eye roll from his grandmother, who clearly didn’t agree with his assessment. Aside from some token weariness, which he knew was normal after a spell of time unconscious, he really did feel perfectly fine. Even his rib wasn’t bothering him.

“h’I suppose that’s because you’re h’on the good stuff,” Parker shrugged, making Scott pause. He should have realised that, especially after all the trouble his ribs had given him on the mission. The temptation was there to ask how badly his recovery had been set back, but that would have just given Grandma even more ammunition to stay in bed. Besides, he’d be told eventually. Of more immediate interest was Parker’s unexpected visit.

“What brings you to the island, Parker?” he asked, glancing around the room again. “I don’t see Lady Penelope around?”

“M’Lady’s in the lounge,” Parker told him. “We came ‘ere to drop off the Centurion-21 fuel for Brains, but ‘eard h’about you and M’Lady requested to stay h’a while.”

“You’re always welcome here,” Grandma reminded him, and Scott smiled in agreement. “Is she making any progress?”

“h’I couldn’t say for sure,” Parker shrugged. “But I know M’Lady and Master John won’t stop h’until they get their way.”

Scott frowned. Combined, John and Lady Penelope were an almost unstoppable force, but he couldn’t think of any reason for that tag-team, not right now.

“What are they doing?” he asked, because anything that big, he needed to know about. Especially if working on that was a higher priority for John than checking in on him – John, the brother who was too used to sitting out of the loop and firmly inserted himself virtually into any situation with a brother operating at less than one hundred percent. Scott knew he wasn’t at one hundred percent, not even by his own standards.

“Making sure today’s events never happen again,” Grandma answered, curling her hand back around his again.

Today’s events. The rescue? Him being bitten? That was all bad luck, how could they possibly ensure it never happened again? Although, he supposed, if anyone could, it would be the duo currently working on it.

His confusion must have shown on his face, because Parker took it upon himself to explain. “h’It transpires that the reason the ‘ospital ran h’out of h’antivenom was a funding problem,” he said, sounding somewhat unimpressed. Scott didn’t blame him – whenever money was the problem, he found himself wanting to strangle whoever had decided lining their pockets was more important than human lives. “M’Lady h’is setting up a charity to make sure all ‘ospitals can ‘ave all the h’antivenoms they need.” Admirable and welcome, but that didn’t explain John’s involvement. He certainly hadn’t been needed in any of her past charity ventures.

“So what’s John doing?” he asked, hoping his brother was not ruining whoever had decided money was more important than lives. It wouldn’t be the first time, and while Scott agreed that they deserved it, sometimes John could go a little too far.

“Arranging for International Rescue to have our own stock of all known antivenoms,” Grandma told him, squeezing his hands gently. “We might not be able to stop spiders sneaking into our Thunderbirds, or you boys throwing yourselves in front of each other, but there is no reason why you should have had to suffer for an hour because you didn’t have the right antivenom on hand.”

That made sense, and Scott nodded his approval. International Rescue did have a stock of common antivenoms, as well as everything they needed to deal with the local fauna on Tracy Island, but if they could broaden that, at least to the most dangerous venoms, it would only be a good thing.

It was also a typical John reaction – finding out why something had gone wrong and immediately finding a way to stop it happening again. That, at least, told Scott that John was okay. If he’d found a solution to the problem then he would be satisfied. No doubt Scott would find himself under close holographic scrutiny in the near future so John could see for himself that he really was fine, but with a solution the what-ifs wouldn’t be playing on his mind.

His other siblings would be less easily pacified. He had no idea what Gordon knew, having not seen his water-loving brother at all that day thanks to a fishing trawler in trouble, but Virgil and Kayo would be kicking themselves black and blue, and Alan would be stuck in the what if I’d been too late loop. Scott knew that feeling very well indeed.

He hadn’t yet decided if the fact that it had launched rather than exploded made the fact that he’d reached the Zero-X too late better or worse. He wasn’t sure he’d ever decide.

“Still, I think we’d better let them know you’ve woken up,” Grandma said, releasing his hands. “I won’t be long, so don’t even think about getting out of that bed, young man.” She shared a look with Parker. “If you’re hungry, see if you can eat some of that food Parker’s brought in.” A gentle hand touched his cheek lightly before she stood up and left the room.

One look at Parker told him he wasn’t going to be going anywhere, especially when the man perched on the section of bed Grandma had just vacated. Parker was the one he’d learnt many of his escaping tricks from – if there was one person that would see through them all, it was the butler.

“h’I wouldn’t be in too much of a ‘urry to h’escape, Master Scott,” the older man said, and Scott found himself relaxing back against the bed. Master Scott. It was his favourite of Parker’s ways of referring to him, but also the rarest. He’d graduated to ‘Mr Scott’ after the Zero-X, the man’s acknowledgement that he was now the head of the family without using the dreaded Mr Tracy. Parker never called him that, not even in public when the rest of the world insisted. Sir was a substitute when society demanded, and Scott always appreciated that.

Master Scott only came out when Parker was being fussy, and never with an audience. Just like Grandma, he knew and accepted there was a front to be held in front of younger siblings – even if neither of them approved. If he was Master Scott, he wasn’t expected to make any decisions or take on any of his father’s responsibilities.

“Some food?” the butler asked, gesturing to the tray. It was homemade, but not by Grandma, and Scott would have to be far worse off to even consider declining that. In answer, he reached for the toast, only for Parker to lightly touch his wrist and stop him. “You’ll get crumbs h’everywhere if you h’eat like that,” the older man scolded lightly. “Stay still, there’s a good lad.”

The tray was relocated to his lap, and Scott tore into the offering as soon as Parker retracted his hands, to an amused chuckle from his companion.

“h’It’s not going anywhere, Master Scott,” Parker reminded him.

“He’s just trying to finish it before the others get home and want to share,” John commented, and Scott’s head jerked up to see his brother’s hologram materialise alongside him. He looked tired, not that that was an unusual occurrence over the past few weeks. “You’re looking better, Scott.”

“I can’t imagine that’s hard,” he managed through a mouthful of food. The last time he’d been aware of John’s presence, he’d been deep in the clutches of deadly venom. If he’d looked half as had as he’d felt, it would have been an awful sight. “How’s the campaign going?”

John pulled a face. “They’re asking for money, which by itself isn’t a problem because I expected that, but they’re trying to charge us triple what they charge hospitals, and as Lady P’s working to get those rates reduced because they’re extortionate, I’m not letting them use our lives to line their pockets.”

Scott grimaced along with him. Money grabbers were the worst.

“So what’s your plan?” he asked, because there was no way John was letting that slide.

“Persuading them that it’s better in their interest long-term to not try and bankrupt us,” John offered, a bemused look on his face. “We could afford it, but if they think that they’ll be driving the prices up with every new shipment. More realistically, I’m talking to Colonel Casey to see if the GDF can’t pull some weight. As they’re military and not private, the companies couldn’t charge them as much. It would leave us needing the GDF’s good will for access, but we already know the GDF don’t dare put us out of business.”

It was Scott’s turn to pull a face. He hated getting the GDF involved in anything; for as long as Colonel Casey was a dominant figure in the organisation International Rescue wouldn’t have any issues, but in the longer term he was brutally aware that she was their father’s generation. At some point, she would be forced to retire and then they’d – he’d – have to handle the full force of the GDF without inside help.

Still, he trusted John and Colonel Casey. Anything they implemented would be beneficial to International Rescue.

“Let me know what you come up with,” he requested, and John nodded, turquoise eyes briefly scanning across him.

“Alan and Kayo will be returning home in five minutes,” he told him. “Do you want me to tell them you’re awake or let them find out for themselves when they check in?”

“Tell them once they’ve landed,” Scott decided. “Virgil and Gordon, too – what’s their ETA?”

“They’re racing Thunderbird Three home,” John shrugged. “But Thunderbird Three will win.” Scott chuckled. Alan somehow always won their races home, no matter how much further away he’d been.

“What are they betting this time?” he asked, and John grinned.

“Loser gets to be your slave for the week,” he said.

“Mine?”

“Well you’re not doing much on your own any time soon,” John told him matter-of-factly. “Has Grandma given you the rundown?” Scott blinked, pausing mid-bite.

“I thought I was supposed to be walking around with the ribs,” he ventured tentatively. “But no, I haven’t been told what the damage is yet. Care to fill me in?”

John glanced away at something Scott couldn’t see.

“Your rib re-broke,” he started bluntly. “Which I’m sure you’ve realised. So that’s another six weeks grounded, and this time no-one’s sneaking you onto a Thunderbird before that’s up.”

“Six weeks?” Scott groaned. John raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“Well what did you expect?” he asked. “Kayo filled us in on the mission details once you were stable. You’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”

“But-” Scott protested. “What about the mission to find Dad?” John shook his head.

“The new Zero-X will take longer that to construct,” he told him. “Brains and the Mechanic finished the T-Drive while you were out in Brazil and we’ve got the fuel, so they’re going to test fire it tomorrow to make sure it’s all working before they start on the craft itself.”

“Tomorrow?” Scott asked. “If it’s ready why not today?”

“Even engineers need breaks sometimes, Scott,” John scolded lightly. “They’ve been working almost non-stop for the past five weeks, which I know you know.” There was a slightly accusatory tone at the end of his sentence, and Scott realised John knew how closely he’d started watching the two engineers. “Besides, Grandma and Virgil won’t let you out of that bed for at least twenty four hours, and we all know you won’t be happy unless you see it for yourself.”

Well, they weren’t wrong.

“You still haven’t told me why I’m getting a slave for a week over a broken rib,” Scott realised, and John once again raised an eyebrow at him.

“You haven’t tried to get out of bed yet?”

“Don’t h’encourage ‘im, Master John,” Parker groaned. “Mrs Tracy ‘ad to stop ‘im h’earlier and ‘e ‘asn’t ‘ad h’a chance since.”

“It was an hour before the antivenom reached you, Scott. The damage doesn’t get miraculously fixed just because the venom’s gone,” John continued. “Your blood pressure is still low so I’d wager you’ll probably pass out if you try to stand right now, no matter how ‘fine’ you feel, and we don’t yet know for sure if it’s done any damage to your heart.”

“My heart?” The soft background beeping caught Scott’s attention and he turned his head to the EKG. It was on, signalling that it was receiving data from wireless transmitters. He put a hand to his chest; underneath the pyjamas he felt the tell-tale patches, leaving him with no doubt that it was his own heartbeat it was recording. “Oh.” That was low. Not dramatically so, but lower than his normal resting rate.

“It’s recovered reasonably well, but Grandma and Virgil still aren’t happy with it,” John told him. From his tone, it wasn’t only the family medics unhappy. “I know you don’t like staying in bed, but unless you want to fall over and make your ribs worse, I would suggest you stay put.”

Scott scowled.

“You’re also recovering from dehydration, so drink up and leave that drip in,” Grandma added, walking back in with a large cup, complete with straw. “I see there’s nothing wrong with your appetite,” she observed. Parker obligingly removed the now-empty tray away from Scott’s lap and stood so that she could sit back on the side of the bed. “Drink.”

Obediently, he took the cup with both hands and sipped at the liquid, which revealed itself to be simply water. A dull rumbling even through the soundproofing of the infirmary told him Thunderbird Three was back. John confirmed that before signing off to talk to their returning siblings.

Scott made a note of the time, wondering how long it would take before he had visitors.

Three minutes later and the door slammed open to find Kayo and Alan shoulder-to-shoulder, clearly racing each other.

“No running in the house!” Grandma barked, but neither of them looked the least apologetic. They did at least walk the distance from the door to his bed, where Grandma had slipped off to let them get closer. Both stopped short, Alan fidgeting from foot to foot at he stared at him with open relief, and Scott rolled his eyes.

“Come here,” he told his youngest brother, spreading his arms in demand of a hug. As always, Alan needed no further invitation, crashing into him and wrapping his arms around him tightly, although it didn’t miss Scott’s attention that it wasn’t Alan’s usual rib-squeezing hug. He appreciated that, curling his own arms around his brother’s shoulders.

Alan was trembling. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he mumbled into Scott’s neck. “I thought-”

“I’m still here, kid,” he interrupted quietly. “And I hear I have you to thank for that.” The sniffle he got in response told him it was Alan, the baby brother, rather than Alan the emergency responder he was dealing with. “You did good.”

“I thought I was too late,” Alan mumbled, and there were tears against Scott’s skin. He tightened his grip on his brother. “You looked d-dead. I d-didn’t think you were breathing.”

“I’m here and breathing,” Scott reminded him, letting him sob on his shoulder as long as he needed, rubbing the neoprene – both siblings were still in uniform – underneath his hand reassuringly. He remembered the same reaction after EOS had first made herself known to them, only that time it had been John Alan had clung to in tears, post-adrenaline rush. They needed to stop putting their lives in Alan’s hands like that.

But Alan would settle, barring the new nightmare fuel that never went away, once he’d let out the initial emotions. It was either a blessing of youth, or a coping strategy he’d been forced to employ too young. Kayo, who was watching with unguarded relief across her face, was like John; pragmatic and level-headed. A serious conversation would settle her, although when she met his eyes, he linked his hands together behind Alan’s back and made them flutter, shooting her a quick grin.

The resulting glower she sent him didn’t hide the softening in her eyes, or the way her shoulders slumped. Satisfied for the moment, he returned his attention to his youngest brother, who seemed content to stay where he was. Scott let him, nodding at Parker when the older man gestured that he was going to leave the room.

No sooner was Parker gone than Gordon burst through the door, Virgil hot on his heels.

“Scott!” Gordon skidded to a stop just behind Alan, reaching out to put a hand on Scott’s shoulder where he could. “Don’t do that again,” he demanded, amber eyes flicking to the EKG for a split second before he found some space to perch on the bed behind Alan.

“Like you’re one to talk,” Scott shot back. Gordon grinned.

“I won’t if you don’t,” he said. “Deal?”

“Deal.”

They couldn’t really promise that, not in their profession, but Scott saw something lift behind Gordon’s eyes, the banter regardless doing something to reassure him. Gordon had always used humour to cope.

Four siblings down, or at least addressed, and one to go. Somehow, Scott didn’t think a hug or joke would work quite so well on Virgil. Guilt was deep-set in brown eyes, but Virgil didn’t look at him directly, focusing on the EKG and drip as he bustled around.

“Virgil,” he said, pulling one hand away from Alan to catch his brother’s arm the moment Virgil got in reach. It was the arm with the needle in it, bright band aid stark against his skin. Virgil’s eyes focussed on it and Scott sighed, tightening his grip on the neoprene beneath his fingers. “Look at me.” He couldn’t do much, not while Alan was still clinging to him, but hell if he was going to let Virgil shut himself away and stew in a self-inflicted puddle of misplaced guilt.

Virgil stilled, but didn’t obey. Scott closed his eyes and sighed again, squeezing Alan lightly. The blond snuffled but didn’t otherwise move.

“Virgil.” That was John’s voice, his final brother reappearing holographically at the foot of Scott’s bed. The middle brother ignored him, too.

“Kid, your brother’s talking to you,” Grandma chipped in. “At least have the manners to look at him.” Despite the words, there was no scolding in her tone, just a quiet encouragement. Virgil glanced up at her, and a look passed between them that Scott couldn’t see before Virgil slowly turned to face him.

“Thank you,” he said before Virgil could apologise, or say something else nonsensical. Whatever his brother had been gearing up for, it clearly wasn’t that; he blinked, startled, before opening his mouth to probably-protest. “I know it was Alan that got the antivenom, but you’re the one that kept me alive long enough to get it.”

“I’m the reason you needed it in the first place!” Virgil snapped, looking away again. “If I’d paid more attention… if I-”

“If nothing,” Scott interrupted, conscious that they had an audience but unable to ask anyone to leave. He wanted his family there, with him, and knew they were all busy reassuring themselves that he was going to be fine. “You’d have done the same thing if our positions were reversed, except I’m not as good as you with all the medical stuff.”

“You’d have done enough,” Virgil mumbled, and Scott rolled his eyes.

“And you did enough,” he returned. “No what-ifs, Virgil.” Hell knew he’d told himself that enough through the years, with varying levels of success.

Virgil at least met his eyes again, even though Scott could see it wasn’t enough to lift the guilt. That would take much longer, including him making a full recovery and a conversation without the rest of the family listening in, intentionally or not.

“You’re staying in that bed,” he said instead, and Scott made a grumbling noise of protest.

“So I’ve been told,” he replied. “I can’t say I’m happy about it, but John made quite the compelling argument.”

“Does this mean you’ll listen to me for once?” John asked disbelievingly, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

“What do you mean, for once?” Scott asked. “I listen to you!”

“When it suits you,” John rebuked. “I have a list, if you’d care to hear it.”

Scott wouldn’t put it past John to actually have a list. He turned his attention back to his other brothers without responding, to an amused noise from the space monitor, and gave Alan a grin as the youngest finally pulled back from his shoulder, eyeing him with teary blue eyes.

“I’ll sit on you if you try and get up,” the youngest told him firmly, look somewhat ruined by those eyes. Gordon laughed.

“Alan, you’re a twig.”

“Am not, fishboy!”

“Are, too!”

“Not!”

“Boys,” Kayo interrupted, taking a few steps closer to the cluster on the bed. With one arm now free, Scott reached for her and got a light hug at his silent request. It didn’t last long, but it was enough for the rest of the tension to leave her shoulders before she stepped back, out of his reach again.

“Hey, where’s my hug?” Gordon demanded, and Scott raised an eyebrow at him.

“You want a hug, you’ve got to come get it yourself,” he said. “I’m not moving.”

Permission gained, Gordon shoved Alan out of the way, the younger falling off the bed with a squawk of indignation, and wrapped himself around Scott. It was far looser than his usual hugs, but out of all his brothers, Gordon was best at gauging what an injured person could take. Scott rested his chin on his shoulder, feeling the dampness of the neoprene that betrayed that Gordon had been in the water during his mission.

Tension drained out of his aquanaut brother’s powerful shoulders and Scott found himself relaxing as well. He’d always found it easiest to relax and wind down when his brothers were okay, and with three out of four openly reassured, his own nerves were less on edge.

“I’m still sorry,” Virgil said after a moment. Scott still had hold of his bicep, and glanced up at him as he spoke. That pain and guilt was still there in brown eyes, but it was Gordon and Alan that Virgil was looking at. A big brother himself, he too was being drawn into some sort of reassurance by the youngest two calming down.

There were many responses Scott could give, and maybe later once it was just the two of them he’d dive deeper in if Virgil hadn’t managed to settle himself and needed a stronger release, but in that moment, with his family around him and the knowledge that whatever happened next, they’d survived this hurdle, there was only one thing to say.

“I know.”

Surprised brown eyes met his, as though Virgil had expected another rebuke, another it’s not your fault, but Scott knew better. He didn’t blame Virgil at all, but it wasn’t his forgiveness Virgil needed; his brother needed to forgive himself for his perceived transgressions, and that he couldn’t do as long as Scott stayed stubborn. He tugged at the bicep in his grip, coaxing Virgil closer with an inviting smile.

Virgil hesitated, understanding but unsure. Scott didn’t say anything else, didn’t push harder, but then Grandma put a hand on Virgil’s other arm and whatever remaining fight there was seeped away.

It was Gordon’s turn to squawk as he found himself nudged out of the way, but he went willingly, surrendering the space to Virgil as Scott’s dark-haired brother wrapped his arms around him cautiously.

“I’m okay,” Scott murmured into his brother’s ear, returning the hug as fiercely as he could. Like Alan before him, Virgil shook ever so slightly under his touch, but unlike the youngest, no tears were shed.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Virgil mumbled. “You stopped breathing for a minute just before Alan arrived and I thought that was it.”

“I heard you,” Scott admitted, just as quietly. “I don’t think I’d have had the strength to keep fighting without you. Alan might have got the antivenom, but you saved me, too.”

Virgil gave a shuddering breath and his arms tightened, just a little.

They stayed like that for several minutes, Scott managing to relax further now that was the fifth and final sibling’s immediate concerns addressed, but eventually Virgil pulled back, the ghost of a smile on his face. He looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could, Gordon crashed into him.

“Group hug!” he declared, reaching out to snag Alan and pinning an unprotesting Virgil in place as Scott’s three youngest brothers gathered as close as they could for a tangle of arms and bodies on Scott’s bed. Alan flailed in Kayo’s direction and the woman stepped closer, slipping an arm delicately around the back of Scott’s neck and more tightly around Alan. Scott grinned at her before looking past the mass of brothers to lock eyes with the one he couldn’t reach. John grinned back at him, and even though he wasn’t physically there, Scott didn’t need it to know his immediate brother was just as relieved.

The hug lasted until Grandma intervened, suggesting that they let him have a little bit of space. He didn’t need space, but they all heard the underlying reminder that he was in that bed for a reason. After that, it was back to business as usual, his on-Earth siblings scattering to change on Grandma’s order and reconvening later in their civvies with various forms of entertainment while John went back to his latest project.

Lady Penelope poked her head in later, but he didn’t see Brains – or the Mechanic – until the next day.

“I-it’s time to t-test the T-Drive e-engine,” the engineer told him the next morning, after checking him over in his own desire for reassurance; there was some guilt there as well, for pushing him out on the rescue, but thankfully Brains was much easier to calm than his brothers – the fact that Brains hadn’t seen him almost dead helped.

“Give me five,” he said, reaching for the drip stuck in his arm.

“Make that ten, Brains,” Virgil rumbled, catching Scott’s hand. “Scott’s not up to walking even if he thinks he is.”

Scott groaned, but Virgil raised an eyebrow at him.

“I thought John made a convincing argument for you to stay in bed?” he challenged, and Scott shrugged.

“That was yesterday.”

“And your heart rate still isn’t back to normal, so it’s the hoverchair or nothing,” Virgil rebuked, rolling his eyes.

Scott sighed but dutifully held out his arm for Virgil to remove the drip instead.

“No, that’s coming with you,” Virgil corrected, gently pushing it down to his side again. “Just the EKG.” The machine was turned off, but Virgil made no move to relieve him of the transmitters, telling Scott that it was being linked back up later. Wonderful. “Now then, let’s get you out of this bed-”

Scott leaned forwards and swung his legs around, placing them on the floor and pushing himself to his feet.

“Woah!” Virgil sprinted around the bed and caught him as his vision fuzzed. “John’s compelling argument?” Scott was vaguely aware of being shifted around as the world spun around him, but it was a surprise to find himself in the hoverchair by the time he was fully aware of his surroundings again. Usually, Virgil would dump him straight back in bed.

“Okay, John’s compelling argument still holds,” he admitted, leaning against the back of the chair and closing his eyes briefly as the world tried to spin a little more.

“Let’s get going,” Virgil sighed. “Hands off the controls; I’m steering.” Scott grumbled, but had no doubt that the controls had actually been disabled. “As soon as the test is over, you’re coming straight back.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” he asked, and Virgil chuckled.

“Not at all.”

They were last to the balcony; it didn’t escape Scott’s notice that the Mechanic was the other end to the rest of them, talking quietly to Brains but otherwise ignoring the Tracys. That suited Scott just fine; if the test worked, he was well aware he owed the man an apology for his accusations of sabotage. Although maybe he’d keep that back until the Zero-X2 launched successfully and Dad was home. Just in case.

“You look pale,” Grandma commented. “Did he try to stand up?” she asked Virgil. Scott glowered as Virgil rolled his eyes in answer.

“What do you think?” he asked rhetorically. “He didn’t pass out entirely, otherwise the test would be happening without him, whether he liked it or not, but it was close.”

“He is right here,” Scott grumbled.

“And he’s going to keep his mouth shut and drink this up,” Grandma informed him, pressing a cup of water, complete with straw, into his hands. “You shouldn’t be out of bed at all, young man.”

“T-test is ready,” Brains announced before Scott could find a retort that wouldn’t get him taken straight back to the infirmary. “I-igniting T-Drive in three, two, one.”

Without binoculars, it was difficult to see what was happening on the platform, but nothing exploded and after several moments all that could be seen or heard was the whining of an engine. It was higher pitched than the engines Scott was used to, but there were none of the warning noises suggesting that something was wrong.

Beside him, Virgil sighed in relief while Gordon and Alan whooped.

“C-cutting engine,” Brains called, and it powered down easily. Smooth as any of the best plane engines Scott had piloted – and he’d piloted many.

It had worked. They had a T-Drive engine.

They could go find Dad.

“Scott?” Virgil sounded worried, and he opened his eyes – when he had closed them? – to look up at his worried brother. Alan and Gordon hovered nearby, and he looked at them all in turn, even John’s silent hologram – his ginger brother hadn’t been there when the test had started, hadn’t been expected after he pointed out their holotech’s range didn’t reach that far. “Are you okay?”

Was he okay? He had a broken rib, was recovering from a near-fatal spider bite and its side effects of dehydration, bradycardia and hypotension, and the man who had almost killed his brothers multiple times was standing the other end of the same balcony.

But they were one step, one significant step closer to Dad.

“Yeah,” he said, staring out past them, at the platform cradling the most important engine International Rescue had ever created. For the first time since that horrid trash mine day five weeks earlier, he could honestly say, “I’m okay.”

Fin

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #tsari writes fanfiction #scott tracy #john tracy #virgil tracy #gordon tracy #alan tracy #grandma tracy #aloysius parker #lady penelope creighton-ward #brains #the mechanic #kayo kyrano #grounded

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