#I wish the rest of the serial lived up to the beginning

[fritzmonorail]

The Mind Robber is a pretty fun serial with a stunning first episode. It’s genuinely creepy and bizarre and so visually interesting. I was mesmerized the whole time.

The idea of being nowhere. A place the doctor doesn’t even know anything about. A place he’s so visibly frightened of that he won’t even open the TARDIS door. There shouldn’t even be anything out there, but there is. Some sinister unknown that wants you to come out there too.

Look at how the episode ends. can you imagine seeing this and then having to wait a week to find out what happens next?

[danveration]

Questionable Interests

Parings: Art x Reader

Summary: You fall asleep next to Art while riding the subway, and then he walks you home

Warnings: Mention of blood/killings/serial killers, talk of drunk men, talk of drugs, a mean male subway driver

Word count: 1203

A/N: tehehehehfkbdfk i hope u like ittt🙈🙈 it’s not the besssttt. i did this in one sitting within like 10 minutes HAHHA. i will do better stuff in the near future but Yes!woooo

Art was the talk of the town. “The killer clown is back again!” “Art the serial killer clown was spotted?” “5 killings that all lead to a killer clown. People have seen a black and white clown with blood all over him. They thought it was fake blood but they’re having second thoughts.” Art the clown.

You obviously heard of him. You’ve always had an odd obsession with serial killers and true crime documentaries. It’s a.. passion, some would say. You wondered if Art had any motive, or if he just killed whoever he thought of killing. Did he kill people because they were mean to him? Judging? Or did he just kill anyone, even if they didn’t pay him any mind at all. Did he feel anything when he killed? Did he feel anything at all?

You wished you could see him in real life. What can you say? Your have questionable interests.

You’re currently on the subway, sitting down with your headphones in. You’ve had a long day today. It’s about 8pm and all you want to do is get home and sleep.

The subway isn’t very busy. There’s only about 5 or 6 people on it at the moment. Your mind begins to wonder about random things as your eyes threaten to close. The subway makes a stop, you pay no mind. You’re too out of it to notice who gets on and who sits where. Little did you know, Art stumbles into the subway, bloody and carrying a black bag. Everyone looks scared and soft murmurs begin to start as people look him up and down. He sees you and doesn’t think anything. He see's that you're the only one who doesn't really acknowledges him and so he sits next to you and tosses his black garbage bag on the other seat beside him. You don't hear nor see the worried whispers and worried eyes of the others on the subway.

Your eyes begin to close and your head slowly drops onto Art’s shoulder. Art is taken aback, his eyes go wide for a moment before looking down at you slowly. He stiffens and then goes back to staring in front of him at the empty seat. He doesn’t particularly think anything of it. He just stays still and let’s you rest on him.

10 minutes later, he notices the subway is about to stop at the stop that he plans to get off. Though he doesn’t get off. He just sits there.

After a while, it’s time for subway to “close” aka just stop until the morning. Everyone is off except for you and Art. The driver gets up, and yells, “Hey! It’s time to go, come on. Get up!”

Art stars daggers at the man and just stays sitting down.

The subway driver rolls his eyes and hits the metal pole close to you. “Come on!”

With that, you suddenly wake up and whimper. Looking up to where the sound was made, you come to realization and your eyes go wide. “O-oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. Where are-“

He cuts you off, “You’re at the subway center on Marshall Street.”

Luckily that was not far from where you lived. You could walk, though you’re a bit scared to considering your watch says 2:50am. There are so many weirdos out there at this time. Drunk men stumbling out of bars, drug users, and even murderers! Like Art the clown. But honestly, you’d feel more safe with him than any other man. Which sounds horrible but at least you know he could protect you and he isn’t afraid of killing someone if it came to that. But why on earth would he protect you? He would probably just kill you. You don’t know what morals he has, if any.

You’re about to get up but you realize that you were actually laying your head on something when you were sleeping. There was not a wall next you so..

You turn to where you were sleeping and you notice something black and white out of the corner of your eyes. Looking up, you see..

What? You have to be dreaming.

Art or someone who is dressed as Art is sitting there staring at you with a neutral expression. You just stare with wide eyes as he stares back without blinking. Looking straight at him, you can definitely confirm it's the Art. Blood & all.

“Hey!! I said scram. Both of you!” The subway driver yells and motions for you both to leave.

You go to walk off the subway as Art reaches for his black bag and gets up to following you off, giving the subway driver a nasty look as he walks off.

Once you are off the subway, you look over to Art as he stares down at you. You don’t feel scared, necessarily. He doesn’t look mad or anything. But still, you feel the need to apologize for sleeping on his shoulder.

“H-hey. I’m real sorry about falling asleep on you. It-it’s just been a long day.” You stutter out.

He looks at you and motions for you to walk.

“W-what?” You ask in confusion.

He makes a finger person with his hands and motions them walking.

“Walk? Walk where?”

He attempts to draw a house with his finger and points at you and back at the house.

You take it that he wants you to walk to your house. Does he want to follow you there? You really are starting to feel intuitive with the way you just thought of this not even a little while ago.

“Walk to my house?” You ask him.

He eagerly nods and gives you a thumbs up as he smiles.

Art the killer clown wants to walk you home? You smile to yourself at the situation you’re in right now. Most people would be running away but you’re literally happy right now. You are kind of a fan girl of Art, so it’s crazy that he’s actually here and not.. Killing you. He actually seems sweet. Maybe he does have morals left.

“O-okay.” You say.

You start to walk and he walks beside you, slugging along his black garbage bag. You two walk in silence. You want to ask him questions but you’re not sure if too much at once is a good idea. Maybe asking him questions will set him off in a way, you’re not sure. So you decide to just stay quiet and soak in the moment.

You’re walking on the side of the sidewalk, until you hit a street. Your street. You take a turn and he follows, smiling to himself and looking around to take in the neighbourhood (Totally not to memorize where you live). You walk for a few minutes until you get to your house.

“This is me” You say as you awkwardly chuckle and motion towards your house.

He motions for you to walk up all the way to your door, at which you do. He follows you all the way until you open your door. Then, he waves goodbye with a smile and closes the door for you.

You stand on the other end, in disbelief of what just happened.

[velvetm00light]

Taken

gif: pinterest dividers: @benkeibear, @mariariley, @haerinism

Chapter Two of Save Me

Previous Chapters: one

Word Count: 3.7k

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader

Summary: You and your team at the BAU come to the disturbing realization that you're the final target of a brutal serial killer. Without any leads, your team determines you need to be the one to draw him out. As you sit alone in your apartment for hours, on edge, you can't help but want your coworker, Spencer, to be there with you. But, is your little crush enough to get you through the upcoming torture?

Warnings: Mentions guns, sexual assault, murder, serial killer, torture, stalking, physical harm, kidnapping, fear. In future parts, will mention vivid torture, PinV, oral, domxsub situations, grief, bondage, physical harm, etc.

A/N: I'm actually enjoying writing this soo much. I hope you all are enjoying reading it! I'm going to write the next chapter in both (y/n) POV and Spencer's POV, so I'll probably post both at the same time!

YOU CAN'T HELP BUT fidget in your seat at the round table as the rest of the team takes their seats and waits for Hotch's word to begin. You couldn't bring yourself to be in the same room as them as they discussed different ways for you to lure him out, unable to listen and play out those possible scenarios out in your head. Spencer at first fought against your wishes for him to discuss with the team, but all you could do was look into his sad eyes with yours and tell him, "I need someone who is going to fight for me. I trust that you will know when enough is enough." He stopped fighting then and did as you requested.

He was the first to arrive back at the round table, immediately taking the seat next to yours, not even hesitating to give you his hand. You took it greedily, needing any kind of human contact to keep your mind grounded, bonus points because it was him.

"Let's get started." Hotch announced, and you noticed that no one would meet your gaze directly as your eyes wandered to your friends around the table. Your heart sank into your stomach and you had a feeling the discussion they had was a hard one. You can't imagine it being easy for your friends to discuss the best way to capture a brutal serial killer by using your life without actually endangering it.

"(Y/), tonight you're going to go home as normal. We have to assume he watches your every move so he cannot know that we're aware of you being his final target. We obviously will not leave you unguarded, Rossi and I will sit down the street from your apartment, Morgan and Reid will sit in the back of the parking lot so they can see anyone who exits and enters. If he's not bold enough to do anything tonight, we will simulate a day of errands for you, each of us posted where you go."

A chill runs down your spine. It's hard to believe you're about to be sent home and expected to act completely normal. To sit in your apartment alone, just waiting for him to try to break down your door or draw you out.

"You'll let me know every hour how you're doing and call Morgan or Reid if you notice anything since they'll be closest. If it makes you feel more comfortable, we can send someone ahead of you to replace your apartment security guard so someone with a little more training is there."

"Yes, please. I think that'll help." You almost whine. The more you sit here, the less you want this conversation to end because you want to avoid going home at absolutely all costs right now. You know you can't push it off forever or else you risk other women's lives. Before the meeting ends, JJ meets your eyes. "I promise you, we will find him."

"We're going to get this sick son of a bitch," Morgan adds. The rest of the team chimes in and you feel grateful to being going through this with a support system by your side. It makes the tight knot in your stomach loosen a little, realizing that you know you're safe with them. You know your entire team would stay up for days on end to catch this guy, and wouldn't allow themselves a moment of relaxation knowing you're unable to sleep or feel safe in your own home.

Hotch sends an agent to your apartment before you to simulate security guards changing shifts. You hope this will be enough, but something deep in your stomach twists anyway.

Before Reid leaves with Morgan to get to your apartment before you, he pulls you into the kitchen - a public place, but with enough cover to make your body heat. The thought of getting caught doing something scandalous sends a shiver up your spine but you quickly chastise yourself. Your life is in danger, now is not the time for fantasies.

"Can I ask you to do something for me?" He asks softly, his face looks battered from stress and you're sure you look the same. "Of course."

"Can you text me too? To let me know you're safe."

"Of course I will." You try to give him your best smile, but it falls flat. His care is warming, but it's hard to feel anything other than absolute fear at the moment.

"You're going to be okay," he promises. He abruptly pulls you into an embrace and you waste no time relaxing into his chest. He smells of almond and lavender. You take a deep breath, trying to memorize the smell of him. Your embrace ends too quickly and he leaves you standing alone in the kitchen.

After a torturous drive home, you pull into the parking lot of your apartment. You quickly scan your surroundings, making sure to wait an extra moment before exiting the car to see if another car pulls in. You spot the car Reid described to you sitting in the corner in the back of the parking lot and you let out a relieved sigh. This whole situation is terrifying and ridiculous all at once. You remember Hotch's words and get out of your car, trying your best to act as if you aren't completely afraid for your life and you're not about to spend the entire night rechecking your door and window locks, making sure all your hidden guns are reachable and in place.

You pass the agent posed as a security guard and trying not to draw attention to yourself as you head down the left hall towards the elevator to your apartment. You would be out of your complete mind to take the stairs in this situation, but you're unsure if an elevator might actually be worse if he were to randomly enter it.

The elevator stops with a jolt and opens on your floor. You take a cautious peak out and check down the hallway left and right before exiting. You quickly make it to your apartment door, looking back to make sure there's no one in the hallway. If you're lucky, he might not know what exact apartment you live in, but then you realize with despair that if he's been watching you for however long, he could have easily seen you enter and exit your apartment multiple times.

You fumble with your keys as you try not to act panicked and open your door. You swiftly enter and lock it immediately behind you, making sure to lock the deadbolt and put the chain on as well. You loose a deep sigh and your eyes widen at the fact that you still might not be safe yet. You didn't even think about the fact that you'd have to check your apartment when you got here to make sure he wasn't already waiting for you.

You quietly pull the gun from the holster on your side and slowly work through your apartment, turning on every light and lamp possible, locking every single window you walk past, checking inside your bedroom closet, the kitchen pantry, the small storage closet just outside your bedroom, and even behind the shower curtain. Once you've decided that there's no possible place for him to hide, you finally feel your muscles relax. You place your gun back in your holster, unable to feel safe without it by your side.

You grab yourself a glass of water and some snacks and decide to stay in the living room. You're able to keep an eye on the door and balcony simultaneously. You don't risk turning the TV on or listening to music to relax you. You need to be at complete high alert until your team catches this son of a bitch.

Time goes by agonizingly slow as you try to keep yourself awake and entertained. A full pot of coffee sits on the counter for you to refill as the night goes on, although you're unsure if you'll even need it. The fear is enough to keep your blood pumping hard through you. You try to play card games with yourself and practice some card tricks Spencer taught you when you first joined the Bureau.

You aren't able to keep your attention on one task for too long, your fear pulling your eyes to scan every inch of the room. You decide to risk sneaking a peak through your balcony curtains. You look out from the side, just barely moving the fabric over so no one would notice a disturbance in the curtains from the outside. After deciding the coast is clear, you recheck the balcony door lock and do a walk through of your apartment once again, checking locks, hiding spots, your gun always close by.

The first hour passes and when your phone buzzes it just about makes you jump completely out of your skin. You reach into your pocket to pull it out and quickly read a text from Hotch, asking for an update. You reply to let him know that everything's normal so far, all possible access points are locked and you've gone through your entire apartment in intense detail.

You remember the promise you made Spencer and text him as well, basically explaining the same thing you told Hotch.

Me: im scared spence

Spencer: I know, that's okay. You're brave, remember?

Me: im trying really hard to be. i can't even turn on the TV or focus on anything long enough without getting worried im going to miss something and he's going to catch me off guard.

Spencer: You're the strongest person I know, don't let him control you. These offenders love control and making you feel helpless.

Me: he is controlling me though. i cant even imagine sleeping, im jumping at every car door being shut, every car horn from the street, every bug at my window. even if we catch him, will the fear ever go away?

The text bubble appears and disappears a few times. You start to wonder if maybe something happened, if they caught someone trying to get into your building when your phone buzzes in your hands.

Spencer: I think we both know the statistics. But, I promise that I will do everything I can do ease the fear and be there for you when it's too much.

You begin to get teary eyed at his promise. Never in your life have you felt cared for or protected. It was always kill or be killed and you fought for your life since you were a child, just trying to survive in a world destined to chew you up and swallow you.

Me: thank you spence. that means more to me than i think you'll ever understand. you mean more to me than you'll ever understand.

You set your phone down on the table next to you, feeling jittery after sending that text. You deleted it and rewrote it about 5 times, but if your life is in danger, why hold back? You also think about how he might try to profile you and believe you're forming an attachment to him due to trauma bonding or transference.

You let out an aggravated sigh and rub your face with your hands. This has complicated your life in just about every way possible and you promise yourself that if you ever get your hands on the man that feels like he can make you cower away, locked in your apartment, you'll make him regret it.

I pick my phone back up and when I see Spencer hasn't replied, I text again.

Me: have you guys seen or learned anything?

Spencer: Not yet. Few people have walked into the building but we're not legally allowed to deny people the right into their homes. You live on the third floor so hopefully that should deter him from your apartment.

Me: hope so. im not sure i could ever come back here and live my life without fear if he chooses here.

Spencer: That's understandable. I don't think he's prepared for his endgame just yet. But I'm also not sure he is disorganized enough to attempt to attack you in broad daylight in a public place like the grocery store.

Me: he abducted those other women in broad daylight in high traffic areas though and no one saw a thing.

Spencer: (Y/n), you're a federal agent. If he has an IQ that's at least half of mine, he would need extra planning. A damn good rouse to lure you away and that's only if he's confident we have no idea you're his target. Don't worry, okay? We will stay here all night for you.

Me: thank you..it helps to know you are here. i don't feel alone in this.

Spencer: You're never alone. Never again, (y/n).

Spencer: As much as I want to keep talking to you to make sure you're safe, I think it's best you focus on your surroundings. Deep breathing exercises actually trick your brain into thinking that you're relaxed and takes your body out of flight or fight.

Me: are those drs orders?

Spencer: Yes, now be a good girl and relax.

Your breath catches in your throat with his last text. It takes you aback at the pure brashness of it, something you weren't sure he was even capable of doing.

You do as commanded and you allow yourself to pull your legs up onto the couch, despite the impracticality of it in the sick chance he breaks into your apartment. You try your hardest to do breathing exercises you found on Google.

You are slightly surprised when your body begins to relax a bit and you feel less at edge. You don't allow yourself to completely let down your guard, but you welcome the slight relaxation of your muscles at least.

Minutes turn to hours and if you didn't have your phone to check the time, you would have thought days were passing by. All you've been able to do is stare at the ceiling when you're not making your routine patrols around your apartment. You feel as if you're starting to get a bit stir crazy.

You check in hourly with Hotch and Spencer, not allowing yourself too much of a distraction. But, as the hours tick by, your eyelids get heavier and heavier. You begin to lower your vigilant wall the tiniest bit. If he wanted to attack here wouldn't he have done so by now?

Me: im so tired.

Spencer: It's okay to sleep. It's highly recommended by every doctor, including me.

Me: alright smart ass. do you think he would've already tried something by now? the suns about to come up and it's been almost 12 hours.

Spencer: Go to bed. None of us are going to sleep so you're safe. You've been through a lot, you deserve some rest, even if it's just an hour.

Me: i guess youre right. ive got all my locks in place anyway and i guess i would probably hear if any glass broke but i dont know how anyone would expect to take an entire grown woman down 3 levels without risking being seen by using the stairs.

Spencer: You don't need to justify sleeping to me. You deserve the rest, no matter what. No justification needed.

Me: Thank you, Spence. ♡

Spencer: ♡

Still a bit weary, you decide to check the balcony and do your patrol once more before you allow yourself to relax. After determining the coast is clear, you decide to finally retire to your bedroom. You unhook your gun holster and lay it on your nightstand, making sure to keep it in reach in case.

You don't even bother changing out of your clothes as you finally climb into bed. You let out a small moan of relief and sleep consumes you almost instantly.

You're taken out of your sleep by a loud thud, confusion overtaking you for a few moments as you blink rapidly around the room, attempting to adjust your eyes to the daylight. You're frozen in fear as your vision clears and there's a gun pointed right to your face.

The man holding the gun is in a regular hoodie and jeans, seemingly normal. You reel your terror back as you hold your hands up in surrender, attempting to make him believe you're willing to do as he pleases in hopes he makes a mistake.

You eye the time on the clock on your nightstand, if you can only distract him for a little bit longer, Hotch will call you when he realizes you aren't replying to his hourly check in and they'll come up here and save your ass.

All your able to do is stare at your attacker and stay completely still. You rack your brain for the best possible thing to say to get him to deescalate or at least lower the gun. "What's your name?"

"My name?" He questions, tilting his head to the side. You thought he might be put back by the question, instead he seems to have gained a confidence your profile suggested he was close to growing into. You suppose he must have had some new found confidence to be able to sneak past multiple undercover agents, and into a room on third floor with all doors and windows locked. He makes no move to lower the gun and no attempt to answer your question.

"How did you get in?" You ask as calmly as possible, hoping he made a mistake that way at least. Maybe your team was already outside, discussing how to play it to where he surrenders. You realize your luck as probably fallen short at the way a wicked smile spreads across his face.

"Do you not want to talk?" You try again. The blog posts he made about you play over in your head. You're hoping he takes the bait.

"Don't you think it's a little late to talk?" The gun stays unwavering in your face.

"What do you mean?"

The smile falls from his face and if you were in a cartoon, you can almost bet smoke would come out of his ears.

"What do I mean? You know what I mean!" He roars, shaking the gun angrily around. You decide to take this as your opportunity now that the gun isn't pointing towards you.

You release your leg from under the covers and kick as hard as you can muster into his abdomen. He reels back and you stumble out of bed and attempt to retrieve the gun on your nightstand when you realize it's no longer there. You spin around in time for his fist to connect with your jaw, knocking you off your feet, your knees barking as they connect with the hardwood.

You sweep out his legs from under him, sending him to the floor along with you. You spot his gun laying on your bedroom floor, right next your dresser, which unfortunately, he is right in front of. Before you can think to hesitate, you're up on your feet and lunging for the gun.

Before you're able to reach it, he grabs you by the collar of your shirt and swings you around and slams you into the wall. The breath clears your lungs and all you can do is fall to the ground on once more.

Blood from somewhere, you assume your face, drips onto the polished floor below you. You attempt to play the defeated victim, hoping it draws him close enough for you to catch him by surprise.

His heavy feet slam against your floorboards until he is right in front of you, gun completely abandoned on the floor. He grips your neck with a strong hand and lifts you to your feet. When he brings your face to his, you spit blood into his eye, causing him to drop you.

You use the few moments you gave yourself to at least make it out of your bedroom, grab a knife or one of your hidden guns, anything to give you the upper hand against a man twice your size and strength.

"Bitch!" He roars, wiping furiously at his eyes as you scramble with the door to your bedroom. You swing it open and lunge towards the closet gun you can think of when you see the open compartment, your gun missing from it.

"You think I don't know every single detail about your life, (y/n)?" He laughs from behind you as you're frozen in the middle of your living room. "I've been waiting for a long time, (y/n). Do you like the presents I left you? I figured I'd show you what I would do to you."

"You have an odd perception of the word present." You deadpan. You scramble to come up with a solution. All your guns are gone, if you run to the kitchen you better hope to hell he doesn't shoot you first or get there before you. "What do you want?"

"You." He smiles, and before you can react he's on you again. As you fight tooth and nail against his raging grasp, you hear your phone begin to ring. You allow hope to bubble in your chest, just a few more minutes, you say to yourself. They'll save me.

When you finally think you have the upper hand on him, he lands a fist to your temple that throws you to the carpet. Your vision spins as you attempt to crawl anywhere but where he is. You feel his laugh in your bones and you can tell he is taking his time taking in his win and the power it gives him. Your sight becomes blurry and you fight as hard as you can against it. But, all you seem to have the strength for is to watch blood spill from your mouth and the wounds on your face, onto the carpet of your living room. You gather enough strength to at least look your attacker in the face and deny him as much of the power he craves as you can. "I'm not afraid of you," you whisper. Your throat feels tight, and it's almost impossible to swallow. You spit blood onto your carpet as you try to relieve the pressure in your throat.

"You should be," is the last thing you hear before you see his boot come down towards your head and the world turns black.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

TBB S3 Retrospective

Looking back at S3, it's not a perfect season, but I still really, really enjoy it. And let's be honest, CW and Rebels didn't have flawless final seasons either. But what all 3 final seasons have in common is that they were emotional and stuck the landing.

Regarding Crosshair, S3 gave me pretty much everything I ever wanted. I couldn't believe that his story didn't end in the ultimate sacrifice but you know what? I'm glad it didn't. He now has the chance to heal after all he's been through. He also has to live with his choices and figure out who he really is now that he's retired. Still, I'm shocked. I got two Crosshair hugs. Not one, but two. He came home. And he lived. Crosshair definitely changed as a result of Tantiss and his time with the Empire post-S1. His demeanor is softer and he's more open. His experiences chipped away at that harsh outer shell and man we all know lay underneath emerged. Regardless, he's still our Crosshair with his snarky demeanor and love for toothpicks. That will never change about our beloved sniper.

And Omega! S3 handled her perfectly imo. Everything she's ever learned from her brothers has come into play here and I loved it. I don't think S1 Omega would've led the kids out of the Vault like she did in S3. But she's grown so much since then. The epilogue shows what a beautiful, mature young woman she's become.

Crosshair and Omega's relationship is also everything I ever wanted. His bond with her is deeply personal due to their time on Tantiss. He starts closed off and dismissive, but warms up to her. Eventually, he grows to love her deeply. I've talked a lot about Crosshair and after looking at his relationships in CW and the first two seasons, he always gave me the vibe that he's slow to bond with someone, but once he does, you're stuck with him. Omega is so patient and gentle with him. I also love how they trust each other to handle different situations. They know what the other is capable of and rely on each other for support. I love it.

As for the rest of CF99, I still love them in S3, especially Echo. We needed more Echo. But every time he showed up, he proved why he was the ARC Trooper. Seeing Echo get to use his skills to rescue the clones was simply beautiful. This was a man who lost everything and went through pure hell. But he gets to live, free of the Empire. In a way, he finished what Fives started and that's beautiful.

I may have had my grievances with certain choices regarding Hunter, but seeing him in S3 do his best to look out for everyone still warmed my heart. He's trying and in the end, he succeeded. Same with Wrecker. He's more serious, but he always looks out for his brothers and sister. That's never going to change.

S3 looking back has the best animation in the show and some of the best of music. The choice to have a more serialized story vs. episodic like the previous two seasons does change the pacing a bit as well. This season still flies by in comparison to the other two. It's not bad, per se, but it means I wish we got more episodes (or longer ones) because there is so much story that could be told with just one of these ideas alone. Although, I did thoroughly enjoy and appreciate a lot of these episodes more on rewatch. "Confined" and "Identity Crisis" are easily some of the best episodes in the entire show for their dark and mature storytelling. When I really think about it, S3 does honestly a great job tackling some pretty mature topics.

Crosshair's PTSD was a big part and to see him make an effort to begin his healing journey was amazing. The hand chop is another story, of course. But I did like that the show took time to focus on how Crosshair felt about it and that the others wanted to try and help. It wasn't resolved in a few episodes or by Crosshair just suddenly "getting over" it. It was going to take time to heal and as AZI said, it might never get back to 100%. Honestly, I was happy overall with this story arc. It's realistic that Crosshair wasn't coming out of Tantiss feeling 100% and mental health isn't a quick-fix. It's a journey. Hand chop aside, Crosshair has the rest of his life to heal.

Looking back at S3, some of the storylines being dropped or reduced didn't bother me as much because I knew the ending going in. Of course I wanted more from the Rex subplot and the CX subplot. But given that the show probably had to rewrite things for time constraints, I'm glad they at least decided to keep it focused on our little clone family instead of cramming everything in last minute. Remember when S8 of Game of Thrones tried to squeeze 3 giant story arcs into 6 episodes? Be glad we didn't get that. TBB S3 has its flaws and it's ok to be frustrated about them, but all and all, at least we didn't get S8 Game of Thrones cramming level bad. This is how I feel about it now. I'm rewatching Game of Thrones rn and the anticipation for the final seasons is killing me.

(the CX operatives were also really cool and the fact that their story kinda got brushed aside won't stop me from enjoying them).

Honestly, the one element that S3 didn't handle well at all was, we all know where this is going, say it with me: TECH. I've vented enough about this topic in my discussions about S2 so I will keep it brief. I will never understand why we couldn't get one episode of Tech mourning or at least one scene of it. Side note: I also with Phee got more to do then become a plot point. Maybe she gets to talk about Tech and what he meant to her or something. Idk. Just something. She deserved better. Tech deserved better. The way I would fix it is by:

Hunter and Wrecker talk about Crosshair in "Paths Unknown." That way, Tech's legacy is still honored through their search

We see Crosshair find out about Tech, he tells us about how he found out, we see him process it, or a combo of all 3

Omega gets a moment to process Tech, remembering what he did for his squad, and honors him somehow, like Ezra did with Kanan

The brothers talk it out. We needed more of the brothers talking

Tech memorial?

That's all I got off the top of my head right now. Ok, this is really long, but overall I still love S3, even if it's not perfect. Hemlock was a fantastic villain, I loved Emerie a lot more on my rewatch, Rampart makes a great foil to Cross, Nala Se honestly had a fitting end to her story, and Batcher is best girl.

I'll give a mini series overview in the next few days not that I've rewatched it. May the Force be with you all and CF99 has my heart forever.

[intrepid-creations]

Hellooooo. So this has been a long time in the making! And technically it's still in the making but like ... I'm at least ready to subject this to public viewing and I have a release schedule for it too!

I'm in the process of writing a novel which will be released in serial format on the web. A web novel if you will.

Here's a short summary:

Torvola has had enough of battle.  Fifteen years of her life had been spent fighting a brutal war to place the queen of Irozia on the throne. Before that she had spent her childhood fighting alongside her father, defending their mining town against the monsters deep under the earth. Now she had found peace living in a small village by the sea with her aging dog, and having regular dates with a friendly selkie. All she wanted to do was live out the rest of her days, even if there was still part of her that yearned for adventure and the thrill of the fight. Caleste never got the glory she desired. Fifteen years she had fought under the future queen of Irozia. For fifteen years she had tried to get out from under Torvola’s impressive shadow to prove that she was more than just a merchant’s daughter. To prove that she was someone, that she was the hero that Torvola wasn’t. She got almost everything she wanted: money, some modicum of fame, and a decent chunk of land in the southeastern corner of the queendom to lord over. Now she spends her days governing her countship alongside her wife as well as raising her two sons. Still, her desire for glory and to go down in history as more than just one of the many soldiers that fought in battle burns hot. She wants to go on one last adventure, one more chance for her name to be on the lips of every bard on the continent. Just one more chance. Cazan wishes that they weren’t seen as a monster. Fifteen years they had spent fighting for the queen alongside Caleste and Torvola. It was an okay time of their life - only marred by the frequent accusations of them being a blood mage and thus inherently evil. They wished they could say they weren’t bothered by people viewing them as a monster but there was a reason they spent their time after the war wandering the mountains of Quacha Ra. After meeting a young girl with strange magical powers that scared even her own parents, they felt a kinship and took her under their wing. Perhaps they can unlock the mystery behind this girl’s magic and perhaps they can prove they’re not the monster everyone believes them to be. All three have been separated by time and distance, occupied by their own lives and their own troubles. However, when an unknown magical force begins causing rifts to form beneath the earth — the monsters from Torvola’s past begin to emerge. Torvola must don her sword, shield, and brigandine once more and face this new threat. Caleste sees one more shot at glory and to be viewed as the hero she so obviously is. Cazan feels like their mentee, Queneh, is related to this somehow but they can’t quite figure out the connection. Three lives intertwine once more as the world shatters around them.  This time it’s more than just the queendom of Irozia at stake … It’s the entire continent.

The other summary I had for it was: "Middle aged lesbians team up to save the world". That's more of a tagline I suppose.

It's now out and updating every Tuesday!

Cheers!

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@thealmightyemprex

"Fox TV and Marvel Comics decided. By summer of 1993, the show had been a runaway No. 1 hit for six months and we had completed writing the second season of scripts, bringing the total stories to 26. At that point, Fox committed to three more seasons (39 more episodes), and I, executive Sidney Iwanter, producer Scott Thomas, and director Larry Houston visited Marvel’s New York offices to brainstorm and discuss various characters and bits of storyline we would all like to see in the next 39 half-hours.

“Phoenix” and “Dark Phoenix” were at the top of Marvel’s list.

The only direct adaptation we had made so far was “Days of Future Past,” which we had suggested, and it and the two Phoenixes were the only direct adaptations we ever committed to. Every other story used bits and pieces from the books, but these were the “big three.” 

Primarily we focused on Jean Grey (who was going through the Phoenix transformation) and on those people who cared most about her. Secondarily, we focused on Xavier, whose connection to Lilandra brought the worlds beyond Earth into our stories for the first time.

When we looked at the many subplots in the books, we trimmed them away or bolstered them, depending on how they helped support these two central through-lines.

We were excited to do it because we had felt that we had underused her in the first two seasons and this gave us a chance to give her more screen time. Second, by now we had established that she was a kind of emotional center for the team–someone who could talk honestly with any of the others, who understood them–so we knew she would sustain a good story focus for our team of X-Men.

As a “children’s show for Saturday morning TV,” we were always aware of the tight limits we had on sex and violence–limits far tighter than the comics had.

Luckily, since we were focused on Jean/Phoenix and Xavier and Lilandra, adjusting secondary characters wasn’t a big worry for us. Also, we believe we got the intensity of Jean’s Black-Queen sensuality across in her dialogue and in Catherine Disher’s performance. Jean-as-Phoenix is so much bigger, more dramatic, in animation than Jean-as-Black-Queen that we never felt the loss.

First, we knew from the beginning we couldn’t have Dark Phoenix destroy an inhabited planet, so we worked with that disappointing limitation from day one. We hope we got across how deadly she could be. Second, we very much believe that killing Jean off would have been the proper heroic sacrifice for the story.

We didn’t for two reasons. First, we needed her for the remaining 20 stories–a problem in all comics and serialized TV.

And second, we’d had a convincing seeming-death in “Phoenix,” which was then revealed to not be Jean’s end after all. We didn’t want to repeat that.

We thought up the shared sacrifice of the rest of the team (10% of their lives–a handy cheat) as a way around it.

I wish I knew (and that they had asked us to help). Animated TV comics-adaptations and live-action feature comics-adaptations are similar but not the same.

The great TV critic Brian Lowry thinks animation suits super-hero-comics adaptations better than live action–something about suspension of disbelief. Mutants with super-powers are hard enough–then in these cases you add space aliens. You can get lost in the spectacle.

I believe that the recent Spider-Man animated feature was better than any of the live-action movies, most of which I enjoyed a great deal. When in doubt, keep the story simple and trust in the characters to propel the story (the movie Logan is a good example).

She asserted herself. As writer Mark Edens and I laid out the first, then the second season of stories, we kept coming back to needing to use her in scenes, often to reveal depths of other characters.

She was an emotional center, trusted, a glue that helped keep the disparate team together. Luckily, she was a true legacy character, so no one ever felt we were being intrusive by featuring her."

(Eric Lewald)

[jellibeenz]

SIMS 4 RAINBOW CHALLENGE!

SIMS 4 RAINBOW CHALLENGE!

Welcome to the SIMS 4 RAINBOW CHALLENGE! This is a generation challenge, where you must go through TEN generations of RAINBOW! The genders don’t really matter, to be honest, but I made my generation mostly female. But do as you wish! Now let’s go through some rules…

NO CHEATS ARE ALLOWED! (except for changing the genders on sims, but that’s IT!) 

Each generation’s clothes and house must correspond with their color (ex: if your current generation was blue, you might make their hair, clothes and bedroom blue, etc.)

Each child of the current generation (except for the next generation you’re moving on with) must have a name related to their parent’s color

Each generation must complete their career and aspiration before moving on to the next generation

You canNOT—UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES—AGE UP THE GENERATIONS TOO EARLY!

HAVE FUN!!!!!

ONTO THE FIRST GENERATION!!!!

GENERATION 1: RED

Traits: Hot-headed, Romantic, Non-Committal

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Writer

You’re an ill-tempered person who is CRAZY with love. You’ve had multiple lovers, but there never was that spark. You get excited over the idea of marriage, but you haven’t even gotten CLOSE to a wedding! The only thing you’ve gotten close to is parenthood! Oh well, at least you can pass time by plunging into the fantasy of all the romance novels you’ve written.

Master your career (the Serial Romantic Aspiration is hard to master, so this is optional, but if you do then gift yourself with 5,000 simoleons!)

Master the Writing skill

Date 4 people, Woohoo with them all before breaking up with them

You must move every time you break up with a man

Have 2 children with two different people you date, then stop dating for good

After completing the Writer Career, you must quit and begin writing your own novels

*optional* when you become an elder, marry the first man you ever dated in this challenge (if he’s still alive)

Have your children be enemies with each other (you’ll see why in the next generation)

GENERATION 2: ORANGE

Traits: Lazy, Foodie, Hates Children

Aspiration: whatever you want that has nothing to do with a physical activity

Career: none

Your younger sibling has pestered you so much, and you’ve now decided to never have children. Until one day you are left with a child from your ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend! It’s stressful, cleaning up after the child and having to take care of them. You just want to sit on the couch all day watching television and eating whatever food appears in front of you. Cleaning is something you will never do and never WANT to do. Your child can do the rest for all you care. You just want to be left alone!

DO NOT master your aspiration

Have a child with your lover, then break up with him on your second trimester

Don’t master ANY skills

Sit in front of the TV as much as you can and watch the news

Don’t have a good connection with your child

Don’t give your child any birthday parties

Be mean to all your child’s friends/lovers

Don’t master any of the aspirations; you’re too lazy

Get married when your child becomes a toddler, and move in with him, but your child cannot have a good connection with your spouse.

Kick your child out before they age up to an adult. Only give them 1,500 simoleons

GENERATION 3: YELLOW

Traits: Clumsy, Ambitious, Neat

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Career: Manual Laborer

You had a very rough childhood and a frustrating relationship with your mom and stepdad. You never knew your father. You never got to go hang out with others. You were always forced to clean up after everyone else, and you were always yelled at. Now, you want to be the best parent EVER for your child. The only problem is you can’t really support a child right now…because you’re homeless!

Master your aspiration and career

Don’t move in with any other sims until you get married, and live on your own lot.

Master the Charisma skill

Once you get a house, Find a lover and have a child with him

Move in with your lover before getting pregnant, then change your job to Barista

When your child becomes a toddler, marry your lover

Have 3 more kids after getting married

When your children leave the house, send them with LOTS of money when they move out.

GENERATION 4: GREEN

Traits: Jealous, Materialistic, Snob

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Career: Style influencer

You had the BEST childhood and got whatever you wanted. Now YOU get whatever you want! You love getting new stuff, and hate it when others have better than you. You’re caught up in ALL the latest trends, and you’re a total fashionista! You keep everything to yourself and don’t give much to your children.

Master your aspiration and career.

Only have two kids (you don’t want to spend too much money on them!)

Get married before having your children

Get a BIG house before aging up to adult. If you REALLY need to, use the freerealestate cheat.

Have 250,000 simoleons before aging up to an elder

Fight with your husband constantly about money, and eventually divorce him after your youngest child ages into a teen

When your children move out, only give them 30,000 simoleons, and keep the rest to yourself. You still want the best for your kids, but MOSTLY for yourself

Have the next generation be a babysitter until she moves out.

GENERATION 5: BLUE

Traits: Gloomy, Family Oriented, Loves Outdoors

Aspiration: Big Happy Family

Career: None. Get money by gardening

You’re very depressed. You don’t really know why; you just are! The only way thing that cheers you up is the outdoors. And children! You love children. You babysat as a child, and you want to have as MANY kids as you can! You love to grow plants, and want to be a crop farmer.

Master your aspiration and career

Get married and have around 4-6 kids

Every time your youngest child ages up to a toddler, have another child until you’ve reached the maximum amount of kids or age up to Adult.

Your husband must have the Writing aspiration and write books for a living

All your children must have jobs as teens, and two of them must have the Gloomy trait (so that it passes down through generation)

You must get a Cow Plant, and get eaten by it when you age up to an elder.

GENERATION 6: PURPLE

Traits: Genius, Bookworm, Goofball

Aspiration: Joke Star

Career: Entertainer

You’re a genius person, and you never got anything lower than an A. But at the same time, you’re a total jokester and NEVER take anything seriously. You don’t know how you can be both! It’s been hard to crack jokes since one of your parents died to a cow plant, so now you have a mortal fear of plants. But you joke about it often, which sort of lightens your fear. You don’t really want to get married or have a lover, since love isn’t really your thing. But you still want kids. Adopting and Science babies are always an option, you guess…

Master your aspiration and career

Date one Sim, then break up and never date again

Master the Comedy skill

Adopt 2 children and have 1 science baby after adopting

NEVER get married or have a lover

Don’t comfort anyone, instead be funny and make jokes to lighten the mood.

Never garden, and have no plants in your house

When you age up to an elder, get a crazy hairdo and wear crazy outfits until you die!

Become a successful, famous comedian, and make loads of money!

Have the next generation be the Science baby

GENERATION 7: BROWN

Traits: Vegetarian, Good, Outgoing

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Business

You’re a super sweet person, and you love socializing. You would never hurt a fly! Much less eat a fly! Or any other living being! You’re a hard worker and want the best for everyone around you. You had a great childhood, but only had one parent instead of two. You’re the only sibling that wasn’t adopted, and you were the golden child. Your clothes and job are a bit plain, but you’re really an exciting person!

Master your aspiration and career

Date two men, and marry the last one you marry

Date and marry a coworker

Have a child, but only after getting four promotions

It doesn’t matter how many children you have, just as long as they all have the Good trait

Master the Charisma skill

Have your husband be mean to you, then divorce him and remarry the first person you dated

GENERATION 8: BLACK

Traits: Active, Geek, Good

Aspiration: Master Chef

Career: Culinary

You’re a good person who was raised to serve those around you. And you still serve those around you; literally. You love to cook, work out, and program. You do all of these, and you strongly enjoy it. But if you had to choose one, you would definitely cook. You never eat any quick meals, and you love to cook gourmet. But those foods are high in calories, so you make sure you fit in a bit of weightlifting and running to stay in shape.

Master your aspiration and career

Master the cooking skill

Get married to a foodie, but if you can’t find a foodie, just have Science Babies

Have only two kids, and one of them must have the foodie aspiration

Never eat a quick meal…EVER! The only quick meal you can have is Milk or Water

Have a big kitchen (like, a REALLY big kitchen)

GENERATION 9: GREY

Traits: Slob, Music Lover, Loner

Aspiration: Musical Genius

Career: None. Just write music!

You’re not a very social kind of person, and you spend your days in your messy, cluttered house listening to and writing music. You don’t really want kids, but your ex-husband left you with a child, which you NEVER asked for. You love them, but it’s hard to support a child when you have no career! And the last thing you want is for them to be taken away!

Master your aspiration and career

Date 1 person, then Try for Baby with them. Break up with them before giving birth (if your sim is male, break up with them after having the child)

Master the Guitar or Piano skill and write jingles and songs for a living

Move every time your child ages up until they move out of the house

Never speak to any man EVER! You don’t trust them after what your lover did to you!

Give your child whatever they want, but don’t spoil them!

Only have one child

GENERATION 10: WHITE

Traits: Perfectionist, Creative, Cheerful

Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire

Career: Painter

You LOVE the arts! You could paint all day if you wanted. In fact, you do! You’re a very happy kind of person who doesn’t need anybody else but yourself…yet.

Master your aspiration and career

Master the painting skill

After aging up to an adult, find a boyfriend/girlfriend

Marry your lover after mastering your career

Have a child after mastering your aspiration and painting skill

Have your child run away as a teen, and you don’t see them again until your last day alive.

Die happy surrounded by the people you love most… 😊

Well, that’s it for the rainbow challenge! If you tried this challenge, tell me all about it in the comments! Please no hate comments! Luv ya’ll, byeee!!!

[aegirine-purple]

I am deadset on finishing my long(ish) fic for Town of Salem. I need to finish it, I have so many WIPs in the graveyard already lol. That being said, the plot bunnies are hitting hard and I spat out the beginnings of a crackfic while getting stuck on dialogue. I refuse to post this on ao3 and make it yet another WIP that I will see sitting on my account so I shall put it here and free myself from this curse

"You’re joking," the Vampire Hunter said. "You’re all— this is some kind of elaborate prank or something. You can’t possibly look at him and tell me he’s not a vamp!"

The Doctor blinked at the Vampire Hunter, then at the supposed Bodyguard. It was clear that the Vampire Hunter was no more believed than before. 

"He's as confirmed as one can get," she said, kind but firm. "He protected the Mayor, remember? I had to rescue him the other night from drowning in a pool of his own blood after taking down that Serial Killer. He's sick, not undead. Lay off the poor man."

The Bodyguard in question was buried beneath several layers of jackets, face obscured by a scarf. "I’m fine," he said, voice dampened by the fabric. He shivered.

"You are wearing a parka in the middle of summer," the Vampire Hunter said flatly. "You look like a walking corpse. For god’s sake, your eyes are red."

"I've had worse," the Bodyguard insisted stubbornly. The Doctor patted his back. 

"Sleep early," she said crisply. "Don’t forget to drink plenty of water."

The Bodyguard nodded, rubbing at his temples. "Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be sure to do that," he said. "I’ll be up and ready tomorrow, I swear." 

He sounded so earnest that the Vampire Hunter almost questioned for a moment if the ‘Bodyguard’ was truly unaware of his condition; but surely not. There was no way a newly converted vampire could miss such a life-changing event, right?

Right.

This particular vampire was a talented liar for the Vampire Hunter to even entertain the possibility— not that it mattered. The Vampire Hunter would stake him tonight, regardless of any pretty words.

It was just frustrating that nobody else believed him.

"You cannot be serious," the Vampire Hunter said, and he wasn’t sure if he was talking to the Doctor, the Bodyguard, or the rest of the townspeople in the square. All of them, probably. "I stake vampires for a living. I know what a vampire looks like when I see one. It’s my job."

The Doctor sighed.

"It's just the flu," the Bodyguard said, muffled beneath the mass of coats. "I'll get over it."

The Vampire Hunter threw his hands into the air. "You're literally undead!"

"I'll get over it!" 

"How do you get over being undead?!" the Vampire Hunter said exasperatedly, and turned towards the rest of the townspeople. "Look, we have vampires. You all know it, because a Framer died to one at the beginning of the week and I staked another in the heart last night. So believe me when I say that this man—" he pointed towards the human coat-rack that was the Bodyguard— "has been bitten!"

There was a brief silence. 

The Bodyguard sneezed.

The Lookout came forward and clapped the Bodyguard on the shoulder. "Get better soon," he said, heartfelt. A chorus of well-wishes followed.

The Vampire Hunter slapped a hand over his eyes.

Then Town lynched the Retributionist, because they could, and everyone went home for the night.

(Yes, the BG is that stupid, he fell asleep and missed out on his own conversion.)

[frostyreturns]

Frosty Ruins The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

This will be my first time ever watching this version of Lord Of The Rings, I didn't even know it existed until fairly recently. So this review is based on total first impressions.

To start with it opens like an old film serial and looks kind of janky. You could tell it was from a time where a lot of people probably didn't even know what Lord Of The Rings was, back when it was a far less mainstream property, back in the days where Robert Plant could slip plot details from the book into a song and expect that nobody would really take notice.

I'm not sure if the opening is live action or is rotoscoped like parts of the rest of the movie but it looks like they just filmed actors but did them all in shadow so they didn't have to design quality costumes. The voice over is classic 70's and is vaguely the same as the opening of Jacksons Fellowship Of The Ring, which becomes a theme.

The movie differs from the books and the Peter Jackson movies because it puts the scene of Smeagle murdering for the ring in with the introduction. However you can also see that Jackson obviously took a lot of inspiration from this version rather than just using the books as source material.

You can also see the ways that Jackson made it better, there are elements of the storytelling that to me are missing in this version. For example in this version as the nature of the ring is being revealed by Gandalf, he knows coming in what the ring is and begins the conversation by saying it is evil. Whereas in the movie there was some additional tension added by Gandalfs uncertainty, and there was a bit of a fake out and a moment of false relief. There's also the way Frodo just casually slips in the line about wishing this wasn't happening in his time…but it hasn't yet been established just how dire the situation is so the line falls flat.

As the animated portion of the movie takes off, you kind of see also that originally the story was marketted more exclusively to kids. The art style is a lot more cartoonish than I would have guessed, it's like studio ghibli crossed with an 80's cartoon like He-man. The voice over also sounds cartooney and is done in that same 80's cartoon manner. While I don't enjoy it as much as the live action which to me was near perfect…it's not terrible. The character design isn't my favourite but the art style is still very good even though the realistic live action animation rotoscoping doesn't mesh well with the cartoonish simpler animation or look all that great, but it is interesting, very well composed. The backgrounds look like they would all make good paintings that I would frame and hang around the house. The movie looks like it's a product of its time so I can see there being a dedicated fanbase for this version but I can also see people saying it's cheesy and dorky.

Speaking of bad character design. I hate what they did to most every character especially Sam, they made him look and sound like a little effeminate homunculus. Saruman the white they for some reason depicted in a red cloak. The Nazgul looked less intimidating and more zombielike, they had the movement of lurchy hunchbacks that would have been reminiscent of old 30's horror movies. Aaragorn also looked so frumpy and plain, almost native american looking. Elrond looked so plain and looked more like Kevin Nealon than the animated Kevin Nealon from 8 Crazy Nights where he played the mayor. The orcs and trolls looked like smudgy incoherent blobs, the only reason you can tell it's supposed to be a creature is the glowing eyes. Even the balrog looked weird and less intimidating…and they didn't really build it up in the Moria scenes like the books and other movies do. Although one interesting thing about the characters is I thought the voice actor for Frodo was excellent and actually sounded a lot like Elijah Wood, to the point I wonder if that effected his casting at all.

There are moments compositionally that seem amateurish, for example they introduce Merry And Pippin by having them simply walking behind the main characters without introduction, and then they threw in dialogue about them agreeing to follow them as far as Bree…but the audio sounded different and it sounded like the voice actor rushed the line to make it fit into the scene before it changed. Seems like they made a last minute change because they had to cut the scene where they introduced the characters or because they realized they forgot to explain who they were. Then it cuts to a shot of them doing a weird little dance and then the scene changed again…very strange and makes the whole thing looks less professional.

One other complaint I have is that the visual depictions of magic use are not well done at all, and if I did not already know what was happening I would have no clue what I was looking at. The duel between Gandalf and Saruman was just flashing lights, and there was a prolonged scene with the black riders where the background kept shifting in and out and it looked like they were in the sky one second and on land the next. And they just held out their hands and Frodo just seemed to stand there watching them point at him for no reason at all. Knowing the story I know what is happening but without the context of the books or the Jackson movies this scene would have been very confusing.

The action is also underwhelming. The way they swing their swords makes them look like less effective weapons than a twig, they hit enemies with a sword like they're using a blunt object, it's hard to describe what I mean but it just looks wrong.

The other main issue I have with the movie is that because it squeezes the whole story into one two hour movie a lot is missing, a lot is glossed over and many of the scene changes seem abrupt. For example they talk about going through Lothlorien and then cut immediately to talking with Galadriel. The biggest problem with this version is that so much is missing. It's only half the story with Return Of The King completely missing because of a cancelled sequel. But even much of the parts they did show were greatly cut down and much was ommitted.

One thing i liked about this version is that they never really explain in the Jackson movies how Frodo kept gollum in line. The idea that he could threaten to use the ring to command him as a thrall was never in the movie but it was in the books. So for all my complaints I can't say it wasn't a faithful adaptation. It was an interesting one time watch and for parts of it I did enjoy it, it is still Lord Of The Rings so it can't be totally bad. I'd certainly rather watch this than anything Amazon shits out. Overall though it wasn't good and it's enjoyablity depends on how much you enjoy anachronistic cartoons about classic fantasy literature.

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: The Last of Us (Season 1)

For as long as I can remember, the film adaptation of a video game has always been the bane of my existence. Every time Hollywood tries to bring to life an interactive and sometimes 40 - 80 hour experience that gaming gives to us the players, they have either lightly adapted what they thought was cool or completely ignored the source material. We end up with films like Double Dragon, 1993’s Super Mario Bros., all the Resident Evil films including the Netflix monstracity and then the most recent Mortal Kombat film. I have been waiting for someone to get it right and do the games we all love justice. I have started many reviews like this when it comes to video game adaptations, but this time its actually different. The gaming studio Naughty Dog has made 2 of the most compelling and cinematic franchises in gaming history that are both celebrated by critics and loved by fans. Uncharted started it all with its amazing storytelling that harkened back to the old school adventure serial films and Indiana Jones franchise. Its live action adaptation ignored the order the 4 games canonically came in and just adapted the 3rd and possibly the 4th game instead of the starting from the beginning! Don't get me started on the casting. The same was slated to happen with the next universally acclaimed, beloved and in my opinion, perfect survival story ever to created in gaming. The Last of Us was a massive milestone for the gaming industry in its groundbreaking mechanics, voice acting, performance capture and thematic morality tale that made you question the main character’s actions while living in such a harsh apocalyptic world. Once it was announced that it was to become a series, I breathed a sigh of relief because there was no way it could've been crushed into a 2 and half hour epic without missing the entire character growth and the relationship dynamic of the main characters. My hope was that if they can nail the first heartbreaking 15 minutes of the game, then you have my attention. I was over joyed that they nailed it, but also recoiled in fear of what they were going to change in the long run.

With any adaptation there’s going to be some changes from the source material that may work in the book or the video game that won't translate on to the big or small screen. Such is the case with this adaptation and for the most part this show recreated shot for shot and used dialogue straight from the game and I loved that. There were alot of scenes that were removed, added and reworked to fit the live action version and they all range from great to abysmally incorrect. I won't spend the rest of the review comparing all the scenes that don't match the game, but I WILL point out what was changed that irked me to the highest degree. So I will end up soiling an episode or 2 and many scenes from the show that miss represented the game. So this is your warning for light to mid spoilers for a game that is over 10 years old, but I will be fair to those that are just now discovering the story for the first time. From the minute the show starts the rules of the infection were rewritten and it fit and made for a more realistic approach if you will. I will say that the casting in this show was spot on in so many ways and the care that the cast took to bring these beloved characters to life was admirable, but don't be deceived. They have nailed aspects of the characters, but they are different from their digital counterparts. As an African American man, I'm all about diverse casting in entertainment, but what I hate is race swapping in stories just to check that box. We have enough representation in this story already with Marlene, Riley, Henry and Sam. The choice to change the race of Joel, Tommy, Maria and Sarah was unnecessary in my opinion and I wished they stayed true to the character designs. They may have the accents, the clothes and sometimes the same hair color, but they don't look like the characters I know and I love. That being said, this was a very talented cast and they all were brilliant in their performances as they carried us through this intense story.

Pedro Pascal has always been an amazing actor that can get into the soul of a character and carry such weight in his eyes. As the iconic character Joel, he nails the heart of the character in so many subtle ways. He captures his darker nature while delivering the emotional undertones in his words and eyes. The growth the character goes through I felt was a little too quick and their wasn't enough emotional resistance. Gabriel Luna was fun as his brother Tommy and I liked the moments they were together. What I didn't like is that the rift between them was almost completely removed from the source material and what we're given is a different reason for him to not help Joel that was relevant for this version, but irrelevant as whole. Nico Parker was excellent as Joel's daughter Sarah and she nailed the innocence of the character and represented that last sliver of humanity Joel had. I really enjoyed Anna Torv as Tess. She nailed the character's tough exterior and steadfast loyalty to Joel. Her and Joel clearly had a history together that made them not great people and loved seeing that fully realized, but I do wish they had kept her red hair. There is a particular part of her arc that ends dramatically differently from the game that was partly an improvement, but as a whole, they did her dirty in the end. It was awesome that they brought back the original actress that voiced Marlene in the game to the screen. Merle Dandridge delivered the same amount of excellence and complexity that she introduced in voice and now in live action. My only gripe is that toward the end, she was colder emotionally and than she was in the game. She has a hard decision to make, but it felt so factual instead of having remorse. Bella Ramsey did an excellent job bringing to life Ellie. She nailed the character's curiosities, childlike charm, toughness and above all, she showed the emotional toll that the world has on a youth. Through her interactions with real violence, she understood the depths of how savage and horrific humanity can be. Her chemistry with Joel was the saving grace of the show and I loved it as they grew closer together. Sometimes it felt forced, but it leveled out along the way. The iconic "Is this what people really cared about before?" scene from the game is word for word recreated and wonderfully acted by the both of them and it hit just as hard as it did back in 2013. Storm Reid was perfect as Ellie's bestfriend Riley and their episode together was one of the best and the most accurate adaptation of the “Left Behind“ DLC story from the game. Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Woodard were fantastic as Henry and his younger brother Sam. Their scenes really were heartwarming, but their story for the show was a bit convoluted in execution. Simplicity would've been key here.

Now comes the part where it could be split you the reader from me the reviewer and I respect your opinion if you disagree with me. I have no problem with the LGBTQ community and I don't care if a character is gay and you want to tell their story. What I do have a problem with is completely disregarding their incredible arc from the source material to shove a different story in your face. All adaptations have to make changes to fit the screen version, but this was radically different. Nick Offerman is a great comedic actor, but he is an outstanding dramatic actor. As Bill, he did exactly that and I loved him in the role, but I wish they had stuck with the original version of his story. He is gay and a survivalist in the game, but they made him kind of dumb in this adaptation. If people are at your fence shooting at you, you don’t stand still in the street and shoot back. You behind cover and pick them off! Murray Bartlett was excellent as his partner Frank and their chemistry was fantastic as their love story grew beautifully. My problem with this entire arc is that it doesn't serve the characters or the original story justice. Yes, you want to show that there is still hope for love and kindness in this depressing world, but that wasn't the point for Bill and Frank in the game. I’ve always believed that Bill and Joel are different sides of the same coin. Bill cutting himself off from caring for anyone by being a mean loner that caused Frank to hate and leave him and then get himself killed. Joel could've become that with Tess or even Ellie, but Ellie slowly brings back the caring nature of Joel. That incredible storytelling element was completely erased for an arc that didn't belong to those 2  characters. Another character that didn't belong or was horribly miss cast was Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen Coghlan. Melanie is an amazingly charismatic actress, but as a leader of a rebellious group of people that over took a government quarantine zone? Nah. I didn't by it one bit. Scott Shepherd was good as David, but I wish they didn't fluff out his story so much. There is a glaring error in logic when it comes to his arc and it made for a mixed bag of an episode for him. He nailed the charm and soothing nature of the character, but the blatant intentions of this version of the character rubbed me the wrong way. I’m pretty much tired of the “preacher” archetype in every apocalyptic series. Its always there, but sometimes you can just not have it. For us the fans of the games, we get to have the original cast of the video game return as easter eggs and they’re spread out within the show. Merle Dandridge I already revealed, but for you to find the original Joel (Troy Baker), Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) and Ellie (Ashley Johnson) and 1 more hidden TLOU 2 actor, I won't spoil the fun in finding them. Just know that they all have an integral part, but 1 of them has the most heartbreaking.

The score of the show could not be done without the maestro of the game. It would've been a true disservice to the show without the haunting theme and music. Gustavo Santaolalla returns and delivers the beautiful score we love from the game and is accompanied by fellow composer David Fleming. The two of them made an excellent pair and delivered a variety of different and refreshing takes on the emotional core of scenes and the different compositions of the themes. The season finale featured a track titled "Vengeance" and it was truly the darkest and saddest track in the show. The creature and makeup effects were disgustingly spot on! From the infected to the full on clickers, they were even more terrifying in live action and harder to look at. The sound design of them was amplified in the best way. Visually the show nailed the look and feel of the game. It was a shot for shot recreation of the game and that was the chef's kiss. Aside from all the comparisons to the game, the drastic alterations to characters and switching of locations, I felt this series needed a 10th episode. There was a serious amount of rushing toward the latter half of the show and especially in the finale. Early on there is a plot point that is introduced with Ellie and water that is a massive detail in the game and its in the show, but doesn't get paid off. They completely ignore this massive moment that was the catalyst that led to the intense final 20 minutes of the finale. If there was a 10th episode, I feel this show would've almost been a 1:1 creation through and through. In the end, was this a great adaptation of one of the greatest stories in gaming? No. I would say it was good. Even with the creator Neil Druckmann being completely hands on from the beginning, I feel that the show captured 80 percent of the game which is more than any other adaptation I've ever seen do. Its not the greatest adaptation of all time like most exclaimed from watching the premiere, but it is a perfect example of what needs to happen to video game adaptations from now on. Make them a series, but respect and stick to the source material like white on rice and don't deviate so much. Let me know what you thought of the series or my review/essay in the comments below. Thanks for reading!  

[kirbylord]

i like the patient because it was a character study about a serial killer who wanted to get better but never committed enough to actually do anything to stop his violent tendencies. it was also a character study about a jewish therapist who, in all his introspection and determination to help others, never looked into himself at his flaws, never realizing maybe he was apart of the conflict happening within his family.

and focusing on the basic premise of the show, the patient is about a man who wants to help others, and is forced to help someone who deep down, doesn’t want to get better. and as time goes on, as alan is separated from the outside world, stuck in a small room with only a few things to pass the time and his anxiety and thoughts, somehow starts to relate to a serial killer—someone who, societally and morally, isn’t supposed to be related to.

i loved that each character felt like they had depth, they had lives outside of the story, and things they cared about even if it wasn’t directly related to the plot. while i of course don’t support sam, i am fascinated by stories that delve into the types of people that are often flattened down to monsters or stereotypes. also, i enjoy seeing relationships build in the worst of scenarios, when otherwise there would be no relationship there.

alan comes to not only care about sam, but likes him. and sam seemed to genuinely like alan as well. but the entire situation was forced upon alan from the beginning and really, all it was was a survival mechanism. he wanted to live. he wanted to go home. something that, no matter how much sam could be helped, he could never grasp. sam always put his own feelings first, and his mother was complicit in his crimes.

unfortunately i didn’t like the ending, because neither alan or sam had an ending that fit where the story was taking them. for alan, i think he deserved to leave. he survived so long and made a connection with sam, i wish sam had either let him go or alan escaped. and for sam, i don’t understand the ending for his character (is he planning to be chained up in the basement for the rest of his life? that’s never going to continue forever. he has a job and without alan there to help him, his mother would probably just convince him he should be free anyway). i guess the best ending would be alan going to the police and sam getting locked up.

however, i was almost hoping that sam would let alan go willingly (because they built a relationship over that time and have some level of trust in each other) and alan would either go to the police or he would keep quiet in a misplaced effort to “give sam a chance”, which is mostly just a function of his stockholm syndrome and desire to help people. maybe sam wouldn’t kill anymore (or maybe i’m just too optimistic). maybe they would continue therapy. maybe sam would go to an institution or something. maybe he would turn himself in to proved he’s changed.

i can see why sam didn’t do any of that (his selfishness and fear) and maybe it would be more in character for him to lock himself up, since it shows he’s changed in some capacity, but still isn’t an entirely good or different person (because that is basically impossible to expect from someone who barely tried to get better). however, in any case, i do wish alan had survived. i think he deserved it.

[excalibent]

Yup, okay, why not.

So I'm just going to go over everything with Simon, specifically in Adventure Time, disregarding Fionna and Cake because the finale legit just aired and I want to avoid spoilers. I don't know everything, mind, but I'm in that sort of weird space between 'avid watcher' and 'casually aware person' as far as it goes. You might need to fill in some gaps.

We're going to start at the beginning-beginning - stuff that was backfilled after a lot of other parts of the story were established, not all of which really 'stuck'. (For example, most of the princesses really don't matter outside of Bubblegum, Fire Princess, and Lumpy Space Princess as far as the overall story goes.)

A giant meteor is headed for the planet earth.

This happens every now and then, apparently, a big ol' reset to the clock that changes things drastically. We've got the four Elements: Fire, Ice, uh...Candy, and...Slime? Yeah, this is kind of because of Adventure Time's early installment weirdness - all of the nonsense that was set up as part of the show's serial episodic nature kind of rolled downhill and resulted in some weird end points.

By the way, the Elements are people - they keep getting reincarnated when they die, and they're always around.

So the ice Element ('Urgence') sets up a plan to stop the meteor, and his apprentice Gunther the dinosaur is along for the ride: he's going to make a magic crown that grants wishes, and make a wish to destroy this meteor. But, Urgence is a dick and mistreats Gunther on the regular...and Gunther absolutely idolizes Urgence. When it comes down to the point that Gunther has to wear the crown to make the wish because Urgence isn't able to (plot stuff, he's stuck behind some ice or something), Gunther's only wish is to be like Urgence, and he's left shouting 'Gunther, no!', his body warped to look more like Urgence - long nose, big beard, etc. - repeatedly as the meteor collides and makes some massive changes to the planet, as it is made to do.

It's hinted that this stupidly evil being called The Lich was on this meteor, and that's how he got to Earth; his only goal is to kill as many things as possible. It is his only reason to live.

So, that's about as much as we need to know about ye olden prehistoric times.

So, Simon Petrikov finds this magical crown several millennia later. Magic isn't real, as far as modern society is concerned. He has a girlfriend named Betty, and is a well-known archaeologist who - by that point - was known to have found artifacts that were rumored to not even exist. Simon puts on the crown as a jest, and immediately flips out, shooting ice beams out of his hands and generally just being weird about everything - he claims to see hallucinations and such, and when he takes the crown off in a moment of lucidity, he sees his fiancee, Betty, staring at him in horror. He never sees her again.

After this point, he lives with the guilt and sadness of having pushed away his cherished partner for - some amount of time, and then the bombs drop.

Adventure Time plays around a lot with how nonsense magic and sci-fi tends to be, so the 'how' of everything that happens isn't as important as the fact that it does, in fact, happen: Simon survives, and most of the rest of the human race is wiped out. At some point, an entire chunk is taken out of the planet, hinted to be something that wasn't a nuclear bomb - referred to as 'Mushroom Bombs', and the whole affair is called the 'Mushroom War'.

Meanwhile, we have Marceline - or, at least, her dad, Hunson Abadeer, the demon lord of hell. Or something. It's along those lines, he's a bad dude who eats souls.

Hunson gets with a human woman, she has a child - it's Marceline - and he basically leaves them alone, even up until the point at which Marceline's mother sends her away. It seems cold, but the truth is that Marceline's mother is dying, and she doesn't want her daughter to see that happen.

Marceline wanders, and Simon wanders - and they find each other.

Things aren't so bad for a while, even if things just kind of keep getting worse for Simon. His mental state is on a gradual slope downwards; he does his best to take care of Marceline, using the crown at times to freeze the mutant things created by the radiation of the nukes. When he does use the crown, he loses a little bit of himself - he is, slowly but surely, becoming more like Urgence Evergreen...or, at least, Gunther's warped, messed-up perception of him.

Not to mention, ever since he did put on the crown, the world around him has gotten colder; just wearing it without even using the powers actively makes the environment more snowy and winter-like.

Eventually, when Simon decides he's just too far gone and there's nothing he can do to stop it, he leaves Marceline behind.

Over time, the crown's madness becomes absolute and Simon Petrikov is no longer himself; he's the Ice King, and has absolutely no idea who this 'Simon' guy is. By then, we're pretty solidly in Ooo, and the modern world is no longer.

So, what happened to it?

It's kind of hard to say, honestly, but most of its disappearance can be put up to the fact that humans nuked themselves off the face of the earth (with a notable exception of an island where humanity continued living, isolated from Ooo), and that the buildings ended up crumbling over the thousand years or so that passed after that. For the most part, a lot of the insane stuff going on in current Ooo has always been there, or so says the show - we've just never really noticed, or it's been underground, or it just kind of blended in by not being as weird as it became later on.

Some people are around for a crazy amount of time; Princess Bubblegum is basically immortal, or at least super long lived, and Marceline the Vampire Queen is both a demon and a vampire, so she's also going to live forever. We can at least say that, as magic came back after the Mushroom War, the more outlandish stuff - like fire elementals, slime people, Bubblegum herself - reshaped the world to their likes and needs.

Can someone please explain to me all the Adventure Time lore regarding Simon and how that post-apocalyptic mess of a world he was in with Marceline became the world Finn and Jake live in. Additionally, what happened to that world. And how he became Like that. Pretty please. I've only seen disjointed episodes and I wanna know. All the details. Please.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Okay please tell me about this animorphs stuff because it seems like a WILD ride

Animorphs is an extremely moody and morose series of serialized mid-grade novels from the late 1990s (opinions vary on whether or not it's moody and morose enough to count as grimdark). They were everywhere when I was a little kid; you'd walk into an elementary school classroom at the beginning of the school year and there'd be six or seven Animorphs books already lying around, as if they'd spawned from the walls and floor or something. Unfortunately, they were produced in a very disposable, one-and-done way, and they're now out of print and semi-difficult to find as hard copies; for that reason, the author, K.A. Applegate, has explicitly advised fans to just pirate them. I've been finding a lot of them at public libraries instead, though, because I greatly prefer hard-copy reading when at all possible.

Applegate was a Midwestern housewife who co-developed and co-wrote the bulk of the series with her husband, Michael Grant. In addition to Grant, the later half of the series employed a bunch of other ghostwriters as well, although Applegate retained creative control and regularly vetoed what the ghostwriters were doing.

The premise of the books is that a group of five ordinary-ish teenagers stumble upon a crashed alien ("Andalite") spaceship and are given the ability to "morph" into different animals, subject to a two-hour time limit. They use this power to fight a guerrilla war against another alien species, the Yeerks, who are little grey slug-like creatures who take up residence in the brains of larger species and override their free will. For the bulk of the series none of them is sure who in their own families is and isn't a Yeerk; they know for a fact that at least two of their loved ones are. There's an atmosphere of paranoia that leads to increasingly toxic codependency as the Animorphs slowly lose the ability to trust, take any interest in, or care about non-Animorphs, although they do keep fighting for humanity as a whole.

The Animorphs are:

Jake. The leader of the group. "A dumb jock trying to play General Eisenhower." Likes basketball and the Offspring (which he just refers to as "Offspring" for some reason). From a secular Jewish family, although not completely secular since they light Sabbath candles. His brother, Tom, is known to be a Yeerk.

Rachel. Jake's cousin. A skinny blonde shopaholic and semi-serious hobbyist gymnast who develops worse and worse rage issues as the series goes on. Is she a brave soldier for humanity, or a violent maniac who gloms on to a good cause so she can avoid confronting the darkness within her? Neither; she's explicitly, textually both! She's my favorite.

Marco. Jake's best friend. A typical "funny" late 90s/early 2000s teenage boy with all the tastes and interests we generally associate with that--video games, South Park, Howard Stern. All that's missing is Family Guy. Of ambiguous sexuality and appears to be in love with Jake. Able to suddenly get incredibly serious, even ruthless, when he has to. His mother, Eva, is not only a Yeerk but an incredibly important and high-ranking one. Eva is Mexican Catholic but Marco doesn't appear to be religious.

Cassie. Rachel's best friend and Jake's love interest. From a middle-class black family that lives in a big farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Both of her parents are vets; her dad runs a wildlife rescue clinic and her mom works at a shitty for-profit zoo. The idealistic pacifist of the group, although she's a "kill 'em and then cry over 'em" pacifist and gets regularly dragged for this in-universe. Appears to be Catholic and at least semi-serious about it.

Tobias. Rachel's love interest. A mopey bully magnet with an unbelievably toxic and chaotic home life who accidentally-on-purpose gets stuck in morph as a red-tailed hawk in the first book and retains that as his default body for the rest of the series even once he regains morphing ability thirteen books in. A dreamer who's able to use his own ambivalent identity to build bridges between all sorts of different groups, but also has almost as much of a killer instinct as his girlfriend and occasionally makes calls that are even more coldhearted than Marco's.

A few books in they're joined by Aximili, an Andalite cadet trapped on Earth whose storylines alternate between goofy fish-out-of-water comedy and dark military psychodrama. For this reason, it's difficult for both the other characters and the reader to understand how they're expected to react or respond to Ax. Ax is technically Tobias's uncle since we find out Tobias's missing dad was an Andalite who became stuck in morph as a human.

As the books go on the morality is complicated significantly; the Animorphs resort to more and more repugnant tactics, and we find out that although the Yeerks' government and military brass are pure evil, a lot of individual Yeerks are just folks who've been dealt a crummy hand by evolution and have fallen for propaganda that they're justified in overriding other species' free will to "solve" this. There are Yeerks who believe it's wrong to take unwilling hosts, and Yeerks who wish they could find a middle way between being conquering slavemasters and "slugs beneath the Andalite hooves". Unfortunately, not many plotlines focus on them.

So that's Animorphs.

[previouslynarnie]

absolutely no one asked but my tua season three wish list includes but is not limited to and in no particular order:

Diego continuously hunting Lila down to talk to her and trying to convince her to join his family, and finally when she can’t evade him because people are after her and trying to kill her, they talk while fighting them to the tune of Take a Chance on Me by ABBA

the siblings beginning to rectify leaving Vanya out throughout their childhood via going with her to a tattoo parlor so she can get a matching umbrella academy tattoo while Vanya grabs on to Luther’s hand (Luther because only he would be able to handle the agony of Vanya’s iron clutches) for moral support

sibling mall trip with Vanya and Allison pulling Five into a photo booth because why not (bonus if the rest of the brothers try to get in on it and cramp the already non-existent space in the booth, come on Luther) (added bonus if they each keep a strip of photos and argue over the best ones)

the siblings noticing and doing something about the signs that Five is breaking down and needs emotional and mental support from the trauma that is his life + a freaking hug how about one from each of the siblings with verbal affirmations (bonus if it’s a fam group hug with Luther’s arms around them and Five squashed in the middle of it all)

the siblings reverting to childish behavior bc Grace and Pogo don’t know them + Diego being salty bc Mom doesn’t know who I am and extra salty bc one of the sparrow kids notice it bothers him and rubs it in his face

Klaus being taken more seriously and getting the help and support he needs

Klaus and angsty Ben having their first conversation and it being the most awkward thing ever bc isn’t Ben supposed to be dead and seeing that this isn’t the case, isn’t Ben supposed to be... Ben??

the umbrella academy and the sparrow academy fighting each other, physically or verbally I have no preference

the umbrella academy and the sparrow academy fighting together

the umbrella academy and the sparrow academy being domestic and chilling with one another at the end of the season (i.e. movie night all snuggled up together in the living room eating popcorn having just survived hell and Reginald Hargreeves)

Five crying and/or expressing his emotions and being heard because he’s more than earned the right to grieve and process everything that’s happened and be loved

Allison getting joint custody of Claire + reunion scene + meet your uncles and aunt scene

Luther meeting Claire and her calling him “Spaceboy!”

Five meeting Claire and he receives his first hug in years + Claire teaching him about the trends and tech of today + Five being coerced to watch Claire’s favorite Disney movie and letting her sleep on his shoulder when she falls asleep on the couch halfway through + Allison covering them both with a blanket when she finds them both asleep

Five bonding with each of his siblings and getting the appreciation and recognition he deserves

Diego going to see Vanya play and bringing her a bouquet of flowers at the end of the concert

the siblings being super protective of Vanya when she meets someone new because a) they love her and b) remember when she dated a serial killer?

a post-credits scene similar to the Avengers in which the siblings are sitting together eating at Griddy’s Donuts or another donut joint if Griddy’s has already closed after they save the world and Five being the first to get sick and proceed to blink to the trash can and puke into it

maybe an episode where Five finally succumbs to his fatigue and just sleeps the day away in his room and despite the fact that there are things going on and they need his help, they let him sleep because he deserves to rest, damn it!!

bonus if there’s a big fight scene with all hell breaking loose with a badass song playing in the background and it keeps cutting to Five snoring soundly in his bed

Five fighting alongside his siblings

Five dancing with his siblings

any scene with any ABBA song playing but preferably a fight scene, I beg

to be continued (maybe I’ll write a fic of each scenario??)

[brywrites]

Gifted

Spencer Reid x Reader. Summary: All his life Spencer Reid has been told he’s gifted. And all his life he’s wondered what the point was of those gifts that felt like curses. Until her.

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Though he holds so many memories in his mind, Spencer Reid isn’t quite sure who the first person to call him “gifted” was. It was probably his mother, he thinks. Certainly not his father, who thought he was strange. Perhaps a teacher, or maybe even his Aunt Ethel. All he’s certain of is that he’s lost track of the number of times people have praised the so-called gifts he possesses. His eidetic memory, his autodidactism, his absurdly high IQ. His mind, they say, is a gift. But it’s felt more like a curse for most of his life.

Those same things that helped him skip grades and earn the praise of adults brought him years of bullying taunts and miserable adolescent trauma. They isolated him from his peers. His companions were library books and stories and mathematic proofs – nothing with a beating heart. They plagued his nightmares, for his mother had been brilliant too and what had that done for her? And those gifts came with a tremendous burden of pressure, they demanded use in a powerful way. Reid was always terrified he’d fail to live up to that impossible potential, proving himself unworthy of such great and terrible gifts.

By the time he’s thirty-six, he wonders why he was ever given such gifts in the first place. Clearly he’s squandered them, spent them on chasing monsters he thought might be human. They turned out to be hydras – for each one they catch, two more take its place. He’s let his mind waste away on drugs, on grief. In shacks and in prison and in grudges he just can’t let go of. He’s saved lives, he knows, but his team do that same thing without the gifts he’s been cursed with. What’s the point of him? Of any of the talents or tricks he possesses?

And it’s that question on his mind as he walks into a Virginia library to interview a witness to the latest in a string of serial arsons. Her name tag says Y/N. She’s clearly nervous, a little shaken, but she manages a smile when a child runs up to interrupt and ask her how to find The Magic Tree House books. And when she turns back to look at Reid, that smile still lingers – her eyes so bright it catches him off guard. She takes him back to the area of the library that was burned to talk about the crime scene, and she off-handedly asks if he has a favorite.

And when he says, “Oh I could never choose just one favorite. I love books too much for that,” that smile returns, unexpectedly bright.

“A man after my own heart,” she says. “Tell me a few then.” 

So he rattles off a handful, hoping at least one of them will keep that light in her eyes. They do. “Bradbury is one of my favorites, too. I just love Dandelion Wine. Sorry, I probably should focus on the fire. I try to distract myself when I feel stressed, and well, remembering what happened that night doesn’t exactly help with my anxiety.”

“It’s okay,” he tells her. “I tend to ramble when I’m nervous. Or excited. Really, I think I just talk a lot.” Another smile, one that crinkles the corners of her eyes. Over the course of the investigation, the BAU has to ask her to come to the station twice. By chance, Reid finds himself interviewing her both times, and both times he finds himself rambling a little more than he means to – because he finds himself inexplicably a little nervous and a little excited in her presence. It’s that smile, the one that lingers long in his mind after she leaves each time.

There’s something about her, about the light she seems to carry, that draws him in. That compels him to say yes when he shows up at the library to inform her they’ve caught the unsub and she asks, “Could I buy you a cup of coffee to show my appreciation? If that’s not too much, of course.”

“I think that would be perfect,” he says. And as they sit at the café across the street with lattes in oversized mugs, he’s never been so grateful for his vast knowledge of literature. Each title is a start into a new conversation with her, and they swap stories about stories – the ones they have lived and the ones they have loved. When she disappointedly announces her break is over, she adds, “But maybe we could do this again sometime?”

“Yes,” he says. “Please.”

“How should I get in touch with you if you’re not showing up at the library to interrogate me, Dr. Reid?” she teases.

He hastily withdraws his cell phone from his pocket and offers it to her. She begins to type in her number. “You, um, you can call me Spencer,” he tells her.

She grins at him and something in his chest shifts at the sight. “I’ll definitely call you soon, Spencer.” He’s never liked the sound of his own name more. And he thanks that eidetic memory of his for allowing him to replay it again and again in his mind until he can see her next.

.

They get coffee again the first chance he gets. And then again. When she asks how he has time to read so much and he tells her about how his mind works – about his memory and speed-reading and quantified intelligence, all the things that have been called gifts – she thinks for a moment before saying, “That must be lonely.”

The relief he feels at her understanding is immense. “It is sometimes,” he admits. “But it’s felt less so lately.” They go to a park together. Then out to dinner. By the time he realizes he’s falling, he’s forgotten what it feels like to be on solid ground. Fortunately, he isn’t the only one at the mercy of gravity. She feels it too. And when she laughs at his joke as he walks her home from dinner, he just can’t help himself. He leans in and cups her cheek to pull her to him, pressing his lips to her still-smiling lips. The taste of wine still on her tongue. And though he doesn’t drink anymore, the sensation of her is enough to make him feel utterly intoxicated.

Slowly, his life fills up with her. His sabbatical arrives with the perfect timing to allow him evenings and weekends with her. He picks her up after work. She meets him for breakfast. He takes her to the planetarium. She falls asleep on his couch. He tells her it won’t always be this way and she assures him that’s okay. But it gives him the chance to build the foundation their relationship needs. It’s in that time that he begins to catalogue her smiles in his memory. The dazzling ones she sends his way when she spots him at a coffee shop. The soft, shaky ones she wears after a long kiss. The coy ones that twist the corner of her mouth when she’s teasing him. The nervous one that slowly grows when she meets his team for the first time – not as a witness, but as his girlfriend. A title she declares like a badge of honor. He holds each smile in his mind, picture perfect thanks to that eidetic memory. When a case has been particularly tough or he’s away for longer than he’d like, he flips through them in his mind, trying to remember the cause of each one, trying to hold on to that light until he can hold her in his arms again.

.

He surprises her with flowers on her birthday. “You remembered?” she gasps, her eyes wide. “And these – these are my favorite. How did you know?”

“I could never forget,” he laughs, but she stares down at the bouquet and clutches them to her chest.

“I don’t make a big deal about my birthday, so people don’t usually remember,” she says quietly. “And nobody’s ever gotten me flowers before. Thank you, Spencer.” A pause, and then, “I love you.”

He grins from ear to ear. Forget the sound of his name, those three words are the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. “I love you, too.” It’s a first for both of them. And one week later comes another first – witnessing her panic attacks for the first time. She’s shaking too hard to tell him what she needs, so he tries to do what would help him. He sits down next to her on his living room rug and wraps her in his arms. He rests his head on her shoulder and murmurs the words to her favorite poem. She seems to breathe a little easier and so he recites another one she loves, and another until her breathing finally steadies and she unclenches her fists to wrap her arms around his neck, burying her face in his sweater.

Suddenly it doesn’t feel like such a curse to remember everything he reads when it means he can give her the words she loves when she needs them most.

The first time they sleep together is only the second time he’s been intimate with someone and he feels more awkward than he wishes he was. But he commits himself to studying, to remembering what she likes and what she doesn’t, and the next time he proves to be the quickest of learners when he succeeds at making her come within a matter of minutes. He discovers a new smile of hers, one of dreamy bliss and kiss-swollen lips. He loves it. He loves her, adores every single part of her she’s shared with him and every piece yet to be found. And to his continued surprise and delight, she loves him just as much.

He tries every day to be worthy of that love. He makes time for her. He goes to meet her friends and he shakes their hands even though he hates touching people, even though she insists, “You don’t have to. They won’t mind.” He does it because she’s the only person in the world whose touch he actually craves.

When she swoons over a dress Penelope has shown her on Instagram, he makes a note of it. She’s utterly enamored by it by her smile falls upon checking the price tag. It’s far out of her budget. So the next week when he’s out on a case in Atlantic City, he swings by one of the few casinos that doesn’t have his picture framed on the wall of their security office. He wins more than the cost of the dress in an hour and leaves before anyone can get suspicious. The dress arrives at his apartment the same day he gets home, and he invites her over to surprise her with it. When she opens the box, her eyes go wide.

“Spencer, this is… this can’t be. It’s… do you know how expensive this is?” Y/N asks.

Bashfully, he replies, “Now might be a good time to mention I’m banned from casinos in almost every state for my card counting abilities.” It’s well worth the little effort he expended to see the way her face lights up at the sight of it. And though he’s never been a gambling man, when he sees her wearing it for the first time he considers trying his luck a little more often.

At times he worries he’s doing too much, but how could it ever be when the way she loves him has been so much more than enough? For the first time in his life, he feels like maybe he’s enough. When she says, “I love you,” he believes it. When she says, “I’ll be back,” he trusts her. He’s given another person more of his heart than he ever has before, and for once he’s not afraid of it breaking. She doesn’t mind the strange hours he works or heaviness he sometimes carries with him. When he wakes up from a nightmare, she holds him close and keeps him grounded. He sends postcards from each city he visits and she makes his favorite food when he comes home and home is suddenly a place they share. She moves into his apartment and it feels like it was never complete without her there.

.

Not long after, there is a case in Boston. Their terrifyingly intelligent unsub taunts Reid as he leaves the interrogation room. “Judge me all you want, Dr. Reid. But I’ve used my mind to change the world. You’ve done nothing with yours.” The words haunt him on the flight home. He sits on the back of the plane lost in thought. What has he done? Sure he’s saved lives, but could he have done more? Could someone else have used those gifts he’s been burdened with in a way that was better? Why does he have any of these talents? Why has he acquired any of these skills?

His phone chimes. A text from her. Brought home a new book from the library I think you’ll love! Can’t wait to see you, dearest. And it hits him.

It’s her. All along it’s been her.

The answer echoes in his head as he races home to her. Everything in his life has led him to her, has let him be the person she needs. He can memorize all her favorite songs and poems to recite for her when her anxiety gets the best of her. He can remember every date that matters to her and everything she adores. He can read her favorite books overnight to talk about them with her in the morning. He can profile from her body language and her microexpressions when she’s having a bad day and needs him to be there for her, even when she’s too afraid to ask for what she needs. When she asks absurd questions out of the blue, he can give her actual answers with the useless encyclopedia of knowledge he’s obtained over the years. When she needs a distraction his rambling finally proves useful. It’s all for her.

She’s the reason his mind doesn’t feel like a curse anymore. How could he ever think of it with disdain when it’s the reason he can picture every smile she’s ever let him see? When he can catalogue every wonderful word from her lips, every inch of her skin, every action that drives her wild.

Reid can’t seem to open the door to their apartment fast enough. When he finally steps inside, she’s sitting on the couch. She turns away from the book in her lap to smile at him. “Welcome back,” she says. Then, tilting her head, “Is everything okay?”

An unshakeable grin spreads across his face and he knows he must look like a madman right now as he crosses the living to sit beside her. “Everything’s perfect. I just… I had this epiphany. All the things I hate about myself, you love. And all the things I can do let me love you better. It just feels like everything – everything has led me to you. Even the bad things, I mean, being in prison forced me to take sabbaticals and if I hadn’t we wouldn’t have had that time together early on and maybe we wouldn’t have worked and I don’t believe in fate,” he says, taking a breath. “But I can’t help but feel like for the first time, I’m right where I’m supposed to be. With you. Like that’s where I was meant to be all along. And I… I just thought you should know.”

His long-winded rambling is rewarded with one of his favorite smiles from her – one that makes her eyes soft and puts sunsets to shame. The kind she wears when she is incandescently happy. Her fingers lace through his and they are a perfect fit in his big hands. “There is nowhere else I’d rather be,” she says, leaning in to kiss him.

All his life, Spencer Reid has been told he is gifted. But this time, he thinks it might actually be true. He holds the greatest gift the universe has ever granted him in his arms and knows that no part of him is a curse if he is loved by her.

[spencers-renaissance]

I turn and reach for you

Summary: Three months after Hankel, Spencer starts getting terrible nightmares that keep him up at night. He tries desperately to keep his secret until one day when it's all too much to bear anymore. Luckily, Derek Morgan is there to hold him together as he falls apart.

Tags: nightmares, hurt/comfort, ptsd, angst with a happy ending, fluff, literal sleeping together, getting together, post-revelations TW: past non-con drug use mentioned once in passing

Pairing: Derek Morgan x Spencer Reid

Word Count: 2.1k

Masterlist // Read on AO3 // Bad Things Happen Bingo

This feels the "Nightmares" square on my Bad Things Happen bingo card, and was written for this prompt by @i-write-whump. Title from a poem by Devon Strang.

After Spencer is kidnapped by Tobias Hankel, he stays with Derek. Nobody on the team wants him to be alone, and he’s always felt the most comfortable with him, so it makes sense. Besides, he’s got the space.

Spencer sometimes wonders whether the team pushed so hard for it because they genuinely believed that, logistically, Derek was the best option, or because they could also see the slow-burning romance simmering under the surface of their relationship. They’ve always had a special friendship, but Spencer can feel the growing tension: the deep and intense looks they share mid-case, the lingering touches on backs and arms, the affection leaking into each ‘pretty boy’ and every ‘Der’.

Perhaps if Hankel never came into the picture they’d already be together — it really had felt like they were on the precipice of something special — but it’s three months later and Spencer’s still sleeping in the spare room; there’s still just as much will they, won’t they lingering in the air between them.

He tries not to mind too much. After all, he’s never had so much free access to the man he’s pined after for years now, and they’re living in each other’s pockets. Almost every waking hour is spent in one another’s company: they cook together, eat together, watch films together, and neither of them are showing any sign of getting sick of it. But every time they’re cooking pasta and Derek says something ridiculous, Spencer wishes he was allowed to lean in and kiss the tip of his nose; every time they sit down to watch something together, he wishes he could burrow into his side and rest his head in the crook of his neck.

(Sometimes, Spencer wishes he could rewind to the weeks immediately after the Hankel incident when Derek would carry him around the flat to keep him off his broken feet; when he could press his face into his shoulder and inhale the scent of complete and utter safety.)

It’s almost torturous, being so close yet so far.

He isn’t quite sure why the nightmares start so late. The nights during the first couple of months are blissfully dreamless, so exhausted from the physical and emotional trauma that sleep was a tantalising escape, but once he’s back in the field, once normal life resumes, everything changes.

The first time he wakes up sweating and panting, heart pounding as he tries to convince himself that he’s no longer in Hankel’s clutches but is safe and sound in Derek’s apartment, he dismisses it as a one-off. He hasn’t had nightmares yet, so why should they start now? He doesn’t go back to sleep that night, too shaken to relax back into the comforting embrace of sleep, too afraid of deception: that he wouldn’t sleep dreamlessly but that the nightmare would be waiting for him once again.

The second time worries him. He gets up this time and gets a glass of water as quietly as possible, leaning with his back against the kitchen counter as he ponders what this could mean for him. The thing is, they’re so incredibly vivid. It really feels like he’s back at the mercy of a three-in-one torturer armed with drugs and belts and guns, genuinely unsure of whether he’ll ever see his family again. He doesn’t go back to sleep this time, either, instead pacing around the living room until Derek wakes up. He lies that he’s only been up for half an hour, and Derek believes him.

The third time solidifies for Spencer the fact that this is a problem. Three is a pattern, everybody knows that, and Spencer spends the rest of the night scouring the internet for studies conducted around delayed trauma responses and discovers the prevalence of delayed-onset PTSD. He’s tempted to contact a professor he met during his third PhD who specialised in the psychology of trauma, but he thinks better of it. Admitting these nightmares would be admitting defeat.

This is something he has to deal with alone.

(He ignores the truth that it’s more fear than anything else that keeps him from telling anyone: fear of being seen as weak, fear of nothing changing, fear of voicing his trauma out loud. It’s easier to pretend it’s about independent agency.)

It doesn’t affect him too much at first. Sure, he’s scared to go to sleep and he sweats so profusely that it soaks through his bedsheets almost every night, but he’s managing. He’s okay. He contributes just as much to their profiles and takes down unsubs without flinching. He dances around Derek like they have done for over a year, and he sits through Dr Who marathons with Penelope just fine. So what if he’s a bit tired? He’s stared down some of America’s Most Wanted and interviewed famous serial killers, he can cope with a little fatigue.

It doesn’t stay that easy for long.

Soon everybody’s asking about the bags under his eyes, his slower reaction times when they visit the gun range, his twitchiness around the team.

“Are you sleeping okay, Spencer?” Penelope asks him one day, brushing a curly lock of hair behind his ears as they sit side by side on the sofa next to a conked out Derek.

He can’t nod his head quick enough. “Yeah! Yes, uh. Yes, Penelope, I’m sleeping fine, I promise,” he says as convincingly as he can, flashing her a smile. He hates lying to her, but he can’t let anyone find out, he just can’t.

Slowly, he begins losing his grip on reality. He’s almost delusional from the sleep deprivation, and he starts seeing Hankel everywhere he goes. He’s stood behind the fridge door, in the foyer of the FBI Headquarters, in the toilets of a local police station, stood right behind the unsub they’re currently trying to talk down, goddamnit.

He’s beyond exhausted, but some nights he still refuses to sleep, too afraid of what awaits him in his dreams, too afraid of the fear he knows he’ll carry into the next day, too afraid of feeling weak again. Helpless. Completely and utterly without agency.

He sits up with his back against the headboard, the main light off but the lamp switched on, scrolling through as many scholarly articles as he can read in a night, drinking cup after cup of steaming black coffee. Most nights he makes it through till morning without sleeping a wink, but sometimes he can’t stop himself from drifting off The nightmares on those nights are the worst.

He isn’t okay and people are starting to notice. Everyone’s walking on eggshells around him right now, but he knows it won’t be long before Penelope organises an intervention that Hotch hosts and Derek directs. The worst part about it is that he feels like a trainwreck waiting to happen. He’s headed straight for complete and utter collapse, and the only possible way to stop the train in its tracks is to reach out and get help, the one thing he can’t get himself to do.

And he isn’t even really sure why.

It all comes to a head on a warm night in July. He’d fallen into bed that night deliberately, actually intending to sleep for once. The bone-deep tiredness had finally caught up to him and he didn’t even care that he was walking straight into the arms of Tobias Hankel, if it meant he got even an iota of refreshing sleep, then it would be worth it.

But he isn’t quite of the same mind when he wakes up at two in the morning like he does almost every night: soaked in sweat with his heart going a million beats per minute, with only one difference. Tonight, he’s crying.

Maybe it’s the emotional turmoil of the last few months catching up to him, or maybe it’s just the severity of this particular dream, but whatever it is, he can’t seem to stop even once he’s awake. Sobs wrack his shoulders as he cries miserably into the pillow, finally letting out the emotions he’s kept bottled up so tightly, and he’s almost wailing after a couple of minutes of anguish.

All he can think as he cries helplessly is how badly he wants Derek. He wants to be wrapped up in his strong and safe embrace, he wants to feel the movement of his soft goatee against his cheek, he wants to inhale the comforting scent of his sleep t-shirts, he wants the warmth and solace that only Derek Morgan can give him, and in that moment, emotionally distraught and so incredibly sleep-deprived, he decides to get it.

He stumbles out of his bedroom and down the hall, stopping once he reaches Derek’s door. He hesitates for only a second before he pushes it open slowly, allowing the light from the lamp they keep switched on in the hallway to gently illuminate the shadows of his bedroom.

“Spencer?” Derek asks groggily, immediately sitting up and wiping his eyes. “What’s wrong? Are you crying?”

At the acknowledgement of his tears, Spencer starts to cry harder, and as embarrassed as he feels, he can’t slow the steady stream of tears rolling down his face as he stands in the doorway like a child in their parents’ room.

“Spence,” Derek says again, gentle and sympathetic, “come here.” He lifts the duvet up and scooches over slightly as if to make room for him in his already spacious king-size bed.

He doesn’t need to be told twice, though, and he stumbles forward, collapsing into bed and wrapping himself around Derek instantly. His arms come up to circle Spencer’s waist, caressing him gently as he holds him close to his body, shushing him quietly.

“It’s okay, Spence,” he murmurs. “I’m here now, alright? We’re gonna fix whatever it is, I promise you. We’ll get through this. You’ll get through this.”

He lets himself cry and cry and cry until his tears are dried up and he’s hiccupping from the force of his sobs. He would feel terrible about the damp spot left on Derek’s t-shirt, but he simply doesn’t have the energy. Instead, he continues to lie there on Derek’s chest, listening to his softly spoken assurances and losing himself in the sensation of Derek’s fingertips caressing the skin of his waist.

After a couple of minutes of silence, interrupted only by the odd hiccup from Spencer’s tired lungs, Derek finally asks the question. “What was that all about, pretty boy?” he asks with a tenderness Spencer isn’t sure he’s ever heard before. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Been having nightmares,” Spencer whispers, keeping his eyes closed against Derek’s imploring gaze.

He feels Derek tense beneath him, his fingers briefly pausing before resuming their comforting patterns on his waist, and a heavy breath escapes his lips. “For how long?”

“Last couple of months,” he mumbles, and somehow another tear manages to escape Spencer’s screwed up eyes.

“Well,” Derek sighs, “I suppose that explains a lot. We’ve been so worried about you, Spencer. We had no idea what was going on but we could all see you withdrawing, and it wasn’t exactly a secret how exhausted you were.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Derek says sadly. “I should’ve pushed harder to figure out what was going on with you. I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with this all alone.”

“I didn’t know how to tell anyone,” Spencer says, suddenly desperate to explain as he shifts slightly to look Derek in the eye. “I was so scared and I didn’t want anyone to think that I was weak or I couldn’t do my job anymore, and I just didn’t know what to do.”

“I know, Spence,” Derek says soothingly, “but you’ve told me now, haven’t you? And I’m going to do everything I can to get you some help. We’ll fix this, baby. I promise you, I’m going to make sure you’re happy and healthy again if it’s the last thing I do, okay?”

Spencer sniffs a little, wiping tiredly at his eyes as he blinks up at the sincerity on Derek’s face. For the first time in far too long he manages a smile. “Okay.”

Derek runs a hand through his hair before dropping a kiss to the top of his head. “Do you want to sleep here tonight?”

Spencer’s smile widens and he buries his face in Derek’s chest again as his cheeks flush red. “Please.”

Months later, they’ll realise they never officially asked one another to be in an actual, exclusive relationship. Months later, they’ll know instinctively and with absolute certainty that this night was the night that changed everything for them, and exactly one year later, they’ll celebrate their first anniversary on that date.

Tonight, though, they sleep curled up next to one another in Derek’s bed, and although Spencer doesn’t fall into the same dreamless sleep he grew used to immediately after Hankel, for once he isn’t haunted by nightmares, but dreams inflected with hope for what the future holds for them, and he’ll take that over dreamlessness any day.

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