#We've been thinking about this plot point for weeks then this asked dropped and we were like OK. THIS IS THE DAY. BRAIN POWER ACTIVATED

[pixiesfz]

would you write a jessie fleming fic?

uhm OF COURSE I would (:

plot: After an awkward Christmas dinner Jessie takes her girlfriend y/n back to their home and helps her relax

warnings: sappy, mentions of infertility

"Yes thank you so much for having us today," you told your older sister who looked back behind your back to her children "Well my kids do love Jessie" She nodded as you looked behind to see your girlfriend kicking a soccer ball with your nephew.

Jessie saw your glance paused her and Daniels one on one and excused herself to walk to you and your sister.

"hey sorry he started kicking at me and I felt rude to not kick back" she apologized and your sister laughed "You're really good with kids" she pointed out and Jessie nodded and put her arm around your waist .

"Makes me think when you guys will have a kid?"

Your sister's words rang through your brain and you felt Jessie's arm around you tighten. "We've thought about it and we are just both so busy with football" you started "you're almost thirty guys, don't you want to be hot mums" your sister laughed and you dropped and nodded your head, begging that tears wouldn't fall out.

You wanted kids, Jessie knew you wanted kids and she wanted kids for you. But it couldn't happen. The doctor said you were infertile and it was the most heart breaking news of your life.

You had spent that week stuck in your bed, your pillows stained in tears, only coming out for training. Emma understood when you couldn't play the game that week.

Jessie rubbed your back up and down as you thought of a quick excuse to go "We promised the girls we would finally be on time for team bonding this week so we have to go" you told your sister before hugging her and waving goodbye to your nephew "Bye Daniel" you croaked out before leaving out the front door.

Jessie turned and watched you with a frown, her own eyes starting to water. "Is she okay?" Your sister asked Jessie and she nodded "The girls have just really been on our backs for the past few weeks but she'll be okay" Jessie told your sister with a stern face and soon followed you out the door and into the car.

She was heart broken when she saw you breaking down in the passenger seat, tears slowly falling down your cheeks and your hand on your lower belly.

She knew it was your dream to one day become a mother.

Jessie sat in the drivers seat and caressed your cheek "let's go home" she whispered and you nodded "please"

The drive home wasn't awkward but there were not many words thrown to one another, just the comfort of being in each other's space.

Jessie's hand was placed on your thigh and you had yours on top. Jessie looked at you as you looked outside the window.

She would do anything for you.

She loved you.

When you got home you sat on the couch and put your present of wine that your sister got you on the kitchen bench. You had calmed down enough to sit on the couch as Jessie disappeared to go to the study.

"babe?" she called out from the room "yeah" you called back to her "I've got something to show you" she said as she started walking back into the lounge where you were sat "what is it?" you asked before turning backwards.

You gasped as you saw the outline of the papers your girlfriend was holding, she must have been at this for a while.

"I think we should" she stated and you nodded your head.

After the doctors appointment you weren't sure what Jessie wanted, you didn't want to put anything she wasn't comfortable with in the air.

But she had beaten it to you.

Adoption papers.

"I've been researching the best places, places where they treat the kids right and then also reporting places where they don't" she laughed a little at the end "I've been on Facebook pages as a random person named Lily Warson, asking others who had adopted random questions"

"If you're not comfortable with this it is totally fine but seeing you today I knew I had to bring it up" she finished and you looked at her with a loving smile.

You had just fallen in love with her once again.

You nodded eagerly as she placed the papers down on a nearby table "yeah?" she questioned with a smile "yes Jessie" you confirmed as she hoped over the couch to be with you a smile plastered on her face.

"I love you Jessie" you stated "I love you too y/n" She smiled and you pulled her in for a kiss.

Passionate was a way you would describe it, you could taste the salt from the tears that you didn't even know were rolling down you cheeks when Jessie smiled into the kiss.

"I want to raise a child with you y/n"

"I couldn't ask for anyone better" you smiled.

[that-fall-guy]

⭐ Hello fellow writing friend!

For the directors cut asks I hope it's not too much to ask for a commentary on our shared fic (Case 8008135) if you want. (I had so much fun with it!) Otherwise I'd love to hear more about All Ghost Stories are Love Stories.

OUGHHH I WOULD LOVE TO DO A CASE 8008135 COMMENTARY (it will be very long so I'll hide it under the cut)

But!! If you haven't read Case File 8008135: The Disappearance of Impulse EsVee and Skizz LehMan then please do, it's so unbelievably good. We put so much work into it over the 3 weeks of prep time we had and we're both super proud of it!!!

Once we'd come up with the concept (a story told entirely through found media), I knew the order of the evidence was going to do a lot of heavy lifting when it came to putting together a cohesive story. If we'd left evidence of a kind together, once the reader hit the transcripts they'd know the plot—they could click away. To create the suspense we needed, we'd have to focus on splitting up the sections. Once we had a list of the evidence, I highlighted them all with three colours to categorize them as worldbuilding, evidence, and plot. Then I rearranged them (on the list) to have a worldbuilding heavy beginning, then add a bit of plot, then slowly shift more towards evidence and plot.

The YouTube videos at the beginning were an idea we'd tossed around but hadn't quite settled on until the very end because the CSS.... ew. Props to Am, because it looks sooooo cool. I knew that, if we did add that section, I wanted it at the top: first, to show it off, and second to establish a sense of the universe. For the uninitiated, Sam and Colby (the first thumbnail) is a very popular pair of ghost hunters; they also once explored with Tommy, so I just took his outline from that thumbnail, cut it out, and pasted it in with them. I had to turn the sky red in my thumbnail because I couldn't get the red tinge from their thumbnail out of his hair lol. Insym is, of course, the Phasmophobia streamer, so we had to include him; and LoeyLane is one of my favourite other spooky streamers, and did a video on McKamey Manor.

The Yelp reviews (I have been informed they just broke this morning... thank you for fixing them Am!) set the scene—folks are spooked, and we're in or around Maple and Brule (small towns in Northern Wisconsin where I grew up). It's also the first instance of ghost text, although you likely won't notice it on your first time through.

The first article is our first heavy lore drop, explaining the doctors (E.V. Ilxisuma and Hels Knight) and introducing a conflict between them. When I was writing my article (the second one, super long) I was like, 'Oh, well obviously I'll use Pix as the author, he already does a lot of archival stuff so he's perfect!' and then I scroll back up and see we've both had the same idea?? So I, after a very long, boring, intense writing session, decided 'Eh, this is Pix's grandson, Pix III.' And I went to bed. But can I just point out the beautiful formatting of the articles? Because I love it so much. They're beautiful <3

The HR complaint establishes Sunny Meadows as a case only GIGGS could solve, and references (of course) a variety of other MCYTers for the funsies.

Am did such a wonderful job capturing the characters' voices in the texts and transcripts, and I just tried to follow through by implementing capitalization errors as I think they use. Impulse uses a lot of emojis— :) :> <3 o.o—and while I know that he doesn't use capitalization, I needed someone in the groupchat to use capitalization, so I gave it to the responsible dad. The texts are from Skizz's phone, which was recovered from the 'crime scene' by investigators. Gem later references the time of these texts in her witness statement.

The receipts!!!!! I'm exposing Am, she made the receipts and they look wonderful but you don't wanna know how long she spent making the Kwik-Trip receipt look as accurate as possible lmao. But it does! It looks incredible. It also holds one of my favourite ghost text moments lol.

And finally! Our first radio transcript! I had volunteered to write some of the transcripts, but Am is just too good at capturing character voice, and I'm glad she was willing to write them in the end. I just went through with a few grammatical edits. I will say, I learned a week or so ago that the ghost types are supposed to be capitalized.... which seems wrong to me. So they're all common nouns in our fic. I'm not sorry. I love the cutoff point for this transcript—in such a dark fic, the '"I'm going to chuck it at you." (Laughing) "You'd miss."' felt like the perfect place to cut the transcript and bring in a bit of that nervous happiness that comes when you're reading a tragedy. The dramatic irony of knowing the characters are going to die and all that.

Ah the witness statements! The first section so far that I've actually written lol. Scar's was the most painful because my method was to just tune into a stream, but when I tuned into Scar's he was in a very compelling frozen pickle discussion which turned into an anti-AI rant, so I couldn't just ignore what he was saying and write. Instead I spent half an hour actually invested in his stream before I could get anything done. Scar's witness statement is pretty useless from the detectives' PoV, but what can ya do?

The journal was really funny, I threw it together super fast. I'm very happy with Skizz's little doodle of their new outfits, it's just fun and cute. Adds a bit of lightness to combat the fic's weight.

We debated over who was the one to report the incident. Generally we wanted it to be an Emperor, and I mainly decided Scott because his witness statement would be easy to write (I understand his voice) and he's played Phasmo before. Skizz's ghost text is perfect lmao I love it. Absolutely something he'd say.

From Gem's witness statement I wanted to give readers the takeaway that Gem put in the work to figure out the timeline of what happened. The transition from her saying the ghost probably killed them to the transcript wherein the ghost kills them is... chef's kiss.

Boo! appearing image! That one's so fun to find. Back in July or August or so, I actually spent like 12 hours making my own copies of the UV prints by extracting them from the game because I needed them for a Powerpoint night, but I deleted them afterwards because why would I ever need those? The image you see in the fic was found on the internet. I'm disappointed in myself lol. The blood splatter was also a really cool detail that I love! I also found that one on the internet... but why reinvent the wheel, I suppose? The ghost text during hunts! Yes details! Am really brought my worldbuilding from the therapy journal to life with the ghost's hidden text moments. Impulse's scream there is from his Hermitcraft s9, when he was just chilling in his storage room and Pearl jumpscared him. The death sound is from the stream where they taught Pearl and Oli how to play.

I wrote the therapy journal in a few sittings because I kept hitting points where I just didn't know where to take it. I was, of course, trying to write from the point of view of a man in the mental hospital for a reason, but his problems were less intense before the doctors tried to step in. The character is based on Francis Delilez, who did murder his brother-in-law and referred to the voices compelling him as 'demoniacs.' His book is linked after the article, and I used it as a very influential source when writing any of the historical lore. My general concept for his treatment was that the medicine gives him a Hels; when medicated, he believes the pain (headache) grounds him to his body and lessens the delusions. His suicide attempt is an attempt to tether himself more, gone wrong.

Grian's statement is the most thorough and informative, giving detectives a rough idea of the events leading up to the deaths. I wanted to be more specific about their system, but Skizz likes to switch it up to mess with Impulse so I really couldn't make blanket statements like "Skizz takes the basement and Impulse takes the first floor."

The detectives were a rather last minute addition in the grand scheme of things! We didn't really plan their strong presence from the beginning, but realized they were necessary in order to move the plot forward (and also obstruct the plot lol). Frank Columbo, the experienced and collected detective, is of course a reference to the titular character of the show Columbo. John Dalton, the spooked newbie, is a reference to Jack Dalton from the original MacGyver, a character always getting himself into awkward and deadly scrapes.

Tango's statement was hard to write simply because he wouldn't actually know anything useful, but I wanted so badly for him to have information. Oh well. He's the one who identified and explained equipment from the evidence collection for the detectives.

The evidence images took so long to collect. I needed a picture of the objectives—the ghost event one was supposed to be "escape a ghost hunt" but the other two were what we intended, so once I got those objectives I decided to settle for that screenshot lol. Am had written some descriptions before I started trying for the pictures, so I had some guidance. The candles being next to the crucifix was easy enough, as was a random picture of the door to the padded room (framed like an interaction photo). I couldn't force the ghosts to be in the correct room, unfortunately, so the photos are mostly from other rooms. The ghost photo is notably from the entryway—and didn't glitch as much as I'd wanted it to, so I threw it into my photo editor and added some aftereffects and such for a better effect. The first time I tried to get a ghost photo, I got 3 stars but discovered the ghost had been a phantom. The Worst Luck lmao. The Employee of the Month certificate is absolutely perfect—it's in the evidence section because it was supposedly on the wall of the truck, but of course I can't fake that in-game. Paul Tergyst, their boss, is a play on poltergeist. I also have to say that getting a monkey paw photo was AWFUL. I'd show up and the cursed object would be missing? And after like ten attempts I found they were just glitched into the floor. I had to go to every spot and try to pull the cursed object out of the floor, and then it took so long to actually get the monkey paw (had to do a custom level that just gave me the monkey paw). Skizz's death scream is unfortunately a bit cut off because someone else started talking as his second scream ended, and I had to edit that out. I really don't remember which stream that's from and I didn't label the file :/

I loved Joker's statement! I managed to tune into the end of one of Joker's streams (it was late at night) and oh how I've missed him playing Phasmo honestly. I'm so glad he finally returned to the Phasmobros recently! Please oh please I want another JITS reunion stream so bad now that Jokes is feeling better.

Ah, the article. The Article. This took me so long, I wrote it in one sitting referencing Delilez' book constantly. It's a 1.6k essay on real things that happened at the Northern Wisconsin Hospital in Winnebago, WI. I changed the city and name, and we added MCYT characters, but the facts in the article are all true to real life unfortunately. The ghost's name, James Norfolk, is a reference to the Norfolk hospital, the medical records of which I used to create James' files. Pneumonia was the most common reported cause of death for males at the Norfolk hospital during the year of his fictional death.

The Google search histories were just fun little ways to show poor John's descent into paranoia and terror. The code for these sections is so incredibly finicky, really just awful. Broke every time we tried to make an edit to the draft. Personally I'm a fan of "escort hiring near me" -> "escort security hiring near me -sex"

The interview with Grian is so fun. Here is a man who knows exactly what happened and how to resolve the case. And here are two men who are going to do everything possible to stop him from doing that. Now make them talk. The officers lying to Grian about evidence was absolutely perfect to raise the tension and further the scene. Dalton cracking first out of desperation is such beautiful characterization—the loaded exchange between him and Columbo at that point is perfect. I do have to mention that, while I in no way coded the CSS or HTML, I formatted this transcript (via copy-paste) and adding timestamps was the bane of my existence the whole time. I had to consider how slowly people talk, how much empty space there is between statements... awful!

I just have to point out that the kids ribbing each other in the gc sounds so real and organic!!!

The big meaty action-scene transcript! The poor detectives think they're being clever. The jinn slows its LoS speedup because Impulse and Skizz turn off the breaker from beyond—while dead players can't manipulate the breaker, it can be turned on an off during a hunt by a living player, so we nixed the first mechanic in favour of the second. I played a couple rounds to test this. I died the first time, oops (it was dark and I walked into the ghost...) but the second time I made it to the breaker downstairs in Sunny Meadows. I turned it on as the ghost rounded the corner, turned it off knowing I was cornered, and the ghost changed speeds. Somehow I managed to get a jinn while testing a theoretical jinn mechanic?? I won't question the universe I guess, just a very strange coincidence. In the meantime, Grian's "I hope this works" is him guessing jinn and leaving. The mechanic we went for was that dead players revive when the living players drive off with the correct ghost type identified.

The reunion gc is just fun, them razzing the dads because of course. We also throw readers a bone if they haven't yet found out about the ghost text by showing it off via Impulse and Skizz's texts.

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1135 review

New year, new Piece, let's go! We kick off with a pleasant surprise of Tama taking charge in the cover story. Good for her. Holdem's dropped sword taking out the lion on the way down is a fun detail.

There's a mix of highs and lows in this first week of the year, Oda doubling down on some of his more offputting ways of handling children, but also some gorgeous art and character design, and the threat of not-Shanks and his friend ramping up.

As a reader, I'm not quite seeing the vision for this thread about Elbaph's youths yet. On one hand, we have Luffy and Usopp reinforcing again that this isn't what they wanted to see in Elbaph and treating it like a let-down or a broken promise. On the other, we've yet to see any giants object to or lament the state of their youngsters, even the members of the old warrior groups - even the ones who've been offshore for most of the time this reform was happening. But then we have Collun being portrayed as closer to Luffy's ideal, teased by the other kids for being a brute and encouraged only by Miss Ripley, who by her own admission teaches by negative example. Well, I asked for nuance, didn't I?

The one point I will outright dock at this stage is for the repetition of the pervy brat gag, which wore out its welcome with Momo several arcs ago.

For plot build-up that is coming together cleanly, I'm liking what Oda's done with Collun so far, the way he storms in and makes an impression on Luffy, establishing just the kind of outsider status to his society that just about all the Strawhats have experienced at some point. Add on Shanks' interest in him and his mysterious (but apparently locally based) human father and you've got a recipe for a character to keep an eye on.

All story stuff aside, the art here is awesome from start to finish. The scenes in the Owl Library are marked with a persistent wood grain detail, and Oda uses a bunch of creative perspective shots to emphasise the scale of the setting, whether we're looking down from Biblo's perch or the end of the swing's arc, or looking up from among the furniture or between blades of grass to see humans, giant children and giant adults each towering over the other in turn. I hope Oda's able to keep up this change in framing for the whole arc.

There's also a new batch of Elbaph outfits for the crew that just arrived. I think the Elbaph designs are a much more consistently good set than the Egghead ones. Now that everyone's got one, I can say with confidence there's no losers this time around.

I'm unsure what to make of the revelation that there's multiple Adam trees. You would think, given the crazy scale of it and the magnitude of the reveal that Oda would want to keep the Elbaph one feeling as special as possible. Does this mean there's more than one Eve tree as well? There has to be something more here he's setting up to circle back to.

The structure of the back half of the chapter feels a little odd to me. Jarul's reveal is a funny bit, but not the kind of cliffhanger panel Oda usually likes to go out on. It feels like the cutaway to the invaders in the castle might have been intended as the final scene, but moved to the middle after Oda realised it was too similar to the last chapter's end point; or it was moved up because he decided he wanted a scene break to justify the amount of time that passes between the Owl Library and feast scene.

Regardless, the scene serves to set up the newcomers as threats, as if there was any doubt. Oda likes to treat new powers with a bit of mystery when they're first used, hiding the details so that things just seem to happen. Go back to the early chapters and watch how the framing suggests Buggy is lifting an underling with his mind before the Chop Chop reveal, or Robin seeming to telekinetically steal the hat off Luffy's head at Wiskey Peak before the Flower Flower explanation. Look at how Haki was portrayed before the timeskip. At a glance, you might think the same thing is happening here as the giant guard collapses in agony, but a closer inspection shows ribbons or bandages like the ones covering the stranger's face appear to constrict his arms and legs between frames. Some kind of fabric manipulation power then? But is it a Devil Fruit, or like the Five Elders can we guess the ability comes from another source?

The last scene does a good job reminding us just how much of the series has been pointing toward Elbaph. So many giants with reasons to celebrate the Strawhats already, and this is before the actual arc plays out and gives them the chance to save the whole island. I don't think we've ever seen a welcome like this before. I'm as surprised as anyone that Luffy actually recognises Stansen, but I love the detail of his arm stretching through the background of the refresher panel to punch Charloss. Top notch.

[aihoshiino]

What are your thoughts on how onk is handling ruby recently

So I've been rattling my brains about this since long before this ask – since the chapter 123 leaks dropped, if I'm honest and I think I'm at a place where my feelings are "I understand why these choices are being made, I just don't like that these are the choices they went with".

(I kind of talked about this elsewhere last week, by coincidence, so sorry to anyone about to see me repeat myself LOL)

As someone who really, REALLY loves Ruby, it feels like there's been a consistent failure to properly center her and give her focus and interesting things to do since around the start of Tokyo Blade. Black hoshigan Ruby (as I've mentioned in a previous post) was a really interesting and exciting opportunity to dig into Ruby's trauma and darker feelings that OnK is comparatively quieter on. But with the benefit of hindsight now that the arc is over, it's clear that the whole thing was just a plot cul-de-sac - if I were feeling particularly uncharitable, I would go as far as to call it filler to waste time until Aqua was back in revenge mode. She might not ping back to white stars until 123 but black hoshigan Ruby essentially ceases to be relevant once Aqua is back in the picture until she can be used to serve his arc again.

And the frustrating thing is - I was so, SO fucking excited to see how Ruby was being handled in the start of the movie arc! It felt like we were building up to a really fantastic examination of Ruby's relationship with all three of her mothers, and the way toxic motherhood in general trickles down and poisons someone for long after they're out of the environment of abuse. The incredibly strong and vivid depictions of Ruby literally triggering and retraumatizing herself by engaging with material that depicted Ai's own abuse and the way it dragged back memories of her own abuse and abandonment were so powerful and so scary - her pain absolutely overflowed out of every single page and the care and tenderness with which it was depicted made me feel so deeply for Ruby. This poor, poor girl who has been in so much pain for so long and has done her best to be happy and strong but is at last reaching her human breaking point - it was so fucking good!

The arc we were promised for Ruby at the outset of the movie arc was, no joke, exactly the sort of thing I had been hoping and praying for Akasaka to do for her ever since I got back into the series in April. I really, genuinely thought this was finally going to be Ruby's time to shine and achieve some meaningful healing and catharsis.

And then the arc completely switches tracks to be about Aqua instead and all we've gotten from Ruby since is incest bait and her simping over her brother.

To be clear, I am 100% aware I am being disingenuous here and that there is way more going on than my eyerolling dismissal of it, but I'm trying to get across how it feels for me as a Ruby enjoyer VS how my Themes And Characterization And Narrative brain logically understands what is going on.

It absolutely completely makes sense for Ruby to be behaving this way right now. Gorou was the first and only person in her short life as Sarina to make her feel safe and valued and cared for and having the miracle of their reunion granted to her after she was sure she'd lost him forever and just as she was at emotional and mental rock bottom? That shit was GUARANTEED to turn her brain into soup and Ruby developing confusedly romantic and unhealthy feelings for Aqua vis-a-vis projecting Gorou onto him when she is so desperately in need of comfort and support is maybe not pretty or flattering, but it feels honestly, authentically weird and messy and uncomfortable. Oshi no Ko's willingness to portray character relationships with enough of that honesty to just let them be weird and fucked up and icky and unhealthy sometimes is something I really, really appreciate about it.

My issue is not that this plot point has happened to begin with - my issue is with how it's been framed. This is partially exacerbated by the manga's schedule getting FUBAR'd just after this reveal dropped and thus forcing us to stew in what I imagine is still the relatively early stages of this new status quo for maybe longer than intended, but we have gotten little to no serious examination of how Ruby actually feels about any of this. Almost every interaction the twins have had since this reveal dropped has been incest bait jokes. The fact that Ruby was in the middle of a massively overdue bit of character development that was finally all about her and her feelings only for that to get thrown to one side in favour of her being all uwu oniichansensei and being treated like a comic relief character is just so, so deeply insulting and betrays such a huge lack of respect for Ruby and her feelings.

The relative shallowness and childishness of them is, I think, intentional and accepting this uncritically as yummy ship bait is clown behaviour - we are playing around in this space specifically to soften us up for when the twins finally have an open and honest confrontation about this, but all that means is that for the time being, I am being asked to laugh at and vicariously enjoy Ruby's unhealthy, fucked up feelings born from her deep trauma and to be perfectly frank that just leaves me feeling fucking insulted.

As a survivor of the little sister incest anime boom and a fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena, I simply have no patience for a series that purports to take itself and its characters seriously then turns around and plays sibling incest for nudgewink laughs and ship bait, especially when it has derailed and, in the short term, superseded and ruined what was shaping to be an exciting and deeply emotional character arc for a character desperately in need of focus.

[a-face-made-for-radio]

🎙️So, Do We Have A Deal~?

You must be 18+ to interact with Alastor or any of my muses for that matter. Hazbin Hotel is a cartoon for adults and this blog will contain content not suitable for children. I am 21+ and I don't feel comfortable roleplaying with minors. Trust me, I will be checking.

That being said, please have your age/age range somewhere on your blog that is visible to mobile users. I am always on my phone and if I can't see your age, I'm going to assume you're a minor and block you. You can message me privately if you don't feel comfortable stating your age/age range publicly but if I suspect that you're a minor and/or you're lying about your age, I'm blocking you.

No non-RP blogs beyond this point if you please! If you're a hub for RP blogs, that's fine but otherwise, no personal blogs please. Also not blank or porn blogs. Personals (unless connected to an RP blog (s)), Blank and Porn blogs will be blocked on sight.

If your personal blog is connected to an RP blog at all, please have that stated somewhere or message me to let me know. I don't want to block a potential writing partner by accident

Don't harass me about responding. I will block you. I have ADHD and depression so muse is a fickle thing for me as is motivation. I may drop threads by accident because I lost muse or forgot to respond. So, if there's a thread you want to continue and it's been more than a week, send it to me!

If we're writing together, please please please please please please please please please give me something to work with! If I can't work with what you sent me, I can't respond. If I can't work with whatever it is you sent me, I'm going to ask you ONCE to fix it. If I still can't work with it, I'm going to ignore it. If it continues, I'm blocking you.

That being said, PLOT WITH ME!! I do so much better with a thread if we've plotted it out beforehand. This is especially true with starters and memes, think carefully before you send me something. If there's a specific context for that meme or that starter, TELL ME! I'm not a mind reader, guys!

As I said, I prefer plotting in general but plotting is 100000% REQUIRED if your muse is an OC. If I don't know your character, Alastor doesn't either.

Do not reblog shit you're not involved with. This is the single most annoying thing in my opinion and I will block you SO FAST if you do this. If it doesn't concern you, leave it alone. I don't care if y'all interact with my OOC posts/Discussion posts but please don't reblog shit that doesn't concern you. Headcanons can be reblogged by MUTUALS ONLY.

Don't Godmod. This portrayal of Alastor is MINE and I am more than capable of writing him. If you think you can do better, make your own Alastor but let me write mine, ok? Ok.

Please, for the love of everything unholy, do NOT write in first person, chat speak, chat style or script style if you're interested in writing with me. I can't work with it and it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine. No offense to those who enjoy it, I just can't do it. If this is the only way you plan on writing, move along.

Alastor is AroAce but shipping is still an option. I will have a Canon Divergent Alastor that's easier to ship with as well. Don't force ships though. I ship based of Canon, Chemistry and my own personal ships.

Ships you can expect to see are RadioDust, RadioHusk, RadioHuskerDust, RadioStatic (Alastor x Vox). Don't like? Don't interact. I'm not a fan of Charlastor, sorry! I'm open to other ships though!

Keep One-Liners to a minimum please!

There will be blood, gore and other disturbing content. If any of that bothers you, Alastor may not be the muse you want to play with. I am not changing my character for you, sorry about it.

Feel free to message me OOC!

If you disrespect me, my muse (This doesn't count if it's IC) or my rules on my blog, I'm blocking you.

If I Block you, DNI WITH MY BLOGS! Don't bloghop and harass me about it. LEAVE ME ALONE!

[merrock]

CHANGES FOR YEAR TWO!

After talking things over with Lindsey and evaluating where we are with the group, our writers, and the characters that we have, we've decided to adapt and make some changes to best suit the kind of community that we have been and would like to continue building.

MUN CAP.

the first change is that we have lowered our mun cap from 25 to 20; for now. admins will not count towards this! the reason for the change is that we like having a smaller group, and although we still think we have room to grow, we don't want to grow to the point where we feel people aren't able to plot and interact with everyone. at points where we have been that high, it was a major stressor, and we like the laidback vibes we have here.

CHARACTER CAP.

the second change is our character cap. we are going to allow players to play up to 10 characters using our standard diversity rules. (5/10 muse be diverse, and 2/5 must be black or indigenous.) we will consider allowing people to play more than 10 if their activity is exemplary (all replies kept up to date within a week or so, replying to new starters with priority, not ending up on warnings/checks), but these characters would have to be: 50+ in age, gender diverse, body diverse and/or disabled, no exceptions, and must either fill a wanted connection or have a plot in mind we can verify with someone else. Any role above ten is subject to be asked to pause or drop if we as admins feel your activity becomes inconsistent or unfair at any point, however.

A LIL MORE INTERACTIVE.

and lastly, we have really enjoyed getting your feedback through polls, or just talking in the OOC blog. we're going to try to get the Benefactor more involved by asking questions that will require answers again, posting polls, getting your help with planning some events/activities around town, or even just finding ways to improve our town. we want Merrock to be yours as much as it is ours, and a real community in character and out.

The reason for these changes is pretty simple! We really, really like where Merrock is at right now as far as vibes go. The small town, small group feeling, and the fact that so many of you seem very comfortable here. We'd rather offer you a home long term where you can play a large variety of characters than feel limited, and these changes allow us to expand in a way that doesn't take away from diversity or hurt the overall activity of the group, as we will still be very careful about approving new roles based on that! Maybe even more so. But we'd love to encourage people to play more characters (if they have the bandwidth) to expand their plotting abilities and help them branch out and make new connections. That, and who doesn't miss the Benefactor being around a bit more?

Please like this post once you have read it, to acknowledge that you are aware of the new changes! xx

[demonslayedher]

Ramble on Exposition Serving the Plot

Writing is hard, let me just get that out there first. Developing stuff is fun, but writing--conveying that interesting stuff in equally interesting ways--is hard. Gotouge-sensei had so, so, so much to convey, while also keeping readers wanting to come back for more every week. And, with this being Sensei's first serialized work, it's unsurprising how much it improves once the characters have been established and the manga finds its flow. I could say (and have said, when asked) a lot about the writing flaws, but I find the flaws so endearing nowadays that I don't like to criticize this manga. KnY wouldn't be KnY without its inherent silliness.

But on the first time around, when I didn't know and feel everything I do now, I found myself disappointed with Inosuke and Zenitsu's introduction to the story. I hated them both at first, though I had come around to Zenitsu by the end of the arc. Inosuke, though, ugh. That fight between Tanjiro and Inosuke felt so unnecessary, and weird what with that 'your face is pretty' bit, and Inosuke bending like a circus performer just because he can, but then especially how there's so little tension remaining after the fight, like Inosuke was all bark and no actual bite. I didn't actually like Inosuke until I saw him moping in bed, hahaha. XD Looking back it's so typical Tanjiro and Inosuke though, isn't it?

That all having been said, I really appreciate some details in how the exposition was worked into the plot.

What got me thinking about this especially was that showing us Zenitsu and Inosuke's heightened senses was actually relevant to the plot. It's really easy to mistake Zenitsu's first mention of sound for a trite exposition drop about how we're liking up a cast of heroes that can be sorted out as easily as Power Rangers, not for what color they wear but what sense they have special abilities with.

But since they were going up against a drum demon, with the drum being played being the very indicator of a demon's power being used, it was the most relevant way to both have Zenitsu notice something that would be very in-character for him to notice, and to get us looking for how sound might be relevant in a demon's powers. This is a laying of exposition groundwork, a red carpet for us to walk on as we march in with our hands cupped and ready to receive worldbuilding info about the demon, as opposed to simply having it dumped on us.

The introduction of Inosuke's senses comes on much, much more subtle, we don't actually gain a good understanding of his abilities until Mt. Natagumo, at which point we've already gotten a good understanding of Zenitsu's hearing, as well as Tanjiro's ability to smell world-specific stuff like Lines of Interval. However, it's first hinted at while Inosuke is running down the halls, dodging right before he'd have been attacked. As first time readers, it's easy to dismiss this entirely as him just having a good reaction, but on second reads you get the "ohhhhhhhhh I know what's happening here" satisfaction.

But what really drives the plot forward is here, when Inosuke has followed the aura of a demon.

Had Inosuke not sensed Nezuko: --Inosuke would have otherwise not had any reason to interact --Zenitsu would have had no reason to protect the box, thereby not giving Tanjiro (and readers) the chance to appreciate an entirely different side of Zenitsu's character --Tanjiro would had been the only one injured to go on to the next arc, leaving him with still only Nezuko to do much interacting with

That's another thing that works really well about the choice to make Inosuke fight Zenitsu as a way of driving the plot--as we had just been introduced to Inosuke and Zenitsu, thereby realistically not caring about them as much yet as we care about Tanjiro, it was too early to give either of them any serious injuries in battle against demons. In their introductions it was crucial we get an understanding for how they function as capable demon slayers and what their fighting style is like. They were fighting zako-oni (random background demons of no consequence) so as not to overshadow Tanjiro's battle with Kyogai, and you couldn't have them get seriously injured by zako-oni.

But if you need them to have some reason to stay in a long-term recovery at the same time as Tanjiro so as to build some bonds with each other before the following arc...? Oh, have them survive their demon encounters only to go and break each other's ribs instead, yes. Excellent work-around. Throw in some Corp rules exposition while you're at it, sure.

As much as I love Kyogai and I believe that fight showed a lot of Tanjiro's maturation as a Demon Slayer (as well as established Gotouge as extremely creative and established Ufotable as very, very ready and willing to show off), the scuffle over Nezuko's box--made possible only by Inosuke and Zenitsu's unique abilities, as well as the two of them revealing aspects of their personality by the decisions they made--was the most meaningful interaction in that whole arc, even if the 'your face is pretty' thing came right after it.

[viscountess-sharma]

I was just thinking out loud. I feel people who are saying we should have patience and not attack the cast and crew etc. They have to understand that the fandom has been patient so far. They've complained about the problematic PR but time and again they've again put their faith in the show runners.

If say the PR had been bad initially and they'd course corrected after fan complaints, people would have moved on.

But they keep repeating the pattern and other groups come around condescending to the unhappy fans that you need to keep patience, we still have xyz more weeks, you're over reacting blah blah. I am tired of people invalidating the genuine frustration of fans by constantly making excuses and putting the showrunners on some pedestal beyond criticism or reproach.

Sorry about the long rant but at this point I feel tired of the same group of people going around muzzling any dissenting voice by trying to shame them for feeling or voicing their unhappiness.

If the showrunners can't take criticism, the show will not improve and the unhappyfans actually want to see it succeed. The only thing that will save s2 now is the fact that Kathony are fan favs and Jonny and Simone deserve all the success in the the world!

Peace✌

I totally understand you and this is exactly how I feel too.

It all started with that ew interview which was totally a dumpster fire (expect of course the newton part cause it was too cute) not to mention them giving the lamest of the lamest reason about not getting the leads for the shoot. Then the triangle thing. When it was feeling like the dust was settling around that we got the posters. It made everything worse.

Personally I was really hoping we'd see a poster with Kate ,Edwina and Anthony, given that Edwina being the biggest kathony shipper I really wanted that (It would have made more sense if Kate stood inbetween Edwina and Anthony tho). Also where is mary? I wish the Sharmas got their own poster.

I know that the book and the show are not the same and we can't expect them to follow the book line by line. But can you imagine how weird it would look if that was the book cover? Cause It is totally irrelevant to the book plot.

Atm I'm trying very hard to convince myself that they are saving the main couple poster for the tv tie in cover release.

This is the only season we'll see both simone and jonny getting huge media attention. Though they'll be in the next seasons it won't be the same like their own. Take phoebe for example we didn't see her in any of season 2s promo content and they didn't even include her in the posters after even after first seasons huge success. So kathony fans have every right to demand this.

I am very disappointed at kathony being constantly sidelined in every official promo content they drop. It is so exhausting. Like can't they even give us a poster featuring the season 2 leads? It's so tiring that we have to beg them for literally everything.

I don't really expect you to understand this if you are not a kathony fan but may be in years when your favourite couple get the same treatment you will. I'm really hoping they won't repeat the same mistake again with other couples because I don't want any other actor to experience what Charithra went through. She unfortunately got caught in to the middle of this between the fans and the pr person.

Also I'm sick of people asking us to be patient. Like we've been very patient all this while. Fans have every right to voice out their valid opinion cause Netflix/bridgerton are hugely benefiting from them too.

Speaking of season 2 Jonny and Simone are going to raise the bar so high and season 2 is going to be absolute flames!!! 😌♥️✨

You are always welcome to rant in here!

[imaginationintowords]

Folklore [song series]

peace

Modern Day AU! Steve Rogers x OC!Reader

Plot: Inspired by Taylor Swift’s new album Folklore. The story follows the timeline of Bucky and Elizabeth’s life throughout the years

[word count: 2265]

[a/n: sorry for the wait. it was my birthday last weekend so i was just chilling. but here it is, just in time for the anniversary of folklore's release. the final chapter of my folklore song series. i started this last fall, and it's now the end. thank you to all who read the story and commented and showed it love. you don't know how much that means to me, that people liked it so much. thank you for joining this journey with me, and I hope the ending is a nice little bow to finish it off]

Series Masterlist

Age: 27

Year: July 2021 [two weeks after engagement]

Location: New York

Two weeks after their engagement, Steve and Elizabeth were still living off of the high from their engagement.

They were currently spending some time in New York. Liz had just graduated from law school that spring, while Steve was still working at the same architect firm. That was actually also why they were in New York.

The company was opening another branch in New York. Steve was offered a promotion, but it would only be available at the New York office.

In the few years since Steve graduated, he's been excelling in the architect world. He's really made a name for himself. Last year he was named the "hottest" up and coming architect. Ever since then he's been very busy. His boss gave him the month off, to propose to Liz, and to take a tour of the new office.

Steve told Liz that they'd only move back if that's what she really wanted. Especially since she just finished law school, and she still needs to take the state bar exam. She would need to figure that out soon, because the NY state bar exam date was closing in on her.

She and Steve decided a month in NY would help them both decide if moving back would be best. If they did decide to move back Steve would already have job waiting for him. Liz on the other hand might not.

Luckily for her, Loki was currently working at a law firm in NY. He was able to get her an interview while she was in town. He couldn't promise her a position, as there were a lot of people up for the job, some had even interned there. But Liz still went to the interview giving it her best.

Loki and Scott moved to NY two years ago, both their jobs taking them there. They ended up eloping right before their move, two years after Thor and Wanda got married.

Thor and Wanda had officially been married for four years. They were also considering the move over to the east coast. Both of their families lived out there and it just made more sense to them, especially with them trying to start a family.

Family was a massive pro for Steve and Liz as well. Moving back would mean seeing their loved ones a lot more. Especially now with Poppy about to turn six, part of them felt like they were missing out on their goddaughter's life. Steve also missed Bucky.

Bucky was doing really well in his career. He's currently working as a sound engineer for a movie studio. A big step up from the local recording studio he started in.

He was currently looking for a place to move to in Manhattan. Now that Poppy was about to be six, and she was already going to school in the city, it was time they officially made the move.

Actually he's no his girlfriend had decided to move in together.

Dr. Jane Foster is a pediatric fellow. She was in her first year of fellowship at a private practice in Manhattan.

Bucky and Jane met three years ago, through Sam Wilson. Bucky was hesitant at first to date, because he's a single father, and his main priority has always been Poppy since the day she was born. But

Sam had convinced Bucky to go on just one date. One date was all it took. Bucky was immediately hooked. Same went for Jane.

Jane was incredibly understanding of Bucky's situation. And it also helped that she loved children.

Jane met Poppy four months into the relationship and since then everything has been going great for the three of them. Jane instantly fell in love with Poppy and Poppy loved Jane a lot. Bucky had truly never felt happier. When he was alone with his girls he felt complete. When Bucky brought up the idea of officially making the move, he and Jane made the decision to move in together. They were practically already living together at that point. They were all very excited about this next step in their relationship.

Steve and Elizabeth were watching Poppy for the day while Bucky and Jane worked. They decided to spend their day in the city, walking around what could possibly be their new neighborhood. Poppy was loving having them around, and talking up their ears about school and all the friends she has made.

Around lunch time Poppy started to get hungry and sleepy. They decided to stop at a café and get some lunch.

Liz went inside while Steve and Poppy sat outside. Poppy ended up falling asleep on Steve while they waited for Liz. Steve found himself thinking about the possibility of living there.

Truth be told part of him did want to move back. He genuinely missed the New York City way of living. As he relaxes into the sounds of the city, he hears his name being called out. He looks straight ahead, looking for whoever called him, or if they were calling another Steve. As his eyes scanned the crowd, he met the eyes of the last person he would ever think he would see again.

He was completely shocked.

"Peggy?" Steve questioned, as the woman stopped in front of the table.

"I thought that was you," she smiled, "Wow. You most certainly aren't 17 anymore."

Peggy checks him out, as he stayed in his seat. She wasn't being subtle about it either.

Steve cleared his throat, noticing the way Peggy was eyeing him up and down, "Well it has been a decade wince we've last seen each other."

Peggy glances at the sleeping Poppy in his lap.

"Is this your daughter?" She asks pointing at Poppy, then glancing at his left hand noticing there wasn't a ring on his finger.

"Oh, no. This is my goddaughter. She's actually Bucky's," Steve tells her.

"No way," she gasps, surprised by this information. At that moment Elizabeth walks out of the cafe with a number plaque for the table.

"Oh my gosh! Elizabeth?" Peggy greeted.

"Peggy?" Liz asked confused at this older version of Peggy Carter.

"Yeah," she smiled.

Elizabeth put the number plaque on the table, Peggy catches the shimmer of her engagement ring.

"Oh wow! Congratulations," she says grabbing Liz's left hand, "You have a really beautiful daughter. I'm so happy for you and Bucky. High school sweethearts, making it til the end."

Liz was confused, she looked at Steve, hoping he could get them out of this awkward, and slightly uncomfortable situation.

"Um actually, this isn't her daughter, and she's not engaged or married to Bucky," Steve says, "We're actually the ones engaged."

Peggy was taken by surprise at this brand new information, not expecting to hear those words come out of Steve's mouth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. My mistake," she apologizes, embarrassed.

"Well Congratulations," she awkwardly says, glancing at her watch, "I better be on my way. But hey here's my card. I moved back a couple of months ago. But we should all get dinner and catch up. There's clearly a lot I have missed."

She hands Liz the business card and walks away.

"Well that was random," Steve awkwardly laughs.

"What are the odds," Liz says sitting across from Steve, "Didn't even know she was back."

Liz cleared her throat and tried to focus on the city around her.

Con: Peggy Carter.

Steve and Elizabeth continued on with their day. At the end of the day, they dropped Poppy off at Jane's apartment and headed to their hotel.

Throughout their day there was a slight tension between the couple, it didn't go unnoticed by the both of them. Neither could figure out what the tension was. They both knew it had to do with the sudden appearance of Peggy Carter.

They laid in their hotel bed, each with a book in their hands. Their nightly read.

Elizabeth had a hard time focusing on what she was reading. She tried to force away thoughts of Peggy Carter out of her head. She flipped the page and stopped when she noticed her engagement ring. She took a long stare at it.

"Do you regret it?" She asks, turning her head towards him.

"Regret what?" He asks putting his book down and turning to face her.

"You and Peggy breaking up," she says, "Do you regret it?"

Steve is taken back by Liz's question.

"No," he shakes his head, "I don't regret it."

"Do you ever wonder what you're life would've been like had she stayed?"

Steve ponders over the question, "Truthfully? No. Once we said our final goodbyes in London, that was it. I never once gave it another thought. I closed that chapter as soon as I boarded my flight. Not that the breakup didn't hurt. Because it did. I just knew then that she wasn't my future. I never thought I would see her again."

"But you did," Liz quietly says.

"Yeah, which was weird," he says.

"I wouldn't blame you if you wanted out of the relationship to be with her," she says tearing up.

"What? No," Steve quickly says, sitting straight up, "I don't want that."

"I just mean, if you wanted to. I would completely understand. She was your first love."

"Yes, she was. But I don't love her," he says, "I know this is only coming up because we saw her today, and there's been this out of awkward tension in the air ever since. But I don't want to be with Peggy."

Liz glances down at her engagement ring again, trying to hide the tears of insecurity rolling down her face.

"Look at me," he softly says, placing his hand over her's, "I love you and only you. I asked you to marry me because you're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. You and only. Peggy doesn't mean anything to me. I haven't even thought of her since high school. You mean more to me than anything in this world. Especially more than some high school ex-girlfriend. You, Elizabeth are my entire world."

"Why would you even think that?" He gently asks

"Just seeing her and the way she looked at you before she realized we were engaged," she says, "She wanted you. Then my mind started to wonder if maybe that was a sign for you two to get back together. And maybe you'd realize you regret proposing to me."

"There isn't an ounce of regret in me that makes me feel like I'm making the wrong decision," he assures her, "There is no one else for me. You are it. Proposing to you wasn't for confidence. Proposing to you was the only thing I've ever felt so sure of. It was the only thing I've ever done that I didn't second guess. You are the only thing I've ever felt so sure of."

"This," he grabs her and and gestures between the both of them, "Is where I want to be for the rest of my life. This brings me a peace like no other. You are my peace."

Age: 27

Year: May 2022

Location: Somewhere in Upstate New York

"You are my peace," Steve sniffles, as he holds Elizabeth's hands, tears flowing down both of their faces as they stood up in front of their closest friends and families, reciting their vows.

"I don't think I would be where I am today without you and your continued support. I meant what I said years ago about following you wherever you went. All I ever want is to be by your side. Nothing else has ever meant to me as you do. My future doesn't exist if you're not apart of it. Nothing matters if I don't have you. Since the day we met, twenty years ago, I knew you would play such an important part in my life. We clearly aren't the same people we were then. Yet over the many years you haven't strayed away from being this kind supportive, understanding person. To know one day our future kids will have that as a mother, overwhelms me with joy and love. They will be the most luckiest kids in the world.

"You are it for me. You are my world. I know everyone says weddings and getting married is the start of a new chapter, but it doesn't really feel lie that for us. It just feel like our story is continuing. There's no end in sight. And I'll make sure of that, by being supportive, kind to you for the rest of our lives. There won't be a time where you ever have to question my love for you. Because Elizabeth Sanchez, you are love."

Elizabeth has tears streaming down her face. She didn't' care how she looked. The only person that mattered was the man standing before her, professing his never ending love for her.

The pastors signaled her, that it was now her turn to speak.

"I figured I'd try and keep it short and sweet, because you know exactly how I feel about you Steve," she begins, "There's only one thing I want to say, more so I want to thank you. Thank you for giving me love. An unconditional love that never seems to fade. Since day one of our relationship. You've been patient. You always say I'm the supportive one, but you fail to see that you are too. Even more than me. You've always been willing to drop everything, not just for me but for all the ones you love. Anyone who has Steve Rogers' love, should count themselves as being incredibly special. I am the luckiest pet one out of them all because I get to be the recipient of your love every single day. I am the one who gets to spend the rest of their life calling you my husband. My partner. My life. You've shown me a love like no other. So thank-you Steve, for loving me."

Folklore series taglist: @iheartsebandchris @perksofbeingabookworm @atomicsoulcollecto @void-imaginations @stumbleonmywords

Permanent taglist: @rosegolddivinity @definitelynotafangirl-blog1 @1awesomeash @princess-evans-addict @24kbratz @introvertatitsfinest @imagine-all-the-imagines @also-fangirlinsweden @rororo06 @getlostinyourparadise @small-death-and-codeine @bonkyboinkybucky @sincerely-kizzy @loudthoughts-softspoken @aquariuslavenderhoney @cherriesanwine @goalexis123 @sassyslytherinshai @loving-books-is-easier @katiaw2 @xoxabs88xox @osugahunnyicedtea @katierpblogg @thefridgeismybestie @maybeimkate @lou-la-lou @demirunner @celineann91 @marie1115 @fangirl-couch-potato @lokisironthrone @daughterofthenight117

[eagles-translated]

Answering Eagles questions before the season 3 finale (Part 2/2)

I've received a bunch of questions since 3x08 and 3x09 dropped, so I compiled all the questions into two posts. I had to split them up because Tumblr only allows 10 images per post. Anyway, keep reading to see my answers and enjoy! 👇

There might be some kind of collaboration between Amie and Ludde like last season—we have only heard snippets of Ludde's song submission to the music school and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw Amie perform the song in its entirety in the last episode. I touched on this a little in part 1 of answering these questions.

It seems like Amie singing at the end of the season has become kind of a recurring theme. She performed “Follow” in 1x08 and “Second Sight” in 2x10 (on the radio, but my point still stands). I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed this trend by having Amie perform a new song in the season 3 finale.

I'm not sure if she'll recommend Ludde to the record label, though. I honestly still feel like Amie's whole storyline with sending in a rather basic demo written by two teenagers with little to no experience and then getting praised on it with comments such as "it's going to be a real summer hit" felt so unrealistic to me. Maybe they only said that so Amie would accept their offer or something, but that's still very strange because she would have still said yes without a doubt.

I can understand that they thought Amie was marketable as a person and there was this bonus with her having gone viral before on Felicia's Instagram, but that demo did not seem good enough for me to be immediately released as a single and then have them decide on the spot that Amie would be given a contract.

I mean, come on. It never felt earned because we never really saw Amie struggling with her songwriting journey to achieve this dream. Sending in one demo to one record label and having them immediately want to make a whole album with you just doesn't happen in real life unless the song is extremely good or you have a very unique voice. Amie is really talented but there are hundreds of people just like her, if not thousands. I was never convinced by her getting signed so quickly in season 2.

I understand that they wanted to establish her as a successful artist, but that felt so rushed. I was so sure that the record label would screw her over and steal the song rights to record it with another artist who was already established, and that we'd have to see Amie work even harder to achieve her dreams. But we didn't get that at all. Where was the struggle?

Anyway, I'm getting a little off-topic here. To be honest I have a lot of problems with the writing sometimes, even if I still love the show and its characters. Of course I wanted to see Amie achieve success (and I was happy when she did), but the journey there was so bizarrely easy.

She didn't start to seriously work on making her music career become a reality until season 2. Amie had dabbled in music prior to that, like when she auditioned for the school band and did that performance of Follow, but she didn't truly start to work towards it until season 2 when she decided to have her work sent to professionals in the business. And then, just five episodes later, she gets contacted by the record label in Stockholm.

To put this into context—season 2 took place somewhere around March, and episode 5 around three weeks into April. So when Ludde first started helping Amie it took less than two months for her to get signed. You could argue that the song was just that good or that Amie is just that talented, but it never felt like a realistic storyline to me.

So, back to your question! I need to stop getting so sidetracked while answering these haha. I don't think it would be realistic for the record label to hire a teenager with no professional songwriting experience, likely a very small portfolio of his own work in both size and variety, having a criminal record, and on top of that being infamous in the press for abusing his ex-girlfriend. If Amie offered the ultimatum to her label that she'll only return with Ludde, who has an incredibly bad reputation right now, it feels like she would be running the risk of losing the contract entirely.

There's only so much her label can put up with. We've seen Amie ignore their calls with no intention of reassuring them that she's coming back soon. Honestly, with the way things are looking right now it makes the most sense for the contract to be dropped. By Amie or by the label, I don't know.

The episode description for the season finale says that Ludde will get some sort of justice and it could be about his music (or something related to whatever Andreas is doing).

I believe Amie will be doing a live performance of Ludde's song at a New Year's Eve party in episode 10 but I doubt that Ludde will be picked up as a producer. If he actually does I would find that to be a very unrealistic plot point, to be completely honest with you.

This is an issue I had with 3x08 and 3x09 as well. I had a hard time actually enjoying the moment between Felicia, Klara, and Amie knowing that her family was getting increasingly worried for her and even thought for a short moment that Felicia was lying dead at the bottom of the ocean. All that could've been avoided.

To add, it didn't make a lot of sense to me that when Klara finally decided to call someone she called Amie instead of Elias. An ex-friend of Felicia's instead of her brother who could've helped a lot more. What was Amie supposed to do when she showed up at the hotel, exactly?

I know there was the thing with Klara only knowing Amie's number off the top of her head, but there is no reason why she couldn't have gone down to the reception while Felicia was sleeping and asked to use a computer just to get a quick message to Elias. Like, "hey, Felicia attempted something bad but she's safe with me, we're at this hotel in this room but she didn't want me to call anybody, I don't know what to do". That would've been so much better than keeping quiet about the situation for nearly 24 hours.

I know that Klara probably has trauma from leaving her dad at the hospital after his suicide attempt and that she probably didn't want to go against Felicia's wishes. I understand the first part 100%. But Felicia was in a very bad place emotionally and was thinking that her whole family hated her when that wasn't the case. I feel like in a situation like that you kind of have to be the bad guy just to ensure the family that Felicia was safe. Even if everything turned out alright in the end, it could've gone so much worse if Felicia had wanted to be kept hidden for longer.

The ending of 3x08 was super tough to watch and I can't imagine the feeling of thinking your only daughter/sister drowned herself after you just yelled at her and showed no support. Klara couldn't have known any of this, but I feel like she should've at least contacted Elias if she wasn't taking Felicia to a hospital.

Elias calling Amie would've been an easy solution to this whole debacle but we would've lost the drama. It's still somewhat of a plot hole though, like you said.

Thank you for reading that whole post @detectivejulesohara!

The clip you're referring to was posted on Yandeh Sallah's Instagram account, so not in a trailer for this season.

I think that was either just fanservice or it will appear in season 4 since it was posted in May of this year, and I believe the filming of season 3 had already wrapped by then.

It might indicate that Elias and Amie will be a couple by season 4 (this actually seems very likely regardless if this is actually part of a scene or not).

I think Elias is getting increasingly frustrated with hockey and the fact that he doesn't really have any other ambitions to strive for. He was raised with nothing but hockey surrounding him and it's in his blood. Elias got drafted to the US at around the same age as Mats, but Elias left after a year because he just wasn't progressing.

That must feel like a huge step back, and on top of that Mats was probably thriving in his successful career around the age that Elias is now. It's a tough difference in success to have weighing on your shoulders when you're in a team that's second to last in the rankings.

There's even the accusation in the press that Mats paid for Elias to advance in the rankings, and I'm sure that's going to affect his career negatively.

I think Elias overworking himself could also be the result of him feeling like he has to prove that returning to Eagles—a small club that is probably having their worst season ever—was in fact the right choice and not the death of his elite hockey career. That choice was very questionable from the very start and his agent advised against it. Even Mats found it strange. Elias said that he didn't really have a choice most likely because of the clause in his contract, but then he also claims to Mats that things just turned out that way.

Ludde: You don’t regret coming back [to Eagles]? Elias: I didn’t really have a choice.

The idea that he didn't have a choice in the matter doesn't seem accurate. His agent told him there were other alternatives like Jokerit (a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland) and that they could find something better than Eagles. Elias seemed kind of defeated already and the decision to return to Eagles didn't feel thought-through at all. It's almost like he just didn't care.

Agent: [...] Jokerit has called and I’ve had a great conversation with them, so they’re on. Elias: You know what? Let’s skip all the trouble. Let’s go with Eagles, it’ll be great. Agent: What? Elias: I’m so tired of moving all the time anyway, plus I’ll be close to my family. Agent: Wait, I thought that you— Eagles has big economical problems, and… Sorry, but their season started awfully. We can get a better team. You understand, right? Elias: Yeah, but we can’t get a team that needs me as much. Plus— If they say they want to see development, I’ll give them that. Agent: Wait— They’re under the line. We’re talking about qualifying down directly. You can’t in earnest believe you’ll change that on your own. Elias: It’s perfect. I’ll only go up, as you like to say.

It also seems like he's maybe realizing that hockey isn't everything and that there are other things he might want to explore and pursue in his life. I think Elias is feeling kind of stuck right now. He's been training his whole life for one purpose which is a professional career in hockey, and maybe he feels like Mats wouldn't allow him to quit. That option doesn't exist to him.

Like you said, Mats had that comment where he labeled Ludde a "quitter" and Elias stressed the fact that there shouldn't be anything wrong with losing interest and deciding to pursue something else.

Mats: Can you imagine that he’s just quitting? I mean, I’m completely— He really didn’t strike me as a quitter. So fucking close. [...] Elias: [...] Ludde, he’s… He’s not a quitter, he’s just didn’t want it anymore. That should be fair.

However, quitting is seen as failure to Mats. Mats dropped everything when he got drafted. He left his relationship with Petra seemingly without a second thought, because hockey comes before everything for Mats. Felicia even mentioned back in season 1 how her father was just a voice in a telephone for most of her childhood. He barely had any presence in her life because he was busy with hockey.

When Klara tells Elias that he's always putting hockey first, he gets angry but he doesn't outright deny it. In fact, he kind of changes the subject to shift attention away from Klara's claim.

Klara: This— You haven’t changed at all. You’re always putting yourself first. Elias: Excuse me? Klara: Yes, it’s either you or hockey. Elias: Stop! What the— Klara: I can’t take this. Elias: Are you leaving now? I wasn’t the only one you dumped. You’ve been acting like shit to Felicia. Yeah, and Amie and Ludde too, for that matter. You haven’t thought about that? So don’t come here and say I’m the egoist.

This is kind of an interesting thought—that maybe Elias subconsciously knew that was Klara is saying is true to some degree and that he has been putting hockey first. He decided to get on the train to the draft combine in Seattle instead of staying with Klara, and a year later he realizes that things didn't turn out the way that he'd planned and he returns to Eagles.

Maybe Elias is trying so hard to be someone who he just isn't, and it's affecting so many aspects of his life negatively. He lost Klara, he had to repeat almost his whole last year in high school because of moving to the US, and now he seems to be stuck in Oskarshamn. He's previously expressed to Amie that this isn't necessarily where he wanted to end up.

Elias: [...] Hey, is it just me or is there something about this town that… It sort of feels like no matter how much you try to get away, it… It pulls you back somehow.

It's kind of strange that he doesn't want to be in Oskarshamn, and yet he was the one who chose to return. Maybe he somehow feels like he has some purpose there because it keeps pulling him back. He just doesn't know what that purpose is.

Elias tried coming back to Eagles to turn things around for them, and they did win a game against the Capitals but that victory was later tarnished by the fight that broke out between the two teams (and to add to this, the loss of Ludde who used to be one of the star players and Klara as a sponsor). That kind of overshadowed their whole victory. Elias was very determined to do something to help and it very much feels like he needs Eagles to succeed—he needs to sort of "redeem" himself.

Elias: [...] Can I do anything? Can I go talk to— I could go talk to the sponsor. Mats: Let’s deal with it later. I’ll solve this. You have to go to school now. Elias: But we can finish talking— Mats: You can— No. Try to think of something else. Alright?

I think that Elias's desperation for Eagles to do well could absolutely lead to him eventually deciding to be a coach. He doesn't really seem to want the life that Mats had after seeing how success turned out for him—a broken family that he barely cares about because hockey occupies his mind more than caring for his children or repairing the relationship with Leila.

I think Elias being a hockey coach could suit him, but I would also love to see him exploring things outside of hockey—maybe even his interests outside of sport entirely.

I kind of agree with you on this. Klara has apologized to Felicia and been forgiven, but we've never seen her properly apologize to Amie for filming that video of her and posting it on social media. Amie and Ludde were in the wrong, yes, but that video being posted was humiliating for both of them. They had to deal with the ramifications of that for months after with the whole school judging them in silence.

To be fair, the video was posted a long time ago in the show's time frame (nearly two years ago if I'm right?) and they all kind of moved on from it. To add to this, maybe she felt it would've been kind of awkward to apologize with Felicia in the room.

Felicia was so hurt by that video being posted and I think it would feel very weird for her that Klara would apologize for posting the video when it's the sole reason Felicia found out what had been done to her. Without that video, she would've probably gone a few more months without being told what happened at the Halloween party.

I'm waiting for a Klara and Amie reconciliation in this season finale. I feel like this is something that should be discussed between just the two of them, and maybe they'll sneak in some blessing from Klara with the whole budding Elias and Amie relationship? I'd be happy with just a reconciliation, though, but I'm unsure if we'll get one. I have a feeling they'll start the season finale with a time jump and I don't know if Klara is even going to be in Oskarshamn by that time.

If we don't see them reconnecting in the season finale I will be pretty disappointed, to be honest.

Thank you! I really appreciate you too @lunawedlers (your gifsets are absolutely magical)!

This question was sent in a while ago but as season 3 had just started airing I was very excited to see the development of Elias and Amie, mostly because the director had been hinting on Twitter that something would happen between them this season. I've been really interested in them ever since 1x03 and so far the wait has been worth it.

I think all episodes have great visuals, but if I had to pick one I would probably say 3x06. All those shots of Elias and Amie on the walk through the park, the drone shots, and then the view from that bench spot were so gorgeous visually. That answer is more of a scene rather than a whole episode haha, but I think they really made the beauty of Oskarshamn stand out in those shots.

I think Amie will have some sort of performance in the final episode of a new song and that Elias will be watching her! After reading the episode description for the final episode and seeing that there will probably be some New Year's Eve party going on, I have a feeling that Amie will be performing. She's always had a performance of a new song in every season finale and this one should be no exception.

They tricked us a little in the season 3 trailer with us thinking that Elias would be at one of Amie's concerts in Stockholm, but now I'm sure that this scene fits in at the New Year's Eve party.

I think we should keep our expectations low for a kiss between Elias and Amie. They just started developing their relationship, and I like the slow pace they're going in. They're not rushing anything. I also have this feeling that their development has deliberately been so slow because they're sort of "saving the best for last".

Elias and Amie are fan favorites and their relationship has been very talked-about from the beginning. I can see the writers maybe having decided to push their relationship more towards the end of the show, which is why we haven't really gotten any Elias and Amie content until now. That's frustrating if you're impatient and I've seen some people thinking that maybe Elias and Amie won't happen at all, but I don't think we need to worry at all. The fact that Elias and Amie's development has been so slow should indicate that they're much more likely to be endgame.

A kiss in episode 10 could definitely happen, but I don't know. Maybe they'll drag it out further. As I've said before, if they don't get one in season 3 they will absolutely be getting one in season 4. I've noticed that it's always best to keep your expectations low when it comes to this couple.

The episode description for the season finale said this about Elias, which some have interpreted to be about Amie.

New Year’s Eve is here. [...] But is Elias brave enough to say what everyone else already knows?

This could mean anything, really. I'm actually leaning more towards this being about an individual thing rather than Amie being involved. It could be about Elias admitting that he's been overworking himself and not eating properly, or coming clean about the fact that maybe he doesn't want a career in hockey. This is something that everyone else already knows, so I think it might be about hockey.

Felicia has observed the overworking, Mats has told him to stop with it, and Ludde might've had some inkling about it while he was still on the team. Even Amie has probably also noticed that he's been spending a lot of time at the gym lately.

I could absolutely be wrong about this though.

Thank you for the question @lunawedlers!

This is a hard one because season 3 has had so many strong episodes already, and usually my favorite episode ends up being the season finale because it's basically the culmination of the whole season. I really loved 2x10 for this very reason since the ending montage was so well done.

If I had to pick between 3x01 - 3x09 though I would probably have to say it's a tie between 3x04 — Date night and 3x05 — Wounds! These two episodes showcased what Eagles should be all about so well, which is relationships plus the struggles you go through as a teenager in a small town, and then of course hockey. The hockey game episodes are really good, even if I don't think 3x05 topped 2x05 (the game where Ludde got tackled and knocked out).

I loved the contrast in Date night of the budding relationship between Elias and Amie and then that fight between Felicia and Ludde on the cliff. That whole scene between Felicia and Ludde on the cliff was actually really beautiful, especially when the sun had gone down.

It was interesting to see how this sweet gesture from Felicia turned into a fight between the two of them. I thought that was very realistic, because no matter how big of a gesture Felicia made to apologize there were still underlying problems that they needed to talk about.

I also loved the "non-date" between Elias and Amie in this episode. It was cute to see them goofing off before the movie started and then talking about it on the way home. I liked how Elias could connect to her on how they had both returned to Oskarshamn.

The recent episodes that dropped last week (3x08 and 3x09) were very strong and discussed some important subject matters, but I had a few problems with them that I discussed in a question above. They were dark, but not necessarily bad because they needed to happen.

However, I have to say that I prefer Eagles when it's about hockey and teenage relationships. 3x04 and 3x05 made me kind of nostalgic for season 1 and I liked the vibe they both had.

I agree, but I think we could maybe get a combination of both! Relationships can have all these romantic and sweet traits like you described, but also be more passionate and show public displays of affection.

I think Elias and Amie fit the more laid-back and sweet characteristics, but we have yet to really see what Amie is like in a relationship. We've seen her with a crush on Ludde and we got a glimpse of that thing she had with Robin (which was apparently a relationship but I did not pick up on that at all), but we don't really know what Amie is like in a relationship. Maybe she's never really had a "real" one, either.

Nevertheless, I'm excited to see what's in store for Elias and Amie. I'm very positive that they will eventually become a couple in season 4.

[goldngguk]

red // 05

part one of trilogy series

warnings // fluffy cuteness, jealous kookie

word count // 2.3k

trilogy masterlist

Don't do it. It won't end well, you know that. You can't let this happen. But then again, maybe there's no point in trying. Maybe this is all inevitable. Maybe you don't have a choice. Do we ever?

She was startled awake to the sound of loud vibrations against her bedside table. The wood trembled from the sensations of her phone as it received a new message. She groaned, rolling over and stretching for the device.

She laid her head against her pillow trying to recall what her dream had been about. It didn't really even feel like a dream. It was more like the voice in her head speaking to her through the darkness. But what was it talking about? Too exhausted to think or get up, she set her phone down only to watch it vibrate again when a new message popped up.

《???:》 Y/n?

She blinked at the unknown number for a few seconds before remembering who it was. She had given him her number at the café the day before during their conversation. She immediately added the number to a new contact.

Jungkook sat on a couch in his dorm room pleading with himself not to sound so cringeworthy. Forcing a conversation with her was something he did not want to do, especially if it was about something as unimportant as her obviously messed up sleep schedule.

He chuckled at the message causing Yoongi to look up from the burrito of blankets he had wrapped himself with. "What's so funny?"

Jungkook glanced up at his older roommate before shaking his head. "It's nothing, hyung. Go back to your nap."

"It's okay. I should be getting up now anyway. They'll call us down soon." Yoongi rolled out of bed and Jungkook's eyes went back to his phone.

-

After showering and finishing her hair and makeup, Y/n headed for the filming room.

"Hey, Y/n!"

Jimin jogged up beside her. "How are you today?"

"I'm good, thanks. I'm ready to get to work."

Jimin giggled. "Me too. I don't like to sit for too long." Y/n smiled and the two walked together to meet the group.

"Oh, look who's late," Jungkook said when Jimin entered the room.

"I am not late!"

"Everyone else is already here though," he smirked. Hobi laughed and punched him in the arm.

"You haven't even started yet! Besides, Y/n came with me!"

Jungkook's eyes flickered towards hers as she followed Jimin into the room. He felt his stomach drop. Why is she with him? Were they together? What were they doing? He watched the questions consume his mind. I don't like it.

Y/n took a seat next to him, immediately making his negative thoughts disappear. "Hi," she smiled.

"Hello." He tried to choke back the next sentence, but it seemed he couldn't help himself; it just slipped out. "You look pretty."

"Oh, thanks," she replied before turning her attention towards the staff who would be directing the episode.

Jungkook nodded and looked down to play with his thumbs. I can't believe I just said that. It seemed like all of his confidence from the night before flew right out the window when he saw her come in with Jimin. Of course, he wouldn't be a problem for Jungkook; the golden maknae who could do anything. At least he hoped not. He really hoped not.

The staff finished putting the set together and began to record. The first episode of the second season (ep. 21) of Run would be a relaxed episode, saving the more intense games and plots for later. Today would be a board game competition. “You will split up into two teams of six and play two out of three games. The third game will be all vs. all. If the winner of the third game is from the losing team of the first two games, the team can avoid the punishment picked by the staff.” The members nodded and began to decide their teams. The first group included Jimin, Yoongi, Taehyung, Hayden, Hobi, and Maya. The opposing team was made up of Jin, Mason, Namjoon, Y/n, Jungkook, and Cyrus. “Now that the teams are made, we will discuss the first game. It's water beads. There is a piece of filter paper placed on a hollow stand. Each of you will drop a bead or a drop of water onto the paper. The person to make the beads break and fall through the paper is the loser.”

Each team took turns adding beads until the overconfident Kim Seokjin decided to push his luck and dump a straw full of water onto the paper. Needless to say, the paper broke and Jin's team lost the first game. “Well that didn't go as planned,” he shook his head as Jungkook slapped his shoulder.

The second game was a test for the BTS members to see how many English words they could memorize on a card in ten seconds without the help of Culture. Jin recited five of his six words, while Namjoon got all of his. “Dog, dinosaur, duck, jello, jam, jerk, cracker, crocodile…”

Jimin snickered before attempting to mock him. “Crocodoll,” he said with a roll of his tongue. Hobi joined his fun, giggling, “Crocodiiiile.”

Jungkook went last. He looked up in thought before remembering his words. “Stream, strong, streamer, rabbit, ring, rocket. Was that it? I think that's all I have.” Everyone praised him for his memory and dialect.

“That was really good, Jungkook!” Y/n said, patting him on the back. His cheeks turned rosey and he smiled back at her. After watching the other team crash and burn, it was decided that Jungkook's team was the winner of the second game.

The third game which would be played individually was Uno. Within a few times around the circle, Y/n was the first to go out. She jumped from her spot and took a seat on the couch behind them. Taehyung seemed to not fully understand the concept of the game. “Tae,” Joon said, slapping him on the knee. “You didn't say uno. You have to draw four cards.” This went on for a while until the members made a game out of it.

“Okay guys, he gets it. You have to let him say it when he lays his card down.” Without even realizing how it happened, Taehyung went out and got second place. Hobi was right behind him.

After a few more rounds, Y/n laid her hand on Jungkook's shoulder and discreetly held up a 1 until he realized. “UNO!” He gasped. “Uno, uno, uno, uno!” He flung his final card across the room causing everyone to bust out in a fit of laughter. Only a minute later did he play the card and get fourth place.

“You would have lost if I hadn't told you,” she giggled as Jungkook held up his hand for a high five.

“They didn't even notice!” They both laughed as they watched the game continue until it was just Jimin and Yoongi left. In order to save time, the boys decided they would draw cards. Whoever held the highest card would be the last winner. Jimin drew a green eight while Yoongi played a red reverse.

“What is that worth? Did we even establish this card?”

Jimin waved his hand at him. “It's okay, hyung. I'll allow it. You can redraw.”

“Awww,” Y/n cooed. “Jimin, that's so sweet.”

Jungkook's gaze shot between Jimin and Y/n. Sweet? What is that supposed to mean? Does she like him? He could feel his face heat up for the hundredth time that week and his fists clenched into balls-- not that Jimin was any threat to him. He couldn't possibly be.

Yoongi drew a draw 4 card, making Jimin the loser despite his good sportsmanship. “That's okay, Chim. You're still the best sport here.” At this point, Jungkook's blood was boiling. Jimin was stealing all of her attention. He needed to do something, anything that would bring her back to him. He noticed the way she leaned on the couch, exposing her hand on the cushion next to him. He slowly crept his hand closer until his fingers feathered over hers. She immediately looked up at him, but she didn't withdraw due to the considerable amount of butterflies fluttering in her stomach. What is he doing?

He mentally celebrated his success before pulling his hand away. Jimin who?

The twelvesome wrapped the shoot and the staff declared dinner would be ready soon. The punishment for Jimin's team was to clean up afterward.

“Hey, Y/n. C'mere for a sec.”

Hayden and Maya were still standing in the middle of the room. She turned in her heels dramatically and made her way to them.

“Yeah?”

“So, Maya's been filling me in on a few things-”

“Oh good god, Maya what did you tell him?” She asked her sternly.

“Just what he needs to know. I'll be going now.” She winked at Y/n and left the room with a swing in her step.

“I swear that girl gets on my nerves sometimes.”

“Don't change the subject. As your very best friend, I demand to know what's going on between you and Jungkook.”

“Hayden, nothing is going on between us! We literally met three days ago, and you know Maya! She's always trying to hook me up with random people. This is no different.”

Hayden nodded his head, staring at her suspiciously. “So you would tell me if something was going on?”

“Of course! What about me do you not know?”

“Okay, Y/n. I believe you. I just think Jungkook might have an eye for you.”

“Good grief.”

“That's all I'm saying. He's showing signs and I think we've all noticed.”

“Kay Sherlock, I'll be sure to keep you posted. Can we go eat now? I'm starving.”

“Yeah yeah, let's eat. But seriously-”

“Hayden!”

-

After an uneventful dinner, everyone turned in for the night. When arriving at their dorm, Y/n shoved Maya inside and kicked the door shut behind her. “Why would you talk to Hayden? We talked about this. It's nothing and I don't understand why you keep insisting that it is.”

“I'm sorry, Y/nickname. I didn't think you'd be that pressed about it.” Y/n followed her into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

“I'm not pressed, Maya. I'm tired. You always do this. Every time I interact with a male that isn't in our band, you blow it out of proportion. I don't want a boyfriend. If I did, I would have one. But I don't. I thought that after everything I went through with Luke that you would understand that.”

“I know. You're right. I just get so excited when you loosen up. You work so hard all the time and I care about your feelings. I want you to be happy.” Exiting the bathroom, the two sat on their mattresses to face each other. Maya looked into Y/n's eyes, reading her like an open book. “I know you're lonely,” she spoke softly.

“I'm not lonely, My. I have the greatest friends in the world to share my life with. And I know you care.”

“That's not what I meant,” she said tilting her head endearingly.

“I know what you meant. But I don't have time for that kind of thing. In our career, you have to decide what you want; love or success. You can't have both. Between the touring, the practice and recording, red carpets and events, press following around every corner; it can be too much for some people to understand.”

“I think there's someone who understands that perfectly.”

“Which only means double the time apart.”

“So celebrities and normal people alike are both no-nos.”

“Now you're getting it.”

“Okay! Okay, I'll leave you alone. Just- at least think about it. I really think having a little fun could be good for you right now.”

“If it will make you feel better, then fine. I will. Now go to sleep.” The girls each climbed into their beds-Maya almost immediately drifting off. Before Y/n could shut her eyes, she heard her phone vibrating.

a.n. // DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE TIMES IN THE TEXTS. THEY ARE NOT CORRESPONDENT TO THE STORY. Oooh, who's Luke? And what does he have to do with you?

taglist // @darkdragonskies @kalisica

[leakinghate]

Do you think there is any chance for lotura now, when we've just seen romantical teasing of Allurance that can be foreshadowing? (If it's so, showrunners go to hell)

Hello Anon,

Yes. I do believe there is still a very legitimate hope for Lotura to be endgame.

I was going to take some time to mull things over and plan before making a post. But, you took the time to ask, so here are my thoughts.

*ahem*

Lotura is Endgame, Y’all can Fight Me

In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?

I cannot promise you 100% that Lotura will happen, but there are two things I know, and that I can promise with reasonable asurridy. One, allurance is not going to be endgame. It may happen for a episode or two; but it’s not going to work out.

Two, Lotor will be returning, and as an eventual ally to boot.

Let's tackle our rival ship problem first.

Lance’s character arc has always been about him maturing to a point where he can believe in himself and grow some self confidence. He’s a classic case of a young man insecure about his place in the world overcompensating in an effort to make sure no one else notices it. He’s probably struggling with imposter syndrome, though I doubt he’d recognize it as that. The ironic thing, is that he’s so caught up in his own head that he doesn’t notice his team’s genuine appreciation of his talents and friendship. He’s the emotional support of the team, and possesses a genuine talent for leadership and calm headedness that even Keith is shown to struggle with. Despite flying the Red Lion now, he’s still obviously a Blue Paladin at heart.

The fandom’s perception that Lance hasn’t had an arc is because his arc is a long one, and it’s not going to pay off completely until near the end. Hunk’s arc was early, and his most dramatic developments took place in season one. Pidge’s arc happened in fits and starts, but was obvious and telegraphed from the beginning - it also focused on tangible goals rather than personal growth. Shiro and Keith’s arcs were intertwined, and formed much of the backbone of the show - when one wasn’t in focus the other was. Allura is the central character of Voltron, and her arc won’t be over until the show itself is - her arc is the plot of VLD itself.

Lance’s arc is slow, and has tackled small bits of his character development at a time. It’s always been about his self confidence, but it started from the outside-in. Beginning in season one with his jealousy of keith over the other’s physical abilities and natural talent in areas Lance wished to accomplish. Moving on through developing security in his value as a team member and place among the paladins. Finally, we have yet to tackle his emotional security.

Lance desires romantic attention. He thinks that he’s in love with Allura, but he really isn’t. He’s in love with the idea of her. Her beauty, her personality, her position, even her seeming unattainability - all things that attract Lance to her, but attraction does not a stable relationship make.

I’ve said it before, several times, so I’ll be brief. Lance and Allura’s life goals, positions, interests, and lifespans are not compatible. Lance wants to be with his family on Earth - a major component of his characterization is his family inclination and homesickness - he’s very young with no political experience and has shown no inclination to gaining any, he’s dismissive of and uninterested in Altean culture, and his human life expectancy is unlikely to exceed 100 years. By contrast, Allura is the last remaining Altean royal, and one of only two Alteans who remember what life on Altea was like. She’s going to want to be in space with the recently revealed still living survivors of her people. She’s the leader of the coalition and the owner of Voltron, she has countless populated planets to oversee and diplomatic negotiations to attend to. Her culture is precious to her, and she values it highly. And her lifespan is likely at least 1000+ years - Coran, a non-magical Altean, is at least 600 years old and appears to be only slightly older than a middle aged human equivalent.

And she’s only a few weeks, a month or two at most out from a very nasty breakup.

Allura is absolutely still in love with Lotor - you can’t just turn off loving someone like flipping a switch. It takes time - a lot of time in many cases, and it takes processing, and dealing with those emotions.

It may be, that Lance and Allura attempt a relationship for a few episodes, but it’s not going to work out.

As Lance is faced with the prospect/reality of getting what he thinks he wants, his character development in other areas is going to come to the fore. He’s going to be aware of and have to deal with the realities of having a relationship with the Altean Princess, and realize how very incompatible they actually are. There is a very good reason that Lance’s realization about his feelings towards Allura happened in the B-plot of s6e2, ‘Razor’s Edge’. The episode in which the A-plot revolved around the impossibility of a relationship between a human man and an alien woman. VLD likes it’s parallels, that wasn’t an accident.

He’s also going to realize that he deserves to be more than somebody’s second choice. Lance deserves more than being a rebound - and he knows that now, even if he hasn’t expressed it.

Because that’s what’s going on here.

Allura’s sudden apparent reciprocation of Lance’s feelings this season feels like a rebound because it is a rebound!

Allura felt very off this season, and that’s almost definitely because she's still really shook up over what happened with Lotor.

She's NOT okay, and that hasn't been dealt with.

It will be, next season. But she was in focus in a major way the last two seasons, so she had to take a back seat this one so she could get focus for the end. It's the same reason why Keith was in the background for several seasons before stepping back up in s6 and s7. And it's why Lotor was such a late addition to the cast. He's a huge plot mover in s3-6 (arc #2), and he will be again next season. So he was absent from 1-2 (arc #1), and again from 7 (the first half of arc #3). Same as why Haggar was absent this season, it's about balance.

I was majorly sketched out by the few little out-of-nowhere allurance moments.

But I think, that it's supposed to come across as odd, and uncomfortable, and abrupt.

Because I think it's ultimately leading up to Lance turning down Allura.

He's going to realize that she doesn't actually care about him romantically. She's hurt and lonely, and feeling like she failed her team for falling for Lotor. So she's overcompensating, and trying to force herself into liking Lance. Because he's there, and he likes her, he’s dependable and safe. So when she’s desperate to move on and salve the pain? She kinda feels like she owes it to him to give him a chance.

Allura has lost almost everything. Her people, her culture, her planet, her father - twice! Last season she lost the castle, after just barely snatching it from the metaphorical jaws of death she then has to voluntarily blow it up to save the universe. She lost Lotor - the person she’d fallen in love with, who she’d connected with and come to rely on - and she had to ‘kill’ him with her own ship.

Her people, that she only just learned weren’t entirely wiped out, have vanished without a trace before she even gets to see them.

By the end of season 7 she’s lost all that was left of her castle, her crown, and even the clothes on her back. She’s been stripped of her distinctive cultural clothing and garbed in the generic military uniform of an alien people.

It’s no coincidence that she didn’t begin ‘reciprocating’ Lance’s feelings until they arrived on Earth - where she was even more isolated without her lion and Voltron. She’s feeling so incredibly lonely and is looking for comfort and love anywhere she can find it.

It can’t work out though, for all the reasons we've already identified.

There was zero flirting this season, and other than the weird blush there was NOTHING.

Contrast that with the solid two seasons of beautiful and mutual Lotura buildup - even more, some would argue, if you consider Allura and Lotor’s clash in s3e3 ‘The Hunted’ as foreshadowing.

The biggest things for me. Is that nothing happened to prompt Allura to see Lance in a new light. We go from her irritation at him in e4, to neutral, average team members, to a sudden blush in e10, and lion-look-framing in e13.

And amidst it all Lance still managed to manipulate the situation to get himself alone with a pretty girl. It backfired on him pretty spectacularly when Romelle turned out to be far more rambunctious than he could handle, but that doesn’t change the fact that he chose the passenger arrangement. This is long after his apparent realization of ‘loving’ Allura, and pretty handily demonstrates that Lance isn’t really ready for a long-term commitment.

So are Lance and Allura being set up for endgame?

Nah. There's something else happening here.

Especially when it was twice emphasized this season how Allura got them into that mess by getting them close to Lotor. Nevermind that it wasn’t the team’s friendship and alliance with Lotor that fucked them over, but the Paladin’s betrayal of him.

But we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop there.

We haven't had the big emotional Allura moment that’s been alluded to, and we haven't had Keith still having a lesson yet to learn.

Referring back to VLD’s pattern for character prominence, we should expect Lance to fade out towards the second half of next season, since he had major POV framing in this season and the last one.

If what I think is going to happen actually happens, Lance should be dealing with his romantic issues at the start of next season to complete his arc. I’d imagine it will be in the first few episodes of season 8 that this will happen. This should line up with Lotor's return to the story, and thus trigger the 'cool story arc' we were promised with both of them.

This brings us to our next point: Lotor’s return.

We already have confirmation that Lotor is alive in the rift - Rhys, Coran’s VA, let that slip during an interview at SDCC. And if he’s alive, he’s going to be returning.

But as an ally? Maybe not at first, but eventually.

I found it interesting that Lotor was never once brought up this season in conversation with people who didn’t already know about him and about the Paladin’s fight with him.

Even when it would be logical to do so.

When briefing the Garrison. Sam Holt, who was exchanged with Lotor as a hostage and was present on the castle ship during the Kral Zera, specifies that Zarkon is dead but never mentions that Lotor is now - as far as he knows - ruling the main Empire force.

Lotor was an ally of Voltron when Sam returned to Earth. The biggest, most powerful ally they had. They were present on the castle at the same time, and even if they didn’t interact it’s impossible that Sam wouldn’t have been aware of Lotor’s existence and position as the new Galra Emperor.

Why not mention that Voltron had a huge swath of Zarkon’s former empire allied with them?

Because it would necessitate explaining the fallout when the paladins did eventually reach Earth. So? Why not do that? That’s two to three lines of dialogue, and would serve in-show to heighten the drama for our Earth based characters, who might have been hoping for aid from the other half of the empire.

Why specifically leave the position of Emperor in limbo? Why not have Sendak officially assume command?

There’s no reason in story to have things be that way.

So there must be a narrative reason.

The only thing I can think of?

Narratively speaking, they’re avoiding tarnishing Lotor’s reputation in the wider universe. The only people who know what happened in that fight? The paladins. And they left his throne unclaimed, so that he can take it on his return.

It’s the reputation thing that really cinches it for me. There is only so much time, only 13 episodes left in the series, and it would be nonsensical to waste a decent portion of it on doing damage control for Lotor when what’s ideal for the stability of the wider universe is to return to the way things stood at the beginning of season 6; with Lotor in control of the the Galra Empire, and the Coalition - and Voltron - allied with him.

At the beginning of season six the only outstanding major threats were Haggar and Sendak’s Fire of Purification, Haggar is obviously our final arc antagonist, and hey! Wouldn’t you know it? Guess who just just got offed? Sendak.

There is no damn reason to preserve Lotor’s standing with the coalition forces. Except if he’s to return as an ally. Especially when everybody should be asking for explanations of where they’ve been. But they don’t. For a reason.

So will Lotura be endgame?

I believe so.

They’ve said before that they crafted Lotor’s character to be someone Allura could relate to and find comfort in. They redesigned him, literally made him for her.

Every one of our characters in VLD has had to suffer terribly throughout the course of the show. So far though, Lotor and Allura are unique among focus characters in that their suffering has been without respite, recourse, or reward. They have both lost everything.

At the end of s7 Allura does not even own the clothes on her back, and it's doubtful that Lotor is even in control of his own mind anymore.

They literally have nothing left to lose.

They’ve been stripped bare of everything that has ever mattered to them.

So perhaps they can find peace, for themselves and others, by giving themselves to each other.

The love between an Altean Alchemist and the Galra Emperor started the war 10,000 years ago, it’s only fitting that love between another Altean Alchemist and Galra Emperor end it.

[cometsweepandleonidsfly]

“Let me ask you this: What prompted Dany to burn King's Landing? In the moment, that is. The allied forces of Dany and the North had won. In the interests of time, let's leave aside the fact that it was comically easy to kill a dragon only a week ago, but this time, the dragon deftly avoided every projectile and Dany destroyed every scorpion without even breaking a sweat. That was the first laughable moment in an episode that, ultimately, was anything but funny, given how it left the HBO drama's unreliable reputation for quality in smoldering ruins.

In any event, when Dany rested her dragon on a King's Landing wall and realized that she was victorious and the Iron Throne was (probably) hers, what — right then and there — prompted her to decide to burn the city?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

There was no proximate cause, no essential reason for the character to take that horrific action at that moment. To say that a character — or a person — has mental illness in their family tree and thus has no control over their actions is astoundingly reductive and plays into harmful and lazy stereotypes. It's also just boring writing to make a character do something stupid and then handwave it away with "Something, something mental illness!"

That's not only offensive, that's a generality that does nothing to justify that drastic action in that particular moment. All in all, the show has done a piss-poor job of explaining why Daenerys would decide to destroy the very prize she had set her heart on ruling a decade ago. We watched eight seasons of a woman at least attempting to use or think about power differently. Until she didn't. Because … reasons.

Because she had been burned by personal losses? No, sorry, that won't fly. The deaths she's endured recently have certainly contributed to her current mental state, but in the past, we've seen her go through horrific experiences and major grief without murdering thousands of people. Even when she has made mistakes, it was usually in the midst of making strategic decisions that were designed to her get to the next stage of her plan. "Because she was angry" doesn't work, because we've seen her be furious while also demonstrating restraint and realistically assessing the best way forward.

Inescapably, infuriatingly, what we're left with is apparently the central message of Game of Thrones: Bitches are crazy.

Here's how little the show thinks of Dany and how ill-served she was in "The Bells": Once the attack on King's Landing began, we didn't see her face. A core character was reduced to a vengeance-fueled cypher. All we observed, for what felt like pummeling hours, was dragonfire roasting citizens, knocking down buildings, and terrorizing soldiers and civilians alike. Despite Emilia Clarke's superlative acting abilities, we didn't see Dany for the majority of the episode's running time. She was just a faceless, personality-free supervillain, the kind you see in a by-the-numbers blockbuster. We'd been invited to understand Dany's point of view for all these years, but as the endgame approached in "The Bells," the writing made her less interesting than the purple potato known as Thanos.

In its best moments, Game of Thrones has been so much better than this, but every season has been uneven, and this season has been the most slapdash, rushed and insulting of all. At this point, I don't care what happens in the series finale, because the show has already destroyed its legacy, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, a good chunk of that legacy has to do with how ill-served its female characters have been, and the show went out of its way to double down on that in "The Bells."

Brienne was last seen wearing her robe, crying over a boy who broke her heart. The show took the beauty of Jaime knighting Brienne and — again, thanks to tin-eared, threadbare writing — turned it into a bad subplot on a crappy soap opera.

Game of Thrones used to be intermittently interested in exploring and complicating Cersei, which makes sense, given how tremendous a performer Lena Headey is. But this season especially, Cersei has been reduced to a flat, one-dimensional villain, one who is mostly offscreen, except in the occasional scenes in which she smirks or drops smug, acidic commentary. Cersei barely spoke in "The Bells," except for when the show was about to kill her off.

Sansa wasn't even on screen. Everyone in Westeros has made mistakes in their time, Sansa included, but at this point, she's shown more wisdom than most of the characters left alive. She's the most level-headed leadership material the kingdom has at the moment. So, of course, she sitting around tending the hearth in the North and hasn't been given much of interest to do (aside from being portrayed as disloyal to Jon Snow). Not surprisingly, the continually ineffectual Jon Snow wandered around in "The Bells" and once again, didn't really accomplish much. And the show is apparently just dying to put a crown on his head. Because … reasons?

If the show had given us more than a couple minutes of Arya and the Hound actually interacting in the past few episodes (or seasons), maybe her decision to forego revenge on Cersei — you know, a huge part of the motivation that has driven her for years — would have made more sense. It's not that I needed her to kill Cersei, but once Arya was in the Red Keep, the writing for her was abrupt and took the path of least resistance. Maisie Williams gave a terrific performance in the episode, but the messages "The Bells" was sending were so depressingly incoherent that it was hard to care about any of it.

"The Bells" was full of sound and fury that signified nothing, aside from an ungainly sprint to the finish line. It made me feel ill to see so much effort and money wasted on such trivial, silly, nihilistic and sexist storylines. And honestly, the men didn't fare much better: All that character development of Jaime was apparently wasted, and I'm trying to come up with a list of good decisions Tyrion made lately and I'm not coming up with much. This superlative cast deserved better.

In "The Bells," there were moments that could have contained emotional resonance, but that potential was overshadowed by decisions that Benioff and Weiss set up and executed with little or no foresight or thoughtfulness. At this point, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the Game of Thrones creative team thought spectacle would make up for the lack of well-honed concluding character moments. As impressive as the visuals in "The Bells" were, they were ultimately hollow: The explosions served mostly as a reminder that Game of Thrones likes to kill people in large numbers when it runs out of ideas.

Landing like enormous chunks of masonry were so many adolescent, superficial takes on what could have been meaty themes. If it was saying anything, "The Bells" appeared to be stating that cycles of oppression and abuse can't be undone. Rulers are always self-serving and driven by greed and paranoia. Most people can't see beyond their own self-interest. The little people will always get crushed. Douchebros like Euron Greyjoy will always wear leather pants.

So much money spent, so much time spent, all for a show that never knew how to write its women consistently well and that had immature conceptions of how to end their tales. The best-executed major plot turns are moving and tragic because they feel surprising and yet inevitable. Given the right kind of in-depth character development, we could have wept for the choices Daenerys, Brienne, Sansa or Cersei made. I grind my teeth when I think about what this show turned out to be versus what it could have been. At its best, its characters have given us moving and wonderfully complex moments, but "The Bells" was Game of Thrones at its worst, and it did untold damage to the show as a whole. It's going to be hard to think of the show without feeling nauseated by what it did — especially to its women — in the home stretch. “

[defineamni]

I Love You Guys So Much part 1

Little did I know I will fall for these precious gems this hard bc literally it hurts but I'm not even complaining. Okay, soft hours alert. I got to admit smtg, like truthfully, I'm mutifandom since the very beginning. I started with stanning Lee Junki in 2010 where I'm basically crying over last the ep of Iljimae on tv (yeah it was a rerun). Then I started to like B1A4 in 2011 (my ult was gongchan) the only gp where I stanned during their debut days. Then in 2012 I started to stan Infinite (& still I am) where literally all my attention went to sunggyu (now I miss him 😭). After that, exo came along in the list in 2013 (it's really hard to choose a bias bc everyone is literally a sweetheart) but since ot12 was broken apart, I'm not as enthusiastic as before (too bad). Now, 2019 is marked as the year where I fell in love with these boys.

Seunghyub, he's an angel. At first I thought he was just a good looking genius (like seriously he is) with a plot twist to be a needy & clingy guy (hahaha) but today, an iglive about his effort to save a fan from being followed by a drunk man around 4am proved that he is more than a gentleman. He even reassured that fan that it wasn't her fault but he just wanted to point out that ladies should be more careful in the society nowadays (which actually 200% true bc he himself a man). Yeah why did he even made an iglive when it's freaking time for ppl to sleep? But I guess he has that intuition bc someone was literally being saved maybe from harassment when he actually read her comment. My heart just drops a thousand uwus for him. Now I'm relieved that there is still a man whom very caring & heroic in this world. Thank you seunghyub for existing 💖 Side note: from his solo vapp live yesterday (yeah so many things happened idek why) apart from the scene where he wanted to eat a 1 week old boiled egg, what I can highlight that, we should never ever mention about how he as a composer/producer should take care of hwebaby's voice when making songs. I mean, I understand why nfias always remind him about that bc most of their songs (especially the latest jp album) require so much hwebaby's effort to pull off high notes (yes ofc bc he has that ability). Imagine 4 hours concert with those powerful songs I think it's not okay for long term effect. But listen, believe me, seunghyub would think more than hundred times before he asks hwebaby to sing for high notes. He would even more conscious about that. He literally someone who loves hwebaby maybe more than any of us do. Well in my opinion maybe he's joking on how we should be concerned about him too (needy self mode on). But then, it's actually true, we love hwebaby but isn't it seunghyub solo live so how about we show him our love more? Love you seungjjang.

Hun. Yes my hun Chahun. He's a cat, no matter which angle I look, he resembles one a little bit too much. In interviews, he's someone you would describe as "erm he's an ice prince", "I feel intimated when I look into his eyes", "isn't he such an introvert?" etc. But irl life, he gives so much love towards Nfia. Look since I stan, there are maybe 5 iglives (oh yeah another iglive thing) he did just to talk to fans (not either promotion or obligation). Nothing more, nothing less. He maybe thinking 'oh so today I feel like talking to nfias so yeah how about sudden live'. I mean, hun literally reads the comment from knfias & int-nfias which is adorable. He maybe not that fluent in eng but he tried his best to read our comments & reply wholeheartedly. We've been knew that he hates aegyo but whenever fans ask for wink or anything cute (update: now there is mochi shot as well), he will just do it smoothly. Everytime when we tell him that he's cool, handsome & sweet he would say 'no I'm not, I'm so bitter' like honey don't you know you're the sweetest guys I've ever stan? He's so humble, I never have the urge to protect someone this much. There is this smtg special about hun, what I observed from vapps or other platforms, hun actually a soft boi where he would die in so many uwus for hwebaby whenever hwebaby does an aegyo, makes jokes, dancing, singing etc. Hun fulls with love but I guess fnc has always wanted him to have that cold image which makes me mad.

[blxck-parade]

alright fuckers who wants to hear the shitty fanfic my life has become

So there's this boy.

I've known him for as long as I can remember.

We've always been really good friends; I mean, we had to be. There was no one else at church for us to hang out with. His parents were friends with my parents so we always saw each other outside of church too. At one point my mom even started dating his dad (they were both divorced). We were in the same school system, but we went to different elementary schools until we had to move into the middle school. Even then we didn't see each other, though, because we never had classes together. I eventually stopped going to church, but we never fully lost contact.

Then eighth grade rolled around.

Now, for the first half of seventh grade I was a remote learner because of quarantine. Needless to say, it sucked. My mental health went in such a rapid decline, not to mention the descent of my grades. I've always been the gifted kid. The moment I got back into classes, however, I started doing exceptionally well again. English was still a struggle, which was weird because I was gifted in reading. Anyway, I got through seventh grade and now I'm stuck with the annoying, prepubescent eighth graders of my school, only now I'm not doing it alone. I have three classes with my childhood friend: orchestra, gym, and science.

For the past six months I had been dating this incredible girl, and a couple of days ago, she broke up with me. She said she lost feelings. She already has a new boyfriend (coincidentally, he's the ex boyfriend of my best friend). We're still friends, though.

That's when I realized I had developed very strong feelings for my friend. To thicken the plot even further, the Halloween dance at my school is less than a week away, and my friends all think he's going to ask me out. According to them, these things prove he's planning on asking me to the dance:

1. He randomly asked me if I was going with anyone. (I'm not, I'm just meeting some friends)

2. He's always talking to me about the dance.

3. We were talking in science one day and for some reason he was talking in an Australian accent. While in the accent he said, "You know, I love this accent because I can say 'darling.'" My dumbass started blushing like crazy because I'm a rat for pet names, and when I later explained to him why I got so flustered, I saw him smile to himself.

4. He never talks about romance or relationships to me but does to his other friends. ("hEs HiDiNg HiS fEeLiNgS fRoM yOu" -my friend Linda) He also just started reading The Fault in Our Stars.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

I decided to ask him if he was going to the dance with anyone. "Yeah, actually," he responded. My heart dropped a little, but I decided to keep going. I found out he was going with our friend, and I was confused because I remember her specifically telling me she was a lesbian. I asked him if it was a "date" date or just as friends, and he said it was just as friends. "Oh, okay I was just kind of confused because she's a lesbian haha," I said, to which he replied, "Oh, so you haven't heard?"

Apparently our friend has a crush on him.

And so does he.

But, in all fairness, I wasn't very clear when I asked him if he liked her too, so he could have thought I was asking if he liked her as a friend. He doesn't know that I like him, so things are still really awkward, but I guess we'll see what happens? Luckily we're going to be seeing each other a lot soon. We're going trick-or-treating together, I'm inviting him to see a play with me, and we're in drama club together, plus the dance, so maybe something will happen? I'll keep you all updated on the story! (I'll tag all the posts relating to this under "shitty fanfic life")