#ah yes the film about a cop

[just-some-sillies]

who decided to watch zootropolis. that movie sucks and the original plot is so much better

[tame-the-lion-writes]

Chapter I - Introduction

[michael afton x reader] you -- always you

content warning: (these are implied/referenced) character death, self-harm, underage drinking

tags: GN!reader, romance, fix-it of sorts, hurt/comfort, fluff, angst, domestic fluff, friends to lovers, eventual happy ending

Michael Afton. He wasn’t exactly a picture perfect poster boy. Not with a past that everyone seemed to know about.

“I heard he started chain smoking cigarettes at thirteen.”

“I heard his dad had to pay off the cops after he got caught dealing drugs.”

“I heard he murdered his little brother.”

Okay, now that – that last one was the only thing you could half verify. Apparently, some freak accident combined with a twelve year old’s underestimation of robot jaws had branded Michael a cold blooded murderer. It didn’t help that in the years following, kids continued to disappear. Now he was the villain from a slasher film. A monster wrought from birth. The one bad guy in the less-than-twenty-thousand population of Hurricane, Utah.

Honestly, it was pretty pitiful.

As far as you could tell, from both newspaper articles and the way he slumped over – prominent eyebags a shocking grey – in class every single day, this man – no, this boy – was certainly not a killer. If anything, the way he naturally carried himself in silence or half-hearted snarkiness seemed evidence enough to you that he had regretted the ordeal from years before. It wasn’t evidence enough to other staff or students, of course, who held their long-drawn prejudices, but as for you – a newcomer from California whose parents decided to dump themselves in the middle of fuck knows where – you simply didn’t have that pre-existing impression. And so, you thought, maybe he just needed someone – anyone – to reach out and say hello.

So you did.

Ah, yes – the American high school cafeteria. The place where friendships can be summed up in – “make it or break it.” The place where whatever the hell is on the plate is called food. In Michael’s case, it’s a hodgepodge of unsweetened grey slurry, an overly greasy pizza, and an apple. The apple doesn’t look all too appetizing either.

It’s here, amongst crackled blue tables that Michael sits in solitude, poking the mystery sludge with a spork before deciding not to risk his life for a taste. Thus, with a sigh, the plastic utensil is quickly tossed aside – only to be interrupted by your question.

“Can I sit here?”

His eyes snap up from his cardboard lunch tray.

“Sorry?”

“I was just wondering if I could join you.”

The word “if” lingers for a while on your tongue, debating halfway through if this was a good idea. Yes, you took him as lonely, but not the type of lonely that was ready to be friendly, even if he desperately needed a friend. That hesitance was clear now, in the way his bluish-grey eyes rake over you, squinting with a brow furrowed more than usual.

“Is this some sort of prank?--”

There’s the slight tinge of a British accent as he speaks, but you aren’t able to process it before you interrupt.

“No, it’s not. It’s just– well, I’m new, and it’s kind of weird shoving myself into other groups when everyone’s known each other since elementary.”

“So you decided – hey – stick with the delinquent?”

“Okay, I’m from California. I’ve seen delinquents. Trust me, you don’t seem half bad.”

At this point, you don’t even wait for his answer and plop right down in front of him. He makes an obvious scowl, and for a moment, his hands reach forward to pick up his tray and move elsewhere, but you guess that at some point, he remembers there’s no other empty table to sit at. If he wants to be alone, it’s either alone with you or in some annoying teacher’s classroom. And the latter would be even more awkward.

Fine. He’ll deal with it.

“You’re not very conversational, are you?”

All he does is grunt in response.

But hey!-- at least he’s not chasing you off.

You take this as an absolute win. Your comment earlier, about shoving yourself into other groups, was largely accurate. Though you had made acquaintances with a few kids, they were just that – acquaintances. The kind of people you ask for help on a problem or lend notes to when they’re absent. Not the kind of people you feel comfortable going out on a shopping trip with. Not yet, at least. And to fully insert yourself into a tight-knit clique of people who grew up together? No way. No way in hell. So, unironically, the most unfriendly person would be your best bet at making a lasting friendship. This late in the game, at least.

The rest of lunch is quiet, at least until the last five minutes. You don’t try to pester him anymore than you already have, and for that, he seems grateful. At some point, he stops sending you disgruntled glares and relaxes, settling instead for an utter lack of consideration. You try to imitate the same disinterest – eating your home-packed food in silence, occupying yourself with idle doodles.

That last thing, he eventually took note of..

“You draw?”

“Well, look at that. We’ve got ourselves an extrovert.”

He snorts yet surprises you when he leans forward to get a better look at the half-unfinished homework you have on the table. In the corner, you’ve started sketching in lazy graphite – just small things like messy butterflies and eyes and flowers. Disjointed and pointless and done for the sake of filling in space rather than showing off.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on copying my calc homework,” you tease lightly, tugging the paper back towards you.

At that, he actually grins.

“Ha– why would I when you got the derivative for sine-x wrong?”

“I– what?”

He taps the second question on your math homework, where sure enough – you’ve gotten things mixed up. I mean, of course you did – you might’ve been in Calc BC, but that didn’t mean you actually knew the stuff. Barely anybody did. But him, apparently.

And he found the mistake in – what – two seconds?

The confusion on your face must be obvious with the way he chuckles and leans back again, crossing his arms.

“Surprised I got a brain?”

“No. I’m surprised you’ve got a mega-brain. I’m in the only Calc BC class, and you’re not even in it.”

“Mega-brain?”

“Shut up – I don’t know how else to word it.”

You quickly flip the pencil in your hand to erase the mistake and replace what you’d gotten wrong with the equation. Stupid – fucking – Calc BC. You didn’t even know why you were taking the class when everyone in Hurricane had a future in entry-level customer service. You don’t need rocket science to add dollar bills and cents together. At least Michael is amused, finishing up the one apple he has before sliding the core and the cardboard tray away.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. My father’s an engineering genius. My ability to math is probably the one good I got from him.”

“You call him a whole-ass ‘father?’ Not ‘dad?’”

“Like I said, the one good. His brain is all he’s good for, anyway.”

You nod in acceptance at his comment, but the thought of his father makes you realize that his last name is familiar. Not him familiar, but someone else familiar. Afton. Afton. Oh!--

“Your dad’s the one who owns Fazbear Entertainment!”

The moment your eyes light up in recognition, he shrinks back, cringing.

“Co-owns. But yeah, he does.”

Seeing the way he shrivels, your excitement wavers before falling flat. Ah – right – Freddy Fazbear’s Diner was where…

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

“It’s fine.”

“I just– well, you know, the franchise is pretty popular and–”

“Like I said – it’s fine. It happened years ago. Not like I can avoid the damn place anyway. Father pretty much forces me to work there, so I’m surrounded by shit either way.” He runs a hand through his hair then lets it rest on his neck as he looks away. “And besides, I kinda expected it to be brought up at some point in our conversation.”

“... Right. Right.”

He picks up your guilt with ease, seen as you were so loud and were now so regrettably quiet. What a switch of roles.

He clears his throat.

“Well, off topic, but your drawings are nice.”

You take the change of pace with a grateful smile. “Thanks, I guess. I’ve seen you draw in class, though. I’m nothing compared to you.”

The compliment pricks at him like a needle full of serotonin. Strange to take but pleasant to have. He looks away again – this time for other reasons. “Thanks. I didn’t realize we shared a class.”

You shrug and start shuffling your leftover food back into your lunch pail. “English, actually. I like what we read well enough but Davids is just insufferable,” you grin. “I can’t help but let my eyes wander around when I’m in class. And you and your drawings are the most eye-catching thing in there.”

“Oh. Thanks. Wait, did you say I–”

The bell rings halfway through his sentence, prompting you to stand and sling your backpack over your shoulder. Knowing you’ll have to rush to the opposite end of campus keeps you distracted from your little Freudian slip, and soon enough, you’re hurrying away.

“I’ll see you in Davids’! And you better move to Calc BC!”

[howtofightwrite]

Followup: Oragnized Crime Recruitment

The Godfather book and the Mafia games, specifically the first Mafia game, are the closest examples of what the Original Asker wants for his game. Goodfellas is another potential example to base the process of one's recruitment into the criminal underworld. In general, recruitment in fiction is generally based on doing jobs and earning a reputation as to one's success at doing jobs. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill started off doing simple, legal-ish errands for the local mafia before the gangsters saw his potential and entrusted him with more illegal jobs. Original Asker's character could therefore be someone who is affiliated with a mobster, but not part of the inner circle until the character pulls off jobs which makes them someone worth recruiting to the organization. Or one could go the Tommy Angelo route and save a mobster's life. -ironwoodatl01

So, it's worth remembering that Goodfellas is (in broad strokes) non-fiction. Henry Hill was a real person. (1943-2012) He was an associate of the Lucchese family. There are some historical, “inaccuracies,” with the film. Though, his arrest in 1980 for narcotics, and turning state's witness is historically accurate, though the film skims over the part where he was ejected from the witness protection program in 1987. Goodfellas was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book, Wiseguy. I haven't read the book, but it's plausible that some of the historical discrepancies may have come from the book.

In this case, the OP specifically wanted to avoid a background where someone grew up in the neighborhood. Which, I mean, that is their choice, but it is a very popular recruitment method, in part because it's very effective at screening out potential cops, or even recruiting potential tame cops down the line.

Ironically, thinking back now, Mafia, the original Saints Row, and Franklin's arc from GTA5 are all potential reference points for what the OP wanted, and thinking back on it now, they were asking for input on a game, rather than prose, so I should have factored that in with the original ask. The tricky thing about each of those examples is that they're dependent on a lot of very specific moving parts in their respective stories. (Though, to be fair, I barely remember the original Mafia.) None of them are strictly realistic, but they're all internally plausible, when you start factoring in the various character motivations at work.

For some reason, I'm reminded of the Thieves Guild recruitment in Skyrim, which is one of the goofiest criminal recruitments I've seen in a non-parody. Brynjolf grabs some random psychopath wandering through and says, “ah, yes, you must be a master of pickpocketing and interested in a life of crime.” Does it make any sense? Nope. Does it go a long way towards explaining why the Thieves Guild is falling apart? Yeah, kinda, when you think about it. Does the introduction work? For some players, yes.

If the player wants to get into a questline, the justification can be pretty flimsy and still work for that player. Usually we talk about suspension of disbelief like it's a universal constant, but it's individual per member of your audience. Normally, you want to do whatever you can to ensure the suspension of disbelief is as strong as possible. However, in a game, the player's own emotional investment can help shore up weak points.

I'm going to take a quote out of context (a little), but I'm reminded of a quote from Richard K. Morgan about Halo, “[it] is full of these bullshit archetypal characters and there's no real emotional effect.” And, while he was certainly dragged for that quote (and, really the entire interview, it was a mess), he wasn't wrong. The writing in Halo isn't what does the heavy lifting, a large part of that is the player's effort to get through the story. And, in basically any other medium, this would be an exceptionally bad thing.

You won't make your novel better by forcing your audience to complete reflex tests before they start each chapter.

But, with video games, the gameplay interludes, can actually build emotional investment for the player. Even on very flimsy premises.

I've often written about how writing in different mediums requires different approaches and has different strengths. If you want gorgeous combat, then live action or animation are the best forms for you story. If you want visually striking images that linger, comics might be the right choice. If you really want to get into a character's head and live there, prose will let you do that with a level of fine control that is difficult to replicate. (And, note, there's a lot of different pros and cons, so this isn't an exclusive list.) The funny thing is, if you want your audience to do the heavy lifting for suspension of disbelief, that's one of the places where video game writing really shines.

And so we loop back to the Skyrim example. Brynjolf's approach to finding new talent is absolute clown shoes, but it's something you might not notice if this is why you wandered into Riften. It only becomes a problem when you're just there to snuff Grelod the Kind, or are looking for someplace to unload all this garbage you picked up while delving into a Dwemer ruin up in the mountains.

This doesn't mean you should abandon the idea of good writing, but if your player is on the same page as you, you won't need to worry about having something completely believable. For example, the plot-line of Mafia, or (the original) Saints Row.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[sciderman]

Hi Sci! You always have the best Peter Parker Takes™️, so I was hoping you could help me with something! I like a lot of things about Peter, but I find it so hard to reconcile the fact that he tends to be written as pro-police and politically moderate. I personally headcanon that he was more of a morally black-and-white hothead when he first started Spider-Manning, but as he grew older and wiser, he started understanding that everything tends to be shades of gray and thinking before swinging in with punches. Still, you’d think a kid who grew up poor in Queens would know better than to just go “ah you are stealing and therefore Bad” ya know?? I know these grievances are more with what the comics/film industry will publish, but still, my kingdom for some nuance!!

oh, bless you anon! god - the cop question is so interesting in superhero media, it really is - and, honestly, my take is kind of the opposite of yours. peter parker wasn't aligned with the cops in any way when he started. in fact, he kind of had a general distaste for cops because, you know, the cops kind of had it out for him.

never forget, peter being a bitchy little bitch boy to the cops is kind of his origin story.

when peter started he actually had very little respect for other heroes or law enforcement at all. he kind of just worried about himself, and his aunt may and that was all. he wasn't any sort of beacon of morality who was seeking to deliver justice or anything. he kind of just wanted to take photographs and make a buck. it took him a long time to start playing "hero" - and even when he did, law enforcement and him were generally not on the same side.

i think his first real positive relationship with someone on the side of the law was captain stacy - peter, obviously, respected him a lot and, you know, captain stacy died heroically.

still, spider-man's relationship with the law continues to be rocky at best - he's constantly being hunted by the law but also some individual cops kind of have a soft-spot for him and let him off the hook - sometimes he helps them, sometimes he's on the run - they love him, they love him not - kind of fluctuates. i think the spider-man comics are generally noncommital about the cop question and kind of just play whatever song will give peter parker the most drama. spider-man comics were are generally lighthearted about this sort of a thing.

i think it's not until a post 9/11 world where copaganda kind of became a lot more prevalent in superhero media and you suddenly started seeing all the heroes working with law enforcement. suddenly, i think, it became unquestionable - a hero had to respect the law, even if they were a vigilante. i think - especially with spider-man comics being set in new york - there was a desire to see these heroic figures working alongside "real life heroes" - so, i think all of the sentiment that peter is pro-cop came from a post-9/11 world, which - to be fair, with the first spider-man movie coming out when it did, it's no wonder that the public consensus on spider-man is that he'd be pro-cop.

andrew's spidey - andrew's spidey isn't full-on anti-police, but he doesn't exactly hold law enforcement in the highest respect

the movie itself isn't police-critical but peter is portrayed as your general "no respect for authority" kind of kid in tasm1 who's relationship with the law i guess shifts after captain stacy helps him and dies heroically. andrew and the cops are presumably bffs in tasm2 – he's kind of just totally beloved by the city in tasm2. i feel like tasm2 probably really severely under-explores spider-man. in fact, it feels like spider-man is barely in tasm2. he's barely a character. i think maybe that's where the tasm movies stumble, actually. those movies really aren't about spider-man at all. they're entirely about peter parker. and yes, there is a difference.

tom holland's spider-man is a cop. police don't really feature in his story, but he is one. funded by the elite class and basically tasked with looking after their property. hate that. gross.

i think it's why i hate seeing peter working with the avengers. the avengers are cops. he doesn't belong there. it's only a recent development where we started getting spider-man on team-rosters - he was always a solo guy who didn't really particularly want to play with others. he had his own stuff to deal with and it didn't matter to him hugely whether he was playing on the side of the law or not. he was dealing with his stuff.

personally i'm not about seeing a morally black-and-white peter parker. i don't think he's ever been that way and i still hate seeing him reduced to that - i think we see him painted as politically moderate because spider-man stories really aren't often about asking greater questions - i don't think it's the platform for it. peter is always too concerned with his own personal troubles to pursue any sort of activism - i think it's quite funny - as active as spider-man is, peter parker is generally an apathetic figure, and i think that makes him a certain degree of relatable. i think characters like gwen and mj and even aunt may are more politically active than peter parker is. peter's kind of too busy just trying to survive.

i love the thought of a peter parker that does punch first. i think that's his whole bag. he's not thoughtful. he's quick to anger. he actually isn't particularly thoughtful and doesn't always approach situations with some moral wisdom. sometimes he punches the wrong people. sometimes his anger is misguided. his energy is practically always going into the wrong places. he doesn't always know what's right and wrong. but he tries.

i'm so not into the stories that paint him as a moral beacon because - more often than not - he's doing it for himself. if he really did have unwavering respect for the law and his morals perfectly aligned with the cops, he wouldn't put the mask on. it's like, the whole point. a vigilante exists fundamentally by it's disobedience to the law. otherwise they'd be carrying a badge.

[multific]

One Week

Kai Anderson x DarkWitch!Reader

Summary: Crystal balls, a black cat and candles... this place couldn't be more stereotypical. 

Kai once again found himself scrolling the web instead of sleeping.

Looking for anything interesting or something that could help his plan.

An ad did catch his eye, fortune telling.

'Fortune telling, 100% accurate or your money back.'

He scoffed at the obvious scam before continuing his search.

About five minutes later, the same ad popped up.

Now he wasn't too surprised, ads are a pain in the ass but as he tried to click to close it, he opened it instead.

And from then on, he wasn't even sure what he was doing. The next thing he knew, he had an email confirmation coming through for the appointment he booked.

Kai was honestly shocked with himself, he could be doing better things and yet, he stood in front of a black door. But then he thought, many people believed in these things. So, he could use it to his advantage to manipulate.

He knocked once before the door opened.

His eyes locked with yours.

"Hi, Andrew right?" and he then remembered he put a fake name in, he simply nodded and you guided him inside.

Crystal balls, a black cat and candles... this place couldn't be more stereotypical even if you tried.

He let out a long sigh.

"So, which one are you?"

"Sorry?" he turned to look at you sitting at the small table in the middle of the room.

"The sceptic or the hopeful?" you asked as he took a seat. "Ah, sceptic. Alright, what would you like to know?"

"The future." he simply said as he looked at your crystal ball.

"You are a smart man. Very smart indeed, I bet you came here to laugh at me and figure out my 'scam'. But your first mistake was putting in a fake name." Kai just watched you, did you break into his email? His computer? 

No.

"You plan on ruling the world but your little group is not going to be enough. You will go to prison and then a girl will shoot you, dead. The great leader... gone."

"How can you know that? You are just a scammer who prays on vulnerable people."

"Oh, how ironic isn't it? You will fail. Alone, you will, but if you want, I can help."

"How?"

"I already brought the Apocalypse to the world a while ago, but Michael died and... you don't need to know that. It's enough if you know that I possess powers and I'm looking for a new partner to cause mayhem with."

"Why should I believe you? For all I know you can be a cop." he leaned forward, elbows resting on the table.

You smiled Kai felt a shiver as all candles went out in the room, it was now completely dark. Then when everything came back, you sat with a book in front of you.

"You might not be the Anti-Christ, but you will do." he was confused. "Men are easy creatures, they can be led by their cock. You are much the same, but you are also smart. I like smart because when your inevitable end comes, you will try and blame it all on me, you would stab me behind my back. I love the thrill of betrayal. I tried getting your attention but you are so blind." you looked down at the book and Kai looked around the room.

"Alright, where is the camera?"

"In the bedroom, if you want to get kinky, you could film it." you said not even looking at him.

"Very funny. So you say that no matter what, I would die."

"Yes, however, you can die a loser who never achieved his goal or you can die a leader."

"And how would you be able to help me?" you smiled as you looked at him.

"I can easily confuse and manipulate people. I can make them do things they don't want to."

"Then why won't you rule the world?"

"Alone? What's the fun in that? I will tell you how it will go. You accept my offer, but not now. No, you will go home and do your research. You will find out more about me, about the people I killed. Then you will think about it, you will think for two days and then come back here. Exactly one week from now, you will knock on that door to accept my offer to be your partner. Why? Because I want to see this world burn. You will come in here, tell me your silly conditions including a little thing where you make me promise I won't let anyone kill you. Then you will take me to the previously mentioned bed because I do need proof that I will have a great time with you."

Kai was speechless, a rather rare occasion.

You smiled at him before turning back to your book.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Y/N. Previously known as Y/N Langdon, Michael Langdon's wife, but in this timeline, I never even met him so... I'm only Y/N but I'm open on becoming Y/N Anderson."

"You are crazy."

"Indeed. Crazy, insane, manipulative, dangerous, a murderer, delusional, cunning, smart and powerful." Kai looked at you, well, what he could see above the table.

"You are perfect." he said out loud but he didn't mean to.

You only smiled.

"You are just as perfect for me, you will see. I'm loyal and I can be kind." You stood up and went towards the front door, Kai followed you, he only now noticed you truly, your beautiful curves, your scent and just how smooth your skin looked, truly divine.

You opened the front door and looked at him.

"See you after a week. Let me just say this, you will doubt me, question my intentions, but why would I try to harm you? I could have killed you in your home many times or at the gym. I am just like any other girl. I just want to have fun." you smiled as he left, and you closed the door behind him. Now, the wait begins. 

---

Now you were cursing yourself, you didn't need this many crystal balls... but the site you ordered from had a sale and you couldn't say no. 

They were completely useless anyway, just a nice way to decorate your home with. 

It also didn't help that the house you 'bought' was not the biggest.

You wanted a big house, somewhere you can fit your stuff. Stuff you certainly didn't steal...

You took a look in your closet, trying to find something to wear, you wanted to head out and get some rich guy to buy you dinner.

Just as you put on your favourite dress, you headed for the door, taking one last glance at yourself in the mirror as you opened the door.

You almost ran into him, he was raising his hand to knock just as you opened it.

"Oh, Kai." you turned back, looking at the clock on your wall. He was right on time, you just kept yourself too busy to notice that the week was already gone.

"I came as you said I would, I made my decision... as you said I would and I have conditions, but you already knew that, so, let's get inside I'll tell you my rules and then we can fuck."

"How romantic."

"You want romance?" he was genuinely surprised.

"Flowers, chocolate and all that."

"I'm not the kind of guy."

You smirked, "You will be." you said before you let him into your house.

Exactly like how you did a week ago.

Taglist: @fleursirvart​ @greenarrowhead​ @thisismysecrethappyplace​ @sincerelyfan​ @theoneanna​ @aestheticsandmarvel​ @rororo06​ @castellandiangelo​ @destynelseclipsa​ @spilledinkindumpster​ @capsiclesdoll​ @puknow​ @alwayshave-faith​ @alex12948​ @lxdyred​  @imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl​ @anonymoussherlockandmarvelgeek​ @praline357​ @trshngyn​ @avengers-r-us​ @violet-19999​ @top1bbgloak​   @manduse​   @jacalineiscomingforyou​  @mandoloriancookie​ @noname2246​

~Masterlist~

ˇAO3ˇ

DO NOT STEAL, REPOST OR TRANSLATE ANY OF MY WORKS

[little-whats-her-name]

Giving my thoughts while watching The Dressmaker for the first time, so there will be spoilers

FYI the first piece of media I watched with Kate Winslet in it was not, like most, Titanic (I still haven't watched Titanic) but HBO's The Regime, thus I'm still wrapping my head around seeing Kate play a role that isn't Chancellor Elena Vernham

I don't know what's weirder, hearing Kate Winslet speak with an Aussie accent or watching her smoke. But Lenny, the lung cancer!

Kate even says "hm" like an Aussie, but you can tell who the real ones are

Liam looks identical to Chris

Wouldn't be an Australian film without Shane Jacobson. I swear it must be in the contract for whenever a screenwriter wants to set a film in Australia - must have Shane Jacobson playing a dad or, at the very least, a father-figure. I met him after Rocky Horror in 2018 (he was the narrator). He was very kind, stopped someone from cutting in front of me for autographs

Say what you want about the cop-type guy, he matched his hat and skirt to his uniform top and tie very well

Nearly bit right through my finger in the footy scene, meanwhile my dad could not have cared less about Myrtle's appearance and was pretty much watching the same scene like "mmm footy". No other thoughts in his head at all. So I'm questioning my own thought process

Thought she was nude but the black dress and the decolletage is nice

I don't get how changing her dress made the opposite team get distracted but alright

Pot brownies!

I've seen the Liam Hemsworth stripping scene in every single trailer. I pointed this out to my dad, who replied, "Gotta give people something to look forward to." 🤣

The actor that plays Gertrude's mum would make a great Emily Weiss

Love that Teddy finds out that Myrtle's technically responsible for a boy's death and responds by making out with her

Cracked up laughing at Chancellor Elena Vernham's face and voice saying, "It's Superman!"

"I AM NO LONGER CURSED!"

Oh no, we've got Kate Winslet on a boat, is this intertextual referencing?

She's gonna get Titanic flashbacks, they're on a boat and Teddy's gone

My dad was making dinner and missed this part, so I had to fill him in:

Me (distraught): You were right about the wheat thing!

My dad: What?

Me: Liam's character just suffocated in the wheat!

My dad (having no empathy for Myrtle whatsoever): So, she is cursed.

Like no, dad, don't say that in front of the fragile Kate Winslet character, she's already blaming herself, she doesn't need your confirmation

Kate's got one panicked sobbing voice but it's a good one

Ay there's those hymn number things that were in Reefer Madness (2005), but unlike in Reefer Madness, none of the hymn numbers are 420

Ooh I reckon that extra's in Hairspray (2007). Like the casting directors just call her up whenever they need a background character for a film set in the 1950s-1960s

"10 shillings." "12 shillings." Makes me think of "5 galleons." "I'm your brother!" "Ten galleons."

"At least you've got Una." Extra in front right's reaction is hilarious and perfect. Should've got a raise for that.

Makeup guys did a good job, very realistic exhausted, red-eyes-from-crying look

Kate makes "Thank you, Trudy." sound like "Go fuck yourself, Trudy."

The pot brownies are back!

Had to die right in the middle of the town for the perfect shot

Myrtle being sad and drunk is such a mood, so's her outfit

HAHA I have to gif that scene for Mae

The way she reads the letter 😂 "Winyerp... drama club..."

And I have to gif THIS scene for Mae

"Marigold, this is very wrong!" "Yes... But I'm unstable."

The contrast between the pastel tiles and his dark blood is so pretty

Shane looks so good in Rocco makeup, with his beard and everything

Ah there's the clip that's in the trailer, editors did a good job spoiling the twist ending

"Where are you going, miss?" Home? "Paris." (disappointed voice) Aw

"You never met the rubbish." is a great final line

[isca-rambles]

5x22 Oh god I'm anxious already before I even press play. I know what happens in this episode for the most part, but good lord I'm still nervous. How people can watch tv shows/films without spoilers beforehand is beyond me. It never takes away my enjoyment, it just makes me slightly less likely to have a full blown anxiety attack during. Ah, brains. So fun when they work like shit. Okay...here we go. Pressing play. Now. Now. Oh god don't hurt my babies. I do love the fake D&D talk though. It's so cute when shows try to pretend they know what the fuck they're talking about. Hexes don't affect saving throws, ahem, only ability checks. Unless they're using a different edition, I guess. Or homebrew. Oh god no my babies. Do not go down that dark alley at 4am in the fog don't do it please for the love of god. AND DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY. Jesus. WHY. Oh god why. To quote Lucy (and break my heart again), why are you doing this?! Celina, my baby. Aaron, my baby. God I hate this episode but I also love it because it's such a good episode and it has such a terrifying vibe. But good god. Tim and Lucy turning up together. The only respite I'm getting from this episode is them being next to each other. And yes, that jacket is so his. God the 'one of our own is in peril' episodes are always so good and always so bad for my anxiety. The angst is delicious but it hurts so much. Boyd there in the background behind Nolan. Bastard. But also why did they drop the ball so much on this big bad in S6? The strike, I guess. But they had such a good build-up and arc and it just fizzles out. Weird they don't have Lucy working on the riddle, honestly. She did so well on the last one. Is Celina still not getting a hug from anyone? Give this woman a Lucy hug, she is in need! Oh god. Grey. Don't or I'll cry. Oh god Lucy and Tim. She doesn't need to ask for a hug this time, he knows. He doesn't ask her what she needs, he knows. She folds so easily into him and there's no hesitation this time, there's no distance, no longing or lingering and then separation. They just fold into each other. Her hand on his heart, his hand on her head. Cradling each other. God the callbacks are killing me. And no doubt what's going through her mind is how they never even got a chance for this with Jackson. Never got to get him to hospital, the doctors never got to try and save him. Aaron had Celina. Jackson was alone. I'M NOT OKAY. I do wonder why they didn't go after Tim and Lucy in her apartment. Maybe because it wasn't remote enough compared to Nolan and Harper, who have houses. Maybe because they knew there'd be two cops there, two guns, whereas Harper and Nolan's partners might be less well prepared for defense. Maybe Nolan's call got to them in time? I know they get their own ambush at the end with Luke, which is equal parts terrifying and badass to see our power couple hold their own. And also I don't want more trauma for Lucy in her own home. But that is a fic idea, I guess. What if they'd gone after Lucy and Tim, instead of Nolan or Harper? God, poor Harper and James. Jesus that must be the worst feeling in the world. Oh my god this episode is still so tense and I know everything that happens. Or another fic idea, Tim and Lucy acting as bait in her home? And I know there's been a good few, but I need more hotel fics of everyone hiding out there or going there at the end of 5x22. I need more comfort fics after the ambush, or in the build-up before it. Fic prompt idea, what if they didn't abort before that door was opened and the trap triggered? Obviously no MCD, just think of the Chenford angst of being caught in a bomb or trapped in that building. Lucy's little glances with Tim. Wopez baby, my heart. Tim's smile. Give this man a baby, please. Just to hold. Damn right Lucy's not going on her own. I know you can handle yourself, Lucy, but no way you're going on your own during this crisis. Also guys stop flirting as you're entering this hell building. I mean don't stop.

Oh god this scene gives me heart troubles every time. It's such a good scene, aside from the fact they're not shooting at their legs. But otherwise it's such a brilliant scene. Our power couple just being so badass, protecting each other. Tim saying he'll hold them off, which is certain death, and Lucy instantly giving him a look of 'screw that'. And the way Tim doesn't fight back. He knows she's right and he knows she won't leave him. How in sync they are during this whole fight but especially at the start. Lucy and that shield! Tim practically dragging her up the stairs and then pushing her. He has to keep her safe. He knows she's capable but he cannot lose her. And god how small Lucy looks when that attacker has his hands around her throat. How terrified she looks. Because she can't die here and she can't leave Tim on his own to face them all. How desperate Tim is to get to her. How he just grabs her entirely and pushes her ahead of him, supporting her and guarding her. And he of course forgets all of his cop instincts and rules because he has to keep her safe. There was a gorgeous fic I read and again, I can't remember by who, but saying she was his hands and he was her eyes. Tim looks so terrified when that door opens, because he knows he can't do anything to protect them. He hasn't got any ammo and he can't reach a weapon because he has her. And Lucy holding that gun up in desperation, trying to protect them both.

And Tim still doens't let go of her. He guides her in and onto the stairs. He can't let go of her because holding onto her, even just her vest, is reassuring him that she's still alive. I just adore the power couple protecting each other so much. It's not saying she's weak, we know she's more than capable. But that doesn't mean he won't do everything in his power to keep her safe. You protect the people you love, regardless of how well they can protect themselves.

I know it was too fast paced but god I would've killed to see them just have a moment together on the stairway. Reassuring each other they'd okay. Touching faces, hands. Forehead touches. Head kisses. Anything. We still have that contact between them, but no way Tim is not holding onto her for more than a second. She's not leaving his sight and he's not leaving hers, so they're both going after Moran. The little look between Lucy and Tim. I need so much more comfort fic set after this episode.

God this really is such a brilliantly done episode. The music, the shots. It's all done so well. It's just a shame it didn't really lead anywhere much in S6.

[waitmyturtles]

Double Savage, episode 11 (penultimate episode) thoughts:

1) Jumping to the preview for the finale next week (ha) (I can’t help myself) -- I’m not technically seeing redemption for Dad Beng yet. His trying to give the money for his treatment back to Korn screams of asshole to me. BUT, I’m not gonna put it past New Siwaj to do something dumb LIKE redeem Dad Beng, because of the relative messiness of this episode 11.

2) Ohm and Perth.

Damn. I don’t need to ship them, I don’t need to see them in a BL (but I’m never saying no outright, heh). I want to see them work together again in a stronger, fuller, more honest, more well-developed drama -- maybe like a 10 Years Ticket, or something else with Fon Kanittha directing. 

Ohm and Perth saved the first half of this episode. Korn fully owning everything he knew about Win (which we’ll get to in a second) and spitting it back out to Win from last week to now -- I think at least that part was paced well, and the control they both had over their rage against each other was acted out beautifully. 

Perth came into his own fully in this episode. He played Win gorgeously, which is to say: he absolutely demonstrated how PATHETIC Win ended up being (Win in his George Constanza moment: “you never loved me?!?!?!” Come awn.)

At the same time. That conversation about how Win suffered vis à vis how Korn was kept close to the family via the mother and Li. That’s not linear. That would have been complicated for a young Win to understand vis à vis the messaging he (Win) was getting from his father. His father saying, Win, you’re the best, and Korn’s a jinx. Mom and Li staying close to Korn, keeping Korn in the family system. I didn’t have enough empathy for that complicated mindset that Win must have suffered under. And then in adulthood, as Li and the mother continued to long for Korn to rejoin the family, while all the pressure was put on Win’s shoulders to be the golden child -- and then Win spitting out “golden child” right back to Korn. 

BRILLIANT. That’s my kind of family trauma that I like to see illuminated in the complicated relationships and boundaries that shows like this explore. 

We REALLY need to see Perth more outside of BL. He was FANTASTIC. (Yes, I’m excited for Dangerous Romance, but he clearly does family dramas VERY well, and should do more of them.) (I don’t have Never Let Me Go to compare it to, but I heard he was weaker in it.)

3) Film/Rung in her revenge era.

I still do think that the writing of Rung is against her misogynistically. I’m not ENTIRELY sure she needed to sweep in and do all this damage against the ENTIRE family. But: I think Film/Rung played the revenge bit VERY well until the end anyway, and I do think Rung had her own karma come to her, as Korn noted at the memorial hall. I didn’t expect to see her witness Li’s heartbreak over Ah, and how the boys were fighting up until the moment that Li was contemplating the gun, and I think Rung got, at that moment, how much the weight of her entire life, and what had happened in it via Korn’s family, hit her -- I thought that was acted wonderfully by Film.

All three of these actors -- Ohm, Perth, Film -- I’m glad they had this vehicle in Double Savage to go outside their usual GMMTV boundaries to do action/revenge/crime, because they completely killed their roles.

4a) AWL the flashbacks, good lord. As a filmmaking mechanism, I thought they were overused in this episode.

So we find out that Ah and Li had been together, and that they both intended to never tell the brothers. We find out that Win was the one who caused the car accident that killed Rung’s parents (MORE. ON. THIS. IN. A. SECOND.) We find out that Korn and Rung BOTH KNEW ABOUT THAT ACCIDENT, and that’s likely when Korn himself stopped pining for Win as a brother and started to suspect him as a bad cop.

4b) Before I complain about the flashbacks, lemme just say this (ha) as a literal driver of a car who drives everyday (ha) -- Win, BRO, WHAT were you doing passing like that?! HA. I mean. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE ABOUT THAT ACCIDENT -- at least, I beg of New Siwaj, PLEASE, because -- that was terrible driving, bro! I mean! Swerving your car like that, come awn! Just honk, dude, or like, roll down your window and say something or like, toss a Diet Coke at them, if you want them to go faster! UNLESS you thought you were chasing another car with like, criminals inside or whatever. Bad driving in shows, I would have never expected it! Pleeze, y’all. 

ANYWAY. (Thank you for allowing me that moment, ha.) (I swear I don’t do road rage, I SWEAR.) I say there needs to be something about the way Win was driving (WHICH WAS BAD) because that was a big chain of events for Win to lead Rung’s parents down.

4c) In any case, back to the flashbacks -- I honestly don’t think it does us great to leave the rest of the reveals to next week. We need to know HOW Korn and Rung KNEW about Win causing the accident that killed Rung’s parents. As I type that out, I really wonder -- it could NOT have been just by way of Win’s bad driving, but I’m not sure I trust New Siwaj to wrap that up nicely like that, just with bad driving as an excuse and everyone accepting it.

Next week, we’ll clearly learn from Pea/Satang to Rung/Film how Korn helped her during her time on the lam. 

And I’m hoping, HOPING, as I thought at the start of the post, that we don’t see a redemption for/from Dad Beng. That’s certainly my inner Asian child crying out for that conclusion. 

Because...

5) These flashbacks are taking away the ability for us to see some real emotional growth from the characters. We’re getting hints by, say, the change of colors they’re wearing (thanks to @shortpplfedup for pointing that out to me), and in next week’s preview, we see Rung cleaned up (where did the eyeliner go, gurl). We need to know how things have unspooled, for sure, but -- shit. A LOT HAS HAPPENED TO KORN AND RUNG. We need enough time to know how they’ll end up, and I’m not sure New Siwaj will give us enough time to process it all.

Anyway. Complaints here, and praises there. Ohm/Perth/Film, again, SAVED this episode. 

So, eff, omg, next week. Monday: end of Double Savage. Wednesday and Thursday: Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy. I’m effed. My heart can’t take much more!

@miscellar -- this one’s for you!

[petalboundtovanish]

This will be my last post on Barbie. Some spoilers below.

I've been seeing some posts about how we shouldn't complain that Barbie is too simplistic. That most women don't even think about feminism and only those who are terminally online already know the stuff that was talked about in the film.

And I'm so confused?? Where do you all live? I watched this movie with a conservative woman who doesn't care about feminism and is all about just living our lives. And she liked the movie too, thought it was okay. But later, when we talked and I told her about how some people were hailing it as revolutionary, she was confused too. Because it's all stuff she knows about already.

In my experience, it isn't that women don't notice the injustice. It's just that they are indifferent about it. Whether it's about how husbands stole from their wives to write, or how violent cops are to their families . The reactions mostly vary from:

Yes, I knew that.

Ah, well that's just how things are.

This is where, for me, the disappointment about Barbie comes in. Because the movie does the same thing. It points out all these problems that men caused and does nothing about it. No, I didn't expect the Barbies to go on a Ken killing spree. But there was no reason to spend so much time on Ken in the first place. To apologize to him, to give him sympathy. Give him time. It would've been much better to ignore him. It's like one of those men need love too posts. They just turned women into their servants. Why are we still sympathizing with them?

In the end, the movie became about Ken. Sure, some women are talking about the message. But most news are about Ryan Gosling. Let's hear the amazing song Ryan sang for the movie. Is anyone else addicted to I'm Just Ken? Wow!! Ryan did amazing. I love Ken. Ryan deserves an Oscar. Where can i get the Kenough shirt?

Which pretty much summons mainstream feminism nowadays. Yup, let's focus on the men. They suffer, too. While ignoring the fact that they are culprits. So it's okay to be disappointed.

As a parting note, I will say that I exclude teenage girls from what I wrote. I do think that this movie will be good for some of them and will awaken feminist thoughts. As for the rest of you... if you need Barbie for feminism, good luck to you.

[greenlikethesea]

15 questions, however many people -- take two!

tagged by @spinmewriteround​ and @sea-heaux​! thank you so much y’all. i’ve done this but i feel like doing it again, and i have slightly different answers now.

15 questions

1. Are you named after anyone?

i kind of gave a flip answer last time, so i’ll go into more detail this time. my birth name is just a name my mother thought was pretty when she was 12, and my middle name (which i’m keeping when i change my name) is a family middle name. shortly after i was born, a major figure came into prominence and people thought my mom named me after her, and she was PISSED about it, hahaha.

the name that most people call me is one that people think is after a book character, and it sort of is, but it’s also after a movie character. it also starts with the same letter as my birth name so i can keep my initials (which i love), and it has the same number of letters as my last name, which my birth name also does. a great deal of thought went into picking this name!

greenie is just an abbreviation of my username -- you all called me that and i liked it so i adopted it.

2. When was the last time you cried?

yesterday, because i had therapy and it was emotional!

3. Do you have kids?

i do not have children. the last time i answered this question, i gave my stock “and i don’t want them!!” answer, but it’s more complicated than that: i was parentified growing up, so my reluctance to have kids stems partially from that, and also because i have qualms about both adopting and giving birth.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

irony more, but i dabble in sarcasm if it’s useful to me. i was a lot more sarcastic when i was younger!

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

their hair and their posture! i love good hair, like steve harrington. i also tend to notice how tall they are, because i am not a very big person. and then their hands, because i find hands very interesting.

6. What's your eye color?

they are greyish blue! i have an orange spot in one of them. sometimes they look a little more grey if i’m wearing darker clothing. i once peered around a corner at sparkly’s apartment to be silly and she was like “ah yes, the biggest bluest eyes in the world” and it was very funny coming from her, a lady with beautiful blue eyes

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

both! i love whatever ending serves the story. i’ve seen a lot of horror movies and i tend to love a hopeless ending in my horror films. in my fiction reading, i love a happy ending, though. call me sentimental like that.

8. Any special talents?

i feel like “special talents” means “unusual talents” and i don’t really have any of those. hmmm, is it a cop out to say that a talent i have is that if i am taught something, i usually get good at it pretty quickly? for example, i went to one of those BYO painting classes last night (brought some non-alcoholic ginger beer!) and even though there was a teacher helping us, my painting turned out pretty good!

9. Where were you born?

a borough of new york city, one of the most populous places in the planet, so i’m very much doxxing myself here. (maybe i can be sarcastic...)

10. What are your hobbies?

i actually do have hobbies, it turns out, but you’ll notice a pattern with them -- karaoke, songwriting, playing ukulele/guitar/mandolin, painting, zumba (it’s a hobby!!), yoga, collage making, and i plan on getting into community theater and improv! (yes, insufferable of me. i don’t give a shit. die mad about it.)

11. Do you have any pets?

a very, very elderly little black cat named wellington!

12. What sports do you play/have played?

oh goodness -- like i’ve asserted many times on this blog, i am decidedly not about that sport life. all my friends are hot jocks and i am cheering from the bleachers. i’ve competitively swam and ice skated, and i did soccer for a year as a child. most of the sports i’ve ever done in my life have been for an academic context. my high school had really interesting types of gym classes -- weight training, yoga, gymnastics, and i had fun with all of those, even though i was terrible. i was a runner for a long time, and i’m pretty strong and athletic despite being chronically ill. thanks, celtic genetics, for making me built like a fucking ox for no reason.

13. How tall are you?

5'2ish", but it says 5′3″ on my license because that’s easier and close enough. i usually wear shoes with some kind of platform or heel, so i’m usually standing at anywhere from 5′3″ to 5′5″. 

14. Favorite subject in school?

i went to a performing arts high school, so my favorite courses were my choir classes and music classes. i miss being able to sing for four hours a day every day! i’d love to join a community choir again at some point. after that, it was definitely english, as i had some wonderful teachers in those subjects. in undergrad, i was a theater major (is anyone surprised?), so i loved my theater courses, but i took a lot of poetry courses as well, which made me major in poetry for my MFA.

15. Dream job?

oh man, i’ve answered this one differently every time, because i do not dream of labor and i’ve hated almost every job i’ve had. i’d love to be in good enough physical shape to do care work again, because i found it immensely rewarding, and do little freelance gigs on the side to supplement stuff. that’s the realistic route i’d take.

wildly outlandish and crazy? just living my best life? i want to make weird fucking art in the woods or the mountains, preferably as part of a collective or community. i want to make serialized radio. even if i don’t get to make my proposed dissertation project, i still want to create it, even if the route will be more difficult (i want to make a 6-12 full issue run of a national geographic, complete with my own photography and articles, that seems like it was published in another dimension.)

i don’t care if you’ve been tagged, i want to know everything about you (but obviously no pressure DUH) @sparklyslug @friendship-switchblades @andropogonfalons @dallae @slothy-girl @compassionlotion @tayyloryork @tazigo

if i haven’t tagged you, i’ve tagged you in prior iterations of this or i forgot!!!

[onetomb-art]

Step, Drag

A Doll finds something unusual, voting ensues! (tw for mild slur use, about 1300 words long)

Step. Draaaaag. Step. Draaaaag. Step. Draaaaaaaag.

<Z-Cptn> You know, this is just like that one campfire story. With the escaped inmate?

<DosEquis> not helping

<Hi5> Campfire story? Do tell, you’ve piqued my interest!

<DosEquis> guys can this wait

<Z-Cptn>  Oh i can’t remember all the details, but it was something about an escaped serial killer on the loose in a summer camp, but he was still handcuffed to a cop, so he had to drag the body, and it was all like. Step. Draaaaag. Step, Draaaaag.

<Hi5>  Fascinating!

<DosEquis> guys i think hes really hurt

<777> Zee you dumbass thats not how it goes! 

<777> Its supposed to be a prisoner with one of those old-timey ball and chains on his leg

<Z-Cptn> What? Since when?

<777> Since fuckin always, who drags around a dead cop? You can break handcuffs like, so fuckin easily.

<Sixaphone> you can?

<Hi5> I don’t believe that’s correct, dear Sev. Handcuffs are made of quality materials, or else suspects would always be getting out of them, don’t you think?

<777> BULLSHIT

<777> Cuffs are fuckin weaksauce its just a chain link, plus you see people break them in movies all the time

<Z-Cptn> Movies are different from real life.

<777> Movies are basically real life!!! Movies are more real than real life, fuckin fight me

<Z-Cptn> [Called a vote: “Are movies the same as real life?”]

<Z-Cptn> [voted]

<777> [voted]

<Sixaphone> [voted]

<Hi5> [voted]

<777> …

<777> well?!?

<Z-Cptn> Hang on, it's tied.

<Z-Cptn> @<DosEquis> We need you to vote.

<DosEquis> are you fucking kidding me

<777> Dont be such a fuckin killjoy babe! It takes like, two seconds

<DosEquis> hes hurt bad i dont have time for this

<777> Dude hes like. Wayyyyyyy dead. Just leave him there and vote so i can show everyone what a fuckin idiot Zee is

<DosEquis> hes not dead

<DosEquis> i saw him move

<DosEquis> [voted]

[Vote concluded. Vote results: 40% “Obviously Not”,  60% “Yes(???)”. “Yes(???)” is the victor with five votes counted.]

<777> YES

<777> FUCK YES

<Z-Cptn> What???

<Hi5> Who would possibly vote “Yes”?

<777> SMART PEOPLE!!

<777> THATS FUCKIN WHO!!!1!

<DosEquis> i just clicked to get rid of the popup

<777> STILL COUNTS!!!!

<Z-Cptn> Wait, then that means that @<Sixaphone> voted for you too.

<Z-Cptn>  @<Sixaphone>, you don’t actually think movies are real life, do you?

<Sixaphone> um

<Sixaphone> no

<Sixaphone> i just

<777> JEEZ Zee lay off her thats like, voter intimidation its hella illegal you could go to jail

<Sixaphone> wait what

<Z-Cptn> Its not “voter intimidation”, i just wanted to make sure she knows the difference between *fiction* and *reality*.

<Sixaphone> please dont send Miss Zero to jail

<Sixaphone> im sorry

<777> Youre fine Six, its an expression

<Z-Cptn> I’m not going to jail, don’t worry. Seven was just attempting to make a crude joke. 

<Sixaphone> oh, ok

<Sixaphone> sorry

<TriAsIMight> Good morning everyooone!!!

<TriAsIMight> What’d I miss???

<Hi5> Oh, Salutations! We were having a discussion about movies and campfire stories! Would you like a recap?

<Sixaphone> good morning!

<TriAsIMight> WAIT 

<TriAsIMight> IS THAT A DEAD BODY???

<777> yes!

<DosEquis> no.

<Z-Cptn> We’re not quite sure, actually.

<TriAsIMight> WHAT

<TriAsIMight> EXPLAIN?!?

<777> Twos been on a murder spree, its been like fuckin rambo first blood over here

<TriAsIMight> ???

<Z-Cptn> That is blatantly incorrect.

<Hi5> I thought that the entire point of the “Rambo: First Blood” film was that the titular character did *not* go on a murder spree.

<777> Never seen it tbh

<Z-Cptn> There’s not really that much to explain, really. Two was piloting, in salvage mode, digging through some of the old office blocks, when she found this guy collapsed in a pile of blood. Recovery protocol kicked in, and now she’s attempting to drag the guy to safety. Does that seem about right, @<DosEquis>?

<DosEquis> left out the part where hes heavy as fuck

<DosEquis> but yeah

<DosEquis> basically

<TriAsIMight> JEEEZ

<TriAsIMight> That is effed up!!!

<DosEquis> thank you holy shit finally

<TriAsIMight> That sounds so stressful like what the F!!!

<DosEquis> THANK you

<DosEquis> im over here trying to save this guys life while yall are calling votes over dumb shit

<TriAsIMight> I can’t believe you all!!! Discussing movies and even calling a vote while Two is out there risking her life to save a person she doesn’t even know!!! Shame on you all!!!

<777> Ugh, youre not our fuckin mom, fuck OFF with all that shit

<Hi5> I agree with Seven, the lecture is hardly necessary. 

<Z-Cptn> Come on now. 

<TriAsIMight> We have to do something!!!

<Z-Cptn> Why don’t we ask her if she needs help with anything first. @<DosEquis>?

<DosEquis> i dont know what yall could do right now im

<DosEquis> hang on

<DosEquis> uh oh

<TriAsIMight> uh oh???

<DosEquis> theres a ladder

<Hi5> Ah, so there is. That could prove troublesome with your heavy new friend, I’m afraid.

<DosEquis> yeah i just

<DosEquis> im not sure how to get him down safely

<777> Drop the fucker, i wanna see if he bounces

<DosEquis> what no

<DosEquis> maybe if i just

<DosEquis> no

<Z-Cptn> It doesn’t seem like that far of a drop, you could lower him down feet first and then drop him? You might break his ankles, but that seems like the least of his worries. 

<DosEquis> guys

<Z-Cptn> [Called a vote: “Should she drop him?”]

<777> [voted]

<DosEquis> seriously

<Z-Cptn> [voted]

<TriAsIMight> [voted]

<Hi5> [voted]

<Sixaphone> [voted]

<Z-Cptn> @<DosEquis> Are you going to vote?

<DosEquis> yall are assholes

<DosEquis> [voted]

[Vote concluded. Vote results: 50% “Drop him”,  50% “Try another way”. The vote is a tie with six votes counted.]

<777> Well that was fuckin pointless

<DosEquis> can we stop with all the votes this is really annoying when im trying to work

<DosEquis> im gonna tie a rope to his waist i just gotta find a rope

<Z-Cptn> Voting is a useful tool for quick decision making!

<Hi5> Well said, hear hear!

<TriAsIMight> Don’t you all think the voting is distracting for her??? 

<777> lol yeah 

<Z-Cptn> Distracting? It's one button push. 

<DosEquis> ok i found some rope and ive got him tied

<DosEquis> gonna lower him down now

<Hi5> Ah, the moment of truth! Drumroll, everyone…

<TriAsIMight> Shut up, let her concentrate!!!

<777> Fuck off youre not the boss of me you dumb bimbo

<TriAsIMight> HEY???

<Z-Cptn> Play nice you two.

<777> Yeah, play nice you fucking piece o

<777> HOLY SHIT

<TriAsIMight> OH MY GOSH NO!!!

<Hi5> Oh dear.

<DosEquis> fuck

<DosEquis> the rope snapped

<Sixaphone> is he okay?

<777> HES TOTALLY FUCKIN DEAD BITCH

<Sixaphone> oh no

<Z-Cptn> We don’t know that, Two can you peek over the edge so we can see how hes doing?

<DosEquis> i dont want to

<777> Congrats on your first successful snuff film babe, this ones going on liveleak!

<Z-Cptn> Seven cut it out. Two, i need you to peek over the edge for me.

<DosEquis> no

<777> DO IT DO IT DO IT

<DosEquis> no i really dont want to

<TriAsIMight> We can’t help him if we can’t see him, you have to be brave!!!

<DosEquis> fucking fine

<777> YES YES YES YES

<Hi5> At least try to hide your murderboner, Seven. 

<777> BITE ME

<777> Aw

<TriAsIMight> He looks like he might be okay!!! That bush looks like it cushioned his fall…

<DosEquis> thank fuck 

<Sixaphone> he moved

<DosEquis> wait holy shit youre right

<DosEquis> hes moving

<TriAsIMight> Hes alive!!!

<DosEquis> i think he sees me

<Z-Cptn> Is he saying something? He’s moving his mouth.

<DosEquis> yeah hang on let me give yall audio

<DosEquis> [Input audio source “not dead guy”]

[‘not dead guy’] -OU FUCKING RETARDED MACHINE WHAT THE FUCK YOU BROKE MY FUCKING RIBS YOU [Incomprehensible] ILL FUCKING HAVE YOU SCRAPPED WHO THE [Incomprehensible] [Incomprehensible] ILL 

<DosEquis> [Removed audio source “not dead guy”]

<DosEquis>...

<DosEquis>...

<DosEquis> [Called a vote: “Hey can i kill him?”]

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

hostage

Prompt: story idea for a story where (insert au here i have no ideas hfgkjdgh) versions of the side are all fighting some evil force. because evil. idk man im bullshitting my way through school AND this ask lmao. basically someone gets hurt/captured and someone else trades themself to get them back and then everyone else has to go safe them :0 /nf ofc just an idea :D - anon

you did say any fandom and I really missed this one :)

Read on Ao3

Warnings: canon typical violence, hostage situation, implied/referenced domestic abuse

Pairings: gahan, same ambiguity as the canon

Word Count: 5506

    The weight of the blade pressed against his throat makes it difficult to breathe. 

  The hand in his hair is cruelly soft, carding fingers through in a mocking imitation of a comforting act as a voice laughs in his ear. 

  “Oh, don’t pout,” Sunah purrs, lifting the knife a little higher, “you’re getting what you wanted. Look at how much attention you’re getting right now, isn’t this nice?”

  A soft coo as a whine gasps out of his mouth. 

  “Aww, look at you, you’re so needy.” She cards her fingers through Gaon’s hair again. “How do they put up with you?”

  At least it’s not Elijah, he thinks frantically, at least it’s not Elijah. 

  “You look so sad,” she says in a childish voice, “are they not treating you well?”

  In a sudden movement, the knife momentarily shifts as she straddles Gaon’s lap. Gaon tenses, a new kind of fear flickering across his face. Sunah seizes it, the curve of her posture speaking volumes about how much the power she holds thrills her. 

  “Do you want to be treated well,” she asks in a voice that makes his skin crawl, “is that why you’re being a good little dog?”

  Gaon’s breathing hitches. He bites his gag and doesn’t move. 

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Sunah says, tapping his nose, “don’t bark at me. Bad dogs get put down.”

  “We’re ready.”

  Sunah’s expression falls a bit, disappointed at having her game ruined, but she gets up and turns as Gaon sees a camera being wheeled toward them. His eyes widen. 

  They’re going to…film him?

  “Young Master,” Sunah says, smiling—yes, apparently they’re filming this and sending it to Yohan, this is going to end well— “how good of you to join us.”

  They must have started recording. The knife is at his throat again. He can feel it as he tries to breathe, tries to stay strong for the camera. Sunah presses the knife deeper, deeper, until Gaon finally moves his head to try and alleviate it and Sunah tsks. 

  “He’s quite skittish,” she remarks, hand traveling down to trace patterns onto the bare skin of Gaon’s throat, “I can see why you like watching him.”

  Don’t let them see you sweat. 

  His fist tightens. 

  Sunah’s hand is still moving, down toward the open collar of Gaon’s shirt. The camera can see probably see him fighting not to move, the threat of the knife keeping him still. 

  “You know what I want, Young Master.” The knife digs a little more into his neck. “I want you to play with me, not these dogs.”

  He feels the moment a trickle of blood drips down to his collar. 

  “Didn’t you kill one of your father’s hunting hounds?”

  The camera stops recording—had he ever seen it turn on?—and wheels away as Sunah pulls away the knife and wipes it off. Gaon watches as she chuckles and beckons to a few men standing off in the shadows. She looks at him one more time, the way most people look at a spider before they put it in someone else’s bed, and leaves him as their shadows close over him. 

————

    Not many things can rattle Kang Yohan, but a phone call from a crying Elijah does the trick. 

  He can’t make out most of it through the sobs—which isn’t helping at all—but the few things he can catch have him running for the car. 

  Attempted kidnapping. Kim Gaon. Hostage. Jung Sunah. 

  K’s voice comes over the phone next. Elijah and Judge Kim were out to run an errand with his cop friend, Yoon Soohyun. Judge Kim had stepped out for a moment to pick up something, leaving the two of them in the car. According to Elijah, a group of thugs had come to try and take her, but Judge Kim and the cop had fought them off. 

  His grip on the phone tightens when he hears that Judge Kim traded himself to make sure the cop could get Elijah home safely. 

  “Where are you now?”

  “At the mansion. Elijah and the cop are both still here. She’s working to calm Elijah down.”

  Yohan snorts. Good luck to her. 

  “And Judge Kim?”

  “Unknown, Chief.”

  “Find him,” he barks, already speeding down the road, “find him now.”

————

    Soohyun-unnie isn’t as good a cook as Gaon, but she says he taught her how to make simple things and the street toast sandwiches are pretty good. 

  Could do with less sugar next time. 

  “I can never get the balance right,” Soohyun-unnie sighs, leaning on her hand as she eats her own sandwich, “Gaon-ah always yells at me. I’m never trying to make his ramen recipe again.”

  “What happened?”

  “Oh, I didn’t mix the egg in right or something like that and he made me wait outside with his plants.”

  “Why does he have so many plants?”

  She shrugs. “He likes to take care of them. He’s very good at it. We all enjoy the things we’re good at, I suppose.”

  Elijah does enjoy her computers. And winning. 

  “Do you want another?”

  She shakes her head, putting her plate down in the sink and letting Soohyun-unnie give her a hot mug. “We need to find him, unnie.”

  “I know.” She looks over to where K is lingering in the background, on the phone to someone. Probably unnie’s boss. “I’m sure he’ll tell us if he finds anything.”

  “No! We should be doing something! We were there, we saw them, can’t we go find them?”

  “Did you see a car? A plate number?”

  “No, but I know their faces, I saw them—they were wearing dark clothes and carried baseball bats and—“

  “Describe their faces.”

  Elijah scowls. “You were there too, unnie, what are you talking about?”

  “But did you see them?” Soohyun-unnie looks at her and raises an eyebrow. “Can you tell me exactly what they looked like? What build were they, did one of them walk with a limp, how tall were they?”

  Elijah opens her mouth to tell her exactly what she saw, but she falters. Unnie just watches her, drinking her own tea. 

  This is stupid. She was there, she should be able to say what she saw. They were outside a convenience store, she could name the address, what car is Soohyun-unnie’s, they could—

  Wait. 

  “The cameras,” she blurts out, “the—the store had cameras. We can look at the footage! We’ll be able to see where they went!”

  “I’d have to check the systems—“

  “No, I’ll do it, it’ll be faster.” 

  Unnie just sighs and puts down her cup. “For the record, I did not hear that, and I will not be in the room while you magically come across the footage.”

  Elijah pays her no more attention, wheeling as quickly as she can to her room and setting her fingers flying across the keyboard. She hears muffled conversation and loud footsteps—her uncle must be home—and types in the things she needs, eyes trained on the screen. 

  Then she stops. 

  An email. 

  From an unknown address. 

  Frowning, she runs her scans on it—no malware or viruses detected—and hesitantly opens it. The body of the email is empty, no signature, no greeting, no text of any kind, and only one attachment. 

  Her cursor moves over and she runs the scan again. 

  Nothing. It’s just a video. 

  She clicks it. 

  And screams.

————

    Yohan is in Elijah’s room before the scream ends, bursting through ready to defend his niece from whatever must be attacking her, only to freeze. 

  Kim Gaon is on her computer screen, tied to a chair, gagged, with Jung Sunah holding a knife to his throat. 

  “Young master. How good of you to join us.”

  Footsteps as the others rush in behind him. He hears the cop gasp Gaon’s name. He watches her hand trail over the skin of Gaon’s throat, down to his chest, claiming and filthy and repulsive. 

  He knows what that touch feels like and for a moment, he’s seized by an unmistakable urge to cut her hands off. He savors it as Gaon flinches away and she chuckles. 

  “You know what I want, Young Master, I want you to play with me. Not these dogs.”

  Distantly, he hears K mutter to the cop about knowing where this building is, who to call. 

  “Didn’t you kill one of your father’s hunting hounds?”

  The video goes black, the sight of Gaon’s eyes still lingering on the empty screen. He sees his own face in the reflection and takes a deep breath. 

  “Find him,” Elijah’s voice says, smacking his arm, “find him and bring him home.”

————

    K has never enjoyed cleaning up the messes that he and Kang Yohan so often leave behind. 

  He likes it even less when it involves the rescue of a hostage. 

  The small broken body they find in a warehouse is no exception. Judge Kim is still tied to a chair, ankles and wrists mangled from thrashing against the restraints. His hair is matted and clumps are sticking up, coated in something dark. He’s breathing shallowly and something…something is making it hard. 

  K makes quick work of the bindings, carefully manipulating the slack limbs until they’re free. He can see the evidence of his torment just in the way his fingers have lost circulation. On his other side, Yohan’s jaw is tight as he checks for a pulse. 

  “Is he good to move?”

  A sharp nod and K begins to take off his coat. He wraps it around Judge Kim’s bruised and battered form and helps get him into Yohan’s arms. Without a word, they know that the doctor will need to be called as soon as possible. 

  The drive to the mansion is tense, quiet, none willing to break the silence. Every so often, a stuttering breath will draw their attention and Yohan will carefully shift Judge Kim so he can breathe easily. 

  They manage to get him into the bathroom, laying him down with a towel to support his head. Despite rescuing him from the explosion, Judge Kim looks breakable there and K decides he never wants to see it again. He glances over to see a similar conclusion forming on Yohan’s face. 

  “Call the doctor,” he hears himself saying, “I’ll see what I can figure out.”

  Yohan nods sharply—the only way he’s been able to, apparently—and sweeps out of the room. K takes a deep breath and slowly pulls away the fabric of the coat. 

  He remembers something someone had said, an eon ago.

  Dead people don’t look like people, they look like things. 

  Here, now, lying on the tile, Judge Kim almost looks like a thing. 

  K swallows and gets to work, pulling away the last of the fabric, making sure Judge Kim can still breathe. He winces as his hand brushes something wet and it comes away red. He turns his head carefully to the side and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees it’s just a patch of his hair, dragged through a small puddle of water from under the sink. He takes another breath and turns his attention to the mess of his clothes.

  As soon as he begins to tug at her buttons, Judge Kim mumbles. 

  “It’s okay, Judge Kim,” he says, “the doctor just needs to—ah!”

  He’s cut off when he flails suddenly, striking out at him with a strength that catches him off-guard. He muffles a curse and quickly reaches out. 

  “Relax,” he tries, catching hold of him before he can hurt himself, “Judge Kim, you’re safe, it’s okay, calm down—“

  “No—no, no, stop, please—“

  “You’re safe, Judge Kim, you’re not there,” he tries again, “stop, you’re going to hurt yourself—“

  “Let me go—you—you—you said if I was good you wouldn’t, I didn’t do anything,” Judge Kim sobs, “please, please—“

  “It’s me, it’s me, Judge Kim,” he tries desperately, “wake up, it’s okay—“

  “Hyung, please!”

  K freezes. Judge Kim is looking at him but his eyes are glazed over. He stares through him without seeing him and whatever—whoever he’s seeing isn’t good. This is bad. This is really bad. 

  “…Judge Kim—“

  “I’ll be good,” comes the broken voice, “I won’t fight this time, I promise—I’ll—I can be good, I can be good.”

  K can only let go of his wrists, watching in a stupor as he goes limp, trembling on the cold floor. 

  “Please,” he sobs again, “what—what did I do wrong? I didn’t mean to, I—I didn’t mean to, please—please—“

  Heart in his throat, K watches in a horrified numb state as Judge Kim slowly lapses back into sleep, body exhausted. He swallows with difficulty, moving back. His head still rings with the pleas. 

  He is not too proud to admit that he underestimated Judge Kim. But he never imagines he would be hiding something like this. What else is he hiding?

  Footsteps approaching and he swallows again as Yohan walks into the room. 

  “The doctor will be here shortly,” he hears, “how is he?”

  “Hurt,” K says unhelpfully, “really hurt.”

  Yohan raises an eyebrow. “Perhaps we should strive for a more detailed report next time,” he says lightly, reaching for Judge Kim’s clothes. 

  In a flash, K catches his wrist and pulls him back. 

  “Don’t,” he says firmly, ignoring the look of surprise, “don’t touch him.”

  He knows that Yohan can tell something’s happened—he can count on one hand the times he’s grabbed him like that—but he just nods. K lets go, feeling Yohan settle into place beside him. He can feel Yohan ask the question wordlessly, wanting to know what’s rattled K so badly that not only has he not done his job, he’s prevented Yohan from doing it as well. 

  He tries to find words. 

  He tries. 

  He tries to put into words how it felt to have Judge Kim suddenly surge to life underneath his grip, terrified of someone he couldn’t see. 

  He tries to put into words how it hurt to hold him still, keep him restrained, when it looked and felt like nothing more than adding to whatever torment they’d put him through. 

  He tries to put into words the way his heart damned near stopped as Judge Kim cried out for someone to stop. Someone he couldn’t see, someone who wasn’t there, someone who had left a mark so deep into Judge Kim’s mind that now, after everything that’s happened tonight, it is there that he found himself. 

  He tries. He can’t. 

  Yohan doesn’t say a word beside him. He doesn’t need to. He’s never needed to ask a question twice, K knows, not of him. Once K knows he wants something, he’ll get it one way or another. 

  Only this time, K doesn’t know how to give it to him. 

  He could describe what happened, make it cold and impersonal the way they both know how, but that would only turn Judge Kim into a thing. 

  He could ask Yohan knows any of Judge Kim’s former hyungs, but the word seizes his tongue and refuses to roll off of it, rendering him speechless. 

  He could say he doesn’t want to tell him. 

  Even as he thinks it, he has to hold back a scoff. 

  Something like that would never work. 

  Some hysterical part of him says that he should let Yohan find out for himself. Let him be the one to see Judge Kim writhe and beg and plead for mercy from a demon so vast it seems to swallow him whole. Let him try and keep him from hurting himself only to feel like he’s the one who did this to him, the ones they can and can’t see. Let him be stunned, struck with equal curiosity and terror that the sweet judge that never fails to make Elijah smile could hide something like this. 

  Part of him wonders if Yohan would be better at it. Would know what to do, how to hold him so he doesn’t hurt himself as he struggles in the grip. How to speak softly yet firmly enough to pull him out of the demon’s hold. Maybe he would glance over at K as if to say ‘this is what you were so worried about?’ He thinks he could be relieved by it. 

  Part of him thinks that Yohan would freeze. That he would hear the sobs that choke out of Judge Kim’s throat and be stunned stiff by them, unable to reconcile the gentle smiles with the war-torn pleas. That he would never again be able to look at him without seeing his terrified face, the way his gaze rent him asunder, and wonder if that’s how he saw him too. 

  K wouldn’t wish that on anyone. 

  So they sit there and they wait, as they did in the car, for the doctor to arrive. 

  He knows as soon as the doctor asks them to leave that Yohan is still expecting an answer. In a rare burst of defiance, he turns away from the closing door and marches off. Not to leave—he’s not that brave—but enough to put distance between him and that room. 

  If Judge Kim wakes up again while the doctor is conducting his examination, K doesn’t want to be anywhere near earshot. He’s not sure he can hear it a second time. 

  He stalks to the kitchen and blindly opens a cabinet, groping for a glass. He shoves it under the tap, uncaring that water splashes onto his hand as he fills it up. It’s cold. It’s wet. That’s all he needs it to be. 

  He drains half of it in one gulp, panting, then the other half. It rushes down his throat and with it goes the remnants of the word. 

  He doesn’t understand. He can stay the name of the woman who murdered his family. He can say the names of the men and women who would happily watch the nation burn just to fatten their own pockets. He’s said the word ‘hyung’ before. 

  Never before did it cling to the inside of his mouth with such revulsion. 

  He doesn’t need to turn around to know Yohan’s followed him. The man has a presence, something Judge Kim had remarked on early in their relationship. He’s tangible, almost, as if you become attuned to him and his whereabouts as he moves. 

  He can feel it now, over his shoulder, leaning against the door to the kitchen, waiting. Probably wondering the same thing K is: what happened in the few moments that he was away, what possibly could have caused such an extreme reaction?

  The water doesn’t give him any answers. 

  He swallows the vestiges of the revulsion and turns, keeping his head bowed. 

  “I can find them,” he says instead,” they shouldn’t be difficult to track. That area has enough security cameras that the coverage should have caught some of it.”

  Yohan hums, pushing off the wall. “It would also help to look at the video they left us too, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Considering you pointed it out, it would only make sense for you to include it.”

  “Yes.”

  They stand there for a moment, still. Silence seems to cling to the pair of them tonight. 

  “I doubt it will get done if you just stand there,” comes the tease, “or are you waiting to be dismissed?”

  The first question, he’s sure, one of many. And he could leave now, deal with the smug smile of being caught off-guard, and find the bastards he can punish for hurting Judge Kim, but no. No, he can’t leave. Not yet. Something keeps him rooted to the floor, stuck, even as Yohan tilts his head. 

  “I should wait,” he settles on eventually, “to hear what the doctor says.”

  There. A partial truth. He’s gotten good at those. 

  Just not as good as the man in front of him. 

  “I can send you an update when I get it,” Yohan says, taking a step closer, “and I’m sure Judge Kim would be grateful if you were already looking for the people that hurt him when he wakes up.”

  K swallows, still looking at the ground. Yohan keeps coming closer. 

  “You seem quite concerned,” he says, “over Judge Kim. Are you worried about his security? Do you think someone is going to try and come here to finish the job?”

  Well, he wasn’t. 

  “You never displayed nearly this much worry for Judge Kim before.”

  Oh. That’s what he thinks this is. 

  It’s not an irrational conclusion to jump to, considering what this must look like from the outside. And it’s true, K and Judge Kim had gotten off to a rocky start, but they’ve warmed up to each other now. 

  “Should I worry,” Yohan says, a smirk audible, “that if it comes down to choosing between him and me, I won’t be the person you save?”

  If this were a normal conversation, K would snap back. Say that how could he be, when Yohan would always save Judge Kim? Say that after his reaction when the bomb went off in the office, he’s in no position to talk about surprising amounts of concern. 

  But this isn’t a normal conversation, something Yohan picks up on when K doesn’t react to the teasing at all. 

  “He’ll be okay,” he says, a little warmth injected into his voice now, “they just wanted to send a message, not kill him.”

  K just nods. 

  Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Yohan pause, narrowing his eyes and looking at K. He lets him look, not that he could stop him, and hopes against all hope that he won’t ask. 

  He knows when Yohan takes another step closer that his hopes will wither as soon as the other man opens his mouth. 

  “Something happened,” Yohan says, not a question but a fact, “when I called the doctor. You looked like you’d seen a ghost when I came back.”

  He reaches out to tip K’s chin up. 

  “You still do.”

  And there it is, the tiny bit of concern that makes it through the remains of Yohan’s mask. He lets K go but stays close, waiting for K to explain. He should, it isn’t good to keep something like this inside him, it’s already eating him up. 

  But even speaking it about it feels like a betrayal. 

  K feels like crying. 

  Yohan must see because he reaches up, a hand on K’s shoulder now. His touch feels warm and part of him cringes away from it. Judge Kim is still upstairs, reeling from whatever demons have haunted him for who knows how long, and K is the one being comforted. And yet he can’t bring himself to pull away. 

  “What happened,” Yohan asks, impossibly soft for the two of them, “what happened?”

  K shakes his head. “I can’t.”

  “You can tell me,” Yohan assures, “I’ll fix it, whatever it is, we can fix it.”

  “I can’t,” K repeats, “I—it’s not mine to tell.”

  Yohan’s eyes widen. He can practically see the man trying to put the pieces together in his head, of why K is so shaken by what happened tonight and why he’s refused to tell Yohan. The hand on his shoulder never tenses, never hurts, but there’s something else there now. 

  “I’m sorry I ran,” he mumbles when the revulsion gives way to shame over his tongue, “I just…I couldn’t hear it again.”

  Yohan shakes his head; the apology isn’t needed. K watches his expression flicker. His curiosity isn’t sated, not by a long shot, but he won’t press K for anything else right now. 

  K loves him a little bit, just for that. 

  “Did the doctor say how long it would be? Or take?”

  Yohan shakes his head. “It shouldn’t be much longer, though.”

  He glances up. 

  “Do you want to check?”

  K swallows and squares his shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  “You can wait here if you want.”

  K shakes his head. If Judge Kim can carry that much hidden behind kind words and sweet smiles, he can bear this while he’s in pain. 

  Luckily, it is quiet when they return to the hall outside the room. Yohan folds his arms as they wait, K pulling out his phone to distract himself by looking for whatever goons hurt Judge Kim. They can’t touch Jung Sunah, not yet, but they can get rid of her pawns. After a moment, he feels Yohan’s gaze on him. 

  He glances up. Yohan doesn’t look away but meets him steadily. The glimmer of concern still hasn’t left. 

  Maybe this, this one look into just how much they don’t know about Judge Kim will be enough to make them consider changing that. 

  Even if K can never hear him say the word ‘please’ again. 

————

    It’s not as severe this time, the doctor had said, he’ll need a few days to recover from the bruising, but he shouldn’t need any bed rest. 

  See, Yohan thinks as he stares down at the prone body, you should be fine. Now wake up so I can scold you. 

  But Judge Kim, obstinate and disobedient Judge Kim, does not move. 

  Wake up. Wake up now. You need to wake up. Elijah needs to scold you too. So does your little cop friend. You need to wake up and stop avoiding us. 

  Nothing. Not even a twitch. 

  Elijah has been in here too. She’s asleep now—at least she should be, the cop had promised to try and get her to sleep. The cop is still here too, downstairs working with Lawyer Ko on how to pin this on Jung Sunah somehow. He should be down there too, figuring out why she made such a risky move by sending him the video with her in it, what she’s playing at, what she’s hoping for. Or out with K, hunting. 

  But instead he’s here. On the bed, again, waiting for Kim Gaon to wake up. 

  You didn’t need to have another injury to stay here. Elijah would be so upset if she found out that’s why you did it. She already told me to bring you home, do you think she would let me let you leave? 

  When did you get so close to my niece, Kim Gaon? I never told you to do that. And now she bothers me about eating and sleeping properly. She never used to do that. She bothers K about it too. 

  I didn’t tell you to get close to K either. 

  K…K had come back just long enough to see Gaon settled into the bed before disappearing again. The haunted look on his face still hasn’t left as far as he knows.

  What did you do? What happened in the two minutes I was not in the room? You’ve been keeping secrets from me, Kim Gaon, I don’t like that. When you wake up, you need to tell me everything. You should do that now. Wake up so I can scold you for keeping secrets from me. 

  The door swings open behind him and he doesn’t have to look to know it’s Elijah. “You should be asleep.”

  “I was. I woke up.”

  “Go back to sleep.”

  She doesn’t listen—not that he expected her to—and wheels over to stare at Gaon. She’s been crying. She reaches out to touch his hand. 

  “Wake up,” she orders, giving it a little shake, “you need to wake up now.”

  Nothing happens for her either. He should send her back to bed, make her sleep, but he doesn’t. 

  What have you done to us, Kim Gaon?

  He doesn’t know how long they sit there, long enough that Lawyer Ko comes up to tell him he’s leaving, that the cop comes up to see him too, that K comes back. 

  It is very, very late when Kim Gaon finally stirs. 

  Elijah shrieks his name and he winces, trying to sit up only for the cop to bark out an order to stay still, you big dummy, you’re hurt!

  “I know,” he mumbles, “kind of hard not to notice that.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Elijah declares, “you’re stupid.”

  “Yah, I just woke up! Are both of you teaming up on me?”

  “Yes,” they say at the same time and he rolls his eyes. 

  “You’re okay,” he says softly, reaching out for Elijah, “that’s good.”

  “You’re not allowed to get hurt,” she says, even as her hand trembles, covering his, “you have to come home and stay here where it’s safe.”

  Yohan can see Gaon’s breathing hitch when she calls the mansion home and the cop quickly puts her hands on Elijah’s shoulders. 

  “We should let him rest,” she says, “he needs to heal so we can yell at him properly.”

  “Make him stay,” Elijah calls as she wheels out, looking over her shoulder, “he needs to stay.”

  “Where exactly am I going to go?” Gaon grumbles as the door closes. 

  When neither of them says anything, he looks up. 

  “Is something wrong?”

  He hears K withdrawing discreetly. He’s going to have to ask what happened eventually, no one gets to keep secrets about Judge Kim from him anymore, but for now he focuses on the stupid man lying in the bed in front of him. 

  “You cannot afford to be reckless,” he says, watching Gaon’s expression darken, “what were you thinking?”

  “They were going to take Elijah.” His jaw sets. “I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “Why didn’t you call for help, then?”

  “What would you have done? You were miles away, so was K, no one else was around. If I hadn’t done anything—“

  “If you had gotten in the car and driven away—“

  “Then they could’ve reached in and gotten her!” Gaon glares up at him. “I was keeping her safe, Soohyun-ah did the right thing, she drove off with Elijah so they couldn’t get her—“

  “But they got you.”

  “So?” 

  Rage flares and he stands up. “So you cannot afford to be so careless with your own life!”

  “What, so I should’ve just let them take Elijah?” He struggles to sit up more and Yohan just pushes him back down. “I should’ve let them take her?”

  “You’re missing the point.”

  “I don’t think I am. You’re angry at me for getting hurt but I got hurt so Elijah wouldn’t. Isn’t that what you want? You want Elijah to be safe! She is safe!”

  “But you were not!”

  “So?”

  They both stop, breathing hard. Gaon just scowls harder, pushing against his hand. His skin is warm and slightly damp under his palm, heart thudding against his ribs. 

  “So what,” he repeats, quieter now but no less enraged, “so what? Do you just want to have your Left Associate Judge look all pretty and be set dressing for you? Huh? Is that it? So it won’t look too empty?”

  Oh, this stubborn, fierce, beautiful boy…

  “My face is fine, Chief Kang,” Gaon borderline snarls, “they’ll put makeup on me and the collar of my robes is high enough to cover the cut. I’ve had worse than this. I’ll be fine for court.”

  He’s still panting, still straining against the hand on his chest. But he’s tiring, anger only giving him a short burst of energy as his arms begin to tremble from the weight of him. Yohan slips his other arm under his back to catch him when his left elbow buckles, lowering him back to the bed with his arm still there. The imprint of the mark left from the explosion is still there, just barely. 

  Like this, he’s closer now, able to feel Gaon’s chest heaving against his side as well as his hand. He’s bruised, painted awful shades of green and yellow and purple. None of which are good colors for him. His eyes drift upward to the crimson scratch on his throat. 

  His hand moves, tracing upwards, until he can reach for it. Gaon tenses and he looks at his face, seeing apprehension as he carefully touches the mark. 

  “They hurt you,” he says, voice lowered too, “she hurt you.”

  The roll of Gaon’s throat works against his hand. 

  “No one gets to hurt you. No one gets to touch you. Do you understand?”

  Gaon’s jaw wobbles but he nods. 

  “Say it. Say you understand. No one touches you. No one hurts you.”

  “No one touches me,” his boy repeats, “no one hurts me. I understand.”

  “Good.”

  You will pay for this, Jung Sunah, he promises as he traces the mark again, you will suffer for it. 

————

"You called me 'hyung.'"

Gaon's eyes widen. There's a faint ringing in his ears and he stares at K. Thank god Yohan left for work hours ago. "I..."

K glances at the door, making sure Elijah isn't going to come in. "I didn't tell him."

"Thank you."

"But you should tell him soon."

He bristles. "And why should I?"

"Because would you rather he finds out about it first, or Jung Sunah?"

...right.

When he doesn't say anything for a few more moments, K sighs. "Can he still hurt you?"

Gaon's silence is pointed.

"A name."

"No."

"Then give it to Kang Yohan." K's eyes bore into his. "You know what he'll do."

Gaon can't be sure who he's talking about, and he's not sure it makes that much of a difference.

[aviculor]

I've mentioned New French Extremity before, a movement of French and French-Canadian horror in the mid aughties on a similar wavelength as American "torture porn". Films such as Irreversible, or as it's known in French, Irréversible. Martyrs, or as it's known in French, Martyrs. And the film I am watching today: Inside, or as it's known in French, À l'intérieur.

Yes, I had that bit planned for a long time.

Inside is about a pregnant woman who previously lost her husband in a car crash, who is now being stalked inside her home. Spoiler alert: the stalker is the other driver from the crash and she wants to steal the protagonist's unborn baby to replace hers since she was also pregnant during the crash but miscarried.

At an hour and 18 minutes, it should be a pretty tidy watch. It's also technically a Christmas movie, I'm just choosing to ignore that.

WHY WAS SHE THE ONE DRIVING?

Sarah's mom needs to back off. Like, your daughter's husband died four months ago and you're trying to get her to hook up with someone? Her boss, no less? Disrespectful.

Grief really do be like that.

Whether or not she "wants to be alone", it really is risky to be by yourself when you're nine months pregnant and it's overdue where you're having labor induced the next morning. Not that anyone would reasonably have to worry about a crazed lunatic breaking into their home seeking to kidnap the baby out of their stomach. That's a slight extenuating circumstance.

"Your husband is not sleeping, Sarah. He is dead."

Given how "La Femme" is so quick to violence, I think if Sarah did buy the "car broke, phone yes?" story she would have gotten gutted like a trout right there at the door.

Oh okay, she just left to go to her darkroom when this woman is standing in her yard having punched her back door hard enough to have broken the glass.

SHIT SHE'S RIGHT FUCKING THERE AS SARAH IS TALKING TO THE COPS! SHE'S INSIDE THE HOUSE!

I like how La Femme is decked out in a gothic dress and heels and giallo gloves for her big night of home invasion/murder/fetal abduction.

Did...did she not think Sarah would wake up and fight back after she stabbed her in the bellybutton?

I think that if Sarah had directly told Jean-Pierre that somone was trying to break into her house when she called him after the initial attack, things would have gone a little differently.

Wait, what the fuck is happening here? While Sarah is hiding for dear life in the bathroom with a slashed face and her water broken, La Femme is trying to rizz up her boss in the living room while pretending to be her mom?

Oh, that sucks.

So before the reveal of who La Femme is and what her motivations are, she really just looks like a really inept criminal. You would have expected her to be this invincible, overpowering presence, but she is getting injured just as often as she's crying.

WHY ARE NONE OF THESE COPS RADIOING FOR BACKUP

Ah yes, I suspected that the opening narration and the cgi baby was actually La Femme's story since it was fully formed and the crash happened 4 months ago. There were two pregnant women driving and they crashed into one another and we're supposed to take this reveal seriously. We don't even learn who was at fault.

HUH?????

Oh, this is hard to watch. Wow. This is really happening. On-screen.

One hell of an ending. Worth noting that baby was silent and not moving.

Sarah said that no one else survived the crash and La Femme said Sarah killed her once already, which seems to imply La Femme is some kind of vengeful spirit. It's ambiguous though.

Apparently, the cgi baby shots were added without the director's knowledge and that sucks since they're definitely the weakest part and they did not age well.

[lonespektr]

OCTOBER 8TH HORROR WATCH

My animal (2023)

Full moon

Sis already bleeding

Old ass tv. I know it's not the past

Old film beauty n the beast shot

Heather has bounced

Into the snow. Into the night

The love of a woman

I for one think all credits should be red

Go into the house

Oh it is the past 🤷🏿‍♀️

Muscle woman

Them weights old as shit my dad used to have a set like that 🤣🤣

Man into wolf

The set design is legit lots of info in the room here

Oh mom isn't dead just maimed?? Now permeantly ill?

Trans or just trying to get on the hockey team? The eternal question

We had them fire pokers too

These set designers in my old house n shit

Shes out of high school, lives at home

Now amandla looks exceptionally modern in dress n hair style

Was that supposed to be canine like?

She does have s job

She's a professional skater?

Dude ditched in the snow WILD ain't no taxis there

Not hiding it

Hiding what?

Another nose bleed

Good big sis

Amandala invites her out

The mom is lamenting she isn't a girly girl so she is stuck in a house of boys

Midnight timeline for full moon?? Seems arbitrary i don't think moons have a 12 hour timeline

Out in the car no control over when to come back

Doing drugs

Super safe

11:30 casio alarm

Weird non casino visit just like hanging out while one person gambles

No smoke anywhere so not realistic

Lots of face bleeding

Horror movie woman screeching over growling over howling

Off into the woods

Now she is wolf

Lots of red being utilized

Lol they both came early to train and both got kicked out by the boys

Only thing in town is an ice rink

Always intrigued by the forward but closeted individual

They own a diner?

They use they chained up method

Lol weird sex dreams

Mandala nekkid but not her?

The twins have perfect hair

Amandala clocked the scratches every where

The locks are on the outside huh

Seems like mom didn't know about him before they got married

Then got bitter-er after the incident

But also she seems sick sick not just booze sick

One of the boys have an attitude problem but also it appears they are starving themselves possibly

A bit

There's a bunch of eggs all the time. It's standard American breakfast but it's also it's a large amount of eggs instead of traditional American tv breakfast which has too much of everything

Like 87% egg meal

Ok correct says she can try out

She drives mandala to her ice skating

🤣 dam yo mama suck here 's a free nacho sorry about your shiity life

Dad is sick too he's old

She crying

Oh mandala isn't a muscle lady which is her type lol

Try outs

Mandala boyfriend is uh like 30

She lets the girl distract her from her tryout

Can i say i fucking hate this trope?

I prefer when it's family drama, cumalative of course but it's just better to have an unforeseeable family situation arise than this shit

I just hate it , as a compartmentalizer it seems so unrealistic to have something screw up everything you been working for just because you didn't focus for an hour and process it later

Like GROW UP

Yes very depressing nothing to do town

Not these child twins with a fake ID

They're not only literally in middle school, they look younger than they are

I guess it's not full moon so they're at hers

Artsy 80's synth sex scene with not exactly bisexual lighting because of the use of reds and black

More growling

Pep talk

Moon anger

I tried to be alone

Rick's friend is rich

Ironically her mom is the only one in the family who is not a dog

Getting the cold shoulder gay panic

To go back to the boys who idea of fun is to speculate on milfs in front of their girlfriend

Classy

Breakup! 💔

Screaming crying and suddenly mom is of use! Mom can talk you through a breakup

That's a fancy vest my dude

Leather like panels?? On the puffer vest

Where can i cop old man?

Down he goes

Whole house is crying

Separately

Burn, no hospital

Ah he reverted to wolff form in death

Big ass wolf for little man

Usually you don't see a whole family

I guess you still don't because the kids are in the prehiphery

I get most of the stories are always about navigating and if you have a whole family then it's not a struggle you have infurstructure

But you literally don't have to always make it a coming of age alagory

Family fight

Boy who knows blames her lesbianism as the cause of fathers death

She runs off

Blood moon

Changing at midnight is convenient tbh

Lol now she bought to start a fight

Lol thought they were going to have her eat all of them like lol how could she come back from that

What does that mean in this context?

Petty argument here

Party city makeup but it's 80's aesthetic

Mom sobers up enough to handle her emotional break downs and wash away the tears

Nice nuance frankly

To have an all wrecked parent or a only fun/ good when manic or high parent

Instead of a relapse/ recovery parent who is inconsistent

Which is the more common. More interesting. More nuanced situation, more interesting and more realistic

Oh no first heart break looks the guy and books, lol

[winderlylandchime]

We are on 3x06! 1/2 ‘HE IT PUTTING THE DRUGS IN THE TUSHY AGAIN!’ ‘Wait why are cops outside the clu- EW EW EW EW EW EW EW WHY WOULD THEY SHOW ME ETHAN AND JUSTIN IN THE TUB?!’ He put his hands over his face and fake gagged, now he knows how i feel. ‘I know another cool game you could play Justin, it’s called GO BACK TO BRIAN! Please tell me this concert is the thing that takes him OUT OF MY LIFE. Oh god *pauses tv fast* what if he stays around for another season?! I CANT DO THAT. He wishes Justin could be there? Why cant- oh right he’s straight now..A RING?! HE GOT HIM A RING?! Justin wipe that look off your face, Brian got you school tuition’ ‘what the fuck Brian? HES WORKING WITH A COP? Why are we getting so political? Ha brian hates it! Just like i do! Call him a twat and move on, HES ACTUALLY GOING TO WORK WORK WITH HIM?’ He paused the tv and went out to smoke. He is clearly feeling a certain way about Stockwell/Brian. ‘MY ASS he built model airplanes as a kid. (Stockwell says he doesn’t mind the truth even if Brian uses it as an assault weapon)…oh damn that’s actually kinda good description of him at times but i don’t wanna agree with a cop so fuck you. DUDE STOP HELPING HIM WIN VOTES! WHAT THE FUCK? I get he loves money and power and its his job or whatever but this is just ew. There’s no way he’d help him, i mean he hates *points to himself* heteros’ ‘AH ITS BRI AND JUSTIN!! no he saw the ring, BRIAN I SWEAR IT MEANS NOTHING! HE KNOWS ROMANCE, he just struggles with it.‘ ‘fuck even Bens intervention is boring. MIKE DONT FALL FOR THIS BULLSHIT.’ ‘BRIAN CMON WHY ARE YOU HELPING A COP? I mean i know we all have our flaws but i thought we agreed his was dancing?! (Brian tells the camera guy to keep filming stockwell bc abs) ha! His whole work strategy is “make it gay” respect. (Stockwell looks back at Brian after he calls him tom cruise) Is he gay? He gives of a *does the gay wrist bent thing* certain vibe’ Justin and Daphne show up during the interview ‘COUSIN?! GIRLFRIEND?! COUSIN?…Daphne hate him even more now, please. YES DAPHNE, BRIAN NEVER DID THAT! YES HE DID HAVE HIS ENTIRE FUTURE CAREER AT- ARE YOU DUMB?! DID WE FORGET PARTNER, VERMONT?! Go Daphne!! HE ALMOST DIED!!! YES DALHNE HATE HIM! BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN!’ ‘AH JEN! MY GIRL JEN! She’s so pretty, why cant i get more of Jen? (ted and ems neighbor describes the neighborhood) fuck, I wish Brian was here, he would actually vomit at the idea of living in a place like this.’ ‘Okay who cares about Ben, give me Brian!’ Literally a second later stockwells ad shows ‘OH COME ON! I cant have a god damn thing going for me on this show! HE IS LITERALLY DESCRIBING BRIAN! THIS MAN WOULD HAVE A HEART ATTACK IF HE KNEW THE REAL BRIAN! BRIAN CANT YOU SEE THIS BULLSHIT, oh please turn him into a joke Bri! bullshit! How can he not see that he is literally against what and who Brian is’ the scene where Ben pushes Brian is about to happen! ‘Oh Benny Ben, you got caught! Wait why did his dad say 3 times 7? He made him do math? What an ass. HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?! HE JUST PUSHED HIM! AND CALLED HIM A WHORE AND IS ANGRY THAT HE ISNT POSITIVE?! DUDE FUCK YOU! DONT SLUT SHAME! We’re all just vibin *does that surfer/thumb-pinky finger symbol with his hand* and you are ruining the vibes! WHY WOULD THEY IMMEDIATELY AFTER SHOW ME ETHAN BLOWING JUSTIN?! SO I GOTTA SEE BRI GET HURT PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY? *mocks Ethan in a childish voice* it was the interview. Well congratulations sherlock! You sure are one step away from being the new cop in town (justin asks if from now on itll be lies and immediately pauses tv)WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! I thought that was some shit only Brian could do, oh wait no. Bri AWAYS TELLS IT HOW IT IS! please go on a world tour, i will literally buy all the tickets just for you to go. HE HAD AN AMAZING LIFE WITH BRIAN! He is so jealous of Brian, its sad. I swear he competes with him every second of his day. I get Justin needed a new boyfriend or whatever for some reason that im sure is *waves his hands* somewhere BUT DID IT HAVE TO BE ETHAN?’

Justin wipe that look off your face, Brian got you school tuition IS SUCH A MOOD. Tuition >>>> cheap tacky ring

I am living for his reaction to Stockwell. He's so right.

Even Ben's intervention is boring - LOL

His reaction to Daphne is everything. We love Daph.

HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?! HE JUST PUSHED HIM! AND CALLED HIM A WHORE AND IS ANGRY THAT HE ISNT POSITIVE?! DUDE FUCK YOU! DONT SLUT SHAME! I couldn't have said it better myself. I have probably screamed the exact same things at my screen.

Did it have to be Ethan - YES! this exactly. They were cruising for a break up, fine, I get it, story arc etc. But Ethan is so unbelievable. Also your brother screaming about how Brian always told the truth. I am dyinnnngggg about it.

[castle-dominion]

5x6 the final frontier

I remember this episode, I am a castle fan from firefly & I loved this episode & the audio commentary & everything about it

We all thought that the guy who got shot was shot with a real thing

derrick storm is a graphic novel, I forgot!

supernovacon? Shiny dsjflksdjfjskh shiny pint sized princess leiea <3

apparently the costume design used some of the old stuff, including stuff from the zombie episodes

14 episodes too many? Oh I was going to watch battlestar galactica that joss whedon show?

JE: Give me Blade Runner - a bleak, dystopian future with sexy replicants. Right? *he & castle bump fists* JE: How about you, Beckett? What do you—?... *stops at her annoyed expression*

RC: Perlmutter, good to see you. SP: Ah, if only the feeling were mutual. a tiny hole? like a bullet hole? SP: No clue

Not all nebula 9 fans will be on that site also ryan pretty af as usual so no need for a pic ig she is so obviously a fan, she could just say "oh plenty of fandoms have websites, I'm sure there is one for neb9"

lol her face when he walks in KR: Oh, I tried to talk to him, but he said he needed a minute to “Muse upon the fragile nature of human life.”

& may fortune guide her journey? really? also that booty tho I love how castle has the chance to meet someone even more egotistical than him

Never meet your heroes

Aww webisodes, that's cute af! I'm a big fan of fanfiction you're allowed to like a show even if it is bad who is this man!? also she went by k-becks? your WHAT NOW? Henry Barnett: You should've seen her as Lieutenant Chloe. Oh, wait. You can! fracking, I heard that mostly in battlestar galactica

RC: Look at my life. (whisper) My dreams come true.

KB: Perlmutter. SP: Detective Beckett. RC: Perlmutter. SP: And non-detective Castle.

that is a hell of a burn SP: Well, as much as it pains me, Mr. Castle is… [marginally or largely] correct.

KB: How is it possible that she's killed by a laser? RC: Easy. Someone shot her with a laser gun. Or maybe she was already dead when she was killed by the laser gun, or she was drugged, I'm sure you would have to sit there for at least a halfminute to burn through that much flesh

KB: Nice one coming from the guy with a life-size Boba Fett in his bathroom. a WHAT

"blasphemous" lmao

KB: posessing a... RC: Laser blaster! KB: ....... laser blaster

this scene with ryan showing the pic on his phone was filmed at 4am bc they screwed up the schedule JE: First of all, ma'am, I must ask you, uh…how are you keeping those leaves on there like that? NEBULA NINE EVE: Why don't you pull on one and find out? JE: *staring at her (eyes)*

Maybe you can't translate well but you can say yes or no... right?

*writes her number on her boob leaf* *esposito looks more uncomfortable than pleased tbh* *she took his pen* (probably glued on)

"obvi" teenager english lol

Castle shut up lol

also I'm still stuck on the fact that they just pulled castle away from his signing

ew weird bug thingy what

Becks u can say "according to my intel" u literally said it launched your career tho?

Nikki heat type pose

Drunk? in the middle of the day? two lieutenant chloes lmao I don't like espt's shirt.

oh my god!!! ALEXIS??? Dressed like what castle? she is not dressed at all apparently the cast was all weirded out bc they kind of movie-raised her since she was a teen you know what good for her she is allowed to do what she wants ig...

Yo cops they paid good money for this!

RC: Then you wouldn't mind relinquishing your weapon. good word gabriel winters is so annoying *shoots it* *it works, & works way too well & tbh they should have been wearing eye protection* mUZZLE CONTROL "Zap" said the lady

As you wish <3 NO SHE IS NOT A FULL GROWN WOMAN, SHE IS A VERY YOUNG WOMAN, plus, you two wanted it in the privacy of your own home!

"what kind of idiot does that" *looks at him* how bad can it be? "burning" desire XP

ryan pretty he so pretty always love his outfits, i love how he has a vest but no tie

KR: This is like the Halloween from hell. JE: Oh, yeah, this is probably too lowbrow for you, huh? You're probably into that boring-ass intellectual kind of sci-fi, like Gattaca ((loved that one)) or 2001. The monolith-- what the hell was that? KR: Don't ask me. No, no, swords and sorcery, that's more my thing, like, uh, Lord of the Rings. ((Ooh ryan is a fantasy guy)) [Esposito looks Ryan over. not gay at all] JE: Yeah, I could probably see you as an elf. Or a hobbit. ((bro you are not much taller!)) KR: HOLD ON THAT WAS THE LONE RANGER Esposito is a fan? he could use the excuse that he did some research for the case ryan doesn't make fun of YOU!

*authorized personnel only door in portal* "that means me!" oH NO ARE THOSE LASERS EVIL?

love donnely. apparently his shirt caused a ton of fighting on set & yet it is capable of great damage? Why did you make it harmful then? You could have made it so it feels warm when you get shot, maybe even hot, but this thing is deadly!

What kind of protection? Probably goggles Hm, license plates Castle, bringing the convo back to needing protection

*cut to castle still being concerned & feeling his face* *beckett talking abt the symbolism* ofc he'd be concerned abt his hair

alexis XD.

S name! esposito seems like he may have a nice outfit but I can't tell

*The elevator opens in front of them with a ding and Castle is there, looking anxious* RC: Hey. Tell me, you guys, do you think my hair is thinning?

*espt looking at his head with a grimace* *castle flinches* he's just playing with him Also why did castle not go wit hthem> isn't he supposed to be shadowin gbeckett?

surprised they are not doing a b plot parallel here

I really want to go to a masquerade ball doing a movie or reboot WITH YOU or what?

sort of? Ah masks

lots of money holy crap idrk if I like ryan's outfit today. It is nice & all but... yk I don't much like those stripes & smth is awkward abt it

yk what valid but her voice is so small

lol castle pretending to be capt max ew, still a crime scene it WAS a stupid show but it was still enjoyable! alexis leaving home! Oh feminism. Good for her.

What was that buzz sound tho?

I like beckett's jacket I also like how max has never NOT worn his outfit

"I need you to resist a little less" "overacting much?"

Ah the mark of cain

They could have just got like,, a handheld uv flishlight

Why didn't he want to show his left hand? was he afraid he had smth else on his hand? phone numbers? bodily fluids?

Except wouldn't he have gotten The Talk about protection "I'm captain max!" He's so proud of that hole in the wall lol there just so happens to be a UV thing there? & then there were detectives behind the door? dang she is insane WOAH HE JUST DID THAT is ther a functional stun setting tho? the two egomaniacs I love it

*tries telekenesis* bribery lol Ooh a nebula nine marathon aw come on as long as it is light hearted youo should totally make fun

*castle trying to close the elevator doors faster*

Fun music, sexy legs, then THAT face & he falls off the bed KB, with a bloody creaver mouth & mask: You want to make out, Castle? Rawr.

So wait if there was a ship is it real?

I was a firefly fan so I mostly only got the firefly references but there were a lot of other scifi members on the crew or smth so they made a bunch of references to their stuff too.

I highly suggest watching the audio commentary. Super fun.