#all i know is. follows character whos been in all 3 shows (most likely penny

[watermel0ns-dumb-cringe]

Princess and the War Crimes is the silliest working title for a musical/play ive heard today helpe/pos

[princessmisery666]

Maverick's Annual Scavenger Hunt - Part 1 of 3

Series Summary: You and Jake have been dancing around each other for a while. The Dagger Squad set it up so that the dancing stops, but a case of miscommunication could ruin it all.

Summary: Everyone wants to win the scavenger hunt prize. Two heads are better than one, so teaming up with Jake should be fun. Right? 

Warnings/Genres/Troupes: Fluff, flirting, teasing.

W/C: 2.5k

Characters: Unnamed female reader (you/she/her), Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin, Natasha ‘Phoenix’ Trace, Javy ‘Coyote’ Machado. Small Parts/Mentioned: The rest of Dagger Squad, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, Penny Benjamin. 

Pairing: Hangman x Female Reader. Phoenix x Coyote. Mentioned: Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell x Penny Benjamin.

Notes: Reader has a call sign.  

Beta(s): @deanwinchesterswitch // all mistakes are mine. Special shoutout to @writercole

Graphics: made by me on Canva.

Master Lists: Series // Top Gun Maverick // Main

It was a silly game, and you felt ridiculous asking for “Sandals for Maverick.” without any concrete evidence that you were right.

But the Foot Locker sales assistant smirks, “I’ll go get them.”

You sigh happily at not having made a complete fool of yourself.

Each year, Mav invites a select group to participate in a scavenger hunt. He always makes it challenging. Three random objects are to be retrieved and brought to him to win the prize. The prizes vary each year: extra vacation time, an assignment of the winner’s choice, and one spectacular year, the use of Mav’s F50 for an entire weekend, was a reward. 

This year, due to Maverick’s legendary and not generally sanctioned exploits landing him in hot water with Admiral Simpson, it is an all-expenses paid trip to the most highly acclaimed spa in the country. Technically, it had been a trip for him and Penny, but as always, trouble found him. He was lucky to have only his vacation canceled and not be court-martialed. Penny wasn’t happy, even less so when they couldn’t get a refund.

The Dagger Squad are this year’s lucky participants, and two winners will get to stay at the luxury resort for three nights. Mav had dropped hints for the month leading up to game day, and it was up to the squad to figure out what three items were to be found and where.

Sandals were your first thought, and as you rushed to the mall, you had enough time to figure out the other two items. Now that you know your first guess is correct and the sales assistant hands you a brand new pair of Havana’s, you feel a little more confident with the rest. But there is one hiccup to address.

“I know you’re there, Hangman,” you sigh, slipping the sandals into your backpack and zipping it up.

Jake saunters around the display of Air Jordans, arms folded, leaning against the metal shelving. “What gave me away?” 

You aren't about to admit you've noticed the fawning collective trailing behind you as you made your way through the mall. It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t because of you but the handsome pilot following you. Instead, you snark, “I’m pretty sure they can smell your cologne on the moon.”

He laughs, and as always, it annoys you to no end that your snide remarks never seem to bother him. It’s the school playground all over again. The more you try to discourage him, the more he digs his heels in.

“I like that you know what cologne I wear, Cosmo,” he grins.

You love your call sign - head in the clouds, always wondering how the universe works - but how does he make it sound so dirty? 

His smile is dazzling and you know very few people who can resist it. It takes a lot of effort, but you manage it with a roll of your eyes.

Strolling out of the store, you sigh, “What’d you want, Hangman?” 

“I thought we could team up,” he suggests, chasing after you. “After all, the trip is for two, and I already figured out one of the clues, and you just acquired the second.”

“What did you find?” you ask. 

You don’t need to see the suggestive eyebrow wiggle. It's in his tone, “You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”

The eye roll produced by his comment gives you a headache. “Has that line ever worked for you?” 

It's a rhetorical question, but he answers anyway. “You’d be surprised.” 

You probably wouldn’t be. The company he keeps isn’t exactly looking for Mensa-level conversation. He zeroes in on the ones that, like him, are looking for a no-fuss hookup, and you assume the easiest and cheesiest pickup lines, accompanied by his Hollywood smile, work every time.

“Easy and cheesy,” you snicker to yourself. 

“Huh, what?” he asks, jogging slightly to fall in line beside you.

“Nothing.” 

“C’mon, what do you say? Teammates?” 

“I have enough of you in the air as your WSO, Seresin, not sure I wanna spend a weekend in a spa with you.”

It’s partly a lie. Jake isn’t so bad when he’s in the air. He was born to fly, and he’s at his most comfortable when he’s doing what he loves. You’d never admit it, but that's when you like him the most. He’s tolerable when he’s in the cockpit, but maybe that has more to do with the fact you can’t see his face and be blinded by his pretty eyes, tanned skin, and perfect jawline.

He jogs ahead, blocking your path, and you have no choice but to stop. “I promise I’ll be on my best behavior,” he pledges, crossing his heart. “You won’t even know I’m there. I have a book I want to read, two new albums I need to listen to without interruption, and a podcast to catch up on. I just wanna relax and eat chips.”

“You eat chips?” you ask and can’t stop your eyes from wandering down the tightly fitted black t-shirt. 

“I do,” he chuckles, gently lifting your chin so you're looking at his face again. 

Crap! Say something horrible to him before his ego gets too big. 

Indelicately, you slap his hand away, snarking, “You read?” 

“I do.” He nods, and you think he actually looks offended. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

He’s right, and that’s been a calculated decision on your part not to get to know him. You are already the outsider, arriving at Fighter Town after the Dagger Squad had become the infamous Dagger Squad. They invited you into the fray with open arms, and you never felt like a newbie, but you didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the dynamic. Being one of Jake’s conquests would put you firmly in the mission accomplished column, and you didn’t need nor want that kind of reputation. 

You contemplate his proposal, astounded that you're even considering it. If you win, you’d decided to invite Phoenix as your plus one but hadn’t yet extended the invitation. If your suspicions about Phoenix and Coyote are correct, and Phoenix were to win, you would not be the Lieutenant’s first choice.

A weekend of peace and quiet sounds like bliss, and if Jake has all those things to keep him occupied, you’d only really need to see him while traveling to and from the place. 

“Okay,” you say, finally. “We can team up, but I swear if you get in my way, I’ll…. I’ll….” You can’t think of a good enough threat, and he interrupts. 

“You won’t need to do anything to me because I won’t get in your way.” He crosses his heart again, “scouts honor,” holding up his left hand. 

“Wrong hand, dipshit.” 

He laughs, digging in his bag and pulling out a carton of ice cream. It's a plain white tub, not branded, because it’s from Antonio’s, the hidden gem in town. But there’s a sticker on the lid with fancy cursive print that reads Maverick’s Scavenger Hunt 2024, the same sticker on the bottom of the box containing the sandals.

“Sandals for his first official date with Penny on the beach,” you grin, telling Jake the clue you’d figured out. “She got glass in your foot, and he had to carry her a half mile back to the car.”

“Ice cream for his apology to the lactose-intolerant Admiral after he took her on a joyride in his F18,” he explains the clue that led him to ice cream. “I’m not sure about the last one.”

“It’s perfume,” you told him. “After the F18 incident, they were banned from seeing each other. Obviously, they still snuck around, and she sprayed her perfume on his flight suit so she’d always be with him in the air.” 

“That’s actually kind of adorable.” 

“Come on, sappy pants,” you say, deliberately knocking into his shoulder as you walk by him. “We’re gonna win this thing.”

“Sappy pants?” he grumbles but willingly follows.

Winning was the easy part. Spending three nights at a luxury hotel with Jake will be harder than sustaining G-force. Though you are loath to admit it, he’s too easy on the eyes, too much of a flirt, and his unexpected gentlemanly behavior of holding doors, carrying your luggage, and buying your breakfast at the airport is melting your resolve to stay away from him. 

The first sign that the weekend would become a catastrophe was when you checked in. Mav had requested that the booking be changed to a twin room, but the email must have gotten lost in the ether because the room is still a king, and no twins are available. You should have checked the finer details before agreeing to be partners. 

It’s fine. You���ll deal with it and won’t let it ruin the rare weekend off. 

Your first personal mistake was thinking you could survive a weekend with Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin when he wasn’t required to be in uniform. He stripped down to his boxers a minute after entering the room - “wanna wash off the commercial flight smell.” He was less than ten minutes in the bathroom and exited with his hair wrapped in a fluffy white towel and another one snug and low on his hips. 

This is going to be torture.

“Promise is a promise,” he says, walking to his bag on the table, “I’m taking my book, and you won’t see me again.”

Damn it. You wouldn’t mind having him as your view for the day.

“You can take the bed, by the way,” he says. “I’ll ask for more blankets and crash on the floor.”

You want to tell him he doesn’t need to do that, but what's the alternative? You can’t share a bed with him. It would be too close without being close enough.

You smile, grateful. “Well, in that case, dinner is on me.” 

He matches your smile, and you think there’s a hint of a blush on his cheeks, or it could just be the heat from the shower. “Are you asking me on a date?” 

Urgh. Why does he always have to ruin it? Implying that your intentions are more than a friendly gesture. “Not a date. Just dinner.”

“Shame,” he shrugs. “But yeah, okay, dinner.” 

“I’ll make a reservation in the restaurant for seven.”

Jake heads directly to the pool, finds a sun lounger, and delves into his book. Within the first ten pages, the main protagonist is killed off, and his intrigue peaks. He’s happy to wile away the afternoon, topping off his tan and finishing the novel before dinner.

Another five pages in, he spies you exiting the hotel, book in hand, towel in the other, and oversized tee skimming the top of your thighs. 

“Damn,” he mutters to himself.

You look around the pool, and while plenty of loungers are available, you make your way over when you see him. He sits up a little straighter, tensing his abs - giving you a show that he’s pretty confident you want.

“Hey,” you say, “sorry to interrupt.” 

“I’ve had worse interruptions,” he smirks, eyes slipping down to your thighs and back up again. 

You shake your head, smiling lightly. “I couldn’t get a reservation. There’s a wedding rehearsal dinner, so we can’t dine in the restaurant, but we can order room service.”

He nods, “I’m in.”

You look down at the title of his book, and your smile grows. “I’ve read that one,” you comment, “it’s a good one, enjoy.”

You don’t pause long enough for him to say more and take yourself to the other side of the pool, dropping the towel and book onto a free bed. He watches, unashamed that he’s staring, as you pull the t-shirt over your head and reveal a simple black bikini. 

“Fuck,” he says, mentally telling himself to calm down. 

You make yourself comfortable on the bed before opening your book.

He never should have asked to partner up. He’s a man with little willpower and knows he doesn’t have it in him to not hit on you. “Way to torture yourself, Seresin.” 

You feel him staring from across the pool and hope your heavily shaded sunglasses hide that you're also stealing glances at him. You regret bringing a romance novel because, of course, the main character is a cocky, blond cowboy, and your brain immediately Jake codes him.

Your phone chimes, startling you as if someone physically scolded you for staring and fantasizing about your Lieutenant.

>Phoenix: How’s it going? Kissed him yet? 

<Cosmo: What?! No. 

>Phoenix: He kissed you yet? 

<Cosmo: No, and he won’t. More importantly, I don’t want him to. 

>Phoenix: 🙄please. You’ve been crushing on him since you arrived. Go for it. No one has to know.

<Cosmo: Why do I suddenly feel like this is a set-up?

>Phoenix: You have to know none of us even tried looking for the stuff because we wanted you to win. Who do you think told Jake the ice cream answer? Coyote. Who do you think told Jake where to find you at the mall? Me.

<Cosmo: What? Why? 

>Phoenix: Baby, I love you, but you can be so blind sometimes. You like Jake. You can deny it all you want but I think you're being stubborn because you don’t want him to be able to say I told you so. 

<Cosmo: Phoenix, honey, I love you too, but setting me and Jake up so you and Coyote have a couple to double date with is not going to happen. 

>Phoenix: We’ll see. Love you. Have fun. 😜

“I need a drink,” you say, slamming your book closed. 

Jake watches you typing away on your phone, a slight crease in your brow. It’s adorable, and while he daydreams about what he could do to smooth it out, he receives a text. 

>Coyote: Proposed yet?

<Hangman: Screw you. I’m not that into her.  

>Coyote: 🙄please. You’re so blinded by how much you’re into her you can’t see how much you’re into her. 

He doesn’t have a witty retort because he’s confided, seemingly too much, in Coyote. Coyote’s encouragement won’t help matters, and he promised himself he’d behave. You have rejected his advances more than once, and he needs to accept that nothing is going to happen.

>Coyote: Seriously, dude, now is the perfect time to show her you’re more than your smart mouth and shiny abs. 

Jake needs to shut this down before Coyote twists his arm just enough to convince him.

<Hangman: Hi Phoenix 🙄. 

>Coyote: She says hi and go get your girl already.

Jake closes his book. He won’t be able to concentrate now. He sighs loudly, “I need a drink.” When he looks across the pool again, you’re pulling on your oversized tee and collecting your things.

Part 2 - The Full Seresin Service

Tags + Info

@alexxavicry / @deanwinchesterswitch / @fandom-princess-forevermore / @imjess-themess / @justagirlinafandomworld / @leigh70 / @letsbys-library / @shanimallina87 / @wildbornsiren / @writercole / @xoxabs88xox / @dempy / @atarmychick007 / @genius2025 / @kmc1989 / @alipap3 / @emorychase

[duckapus]

WarioWare: Watch It!

Had an idea for a hypothetical cartoon where we follow Wario and his friends on their misadventures in Diamond City and beyond. It'd be mostly episodic, though each season would have a couple plotlines happening mostly in the background, and ideally there'd be four seasons.

Season 1

Mainly serves as an introduction to the cast and their weird and wacky lives. The main plot in the first half is the crew working on their latest game, and then midway through it comes out and turns out to be a big hit! So big that the fame (and revenue) starts going to Wario's head and making him act more...Wario-ish. By the end he'll have to decide once and for all what he really cares about the most... hopefully before he takes things too far and finally pushes everyone away for good.

Season 2

Season 1 focused pretty much exclusively on Diamon City and other WarioWare settings, with the greater Mario world being limited to background characters that happened to be species from other games, cameos in advertisements and 9-Volt's games and the like, and occasional mentions of Wario's out-of-town friends (Mario's name in particular isn't heard at all the whole time).

Well, in Season 2 that all changes, with the goings-on of Diamond City and the Mushroom Kingdom overlapping more and more as time goes on. This is partially spurred by Waluigi being in town for a while for reasons I haven't thought of yet, leading to the reveal (at least, a reveal to the audience and a few of the newer WarioWare employees. Most of the crew already knows) that Dr. Crygor and Waluigi are semi-estranged father and son. And unfortunately, them living in such close proximity to one another is stirring up some long-unresolved tension, even with Penny, the bots, Wario and the rest of the crew trying their best to mediate.

Speaking of family drama, there's another storyline to contend with, one revolving around the mystery of who, and where, exactly Ashley's parents are. And unfortunately, the pieces of the puzzle that everyone's been putting together don't paint a pretty picture.

Oh, they're not dead or anything.

That would be too easy.

Wario Land...Ware (Season 3)

The odd season out that goes almost fully serialized for a while.

While on yet another one of his treasure-hunting trips, Wario (accompanied by Mona) comes across a map to a legendary treasure. Captain Syrup unfortunately manages to swoop in and steal it from him, hoping to have the treasure all to herself. Fortunately, Mona managed to take a picture of the map before Syrup showed up, just in case, so it'll be a race to see who gets there first. The two of them head back to Diamond City to get ready and end up recruiting the rest of WarioWare Inc. for a globetrotting adventure!

But Wario and Syrup aren't the only ones after the treasure, and there may be sinister forces at work in the background...

Season 4

A return to form, re-focusing on the Crew living their lives in Diamond City. Though, there's an undercurrent of anxiety, as there are forces, and bureaucratic forces at that, which seek to destroy WarioWare Inc. by any means necessary.

Even if it means completely ruining the lives of its employees.

[selencgraphy]

— 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄: but if you decide to, i'll ride in this life with you (i won't let go 'til the end)

PAIRING: jake seresin x f!original character

TAGS: nightmares, mentions of alcohol, brief description of an anxious-depressive attack, jake struggling with his mental health, pining, maybe ooc bc i'm lowk projecting onto jake, hurt/comfort, jake and jessie endgame (finally!!), and i think that's it...?

A/N: this part is heavily inspired by lady gaga's song from the movie. it is technically mav & penny's anthem, but it is now jake & jessie's. this part also depicts jake struggling with his mental health. if you're struggling, don't be afraid to ask for help. i know how scary it can be at times, but you're not alone <3 anyways, now for the elephant in the room. we've reached the end... it's been two years since i started writing for this fic and man, it's been a ride with the whole reboot and all. i appreciate every one of you who've read this series, whether you were here pre-reboot or are just now finding it. this may be the end of the main series, but i will def be writing for them again. my requests are always open as well! tysm and happy reading!

WORD COUNT: ~3.1k

previous part || masterlist

The mission had irrevocably changed everything. Promotions from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander ran across the board and against their troubled assumptions, they weren’t sent back to their original squadrons. Instead, the Daggers became an official and permanent team, flying missions like their first if needed and instituted as Top Gun instructors alongside Maverick, who Cyclone kept in service despite his prior opinions about the captain. On paper, all of their lives seemed to be going in the best direction possible—but typed-up documents couldn’t account for the things the eye couldn’t see. Everyone had gotten home safe—Jake had made sure of that. So why did his sleeping conscience keep telling him differently?

Most nights, his dreams were plagued with images of an F-14 exploding. At first, it had been who it originally was inside the cockpit: Maverick and Rooster. He’d managed to send his own plane’s missile in time to save them, but what if he had been a second too late?

Then it changed one night. Rooster’s cries as they flew upwards were replaced by someone else's voice—one he knew all too well. It was her in the cockpit. Every night that a nightmare jolted him awake, he’d woken up in a cold sweat, his breath heavy as he struggled to figure out what scenario that his sub-conscience showed him was real. But nights like these came with the job. He was bound to have nightmares like that. Throughout his career, not once had he ever been afraid to fly, so when his hands slightly trembled when he settled into his jet before a training exercise, he just shook it off. 

Then he was suddenly 10,000 feet in the air. He remembered that his wingman today was Rooster—that they were meant to train the new recruits. What he wasn’t sure about was whether the gap in his memory between when he got into the cockpit and now was because of muscle memory or something else entirely. As Rooster’s voice droned over the comms system, he sat in silence—a silence that didn’t go unnoticed by his wingman. “Hangman, you good?”

“I’m good, Rooster,” he responded, hoping Rooster didn’t notice his hesistance. “Let’s just show these newbies how it’s done, yeah?

Bradley had heard that response so many times over the years, and it had always been said quickly and laced with arrogance—like a reflex. So the small waver in Jake’s voice and the extra second that it took for him to reply threw Bradley off. Before he could press him about it, Jake yelled out. “Fight’s on!”

It didn’t take the pair long to get tone on the newbies they had in the air, sending them back to base with them following behind them. Jake took note of the small ache in his chest as he flew, but it had been a few weeks since he had been up in the air. A small part of his knew something wasn’t right, but he just kept telling himself it was just his body reacclimating to the conditions. He was becoming friends with the rest of the squadron, had just gotten a promotion, and was finally setting down roots somewhere. Things were perfect. 

There was that word again. Perfect. Perfection. To be flawless or without flaws. His flight with Rooster and the new recruits went off without a hitch, so why did he feel like shit? 

Then it happened again. And again. And again. When he walked into the locker room and found it to be empty, he let out a small sigh of relief and took a seat in front of his locker. What’s wrong with him?

Wiping the sweat off of his face, he kept his hands on his forehead as he rested his elbows on his knees. The little droplets of tears that fell to the floor beneath him went unnoticed. Why was this happening? He should be fine—he is fine. No one had died, so why did his chest hurt so much like someone did?

He had closed his eyes just for a second, but that was all it took before his own mind betrayed him. Thoughts berating him about all of the what ifs. So caught up in his own head, he didn’t hear the door open. It wasn’t until footsteps clicked closer to him did he quickly try to compose himself. “Hey, Hangman,” Bob greeted, opening his locker.

“Hey Bob,” Jake managed to spit out as he tried his best for his voice not to crack.

“We’re heading over to the Hard Deck later for Mickey’s birthday. He meant to tell you earlier, but he said he couldn’t find you anywhere,”

Jake cleared his throat in an attempt to keep his composure in Bob’s presence. “I’ll be there. Thanks, Bob.” The WSO quietly gather his things and made his way out, giving Jake a firm pat on the shoulder as he passed him. When he pulled into the parking lot of Penny’s bar, he was surprised to see everyone’s cars already occupying the spaces near the door. As he walked in, he was met with the sight of party streamers draped across the ceiling, a banner strung up by the dart board that said, “Happy Birthday,” and the squadron gathered by the pool tables—their usual spot. Penny spotted him as she walked out of the backroom with a crate of beer, greeting him immediately. “Hi, honey.”

“Hey, Pen,” he replied, following her to the bar. He took a quick glance at the group across the way before looking back at Penny. “If I’m not mistaken, this place doesn’t officially open for another 30 minutes,” he started, Penny humming in response to let him know that she was listening. “So why does Fanboy already have a beer in his hands? You’re not giving him a pass just because it’s his birthday now, are you?”

She shot her head around to look over to the pool tables, a look of confusion on her face that quickly transformed into amusement at the sight. “He did not get that from me,” she said with a chuckle before going back to whatever she was doing.

“Jake, get over here,” Jessie exclaimed. Trudging over to where his best friend stood with a pool stick in her hand, he greeted her with a smile.

“Hey, you. Didn’t see you at work today,” she commented as she pulled him into a hug.

Yeah, because I had a panic attack. “Guess you just weren’t looking hard enough for me, Dice,” he said instead. She pulled away to give him a good once over, and Jake’s heart rate spiked. The couple seconds she took felt like an eternity as his voice argued with himself in his head. Get yourself out of this now or she’s gonna see right through you.

“Fanboy,” he shouted over her shoulder, causing Mickey to turn at the call of his callsign, his cheeks already a rosy shade of pink. “Happy birthday bud,” he greeted, subtly prying himself away from Jessie so that she couldn’t get a read on him. There was no need for her to worry about him, but his attempt was futile.

As Jessie watched Jake make his way over to the birthday boy, her face scrunched slightly with worry. He never really called her her callsign unless they were up in the air? She was so caught up in her worries about her best friend that she barely noticed Bradley come to stand next to her. “You okay?”

“Hm?” she hummed, eyes lingering on Jake for a second before turning to address Bradley. “Yeah, I’m good.”

When he scoffed, her brows knitted. “What?”

“You two,” he paused, glancing between her and Jake. “Are so alike that it’s scary sometimes.”

She chuckled, thinking he was teasing. “We’ve been friends for over a decade, it’d be scarier if we weren’t alike in some way.”

He gave her a look, causing her face to fall flat. She knew what Bradley was trying to get at. “We’re… happy like this, Brad. We always have been.”

“Maybe that was the case then, but things are different now,” he tried to reason but was immediately shut down.

“We’re here to celebrate Fanboy’s birthday, Bradshaw, so let’s celebrate, hm?” Bradley’s face fell at how easy it was for her to close herself off and put on a face. He only had tiny glimpses between the lines of what he knew of Jake and Jessie’s history, but that had been all he needed to fit the puzzle pieces together, or so he thought.

By 9 o’clock, Jessie had had enough of Jake’s insistence that he was fine. Growing up with Jake Seresin, she knew how to read him. There wasn’t much he could hide from her anymore. She knew everything there was about him. She knew his tells. It was obvious something was bugging him, and sbe knew just what to do to make him feel better even if he didn’t want to tell her. “Hey,” she whispered as she leaned next to him against the bartop.. “Let’s get out of here.”

Jake’s eyebrows furrowed as he turned to her and then at the party behind them. “What? We can’t just leave.”

“Half of them are already piss drunk,” she commented matter of factly. “Do you really want to be D.D. to all of them?”

He debated it for a second, as he looked at his now wasted squadmates. Bradley, Nat, Reuben and Bob all were sober. They could handle the other ten of them on their own, right?  “Okay. Let’s go.”

As Penny handed Jake’s card back to him, she reminded him, “Amelia gets out around 4 tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there,” he replied as he lazily shoved his card back into his wallet. Jessie made a mental note to ask about that later. Unconsciously, he took Jessie’s hand in his as they navigated their way through the crowd. A cool breeze that contrasted the mugginess of the building behind them hit them in the face as they walked through the door, making their cheeks flush.

“Where to, m’lady?” he asked eagerly in a silly voice, 

“Seaport Village?” she suggested and Jake immediately agreed with her. So that was how they found themselves sitting by the Midway Museum across the Embracing Peace statue with a box of pizza in hand. They sat in silence for most of the night until Jessie spoke up as she grabbed her fourth slice.

“So… when did you start babysitting Penny’s kid?”

He laughed. “It’s not technically babysitting. I’m just picking her up from school and dropping her off at her house.”

Jake caught her smile as she took a bite of her pizza. “What?”

“Nothing,” she quickly replied, a mischievous smirk still on her face as she shrugged and continued eating.

A few more minutes passed before either of them spoke again. “You know, she’s never seen X-Men before,” he randomly comments. At the information, Jessie’s eyes widened in shock, her jaw dropping to the floor.

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m dead serious.”

“That’s just- Penny has done her daughter a disservice,” she declared, only half-joking.

“Tell me about it,” he added.

Jessie continued on. “I mean, how do people live with not ever seeing at least one X-Men movie? There’s like over a dozen of them and not one? Horrendous—actually horrendous.”

As she rambled, he looked on with adoration, nodding along as she ranted. Eventually, what she was saying started to go in one ear and out of the other. The only thing on his mind was how cute her investment looked as she went on about whatever she was talking about now and how the moonshine fell perfectly on her face. He had almost forgotten how worked up he had been in the past week, almost like she knew. He hoped she didn’t catch him looking at her like she’d hung the very moon that now shined brightly down on her. 

“What?” she asked, catching him staring. Crap. “Do I have sauce on my face?”

As she went up to swipe her mouth, he stopped her. “No, no, you’re fine. Just…” As he was about to spill his guts, images of a plane exploding flashed in his mind against his will, his face falling slightly. He shook his head, hoping she’d brush it off. Both of them turned to look at the statue before them again, unsure how to continue the conversation for the first time since they met all those years ago.

“You gonna tell me what’s been going on with you?” she asked and his heart clenched at the question. Of course she knew. She always knew, but where to even start? “If you don’t want to tell me, it’s fine,” she added. “But if something’s bothering you, you don’t have to deal with it on your own. You know I’m always gonna be here for you, Jake.” His gaze lingered on the statue in front of them before it drifted back to where his best friend sat next to him, waiting for an answer.

“I’ve been having nightmares,” he admitted. “It’s the same most nights: what would have happened had I not been there on time for Mav and Rooster? I figured it was normal. PTSD, you know? But then…” He looked up at her and found her looking at him intently, listening carefully, and it made his concerns wilt away.

“Then it… changed. Then it was you.” It was like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders—off of his chest as he said it out loud for the first time. “That night a few weeks ago when I… when you helped me. I think it’s because of the same thing that’s causing my nightmares now.”

Jake and Jessie were never people who shied away from telling each other things, but this was the first time Jessie had seen him so vulnerable. He’d always been guarded about his emotions, especially ones that weighed him down, so to see him be so open with her—that he trusted her enough to share the darkest parts of himself was moving. “I’m scared, Jess,” he voiced, the words coming out as a whisper as he tried not to break. “Scared that one day I’ll look next to me, and… and  you won’t be there.”

Her heart shattered at the confession. She remembered the night he was talking about. He had a panic attack. How long had he been feeling like this? Gently, she reached out to him, placing her hand on the one he rested between them. I’m here.

“You’re not going to lose me, Jake,” she whispered, her tone as gentle as her touch.

His face scrunched with doubt. “But what if I do?”

“You won’t,” she assured, her voice never wavering. She had taken his hand into hers now, squeezing it with conviction. Jake took a deep breath at the sentiment, warmth spreading through his body as he let her words settle into his head. Seeing him tear up, she surged forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry you thought you had to deal with this alone.”

He buried his head into her shoulder, squeezing her tighter as they basked in each other’s embrace. Leaning back, she carefully brought her hands to his cheeks, pulling him down to place a chaste kiss to his forehead before pulling back to study his face. Running a hand through his hair, she barely missed the way his eyes studied her own face, but it wasn’t long before she caught him and did the same thing.

As they locked eyes under the soft moonlight, the air between them shifted. The walls they’d put up to prevent themselves from ever crossing this line collapsed one by one as they grew closer to each other. The pull was familiar—one they had felt a long time ago but resisted. But things are different now. “I love you,” he blurted out. “I’m in love… with you.” Her cheeks reddened, and she took in a deep breath like she hadn’t been breathing—as though his words were what allowed her to breathe again.

“I have been since you bumped into me on the first day of school,” he continued, his heart racing now. She smiled, and Jake couldn’t help but think how beautiful she looked—how beautiful she always looked. “I know I haven’t always been the greatest person. I’m arrogant, I’m reckless, and I push people away when things get hard—I push you away. But despite all of that, you’re still here. You stayed. Even when I didn’t deserve it.”

Her hands cupped his cheeks, gently wiping the stray tears that fell with her thumbs. “You deserve every bit of good that comes your way, Jake. Even me and I am not going anywhere.” Even after he’d confessed, she wanted—no, needed to be sure. “Can I… kiss you?” she asked gently.

He nodded softly and let out a breathy, “Yeah,” before they finally met in the middle. Despite what the movies would say, there weren’t any sparks. No, as their lips met it felt right—like coming home. The kiss was delicate as their lips pressed against each other, molding together in a way that felt like it was meant to be. Gaining confidence, Jessie deepened the kiss, pouring all of her love into the act.

When they finally pulled away, he leaned his forehead against hers, both of their eyes remaining shut as they breathed each other in. “I love you too,” she professed. “Ever since then.”

He leaned forward to sneak in another kiss, a smug grin on his face as he pulled away and hummed with content. “Could’ve been doing this all this time?”

A mirroring grin grew on Jessie’s face at his question. “Don’t get too cocky now, Hangboy.”

His eyebrows raised in intrigue at the new nickname. “Hangboy?”

“Mhm,” she cheekily hummed, biting her lip before gently placing her lips on his once again, Jake grinning into the kiss. He could get used to this.

bonus:

The feeling of her phone buzzing repeatedly in her back pocket caused her to reluctantly pull away, Jake groaning in disappointment. As she pulled her phone from her pocket, the screen lit up with text messages, all from Bradley.

Roo: where'd you go??? Roo: jake's gone too, is he with you? Roo: oh my god he's with you isn't he Roo: please tell me he's with you Roo: hellooo??? Roo: fine don't answer me wtv...

"Who is it?" Jake curiously asked, trying to peer over to look at the screen.

"Just Bradley."

"What does he want?"

"Nothing. He was just letting me know they got everyone home," she lied, sending Bradley a quick thumbs up and putting her phone on silent before placing it down. Jake's eyes narrowed, but he quickly shook it off as she leaned in once again.

Roo: you better update me tomorrow Roo: don't do anything i wouldn't do!!

A/N: ending off in true romcom fashion with a kiss!! if you didn't catch it, tiny aspects of the ending were inspired by one of my fav movies, set it up, if you really read into it ;) i hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as i did writing it. again, my requests are always open for ideas! <3

the playlist || taglist: @dempy @bellaireland1981 @princessashley99 @whateverbagman @blairfox04 @blue-aconite @captainmoonknight (some ppl were tagged bc i remember ygs from the og posts & thought i'd update yall! lmk if you don't wanna be tagged anymore!)

[sunnysunsins]

Since recently everything here has been taken over by dipshits who lack media literacy, i will come back here to say - RWBY is a good show. It is good. It has good story and good writing and good characters. Does it have stumbles and limitations? Of course, like everything else ever created. Is it the real reason yall are dedicating your lives to religiously following and picking apart every detail to find something, anything, to hate on and make it your whole personality? Nah.

Yall are just pissy your hc wasn't canon. And i'm only half-joking.

Yall are just stuck in the expectation of "cute girls in school fighting monsters and baddies", which it hasn't been for almost a decade. Let Beacon fucking die already, it was the most boring part of the story anyway. If you like it so much, watch.. idk, high guardian spice. Or maybe my hero academia, it has godawful writing too with your favorite Adam-like and Ironwood-like archetypes you adore so much.

And if you didn't click off already in hissy rage, and want to challenge me on the writing point:

Yall are complaining about pacing, characterization lacking, skipped development, insert some other reason, how "show went to shit after volume 3". Well, newsflash, look back at volume 1. REALLY look at it, without your nostalgia boner.

How, in what actually can fit into 3.5 full-length episodes, it skips a whole semester with only a few moments shown in like 3-8 minutes. Notice how Ruby and Pyrrha interacted like 2 times in 3 volumes total. Ruby and Penny? Yeah, they barely interacted too. Ren hasn't talked to rwby girls at all aside from ensemble scenes.

Too many characters in later volumes? Honey, 1-3 had SO many pointless grunts and you ate them up. The whole Vytal festival was filled with them.

Can you tell me the plot of volume 2 from the top of your head? Yeah, me neither. If i think maybe i can remember there was a mecha fight, a dance and a train, but beyond that what was the point of that entire volume again?

Your favorite, pedestalled, volume 3, most of which is fighty-fighty filler and the only stuff you actually remember when jizzing your pants about it is last 3 episodes.

Most character interactions and development happened after Beacon arc. Most actual plot and bigger story happened after it too. Yall are stuck circlejerking to *filler*, setup, which only purpose was to show the status quo to later destroy it and start to show the real picture.

Do you know why v4 and 5 feel so empty and missing something? Sure, juggling multiple plots gave it's pacing issues too, but it felt empty because there were no side characters to fill out the world and make it feel alive. V5 cast was so tiny it felt like nobody interacted at all. Because there were none of those "extras" yall hate on so much. The extras make the world feel real. Which is why Atlas feels alive when Mistral wasn't.

The most complaints about later volumes are chucked down to lack of media literacy and nuanced reading of situations and characters. Translated for your easier understanding: the writing was too nuanced for your "cute girls go fighty fighty brrr" brain to comprehend. Sometimes things require you to put the situation into character perspectives. Sometimes their decisions are made under stress + personality + influence of events and interactions. But i guess yall don't want to think, yall just want to watch "girl go brrr killy killy monster"

I can continue writing down all these other points, but i'm hungry and should get up so i won't. Bottom text: RWBY is a good show with good story and good writing and good characters. It has struggles and fumbles like every other piece of media. But for some reason, because it's indie, it's held to a much higher standard and everyone feels entitled to pick apart every detail of it to make themselves feel justified for feeling sad over their dead headcanons, even though they'd never do the same picking for big production popular series with much *much* worse writing than even the worst of RWBY's fumbles.

If you made it this far and are a member of rwde, congratulations, you still have a reasonable bone or few. Most others i guess clicked off at first point and blocked me after sending me some kinda death threat, idk, i haven't posted this yet after all.

So yeah, feel free to leave your takes and death threats below, i'll happily discuss further later

[thelastbraincellofthehive]

Ok so, back from work and finally had a chance to rewatch the episode and do my thoughts about it not that I haven't practically said it all in reblogs already lol

Neo, baby, I love you... But it was honestly so disrespectful of you to change into Penny while fighting Ruby???? WTH! I know when I started watching this show I basically gave RT full permision to rip my heart apart, but do they have to take every chance they get to do it? The fuck?!

Honestly in love with the Wonderland aesthetic of this volume <3 which is funny because I'm not actually a fan of Alice in wonderland lol.

But like... It's so pretty???? Also it's exacto what the girls need right now. Can't wait for the character development this volume.

Ruby making alies and friends by being kind and helpful is always one of my favorite things honestly. We need more Rubys in the world.

Remember when Weiss was considered the most annoying character in the show? God following her journey is just so rewarding! I love her so much!

Seriously that scene of Weiss cheering lives rent free in my mind now lol precious little bean<3

I thought it would take maybe two or three chapters to have team RWBY all together, but I'm happy it was so fast! Specially with such a small volume, now it's time for adventure!

Yang being upset that everyone is there because she just assumed she had died 😭 baby no!!!

Ruby's "if you thought we wouldn't come for you, you forget who raised me" is now top-10 moments of the show for me 🥹 perfection in every way

The tackle-hug 😭😭😭 I can't!!!! I'm never gonna grow tired of watching it!!!!

Also that's the SOFTEST "Yang" that Arryn Zech has ever said and I will always thank her for her work! I've been fed!

I have this weird feeling theory/idea that the weather in Wonderland is affected by the girls' emotions... Like, it literally started raining both when Ruby and Weiss started crying, while it goth Sunny when Blake expressed positive thoughts. O feel like it's no coincidence.

Also I can't stop thinking about how Oscar and Ozpin talked about The girl who fell through the world being about a girl who failed to learn from her mistakes and I'm sooooo excited to see how this is gonna play for the girls!

Like... We've gotten two fallen kingdoms in big battles that ended up with Penny dying and Cinder victorious and I think it's interesting.

Weiss having to tell everyone about Penny and Ruby just dropping to the ground 😭 I'm seriously never forgiving RT for doing that to my girl again.

Again: the new opening fucks! Which is not new and not surprising, but God sometimes I forget how much I love Casey's voice and just the Williams' talent in general <3

Also all the depressed Ruby shots in the opening are doing things to my heart and I don't like it! Let Ruby be happy 😭😭 with her girlfriend Penny

Also can I just say that I feel so proud about seeing Arryn Troche in the credits? 🥹 They deserve it so much!!!

I think that's all I can think... Now I'm gonna go keep rewatching the chapter <3

[sheldoney]

NOTE* this is not a canon portrayal. sheldon is basically my little string bean boy theoretical physicist oc with some bbt elements and a dash of young sheldon buuuuuuut I basically created him from scratch. I do not follow BBT or Young Sheldon religiously. I cherry pick. SELECTIVELY. If you are looking for a religious canon coded portrayal this is not the blog for you. He is one hundred percent my own creation and I love him dearly. However, I do hope you wish to follow and write with him. I offer many verses to pick from and if you don't like anything listed we can work something out and make up our own verse!

WHERE IS PENNY?? @dcntlook @homicidalqueeen @whyscserious THE ROOMMATE AGREEMENT | MEMES | PROMO | HEADCANONS | VERSES | RELATIONS | OPEN STARTERS ↓ ↓ ↓

affiliates: @qu-tipie, @clairelilcorner, @therelentless, @godclaws, @acceptedrisk, @hollowvictory, @clockchimes, @merveiilles

1. I don’t have many rules just one big one. Do not lie to me about your age. If you are underage. I’ll block you. Final word. Wanna know mine? Just ask. I am 21+ I only write with those over 21+. Discord is mobile and only available for close friends and mutuals only. I DO NOT ROLEPLAY OVER DISCORD. I AM DASH ONLY. If I do hand out my discord I am always invisible or away. Don’t take offense. Leave me a message and I will get to you as soon as I see it! I rely heavily on Tumblr IMs for other communication purposes.

2.I AM NOT A THEORETICAL PHYSICIST. I BS MY WAY AND JUST GO BY THE CANON OF THE BIG BANG THEORY. (kinda sorta not really though I am trying to redeem Sheldon as he was treated terribly and portrayed horribly on the show. He said some things I do not condone or agree with according to TBBT LORE.This is not Jim Parsons’ fault.) BTW GOOGLE IS MY BEST FRIEND. BTW This is a Jim Parsons appreciation blog also.

3. I DO SHIP SHENNY/ I SHIP SHAMY. (SELECTIVELY.) IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SHENNY AS MOST DO IN THE BIG BANG FANDOM DO NOT FOLLOW THIS BLOG. I ALSO HAVE CRACKSHIPS ON THIS BLOG. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM DO NOT FOLLOW THIS BLOG.I also ship Sheldon and Chemistry amongst Muses. Sheldon Cooper is “canonically” asexual and not interested in coitus. But I do write him differently because I don't follow strict canon. I will not be writing smut on here or any s.exual content. I have a separate blog for “spicy” interactions. I will only be giving out the blog to Sheldon’s ships. It is NS.FW. Sheldon is not a cheater or your one night stand. Do not assume so. If you would like to pursue a relationship with Sheldon please talk to me about it beforehand.

4.DO NOT TOUCH SHELDON COOPER AT ALL UNLESS YOU KNOW HIM FIRST AND HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR A WHILE ( PENNY CAN TOUCH HIM ) /ANYONE INVOLVED IN A RELATIONSHIP OR PREESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS CAN TOUCH HIM.

5. DO NOT BULLY SHELDON. ROAST HIM. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. HE HAS BEEN BULLIED ALL OF HIS LIFE AND I WILL SHUT THAT DOWN SO FAST YOU WON’T EVEN BLINK. I WON’T TOLERATE IT AND NEITHER WILL HE.

6.I USE XKIT REWRITTEN. I trim my posts, you don’t have but I will trim yours. It is just a simple click for me. I do not roleplay in the ask box. If you have intentions of continuing a thread please @ me in something. Thank you. I don’t appreciate if you only leave your own reply in our thread because when I do drafts I need to reread what my character replied to yours to keep the plot consistent and coherent.

7. I am very picky about who I write with. If I like your writing I will follow you. I don’t expect a follow back but do know I am interested in plotting something with you in the future. I am not a follow for follow. I am here for interactions, simply.

8. I have no problem writing in other fandoms. Especially horror/thriller/supernatural/etc...I adore crossovers.

9.I am not always available.Please be patient with me for replies. I do have a life outside of Tumblr. I keep weird hours. If it says I am online, chances are I am not. I am probably by the computer but doing something else.

10. I promise I am friendly. I just like to curate my space. Do not try to involve me in gossip or any of that malarkey, please and thanks.

11. I AM LGBTQ+ MOST OF MY FRIENDS ARE LGBTQ+ MY FACECLAIM IS LGBTQ Homophobia, Transphobia, ETC ETC ETC will not be tolerated and you will be blocked if I see it.

12.ICONS & GRAPHICS & HEADCANONS. My icons are made by @butscrewmefirst . Some icons I have gathered from insanejournal and fanpop and altered them slightly. Please use icons or gif icons/small gifs in your replies. My computer takes forever to load large images. All headcanons are my own. Please do not lift anything from this blog. Thank you.

13.EXCLUSIVE & MAINS.As of right now I have certain exclusive canon characters that I will only write with on this blog. I will not write with any other portrayals of Harley Quinn using Samara Weaving  as their faceclaim or other Heath Ledger’s Jokers. I will also not write with other Sheldon Coopers. I am sure you are all tremendous but I prefer not to interact with any other duplicates. If you would like to be a main or an exclusive in Sheldon’s universe please come and speak to me about it.

[makedonsgriva]

Hi again @makedonsgriva . If you don't mind me asking, can I ask, what are your top 7 favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series/etc) and your top 7 favorite ships (can be canon or non canon) from any media? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this questions before and if I ask too much.....

Hi @dnana-2809-blog !!! Thank you for the ask. I don’t mind answering your questions at all and you are always welcome to send more asks in my inbox ^_^

Top 7 favorite media (in no particular order)

1. Attack On Titan

I can never ever move on from this story. The plot twists??? The characters??? Zero fan service and filler episodes and being just straight to the point??? And the PLOT!?! HELLO??? THE PLOT IS SO GODDAMN GOOD????

Attack on Titan is truly a fantastic story about war, humanity, sacrifice and above all, love. On the surface level, it seems like every other shonen anime out there but its depth is truly incomparable. No media I’ve watched comes close to it.

2. Captive Prince Trilogy

I think I read this series for the first time back in 2018-19 and it absolutely rocked my world??? I reread it almost every year now because holy shit??? I’ve never read a better enemies to forced allies to friends to lovers to divorced but forced allies to lovers to im gonna die for this man???

Also the plot??? CS Pacat knew how hard they cooked and ate with Captive Prince. The world building, the characters, the plot twists, politics, the drama??? I M M A C U L A T E.

I highly recommend it to everyone who has not read it but please check the trigger warnings for this trilogy before you start.

(Pls let me know the artist yall so I can edit this and credit the artist!)

3. Carry On Trilogy

I don’t think I’ve ever been as emotionally attached to a series as I’ve been to Carry On. Like Simon, Baz and Penny were exactly who I needed as an awkward teen dealing with a lot of bs. I saw this trilogy being completed in front of my eyes. I can’t tell you how healing and rewarding it was for me to read Any Way The Wind Blows. 2020 was the most horrific, heartbreaking nightmare for me and I think a part of me healed when I read AWTWB in 2021. When I saw that Simon and Baz were going to be okay, I understood that I would okay too. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it would happen.

Sorry I think I got too personal but I just have so much love for this series and the way it showed healing and love and friendship. It’s so special to me ❤️

4. Tian Guan Ci Fu

A very recent addition but I just know it’s going to be one of those series I’m going to spend the rest of my life loving. I’m such a sucker for stories that are, at the end of the day, about love. About knowing how vicious and shitty this world is but being kind is what makes all the difference. About learning from past mistakes and about making a future, no matter how late that future comes.

It also gave me Xie Lian. You guys don’t understand just how much I love Xie Lian. I can go to war for that man, okay. I can follow him through hell. I will protect that man with my life.

5. The Good Place

It’s been a while since I watched this show but I do remember just how deeply it impacted me and permanently altered my brain chemistry.

The characters were all so unique and coming from such different backgrounds and with really interesting backstories. The growth we witnessed for them over the four seasons was phenomenal. Especially for Eleanor. And Michael. God I fucking love Michael.

Everything about this show was top notch. I think I will need to make a whole separate post talking about the philosophy of this show. I think this is one of those shows that everyone needs to watch at least once in their life.

6. Fleabag

Fleabag will always be superior. The main character is one of my all time favorites and I think it tells a really great, bittersweet story of coming to terms with your own flaws. It’s a story about life but not the entirety of it because we just get to witness a very small portion of Fleabag’s life. Her mistakes are colossal but her life is too big to be defined by it. Yes she is a raging cunt but yes I love her to death and her story too. The humour, the fourth wall breaking, the emotions… all of it make fleabag the amazing show it is.

7. Yuri On Ice

My first anime ever. The feelings it gave me is incomparable to any other. News of its movie cancellation was beyond devastating.

(As I type it out, the theme song is playing in my head..)

I can’t begin to emphasise just how important this anime is for queer representation in mainstream anime because while this anime is about ice skating, yes, above all it’s about love. How it makes us better, how it brings out the best version of ourselves, how it sustains and pushes us forward. And that love just so happens to be between two men. It’s just so heartwarming.

It was so so important for me as a young queer person still struggling with their identity and wanting to fit in. Yuri On Ice was so important for me and still is.

(Fuck I miss Yuri and Viktor)

As this post has already got too long, I will answer your ship question in a separate post! I will make sure to tag you when I do :)

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Wallflower Wager. By Tessa Dare. Avon, 2019.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Series: Girl Meets Duke #3

Summary: Wealthy and ruthless, Gabriel Duke clawed his way from the lowliest slums to the pinnacle of high society—and now he wants to get even.

Loyal and passionate, Lady Penelope Campion never met a lost or wounded creature she wouldn’t take into her home and her heart.

When her imposing—and attractive—new neighbor demands she clear out the rescued animals, Penny sets him a challenge. She will part with her precious charges, if he can find them loving homes.

Done, Gabriel says. How hard can it be to find homes for a few kittens?

And a two-legged dog.

And a foul-mouthed parrot.

And a goat, an otter, a hedgehog . . .

Easier said than done, for a cold-blooded bastard who wouldn’t know a loving home from a workhouse. Soon he’s covered in cat hair, knee-deep in adorable, and bewitched by a shyly pretty spinster who defies his every attempt to resist. Now she’s set her mind and heart on saving him.

Not if he ruins her first.

***Fullnreview below.***

Content Warnings: graphic sexual content, references to bullying

Overview: I read this book a few weeks ago but forgot to write a review. So here we are. I genrally like Tessa Dare, so I decided to continue on with this series that I started a while back. Overall, this installment didn't wow me as much as some of her other books. While I liked the kind-hearted protagonist, I also felt like Dare could have used her themes better, so for that reason, this book only gets 3 stars from me.

Writing: I don't have much new to say about the prose in this book compared to the prose of Dare's others. It's quick, easy to understand, and balances showing and telling well, all while inserting a lot of Dare's characteristic humor. If I had any criticism, I would say that some of the humor in this book didn't land quite as well for me personally. But your mileage may vary, so don't take my word as gold.

Plot: The non-romance plot of this book follows Gabriel Duke, a rogue who has made his fortune by financially ruining members of the upper class and profiting off their losses. Gabe has recently come into possession of a house in a rather fashionable part of town, and given that it sits next door to a lady's residence, he anticipates it will sell for quite a lot of money.

The lady in question, however, is Lady Penelope Campion - a spinster who uses her property as a haven for dozens of sick, disabled, and otherwise rejected animals. When Penny's aunt gives her an ultimatum on behalf of Penny's brother (get rid of your animals and rejoin fashionable society of you want to stay in London), Penny and Gabe make a pact that is sure to benefit both of them: rehome the animals and not only will Penny get to stay, but Gabe's property will be all the more attractive.

The parts I liked most in this plot were moments when Penny pushed back against Gabe's plans or when Gabe stood up to other people on Penny's behalf. I love an independent heroine with a strong sense of what's right, and I like when heroes with obvious flaws show that disreapecting women isn't one of them.

However, there were also a few things that didn't work for me. For one, Gabe's battle with indoor plumbing felt a little too silly, and I think a lot more could have been done to engage with the idea of modernity in this book. For two, Penny and Gabe seem to rehome the animals way too easily and with very little emotional reaction from Penny, which made them feel less important. For three, the subplot between Hammond (the architect) and Mrs. Burns (the housekeeper) felt a little random and didn't really compliment the main plot.

Characters: Penny, our heroine, is rather easy to like because she is so big-hearted and cares deeply for broken things. While these qualities are good on their own, they are made more endearing once the reader discovers that Penny had a rough upbringing; her soft heart in spite of the troubles she faced is incredibly inspiring, and I loved that she opened herself up to others - not just to Gabe, but to her closest friends.

Gabe, our hero, is a little gruff and stubborn, but he did have moments when that facade cracked. I liked him best in the moments where he defended Penny's right to make her own decisions. His callousness towards the animals did grate on me sometimes, and I think not enough was made of the fact that he tried to hire actors to trick Penny into giving her animals away faster, but it was clear by the end that he came to understand Penny's care, so I guess it was fine in the long run.

Supporting characters were fine, though none of them blew me away. I enjoyed Penny's friendships with the other wallflowers, and the husbands were kind of charming in their fierce loyalty and protectiveness. The only characters that seemed underdeveloped were Hammond and Mrs. Burns; I can't for the life of me decide whether their subplot was inserted for laughs or for something else, but whatever the reason, they felt random and didn't compliment the others at all.

Romance: Gabe and Penny's romance was ok; not my favorite, but not the worst either. I liked that they worked together to achieve the same goal, even if their motivations were different, and I liked that Gabe was constantly torn between his desire for financial gain and his attraction to Penny.

However, I do think Dare could have put more pressure on the thematic connection between Penny's care for rejected animals and Gabe's past. While I did like that Dare didn't overdo this connection, it also felt like a non-issue, and I think more could have been done.

Moreover, I think Gabe abandoned his economic goals a little too quickly, and more inner conflict would have made the romance more angsty. It also would have helped the narrative flow better towards the end, when Gabe shows he hasn't completely abandoned his old ways. I rather liked the end conflict and thought it brought a lot of concerns to a head, but it would have been nice if the lead up was spread more diffusely throughout the rest of the narrative.

TL;DR: Tessa Dare's The Wallflower Wager is charming in some respects, but doesn't quite dig deeply into the themes it introduces. The kind-hearted heroine and fiercely loyal friend group makes this book worth the read, however, even if I personally found the romance to be a bit silly and narratively lacking.

[ajoytobeheld]

Film 2010

January 1st, 2011

Films I thought Were Good Last Year

So….

Lets start with “Cracks,” which I know was released on the cusp of 2009 BUT it didnt make it to my local arthouse cinema until 2010, so for me, that counts. I frequently go the cinema alone because its pointless to socialize in dark rooms and the lack of a normal 9-5 job means there aren’t many people willing to bunk off work to see the daytime showing of a film about psychotic lesbian teachers… (or are there?)

Anyway, lonesome cinema trips are a cathartic experience for distracting me out of what ever bad mood I have found myself in and at that point, early 2010, I had a case of mild heartbreak (emo music! Moping! etc) and this film lifted my spirits. It is a cheesy sentiment yes, but none the less true..

Winters Bone

A film about meth, squirrels and snow. Wonderfully underplayed and I was pretty smug throughout because I snuck in my own penny sweets.

Toy Story 3

I had so much doubt with its lack of Josh Whedon on writing credits and it’s presentation in pointless 3D but luckily it was great. I also think its nice for Tim Allen to have something to do.

Youth in Revolt

Do you dimly remember when Michael Cera was in Arrested Development and you thought “he’s good, i see a bright future for him as long as he doesn’t get pigeonholed as the same character in everything and become really annoying…plus he looks a bit like a dinosaur.” Well, our fears came true. Pigeonholed and more dinosaur like everyday, which is why it was a surprise to me when I enjoyed his dual performance as the protagonist Nick Twisp and the protagonists French moustache twirling alter ego Francois in this well written and silly film. Plus he manages to perform in it without ruining a comic franchise.

BONUS.

The Social Network

Thought it was gonna be okay, but it was actually better then okay and overcame that whole nasty Benjamin Button misfire by Mr Fincher, and I also think its one of the only films i could happily sit through twice in the space of a week.

Fish Tank

I feel there is a theme of cheating in this because once again this film came out in late 2009 but once again it was not avaliable for most Cardiff based mortals to view until 2010. Andrea Arnold has made a few films about put upon women and this film details the dancing ambitions of a girl who becomes embroiled in a very inappropriate relationship with her mothers boyfriend. Step Up it is not. The star of the film Katie Jarvis is much like 90’s star Shola Ama.

Jarvis was “spotted” after Arnold witnessed her arguing with her boyfriend at a train station much like Ama gained a record deal after she was heard singing on a tube. But I have higher hopes for the career of Jarvis.

The Runaways

I double billed this film with something else I cant remember, so that couldn’t have been as good…. Kristen Stewart proves she isn’t all mumbly hair sucking and she kind of rocks this

Kick Ass

This film made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside many many times.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I confess I have not seen the rest of the millennium trilogy but this first effort was a well constructed who dunnit which may have felt televisual but if its good enough to require a America remake for those who cant read subtitles then that’s something….

Whip It

I saw this film when we were trapped in London because of the DAMMED VOLCANO. I was feeling pretty distraught about fate sending me back to Cardiff when I really wanted to be in New York so I needed some escapism.

I swallowed my reservations about this possibly being shit and gave it a go….and its bloody amazing. It doesn’t follow the generic “girl coming of age”  formula I expected plus has a line I can really relate to.

“I didn’t have a Barbie-roller-skates-phase, I had a fat-kid-sits-inside-and-reads-phase.”

The Killer Inside Me

It always feels strange to see a film alone in the afternoon about a sociopath who brutally beats up Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, but sometimes your just in that kind of mood. Much like “Lust, Caution” I went to see this film based on the controversy that surrounded it, and much like  “Lust, Caution” I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was, and how a few well publicised scenes do not dictate what a film is actually about.  Though Michael Winterbottoms film is brutal and tough viewing it is also very good and at time hilarious, and the horrific violence of those few scenes did not feel like a effort in misogyny from the director, rather an effort in showing how truly unfeeling and narcisstic Casey Afflecks character is. The ending is pretty insane as well.

Monsters

When watching this I was aware of a building sense of unrest within certain fractions of the audiences, they were turning to each other and asking “is this title perhaps a bit misleading? There are definetely less monsters and more soft focus then I was expecting…Shall we sit here and giggle inanely instead of watching the film because we are too stupid to appreciate it? YES LETS.” Loved this film.

Of Gods and Men

I dragged my mother and sister along to this telling them a French film about Trappist monks in Algeria could be a bit of a laugh. Subtle and beautiful and I cried my eyes out like a little baby during the scene soundtracked by Swan Lake.

Other Notable Mentions

Eclipse

Harry Potter

Buried

Another Year

Ponyo!

Worst film Eva

Sex and the City 2

[coll2mitts]

#8 Swing Time (1936)

The several minutes of forced laughter isn't the only thing cringey about this film

Y’know, my friend has something called the Thumper Rule: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.  And I try to abide by it, but most of the time I’m like Olympia Dukakis in Steel Magnolias.

I tried, I tried really hard to understand why Swing Time is so high on the list.  If we’re only considering the Fred and Ginger dance numbers, sure, you could make a case, because they’re amazing and at the top at their game.  The choreography in this movie is fire, and the repeating motif of them walking side by side together picks up emotional weight as the story progresses.  But literally everything else about this movie is annoying to me.  The “Fred and Ginger Formula” is now starting to lose its luster.

Fred Astaire’s character, Lucky, is a gambler/dancer, and he’s supposed to be getting married to an affluent women named Margaret immediately after he tap dances off the stage.  His friends, who for sure have grandkids who think that Saturdays Are For The Boys, have decided to sabotage this endeavor by telling Lucky his pants are so last season.  Lucky kills time waiting on them to be tailored by rolling some dice, and several hours later, when he figures out he’s been tricked, he shows up to his own wedding several hours late after all the guests have left.  While his fiancé and her father are initially furious with Lucky, he tells them he was out earning a dumb amount of money, and offers to buy Margaret for $25k.  They agree to this arrangement because they are terrible people.

Lucky flees to New York with his unscrupulous friend Pop to gamble his way into a wife.  He encounters Penny at the cigarette machine when he trades her his lucky quarter for a few dimes and a nickel.  Thirty seconds later, when he gets the money to trade it back, she refuses because she thinks he’s attempting to pick her up.  While she’s trying to rebuff Lucky’s advances, Pop steals the quarter from her purse, and she alerts a policeman because she thinks Lucky took it.  The policeman, being super on-brand, calls her a crazy broad and threatens to arrest her for disturbing the peace because Lucky is wearing a nice suit.  She leaves, Pop reveals to Lucky he actually did steal the quarter from Penny, and Lucky follows her into her place to business to return the money... again.

If this sounds super convoluted, it is.  This is, by far, the dumbest meet-cute I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve lived through and been forced to watch nearly all the terrible early 2000s romantic comedies.

To Lucky’s absolute luck, Penny works at a dance studio, so Lucky pulls a Cady Heron and pretends he doesn’t know how to dance in order procure some lessons.  Penny is pleased as punch to see him, and doesn’t slug him on site because she wants to keep her job.  Once Lucky finally admits that he’s a premium dancer, Penny’s boss books the two of them a gig at the Silver Sandal, as long as Lucky can show up in a tuxedo.

Lucky, of course, only has a stolen quarter to his name, so Pop runs out to try and scam a drunk guy into betting his dapper clothes.  Penny walks in on her new friends playing strip poker with a guy 3 sheets to the wind and storms off, furious she’s going to miss her new gig because the guy who accosted her in the street turned out to not be on the up and up.

A week later is enough time for Lucky to bankroll a new wardrobe, a room at the inn, and a new audition at the Silver Sandal.  Penny’s refusal to forgive Lucky for blowing their first chance at stardom results in Lucky picketing outside her door.

When that doesn’t work to turn her favor, he decides to serenade her with the most famous song of this movie, “The Way You Look Tonight”.  I have heard Frank’s showy, bouncy version of this song about a million times, but I do enjoy Fred’s version as it sounds more tender and sincere.

This is enough to make Penny swoon, and they head to The Silver Sandal together.  Lucky discovers that the band leader, Ricky, is not only handsome, but has proposed to Penny several times.  Lucky has the nerve to act jealous even though, if you remember, he’s already engaged to Margaret back home.  Ricardo also views Lucky as a threat and refuses to play a song for Penny and Lucky’s audition so they cannot dance together.  Lucky decides to use his gambling super powers to win the band’s contract from a club owner and force Ricky’s orchestra to play.  Penny is somehow charmed by this because his gambling addiction has now directly benefitted her.

They ace the audition and Penny and Lucky book the gig.  Lucky negotiates down the terms of his payment so he doesn’t make over $25k and have to return to his hometown to purchase/marry his fiancé.  Conversely, he is trying his best not to be left alone with Penny as he’s now fallen in love with her.  Penny, unfortunately, feels the same way about him, and decides to make a bunch of unreciprocated moves that just give her blue balls.  When Lucky finally decides that cheating on his fiancé sounds like a good idea, Pop intervenes and tells Penny that Lucky’s engaged and she rightfully turns cold toward him.  This only lasts about 3 minutes, and soon she’s making awkward advances before making out with him in their dressing room.

Right as my exasperation in this back and forth romance hit its peak, Fred distracted me by walking over to his dressing table and smearing black paint on his face.  Oh.  Oh no. 

Oh nooooooooooo.  I thought after The Jazz Singer I was in the clear for shit like this on the list, but nope, turns out one of the most famous dancers in the world decided that blackface was a great idea.

This is um...  This is straight up offensive.  No amount of shuffling around is going to make me defend a number that starts with comparing the skin color of black people to the bottom of shoes.  I found a great article by Katrina Richardson that elaborates why this number, even in 1936, was in very, very poor taste.

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson is the man Fred is “paying tribute to” in this number.  My grandmother loved Shirley Temple and bought me The Little Colonel when I was a kid, which I watched once and unceremoniously stored in our VHS cabinet because I had no interest in a precocious seven-year-old that pretends not to know how to read, or a movie about The South TM.  But I remember this scene because I was simultaneously fascinated by his dancing and afraid he was going to fall down the stairs.  Honestly, spending several hours on youtube watching Mr. Robinson dance was the only redeeming part of being forced to watch Swing Time.

Anyway... Directly after the number, Lucky gambles away the orchestra because Pop revealed that Lucky cheated it off of the club owner the first time.  Immediately after that, Margret and Penny finally meet each other, and Penny is so devastated that Lucky is still going to marry her that she runs off and accepts Ricky’s latest proposal.  Lucky is similarly disappointed they’re heading in different directions and tells Penny that he’s going to punish himself for marrying someone he doesn’t love by never dancing again.

Fred and Ginger’s dance numbers always tell a story, and this movie features several perfect examples of how their movements illustrate their current feelings toward each other.  In the beginning, they start their journey by taking a few steps together, and we similarly revel in the joy on Penny’s face realizing Lucky can meet her move for move.  When they are auditioning for the club, they come out confident and fierce, knocking everyone’s socks off because they realize how special their relationship is and want to flaunt it in front of everyone (especially Ricky).  In “Never Gonna Dance”, their steps are nostalgic, echoing the previous numbers before, and eventually send them in two separate directions and up two separate staircases.  They’re reunited quickly and furiously at the top, giving into their passion for one another.  But by the end of this number, Penny is sprinting away from Lucky, as its the only way they can part.  It’s so beautiful it makes me forgive the plot I had to trudge through to get here.  Also, Astaire insisted on over 40 takes of this number and Ginger’s feet were bleeding through her shoes by the end of it, which only highlights Fred’s perfectionism and Ginger’s perseverance.

Alas, Lucky and Penny didn’t need to break up in the first place, because Margret has decided to break off their engagement because she wants to marry someone else.  Lucky then decides to tell Margret that he’s in love with Penny, and she starts laughing because it’s all very funny and conveniently timed.  Lucky rushes over to break up Penny and Ricky’s wedding and Lucky and Penny live happily ever after even though she doesn't like that he gambles and he seems incapable of not doing so.  The end.

Swing Time is a whole lot of fluff and no substance, which is completely fine, it just annoys me when the plot hinges on a series of secrets or misunderstandings.  The director of this movie, George Stevens, had filmed several movies with Fred and Ginger, together and separately, until he enlisted in the US Army during World War II in order to document it.  He was present during D-Day, and also filmed the conditions of the concentration camps.  The footage he captured was used as evidence during the Nuremberg Trials.  Needless to say, this guy saw some shit, and it changed the kind of content he produced afterward.  

In the 1970s, he was head of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival, which issued no awards because the jury eventually resigned.  A film about the Incident on Hill 192, o.k., was cut-off mid-screening and removed from the festival because a majority of the jury believed "All film festivals should contribute to better understanding between nations".  Stevens himself called the movie “anti-American”, and was the driving force behind its disqualification.  The jury actually had no right to turn the film off, or question its qualification in the first place, which caused several directors of competing films to withdraw their movies from the competition in protest.  Many looked upon the film’s exclusion as censorship, and called for a dissolution of the entire institution of Berlinale.  This didn’t happen - they restructured and have been conducting the event ever since.  Although a few years ago they did have to rename one of their awards when it was revealed its namesake Alfred Bauer’s involvement in creating Nazi propaganda “was more significant than had previously been known”...  Yikes.

But I found it both curious and unsurprising that Stevens had such a visceral reaction to o.k., as United States patriotism was the key motivating factor during the second world war.  The sacrifices made by the soldiers and their families was under the premise it was for The Greater Good.  The heroes in the US of A would be getting revenge on those no-good Fascists and Imperialists because here in America, we believe in Freedom TM.

Not to suggest the US shouldn’t have been involved in the war, but our own (sometimes racist) propaganda shaped the views of the entire generation.  I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that a lot of WW2 veterans struggled with those who protested the war in Vietnam, and had a hard time beings faced with the fact that United States soldiers could become power-hungry monsters that commit atrocious war crimes.

But I majorly digress...  Swing Time is, conversely to the previous diatribe, Pre-WW2 glamourous escapism, where the worst a woman could encounter was a philandering gambler who didn’t cuff his pants.

Thanks for reading!  If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider helping me fund this project by donating to my ko-fi :)

[matt0044]

The Vicious Cycle of the Animation Industry

Look, I’m not too confident in myself to cover all the crap going down with HBOMax or the WB Discovery debacle outside of regurgitating what people better versed in the industry than me have covered. A glance at Twitter will speak volumes alone.

What I do intend to discuss is the common theme of animation always getting the shaft either because it’s too costly compared to whatever live action show they pump out (because VFX may as well be paid in pennies by this point) or because they’re deemed acceptable losses by the wider public.

Much as animation over all has garnered a sizable and vocal following, too many executives are high up to care about how a series is very beloved or hated. What they care is how much its raking it for them and what they should be pushing above all else.

Thus Teen Titans Go can be the most loathe show by animation and DC geeks alike but still chug along if the right amount of kids throw money at it (with their parent’s permission). Whereas a show that has thought put into its story, characters and artstyle will be meddled with to fit the mold of TTG or be cast aside if it doesn’t do gangbusters.

Of course, biased marketing departments don’t help. There’s no telling how well a more ambitious cartoon might’ve done if it had been given half the attention other shows settling for the cheap laughs had. Commercials, billboard, even friggin, YouTube ads (for all their infuriating nature) can make or break a show’s success. Yet some seem to get by in spite of the network being ambivalent towards the title.

You can’t even claim that the internet is hard to work with when Social Media managers exist for a reason. If every cartoon got its fair shake at potential success but failed due to a considerable lack of interest on the audience’s part, maybe a cancellation wouldn’t feel as gutting. It’d still hurt but in a, “Dem’s the brakes, kiddo,” sort of way.

As is, The Legend of Korra practically had Nick’s marketing in a tizzy compared to Spongebob when they could’ve tried... something. Where was all that energy they put into greenlighting three seasons at once before Book 2? Why move it to their website and not a service like Netflix where serialized stories (at the time) were thriving?

Of course, it’s hard to deny how the perception of animation from adults overall are very likely shared with the producers who oversee these cartoons. Despite the medium being profitable to not let go of full stop, too much animation with no so insignificant follows get the axe likely because the mainstream perception of animation being a lesser media seeps into the inmates running the asylum.

1.Many adults see cartoons and animation overall as for kids.

2. The public overall internalizes this idea of it being a lesser medium despite some productions crunching their staff big time.

3. Those of the public go on to work for companies like WB and/or Disney where they may help oversee animation production.

4. The aforementioned attitudes lead to animation being seen as expendable in lew of any money problems (often of their own doings).

I mean... you know it’s bad when Disney granted The Owl House something when it came to shortening Season 3 when it could’ve just had King’s Tide be the end of it. Not to give too much credit but I’d take a shorter season for a show getting the boot to end. At the very least they can have the creators and their team make their cases why they shouldn’t just be written off.

So... what now? It’s easy to say “support indie creators” when forgetting how there can be a lot of uncertainty in a lot of unknown media. It’s not just corporations feeding into the “nothing’s original” phenomenon suffice to say. What I can say is that a “NewDeal4Animation” trends for a reason.

Those working in this industry need to unionize and make it clear as goddamn crystal that they are not okay with how things are as of now. If they’re employed to work on a project for a company, they need to be valued and not be neglected or abused. And we fans can help by stepping up whether or not this might be trending.

This is a worker’s rights issue by any other name and needs solving ASA-Now!

[norahastuff]

penny for your thoughts on salmondean codependency ?

Sure. Fair warning it’s long (was longer but I stopped myself.)

I think it’s complicated in a show that’s had so many different showrunners because they’ve all handled Sam and Dean’s relationship very differently. In Kripke’s era (s1-5) there was a romanticization of the bond. Sure there was a lot of in-depth exploration of how they wound up at the place they were at, spoiler alert: it was all because of John and his obsessive crusade to find the demon that killed his wife. That’s all he cared about and as a result, Sam and Dean had to be everything to each other. But Kripke had no intention of dismantling that at any point because he was (and always had been) writing a tragedy. Gamble continued that too. There was no room for anyone else in their lives and it would always just be the two of them against the world. So Cas had to go. Bobby had to go.

(Actually, it's funny because Gamble didn't intend this at the time, her plan was to kill Cas off, but by Edlund creating the masterpiece that is The Man Who Would Be King, he not only saved Cas from being seen as a villain, but he also deepened Dean and Cas' relationship in such a profound way and inextricably linked the two of them emotionally. And since Cas was eventually brought back, that laid the foundation for a lot of what their relationship would become.)

Up until this point, there hadn’t really been any significant dismantling of perhaps the more unhealthy parts of Sam and Dean’s relationship. Enter Carver. He stripped things down and started to explore what drove these characters. What they wanted and why they couldn’t have it. It starts with Dean being mad at Sam for not looking for him in purgatory, which sets up the whole speech in the s8 finale of Sam’s guilt about letting Dean down, but the thing is, Dean was never honest with Sam about his year away either. He never told Sam he could have gotten out much sooner if he hadn’t stayed to find Cas. I mean Dean had assumed Sam was up there alone doing God knows what to try to bring him back, and yet still he stayed in Purgatory because things were clear there. He needed Cas. Anyway, I just find that interesting, but Cas isn’t a victim of Sam and Dean’s relationship in s8.

Who gets the honour of being cast aside? That would be Benny and Amelia, two characters they introduced in s8 specifically to highlight that Sam and Dean’s relationship doesn’t allow for anyone else to be a significant part of their life. I mean that’s nothing new, we’ve watched that happen many times before. Lisa even said as much to Dean. The thing is this time? It’s framed as a truly sad thing. That moment at the end of 8x10 when Dean has just ended things with Benny and Sam leaves Amelia, and they’re sitting alone drinking beer and watching tv is such a hollow empty moment. This is not what they want. But it’s the way things have to be.

I’m actually fascinated by Sam and Dean’s conversation in the church in the s8 finale. Not so much Dean’s assertion that there is no one else he would put before Sam, but more so what provokes it, which is Sam saying “who are you going to turn to instead of me. Another angel? Another vampire?” See the thing is Dean saying he would always put Sam first is not news. We know this and it’s not really an unhealthy statement in itself either. A lot of people would put their sibling above anything else, not less a sibling who you raised and is the most important person to you. But in this context? After what Sam said? It just highlights how unhealthy they are if Sam believes that Dean having other people in his life means he doesn’t love him enough. That he’s a disappointment to him. That’s so profoundly fucked up.

(Note, Dean tells Sam that he killed Benny for him but he doesn’t say anything about Cas. I think like I said before, this is because Cas and Dean’s relationship has largely existed out of the Sam and Dean stuff up to this point - Sam and Cas don’t even really have much of a relationship yet besides both of their connections to Dean.)

And then from here, things start getting steadily worse. But we also keep being shown how bad they are. Dean lying to Sam, taking away his free will by letting Gadreel possess him. Dean sending Cas away, Kevin dying. It’s all awful. The whole “there ain’t no me if there ain’t no you line” from 9x01 isn’t really said by Dean, it’s Gadreel, but that is how Dean feels. He does think that’s all he’s good for. And over the season we’re shown how much of himself and what he truly wants he’s had to give up because of his ingrained “Save Sammy” and “Sammy comes first” mentality. It’s always been this way for him. In 9x07 we see that he had found a happy home, a good father figure, and his first love, a first love might I add that he had to leave behind with no real explanation because Sam needed him, and Sam comes first.

I mean just one episode earlier we had him rushing out the door elated about seeing Cas and spending time with him, only for their time together to come to sad and melancholic end when Dean once again leaves Cas behind without any real explanation, because despite what he wants Sammy comes first. What he wants doesn’t matter.

See I think after the Gadreel stuff comes out is where the narrative starts to get a little wonky for me. You can clearly see that this was intended to be a shorter story that they ended up stretching out to a much longer one because of renewals. There’s also the fact that this is a formula show so they can’t necessarily be separated for longer than an episode or two. S10 is a rough one to get through at times, I think the themes still mostly hold up but it’s a rough one to get through.

S10 highlights all the connections that Dean has, Cas, Charlie, Crowley even, but Sam doesn’t really have those bonds in the same way.  For Sam it’s just Dean, so he goes down a reckless destructive “do anything to save Dean!” path and so many innocents pay the price, and ultimately with the release of The Darkness, the whole world.

They skirted right up to the edge of exploring just how toxic and dangerous their relationship had become in the season 10 finale.

DEAN: I let Rudy die. How was that not evil? I know what I am, Sam. But who were you when you drove that man to sell his soul... Or when you bullied Charlie into getting herself killed? And to what end? A..a good end? A just end? To remove the Mark no matter what the consequences? Sam, how is that not evil? I have this thing on my arm, and you're willing to let the Darkness into the world.

I can’t say evil is the right word, they were never evil, but they were wilfully blind to everything and everyone else when it came to saving each other. S10 tested my love for the show because after watching it, because there was certainly a feeling that the two of them had become the villains of this story. And don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a problem with that, it’s just after 2 seasons of this I can’t say I had a lot of faith that this was going to be properly addressed or if we were going to keep going in circles around it. Keep being shown, it’s bad and then nothing much being done to fix it. Your mileage may vary on how it was handled, but I think s11 did a relatively ok job considering it wasn’t the end of the story, and the show needed to keep going.

See from Dean’s side a lot of the codependency rests on 1. His father’s orders to always save Sammy 2. His low self-esteem where he sees himself as nothing but a blunt instrument. 3. His guilt at not being able to perfectly fulfil every familial role in Sam’s life 4. His belief that no one could choose to love him but family has to love you. 5. The unhealthy example of what it should look like to love someone that he got from John. You give up everything but them.

For Sam (and honestly it’s not as clear for me as Dean’s side is so feel free to correct me/disagree on this) 1. Everytime he’s tried to leave and create his own life it’s never ended well. 2. His guilt over wanting freedom and a normal life when he was younger (I’m referring specifically to Stanford era here) 3. His guilt over everything Dean has given up for him. 4. John. 5. Jess.

Ultimately it all comes down to isolation. They both had to be everything to each other, and the deeper they got into this fight, the more people that they lost, the tighter they clung to this notion of family and brothers. I think s11 (and 11x23 in particular) was an important turning point, both for Sam and Dean’s relationship, as well as for them as individuals. Because they weren’t alone there anymore. Cas was there. Sam let Dean walk to his death. Of course, it would devastate him, but he knew it was what had to be done. And he didn’t walk out of that bar and go back to the bunker alone. He had Cas, he had someone who cared about him and wanted to help him and talk to him. Sure Dean asked Cas to take care of Sam for him (you know after Cas offered to walk to his death with him) but Sam let him. He let him be there for him. We didn’t get to see much before the BMOL showed up and blasted Cas away, but still, we saw enough.

I think that’s a significant difference to note why their relationship was different in the Dabb era. It wasn’t just them anymore. Cas was an important member of their family and given a level of importance he’d never been given before and couldn’t have been when the story they were telling was of the dangers of their codependency. Mary was back. Eventually, Jack would become a part of their unit too. Just the two of them wasn’t enough for them anymore. This is made abundantly clear with all of Dean’s desperate attempts to get Cas to stay in s12, followed by his inability to keep going when they lose Cas and Mary in s13. Similarly, Sam really struggles when they lose Jack and fail to get Mary back later in the season.

Another big moment is Dean letting Sam go alone to lead the hunters against the BMOL in 12x22 while he stays back to try and reach Mary. Like he tells Mary, he’s had to be a brother, a father and a mother to Sam and he never stopped seeing him as his kid, but in that moment he makes a choice. He lets Sam take charge and he shows that he trusts him and believes in him. He knows he can handle it.

Sometimes it’s not even a character growth thing. Sometimes having other people there stops you from making destructive choices even though that’s still your first instinct. I’m thinking specifically of 13x21 after Sam was killed. Dean would have run headlong into that nest of vampires and got himself torn apart, but Cas was there to stop him. He was able to make him see reason.

Basically, I think that for a long time, they thought the only relationship they could have was each other, which then became a self-fulfilling prophecy because their desperate attempts to keep each other around led to them losing the people around them. They eventually started to learn that that wasn’t true, they could have more, they were allowed to want more, and that it wasn’t an either-or situation. Dean didn’t have to choose between Sam and Cas. They didn’t have to choose between each other or Jack. The same goes for Mary. Different relationships can coexist without threatening each other, and not say that their relationship in s12-15 was all smooth sailing, but it was certainly so very different from everything that came before.

(There’s maybe a point to be made about how they didn’t have anyone or anything in the finale and how that relates to the story we got, but honestly I have no idea what the intention was with any of the choices made in that episode so I’ll leave it at that for now.)

[hauntedbythefanficsofmypast]

Goodbye Paris

Marinette is 17 and the other 18 in this Au.

Marinette's parents fall under Lila's spell as well. She starts filling them with lies about Marinette and soon they start believing her. 

Lila accuses Marinette of sneaking out and hanging out with the wrong people. Sabine and Tom start believing her, especially when they notice she wasn't there one night. She was out patrolling as Ladybug.

Soon Marinette is on lock down barely able to leave her house. She struggles to even get out as Ladybug.

Her parents become more and more distant, soon not even talking to Marinette. No goodbyes, hellos, I missed you, or I love you, just silence. Marinette tries to combat the lies but her parents won't listen. She slowly gives up focusing on Hawkmoth, school, and designing. 

Halfway through the year she opts to graduate early forfeiting walking at graduation. She doesn't even mention it to her parents, just focuses on getting money together for her own place while applying to colleges overseas. After she stops attending Chloe reaches out to her apologizing for everything she had done and asking for a second chance. Chloe moved to America with her mother, their junior year unable to handle akuma anymore. Marinette tells her their relationship will be rockey and first but she agrees to a new start.

It's right before the end of the school year when Ladybug and Chat Noir defeat Hawkmoth and get the two missing Miraculouses back. Chat gets mad when Ladybug refuses to reveal her identity and attempts to make her. She stops him and takes his Miraculous back as well revealing Adrien. 

"This is goodbye Chaton. If you had taken this more seriously. Perhaps you could know it, but you never did."

She leaves him there returning home and safely putting the peacock and butterfly miraculouses away. After his defeat she stops patrolling as Ladybug and instead plans her move, not wishing to be with her parents any longer.

Once she stops patrolling petty crime begins to pick up again. The city starts crying out for Ladybug to return but Marinette wont. She can't be there for everything, it's time the police start doing their job again. After a month the city is outraged that Ladybug is nowhere to be seen. They take to Adrien who admits to being Chat Noir, he apologizes to Paris saying that Ladybug took his Miraculous. He tells them that he wants to help but she won't help him any longer. After his display Paris begins a smear campaign against Ladybug. Tired of this Marinette transforms and heads to the Eiffel Tower broadcasting to all of Paris her goodbye.

Marinette- I have heard the out cry at my disappearance, and I find it deplorable. I have been fighting since I was thirteen. Did any of you think of that? You have had a child fighting your battles for you with another child that never took it seriously! Now, now you smear my character, saying I am a villain after I have taken down Hawkmoth. All because I stopped patrolling and taking down petty criminals. Instead of looking at me you should be looking at your police force. I am done, I thought of coming back after college but after all this, no. This is goodbye Paris, for good.

After her speech Chloe video calls her asking her if she is okay. Marinette plays everything off saying she is fine until Chloe tells her that she knows she is Ladybug. Marinette hesitates trying to think of a cover but just sighs asking how Chloe knew. Chloe smiles and tells her that she grew up with the girl only and the imbecile would not be able to tell that their 'Everyday Ladybug' was their actual Ladybug. Soon after the girls get a request for Luka to join. Once he is on the call he offers his own word of comfort causing Marinette to groan and Chloe to laugh. Luka simply tells her that her song is the same beautiful piece in and outside of the mask. Marinette grumbles teasingly about Metas being annoying, causing Luka to chuckle smiling at her. She tells them that she is leaving Paris for good now that Hawkmoth is gone. Chloe encourages her to move to America and go to Juliard while Luka simply hums strumming his guitar. When he opens his eyes he tells her to follow the path that calls to her, causing Chloe to groan. Snapping at him Half heartedly he simply smiles at the two girls before saying he needs to get to bed, the girls smile saying goodnight and wishing him good luck with his show the next day before they hang up.

She is really thankful that she changed her designer name shortly after Lila came to her school. Now known as MDC she has a thriving online website and even has a few designers that follow her designs down to every single stitch. While she also helps them get their own lines started. She even begins to employ models, Chloe begging her most popular. Her clientele extended even more and she had a lot of famous musicians commissioning her. She was even commissioned by Megan Markle before she and Prince Harry got married, and was even invited to the wedding she attended with Kaalki's help.

Marinette applies to a few different colleges all in America knowing that staying in Paris was no longer an option. She is accepted at Juilliard, Harvard, and Gotham University, she wants to go to Juliard but something calls her to Gotham. She can't stop going back to Gotham's acceptance letter and ends up researching Githam and talking it over with Chloe and Luka. She doesn't make a decision until Luka tells her once again to follow the call. So she confirms attendance, not telling her parents as she leases an apartment in a safer part of Gotham. She gets in contact with one of her employed designers, Taylor in America and requests her help. 

Taylor is the in-between for Marinette and interior designers in Gotham. Helping both sides design the and decorate the penthouse so its move in ready.

Soon after the penthouse is finished Marinette packs everything in her room slowly shipping out boxes to Taylor. A couple nights later when Marinette has everything except necessities shipped her parents request she moves out saying they don't even know her anymore.

"Don't worry I already have an apartment and everything set up near my college. I leave in three days. And you don't know me huh? Well I guess that's because you two haven't really been parents in a while. Now if you'll excuse me."

Tom and Sabine are shocked especially since Lila told them Marinette had decided not to go to college at all. They confront Marinette telling her not to lie about it. She simply sighs sadly and pulls out all three acceptance letters, telling them she isn't telling them which one she decided to go with because they'll no longer be a part of her life.

The day she is set to leave Jagged and Penny are outside in a limo waiting for her. Marinette walks out of the bakery smiling brightly as Jagged gets out hugging her tightly. She thanks him for coming to America with her till she gets settled in. The driver takes her suitcase, putting it in the trunk before opening the door once again letting Jagged and Marinette in. Before getting in and driving to the airport to take Jagged's private jet to America.

They meet Chloe and Audrey at the Gotham airport, both women wanting to welcome Marinette to America. They follow the three to Marinette's penthouse. Chloe is in love with the place and practically begs Marinette to let her live with her. Marinette smiles laughing and tells her she was going to offer her a room after a month or two. Audrey agrees, telling Chloe to just make sure and call her, so she knows they're both safe.

Marinette's penthouse is big! It has two guest rooms, specially for Jagged, Penny, and her designers, when they come to visit. However now one has become Chloe's room. A kitchen her great uncle would be jealous of. A personal gym. A living room with a ping pong table and flat screen tv. 3 bathrooms. Marinette's own designing room, and the Master suite. The Master suite had a loft bed with stairs leading up to it, not a ladder. A large area set up for gaming consoles and a flat screen tv. Underneath the loft was Marinette's desk and desktop. One wall was a complete window showing Gotham from above, and against the other wall was a large luxury dollhouse decked out with hand made furniture. Something Marinette had requested was special for the Kwami to not have to remain in the box twenty four seven.

Marinette has the entire summer to herself and she doesn't have to deal with her birth parents ignoring her. She and Chloe can't wait to explore Gotham, and although Mari wishes she could patrol like she used to. She knows that this is Batman's city, and she doesn't want to get on his bad side. Instead she'll explore on the ground, and fly in her gym, which she had specially fitted with the ceiling covered in bars and ropes.

She even agrees to teach Chloe how to use the rope nest, with a net underneath them of course.

That next day Marinette, Chloe Jagged, and Penny ended up in the Gotham Gazette. Everyone wanted to know why Jagged was in Gotham and who Marinette was. Penny ended up scheduling a video meeting between Jagged and Gotham's main news station. 

Jagged- I am not moving here, nor am I here for a show. You see my honorary niece. I have to say honorary because we arent actually related which is stupid! Anyway! She is my personal designer MDC, I only wear her clothing. She just graduated high school and got accepted at Gotham University. So she moved here, and Penny, Fang, and I wanted to spend the beginning of the summer with her! Mari! Come say hello!

Marinette- Uncle I swear if you want dinner you need to stop distracting me. Hello Madame, Monsieur, I'm Marinette more popularly known as MDC. Pleasure to meet you. I'm actually in college for my business degree!

Chloe- Don't forget me! Honestly you two can be ridiculous together utterly-

Jagged and Mari smiling mischievously at her- Ridiculous!

Chloe huffs before turning to the newscaster- Chloe Bourgeois, I am Marinette's main model and top female model. I moved here with Marinette as well, though I won't be going to college, you will see me around the city doing photoshoots.

Penny takes over after Marinette and Chlke give quick interviews. Once the food is done both say goodbye and get excited to eat. However before Jagged hangs up everyone watches Marinette picks up Fang like he is nothing and cuddles him to her chest. Jagged burst into laughter and the interviewer's shocked face.

For the next couple weeks Marinette eagerly explores the city with Chloe, meeting people and unknowingly creating a name for herself. Orphans know that they can come to her for food or clothes and never have to worry about her turning them in.

A few weeks into living there they get an invitation to Bruce Wayne's upcoming charity ball. Marinette quickly gets to work making their outfits in time for the ball. While making sure the Kwami can handle Fang and that Fang knows not to eat them.

The three make waves when they arrive. Penny and Jagged wear matching outfits however they are drawn back and more muted than usual, still capturing their rock n roll vibes. Jaggeds favorite part is the music notes hand stitched on the arms of his jacket and the train of Penny's dress. Meanwhile Marinette's outfit is made to resemble the night sky and when she moves in the light her dress twinkles in the light. Chloe's is made to resemble the sun. It's a layer with yellow and orange tulle.

Jagged and Penny talk to the people conversing while Marinette talks to a few people before being able to edge herself away. While Chloe immerses herself with the other model at the gala. Marinette makes a sizable donation, the money a combination of her own and her designers making sure their names are also on the donation before making her way to the food table and snagging a few cookies eating them slowly while observing the people around her. 

Damian stumbles upon her when he finally finds an excuse to slip away. He doesn't speak to her at first just standing there sipping his champagne. They are both silent before Marinette snorts, placing her arm on his shoulder gently and leaning closer to whisper.

Marinette-look to our right the man in the terbile green suit is about to get slapped by his wife

Damian glances over and watches as Mr. Tennor gets slapped hard by his wife causing everyone to go silent as she berates him for thinking he could get away with bringing his Mistress to a charity event. Only for his Mistress to turn on him slapping him as well. Saying that he told her they were finishing their divorce. The Mistress huffs, turning to Mrs. Tennor and apologizes before storming out.

Damian turns away from the facing Marinette as he struggles not to laugh while the room is still silent. Once the talking picks back up Damian introduces himself and Marinette does the same. A little amused by the stars in Damian's eyes when he confirms she's MDC. He admits that her album covers are his favorites of Jagged's and that he has even attempted commissioning her but was unable to get in. Marinette apologizes telling him that recently she's been keeping the same clientele since she was planning on moving. She then pulls out her phone unlocking it and giving it to him. 

Marinette-Put your number in and I'll contact you tomorrow about what you want to commission.

The two spend the rest of the night talking and pointing out things about those around them. Marinette's hand remains on his shoulder and soon she is leaning against him, her head resting on his shoulder and his arm around her waist as they whisper back and forth. Pointing out different things to each other and hiding the laughter as best they can.

At one point Damian notices his father starting to walk over and quickly asks her to dance. Marinette is surprised at first but she notices Mr. Wayne makes his way towards them and smirks before nodding. Damian takes her hand leading her to the dance floor. Marinette smiles at him and starts teasing him asking if he didn't want his father to see her with him. Damian quickly tells her that's not it before realizing that she was joking. He rolls his eyes huffing at her saying that his father would make a scene. This causes Marinette to snort before agreeing to help each other hide from him for the night, and they do so successfully. The only one to catch the two is Chloe who gives Damian a quick one over before deeming him good enough for her Marinette. At the end of the night Jagged and Penny find Marinette and return to her penthouse. Marinette says goodbye to Damian kissing his cheek softly before leaving with them.

When Bruce finally catches up to his youngest he huffs wrapping an arm around his shoulder declaring that they were going to have a long talk on the ride home.

The rest of the night his entire family won't stop teasing him about actually dancing with a girl and not getting her number. They keep bringing it up until he smirks holding up his phone.

Damian- That's because she got mine instead. 

He leaves the room leaving his brother in slight shock while Alfred holds up a camera and asks if they want to see pictures of the two together.

A week later Marinette meets Robin for the first time when Marinette is cornered in an alley. When Robin drops down startling them Marinette jumps into action stomping on one guy's foot getting him to release her before flipping him over her shoulder. Then she attacks at the two closest to her she flips over one's shoulder dropping behind him and kicking his legs out from under him. Punching him hard in the face. After knocking him out she jumps back as the other guy attempts to hit her. She dodges and blocks his punch before flipping back and crouching launching herself forward and punching him in the gut hard. She steps back breathing hard as she watches Robin take out the last guys. Robin turns to her and looks her over making sure she isn't hurt. Marinette thanks him softly leaning against the wall trying to catch her breath. Once she is calmed down Robin escorts her home.

The next day Damian messages her asking her on a date. Marinette teasingly asks if he's just doing this to convince her to give him a discount and he just groans. Marinette laughs telling him to pick her up at 6.

Marinette and Damian spend the summer getting to know each other and going on dates. Meeting Damian's family was an adventure for her, she loved getting to know the boys, Stephanie, Barbara, and Cass. (Dick and Barbara are definitely married in this one.) She also found it extremely easy to figure out her Damian was Robin, who she always caught stopping by on the roof across from her building.

Chloe bonds phenomenally with Stephanie; the two girls are practically glued at the hip. They spend almost all their time together, and while they don't voice it, the majority of the family had a feeling they were dating.

Soon after Chloe discovers their secret as well. They both decided not to tell them they knew because both girls knew how important secret identities were. The only people that knew Marinette was a hero was Cass and Alfred, and that was because Cass had noticed Tikki and Alfred was Duusuu's holder a long time ago.

The three bond phenomenally well, so much so that Damian is worried Cass may steal his Marinette. 

Soon the end of summer is on them and Damian finally asks Marinette to be his girlfriend and she agrees. They are now Gotham's power couple. Pictures and videos of them are everywhere on the news and Twitter.

There are even Tiktoks of them while they're out in public. Marinette's favorite is them dancing in the rain one day both laughing and smiling brightly as some kids join them.

Marinette is named Gotham's new Princess and is praised by Damian's old classmates for breaking through and making the 'Ice Prince' smile and laugh.

Soon after Chloe and Stephanie announce that they are dating as well. Both couples are all over the news and papers.

Halfway through their first year of college Lex Luthor is named President of the United States. This causes the heros to panic however they make no moves instead they begin building a case against him. This comes to a halt when the entire Batfamily is cut off from them. An earthquake wreaks Gotham killing millions and destroying the city and the bridges giving them access to the rest of the states. President Luthor locks down Gotham essentially giving up on the city and allowing no outside contact or help.

It's during this period of time that Marinette and Chloe reveal they know their identities by crashing a meeting in the Batcave.

Marinette- Yes, yes, we know and will explain later, but right now I have a plan on how to get Gotham back on its feet.

Marinette's plan relies heavily on her and Bruce's businesses. The Wayne family and Marinette are going to rebuild Gotham from the bottom up. She tells Bruce that publicly Batman is going to hand over the only way of communication outside of Gotham over to Bruce Wayne during a press conference. Then Bruce will announce their plans of using this resource to continue to bring money into the city through him and Marinette. The family is going to be hiring clean up crews, medical workers, and construction workers to rebuild their city. Marinette and Bruce focus mainly on bringing in money. Jason's focus is on helping orphans, street kids, and newly made orphans. Setting up better Orphanages with better staff and making sure no kid is a meal ticket. Dick's focus is on getting the police force back up with Gordon's help and weeding out as many corrupt cops. Tim focuses on hiring construction workers and clean up crews getting Gotham cleaned up and starting reconstruction. Cass is the one helping find more medical personnel and working with getting hospitals up and going. Damian personally spoke with Gothams bigger villains in Arkham explaining what happened and what Luthor is trying to do. Thanks to him Arkham is pretty much guaranteed no breakouts. In fact many were surprised to see henchmen from different villains joining in on the clean up. Kate also helps out working hard to get electricity back up and running with electricians  while making sure no down wires are active. Stephanie and Chloe are praised for getting out and helping the clean up crews as well as the police with finding bodys of missing citizens.

It takes over a year but the Wayne family, Marinette, and Chloe get Gotham back on its feet better than ever. And they use Luthor's abandonment of Gotham to get him impeached. After they've finally reopened Gotham to the rest of the states, Bruce throws a city wide party. He even sends special catering to Arkham asylum as thanks to the villains for not just remaining there but sending their henchmen out to help. 

Bruce gives a big thanks to everyone for all their help with rebuilding their beautiful city.

It's shortly after his speech Damian and Marinette are enjoying the small fair that Bruce paid for. They are walking through the game area sharing cotton candy when Damian gets lost in the moment and asks her to marry him. Marinette laughs pulling him into a deep kiss causing citizens around them to start cheering. She waits until they've quieted down before pulling back.

Marinette-Yes Damian, I'll marry you!

This causes citizens to burst into cheers again. All of them giving their cities power couple their congratulations. While Damian is embarrassed saying that he doesn't have a ring for her. Marinette just smiles and kisses him softly telling him not having a ring isn't a big deal because she would have said yes either way.

A few minutes later a soft spoken Hispanic woman exits her jewelry booth giving them two small rings.

The woman-This is for until he finally gets you one Miss. Free of charge, consider it a thanks for helping my city and a congratulations present. 

She squeezes both their hands smiling softly at the two and congratulates them before leaving them.

After the city party, they finally address Marinette and Chloe knowing their identities. It happens at Marinette's rebuilt penthouse. Marinette smiles telling them that it was the Kwami that really pointed it out to her. While Chloe tells them she caught Stephanie in her outfit one night and just pretended she had been asleep the entire time. Everyone but Alfred is confused about the Kwami until Marinette asks them to come out. The Kwami fly in spreading around the room, Duusuu sits calmly on Alfred's shoulder, Pollen resting herself in Chloe's hair, while Tikki and Plagg float by Marinette's shoulders.

Marinette-Let me introduce you to Kwami. Gods and Goddesses that grant their chosens their powers. Tikki and Plagg are the two most powerful Destruction and Bad Luck, Creation and Good Luck. I'm Tikki's chosen, I am-

Tim-Ladybug...you're Paris's missing heros.

Marinette sighs softly nodding thinking about her last day as Ladybug

Chloe- I was Honeywell for a short while until I moved to america. Pollen and I were a great team.

Pollen petting her hair gently-We were the best my Queen.

Marinette-Paris started relying on me for everything. The police stopped doing their jobs and when I finally defeated the villain that was plaguing them, it wasn't enough. I loved being a hero but they expected me to do everything. You all know that it isn't possible to do everything.

Bruce asks why she never went out as Ladybug. Marinette smiles and tells him that while she misses it she knew that this was Batman's city and that metas weren't allowed.

Marinette-I know technically I'm not one, but Tikki gives me powers.

After that Marinette begins to train with Bruce so that she can hit the streets with them, without the Miraculous. Chloe while learning how to fight with Stephanie declines becoming a vigilante with them. Marinette loves every second of it, she loves actually having a mentor to teach her. And it felt nice to have a father figure in her life once again. Six months later she is joining the family for her first night of patrol as BlackBird.

Blackbird spends most of her time with Batwomem, on patrol and missions. Her first big villain was Riddler, however before he could even utter a riddle Blackbird tore into him for his terrible outfit. To the point that Riddler practically threw himself at Batman in tears crying and telling him his new protégé was mean.

Blackbird is a rising hero in Gotham and the hero community. Soon she begins attending Justice League meetings with the others considering joining. It is there she meets Wonder Women, and asks how her mother is doing. Diana realizes quickly that she is speaking with a Guardian and finds out later that Blackbird is the current Ladybug as well.

The family also begins planning Damian and Marinette's public wedding and their private wedding. Stephanie is the one that asks her if she wants to have the private wedding in Paris, everyone only a little surprised she straight out refuses.

Marinette-I said goodbye all that time ago, and I don't think I wish to return.

That night she asks Bruce to walk her down the aisle along with her grandfather. When asked about her own parents Marinette smiles sadly telling them that they no longer consider her their daughter, so they were not invited. Bruce smiles softly brushing Marinette's hair down gently with his hand before agreeing to walk her. She asks Chloe to be her Maid of Honor and Kate, Cass, and Stephanie to be her Bridesmaid

Three weeks later they are sending out invites to people for their private wedding in 6 months and the public one in a year.

Marinette asks Jagged and Luka to be the entertainment for both nights and they agree. Sabine and Tom are not invited; they find out when Gina shows up excited asking why they never told her Marinette had met someone in America. They are even more surprised to find out Rolland is closing up shop and going to the wedding as well. Gina is upset to find out they kicked Marinette out and tears into them. At this point Lila comes into the bakery and tries to sway Gina onto her side. Gina just scoffs and shakes her head, telling her she'd never believe another girl over her granddaughter.

Gina storms out of the bakery refusing to talk to her son or daughter-in-law. After she leaves they google their daughter trying to find out who she is engaged to, they find out everything about Marinette helping rebuild Gotham out of her own pocket with the help of Bruce Wayne, and her engagement to Damian Wayne.

They try every attempt to contact her even going through old friends only to find she changed her number. They don't hear anything more of her until a year later when their wedding is broadcast from Gotham. Tom cries when Marinette is escorted down the aisle by her Grandfather and Bruce Wayne. She stops hugging them both tightly before taking Damian's hands, their eyes unable to leave each other, as they say their vows.

Marinette- Before I even had colleges lined up one of my best friends told me to follow the call. A few weeks later three colleges accepted me, but only one kept calling me back, Gotham University. I couldn't stop researching the city, I couldn't get it out of my head. It was like something was waiting for me here, so I decided to accept Gotham University. I moved here with one of my friends expecting an adventure. I didn't think my adventure would lead me to the love of my life, but it did. I love you Damian, with all my heart. My next adventure is standing by your side till the end of time.

Damian- Marinette Wayne, no I did not mess up. Marinette, you have been a part of my family since the moment you placed your hand on my shoulder and pointed out Mr. Tennor was about to be slapped. Our entire first night together felt magical as cheesy as it sounds. Every day after was amazing, I couldn't believe I met someone as amazing as you. When the earthquake happened and you stepped up helping my family rebuild the city, I knew I wanted you by my side for the rest of my life. So much so that I proposed to you spur of the moment in the middle of the fair, I will forever be grateful that you agreed to marry me. My heart, body, and soul belong to you and solely you Marinette till the end of time.

 When the priest pronounces them husband and wife and announces the kiss Marinette grabs his face gently pulling him down into a deep kiss.

The reception is also broadcast to the public with many famous people offering their congratulations to the happy couple to the camera before heading into the party. Marinette and Damian are the last to arrive and while they don't talk to the camera they stop posing together for the camera. Both unwilling to even leave the other side. Throughout the reception all the speeches are broadcasted. The final speech is from the newly married couple. Both of them thanking everyone that came to the wedding. Telling them that they wouldn't be where they were without their friends and family in the room. They share a sweet kiss in front of the crowd at the end of their speech.

Chloe moves into an apartment with Stephanie, while Damian moves into Marinette's penthouse. They are hardly seen separate from each other, pictures of them together are all over the internet and news.

Damian also leaves the title of Robin behind becoming Redbird becoming partners with Blackbird. The two partners are soon dubbed the new Dynamic Duo of Gotham.

They both graduate college together, Damian going into Wayne Enterprises taking over as Ceo with Tim when Bruce steps down. While Marinette built her own fashion empire soon rivaling Audrey's. Her fashion is known around the world, but out of all the cities the most of her sales come from Gotham. Gothamites still not forgetting the young adult that spent billions to help them rebuild.

Soon Marinette and Damian discover that Marinette is pregnant. The two are ecstatic to be parents, Marinette begs Bruce to hold a big family dinner with everyone, and he agrees. Halfway through dinner Bruce finally asks why Marinette called all of them together. Marinette smiles softly before announcing that she is pregnant.

The family burst into cheers, everyone extremely excited and talking with each other about what the baby's name would be.

A few months later they find out its twins. One boy and one girl. They agree on the names Thomas John Wayne and Mary Martha Wayne. This causes both Bruce and Dick to tear up when told.

When the twins are born they are all Gothamites can talk about. The new Wayne twins, everyone can't wait to watch them grow up.

In Paris their grandparents hold on to pictures they find online, knowing they'll never get to know them. That they'll never get to see their daughter again either.

[scipiosmith]

You’ve got all the important ones, I think, except possibly one.

While the physical stakes of Pyrrha’s arc in Volume 3 are established in Fall - either Pyrrha risks having her soul obliterated through the merge with Amber, or she allows unimaginable power to fall into the hands of evil - it isn’t until the next episode, Destiny, that the emotional stakes of the arc, both the reason for Pyrrha’s swift acceptance of the proposition and the reason why she hesitates after, are revealed.

Pyrrha, as she explains to us - and somewhat more obliquely to Jaune - is torn between her sense of destiny (although given the way in which she talks about it one might equally call it a sense of duty), her desire to achieve something momentous with her prodigious talents, and her love for Jaune. That love, the something that happened to her that she never expected, stands in her way as she doesn’t know if she has the strength to give it up for the sake of achieving a higher purpose.

This is pretty clear cut, and as much as Luna hates Jaune too much at this point to agree with me, I continue to find it pretty compelling. The stakes are clear, the choice is clear, what will Pyrrha choose?

Neither, as it turns out, she decides to just kill herself.

Some people will try and say that this is the fitting conclusion of Pyrrha’s arc, that she is embracing her destiny. Those people are wrong.

Pyrrha dies having gotten nothing of what she wanted. She doesn’t achieve anything by her last stand - Beacon still falls, Cinder still gets the Maiden powers, even the tower, which ‘must not fall’ according to Ozpin, is destroyed regardless of anything that Pyrrha does - still less anything that could be described as ‘protecting’ (in Pyrrha’s words) or ‘saving’ (in Jaune’s) the world*. And she most emphatically doesn’t get Jaune either, who gets over her death and now looks set - if the show ever continues - to be paired with Weiss (pardon me, I think I just threw up in my mouth).

Far from being the conclusion of her arc, Pyrrha’s death is a shaggy dog story, in which someone who had a momentous choice to make first didn’t get the chance to follow through on her choice because a hot psychopath got in the way before she could, and then decided that she wouldn’t bother making a choice at all because it was easier to let the aforementioned psychopath murder her for no reason.

*And no, nobody tell me that Pyrrha ‘saved the world by dying’ or any of that crap that I’ve seen people put out there. Pyrrha didn’t save anything. Even if you accept the idea that Pyrrha’s death was necessary to motivate the other characters - which it wasn’t - well... does the world look saved to you?

Actually, if you’re a fan, it probably does, but come on! Atlas destroyed and its population refugees, Beacon gone, Mistral defenceless, if that’s what saving the world looks like then Pyrrha sold her life exceedingly cheaply, that’s all I can say.

Actually there is one more point, which actually concerns Penny’s death as much as Pyrrha’s, and that concerns the tone of the story. It’s often said that the deaths of Penny and Pyrrha herald a tone shift at the end of volume 3, and that Pyrrha’s death was necessary to set the stakes for the darker story that would come after. Only... what darkness? I once got into an argument with someone who claimed that Cinder had to kill someone to establish that ‘Cinder isn’t Skeletor’ or something like that. Only - as much as I love Cinder - she kind of is. From the end of Volume 3 onwards she fucks up just about everything that she tries, she reels from one disastrous humiliation to another, and if she were to burst into the Amity Colosseum in Volume 8 shouting “Team Cinder’s burning at the speed of light! Surrender now or prepare to fight!” (Wobuffet!) It wouldn’t really be much of a step down for her.

Since volume 3, the only other main character to die has been Penny, again, in a move rendered as comical as it was tragic by the fact that, well, Penny was dying for the second time. Apart from that, everyone is safe and we know that everyone is safe, give or take a possible massacre of the irrelevant minor characters with whom RWBY pads its cast. Does anyone actually believe that Yang will die, or Weiss? Does anyone really fear for their beloved Team RWBY because Pyrrha is gone?

Pyrrha’s death does nothing but enable RWBY to pose as a dark show, to pose as though its villains aren’t about as threatening as Queen Chrysalis (and not as much fun), to pose as though the stakes are high and the situation is serious. But a pose is all it is, and it’s a pose that the show would have been better off without.

Please give me 5 or 10 reasons why you think it would've narratively made sense for Pyrrha to stay alive in the story

I get the feeling you're a troll by the way you phrased this, but it's worth giving the answer anyway.

She was in the middle of her first real character arc of establishing an identity for herself

She was the only member of the main cast that had any personal connection to the overarching story

She was a celebrity who had been tricked into killing someone on live TV, and the reactions people would have had to seeing her would've been a great way to show (in part) the ripple effects the fall of Beacon had caused throughout the world, especially in her home country of Mistral

She would have been coming off her very first loss, and that would've been the one time she felt like she couldn't afford to lose. Exploring her mental and emotional reaction to that — and to having killed Penny — would've been a wonderful way to depict the toll that making others' expectations of you your whole identity takes on a person

She would've been by far the best character to react to the secrets Ozpin had been keeping, as well as those Qrow revealed in v4, since she'd been asked to throw her life away for those secrets without having been given the pertinent information

She was by far the best character to have a personal enemy in Cinder, after Cinder had caused her to kill an innocent girl, made her the scapegoat for the Grimm attack on Beacon, taken the Maiden powers right out from under her, and handed her her first ever defeat. They were tailor made to be nemeses

She reversed her tack regarding Jaune, who she'd been constantly building up and telling him he wasn't worthless, only to send him away when things were actually dicey for her. The fallout of that would've been juicy drama within the team

She had just killed Penny, who had been established as Ruby's friend. Having Pyrrha — also a friend, and one she knows isn't the responsible party — in the group, reminding her of that and fuelling resentment she hates that she feels, would've been another great source of drama

Killing Pyrrha immediately after killing Penny cut off the emotional and narrative effects of Penny's death, because Pyrrha was part of the main cast. Having kept her alive would've given room for Penny's death to be truly felt and the fallout from it to have full effect

Killing her for Jaune's angst contributes to the media landscape's huge problem of fridging female characters, while simultaneously sending the message that hard work and dedication — what we see with Pyrrha — don't matter and will be punished, while laziness and cheating (Jaune) or nepotism (Ruby) are the way to succeed. Which may be true in the capitalist hell world we live in, but is nevertheless an awful message

@scipiosmith did I miss any big ones?

[sheldoney]

Independent semi-selective Sheldon Cooper RP Blog. Mature themes present. SFW. Written by Penny. If I am not writing for my String Theory loving physicist then you can find me on my Clown Queen @homicidalqueeen

THE ROOMMATE AGREEMENT ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

1. I don't have many rules just one big one. Do not lie to me about your age. If you are underage. I'll block you. Final word. Wanna know mine? Just ask. I am 21+ I only write with those over 21+. Discord is mobile and only available for close friends and mutuals only. If I do hand out my discord I am always invisible or away. Don't take offense. Leave me a message and I will get to you as soon as I see it! I rely heavily on Tumblr IMs for other communication purposes. 2. I AM NOT A THEORETICAL PHYSICIST. I BS MY WAY AND JUST GO BY THE CANON OF THE BIG BANG THEORY. (kinda sorta not really though I am trying to redeem Sheldon as he was treated terribly and portrayed horribly on the show. He said some things I do not condone or agree with according to TBBT LORE. This is not Jim Parsons' fault.) BTW GOOGLE IS MY BEST FRIEND. BTW This is a Jim Parsons appreciation blog also. 3. I DO SHIP SHENNY/ I DO NOT SHIP "CANON" SHAMY BECAUSE MAYIM IS CANCELLED AND I HAVE RESPECT FOR MY FOLLOWERS. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SHENNY AS MOST DO IN THE BIG BANG FANDOM DO NOT FOLLOW THIS BLOG. I WILL ALLOW SUBSTITION FACECLAIMS FOR AMY FARRAH FOWLER BUT I DO NOT SUPPORT OR CONDONE MAYIM'S BEHAVIOR. I ALSO HAVE CRACKSHIPS ON THIS BLOG. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM DO NOT FOLLOW THIS BLOG.I also ship Sheldon and Chemistry amongst Muses. Sheldon Cooper is "canonically" asexual and not interested in coitus. But I do write him differently because this is tumblr dot com and will give OC's or other canon characters a try.I will not be writing smut on here or any s.exual content. I have a separate blog for "spicy" interactions. I will only be giving out the blog to Sheldon's ships. It is NS.FW. Sheldon is not a cheater or your one night stand. Do not assume so. If you would like to pursue a relationship with Sheldon please talk to me about it beforehand. 4. DO NOT TOUCH SHELDON COOPER AT ALL UNLESS YOU KNOW HIM FIRST AND HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR A WHILE ( PENNY CAN TOUCH HIM ) /ANYONE INVOLVED IN A RELATIONSHIP OR PREESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS CAN TOUCH HIM. 5. DO NOT BULLY SHELDON. ROAST HIM. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. HE HAS BEEN BULLIED ALL OF HIS LIFE AND I WILL SHUT THAT DOWN SO FAST YOU WON'T EVEN BLINK. I WON'T TOLERATE IT AND NEITHER WILL HE. 6. I USE XKIT REWRITTEN. I trim my posts, you don't have but I will trim yours. It is just a simple click for me. 7. I am very picky about who I write with. If I like your writing I will follow you. I don't expect a follow back but do know I am interested in plotting something with you in the future. If you don't follow back, my feelings will not be hurt. 8. I have no problem writing in other fandoms. Especially horror/thriller/supernatural 9. I am not always available. Please be patient with me for replies. I do have a life outside of Tumblr. I keep weird hours. If it says I am online, chances are I am not. I am probably by the computer but doing something else. 10. I promise I am friendly, I have just been on this website for a while and dealt with a lot of bullshit, witnessed a lot of bullshit, and roped into a lot of bullshit. I really do not have the time to get involved into Tumblr RP politics. Do not try to involve me in gossip or any of that malarkey, please and thanks. 11. I AM LGBTQ+ MOST OF MY FRIENDS ARE LGBTQ+ MY FACECLAIM IS LGBTQ Homophobia, Transphobia, ETC ETC ETC will not be tolerated and you will be blocked if I see it. 12. ICONS & GRAPHICS. My icons are made by @butscrewmefirst and my graphics are made by @villiansrph. Some icons I have gathered from insanejournal and fanpop and altered them slightly. Please do not take them. Thank you. 13. EXCLUSIVE & MAINS. As of right now I have certain exclusive canon characters that I will only write with on this blog. I will not write with any other portrayals of Harley Quinn using Taylor Momsen as their faceclaim or Heath Ledger's Joker. If you would like to be a main or an exclusive in Sheldon's universe please come and speak to me about it.