#also my fg make me feel so shit for hanging out with other people but like im fucking allowed to talk to people yall dont own me

[antisocialgaycat]

feel free to ignore im kind of just screaming into the void here

so i love my friends right like theyre great people however there are some things that they do that kind of make me dislike them and i feel so bad abt it cos i love them but some of the shit they do makes me so uncomfy and i dont want to say anything cos what if they hate me for it and want to stop being friends with me and even though i know that they wont it still scares me lol but some of the shit they do makes me so uncomfy like some of them are hella transphobic and dont even realise it hell some of them say homophobic shit like in a joking way but it still kinda scares me also one of them uses autistic as an insult and that absolutely does not sit right with me and like this one isnt even that bad but they constantly refer to me as the gay one and they dont even seem to think of me as more than that sometimes also i have asked them a hundred times to call me lesbian instead of gay but nope im the gay one in the friend group and nothing will change that and that kind of doesnt vibe with me too good also theres this person who they keep referring to as my girlfriend or my wife and that absolutely is not okay with me and if asked them to stop so many times but they either cant or wont cos they keep calling her that and the thing is that the person they keep calling my wife is a really good friend of mine and we also have a lot of friends in common and i hang out w her and her friends a lot and whenever my friends see me with her they always take photos and shit which makes me so uncomfy i hate having photos taken of me and theyre also really unsubtle about calling her my girlfriend and shit when shes around and when her friends around and im so scared that either her or one of her friends will figure out that i like her and she'll be like ew thats mank and ill lose yet another friend and even tho i know thats so so unlikely cos shes a great person but it would at the very least make things awkward between us and i dont want that cos shes a good friend (better than my fg) so if my friends mess up that friendship i swear im gonna have no friends at all cos ill likely get pissed as fuck at them and my other friends will think im mentally fucked up and then i may as well just leave the entire fucking school and go to my local one and even though i know im catastrophising to the end of the earth and back it still doesnt take away from the fact that some of my friends are making me feel so uncomfy that i dont want to hang out w them even tho i love them also theres these two really toxic people in my grade who sometimes hang out with us (one more than the other) and theyve told the one whos not nice per se but less bad than the other one and hangs out with us less to fuck off and the homophobic transphobic bitch who uses so many slurs its not ok at all they seem to have no problem with oh and theres this kid in the year below us who always dabs up the rest of my fg but whenever he sees me he just says ew no ur a lesbian and one time he said that i prolly jerk off to furry porn and first of all what the actual fuck second of all that made me feel so uncomfy and third of all my fg just laughed and they still bring it up so often and they surely can tell it makes me feel so so fucking scared and i dont even fucking know why oh and one of my closest friends has the most terrible taste in guys like i swear she lies the most toxic people and im the only one who can actually see that cos all the others think theyre hot and they dont realise just how bad its gonna end every time theres literally only 2 people in that group who actually dont ever make me feel like my skeleton js gonna fucking scuttle out of my skin and crab walk to the nearest trash can and jump in so tysm to sarah (i aint gonna tag u cos i dont want u to see this post lmao im still gonna post it tho) and arkie (she doesnt even have tumblr and will never see this post but i still want to put it in writing) anyways yuh thats my lil vent

[2seokfan]

Scarlet & Hazel | Ch. 3

pairings: hoseok x reader x yoongi

genre: fluff, very light angst, smut (future)

word count: 6k

chapters: ch.1, ch.2, ch.3. ch.4

summary: 

Just cause you’re living paycheck to paycheck in a tiny apartment even after graduating college doesn’t mean you’re not happy. So what if your best friend is working her dream job making close to six figures every year?  So what if she’s in a loving, committed relationship with her perfect boyfriend that you’re 99% sure is going to propose to her sometime next year? It doesn’t matter that your idea of a perfect relationship is a $9.99 bottle of wine on Friday nights while you binge watch Netflix specials.

Ok so maybe you’re a teensy bit miserable. Maybe you have no idea what you’re doing with your life. Maybe all you need to do is accidentally cross paths with two hybrids who will drastically change that.

Meet “Scarlet” and “Hazel”, two of the most gorgeous hybrid men you have ever laid eyes on. With their help, you learn that life is an adventure, a roller-coaster with ups and downs, and you were too preoccupied with yourself to climb out of your own predicament. And hey, you’re not much of a romantic, but with these two, you just might change your mind.

a/n: Hello, Jun here! Whew this took a while to write but thank you for your patience!! (poor Y/N still doesn’t know their real names but maybe she’ll find out soon?) Any feedback is appreciated <3 

tag list: @wilhelminalucinda​ @ghostkat23​ @ayoo-bangtan​ @sadgurllayha

2 months later.

August is relentless. You’re sweaty all the time and you have no choice but the crank up the a/c every single day. This heat wave is incredibly brutal because all you want to do is stay at home eating ice cream in your underwear but instead you’re stuck working overtime to pay for what you assume will be a record-high electricity bill. Fuck you global warming. 

It’s currently Tuesday. You’re on lunch break at work, chowing down on a falafel wrap and scrolling through your phone, when a text pops up from Karli.

Karli: Don’t forget!

You: ???

Karli: This friday?

You scratch your head. Wtf?

You: What’s on friday?

Karli: Umm the date? Remember?

No you didn’t. Your dumbass actually forgot about a whole date. You can’t believe yourself. Karli finally set you up with that accountant guy from her job. What’s his name again? Brad? Brandon?

You: oh yeah! my bad haha

Karli: You forgot his name didn’t you?

You: …maybe

Karli: Lol it’s Bryce sweetie

Karli: He’s really sweet! Just give it a shot

You: of course i will

You: i’ll turn up my maximum charm

Karli: Dats my girlllll

Karli: Ugh gtg it’s my boss

Karli: Bye!

You: bye babe

You set your phone down, trying to envision this upcoming Friday. Karli mentioned she gave Bryce your phone number, and he’ll text you sometime this week about your date, so at least you don’t have to make any moves first. She did show you his picture though, being the wingman that she is by stalking all his social media just for you. You’ve gotta admit he is cute, the profile picture showed him sporting a casual smile, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The classic boy-next-door look.

“And he’s most likely not a serial killer!” You remember her declaring a few weeks ago, after scrolling through all his tweets. And when you say all his tweets you mean EVERY Single tweet from when he created his account in high school till now. Your best friend does not fuck around. 

“Thanks I appreciate that. Glad he’ll ‘most likely’ not kill me.” You rolled your eyes and grinned at her.

While you munch away the rest of your lunch, you think about how you just aren’t acting like yourself lately. In any other circumstance, you would’ve found yourself more excited for the date. Hell, in any other circumstance you would’ve at LEAst remembered his name, or thought about what to wear by now, or even stalked his social media along with Karli. There’s just a teensy problem though. See, in the past few months you happen to have met two boys who completely changed your standards in men. And you may have maybe developed the tiniest crush on both of them, at the same time. Like how?? You didn’t think you were physically capable of doing that?

You sigh, staring at the rest of your falafel wrap, and force yourself to accept reality. As much as you adore them, you know that your little crush will be completely unreciprocated. This you found out through your group chat, now named ‘Hazel’s Nuts’ (courtesy of Scarlet). It’s not that you confessed to them or anything, they just happened to let slip to you one day that they’re a mated pair. And hybrids mate for life, so they take that shit very seriously. Although this news stung a little, it didn’t cause you to be envious in any way. At the end of the day, crush or not, you’re just glad you have two more people in your life you can confidently call your close friends.

For the past two months you’ve actively kept up with them. Sometimes you’ll send memes back and forth all night, sometimes you’ll group call each other after work. Every once in a while, when they’re not busy doing whatever it is they’re doing, they facetime you. These are your favorite moments because you get to see them in all their attractive glory. Just because they don’t like you that way doesn’t mean a girl can’t deny herself some eye candy. 

You guys never run out of things to talk about. Each day you check the group chat and it’ll be popping. Your topics range from the movie that just came out, restaurants they discovered, to even discussing new criminal cases (you got Hazel into watching true crime Youtube videos and now he’s entirely hooked). Sometimes you just sit back and watch the two boys bicker back and forth. It’s hysterical how they decide to argue through text since you’re sure both of them are probably in the same room together, but you appreciate them keeping you in the loop. 

At this point they’ve already virtually met Karli. She’s been in the background of one or two of your facetimes. You’re glad she approves of them instantly and you wonder if it has a little something to do with their, especially Scarlet’s, boyish charms. She does keep you grounded though, never failing to mention how it’s suspicious that you don’t know their real names yet.

“I don’t think they mean any harm and they seem genuinely nice,” she had reassured, “But you gotta admit not telling you their names is a little sketch.”

You just shrugged. “They have their reasons.”

Internally you do believe she has a point. Even though you don’t want to force information out of the boys, you’re a naturally curious person. Your mind has already compiled a list of all the unusual facts you’ve discovered about them. 

A couple of things have become clear to you over the span of the last few months. The most important fact is that although they share tons of content with you, you still have no idea what they do for a living. You’re also 90% sure they don’t have an owner since there’s never anyone else around them. Another, more interesting fact is that you suspect they’re actually pretty wealthy. Every time you facetime, they’re in some sort of lavish looking hotel penthouse, with fancy furniture and artwork hanging in the background. They also dress designer, occasionally flashing their Balenciaga hats, or little Gucci necklaces, or other fancy logos your peasant-ass is unfamiliar with. You actually googled one of Hazel’s t-shirts from your most recent facetime, having no idea what the FG logo stood for. You remember your eyes bulging out of your head after discovering his plain white shirt with two black letters cost more than $200. TWO HUNDred dollars?!!! Do you know how much food and gas you could buy with $200? Why in the fuck would he spend that much on a shirt??

If only you knew how much their watches cost.

Friday rolls around faster than you can blink and before you know it, you’re rushing home from work to get ready. Bryce texted you for the first time on Wednesday to see if you wanted sushi (hell yeah you did) and you were fortunate enough to notify your boss so you could be let out early. You’ve been such a work horse the last few months that they had no choice but to let you leave in advance. 

So far Bryce seems nice enough but you can’t get a proper gauge of his character through text. Oh well, guess you’ll find out tonight.

The sushi place you’re meeting at is on the fancier side, and includes a bar. Knowing yourself, if there’s a bar, there’s no car, which means you won’t be driving. The last thing you want is to leave your car parked somewhere sketchy overnight cause you accidentally got too tipsy to drive. You like to think you have some semblance of control but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

You were let out at 4, which means you have only 2 hours to get ready. As soon as you get home you sprint to your closet at lightning speed. You rummage through your drawers, hoping to find something, ANYthing, that’s appropriate for this occasion. For one quick second, your eyes dart to your forbidden drawer, aka the ho drawer. It contains the remains of your slutty party dresses and tops from college. Being the hoarder that you are, you never like throwing away things, even if you have no need for them anymore. Wait, what the hell am I thinking? You snap your eyes back to the rest of your closet. You’re going for sushi, not to dance at some club. Besides, you have no intention of sleeping with anyone tonight.

After an hour of deciding on a suitable outfit you finally start on your makeup. Your work makeup has dried up, and now feels gross and cakey on your face, so you remove it all and start anew. At least you had the decency to shower this morning so your hair isn’t too gross.

The place is around a 10 minute Uber ride away but you took your sweet ass time getting ready so now you’re in a frenzy. When your phone buzzes, signaling your driver is here, you swipe on some lipstick last minute, grab some chunky heels, and practically fly out the door. 

You stare out the window of your ride, wondering why you’re lowkey wishing you could spend Friday night at home watching tv instead, or even just spending the evening facetiming two hot hybrids. This all feels a little too rushed. But no, you shake your head and attempt to hype yourself up. C’mon Y/N this is the first real date you’ve been on in ages. At least TRy and be a little more motivated. 

The car pulls up and you thank the driver, stepping out into the warm night air. August is still hot, even in the evenings, and you’re glad you didn’t bring a cardigan. Bryce has already texted you, letting you know he was inside, sitting at your reserved spot. You take a deep breath. Ok, time to put on your game face. You strut in, trying your very best to push the faces of two very good-looking friends out of your mind.

You spot Bryce in a corner, head buried in his phone, his wavy blonde hair not easy to miss. You slide in the seat across from him, prompting him to quickly look up and flash you an easygoing smile.

“Hello there!”

“Hi!” You chuckle nervously. “I hope I’m not too late.”

“Not all all!” He slides his phone back in his pocket, smile still on his face. “You’re just in time.”

A waiter comes by and you both take your orders. You make sure to order a drink because you have a feeling you’ll need the liquid courage to strike up more conversation. Maybe some sake will help ease you.

The first couple minutes are kinda awkward, not gonna lie. Bryce tries to get you to talk about work and you do answer him, but honestly work is the last thing you want to discuss right now. You try to shift the conversation to his job, but that only ends up being worse as he quickly launches into the ins and outs of life as an accountant. Maybe your two hybrids friends have spoiled you because you barely remember the last time you had to fill empty space with small talk.

When the food comes you quietly sigh a breath of relief, hoping the sushi in front of you will help you both get settled and give you time to think of more interesting topics to talk about.

“So,” you wrack your brain, “let’s get to know each other more! Like, what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” That’s got to be a safe enough question.

“Hm, I’m actually more of a yogurt kinda guy, ice cream’s not really my thing.”

You freeze, California roll halfway to your mouth. Ok, ok, cool, cool. So he doesn’t like ice cream, that’s fine. You sweat a little. Hurry Y/N think of something else to ask.

“Yeah, I guess that’s not everybody’s thing.” You grimace. “Then what about, i don’t know, cookies? What’s your favorite kinda cookie?”

“Actually I prefer crackers, you know, like the saltine ones? Cookies can be too sweet sometimes.” He’s devouring his dragon roll, not noticing the panic in your eyes. He’s caught you off guard twice today.

This isn’t going well and you’re genuinely surprised because you know Karli has done her research, certain that you two would get along. Guess life really likes to throw you some curveballs. 

Who the fuck prefers crackers over cookies anyway?? Ok. Code red! Change the fucking subject before the silence becomes unbearable. Your dessert-related ice breakers had never failed you before but there’s always a first for everything, you guess.

You take a generous swig of sake. “Right, crackers are... good.” You’re mumbling at this point. “Ok, um, what about hobbies? Got any?” Please throw me a fucking bone here! Your mind is reeling but externally you try to act calm and composed, dabbing at the corner or you mouth delicately with a napkin.

“Oh yeah!” His face lights up. Oh thank god. “Do you like football? Me and my buddies at the office sorta formed this team, and we play against other departments. It’s really fun! You should come by and watch sometime!”

“Uh, sure!” Football. Huh. The last time you were anywhere near a football was when you met someone from your college team at a bar. Well he wasn’t holding a football per se, but that counts right? You only remember how much of a douche he was, trying to hit on one of the girls from your group after getting entirely too wasted.

“Awesome! I’ll hit you up when the next game is set!” It’s almost impressive how he doesn’t notice all the tension emitting from your body. In fact, you have a feeling he’s actually enjoying himself and your company.

The rest of the dinner goes by in the same manner. With him happily answering all your questions and you slowly discovering just how little you both have in common.

He is a gentleman though, that you can’t deny. When all the food has been cleared away he immediately swoops in to pay the bill, ignoring your insistence at paying for your half at least. He really isn’t a bad person, just the opposite. Besides your difference in interests, he is a sweet guy overall, and you do find him to be physically attractive. There’s just no spark, no silver lining that keeps you wanting more. When you both get out of your seats he offers to drive you back to your place but you politely decline. You say it’s because you don’t want to trouble him but in reality you need space for yourself to think.

As soon as you arrive home you take off your shoes and plop yourself down on the couch, running your hands through your hair. You check your phone, a few notifications from ‘Hazel’s Nuts’ popping up.

Scarlet: Do you think she’s done with her date yet??

Hazel: Hey Y/N how was it?

You had told them about this date beforehand and they were excited to root for you, which did bruise your ego a bit since it reaffirmed your unreturned attraction to them, but also prompted you to go through with it. This last notification was from 45 minutes ago but you couldn’t reply since you were still at dinner.

You: hi I just got back!

You don’t expect them to respond right away but to your surprise:

Scarlet: And???

You: it was meh

Hazel: That bad huh?

You: no nothing like that!

You: he’s really cute and all, it’s just we basically have nothing in common

Scarlet: Aww poor Y/N (sad emojis)

Hazel: Hey happens to the best of us

Hazel: Actually I wouldn’t know cause I’ve only been with fox boy

You: thanks anyway, i appreciate it Hazel

Maybe it’s cause you’re a little tipsy, or maybe you just feel so open and vulnerable around them tonight, but the next text you send is especially honest.

You: ughhh idk guys i’m just so lonely!!! why can’t things just work out for me for once! Like the first real date I go on in years and this happens :(

They don’t respond for a long time. So long in fact you start to get worried that you exposed too much about yourself.

15 minutes pass by but to you it feels like hours. You’ve already removed all your makeup and changed into your pajama shirt. You relocate to your bed, checking your phone again, thinking of a way to play off your last text as a joke when:

Hazel: If you’re so lonely maybe you could adopt?

You grin to yourself, glad that they’re not being judgmental. Their concern for you resets your mood.

You: ha ha you know my apartment doesn’t allow pets

You: but honestly if i could i would, cause i’d definitely get a little kitty

Hazel: I’m flattered

You: thanks but i meant a real cat

Hazel: Either way i’m flattered

Scarlet: HEY what about foxes??

You: pretty sure owning a pet fox is illegal here Scar

Scarlet: (angry emojis)

Hazel: You heard what the lady said

You: anyways i’m going to bed

You: thanks for making me feel better guys <3

Hazel: Anytime

Scarlet: But hypothetically if foxes weren’t illegal you’d get a pet fox right??

You: of course i would sweetie

Scarlet: (happy emojis)

Scarlet: Yay!!! Goodnight Y/N!

Hazel: Night Y/N

You: night boys

You wake up next morning on your own time, checking your phone to see that you slept in till 11am. Wow, you haven’t slept that well in a while. Maybe it’s the stress from the previous weeks of non stop working, or the pressure to maintain your composure last night, but either way you knocked out like a rock. You sit up, lean back, and stretch your arms as far as they can go.

Today you’re meeting Karli at her place up north. She couldn’t ask you about last night since she was occupied, her seven year anniversary with her boyfriend Sunny coinciding with your date. But she assured you a couple days ago over facetime that today was going to be a girl’s day, no boyfriend included.

“Hey!” Sunny had popped out of nowhere in the video when he heard the news, a look of mock shock on his face. “I live here too! So what, you're just gonna kick me out of the house and leave me on the streets to starve?”

“My god stop being dramatic!” Karli had shoved him playfully off the screen. “I need girl time with Y/N and it’s not girl time if you’re in the house.”

“I can be one of the girls! Right Y/N?” He sounded betrayed.

“I know you can but I’m not the one who makes the rules.” You pointed out.

He sighed. “You got me there.”

Since you’re just spending time at Karli’s and getting takeout, you felt zero need to dress up. You washed your face, threw on an oversized t-shirt some old hookup left at your place (hey it was cute) and some tights, and tied your hair out of your face. This entire process took less than 30 minutes and next thing you know you’re ready to head out.

You sent Karli a quick text, letting her know you’re on the way. You grab a bottle of prosecco, your purse, and keys, saying a quick goodbye to your roommate Ayah on your way out. She gives you a small wave, reminding you that she, yet again, has to leave today for a whole week. You backtrack to give her a quick goodbye hug, telling her to drive safe, before you take off.

Karli’s place isn’t as far as the beach coffeehouse you frequent, but it’s still located in the wealthier side of town. The drive lasts a good 20 minutes but it feels a lot faster since you spend the whole time singing along to your favorite songs.

You pull up to Karli’s apartment complex, driving yourself to the guest parking space. Her apartment building is pretty tall, with a distant, but gorgeous view of the beach. 

Karli squeals when she opens the door, immediately giving you a big hug. When you break apart you hold up the bottle of prosecco in your hand, waving it in front of her face.

“I know you have the ingredients here so let’s make some spritz!”

“Yay!”

Aperol spritz is your favorite at-home drink to make with Karli. She had gone on a short trip to Italy in the summer between her two years at grad school and tried the drink there, completely falling in love. She googled the recipe, made it for you one day, you had said “Oh FUck that’s good!”, and the rest is history.

She grabs the bottle and quickly relocates it to her kitchen. Her energy levels are sky high today and you wonder what’s got her so elated. She’s skipping everywhere she goes, there’s a permanent smile etched on her face, and she’s humming non stop as she pulls you away from the front entrance.

Sunny emerges from the hallway, two hands in the air in surrender.

“I’m heading out, I swear!”

Sunny is a big teddy bear of a man, with tattoos splayed across his arms and a well-kept beard. There’s a term you learned online called ‘lumbersexual’ and that’s exactly the word to describe Sunny. He almost reminds you of Jason Momoa, the actor who played Aquaman. Those who just meet him think he looks intimidating at first but once you get past his height and size, you see just how much of a softie he is. He’s also extremely intelligent, working somewhere in the computer industry developing software.

Karli bounds over to him and gives him a big snuggly hug and tiptoes all the way up to give a quick kiss to his lips.

“Have fun babe! Love you!”

“Love you too! Also bye Y/N!”

“Bye Sunny have fun!” You smile as he treads out the door.

You both head to the kitchen and start making your drinks.

“Aren’t you extra chipper today!” You mention as you pour a splash of club soda into your glass.

“Am I?” She doesn’t look at you, wearing a mysterious grin, stirring her mixture with a straw.

After you both finish making your drinks, you head to her living room and settle onto her plush sofa.

Karli yawns, almost too dramatically, covering her left hand over her mouth. You quirk your eyebrow at her, wondering why she’s acting so weird until you spot it. There’s something large, something shiny, on her left ring finger.

“Oh my god….” Your entire mouth hangs open. “Oh my GOD!!! Is THAT…?”

“Yep!”

“Did HE -?”

“Yep!!”

“AND YOU - ?

“YEP I DID!!”

“YOU’RE ENGAGED?!?!?!”

“I KNOW!!!!”

What happens after is a shriek rivaling that of a pterodactyl taking flight after spotting prey, except the sound is just the two of you screaming and jumping up and down in Karli’s living room.

You bring her into a tight hug, so emotional that you’re about to tear up. And you’re not one to cry that easily.

“I’m so happy for you!” You pull apart and wipe a stray tear from your cheek.

“Thank you! I’m so happy too!” Her smile is also a little watery. “Like I knew he was gonna do it soon since we’ve been together so long but I’m still shocked you know?”

“I know!” 

“And I’m sorry. Today was supposed to be me asking about your date last night.” She dabs at her eyes. “Bryce really likes you too. He even texted me thanking me for introducing you!!”

“Oh shit...” You take this chance to drink your Aperol spritz. “I’m gonna be completely honest with you. It’s true he’s cute but there was no spark.” You give her an apologetic grin, knowing she really wanted this to work out for you. “Like don’t get me wrong he’s super nice and stuff but I just couldn’t find anything we have in common. I can’t believe he’s still into me?!” 

“Aw I’m sorry babe.” She pouts. “I really did think you would be a good match.”

“It’s ok. Anyways,” you wave her off, bringing up the more important subject at hand. “I’d much rather talk about your engagement! Like, hello?? You’re getting married, girl!!

Another squeal. You really hope her neighbors don’t complain.

“I know!! I literally don’t know what to think!” She smiles wistfully, like she’s on cloud nine, then brings her attention back to you. “Also you’re the maid of honor and you can’t back out of that.”

“I would never!” You gasp dramatically, one hand clutching your chest.

“But don’t worry!” She sets her drink down. “The wedding’s not happening till next year at least. We don’t have to start planning till way later.”

The rest of the day you spend chatting to Karli, prompting her to spill every single detail about the proposal. Even though you have no need to help her plan a wedding just yet, you can’t hold back from offering some ideas that spring to mind.

“I got it!!” You shout.

“You got what?”

“Hear me out,” you may or may not be a little tipsy at this point. “Goth wedding!” You say with jazz hands. Then you reach down to take another sip of your drink.

“Hmm…” She pretends to think about the idea, then giggles. “And that’s enough prosecco for you.” Plucking the glass out of your hand, she transfers it to her kitchen sink.

A couple more hours roll by. You both decide to watch a cheesy Netflix horror movie to sober up, paired with the Mexican takeout you ordered. By the time the credits roll, the sun has long since set, along with your alcohol buzz. You check the time on your phone, deciding it’s best to head home since poor Sunny has been respectfully out and about all day, giving you your girl time.

You give Karli one last big hug, murmuring into her hair how happy you are for her situation. She walks you to the apartment elevator, where you proceed to blow her a swift kiss right before the doors close in your face.

Reality sets in the moment you’re alone. Your head swims with thoughts as you drive back. Most of them are happy about your best friend’s engagement but you can’t discount the little ugly bubble of jealousy that wells down deep in your gut, reminding you of your own current situation. It’s not until you reach home that you realize you didn’t even play music in the car.

Ayah has long since gone on her business trip by the time you arrive at your apartment. The whole place looks dark and unwelcome, only highlighting the emptiness you feel inside. You trudge to your room and slump onto your bed. You try to scroll through social media as a way to distract yourself but you’re met, instead, by all the pictures and posts of happy people, showing off their achievements or bragging about their seemingly perfect lives.

You immediately lock your phone and throw it onto the blanket, the stress and anxiety from the last few months building to a boiling point in your mind. Your biggest concern is you still haven’t figured out your lease situation, and you only have two more months to move out or find someone new. Ayah has tried her best to help you but she’s bombarded by business trips so no luck so far. You let out a small groan and bury your head in the pillow, deciding to sleep it off and worry about your problems tomorrow, even though it’s not even that late.

Right as you’re about to drift off into dreamland, your phone rings. You fumble around the covers until it’s in your hands and check that you have a facetime call from your two favorite boys.

Immediately your body jerks awake and you sit up, swiping the answer button.

“Hey guys!”

“Hi Y/N!!” Scarlet’s heart-shaped smile is taking up most of the screen but you can see a sliver of white and grey hair behind him.

Hazel elbows him out of the way. “Sorry were you sleeping?” He tilts his head, ears twitching. “Wait, it’s only 10 pm where you’re at. You never sleep this early.”

“No I wasn’t... I mean, yeah I was trying to sleep but…”

You sigh. It’s their faces. Just seeing them through a screen, their wide, innocent eyes blinking up at you, makes you want to spill everything.

You nibble on your bottom lip for a moment. “I was just kinda having an existential crisis so I decided to sleep it off. No biggie.”

Scarlet’s eyebrows furrow in concern. After only two months, he can already tell when something is off with your tone of voice.

“Y/N what’s wrong?” He looks up for a bit, pausing to think. “Was it the date last night?”

“The date?” Oh yeah the date. Yet another thing that didn’t go well. You totally forgot about that can of worms. “Not really… or actually kinda?”

You try to reorganize your jumbled mess of a brain and put your thoughts into words.

“So you know how I said I was going to Karli’s today?”

“Mhm,” they nod at you to continue.

“Well turns out she got engaged last night.”

“That’s awesome! I’m so happy for her!” Scarlet bounces a little, then quickly returns to a more serious tone. “But that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“Yeah I’m happy for her too.” And you genuinely are.

You pause for another moment, teetering on the edge of playing your emotions off like it’s no big deal or exposing all of your concerns yet again. Your need for an outlet to vent to wins in the end. For the first time you find yourself unable to confide in Karli because you want her to be happy and focus on the engagement rather than to be preoccupied with you. Before you know it, the words flow from your mouth like running water.

“It’s just that her announcement really brought me back to earth, and I started thinking a little too much about my own life.” You purse your lips. “I don’t know… I feel pretty selfish right now because she’s doing so well and I just can’t help comparing my life to hers. I’m so proud of her but it’s like everything in her life is coming together and I just want that for me also.” You throw your hands up in frustration, almost knocking the phone off from where it leans on your pillow. “I mean we’re the same age for god's sake! Why can’t I get my shit together??”

“Well you should be proud of yourself though,” Hazel cuts in. “Cause we are.” He gestures to Scarlet and himself.

“Yeah!” Scarlet chimes. “I mean you’ve got a full time job and a place to stay. I know you don’t feel like it’s the most ideal situation right now but please don’t discredit yourself.”

“Thanks guys.” You calm down a bit, but then you remember the whole issue with your apartment. Scratching the back of your neck, a habit you’ve picked up whenever you’re nervous, you say in a much smaller voice, “although my ‘place to stay’ might not last much longer.”

“What do you mean?” Both boys’ eyebrows are raised in confusion.

You realize you never mentioned your living situation to them, the topic always pushed to the back of your mind whenever they initiated conversation.

“Yeah.” A dry chuckle leaves your lips. “My lease ends soon and Ayah wants to move to a place of her own. And I have two months to figure out where to live or find another roommate.” You let out a frustrated huff. “She’s been so helpful but still no luck I guess.” You shrug in defeat.

You feel like a balloon that’s lost all its air, brain exhausted from running through all the problems in your life.

“Actually that’s pretty convenient for- ” Scarlet starts, but is elbowed again in the ribs by Hazel. “Ow!”

“Not yet!” The cat hisses quietly to him.

“Huh?” Now you’re confused. What in the world are they talking about?

Hazel turns back to you. “I’m really sorry about everything Y/N. If there’s anything we can do to help please let us know.” 

“Thanks buddy.” You offer him a small smile, choosing to ignore what just happened since they clearly don’t want to reveal anything just yet. 

Hazel then shifts to a more nervous stance, ears slightly flattening and both hands grabbing his floofy grey tail for comfort. It’s the cutest goddamn thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

“So Y/N, um, there’s a reason we called you tonight.”

You’re glad for a change in subject, a much needed distraction away from your downward spiraling thoughts.

“Oh right! Yeah. What’s up guys?”

Scarlet steps in front of him again, blocking most of the screen.

“We have a surprise for you!” He’s so close to the camera that you can only see half of his unblemished face but from the way his eyes crinkle, you can tell he’s giddy with anticipation.

“A surprise- ?”

“Yeah!!”

Hazel nudges himself into view again. “Quit hogging the whole screen fox! I swear to god next time we’re using the tv. I can’t see anything! Anyways,” he turns to you and smooths his shirt, expression back to stoic, “are you free next weekend?”

“I should be. Why?” You’re still a little lost on what the surprise is.

“Cause we’re coming back to town!” Scarlet blurts out.

“You are?!” Suddenly all your negativity melts away, replaced by excitement. Hard to believe just five simple words can shift your mood a complete 180°.

“But wait, there’s more!” You snort at how much Scarlet sounded like an infomercial just now.

“We’d like to invite you to dinner next Saturday night. If that’s ok with you?” Hazel isn’t as physically expressive as Scarlet but the hopeful shine in his eyes gives himself away.

You melt at his expression, heart rate speeding up. “Of course that’s ok! I’d love to!”

“Great!” He flashes one of his rare gummy smiles. “Saturday night. 7 pm. We’ll text you the details.”

“Yep!” Scarlet pipes in. “There’s something important we gotta ask- !” He lets out a small gasp, tail bristling, and clamps a hand over his mouth as if he just said something he shouldn’t have.

“What’s important?” You’ve gotta admit, your curiosity is at its peak right now, and it doesn’t help that they’re acting a little weird today.

Hazel rubs his temples in exasperation, groaning at Scarlet. “What part of ‘not yet’ did you not understand?” He then addresses you. “Sorry Y/N I promise we’ll tell you when we see you in person.” 

“Ok.” Cool. That’s fine. You’re a little nervous about what they have to say and it’ll be torture to wait but you’re a big girl and you can handle not knowing for a week. “I can’t wait to see you guys!!” you added.

“Me too!” Scarlet’s personality is so bubbly and contagious that you can’t help but smile back at him.

“Same.” Hazel lets out a small yawn. “Well we’re in a different time zone than you and it’s really late here so I gotta hit the hay.”

“Mk, go get your beauty sleep.” You give them a little wave. “And thanks for everything. I mean it.”

“No problem Y/N.” Scarlet also gives off a yawn, stretching his tired limbs. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

After ending the facetime call, you lie on your back, staring at the ceiling. Your mind is active once again, but this time it’s not clouded with self-deprecating thoughts. Instead, you spend the remainder of the evening theorizing about the ‘important’ things the boys have to tell you. Maybe you’ll finally find out their real names. Or maybe they’ll reveal something else about themselves, like why they’re constantly travelling, or what they actually do for a living. Either way you can’t wait for next Saturday to come around.

Previous | Next

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 146: Why Are We Still In This Basement

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Kirishima nearly gave up on his dream of becoming a hero after freezing up during a sudden villain encounter. But then he watched an old interview with his hero Crimson Riot, in which Crimson admitted that he felt fear just as much as anyone. He said that having a manly spirit doesn’t mean being confident or not feeling fear; it means doing your best to live your life without regret. After hearing this, flashback!Kiri had a quick montage and turned into first-day-at-U.A.!Kiri, dyeing his hair and spiking it up and declaring that he was saying goodbye to his former self. Back in the present, our current beat-up Kiri thought to himself that he still gets afraid regularly, but that what he fears most is reverting back to the way he used to be. Hot Gum -- who, you will recall, had charged up an attack by absorbing the energy from the villain’s punches -- told the bad guys they had underestimated Kirishima’s manly heart, and then punched the shit out of them.

Today on BnHA: Hot Gum flashes back to when Kirishima applied for an internship at his agency. He was excited to have someone with Kiri’s “can-do energy”, but Kiri admitted that that was all he had, and that he wants to be more than that and be someone who can protect people. Back in the present, Chance the Rappa is all “I’m not dead yet!” and gets back to his feet. Hot Gum is all “oh shit”, but then Rappa directs him toward a room with first aid supplies and tells him to tend to Kiri’s wounds. He says that both sides are basically all out of strength, but he wants to continue the fight because he really!! loves!! fighting!!!, and so he wants the others to heal up because he’s taken a personal interest in them -- Kiri especially. Hot Gum heals Kiri up and congratulates him on being acknowledged even by the enemy. We then finally! cut to Overhaul, who’s headed down a corridor with Eri and one of his minions. He’s holding the finished quirk-be-gone serum, and he tells his new “temps” -- Toga and Twice -- to get to work.

I may or may not have lost my patience completely and started ranting and raving halfway through this chapter. Just giving y’all a heads up. I kind of hit my limit lol.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 176 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

OHHHHH SNAP YOU GUYS LOOK AT THIS

LOOK AT ALL OF THESE LOSERS

OH I SEE, DEKU, SO YOU STILL CAN’T TIE A FREAKING HALF WINDSOR, BUT YOU CAN TIE A BOWTIE HUH. OR IS THAT A CLIP-ON?? OH MY GOD IT’S A CLIP-ON ISN’T IT

MEANWHILE BAKUGOU WILL STRAIGHT UP JUST NEVER WEAR A TIE NO MATTER WHAT. BUT OH MY GOD LOOK AT HIM ALL DRESSED UP LIKE A KHR CHARACTER, YES, GOOD, I LIKE THIS

BEST JEANIST IN THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER I SEE YOUUUU

AIZAWA DIDN’T BOTHER TO DRESS UP EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW HE’S CAPABLE OF IT. JUST WORE HIS NORMAL PAJAMAS UNIFORM LIKE USUAL. LAZY ASS

MIRIO I MISS YOU ARE YOU DEAD

ALL MIGHT WEARING A SUIT THAT FITS OH MY GOD. EVEN WITH IT BEING SCHOOL BUS YELLOW IT STILL LOOKS GOOD

TODOROKI’S BODY LANGUAGE IS MYSTERIOUS AND HILARIOUS

PRETTY MUCH ALL THE CHARACTERS FROM U.A. AND THE INTERNSHIP ARC ARE HERE, BUT THERE ARE OTHER CHARACTERS MISSING SUCH AS RECOVERY GIRL, NAOMASA, AND THE STUDENTS & FACULTY FROM SHIKETSU AND KETSUBUTSU. AND OF COURSE ALL THE VILLAINS

AND YET BEST JEANIST STILL GOT TO BE THERE EVEN THOUGH HE’S NOW LAID UP IN A HOSPITAL SOMEWHERE. GOD BLESS YOU

the hype text is talking about the climax of the battle against the Eightfold Cleansers. dare I hope?? this arc has gone on for a bazillion years. and it feels even longer due to me taking such a long time to read it. but I recently passed chapter 100 in the tumblr recaps, and I thought to myself that I’d better get going again or before I know it I’m actually going to catch up and not have anything new to post lol

all right! so Hot Gum just finished punching the shit out of those two villains and now they’re KOed. thank fuck

but Kiri isn’t looking good omg

GET HIM SOME HELP

Kiri’s weakly mumbling “who’s there” and Hot Gum is all “IT’S ME, FAT GUM, I’M JUST HOT NOW”

Kiri’s really out of it and muttering that he’ll protect him. “gotta do... what I can...”

and wow. are you guys really gonna do this to my emotions right now. really. really

now we’re flashing back to the first time they met, I guess! they’re at FG’s office and FG is all “wow Tamaki you actually brought a friend”

and he recognizes Kirishima from the sports festival and he likes the cut of his jib!

he’s complaining that Tamaki always gets too nervous at the festival “and ends up in last place every year!”

then how did he land this internship with you I wonder

(ETA: ??? mystery)

Kiri says that Fourth Kind said the same thing at his previous internship (about liking rambunctious guys with guts and a positive attitude)

but he says that’s all he has

oh shit Eijirou I thought we were done with your angst. this isn’t fucking fair, I yield already

YOU’RE NOT SWEETIE, YOU JUMPED IN TO PROTECT HOT GUM LIKE A CHAMP. JUST HANG OUT THERE AND REST NOW

-- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

BUT THE HYPE TEXT. SAID. WE WERE REACHING THE GODDAMN CLIMAX

THEN FUCKING DIE ALREADY!!!

Hot Gum is thinking a bunch of “oh shit why isn’t he dead, I used up all my shit, we’re screwed” thoughts, and meanwhile I’m wondering if this arc is actually going to end, like, ever

can we please rescue Eri already please!! the Kiri flashbacks were good but even those went on for so long, and why the fuck is this stupid basement arc being dragged out like this?! WHY. I GIVE UP

Chance the Rappa is telling Hot Gum to tend to Kirishima’s wounds. at first he refers to him as a kid, but then he changes it to “man”

whatever dude I don’t even care. that’s so nice that you respect him, now could you please LIE DOWN AND DIE ALREADY so we can save Eri!! and find out what happened to Mirio! and see what Aizawa and THE GODDAMN MAIN CHARACTER are up to jesus christ

but no we’re still in this scene! Hot Gum’s staring at him like “are you serious”

all of this happened because Horikoshi started working on that fucking movie. that’s it, isn’t it. all his energy was going into that and he started neglecting the actual series. and we get stuff like this that no one fucking cares about and it should have ended five chapters ago

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually starting to look back fondly on the damn Hosu arc. remember Stain?? he may have never shut up, but at least he was defeated within a reasonable amount of chapters, and didn’t lead a bunch of heroes through a boring maze to take on a bunch of fifth-tier villains. who don’t even have interesting character designs because they’re all wearing THE SAME GODDAMN MASK. AND IS THIS SOME SORT OF PURGATORY, OR WHAT

but fine! gotta power through! so now Tengai is also sitting up because OF COURSE HE IS, and he’s telling Rappa not to act so selfishly, and to remember his duty, and blah blah blah

aaaaaaand Rappa’s stomping on his face

THEN FUCKING DIE!!! HOLY SHIT I’M GOING FULL BAKUGOU HERE. IS THIS HOW HE FEELS ALL THE TIME. NO WONDER HE CAN’T STAND ANYONE

Hot Gum’s asking wtf does Rappa want, and Rappa says he wants them to kill each other

now he’s telling us his life story!!

he came from an underground fight club where people were allowed to use quirks

did he actually kill all of them. psycho

now he’s screaming at Hot Gum that he really wanted a good fight that actually challenged him. “the kind of power that only comes from putting your life on the line”

he says the two of them met his challenge, “especially the red-head”

please leave him alone. you’re already well on your way to becoming my least favorite character in the whole fucking series, which, wow

he’s shouting for them to heal up so he can continue their death match

you... do realize that’s not the greatest incentive, there

Rappa’s walking to the fucking door

Hot Gum is all “you know you lost the fight and you’re gonna be arrested, right?”

but Rappa says he didn’t lose and that if nobody dies then it’s a draw

and Hot Gum’s just watching him like “wow what a weirdo”

and now he’s picking up Kirishima who looks so small in his arms! :/

:|!!!!

Rappa is STILL there for some reason, and he’s all “I want another proper go at killin’ him!”

WE KNOW. YOU WON’T FUCKING SHUT UP ABOUT IT AND THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER HAS JUST BEEN YOU NOT SHUTTING UP. AND IT’S PROBABLY ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE FOURTEEN-PAGE CHAPTERS, ISN’T IT. IT IS, ISN’T IT

EVEN KIRI’S SLEEPING FACE CAN’T SOOTHE MY FRUSTRATION

EVEN THOUGH IT’S SO PURE AND SWEET AND OH MY GOD PLEASE HELP HIM

jesus fuck, we finally cut to another scene, and just for a moment I dared to hope we were finally cutting back to something else relevant

but no

I mean, I won’t complain that they’re taking the time to show how Kirishima got treated so he didn’t fucking die. that makes me feel a little better. but if they don’t cut back to Deku and co. within the next page, I’m about to full on lose it

what the fuck is this guy doing here??

so we’re just best friends now. he’s just gonna hang out with you all for the rest of the arc

and why not, let’s ask him all about his past, because it’s so fucking interesting. fuck

and with that, we cut to another two-chapter flashback all about Rappa’s fight club. and it features no fewer than seven new side characters, several of whom end up getting their own flashbacks. because that’s all life is anymore. it’s flashbacks and side characters all the way down

but really he’s just answering that he became a villain because Overhaul’s the only guy he ever lost to

Overhaul why couldn’t you have just kept him disassembled

ooh we’re actually gonna see it

if only

god damn it Overhaul

(ETA: so how come he remembers all this anyway? when Overhaul did the same thing to the Tarantino gang, they lost all memories of their encounter with him. his control over his quirk is so great he can even control whether or not a person’s memory stays intact?? damn, Overhaul)

lmao since then he’s gone on to challenge him five additional times. wtf. what did you expect to change

Hot Gum is like “um so you’re telling me Overhaul could take on this guy with all his speed and power like it was nothing?”

well, yes. since all he has to do is touch him, and poof, dead

so he’s wondering why Overhaul is making his underlings do all the fighting for him while he runs and hides

because that’s what underlings are for, Dumb Gum

he asking what does Overhaul want to do

(ETA: yeah you stfu Tengai)

that’s not very specific or helpful

oh shit. but he’s adding that he overheard him talking about how he’d be “spreading” something, “and lots of it”

ERIIIIII

WHOSE HAND IS THAT ON HER ARM, IS IT HIS?? YOU FUCKING CREEP

oh my god finally finally finally we’re getting back to the fucking plot

I’m not even relieved. I feel more like someone who just weathered a natural disaster and is all “how am I even still alive”

so we’re going back in time a bit to right after the invasion started

don’t think about how they could have cut right to this and shrunk the cast down to just the essentials and cut Kiri’s fight time in half without losing any impact. don’t think about how we could have been done with this arc already. don’t think about

okay so the guy in the hooded cloak (I straight up forgot his name, it’s been ages. future me will have to pick up my slack) is carrying Eri, who looks terrified

(ETA: oh is that how it’s gonna be. lol. this is Chronostasis, everyone. and I’m pretty sure past me thought this was still the bearded babysitter guy tbh. but just wearing a cloak now. in my defense, there’s literally no way to tell that it’s a different guy)

they’re talking about the future of the Precepts

Hood says this is the end for them, but Overhaul says that as long as he and the boss are around, the Precepts won’t die

apparently most of their henchmen are loyal to the boss and not Overhaul

oh snap look at this

“finished” product???!

holy shit. it may have been a while, but you can bet I haven’t forgotten the most intriguing thing about this arc

-- HOLY SHIT?!

VILLAINS THAT I ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT OMGGGGG

TOGA!! AND TWICE!!! MY TWO FAVES!

YOU GUYS AREN’T ALLOWED TO DIE JUST FYI!! I SWEAR TO GOD IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO YOU GUYS AND FUCKING RAPPA STICKS AROUND INSTEAD, I WILL RAGE QUIT THIS SERIES

fucking finally something interesting is happening omg

so I guess next chapter will be what I was hoping for from this chapter. lol this was almost a complete waste of time. talk about last minute saves

BONUS:

Bakugou out here saying what we’re all thinking

why are Sero and Kami so damn zen. you guys are MIA too, you know. is it really so funny to see Baku all pissed off that it’s worth not being in the story yourselves for 40-something chapters? ...okay, fair enough. you trolls

but I’m sorry Horikoshi, it says a lot that even you acknowledged this in an omake, joke or no joke. it means he definitely noticed how the arc reads in hindsight and how long it stretches on for

thankfully I’m pretty sure this is the last of the really dull chapters. League of Villain antics are just around the corner, and then our best boy Mirio will finally be up to bat. finally a light at the end of the tunnel y’all

[twdmusicboxmystery]

9x12: Guardians - Details

Okay, let's get down to details. This is gonna be long, so settle in.

***As always, spoilers abound for 9x12 in this post. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Michonne/Negan/Alexandria:

I thought it was interesting that Father Gabriel, the Sirius character because of his eye, is the one pushing for the relay. I mentioned this at the beginning of the arc when he and Rosita were putting the relay together, but here we heard more talk about finding new people and how they shouldn't cut themselves off from the world. Again, it wouldn't say that if it weren't a foreshadow of them finding new people on the outside.

A big thing that was brought across to me in this episode is that Michonne is acting a lot like Rick used to. Not in a good way. She's being too protective and close minded and not willing to help other people. We saw Rick acting like that a lot in the past, and it was usually Michonne and Carl who convinced him that wasn't the right way to be. Now Michonne is being that way.

Siddique says, "Carol wouldn't ask for help a second time if it wasn't serious." Not only is that a serious/Sirius reference, but even the "the second time" bit plays into it. Sirius always returns for a second time, right? And it occurs to me that this is probably more about Carol than Michonne, but I think something about the fair will lead to Carol losing Ezekiel in the whole death fake out thing I talked about before. And hopefully that will lead to Beth as well. ;D

Something I think it's important to point out: A lot of people are really frustrated with Michonne and her attitude right now, but I thought it was important that she said she was willing to let the Kingdomers come live at Alexandria if they needed to. She said she’d open the doors to them, the same as they did to their friends at the Sanctuary. So, her only real hang-up is making the journey on the roads. She says the roads are broken and full of walkers. Honestly, I do understand her point of view. It’s still flawed of course. The communities really ought to be working together to clear those roads and make safe trade routes. But I don't think Michonne’s  point of view is quite as closed-minded as many in the fandom are making it out to be.

Later on, Michonne talks to Negan. He wants to help her with her leadership. We had callbacks to the "merciful Rick Grimes," which to me just points toward Carl's vision of the future. The last episode of S8 was called Mercy, after all.

I thought it was interesting that the Negan was referred to as a dog several times. He referred to himself that way and Michonne did as well. I'm not really sure what to make of this. I mean, obviously it's another Sirius reference, but I don't think Negan is going to leave and come back. I could be wrong about that, but I've never felt like that's where they're going with his arc.

Remember that a few weeks ago, smack in the middle of some heavy Still parallels, we saw dogs around him. So this could simply be yet another way of entangling him with Beth’s arc. Dogs = Sirius = Beth, and we’re seeing them around Negan because he’ll be involved in her return somehow.

Michonne realizes Judith is listening and confronts her about it later on. Judith once again gets in a decent verbal sucker punch by saying, "He listens to me. Not everyone does." Guilt trip much?

And then, again, we see how much Michonne has become like negative Rick. She says people don't really change, and then Judith says, "You did."

Talking about change can be a callback to Still and Beth talking about how she wishes she could just change. But in truth, this is been a show-wide theme for a while now. Back at the prison, Rick gave the speech about how he knew, “We can all change.” But then everything went wrong, Herschel died, and Rick didn't believe that for really long time. Michonne and Carl were the ones who always tried to get him to be more positive and have more faith.

Now, Michonne has sort of taken on Rick's pessimistic role, and Judith has taken on Carl's role of trying to convert her back to believing in people and having faith in the future. Kind of an interesting turning of the tables.

Later Michonne tells Aaron she won’t veto the Council’s vote. At this part, Aaron says, "I hope we don't regret this." Michonnee answers, "yeah. Me too." That’s a callback to S5 when TF first came to Alexandria. Michonne talked to Rick about how she thought they'd found a good place and Rick said, "I hope you're right about this." Michonne answered, "yeah. Me too."

We see the Alexandrians loading up wagons with things they are presumably taking to the fair. We saw lots of familiar symbols here, including pigs. Remember Beth and Daryl talked about pigs feet Alone. I don't know if I've actually posted about this, but @frangipanilove has an entire theory about how the pigs feet are actually part of the Sirius/Dog Star theme. That’s why I always point them out.

Rosita/FG/Siddiq/Eugene:

in this episode, Father Gabriel already knows about the baby. As I told my group Sunday night, I'm impressed with Rosita. To be honest, she's never been my favorite character. I certainly don't hate her or anything, but she's never struck me as the most emotionally mature person on the show. But I have to say, the way she's handling this whole baby quadrangle situation is very mature and I'm very impressed with her growth.

And I think that growth is legit because there was a part where she said to FG, “Me and Siddiq will figure out our shit…” That’s a direct callback to when Denise yelled at Rosita and Daryl about just before her death about figuring out their shit. So I think this is evidence that Rosita has grown a lot since then.

We had that funny scene where Eugene "helps" FG. This was obviously meant to be humorous with all of Eugene's technical charts and such, but we did see some interesting thematic things here as well. Eugene brought across the theme that all we have is time and love and the whole point of life is trying to bring about happiness. I thought it was interesting, given how often we lose characters in the show. We need to love people in the time that we have, because tomorrow is not promised. Eugene was very sweet in this episode.

In this scene, we also saw a callback to Grady in the form of some scissors. 

He also said the line about how "even with bad peepers you saw things I didn’t.” Because he's lost an eye, just like the dog in Alone, FG is the physical embodiment of the Sirius character. So referencing bad peepers (eyes) is kind of a blindness reference, but he also means seeing things with your heart, or in other ways than with your eyes. I'm not sure how or if that will pertain to Beth at all, but I thought it was an interesting theme.

This is kind of off-topic topic, but I also want to say how impressed I am with the way the show is handling this love quadrangle. I’ve wished before that they would do more jealousy story lines. Nothing huge that would be conflicts between main characters. Not even anything like the Rick/Shane/Lori situation. I just think it would be fun if every once in a while, some random new character came into Alexandria and thought Michonne was hot or something. Not that she would return it at all, but would be nice to see Rick punch someone in the face for that reason. I think most of us have had head canons about things like that with Beth and Daryl. And I've always thought the reason they didn't do this on the show is because that can very easily degrade into daytime soap opera level drama. TWD just isn’t that kind of show. It's about survival and much deeper and more transcendent themes than that.

Here, they’re doing not even just a triangle, but a quadrangle. But the way they’re handling it is really great. It doesn't feel way campy or like high school drama. I’m actually really enjoying this story line.

At the end, Rosita, Father Gabriel, and Siddique, all seem to be ready to sit down and figure out what they're going to do moving forward. Eugene watches with a smile. Poor Eugene. He needs a nice girl.

Daryl and Connie:

Okay, let's first appreciate the fact that the time for the romance to happen between the two of them has mostly passed. Yeah, they could end up alone in the woods at some point in the future. Maybe they will. They really weren’t together very long, though, and now Henry and Lydia are with them, which means they're no longer alone and the opportunity for the two of them to bond has largely passed. Did you see all that romance blooming in the woods? 

I mean, even I thought we would see more parallels to Beth between the two of them. We may see more next episode, but if we do, it won't be with the two of them being alone together.

When I saw this scene with them tracking in the woods, the first thing I thought of was Inmates. Part of it was just that visually it looked like Inmates, but Bethyl was tracking people from the prison in Inmates, and here, Daryl and Connie are tracking the Whisperers.

We have a shot of Connie looking in the dirt. 

She sees footprints, and again, that's like Inmates. I was also vaguely reminded of the dry riverbed in Them. I don't know but if that's what they were going for, especially because we don't see any Xs or dead frogs right here but it reminded me of the way they showed Sasha looking at the dry riverbed.

I couldn't help but be struck by how quickly Daryl can bond with someone. It doesn't happen very often because it's hard for him, but when it does happen, it happens quickly. So, here’s an exhaustive guide on how to bond with Daryl:

1)    Establish personal communication. Connie signaled that he needed to look at her when he talked so she could read his lips. That alone for Daryl establishes her weakness, how she overcomes it, and how he can help her overcome it. Instant bond.

2)    Showcase your walker-killing awesomeness. Connie uses her sling. Daryl was impressed. Instant bond.

3)    Yeah, that's it. Daryl now think cares what you think. You could tell he was a little embarrassed about the arrow breaking by the way he looked up self-consciously. He obviously cares what Connie thinks.

Honestly, I thought this was adorable. Connie laughed and it felt very much like when Denise offered him the oat cake and kind of laughed about his surliness. This feels very brotherly/sisterly to me. I really like the Connie/Daryl duo. But it's obviously platonic.

I originally thought that the arrow breaking was a callback to Still. Remember Daryl shot at a squirrel, but he missed and the arrow broke. I suppose we could still see it as that, but we also know that it wasn't intentional. Norman posted on his IG that the arrow breaking was actually a mess up, but he and Connie stayed in character and Angela thought it was cute so they kept it in. I’d like to think it’s the parallel they didn’t mean to include. Maybe Angela realized how well it worked as a Still callback and left it in.

Even without the arrow breaking, I still see something important here. It occurred to me that the arrow hit the walker in the head, and the dog retrieved it. So, even if the scene played out the way they meant to, we still have Dog (Sirius reference) retrieving an arrow from a head wound.

I also noticed the walker Daryl shot was missing an arm. I thought that was important, especially given the stuff we’ve seen with Daryl's arm. The S7, he wore the coat that had only one sleeve made out of flannel, which drew attention to his arm. Similarly, this season, the sleeve of that same arm is shorter than the other sleeve, again drawing attention to it. When I saw the armless walker, I thought, okay, the walker represents Daryl.

And THAT’S when it hit me that the two walkers that came toward Connie and Daryl were a male walker and female walker. Guys, this was an instance of the Bethyl side-by-side walker theme. Now, we didn't see an actual shot of the two walkers laying side-by-side after they got killed. It was subtler than that. But we had a male and female walker that were killed and would've been lying side-by-side on the ground.

I'm not sure exactly what this points to. Sure, it could foreshadow Connie's death, but even if she dies, I don't think that was the point of this. This has always been a Beth thing, and she hasn't been present most of the times they've used the symbol. It's just obvious from Inmates (so yet another Inmates reference here) and Always Accountable that it pertains to her. So, this could be a foreshadow of Beth showing up, but it could also be as simple as a way to show us that Connie and Daryl are being paralleled with Beth and Daryl here. Still, I was happy to see another instance of this theme.

And I can’t help but be reminded of an instance we saw of this in 5b. We saw the side by side theme with Ws in the walkers’ heads, just before the wolves showed up. So I feel like this is also a way to show similarities between the Wolves and the Whisperers.

One thing I alluded to in my First Thoughts post was actually pointed out by @thegloriouscollectorlady. While we can see a parallel to Beth and Daryl in this Connie and Daryl situation, we could equally see a parallel to Daryl and Carol in S5 going to look for Beth. When that episode aired, a certain ship insisted that Caryl would happen and this was when they were going to hook up. Nothing of the sort happened. Now we have everyone talking about Daryl and Connie. I don’t think that will happen either.

So, it occurred to me that they had kind of a funny incident with the dog, which reminded me of Daryl and Carol looking at picture and Daryl suggesting it looked like a dog had sat in paint and wiped his ass all over the canvas. I think that dog reference in Consumed was a foreshadow of the fact Beth is about to disappear. So, what does this dog reference foreshadow? I don't know, but I don't think either Connie or Daryl is going to disappear. It could be an Ezekiel thing again, or it could be a Beth thing. Just no way to know. But I will say that, as we have heavy Beth parallels here, and no Carol or Ezekiel anywhere around this, I kind think it’s more likely to be a Beth callback.

Last thing is that Connie already knows how to track. We saw a lot of tracking going on in this episode. It struck me that unlike Beth, Daryl doesn't really have to teach Connie anything. So again, maybe more like Carol in that way. Connie knows how to survive. She's figured out her slingshot and she really doesn't need any lessons from Daryl in tracking or killing walkers. 

So it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, this is a foreshadow of what Beth and Daryl’s relationship will be like when Beth returns. At that point, she’ll already know how to track, she’ll already know how to survive, and Daryl will be impressed with her. Just a thought.

Alpha/Henry/Lydia/Whisperers:

Let’s get to the heavy stuff. We learned a lot about Alpha, both by her actions and by her dialogue. We talked in my group about how we were mildly offended on Daryl's behalf that Alpha suggested he might have done something sexual to Lydia. I suppose it's a normal enough question for a parent to ask, given that Lydia was in the clutches of someone she didn't know for time. But we already know Alpha isn't terribly parental to Lydia to begin with.

I think this really shows Alpha’s mindset. She wanted specifically to know why Daryl was willing to fight to keep Lydia and then suggested that he had touched her. So, that association tells us she thinks the only reason someone would be willing to fight to keep Lydia is if there was a sexual element involved. She can’t imagine someone would want to keep a teenager safe out of basic goodness and decency.

She asked if there were any signs of trade, and Lydia said no. So she didn't tell her mom about the Kingdom or the other places that Henry mentioned.

I paid close attention to all of Alpha’s dialogue and something else struck me. Lydia asked, "Is that the only reason you came to get me? For information?" Alpha replies, "What a stupid question."

It reminded me of when Beth used the word stupid. She said of her own past optimism, "that's how incredibly stupid I am." Daryl assured her that she wasn't stupid. She was just normal and that's the way things were supposed to be. Maybe I'm reaching, but it just goes to show the difference between Alpha and Daryl. Alpha goes out of her way to make Lydia feel stupid rather than loved, where Daryl went out of his way to comfort Beth and let her know she was not stupid.

The yoyo. This was one of my favorite things in this episode. Why? Because it’s a significant symbol, but we haven't seen it very much. The less we see a symbol, the more significant it is when we do see it. The only other place I remember seeing the symbol was in 5x05 when Tara found the yoyo hidden in the backpack by the side of the river. It was when Glenn and Rosita were trying to filter water for everyone when the fire trucks broke down. You know, kinda on the way to Grady?

Here, we had almost the exact same scenario. Lydia randomly found a yoyo (hidden being a theme about Beth’s arc), and the Whisperers had stopped by the side of a river. This is a direct call back to 5x05. A yoyo, by definition, goes down and then comes back up, so I do think it's a resurrection symbol. All I could ever conclude about that yo-yo was that it foreshadowed Beth’s coming “death.” The yoyo suggested she would pop back up again somewhere.

Guys, we really haven't seen a yo-yo on the show that I'm aware of since then. So yeah, obviously I can talk about Beth symbolism all day and we've seen plenty of symbols throughout the seasons (6-8) that I've said pointed to her return, and we still haven’t seen her. But we literally haven't seen symbol since right before Coda. That makes me more hopeful than ever. They wouldn’t show it here for no reason. And just like in S5, the yoyo had absolutely no bearing on the plot. It's not like Lydia used it to get away or something. It was just random and has to be symbolic of something just around the corner.

I think it might also be important that it's blue. The yo-yo Tara found was yellow. That signified Beth apparent death, but her escape (think yellow polo shirt). The blue signifies something else. I'm not sure what, but @wdway also noticed a lot of characters in this episode wore dark blue. We batted ideas around about what the blue stands for, and haven’t really come to any concrete conclusions, but it's an interesting pattern to note.

*After double checking this I have to correct myself. Sorta. Michonne did find a yoyo in the van in 9x06. It was in the box with the little sheriff and some other things. She also grabbed some toilet paper right there. I don’t think that counts as it’s own instance, per se, because I think that, being the first episode of the new arc without Rick, it foreshadowed this yoyo with Lydia. But that just means something about this yoyo was important enough to foreshadow at the beginning of the arc. And given what else was in that box Michonne found, I think it’s safe to say this is associated with the emergence of the New Sheriff. Just saying. ;D*

Henry is captured by the whispers and it's obvious that Alpha knows Lydia is lying.

Let's talk about the Apple/Snow White reference. I sort of felt the same way about this as I did about the yo-yo. Obviously, we’ve seen plenty of apple references since Coda, so it's not the apple itself that makes me suspicious. It's the way they used it. Having Aaron talk about applesauce or Maggie eat apple pie are just very vague references to the apple theme. But those things in and of themselves don't illustrate the Snow White theme. So, what did? Beth's arm falling in the hallway of Grady, which is exactly what we see after Snow White ate the poisoned apple.

In this episode, Alpha gave Lydia an apple. The way she offered it to, looking as though trying to entice her to eat it, was pretty much a parody of the wicked queen/witch in Snow White trying to get her to eat the apple. Even the way Alpha watches Lydia take a bite...I had to laugh because it was so obviously an evil queen reference. Like they were trying to emulate the cartoon.

So again, I know this isn’t the only apple reference by far, but it’s the first direct Snow White reference I’ve noticed since Coda. I think we can draw a straight line between Beth's arm falling and this reference.

Lots of interesting symbols in the walker camp. I won't go into many of them because you already know what they mean. We saw a dead goat, which could be an extension of the ram symbol in 5B. Also a dead deer. Like with the Kingdom last episode, it's unclear hat this deer is tied to, but it's there. We also saw pigs on spits. It's also worth noting that they were drying skins. The question was posed in my group, how can they wear these skins without getting sick, given that they're coming off decomposing corpses? But they obviously use tannery to make them leathery and wearable for the long term.

When I watched Beta skin the walker (seriously disgusting) it occurred to me that this walker was female (pretty natural as he was looking for a new skin for Lydia), but also that it was tied to a tree. 

And that made me realize that Henry was also tied to a tree.

I think we can “tie” (see what I did there? ;D) this to the walker Aaron and Daryl found in 5x15. Why is that important? It's not just the Beth reference. It's that they gave us a foreshadow with that walker in 5x15 with the WOLVES and now here, with the Whisperers, the foreshadow might be fulfilled.

I've also talked briefly about how we see parallels between the Wolves and the Whispers. We’ve considered that maybe they’re part of the same group, or maybe they are the same group. But it's also possible we’re being too literal. The parallels might be only in the symbolism. Perhaps the wolves simply foreshadowed the Whisperers. Again, if that's the case, we had the wolves tying people to trees, including a blonde that looked like Beth. We haven't seen that exact thing with the Whisperers, but we've seen that they tie people to trees and they do it to walkers in order to take their faces. It feels like a direct fulfillment of that girl walker on the tree in 5x15 is coming.

We had the part where a male and female Whisperer challenge Alpha and she kills them. Yeah, AMC is obviously not skimping on gore this season.

We learn a lot about Alpha from this encounter. How ruthless she is, how gleefully she kills her own people, and a big part of why no one challenges her. It's not just her, but Beta they'll have to deal with. It’s happened before, as evidenced by her later telling Beta that it’s been years since anyone challenged her. Obviously, she killed them and remained the leader.

Here’s the thing: It occurred to me there must be a very specific reason they showed us this challenge to Alpha’s authority. They never did this, specifically, with Negan. We saw people disobey his rules and be punished for it, but we never actually saw anyone try to usurp his place as leader.

There must be a reason they're showing us this with Alpha. I think a lot of it is to establish her ruthlessness and the way she rules for people, but one line in particular jumped out at me. When the guy challenged her, she laughed at him and said, "and you think you are the one to replace me? To become the new Alpha?" The new alpha. That feels very significant to me. As though it's a thing and at some point, someone might become the new alpha. I’ll return to that in a minute.

On the subject of her brutality, I didn't catch the first time that the cord she used to decapitate a woman is actually worn around her wrist as a bracelet. So Alpha actually carries around a decapitation wire as though it's a piece of jewelry. Doesn’t she just seem sweet?

She gives the woman's head to the boyfriend and makes him hold it. Yeah, you really don't get any more sadistic than that. Just before stabbing him, she says something really interesting. She says, "Crying is weak."

We could relate that back to Beth, who also thought crying was weak. One of her signature lines was, "I don't cry anymore, Daryl." I always felt like she learned through the course of her arc that crying was not actually weak. That was a flawed way of thinking.

Now we have Alpha saying the same thing and killing people when they cry. I think this is more than just a parallel or anti-parallel. I think it’s a direct foreshadow of something.

Let’s skip ahead to when Alpha tells Beta the story about Lydia almost suffocating when she was three years old. First of all, it's obvious Alpha was a psycho even before the turn. She says she actually stood there and watched her daughter turn blue from not being able to breathe. Seriously? Yeah, awesome parenting skills. Afterward, she hit Lydia hard so she’d remember not to accidentally die again.

Something struck me as Alpha and Beta stood there talking. Here comes the super crazy theory.

It occurred to me that Alpha and Beta, especially with Alpha’s blonde walker skin, almost seem like a super-brutal version of Beth and Daryl. I suppose it's the way Beta is her right-hand guy and protects her. We’ve said before that if Beth were leading as the new sheriff, Daryl would be right there by her side. He’d kind of be her enforcer and other half. That’s a lot how Alpha and Beta's relationship is too, except obviously they’re way eviller and more sadistic than Beth and Daryl would be. And that's what sort of clinched some other thoughts I'd been having about this.

1. Beta has been set up as a Daryl foil. I called him a foil instead of anti-parallel because I’m making just a little bit of a differentiation here. Dwight was set up as a Daryl anti-parallel, but I feel like that situation was little bit different than Beta. Although Dwight was an obvious anti-parallel—he actually wore Daryl's clothes and drove Daryl's bike—but by the end of that arc, Dwight was pretty much a good guy. I don't think that will ever be the case with Beta. I don't see him and Alpha becoming part of TF in the way Dwight and Negan seem to be.

No, the last time I remember seeing something like this was in S4. I talked about it HERE in detail, but I felt like one of the Gov’s men, Mitch, had been sent to set up as an foil to Daryl. 

With the Gov being pitted against Rick, as his opposite, Mitch became Daryl's. He was the right-hand man, a super-tough survivor, and he didn't have sleeves. Hehe. So, while Rick and the Gov tussled at the prison, Daryl and Mitch came face-to-face, and Daryl killed Mitch.

I think something very similar is happening here. Beta and Daryl are being set up as foils. So, it's fitting that they’ll tussle in the next episode. And I feel like, when Beta dies, even if it's many seasons from now, it will probably be Daryl that kills him.

2. By extension, if Beta = Daryl, then Alpha must = Beth. And here's where things get complicated. I've already said that Alpha was a lot like Dawn, especially during the prisoner exchange. Then she says the thing about the “new Alpha.” As soon as I visualized that phrase in my head, I knew Beth has to be the New Alpha. It couldn't be anyone else. First of all, we had that cryptic line from Gorman at Grady about someday someone else being in charge who isn’t Dawn. We’ve always seen that as a foreshadow of Beth’s future leadership. Now Alpha is talking about a “new Alpha.”

The reason I'm saying it's complicated is because we also have the Carol aspect. I’ll talk about this in more detail later this week. It's one of those theories I wanted to get to last week and didn't. We have a very strong Carol/Beth entanglement thing going on here.

It's hard to say exactly what it means or how it will play out, but all three elements are present. Now, I do very strongly believe that were going to have a Carol/Alpha showdown. It will have everything to do with Henry and Lydia, and the differences in how they treat their children. I think that's going to be an awesome smack down and I’m excited for it. But I also don't really see Carol becoming the “new Alpha,” whatever that means. She barely wants to be queen and lead by Ezekiel’s side. She certainly wouldn't be volunteering to be a leader anywhere else.

And there's the Alpha/Beta dynamic, who I believe are foils to Beth and Daryl, so again it just makes sense that it would be Beth who’s the new alpha.

So, think about everything else I said. Alpha said crying is weak. Beth said crying was weak. The difference is that when Daryl cried, Beth hugged him, and when this guy cried over his dead girlfriend, Alpha stabbed him. Similarly, Beth said she was stupid, and Daryl assured her she wasn't. In this case, Alpha actually called Lydia stupid and was very derogatory to her about it. Are we seeing the anti-parallels?

We had Beta saying that if Lydia felt something for Henry or Hilltop, they needed to know about it. They’re obviously against genuine emotion is because they see it as a weakness. Conversely, Beth tried to draw the emotion out of Daryl and yelling at him for pretending he didn't feel anything.

We can see further parallels in how they dispose of their dead. The most obvious difference between the Whisperers and TF is that TF always bury their dead and treat them with a great deal of reverence and respect. On the other hand, the Whisperers feed their dead to the walkers. They have no respect for those they've lost, and no emotion for the people that cared about.

We can also relate this to Beth. In Alone, we learned had great reverence for the dead and was a big proponent of funerals. Alpha, on the other hand, doesn't bother to bury anybody. She merely casts the dead away and lets them be walker chow.

One more super obvious evidence that Alpha/Beta = Beth/Daryl? Check this out. My group noticed this from trailer even before the episode aired. 

Beta is wearing black and white ties, just like the ones we saw on Daryl in 5B.

Can I just say, I'm loving the Beta/Daryl match up. My man Norman and my man Ryan. Just totally loving it.

Let's talk briefly about Henry and Lydia. It took me a minute to figure out what Lydia's necklace was. It's the coin she found in the drunk shack. It has an H on it for Hilltop. 

She's obviously hanging on to that in a way that shows she's romantic or nostalgic about it. Henry smiles and obviously sees this is a good thing. Remember that finding that coin was a lot like Beth finding the spoon in S5, so the fact that Lydia is hanging onto it feels like a Beth parallel.

I also can't help but wonder if when we see Beth, we’ll see that she kept the spoon. I think we can also parallel it to Beth's heart necklace, which she wore the entire time she was with Daryl. It disappeared when she went to Grady and we never found out what happened to it.

Alpha tells Lydia to kill Henry and she obviously doesn't want to. She’s saved by the bell when walkers show up, keeping her from having to go through with it.

Alpha said to Lydia, "You weren't gone long. Maybe long enough." I think it was the “gone” that grabbed my attention. Beth is “just gone.” And it becomes an anti-parallel because Lydia wasn't gone long, but Beth has been.

I also liked that Lydia kind of stood up to her mother here. It wasn’t a massive stand or anything, but she said of her father, "Yeah, I know what happened to him, mother." 

So maybe we could see that as a parallel to Beth finally standing up to Dawn after realizing what was really going on.

Beth: “You let this happen, you’re letting it happen.”

Connie and Daryl showed up to get them, wearing walker masks. 

 Then Henry refused to leave without Lydia saying, "I'm not leaving you. I won't."

Obviously a direct parallel to Beth saying the same thing to Daryl.

It’s actually another anti-parallel (action-wise anyway) because Beth said she wouldn't leave Daryl and then they separated. Obviously that was a mistake. Here, Henry said that and, at least so far, he and Lydia haven’t separated. We’ll have to wait and see if they do in coming episodes.

One last word about theme. We saw a lot of people trying to survive rather than to live. Rather than doing the right thing, they're doing the thing that helps them to survive, and obviously that's a mistake. This mindset usually ends in disaster and the characters are going to have to learn to live again, rather than just surviving. So, a theme we’ve seen before, but still worth mentioning.

Okay, did I cramp your brain enough for today? Thoughts?

[livingcorner]

How to get rid of tom cat who is hassling my cats…..

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You're reading: How to get rid of tom cat who is hassling my cats…..

arfy Mon 01-May-06 16:19:57

<<Sigh>>

Have been wondering why my 3 cats aren’t out enjoying the sun much, and why one has taken to pooing in the bathroom overnight (grrr)

Then we spied a neighbouring tom cat spraying the fence and ground right outside our cat flap several times – looks as though the pooing cat is now frightened to go out much.

How do I get rid of this blinking tom cat? Any ideas – will citrus work. Needs to be something that then doesn’t stop my cats going out. And WHY don’t people neuter their cats FGS, it is infuriating.

Also, it has become obvious that we are going to have to rehome our cats when we move to NZ in September

(we’ve decided the trip just isn’t fair on them) – how on earth am I going to find a home for a cat who craps in the bathroom?

fullmoonfish Mon 01-May-06 16:51:57

Keep a couple of loaded water pistols to hand and squirt this tom (up the jacksy is fun) every time you see him. He will hopefully get the message. Not sure whether vitrus works or not, but another tip I read is to spray aftershave round the catflap (outside) to mark the territory of your biggest and most dominant inhabitant (ie you or your partner) No idea whether this works, sorry, but was suggested to me by a barkingly cat-mad friend of mine when I had similar prob. I found water worked best and was greatly satisfying too

Miaou Mon 01-May-06 17:07:48

oh ditto fmf – we keep a loaded supersoaker by the back door and have been known to blast at the offenders through the cat flap … hehehe very satisfying!

arfy Mon 01-May-06 17:26:21

ooh interesting about the aftershave – not sure anyone here believes that DH is the biggest and most dominant person round here but never mind. I have never heard that before! but possibly worth a try

noticed some water pistols in the supermarket yesterday, may go back and get one and then hang out by the cat flap. what fun!

arfy Mon 01-May-06 17:26:41

oh and where’s me manners? Thanks!

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1Baby1Bump Mon 01-May-06 18:12:49

i dont think there is anything you can do about it.

Surfermum Mon 01-May-06 18:40:10

I looked into this as we had a problem with cats pooing in our garden. Apparently what you need to do is get some poo from a cat that’s bigger than the one doing the poo, such as a lion. Sorry that’s probably no help unless you’re on the doorstep of Longleat.

arfy Mon 01-May-06 18:42:18

ah yes, zoo poo

Thanks guys. Think I’m going to have to watch out for the bugger and then chuck some water over him. I feel really sorry for my cats, especially now I’ve got to look for new homes for them

. but also do not want cat crap in the bathroom and zoo poo outside the backdoor as the flat is going on the market in a couple of weeks!

twocatsonthebed Tue 02-May-06 19:03:43

two things that might also help…I had a similar problem a while back.

One is to really clean around the cat flap, as toms come back to spray where they have sprayed before. To get it really clean, you need to use biological washing powder, then wipe it down with surgical spirit, to get rid of any smells. This does work in the long run, but you might have to do it a few times.

The other is to get some Feliway from the vets (spray or a plug in airfreshner kind of thing) for your poor bullied cat – it’s a kind of cat pheremone which will calm them down and make them feel better (and hopefully stop them crapping in the bath!). Also, do they have a litter tray indoors – might be worth it for the short term.

HTH!

BadHair Tue 02-May-06 19:10:07

My cat is most definitely neutered and he sprays like a fire engine. It’s not always un-neutered cats that do it. Still annoying though.

tuppenceworth Tue 02-May-06 19:14:29

My sister has a tomcat that is coming into her house, spraying, getting the kittens pregnant (they’re too young to be neutured!) and then buggering off again!! (typical male?!)

A few weeks ago she caught him, put him in the cat basket and drove him 10 miles away. The cat was back two days after. She caught him again, drove him 20 miles away to the other side of Sheffield and the cooking fat (!!) still came back! It’s going to Aberdeen next time!

BettySpaghetti Tue 02-May-06 19:18:13

tuppenceworth -surely it’ll work out cheaper to take him to the vets to get his nads chopped off

Milliways Tue 02-May-06 19:18:31

My German SHepherd Dog happily clears the way of unwanted cats for our cat

I’m sure our cat lures them into our garden just to watch the fun!

arfy Tue 02-May-06 22:43:58

blimey tuppenceworth – what a nightmare!

Thanks everyone, and especially 2catsonthebed. I was hoping to get away with no litter tray as only one out of the the 3 is pooing indoors (and weeing in the bath – nice!) but think you right, might have to do it. Never heard of Feliway, will investigate – thanks for the tip

I didn’t realise neutered cats spray too – but this bugger is definitely a tom. grr

Mimmie123 Thu 23-Mar-17 20:35:11

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ElloDAAAVE Wed 26-Apr-17 11:02:13

I feel your pain. All my cats are done, but other people around here refuse to spay their females, and the result is feral rapey tomcats yowling under our window all night, spraying all over our front step, and not being able to open our windows in summer or we get invaded and sprayed.

Getting a few dogs certainly helped…nasty toms won’t set foot in our back garden now…but the front garden is a different matter. Which is why I’m often seen haring down the garden path, barefoot, hair flying, broomstick in one hand and squirty water bottle in the other, yelling “FUCK OFF YOU RAPEY PISSYCATS, I MIGHT BE ALMOST VEGAN BUT I’LL HAVE YOUR PISSYBALLS AS EARRINGS YOU LITTLE WANKER”

Related. All the neighbours think I’m mad.

Squirty water bottle works though. For a while.

Artyfartygaga Sat 03-Jun-17 18:55:48

I feel your pain. Since my , really very lovely neighbor moved in next door (genuinely- not sarcasm), about a year ago with her bully -self admitted- cat, who is neutered, my two cats have changed their behaviour big time. One, I’m not so worried about, he seems to try to stand his ground but the other ( they’re brothers) is very obviously not handling the situation at all. Next door’s cat is spraying by the front door, shitting in the front garden and getting in the back and middle garden a lot. My son has seen him in our house. There is a smell of cat pee in the house all the time, although I’m constantly washing the carpets and furniture. We live in a row of tiny cottages. My poor boy that can’t cope has taken to crapping in the living room and by the outside doors- I believe this is called middening; a visual sign to mark their territory. To add to the problem, this poor, sweet boy is epilectic, on a fairly large scale- can fit even in his sleep- and he’s obviously really unhappy. I just don’t know what to do. Can’t keep them in as it would be unfair on his brother. It would be difficult to speak to my neighbour as I don’t see what she could possibly do about it. As it is I think she only lets him out when she’s home. So awkward. What can I do? Any positive advice please? I love my cats.

Artyfartygaga Sat 03-Jun-17 19:43:46

Epileptic. Has fits on an irregular basis. Can be 3 times a day or nothing ( that we’ve witnessed) for 3/4 weeks. Otherwise healthy and very lovely and calm and loving.

MandaBee66 Tue 27-Jun-17 07:37:59

I hope that’s a joke because it’s a disgusting thing to do!

MandaBee66 Tue 27-Jun-17 07:40:10

This is what a boy cat did to my poor girl cat! He came in the house to find her. If I find out who owns him they are getting a vets bill!

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Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

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[issasideblog]

Introduction!

Well, um hello lolol~

How’s it hanging?

This is my first post on this blog, I’m not even sure if I’m going to post anything, but I guess it’s a good place to post my feelings and other things.

I have no idea how to start this, so I guess I’ll just link this post on my other blog, it’ll give a shorter explanation of what’s happening right now heh.

Okay, so hopefully you’ve read that if anyone does read this, or if future me reads this then hello, hope you’re Gucci now~!

Like I said in that post, I’ve been feeling quite down recently.

I’ve always been like this, but recently it’s gotten worse and I’m not entirely sure why, the only reason I can think is that I’m changing medication.

But it doesn’t really explain why I’m constantly sad, or empty/numb

Don’t get me wrong, I do feel happy sometimes, but not a lot.

I don’t have many friends, but I don’t mind to be honest.

I’ve always struggled with friends, this is apparently because I have Autism (there’s that too lolol~), so I’ve never really had friends for a long time.

But, I have one close friend (my best friend) the others are just people I hang out with at school, since I don’t really leave my house. 

I don’t really like the others too much, I know that sounds mean. But I’ve always struggled with attachment.

I don’t get attached easily, especially after I found out that they were talking about me behind my back.

Every single friendship I’ve ever had has ended like that, so I kind of don’t trust many people.

I said above that I rarely leave my house, this is for many reasons I guess.

1. I’m scared of people.

That sounds kind of weird in a way if you don’t understand.

I hate meeting new people, and being around other people makes me incredibly nervous, but I don’t really show it.

I can’t make eye contact with people (another thing to do with my autism heh)

2. It triggers my OCD

This also sounds kind of weird, but I’ll explain.

I have really bad OCD (Which could also be part of my autism apparently) but I hate being touched, and as soon as someone touches me I feel contaminated and have to wash.

I can’t sit in any place, beside my bed without feeling dirty and having to wash.

Nobody can sit on my bed, or I have to change my bedding.

If I don’t shower I feel disgusting but sometimes I have no motivation to shower which makes me feel even worse.

3. I’m paranoid

I constantly feel like I’m being watched, no matter what I’m doing. I could just be sat in my room (like I am right now) and feel like I’m being watched. It stops me doing certain things (like exercising) and I have to change really fast.

Being outside triggers this even more, I feel like everyone is watching me and judging me, or that I’m being followed.

To be honest, I just prefer being inside. I feel safer I suppose, but not entirely safe.

My school life is even worse.

My grades are terrible, so is my attendance.

I struggle to get out of bed on a morning, because I’m exhausted, I have no motivation and I honestly don’t see the point, I feel like I’m not going to live long enough anyway. 

That sounds like I’m going to kill myself, but I wouldn’t because it would hurt people I care about, I guess.

I find it hard to believe people care about me, but I don’t want to risk them being hurt.

But, I’m very clumsy and kind of self-destructive. I don’t really look after myself, and often miss meals and don’t eat or drink for ages.

~

Recently, I’ve started sleeping in school.

I’ll just be listening to the teacher talk and lose focus and just fall asleep.

I fell asleep in my exams, which I failed.

That made me sad, but no one knew heh, people that knew got mad/judged me heh.

I literally have no energy, so I try sleep whenever I can.

Min Yoongi who?

~

I have no motivation to try in school, even though I want to.

I haven’t done homework in three years, nor have I tried hard.

I don’t have good relationships with teachers because of this. They hate me heh.

I sometimes skip lessons, which makes them hate me even more.

My maths teacher now despises me because me and my friend didn’t go to her lesson and gave us a detention (which I couldn’t go to because I wasn’t at school because I was too depressed heh, but my friend did so she doesn’t hate her). But another girl skipped the lesson and didn’t get into trouble which I found rude.

Now my maths teacher treats me like crap and will pick on me any chance she gets which makes me feel like crap and stops me going to her lesson.

I’ve nearly been expelled three times, which was a rollercoaster lmao.

But the latest was last year:

Like I said in my other post, I have Bipolar disorder, which gives me severe mood swings.

During this incident, I was in a manic state, I literally couldn’t control myself it’s kind of like being drunk in a way?

Anyway, me and this teacher were messing around in maths and he said something that I can’t remember and my manic self (please remember I had no control over this, I couldn’t control myself) said

‘Screw you too’

I don’t even know what happened, but he got pissed and yelled at me.

Then sent me out.

A while later, my best friend brought my bag out and I got sent to the deputy head (I think that’s who he is I honestly have no idea lmao).

I later found out she brought my bag out because my actual maths teacher (not the one that sent me out) said if she brought me it, I’d accuse her of doing something to it.

Probably not wrong tbh

Yeah, so I got sent to the maybe deputy head, I don’t know guy for the rest of the lesson (it was my last period, so I could go home straight after). He made me, my best friend and our ex best friend stay behind, except my ex best friend ran off.

We both had to give a statement of what happened????

(This is kind of turning into me talking shit about my school whoops)

But then yeah, my best friend said she didn’t want to do it in case they lied against us, but she was forced to.

THEY DID LIE AGAINST US IT WAS RIDICULOUS.

Around this time, I was being forced to stay behind because I was missing school.

Apparently, it was to ‘catch up’ but I didn’t do anything besides sit there???

So, it was basically a detention, even though my reason for missing school was my mental illness.

Anyway, I was forced to write an apology letter to both teachers, even though I didn’t do anything to one of them?

The whole screw you was literally a joke??? I thought we were messing around which we were.

Anyway yeah, they refused to let me leave until I did it.

(I couldn’t get out without them letting me)

I can’t remember what I wrote but my head teacher had to help me because I refused to write it, because in my mind (and many others) I didn’t do anything wrong, I couldn’t help my actions and they knew it.

But yeah, I was forced to do this, and went home crying.

My parents were pissed.

I’m pretty sure they called the school and told them to retract the apology or something. I don’t wanna ask now lmfao.

So, them both the maths teacher and the other one that I said it to (he’s now my physics teacher and is nice to me??? but it’s gucci) hated me and so I stopped showing up to that lesson, and form (she was my form tutor)

EVERY MATHS TEACHER I’VE HAD IN SECONDARY HAS HATED ME WTH WHY AM I SO UNLIKABLE???

~

Anyway, my school didn’t believe me when my parents told them I had bipolar disorder.

The school phoned my doctor without us knowing, and asked if I actually had it.

My doctor phoned my parents because it’s confidential and they needed permission, which we gave.

But yeah there’s that too.

I have so many bad incidents in school what even

~

Because of my disorder and other shizzle, I have a lot of appointments, I miss a lot of school.

At one point my teacher (the physics/screw you guy. Why is he always in this? He’s nice now but still) told me I should cancel them.

I can be really suicidal and put myself and others in danger do you really want that, buddy?

But now, they’re demanding all letters of my appointments, but it’s confidential????

Like uh no go away, my mental illness don’t get your own they suck.

~

My PE teacher (I am so tempted to give her name because I really don’t like her but I’m not actual that mean, she also might see this and sue me lolol)  is one of the worse for dealing with my illness tbh, despite the fact her brother killed himself.

This next part is probably gonna sound really attention seeky but meh, I’m just going to be honest here, because honesty is the best policy.

She treats everyone else really nice (except a recent incident with my best friend) but it comes to me and she’s horrible.

She ignores it, and/or blames it on me (this is another thing entirely ugh).

One time I was really depressed in physics (ITS THE SCREW YOU TEACHER AGAIN FGS LMAO) and he was like ‘I’ll email pe teacher and tell her’ but instead of telling her I was sad, he said I refused to work????

I was sat in the changing rooms, basically crying and she comes in and yells at me for not doing pe.

(side note: I don’t do PE because of my paranoia, insecurity and OCD heh)

I haven’t done pe in three years wth you know this???

Then she goes

“Do you want to talk about it? Never mind you never do.” and walks out.

I don’t like talking to others about my feelings, because in my mind they don’t care and I’m just a bother to them.

~

In year seven, I was forced to go to the school councillor.

She brought another girl (who for the record, is horrible and I really don’t like her).

She then started talking about my bipolar and saying stuff meaning the horrible girl knew all aboout my private stuff.

The councillor then went on to say my disorder is my own fault????

Apparently, I was just hanging around with the wrong people and not having enough confidence??

No, I have a mental illness, I can’t prevent it.

~

Trigger warning: self-harm

A few years ago, I used to cut myself (I don’t anymore) and my teacher was trying to force me to take my jumper off, and at some point, I got in trouble for cutting myself h e c c.

~

A few weeks ago, I told my teacher about how I was struggling with body issues and starving myself. She asked me how I was once but did nothing else.

If it wasn’t for my friend and parents realising I could have starved myself to death, and she would have watched it happen.

I even wrote a song about it recently and it was obvious it was about me, but my teacher read it (it was for an assessment) and said nothing.

~

Alas I cannot think of any more incidents at school, there are literally too many.

Ever since an early age, I’ve struggled with sleep.

I can go days without sleeping or sleep all day.

This sometimes actually depends on my bipolar.

If I’m manic, I can stay up for days, if I’m depressed I can and most likely will, sleep for days.

I also have something called delayed sleep phase syndrome (Jesus I have a lot of problems)

So, my sleeping schedule is messy.

It’s literally 7:30am and I haven’t slept even though I’m exhausted.

My whole life I’ve had low self-esteem.

I hate everything about myself.

This could be because I’ve been bullied my whole life.

One of my biggest issues is with my weight (You can probably tell where this is going so trigger warning)

I’ve always gone through phases of not eating for days, or rarely eating but recently has been the worse it’s ever been.

I was barely eating, I’d go days without eating, sometimes I would force myself to throw up.

I was constantly over exercising and sometimes I would lose all energy and I’d just collapse to the floor and couldn’t get up, but I’d still push myself.

I lost all my energy, which led to me sleeping at school, as you read above.

I even nearly fell asleep while walking home once.

I told my teacher this too once, not the whole thing, just that I was insecure and wasn’t really eating (like you read above) and she didn’t do anything.

Like I said, I have low self-esteem so I rarely like myself.

I constantly think my friends hate me, this is also because almost everyone prefers my best friend to me and leave me for her.

I think I’m unlikable, and honestly, I’m sure it’s true, no matter what others say.

No matter how many compliments and things I get, I never believe it, they just make me think I’m being pranked and people are laughing at my reactions.

I also get intrusive thoughts sometimes.

I’ll just be doing something and thoughts about me being worthless and other things like that will bombard my mind, or I will get thoughts about killing myself or killing others and I can’t stop it.

It’s just something that happens to me now, to the point it rarely bothers me.

I sometimes, not often, hear things and hallucinate.

This is rare though but has been happening more and more often recently.

They’re usually voices telling me my friends don’t like me, I’m worthless, stupid, they insult me and things like that. They also just repeat things I’ve heard during the day really loudly.

I’ve never really told anyone this.

I sometimes see flashes of faces and people in my sight, I’m not sure if that’s hallucinations but yeah.

Above I said that I’ve always had bad friends, besides now.

One of my worst was being bullied constantly, I don’t even know why I tried being their friends, I was very naive.

One of them still hates me rip.

He’s dangerous now so you know, kind of paranoid.

Another friendship was when one girl’s mother was a drug dealer and they all tried pressuring me into doing drugs and smoking with them.

I never did, I just came up with a lie it wasn’t hard to be honest.

They probably knew but who cares?

Earlier on I said I have paranoia (if it can be called that).

But yeah, I feel like I’m being watched all the time, no matter what I’m doing.

I’m not sure who, but I just feel like someone out there is watching me either through my window (so I always have my curtains closed), through my camera (so I always have them covered) or through a hidden camera in my room which I can’t do anything about.

I once hid under my covers because it got too much, but the feeling was still there.

I’m suddenly exhausted.

My mind has gone blank, but I’ll try post more I guess, if I remember, or have something to write about.

Thank you for reading!

I hope you have a good day/night! ^-^ <3

 I’ve probably made loads of mistakes here because I suck hEH SORRY

[ruffoverthinksthings]

Can you do Cheddie or BenxJordan for the ship meme? Idk where you find the list exactly, but here are questions I see often around the Internet. Who accidentally pushes instead of pulling? Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a smile? Who is physically stronger? Emotionally? Who starts the pillow fights? Who starts the tickle fights? Who comes up with cheesy pick up lines? Who boasts about the other? Who gets jealous? Who hogs blanket? Thx!

This is what I found as there’s SO MANY OF THEM. I also didsomething very different, hope you don’t mind. 1-9 of 30 for now,ask again for the rest in this style, or in the usual simple answersthan what I did, if you’d like.

1.Who is the most affectionate?:

“Good morning, my queen,” Chad said as he wrapped his armsaround Freddie, gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “Makingmore shrunken heads today?” he asked as he looked over her shoulderand at her cauldron.

Freddie chuckled and blushed. “Believe it or not, it’sactually for a catering job; Carlos is having a horror movie marathonand wants the food to be as gooey and messy as the flicks.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll have them screaming indelight,” Chad said. “These hands of yours are magic”.

Freddie scoffed. “Flirt.”

“Want me to stop?”

“Hell no.”

2.Big spoon/Little spoon?:

It felt weird to be cuddling just for fun, not because it wasfreezing, because that’s what her current boyfriend wanted in tradefor keeping her around, or because he was paranoid that she’d sneakaround and steal his stuff, so he’d make it as difficult aspossible for her to get up in the middle of night and do just that.

As Freddie felt Chad’s strong, muscular arms wrapped tightaround her waist, his warm, steady breath on the back of her head,every inch of her body perfectly fitted against his, she had toadmit:

It was a good kind of weird.

3.Most common argument?:

“Chad, I swear if you make another literature referencewhile we’re kissing or fucking, I will permanently exile tothe couch.”

“Aww, where’s your sense of humour, Fred?”

“It died when you quoted the first lines of Dante’s Infernowhile you were going down on me.”

((They do have much more serious arguments, but that’s forlater.))

4.Favorite non-sexual activity?:

“I can’t believe you’ve never tried braiding all thisbeautiful hair of yours,” Chad said as he did just that.“Especially since keep growing it so long!”

“Yeah, well it wasn’t so much a choice, as much as I couldn’tafford to waste my knives’ sharpness on cutting my hair,” Freddiereplied as she sat still, watched her boyfriend’s deftly fingerswork through her dark locks.

“Well all that ends now! Short, long, hell, even bald, just saythe word and I’ll point you to exactly the stylist you needto get your hair however you want it.”

Freddie frowned. “I don’t know, Chad--I’ve been wearing myhair long for all my life... what if I don’t look good withanything other than this?”

Chad smiled warmly at her. “Freddie, it’s you: you alwayslook good.”

((There’s also baking, but I did that already.))

5.Who is most likely to carry the other?:

Never let it be said that Chad Charming didn’t know how to makean entrance.

Trumpets. Song birds and a fucking angelic choir. And of course,to top it all off, the front door burst open with suitably dramaticlight, before Chad himself rode into their living room on the back ofa white horse, though the only thing shining about him was his smile.

Freddie had seen it happen hundreds of times, yet every singleinstance, she could only stop, stare, and try to wrap her head aroundthe fact that this was really happening, again.

“Hail, my darling Frederica!” Chad cried in his mostover-the-top voice possible. “I return from the brutal battlefieldof the Annual Commoner’s Grievance Airing, alive, tired and alittle deaf, but still ready to perform all myhusbandly duties to you, my queen!”

He disembarked from his horse, grinned like a loon as he scoopedher up into his arms, bridal style. “Shall we?”

Freddie blushed and chuckled. “Onwards to our bedchambers, dearhusband!”

“ONWARDS!” Chad bellowed.

He turned around to the various animals and musicians he’dhired, thanked them and dismissed them, before he proudly marchedhimself and his wife into their bedroom, for a no less loud andexhausting but infinitely more pleasant couple of hours.

6.What is their favorite feature of their partner’s?:

“They can’t keep their hands off each other,” they said, andit was true.

Intertwining their fingers. Touching an arm, a shoulder, a thigh.Cuddling, snuggling, hugging.

Be they rough, scarred, and bony, agile and deft from years ofpicking pockets and locks, deft twists of the wrist, and illusionsand tricks meant to dissuade, persuade, and delude; or strong yetsoft and supple from years of strength training, horse riding, andTourney, and meticulous care with the best products you could get inAuradon, they absolutely couldn’t get enough of the other’shands.

“But why hands?” they asked.

Because if she wanted a radiant smile and rippling muscles, shecould have pulled out her phone or taken a stroll down any commercialarea in all of Auradon and look at the advertisements.

Because if he wanted a sly grin and an aura of mischief, he couldhave done the same, except the trip was down the forgotten districtsand cul-de-sacs the Islanders called their Isle away from the Isle.

But if they wanted to do more than look at them, to touch them, tohold them, to feel them, to be more than a fantasy, to know that theywere real—oh so real… well, you needed more than your eyesfor that, for sure.

7.What’s the first thing that changes when they realize theyhave feelings for the other?:

“You headed to the game this Friday?” read the messagefrom Chad.

Had this been sent yesterday—before Freddie had had the lifechanging realization that her feelings for Chad were much more thanfriendly; that she didn’t want to just hang out with him,talk with him about all the things she couldn’t even share withTiana, Tyrone, or Mama Odie, and share her puffed deliciousness justbecause she liked him that much; that she, despite everything shethought, all she knew of herself, and how the way the world works,she actually, truly fell in Love with him—she would havereplied “Yes.” almost reflexively, maybe even put in a wittycomment about when she had refused to come if she had the choice inthe matter.

Now she was staring at her phone, agonizing over it, wonderingwhat to write, typing a few letters out before she deleted them andstarted all over again. She felt so, so sorry for every personshe ever made fun of for stressing out because of a text from theircrush, for she now understood exactly what they felt.

She was interrupted by a knocking on her door. She threw her phoneonto her bed, and tossed a pillow over it—she didn’t want to seeor hear it for a long, long while—before she strode over to herdoor, and threw it open, grateful for whoever had given her the muchneeded distraction…

… Up until she realized said “whoever” was Chad.

“Hey, Fred!” Chad said, casually waving at her with one hand,the other propping himself up on the door frame.

“Chad…!” Freddie squeaked—legitimately, actually fuckingsqueaked. “What are youdoing here…?”

“Well, you haven’t beenanswering any of my texts or calls lately, so I figured I might aswell it out in person, seehow that works out. So, you coming to the game on Friday…?”

“I, uh...” Freddie began tosweat, words that used to come so easily to her suddenly sodifficult, her infamously lose and sharp tongue now tied up in knotsand useless like a drunk that had clumsily swung his fists about andknocked himself out in the process.

Chad’s face softened. “Youdon’t have to if something’s up, which I’m assuming is thecase. This isn’t going to be the last game of Tourney I’ll everplay,” he said, before he knocked on wood—just in case.

Freddie nodded, tried to saysomething but couldn’t.

“So for clarity, is this a ‘No,I won’t be going to the game on Friday?’” Chad asked.

Freddie nodded her head.

Chad smiled. “Alright. Goodnot-talk with you, Fred,” he said, before he left.

Freddie slowly, carefully closedthe door after him, before she put her back to it and slumped down tothe floor.

Evilness, she was sofucked.

8.Nicknames? & if so, how did they originate?:

“My Queen, your Highness, your majesty,” because I am yourservant, and you are the voodoo priestess who has me under her spellforevermore.

“Dear Sir Knight,” for you are my protector, he who will swoopin and kick the asses of whoever dares harm me, and save me frommyself.

“Fred,” so you’ll get annoyed and ask me to call you by yourreal, beautiful name, “Frederica.”

“Pretty Boy,” for that’s what you are, so dangerously,distractingly handsome.

9.Who worries the most?:

“You missed your Thursday session with FG yesterday, what’sup?” read Chad’s text.

Freddie sighed as she sat in her room, curled up in one corner,staring at the pillow her phone was hidden under because she justcouldn’t work up the courage to pick it up, turn it back on, readthe text and reply to Chad, tell him she couldn’t get herself outof bed, let alone drag her ass all the way to Fairy Godmother’soffice because she just couldn’t, norhyme, no reason.

Or maybe there was, and she just didn’t have enough shits tofigure it out, put words to it, find some way to be able tocommunicate all the confusing, horrible, painful feelings inside ofher to other people in ways they could understand, or at least givethem some idea of what it was that was going wrong with her now.

Knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock-kno-knock.

Freddie didn’t look up.

“Freddie?” Chad asked. “Can I come in?”

She didn’t respond.

Chad opened the door and carefully peered. His eyes swept theroom, until he found Freddie. He stepped in, shut the door behindhim, and walked over to her. “You want to talk about it?” heasked as he sat down beside her on the floor.

Freddie shook her head.

Chad nodded, then looped his arm over her shoulder.

However little, Freddie smiled as she leaned into him, resting herhead on his chest.

No more words were said afterwards, nor did they need them.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x16: Analysis and What We Can Expect for S9

So I finally had the chance to rewatch and get my thoughts together about this last episode. Everyone should read @thegloriouscollectorlady’s post from yesterday. (X) I won’t go into as much detail about the arcs as she did, because she did a great job covering them and I agree with all her conclusions. Basically, I’ll go over details and hints they gave us about what to expect next season.

***As always, spoilers for 8x16 abound, so don’t read if you haven’t watched yet.***

There was definitely a theme about leading walkers way. First, we saw Alden and the other saviors lead walkers away from Hilltop. Then the huge herd that TF saw from the hill. Someone asked if Rick had ever seen a herd that large and he said no, so we can assume it was bigger than the one at the quarry. That doesn't bode well.

Baby Gracie made an appearance, wearing pink and with the yellow blanket, which we always tied to Beth. They also brought out parallels between Carl and Siddiq. The fact that they both lost their mothers and were good people who were trying to honor them. I also think it might be important that Siddiq is the kind of person who believes in killing the dead. He talked about his mom believing they had souls and so it was important to put them down. We’ve seen similar themes in the past.

Siddiq talked about how all that's left of the people we lose are their ideas. It’s basically the same thing that Glenn said to Enid in S6. That jives well with what @thegloriouscollectorlady said about Maggie’s arc and how Glenn will “find” her.”

The flash of Beth running in the opening credits is still there. If nothing else convinces you that her arc is still going, just remember that.

Eugene said they would “alpha to omega this thing less than 10”. Lots of symbols there. 

I also think it's important that Negan was willing to sacrifice his own people. Granted, Rick killed the saviors in the bar, even after they helped him. That was wrong, and not at all justified. But one thing you can say about Rick is that he's never willingly sacrificed his own people. He's more loyal to them than that. That I think is the line we can draw between Negan and Rick. He is willing to sacrifice good people if he feels it necessary. People are a resource to him, but also a means to an end. Rick has never viewed his people that way.

Morgan slitting the Savior’s throat at the beginning was a foreshadow of Negan getting his throat slit.

I'm pleasantly surprised that we didn't have any character deaths. I thought there might be up to three, and I'm genuinely relieved they all survived. Eugene did get his Sampson -like moment of redemption. The only difference is that he didn't die, which Sampson did. The redemption is very similar because Eugene saved his people and killed his enemies in one fell swoop, just like Sampson did. Will Eugene die soon? Possibly. They could always kill him off near the beginning of S9. It's also possible that while they use the Sampson template for his arc, if he has further to go, the difference will be that he doesn't die as Sampson did. I think it could go either way.

Someone pointed out to me that Father Gabriel wore the exact same color of blue that Beth did at Grady. I think he was something of a parallel to her in this episode. First, he was with an enemy (parallels between Negan and Dawn) and he tried to escape. He was caught and dragged back. Then later he was used in a hostage situation. So I guess the biggest thing we can take from this is that he survived. Which is good. ;D

Let's talk about the fight between Negan and Rick.

Two plate glass windows hung from tree. It doesn't make any sense for them to be hanging there and the show doesn't give us any explanation, so they must be thematic. They have crosses on them. Remember Beth wore a cross when she got shot.

What stood out to me is that Rick, firing at Negan, shoots a hole in one of the plate glass windows. 

It was very similar to the scene where FG and Sasha fought over the gun in 5x16 and shot the picture of the birch trees. 

I think the theme is the same. The camera focused on the hole in the plate glass window several times, which means they really wanted us to notice it. And I really think it comes back to the brutality theme.

When the leadership is being brutal, using violence to solve problems, people die. That was definitely true of Beth getting shot. Not only was TF being brutal, but Dawn was too, and it resulted in Beth (and Dawn) being shot. So we had the FG/Sasha sequence where glass was shot, and we’ve always thought that was an analogy for Beth being shot. Now we just saw a similar scene happen again. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that, unless it's to say that Beth arc is what's coming up next.

Think about it: the last time we saw the sequence was in 5x16. That was the last time that we saw the music box and it's almost like the two sequences are book ending what came between S5 and S9. Perhaps the sequence in S9, and the music box, was sort of a sendoff. Like saying we wouldn’t see this stuff again for a few seasons. I'm hoping it being present here shows that Beth’s arc will come next. The music box will return.

Small details from the scene:

Negan counts down from 10. He only gets to 8. That's exactly what happened with Joe Claimer in 4x16. At this point, I think this probably has more to do with Rick than anything else. Joe claimer stopped on 8, and Rick killed him in a very brutal fashion. He did still slit Negan's throat here, but then he saved him as well, which is what the opposite of what he did with Joe Claimer. It shows a change in growth on his part.

I couldn't help but be reminded, when Rick slit Negan's throat, of the walker he killed in Coda. When chasing Officer Lambson, he slices its abdomen open and its guts spill out. That was very much the height of Rick's. Once again, we have him saving Negan, where he didn't save Lambson. And I even think that, like the broken glass window, it could be indicative of a return of the arcs we saw in Coda.

When Maggie starts yelling about wanting to kill Negan, she uses the phrase, "we have to end it." It reminded me of something Crazy Walker Chick said in 4x01. She tells Rick not to put her down when she turns into walker. "Don't end it after." Really interesting foreshadow. Rick had to reach a point where he didn't end life after the battle. As he said many times, there has to be something after. So I think Clara’s line was always a foreshadow of S8.

Rick lets Negan live:

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about this around the fandom. Overall, I agree with those who say Negan should have been killed. In terms of justice, he really should have been. He really does need to pay for the things he’s done. And just like the Gov, I really think Negan’s too far gone. They can never trust him in the way Carl wanted, to be part of the community without doing something bad. Negan even told Rick that in the episode. One of the last things he says before Rick cuts his throat, in response to Rick saying, "you're beaten," he replies, “I'll get out of it. I always do." So he's always going to be trying to get the upper hand somehow.

On the other hand, it's also important to understand that keeping Negan alive was not about justice. Rick didn't do it because he thought Negan deserved to live. It's about society, as @thegloriouscollectorlady explained. I also think it's about Rick's mindset. He couldn't separate putting away his brutality and killing Negan. The two had to go together. In his head, to honor Carl, Negan had to live. Rick tells Negan that in the infirmary. He says, "this is not about who you killed."

Narratively, I see now why they kept him alive: to cause conflict and kick us into the next season. Maggie, Daryl, and Jesus don't like that he's being left alive, so this is going to inform the arcs moving forward.

Most of us picked up on the Daryl and Dwight scene as super-important for TD. I completely agree with everything @thegloriouscollectorlady said. The fact that Dwight is leaving, which means he could end up being yet another character out there whose fate we don't know, is no small thing.

Another important thing: while Rick said, "my mercy prevailed over my wrath," he wasn't the only one that was true of. It’s true of most of the characters. Morgan got to a point where he didn't kill people, thanks to Jesus. Carol’s evolution to this point has taken a long time. Remember, she killed Karen David in S4, and now she seems very happy, and is showing a lot more mercy. Over time, her mercy prevailed over her wrath as well. We saw it happen with Daryl as well. He took Dwight out to the woods with every intention of killing him, but then ended up letting him live. Daryl’s mercy prevailed over his wrath as well.

Some details about the scene.

Symbols were strong here. When he let him go, Daryl threw Dwight a set of keys. (Key theory).

Dwight said, "I'm a piece of shit." That's exactly what Tara said to Glenn when she first met him after the prison fell. She was acknowledging the wrong she done by being with the Gov and how guilty she felt. So another theme from S4.

Finally, I hope it wasn't lost on anyone that Dwight found the key to finding Sherry inside a small, white cabin. We’d seen this cabin before. It's part of Dwight’s story, but I think Beth is inside a cabin somewhere. They’re paralleling Dwight and Sherry heavily with Beth and Daryl, and we know Emily filmed in that cabin for S5. None of that is a coincidence. It will lead to something.

Dwight finds a note from Sherry, which harkens back to Beth’s thank you note. Inside was a an eternity sign. We can only assume what she wrote is a clue to where Dwight can find her. He smiled, which probably means he understands and knows where she is. (Wherever they took their honeymoon.)

So the question is, was their honeymoon in Atlanta? Could he be going back there? Could they have taken their honeymoon in the same cabin Mandy and her family stayed in? Could Dwight meet Legs somewhere around when they get there? Okay, maybe that's taking it a bit far, but I'm just asking. ;D

I also think another possibility is that perhaps Dwight could go to Texas. It depends on how soon they merge the two series, and I'll talk about this more tomorrow when I talk about TTD and FTWD, but there were some interesting themes going on in Fear, around Morgan, that make me think it's still possible Beth could show up there. Just one possibility, of course.

I also want to point out a dialogue parallel. As he's walking away, Daryl says, "Find her." We specifically heard that phrase back in S4 with Glenn and Maggie. Every time I think about it, I hear in Abraham's voice. "I get it. (Beth line) You have to find her." TD has said many times that Maggie and Glenn's reunion in 4B is a foreshadow of Beth and Daryl's reunion. Plus we have the inherent dark tunnel symbolism, as it happened inside a dark tunnel. Now they’re using the exact same phrasing, talking about Dwight finding Sherry, who’ve been heavily paralleled with Beth and Daryl. I’m just saying it all works together.

Also, this convo is pretty much proof that Daryl was talking about Beth in 7x03. Of course, TD never needed any proof, but even so. This confirms that everything Dwight did, he did for Sherry. Daryl understands that. The fact that Dwight and Sherry are being heavily paralleled with Beth and Daryl, shows that Beth is the only one he could possibly have been talking or thinking about in S7.

Dwight says, "It doesn't matter why." Can't you just hear Beth's words echoing after that? "It does matter." I'm sure Daryl did. I'm sure he was thinking about her when listening to Dwight grovel. That's why he let Dwight go. It really wasn't out of the goodness of his heart. It was for Beth.

 Let’s appreciate that this episode ended with the sunset. We can see sunrises and sunsets in the show and have them not be the beginning or ending of an arc. But any time an arc closes, they specifically show a sunset. (Such as when Sasha died.) This episode ended with a sunset. I think we can expect sunrise next season and the beginning of a new arc.

Okay so let's talk about what we can expect next season.

They gave us a lot of hints at the end of this episode for what we can expect moving forward. Mostly everyone his friends now. Dwight and Rosita made up. Carol, Ezekiel, Henry and Jerry all went back to the kingdom together, looking very happy and peaceful. I think it's safe to say we can expect more Carzekiel in S9.

Tara seems to be taking up residence at the Sanctuary. Perhaps she will become a leader there, which I think is cool. I noticed that when she arrived in the truck, she said they brought glass to fix all the windows. So we have an opposite of broken glass here: the glass being repaired.

The Maggie/Jesus/Daryl thing. Nobody saw that coming. Nobody. It's disturbing, but also just the conflict that will happen next season. The question I have is why Jesus is involved. After all his arguing with Tara about saving saviors, I wonder why he would conspire with them to kill Negan. I guess we won’t know until next season.

Probably the most telling line to me came when Rick and Michonne talked to Negan. They talked about rebuilding and Rick talked about what Negan did to everyone and what he took from them. Rick says they're going to rebuild,

"Something like what we had. Something were going to get back."

Things really clicked for me when I heard that. Next season is going to be about getting back things that they've lost. Only after the war, will they get back what they lost.

Then there’s this dialogue parallel:

Daryl didn't really get back what he lost back in S5, but I feel like this is a hint that he will in S9.

S9 may be a replay of S4:

Here's the other thing we talked about briefly in my group. Even though everything we’d predicted about Rick’s arc came true (he really did have a chance to integrate the communities and made it work this time, rather than what happened on the prison with the Gov; so the opposite happened, including leaving Negan alive vs. killing the Gov), this episode actually felt a lot like the end of 3x16. Remember that in that episode, they took the people of Woodbury, brought them to the prison and integrate them into their community. At that point, the Gov was also alive, but no one in TF knew where he was.  Here, of course they know where Negan is, but he’s staying alive for the time being.

So if narratively this episode represents 3x16, it would make sense that Beth will appear next season, perhaps as early as 9x01, to parallel her coming front and center in 4x01 (Bethyl hug) and to go back to that arc. I even wonder if they’ll do something with Negan to parallel the Gov, and there will be some big confrontation in 9x08 where he’ll die. Of course that remains to be seen.

In terms of Beth, everything seems to be coming together for her to show up either in FTWD or S9. We have Dwight going somewhere, we don't know where. We had the mysterious Legs in the Red Machete. I think they have to show us who that is, because what would be the point of showing the legs and not the face, and then just ending it there?

I remember during S5, one of tptb—Greg Nicotero, I think—said something about how if there's romance for Daryl, it's not going to be for really long time. I don't even remember if he said that before or after Coda. Probably after. Well, it's been a really long time. Meanwhile, Norman’s hinted at a romance for Daryl after AOW, which is now officially over. And now these rumors that they might be filming at Grady.

This is why I can never quite answer when people ask me if I'm going to give up after a certain season. I always say it depends on how the season is and what we see in the show. With all this stuff coming together, I just can't. I think we'll see her in S9, and I do think now that perhaps Dwight will have something to do with that. It would create a really beautiful symmetry to have Dwight bring Beth to Daryl. It would be yet another reason why we saw so much Beth symbolism in 6x06.

Meanwhile, did everyone see what Norman posted on Monday? Pretty sure it’s a fan edit, but he reposted it and said they were getting back to it, meaning the start of S9 filming. Could it be that the wolves will appear in season 9? ;D (”There’s gonna be a party when the wolf comes home...”)

Thoughts?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Why the 7b Promo Pics are Giving Me TD Tingles ;D

Good morning Everyone! How was everyone’s weekend? Good, I hope. Mine was fabulous! So for those who don’t know, AMC has released promo pics for 7b. As always, they’re terribly interesting. I’ve had lots of questions about them over the past few days, so I promised I would do a post analyzing them. Right off the bat I need to thank and acknowledge my FB group. We talked about these a lot and all hashed out ideas for what they reminded us of and what we thought they meant. Special thanks to @boltthrutheheart, @birdiehaven (IG), @lilly.loup (IG), @katkhaos, and @thegloriouscollectorlady for their genius input.

Remember that images used for promo pics generally will show up somewhere in the plot, but also have deeper, symbolic significance as well.

Let’s start with the pics that don’t do much for me. 

First, the cantaloupes. Of course they’re something that grows, so they could be synonymous with “green,” but even for me, that’s a stretch. They have some symbolism in Eastern cultures, but nothing that jumped out at me. The only thing we came up with in our group is that maybe they’re for practice killing (chopping heads like melons). But, who knows?

Then this picture. It’s just very generic and nothing especially jumps out at me. Looks like a reference to the junk yard community, but I’m not seeing much else. Moving on.

Overturned bucket with seeds. The gardening experts in the group tell me these are either tomato or paprika seeds. Either one would have potent symbolism, but personally I think they’re probably tomato. Not just from the way they look but because we’ve seen this symbol so often entangled with Beth symbolism. We saw tomatoes at Grady, and again around Morgan in 6x04, which had tons of callbacks. I think they’ve mentioned growing tomatoes in more than one place. And the most common thing tomatoes symbolize is solidarity. Remember Tara’s line from 5x07: “Solidarity. Band of brothers.” It’s something TF is constantly striving for and we see it a lot in the show.

Peanuts. Peanuts are a very potent symbol and I think it’s interesting that they’re included here. The biggest thing peanuts represent in western culture is mystery. Like, what’s under the shell? So the whole point is mystery. The fact that something is hidden. The shell needs to be broken to find it. I think we can all relate that to TD without help, yeah? And another interesting thing? Peanuts are specifically equated with the Christmas season. I know Christmas is past for us, but that’s super-interesting to me for two reasons: first there’s Daryl’s “I never got nothing from Santa Clause,” which we haven’t seen fulfilled yet. (I’m always wondering if maybe we HAVE seen a few of these and just missed them, but at this point, I kind of don’t think so. The symbolism is still being employed.) Plus there’s that December calander behind the obvious Beth-walker in 5x10. We hoped it meant she would return in December (the s7 MSF) Obviously we interpreted that wrong, but the “Christmas” symbolism is still around. And I suppose it might be a western Christ thing. In reality, Christ was born in the spring but all of western culture celebrates his birthday in December. But I digress. My point is, very interesting peanut symbolism.

The bike. I don’t have much to say about this. Don’t know what it means. But it does bring one very specific thing to mind. In Daryl’s/Norman’s opening credit, we see Daryl’s vest through the spokes of a bike. And we’ve always figured that was about his motorcycle, even though there aren’t spokes on the wheel of a motorcycle. Doing the spokes just made it possible to put two symbols of him in the opening credits. But we’ve seen bikes elsewhere. The instance that always comes to mind first for me is when the camera focuses on one outside the house Rick breaks out of when the Claimers show up in 4x11.  That was a super-obvious Beth/Grady parallel, and part of the reason I formulated my bike theories. (X, X, and X). Now we have a pic of a bike that includes spokes. Again, not sure what it means, but I’m sure it’s important. ;D

Then we have more nuts, this time walnuts, I believe. The biggest callback I’m seeing here is to The Grove. In that case, the nut was different. It was pecans. But Lizzie, Mica, and Carol cracked and cooked tons of them. It was a big part of the episode. Also notice that he nut cracker in this case is a hammer, not unlike the one Tyreese always carried. He was also a big part of that episode. So what does this mean? Well, on the one hand, it may have nothing to do with Beth. I’ve said before and my group has talked a lot about that we think part of Carol and Daryl’s arc in ep 9 and 10 may be Carol finally talking to him about what happened with the girls. This could be a sign of that, if it turns out to be the case. But I’ve talked plenty of times before about how Lizzie especially is tied to Beth as an anti-parallel. I’ve kind of come to associate Lizzie and Mica becoming relevant again with Beth becoming relevant again. And also remember that Lizzie, Mica and Beth all showed up in Ty’s death hallucination. It’s all connected, folks. ;D

But there is another picture that makes me think tptb are specifically invoking Ty’s death. This one:

Skeletal corpse. Not only does it look just like the one in Ty’s death episode (5x09) 

but as I said in my analysis of the S7 opening credits, there’s one there as well. 

And this one in the opening credits, just like the flash of Beth running in the yellow shirt, happens so fast that you can’t see it unless you slow it down. It’s like something the show is hiding in plain sight. That’s very significant to me, guys. And obviously whatever we’re seeing in the credits will probably become relevant in 7b. And I think it’s tied to…um, Ty. ;D

Dynamite. We’re hoping Daryl gets to blow up more shit. That’s always great. But remember the matches Daryl used to escape. He didn’t light them, which means they were completely useless plot-wise, and therefore unnecessary. Which means they’re symbolic. Jesus gave him one and then a box of matches held the door open. Sounds like fire is the gateway to escape, which is in line with what we saw in Still. They burnt down the moonshine shack to free themselves from the shackles of their past. Now we’re seeing dynamite. I’m kind of excited. :D

Lantern. I won’t say much about this one because it’s fairly obvious. It’s an agent of light and fire, which we see around Beth a lot. (Lamp post here.) We also saw a lot of these particular types of lanterns in the manor house at Hilltop. And there were a lot of them in cabin in The Grove too. So another symbol we’ve seen a lot of in past seasons, often associated with TD-type symbolism. There’s also a hanging drill with a sinister looking drill bit. Yeah, that’s creepy.

Bloody handprint. We saw something very similar to this in Ty’s death episode. So another tie back to what happened directly after Coda. And I’m sure we’ve seen bloody hand prints more than once in the series. Ty was just the first one that jumped to mind for most of us.

Okay, let’s get to the really good stuff. 

The rubber duckies. I love saying that word. Rubber duckies. It’s fun. ;D So apparently Richonne will come across some kind of defunct carnival at some point (which btw is like Stephen-King-level creepy). We’re thinking these ducks may be associated with that. But @boltthrutheheart, genius that she is, made some great associations here. We’ve seen/heard of ducks twice before. The first time was actually specifically around Beth. In S2, after Beth goes catatonic, Maggie tells Andrea. *cough, cough* ANDREA about a time when she returned from college and Beth had a meltdown about her birth control and the two of them and their brother ended up screaming at each other in the duck pond before Hershel broke it up and Beth played innocent. So ducks specifically associated with Beth early on and specifically having to do with seeing Maggie for the first time in a long time, after them being apart for a specific period of time.

The other time also has to do with Maggie. In 3x06, Hounded, she and Glenn go on a run and Maggie specifically tells him to pick up a rubber duck for Judith. That scene didn’t have much to do with Beth, but that was when Merle took the two of them captive. So basically that led to Merle, who had been gone for 2 seasons, reuniting with TF and his family (Daryl).

And one more thing? We saw a clock somewhere (in the Sanctuary, I think? But can’t remember where. I’ll find it and add it later) pointing to 3x06. I remember doing a post about it. So we now have two different references to Merle reuniting with his family after two seasons of being gone. Hmmm. ;D

I also feel like there’s slightly more color in this pic than in the others. Like the yellow of the ducks is being emphasized. Just saying. 

And finally my two faves.

First, the open grave. Do I really have to explain why this one is awesome? The empty grave/tomb is the most widespread and potent symbol of resurrection that exists in the Christian world, my friends. I’ve been hearing versions of this symbol at church ever since I was just a kid. We’ve over-analyzed promo pics since Coda aired, but we’ve never seen an open grave in any of them until now. That makes me super excited.

Another thing this puts me in mind of are those three fake graves in Alexandria. We never learned what, if anything, is in them, or what exactly FG had to do with them. So in terms of symbolism, the open grave means resurrection. Plot wise, I’m thinking those three empty graves are coming back into play.

Finally, I think this is my favorite one. 

Shadows of people pointing guns at someone. Now, in terms of plot, this will probably have to do with the junk yard community. But does this remind you of anything. I instantly recognized this stance:

Eh, eh?

Overall, they seem to be place mostly in the junk yard, with a few exceptions, which means that’s gonna be a huge story line in 7b. (Given all the TD symbols around Boots, that makes me happy.) And even though the pictures are quite washed out and colorless, there is actually a lot of green in them, or would be if the color hadn’t been messed with so much.

Bottom line, these images will all be relevant in the back 8, guys. Can’t wait. ;D