#also sad i had to cut the title cards :(

[heatherfield]

Record scratch!

American Whoopee [x]

[midnight1nk]

So, WOTFI 2024...

[Spoilers below cut]

I'm so excited! Got my bingo card ready and my popcorn, we gotta manifest good things here.

(the following is my live reaction:)

3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR Oh wait, wrong thing oops

happy to be here, Leggy (WE'LL SAVE YOU GUYS DON'T WORRY)

TENDER TUNNEL?! ...oh nevermind then. it's so over guys

OH Four, Mario!

this would've been such a Mar4 moment if it was still the Tender Tunnel cuz this reminds me a lot of the SMG34 tiktok kiss challenge

...wait is that... OMG IT'S TV TIME ARRANGEMENT OMG LET'S GOOOOOOOO marking this on the bingo card

the FNAF models....

"...a portrayal of my life." YES PLEASE give us more

the fact that Puzzles made a puppet of his child self just for this reenactment (i don't think he's ok guys)

oop, Leggy don't drop the child!

"Papa" gives so many flashbacks to other characters who call their abusive father "papa" (me, an Ace Attorney fan)

hold up, I need to talk about this for a bit. I know it may seem like random graffiti, but because it has gears and such, his future might've been set in stone. To become TV.

"I locked myself in my room and watched TV all day!" and no one checked up on him? Did he stay in that room all the way to adulthood?! Okay, the SMG4 universe has a different way of how time and body necessities work. But hunger and time are still things. The implications are kinda of messed up if you think about it: Mr Puzzles stayed in his room for YEARS without food or even sleep, watching everything on TV. He would've been a CORPSE by adulthood. No wonder Mr Puzzles has a thin waist.

"And the rest is history." No, Puzzles, you can leave us like this! I need more! What happened after he cut off his head, did he replace every limb of himself? What happened to his dad?

Well, we got more of his backstory ig, marking that for the bingo card

WOAH I knew Mr Puzzles swore before but DAMN

I might have to mark "Grudge against Four" box but we'll see

NEW OUTFITS OMG THAT GETS A MARKER

"We'll just have to go along with his twisted games for now." Hell yeah, you gotta be part of WOTFI, boys :)

AY SPECTACULAR TITLE CARD, LOVE THE ART

Blast-off Fire

this reminds me of Toy Story for some reason

C'mon guys, you can do it!

What's your idea, Mario? NO FOUR let him talk

WOW I LOVE [*ragdolls*]

OH IT WORKED

Insult-2-Dunk

OH the frame of what the challenge says has the 5 stars, I'm going to mark that

This is giving the hallway scene in IGBP, where Four has his thoughts on display

Yeah I'm going to count that as an IGBP reference

they really are boyfriends 💙💜 gay people do be sitting

really tempted to mark the "You Saved Me" box but I'll wait

That's... actually sad if all the negative thoughts SMG4 had in IGBP came from the YT comments. Not surprising but it makes sense why he would try to keep everyone happy.

"This is nothing." OH THAT'S EVEN WORSE SOMEHOW, SMG4. THE AUDIENCE IS ONE THING BUT KAREN, A CLOSE FRIEND, TOLD YOU TO KYS

idk I could just imagine Four saying a lot of horrible things to himself

DAMN MARIO

but also Four's been flirting with Three, you already know that Mario /hj

Slap Box

TARI WE'RE SORRY BUT WE HAVE TO SAVE YOU GUYS

well you did get a bit of karma for what you said earlier to Four, sorry Mario

HOLY SHIT YOU KILLED HER DUDE oop Four said it for me nvm

Ferris Wheel Frenzy

I got jump scared and thought it was my minigame lmao

"Survive"? OH, are they going to get stuck on the Wheel ride?

please 34 please 34 nooooooooooo fuck

Missed opportunity man, still pretty funny

Fire Bonanza

Wow, Bob, that trick was pretty good ngl

Did somebody say arson? :)

even I'm clapping!

Marware shippers, how are y'all feeling?

Tightrope Terror

OH just like in the trailer, right?

OOH THREE VS FOUR

...yeah, Three would win, I'm not even surprised

That's so sweet, like actually

This feels familiar... oh that's right

:)

Hey, I did say "love wins, love always wins"

And that didn't work for Leggy... but it worked on Four back then so that's nice :)

Sword Showdown

poster reference!

Can Mario even defeat Bob? and also, reference to the poster?

Oh shit Mario did the Sephiroth shot from the Smash announcement

Knife Throw

boyfriends throwing knives :)

also poster reference

"...avoid hitting our volunteers" IS IT THREE?! oh no it's just Boopkins and Tari

I WANTED A "YOU SAVED ME" MOMENT NOOOO

....blindfolded?!

FOUR DOESN'T WANT TO HURT HIS FRIENDS

So uh yeah definitely a grudge

Four, that's Gmod. THIS IS NOT THE SAME

Three's the one throwing the knives at Tari right? ...yep *sigh /aff*

Balloon Blast

*looks at Luigi's creations* ....say what now?

"Supper Mario Balloon" I... shouldn't be surprised

He kinda looks like Pedro ngl

Pie-a-Ton

HI KAREN

NOOOO MARIO'S FIRST LOVE *prowler music*

...wait, "Mario Die"? OH well, the universe is doomed lol

Touch Grass

alright then *goes outside and touches grass* we did guys!

Clowns Clowns Everywhere

Puzzles, Four has boots on and Bob has no shoes at all. Does it look like we have time to put running shoes on?

ACE ATTORNEY? IN MY SMG4 WOTFI? :D

"King of Clowns" PFFT That never gets old

What did you expect Four? You make memes for a living, become the clown

Bomb Ski Ball

What type of SAW trap is this?

OH RIGHT Karen is still a cat

Yeah Mario, you celebrated too early

Ducky Mania

poster reference(???)

Well, thanks Luigi, we're dead

BELLS (ok, it might not count cuz they used this before)

YAY FOUR GOT ONE

Free-Fall Frenzy

And of course, Three and Karen and Saiko are all using the things they are skilled at

OH SHOOT MELONY'S SWORD

GO ON MARIO DO YOUR THING! MEGGY'S BACK!! IT WORKED

NO PUZZLES WHYYYYY

Whack a Leggy

Oh I love that Mario screen reference

SWORD FIGHT SWORD FIGHT SWORD FIGHT

...goop!4..?

oh nvm, cameras. that should've been obvious *slaps face*

SMART THINKING FOUR

OH hi Puzzles

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

DUDE I'M GONNA CRY STOPP THIS IS SO SWEET OMG

"YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING", welp Mario Ruins the Show confirmed, checking that off

I just love how this scene was animated (edit: it turns out that this is a scene Anaidon animated, no wonder this was so good!)

THE KEYBOARD MONSTER FROM IGBP!!! IT'S BACKKKKK

AND EYES IN GENERAL

Marker for the bingo :)

AND PARK (kinda) DESTROYED, another mark (yes it counts)

Superhero landing!

Wait... what is it, Four?

...oh I hate this *IGBP flashbacks*

AND PEACH nooooooooo

I get that it's supposed to be Didney stuff but like that's past trauma right there for Four , seeing the castle and Peach costume again *checks off the bingo*

and we're seeing it through Four's right eye *head in hands* eye of horus

It's Rap Time? IT'S RAP TIME

Carnival-themed too! Another one for bingo

"Pay for what you've done" KARMA "We'll make him pay" KARMA

(edit: it turns out Shadow animated this scene, it looks great dude great job :D)

[*points at background at 22:31*] BELL THERE IT FUCKIN IS

MORE BELLS AT 22:55

and also I realized that there was a lot of "death", huh

Doomed Yaoi(TM)

Yeah, we can count this as the Freak Show

"Puzzlevision+" ...puzzlevision 2...?

hold up, what the hell is that? NO NO WE CAN'T JUST PASS BY THAT

Huh, how interesting is that Mr Puzzles, being controlled by wires, looks like a puppet when he's the only usually puppeteering hmmm

MEGGY CONFRONTS also she tried to give Puzzles a chance when she couldn't do it for Wren

"That child is gone... Six feet under right where you and your stupid friends belong." Oh, shit. That got me somehow.

There is something in philosophy called "Ship of Theseus" that basically is: what if, gradually over time, we replace every part of a person and the question would be, are they the same person anymore. It could apply to Mr Puzzles here. Bring back to my corpse question, his child self and his current self are not the same. Not anymore. Metaphorically and perhaps literally, the real man before Mr Puzzles came to be is already dead.

Some people do say that they can be "reborn" so.... *shrugs*

SACRIFICE! No one dies but they're risking their lives here!

Meggy going into Puzzles' mind reminds me a lot of Melony getting into Zero's, except for the meeting younger self stuff

Interesting, why did Little Puzzles cower from the woman shadow figure? They could've just put Meggy there but they didn't until a few seconds later... hmmm......

Well Meggy confronts Little Puzzles but it's more like her demanding him to set her friends free, which is understandable

THE CLUB PENGUIN DANCE IS BACK!! :D

ONCE AGAIN Little Puzzles gets scared of someone coming towards him. jesus what happened for you to react like that, dude?

THIS IS ACTUALLY MAKING ME FEEL THINGS DUDE. IF MR PUZZLES DIES AND THIS IS THE LAST THING HE THINKS ABOUT.... *head in hands* THIS IS SO SAD

And more of the Engine Room gets broken down

silly little goobers :)

MR PUZZLES LIVES

and I oop [Mr Puzzles will remember that.]

....oh, this might be a fate worse than death. I don't blame the Crew for not trusting him and after what he did to Meggy but damn I don't think this is the right choice, gang

But it is probably the best ending the Team could've given him.

Yes, painting is nice. Oh, a puppy too!

"...OR we could assassinate our enemies and anyone who's ever double-crossed us!" OH NO IT'S MAKING HIM WORSE

To destroy Four and the others, yeah that makes sense. But he must've taken Meggy's confrontation as a double-cross. He's going for everyone!

Dynamic Change, everyone!

but also.... puzzlevision 2 maybe....

OH HEY CHRIS AND SWAG HI

well, the park isn't completely destroyed but some of it did so....

"Hopefully Mr Puzzles will change for the better." HMMMM I don't think so, Meggy. Actually, are they aware of where he is now?

Aw, Mario checking up on Meggy is very sweet, the M&M siblings

YOU ALL NEED THERAPY

"Turning into Leggy was really taxing on my body but...I think that version of me has escaped off to a better place." Meggy, you must've inherited Phoenix Wright's invincibility when you were a lawyer because you were literally SCREAMING IN PAIN when you were forced back into Leggy, and all you get is just a bit of a sore back?! Girl, you must've broken something. I do hope they bring this back so that she can't do sudden maneuvers or fancy tricks due to what happened to her. There has to be some consequences here.

And now, Leggy's not coming back (I'm sure that's great news for the people who find her annoying, not me tho)

and I oop 2: electric bagaloo

MORE RIDES FOR THE SHOWGROUNDS HELL YEAH

Happy ending and all but hold up... Why is this the last shot of WOTFI? They could've had the Ferris Wheel, the entrance, or any of the other rides. WHY?! *shakes the crew* ANSWER MEEEEE

Well we didn't get a challenge relating to Tender Tunnel but since it appeared in the final shot, I'll count it just for appearing (and also because it might be important later but we don't talk about that now)

Of course, MERCH

"And, who knows? Next year, there might be even more things to come..." WHEN I GET YOU

Hoodie, poster, keychain I CALLED IT

baby leggy :3

"You'll just have to wait and see." Oh I'll be waiting *wiggles fingers together like a cartoon villain*

the great milk heist of 1899 :)

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Here's my bingo card:

I think it's all of it, let me know if I miss or need to change anything. Can we count all the Four & Three soulmate parallels to the "You Save Me" box? Please? *sneaks a marker on there* To those who participated, I hope you guys had fun with my bingo card!

I'm still going to cherish that Ferris Wheel chase scene from the "Welcome to Puzzle Park" episode

Well, Ben, Shadow, you got anything to say?

Ben: Well that was fun We should really do this again sometime…

GOD DAMMIT BEN NOT AGAIN/affectionate

Shadow, in voice clip: "Hello once more, Twitter and SMG4 community! As always, I'm The Inverted Shadow and yeah, War of the Fat Italians 2024 has come and gone... and uh, as it is customary with a lot of these big events with SMG4, I have things to say but this time, I'm actually not going to make a big show out of it this time like what I did for Puzzlevision and..." *clear throat* "The things that came before because I'm going to be completely honest, guys, I was really fucking nervous for this one because, um, to be completely honest, this rap battle for this WOTFI is, I can safely say, one of the hardest things I had to do when animating for SMG4 thus far. And I was really really scared and nervous about (one) if it would actually come out good and (two) if people would actually like it. But just based on the reactions from the watch party with the SMG4 team and also just seeing everybody's reactions to WOTFI this year, um.... Yeah, you guys surely showed me I still must be doing something right." *laugh* "But, no no no. In all honesty, once more, thank you all genuinely. Genuinely, thank you all once again to the SMG4 community, to Luke, to Kevin, the SMG4 team. Everybody. Thank you all so much for showing me that I apparently still got it and I can still do the thing as it were." *chuckle* "Um, I do really hope you all enjoyed WOTFI this year. For now, I need to go get me that new Mr Puzzles plushie 'cause I need it. So, genuinely thank you all again and uh, peace!

Oh, we enjoyed this year's WOTFI, SMG4 Team! As Mario would say, that was-a loads of fun! The animation, the art, the music, everything was really really good. There are a few plot tweaks here and there that need a bit of work, but otherwise, it was great! Props to everyone on the Team! I can't wait to see what you guys do next.

"Silly little meme show" Right, and it's the same people who gave us horror, I'm on to you guys. please puzzlevision 2 please goop!4

Make sure you all support them bc they deserve it :) As for what will happen to the SMG4 crew, Mr Puzzles, and the Showgrounds, we will just have to wait and see.

;)

ink, it's not even a theory what are you talking about?

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 24 thoughts

season FINALE!!! whew, it has been an emotional time these last few months, let me tell you that. i’m wondering how or if this will be wrapped up. 

the episode description makes no mention of scully’s illness, just more aliens. we always end the seasons with aliens. i imagine that this will also be a cliffhanger, so i’m trying to brace myself for that now.

(author's note: there was nothing short of reaching enlightenment that could have prepared me for this, and even if i had ascended to nirvana, i might have been ripped back out by the sheer tragedy of this storyline)

but damn, with a title like gethsemane, i’m expecting even more tears than usual. 

(author's note: yeah)

let us no longer delay. 

we begin with some videos from 1972, including carl sagan! what’s he doing here? well, he’s doing alien things. are you surprised?

the man on the screen is speaking about the probability of contacting aliens. he says it is very high.

and then cut to scully in some very yellow lighting, politely trying to get to a crime scene to do some FBI business!

wait. is that mulder’s couch???

she just needed to make an ID on a body and BRO WHAT. DID SHE FIND MULDER DEAD??? IN HIS OWN APARTMENT?????

HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOO???!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

now she’s in a meeting room with a lot of important people…. 

she’s explaining how she was assigned to the x files four years ago…. and she’s explaining the mulder lore.

“i come here today, four years later, to report on the illegitimacy of agent mulder’s work” <- WOAH WHAT??? betrayal?????

“it is my scientific opinion that he became over the course of these years a victim- a victim of his own false hopes, and in his belief in the biggest of lies” <- that is so sad????!?!??

HELLO??? WHAT??? hey. what’s going on. is that really scully? or is it an alien?

well. they’ve gotten me both hooked and worried. 

is she lying to save him?? is he dead?? is she preserving his reputation in death?? because she said that stuff in the past tense… or maybe he was killed and she will be next if she doesn’t renounce everything???

WHAT IS AFOOT HERE.

scully i just publicly declared you my favorite, you can’t make me take that back…

(author's note: i should have never doubted her <3)

ohhhh fancy, the intro says “believe the lie”

helicopter over the yukon in canada. some guys say the stuff at camp is unbelievable. that's quite a jump in tone from before.

and now they’re marching up the hill, saying they’re very excited etc etc. it looks to be exhausting work. the score is very suspenseful.

they arrive in a cave and shake hands as the newcomers are introduced. and what is in there but…. a frozen alien???

i was hoping it would be a perfectly preserved mammoth :( but okay�� whatever… (sadly kicks dirt around)

back to the meeting room with scully!!! she says there have been recent developments on the assumption that aliens exist… mulder was contacted by a man whose “pursuit of this evidence seemed to coincide with his own”, and she says he was duped!!!! fooled by scientific slight of hand!!! 

and she’s here to expose this lie… and to expose his work for what it is….

GIRL, WHAT WENT DOWN???

now a cut to some sort of scully family event!! she’s telling a story about her brother bill. will we finally get to see him!? yes!! here he is!!! like their father, he is also in the navy, and seems to be pretty decorated. 

and he says he sent her a birthday card, to which she says “thanks for remembering this year” LMAOOO get him again for me!!

(why does no one remember her birthday!!! i will cry!!!)

the priest arrives… and scully’s face falls…. why is she sad to see him? and why did he get invited??? i’m stressed. 

father mccue is talking to her about drifting from the church and feeling awkward, but her mom asked him to come tonight. he says turning back to faith is essential in times like this. she says she hasn’t felt a need to draw on faith for strength, that she has some. and she won’t coming running back now.

huh, i wonder if she thinks that “running back” to the church will be admitting defeat. she says she’d be lying to herself and to him if she did that.

maybe she has only lightly been dabbling in god-related affairs since revelations, but not enough to want to return to mass.

but a phone rings… it’s mulder!!!

he says he’s sorry to interrupt her dinner, (so at least there’s some self awareness there) but someone named arlinsky at the smithsonian contacted him about a mountain in canada.

he says she needs to meet him RIGHT AWAY. BRO???????? she looks SO sad when he said that. 

she would do ANYTHING for him. and tbh i see why she wants to expose him now. fuck that. 

she’s assuring him that it’s okay, and he’s trying to apologize, but i’m still mad at him, and scully should be too. and who the hell is this arlinsky guy? apparently he was involved in a ufo photo faking?? but he claims he’s innocent?? THAT is what disrupted her dinner??

he says he won’t tell her what she’s about to see….

he has pictures of an alien frozen in the mountain and she looks deeply unimpressed. girl me too! 

apparently the alien has been in the ice for 200 years. and babcock (arlinsky's colleague) was part of the team that found it.

arlinsky says it’s a very remote location for it to be a hoax, to which mulder once again displays some self awareness with his “well if you’re gonna go, why not go all the way?” but again, not enough to prevent himself from getting in this situation in the first place

arlinsky pulls out the ice core samples from each side of the body, and says he sincerely believes they have a full corpse of an alien. 

but family dinner. i care about that more.

mulder says no one will believe him, and the same people that hid the truth will be asked to authenticate it, so there will be no confirmation either. which is why arlinsky wants him to go and get the body, because he knows it means everything to mulder

ohhhh scully says she has no opinion… “this is your holy grail, mulder, not mine” <- i am glad she is admitting she has no horse in this race

OHHH “proving the existence of alien life is not my last dying wish” <-yeah remind him that you’re literally dying and you can’t waste time because he SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN!!!!

“this is not some selfish pet project of mine, scully” <- well if it’s for the sake of your sister, but you’re hurting the people around you for it, that is still selfish actually 

woah woah woah i had to write this next part out...

“you already believe, mulder, what difference will it make? i mean, what will proof change for you?”

“if someone could prove to you the existence of god, would it change you?”

“only if it has been disproven”

“then you accept the possibility that belief in god is a lie?” (where are you going with this…? this is a sensitive subject for her!)

“i don’t think about it, actually. and i don’t think it can be proven”

“but what if it could be? wouldn’t that knowledge be worth seeking? or is it easier to go on believing the lie?”

this exchange made me feel frustrated. i wish he would be less ahab-like all of the time. yes, it is a huge deal that someone found an alien. but i see no reason why he couldn't have gone to that meeting by himself. and bringing god into this when he knows that's something very personal to her is a low blow. i get the point he was trying to make about believing the lie and all that, but c'mon man.

mulder honey, i get that this is a big deal to you, but time and place.

she tells him that she cannot go with him, but then he says, well can you just look at the ice core samples please. and she nods her head reluctantly. 

cut back to the big meeting room with scully and other very important people

“what i couldn’t tell agent mulder, what i had only just learned myself, was that the cancer which had been diagnosed in me several months earlier had metastasized. and the doctors told me, short of a miracle, it would continue to aggressively invade my body, advancing faster each day towards the inevitable” <- OH MY GOD??? oh my god. 

but why wouldn't she tell him... did she think that telling him then would interrupt his alien quest?? and she didn't want to do that because she knows how important it is to him? or did she not want him to worry?

because i would have told him!!! i would have said it right then and there!! but she is very different from me...

the fact that she is aware that she has so little time left and STILL left her dinner to go deal with his nonsense… scully, i fear you give too much and need to do things for yourself, please please

back on the mountain, they’re cutting the ice with a chainsaw. feels a bit unscientific, but i mean i guess that’s how you get that stuff done.

one guy is loading a pistol??? saying he doesn’t know the men well. that’s suspicious. i don’t care for it. 

there’s something in the ice. maybe a bubble. or a casting hole!! of liquid poured!! could this be a fake?? but the angle wouldn’t make sense, says one guy. hmm... i'm not sure what to think.

did they put a fake alien all the way up here…? and why is gun guy looking around all shady like…?

back to the core samples in DC. the scientist says he found some hybrid cells in there, not plants nor animals, but chimera, and he wants to get them under a microscope. hmm… can we clone da alien :3

someone walks into the cave in the yukon with a shotgun!!! and kills all of the men!!!!! what the hell!!! is this a real alien then?????

this happens just as others begin the hike up the mountain, including the smithsonian guy arlinsky. and mulder!! i didn’t even recognize him under all those baggy coats and sunglasses. wow. i feel like a fake fan.

someone was supposed to meet them and guide them up the mountain, but there’s no one there, and all the supplies are frozen over. so they begin the hike on their own, following the tracks from the others.

oh! the find someone keeled over in the snow, to which mulder remarks “funny place to take a nap”. again with the inappropriate jokes as a coping mechanism. it’s the guide that was supposed to meet them!! and he was shot and killed!!!

well, the alien is starting to look more authentic as the bodies pile up. 

back at the lab, scully is looking for the scientist, but she doesn’t find him. what she does find is a guy stealing the core sample???

he shoves her down the stairs?????? what the HELL!!!!

see, i thought the alien was a lie at first, but now it’s starting to appear compelling.

mulder and smithsonian guy arlinsky have arrived at the cave, and he pulls out his gun. they find all of the bodies from the crew, and no alien!!! it has been carved out!!!

mulder hypothesizes that perhaps someone was listening to their radio comms and came to hide their alien knowledge, but they hear some groans. and babcock is still alive!!

he says that the alien body wasn’t taken, but that he buried it!! and sure enough, they find it beneath their feet. mulder looks at it with amazement. big moment for a guy like him.

but scully!!! her face is bruised and her pristine lab coat is covered in blood! bill comes in with a change of clothes. and he didn’t tell their mom what happened. 

“i was knocked down a flight of stairs… but i’m okay, luckily”

“you’re not okay, dana” <- OHHHH BILL. please tread carefully.

he says he knows about her cancer and she says mom wasn’t supposed to tell him!!!

she says she doesn’t want sympathy, and he accuses her of thinking she can cure herself. which feels like a terribly low blow.

OHHHH MY GOD. wait hold on. hold on.

“what are you doing at work getting knocked down and beaten up? what are you trying to prove? that you’re gonna go out fighting?”

“oh now, come on, bill”

“do you know what mom is going through? why do you think i didn’t tell her when they called?”

“what should i be doing?” (said with great frustration)

“we have a responsibility, not just to ourselves, but to the people in our lives”

“hey, look, just-just because i haven’t bared my soul to you or to father mccue or to god, it doesn’t mean that i’m not responsible to what’s important to me” (this was very defensive and exasperated in tone)

“to what? to who? this guy mulder? well, where is he, dana? where is he through all this?”

well…. i want to defend mulder, to say he doesn’t know, but just because he doesn’t know that her cancer is getting worse doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have been more sensitive. he actually has been very conscientious, which makes this whole alien thing all the more sudden and infuriating!!!

she is stunned into silence as bill looks at her with fury. and she doesn’t say anything more to him beyond “thank you for coming” <-god, what was she supposed to even say?? i get trying to shake her back to reality, but who did that cruelty help??

bill, i get what you were trying to do, but you pissed me off in the way that you did it. do you always show the people you care for that you love them by screaming at them? because if so. not a very effective tactic.

mulder is unboxing the alien, which is now in DC, and he’s trying to thaw it with the smithsonian guy arlinsky and babcock! who is doing better! despite taking a shotgun bullet.

babcock asks if it were a hoax, why would there be 6 men dead over it, which is a good question. 

ewwww, the alien looks so gross….

with the help of another FBI agent, she finds the guy who hurt her!!!! and he’s working for the government!!!! in the pentagon‘s research facility!!! his name is kritschgau. they should not hire people in the government who assault women in stairwells.

mulder and crew are getting x rays and scans of the alien. mulder is wearing a sweater, but i’m still mad at him so i will NOT make note of how cute it is. 

the alien body is gross as hell. they’re filming an autopsy. ohhh he’s cutting the eye membrane off. EWWWW. EWWW.

now the ribs…… ewww ewww ewwww EWW IT CRUNCHES. NASTY. he takes the ribs out and starts looking at the heart and lungs and some other white stuff in the chest. gag.

meanwhile, scully’s casing the joint looking for the dude kritschgau who assaulted her, and she finds him, tracks him down, and nearly hits him with her car!!! she has her gun and is going after him!!!! he is under arrest!!! 

she is NOT messing around. we see a level of scully fury here that is incredibly potent and shown to us infrequently. i enjoy it, but it also makes me sad, because it shows how much stress she is under.

it appears he has slipped away, but she catches him!!!!! yes ma'am!!!!

kritschgau says that if he gets arrested, they’ll kill him. “they” being the same people that gave her cancer!!! how tf does he know about that???”

meanwhile, the alien organs are being weighed.

then cutscene back to the big meeting with scully!!! she’s telling them about how they smuggled the corpse back, saying mulder was ready to believe it was an alien.

but kritschgau convinced her it was otherwise, and not a true alien… he explained how mulder and her had been deceived and used, and that it was part of their plan that led to missy’s death and her illness.

god, how she must have felt hearing that… that everything that had happened to her was a waste, that the only point in her suffering was to advance corruption... it must have been devastating

as mulder leaves the warehouse where the autopsy was occurring, it seems he’s being watched by a guy with a shotgun??? is the shotgun guy going from before after the alien people????

it IS shotgun guy from before!!!! he knows babcock?? and he kills smithsonian guy arlinsky!!!

now who tf is this babcock fellow?!?!?!?!?!?

kritschgau is now sitting in mulder's apartment, explaining the "everything is a lie" story to him. mulder asks why he'd do this now- a fair question- and kritschgau says he came to him because his son is very sick after serving in the gulf war. i suppose if in this universe that is also something that has been covered up by the government, it could spark some disillusionment in the whole process once it impacts him personally.

he says "they" invented mulder, the regression hypnosis, the story of his sister and what they told his dad, and that the alien body was made carefully in a lab. and it would never be carbon dated, it was only for him to see so he would go public with the news and discredit himself.

mulder declares kritschgau to be a liar, but he says the body is already long gone, so he leaves to check. and sure enough, when he goes back to the warehouse, it isn’t there, but arlinsky is dead, as is shotgun guy!!!

again, WHO TF IS BABCOCK??!?!?

the cellular materials were an exact match to what kritschgau described. 

and this brings us to scully and mulder really fighting, really really fighting

“after all i’ve seen and experienced, i refuse to believe it’s not true” “because it’s easier to believe the lie, isn’t it?” <- ohh callback to earlier....

and she reveals that he said she was given this sickness to make him believe… oh my god, if that’s true, and her life is just a prop in their sick game… 

he storms out. 

back to the video from the 70’s we began with. 

mulder is watching it and crying. oh no… the beginning is clicking into place for me…… oh no, i see what is coming…. 

back to the meeting room. she says she went to his apartment that morning to identify a body, and that mulder died of a self-inflicted gunshot 

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK?????????????????

thus concludes the episode

she’s crying, she’s crying, all i can think about is her crying, what the hell, what the hell….

so he killed himself because he realized he was being used as a pawn and it was his fault scully was dying…

normally i would have more to say. but i’m not gonna lie to you, i don’t. this is just so fucking sad. i don’t even have the words. never in a million years did i see this happening. what the hell???? what the hell?

do i believe this kritschgau guy??? i think he’s probably telling 30% of the truth. but not the whole thing. why would all those men die for a fake alien? i think he’s being deployed as a cover story as mulder gets too close. and i think some of this is engineered, but not as much as he claims.

and i'm willing to bet that "believing the lie" actually refers to scully believing his cover story!!!

man. i’m sorry but i’m just so sad. i have been so sad this whole season!!!! 

mulder…… it was rude of you to interrupt her dinner…… but this was not the answer… 

how is sneaky mulder going to get out of the situation THIS time??? and how is scully going to get out of the hole she's dug by reporting all of their work as fraud?? is bill going to be happy now?? lowkey fuck bill, btw.

wow... this is just painful. and i don't even have to wait months to find out what happens next. had i seen this when it aired live i probably would have entered a state of mourning.

so that's the end, huh? of the season, i mean. just sucker punch after sucker punch. i hope this isn't the tone of everything else moving forward. can i get uhhhh one order of whimsy please. with a side of mutual pining. and a small hurt/comfort, emphasis on the comfort. thank you.

after waiting 24 hours from watching the episode initially, i am still torn between how to proceed next. part of me wants to compile all of my favorite moments from the season like always, but the other part of me wants to begin the next episode right away, just so i can move on from such horrible mental imagery as mulder dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. what a terrible thing i wouldn't even have expected from fanfiction!

but, i can also see that the next episode is a two parter, and to be left on ANOTHER cliffhanger would be horrible- but probably LESS horrible than being left with the sadness of dead mulder, right? i don't know what to do! i am filled with indecision!!!!

:(

at least i can take away some fascinating analysis regarding scully's relationship to catholicism, and her idea that depending on any force outside of herself- be it family, friends, or god- is a sign of weakness. i mean, that is pretty telling about her character. and the fact that she believes this so strongly she tried to hide her cancer getting worse from her brother and succeeded in hiding it from mulder!!! to even voice the truth would make it real. maybe that's why she can't tell them, can't go to mass- because it would mean that the end is really near if she did so. i think it's about both the perceived ideas of weakness ingrained in her by her hardass parents and a refusal to let the situation she has found herself in be registered as real in her own mind. she knows it is. but maybe if she pushes it to the side, she can forget for a while.

wow. that sure is something to think over, and think it over i shall.

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #12: Localization Milestone and Key Art

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has some localization news, as well as a breakdown on key art! What’s key art? Where do you use it? Can you eat it? Read and find out.

The first pass of the Japanese localization is done and implemented!!! You can play the whole game in Japanese from beginning to end now!!!

The next step now is the localization QA, where the localization team plays the game and makes sure the Japanese script works in context. The team got the script in an excel sheet and I tried my best to give context for scenes where I could, but playing through the game themselves allows them to get The Most Context. All Of The Context. So they can make changes to their localization so it can be the best!!!

That’s it for news. Other things are chugga-chugga-chuggin’ behind the scenes as well, and I can’t wait to share it all with you all!!!

Today’s topic-since-I-don’t-have-much-to-talk-about is: key art!

“Adrienne what on Earth is a ‘key art’” This above is the key art.

More generally (and keep in mind this is my layman self talking, I’m sure you could get a better answer elsewhere, but also you’re here, so you might as well learn something huh???), key art is The Big Art that games (and, I assume, other mediums???) use to show off their style and visuals in things such as store fronts, articles, and other such things. It’s Mario jumping in a cool way with his lil star buddy while the planets are behind him. It’s Kratos and Atreus on a boat. It’s sad Siffrin in the foreground, surrounded by stars, while his friends are having fun in the background. It’s The Art!!! It’s the first thing people see about your game!!! It needs to be cool and represent your game!!!

Here’s some examples of the key art being used for Steam store assets. Itch.io is very kind and asks for like 2 assets, but Steam asks for a whoopin’ 30 assets, all with different sizes and orientations, so it means one of the biggest things your key art should be is MODULAR AS HELL. From a massive 1440x3160 vertical banner to an itty-bitty 231x87 horizontal button (called a capsule, it’s the small banner above, and since it’s usually the first thing you see about a game it is THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET), your key art needs to be ready for anything!!!

For the prologue, I did not plan for this very well. I learned pretty late in development that store assets for itch.io (and later, Steam) were gonna be a thing I should worry about, so I ended up deciding to use the title card art. Which, like, it worked out.

BUT! I had to redraw Siffrin to make sure their hat and body weren’t weirdly cut out, and had to remake the pixelly gradient like a thousand times for each asset to make sure it wouldn’t hide Siffrin’s face. And that’s without mentioning the hell I went through to make sure the massive title logo would fit. Why did I think “START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue” was a good title. It was so hard to make it fit in its entirety every time (because, of course, Steam asks you to show the logo in its entirety in every single asset). Why did I choose this title (I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan and my heart is rotten and thinks long titles are funny)

So since I went through hell with START AGAIN’s store assets, for ISAT I made sure to think about the key art way ahead of time teehee.

Every so often I become an absolute genius so I only had to sketch the key art once, as you can see above. You don’t need to understand it because I do and it’s all that matters. Teehee!

Here's the rough illustration! I made it to block out the shapes, and figure out where that dang logo would go. Once again, reminder: if you have text of any kind, figure out where it goes in the rough stage. Future you will thank you. I also had Siffrin look directly at the camera in this rough stage, and then figured. That it would look sadder. If Siffrin looked emo-ly to the side. I do like the look at the camera though. He Is Looking

To talk about The Meaning very quickly, I wanted to show Siffrin front and center, since the whole story is about them. And I wanted to show the whole party, but clearly separated from Siffrin- Siffrin is stuck in a time loop, feels completely apart from them, and I wanted to show that in the key art! With the expressions too- everyone else is happy or engaged in something, interacting with each other, while Siffrin is in his emo phase. And also stars everywhere. Because of course.

Here are all the layers I used- I made sure to draw them on a vector layer in Clip Studio Paint, which means the lines never become pixelated even if you zoom in a lot! As a side note, the full file for this is 4000x3000, which I thought would be too big, but is actually just the right size for all those dang assets.

I also made sure that Siffrin would look the most detailed, since I knew that while everyone could fit for the bigger pictures, for the itty-bitty small ones (or the extremely horizontal ones), I would only show off Siffrin’s face. MODULAR!!!!!

In the end this key art worked pretty well to make the store assets, but if I could talk to past me I would tell them. Make the circle bg taller so it’d fit the more vertical assets. And find a way to leave more space for the characters in the background. I had to remove them/rotate them/zoom them out very often because Siffrin hides them too much because Siffrin is just too dang big. But that’s still manageable, past me. You did a good job past me

So, TLDR, from my experience, what you need to keep in mind when making your key art is:

-make sure it has enough layers to be able to move things around as needed, but not so many layers that you become lost

-fun art that represents your game and its vibe well

-cool everywhere, but able to get by if you zoom in on one thing (which usually for ISAT’s assets is Siffrin’s face)

-able to work in a vertical and horizontal format and at many different sizes

I hope my key art made people interested enough in the game to try to find out more!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[pandasmagorica]

Pre-episode 8 thoughts (Fri Sept 6)

Yeah, putting a date on this one as I'll bet I'll have more thoughts as we count down to the finale.

Okay, can't seem to find it, but I could have swore I posted a post asking who Warit was and his relationship to the illegal gambling business. I think I've put it together from other posts and hope I'm not mixing two characters together:

He is the chief of police - that's what MDL says but I thought he had an office in Great's father's building

He is Title and Fasai's father, which makes Fasai and Title phi-nong/siblings

He is an investor in the illegal gambling business

If someone can confirm or correct, please do in the comments or reblog with the correct info.

As for the series, I'm eagerly awaiting next Friday.

As a side note, I think I've mentioned that I've discovered I can only watch one week at a time series at a time. I can binge watch other series in between episodes, but they have to be series that have already completed. But this series has taken up so much of my brain space, and Tumblr scrolling so much of my time, that I haven't watched anything else.

Also, I'll typically wait a year before rewatches of series. But this one has so much detail, and it's clear from other people's posts that I've missed so much of that detail, that I might just do an instant binge rewatch once the closing titles have shown up for episode 8.

Revealing thoughts about episode 7 after the cut.

Great's father was telling the truth to Tyme: Tyme's parents started the gambling business and Great's father didn't kill them. Great's father was, however, aware in advance that Warit planned to kill them and apparently did nothing to prevent it. So, ironically, he was in a similar situation to Great with regard to Dome's death.

There are a couple major differences, though. Great's father had advanced notice, while the situation showed up to Great with no advance warning and he had to cope. And Great's father stood to gain from Tyme's parents' death, while Great had no such motive to do nothing.

So Great's father may have deserved Tyme's revenge wish as an accessory before the fact, while I strongly feel that Great did not deserve to be shot. He's a sad meow meow but he's not a murderer. And if Title's father is the police chief, Great probably had a good reason to not make waves, so became an accessory after the fact. He's an accessory, but under duress. He just wants to get out of there alive.

But Tonkla doesn't have that information. All he has is the memory card video of Title and Great disposing of Dome's body. So, while I don't approve of or celebrate Tonkla shooting Great, I do understand it.

But someone else, whoever shot the video knows that Title was the one who killed Dome and that Great was an innocent - stupid and cowardly, yes, but innocent bystander.

Someone had to discard that memory card. And they discarded it rather than snapping it in two the way it was ultimately destroyed. If it was a memory card for the car's camera, I would have expected Title to not care, just as he didn't care that he was caught on a security camera knocking Dome out. Someone shot the video intentionally and cared that it might be found. (Which also makes them an accessory after the fact.)

Will we find out who that was? We have one episode to go.

Back to Great and Tyme. I'm not disappointed that they showed up so late in the episode - the writer is focused on telling a complete story - but I'm glad we got their background. Interesting - especially now that it's clear they spent several years as friends - that the only thing Tyme says that reveals he knew Great as a kid - and it's clear he would have known as soon as he learned Great's family name - is about Great's fear of dogs, or that they didn't recognize each other.

But remember, we know they are dying but we don't know for sure they are dead. They have 4 minutes to come out of it as Lukwa did (I'm not in the Lukwa is dead camp). We could wind up with them both surviving. Or we could wind up with one of them dead and one alive.

But let's say they are both dead.

First, I am sure something supernatural is going on, given that Great flatlines the same moment Tyme is shot. (Makes me think of The Miracle of Teddy Bear where Tofu and the activist trade human consciousness, or Black and White's connection in Not Me.) Plus, there's too much in the episode 1-5 timeline that is dependent on Great's post 4 minute actions but that Great wouldn't know about.

I'm leaning toward what other people have said, that the episode 1-5 timeline is a combination of all the people who have wound up dead in this series.

Or maybe it's the month of the hungry ghosts and the ghost are walking the earth and doing things differently, as has also been mentioned. Although that wouldn't explain Tyme's forgiveness ask on the cup. Or maybe it would.

We've been told by the series stars that things will be explained in episode 8. Hope it will be done as dramatically has it has been through eps 1-7.

But second, what if Great has to die so that when Tyme dies, Tyme won't be alone? That if Tonkla got just the right target, Title, then Great would be alive and Tyme would be dead.

Tyme's spirit would be alone, Great would be alive and alone, and the only one who would be happy would be Great's cat, who would get to eat up all of the sponsor's kitty snacks. Well, it might have to share it with the ghost of Tonkla's cat, so it might not be a totally happy ending for Great's cat.

Finally, what about that 4:00 room? Will we visit it and see who's there? Will Great and Tyme both be there?

[incorrectringsofpower]

Season 2 Episode 8 liveblog reaction notes (spoilers behind the cut)

- Sad dwarf time :( - Durin :(((( - Don't wear a riiiiiiing - Why hallo there Durin's Bane! Ever wondered where that name comes from? - Oh he removed the ring ;_; - Now that's a poster shot! - Checkbox on predicting King Durin's death! RIP. - DON'T TRUST HIM FFS - JOIN ME AND TOGETHER WE CAN RULE THIS GALAXY, GANDALF - Not the Stoors :((( - Hwat the fuck are you doing, Eärien? - Oh Catholic schism time, fun! - ANÁRION SEASON 3? DID THEY FINALLY REMEMBER HE HAS ANOTHER CHILD? THAT THEY HAVEN'T MENTIONED ALL SEASON UNTIL NOW? - Míriel nooooo my beloved doomed ship :((( - NARSIL FINALLY - God Lloyd Owen is doing the most to make it clear he also ships it lmao - Ah right. Eregion is still quite doomed. - GALADRIEL OUR BELOVED - Ooh Sauron eye motif via the sun! - Ah boob ring pouch has finally come back. - Oh Celebrimbor :( - This is deeply upsetting. - OH GOD THEY ARE GONNA FOLLOW THE SILM HUH - TITLE DROP TIME - 2nd predicted death that everyone expected ngl - Lol wow the angsty single tear as he yet again uses the many names line - ISILDUR - THEO - Dead mom angst :'( - So yeah he is gonna return to utter chaos back at home and his dad on the run, huh? - Well this is hella awkward. Maxim pines for all of his love interests with the biggest puppy eyes. - Estrid you could break it off with Hagen. - FUCKING KEMEN. YOU RUIN EVERYTHING YOU FUCKING ASS. - FUCKING LIAR WHO LIES. - BEREK BEST BOI! - ESTRID DON'T GO I THINK YOU'RE GONNA BE HUMAN SACRIFICED. - NOT THE HORSE. - OHHHH FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!!! - Why aren't you showing your face, Adar? Huh? - PRETTY ELF ADAR PREDICTION WAS TRUE - lol the Nolduruk shippers are gonna have a field day - TAKE THE BLOODY RING FIRST THEN ANGST! - I'm really sorry to the Adar stans. This is gonna be rough. - Ooh my wild card prediction for Glûg and the orcs was true! Gotta do a narrative parallel to the first episode. - Shoulda run while you could, Galadriel. - Sauron vs Galadriel round 2! - Well yeah, Galadriel, fascists think purging and razing is cleaning. - Fuck this not gooooood. - Of course Elrond would try to prevent a book burning. Very in-character for him. - Where is Duriiiiin? - Lol again parallels to the last finale - HOT BISHOUNEN SAURON - LMAO - THIS IS GREAT ACTUALLY - HORRIFIC BUT GREAT - The way is shut, it was made by those who are dead, etc. - NOT THE TITS! RUDE! - Okay so that's how he gets the Nine. Figures lol. Not boob fondling but boob stabbing. - ARONDIR STAY ALIVE BUDDY - Poor Elrond still can't see his friend :( - OOOH SECOND ELWING MOMENT THIS SEASON? -Aww I wanted her to kamekameha him on the way down! - Ah fuck I was hoping my wild card guess of Glûg dying would be wrong. Ah well. Robert Strange will be back! - ARONDIR WAS THE FIRST TO GET TO HER YES - Ooh ring magic healing! Just not as we expected. - Elrooooond buddy the ring! - Ugh he seems so haunted by having to be a ring-bearer, even temporarily. Angst x1000 for his future. - Oh Poppy :( - This is upsettiiiiing - MOTHERFUCKER STOLE FEANOR'S HAMMER I HATE U - "Grand-elf" okay that's funnier than Stick-elf I guess - Noriiiii :'( - So depressing that the Stoors had to leave everything. - Aha! A branch from the tree of the Stoors as predicted, eh? - Hi Tom, you missed a lot. Where is your wife? - Tom: What did you think this was? Hogwarts? - Hallo not!Saruman! - VALLEY NORTH OF HERE? RIVENDELL?! - Poor Durin :( - WHY IS THE RING STILL THERE DAMMIT - CRAFTY EVIL LITTLE THING - lmao Gil-galad "my great-aunt is source of all my migraines" - Aww Elrond got at least one smile this season! - Arondir being alive as well as Merimac and Gundabale makes me so happy ngl - Elrond really, really wants to open a B&B - Oh hey Vorohil didn't die. Thank god. Would have liked Rían to live as well, but :/ - (Wait is Camnir still alive?) - Oh a puppy survived! - Will say, Gil-galad is much improved by the armor. - Lady Galadriel in a white dress implies stuff for the next season, I should think? - RIVENDELL SEASON 3 I BEG

[billi-mausi]

Love Love Love the relationships (completely platonic) between the Marauders and the girls

(also I feel like all of the boys have one girl each as their SECOND best friend?? Like Remus & Lily, Sirius & Mary, James & Marlene, Peter & Pandora, but more on that later)

Anyways so here are some of my HCs:

James & Marlene

Childhood besties!!

Bestfriends ( Sirius & Marlene often fight each other for this title, but both know Marlene is James bestfriend)

They have a small matching scar right next to their mouth, because 6 year old Marlene & James thought it was a really fun idea to climb the tree in Marlene's backyard (all the whole Peter was telling them not too, that it was a bad idea) evidently, they did not listen and the branch the two were swinging on broke, they fell down, their shoulders shaking, as Peter ran forward to them, thinking they got hurt badly and were sobbing, but turns out the idiots were just laughing, looking at each other and the cut that was bleeding right next to their mouths and laughing, Peter soon joined in on the laughing. (Their parents found them like this, and after cleaning them up and applying bandages they go a good scolding where Peter just said I told you so and a hug)

James (&Peter) being the only one who can call Marelene 'Leene'. She bits anyone else's head off, if they call her that

They have matching tattoos, with the other person's initial written on their wrists in morse code.

James likes to act as her big brother and she is all to happy to play the part as his younger sister who loves o annoy him.

James was the first person Marlene told that she liked girls and not boys (though James already had an inkling because, when 11 year old Marlene had dropped her glass of orange juice, haw dropped, on seeing Euphemia Potter in her black halter neck dress for her anniversary, it was when Marlene constantly ranted about how much she 'hated' Dorcas meadows in 3rd year, it was when she had accidentally kissed Mary MacDonald her roommate, and came crying to James) accepting such a huge part of herself was not at all easy for Marlene, growing up in a pureblood household, it was not easy for her to break the through her own internalised homophobia, but James was there for her every step of the way and it took time but soon the besties were often seen gossiping about their recent girl crushes, giggling over Amelia Selvyn from Slytherin or Mary Abbott from Hufflepuff.

James was the maid of honour at Marlene and Dorcas's wedding

James always peels Marlenes oranges for her , not matter what (because one time when they were 5 year old, marlene while peeling had squished the juice right in her eye so James does it for her always now)

Flying partners. (Sirius, James & Marlene are the best quidditch trio)

James always, always gives Marlene cheek kisses with a bye, whenever he leaves a room.

James also steals Marlenes crop tops.

Also when in 1st year James got no flowers or cards, he got a bit sad, so Marlene got a big bouquet of flowers delivered to him next morning, the smile she got in return was worth the 5 galleons she spent. And so started the tradition of Marlene getting James flowers every valentine's day ( even after they both had respective partners, the tradition continued till Marlene died and James got flowers for her grave)

So their friendship is like bubbles, fun lovely and beautiful, filled with cheek kisses, cuddles all the time, stealing hoodies and crop tops, and flowers.

James & Pandora

angle duo ( like not even kidding, you shouldn't look at Pandora and James when they are together because they shine so bright!!) (Sorry jk jk)

The two individually are like very mischievous like absolute chaos wreckers, but whenever they are together, it's like a switch has turned off, and there they are so calm, looked absolutely angelic.

Picnic/study dates by the lake during summers, with James braiding flowers in Pandora's hair. They also wear matching floral clothing.

Whenever Pandora gets ready, She always forgets to tie her shoelaces, like she just doesn't (a/n and yes it does happened with ppl my bf is literally always does), sometimes Barty Evan or Regulus remind her but it's such a common occurrence that they forget about it too. James whenever he sees this, would run over to her, tie her shoelaces, give Pandora a kiss on the cheek and walks away without saying anything.

James always, listens to Pandora's rambles about her recent weird plant with actual interst and fascination, like he doesn't listen to it just for the sake of listening or feel annoyed or weirded out by them, he asks valid question and shows genuine enthusiasm (One time Regulus was reading in the library while James and Pandora were discussing this rare and weird creature species, and Regulus was ready to punch James if he said anything bad to Pandora, but he just listened carefully and asked questions, Regulus fell more in love with that idiot that day)

Pandora and James the biggest magical creatures activists in the whole school (not eleves though, they were Regulus and Lily's domain and Werewolf Sirius') but these two were like always going on and on about the protection and misuse of magical creatures for animal testing or they products. Making posters or holding clubs for the same (for the smallest of creature like bowtruckles, flobberworms and etc)

Being an animagus, that too a stag, James loved the nature, and was often found taking walks in the forbidden forest at odd times, (whenever he wanted to clear his head) in his animagus or human form both, and so the forbidden forest was accustomed to his magical signature and actually welcomed him always with a warm guest of wind. James loved and respected the forest a lot and was friends with almost all the 'nicer' creatures like the tree fairies or whatever and when Pandora has figured out James was an animagus (he still doesn't know how she does because whenever he asks she always gives him a small smirk and walks away) So James often takes Pandora with him to the forbidden forest to meet and befriend the magical creatures.

James doesn't really bealive in divination or anything, but whenever Pandora says something he does believe and follows her. (If Pandora said his Mars was retrogading then it freaking was and he will wear that blue crystal) he always keeps any and all crystals Pandora gives him in a nice little box on his nightstand

They can often be seen wearing matching mistletoe or carrot earrings (James only wears them in one ear because he says it makes him look cool) (regulus won't admit it but it kinda does)

So really the two have a sweet and magical relationship filled with flowers in hair, carrot earrings, whispering fairies, tying shoelaces, cheek kisses, and hugs hugs hugs.

Remus & Lily

Chain smokers buddies.

Like those two sides of the nerds candy, the pink and purple one. (Remus is purple, Lily is pink)

Lily was actually the first person Remus admitted to that he liked Sirius as more than a friend. Lily didn't even let him finish the sentence before jumping up and down, hugging him and started to rant about all the planning she has down for their wedding already

Lily was not just a rule abiding know-it-all, she was just very shy and a bit introverted and like always scared about the magical world being just a crazy beautiful dream. And Remus saw it, because they were both kind of similar in that sense, Remus too always had a fear of all this not being real because as a werewolf he never thought he would have been able to be hear so the two relate on this and form a beautiful bond.

Remus being the first person Lily smoked a cigerate with (immediately coughing afterwords) At a gryffindor party when the crowd got to much and the noises too loud, Remus had stepped out in the balcony to have a ciggie when Lily had followed him out, she seemed lost in thought as he offered it to her, she gingerly took it and eyed it wearily before taking a hit. That was the first time of the many more when the two snuck out of a party to share a ciggerate on the balcony.

Absolute nerds, having bi monthly specified times for ranting about a book, being the only one understanding the pain of a character death.

A mutual love and appreciation for cherry lollipop

The cutest height difference.

Their friendship is full of ciggerate smoke, Chery flavour, forehead against chest, kisses in the hair, sobbing over fictional crushes and cuddles after an MCD.

James & Dorcas

Regulus bodygaurd duo.

Both of them have two things in common: Regulus & Marlene. And both are like insanely protective of both of them like when Jegulus told her about them dating, Dorcas did not utter a single word and just seized up James with her eyes for 4 minutes straight, she was also very VERY jealous of James because she thought he was dating Marlene. James did not intimidate Dorcas as she did to him (because my cutie patootie's glare gets activated only after someone has hurt his loved ones) but he did try to subtly very subtly, show his superiority as Marlenes first and longest friend with words thrown around like "remember Marlene when we were 5?" "Remember the time when you" "13 years as your best friend and I still-" and more, like bestie was just trying to show his dominance as her first friend is such an adorable way

In an alternate universe, when the two heard about Regulus being forced to be a de#theater, they got together, made a plan to take down voldemort and the DID take down voldemort

They have different opinions about almost EVERYTHING. Like James likes winter- Dorcas Summer, James likes sour food- Dorcas likes sweet, James is an early bird-Dorcas is a night owl these are like the tame ones but just imagine more extreme ABSOLUTELY contracting opinions. So the two have constant debates , sometimes including but not limited to pOWER POINT PRESENTATIONS(??) (James believes in Aliens, Dorcas does not, so my boy got a 100 something page binder that had clippings of all alien and ufos and related stuff 'sightings', it was also the first time when Dorcas somewhat agreed with his opinion)

Also they sometimes fly together, (it started with Marlene always bringing James to practice with Dorcas, because miss girlie was kinda shy to talk to Dorcas, and it ended with Marlene getting the girl and Dorcas and James flying together sometimes)

Now initially their friendship was just this yk, debates and flying when one day Mulciber showed up to breakfast with a black eye and kind of crooked nose, approached Dorcas, she was absolutely confused as to why he was coming towards her, when he stopped in front of her and simply said 'sorry' through gritted teeth, looked away to the gryffindor table, nodded towards James and rushed out of the hall. And for a week it was the same, every morning he would come up say sorry and get out, and would always rush out of whatever room Dorcas was in. She asked James about it who simply said "He said some shit about you, and no one says shit about my FRIENDS!" (It was Peter who told her later, giving a step by step detailed story of how Mulciber made the mistake of calling her Racist AND transph0bic comments, and how James broke his nose in a second) With a quick hug he went to class while Dorcas just stood there for a minute, because James was her friend, he actually liked her, he didn't spend time with he just because of Marlene or Regulus, no he genuinely liked her and cared for her and considered her his friend, (having grown and only child in big mansion with absent parents, Dorcas had 0 friends as a child and everytime she met someone who actually liked her or became friends with her, she got very emotional) so she felt like she could cry.

Matching alienhead necklace (it's like their thing)

Peter & Pandora

Weed Buddies.

Their friendship started with Pandora running a whole buisness of different substance to get high, all of which she created (like my girl was CANONICALLY a mad scientist so like yk) Peter had his first pot brownie made by Pandora, Eventually Peter was the first person she always tested the first batch of whatever she was making.

It was Pandora and Peter who devised a whole plan to get James and Regulus together including but not limited to, amortenia, quidditch, mistletoe and etc (the plan worked) and because the plan involved like a month of planning, they got closer than before.

They wear matching bracelets.

Both had the same penchant for chaos, like those silent killers. They were very unassuming and no one ever suspects them, but they are biggest chaos wreckers in Hogwarts. Their inflicted chaos isn't like the Marauders pranks, it's like telling, telling Susan that her boyfriend is in love with her sister or completely and absolutely lying to someone about any random thing for no reason but to create chaos

The blueprint of the saying, 'Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.)

Getting high being the foundation of their friendship filled with pranking Evan, or gaslighting a pureblood about any muggle lore, or making the first believe that Norris cat, is actually Filch's wife turned cat by Merlins 7th reincarnation.

Sirius & Lily

Brother-Sister duo!!! Yeah they are not actually siblings, but their relationship very well might be one

So at first Lily didn't like Sirius THAT much, because of the whole Lily's rule abiding nature (a/n: more on this later) and Sirius and James 'pranksters' , so she didn't particularly care or like Sirius Black. This changed when sometime in the end of 4th year, Sirius came down to common room at 12 because James was still not back from wherever he was (he was most definitely with Regulus, they are 'just friend's for NOW tho) and he found Lily Evans, sitting on a couch, knees brought up to rest her head on, as she fidgeted with a ball and looked outside at the snowfall. He thought of going to tease the girl for staying up so late and breaking curfew, when he saw her glistening eyes and messed up hair and oh was she crying? He silently sat next to her and asked her if he could make her a hot chocolate, she accepted, he didn't ask anything further and gave her a side hug which she melted in and eventually the two fell asleep. This happened for a few times as Lily eventually started opening up about her extremely complicated and almost one sided relationship with her sister, while Sirius couldn't relate entirely (because the black brothers dynamic is just entirely something else MORE LATER) he did get it, he understood and he listened.

Lily gave him his first ever Vinyl (Remus gave him a record player) he didn't like the record that much but the vinyl was one of his most prized possession and had a stranger emotional connection to its songs that he listened to whenever he was sad.

When James and Lily dated for a grand total of 3 months(before Lily realised she much preferred the company of women) it was natural the two saw more of each other. And whenever they met, their bickering? The teasing? The hair pulling? The playful fights? Their banter wasn't of an old married couple but that of an older brother and younger sister duo

So their friendship was a lot like brother-sister siblings, filled with hot chocolate (with marshmallows) at night, with pulling each other's hair out of their ponytails, with stealing from the others plates, with braiding flowers in hair and also forehead kisses and hugs.

Sirius & Mary

THE resident makeup artists of gryffindor tower!! Mary is a lip makeup girlie Sirius is eye makeup!! Both of them initially bonded over makeup, judging others poor fashion choices (later one when Jegulus started dating, Regulus joined them in gossiping about fashion), exchanging of clothes, gossiping, giggling about their crushes (there was a time in 5th year when Mary also had a crush on Remus, but instead of getting jealous Sirius was often seen giggling and blushing over Remus Lupin, with Mary (it is also why many people speculated they dated, they NEVER did) so really, what started as a friendship based of mainly small materialistic things, it soon turned into a beautiful friendship

Mary was the one who told him that something like 'genderfluid' existed, to Sirius it was like the greatest revelation of the century, it was then Mary who helped him feel confident in his skin, his body, his gender

Sirius is the BEST wingman ever Whenever going out to any pubs or restaurants Sirius always chalked Mary up, always in encouraging her to get that girls number (Before Mary realised her feelings for Lily that is)

Sirius who is insanely overprotective of Mary. Which everyone sees, when that one time Mary's boyfriend raised his voice at her and Mary flinched, Sirius asked no question said nothing, just stood up and punched the guy square on his face (and for the following month that guy was the Marauders sole target for pranks)

All in all their friendship is just very cute, filled with liquid eyeliners, red eyeshadow, brown lip liner, shits and giggles and gossips AND drunken cuddles and goodbye hugs.

James & Lily

The cutest most softest duo.

Soft launching each other as FRIENDS, like everyone thought Lily Evans wouldn't even give James the time of her day but lo and behold, there she is supporting James during quidditch match, and there she is silently taking shepherd's pie from James dinner plate, and there she is posting random photos of a boy she never shows the face of (untill one day she did, with a picture of her and Mary kissing with the boy beaming in background, the random boy is James)

Their friendship dynamic is very cute (like the vibe is very flowers and sunshine yk) and in the starting Lily disliked James a bit because, well she thought he was a narcissistic idiot, but she later, eventually (over the course of years actually) she realised that he wasn't just that, being Marlenes best friend, and having sm mutual friends, the two did spend time together, and that is when Lily saw him, actually saw him. She saw behind the whole jock image he has set up, James Potter was actually a biiig cutie, she saw him always taking shephards pie in his plate, even if he won't eat it but for Lily, she saw him peeling oranges or cutting up apples for Marlene and Remus when they forget to eat food, she saw him enacting elaborate and dramatic plays for the 1st & 2nd years when there's a particularly bad weather and they are scared, she saw him going to Remus' class after the full moon,(sometimes while missing his own classes too) to take notes for him, she saw him annotating a book and blushing while gifting it to Regulus, she saw him smile and laugh ,she just saw him, and she realised why everyone called him the sun. And so their friendship started, because she saw the genuine and nice person James is

James and Lily shared a common problem, not being able to express the 'negative' emotions they feel, so when the two felt angry or upset or something the two Painted. Just a canvas infront of them a paint brush dipped in God knows what color and splash, splash, splash on the canvas. The two weren't even the slightest bit good in art, merlin no, the just stole Siri's art supplies and absolutely butchered them (he was really good in art, and didn't mind his art supplies getting spoiled by them) Painting together was kind of like their escape, the two often met after lunch of breakfast to splash some paint around, seeing each other's horrible creation often got a smile on their faces.

Forehead kisses by James.(!!)

So the two had an adorable dynamic filled shared shepherd's pie, sunkissed selfies, paint stains, piggy back rides, and forehead kisses.

Woooow, this was supposed to be a silly little bullet points point but tuned into a 3k+ shitpost???

(PS: can you tell that I love writing about James??? Like yes the other boys have relationship with the other girls too, I just like wiring about James the most and I wrote about James the most :))

(PSS: sprinkle of Jegulus and MarlIly for you to enjoy<3)

[multiversal-madness]

So what exactly happened to magic man to make him end up magicless? Well he had a run in with the King of Lost Things after managing to anger him, which isn't an easy thing to do (More Story info beneath the cut).

With this I wanted to make a piece somewhat similar to how the title cards are for Adventure Time, minus the actual title. Whether I managed that goal or not, I'm not completely sure, but I like how this piece turned out so :)

Now for more detail on the story stuff:

So because Simon is not only a King, but a King of a lot of different species, he's had a few people ask for refuge that had been changed by an encounter with a being they called 'Magic Man'.

After around a century with the occasional mention of this 'Magic Man', Simon decided to look into it and see exactly who was messing with people.

Their first encounter wasn't exactly good, Simon tried to reason with Magic Man but all he did was get his attention. Simon left after giving Magic Man a warning to stop messing with people, but Magic Man had other plans.

Magic Man appeared in the Lost Kingdom to 'have some fun'. He was hard to get rid of, he eventually left on his own, but not before doing something that really angered Simon.

He used his magic to make a bird, a lyrebird in shape, but physically made out of very old video tapes. Tapes of himself, Betty and Marcy, before Betty became an oozer, before Marceline found the crown, tapes that Simon treasured very dearly.

Simon was pissed, but he wasn't stupid. He wouldn't rush into making sure Magic Man got what he deserved. He laid out a plan and gave Magic Man one last chance to make things right before he went through with it.

Magic Man refused, so Simon went through with his plan, somewhat.

I'll save the details for another post, but in short, Simon opened a portal to the nightosphere in Magic Man's house (destroying not only the house but also the Martian transporter in the basement) and dragged Magic Man there.

At the end of it, Magic Man was now Normal Man, and would have been Soulless Man had Simon not relented at the last second. Simon left the grievously injured Normal Man in the remains of his home, taking the picture of him and Margles as one last kick while he's down.

After Simon left, Normal Man was left without his madness and sadness (well still some sadness, but at least now it was manageable). He dealt with his injuries the best he could and ended up heading towards the Lost Kingdom. Even if it was dangerous, he needed that picture of Margles.

When he first showed up at Lost Kingdom, he wasn't trusted, but since Simon felt bad for how far he pushed things he was allowed to stay if he worked for his keep (though he was also on thin ice and near the beginning almost always had someone keeping an eye on him).

Eventually, Simon did give back the picture and released Normal Man from his duties, but Normal Man had grown accustomed to how things were and for the first time in a long time, even made some friends. When he asked to stay, Simon allowed him to, and over time the two grew closer until Normal Man turned into Butler Man.

In present Ooo they're good friends and as his butler Simon trusts Butler Man a lot, even enough to manage the trials for the Enchiridion (which will be explained in a future post).

[pimento-playing-hopscotch]

Tag Game: 911 Lone Star Fandom Edition

Thank you for the tag, @chicgeekgirl89 @ladytessa74 💝

When did you first start watching Lone Star? Who or what introduced you to the show?

It was right about two years ago around this time of year, and the who would be Owen Strand himself, Mr. Rob Lowe. I was on Hulu and bored and saw this go by and thought well I've never met a Rob Lowe something that I didn't like, so what the hey.

I was not expecting to get this into it at ALL- like by the time the title card appeared for the first time I was like what is this show! (literally, I hadn't written anything in about 13 years, and I had no computer at the time, and there I was, scribbling down fic in my notebook like a child of the 80's lol).

Which season is your favorite?

For me it's a horserace between seasons one and four. Season one did so much with those ten episodes (why I have hopes season five can still be amazing with only twelve episodes) and season four for a couple reasons; one, season four fixed sooooooooo many of the mistakes they made in season three, and season four compared to season one is like them living their lives out loud.

Like that sad boy from New York who just wanted a way to bury his pain? He's getting married now!

That cop with zero work-life balance? Also getting married and has friends who adore him!

The trans firefighter worried he'll never date anyone he can be himself with- look at his relationship blooming now!!

It's just the best, season four.

Who is your favorite character? (Bonus: If you answered TK or Carlos, who is your favorite besides them?

Well, first pick would be my Tarlos boys, but I also do love me some Owen Strand. Yes he's flawed but there is so much good in him, and he's an amazing dad and captain when his character doesn't suffer from the show needing him to be the center of everything and the fact they can't land a decent romantic storyline for him (though I do know why that is lol).

Top Five Episodes - Go!

4x08 1x01 1x10 2x05 4x12

If you could pick any character to be given a "begins" episode, who would it be and what would that episode look like?

Carlos, cause I'd like to go just like a year before the show started - like it's been confirmed TK was his first real relationship but did he try to date? Did he ever hook up? Also I feel that because he is a good son that he wouldn't cut off his parents completely, but wouldn't see them until they asked, what was that like? Did he want to tell his mom about his life and feel like he couldn't? (note; this might be the most depressing begins episode ever - TK really burst in like the Kool-Aid man and color this boy's whole world).

Also Nancy, just because we don't get anything about her hardly - did she go to college? How long has she been with EMS? Did she have another captain before Michelle? All could use answers.

What is a scenario or storyline that you would like to see in season five?

TARLOS DOMESTIC MORNING SCENE PLEASE AND THANK YOU -

I want Carlos to be up early and trying to wake TK up gently. After TK says just a few more minutes four times, Carlos uses stern voice and tells him it's time to get up. TK still is hiding under the covers so Carlos puts those long fingers to use and tickles his husband right out of the bed.

Beyond that - for TK and Owen to have scenes together like they did in season four; for Owen's rich girlfriend to not be a thing anymore, for Robert's death not to cause any bad feelings between Strands, and for TK and Carlos to be on a team against their problem, not on opposite sides against each other.

Also Carlos picks TK up; in any context. I would love a Carlos puts his husband on his shoulder and carries him out of somewhere while he's protesting but would also accept in a romantic setting he picks TK up, or he picks a very sleepy TK up who wraps his legs around his husband and lays his head on his shoulder.

The still of a concerned Carlos on the phone and a despondent-looking TK behind him- what do you think is going on there?

I think a mean person told TK that Catan is stupid and TK got very upset about it and Carlos's phone call consists of "you made my baby sad? You picked a good day to die, son".

Juuuuuust kidding lol - no I think that Carlos has to do something dangerous (perhaps related to his father's murder, perhaps not) but it's known to be dangerous and TK is scared for him and begging isn't there anyone else? And Carlos gets the call confirming there's no one else; it needs to be Carlos.

We all know about the elusive spicy 5x05 scene that has been teased, so what is your prediction for how it could possibly top 1x02?

That is tough because they're still on network TV - I would say one or both of them are wet - possibly it is raining and they're at the famous Reyes ranch and Carlos takes TK in the barn.

Where was the Tarlos honeymoon in your mind?

(I may be stealing this) but I could see them going somewhere in Mexico - pretty but also not terribly far away, because of what happened but also because TK is very nervous about leaving their lizard child and is constantly texting his dad like what is Lou doing why haven't you sent me videos of him!!"

Shoutout to one of your favorite fan creations

The Little Monkey by @anewkindofme - my most reread fic and chock full of sweet TK and Owen feels. It is the ultimate comfort fic.

Where All This Love Comes From by @carlos-in-glasses - so much angst, so much heart, so much love, so much writing talent possessed by one person!

No pressure tagging - I tag @anewkindofme @nancys-braids @carlos-in-glasses @actualalligator @lemonlyman-dotcom @carlos-tk -tk @heartstringsduet and anyone else who wants to do it - open tag 🫶

[deanwinchesterswitch]

The Girlfriend Who Remade Christmas

Part Nine: A Babe So Dear

Square: Holiday Miracle ~ spnchristmasbingo (2022)

Song: Carol of the Bells ~BarlowGirl

Pairing: Dean x Nicole {Nico/Nic} OFC

Summary: The investigation to uncover the mystery surrounding the abandoned child is surprisingly uneventful but brings about an interesting revelation.

Warnings: Fluff; A teeny bit of angst; Implied sex; Canon divergence

Word Count: 4,152

Beta: princessmisery666

Credit: @talesmaniac89 made the gorgeous title card and divider

Series Master Post

The Road So Far https://forgottenworld.travelmap.net/ - no update for this chapter

"It’s a baby, Dean, not a monster.” She calls over her shoulder as she crouches near the car seat.

“Hang on, don’t touch it,” he admonishes, catching up to her, holding out a flask pulled from his back pocket.

“Is that really necessary?” He arches a brow at her, and she reluctantly concedes, huffing, “Fine! But just a couple of drops.” Nic breathes a relieved sigh when a tiny foot flinches, startled by the cool liquid, but nothing else happens. Wide, watery eyes hold hers, and she reaches for the small outstretched hands.

“Stop!”

With a heavy sigh she turns an exasperated look to Dean, only to find him pulling out the small silver knife he keeps stashed in his boot. “I’m not cutting a baby!”

“What?! Geezus, do you really think I want you to slice into a kid?” he huffs indignantly, twirling the weapon so the hilt is pointed at her.

Nic’s cheeks warm with embarrassment, “N-no,” but Dean’s expression clearly indicates he doesn’t believe her. “I’m sorry.” She juts out her bottom lip, features morphing into her best impression of a sad puppy. “Forgive me?”

Rolling his eyes, Dean shakes his head, but he can’t hide the quirk of his lips. She shifts toward the child, but he grips her forearm. “Remember me telling you about the shifter baby?”

Understanding spreads across her features, and she looks back at the infant. “Oh yeah. That was before you let me officially become part of the team.” Reminded of the night after a rough hunt where they’d had to bandage each other up, which led to sharing a bed and the start of their more than friends relationship, she gives him a teasing smile. 

Dean hums, teeth sinking into his bottom lip, obviously recalling their first night together as well. A soft cry brings their attention back to the matter at hand. Countenance soft but determined, he gently twists her arm and places the weapon in her hand.

“Alright, alright.” Nic carefully places the flat end of the blade against the child’s foot. Once again, the baby startles, eyes wide and body stiff, but there’s no sizzling of skin or other indications of a supernatural being, and they both exhale in relief.

Apparently, having had enough of their shenanigans, the tiny human emits a loud wail, body trembling, legs kicking, arms thrown out, and hands balled into fists. Nic quickly releases the buckle and lifts the baby from the car seat, standing as she bounces the child in her arms. The wails turn to whimpers, but the small face remains red, and tears flow from the corners of scrunched eyes.

When the infant continues to fuss despite Nic’s best efforts, she finally gives up and hands the little outraged bundle to Dean. As soon as the child is resting against his shoulder, silence surrounds them. “Of course,” she huffs, rolling her eyes when Dean flashes her a smug smile and a wink.

Cautiously looking around, Dean says. “We should probably take her to the hospital. Make sure she’s not hurt.”

“No!” Nic emphatically cries. “If we do that, they’ll want to question us and then call CPS.”

“Nicole.” Dean understands her resistance to the idea. Nic was thrown into the system a few weeks before Christmas at an age where she could remember everything that happened. He also isn’t thrilled about the prospect of dealing with the police or child services. However, they’re not equipped to take care of a child. “She might need-”

“No!” Bottom lip trembling, eyes tearing up, she begs, “Please. She can move all her limbs, her eyes are bright, and her lungs are obviously fine. This close to the holidays, CPS is even more overwhelmed. Who knows what will happen.” She gently places a hand on the baby’s back, “or where this cutey will end up.”

“Nico.” She glares at him, but he continues, knowing that he may be risking life and limb, attempting to make her see reason. “I get it, I really do, but we don’t have even one of the million items it takes to care for a baby. It’s probably best-”

Quickly cutting him off, voice edged with determination but eyes pleading, she argues, “We have a car seat. We’ll stop at the store on the way back to the hotel. If we find any signs of injuries once we’re safe, then we’ll take her to the hospital.” She grips the edge of his jacket with her free hand. “W-we can call Jody to see if she can help us. Please.”

“We can’t-” A soft coo reaches his ear, and tiny fingers brush against his neck as Nic tilts her head, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye. “Fine,” he sighs in resignation, “but we’re calling Jody as soon as we get back to the hotel.”

“Thank you!” she gleefully cries, throwing her arms around him, careful not to squish the baby between them. Pulling away, a flash of bright color catches her eye. “What’s that?” She takes a step toward the tree line, but Dean grips her elbow. Patting his hand, she smiles. “It’s alright. It looks like a diaper bag.”

After a meltdown in the store, where, again, Dean is the only one able to quiet the infant, they make it safely back to the hotel room without further incident. While Nic gets a squirmy Kara into a clean diaper and a footed onesie they found in her bag, Dean calls Jody to ask for help identifying the child and hopefully finding her parents.

“Yeah, we did all the tests. Seems to be a normal kid. Doesn’t appear to have any injuries either.” Dean paces the room, listening to Jody reiterate all the scenarios he’s already run through. “I know. I already went through all of that with her, but you know why she wouldn’t leave the kid with CPS, especially this time of year.”

Stopping at the window, he stares into the starry darkness beyond his reflection, “No, no last name. The only thing written on the back was ‘Nana and Kara - 5 months’. It’s a close-up, can’t see much of the room. Nothing to indicate where they live. I’ll send ya a copy of the photo.” A series of tiny cries echo from the bedroom along with a frustrated ‘Seriously?’ and Dean chuckles. “Listen, Jody, I gotta go. Thanks for helping. We’ll call you in the morning.”

Dean enters the bedroom to find the faces of both female occupants adorably scrunched—one in fitful unhappiness, the other in dejected exasperation. “Why doesn’t she like me?” Nic pouts as Dean steps up behind her. She tosses aside the stuffed reindeer she’d been trying to engage the little girl with.

“Aww, she’s just scared and probably tired.” Dean reaches around her to lightly tickle Kara’s belly. “Aren’t you, sweetie.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, tiny eyes pop open, and the crying morphs into a soft cooing.

Nic throws her hands in the air with a grunt. “Oh, for Pete’s sake. It doesn’t matter how old they are.” Pointing a finger at the little girl, she teases, “He’s mine, missy. Don’t get any ideas.”

Kara blinks at Nic and then grips one of Dean’s fingers in her tiny hand, kicking her legs with a happy gurgle.

“Oh my god!”

Dean laughs, wrapping an arm around Nic as he kisses the top of her head. “Don’t worry, gorgeous, you’re still my number one.”

“Hmph.” Nic pushes against his chest. “Maybe we should run some more tests on her. Make sure she’s not some ancient deity or something posing as a baby.”

Smiling, when Nic narrows her eyes at Kara, he attempts to allay her doubts. “We’ve done every test we could with what we have. Pretty sure she’s human.”

“Yeah, well, you can put her to bed. I’ll clean up.”

Carefully lifting the little girl to his shoulder, he gently bounces, patting her back, and whispers, “You’re going to be good, right? No more fussing?” Humming, he makes his way over to the portable playpen they bought, rocking in place for a moment.

She looks to be already half asleep when he lays her down, so he continues to hum until her eyes fall closed, a tiny fist pressed to her mouth. As he turns, he sees Nic exit the room and follows her, grabbing the baby monitor before closing the door behind him.

Nic’s standing at the window, the tenseness in her shoulders telling him all he needs to know. Hearing her sniff as he draws closer, he turns her to face him. The tears he knew would be there stream down her face. Pulling her into a tight hug, he tries to reassure her. “Don’t worry, honey, we’ll do everything we can to find her family.”

Dean wakes to a whimper from the area of the sleeping baby and an empty spot next to him. As he quickly sits up, Nic exits the bathroom in a simple but expensive-looking suit and heels he’s never seen before. Confused, he looks around the room, catching the time on the clock—9 am.

They’d gotten up twice during the night with Kara, once to change her diaper and once to feed her. The last one had taken some time to get her back to sleep, but they finally got her settled around seven. He’s not familiar with a baby’s sleep schedule, but he feels like it’s kind of late in the morning for her to still be sleeping. Although, the poor kid’s probably exhausted from her recent adventure.

“Wha-” he grunts, running a hand through his hair. The baby stirs, and Nic shushes him. Glancing over to Kara and finding her still asleep, he slips from the bed and meets Nic in the other room.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” she greets with a kiss.

Eyes drifting to her open laptop on the narrow island dividing the small kitchen from the living room, he sees a notebook with the visible pages covered in her handwriting lying beside it and shakes his head. “You didn’t go back to sleep.”

“No.”

“What’s going on?”

“I did a little research of my own and then called Jody. I found an Amber Alert associated with a carjacking in Utah. She had, too, but was still concerned there might be something supernatural related and was looking into that further before calling. We discussed options, and after comparing the picture we have to the missing Utah child's photo, we’re pretty sure it’s Kara. Since they’re infants, it’s hard to tell.

Slipping her phone into a skirt pocket, she smiles. “Can’t believe I found a skirt this slim with pockets.” She does a little twirl and asks, “How do I look?”

Dean rakes his eyes over her form, giving her an appreciative grin as she continues. “There’s no mention in the missing person’s report of a birthmark like the one we found on Kara’s leg. They might be holding that back for identification purposes, though. Jody suggested I go to the Sheriff’s office instead of the police department. Figured they might be a little easier to deal with. She offered to call ahead, but since she doesn’t have any contacts there, we decided it would be best I go in cold.”

“Whoa, whoa.” Scrubbing a hand down his face, he shakes his head and blinks, now focusing fully on what she’s saying rather than the form-fitting outfit he’d like to peel from her shapely figure. “I’m going. Where’d you get that suit anyway?”

“No. I am.” Pulling her Fed badge from her bag, she tucks it into the inside jacket pocket. “You are staying with Kara. And I got it from the boutique downstairs.”

“You can’t leave me with a baby?”

“Why not? You took care of a shifter baby. You’re great with kids.” She gives him a teasing smile and pats him on the chest. “Besides, she likes you better.”

Gripping her wrist, he holds her in place. “Nope. I’m going.”

“Look, for whatever reason, she is obviously uncomfortable with me. Are you going to put both of us through what will surely be a stressful situation if left together?”

He knows she’s right, but he still doesn’t like it. Nic runs her free hand down his arm, capturing his hand in hers as she steps closer. Her eyes plead with him as he stares her down. When her lips slip into a little pout, he shakes his head, and she chuckles, knowing she’s won.

“Fine,” he grumbles, letting go of her wrist. “Just make it quick.”

“Love you.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he gripes but leans in for a kiss. “Love you, too,” he grins as he lets her go.

“Oh,” reaching for the door handle, she stops, turning to look back at him, “I ordered you breakfast.” With a final smile and a wink, she leaves him alone with a now awake and, once again, crying baby.

A few hours later, Nic returns to find Dean sleeping on the couch with Kara lying on his chest, one hand cradling the back of her head and the other supporting her bottom. Quickly taking out her phone, she snaps a picture just before his eyes blink open.

Kicking off her shoes and tossing her jacket in the chair, she kneels beside them, whispering, “She’s in my spot.”

Dean glances down at Kara and then back to Nic with a smirk. “You’re jealous of a baby?” he whispers back. Nic pinches his arm, making him grunt and wake Kara. “See what you did.”

The little girl whimpers but remains calm as he sits up. Following suit as Nic stands, he hands the baby to her, laughing at their equally shocked expressions. “I need to pee. I’ll be right back.”

Kara immediately begins to fuss, and Nic sighs. “Listen, I know now why you don’t like me, but still, can’t you cut me a break?”

Not wanting to cause her more agitation, Nic places her on the play mat and slips on the cute little rattle socks they found at the store. Dean must have had them on her earlier. A couple of the other stimulus toys and the stuffed reindeer they’d gotten her are also lying on the mat. Nic smiles wistfully, wishing she could have seen him interact with the 5-month-old. Maybe she’ll get a chance before Kara’s parents arrive.

“Did you say you know why she doesn’t like you?” Running a hand over her hair, he sits beside her on the floor.

Dean reaches over to gently wiggle Kara’s foot, eliciting a rattling noise. A happy chirp escapes the infant with a flailing of limbs before grabbing one of her feet in each of her hands. Nic retrieves her phone from the table, and after pulling up a video clip, she hands it to Dean. Leaning against his shoulder, she watches with him.

“Is this the carjacking?”

“Yeah. There was a CCTV cam at the intersection.”

“Damn, that’s brutal.” The video had reached the point where the father was fighting with the male assailant and trying to get to Kara. “What’s this have to do with you, though?”

“Keep watching.”

“Son of a-” Dean stops himself and quickly glances at Kara.

Despite the situation, Nic can’t help but smile, “She’s too young to understand your potty mouth, Dean.”

“Still.”

Nic squeezes his arm and chuckles at his concern over Kara being corrupted by his cursing.

“Whatever,” he mutters. Looking back to the video, he rewinds it a bit before pausing on what he’d just seen. “Who is that?”

“The female assailant.”

He enlarges the screen and squints at the image. “Whoa, from a distance, she looks like you.”

“Exactly.” Nic looks at Kara, watching as she rolls onto her belly and bats at the wobbler toy nearby. “Caused a bit of a stir at the station after I asked about the case, and they pulled up the file and footage. Thankfully, Garth was home to vouch for my credentials.”

“So now what?”

“Her parents, Daniel and Emily Carter, were contacted, and they’re headed here. To Tucson. Once they arrive, they’ll be interviewed and put through a verification process, then an officer and a CPS Specialist will bring them here to pick Kara up.”

“Here?” Dean gently grips Kara’s chubby thighs, slides her back to the center of the mat she’s nearly rolled herself off of and sets the toys back within her reach. “Why aren’t we taking her to them?”

“Well, since I am a ‘Federal Agent’ on vacation with my ‘husband’. The CPS Specialist agreed it would be less disruptive if she stayed with us for a few more hours. Also, there’s little chance of dealing with the press here versus a more public venue.”

“Smart thinking.” He smiles, squeezing her hand. “Husband, huh?” His gaze turns to Kara, his smile dropping sightly. “When will they be here?”

Nic grips his wrist, turning it to view his watch. “They land in an hour, interview and verification; the drive here won’t take long. I’d say three and a half hours, give or take.”

Dean hums, bobbing his head as he watches the little girl play. He lightly trails a finger over her tiny hand, which she immediately opens to wrap her fingers around. Nic smiles at the gesture. “You getting attached, Winchester?”

“Huh?” His thumb absently strokes Kara’s wrist while she holds tight to his finger, babbling as she stares up at him.

“Dean?” Nic nudges his arm with her shoulder and he pulls his hand back.

“Oh, uh, what?”

“You’re going to miss her, aren’t you.”

“Phfft. No.”

“Yeah, right.” Nic grins at his adorably flustered face. “Come on.” She stands holding out her hand. “It’s about time for her to eat. And I’m starving. Let’s order dinner and get her fed.”

“You switched your ring to your left hand?” She asks as she rearranges the pitcher of holy water and empty drinking glasses on the tray …again.

“Yes.” Mumbling, “for the fifth time.”

Nic stops what she’s doing and sighs. “I’m sorry. I know we don’t have any reason to think so, but I would just feel better if I knew they aren’t secretly demons or some other monster pretending to be her parents.”

“Hey,” walking over, he pulls her into a hug, “I agree. That’s why we made the plan.”

Dean is now wearing the sigil-detailed iron and silver ring she’d gifted him on his 40th birthday as a ‘wedding’ ring. It made the ring’s discrete usefulness during a handshake a little inconvenient, but Dean assured her he’d manage. Nic is wearing her matching ‘wedding’ ring and bracelet. Between them and the holy water, they were confident they’d be able to test everyone in the group.

Now, she can’t help the rising nerves and hopes, with all her heart, that they will be able to safely return Kara to her family. Basking in the reassuring warmth of his embrace, Nic startles when there’s a knock on the door. With a deep breath, she steps back and smooths down her dress.

His warm hand grips her upper arm, “Ready?” and softly squeezes when she nods.

As it turns out, the Carters are so grateful for them finding their daughter and taking care of her that they each hug Dean and Nic, making it easy for the warded jewelry to make contact with their skin in the process. During the flurry, Nic is able to brush her bracelet against the CPS Specialist’s arm.

The holy water and the officer prove to be the sticking point. There hasn’t been an opportunity to shake his hand or make contact, and no one is interested in the water as the conversation falls to reuniting the family.

After placing the tray on the table next to where the officer is standing, Nic pretends to stub her toe and stumble as she turns. In the process, she grips the officer’s forearm for balance, pressing her ring against his flesh, and fake coughs ‘Cristo’ just loud enough for everyone to hear. With no hint of black eyes or anything smoking out, Nic apologizes to the officer as Dean gives her an admiring nod before offering to get Kara.

Forty minutes later—after a river of joyful tears had been shed and another flurry of hugs and heartfelt thanks—the room is eerily silent as the couple sits on the couch holding hands.

Dean’s phone vibrating on the table breaches the stillness. Showing her the caller ID, he grunts, “We forgot to call her,” and answers with a cheerful, “Hey, Jody.”

Nic closes her eyes, tuning out the one-sided conversation as she reflects on the past 24 hours. Soft, plush lips pressed to her temple bring her back to the moment.

“Good news,” he whispers.

“More?” she murmurs, keeping her eyes closed, enjoying the sensation of his thumb caressing the side of her hand.

“Yeah. While everyone here was celebrating, the dickbags were being cuffed and shipped off to County in Colorado Springs. I hope they drop the soap!”

Nic’s eyes snap open to a gleaming smile that she can’t help but return. “No way! That’s awesome.” Shaking her head, she stares at him in wonderment. “You can’t tell me that all of this wasn’t a holiday miracle.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“All the ways it could have gone wrong, the horrible things that could have happened to that adorable little girl. They could have left her anywhere, yet we were in the right place at the right time.” Nic lets go of his hand, draping her arms over his shoulders as she crawls over him to straddle his lap. “The douchebags that hurt that family will be brought to justice. And nothing supernatural involved? That in itself is a miracle.”

Dean nods. “Alright, I’ll give you that.”

Nic grins and falls into him for a hug, her eyes meeting the row of bags filled with baby supplies. “What are we going to do with all this stuff?”

The Carters were thankful for the extra diapers and formula but declined the other items, saying they already had plenty at home. They at least took the stuffed reindeer, saying it would be a wonderful reminder of the people who saved her life.

“I told you not to buy so much.”

Sitting up to face him again, she gives him a stern look. “I seem to recall that you were the one that went and got a second cart to put stuff in.”

“Well, we weren’t sure how long we would need to take care of her,” he tries to defend.

“Hmph.” Kissing his forehead, she wiggles in his lap. “C’mon. I’m exhausted. Let’s go to bed. We can figure it out in the morning.”

“Why don’t we pack it up and have it shipped back home?” he tosses out like he’s asking her what she wants for breakfast.

Strong fingers grip her waist as she leans back, shocked and a little more than curious to read his demeanor. A gleam of—hopefulness?— is quickly replaced with wariness when she catches his gaze. Sometimes, she hates that she knows him so well to know what he’s thinking. Yet, there are still times of uncertainty. Times where she has to carefully peel back the layers to discover what’s truly churning in that clever, complex mind of his. Arching a brow, she asks, “D- do you want to have a baby?”

“Do you want to have a baby?” he quickly deflects.

“I asked first.”

Fingertips curl into the fabric of her dress, and his thigh muscles tense, but the corner of his mouth curves upward. “Well, technically-”

Knowing he’s going for a joke, she crosses her arms over her chest, “Dean.”

The smirk fades. “I, uh, I don’t know.” He gives her a sheepish shrug. “It was never an option before. But now …” Tucking his chin, his voice fades.

Nic’s thoughts reel with his revelation. He shifts on the cushion, and she knows he’s getting ready to try and blow it off. Gripping his chin, she brings his head up, holding it until he looks at her. “We’ll ship it home, but let’s shelve the conversation. We still have a road trip to finish, but when we get back, we’ll talk about it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” The tip of his tongue peaks between his teeth with a cheeky grin, and this time, she’s certain that hope brightens his eyes. “Now can we go to bed?” Wrapping her hands around the back of his neck, she winks. “Nothing to stop us from ‘practicing’ in the meantime.”

Dean chuckles, “Thought you were tired.”

“Suddenly got a second wind.”

He scoots forward on the cushion, shifting his hands to grip her ass and pull her closer. “Well, hang on, gorgeous.”

“Always, handsome.” Nic locks her fingers together at his nape as he stands, squealing when he practically sprints to the bedroom.

Love Me Some Pie tag list: @123passwort // @akshi8278 // @asgoodasdancingqueen // @calaofnoldor // @compresshischest09 // @deaneverafter // @deans-baby-momma // @deans-spinster-witch // @deanwanddamons // @globetrotter28 // @iamsapphine // @idreamofplaid // @impala-dreamer // @iprobablyshipit91 // @irgendwas122 // @jerkbitchidjitassbutt // @justagirlinafandomworld // @justrealizedimmascifygurl // @ladysparkles78 // @lyarr24 // @mimaria420 // @mrswhozeewhatsis // @musicissmylife // @mvdeanw // @pallographsunspot // @princessmisery666 // @raisinggray // @shawnie74 // @thinkinghardhardlythinking // @thoughts-and-funnies // @waynes-multiverse // @wayward-and-worn // @waywardbaby // @weepingwillowphoenix // @yvonneeeee

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

The Simon fic with the prompt hit me like a brick.

It was SOO GOOD, i really bow before you, you’re very good at what you do. The Hotel was such a nice little unique detail, really feels like you’ve given Simon more depth which i appreciate. Overall it’s such a nice change of pace from what i normally see written for him. Thank you for “fixing him” <3

ohmygosh thank you so much 💗😭💗 like I said in the notes I have a lot of feelings about him, and when I was thinking up how to tie the prompt to his canon I was wondering how to get the reader close enough to him to say it when we don't really see a ton of him outside of his villain plot, and what we do see is everyone just beating him down the whole time because they think he sucks.

It's good for short things where you can make him into whoever you need him to be for your plot and use those brief moments to still keep him in character however you interpret him, but since the prompt is intimate that made it a little harder for me to work up to, so I decided to go a little deeper and add him to my Deep Dive List of Characters I Really Enjoy and Need to Fully Interpret My Way.

More under the cut, it's finally deep dive time and I ended up writing a ton, here we goooooo

Okay so to start, here's what we do know about him from on screen things and context clues, things mentioned in passing:

He really is good with building things. Obviously the bomb collars weren't bought online, his credit card statements mention 'electronic equipment' and they have to figure out on the fly how to disarm them, they're something they haven't seen before. He also owns a giant satellite so he more than likely figured out how to hook it up to his minicam system so he could get the feed no matter how far they travelled, as well as keep his stream from being properly locked onto. He was only training in the Academy so he never actually made the bomb squad before he was kicked out, and it all just tells me he's gotta be smart, handy, his memory must be damn good to remember what he learned before his removal, and he for sure knows how to work with tech well enough that he didn't blow himself up while building the things.

He has a temper. It's seen the most when Jeannie is saved, that entire end of the stream did him no favours with him broadcasting how she felt towards him while everyone was on her side. When he hears her call him creepy he looks hurt, but to have everyone agree switches it to anger, panic, how dare she do this to him when he was finally getting the attention he deserves. When she's saved it's just insult to injury, she gets to bring him down this time to his face pretty much, have 5000 people join in on that, and when she not only lives he becomes the target of their hate before leaving him. It's no surprise he breaks his screen after this, he's just been insulted to high hell, and he's just learned that the man who did it got a second chance after doing way worse things than he did. I believe his temper stems from other emotions first, like sadness and panic, he only gets mad after everyone leaves, when the cops show up to save Kennex and them being on site could mean his arrest or worse, and when he's already emotionally vulnerable about venting about his black marks. He's never mad right out the gate, annoyed or frustrated yes but never truly angry, so I'll bet a lot has to build up first before his temper turns vocal or physical. I don't doubt a bit of this showed itself during the loan meeting, which got him the title of unstable if he started getting overwhelmed and worked up when things started going south.

He's desperate for attention and getting it makes him emotional. This one doesn't fully show until the end, but the entire episode is nothing but him vying for attention and approval and even respect. He's been nothing but rejected leading up to this, 'unstable,' 'unqualified,' 'creepy,' 'gives a bad feeling,' he had a bad psych evaluation, so when he finally gets that approval when he tries his killing game something clicks, this is it, this is what he's been yearning for. No more doubt, the viewers love it, he gets to enjoy seeing the people who hurt him get hurt, and having those two things overlap fills him with actual joy to the point that it makes him cry. It genuinely makes me wonder just how lonely he had to be and how bad his mental health had gotten for it to build up to this point, get this bad all around, and I truly believe that having someone there for him while all the bad things were happening could've avoided his turn to villainy entirely.

He truly believes that this is justice. They hurt him, insulted him, they deserve to pay. He really is a villain here, there is no denying that, but I also think he's probably completely isolated outside of work, and all that loneliness and isolation and pain can convince you to do anything, that what you're doing is right, and this time it convinced him that revenge was the best medicine. He thinks that using them to get him the attention he believes he deserves will also help his pain, no more reminders of being rejected, it'll be cathartic, and when people start cheering him on it only solidifies that thought. This is what they want to see, now he can deliver and feel better at the same time, two birds with one stone, no more villains out there to hurt him and others while he's finally respected.

He might work from home. When he sees Kennex during the stream he appears to look him up immediately, so he might have access to the trashed data from home, or he's made it so he can access it away from work, which again ties into how smart he is. This one isn't as big, but working from home would only isolate him more and send his mental health straight into the garbage with how much I already doubt he gets out, which would make his desire for positive attention even stronger; this is something I can relate to since my only means of social interaction is through my family and work seeing as I don't have any local friends, I know how your mental health can tank when it's just you alone in your room for days with no one to talk to, think pandemic times only it never ends, so I just know if this one is true then this is probably why he latched on so hard to every other point.

He's 'creepy'. This one I cannot fathom, since we don't get to see him outside of villainy stuff, but I will also fully admit that my DD bias also doesn't believe he was creepy enough to ditch before the date even started, that is legitimately so cold. I mean, he brought roses and packed a picnic, he was clearly trying, and he did want to meet someone enough to make a dating profile, even left it up after he was dumped, although I do bet he abandoned it after that since oh my god my heart would be so broken if that happened to me, writing that part of the fic nearly made me cry. Since she did leave before the date started he must've said or done something to give her that vibe, but like in the fic I bet it was something probably along the lines of not knowing how to talk to people and having it come off wrong; maybe he was overly affectionate right away and asked for hugs or a cheek kiss that first meeting, gave off the impression of needy/clingy right away and like she'd have no choice but to leave early? Like if she said something he would put her in danger and/or not let her leave? If something like this had happened before there would probably be more warnings in the forums for people to stay away, not just hers, so my guess is that a bunch of things happened that made her too wary, and that mixed in with the callout that he may or may not have seen hurt him bad enough to make sure she was on his list. She was probably the first match he made on the site as well, or really was his first date, so finally feeling wanted and then getting burned so bad did not help his already bad mental health.

Despite his knack for tech, he wanted to open a bar. This one is so interesting to me because why of all things would he want to open a bar? He was training to be on the bomb squad, he works part-time in Data Waste Handling, and he's smart enough to build things and quite possibly code and/or hack, so why a bar? This is another thing I really had to think about while writing since it stands out to me so much, and I think I might've been onto something with his desire to connect with people; they could've given him any reason to want that loan, it could've been to help get a better place or at least expand his trailer (my aunt and uncle did that and goddamn it turned into such a beautiful two-story house, no joke you can't even tell unless you already know), it could've even been to start a different business entirely based around the previous things they built up for him, and instead he wants to open such a social thing in a future where tech is already super advanced. I truly believe he was really trying to connect with people via this desire, his attempts to date, but thanks to his black marks haunting him as well as his social and personality problems it only pushed him further into his isolation.

I don't think he ever realized that not everything was terrible because of his black marks. As mentioned above I think his isolation and poor mental health convinced him that hurting people was the right thing to do, but I also think that he genuinely could not see that not everything was because of that bad psych eval. I think that he started rationalizing things away, blamed everything on the eval, and refused to acknowledge when something was actually his fault, creating a terrible personality that did not help his cause at all. I don't think he knew how bad he himself had gotten, and as such saw no need to work on himself, since it all went back to that black mark, so all that rationalizing warped his personality and made him bitter, stubborn, and cruel.

He really did kill someone. I had forgotten about this since it's only shown on screen so you have to pause, this one will be talked about more below.

Now, here's some things that the reader's presence and I changed based on canon:

He has a second job. We don't know how long ago the loan was, but I'm guessing it had to be recent and stacked on top of the heartbreak, which was only a couple months ago according to Jeannie. I don't think he'd have been a pretty good bartender with that little social interaction, so having him work in another bar to learn the ropes and teach him first would've been very good for him while he saved up. In my fic I never had it mentioned on his dating profile since DWH seemed more professional, and since he didn't actually get the bartending job he wanted he might not have wanted to add in Waiter to that section to make himself look a little better.

He doesn't drive, or at least doesn't currently own a car. It's a small detail, and Jeannie does mention that she bailed when he went to the car to get the picnic basket, but I wanted to give the reader an excuse to drive him around. This one was a purely plot-related choice but it works so well with how much things aren't going for him. Maybe when he got evicted he lived in his car for a while, it's how he was able to keep his computer and remaining things safe, and when he was buying his trailer he had to sell it to get the money? I can see that, I should've written that in the fic itself OTL

Jeannie asked him out, not the other way around. Since the reader was there to tell him to wait, he didn't rush into things, which he might've in canon, but he still did ask her to meet him at the park. I also chose to go the tech route instead of clingy route for their date because yeah it's such a bad start to tell someone you know where they work within five minutes of meeting them. Still creepy, but in a consistent-with-my-narrative misunderstood way since the reader knows him and how that wasn't his intention, in fact he probably thought it was okay because he was blinded by excitement and the fact that the reader already gave him permission to look them up, so he figured it'd be fine to do it again in case he did want to surprise her. Dumb of ass and clueless, not malicious or dangerous.

He needed encouragement to go through with his canon choices. He still would've done them, but having the reader there to cheer him on has him go into both situations with hope and more confidence than he probably had in canon, which only makes the fact that he still had to fail hurt so much more. He also probably went in with less volatile reactions, especially with the loan, since my version of him has him actively talking with people and has his emotions more under control, so I wanted to blame his rejection entirely on the psych eval instead of what had to be a mix of both.

His self-worth is directly tied to his canon situations. It isn't mentioned at all straight out in either canon nor fic but I dialed this one down; in canon he believes that people should've respected him, which screams delusions of grandeur based on too many times getting rejected mixed in with being unable to see the problems in his own life caused by himself, and blatantly ignoring them while blaming them on his black marks. In my fic the highest it gets is him believe that he deserved basic human decency after he keeps getting shot down over and over due to misunderstandings. This isn't a man who's about to become a vigilante for the views, this is someone who just needs anybody to be there for him, tell him it's okay, help him work through where he went wrong and adjust what he did so he doesn't fail in the future. Maybe one canon presence in his life could've led to this path and the episode could've gone entirely different with someone else while he lived a normal life, but sadly it isn't which is the entire reason I'm doing this deep dive in the first place.

He was able to open the bar with the reader's help. This one is only implied, as well as the fact that he now lives with them, but I feel like if he did have someone like that on his side then he'd have had a better chance at getting that loan, and he would be so much happier and social and mentally well thanks to it. Running the place would take up a lot of his time but it would also get him outta his own head a lot more, and having so many other people around directly interacting with him as the boss instead of sometimes ordering him around as an employee would really help him fix any remaining personality issues all around as well since he'd be more aware of how he was acting and treating others.

He killed someone in self-defense, not to actually hurt them. This was a big one, since it happened before the episode and he obviously was released prior to this, and I feel like if this was an actual homicide he kinda would still be in prison, right? His mugshot looks recent (only because of filming which I get but I'm rolling with it), so it couldn't be too long ago, but it's more than likely closer to present in canon than the five years ago I timed his eviction around, since I think if that happened too close then he would just be a mess. I can't see him getting his DWH job immediately after either thing happened, going for a loan after either is so out of the question as well, and killing someone and then going on a date is just ridiculous. For canon, my guess is that an argument escalated and that temper of his as well as the unstableness and reasons for his bad psych eval all came out at once, or maybe this was a test to see if he actually could kill someone, and it either had to happen before or while he was in the Academy like in my fic, or it happened in the two months leading up to the episode, even though I can't for the life of me explain him getting out so soon if he did do it on purpose. And that's fine, it does make sense if either of those are close, they needed something dramatic to put on his rap sheet and make him terrible so he's not just randomly jumping straight to murder, but I personally like the idea of him being broken down so much that this is just the icing on the cake, another black mark on his life that'll follow him forever, and it's only through him being acquitted and a miracle that he gets his two jobs a year or two later.

Things I'd love to explore in future fics:

He might actually enjoy streaming. This one is obvious but I wanna do my own take on it! I don't know if he would be the type to stick to only games, but there is someone I watch who does whatever makes him happy now as well as games, and I think Simon might mesh with that a lot. He would obviously put a lot of weight on the numbers aspect of it (again, very me-coded, it doesn't matter how much I do things for myself, having that approval makes all the difference in the world and I know he's the same), but the reader would help him try and get over that in time. When he's able to hire more staff and spend more time at home I think he would do random weekend streams, and if he got AH's version of the youtube play buttons he would definitely cry and put it on display with pride. He would treasure all his viewers, and make his streams very personal because of that, learning frequent viewers' names, doing stuff like giveaways and shoutouts, give all the appreciation back to them.

He would need to realize he needs to work on himself, no more excuses. While he is miles better in my fic, he still very obviously has depression, emotional issues, and relies too much on what others think of him, so him working on that and finding happiness in what he does have will do him wonders. Of course having the reader there every step of the way will also help him heal that much faster as he goes through it all.

I think that's everything! I did not wake up this morning expecting to write my first deep dive on Simon of all people lol but I'm glad I did, I relate a lot to parts of him, this is how I personally see him and how I wrote my fic based around all this, and I mean no harm if any of my thoughts conflict with anyone else's who checks this out 💗

Also as a bonus, I said it in the tags but the Hotel is real :D it's an ooooold restaurant in my small town directly across from where I live, and back when I was either in or just out of highschool they rebranded from the Hotel to what it is now, had to shut down and everything as they changed everything up inside and added in a bunch of new décor to fit the theme. Everyone calls it by the new name of course, but my family never really started, so whenever we talk about ordering from there we'll say something like, 'wanna get Hotel tonight?' I too have to correct myself whenever I accidentally say it around people who don't know about the old name lol

I always add in stuff from my personal life into my fics in some way, and since Simon wanted to open the bar I thought it'd be sweet if he and the reader bonded over something food related like I did with Joshua, instead of say meeting up for drinks instead and just getting afternoon drunk every Friday since it directly went with him wanting to be a bartender.

Maybe in the future I can do a drabble about a bar date before he and the reader get together, tie in that he also started to take lessons in preparation for applying for the bar he works for at the start of the fic, something sweet like that as they get closer 🥰

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Eighth Sense Ep 2 Rewatch

Ok, listen. Am I watching this show and playing video games at the same time? Yes. Does that mean I am missing a lot? Yes.

But! The facial blurs when it comes to JaeWon seem very intentional and is especially evident when they are in the water:

Now, okay, there is 200% room for argument here that all the blurriness is because the cameraman is most likely filming in the water with a go-pro and has little to no control over the video quality. And that is totally something that can be true. And that is also totally something that would disguise any intentional, purposeful point of the blurriness in this moment.

And there is something else I noticed, the colors in this scene. Thanks, as always to @respectthepetty for turning me into a color monster.

The way the light refracts off of JiHyun's wetsuit makes the colors seem distorted.

Camera issue? Sure! But could it be another indication of JaeWon's altered mental status? Why the fuck not! I mean, we don't know how his brother died yet. Personally, my theory is that he drowned. Because so much of this show is water centric, because of the fish tank and the fact that our title card for Episode 2 is literally JaeWon surrounded by a fish tank as if he is under water.

I think it would be extra super spicy sad if it was when JaeWon was teaching his brother to surf. Just for the ~trauma~, and cause if that is true, then the blurriness and the distorted colors here once again is intentional, and is brilliantly capable of being written off by the audience as just difficult filming conditions.

So again, if that is the case, the blurriness is the altered mental status. And we can take that however we want, medically induced alteration, cognitive dissonance, anxiety, dissociation, all of them.

If the water killed JaeWon's brother, then being in the water would make him feel close to his brother and also be a great punishment for JaeWon. If his brother died learning to surf, then to teach a person the same age as his brother would have been would remind him of all that he had lost but give him that moment of soft remembrance to the person he loved most in the world.

And GOD we see this blurriness, much less obviously, but very rapidly cutting back and forth in the shower scene in Episode 3.

Out of focus

In focus.

Back and forth and back and forth every couple seconds like the camera isn't quite able to stick on his face. JaeWon wants to be present in this moment, JaeWon is fighting to remain in his body, tied to his emotions, tied to this person, so he is slipping in and out of focus because he's trying to fight the numbness and the brain fog.

And again, you cannot tell me this man is not dissociating. I'm sorry but those are some dead fucking eyes. This man is shut down, this man is not present in this conversation with his ex. Why would he be? Why would he try to be? He has no reason to fight the numbness he feels.

And we're back on the color train for JaeWon with JiHyun, with this soft pink light around his head when he joins JiHyun on the beach for their late night kiss conversation about fear.

Methinks JaeWon fears feeling anything, hence the hint towards drug dependence in Episode 6. I think it is so much easier for him to just be numb to the world so he doesn't have to feel the pain of the loss he suffered.

Anyway, the more I watch this show through the lens of mental illness, the more the camerawork is standing out to me with how and when they blur faces, and how it really only is JaeWon whose face is blurred when he's supposed to be in frame. Obviously there are instances where character's faces are going to be blurred because they are in the foreground or background, or they are not the focal point of the conversation. But JaeWon goes blurry far more often than anyone else does.

[violivs]

NMTDaily: Project IV - MAKEUP BLOOPERS

- We open with a clip of Hero and Claudio from the makeup video, to maintain the illusion! Claudio is saying Hero slacked off on his makeup, but he still won’t let her put any more on him, reinforcing my opinion from the makeup video liveblog that Claudio’s participation in the makeup video is contingent upon his masculinity being reinforced and unchallenged by the video’s end.

- Hero and Claudio kiss again, to really put off any unwanted viewers (B&B), and we cut to a different angle on Hero’s room, this time with a whole group of people onscreen. Meg, Pedro, Claudio, Hero, Ursula, and Balthazar are here.

- Pedro, hilariously, starts by apologizing that we had to see the Hero/Claudio kissing stuff.

- Then Pedro coins my ship tag for Beadick! “So, that’s got rid of Team Blessed.” Ahh!!! Team Blessed!!!! 💖

- Truly, imagine shipping two of your IRL friends with each other and then discovering that their names have matching meanings! No wonder these guys all think Ben and Bea falling in love is fate! (Not that I condone shipping your friends IRL. Don’t do that, it’s weird.)

- By way of explanation, “Beatrice” means “she who blesses” and “Benedick” means “he is blessed” and it’s perfect. They’re perfect. Thank you, Shakespeare! 💖

- It really seems like Pedro and Hero are the two bosses of Team Love Gods. Pedro starts off the video and then passes the narration to Hero.

- Hero introduces everyone, and gives them their new name: Team Love Gods!!! (Taken, of course, from the line in the play when Pedro says that if this matchmaking works, “We are the only love gods.”)

- Ursula throws up a title card at this point, telling us that the real, secret title of this episode is in fact PROJECT IV - LOVE GODS.

- Pedro tells us that when he hangs out with Bea or Ben individually, they only ever talk about each other. Apparently Beatrice went on about Ben for SIX HOURS. They’re obsessed with each other.

- “They’re like an old married couple” 💖

- We find out that Ben and Balthazar are close enough friends that they hang out one-on-one regularly so Balth can play him the unfinished songs he’s working on. He trusts Ben to give him feedback! Adorable! I love them.

- Apparently Pedro agrees, because when Balth is talking about playing Ben a song, Pedro mouths “Cute!” Good eye, Pedrazar shipper in the comments!

- Ben has some ideas for lyrics that Balth knows must be about Beatrice, but he won’t admit that’s the case. I would love if we could’ve heard the anti-Beatrice song. “Beatrice is a B”, omfg Pedro!

- “Imagine the return song she would then write.” FORESHADOWING! What a good line, too.

- Extremely funny and sad that Ben is following Hero and Claudio to movie dates and reaching between them to steal their popcorn. No wonder they want him out of their hair! Yikes, Ben.

- “We’ve all had it up to here.” “No, raise it higher.” “Out of shot!” Lol

- Meg is mostly here because she’s bored. Fair.

- Pedro thinks they’re perfect for each other. Interesting given that he just got rejected by Beatrice a few episodes ago. This is definitely an “I’m so annoyed with both of them I’m going to play them off on each other” reaction. Hero, on the other hand, just genuinely ships it hard.

- I like how Balthazar just spends the whole video looking down at his ukulele and smiling. He’s so bashful!

- Meg wants to Saw-trap Bea and Ben. Amazing. There could be some merit in just locking them in a room together without the gratuitous violence, but Pedro vetoes that.

- Ursula is the one who actually comes up with the overhearing scheme. Because Ursula is a genius. And we love her.

- B&B are more likely to fall for it if they also get to be smug about overhearing something their friends ostensibly don’t want them to know. Well-reasoned.

- Do a fishing metaphor! The comments point out that the original play has a couple of lines about reeling in Benedick and Beatrice like fish on a line (Act 2 Scene 3 line 90 and Act 3 Scene 1 lines 26-30). It is hilarious that TCW dispensed with all the detail and just went with “fishing metaphor”.

- Claudio comes up with “Hook, line, and sinker”, and Pedro reacts with so much enthusiasm I almost wonder if Caleb actually forgot his line there and just said “fishing metaphor” and did the fishing hand motions to keep the scene going and buy himself time to think of it.

- “We’ll hash out the details later. Watch this space!”

- Claudio is lying down again, right after last episode he told Ben he wanted to sleep. Are you not sleeping well at night, Claudio? Is this another reason you can’t think clearly later on when you start getting manipulated and lied to?

- The video description indicates that Ursula’s t-shirt is from a real film challenge for young NZ/A filmmakers under 24- do we think Ursula entered or was going to enter the film fest? That would be fun, I hope she did, in-world.

- The number of people in the comments who came back to say they were truly fooled and skipped this video on initial watch because they thought it really was three more minutes of makeup bloopers is wild. I love that the Love Gods’ ruse actually worked on real actual people as well as B&B. Talk about meta!

- The comment section is gold in this video! People talking about all the cute bits of Pedrazar looking at each other; people shipping Pedro/Ursula and Balth/Ursula and Meg/Pedro (?????); folks noticing how touchy feely Hero and Claudio are being even in the Love Gods part of the video; and of course and most importantly, a lot of Beadick shippers squealing about all the excellent moments we got in this episode.

- The game is afoot! The trap is set!

💖🦩🥭

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 2 Side B Round 2

This is Home / Home - Cavetown

"Get a load of this monster He doesn't know how to communicate His mind is in a different place Will everybody please give him a little bit of space Get a load of this train-wreck His hair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet But little do we know, the stars Welcome him with open arms"

How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

"But I believe the world is burning to the ground Oh well, I guess we're gonna find out Let's see how far we've come Let's see how far we've come"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

This is Home / Home - Cavetown

Propaganda:

This song is sooooo sad man... the animatics to this one are so sad its very much a self loathing melacholy song and so you get a lot of really angsty sad animatics from this one, some can be downright gut wrenching but either way you see this song a whole lot so it deserves a place in the hall of fame

this is to the danganronpa animatic i watched all the way back in 2020 that i STILL think about even though im not in the fandom anymore. that animatic is the animatic of all animatics ever to me.

Animatics with the song:

The Magnus Archives (Home)

Homestuck (This is Home)

Good Omens (Home)

The Magnus Archives (Home)

Danganronpa (This is Home)

How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

Propaganda:

Aside from two of my favourite ever animatics being to this (Homestuck and Hermitcraft 8) it’s such a fandom song (genuinely up there with soldier poet king in the “oh my god it’s just like my d&d party” vibe). So many stories are about averting an apocalypse or some other looming threat “I’m waking up at the start of the end of the world” and the whole song is about reflecting back on your life and that of the world around you. It’s perfect for a climatic buildup to the end of a campaign or series finale, or a summary of an entire work. “Say your goodbyes if you’ve got someone you can say goodbye to” is perfect for drawing ships or friends or siblings to, with maybe one solitary person at the end. The percussion and guitar also make it very suited to animatics - there’s perfect parts in the music to switch between frames or scenes. It’s been around since 2007 so it’s nostalgic and from the peak of amvs and animatics. Please this song fucks so hard look at all the lyrics listen to it on loop it’s so quintessential to me

the DRAMA. the STORY. the EMOTIONS. this is a song for an animatic that covers character growth and major plot points, and it does it so well! if i am invested in the fandom and watch a how far we've come animatic i already know it will change me as a person

Dude. It makes the heart swell with emotion and pride at wow these characters sure have come far

It's the OG. I don't even know if homestuck started its popularity in the animatic scene but it was huge and it remains huge. From TAZ to (apparently, from a quick youtube search) hermitcraft, this song will tear at people's heartstrings as they think about blorbos the band has can't even imagine.

this song makes me so emotional ok? i know lots of fandoms use it but the ones that stuck with me are warrior cats, hermitcraft and of course homestuck. sorry for the cringe but im glad to be free. anyways this is THE song for anything that has either ended or had a large amount of time pass and also its just a really fucking good song on its own.

Animatics with the song:

Hermitcraft

The Adventure Zone

DSMP

Last Life SMP

Homestuck

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

[spiderh0rse]

freeman's mind notes part 4 e16-20

e16

a vip (self declared)

thinks they should let the aliens eat explosives

the tentacle in the rocket silo is the scariest thing he's ever seen

incorrect Nietzsche quote (deeper sleep fans rise up)

drummers = monsters

thinks Nietzsche could have been in a band once

whistling FOUR. Five????

hang glider fan

rnd would get a big bonus at some point if the military state becomes the reality

finds the zombies worse than online degrees

whistling FIVE. likes Mario.

whistling SIX also Mario, different song

"future wife" duuuude I don't think youre getting a wife

the sewers are not buries treasure location

his ideal mansion will involve visitors being shot as soon as they knock

star wars reference Again

woodshop in high school almost ended in his expulsion

would eat the aliens

e17

has considered spitting on giant machines twice now

wind knocked out of him by the fan to ceiling impact

wasn't expecting to fly today

respects deaths in rocket testing

sad when oxygen isn't oxycodone

likes pushing buttons

wants to level a lawsuit against black mesa

wants to vacation somewhere tropical

wants to ride a sea turtle to menace cruise ships

would name his sea turtle a "nice gender-neutral name" like Flippy or Whiskers

doesn't consider most reptiles dangerous

has always wanted a robot army. the robot coolness strikes again

not good at parkour

grappling hook mentioned Again. he wants one! or a harpoon!

compares himself to a monkey and hates on earth gravity in the same breath

purportedly Not an adrenaline junkie

shaking after crossing the Blast Pit grating jumps.

vaguely implies he's going crazy

I'M BACK IN THE GODDAMN BUILDING AGAIN

SNOT MONSTER moans are what he'll be thinking about tonight

ordering a grappling hook once he's out

e18

would jump extreme heights into water for big splash

fairy-agnostic

He's sun wukong? A monkey god?

simian skills o7

half life mention title drop woooo

"nyyyyeeeeeewww" :D

whistle count SEVEN

admits that stuff here (falling mostly) is scary

"life sucks sober" YOU HAD. TWO SHOTS OF VODKA ON AN EMPTY STOMACH THIS MORNING. admittedly not a ton i retract my objection he's probably got a high tolerance

sometimes goes down the wrong corridor

cuts off a thought to yell "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D"

wants a giant metal spider fortress

the dial....

stresses to a dial that he has a DOCTOR'S DEGREE

e19

compares black mesa to a giant beast

would LOVE a massive tomb. pyramid for him please

"it's me" sick FNAF refe

WHAT ARE THESE NOISES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.

pain is a constant yes

doesn't consider himself afraid of heights

actually yeah tentacle sounds (loud metal noises) being unpleasant is a consistent trait here. Loud noises bad. (This, beeping of eye scanners, gunshot in the vent)

reel to reel computers..... PUNCH CARDS

BURN BABY BURN

e20

first title card leadup! techno hell room

bad smelllllllll

has made hella strong pillow forts with plaster of paris. pissed his mother off doing so

worn condition grenades are probably not as safe as you hope

he sounds so excited at the idea of going somewhere possibly not terrible

admits if a giant monster that the rocket didn't kill looked all angry at him he'd curl up and cry

bad smell TWO

References his cannonball drop statement from earlier

cons: starving to death alone, pros: could be fun. He does it. Sir. I know he's not okay by now but DUDE PLEASE. STOP WILLINGLY CURLING UP TO DIE

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

shit lung capacity. I've swam further without breathing in more time and been okay. Lllllll

concerned at the green sludge river

cancer mentioned third time

mmmmm radiation,,,,,

liked Austria

turnwheel Used

used to pass people in tube slides as a kid. Would sometimes get wedged in

"nyeeeew"

knees starting to hold up a bit better

[protoslacker]

1968

On Monday Earth Day, I was thinking about the student actions for Palestine at universities across the country. I am inspired by the students' bravery. I am sure they are aware of the dangers and that no matter what they will bare costs. I felt sad too.The thoughts about this year brought up memories of 1968.

I was only 13 in 1968. I am sure I conflate things that happend later with that year. But I am just as sure that 1968 rocked the foundations of my world. I was all shook up. Itwas a year that cuts time, where nothing would be as it was.

I was surprised clicking on an old link from my blog to a 50-year retrospective of 1968 in photos put together by Alan Taylor in The Atlantic. To my amasement The Atlantic let me see the article--for well over a year I have not be able to get around their paywall for any articles. If it opens for you it's a very good collection of photos.

I'm sure there are many 13-year olds taking in the events of this year sensing that this year is different. And they are wondering how to proceed.

I was thinking about Earth Day, in 1970. We had moved to Charlotte, NC and I made a really groovy teenager room. On my desk I had envelops with literature about Earth Day. I also had the book The Strawberry Statement. That book is why I had some sense of the 1968 campus protests from a student perspective, albeit a few years after. The title of the book comes from one of Columbia's Deans said in the press which students mocked as "the strawberry statement": "Whether students vote 'yes' or 'no' on a given issue means as much to me as if they were to tell me they like strawberries." The bitterness about diminishing the humanity of studnets ressonated.

One of the parts of the book I remember is the author of the book, James Kunen telling about picking up a hitchhicker. I remember it because he was driving a Dutch car called a Daffodil. In 1968 one of the moms in the car pool drove a Daf. My mom drove an Opel station wagon with a puny engine and another neighbor had an Isetta--it's a bit strange to think of small cars in the sixties. The hitchhicker was Black, Kunen read the guy as Black, but he also observed that hisskin was lighter than his own. It made racism visible in a way worth wrting about.

In 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech laying out the three evils of society: the sickness of racism, poverty--excessive materialism, and militarism. I probably didn't know about the speech, but do believe that I'd internalised, at least by 1970, connections between poverty, militarism and racism. A white kid in the suburbs understood that to be anti-war was also to be anti-racist and anti-colonial. It was important to know that I wasn't the only one.

My education in whiteness was also ramping up, perhaps most obviously as a factor of my age and schooling. I went to a school that was under a court-mandated desegregation plan. I was a new kid at schoo and didn't have lots of friends. There was an underground press that I didn't have much connection to, but I had some. The Earth Day materials are an axample. I would send self-adressed stamped envelops off and sometimes tape quarters to index cards, or send stamps to adresses found in the want ads of The Village Voice and Rolling Stone.

I am really happy when I see Zines on the Internet because they're familiar with the life line that made me feel connected. Young people are seeing the news. I am sure that they want to "connect, "to find the other ones" as Timothy Leary famously advised , just as I needed to.