#also so very jarring to see him referred to as Nathaniel

[greyhavensking]

Jean’s thoughts on Neil are so fascinating but also a little hilarious because we all know he’s a little freak but you never see him called out on it when it’s his POV

[dismalzelenka]

If you haven't done them yet, 1, 7, and/or 22 for established OTP, please?

Thanks for the ask! Answering for Anders, Journey, and Nathaniel from The Place Where I Belong. You're getting all three because I am a wordyboy, sorry bout it lmao

1. Have they ever had a huge row and if so, what was it about?

Journey and Anders will argue over trivial shit for hours, but until the events of TPWIB they'd never really had a conflict truly rock the foundations of their relationship. Journey is the kind of person who sets up her life in ways that make it easy for her to run from major conflict, which uh. Becomes a huge problem itself in the story.

Nathaniel's the one who is the most outwardly expressive with his anger, and this is kind of a jarring dynamic shift for the three of them as a triad. Journey isn't the kind of person who folds in a conflict, but she does tend to play off of the other person's level of antagonism, which is why she and Anders so rarely actually fight. Her relationship with Nathaniel starts out from the very beginning with resentment on his side and him pushing her buttons, so she essentially responds accordingly, and their first actual conversation ends with her punching him in the face and flipping him onto his ass.

Anders has pushed Nate's buttons from day one just because he can, but their first real argument didn't happen until the day Nathaniel found out from a sticky-note in Malcolm's handwriting on a briefing report that Anders was unofficially leaving the Wardens and didn't plan on telling any of them he was going. :')

7. Do they have a designated date night? If so, what do they usually do?

This has changed a lot with circumstance obviously. In Kirkwall, Journey started dragging Anders to play Wicked Grace with her friends once a week at the Hanged Man. This turned into dragging him down the road early to buy him dinner beforehand when she realized he was coming straight from work without eating anything. When they got more involved with the Mage Underground stuff in later years as things get worse in Kirkwall, they jokingly refer to their activities as dates, and for a little while everyone in their friend group except Varric thought they were becoming the most unexciting couple ever because they always claimed they were "staying in to watch a movie together." They got busted when Isabela was like "there is NO way those two are so routinely boring" and went over to Journey's house to see what they were actually up to and caught them pulling up in the driveway with Journey covered in blood while swatting at Anders going BABE IT'S JUST A SCRATCH.

22. Do they like to mess with each other or deliberately wind each other up?

This is the cardboard foundation on which Anders and Nate's entire friendship was built upon from day one. Nathaniel just has such an unfortunately punnable last name, and much like in canon, things just escalated from there.

Unfortunately for Nathaniel, Journey also lives to wind up the people she loves. Fortunately for Nathaniel, he's figured out all he has to do to shut her up is grab her by the hair and kiss her.

Anders and Journey kind of just goes without saying at this point. Neither of them have taken a thing seriously a day in their lives more than absolutely necessary.

Ask me about my established OTPs!

2, 18, and 23 have been answered here.

[p1nkwitch]

If I may one last director's cut: And the Nightmare Collapses? 👁️

Ask as many as you want i dont mind.

Oh my monster au, what to say? I had this in the backburner for a few months now. Originally i was going to make a series of one shots from different characters perspectives.

So first it was going to be Jon waking up from the coma and realizing that everyone were monsters but him sort of like a walking dead scenario. I had the clear picture of him seeing Georgie in her hald deaf state being like, what the fuck happened???

Now the entire idea came to mind with how pissed off i was at everyone in season four acting like Jon was the worst for no discernable reason. Like, Melanie, Basira and Georgie, all treated him in different levels rather cruely. Georgie wasnt so mean, but she was playing blind eye to the whole thing being fucked.

So Jon is the only one who remains human because he tries so hard to keep his humanity despite everything. While everyone else becomes more monstruos, Basira and Melanie in particularly were much more affected, i had a clear vision of a slaughter Mel. But had to keep it brief since Georgie wouldnt want to dwell on her becoming a monster, since now she had no way to deny it. Daisy gets a pass because while on the coffin she regains her humanity by her regret of what she became, its why her changes are minimal in the text.

The other one shots were supposed to be from Elias and Peter perspective with the last being them reuniting.

Now my original idea had no reasoning as to why they were monsters all out sudden. Its not until i realized the potential of the entities just dropping in a world similar enough where they already existed and they end up overcharging, while still carrying the vestigies of the apocalipse that i went like-

Hoy fuck.

Ultimately i am happy with the one shot the way it came out, with Elias being able to see, he was capable of tying up those little threads i wanted to make and make the reference to having an anchor. Anchors tie you to humanity, people are fundamentaly capable of good if they wish too, kindness even in the face of despair, destroys the horrors of the world.

The world wont fix itself, but you adapt and grown and try to make it better.

Now as for the story itself? I just wanted to go buck wild with the scenery of reality fracturing itself and Elias just losing it while perceiving the horrors and understanding far more than possible.

I like eldritch horror i just dont use it enough, or horror shorts in general, maybe i should put up the small ones i made in tumblr they are like a paragraph long each.

For realsies, I really like the idea of monster Elias for several reasons and i wanted to go with it. I have another different take on this verse of how things pan out too, but i will see eventually if i want to write it. There is... also the horny aspec of Peter being, as the fic implies, a monster fucker, not really he just loves Elias whatever shape he comes even if its some weird owl spider thing. If i ever feel brave enough to go thought it in an extra will shall see.

Anyways Jonah goes through life replacing people while manipulating them and toying with their sanity like he did to the ogElias in his interview. Despite being beholding, as per the soup theory, at this point he also represents the stranger, web and spiral fairly well. I have a soft soft for him losing the ability to recognize himself after a while. Because as i pointed out? He kept sort of a more or less stable life, sure, but it must be jarring having to go from one face to another, to have to pretend to be someone else, at least enough that its not glaringly obvious that something is wrong.

So he loses it. The fears overcharge and it all stacks up on him, causing his transformation to be so strong, it ends up consuming him. Not only that but he is vain too, so to be changed into something so horryifing it breaks something else in him, it gives him the idea that no one could want him now, he cant make people do as he says like this, he doesnt know himself and now no one would want to know him anyways. The more he changes the more he loses his sense of self, its not only him, he was so many people it feels weird to be just him, it doesnt fit anymore, so through the story he starts to use they until its what he mainly uses at the end, because he grows and its happy with it by the very end.

His body changes when he doubts himself, the more time it passes the more he forgets. Now the main reason he didnt become a puddle of ink and die, was because as i mentioned he thought about being alone, and it made him think of Peter, that was his last connection, the last thread to a humanity he wasnt sure he still had. When he thinks that he loves him, even if a little, its enough to let him move.

That small lifeline is what actually saved him and what kept him more or less stable for longer that he would have otherwise. Same goes to Peter whos last action before becoming one with his siblings was pick up the phone, the same though went through him, its why even if he was already at the brink of being melded he kept himself alive for longer.

Then there was the idea of copies.

Because, eyes? just the eyes?? I know it works with supernatural energy but, the doubt, the idea or posibility that Jonah Magnus actually died the moment he transplanted his eyes the first time and that Beholding merely put the copied memories of Jonah that it reatained into the new body was such a good concept, i have a special love for it, to not be sure if you are you, but ultimately chosing to live your life despite knowing that you may not be the real one.

I like to point out at the end that he does, that he is the original and that he is not a copy but... its not really proof, Jonah wants to believe it is. Wether is true or not? Thats up to anyone.

Also his monster concept, i toyed with a few options, and ended up adding it somewhat in the final product, originally he was going to be sort of an owl monster sort of mixed with a cat, no not for the joke, i saw really nice fanart of owlcats and i was in love. But as it is i went with something similar to his body in the afterlife beach party.

Instead of tar it was the ink of the letters he wrote, the static remains because he doesnt know his face anymore and he wont again. The fur... i just wanted something nice for later when Peter made his appearence, less sticky more fluffy. 8 arms like a spider, more eyes because of beholding- you get it.

Speaking of Peter!!

Here is the deal, i know or at least believe that the curruption? Is the oposite of the lonely and viceversa. Wanting to be alone vs being consumed by what you love? Perfect.

So the Lukases become amalgamations of fog trapped in a hive mind that they cant escape from. Forced to be together and then to be alone once someone manages to impose themselves like Nathaniel did. Peter could have theorically left his siblings become him, after Elias saw them, but in this, the closenes they shared was enought that he could not do it. <3<3

I wanted to play with the fact that being stuck with so many people, mainly his sisters while slowly melding into one, made him switch from pronouns feeling comfortable in all of them. Lydia, Judith and Clara were all nice and accidentaly he wanted to feel that nice, so he switches more often to her. It too, because at one point he was litreally nothing since the rest were rather happy being one.

Reality check comes and they all realize that, oh shit we fucked him up. Hence the road trip, unfortunately the melding was inevitable, either they became one or someone took charge. Still it gives them time to bond too, which adds to the decision to let them stay with him despite everything. Peter plays into a similar idea, but from a different perspective, you lose yoursef but become a different person. Luka is all of them being at peace with being one, being happy and wanting the same thing, but still mantaining some way to be apart. If i was being sappy i would liken it to a fusion in Steven Universe.

It wasnt as such at first, but later once Peter is the main body they can do it with less fear of dissapearing. It is also true that his feelings bleed out onto them and likewise to him. Its hard being a single being while simultaniously be 5 people in one.

They do love Elias, except for Clara who is mostly just enjoying the company while judging everyones tastes. It is also true that if this hadnt happened they would never have tried it. But life works oddly. Plus they are happy.

The world cant be fixed, but life sort of goes on and people adjust as they can.

Final note? I really, reeeeally wanted to have JME corpses just drop and have everyone freak out. There was a brief idea of having them alive and react to what they did to the world, but i did not want to deal with that many explanations. So yeah, they are dead.

AGAIN SORRY FOR GOING OFF!!! I NEED TO BE STOPPED.

D:

If you want to ask something in particular go ahead i have the ideas still fresh for this one in my head.

[faquarlofmycenae]

Faquarl scenes through the years; rated from 1 to 10 (by yours truly, the known stan)

Amulet of Samarkand

The Kitchen Brawl: 9/10

Hey, audience, look, the introduction of a character who would become very important! There’s knives, having conversations in the midst of danger, a hint of that true tentacle-y form, very much here for all of that. We get a nice view of what the Bartquarl relationship is like, that they’ve known each other for quite some time and are thus familiar with the other. Faquarl does end up getting blasted into a wall and after the scene ends got the short end of a nasty punishment, courtesy of Simon Lovelace, but since we don’t see the end of that very unpleasant day, let’s not dwell on it too much.

Freeing Bartimaeus from the Tower of London: 100/10

Perfect from beginning to the end, and so much that Faquarl being set on fire isn’t even on my radar a lot. He basically makes Bart jump through a hoop, yells at him for falling for an illusion and causes a bunch of ravens to vomit or die by essentially flashing them and gets doused in gasoline - solid stuff. There’s also talks of revolution while squatting in a scrub. WRT that girl he wanted to kill: we don’t know whether she just had bad vibes. We just don’t know.

Brief Cameo at Heddleham Hall: 4/10

He just hangs around in the kitchen in his preferred form which, yknow what, I’ll take what I can get. Brief speaking role when he tells Nat to get lost and just reinforces the point that this spirit fucking hates children in general. 

Golem’s Eye

No actual scenes :( there’s a mention but otherwise it’s a 0 on the Faquarl-o-meter, its strong points lie in other areas. During the events of this book he’s also in an off-shore safe hoping Nathaniel dies in a fire or gets devoured by flesh-eating insects or something so it looks poorly for him. 

Ptolemy’s Gate

Meeting Verroq: 1/10

well, we don’t know that this is Faquarl and neither does Bart. He’s also a little too far away for us to hear what he says so as a known Faquarl enthusiast, this is poor stuff, boys. 

The Hopquarl reveal: infinity sign/10

Pack it up, girls and gays, this is what peak performance looks like. The reveal is done so well and truly has you realize that shit is hitting the fan. Faquarl shows up with his new material form, ass shots, titties out, beat face contoured, no pain despite being on Earth and Bartimaeus is shaking in his feathers. Kills a bunch of high-level spirits with the same ease as opening a jar of pickles, has his little monologue, throws Bartimaeus in a silver casserole filled with fish as he smugly states that he was Right All Along in his belief that revolution would be here one day and is on his merry way to overthrow humanity - what a guy. No one does it better than him. I’m in awe and have this scene eternally burned into my mind. This is also where we get a callback to the infamous scrub scene and the good ol’ “in some cultures they kiss, in other they set each other on fire”. And they say romance is dead.

Masquerading as Hopkins and going public: 8/10

Listen, this is the closest I’ll get to a proper interaction between Faquarl and Kitty so her calling him a traitor which in some way had to remind him that he technically betrayed the Other Place does a lot of things to me. He also beats up the Mercenary with his own bare fists which is defo among the Top 10 Funniest Moments In The Bartimaeus Sequence so that does a lot too. We figure out that Faquarl is the true mastermind behind the entire spirit rebellion and that as much as Nouda is leading the whole thing, our interdimensional entity is the one whose truly calling the shots and the brains of the entire operation - and has in fact been doing so even with Makepeace, Hopkins and Lovelace! Ugh, I know spirits don’t have a ‘brain’ but if he had one, it’d be so wrinkly and full of diligent neurons! 

Mass creation of hybrids - 3/10

He doesn’t really do a lot besides picking out names in a book for the magician to summon a spirit into his body. Also gets his ass kicked across the room by Jessica Whitwell (there is definitely a conversation to be had about how Faquarl is prone to getting injured or otherwise taken out).

The final confrontation: 9/10

Hoo boy, this is both a perfect scene but also because of the part where he, y’know, is reduced to his atoms, it’s sad (and still perfect and in a bizarre way a... worthy send-off? Dying on your own terms, that’s what I’m talking about.) The final conversation between them and the eventual realization that you screwed things up for yourself are a fucking gutpunch. Faquarl being speechless for the first time in ever and having an honest true-to-the-bone with Bartimaeus, no doubt the being that has known him for the longest amount of time... it’s just raining on my face. I’m lying in bed and listening to Angel by Sarah McLachlan on some Spotify playlist of Sad Songs. 

Ring of Solomon

Picking up Bartimaeus: 9/10

Well, it in itself is not on the level as the Hopquarl reveal or the Tower scene but 1. this is the first time we see him in YEARS GOD BLESS, the heavenly gates opened and a choir of angels is singing 2. we saw him again after he technically died. Also back when he and Bart didn’t loathe each other so that’s very flavorful. We also find out that Faquarl’s aesthetic is a nice contrast to Bart’s “gotta keep it sleek and sexy at all times” in the way of “purposefully ugly and very proud of it because fuck human beauty standards”.

Plotting in the quarry: 10/10

My Bartquarl-shipping self ascended during that scene. We got a break from the usual strained relationship that is frenemies-who-also-have-a-sort-of-sexual-tension-with-each-other and see them be actual allies. There’s shittalking magicians, agreeing on that your workmates are idiots and chilling together - and let’s not forget mutual recognition coming from Bartimaeus! In the words of Mo’nique, “I would like to see it”.

Saving Bartimaeus: 6.5/10

Short but sweet. Faquarl pops out of nowhere and thus saves Bart from being eaten by one extremely pissed marid. “Don’t tell anyone, I got a reputation to uphold” is Faquarl speech for “you’re more than welcome”. Bickering and the enforcement of the point that yes, Faquarl could effortlessly wipe the floor with Bartimaeus if it ever came to a full-blown fight and Bart wouldn’t swindle his way out of it. 

Fighting the Edomite magicians + meeting Asmira: 7/10

Once again, nice contrast of Bartimaeus’s aesthetic and Faquarl’s. Kills more Utukku than Bart and thus wins the #1 medal for that melée - but also again is wounded. Doesn’t miss a single beat about voicing his desire to simply do as any good spirit would and eat Asmira, which, yeah, let’s not kill our deuteragonist, but also... I get his mindset so let’s gloss over that one. Brief monologue about the Evils Of Humanity and “I hate Earth, it all deserves to burn” which shows that Faquarl has been on his shit for quite a while and I have a lot of respect for that even though by that definition we are all Evils of Humanity. 

Gaining freedom: 5/10

A little short but beggars can’t be choosers. We find out that he has been pestering Bart about not killing Asmira for hours past hours past hours and honestly? That’s so on-brand. Drag his essence. Then he gets freed properly (unlike Bartimaeus) but not before he sees all the nasty things his master has been up to in his torture/sex dungeon. “Faquarl was gone. Faquarl was free.” like an absolute legend. We also get his name before he was Faquarl of Sparta, to which the URL of this very account is referring to. It’s also the last time we see him in the book and we’re only halfway in so :/

But, as we all know, hope dies last and maybe we’ll come across his canon self once again to see and rate more scenes.

[miraculouscontent]

Will you make an analysis of Chameleon? That... thing gives a lot to talk about

I had no plan to initially because I figured that the worst of it was in the teaser, but…

Well, you’re not wrong in saying that it gave me a lot to talk about.

[”Collecting” Thoughts]

I want to start by talking about this episode not as a singular episode trapped in a vacuum, but as a season opener. It’s bad enough that this episode exists on its own, but it’s important to compare it to The Collector in terms of how it acts as a follow-up to the Season 2 finale.

Volpina introduced the grimoire via Adrien and had Marinette visiting Master Fu. The Collector follows exactly in its footsteps, taking place immediately after and showing the consequences of Adrien stealing the book. The Collector was a GREAT follow-up to Volpina, with the only sad thing being that Marinette took the fall for something Lila did; in fact, Lila herself isn’t even mentioned. Still, it furthers the plot and was set up perfectly by Volpina to continue the story.

Now, what did Heroes’ Day do?

Catalyst brought back Lila and set up Gabriel knowing more about his own powers. It set up his closer relationship with Natalie (regardless of how people feel about that), which was followed up in Mayura by Natalie taking the Peacock Miraculous to protect Hawk Moth.

It was also established that the Peacock Miraculous is damaged in some way. There’s no visible wear on it, but it causes Natalie to appear sick.

With that in mind, what did Chameleon do to follow up on that?

…It brought back Lila. That’s it. No talks with Master Fu, no discussion on the Peacock; there’s just nothing. Even Mayura itself didn’t have Marinette/Adrien and Fu talking about the fact that they know Hawk Moth has the Peacock on his side now.

As a season opener, Chameleon is a complete and total failure. Catalyst had already brought Lila back and this is essentially just a worse version of the way that Catalyst did it (disregarding the fact that we were blindsided by Lila in the first place because she only got passing mentions until the Season 2 finale).

All Chameleon wants to do is set up Lila as an antagonist, and even that’s in the laziest way possible.

Heck. We don’t even get a new opening. It’s the exact same as season 2, which at least went through the effort to change the backgrounds and some images. It was effective to make it different enough to be recognizable.

The seating change that happens in this episode could’ve been something to help Season 3 stand out and be its own thing, but it doesn’t stick around. I know I’m gonna complain about that whole scene in a moment, but keep in mind that I’m complaining about how the seating change happened, not the fact that it happened at all.

That said, let’s go scene by scene, shall we?

[Opening Scene - A Lack of Care]

Marinette dashing into the school due to running a little late perfectly exemplifies how this episode is going to hurt you, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

Remember Fred? Mylene’s father and the guy from The Mime? Of course you do, because he was very nice to Marinette and she made him a hat

In this episode, however, he glares at Marinette when she bolts past him (not even knocking him over mind you; just running a bit late as students do from time to time). It’s just a dumb five seconds, but it’s a great representation of what you’re in for; typically good people that Marinette helped in the past turning against her. It sets the tone and everything.

Moving onto the actual meat of the episode though, might I say that one of the worst things a writer can do is present us with a better idea only to strip it away from us?

This episode does just that when Marinette presumes that Alya saved her a seat next to Adrien. That presumption isn’t really a stretch. Alya is her supposed best friend and everyone is sitting with someone else, so it’d make sense that’d she’d sit there.

However, not only did Alya not try to get Marinette that seat, but the thought didn’t even seem to cross her mind. She acts confused by the fact that Marinette even considered that she’d be sitting with Adrien.

That’s because Alya didn’t consider that herself. No one considered that themself. No one texted Marinette about this arrangement, no one asked her, and no one thought it was wrong to shove Marinette to the back row without her permission. Marinette gets the shaft and we’re not even given a reason why everyone thought it’d be a great idea (Marinette just talked about being worried that she’d be distracted by Adrien; it still would’ve been rude not to ask her, but that would’ve been a better reason to put her somewhere where she’s almost as far away from Adrien as possible).

That’s not even getting into the fact that Marinette took that seat herself all the way back in Origins. She worked for that seat. She stood strong against Chloe and that seat was her reward.

But then, it was taken away from her, like the seat was some sort of metaphor for all the care everyone had for her.

Enter Lila, who is a masterpiece example of how to annoy the audience as quickly as possible. She lies compulsively (most lies not even being believable), uses pity to gain affection, and gets incredibly petty when confronted.

Worst of all, aside from Marinette and only partially Adrien, everyone is fooled by her lies. Everyone falls at her feet and does everything she asks, probably both because they pity her and also because she’s the equivalent of a celebrity (saving Jagged’s cat, knowing Prince Ali, etc.).

Even Miss Bustier doesn’t care that Marinette’s been put in the back. When Marinette asks about it, Miss Bustier fixates on whether Marinette has a hearing/sight issue or not. Miss Bustier is supposed to be an empathetic teacher who cares about her students, yet Zombiezou over here doesn’t have a reason for putting Marinette in the back when Chloe and Adrien are sitting in the front despite having no issues with hearing or sight.

Also, talking about the classmates themselves, it’s easy to say that Marinette looks in the wrong because she said “no” when Adrien offered up his seat, but that’s not taking into account that of course Marinette wouldn’t want Adrien to move for her. She sees Adrien as a nice guy, so she wouldn’t think he’d deserve to sit in the back by himself.

No one in the class considers this though, because of course they don’t. That’s just how this episode wants to work for the sake of its disjointed plot.

Then, Lila makes it all about herself, which convinces the class to get upset at their “everyday Ladybug.” It’s a jarring transition from the Season 2 finale, to say the least.

I’ll admit: before I saw the akuma going after Marinette, I honestly thought there would be a twist where Lila was already akumatized and everyone in the school were just going off her whim due to a spell, with Marinette not being affected because she was late to class.

(Probably would’ve fixed it too. Add in an opening of Mari talking to Fu about the Peacock, then a scene after Lila’s de-akumatization where Gabriel checks on Natalie and talks about what good akuma-bait Lila is… you’ve got a passable episode right there!)

The problem with this scene is how immediately everyone glares at Marinette. No one spoke up for her to say, “I’m sure Marinette didn’t mean it like that.” Heck, even if someone just asked why Marinette was acting like this, that would’ve been something, because Marinette is so obviously acting like this for a reason.

It’s not even like I don’t see why Marinette gets put in the back; it’s because no one will see the akuma if she’s sitting back there all alone.

…In fact, keep this in mind, because I’m going to bring it up later.

Anyway, it’s undeniable that Marinette gets the most disrespect in this episode, but I’d also like to bring attention to Adrien. Yeah, he glared at Marinette (I know what the writing staff said; it’s irrelevant to me unless the episode gets edited), but consider how much Lila gets into his personal space and then remember that Nino is sitting right behind them. We see Marinette be plenty angry about Lila stroking Adrien’s shoulder because she knows that Lila is full of it and is taking advantage of Adrien’s good nature, but even if Nino doesn’t know, shouldn’t he be upset by a clearly-uncomfortable Adrien?

[The Cafeteria Scene - How to Kill a Character in Two Minutes]

(Note: shoutout to Nathaniel, who’s sitting by himself and not being pulled in by catering to Lila’s needs; both he and Ivan seemed to be the ones with the most questionable expressions in the glaring scene when referring to whether or not they’re angry with Marinette. I still won’t give them a pass because the general atmosphere of the scene implied that everyone was angry at Marinette, but still. Ivan and Alix also don’t seem to show up in the cafeteria at all, but both of them along with Nathaniel return for the ending scene where Lila’s still lying. All of them do NOTHING in regards to stopping her, so I won’t give them any points, but I still thought I’d mention it.)

One of the biggest reasons that Lila doesn’t work as the antagonist she should be is because she isn’t clever enough. Her lies are often not thought through and are only believed because everyone has been dumbed down due to the narrative wanting them to obey her every command to make Marinette progressively more upset.

And it’s honestly hard for me to see the characters acting like this even when I know that it’s not in-character. If it was just acting kind to someone, then sure, whatever, they can be dumb, but not when it comes at the expense of their relationship with Marinette.

It’s hard because these scenes still exist. Whether it’s attempted to be written off as a joke or not, I’ll still have to watch future episodes and see these characters interacting with Marinette with the knowledge that she nearly got akumatized because they abandoned her in her time of need and they never apologized for it, at least not here.

The jokes don’t even work most of the time because they’re centered around how much Lila is fooling everyone, which shouldn’t be joked about because people don’t want to see jokes being cracked about something they hate happening when they’re already frustrated by it!

Alya and Nino just make everything worse. Their presence in this episode does nothing but show how badly this episode is trying to make you ignore what’s happening to Marinette (and partly Adrien).

Let’s start with Alya, Marinette’s supposed best friend. Now, she was already on thin ice when it came to the Lila situation considering what she said in Catalyst, but she’s even more blatant here with how little she knows Marinette.

It takes until the cafeteria scene for Alya to ask Marinette what’s bothering her. Except, she doesn’t phrase it that way. She presumes that Marinette barely knows Lila despite having no evidence of that. In fact, she has evidence to show the exact opposite; that something bad happened and Alya should be wary of Lila because Marinette is wary of her.

And then Alya has the gall - the GALL - to ask if Marinette has proof that Lila doesn’t know Ladybug, because “a good reporter always verifies their sources.”

Says the reporter who was so sure that Ladybug owned the history book she dropped instead of wondering if she might be giving it back to someone.

Says the reporter who was so positive that Chloe was Ladybug when talking to Nino, based on little more than Chloe having a Ladybug outfit that probably tons of people in Paris do because they’re likely a popular costume in stores.

Says the reporter who posted a video, on her Ladyblog, of Lila claiming that she was friends with Ladybug, despite having no proof, no evidence, and not verifying that claim with Ladybug herself.

Give me a break. Even if Alya has just “improved since then,” that doesn’t excuse the fact that Marinette should be a trusted source and that Alya should realize her own contradiction because they’re talking about Lila in the first place.

If Marinette needs proof that Lila’s not friends with Ladybug, then where’s Alya’s proof that Lila is? Because Lila knows other celebrities? There’s a lot of famous people who Ladybug has saved but isn’t friends with (ex: Jagged Stone, XY), so what makes Lila so special? Besides, Marinette knows famous people too. Even disregarding that, Alya is basically telling Marinette, “You’re my best friend, but I also believe Lila over you because Lila is more special than you are.”

Marinette is not doing this out of jealousy; we’ve established this already in Frozer, which Alya was there for when Marinette was okay with Adrien dating someone else. Marinette would only be upset by Lila if she had a reason to be. Alya needs to stop minimizing Marinette’s problems by boiling them down to jealousy based on information she doesn’t have.

I just can’t even imagine how hurtful that is to Marinette. Her own best friend doesn’t believe her and doesn’t even have Marinette’s motive right.

Oh, and then Nino fixates on the fact that Marinette eavesdropped on Lila and Adrien instead of the fact that Lila lies constantly.

You know, Nino, who watched Marinette from a distance due to his crush in Animan. Is that a tiny offense? Absolutely (even Marinette has watched Adrien), but my point is, nobody has their hands clean.

Marinette stated right up front that Lila felt off to her, which should’ve implied that Lila could’ve been already akumatized and thus Marinette had every right to follow her to make sure so no one else would fall under her trap, but Nino presumes the worst of her and instead chastizes her for eavesdropping on Lila and Adrien.

We talked about it in the last segment, but Nino did nothing when Lila was getting in Adrien’s personal space. Nino, at least in this episode, is much more interested in criticizing Marinette’s behavior than actually doing anything about Lila’s.

And of course, the narrative neglects Marinette mentioning that Ladybug showed up to yell at Lila or that she saw Lila steal the book because they need to make it look like Marinette has no evidence whatsoever. It’s not like mentioning the book would be a big deal, because Nino knew in The Collector that Adrien had lost Gabriel’s book. All it’d take is, “I saw Lila steal Adrien’s book so she could get information to lie to him with. She threw it in the garbage when Adrien came by and then I returned it to Gabriel the next day because I didn’t know how to give it back to Adrien without looking bad.”

Then all it takes is asking Adrien and Adrien would probably admit, “Yeah, I remember last having the book with Lila.”

But no. Not even Alya and Nino can be on Marinette’s side. Marinette has to struggle alone because I guess they needed a hook for this episode and it’s “could Marinette get akumatized???”

If their story was actually of value, they wouldn’t need to set up a fake hook for a trailer. The story should be able to stand on its own without needing to set up something exciting that won’t actually happen.

Which brings us to talking about Lila.

[Freaking Lila]

Lila is a good character in concept. I love the idea of her as a foil to Marinette; Marinette hates liars but gets what she wants through hard work and effort, whereas Lila lies all the time and gets what she wants through no work at all and tons of emotional manipulation.

But there’s just not enough care put into her lies. When we see Lila, the reaction we should have is to think about how amazing she is at lying and how understandable it is that everyone is falling for it.

Instead, I feel incredibly annoyed at the fact that Lila is going around spouting nonsense that no one but Marinette ever tries to check out. It’s ridiculous.

And Chloe is completely left out of this equation; the only other person aside from Marinette who has real connections that’d be able to out Lila. Chloe gets nothing of value in the entire episode. Her and Sabrina just stay right in their original seats and do so little that you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were just copy-pasted from some other episode because the script writers forgot to include them.

Chloe also does nothing about Lila stroking Adrien, because the show still cannot decide if they’re friends and if Chloe has a crush on Adrien. Actual chances at showing what it’d be like if Chloe put her talents towards something good are thrown out the window because they needed all that run time to have Marinette be miserable.

Lila is also very annoying as Chameleon. I liked that she just grabbed the akuma to show just how antagonistic she is, but she acts really obnoxious as Adrien.

To a degree, I get that. She was mad at Adrien, so of course it makes sense for her to make him look like a fool.

BUT, if she’s supposed to be such a master manipulator, why not act similarly to Adrien but just with a meaner streak?

They could’ve done another twist here as well. Instead of showing Lila taking Adrien’s form, why not cut right to Adrien (but actually Lila) making fun of Nino and then taking his cap, but with a tone that’s much more convincing of Adrien? Heck, Lila doesn’t even bother using Adrien’s form to go mess with Marinette; she just goes for Nino and then starts jumping around like a lunatic.

And sure, it was funny to see her get turned into a clam and promptly destroyed (Ladybug had a pun about anemones that made me laugh way too hard), but what did she actually do as Chameleon? She ran around like an idiot, knocked Chat out with the kiss (as if parts of the fandom weren’t already tired enough of that; also, there were probably at least three different things Chat could’ve done to stop that kiss without throwing himself in the middle of it), and then makes people upset for stuff that Miraculous Ladybug fixes anyway.

She does less as an akuma than she does as a person. That’s not how akuma should work.

Though, I guess it’s hard to top what she did as a person considering Adrien’s role in the plot.

[Adrien the Doormat]

Lately, Adrien has garnered a certain… reputation. It started with little things in Season 1, but by the end of Season 2, those little things weren’t so little anymore and were becoming harder and harder to defend.

That brings us to here, where Adrien joins everyone else in the “not defending Marinette” club, but it’s worse because he’s aware that Lila is a liar. Yeah, he tries to passively get her to stop lying, but Marinette is who he should be worried about.

And yet, by the end, he tells her not to do anything. I would like to think that he was trying to say that Lila’s lies would eventually catch her in the act, but that was one of the worst ways to word it.

Firstly, she’s presumably been lying all her life. Everyone’s fallen for her ruse. She’ll have to make a crucial mistake to even make a single person wary of her.

Secondly, this passivity of Adrien has been a recurring problem thoughout at least Season 2. His friends might not be suffering exactly, but Lila’s making them look like fools and he’s just letting her go on unabated. Just imagine what the classmates’ reactions would if they learned that Adrien knew that Lila was lying the whole time and did nothing while they obeyed her every need (though this will very likely go unaddressed and no one will know that Adrien knows except Marinette). At his current levels of passiveness, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Lila starts being physical with him again in future episodes and he continues to do nothing about it.

Thirdly, yes actually, exposing Lila will make things better. It’ll keep everyone else in check so they’re not constantly falling at Lila’s feet. Adrien’s only thinking about Lila and (presumably) the fact that she has the potential to become akumatized again. He has yet to learn that some people just have to be put into place, even if it means fighting an akuma afterward.

Fourthly, making a bad guy suffer has turned them into a good guy. That was literally Chloe in Despair Bear and Malediktator. It was when the niceness was brought back and boundaries stopped being set that she returned to her old ways. So, no, sometimes being punished is absolutely necessary and Lila hurting more is an inevitability.

Fifthly and most importantly, this scene deprives Marinette of all the agency she has, putting Adrien on a moral high ground yet again. I understand where Adrien is coming from - that he and Marinette know the truth and can talk about it so neither have to be miserable over Lila - but he clearly hasn’t thought this through. They basically just got back from an akuma attack and he’s only focused on preventing Lila from being akumatized again.

Adrien could’ve even argued that Lila would just lie her way around Marinette calling her out, but he doesn’t say that. It makes it seem like he’s not at all concerned about how Marinette comes out of this and is just trying to make her feel better about doing absolutely nothing to solve her problems. I get that he already tried to help Lila and it didn’t work, which might also be why he’s taking the passive route, but again, that’s not what he says!

Adrien isn’t suffering from this like Marinette is. Marinette is close to a majority of the class and was miserable because no one stood up for her or believed her. Adrien is close to Nino, sure, but really, how many times have they even had passing conversation in the entirety of Season 2? It isn’t much!

We’ve done this before in other episodes. Marinette isn’t allowed to do virtually anything anymore without someone getting on her case for it, even if she’s in the right.

It’s damaging, to both her character and the narrative.

[Back in the Classroom - Go with the Quo]

I appreciate that Adrien sat down with Marinette instead of Lila, but what Adrien says about taking the high road simply isn’t true. This isn’t the high road; this is complacency in a bad situation. Sometimes, taking the high road actually requires a detour. Doing the thing that’s “morally right” can mean accepting that some morally wrong things may have to be done to uphold that rightness.

And, of course, we get no apology. There’s no apology for Marinette’s hurt feelings. Alya returns to sitting next to Marinette, even going so far as to ask teasingly if Marinette really thought that Alya would let her sit by herself.

An insult to the audience’s intelligence, if not their memory, given the fact that it’s literally what Alya did at the very start of the episode.

Lila also (expectedly) continues to lie, and while I’m thankful that Adrien isn’t the least bit pleased by her sitting next to him, I’ll hold my judgment until the next time they have a scene together.

Also, everyone wanting to change seats out of nowhere despite having no established reason is incredibly weird, considering it’s Ivan who started the massive change and he’s sitting next to Mylene. Sure, Marinette thought about getting distracted by Adrien, but after Ivan and Mylene have been in an established relationship for so long, I’d think they’d have more self-control! Nathaniel, I get, because he can draw behind Ivan without being seen by the teacher, but everyone else makes little to no sense to me.

Not only that, but… it’s Season 3. We’ve been deprived of Adrienette development so many times, and when we’re finally given a scene where Adrien and Marinette are simply sitting together in class, we’re deprived of it. It’s like what I thought of Frozer; does such a small piece of development really take the ship so far that it needs to be immediately taken away from us?

This means that, for the third time in this episode, we’re presented with an idea that’s way better than what they end up doing. We already saw Marinette trailing off about being distracted by Adrien, so seeing it again just tests the patience of the Adrienette shippers who were hoping for them to stay sitting together.

[In Front of the School - Dragged By a Marinette]

I will give this episode one thing in that the scene at the end with Lila isn’t bad. The moments where Lila and Marinette are alone are miles better than almost any other scene in this entire episode. (I’d complain about the fact that Tikki isn’t angry over Lila and doesn’t validate Marinette’s feelings, but I feel like I’ve been through this song and dance before. Also, Tikki tries at least, even if for a moment.)

And yet, when Marinette tells Lila off with such a simple phrase, I don’t feel all the emotions I know that the episode is trying to make me feel.

I feel satisfied that Lila was annoyed by the end of the episode - it wasn’t nearly enough but it was SOMETHING - yet I don’t feel confident alongside Marinette.

There’s this confidence from Marinette that everything will be okay; that it’ll all be fine because she believes in her friends and that Adrien is on her side.

But I don’t think I believe that. I don’t buy that; not with the passive Adrien we saw here and not with the way Marinette’s “friends” treated her. Instead of feeling confident, I feel a growing sense of dread that things could just get worse from here. I don’t know how, but if the class treats Marinette in the future with the same dismissiveness that they did here, I can only feel afraid that Marinette is going to get all that confidence sucked away.

It’s not a pleasant feeling.

[Did Anyone Ask For This?]

I see what this episode wanted to be. I see what it wanted to do. It wanted to re-introduce Lila and (presumably) set her up as a recurring antagonist for this season. It wanted to have this dramatic scenario where everyone turns against her and both her and Adrien are the odd ones out.

It just asks for too much. To enjoy the episode wholly and completely, it wants you to buy so many things it’s throwing at you: Lila’s lies, Marinette being trashed for the upteenth time, and a terrible lesson for the character it’s being centered around.

And what’s the alternative to the out-of-character behavior? That these characters actually are so stupid and disloyal to Marinette that they’d actually do these things? It won’t get rid of the bad taste in my mouth either way, but I’d much rather believe that this is just terrible foresight at play than actual character assassination!

And… sure. Maybe sometime far in the future (probably near the end of Season 3), Lila will finally be revealed as the liar she is and they MIGHT apologize to Marinette. However, I say ‘might’ because Marinette has been told not to do anything about Lila, so it’s entirely possible that Marinette will just be like “finally” to herself but no one will apologize to her because they’ll conveniently forget about what happened here.

Even if they do apologize though - even if Adrien is actually in the wrong and they plan on addressing that - it’ll be too little too late. As a standalone episode, this is terrible. This episode makes me want Lila to get her comeupance, and while the ending at least has her get annoyed, it’s not enough considering that 80% of the episode was dedicated to Marinette’s misery and Lila being irritating. We’re supposed to feel satisfied by the end of each episode, but I’m instead left with an empty feeling in my gut.

This is where the thing I told you to remember - how Marinette is shoved to the back so no one sees the akuma - needs to be brought back. When the episode shoves Marinette to the back seat… when no one hears Lila’s threat to Marinette and it never comes up again… when Adrien tells her not to act… and when Marinette receives no apology for everything that’s happened… it’s giving a very clear message.

It’s saying that Marinette’s feelings don’t matter. That, no matter what, Marinette must take the high road regardless of what she feels. She’s the superheroine, so she has to always been perfect and always be a role model. Anything else is disgraceful.

Revealing Marinette’s misery to anyone means making everyone else look bad, so Marinette has to suffer alone, with Tikki comforting her only so she doesn’t get akumatized. Everyone else looks in the right because they don’t know everything and Marinette is just left there with her feelings hanging in the air.

That’s why the teaser alone caused people to freak out. We’ve been shown this multiple times before and this was just the final nail in the coffin.

It’s fair to say that Marinette should be angry with her friends. I wouldn’t blame anyone for being upset that Marinette was centering all her hate onto Lila.

But… at the same time, if we’re looking at it from a realistic point of view, I can see why she does it.

It’s a coping mechanism.

Almost all of Marinette’s friends are in that class. If she loses them, she only has a few left.

It’s easier to blame Lila. It’s easier to pretend that her friends aren’t betraying her and that it’s all Lila’s fault.

Lila is a single target that she feels she can deal with. To Marinette, taking care of Lila’s lies means that everything goes back to the way it was before.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Her friends still need to apologize and promise not to repeat these mistakes in the future. Without it, their friendship is meaningless.

But that’s just how Marinette works. She’ll let it slide. She’ll let herself take the fall because that’s what she does. She’s been conditioned by episode upon episode to let people like Lila go around unchecked and feel better about themself just to keep akuma from happening even if it’d be more beneficial to do otherwise.

As long as it keeps the peace and lets Marinette keep her friends, she’ll do whatever passive thing she’s told to do.

Because, remember: at least in episodes like these, Marinette’s feelings don’t matter…

[davidmann95]

this is one of the nuttiest weeks in comics in awhile, what're you pulling and what are your thoughts?

Having missed Daredevil, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and The Wild Storm for now, a situation hopefully to be rectified this weekend, and knowing there are profound spoilers ahead:

Superman: Leviathan Rising #1: SUPERMAN AND JIMMY OLSEN, OUR FAVORITE GOOD TIME PARTY BOYS. This was the embodiment of ‘inject it into my veins’ comics, even with that disconnected, pointless Supergirl section, which still at least assured me that I’m not missing out on anything in her book right now. Otherwise? Superman sucks at acting, because acting is lying! Lois giving Batman the business! 4-QQ&BE4J*O(@NX!

Heroes in Crisis #9: This…ended about as well as it possibly could, I suppose, and I do actually mean that as a compliment, but that only matters so much. I probably actually did like more individual issues of this than I disliked, but the basic concept behind the mystery once it unfolds is a needlessly destructive one for the character in question, King’s dialogue quirks ran away with him, the pacing was shot, Mann showed his ass in some rough ways, and so much of it reads like King completing a mandate. There were moments of grace - the final page of confessionals has the funniest panel of King’s career - that mean I’ll absolutely reread this at some point, but on the whole, it can at last be set in stone that this was Tom King’s first and hopefully last major failure.

Detective Comics Annual #2: Haven’t been getting Tomasi’s Detective, but the preview made it look like it was going to be his best effort in some time. It was, but not enough for me to be interested in the arc this is setting up for down the line.

Fantastic Four #10: I really thought I’d drop this after the first tepid arc, but while I’m ditching Iron Man, Slott’s been acquitting himself admirably here recently, and Paco Medina’s art is always a treat.

Thor #13: There’s little in this issue that isn’t rote and obvious, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good as hell.

War of the Realms: War Scrolls #2: There’s a panel in the first part where Daredevil’s legs are hella weird, but the Strange story was nice and that Loki/Wiccan/Hulkling story that’s been taking the internet by storm was indeed pretty nice.

The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #3: This doesn’t have the spark that Ahmed’s work right now on Miles possesses - I’m not even positive I’ll finish this first arc - but it’s a decently charming page-turner and I could see it ending up grabbing me down the line.

The Immortal Hulk #18: It’s genuinely astonishing that this is still capable of freaking me the fuck out, but good goddamn.

Doomsday Clock #10: As I said on Twitter, this was the dopiest, most lowest-common-denominator fanboy-pandering shit in the world, and let me tell you: I’m that lowest common denominator, babeyyyy. Is it good now? Far from it. But it’s becoming almost exactly the comic I feel like it probably should have been all along, and not even just because it’s basically 30 pages of big daddy Geoff petting my head and whispering “shh, shh, it’s okay, your favorite character is still the most important and always will be no matter how bad we fuck up, we promise Morrison Action still kinda matters, shhhhhh”. It’s to its weird credit that the issue that was definitely 100% conceived as ‘the continuity dump’ ends up the only one that says much of substance about anything, even if it’s just that Superman’s important; the book should have been meta all along, and now it’s straight-up calling the main DCU the Metaverse in reference to how it’s always changing in reference to our own real world. And this definitely has the most moments of odd magic previous issues sporadically managed of classic, goofy and/or corny superhero moments taking on an almost totemic degree of weight and power in this bizarre context. Just have Manhattan in some way acknowledge how Superman fundamentally affected his own world too, and I’ll be able to rest easy that this lovely abomination lived up to his full potential in the context of being a dopey Geoff Johns comic.

(My unearned enthusiasm aside though: I don’t think it’s really come up in Doomsday Clock criticism that I’ve seen, but it should probably be talked about that it shares big daddy Watchmen’s I *think* well-meaning but regardless unpleasant relationship with queerness. And Watchmen’s issues, while present, are illuminated by time: my impression was that by 80s cape comics standards it was majorly progressive. Doomsday Clock…clearly doesn’t mean any harm, but actually comes up notably shorter than even its predecessor? While also making its queerness much more important to the plot than Watchmen ever did yet not really doing anything with that but using it as a delivery mechanism for Plot, the latter in this issue coming fundamentally bundled with what makes the former uncomfortable? However you slice it, this is a comic where gay and trans people exist, but only a long time ago as something that was shamed, however much the story frames that as a bad thing. And on a related note: is Carver Coleman supposed to be a George Reeves analogue of sorts? Co-star of the Superman-centric issue, bad relationship with his mother, died under mysterious circumstances in the 50s? Perhaps it’ll be clearer when that thread wraps up; maybe I’m the dope, but I still haven’t picked up on the thematic significance of his story or Nathaniel Dusk’s yet.)

Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1: So on top of everything else, it is buck wild that Snyder and Capullo’s take on the final Batman story isn’t a disconnected-from-continuity, archetypal, ‘timeless’ tale like All-Star Superman or The Dark Knight Returns, but explicitly a bad ending AU for Snyder’s own current Justice League run. What matters more than where it’s situated though is what it is: in the words of Mark Stack, this book is a chainsaw. It kicks off with what seems the prelude to the sort of traditional ending this isn’t, swerves into the dumb memey version that everyone on the internet has seen (including clearly the creators of this comic) which Batman defeats, and then it stands revealed in truth as the MOST Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo version of a last Batman adventure imaginable. It’s clones and purple super lightning and toytowns and mad alien light babies and Joker’s head in a jar telling dirty rhymes (easily Snyder’s best take on him to date) and a wayfaring quest to save a world that’s chosen to die, and this is the prelude. I couldn’t be more into it, especially as the ample production time and physical space gives this a much more assured pace than Snyder’s had anywhere else in recent memory, and I could honestly imagine this ending up as my favorite out of the pair’s Batman joints by the time it’s through, the ultimate distillation of their take on him and their joint aesthetic.

Also, unlikely as it is, I think there is a better than zero chance that Omega is Jarro. A mind-controlling disciple of Batman in a story spinning out of current Justice League? Would that really, really be too weird to fit, nevermind that making Starro the final villain of the DCU he in a very real way created?

[notbang]

gimme the commentary for you're the fire and the flood, anything you have to say about the section starting with "He wakes to the acrid burn of smoke in his nostrils and his throat, one of the overhead smoke alarms apparently clinging to the last of its battery power long enough to sound a pathetic wail in warning." and ending on “Drink some three year old tequila with me?”

send me a scene from one of my fics, and I’ll give you the equivalent of a dvd commentary on it! - you’re the fire and the flood

He wakes to the acrid burn of smoke in his nostrils and his throat, one of the overhead smoke alarms apparently clinging to the last of its battery power long enough to sound a pathetic wail in warning. His first foggy thought is Rebecca, his arms reaching for her out of repressed habit but coming up empty, and when he pushes himself bleary eyed up onto his elbows on the couch he can’t see her on the bed, either. Once he discerns the soft grey haze is filtering out from the kitchen he scrambles to his feet in a panic.

Since one of the central conceits of this fic is that Rebecca has been in jail for the past three years -- and Rebecca has cut off all communication with everyone for the past two -- something I was playing around with was the jarring sense for the both Rebecca and Nathaniel that they’ve gone from zero contact to being trapped not only together but in this fucked up time capsule Nathaniel has left of their stuff in his apartment after moving out (dude, get some fucking therapy, stat). So for Nathaniel in particular, the memory overload is wreaking a little a havoc on his dreams (which may or may not also have something to do with those pesky Santa Ana Winds). He’s just spent the night dreaming of a moment they shared back when they were together, so when he’s pulled from slumber Rebecca is immediately on his mind.

She’s flattened against the wall when he finds her, eyes wide and vacant as she stares at the sink where the flames are already starting to lick up the wall. When he calls her name she’s unresponsive. He tries again, rougher this time.

“Rebecca.”

She snaps out of it, then, coughing and crumpling against him before mirroring his movements and tucking her mouth into the crook of her elbow.

“The water,” she chokes out, batting helplessly at the smoke. “There’s no water coming out.”

Since it’s the apocalypse and all, we had to up the stakes a little beyond trapped in an apartment with someone you don’t want to be trapped inside an apartment with and cut off the water supply. And the most [in]convenient moment for that to become apparent was of course when Rebecca decided lighting a small fire in the sink was a good idea.

He nudges her aside and goes for the rug in the entryway, pushing past her to get back to the sink and slapping at it with the heavy fabric until he’s managed to smother most of it out, the sides of it singeing in the heat but the lack of oxygen ultimately winning out. When the smoulder is contained to the basin again he returns with one of her saucepans of water, extinguishing the remnants with an angry hiss against the stainless steel.

I just... really liked the idea of Rebecca being accidentally prepared for the apocalypse? Being in jail for three years has affected her in different ways, and I think she’s learned to hone the more manic aspects of her personality into a very specific brand of survival. The apartment ends up fully stocked with food because she goes kind of overboard hoarding all the things she’s missed out on eating for the past three years (and incidentally, things Nathaniel wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, which was hilarious to me). They still have water because she took some advice she heard on the news (which she’s been obsessing over as a means to reacquaint herself with the world) to the extreme. Plus I enjoyed the mental image of this already ridiculous mishmash apartment being added to with a minefield of miscellaneous vessels filled with water.

He drops the pot in the sink with an aggressive clank before turning back to face her.

She hasn’t moved from the spot the entire time, still stood frozen and numb, and he grunts in annoyance before hoisting her into his arms and carrying her out of the smoky kitchen over his shoulder, finally waking her up.

“Put me down,” she growls, pummelling him angrily with her fists. “I’m fucking serious. Put me down, you asshole.”

He deposits her unceremoniously back on her feet near the foot of the bed, sidestepping before she can hit him again and raising his hands defensively.

“Are you insane? What was that?”

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I was stupid. I wasn’t thinking.”

“What were you even doing? Did you start that fire on purpose?”

So this entire fic is basically just one continuous fire metaphor for Rebecca’s inner tumult. I’ve always been intrigued by her association with fire in canon, and in a way this was a 22k extrapolation of that. As we know, Rebecca has a tendency to set things on fire when she wants them seared out of her life, and apparently being stuck in the middle of a wildfire apocalypse is no exception. In fact, I kind of imagine she drew inspiration from the wildfires raging outside when she made the very deliberate decision to start her own fire in the sink. This time, she’s not burning her ex boyfriends’ stuff, though -- she’s burning a stack of photos from Darryl of this universe’s equivalent of Hebecca, because she’s struggling with much the same multitude of emotions we saw her wrangle in 4x09. (As an aside: in this universe, the baby is named Bianca, meaning ‘white’ -- a reference to Whitefeather and White Josh.) The baby was born the night she was arrested, so even more so than what we got in canon Rebecca has been happily pretending she doesn’t exist for the last three years. Add to her internal unrest the fact that half the town has already gone up in flames -- she’s not just dealing with the existence of her biological daughter, but the fact that her life could very well be in danger. So almost understandably, Rebecca decides to Nope out of that mental mess in typical destructive Bunch fashion.

He notices the way she’s favouring her left arm, tucking it into her chest and his nostrils flare as he snatches at it, yanking her closer so he can see.

“Ow!”

“You burned yourself? Jesus Christ, Rebecca.”

Grip like iron around her elbow he drags her over to the dining table where she’s been keeping her collection of makeshift water vessels; tripping over her own feet from the angry force of him Rebecca yelps, aiming a protesting kick towards his shins in self-defence but stumbling in the process, coming to an abrupt stop when he shoves her forearm down into the portable foot spa Valencia had gifted her as a pre-wedding present so many moons ago.

“Stop it, you’re hurting me,” she snaps, and only then does he let her go, her skin imprinted faintly with red where he’d been holding her.

“Oh, sorry, I’m hurting you? You seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself.”

She scowls, but keeps her hand submersed in the tub anyway, the room-temperature water for the most part ineffectual at soothing any of the sting.

Nathaniel closes his eyes and tries to calm himself, tries to breathe through his heart beating hard like it’s going to break through his chest on overdrive. They’re both a little panicked, he knows; fraught with fire-related tension and highly strung, and as his pulse slows back to a steady throb he feels the shame creep in at adding to her distress—it’s never been his intention to frighten her. His own brief flare of terror still strums insistently in his fingertips, though, and he can’t keep the accusation out of his voice.

As we find out a little later, once the tequila gets involved, the last three years haven’t exactly been kind to Nathaniel. He left West Covina to move on, but he’s still very much affected by the pervasive sense that he’s doomed to feel like he’s losing Rebecca over and over again -- when you take her suicide attempt, their two break ups, her pleading guilty and then later taking him off her visitor’s list into account and add all to that the fact that the way she re-entered his life was in a hospital bed, the dude’s understandably got a bit of a complex going by this point. I hesitated at having him get so (however briefly) physical with her, but I think the important distinction here is that it’s nothing to do with anger. She’s just scared the absolute shit out of him, again, and he’s course-corrected a little too hard in trying to protect her.

“What the hell, Rebecca?” he demands. “You are crazy. You could have gotten us both killed.”

“I know! I am crazy. I’m losing my fucking mind, Nathaniel. Because I’ve spent the last three years of my life behind bars and now I’m finally out I’m just trapped all over again. I just want to start over but I can’t, because I’m stuck in this stupid town, and now I’m stuck in this stupid apartment with all this stuff, with you, and with all these reminders of everything I’ve missed and I feel like I can’t breathe.” She pulls her arm out of the flooded foot spa and gestures erratically at her chest, sending out a spray of dislodged droplets, eyes wild and wide and welling with tears. “I’m suffocating and I don’t want to be in here anymore. I can’t…”

If Nathaniel’s feeling the cabin fever at being trapped, Rebecca’s feeling it tenfold. If it weren’t a violation of her parole, she wouldn’t even be in the state right now, so her current circumstances are A Lot. So while it was mostly about her complicated feelings regarding what she’s missed out on in her absence, her starting the fire had an undercurrent of self-sabotage to it, too. 

She lets out a strangled sob before promptly bursting into tears, crumpling forward, collapsing against him and burying her head in his chest. Force of nature that she is it’s so easy to forget how small she is until she’s tucked against him, over a head of height difference and two years of uneasy silence between them.

“Please. I just—I just want to get out of here,” she hiccups into his shirt, hands fisting in the fabric. “I feel like I can’t—”

“Breathe,” he says quietly, cradling the back of her head on autopilot. “Hey. Just breathe.”

He’s never really consoled anybody before but it seems like he’s doing something right; her hand not nursing the burn pulls tighter at his shirtfront but her choked sobs ease somewhat, her breathing eventually slowing into synchronisation with the gentle back and forth of his palm across her shoulder blades. For a half-second he thinks he should be disgusted by way she’s snivelling into his shirt but the disdain never comes; all he feels is an unexpected rush of latent tenderness for her and the overwhelming urge to encase her firmly in his arms.

Hugs!!!! Emotionally overloaded hugs!!!! An R/N staple. That is all.

She’s embarrassed, so embarrassed, not just about the fire but the hopeless way she’s clinging to him and she can’t bring herself to let go because she doesn’t want to see his face or let him look at hers, doesn’t want to look at anything in the apartment for a moment longer. Her nostrils fill with the familiar scent of him as she inhales deeply, shakily, and crushes her nose into his collarbone.

“You’ve been through a lot, Rebecca,” he murmurs into the crown of her head. “You’re going to survive this too. I promise.”

It’s the softness in his voice that finally gives her the courage to pull away, rubbing the back of her palm across her snotty nose and glancing up at him with wet, abashed eyes.

He steps back but moves his hands to her waist, holding her gently as if he’s not entirely convinced she can keep herself upright.

Up until this point their every interaction has been rife with tension -- a mixture of unavoidable sexual tension and the resentment they’re each carrying over how certain things have played out between them -- but here they stop and take a breath together, and it’s kind of like the fire in the kitchen was the high-pressure crucible that’s made reforging their dynamic possible. Rebecca’s letting herself be vulnerable, rather than angry, and Nathaniel -- dumb smitten dweeb that he is -- has just melted at their physical contact.

“Truce?” she surprises herself by offering with an ungraceful sniff, not much more than a mumble but he hears it all the same.

There’s a beat, and then he drops his arms away from her and nods. “Truce.”

His eyes don’t leave her back as he stands there mutely, watching her make her way across the room to rummage through some boxes in the corner until she finds what she’s looking for and turns back to face him.

She sniffs again, and raises the bottle.

“Drink some three year old tequila with me?”

Because adding alcohol to the mix is always a good idea!!