#and the boys as. i guess their only real roadblock?

[acrobattack]

another thing i was thinking about while zoning out at work last night is i’m a little surprised there’s no like. Name for characters who are based off the girls’ particular character model and powers. They’re so distinct from every other design in the show and they tend to gain the most popularity but there’s no real catch-all term for them, canon or otherwise

[watchingspnagain]

Rewatching 99 Problems

Welcome to “Abomination Boys are Hot: A Supernatural Rewatch Blog” with Lor and Mace!

Up today, s5e17: 99 Problems.

Sam and Dean get help fending off some demons chasing them in the form of an anti-demon roadblock and some locals who seems to know Enochian. Turns out an entire small town has turned into demon hunters, led by a pastor and his daughter, who appears to be a prophet. But things start looking hinky pretty quick, and when Cas shows up, he’s got the skinny on the preacher’s daughter: she’s the Whore of Babylon and she’s turned the town into a cult. She can only be killed with a special stake wielded by a servant of heaven, which Cas says rules both boys right out (Dean because he’s stubborn and Sam because he’s an abomination). But in the end, Dean is able to gank her, then he takes to the road in a snit to see Lisa and, essentially, tell her goodbye, I guess? Oh, and Cas found a liquor store and drank it because he’s bummed about God turning out to be a deadbeat dad.

Below is a log of our real-time reactions as we watched. Remember that there may be spoilers for any part of SPN’s 15-season run here. Note also that the nature of our conversation is adult and thus it may contain adult language and themes.

 [and we begin:]

Lor:

that looked like he had a clutch and I SWEAR Baby is an automatic

  Mace:

huh

  Lor:

how come THEY never thought of a holy water cannon

  Mace:

RIGHT?!

  Lor:

"those were demons and this is the apocalypse"

  Mace:

omg this dude thinking he knows more than our boys

  Lor:

Dean's little eyebrow raise

  Mace:

sit down, kid

YES

  Lor:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

daaang the shotguns in church

  Mace:

it's what bwings us togevah today

  Lor:

HAAAAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

seems bout right for the midwest

  Lor:

"you missed a few" LOOK DUDE

"someone's telling you somethin"

  Mace:

“angels. awesome.”

  Lor:

"the angels, awesome"

YES

  Mace:

HAHAHAHA

  Lor:

"snappy little exorcism spell"

  Mace:

boys, this feels like a cult. run.

  Lor:

he is SUS

YEP

  Mace:

YEP

“but you are the cutest”

  Mace:

jesus, Dean

HAHAHA CAS

Bleak, Dean. BLEAK.

  Lor:

he needs to simmer down

I love Cas not understanding tech

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

"downright pious" DEAN WINCHESTER

"our Father in heaven" "not so much"

  Mace:

HAAAAHAHAHA

  Lor:

I kind of want to elbow him for being that way in church but he's NOT WRONG

  Mace:

I am completely fine with him being that way in church. Church is dumb.

  Lor:

haaaahahahaha

I... generally feel like if one is in someone else's church one should keep one's correct mutterings to oneself, but. Still. Yeah

was the music dude on vacay this week? what is this?

  Mace:

HAHAHA right?! weird soundtrack

  Lor:

when it's SO BAD like this I always wonder if it's some rights things or something and mean to go check my DVDs to see if it ALSO has terrible music but then I can't be arsed

oooh somebody has a crush on Dean...

"one more time, you can drive" I believe Sammy should be driving a lot more if that is the rubric, DeanDean

Ooooooo YES

  Mace:

yeah my suspicions are the same about the rights to the music

HAHAHA right?!

but that’s just Dean flirting

  Lor:

see, if you drink beer and have crushes on men, you get killed by a demon

  Mace:

YUP

  Lor:

LADY. HOW? is it their fault?

  Mace:

plus, Dean can’t get close to people because they get kilt. Or worse.

EXPELLED

  Lor:

has she clocked the queerness or is she just... whatever?

  Lor:

HAAAAAAHAHAHAHA

  Mace:

she’s just a mom who lost her son. i’ll allow it

  Lor:

mmmm. okay, I'll concede that. I'm just super not down with these folks

  Mace:

no i’m not either and she’s annoying. but still.

not nearly as annoying as prophet princess here

  Lor:

RIGHT?

get outta here with your chaste shirt ruffles

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

"outlawed 90% of your personality." now, now, Sammy

  Mace:

HAHAHA he’s not wrong

oh DEAN

  Lor:

oh come on, Dean's personality is AT LEAST 15% unfortunate male 20th century authors he's read

  Mace:

SNORK!! fair point

  Lor:

Dean, honey, this is not the answer. the answer is a lake house with Cas

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

"you're chosen." "more like cursed" that IS what being chosen is, Dean. you should know this

  Mace:

right?

  Lor:

NONE of these people had a nanny, come on

Mace:

snork!

  Lor:

"I'm just pretty sure God stopped caring a long time ago"

I love that for them it is not a question of belief in his EXISTENCE it's belief in his goodness

  Mace:

ooof

Sammy is cute when he gets his panties in a twist about cults

  Lor:

yeeeeeah, it's a cult. YEP, Sammy, nail on the head. fundie bullshit

LOLOLOLOL he IS

"since the angels got the only lifeboats on the Titanic" oh, Dean

  Mace:

poor DeanDean is so done

  Lor:

he really is

he needs a little lesson in faith. in himself. from Cas

  Mace:

ope, playing the little brother card. nice one, Sam

  Lor:

LOL

  Mace:

YAS

  Lor:

"it's past curfew" in that little bitchy voice. I love him

  Mace:

YASYASYAS

snitches get stitches, Leiah

  Lor:

god this is fundie cult 101: do what we say otherwise you won't see your loved ones in heaven. I HATE IT

LOL

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

OMG DRUNK CAS

  Mace:

AND I DRANK IT

HAHAHAHA YAS

  Lor:

"I found a liquor store. AND I DRANK IT"

  HAAAAAHAHAHAHA

"she's not a prophet"

I love his attitude

  Mace:

“then what is she” figure it out, Sammy

YES

  Lor:

gee, Sam, something bad probably

"need a hand, padre"

  Mace:

“what country is this?” Canada, obvs, based on how that guy just say ‘sorry’

YES

  Lor:

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"now you're standing against the flock"

  Mace:

OOOF

  Lor:

Jesus ben Joseph is TWIRLING in his... well

HAHAHA

  Mace:

ON A BENDER

HAHAHA

  Lor:

"you all right?" "yes, it's not my blood" and he CLEARLY isn't all right

YES

"it... is not of import" haaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha

  Mace:

YEP

  Lor:

SOMEONE GET CAS SOME WATER

"the whore of Babylon" "that's catchy"

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

IT'S FUNNIER IN ENOCHIAN

  Mace:

“it’s funnier in enochian"

HAHAHA

  Lor:

YAAAAAS

"innocent blood spilled in God's name" 

OOOF

"pimp of Babylon" DEAN

  Mace:

SNORK

  Lor:

ope "the greater good" time to bounce

  Mace:

YEP

“sam of course is an abomination"

  Lor:

"not you. or me. Sam, of course, is an abomination"

CAS

DUDE. be nicer to your brother in law

  Mace:

that’s alright. abominations are hot

  Lor:

HAAAAAHAHAHAHA

okay, you all, you are ALL sinners! have none of them done the reading?

  Mace:

Lor, you’re making the rookie mistake of thinking that religious people in groups use any sort of logic or thinking processes

  Lor:

grumble mumble

I was just thinking this is kind of a remarkable little bit of commentary on American fundamental Christianity

"and you're an angel of heaven" "poor example of one" Cas! you're the best of all those bastards

  Mace:

YES

lookit the boyfriends bonding over their shitty dads

  Lor:

YAAAAS

and shared ibuprofen

  Mace:

YES

  Lor:

sharing ibuprofen is a big step

  Mace:

HUGE

lady, read the room

  Lor:

"pretty sure you're headed in a different direction" you tell her, Dean

  Mace:

YAS

  Lor:

"are you gonna do something stupid?" what are the odds, Sam?

  Mace:

SNORK!!

  Lor:

ooof him saying he's not gonna be okay

  Mace:

yeah

DEAN WINCHESTER

  Lor:

that's how you do that, Winchesters

  Mace:

HAHAHA

  Lor:

see, Sammy, always play the odds

  Mace:

these two

  Lor:

he could find where she moved to but not her number?

  Mace:

right!? I’m confused

  Lor:

"it's with you. and the kid." I think it's mostly the kid

right?

  Mace:

how does she not just grab him and start going to town on him after that?

  Lor:

RIGHT?

"like your kind of bad?"

  Mace:

ooof

DEAN. WINCHESTER. NO.

  Lor:

"whatever you're thinking of doing, don't do it" best thing she ever says

  Mace:

YEP

and HOW is he extra beautiful in this scene?!

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO US

  Lor:

RIGHT?

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

  Mace:

OOOOF

  Lor:

now that they're setting her up as a love interest, she's in a MUCH lower income house

  Mace:

HAHAHA YEP I noticed that too

  Lor:

it's nice but before she was in a new development and everything was all new and shiny and white

YES

  Mace:

YEP

[shmreduplication]

i should write a timeloop project post about Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop at some point. OK I guess here we go

IT'S REALLY GOOD!

most timeloops actually skip the explanation of what a timeloop is because groundhog day is so thoroughly in the fiber of our culture of fiction but Ezra is orthodox and probably doesn't have a tv (i don't remember if they say this in the text, but it is common among orthodox jews I know irl) and Finn "really likes movies" so the book is able to walk the line of explaining it in a way that real-life 13 year olds born in 2012 would understand w/o over-explaining to a character who should already know about it (like when Ex Machina explained the turing test to a professional computer guy! that was purely for any computer illiterates in the audience and totally took me out of the movie!) and w/o over-explaining it to anyone older than genZ who might read the book

loops tend to happen on special events or on particularly terrible days. The Mindy Project has her start her period with an empty box of pads and pain killers, Sheriff Carter is walking his crush down the aisle to remarry her ex-husband. The ones that happen on special events that should be positive showcase how stressful it is to be taken out of your normal schedule and into a situation that has a lot of pressure on it to be good and fun and memorable. BUT i think this is the only loop i've seen that has two people in it and it's their special event. Both of their bar mitzvahs are kinda a bust but in different ways

speaking of two people in the loop, the only other odd couple dynamic of two people in a loop together that I've seen is Russian Doll, which is one of the gold standards. Finn and Ezra are basically as different as two New Jersey bar mitzvah boys can possibly be. IMO Nadya and Alan in Russian Doll, two extremely depressed New Yorkers with generational trauma and awful romantic+sexual relationships, are more similar than Finn and Ezra. New Yorkers all have at least one thing in common, which is that they like New York. There is no equivalent unifier among New Jerseyans. I haven't seen a two-person loop that I haven't liked, and making them an odd couple dynamic boosted my enjoyment

Assuming that a perfect day can break the loop is dumb as shit unless the characters have seen groundhog day. Most stories that try this (Eureka, Palm Springs) can skirt around saying "groundhog day" outloud due to it being woven into the modern culture of fiction for the past 30 years. The characters know it, the audience knows it, so there's no reason to actually say it out loud, altho there are stylistic reasons to do so as well (I liked how Legends of Tomorrow and The Magicians handled it by mentioning other groundhog-style timeloop stories). This book handles it a different way by having Finn play Groundhog Day for Ezra in a loop, we don't see it happen in real time on page but it gets mentioned as a thing that happens in a previous loop. And the movie isn't referenced by name, in one case it's described and another case Ezra says the wrong animal. I just thought this was a great way of seeing the two standard options (mentioning groundhog day by name or assuming all characters and the audience already know it so it's not referenced directly in the text at all) and Levy picking a third option (having the characters watch the movie but still not name it). And this justifies that they try the perfect loop strategy

[plot spoilers for this bullet point] A newer pattern is characters trying a perfect loop and then trying to find a scientific solution (Palm Springs, The Thundermans, Eureka). This book plays with that too by having the characters try and then give up on the perfect day solution (their loop is 55 hours, that's a lot to have to get right!) then try a scientific solution until hitting a series of roadblocks which includes one of them wanting to stay in the loop longer, and then they kinda fall ass backwards into a loop that isn't perfect but does perfectly drive home the themes of the book with a final reveal of plausibly-deniable divine intervention. I was so deep into looking for patterns with other timeloop stories that I ended up surprised by a few of the reveals. I have been out of middle school longer than any middle schooler has been alive, so I'm generally not surprised by things that are written to be surprising to middle schoolers. But yeah, the physics solution also not working did catch me off guard, as well as a few other things, it was great

two of the morals were straight repeats of Palm Springs but that's actually great because Palm Springs is the other gold standard with Russian Doll. Pain that you cause to others is real and matters even if the loop resets, and time moving forward is more of a gift than a curse

stable timeloops that don't end in death (aka classic groundhog day loops) tend to have a combo of gift and curse. But Finn and Ezra are both 13 years old, there's WAY more curse for them being stuck in a loop than for adults who can just call a sick day out of work. Also Ezra is shomer shabbas, he can't do any work or use electronics or handle money Friday evening to Saturday evening, and the loop is Friday morning to Sunday at 1:36PM. Prep for shabbat is difficult when you have 6 days between each shabbat, it's more difficult when you have like 30 hours between them and you're trying to escape a timeloop

the comedy was so good, the relationships were so good. This is the closest a written work has come to a standard groudhog day of what I've read so far (Harry August has his whole life on loop, Through the Flash has an entire town in the loop, Evelyn Hardcastle has a week and body swapping, and Now Wait for This Week is a week with an out-of-loop POV) and tbh I thought the audio+visual queues were more critical to sell the loop and that's why those other stories did nonstandard loops. TBH there is something more impressive about a filmed loop that requires more pre-production planning and a high caliber of acting to get the same shots over and over with only controlled differences, but the writing was able to carry across the loopedness.

i loved it. I thought it was so good, I think I would've liked it if I read it when I was in middle school and I recommend it for anyone of any age. It was fun, funny, emotional, and had many of my favorite things from my favorite timeloops as well as new things and I'm going to buy a physical copy to keep on my shelf

[anotherleftturn]

The Silhouette of a Man-Chapter 11

Chapter 11

1

When Andrew got home and had closed the door behind him, a grin was very apparent on his face. The grin(to Andrew) felt very satisfying, like a nice long sleep. The grin had always felt satisfying to Andrew; it could be any little thing, whether it be winning money at poker or just seeing his old man frown at any little success that he had gotten.

His mind went to Julie and how he knew that he had her in the palm of his hand; he could feel it, and he thought of so many ways to play with her giddy, little heart.

Andrew went to the nearest motel in town, simply called Motel. It hadn’t been the most imaginative name for a motel, but the owner thought that it was good enough for a town like Back End.

With the money that Andrew had, he bought a room for a week. It was a good deal. Ten dollars a day. No wonder this town is going down the shitter, he thought.

His room was a mix of living room and kitchen. There was a small couch in the living room area, and that was where he decided to take a seat.

A groan proceeded as he sat down, feeling as if he were sitting on a fluffy cloud. The work he had done at the Shelter had been a real pain in the ass for him, but he had a feeling that in the end it would pay off. He knew he had recognized that shit-eating grin of a name. Harrington. What a stupid, rich fucking name that is, Andrew thought. All Andrew thought that he had to do was keep playing along with Julie’s heart, because the thought of money was starting to have its taste to him now. The only roadblock to money in Andrew’s opinion was Julie’s boyfriend, Dirk. She seemed really disinterested and frankly hurt by Dirk. He sounded like a real asshole to Andrew.

The grin resurfacing, he turned on the television and started watching TV.

He still remembered the bitter, hateful look that his father had given him, the hand with the money in it, and he remembered what his father had said. “Son, you’re a real piece of work, you know that? I worked day in, day out for thirty years. By the time I was your age I was moving my way up in my career. Now look at you, intent on cleaning floors in bathrooms for the rest of your life. I don’t want to see your face anymore. You’re a disgrace to me. Just go.” With that, he had taken the money, still hating his father for being so holy about his work. His father owned a successful store in Kingston, and Andrew thought that his dad was going to give it over to him, figuring his father was going to retire. Andrew had guessed wrong.

Now, with the little eight hundred dollars that he had(some of it spent on the motel already), he had to make his way up from the shitter to the toilet, and hopefully out of the toilet. All I have to do is play Julie like a fucking fiddle and then her daddy will give “us” money week in, week out.

Andrew smiled on, his eyes fixed on the TV.

2

The Man’s first feeling as he woke up was that of his arms crossed from shoulder to shoulder, giving him warmth from the night, which luckily he had not woken up to.

The sun was coming up. He had dreamt a dreamless sleep, and a lot of the time he thought that was for the better. Every dream that he tended to have was either scary or unwanted to The Man; who he himself could not help but feel that the dreams sometimes were not as scary as life. Sometimes he dreamt of when he was a boy, and all those memories were just painful to him.

He struggled to get up, just like every other time. A man in his psychical condition never had it easy-going when it came to getting up from the ground. He lifted himself up with his right arm, strong from all the years of over-use. His left hand and arm had never really been used; they being skinny and fragile.

He wiped dirt off of his shirt, as if bugs had crawled all over the top of it. He grimaced as the dirt swooped off his shirt. He looked to the other side of the alley and saw Underdog lying down on his stomach, his head up, panting, giving The Man a goofy smile. Underdog wasn’t pure German Sheppard. He was half Lab, half German Sheppard, and this made Underdog a smaller dog, almost the miniaturized version of German Sheppard.

Underdog lifted his head, craning it upwards to the sky, his mouth opening, giving out a Chewbacca like sound.

The Man smiled at the sound, and had always found it odd. He walked over to Underdog and patted him on the head before searching for a cleaner surface to sit on. In all the years that The Man had lived on the streets, the thought of dirt had still bugged him.

The clouds were thin above The Man, letting the sun break through like a prisoner making an escape from a jail. Just down the street was a bus stop bench, and at that sight The Man smiled.

He walked on over. He always felt the way that his limp swaggered his step, a constant reminder on his part of who and what he was.

As he sat down, he looked down the street, wondering when the next bus would arrive. The Man barely ever travelled by bus. He liked to walk, but walk did not seem to like him. His body would usually ache after three or four blocks; but he learned that life was fullof aches, and if you couldn’t handle aches in the psychical world, you could never deal with the mental world when it came to pain.

No buses liked to travel on the street entering Back End. The bus did make its travel on down the street, as miserable as it was for the people on board the bus. The Man didn’t blame them in the least, knowing that hewouldn’t want to travel down that street either, if it was him driving the bus or being just a passenger.

A lanky man, wearing torn jeans and a black t-shirt, a wool cap on his head and gloves on his hands was idly walking around waiting for the bus.

The Man started thinking about Julie, and how she was coping with last night. Hopefully Dirk had done all the beating that he wanted to do, but somehow The Man thought that he was lying to himself.

He was building courage. He would need the courage to do what he had to do, not ever remembering being as nervous about something like this before, only knowing what he had to do, and what lay ahead.

The bus arrived.

3

When the light came through the curtains, Julie was still half asleep. Thoughts and memories were foggy as her eyes opened slowly. With her eyes fully opened, all the things that had transpired the night before started to leak out like water coming out of a brick wall. The aroma of beer drifted into her face like a menacing fog coming out of the ocean and onto land. Dirk had had his share of beers the night before, and that had been after that one certain memory of Julie’s, something that she wanted to tuck away and never remember.

She slowly got out of bed, trying her hardest not to wake Dirk up. Julie’s legs felt weak standing up, but they also hurt. On her calves were deep purple bruises. Julie just felt grateful that there were no bruises on her face.

She tip-toed her way to the bathroom and stopped cold when she looked in the mirror. Looking at her was her twin. But her twin had two black and purple sacks underneath her eyes. Her brown hair was stringy, some hairs plastered to her scalp. All she could do was stare, stare at this brutalized human being. She really didn’t know what to make of herself, wondering at that moment why she hadn’t left Dirk, packed all her things and left him for good. Am I that weak? Julie thought. Am I incapable of leaving him? A big part of her said yes, you are incapable. You have to love and take care of your man, Dirk. He needs you. Just as much as you need him.

At this she started to sob, but lightly. She didn’t want Dirk to hear her. He would wonder why she was sobbing, and wondering would upset him even more.

She started to think of how she would fix herself up for the Homeless Shelter. It was possible, but it would be quite the task. Every time that she had to hide bruises, put glasses over her eyes, she resented Dirk; almost hated him- hated him with every fibre of her being.

She looked to the bathtub and realized that she should take a shower. Dirk had always thought that a clean girl was a good girl, and a good girl was the kind of girl that Dirk wanted.

She took off her clothes and started the shower. As the water started to hit her face, she started to sob again. She couldn’t help it. The sobs just came.

“Things will get better,” she whispered as lightly as she could. “Things will get better. You’ll see.” She started to shampoo her hair, and that fear came over her. It was a fear that she was lying to herself. She hoped that maybe things would get better.

When she got out, Dirk was just waking up.

She was in the doorway when he saw her.

“Hey, baby,” he said with a slur. “You were fine last night. Damn fine.”

“Really?” Julie’s voice sounded like finger nails going down a chalkboard.

“You bet your ass, baby.” He looked at her with his awakening eyes. “Get back into bed.”

Julie smiled, and putting that smile on her face felt like putting a hook through her leg. “Okay, baby,” she said, getting back into bed. As she did, that fear started to come back.

[sakuraswordly]

Drafts: Meet Leia

Leia: Faster! Faster! Let's burn rubber! Go! Go!

Syaoran: Eh?!

Girl: Ah! Roadblock! Stop!

Leia: Ah! You're right. Slower! Go slower!

Chester: Uh oh.

Leia: YOU'RE JOKKING??!!

*Splash**Minutes later*

Leia: Sorry for the close call. Are you okay? Huh?

Syaoran: Hi there, Leia-San.

Leia: What the--Syaoran? Huh? Syaoran! What're you doing here? W-Well, I was just-- These kids wanted to have a race, you see? And well, um...And this little guy here is a real speed demon, so I had him push me in the wheelchair to keep things fair.

Velvet: And lemme guess, you just had to be the winner, huh?

Leia: Oh, yeah. Nevermind that, Velvet. So, tell me, who's your friend?

Velvet: His name is Sonic Crowe.

Syaoran: We need a doctor to treat his injury.

Leia: Sonic? Did I know this name somewhere? Hey, what's wrong with his legs? Run and get the doctor, stat! This little one needs help!

Boy: Right! Roger!

Leia: Are you heading home? I'll come with you. Here, use this.

Sonic: Is It very okay?

Sakura: Don't worry. This is the best nurse in town!

Leia: Also the only nurse in town, but, hey, you know how it is.

[furinlegend]

Evidently Sakura wasn't that influenced by anything some outsider punk has told him . . . otherwise he'd expected fussier, more guarded and cautious feedback even after promising to be good. How could he be so sure, anyway? Instead ( to his ever growing pleasure ) he's met with chills, messing around with his favorite little thing called 'overconfidence'. Such a tantalizing look on Sakura's paint worthy face. If it were any other person, Endo would have had a blast taking it apart until it slowly dissolved to an unrecognizable shell. But there's a permanent roadblock now. His love and desire had him chained by the neck even in its infancy.

This is something that needs to be cultivated. People who act strong but don't have their heart in fighting are the ones that needed to be put in their place, not boys teeming with ridiculous potential. Haruka Sakura was cocksure and for a DAMN good reason.

If he did it all just to protect, fine, he'll let Bofurin condition him to those aims. It wasn't like most members of the streets who have neither the animalistic physicality or right drive. Was it all for glory to the inked up male? Not quite.

Whatever it was, all he could think about was how amazing it would be to witness it firsthand how this outsider from Makochi brought everyone—including his critical and accomplished ass—to his knees.

He'll be his first true satellite. His first 'real' believer, obeying ( albeit occasionally ) if it pleases him. Looks like the other didn't mind that he may second guess taking Endo in, for the enormity of his greed may train him in ways that will break his spirit regardless of what either of them wanted.

Never does he keep things proper and flawless, and for that, the unintended consequences remain.

" You too? "

' Oh Sakura, you are too honest. But you're trying to kill me internally, aren't ya? ' Somehow Endo stands ups straighter. Needing to hear more out of that snappish mouth.

" Well, spill . . . what am I doing there? What kind of thoughts you been havin'? " Lets his cheek dust with further red, it didn't matter the grin that hiked higher. Doesn't stop the adoration from taking over.

" Are they bad? You know what that means. If you're equally obsessed with me, what's stoppin' me from taking you and—" Stops himself, hand on his heart. There was some signs... and now, a small, just a tiiiiiny smidge of a flush that mirrored his. Endo has lot count of how many times he felt some type of way: none negative.

" Dreams won't compare to the real thing. I'll keep my trap shut though. " Looks up for a moment to ponder on his latest one, the fire he felt still spreading.

" That such a bad thing? Being eager? I've never had nothing like you either, Sakura, but ya knew that. Not just in the fight, in general you're someone that's not easy to hate . . .

  Personally . . . I want all of you before some slimy fucker thinks they're worth your time. " Shrugs, " Even in a small match, they'd be lucky to put their hands on you. So... don't pick for the weeds, I have people that're better suited to challenge those who are serious in all of this if ya tire of one-on-one'ing me. I won't tire of it though. " As if goading him to choose him and him only.

His mouthiness aside, Endo was truly gleaming at how the other manhandled him, not at all caring and showing it right on his face ( not even knowing that his hues were being appreciated in that head that was oh so filled with thoughts of him ) a huff ensues.

Other capable people, yeah huh. Extremely capable should have been the key word, such a small few would be eligible.

There was a reason older gangs went to him for their dirty jobs.

" Seriously?? I'll get rid of the other options then. " Unless those options are in Bofurin, and he'd be breaking a promise... he retracts slightly, " Forget that. I'll just prove myself better and then you'll have no choice but to only want to come to me. Kinda easy if I already infested your brain. Stop being so cold. " Yeah. He's never getting over that admittance.

Wanted to bite that smirk off, maybe stick a finger inside to see him bite back. Whatever will get him to let him go, no matter how much he's enjoying this he wanted to touch him more, " And yet here you are. Still talking to me, warning or not. Such hot stuff and no I ain't making fun. You're so full of yourself when you could just be full of me. "

While Sakura's demeanor changed, so did his.

" Jealousy. " Reiterating, actually considering it... " No. I just don't like other men. Plain and simple. " But was he lying?

" Especially when they're not even near my level. " The innuendo's weren't lost on him, and he's scrunching his face in low laughter, " Now you're just being extra. " So hypocritical of him to say, stopping the bursts of chuckles when he mentioned the choking.

The light in Sakura's gold and steel blue fading rapidly did haunt him a bit. If that didn't occur... he would have enjoyed the idea of doing that in a different context.

His pause was incredibly, incredibly pregnant.

There was no maybes anymore. Sakura's intentions were clear despite the words that tried to throw him off, his lidded eyes searching him again for more messages that needed to be said. Once captured in that hold, he made sure to lessen the pressure. Caressing his side tenderly now, contrasting with the rough yanking of hair upwards.

Taunts giving him reasons to jump, but he stays put. " Not answering that. " Leaning into that finger that dipped into his flesh.

" Not if it's obvious, at least. Give me two minutes and I'll have you down here with me. " Looking away cheekily at the next question asked. Slowly he's pulling away, hand reaching for the wrist that held his hair. Seeing what his pretty petal would do.

The ache in his scalp and neck was palpable... it just wasn't an ache that bothered him. Yamato doesn't register most pain until bones break, using the fingers that's shattered countless of limbs to pry and brush teasingly.

" I'll be the standard for them if you want me to be. "

The stories that Sakura had been told about Endo are stuck in his head on repeat, reminding him of what this man, this crazy fucker could do to him if he showed even a smidge of opportunity for him to grab onto. Sakura was never known for pulling away from a challenge. He welcomed it. He dove headfirst into whatever the fuck this could become.

Sakura was aware that this thing could end up being a so-called bad end. Endo was one of those little devils on the shoulder that prodded and urged you to do the devilish things it wanted you to do.

He doesn’t know what the man could do if give even more time around him. (He acknowledges that he wants to see what Endo can turn him into; he won’t tell him that though.)

“Does you being in my head all the time count?” Admitting that Endo’s words are constantly on repeat in his brain is dangerous. Acknowledging that some part of Sakura agreed with Endo’s words was a very dangerous thing to do; it gave Endo a leash to choke him with. “I’m sure you have dreamed of it.” His cheeks heat at the double implications and the compliment falling from those devilish lips.

“Aren’t you just eager? Offering yourself to me like this?” If Sakura weren’t in this position, he wouldn’t even be contemplating this. Nimble fingers reached for the collar of Endo’s shirt, bunching the material in his grip as he yanked the man closer to his height, heterochromatic irises gleaming as he gazed into seafoam green. Endo had such beautiful eyes for a man so crazy. “Ya not the only one around here loaded with all the capabilities.” He’s not admitting that he thinks Endo would be his best bet in clawing his way to the top.

“Oh, they told me a lot of stories.” He agrees with a smirk curling pink lips. “Warned me how dangerous and crazy you are.” He had known that within the first minutes of meeting Endo. The air around him had been electrifying and had blared warnings in Sakura’s head. His flight or fight instincts had kicked in and if it hadn’t been for Tsubaki-senpai, Sakura would’ve ended up fighting Endo and no doubt losing miserably.

“Who? Togame?” Sakura’s entire demeanour changed into one of slyness. “Are you jealous of the comparison?” He laughs softly as he leans close to Endo’s face, eyes gleaming. “He was good, but you were better.” His lips brush against Endo’s cheek as he murmurs softly. “So much better.” He purrs out in a low voice. “Was such an adrenaline shot to fight with you. Got my blood pumping and muscles quivering in all the good ways. Could’ve done without the choking.” Won’t say that seeing all the bruises from his fight with Endo had given him a thrill.

“Maybe I wanna encourage something dangerous in ya.” He swallows, breath shallow. His fingers twitch, body stiffening at the grip around his waist. He’s trapped. He should push Endo away, force him to let go. He doesn’t.

He grips curly hair in a fist, yanking Endo’s head further back. “Are you offering to be stepped on?” He taunts, his other hand reaching to stroke a finger down the man’s cheek. “Are you at my beck and call as well, Endo?”

[larathia]

My horse in the race.

Totally backing Nicol here. Since there’s some really good posts covering the whole harem’s pluses and minuses all I’ll say is “wow, I have a lot of ‘same’ thoughts with people here, this is unusual and kinda nice”. I just wanted to esplain why this one’s my choice.

Pros/Reasons Why: Nicol is the only harem member to make Katarina swoon just by smiling. Yes, I know, he has that effect on entire hallways full of girls, but seriously here - he makes Katarina the eternally oblivious swoon. And he’s not interested in that hallway full of girls, he’s interested in Katarina. So honestly, if he made a serious play for her, or chooses to do so in the future, I honestly expect fireworks. Like a whole fourth of july foom of fireworks. He doesn’t even need to kiss Katarina to get a reaction from her, and that’s way more than anyone else manages.

In addition, Katarina gets on very well with Sophia, who also loves her, and that’s his big break point with a lot of other girls. Nicol is a package deal with his sister, and frankly Sophia loves Katarina too. 

(Sophia/Katarina is a ship I wouldn’t mind seeing? Like, at all? But Sophia herself seems to be angling for some kind of threesome, and in this case I’m very very okay with that idea as an outcome.)

Plus, Sophia is the reincarnation of Katarina’s friend from our world. So I feel like Katarina hooking up with Nicol results in three happy ever afters at once.

And lbr here. Katarina is adorable but kinda a dumbass. Having help keeping her from being kidnapped, trapped in a closet/a bakery/a bookshop/a pet store/somebody’s forgotten classroom is kind of necessary. Tag teaming for the win, am I right?

The obstacles/Reasons Why Not: Ah, Nicol. The boy has a sense of honor that seriously gets in the way here. He won’t make any kind of move, not while she’s engaged to Geordo. His reasons for not pushing it under these circumstances are fair and speak well of him, but are probably also THE big reason he’s been a background character in the harem up to this point. 

Now, should at any point that engagement be called off, I will be Most Disappointed in this horse if he don’t get off his damn ass and say something. Or do something. I mean really, he could just smile at her and give her a book? Say “come hang with me and my sister for the afternoon”? 

It would be so easy, and that’s actually why I don’t think we’ll see it in the anime for quite some time. (If ever, I know, but this is a hope thing rather than a prediction thing.) Where most of the harem have actual obstacles in their path that should reasonably be dealt with - ranging from personality issues to actual Obstacles like ‘I am legally her brother and might need the parents to do some legal footwork’ or ‘I am a known dark mage’ or ‘I am a commoner’ (yes I know Katarina doesn’t care, but I bet her parents do) or the ever popular ‘I am actually engaged to someone else’ - Nicol has....none of that? He’s not as noble as Katarina, but his family (and he) are well thought of, and if it were a love match, he isn’t so far down in Society that her family would be likely to throw up roadblocks. (Ordinarily I’d say they would, but Katarina’s parents seem pretty clear that Katarina while sweet is not exactly mentally geared for high society.) He’s not a dark mage, he’s not someone you’d want to Keep An Eye On Lest He Try Something, he’s not broke or common or engaged to anyone else...

...and this is a romance anime which means there’s no Drama in this choice. So I really don’t expect the author to do much beyond periodically remind us he’s there and in the running, until something changes. 

In this case, what would have to change is Katarina’s current engagement to Geordo. Katarina is currently a romantically passive character, who’s just STARTING to take the whole engagement thing seriously (as in accepting that she IS engaged to Geordo, and starting to explore whether that’s truly what she wants). I expect that to continue for quite some time, as Geordo isn’t someone you’d lightly say ‘no’ to, but that cannot ultimately be what drives Katarina’s choice.  (Or...I guess it can, but I will be real damn disappointed if it is.)

Now...it’s possible? that if word got around that Katarina did not WANT to marry Geordo, that Nicol might act before the engagement were formally ended. But I have to say I find that kind of speculation pointless at this stage. What I look for right now is ‘does the author make sure you remember Nicol’s there’. Because he’s a very easy choice, but not a story-type dramatic choice, the focus won’t be on him unless conditions are right. (Honestly? I mean personally? I don’t think, if this DOES turn out to be the series’ endgame, that we’ll see much sign of it before, say, at least 2/3 of the way through, for exactly the above reasons. So I’m quite fine watching everyone else go first, as the ride is a fun one and I don’t want it to end soon.)

[butgilinsky]

i’ve been looking for you // np

warning; language, angst but also fluff (way more angst than fluff), not proofread but who cares at this point

summary; you don’t believe in love, but nolan’s too far gone to stop himself from falling. 

word count; 5.5k+

he could barely wrap his head around the fact that you were real. the universe did the world a favor when they made you, a bright light he never knew he needed in his life. he spent more time than he cared to admit admiring you, thanking the universe for placing you in his path of life. you seemed to have every attribute he could ever ask for, checking all of the boxes he didn’t know he had. 

but he couldn’t forgive the universe for the tiny detail about you that he couldn’t get past. you didn’t believe in love, and that was a roadblock nolan wasn’t sure he’d be able to conquer. 

the night he met you was straight out of a movie. everything around him seemed to slow down, allowing him a moment to admire you from the other side of the room. he had tuned out travis completely, completely lost in a reality only he would be able to experience as he visualized you in different parts of his life. 

he didn’t realize that he would be given the opportunity to live out a few of those scenarios, though they weren’t the exact same. you’d go to his games, but his name wasn’t stretched across your back. you’d cheer so loud that your throat hurt when he scored, but he wouldn’t get to kiss you after he left the locker room at the end of the night. 

he couldn’t have you, and it would drive him insane. 

but it was too late for him. he wasn’t briefed on your lack of optimism when it came to romance until he’d found himself tumbling over the edge just hours later. you were a dream, you had to be. it was the only thing that made sense. how else would you end up at a party packed full of professional hockey players. maybe you were here with someone. maybe you were friends with one of his teammate’s wives, or maybe you were just a figment of his imagination. 

he couldn’t hide the flush of his cheeks when you laughed at his introduction, taking his outstretched hand and shaking it gently as a bright smile spread across your lips. 

“i know who you are. i work for the flyers.” he thought he was going to combust after the newfound information. you worked for the flyers, and he had never seen you before. how could he have missed you in passing if you were the only thing that held his attention for more than five minutes tonight? 

“then i guess you don’t need an introduction from me either.” travis held out his hand for you to shake after you dropped nolan’s, somehow saving nolan from tripping over himself. 

“i don’t think there’s a single person in the city of philadelphia that doesn’t know who you are.” her voice was teasing, the lilt in it making nolan swoon more than he already had been, which he had been surprised by. 

he didn’t know he was capable of swooning over a person this much in such a short period of time. 

“what do you do for the flyers?” travis saved his friend one more time, filling the air with another question before nolan allowed a thick silence to fall over the three of you. 

“i’m a graphic designer. sometimes i do social media when it gets pretty hectic.” you shrugged, as if your job was a simple detail in your chaotic life that nolan found himself dying to learn about. 

just before nolan could finally get his mouth to catch up with his thoughts, you were being tugged away into a different room by one of your friends. you sent both boys an apologetic smile, about to turn on the balls of your feet when nolan found his voice. 

“wait! what’s your name?” you turned over your shoulder, the same bright smile from before gracing your face as you answered his question. 

he replayed the name over and over again in his mind, allowing it to erase every other word he’d ever learned before now.  

“you’re completely fucked.” travis snickered under his breath, clapping a hand onto his best friend’s back before shoving him out of the kitchen and towards a group fo his teammates. 

it wasn’t too long before he found you again, standing on the balcony as you overlooked the city below you. you had lost track of how long you’d been out here, but it was long enough for you to finish your beer, which was somehow a perfect segway for nolan to join you. he held out a bottle towards you, the same one you’d been nursing all night long, though this one had just been opened seconds prior. 

he found himself tumbling into a conversation with you that took minimal effort. it felt easy, standing beside you and talking about just about anything the two of you could think of. it wasn’t until the friend that you were clearly in charge of came outside, wobbling on her feet as she told you that it was past the time the two of you had originally set as your departure time. 

noaln wanted to protest, wanted to find a reason for you to stay with him. but when you had to lunge for your friend to keep her up, draping her arm around your shoulders, he knew that nothing would be enough to get you to stay. 

it wasn’t until you were out the door, along with a majority of the people that had come to the gathering, that a gentle hand landed on nolan’s shoulder, pulling his attention away from the door you’d just left through. he looked down at cara, one of the photographers that he knew decent enough for her to come offer a hint of advice. 

“i wouldn’t get your hopes up with her, patty.” his eyebrows pulled together, unsure of how everyone was able to pick up on his infatuation with you. he hadn’t realized that he had been so transparent. did you pick up on it too? 

“she doesn’t believe in love.” 

it was something that, looking back on it, he should’ve listened to. he should’ve been able to tell himself to not go any further, to not throw himself down a hole of false hope and empty promises. 

but he couldn’t. he couldn’t live with the face of knowing you and how incredible you were, and just ignore it. he couldn’t go to the arena, knowing you probably weren’t far away from him, and pretend like he didn’t know about your existence. 

he couldn’t do it. 

so he settled for a friendship. it was enough at first. any reason to be close to you, to talk to you about anything other than the view of philadelphia from someone’s apartment that neither of you two particularly wanted to be in. it turned into him looking for you at his games and smiling at you when he saw you in the hallways.

it went further when you started seeing each other outside of work. you’d find each other at team parties, at boring events that you both had to be at despite neither of you wanted to show. it turned into him lying across your couch with his head in your lap as you scratched at his scalp gently. 

nolan though he could stop himself from falling too hard too fast. he hoped he could stop himself from falling at all, but that proved to be out of the question for him quicker than he was hoping for. you were everything he wanted, the only thing he wanted. 

so he kept it to himself. he didn’t even tell travis, nor any of the other boys, despite their relentless chirps about you throughout the season. he thought that if he kept it to himself, didn’t say the words out loud, that it would go away. it would make it less real, it would dissipate until it wasn’t there anymore. 

and as much as it sucked to not be able to tell you how he truly felt, he still thought that it was better than not having you in his life at all. he made a place for you, and there was no way he could kick you at now. 

you heard the chirps about the two of you, sometimes you were on the receiving end of them. you assured them, every time, that you and nolan were just friends. you weren’t looking for anything, and you were trying to steer clear of love all together. romance wasn’t something you were ever successful at, and it was something you’d groan to loathe in more ways than one. 

you didn’t think there was anything wrong with your friendship with nolan. sure, you spent a lot of time at his apartment or with him in general, but that didn’t mean you were falling in love with him. yes, you’d spend hours on his couch, playing with his hair when he had migraines or rubbing knots out of his shoulders after a long day at practice. 

you’d go out with him and travis, sometimes a large group of people, thought the two of you always stuck by each other’s side. you both knew the warning signs when the other one was ready to leave a group setting, hitting your limit of social interaction for the night. you knew when he was beating himself up during a game and would give him the best pep talk you could muster in order for him to finish the game on the highest note possible. 

despite nolan’s feelings, he was able to be there for you in the best way a friend could be. he was doing good at the friend role you’d given him. 

until he showed up. 

you were walking through the flyers’ facility in the middle of a long day for everyone involved. the boys had a long day of practice, currently on their lunch break as travis and nolan walked along either side of you. you were laughing at something travis said, leaning slightly into nolan as you walked. 

until you came to a screeching halt, your heart thudding harshly against your chest as you stared at the man in front of you. 

“liam?” nolan and travis shared a look, one that was filled with confusion over the fact that they knew exactly who liam was, but were unsure of why he was here. 

liam was the one that nolan had blamed for your lack of optimism when it came to love. nolan blamed for liam for not allowing you to love nolan. the one holding nolan back from being able to express everything he felt for you. 

“hi.” liam smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes as he looked between travis and nolan. 

“oh, uh, yeah, shit. guys, this is liam. liam, this is travis and nolan.” liam nodded, a sentiment that travis returned. nolan stood frigid in his place, hands shoved into the pockets of his sweats as he stared at liam, void of all emotion. 

“what are you doing here?” to nolan’s knowledge, liam didn’t live in the area. you moved to philly as a way to get away from your old life, liam included. 

“i was hoping i could talk to you.” your breath caught in your throat, uncertainty coursing through your veins even when you nodded and excused yourself from travis and nolan. 

they watched you walk off with liam, falling into step beside him as you walked off in a direction that nolan wanted to veer far away from. so much so that he turned on his heel when he could finally move, walking back towards the locker room with travis lingering behind him. 

“patty-”

“don’t.” 

he wasn’t. it showed when lunch ended and the boys were back on the ice. nolan’s slap shot was harder than it had been at the start of the day, his feet were faster and his cheeks were redder. he was playing more aggressive than he usually did, and it didn’t go unnoticed by anyone that was witnessing it. 

he didn’t talk about it, and travis didn’t bring it up. not even when the rest of the boys asked if there was something wrong with nolan. travis would sigh and shrug, despite knowing the exact reason that nolan was acting like this. 

you didn’t see nolan for the rest of the day, and even for a few days afterwards. he steered clear of the hallway he knew you spent most of your time in, and when it rolled around to game day, he ignored your good lucks texts that you always sent him. he played the same way he had been at practice, though it ramped up to 200% when it wasn’t his teammates that he was shoving into the boards. 

it was the most aggressive you’d ever seen him play, and it was confusing to watch. you didn’t know what was going on with him, but you chopped it up to being too lost in his own thoughts and channeling it into his game. 

what an understatement that was. 

when he scored a goal, his celly showed no excitement. he didn’t cheer, didn’t drop down to one knee like he did from time to time. he simply took the slaps on the back from his teammates and lined up for the face off. 

the thing that really got you was the fight he got into. it wasn’t like nolan to fight, you’d only seen him fight once since you’d met him. and this fight was dirty. 

enough to send him to the locker room after for concussion protocol. travis looked towards your seat when nolan headed off the ice, mumbling profanities under his breath when he saw you climbing the stairs. he knew what you were doing, and he knew it wasn’t going to end well for either of you, but there was nothing he could do with three minutes left in the period. 

your feet took you further than you expected them to. you ended up at the locker room without time to think about what you were doing, pounding on the door until it swung open. 

“ma���am, you can’t-”

“i need to talk to him.” you shoved past the man with a towel draped over his shoulder, who called out behind you as you stomped through the room until you caught sight of nolan. 

“ma’am!”

“what's going on with you?” nolan’s head snapped over towards you, along with a few other people who were standing around him. 

“what?” he was confused, along with not fully letting out his anger that had built throughout the game. 

“that! what was all of that? you don’t play like that-”

“how the hell do you know how i play?” 

“because i watch you play all the time, nolan! not only do i sit in the stands every single home game, but i have to rewatch shit over and over game for my job. i know how you play, and it’s not like that.” the laugh that passed his lips had no humor in it, only venom as it pierced through your chest. 

“well then why don’t you go out there and play for me? since you know how i play so well, go do it yourself.” he pointed to his jersey that he’d taken off when he entered the locker room, watching your eyes narrow in his direction. 

“why are you acting like such a dick?”

“now i’m a dick? first i’m not playing like myself and now i’m a dick. what’s next, y/n? you want to tell me that i need a new stick to play with? a new number?” it was your turn to laugh now, attempting to bite your tongue as your hands settled on your hips. 

“what is wrong with you?” 

“you! you’re what’s wrong with me.” your shoulders relaxed, slumping slightly as your hands fell by your side. “why are you even here, y/n? shouldn’t you be at home with your boyfriend or something?”

“my boyfriend? you of all people should know i don’t have a boyfriend.” he scoffed, biting the inside of his cheek when the door to the locker room opened. 

“could’ve fooled me.” he mumbled softly, but you weren’t letting the conversation end there. 

“is that what this is about? you’re mad that liam showed up the other day? well, i didn’t exactly ask him to show up out of the blue after two years, nol.”

“no? you weren’t ready to go back to how things were back in new york? you didn’t want to run back home and start your brand new shiny life with him?” 

“what the fuck are you talking about? why does it matter what i had back in new york? i ran away from all of that, nol. liam asked me to move back with him and do you know what i said? i told him i’d never go back to him. i told him that he doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. i don’t want that shit anymore! i don’t want liam anymore.”

“but you don’t want me either, right?” your breath caught in your throat, your attempt at following the forming lump failing as you stared at him in disbelief. “am i right?”

“nolan.” you sighed, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. 

“it’s not like i haven’t tried, y/n. it’s pretty fucking obvious that i love you, but you’re so set in this idea that you were made to be loved or some shit. you’re so set on not falling in love so you won’t get hurt that you’re ignoring the fact that i wouldn’t hurt you.” your eyes fell to your feet, your nerves spiking as you felt like you were shrinking under his gaze. “tell me i’m wrong.” 

“nolan, you know how i feel about that shit-”

“you don’t think i know that? i know, y/n! it’s the only reason i’ve been bottling this shit up for months. if you weren’t so fucking headstrong i would’ve told you this months ago. but i can’t take it anymore, okay? so, here it is.” he stood up, standing just ahead of you. “i love you. i’m in love with you, and i don’t want you to believe any of the bullshit that guy’s feeding you. you deserve to be loved, and i can do that for you. i want to love you like you’ve never been loved before. i want to prove that love exists, and that it’s right in front of you.” 

his hands cupped your cheeks, cradling your head in his hands and forcing your eyes up to his. he thought maybe he cracked something, maybe the wall of tears building was because you were realizing that what he was saying was true. 

but then you shook your head, breaking the dam of tears and allowing them to roll down your cheeks. 

“i can’t, nolan.” and his heart broke. 

you pulled his hands from your face, gentle hands gripping around his wrists before placing them at his sides. you turned around, only taking a second to acknowledge the crowd of grown men that were watching your exchange. 

travis stood at the front, jaw clenched tight as his eyes shifted from you to nolan. he moved slightly, enough to let you slip by him before attempting at trying to comfort nolan. 

“pat-” 

“i don’t want to talk about it.”

you had the luxury of going home after that, not having to watch the third period as you threw yourself onto your couch and sobbed into your throw pillows. nolan, however, had to play the rest of the game. 

he got into another fight in the third, sent to the penalty box with trail of blood dripping from his nose. he broke a few sticks, took a couple of nasty hits but sent them right back without hesitation. 

travis drove him back to his apartment, not speaking throughout the drive after being shut down three times prior to getting in the car. he dropped nolan off, telling him to call if he needed anything only to have the door slammed in return.

you stopped showing up to games that you were required to be at, stopped wandering the halls during practice hours. you spent most of your nights on your couch, laptop sat on your lap as you sipped wine while you worked. your phone went unanswered unless it was your boss.

weeks went by without hearing from nolan. you didn’t expect to, but a part of you hoped he’d call or text or something in order to talk to you. you didn’t know what you would say, or what he would say, but you found yourself wishing he was there when you got home. 

you found yourself feeling disappointed when he wasn’t hanging around your office during the day. you couldn’t go to games unless you had to, your eyes not being able to leave the number 19 as he skated around the ice. you didn’t know what you wanted, but you knew it wasn’t this. 

when your boss called you into his office on a saturday morning, your heart thudded against your chest harshly. you were expecting notes about how you’d been slacking. maybe something about giving you a warning for turning in half assed projects or missed deadlines. 

you weren’t expecting to walk into a room with your boss as well as someone from the NHL staff, offering you a job back in new york. 

“i’m sorry?” your boss let out a soft laugh, holding a manilla folder in your direction. 

“the NHL wants you on their team. we’ve had an eye on you for a few months, and they want to offer you a position in their new york division. it’s up to you, obviously, but we’d be delighted to have you.” the man that you had just met moments ago gave you a bright smile, watching you have an internal battle in front of them. 

“take your time, let us know once you’d reached a decision.” you nodded slowly, swallowing the lump in your throat to thank the men in front of you before heading out of the office. 

you spent the first two days ignoring it, staring up at your ceiling for what felt like hours as you ran through the possibilities lined up for you. did you want to go back to new york? you were unsure. did you want to stop watching clips of the flyers, nolan specifically, over and over again as you thought about how much you messed things up with him? yes. 

it took you five days before you were knocking on his door, tears streaming down your cheeks as your bottom lip wobbled. sure, you’d gone through two glasses of wine before you showed up, but that was hardly the point. 

travis opened the door, surprised to see you just as much as you were him. his confusion turned to concern quickly, moving to wrap you in a hug and try to coo you out of your tears. 

“tk who is it?” you lifted your head from travis’s shoulder to see nolan standing at the end of the hall, frozen in his place as he watched you unravel yourself from your best friend. “what are you doing here?”

“i got a job offer in new york.” you didn’t plan to lead the conversation with that, but it came out before you could think twice about it. 

the silence that fell over the two of you was thick and uncomfortable, suffocating you like a scratchy turtle neck that you feel obligated to wear when your grandparents are in town. travis had fled the scene, finding solace in nolan’s guest room as he hid himself from the awkward conversation that was about to ensue. 

“that’s great.” the cold tone he used shot through your heart, making you tug at the roots of your hair in frustration. 

“that’s great? after all that we went through you’re just going to say ‘that’s great’ as if it’s a good thing that i might move back to new york?” he shrugged, his own frustration masking the hurt that was thumping in his chest. 

“it’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” 

“no, nolan! it’s not what i want! i want what we had back. i want the late night phone calls and the impulsive outings. i want to come back here and watch a movie after being out with the team all night long.” he stared at you blankly, spurring on your frustration even further. 

“that sounds like a relationship, y/n, and that isn’t what you wanted. you made that crystal clear when i told you i loved you in front of thirty people and you just walked out.” 

“i’m sorry, nolan. i am, i’m sorry. i just-” you chewed on your bottom lip, trying to keep it from wobbling like it did in the locker room, his eyes burning into yours all the same. 

“say it.” he challenged, crossing his arms over his chest as he raised his eyebrows at you. “say it, y/n. because if you don’t say it, i can’t believe it.”

“this isn’t easy for me, nolan!” 

“you think it’s easy for me? i’ve never felt like this before, y/n! i’ve gotten my heart broken too, but it didn’t feel like this. it didn’t feel how it felt when you walked out of the locker room, and it sure as hell didn’t feel like this. nothing has ever hurt this much before.

“love is scary, y/n, and i can’t tell it isn’t. i can’t tell you that you’ll feel comfortable every single second of the future. i can’t promise you that you wan’t be scared as fuck, but i can tell you that it’ll be worth it. for every ounce of fear you fell, you’ll feel ten times the amount of love. you just have to trust me, baby.” 

your head was in his hands once again, eyes glued onto his as he searched for something intently. 

“but i need you to say it.”

“i can’t, nolan.”

it was the same thing all over again. you were breaking his heart the same way you broke it back in the locker room. you built him up just to tear him down again, and he couldn’t handle it anymore. 

“have fun in new york, y/n.” 

the door slamming in front of you broke the dam, a strangled sob bubbling past your lips. nolan leaned against the door, listening to you try to catch your breath out in the hallway. he wanted you to knock, wanted you to yell at him to let you inside. he wanted you to realize that the words sat on the tip of your tongue, all you needed was a push before they’d come out. 

but you didn’t. 

he didn’t hear anything for a while. he went on a few roadies, played a few home games before he heard anything about it. he didn’t ask, but he was hoping the information would land in his lap sooner or later. 

he wasn’t expecting travis to tell him that you took the job. you were moving back to new york, and while it wasn’t a surprise, it was fucking disappointing. nolan still had hope that the two of you would be able to work through all of the bullshit. he was hoping that everything said and done between the two of you would prove to be too much and too strong for you to forget about all of it. 

he wanted you to stay in philly, as selfish as it was. he didn’t want you to live in a different state, but then he came to a realization. it was better for nolan if you left. it was better that you didn’t live him somewhere else, rather than working in the same building as him. he didn’t want to see you if he couldn’t have you. he couldn’t be your friend anymore. 

travis gave him updates, letting him know that you were working for the NHL, and how it’d be a great experience for you. he knew when you were leaving, knew that you were packing up your apartment and moving back to new york, despite the bad memories that lingered there. 

you were leaving, and nolan would probably never see you again. 

and he came to terms with that. well, he thought he did. he was doing fine until he heard your name mixed with the words ‘last day’. then it all came crashing down. 

you were leaving philly. you were going back to new york and nolan would probably never see you again. it weighed heavily on his chest, heavy on his shoulders as he left his things in the locker room, completely forgetting about packing his things as he ran through the hallways of the stadium, searching for anything that told him that you were still here. 

he needed to find you before you left. he needed to see you, even if it was the last time he’d ever see you. he needed to tell you one more time, even if you wouldn’t say it back. he needed to see you. he needed you. 

“y/n!” you turned around, confusion evident in your expression as nolan sprinted in your direction, coming to a screeching halt in front of you, breathing heavily as he hunched over to catch his breath. 

“nolan?”

“don’t go.” you stared at him, eyebrows furrowed together as you struggled to find something to say. “don’t go. i know i told you to go, but don’t. you can’t go. you hate it there! new york’s filled with awful people and nothing you can’t find here.”

“nolan-”

“you love your job! and you love the flyers. if you go to new york you’ll have to go to isles games, or the rangers! who likes the rangers? that’s bullshit, y/n! what’s in new york that you can’t have here? pizza? the pizza’s fine but that doesn’t warrant you to move back!”

“nolan-”

“don’t go. i know i said i couldn’t wait, but i will. i’ll wait as long as it takes. i’ll do anything it takes to prove to you that i love you. you can’t go, baby. you can’t leave, because i haven’t been able to show you what love is supposed to feel like. you can’t go, please. baby, i love you, and if you go now i don’t think anything’s going to be able to stop me from following you.” 

he cradled your head in his hands, one on each cheek as his eyes burned into you for a third time. the third time he held you like you hung the moon and told you all the right things. the third time he looked for something, anything, that told him to stay right here forever. 

“i turned down the job.” 

“what?” it wasn’t exactly what he was expecting, but he wasn’t losing hope just yet. 

“i turned it down. i’m not going to new york.” a grin spread across his face, hope beaming in the back of his mind as he tried not to topple over the edge again. not yet, anyways. 

“why?”

“i can’t leave, nolan. not after falling in love with you.” his heart stopped, his breathing stopped, and he was sure that he was about to collapse in the middle of the hallway. 

“what?” you smiled, leaning into one of his palms as you sighed softly. 

“i love you. i’m in love with you.” you gripped his wrist gently, trying to bring his head out of the clouds and back down to earth as you smiled at him. 

“you what?” you laughed then, finding a light humor in his inability to soak in the meaning of your words. 

“i love you. i always have, i think, i just couldn’t come to terms with it. i was stupid to think that this was anything but love, nolan. i shouldn’t have walked away in the locker room, and i should’ve said it in the hallway last time. i shouldn’t have let you believe i didn’t love you.” 

his lips came crashing down on yours, leaving a bruising kiss on your soft lips that he was sure he could get drunk off of. he had never felt so lightheaded from a kiss, like his enter being was about to burst into flames from how much electricity coursed through him. 

you were sure he was about to knock you off of your feet from the force of it all, but you didn’t mind. you smiled against him, feeling him do the same before separating from you. just enough to press his forehead to yours, keeping his eyes screwed shut as he tried to collect his thoughts. 

“is this real?” he whispered softly, hearing you laugh softly. you reached up and pinched the back of his hand, hearing him hiss in pain. “shit, okay, definitely real. i love you.” 

“i love you.” you said softly, watching him lift his head from yours to finally look back at you. 

“i don’t think i’ll ever get used to hearing that.” you leaned into him, pressing a kiss to his jaw. 

“good, because i don’t think i’ll ever get used to saying it.” 

- 

tagging @thedemonsimpofcamphalfblood​

[amunching-potato]

My opinions on the bosses, in the order that I fought them in my first run;

Cleric Beast: Struggled a bit with it in the beginning because I was still getting used to the controls. And after playing the DLC(in NG+), it is... nostalgic, also, because I got killed by Laurence so much and got used to the fire and lava that Cleric Beast was just a kinda boring. But still a good fight in some way.

Father Gascoigne: Was the first roadblock(pain) in my first playthrough, I didn't know how to Lock-on and parrying was difficult (see the first reason), and I didn't know about the elevator a couple of deaths in (which was a pain to walk through) not to mention that he was hella aggressive was just the cherry on top. He's fun to fight now though.

Blood Starved Beast: Eh. He's ok in all of my playthroughs.

Witches of Hemwick: I have only ever died once to them in all of my playthroughs (first one) and that was embarrassing. Didn't know that they could just lock you in place. Easy fight overall.

Dark Beast Paarl: I stumbled upon his arena and was not prepared to fight him in my first run, somehow I killed him first try. He's fun to fight in the next run.

Vicar Amelia: Brute forced my way on the first run and I wasn't aware that she could heal herself because she didn't get the opportunity to do so. The other runs were another story though. She's alright! (What's up with Vicars having a painful walk of shame??)

Shadows of Yharnam: Me and the boys(Younger Madaras twin and Henryk) just bully them. Not really sure on what to think of them.

Martyr Logarius: Since I was underleveled, an absolute pain, fuck him(first playthrough). Fucker is easy to parry when he's done with constantly spamming AOE attacks, flying swords are my bane. The walk of shame whenever I die to him sucks ass(I don't like the ghosts and that bitch that shoots darts at me when I climb up the ladder.)

Amygdala: Bitch. (I have not fought the defiled version but he's probably not enjoyable)

Rom: My dearly detested ❤️ (screw her chalice version specifically)

Celestial Emesiary: Meh. Regardless of runs, they don't really stick out much. But I remember after killing them in the first run and the lamp glitched out and didn't work, which made the walk to Ebrietas a much more bigger pain than it originally is supposed to be.

Ebrietas: Hhhhhhhhhhh, I don't think I could survive fighting against her if it wasn't for Damian during my first run. Tad bit less difficult afterwards.

One reborn: Meh.

Micolash: Mf keeps running away, after I get him to second phase I just use bone marrow ash and shoot him to death.

Mergo's wet nurse: She's alright.

Gehrman: Parrying and viscerals are my friend, that doesn't really matter because he is hella difficult.

Moon presence: I got my ass whooped by Gehrman multiple times, Moonie doesn't really live up to that difficulty. :/

DLC(NG+):

Ludwig: Maybe it's because of Valtr and younger Madaras twin being there to distract him, but he's a fair fight. Second phase music slaps.

Living Failures: Y'all said that they were easy wtf. They killed me more than Ludwig or Maria did. The next run they were fine but my first fight with them was just painful.

Lady Maria: Parry and viscerals bby! ✨✨ Fun fight!(why is acquiring her Rakuyo so hard ;-;)

Orphan of Kos: Fuck him. It's alright in the first phase but everything goes to shit when he goes to second phase.

Laurence: At least I can parry orphan and dish out damages from it, this bitch is a fight that I hate the most.Fuck his 3rd phase. Which makes defeating him even more rewarding. Valtr is the MVP in every fights that I have with Laurence. Also, fuck that nightmare executioner that guards the door.

BONUS; NPC HUNTERS(not all of them):

Henryk: He scares me, I try to dish out as much damage as I can to him whilst trying not to die in order for Eileen to live and be none hostile towards me.

Djura: I didn't kill him on the first run. But I did shoot him off the tower on the next one.

Yahar'gul hunters(cathedral ward): They're not exactly memorable.

Yurie: She's ok, I guess?

Fake Iosefka: She's surprisingly not as bad of a fight that I thought she would be(she didn't do a call of beyond so that's probably a part of it.)

Bloody Crow of Cainhurst: Bitch.

Yahar'gul hunters (unseen village): I lure them to the doorway of the lamp(working one) and stab them from the wall. Or stab one of them with a Shaman bone blade and watch the show unfold.

Edgar: Eh.

Old hunters(in general): Unless they have a weapon that I want or vermin I will kill them for it, otherwise I usually avoid them since they're annoying.

Female church hunter duo: I don't like fighting them.

Brador: Also a bitch. I just kill the first invading one and then the real one so that I won't have to deal with him again.

Alfred: Fought him in the throne room out of curiosity, he's a meh.

I have not and will not fight Eileen or Valtr. I like crow grandma (*˘︶˘*) and Valtr has helped me many times.

[btschooseafic]

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Aviva meets a dancer called J-Hope. [masterlist]

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts.

Track 3: Enter, Jung Hoseok

 A Song to Sing - Kid Quill, Devvnon Terrelll, Mark Battles

“If you can dance in the rain (dance in the rain)

It ain't no thing (it ain't no thing)”

December 2010

Aviva was finishing up her day at work when her phone buzzed. She glanced down at it.

‘(^_^)/ ‘ Soonyoung greeted her. ‘Finished training for the day. I’m gonna grab dinner with some of the other trainees here. Wanna join us?’

‘Sorry, ;_; I’ve still got some work left.’

‘Alright. (>^_^)> <(^_^<) I’ll bring something home for you. Do you have an umbrella? Looks like it might rain later.’

‘I have an umbrella. ^_^ Thanks, I’ll be fine. Love you!’

 ‘Love you too! <3’

Forty minutes later, Aviva finished work and stepped outside. As she walked to the train, she passed a crowd of people watching a street dancer. She stopped suddenly, recognizing him as one of the recently hired trainees. She watched him dance, impressed by his passion when it started to rain. Most of the crowd thinned out, but he kept dancing just as passionately.

Aviva hurried over to him as he moved to the side, picking a bag up from a bench. He was taller than her, but she stretched to hold the umbrella over his head.

“Careful, you might catch a cold.”

“Oh?” The trainee turned and smiled at her, glancing up at the umbrella. “Thanks... um, assistant-ssi? Ah, sorry, I can’t remember your name.”

“I’m Chen Aviva. No need to address me formally. We’re the same age,” she told him. “You’re Jung Hoseok-ssi, right?”

He nodded. “Ah, how embarrassing you remembered my name when I forgot yours…”

She laughed. “No, it’s fine. It’s my job to remember things about you.”

He tilted his head, blinking at her before grinning again.

“I guess so! You’re doing great, then!” He sent her a double thumbs up.

“You too!” She said. “I’ve never seen anybody move like that… and you look so happy doing it too.” He flushed slightly

“Ah, well… I do love dancing.”

“But why are you dancing on the street?” She wondered.

“Hmm, well, I hit a roadblock with a routine so I thought I’d challenge myself by getting a bit of an audience an doing it in front of them.”

“But the rain...” Aviva glanced disappointedly at the meager stragglers from the earlier crowd.

“It’s okay, okay!” He said brightly. “I had you and a few other people watching, that’s enough for me. Well...” His grin turned to a bit of a smirk. “At least for now!”

She laughed. “That’s a good attitude. I’ll do my best to help gain a good sized audience for you, Jung Hoseok-ssi.”

Aviva walked him to the dorm under her umbrella. He said she didn’t need to, but she insisted. It was only fifteen minutes away, and there was a train station right nearby.

“Ah, watch out!” Aviva grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the way as a car drove close by, sending a big splash up.

Hoseok stared at her. “That was very… manly of you, but why? I’m already soaked… and now you are too.”

She shrugged, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

“It’s fine. It’s just water.”

“Dirty water…” His nose wrinkled. He glanced up at the building. “Come up to the dorm with me—you can borrow the shower and some clean clothes.”

She frowned. “I don’t think I’m supposed to.”

His lips pressed together in a pout. “Why not?”

“There’s a no girl’s allowed rule.”

“That’s stupid,” he thought. He shrugged. “Well, I won’t tell anyone.”

“There are cameras.”

“Are they really going to search the footage and get you in trouble for it?”

“Well…” She chewed at her lip. “I guess, technically, I am an assistant… so maybe that cancels out the rule about no girls allowed?”

“Let’s just say it does!” Hoseok said brightly, pushing her lightly towards the door. “I couldn’t let you ride the train like that—my mother raised me better!”

Everyone stared at them when they got upstairs.

They were crowded around the table eating what looked like sautéed chicken breast, very lightly seasoned.

Aviva frowned. “Is this all you guys are eating for dinner?”

“Namjoonie does his best with what we can afford,” Ikje said, smiling wearily.

“W-who are you?” Yeongman asked her.

“She’s that assistant, Bom-ssi,” Donghyuk recalled. Aviva sighed.

“It’s Aviva, actually. Bang-PDnim just calls me that cause he can’t remember my name.”

“What are you doing here, Bom-ssi?” Hunchul asked her.

“I brought Aviva-ssi here,” Hoseok said, holding her elbow like she was an old lady he was helping cross the street.

“Really?” Hunchul smirked. Hoseok laughed.

“Not like that. I just thought she could borrow the shower and clean off before she got on the train.”

“You’re soaked,” Yeongman noted.

“No shit,” Hunchul said.

“What were you two doing, dancing in the rain?” Yoongi asked dryly.

“He was, I wasn’t,” Aviva said shortly.

“I’ll get you a towel,” Hoseok said. “Ikje-sunbae, maybe some of yours or Namjoon-ah’s clothes would fit her?”

Ikje nodded. “I’ll take a look.” He stood up and moved into the bedroom.

Aviva stood there awkwardly for a moment, her clothing dripping on the floor, the boys still staring at her.

Yoongi stood up. “I want coffee. Come give me a hand, Bom-ssi.”

She frowned as she followed him. “I told you, it’s—“

“Aviva-yah?” Namjoon said, eyes widening. “What are you doing here? Why are you so wet?”

“Rain,” she said briefly. Yoongi snorted. Aviva looked at him. He turned around, busying himself at the counter. "What did you need me in here for anyway?" Namjoon looked between them curiously.

"Hand me a cup," Yoongi said, pointing at a cabinet without turning around. Aviva frowned, but got a cup out and handed it to him.

"You couldn't do that yourself?" She wondered. Then he turned around, handing the cup (now filled with hot coffee) back to her. She stared at it. "For me?"

"No." He rolled his eyes. "I just want you to stand there holding it."

"Hyung has a hard time admitting when he's being thoughtful," Namjoon told Aviva, grinning a bit.

"I don't," Yoongi disagreed. Aviva decided not to mention the pink flush over his pale face. He looked at her. "You were shivering... we don't have any milk."

Aviva opened the fridge, frowning at the single bottle of soy sauce, and a dripping brown head of cabbage. “Frozen vegetables are cheap and don’t go bad as quickly as fresh vegetables. Eggs and dried fish are full of...” Her brow furrowed. “How do you say protein in Korean?” Namjoon shook his head. “Ah, anyway, it’s good for you. A little goes a long way for filling you up.”

“Dried fish?” Namjoon repeated, his nose wrinkling slightly.

Yoongi pointed at the rice cooker. “Did you break it again?”

Namjoon grimaced. “Again?” Aviva wondered. “I can take a look at—“

“There you are,” Hoseok said, entering the kitchen. “We’ve got you clothes and a towel.” He handed them over. “You should hurry before you miss the next train.”

“Right…” Aviva shot the rice cooker a worried look.

“I’ll fix it,” Yoongi told her.

“He’s good at things like that,” Namjoon assured her. He watched her leave and then turned to Hoseok. “Was that my t-shirt?” Hoseok nodded. Namjoon sighed.

[they-say-you-go-blind]

Close Around the Campfire | Jack / Davey Fanfiction

Davey and Jack were close. It was different, instantaneous kind of close that neither had experienced until this point. Did either of them intend to find the person they were meant to be with forever at counselor orientation day of a summer camp? Never in a million years.

———————————————

Davey had turned 19 less than a week ago. With one year of Political Science under his belt, but a hearty student loan to pay off, he was desperate for a job. With that first application, and a couple of phone interviews later, and he was set for the summer . However, now that he was pulling into the staff parking lot at Blockwood Summer Camp, he wasn’t so sure. He turned the keys of his beat up car and typed a text to Les.

I made it to camp safe. Going to do some counselor stuff for the next few days so probably won’t be able to talk much. I’ll see ya in a couple of weeks for A.R.K. camp.

He slumped in his seat. 10 weeks of leading campfire songs and doing archery and making sure a weekly rotation of kids stay alive... maybe he hadn’t thought about it enough. He opened snap and took a picture of his bags that were crammed into the back of his car. He looked at the photo for a second, captioned it with ‘I believe I’ve made a horrible mistake’, and sent it to the groupchat with his best friends.

He knew he had about ten minutes until he should start making his way to the Mess Hall, as it said in his Orientation Day email. His best friend, Katherine, was trying to call him and he nearly let it ring out. At the last second, he pressed answer and spoke,

“I don’t think I should be here.”

Katherine and Davey had been best friends since diapers. In Kindergarten, their teachers were convinced they were twins just because of they way they acted with each other (and their aversion to all others). In middle school, the two of them sang and did a choreographed dance number at the talent show. They were the Closet Gay prom king and Queen, most representation that their school had ever had. And now, going into their sophomore year of college, they were honest with one another about everything, could joke about anything, and be trusted with the deepest secrets the other had. It’s no surprise that Katherine blurted out,

“I’m sorry, have you seen your co-workers?!”

Davey was taken aback.

“How the hell do you know what they look like?”

Katherine blushed. Her secret was out.

“You gave me access to your email before you left, in case you got anything important.”

Davey nodded and and whispered out an ‘oh no’. Katherine started to send the screenshots as she spoke.

“I saw your orientation email... it wasn’t hard to find their socials from there...”.

Davey couldn’t believe it as he swiped through the profiles of the three other boys who were his new co-workers. Katherine started to narrate each of her discoveries.

“First off, is Harrison “Race” Higgins. Seems fun and all. Also, I’m sure you can see in the profile picture, but Rainbow Flag!”

“Ah yes, Christian church camp is where I’m going to find my b...”

Davey could barely get the words out. Katherine was the only person in his “real life” who knew that the “you two should just get married” comments about him and Kath would absolutely never happen. Katherine just giggled, like a schoolgirl keeping a secret.

“Just you wait, Davey.”

Davey pondered on Race’s profile picture. Seemed cute, a little goofy, a lot like a best friend. Katherine continued.

“Next is Zachary “Spot” Conlon. Don’t tell me why they both have nicknames. But he is...”

“He looks like he could beat me up with a glare.”

Katherine laughed at that.

“They’re dating, by the way. They give me forever together vibes.”

Davey swiped between the two profiles as she talked. She wasn’t wrong, forever vibes were There.

“Huh, noted.”

“And the last one,” Katherine cleared her throat.

“ and I’ll let you narrate this one yourself, is Jack Kelley.”

Jack Kelly was the most attractive boy Davey had ever seen. His profile picture looked like it was him in a painting class for University. He had a little bit of pink paint on his cheek and a beautiful smile. His eyes were the color of a clear blue sky. It looked that his cover photo was one of his paintings as well,... a landscape piece with the initials J.K. in the bottom right corner. His “about me” was a gold mine, and he would be sure to read every detail later.

“Dibs on this one.”

He told Katherine. It had been their thing, that once they’d both seen someone attractive, the first one to call dibs would have zero roadblocks to them. Davey was so enthralled. He just kept staring at the profile picture.

“He’s just...”

“Perfect? I know...”

She chuckled to herself.

“And, there’s one more thing you should know.”

She spoke and sent him the final screenshot. When Davey opened it, he was confused.

A picture of Katherine’s Facebook?

She nearly squealed, but kept composure to say.

“You really were not observant when you pulled into the parking lot. I expected better from you, Davey J.”

Davey was in shock. She couldn’t have made this up! He got so excited and nervous and relieved all at once. Looking around, he saw her car and waved.

“You’re not pulling my leg, right? This isn’t some twisted joke... really?!”

“Yes! Apparently one of the female counselors was Not who she said she was, so they called me last night and I am here for the summer!”

She spoke quickly, Davey could barely understand what she was saying.

“You’re literally my favorite person in the world.”

He spoke with sincerity. He couldn’t believe his best friend in the world would be spending the summer with him.

“I might have to become your second favorite. If I’m not mistaken, Jack Kelly just pulled in the parking lot.”

Davey turned his head to see him and couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds. Photos did not do Jack Kelly justice. Davey’s head was spinning. He didn’t know if he could manage spending five seconds with him. How was he supposed to survive the summer? Davey’s face grew red as he realized Jack was pulling into the spot next to him.

———————————————

“Kath, holy shit.” Davey blurted out as he snapped his head to the front. “Language, Daves. Christian children’s camp...”

Katherine snorted as she laughed at Davey, who was now flustered and red in the cheeks.

“What are we gonna do?”

He asked, his forehead falling on the steering wheel in defeat. Katherine pondered.

“We? No, you. You called dibs! I’m just along for the ride.”

“You’re an asshole. I’m actually going to die. He is... God Kath-”

Davey stopped mid-sentence as he heard a knock on his window. He lifted his head to see Jack Kelly.

“Good luck with that, babe.”

After making a frustrated noise, and trying to refrain from looking like an idiot, he hung up the call, cranked the window down, and smiled, waiting for Jack to speak.

“Hey there. You must be working here, too?”

Davey nearly combusted as Jack leaned back onto the passengers door of his car, which was nicer than his own. Did Davey care about that? Not really.

“Yeah, I’m David Jacobs. Most people call me Davey.”

“Jack Kelly.”

He stuck out his hand, Davey shook it through the window and chuckled. Jack continued.

“It’s nice to meet ya. You’re radiating ‘camp counselor’, but don’t wanna assume.”

Davey’s brain was all but melted. This boy wanted to talk to him. He got out of his car and made the effort to talk to him.

“Yeah, course. I- yeah.”

“What’s got ya so bothered you can barely form a sentence?”

“No, nothing it’s just- did they have other jobs? Not like I would want one but like-“

Jack laughed. This Davey kid was adorable.

“Sure they do, got my buddy Finch running around as a lifeguard, couple of others do maintenance, and I think they brought on Albert to be a ‘activity coordinator’. That basically means when we do archery, he’s in charge of us not shooting each other in the leg.”

Davey chuckled.

“So you’ve worked here before?”

Jack nodded and looked around. This place was a second home to him.

“My ma’s the camp director. Been goin’ here since I was like, 7 and workin’ for the past two years.”

Jack smiled wide and continued on.

“Speaking of workin, we should probably head in. I usually come early to help set up but she insisted I try to be more “normal” this summer. Famous last words, I guess.”

They both laughed quite a bit.

“You’re very friendly, Jack.”

Davey spoke, metaphorically walking on eggshells as to not mess up the friendship that he hoped was forming. He got out of his car and realized he was the same height as Jack, if only a little bit shorter. They were very close to each other.

“Why thanks, Davey. Tell her you said so...”

Jack laughed with him as they made their way to the mess hall. He explained to Davey the in’s and out’s of Blockwood. Most of the people who worked their had gone to camp in their teens and it was just natural to apply for a job there, too.

Before Jack walked in the mess hall, he turned to Davey. Jack had made eye contact every time he spoke with him. It was nice.

“Just double checkin, because ma ain’t always good with hiring ages, ya 18?”

“Oh, yeah. Just turned 19.”

“Good good. I’m about to turn 21, if that matters.”

“It’s good information to have, especially when we’re about to spend all summer together.”

Was Jack blushing? He didn’t know, and it was hot out. Either way, he didn’t care because Jack Kelly was talking to him and adorable.

“Yeah, Davey. For sure.”

Jack opened the door to see Race and Spot all over each other. He snapped his fingers at them and both looked towards Davey. Jack spoke up.

“Hey boys, we got a new one. Be civil, this here’s Davey.”

Race smiled, got up from his seat, and stuck out his hand.

“Name’s Racetrack. You can call me Race or Racer or Sweetheart. It’s good to meet ya, Dave.”

Davey chuckled and shook it. He really was late to the party. They all knew each other.

“It’s nice to meet you too.”

“That shortie there is my pal-“

Race shot a look at Jack, who shrugged. He continued.

“Sorry, are you?”

Race gestured to his rainbow friendship bracelet. Hoping that would be enough. At camp, they tried not to use the word. Some people had gotten very angry when their child had come home saying, ‘my counselor was gay’.

“No, no, no. I am. Not out, but, I guess I am, now. Yes.”

Race nodded and amended his statement.

“I gotcha, Davey. That’s my boyfriend, Spot.”

Davey gave a wave and Spot nodded and waved back. Had Davey really come out to people he met ten seconds ago? Jack looked surprised. At least you’re not obvious.

Katherine came inside soon after. She was immediately swooped up by Race and told to “lose the good girl vibe” from Spot. She laughed with them for awhile about the instant ‘Davey and Jack’ connection. It wasn’t hard to see for either of their friends.

Jack introduced Davey to the whole gang. Finch and Albert were in the corner trying to decide who was right about a candy from the snack shack. Sarah and Chutchie dancing to the approved “Camp Playlist”, and his mama trying to finalize a little bit of paperwork.

He got to Romeo, trying a pick-up line on Katherine, and stopped.

“Hey there, Miss. Don’t believe we’ve met before. My name’s Jack. Jack Kelly.”

He stuck out his hand and she shook it.

“Charmed. I’m Katherine, Katherine Plumber-Jacobs.”

Katherine and Davey smiled at each other and laughed. Jack looked between the two of them and his’s face was turning red.

“What... y’all ain’t married or something, are ya?!”

Davey and Katherine started to laugh without cease. Davey tried to explain through snorts.

“No... she just uses that line because she wants to be my twin. Kath, here, she’s my best friend.”

Romeo spoke up.

“Oh goodness. Well ain’t that the best of both worlds for ya, Jack?”

Jack narrowed his eyes and shot a glare Romeo’s way.

“Now that I know there’s two of ya, I won’t be so scared to let Davey wander. Thought I was gonna have to be glued to his side!”

“Don’t think he’d like me very much if you stopped leading him around.”

Davey was flustered, but Katherine and Jack laughed and laughed. She waved goodbye, going to talk to Sarah instead of interrupting their “together time”, as she called it while recounting the day with Davey. He tried to apologize to Jack.

“Sorry about her.”

“No way, she’s spunky and loud. She’ll fit right in.”

Davey looked around. He wasn’t wrong. It was chaotic and were Romeo and Race arm wrestling? Was Katherine really cheering them on?

“Yeah, she’s... great.”

“You’re great.”

Jack backtracked as his face grew red.

“Oh shit, um sorry about that. That didn’t-”

“Hey, it’s... you’re great, too. Just cut that language out before kids get here in a few days, Kelly.”

Davey smiled and Jack swears that if this was literally any other setting, he would kiss him or draw him a picture or do anything to see that smile every day. Unfortunately, Jack decided to revert to a Jack that didn’t like getting emotional in front of his friends. Chalk it up to force of habit.

“So, you enjoy it here?”

“Is that even a question? It’s awesome, Jack.”

———————————————

It had been a full day of training. Ms. Medda, as Davey had learned was Jack’s mother, and some of the more experienced staff got newcomers ready for camp. She explained how these first three days were training and that there were still things that needed to be done before kids came on Monday. Everyone did some basic first aid and some get-to-know-you games.

Katherine and Davey worked on learning names and people’s jobs. It seemed that when you thought you had it all figured out, Jack or Race would call ‘em a whole new nickname and the pieces would all fall apart. Maintenance (Elmer, Buttons, and Jojo) and lifeguards (Finch and Romeo) had a bit more training to do. Albert and Crutchie, outdoor and indoor activity coordinators, needed to organize some things for the first day.

That left the counselors. Davey, Jack, Race, Spot, Katherine, and Sarah decided to go on a nature walk. That group, of all people, would be spending the most time together. They took them through the woods, showed them the cabins, made sure that Davey and Katherine were somewhat oriented on the camp property. During the walk, Jack took the lead to explain where they were and what needed to be done.

• “Alright, adventure course- never go there without Albert... or me, I’m more fun.”

• “Cabins- good stuff. We can drive down the path to unpack cars later. But Ma’s got me on a tight schedule.”

• “Swimming house- also doubles as a bath house. None of us are going to smell particularly great until Off Days. But please, for the love of our Lord and Savior, make sure your kids shower.”

Race chimed in on this one, acting as if he were passing down an urban legend as Spot started to chuckle.

“They will try to persuade you, tell you they don’t need one. But they do.”

Sarah and Katherine had instantly been drawn to each other. Davey didn’t know how, but Katherine had already managed to be given two friendship bracelets. She would be just fine. He would be, too.

Jack sighed as the timer on his phone went off.

“Sorry gang, walk’s been terminated. But, now it’s time for my favorite part of camp.

Please don’t say hazing. No hazing.

“Building the campfire!”

Davey chuckled as the others wooed. Jack was the leader everyone needed.

———————————————

Over the past three days, Katherine and Davey had melded into this friendgroup seamslessly. They would roast each other and laugh and exist as a family. Neither were quite sure how they pulled it off. Each now had friendship bracelets from fellow counselors, and likewise made them for others. They had swam in the pool and laughed and sang and, Davey recounted, prayed together. It didn’t make sense how it could all be so perfect.

More than anything else, Jack had instilled the need in Katherine and Davey for a ‘Perfect Cooking Fire’. He knew that, of all things, this would have to be the thing they remember how to do. They built it well, only with a little help from Sarah, as Jack filed paperwork for him mom.

He would do that often. Disappear and reappear like a magician. He knew what needed to be done, and did it before his mother even asked. Davey had tried to offer help, but Jack just took out his reading glasses and said ‘No, no. It’s stuff I gotta do, Dave.”

The final night before campers were here, and all the college kids just wanted to drink in the moment. Race and Spot went to get the food for the “Last Supper” as they called it. Hot dogs, of course.

Davey was relived that Jack came to sit next to him after the food was done. The entire staff was sitting around, laughing and chatting and eating. Jack knew that he needed to talk to Davey, just not with everyone around. David blurted out exactly what was on his mind.

“I really like it here.”

“I’m glad, Dave. You did a great job with the cooking fore, too.”

“Thanks, I thought I wouldn’t. Ya know, in the car that first day, I was convinced that I made a horrible mistake.”

“I’m glad I knocked on your window then.”

“Why’d ya do that? Just to be nice?”

Jack looked around as he grew flustered.

“Can we, talk abou that later?”

“Of course.”

The festivities lasted until “Light’s Out” at 11pm. Medda suggested that everyone should turn in soon, as they would all have to be ready by 8am tomorrow. Race asked her, fishing for laughs, as she walked away-

“What if I just never got to bed, Miss Medda?”

“Then you would be unfit for the job, Mr. Higgins. Get some shut eye!”

The entire fire laughed at her retort.

The gang started to slowly disband. Katherine and Sarah were the last to go, hand in hand, except for Jack and Davey. Davey made a comment.

“God only knows what they’re off to do.”

“God is one lucky son of a gun.”

They both laughed at that.

They both sat there, next to the ashes of a once great fire.

Jack looked around and talked in a low tone.

“Davey.”

“Yeah, Jack.”

“I’m ready to talk about it...”

Davey gulped. This was it. He was going to tell him that it meant nothing that they always say next to each other. That talking until four in the morning wasn’t real. That these past few days weren’t an indication of anything.

“I, whew, that first day you were so nervous. Now look at me...”

Jack’s palms were sweaty and he wiped them on his pants.

“Hey, dude. It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“No, no I want to. We need to.”

Davey’s stomach turned and he closed his eyes.

“I- shoot. I knocked on your window, because you’s were the prettiest boy I’d ever seen.

Davey opened his eyes and looked at Jack, who was now near tears.

“God, I’m real emotional about this, sorry.”

Jack took a breath and looked Davey in the eyes.

“Just, you’re perfect. And, I know we just met and all, and it’s highly unprofessional to say this but... I really think these three days have been a dream come true.”

“Oh Jack...”

Davey held out one of his hands. Jack took it with his.

“Honest, ya know... I’ve got so many friends and they’re always dating and everything but, you came along and just...”

He put his head on Davey’s shoulder and kept going.

“You’re just really nice and kind and, I don’t know, make me feel a new sorta way.”

Davey couldn’t believe it.

“You, like me, Jack?”

Jack spouted off, sarcastically as ever.

“No, it’s all an act! I caught ya in a gay lie!”

Davey laughed as Jack lifted his head and squeezed Davey’s hand.

“Nah, I do. And, nothing’s gotta happen, tonight or this summer or ever, especially since there’ll be kids and it’s a Christian camp and-“

“Your mom?”

“She doesn’t care. You’ve seen the way some of ‘em hang all over each other.”

“I know that, just wanted to check.”

“Yeah, but- like, God. You’re perfect Davey Jacobs.”

“C-Can I kiss you?”

Davey didn’t mean to say it, but he did. And Jack did. His eyes lit up and he closed the distance. It was warm. Davey had never kissed a boy before. He was certain Jack had, though.

Jack hadn’t. Coming out to himself was one thing, his family and friends was another, but to kiss a boy next to a campfire when you’re about to spend all summer with him? No, he hadn’t. Kissing girls was one thing, but this? With Davey? Was something he could never compare anything to. Jack pulled away for a second, wanting to be frank with him.

“Did you like that?”

“Do that again, Kelly.”

Davey pulled Jack back in. And that’s how they stayed, for a while. Neither could tell if it had been an hour or just a few seconds when they finally pulled away. Davey wanted to be honest.

“I’m not, out-out yet, if that could be an issue.”

“No, nah... and it doesn’t have to, nothing’s gotta come of this, ya know.“

“I know. It’s, it’s nice, though. I want it to.”

Davey leaned on Jack’s shoulder. He was so hesitant, usually. Jack Kelly might’ve been the only boy in the world who could do that to him.

“God, I was so worried I was scarin’ a closeted catholic boy away.”

Davey laughed. Everyone seemed to get that vibe from him.

“One, non-denominational. Everyone gets thrown off by that. Two, you’re not scarin me at all.”

Jack pressed a kiss to Davey’s temple and started to play with his hair.

“This okay?”

“Yeah, this is wonderful.”

They don’t know when they turned in for the night. But, 8am rolled around and camp was in session. Jack came up behind Davey, right before campers were about to enter and spoke calmly, putting his hand into David’s .

“It’s gonna be a good summer, Davey.”

“Yeah, it is, Jack.”

David gave his hand a tight squeeze as Jack walked away to unlock and the door. Upon opening the door, a boy, while looked to be no older than ten, ran to Jack and threw his arms around him.

“Cowboy!”

“Hey there, dude! How are ya?”

Davey smiled and looked at Katherine, who was standing by with the other counselors. He gave her a nod, and that was all they needed.

This summer is going to be great.

[alexisluthor]

Deep Dive - Stranger Beside You *WARNING* PSON SPOILERS

Where to start with this ep? Well, much to the surprise of no one at all, Eve turned out to be related to the girl in the box! I think the real twist was how the show handled her morally ambiguous actions. Malcolm manages to keep a (relatively) cool head after finding out what Eve had been hiding. He doesn't fall apart at the seams, I believe, because he saw it coming... he was already preparing for the worst. And I think the audience can't help but sympathize with Eve. From how things played out, it seems like she never intentionally set out to hurt Malcolm. Which is great but...she still...did hurt him.

Putting that aside, there is a bit of contradiction in her words and actions. She had done everything that she did in order to find out the truth about her sister, then later, in Malcolm's loft...says she doesn't want the truth just because she developed feelings for him? That seems a bit weak. If something happened to my sister, I'd turn the world upside down to find out what happened, no matter how in love/lust I was with my romantic partner. To step right up to the finish line and hesitate like that was...in my view...bizarre. I mean, how long has Malcolm been in her life? Not nearly long enough for her to sacrifice the truth for him. For good measure, they also threw in the...but knowing will make it real... BUT GIRL...you only  got close to the Whitly's in the first place because you WANTED to know. Also...how did she narrow it down to the Surgeon? Do you know how many homicides there were in NYC in the 90s/00s? But apparently she just made an educated guess that it was him? Okay...I'll take it.

I wonder how old TGITB was when she was killed. She ran away at 16, but kept sending photos and letters...but for how long?  Sure, taking TGITB  was the 'perfect' opportunity for Martin - the situation fell into his lap. But selecting a victim so haphazardly seems to buck against Martin's intelligence. As a surgeon with a modicum of common sense, you'd think he'd do research, find the right person, make sure they didn't have family, etc. She didn't have family, but he didn't know that. And who knows how many people could have witnessed him helping her back to his house in broad daylight. It's just...not smart of him at all. He did mention to Mal in one of their little sessions (when Mal was in college) that he did improvise. But there's a difference between improvising and being reckless, which is what this instance seems like. I digress though. 

Anyway...moving on...Malcolm's little dinner with dad was interesting. I think it shows just how much Martin compartmentalizes. In his mind, he was a great father, he 'just happened' to live a double life. Later, when Malcolm is confronting "da bad guy" he reaches into his own bag of past experience to tell the guy that he'd been hurt, and made to think that was love, when in actuality, it was abuse. I think this was meant to echo Malcolm's own experiences, especially about the bit about being 'powerless.' Malcolm is powerless at times, and certainly was as a child. But up until TGITB, his father had been a great example of a loving parent. Which is where the cognitive dissonance comes into play for Malcolm. He really is torn asunder by the fact that he did have an attentive and loving father...up until TGITB and the chloroforming, etc. 

I've read a lot of people's opinions on Martin, seen their hatred for him. But I believe that Martin chloroformed Malcolm so many times, to avoid killing him. I think he was biding his time, hoping to return to whatever his sense of normalcy was. I don't think Martin ever intended to kill Malcolm (he just told him that to get him to stab him, and John likely planted that seed due to his jealousy of not being the 'chosen' murder protege). Let's face it, if Martin (a -what- 190lb something, grown man, serial killer) wanted (tiny) Malcolm dead, he could have killed him immediately after his discovery of TGITB. I think Martin's logic was..."I don't really want to kill my son. Let's see if he has the sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies like I do, Mayb I can get him interested in muuuuurrrrdeeeer." And when that went south, Martin's gig was up. But if you watch these ep's closely, you can see that even though Martin is a conniving, manipulative, sociopath...the only thing he truly seems to care about is Malcolm. What do narcissists love more than anything? Themselves! And what is Malcolm to Martin if not the embodiment of his legacy? He, like so many parents, looks at his offspring and sees an extension of himself. 

Anywho... Malcolm finds out the reason his 'lies' were so successful, was because they weren't 'lies' to Martin, but the 'truth.' Fascinating. How has no one written a book about The Surgeon? *whispers, that could be a story line for the future* *coughs*

The dinner scene was great. It was also great that Martin could deduce Malcolm was dating simply from hearing "dinners and plays" over the phone. He seems preternaturally invested in Malcolm's personal life. Malcolm is his only real lifeline and relationship. So how will he react to the fact that not only is Malcolm's girlfriend related to TGITB but that even after 'using' Malcolm and Jess in a way...that he's choosing to remain with her? OUCH. I think that was a twist not a lot of people expected. But the odds of that relationship working out has to be slim to none. 

I mean...what do you tell the kids (not that Malcolm wants to have any)? "Oh, yes...well...your grandpa murdered your aunt. Then mommy got close to the murderer's ex-wife and son and fell in love with the son - daddy. And here you are! Oh, and our relationship was founded on a bed of lies and pain, loss and suffering. I got to bitch slap murdering gramps one day, so that was therapeutic." I mean............could that really work out? o_0 Also...what if Eve does want kids, and Mal doesn't? Or what if she decides that she wants a relationship that isn't a painful daily reminder of her trauma? There could be some serious roadblocks ahead. (And taking her to meet Martin...ooof...is that the smartest move? What do you think? I can see Martin just completely losing it in a fit of rage. (Also, Martin clearly ships Dani/Malcolm as well...soo...eeee))

Aaaannnnd of course, there's wonderful Malcolm...my sweet...sweet...idiotic genius who decided to leave a crowded space in favor of a horror-movie-setting, rug warehouse upstairs? Sweetie...no. You need to make better choices. 

Overall... Dani not wanting to run the background check and get involved in the Mal/Eve drama - great move. JT ribbing Malcolm about screwing up his kid - quality content. Edrisa's hand on Mal for too long, drawing the attention of Arroyo - perfection. Edrisa dramatically tackling Malcolm - chef's kiss. Malcolm getting beaten up and choked - the fuel for many people's future fanfic's I'm sure. Malcolm not having had a therapy sesh in, what feels like, forever - probably not smart (but boy's busy). All in all, a great episode. And I suppose Ainsley won that little..."who's the better investigator" contest after-all ;)

[blenalela]

Walt for the character asks 😊💜

Thank you!!😊💜

Walt Hasser

favorite thing about them

He’s just a cute little country boy who happened to stumble into the military. How could you NOT like this little bean? I mean, he is a brutal little bean, but STILL. Also, Walt remains one of the people who don’t spout shit or hate all the time and is just a super nice guy, like remember the scene with the gay Iraqi in Baghdad? Our boy Walt didn’t see anything wrong with that and now just imagine Trombley in the same scene. (correct me if I’m wrong there, it’s been a while since I last watched Gk) Again, how could you HATE him?🥺 (actually I know someone and this continues to be the only thing we argue about when speaking of Gk)

least favorite thing about them

When he shot the driver at the roadblock, my guess is that it happened because his lack of sleep. Brad constantly asked him if he wanted to take a break, sleep a bit, but Walt always refused. So he just felt more miserable and ultimately the lack of rest led to the shooting. So if Walt didn’t go on about how he was okay (when he really wasn’t) and just slowed a bit down, I don’t think it would’ve happened. (Only based on the show, I don’t remember exactly how the situation was in the book)

favorite line

„You‘re a messed-up hick. You can’t even eat ravioli!“

OKAY there’s a story behind this: when I‘m looking for pics for the lockscreens, I always take screenshots in the Sky Go app (all three hbo war shows on there, and you can take screenshots!), but the app is always set to the German dub and you have to change it every time you start to watch. But because I‘m too lazy sometimes to do that, I just let the German version roll. Problem: THIS ONE IS HORRIBLY TERRIBLE.

So the total gem of this line in german once flooded my brain and I can’t forget it anymore.

(For everyone who’s interested: „Du verfickter Bauer kannst noch nicht mal Ravioli essen!“ in a Voice that doesn’t fit Walt the least and conveys no emotion or anything)

brOTP

Walt and Ray (prepare for trouble - make it double!)

OTP

Bradwalt (it just fits, though Brad definitely belongs to Nate☝️, but this is also nice to read/look at edits/fanarts)

nOTP

Waltray tbh. I just don’t see ANY romantic between them, I‘m sorry😬

random headcannon

After he quit the military, he founded a country cover band which evolved into a ‘real‘ country band which then continued to get super popular in the states and even Brad (Country Music hater #1) listens to it. Also, Walt‘s the singer

unpopular opinion

Walt got super little screentime and if you ask me, he didn’t really have a personality. At least if I‘m writing him, I have a hard time doing it because I don’t really know how he would act in this or that situation and a lot of his character traits come from fanfic authors themselves in their fics so they vary.

Walt deserved better in the show, but I think we‘re all doing a great job portraying him by giving him character traits we think fit the picture we have of him🌻

song i associate with them

King Of The Road - Roger Miller (I know this is super boring because it literally is the one Walt sings, but it’s the only one I can think of and every time I listen to it, I have to think of Walt)

favorite picture of them (again, there’s so many good one that I love)

[0poole]

Some thoughts on Temtem

Because as far as I’m concerned Pokemon games are some of my all-time favorites (as a group, since they’re basically all the same) so naturally there’s a lot to say about Temtem. Considering this is the first standalone Pokemon-alike that got serious attention, especially after the Sword and Shield riots making Pokemon fans just want something else, it’s basically the game that’ll let different developers make their own Pokemon-alikes. 

And yes, I am going to call them all Pokemon-alikes because let’s be real that’s the role they’re trying to fill. 

But actually, for once, there’s a few major things that I really dislike about the game. Like, seriously dislike. Considering we’re coming from the stuff people always disliked about Pokemon, I feel like it’s easier to be critical about this stuff. Might as well start with them so I can end on a higher note:

Conversations with random tamers. Literally like 95% of all tamer battles start with some sort of conversation with them, all of which require you to press some random response to either skip the dialogue or go through a completely pointless series of dialogue. There’s absolutely 0 chance I’m interested in what these random people have to say, because I know that no matter what, it’s going to end in a fight. Maybe if they made it so you can actually convince some tamers not to battle you, then it might be a fun mechanic (although I still wouldn’t bother, it would just have a purpose). But, no. All it does is make me want to spam click through everything and start the battle as soon as possible. It’s legitimately annoying. When it comes to more important tamers, it makes sense, just because that’s a convention of RPGs and junk. It still feels pointless, but at least it’s the norm.

The evolution system. Unlike Pokemon, where you evolve once your Pokemon reaches a specific level/etc determined by the Pokemon’s species, Temtem instead evolve a certain amount of levels after you catch them. Sounds pretty alright, until you realize that a lot of these level requirements are way too high. Most evolve after like 20 levels, and your starter evolves after 30. This might not be a total issue if the story is much longer than it seems, and the final battles are around lvl 60+, but even then it really makes you want to ditch the unevolved Temtem you caught a while back for its evolved form once you encounter it. Like, you can find Bunbun and Mudrid in the exact same area, so there’s absolutely no point to catching a Bunbun. If they evolved at a set level, you could just catch one, level it up once or twice, and it’ll evolve anyway, since there being others of its evolved form close by usually means it’ll evolve around that level. Instead, if you do that, you’ll have to wait a seriously long time. I’m currently going through this issue with my Mushi. This is even worse for the second reason:

Eternal double battles. For strategic purposes, it’s obviously a major plus. But, even though the difficulty is definitely higher than Pokemon, the battles are still pretty easy, so as long as you switch into the right types you won’t have any issue. That’s not the problem. The problem is that it makes leveling up feel so much slower. Since the EXP from a battle is always split between at least 2 Tems, it’s harder to train up just one of them. It’s worsened because all battles are set battles (where you can’t instantly switch Tems out once the opponent is about to send out another Tem) so that basically means it’ll be split between around 3 Tems each battle, since you’ll be accounting for a new type on the field.

The human names. They’re too out there to be at all memorable. Apart from Max, obviously, I can’t even remember any names because when I first see them I’m just like “I don’t even know what that word is so I’m just not going to bother.” I’m guessing this makes translating names easier, since no name has any obvious tie to some language/region, but it’s still annoying. Mainly because a lot of quests are like “Talk to [character name]” or “Find [character name]” so if you don’t remember the names it makes questing harder to follow. The names of the Tems are kind of in the same boat, but it feels more warranted because they’re weird monsters and not people. Most of them are a pretty normal Pokemon level of naming (Barnshe, Toxolotyl), some even less interesting (Crystle, Mushi).

The roadblocks aren’t any better than Pokemon. It’s still just “You can’t get past here until you get this item.” It’s like the tiniest step above Pokemon, where they just have some dude at an entrance who says “You can’t get past here because [reason],” but effectively it’s exactly the same. It’s even weirder with the Crystal Skates, because they don’t do any sort of slippery puzzle with the Crystal path before you get them, but later you lose the skates and THEN they put in the slippery puzzles in. They really should have just not given you the skates yet and made any reachable secrets a part of a puzzle instead. 

The start of the game needs more variety/balance. Ganki is actually OP, and was my hard carry. But, there are so many Wind and Water types early on it gets kind of boring quick. It’s worse, because Wind resists Wind, meaning you’re constantly dealing with Tems that resist your type. But, sure, I guess the variety isn’t the problem and one of the most prominent types resisting itself is. Ganki does need a decent check though, since Crystal types don’t exactly come around until later.

The clothes are WAY too expensive. I’m the character customizer type. I want to buy out all the shops and make myself look snazzy. I can do that while a fucking early-game bikini costs 9000 Tembucks or whatever they’re called.

Then, here are some stuff I’m kinda neutral/iffy on:

The type chart feeling a little arbitrary. Obviously this one isn’t actually a problem, since they probably just did that to make sure Pokemon had even less of a reason to sue, but like I mentioned before, why does Wind resist Wind? When I imagine two gusts colliding, it turns into a giant tornado that destroys everything. That, or they just flow around each other. Considering it slows down the early game, I really wish it wasn’t that way. Another questionable one is that Wind is strong against Toxic. Maybe it’s just because we use vents to clear out toxic air? Considering most Toxic attacks involve liquid that doesn’t help much. It probably wouldn’t be an issue to someone who hasn’t completely and totally remembered the Pokemon type chart, though.

The “representation.” Yes, they tried, and that’s a step in the right direction, but like... it’s really not quite there yet. Like, in the character creation screen, as we’ve all heard from the #gamerrage you get to choose your pronouns. Sure, good. Then they give you the option of the girl body or the boy body, and the girl voice and the boy voice. Really? Still no ambiguously chubby option? Slightly more rounded faces aren’t enough people. Also, I still actually don’t get why they (as well as other game developers) don’t just put in a bald option. Did they just not model the scalp or something? It’s obvious they did because there was a bald option in the beta/alpha, and they just... removed it? Why? It’s not even a matter of reason, It was already there. But yeah, back to the gender representation bit, fused a bit with the conversations, there’s one specific bit of dialogue that really confused me. When big event happens and one girl tells you to go searching for her wife, sure they’re lesbians whatever, but then it pops up with the dialogue options of “Sure, I’ll go looking for him/her/them” but like, as 3 different choices. What’s the point of that? She literally said it was her “wife,” so I just picked “her,” but what’s the point of having the other options? If the first girl’s response is just like “’Him/Them?’ I did tell you she was my ‘wife,’ right?” It’ll boggle my mind even more. Anyways...

The Temtem designs. It’s more like two extremes balanced out to become neutral. I seriously love some of the designs, and I seriously hate others. From what I’ve seen so far, my favorites are Oree, Platimous, Capyre, Valash, Barnshe, Gyalis, Myx, Mushi, Valiar, Noxolotyl, and Kalabyss. My team at the end of the current story consisted of Mushi and Banapi, who I were still training, Gyalis, Mudrid, Kalabyss, and Gazuma, so I only slightly compromised for the sake of my interests. I actually seriously love Valash, but I already had 2 Crystals on my team, and being Neutral wouldn’t be much of a help. My least favorites, though, are Tateru, Taifu, Houchic, Tental, Babawa, Saku, Magmis, Ukama, and Vulcrane. So many Tems have the classic Pokemon issue of “just getting bigger” as the evolve, and a lot of them evolve for the worse, like Vulcrane and Saku especially. Vulcrane, Houchic, Tental, and Zenoreth (who I still sort of like for its colors) look uncomfortably humanoid, where they have almost too much muscle detail on their arms and legs. Pocus is a better example of a humanoid design, because its legs are much more nubby and arms less detailed. Plus, the former Tems’ designs aren’t quite exaggerated enough proportion wise, making them just feel kinda weird I guess. I don’t really know how to explain that yet. Some other designs I think are good, despite me not being into them as much, are Skail, Saipat, Sparzy, Cerneaf, Volarend, Shuine, Adoroboros, Tuwai, Kinu, Pigepic, and Anahir. Overall, Temtem have some good designs, with a few stinkers strewn about.

The evil team/rival. The evil team, as far as I cared to know, are just evil because they’re evil. They’re not crazy, but they’re fine. I definitely think the term “clan” can only be used in an evil context nowadays, so I guess that’s a good thing. Max is just whatever. I’m extremely tired of the stupid rhetoric Pokemon fans keep throwing around, suggesting the only good rival’s an asshole rival. It’s obviously just not true, and Crema’s obviously just catering to that idea with Max. They really just seem like an asshole for asshole’s sake, so that’s boring. The rival’s level of asshole-ness is completely independent of their quality. Honestly I’m like 2% of the way into wanting to make my own Pokemon region so I’ll be able to test my mettle there once it comes around.

The MMO-ness of the stuff feels really minimal, and sometimes I found it hard to find the NPC I was supposed to be looking for because they were in a crowd of random people. I’m pretty sure more MMO-esque stuff will come later, but now you basically just see other people walking around. I obviously didn’t use the co-op function either, but the fact that it exists is good. I guess a good thing to implement later would be an offline mode, so you can choose not to have all those strangers running around if you so choose.

Then, here are the things I really like:

The breeding system. It’s really just simpler, and that’s a good thing. It was kind of annoying to figure out which Pokemon have the same egg group (before I just used a Ditto, at least), but now it’s just based on type. Plus, you can just buy the right items to get the right stats. I do hope they lower the prices though. 

FreeTem. It makes actual sense that the people who didn’t want Temtem to fight didn’t go full-on Plasma and become terrorists for their cause. Plus, you get money for cheating their obviously cheatable system. It’s a win-win!

The graphics. This is just one of those cases where people who don’t like it say it’s “bad,” even though they’re objectively wrong. The only “badness” about the graphics are the human faces. Everything else actually looks really nice and polished, especially the animations. I actually died when I saw my Mushi scurry behind me. It’s too cute. Too bad Mushook is losing its luster... But, anyway, it is one of those things that’s just a preference. There’s nothing wrong with the quality. In terms of human designs at least, I was going to say that they look to similar, but for the most part the only characters that looked too similar were the random nobody NPCs, and even then they put together the already existing character customization options in pretty decent enough ways. Some tamers even being not at all subtle references to other things was kinda cute too, although it’s not something I at all care for. That just seems like it’s asking to be reposted every other week on the subreddit...

The music kinda grew on me. The generic themes (wild battle/tamer battle) will never not get old, but the specific themes actually are pretty good. I especially like the theme of the Xolot Resevoir, since it kind of gave me Field of Hopes and Dreams/Scarlet Forest vibes. That might be my favorite kind of video game area song, to be honest. It’s the perfect blend of relaxing, mystical, and trance-y.

The gyms. No one, no matter how good you are, can actually get up to that high of a standing just by using one single type. The fact that Tem Dojos are all based on 2 types is great, especially in how their puzzles/appearance are styled. Obviously the slippery puzzle of the Crystal/Toxic dojo kinda took me aback as mentioned, but alone I liked it. The one problem was that 2 of them were with the exact same types, which kinda sucked, since it also used the same kind of puzzle. That’s the thing about good designs, though; you don’t mind as much if they’re re-used.

The CRYSTAL type. Oh my god, I love it so much. I tried to mask it a bit when talking about the Tems because it’s seriously my favorite thing about the game. It’s the perfect replacement for the Rock type, and it makes any Crystal Tem look so damn cool! The only one I don’t like as much, as mentioned, is Zenoreth/Azuroc, but that’s not at all the fault of their Crystal parts. I seriously wanted to create a whole team of Crystal Tems just because of how universally cool they all were. Gyalis and Valash are easily two of my favorite Tems. I also love how they managed to give the type two signature colors at once, with the bright red and seafoam green. Most other types really only use one or many colors for their part of the Tem’s design, but it seems so solidly both a red type and a green type, even if the icon is red. Since I play Pokemon/these types of games for the cool monster designs, having a whole section of the monsters be this cool is a major upside for me. I love it.

I kinda-sorta tried to arrange this list from worst to best, although really most stuff in between is sort of a crap shoot anyway.

Honestly, I don’t feel like a good source for a “should I buy this game?” kind of review, especially since the game basically just came out of Beta. If you’re into what they’re putting down, you might as well get it now. If you’re not sure, there’s no harm in waiting. The game is clearly making enough money to stay afloat, and since they’ve been at it for so long, there’s really no reason for them to stop now. I remember hearing about this game eons ago... Crazy to think I actually played it.

Now the next wave is Kindred Fates. That’s the next logical step in the genre. I hope this decade is the age of Pokemon-alikes, like how the past few years was riddled with BRs. Every game better have a monster collecting portion to it or else. I want to train my guns in CoD. 

[writingpaperghost]

I Would Offer It Happy With a Smile On My Face (Chapter 7)

Chapter 7: You Don’t Need a Shooting Star, the Magic’s Right There in Your Heart

Asahi meets an old friend of Tomomi and the three of them talk about a lot of things.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24860734/chapters/60990913

Tomomi ended up working sort of odd hours, so he and Asahi mostly saw each other in the mornings and the evenings. Asahi spent a lot of time during the day running around the city. She wasn’t really the type to stay inside all day, but that had really increased the longer she was in Kurokita. Sometimes, she tagged along with Tomomi, but that was only every once in a while. Still, today, Tomomi had a bit of time today, during lunch, so he ended up dragging her to a cafe.

Asahi had been to this cafe before, it was the one by KPaRS base. It was... well a bit of an odd choice. It was a bit out of the way, Asahi had only stopped there before because she’d been walking in the area. Regardless, Tomomi was the only person she actually talked to regularly, she was a bit... wary about people around the city, so she was fine with spending some more time with him. Honestly, he was kinda like a cool uncle or something. At the very least, he didn’t constantly worry about her whenever she fought a Kaiju, which was kinda nice. Her family worried a bit too much.

They were sitting at a table, a bit before the lunch rush. Tomomi had a cup of what coffee, though Asahi was pretty sure it barely qualified as such, given about half of the coffee was actually just creamer. Alongside that was a salad, which he would passively (aggressively) stab with his fork. Asahi had her, according to Tomomi, “ridiculous sugary abomination” that she’d had before. In front of her was a bowl of soup and a cookie. Despite what Tomomi said, Asahi thought this counted as a perfectly good lunch.

They talked about this and that for a bit, in between bites of food and such. Then, Tomomi, who was facing towards the the main part of the cafe, smiles and waves at someone. Asahi turns her head to see who he was waving at. She watches as a man, the one who Tomomi had waved at, walked over.

“Tomomi,” The man greeted with a smile, a pastry in one hand, what appeared to be a smoothie in the other. He had a KPaRS jacket on, though Asahi noted it was different than the other ones she’d seen. “I’m surprised to see you here,”

Tomomi gave him a smile in response, “Yeah, but I had some time and thought I’d drag Asahi out here.”

The man looks over at Asahi, then looks back to Tomomi, “Hm... Is she you’re younger cousin? I believe you mentioned one of uncles had a daughter about her age.”

Asahi wasn’t sure how to feel about that comment. Tomomi, on the other hand, judging by his face at least, was surprised at the comment. Either he was surprised that the man remember him having a younger cousin, or surprised that she got mistaken for said younger cousin. Asahi wasn’t exactly sure.

“Uh, Kaoru,” Tomomi said, “She’s not related to me. She’s just, uh, staying with me since, she’s a, a family friend.” It would be hard to say that his statement was at all believable. With all the “uh”s and such, Asahi would be surprised if the man believed it.

“Hm... I see, sorry about that.”

Tomomi quickly gestures to one of the extra chairs at the table, “You should sit with us, we haven’t talked much in a while.”

“I can’t intrude on the two of you,” He seemed hesitant, but Tomomi kept insisting, so soon he was sitting with them, placing his smoothie down.

“Oh!” She hasn’t introduced herself yet, “I’m Asahi Minato by the way!”

“Kaoru Matsuoka,” The response is returned with a smile.

There’s a lull in conversation for a moment before Tomomi takes a drink of coffee, prompting Matsuoka to make a comment. “You still drink that with half creamer?”

Tomomi looked at him with mock offense, “I’ll have you know,” he said, “That it is otherwise too bitter. Besides, why are you giving me flack, look at Asahi’s drink. It’s nearly entirely sugar!”

While Matsuoka looks at her drink, Asahi gives Tomomi a look, “What are you talking about?” She asked, “This is perfectly fine. Besides, it’s got fruits, so it’s healthiness balances out.”

“I... don’t think that’s how that works,” Matsuoka commented, “Though I am curious as to how you manage to drink such a thing.”

“Honestly,” Tomomi adds, “I think, what with all the sugar she consumes on a daily basis, she just uses all the sugar to keep herself cheerful.”

“What? That’s not-” Despite her best efforts, Tomomi was giving her an amused smile and Matsuoka did the same, though a bit less noticeably. “Geez, you’re as bad as my brothers!”

“Do you brothers tease you about the amount of sugar you eat too?” Tomomi asked, somewhat teasing though still genuinely curious.

Asahi huffs, “Katsunii always says how I shouldn’t eat so much sugar and Isanii just keeps teasing me about it.” As if to spite her brothers, even from another universe, she takes a long and slow drink. Matsuoka let’s out a mostly hidden chuckle while Tomomi doesn’t even bother trying to hide his amusement.

“Well,” Matsuoka began, “It sound like they care about you.”

Asahi’s annoyance ends at that point, replaced with something else. She gives a small smile, “Yeah, they do.” Her smiles grows when she thinks about not just her brothers but her parents too, “They’re great. Even if they might worry a bit too much for my taste. I always know they care.”

“Having family who cares about you is good,” Tomomi states, “You... You miss them, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” She laughs, “I guess I’m not used to being this far from them and not texting them like twenty times a day.”

Matsuoka hums, taking a drink of his smoothie, “I have to ask you, Tomomi, what sparked that article you wrote? About Ultrawoman Grigio.”

Tomomi quickly and gently (violently) stabbed a piece of lettuce and shoved it in his mouth, if only to buy himself more time before he had to respond. Asahi knew the answer to the question, but it was a bit trickier to answer without outing Asahi as Grigio. As it turned out, most of the people that Tomomi worked with were used to all his slightly unusual Kaiju articles and apparently hadn’t given the one on Grigio too much more than a second glance.

“Well,” Tomomi began, slow enough that he could still think, but not so slow it was noticeable. The wonderful thing about the human brain, is that it was pretty good at improvising on the spot. The downside, was that it usually needed a bit of a preexisting plan. Something that Asahi was pretty sure Tomomi didn’t have. She just hoped he was good at improvising. “She managed to stop that Kaiju and she showed up twice, so I didn’t think it was a one off thing... I figured it would be best to spread awareness, get the word out.”

“Why give her a name? And why Ultrawoman Grigio?”

“Well, we couldn’t keep calling her the grey and yellow giant... So Ultra because she, uh, can do really cool stuff, woman because well, that’s obvious, and Grigio because... Well it’s Italian for grey.” Asahi could tell that Tomomi was doing his best and frankly, she didn’t think she’d be able to come up with a much better answer herself, so she figured it was good enough. Hopefully Matsuoka would believe it.

She couldn’t really tell, but Matsuoka seemed to believe it. He seemed to be mulling over the response before giving a nod, “I suppose that makes enough sense.”

Quietly, Asahi let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. Tomomi did the same, though she was pretty sure his was a bit more noticeable. If Matsuoka noticed, though, he didn’t say anything.

“What do you two think about all the Kaiju attacks, then?” Oh boy, he was full of questions.

Tomomi responded first, “I mean, it’s not good, all these Kaijus just inexplicably rampaging through the city.”

“Same, really, it’s very not happy... Personally, I think that there might be...” Asahi wasn’t sure if she wanted to finish the thought. She’d been thinking about it for a while now. It was odd that the monsters, at least the ones that didn’t seem to be rampaging for the normal reasons, always focused on her right away when she appeared. That and the Kaiju that appeared in Ayaka before that portal she fell through. She had a feeling that the Kaiju in Ayaka, the portal, and most of the Kaiju attacks on this Earth were all connected. But she didn’t have much proof, it was mostly observation and a sort of gut feeling. But Katsumi always said to trust your gut. Of course, she wasn’t sure if she should voice it to someone who didn’t know she was Grigio. “Well I think that a bunch of those attacks are connected. Maybe their all being controlled.”

“Being controlled,” Matsuoka seemed surprised at her idea, which was fair, it was a bit out of left field. “What makes you say that?”

“Uh, well, in a bunch of the Kaiju attacks, they just randomly start rampaging for seemingly no reason. They can’t be stopped through normal means... and when I-Ultrawoman Grigio shows up, they focus on her right away.” She shrugs slightly, hoping she was believable, “It just... seems like there’s someone else behind it all.” It wasn’t like she could list all of her reasons. But she could list enough of them.

Matsuoka considered her words, “You may have a point, though it’s hard to say.”

“But why would someone even bother? It’s such an odd thing to do...” Tomomi wondered, placing a hand on his chin.

“Because there are things out there that do stuff like that just for the sake of it, I guess.” Asahi sighed, taking a drink. “I mean, it’s not exactly unheard of.”

“Well, I’ve never heard of someone using Kaiju in such a way,” Matsuoka says, “But you are right. There are some people who do horrible things for no real reason.” Oh right, they haven’t had a “fate of the planet” scenario or something here. At least not one involving Kaiju.

“Anyway...” Tomomi seemed to be trying to change the subject, “It’s a real roadblock, but I’m sure given time and effort everything will work out.”

“Yes,” Matsuoka agreed, “Hopefully, after this people won’t just lose all trust in Kaijus all together.”

“You guys really want to see a world where Kaijus and people can really just live peacefully, huh?” Asahi comments, “I mean, that’s pretty cool.”

Tomomi grins, “It’s been Kaoru and mine’s dream for... Geez, I’m not sure how long. That’s what we bonded over in highschool, actually.” He leans back and closes his eyes, a wistful expression, “I mean, we knows it’s pretty unrealistic, but still... I guess that’s what dreams are for.”

“I think it’s good that you two have such lofty dreams. It’ll make every step closer feel all the more happy!” She insisted, “My brothers have... someone they’ve worked with who always says that you should never stop trying to reach your dreams. That even if they seem impossible you should still try and never give up, because dreams can always come true.”

Matsuoka chuckles, “Well, I suppose I have to agree with that person.”

“What about you?” Tomomi asks, poking (stabbing) his fork through his salad, “What’s your dream, Asahi?”

“My dream?” Asahi hums in thought, then responds, “I guess… I’m not sure… Really, I’m just happy if I can be around my friends and family!”

Tomomi chuckles a bit before saying, “I guess you must miss them then, huh? Since you’re so far away from your home and your family.”

She’s quiet for a moment, before answering, “… I mean… Yeah…” She trails off, “ But it’s okay! I’ll see them again soon enough! Worrying about that would be really not happy.” 

Matsuoka laughs, not even trying to hide it, “You’re very cheerful, aren’t you?” He asks, then adds, “Well, that’s good. There’s so can be so much negativity in the world.”

“Exactly,” Asahi grins, “The way I see it, you can’t control the world, but you can control how you’re feeling! And I choose to feel happy!”

Their conversation continued on various topics, but Matsuoka had to return to KPaRS and Tomomi had a few other things to do, so they all had to leave.

---

Today’s Kaiju of the Day (a title that isn’t entirely accurate, but neither is Monster of the Week, as monster don’t appear daily, but still more than weekly) was apparently called Gudon. It’s appearance was more akin to a bug than a reptile, though resembled both. Spike decorated it’s body, barring the stomach area and the neck up, with long horns on the top of it’s head. Instead of hands, Gudon had whips.

The most advice Tomomi had given Grigio before she began the fight was something along the lines of “Same as most Kaiju, tail and teeth, but also those whips”.

So yeah, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly unusual to worry about, which Grigio was pretty grateful for. It seemed, in order to attack her, Gudon would have to get close to her, which Grigio could avoid just by keeping her distances and shooting her arrows. As long as it doesn’t break building’s too much, it shouldn’t have much ammunition to throw at her. She’d learned last time that that was something that some Kaiju’s did (like the one she’d fought, then, which she was told was a Red King).

She’d been doing pretty well with her plan, or at least she thought so. She was pretty sure that it would have continued going pretty well, but, unsurprisingly, there was a wrench thrown into her plans. KPaRS’(... You know, she still hadn’t figured out the best word to describe it. Plane? Jet? She really never knew, she’d have to ask someone later. Maybe Tomomi had an idea. Anyway.) Their jet (That’s what she was going to call it until proven otherwise, because plane sounded a bit wrong) had flown near, trying to assist. In the past, that’d... Well if it didn’t work, it didn’t hurt. Today though, was a bit of a change of form.

When KPaRS got close, Gudon took the chance to try to grab something. That something, being probably the worst possible thing it could have grabbed. KPaRS’ jet.

Crap.

Grigio knew that she couldn’t just stand there and hope for the best. The biggest issue was how to make sure that KPaRS got free of Gudon but stay pretty safe. She honestly wasn’t sure what to do. Should she just launch an arrow at Gudon? Would KPaRS be fine?

KPaRS was trying to pull free of Gudon’s grip, finding little success.

She needed to do something. But she didn’t know what! What would be the best thing to do! She didn’t want to mess up and make things worse! What if instead of letting go, Gudon tightened it’s grip?!

She was snapped out of her thoughts by an irritated Jun, who didn’t even sound like she was meaning to be heard by Grigio. “She’s not really making me think she’s not behind this!” It sounded like a response or maybe just a comment made with the knowledge that Rin would understand who she was talking about.

“Performance anxiety?” Rin offered in response, then let out a groan of frustration, followed by, “I’m sure she’ll do something.”

“Well I’m not so sure!”

Grigio really needed to do something. She needed to stop thinking so hard and move! Do something! Anything! At that point, she hadn’t even realized she was running at the monster until she was nearly close enough to touch it. And then she tackled it. Not her preferred way of attacking, but seeing as Gudon was preoccupied prior, it hadn’t noticed her coming and was thoroughly startled. It released KPaRS as Grigio was left to come up with what to do next.

In something of a panic, she punches it,trying to stall to make sure that KPaRS got a far enough away. Now she needed to put some distance between her and Gudon before- Shit. Okay, new plan. Gudon had a grip on her wrist with it’s whip, using the other to attack her.

She tries to wrench her wrist free, wincing with every hit of it’s other whip, but found that her attempts weren’t effective. Grigio shifts slightly and kicks it in the stomach, causing it’s grip to loosen, at least enough that she was able to practically throw herself away from Gudon.

Her color timer was beeping now, she didn’t really have a lot of time left to finish fighting the monster. With KPaRS flying farther away now, keeping their distance, she was able to use her bow to keep Gudon occupied long enough to tie it up with Grigio Bind.

Grigio hoped that Rin and Jun were alright, she wasn’t sure if Gudon had done any damage when it grabbed them. Although she was sure that it wasn’t going to stop them.

She did wish that she hadn’t panic so much before though. She didn’t have a lot of experience fighting, and as it turned out, there was a lot to take into account when a Kaiju grabs something with people in it.

[hopevalley]

What are your favorite and least stories from each Season and why?

Oh man, this is a really thought-provoking question! I’ll try to come up with good answers (even though sometimes the seasons blur together a little bit):

I’ll give some basic thoughts on each season and what worked/didn’t work for me.

Season 1

While I appreciate that they made the effort to have Elizabeth stick out (vs. blending in with all the Poors), she was downright unbearable at times in the early seasons. Her wanting to help and coming up with ideas is pretty decent in terms of story structure and even characterization/character motivation, but holy cow was it intrusive and nosy/patronizing of her sometimes! I think the point might have been to give Elizabeth flaws, which is great, but people just seemed to accept it, and her, too quickly, at least for my liking. A shame because I felt like her struggling to fit in would 1) be good for her character/force her to understand that to be accepted here she has to concede to giving up her former lifestyle, and 2) be a great, GREAT way for her and Abigail to bond and become friends, since this is something Abigail also struggled with!

So basically, the ‘story’ of Elizabeth coming to fit in in Coal Valley? Vaguely rubbish.

So much DID work, though, and could have been expanded upon for even better storytelling!!! This is especially true of the widows/related stories.

Loss of faith/faltering faith

Loss of personal identity

Moving on/past grief

Processing guilt 

Protecting the memory of a deceased loved one

We also had some great smaller personal stories.

Genius child has to work in the mine because there’s no one else ot take care of his family

Young man can’t read and has to work in the mine (and even after he does start learning how to read, probably doesn’t get to leave). Elizabeth still taking the time to try and help him still means something!

Season 2

I will never forgive the series for its convoluted attempt at a love triangle, here. Charles wasn’t unlikable, but he was OBVIOUSLY interested in Elizabeth romantically, and I don’t feel she’d be so stupid as to be blind to that, old chum or not.

Basically, it was one of the worst plots to ever exist on the show, because it just wasn’t believable in any capacity and felt like drama that existed to be a roadblock more than anything.

Also, not to whine, but Bill’s whole ‘counterfeit money’ plotline wasn’t very well-written.

The plot itself makes sense, but the way it bounced around seems to have just confused enough people that no one even remembers this was a thing.

That said, I think it was a good plot for the character... It was just not executed as well as it needed to have been to make a difference/really shine.

There are a lot of small things from S2 that were pretty nice, though.

Abigail’s fight to help Clara was meaningful, but I’m not sure how I feel about the addition of Clara from a writing standpoint. I feel like Abigail should have felt something was off about Peter’s trips from the start... The issue is that Hamilton is VERY far away and it’s VERY doubtful Peter would have ever gone there. Union City makes more sense if we’re talking about picking up shipments.

Tom and Julie were entertaining if nothing else.

I couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened in Hope Valley in S2, but I’m sure there were Events.

Season 3

Honestly I don’t think S3 had anything horrible in it. It just wasn’t very inspiring at times? It was like they had all these really good ideas but didn’t want to fully commit to any of them.

Henry Gowen was a star.

Frank was excellent in this season.

The biggest issue I have with this plot is simply that they didn’t take it all the way. Either he’s a dangerous man to allow to stay in town or he’s not. Saying he is doesn’t make it so. A rock through a window? Okay, sure...that’s threatening I guess. But it didn’t feel like enough to turn the whole town.

And again, having him barely doing anything even though he’d definitely be worried for Abigail and Cody’s safety is just inane.

Still, overall the whole thing was pretty good/well-done. Especially that unexpected turn at the end where Henry helped turn the tide. (I still wish that had gone somewhere and wonder even now if they had an idea they wanted to use and didn’t get the chance to.)

Abigail adopting children was nice. I wish Becky hadn’t been a part of it at all though. Like the IDEA is nice, but I can’t imagine she’d believe in it all as fast/readily as she does? This plotline just seemed great for Cody and meaningless to Becky, IMO.

But hey, the thing with Cody is meaningful enough. My issue is just that he’s like, 8 or 9 and remembers his parents very clearly, so I don’t think he’d be that willing to replace them. I guess it could just be his personality, but it might make more sense for him to be like 5-6 years old instead (less attached with fuzzier memories by this point if they’ve been on the run awhile).

Despite my qualms I think this was a pretty good story for Abigail. Just wish they hadn’t dropped her role as a mom as quickly as it felt they did.

Hattie was a good character and I enjoyed her introduction story. It was sad, but it felt good/satisfying.

Bill buying Henry’s share in the café was a great little thing. Maybe too convenient and itching for a story of its own (instead of it just happening), but overall a good idea.

Jack’s mom coming to town was entertaining. She had some really good lines. Lard in coffee. I mean...this was gold.

Season 4

The peddler was a cute addition but I didn’t much care for the overt magical element.

If it felt a little more real/grounded/down to earth I think I might have been more intrigued. 

Frank getting his original Bible back was a GREAT story but when they tried tying it into his vaguely stalker-like behavior? It just ruined the entire thing.

For what it’s worth, Frank’s character goes downhill pretty sharply in this season.

There were a lot of cute kid storylines in this one. But they weren’t all...great...

Robert telling the lie about the bear? Nice.

The kid with the knee brace? Ugh.

The storyline itself wasn’t bad!

But after Becky miraculously recovered the previous season it just felt like a slap in the face. I live with chronic pain and it’s just one of those things where I’d like a little representation somewhere.

I still think Becky should have stayed wheelchairbound.

I can’t get over how insulting it was that she just MIND OVER MATTER FIXED HERSELF. The writer who put that in there should be slapped, and the writer who wrote the saME GODFORSAKEN STORY AGAIN with this child should also be slapped.

I really feel that if they were gonna let Becky recover like that, this kid should be living with a permanent disability and this episode could deal with kids helping him play/doing activities he could participate and enjoy.

Maybe it’s too on-the-nose but the hardest part about a chronic illness/disability of any kind is the part where you lose things you loved to do that you considered a part of your identity. That’s an awfully deep storyline for WCtH, but they should have gone for it here.

Phillip was in between.

Phillip and his father were great, but Elizabeth was just SO incredibly awful. This is where she and Abigail started always being right about everything and I felt her involvement was unbearable.

They should have just let Faith take over Elizabeth’s role in that plot and it would have been way better. They could have had the eyesight issue earlier and done something great with it.

Frank and Abigail’s relationship at the beginning of this season was pretty interesting. Even though the whole “danger” thing was a little goofy, it was nice to see them communicating and adjusting. 

It felt like a natural issue people would actually have. And it wasn’t smoothly worked out, which is fine.

Also, Rosemary’s interference was hilarious.

RIP to the following:

Frank’s character after his earlier scene, because he doesn’t get anything else that’s actually in character.

Good writing because Carson is now the town hero he’s gonna save Cody from appendicitis because other doctors are just completely stupid!

Also Carson is a surgeon so TAKE THAT, regular doctors!

Doug. You were a real bro, my guy.

I DID like Doug’s role in the story, though. His death made some sense, but it was ill-timed. (How convenient that we only even hear of him moments before his death lol.)

AJ Foster is a highlight of S4 for me. I love her, and for the most part I love her introduction.

She’s such a pain in the neck, but she also talks a lot of sense.

The writing isn’t great for her, or for Bill in these scenes, but at least there was An Attempt™.

I appreciate that they introduced the idea of her much earlier in the season and built up to her actual appearance, which I couldn’t have guessed would be relevant early on.

Considering how the officers at my company hate our IRS auditor, I find the fact that AJ has enemies beyond believable.

Railroad shenanigans were pretty entertaining in this season, too.

Season 5

The last episode at least tried to be kind to the characters, so I appreciate it.

Elizabeth’s conversation with her father before her wedding was a highlight of the entire season.

AJ’s return plot was abysmal.

I’d be terribly embarrassed to have been the one to write this, especially considering how completely whack it feels next to the other plots.

I’ve ranted about this so many times I should have run out of steam but BOY is it cringey. This is the height of Bill-is-a-grumpy-old-man as a Thing in this series and this is probably when it is its worst.

The rattlesnake plotline was contrived as heck, but the only thing to make it worse was how weird everyone acted.

Rhonda was a good character and the plotline, if it wasn’t so rushed, would have actually been really great. I still liked it overall, though.

Frank’s send-off was dumb, but at least he got one on-screen.

I still can’t believe they killed their main romantic male lead off-screen.

What the heck...

Abigail was really, really annoying in this season, and so was Elizabeth. Unbearable.

Also, I still hate the pregnancy oooops~~ ♥♥ plot at the end of the grieving episode. Really? COME ON. I know they wanted to give the fans hope but it was jarring.

Season 6

I still HATE the nativity == baby Jack’s birth parallels. 

Why did they feel the need to do that. Why couldn’t we have just gotten pregnant Elizabeth shenanigans?

They put Jack’s DEATH ON THE TOMBSTONE like how is she popping out a baby less than two months later when she didn’t even know she wa---?F?DJSAFLJDSAFHLDSAL?

Abigail?

DELETED.

Thank goodness.

Bill?

Assassinated. Or at least, his character was.

This is bad. :(

On the plus side he gets promoted to the position of JUDGE...and barely does anything worthwhile with it...yet.

GODFATHER BILL. The best thing in this season.

Fiona?

A goddess. I love her.

Lucas?

Slimy.

But handsome.

The 4th Property Brother. He even tries his hand at renovating.

Nathan?

Honest and good.

Pretty cute.

Works together with Bill once in one of Bill’s only good scenes.

The oil plotline is actually pretty good/fun. Jesse and Clara get more scenes finally. 

Elizabeth isn’t the focus of everything.

Lee and Rosemary got like, no mention in any of these posts but mostly because it felt like they were never really doing anything before, but I did feel like they were given a little more meaningful lines/places in this season.

--

How’s this for an attempt? :P I’m probably missing A LOT but I can’t recall everything too easily!