#and then fell off watching like mid-season 3

[quasiimodo]

my bf and i are finally committing to catching up on rwby which means i suddenly feel like i’m 16 again and back on my bullshit 

[devildomwriter]

Satan Birthday Special 100 Fun Facts

1. Satan was born from a combination of Lucifer’s intense wrath and him tearing off his wings, this gave Satan flesh for a body

2. Physically, Satan is the youngest but he is ranked fourth as he is fourth strongest of the seven brothers

3. Satan often fears he is nothing but a lesser copy of Lucifer

4. Satan’s wrath was so out of control after his birth his brothers did anything they could to stop his rages, including tying him in chains and stuffing him in a locker, knocking him out, or holding him underwater until he passed out

5. When Satan discovered cats he burst into Levi’s room demanding to know more about this

6. Satan believes Leviathan is mature in the way he focuses on other people’s opinions

7. Satan has always been a demon and accepting wrath as part of who he was so he did not struggle with his sin like his brothers did

8. Satan treasures the first things his brothers ever gave him

9. Satan’s tail is spiky and you can be injured touching it if you aren’t careful

10. Satan gets angriest over petty inconveniences

11. Simeon believes that Satan always only wearing one sleeve of his jackets is his way of rebelling

12. Satan has a tendency to overthink things

13. Satan does his best to avoid arguing with his brothers even when they annoy him

14. Satan is compared to a cat by his brothers due to his tendency to show up in completely random places when you least expect

15. Satan has connections in almost every industry as he’s easily able to socialize and make friends

16. Satan claims his books are organized in a way he understands

17. Once Satan’s books collapsed on him and he stayed there for several days relaxing

18. Satan enjoys the fine arts and likes going to art museums

19. Satan enjoys theatre and the opera

20. Satan easily gets his hands on rare and cursed objects to the point it impresses Lucifer

21. Satan has successfully cursed Lucifer several times. The worst of them being when he transferred his pain from Solomon’s cooking to Lucifer.

22. Satan originally looks down on manga but changes his mind after reading a bunch of manga Levi switched out in his room as a prank

23. Satan loves watching dramas and mysteries, especially Mid-Fall Murders

24. Due to watching crime shows regularly Satan believed that when dining in the human world you tell the waitress you’d like “the usual” and they’ll know what you mean

25. Although originally Satan complains he’s never beat Diavolo in chess, it’s implied he finally beats him in season 3

26. Satan has a major inferiority complex when it comes to Lucifer which causes him to often doubt himself

27. Satan is subscribed to Monthly Devil Architect’s Digest

28. Satan was once cursed to see everything as cats, he wasn’t the least bit bothered

29. Satan gifted Lucifer a scarf that was cursed to grow eternally

30. Satan doesn’t seem to realize how terrifying his anger is when he is visibly confused as to why his brothers are hiding

31. Satan has hoarded cats in the past and is no longer allowed to have any

32. Satan feeds a local cat he has named Sir Cat

33. Satan gives MC instructions on feeding many of the cats who come by serenity manor

34. When attempting to turn Simeon’s cafe into a cat cafe he “borrowed” a bunch of cats from witches. He was distressed when they were all returned to their owners.

35. Satan once fell asleep with a cat in public and ended up covered in Hell Zakura petals. Solomon thought it was cute.

36. Satan cursed a pizza deliverer for putting pineapple on their pizza

37. Satan desires to be on the receiving end of a loving headbutt by a cat in full force

38. Satan checks cat blogs before he goes to bed as they give him energy for the next day

39. Satan has to be told to stop using cat stickies as he puts them everywhere

40. Satan covered his and Belphegor’s laptops in cat stickers

41. Satan enjoys classical music, symphonies, and Ska music

42. Satan prefers food chunkier than smooth because it has more bite to it

43. Satan enjoys the bitterness of Dark chocolate

44. Satan has said his type is someone he can have a mutual understanding with when it comes to anger

45. Satan has had things thrown at his head multiple times in the game, some of these items include a pillow, a piece of trash, and a pile of pancakes

46. Satan hates baby talk, more specifically when Asmodeus uses it

47. Satan has inherited some of Lucifer’s memories and emotions

48. When Satan was cursed to stay close to Lucifer he would just stare and growl at Lucifer from the corner of the room

49. Satan’s antagonistic behavior towards Lucifer is somewhat compulsive as even he wishes he didn’t dedicate so much time to Lucifer but cannot stop himself

50. Satan let’s Belphegor sleep on his lap even though it annoys him

51. Satan learned how to read ancient human text from Solomon

52. Satan considers Mephistopheles an ally since they both dislike Lucifer

53. In a love survey on B’s Log Satan says he wants to “bind and monopolize” his lover and is the active one pursuing love

54. Satan cherishes relationship anniversaries and special dates of remembrance

55. In a relationship with obstacles, Satan chooses to face the difficulties with passion

56. When it comes to a lover, Satan said he would get jealous easily

57. Satan originally did not understand humans and assumed they’d all be fine receiving expensive items and gems as gifts and was angry when MC did not

58. Satan has ranked his favorite cat positions as stalk-straight tail, slow blink, making biscuits, head butting, and bellyflops

59. Satan secretly dislikes Green Peas

60. Satan is annoyed by the RAD Newpsaper Club account and has the notifications for it turned off

61. Satan says he tends to sleep on his stomach to avoid being hit in the face when his books randomly come avalanching down on him

62. Satan starts all his baths by washing his left arm

63. Satan’s daily activity is petting a cat

64. Satan’s dream is to have a cat

65. On sleepless nights, Satan calls MC because he finds their voice soothing

66. Satan’s motto is “Wisdom is the treasure of all generations.”

67. Satan’s rage emits so much energy it’s too much for humans to handle and can shake buildings and break things without getting near them

68. Satan sends cursed chain mail to Lucifer daily

69. When Mammon could only speak cat, Satan was called to help and he spent the day happily playing with cat toys with Mammon

70. Satan became enraged with Raphael when he was compared to Lucifer

71. Satan is very knowledgeable when it comes to the constellations and the specific stars among them

72. Satan believes Easter is the perfect excuse to throw eggs at Lucifer

73. Satan looks forward to fall as he believes it’s the best season for reading

74. Satan has trouble eating something if it looks like a cat

75. Satan always has a bag of cat treats with him wherever he goes

76. Satan seems to remember exactly where he left off in a book when he falls asleep reading. In an interview with B’s Log he says “Yesterday I was in the mood for The Complete Book of Cat's Paws, but I fell asleep on the Havana Brown page, around line no. 27.”

77. Satan sometimes hums the theme song to mid fall murders

78. Satan’s compliments often sound more like insults

79. Satan originally took Levi to be a nobody with no powers.

80. Satan once used Diavolo as a hostage

81. When Satan wanted to get MC a gift he offered to kill someone for them

82. Satan enjoys a railroad building mobile app

83. In the baseball game in the anime, Satan’s team lost 0 to 666 but Satan still claims it’s the game where he trumped Lucifer

84. Satan owns a book that can enter the memories of whoever first opens it

85. Satan built a life like snow sculpture of Lucifer out of spite, knowing Lucifer would feel uncomfortable

86. Satan once decorated the backyard with cat towers hoping it’d become a cat colony

87. Satan is the secretary of the RAD student council

88. Satan is the one who introduced the idea of second-hand/used bookstores to the Devildom.

89. Satan has a collection of priceless jewels that are rare in both the human world and Devildom. It’s not stated how he got his hands on them but he is alluded to being very wealthy by Leviathan

90. Believing they were lost deep in the forest, Satan initiated sex with MC but they were immediately after found by Beelzebub

91. Satan said if he was in a horror movie he’d be the silent killer “helping” the detectives and frame Lucifer for all the murders

92. Satan once got into a fight with Beelzebub over who liked Devilcat most

93. Satan once went to a riddle event with Solomon and MC

94. Satan bribed Barbatos with rare tea to let him go to the human world alone

95. In an interview with B’s Log he said his everyday small happiness is gaining new knowledge

96. Something Satan believes is absolutely not allowed in front of him is disrespecting cats and is quoted saying “Dare to make disrespectful remarks about cats in front of me. I’ll **** and **** your ****.” — B’s log

97. Satan’s three rules for his daily life are — Read books, play with cats, and make time for yourself

98. When asked if he prefers mature or child-like people, he states he prefers mature people and then immediately references Simeon

99. Satan is skilled with cooking stews and enjoys working with the variety of spices and herbs Barbatos gives him

100. Satan believes his composure makes him “cool” and that he only “very, very occasionally” loses his temper

[eriexplosion]

Yesterday everyone was posting their feelings on TBB. I'm glad I waited, because there's a lot swirling around. Cut for negativity again.

I was introduced to The Bad Batch in August 2022 and fell instantly in love. The characters, the story, the complex family dynamics, they all spoke to me. I wasn't even a Star Wars fan but I went through and devoured The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, all of it. I threw myself into this world and adored every second of it. I must have rewatched season one over five times before season two even came out.

When season two premiered I loved it. Every Tuesday night I stayed up until the episode drop and devoured it immediately. I looked ahead at the schedule and took days off work for the double episodes, for the big Crosshair episodes - he was my favorite early on and season two only made that grow. But season two also really brought Tech into my radar even more. I had always liked him, but here he was shining. The Crossing really solidified it, as an autistic person. I'd never heard someone describe the difference in processing so succinctly before, so clearly, and it spoke to me like very little had. Here was a character that was like me. Here was a character that I needed when I was an undiagnosed child, someone that would have made me feel like I had at least some way of describing my differences.

Then, well. He died. It was an affecting scene, but it felt out of nowhere, it felt unfinished. Tech didn't even get the climax of the episode. He just fell into the clouds, the Batch grieved for a few minutes, and then the plot steamrolled right along.

I didn't believe it, not after the mad scientist presented his goggles and claimed not to salvage anything else. It seemed like such an obvious fake out. The longer I sat with it the less satisfying it felt. It felt so brushed over, so pointless, all for a mission that they accomplished nothing on. Then came the social media circus. Again and again his fall was shoved in our faces on Twitter, demanding we stream it. TikToks were made that were so out of touch they felt like parodies, the wound ripped open again and again, and I thought surely there had to be a purpose to it.

So I waited for season 3 as interviews were done that seemed to almost intentionally avoid calling him dead. As tweets were made promising we'd be so fulfilled if we could only see who was onscreen in the mid-season! (A tweet that immediately garnered dozens of people hoping it referred to Tech, all without a single comment to try and quell the speculation.) It felt already like we were being toyed with, but I thought it had to be for a reason or a purpose. More weirdly vague discussions went up about his Sacrifice, his Fall, his Anything But Death, even as everyone insists that it was so meaningful, the way he died on a mission that accomplished nothing. Jokes were made around Valentines Day.

He Fell For You, get it?

The first official use of killed went up on the databank right after the trailer, on Hunter's page of all places. The first time the interviews used dead was the Friday before the premier. It all felt too late, theories had already grown for months by that point.

Season 3 finally came and I waited up for every episode drop just like I did for season 2, hoping for him to come back or at least for him to be properly grieved, since we had barely a couple of minutes in Plan 99 before it was swept away for the next plot point. Surely Tech's impact deserved an episode of focus, if he were really gone.

The previously on plays his last words twice. But then we skip months into the future. We don't see Crosshair find out the news - even though Tech died on a mission to retrieve him. We don't watch Omega grieve. She barely seems to notice she's missing a brother. We got a brief allusion in episode two. It took three episodes to even mention his name in passing. Five episodes in everyone got their chance to look sad about him, but only for a few seconds and only when his skills were relevant. Compared to the gorgeous callback to Mayday in the same episode, it felt shallow. He had to have been more important than this didn't he?

Episodes 6 & 7 felt like maybe there was a reason. We see a new masked assassin that gets extra focus, who got put through a series of Tech-adjacent situations, whose beef with Crosshair was just a little too personal, who survived longer than all the rest but stayed masked. Rex talks about losing brothers, but Hunter says nothing about the brother they lost. I hoped it all meant something, that this was the reason that he felt so much like he was thrown away, so that he could come back in.

More one off mentions that only really come up when it's about how useful Tech would have been. More poking at the wound that still felt open and raw because we'd never gotten any closure. The closest we get is a single scene in episode eleven, so late in the season and so brief that I thought that couldn't possibly be it.

CX-2 comes back, and he talks like Tech. He's still not unmasked. I really need him to be something because otherwise what was it all for?

The most emotion comes in Juggernaut, from Phee. Its a highlight because it actually feels like it was about him, like he mattered as a person. It's episode twelve and we finally talk about him like a person. We never saw her get the news either.

Episodes thirteen and fourteen pass without any mentions at all. We're running out of time. Episode 15 hits and we get one raw one from Crosshair that Clone Force 99 died with Tech. It's the first time they directly say he's dead in so many words. It's the season finale. CX-2 is a nobody it turns out, and he dies faceless. Everyone gets a happy ending and after over a year of wondering if we'd ever get closure, it turns out Tech's just dead. But look how happy everyone else is!

Everyone gets to grow old. Except the autistic one of course. He's just dead and it hardly feels like it mattered at all. Did you know Wrecker and Hunter don't use his name once in season three? Omega and Echo mention him once each. Crosshair twice, only once with any emotion behind it. Phee tops the charts at three mentions, two by name and one by nickname. We see his goggles four times. I kept count.

There was never a bigger plan, this was just all he was worth. We spent two seasons on Crosshair's absence. We spent a whole episode dealing with it when Echo decided to go with Rex. Tech dies though and all his life amounted to was a handful of mentions when his skills would have been useful, some shots of his broken goggles, and endless cooing out of the text over how meaningful his sacrifice was. Too meaningful to take back, of course, even as Ventress is brought back from her own sacrifice.

I had really, really thought that this time autistic life would be worth more than autistic death. That a character that felt so carefully handled couldn't have just been thrown away for shock value, barely to even be mentioned again, his memory used to string us along to keep us watching. If you added up every mention and shot through season 3 it might actually clock in at less time than was spent on Mayday's send off.

I'm an adult. I'll survive, though the sting of seeing yet another character like me used as a stepping stone for everyone else's happy ending will take a while to fade. But I think about the child I used to be who needed a character like Tech. And I think about how it would have felt to actually get that only to watch him die a handful of episodes later as a side note to his family's story, barely even mentioned again. How badly it would have hurt, how deep it would have scarred.

I'm not that child anymore. But there are a lot of autistic kids out there that are the same as I used to be, and they're learning for the first time that people like us don't get happy endings. Instead they die so that everyone around them can rise up, and they might even get mentioned a few times. But don't worry. Everyone will tell you how meaningful and special it is and how delusional you were to ever hope for anything else.

The Bad Batch still means a lot to me. I think it always will. I love the characters. I love the family, and all the potential they had. But the sting of not belonging in this happy ending is there, and it's deep. It's been a long time since I trusted a show. It'll be a long time before I risk trusting another. And I hope that the autistic kids trying to learn how to close their hearts off behind new walls are doing okay.

[roe-and-memory]

every time someone says cars 3 is the worst cars movie another angel punches me in the stomach and pulls my hair.

this is probably just my intense special interest in the origins of nascar, but that movie feels like such a nice send-off for the main “trilogy”, and yes people can have their own opinions but i NEED to talk about how much this movie means to me

first of all, a major misconception is that lightning quit racing - he DIDNT! this is proven by both the end of the movie (where he says hes obviously going to keep racing) and cars on the road where, in the final episode, cruz and lightning wish each other “goodbye” and say they’ll see each other on the racetrack. he was only cruz’s crew chief for that one season, presumably healing from the trauma of the crash (because lets be real his ass did not mentally recover from that in FOUR MONTHS) and also waiting for a permanent crew chief to take his place.

second.. the sheer amount of detail put into that movie is INSANE. the racing center being shaped like grandstands at a track? fireball beach being both a direct reference to the daytona beach race course and also “fireball roberts”, a 1950s racer (he was actually the reason that firesuits were mandated in the sport), we meet a bunch of 1950s racers as well and just augh.. so good. also, the detail of thomasville being in north carolina is brilliant - N.C is the “racing state”, and thomasville speedway is based off of north wilkesboro, a track that was opened in 1949, and last used in 1996 (aside from the series of races in 2010), and it fell into disrepair. (fun fact, north wilkesboro is reopening in 2024 for the nascar all star race!! they fixed my bbg)

third. cars three brings so much more lore than the first movie did. yes, we knew doc raced in the 50s when the sport was getting its start, but in cars 3? they brought in characters based off of real 1950s racers (doc is based off of herb thomas, smokey is smokey yunick, lou is louise smith, junior is junior johnson, river is wendell scott, and leroy hemming is tim flock) (another reference in the movie is “jocko flockos party supplies” as macks disguise - jocko flocko was tim flocks pet monkey that was the FIRST and only co-driver in the history of the sport. he won a race with his monkey in the car with him :) )

as i was saying, the lore we learn is insane. we learn that lou and river had to fight for their place in the sport, which is similar to what both louise smith and wendell scott experienced in the 50s, they show us accurately how racing worked back then too - they didnt have fancy pits, they had a fence and a pit member with a sign that would tell them to come in the next lap for service. all of these cars are gen 1 nascar, which means that they were strictly stock - they had much more intense pit sessions than any of the other “built for racing” generations have ever needed. i recall watching a race wherein smokey yunick had to change the radiator of one of his racers vehicles mid-race due to a crash.

this isnt everything, but seriously for an animated movie about talking cars, they discuss grief and hardships and handle them so well its insane. i know cruz isnt everyones cup of tea, but (in reference to the flip scene at the end of the movie) watching cruz get shoved into the sport must’ve been insane for lou to watch. she saw herself in that girl. it wasnt some movie about lightning giving up, it was him sharing the torch with another kid who lost their way just like he had.

also i dont cry at movies but i literally bawl my fucking eyes out at the letters scene every time. its PATHETIC (its not im literally tearing up just thinking about it)

[fangweaver2099]

𝐅 𝐀 𝐖 𝐍 𝐓 𝐄 𝐄 𝐓 𝐇 - CH 1 - YOUR GPA

MINORS DNI 18+ FIC

You’ve always liked the idea of having a dominant partner - BDSM was something you’ve read about, watched videos about.

Something you made Pinterest boards and aesthetic tumblr posts about when you were 18 and curious, the idea always sounded nice, but you’ve never done it in practice, not really. Sure you bought fuzzy handcuffs at a gag gift store once, but that didn’t really count.

You’re still a virgin.

You’ve always had that chronically awkward, workaholic type of vibe that made typical dating near impossible at worst and frustrating at best. Normal dating apps have proven fruitless and agitating. So poor curious little you talked yourself into making a fetlife account. You weren’t looking for true love, but at least you could get laid.

DM Request from: 10:13 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Hello, Fawn.”

College was for new experiences after all.

CW: BDSM heavy/centric fic. Safe, Sane & Consensual. Miguel is your professor, but you both don't know that. Age Gap (Y/N is 23, Miguel is mid 30's)

TAG: @slut4oscarissac23 @iamtheprincess227 @haveclayeveryday @sphynxfoxslut69 @junehasnotbeenfound @thedevaxer @bunnibitez

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3

This semester had proven to be your most challenging yet - mostly, because of your second-choice, genuinely miserable, truly terrible genetics class.

You, Babs and Taylor had literally stayed up all night, desperate to get into Professor Parker’s class. After all, you all had heard that he was awesome .

He played movies on Fridays, he did hands-on experiments, hell he brought his adorable baby to class regularly. You had him last semester and he dressed up as Ted from Curious George for Halloween and his daughter was George. 

It was adorable.

The problem was that there was only one other professor teaching that same level and subject - Dr. O’Hara . 

You never heard or seen him before, but it seemed he only taught a class or two a semester. Still, just in case, you checked his rate on my professor page and... 

Well, it was a bloodbath . 

You had honestly never seen a score so low. Apparently, he was strict - serious, rarely offered office hours, and graded so harshly that needing to retake the class was common.

He treated his students like they were stupid , one person remarked. The guy’s a massive dick, another said. 

The amount of people who made accounts specifically to rate him was hilarious, if not shocking.

Why your college kept him employed, you had no idea. It seemed like every student that had taken his class had hated him so viscerally that the school had to be aware of just how pissed off everybody was. 

Tenure, probably. It was probably tenure. 

You all agreed that you had to get into Prof. Parker’s class. 

The three of you camped out in your living room the night class sign-up went live. Even if Taylor fell asleep halfway through the most recent season of Demon Slayers, you just tried to sign them up on their laptop. You swore you’d be successful, ready the moment they opened….

You… were not. 

The three of you settled with the knowledge that, unfortunately, you would be stuck with Dr. O’Hara, whether you liked it or not. At least you’d have each other, and it’s not like you weren’t experienced in learning on your own. 

See, you were a shining example of a woman in STEM. You hadn’t entirely picked if you were going for genetics or bioengineering yet, but you were convinced that you’d succeed wherever you went, and that included Dr. O’Hara’s class, no matter what his reviews said. 

The very first thing Dr. O’Hara said instantly made you decide that you hated him.

“You’re in an introductory class, you shouldn’t be getting A’s. If you’re getting A’s, you don’t need to be in this class.” 

That, of course, was a lie. Beginner’s principles of genetics - despite the name - had prerequisites. You were here to learn about Proteomics, not what the fuck ever he was trying to explain to you at nine in the morning on a Wednesday. 

More than once, you considered joining Babette and Taylor in their weekly ritual invoking him to get hit by a bus. 

O’Hara’s only saving grace was that he treated everyone equally like stupid children. You’d heard horror stories about old professors being sexist pieces of shit in any male dominated field. No, to you he was just a regular piece of shit. Egotistical, dismissive - uninterested. 

Who hands out four assignments on the first day of class? Dr. O’Hara sure did. You were convinced he didn’t know his students took other classes. 

Taylor, for all their faults, took shit from no one, but even they had met their match in this man. You remembered all too well your third class.

It was the very first time he paused, turning to the room of exhausted, caffeine fueled college students. 

“Any questions?” Dr. O’Hara asked the room… for the very first time. You could barely see the protein structure he drew on the board and almost didn’t catch it. 

“Yes, have you considered you’re bad at teaching?” Taylor didn’t even raise their hand - just leaned forwards in their seat to demand it of them. You were too far back to really see his expression, but you decided it was a grumpy indifference. 

“No. Next question,”

Your only saving grace was on the commute you always got coffee. You tried dressing normally for class - ‘elegant’, or… whatever clean girl tiktok label you found people assumed you were. Now you started dressing like you were homeless. Baggy sweatshirts, pants. You wore your glasses so you could actually see what the fuck he was writing. You sure were living the college student life. 

Your other classes were easier - so much easier. Most of your free time was consumed with Dr. Asshole and his stupid ten chapter readings and essays. 

When classes started, you became more scarce to Web, but he seemed mostly the same. When you did talk, it was flirtatious. Sometimes, you wondered if he was getting bored of you - but it wasn’t like he had collared you. You were just... cyber…sex…friends. 

Sure. Cyber sex friends. 

About a week into adjusting to your classes he finally brought it up.

 5:00 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Settling into things?”

“ Trying my best. Tired, 1 hr commute. ” - Fawnteeth - 5:18 PM

 5:20 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Isn’t everything an hour away here in NY?”  

“ Haha seems like it. ” - Fawnteeth - 5:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Things are finally settling in on my end. We should discuss when we’re finally meeting up.”  

“ Oh gosh. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Nervous?”  

“ Yes, kind of. I need to think about it - classes are more overwhelming than I expected this semester. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Not a problem. I’m very patient.”  

“ Not eager to see me? ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Twisting my words against me, pet. Naughty.”  

“ It’s okay. This is a lot, honesty - not that I’m not excited too. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “If it’s too much to meet in private we can always find somewhere to have coffee before we take things further. It has helped other submissives take the edge off before.”  

“ Let me think about it. I really do like you, Web. Don’t think I’m going to ghost you or anything. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “I like you too, Fawn. Think carefully though, if meeting in person is too much I don’t want to hold either of us back if we have different priorities. No hard feelings.”  

“ I do, probably in public, especially since I’ve never seen you. I’d like to not lose you. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “You may not have the same level of experience as others I’ve met, but I would be lying if I said you weren’t special. Teaching and guiding you has been a privilege.”  

“ So you’re saying you like my naivety? ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Yes. Is that a bad thing?”  

“ No. Like I’ve always said, I do appreciate the honesty. Let me get over this week and… We’ll figure it out, I promise. ” - Fawnteeth - 9:18 PM

 9:10 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Alright, pet.”  

You were instantly smacked by the reality of the situation. The fact he wasn’t just some handsome anonymous guy online who made you feel good - but a real living person who could have his hands on you.

For the first time in a long time you felt… nervous, no -

You were terrified .

Him being pushy made you nervous. You convinced yourself he had the right to be - after all, he established his needs on day one. You just… hadn’t been entirely open about your own experiences. You needed a plan - you needed time.

So, you managed to smooth it into a “ I’m really busy and still don’t feel ready right now ”, which Web thankfully accepted. 

Instead, he put the little pink lovense to use. Especially when you mentioned in passing a movie night with your roomies. 

 8:32 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Let me know when you start. Last chance to back out, Fawn. You sure you want to have me tease you while you’re with all your friends?

“ I’m sure. It can’t be… That bad. ” - Fawnteeth - 8:43 PM

You were wrong. It was bad .

You were practically shivering, a blanket bundled around you and pillow gripped tight that you had to bite to keep quiet as everyone else cackled about the movie in front of you. There was a new movie everyone demanded to watch. It was all childish fun, perfectly normal until you stuck a vibrator up your pussy. You would rather die than let them know you did this.

(it felt especially fucked up that you were on the verge of cumming while watching My Little Pony.)

He knew how to torture you. It was like he was there watching with you, choosing the perfect times to increase the settings. He had let the first twenty minutes go by without a touch, letting you adjust to the feeling of the egg inside you. Only when you had almost forgotten its presence did he turn it on, forcing you to make a startled gasp that you had to play off as a reaction to the movie, your cheeks beet-red and tingling.

It was turned off more than on, sometimes letting it buzz gently inside you for minutes at a time only to shock you with an intense burst of waves that had your toes curling. Half way through the movie you looked down to see a message ping you.

 9:20 PM - WebRigger2099 - “How are you doing? Color?

“ Is that the best you’ve got? Green .” - Fawnteeth - 9:21 PM

The regret you had for sending the message was instant, but you really were a glutton for punishment.

You damn near came then and there, power maxed out as he set a cruel rhythm that simulated a thrusting insertion. It only took you two minutes to have to excuse yourself into the next room. Sweat stuck your hair to your neck and you were so glad you decided to sit away from everyone else wrapped in your duvet. 

“ yellow yellow yellow oh my god ” - Fawnteeth - 9:23 PM

The buzzing stopped in an instant and you saw him typing.

9:23 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Go somewhere private and show me what I’ve done to you while you take a break, pet.”

“Yes sir” - Fawnteeth - 9:23 PM

You snuck back into your bedroom, leaning on the door in effort to keep it closed while you pulled your sweatshirt up and sleep shorts down. 

Your panties were soaked, even your shorts stained dark with your arousal. With one hand keeping your shirt up to show off the matching bra and panties he bought you at once, you sheepishly snapped a picture in front of your bathroom mirror, a dark mark on display for him. 

9:24 PM - WebRigger2099 - “Such a good girl. So wet for me. I don’t think I could resist tasting you if you were in front of me. I bet your cunt would be delicious.”

As agonizing as some of the games he played with you were, you couldn’t deny his compliments weren’t worth the potential shame.

He let you go after that, leaving you to try and scramble for the plot of the movie you had hardly paid attention to the past hour. You brushed off any comments of your forgetfulness as exhaustion. 

After all, you had class early the next day.

Your first assignment back from O’Hara was a fucking D. 

The entire sheet was smothered in red, making it apparent how inept at the work you “should” know. It was humiliating. You really didn’t enjoy being humiliated by that stupid old man. Revisions raised your 67 to a 72. 

(You had never gotten a C  in your whole god damn life, let alone a fucking D.)

You cried. Pathetically, sitting in the middle of your room, you cried . 

Your GPA was single-handedly going to be ruined by this one fucking professor

You’d given up everything for this chance to do what you actually loved and one egotistical asshole might ruin it. Maybe your estranged father was right - you should have stayed in nursing school. You’d be an RN by now, not a college freshman. At least being a geneticist (or biomedical engineer) made good money. Student loans weren’t a problem yet .. 

Your only saving grace was he did everything via the student portal and you sat with Taylor and Babs at the back of the classroom so you never really had to look at him, just hear his voice and watch the whiteboard. 

He wasn’t very good at explaining literally anything, often rambling on about the semantics of a lesson or discussing the practical use of certain proteins and DNA structures. You wanted to rip your hair out when he would say “the thing” practically twice a class. 

Who the fuck let this man teach? 

He knew what he was talking about - to himself. His diagrams and concepts on genomes were correct. He was a doctor of genetics - so it wasn’t like he didn’t know what he was talking about… but it didn’t mean he could teach others what it was.

You’d had bad teachers and were no newbie to learning on your own, but even still. 

A part of you wanted to cry to Web about it, but you didn’t. You’d rather him be that relief from your frustrations and commute than another person to complain to about it. You two had a very specific relationship and it was best to keep it that way. 

On Sunday Aurora put it upon herself to improve everyone’s mood. Beach trip to the shore tomorrow, so Princess Carebear declared.

You did want to show Web the new swimsuit you got, it was August and plenty warm enough to go swimming on the Jersey shore… you bought a strappy bikini with him in mind. 

It was pink and cheap. It made you feel girly. You even shaved your upper legs, ignoring old memories of your mother telling you only whores did that.

You were not a whore, just a girl with… a… master? Dominant? 

(he said you two were exclusive. that meant something.)

You had gotten so casual with photos you included your tattoo more than once, not knowing the disaster about to be unleashed on your life. The teary eyed fawn smothered in roses on your upper arm was your prized possession and your biggest identifier. 

Web never commented on it, you forgot it existed more often than not. After all, it was a gift to yourself. You told the tattoo artist you wanted your innermost self on your sleeve. So…a terrified fawn with big droopy eyes. 

Prey.

You didn’t think about your tattoo when you sat down in front of your mirror and snapped a few pictures trying on your new bikini. Your self confidence issues flared, but part of you knew Web’s words would fix it. He always said the sweetest things. He made you feel pretty. 

You didn’t need to improve your own self esteem if he could drill it into you, which he seemed more than happy to provide. 

It was something you two had talked at length - he wanted to build you up. Some submissives needed to be torn down, released, allowed to be an object or a hole. You wanted to feel special, like a prized… pet. 

You were a white hart; a dove, a unicorn. Something to be molded and groomed. You played at princesses as a little girl. Beauty and the Beast had been your favorite, it still was. 

Web was happy to oblige, he made it clear he enjoyed seeing you flustered and being the one to covet you like a prized pet. He however made it clear that he had high expectations for you.  

(It was your responsibility to tend to what he owned after all.)

You picked your favorite picture, it put emphasis on your cleavage, pushed together ever so slightly using your arm. You even tugged the bottom straps up to make your hips and thighs look bigger. You adjusted everything back to normal once you took the pics, biting your lower lip as you sent them to Web with a flirtatious heart emoji. 

7:05 AM - WebRigger2099 - “Look at you, little Fawn; So delicious. You make me want to hunt you down like a wolf and tear that cute outfit off of you.”

Mission completed, you tossed your beach clothes over your swimsuit, a tight white sleeveless tee and jean shorts. You threw flip flops in your knapsack and put on your sneakers. You forwent your typical homeless chic and your messy hair in favor of something more appropriate for the beach. 

Instead, you styled your hair cute. You put a pink scrunchie your baby sister Franny had gotten you when you were 17 in your hair. You missed her, soon she’d be out of high school and then maybe you could try reaching out. You didn’t want her to get punished.

Truth be told, you missed your whole family, shitty dad and pushover mom included.

You didn’t text Web in class. After all, he had a tendency to shift conversations to the suggestive -  you didn’t exactly talk about the weather, nor did you have that much in common. 

It felt nice to always have an idea of what your talks would be. It was such a contrast to navigating the rest of your life.

It was nearly 8:20 when you were finally out the door with Taylor and Babette for class. You three took the subway then caught a bus, then two city blocks and then across your college campus. 

It was Monday. So your first class… was beginner’s principles of genetics. Now Taylor’s slow walk of exhaustion made sense. You considered trying to talk to Dr. O’Hara about your grade. Taking 4 points off because you didn’t “fully” explain something was fucking ridiculous. You explained your reasoning but kept it succinct. You could only explain biochemicals for so long. 

How much could someone write on the components of a DNA molecule? 

Apparently more than you did, according to Dr. Asshole O’Hara.

You tried to not think about it as you scrolled instagram on your phone. Your feed was mostly summer vibes at this point of the year, but cottagecore was coming back in style. You often followed too many Japanese dog instagrams… but they were so much cuter than regular dog instagrams. 

You found yourself pausing to reply to the roommate group chat text about where on campus you all were meeting up as you strode into the classroom ten minutes earlier than usual. You often came in with like seven other people - but you, Babette, and Taylor were the only students in the classroom. 

You didn’t notice Dr. O’Hara, or how he was staring at your bare arm and your little teary eyed doe. You just reassured Aurora that driving in the city wasn’t that bad as you resumed walking to your seat.

Taylor groaned as they sat down, tossing the book bag they’d been using since the sixth grade on the floor and pulling their sticker-smothered laptop out. Babette sat down next to you, her jansport on her lap as she pulled out her tablet. Your own laptop was a second-hand Dell that you had taped the edges of to keep it from falling apart - it was easier for you to take digital notes. 

When you sat, you considered actually approaching Dr. O'Hara - you wanted to know what his expectations actually were, but when you glanced at the podium… he was missing.

You swore he was just there, standing, brooding like always. You shrugged and went to retrieve your own laptop. You weren’t often this early to class, maybe he came and left till 9:00 on the dot. He seemed like the kind of person to do that.

[formulaorange]

2023 Fall Anime

This is honestly a loaded season full of new shows based on relatively new manga. Lots to look forward to

Spy x Family - Season 2 One of the most fun SJ series that have come out in a while. Season 1 was killer, high hopes for season 2.

Goblin Slayer 2 I didn't realize they were even making a second season. This was such a killer series. I'm really hoping they don't fall into the many mid-tier fantasy tropes out there in anime right now. I thought the appeal of the show was really Goblin Slayer himself and less about the lackeys along the way. So we'll see how it goes.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End This is definitely one of my highly anticipated series. It's about an elf who was part of the Hero's party and her life after he dies. (Since elves live longer) Definitely a darker take on fantasy but has some really solid fantasy and adventure vibes.

Rising of the Shield Hero - Season 3 Season 2 was pretty disappointing and slow. While this looks like it'll be more fast paced, it does look like a tournament arc of sorts. I know some aren't a fan of that kind of arc, but honestly I think it's exactly what this series needs to pick things up again. We'll see.

The Faraway Paladin - Season 2 This was legitimately one of my favourite fantasy series. I thought it was really well written and didn't rush things like other series. I'm looking forward to this season.

Sequels/Continuations: Eminence in Shadow - Season 2 killer series with an anti-hero main character. Definitely worth checking out. After-School Hanako-Kun Hanako-kun spin off Dr. Stone Season 3 - Part 2 One of the best novel concept series with nothing else in it's genre to compare to. Definitely didn't drop the ball on the recent seasons and still worth watching. Dead Mount Death Play - Part 2 One that I didn't particularly enjoy, but has a decent sized manga following. Tokyo Revengers - Tenjiku Arc The continuation of the series. Might be just me but it feels like the series fell off after the first season. The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent - Season 2 A more mature take on fantasy isekai that just started to get into romance at the end of last season. A solid combo of shoujo genres. The Ancient Magus' Bride - Season 2 Part 2 One that I haven't had a change to check out yet but have only heard good things about. Hypnosismic - Season 2 a weirdly addictive musical/rap series. Unique characters and honestly solid rap battles. One I'll be enjoying. -- Related - Paradox Live - Music battle with what looks to be the same style of animation and solid character design. Definitely worth looking at if you're a fan of Hypmic. The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse A sequel of SDS. Looks like it could be a fun watch for the fans of the series. New:

Shangri La Frontier A new manga fantasy series. This may be a horrible way to describe but it is what it is - a new age SAO- full dive fantasy game. A gamer who only plays shit games, gets into a new massively popular MMORPG and is op. One that I'm excited for because it ticks all the fantasy game boxes I like.

Undead Unluck A relatively new manga series that gained a lot of traction in the last year or two. A gory action comedy that's super chaotic and a lot of fun.

Shy Brand new hero manga series about a shy girl and her anxieties and struggles going into the hero world who grows and gains confidence as she becomes a better hero.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions This is a manga series that I have kept forgetting the name of so never got a chance to read but all the covers for the manga look phenomenal. Likely the anime doesn't do him justice but it is what it is. Essentially sherlock in anime form. A PI with issues and the wholesome police detective work together to solve crime. Other New Series: Green - Fantasy Pink - Romance Red - Action Purple - Drama The Kingdoms of Ruins A world where witches were hunted down by humans as science surpassed magic. A kid who was raised by a witch swears revenge on mankind. This honestly looks solid. The animations are very cool looking and the mc seems to be an anti-hero. Will be looking at this one. Under Ninja A well known manga series about modern ninjas. Definitely a unique series for this season. The Apothecary Diaries A historical medical mystery show. I've heard the name before and I've also only heard good things. Will be worth a watch. A Girl & Her Guard Dog The granddaughter of a crime syndicate goes to highschool out of town and the current young boss lies his way into the same school. Would be cute romance if it weren't for the fact she's 15 and he's 26.. Butareba - The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig What the title says. A girl finds him and the story goes from there. I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness The usual light novel title. Honestly, doesn't seem as yikes as I initially thought, might just be harmless breaking the rules kinda thing. Could be fun, also a Capybara that strikes fear into people's hearts. My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer Looks like a wholesome series where an adventurer finds a baby, raises it and she becomes so strong she's busy working all the time. Just a cute father daughter relationship in a fantasy setting about her wanting to come take time to see him but being caught up in OP fantasy battles. Ragna Crimson Dragons vs Humanity - a human and a dragon team up to destroy all the dragons. Action fantasy series. Berserk of Gluttony I honestly added this because I thought it was hilarious. Looks like a combo of knock offs - the Gluttony skill from Tensura (reincarnated as a slime) and the mc being called Fate with the main girl who looks exactly like Sabre. I'll be skipping but its' here so you know.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Bunch of Stuff Coming in August

July 2023 Wk 5

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Sat iQIYI) 2-3 of 8 - Oh good, we now know that Thailand has the same statutory rape laws as the US. Dub con is as dub con does. MEANWHILE Oh my God I love evil lawyer cutie so much. Him and his beautiful weaponized smile, maybe my new favorite character. I like the way this director is playing with noir mystery tropes, settings, and archetypes too - it’s feeling very 60s pulp, I’m getting gay Travis McGee vibes. Grandma knowing that her grandson likes boys is so sweet. I have to be completely frank here, this is what I wanted from both Manner of Death and KP. I truly love this show

Hidden Agenda that isn’t hidden (Sun GMMTV YouTube) ep 3 of 10 - It’s a very Cyrano de Bergerac kind of narrative... If Cyrano fell in love with Christian instead of Roxanne. Mock date was fun. 

Low Frequency (Sat iQIYI) ep 4 of 8 - Into the lion’s den. Investigation begins. Why isn’t the ghost acting lookout? Who are these random side characters? I’m confused. Half way through kiss is right on schedule tho. 

Wedding Plan (Weds YT & iQIYI) ep 2 of 7 - The kiss was nice, but it’d be nicer if Nuea had punched Lom. Manipulative arse. A trash watch is happening!

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 4 of 12 - Meh. 

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI) ep 5 of 8 eps - The hazing has begun + secret relationship and it’s kinda like a v soft SOTUS. Dino is getting a bit too controlling and obsessive for me so it slid down the ranks. I much prefer La Cusine’s version of this dynamic. The friends protecting Dino’s interests were funny tho - boy is so obsessed he outsources his stalking. 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 10 of 12 - Max is BEST BOY. I hate Kawi. Tra la la. Trash watch here.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thurs Viki) 2 of 8 - Our ex idol is a total FLIRT. Nice to see an uke with agency. I mean baby girl is a newbie worker bee… but still flirty, good for you, sweetie. I see your little lip bite and so does your soon to be husband. Speaking of, I love Choi Jun’s style of seme aggression: a little sleezy + a bit too handsy + ultra clever with his words. Plus tie tug!!! Also threatening to take off your TAILORED suit so baby wears your shirt and smells like you? HOT. Boy you sped right past American style and into Italian - that’s real Corinthian leather, that is. 

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) 5 of 10 eps - Mid series kiss right on schedule. Thank you for never upsetting me, Taiwan. Omg. Such boyfriends. Only Taiwan gets this sappy. I have to say, I watch this show after Tokyo on purpose. (I need the pallet cleanser.) Still, I’m scared that the perception will be that Bu Xia is using Jiang Chi, not in love with him, when the truth about ghosts comes out. Why doesn’t BX’s useless sister do something for her disaster brother? I guess JC likes a needy boy? Oh no, the kiss confusion. Lip touch but rejection (?). Nooooo. I suppose they have to draw this out for 10 eps. Gah, they’re so cute. But BX is a bit dim, isn’t he? Poor thing. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) 4 of 12 eps - Shin is such a worrywart, over protective, over the top boyfriend. I guess we saw a little bit of give from Minato? More than usual, baby steps. This is Japan after all.

Tokyo in April is... AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - Japan’s favorite trope = the running of the gays. Kazama knows everything now. Ep ends on one of my few triggers. SKIP! Japan you better NOT go there.

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 11-12fin - terrible ending, he turned back into a cat and the whole thing was pointless. I am very annoyed. 4/10 FATALLY FLAWED 

It’s airing but ...

Stay With Me ... NO I WILL NOT! And you can’t make me.

In case you missed it

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) finished its run at 7 eps. It’s mostly English & set in LA (shudder) so I did not bother. I say little to no chatter about this (that’s normal with the Pinoy stuff tho). Did anyone watch and enjoy? 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Coming August 2023

8/1 Stay Still (Hong Kong Tues YouTube) 5 eps - Yes we have had BL from Hong Kong before, but that was... before... who knows what it’ll be like now. Hayden, moves into a new apartment and starts a complicated relationship with his neighbor’s grandson, Damien, after an unexpected kiss. Meanwhile: Archie rekindles a romance with his high school sweetheart, Kelvin, who is now married.

8/11 Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) 10 eps - Hyun, Minwoo and Joo-Hyuk are looking forward to their freshman year at college. But trials and tribulations of love that await them outside the classroom: from learning about maturity to being unable to forget the scars of past lovers. (All new cast from season 1.) 

8/12 My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat ????) 8 eps - hum. 

8/19 Love in Translation (Thai Sat One31) ? eps - Two strangers start working in a cafe together.

8/20 My Universe series begins (Thai Sun iQIYI) 24 episodes - This is sampler pack BL, 12 pairs, each pair gets 2 episodes, not entirely sure on the order they’ll drop in. Known couples include EarthBank from Destiny Seeker and KaownahTurbo from Love Stage!!!, mostly fresh faces otherwise. Jane to direct several. 

8/22 Kisseki: Dear to Me formerly known as Miracle (Taiwan Tues ????) 13 eps - From screenwriter Lin Pei Yu (We Best Love, H3: Trapped) features a student doctor forced to take care of a gangster. I love the premise and like the writer, I’m thinking Viki or Gaga will get this one.  

8/24 Man Suang (Thailand movie domestic cinemas) - historical drama about Thai burlesque with KP’s MileApo. Tong is in this one too? 

8/? Sing My Crush previously Follow The Wind (Korea ????) 8 eps - supposed to have released in the first half of 2022 this is a adaption of Myung’s webtoon, from the director of My Sweet Dear, and the Love Tractor production house, looks like Korea does About Youth.

8/? Why R U? (Korean remake)  is supposed to be out this month, filming started in sept 22. I find everything about this hilarious. I mean if Korea remakes it, we lose all the sexy and then... would we have a story at all? No we would not. Not even for six short eps. It’d be like one of those mesh shopping bags. 

We can probably expect a new BL from GMMTV too, to slot into BMF’s spot mid month. 

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I do love a hyung romance, and this aggressive ghost-ish thing is working for me. (Low Frequency) 

Hidden Agenda + My Ride. 

So coy

I agree with @heretherebedork​ that these two make a great side couple but I am utterly in love with...

HER. (All Laws of Attraction.) 

(Last week)

[overtrred28]

Stargirl | matildas x original character fic [part sixteen]

Words; 2.9k

Pairings; matildas team x astrid taylor (OC)

Warnings; swearing

masterlist

Astrid was now home for the Christmas break, allowing herself close to three weeks before she had to return to Sweden for training ahead of the last leg of the season. Her schedule had been quite hectic since the October international window, long training sessions, four last club games and the final Matildas games in mid november. 

The best part of the games against Sweden and Thailand, were that the squad were back on home soil and with their families for longer ahead of the Christmas break.

In the match against Sweden at AAMI park in Melbourne, Astrid played a phenomenal game of football for a whole second half, bringing on fresh legs and a certain attitude that comes with playing for your country on home soil. Herself, Caitlin, Mary and Sam had managed to score and provide an easy 4-0 win over the Swedes. 

Astrid hoped her parents might have been able to make it to the game, but timing just didn’t work to get them down to Melbourne. It didn’t phase her though, she knew they were cheering from home and the next game against Thailand just so happened to be at her home stadium in the Central Coast. 

Astrid hadn’t been home in what felt like forever and the emotions hit her hard after the Thailand match. When her number appeared on the substitute board to take over for Courtnee, she could hear her family cheering louder than ever from the sideline, trying not to look over at the friends and family box in fear of distracting herself. 

But that would actually be the thing that egged her on even more. They were already leading 2-0 but that didn’t mean they had to stop there. She was far out on the right when the ball fell to her feet,not her usual position when playing for Hammarby but one she found herself falling into more when with the Matildas. 

She tried dribbling it in towards Sam who was up front but a Thailand defender was not letting up, so the smartest move was to get up near the corner and let the opposition knock it out. And that’s exactly what happened.  

The crowd cheered behind her as she walked past Steph who was making her way over to take the corner, giving each other a high five in passing before Astrid made her way to the middle, standing out just further than the group and away from opposing players like they had planned in training. 

Steph raised her hands when ready, eyeing up who was available in the box to knock it in but the Thailand players were all over the Matildas, ready to deflect. So Steph struck hard, angling the ball slightly farther over, watching it fly towards Astrid who was ready out the back. It had become known that Astrid was able to strike hard and fast from far out, as well as very close to the net. So Astrid caught the ball with her chest, knocking it down to her right boot and taking a wide step with her left. 

The crowd went silent as they watched in anticipation, the ball flying high over the players heads, slipping past the hands of the goalie and directly into the back of the net. The crowd roared in celebration, Astrid’s family jumping up and down from the box as they watched her run directly to Steph and jump onto her. 

The girls were all screaming as they ran and dogpiled the pair on the pitch, Astrid and Steph still holding tightly onto each other as the pile began to disperse. The game ended 3-0 in the Matildas favour, making sure to consolidate the Thailand players before congratulating their teammates and eventually starting their lap around the pitch.

“What a shot kid, you fucking weapon.” Astrid felt a pair of hands jump on her shoulders, turning with a smile to find Sam’s face next to her own. 

“Yeah whatever.” Astrid tried to shrug the compliment off, always very humble and quiet about her skills and rejecting any genuine praise.

“It was incredible and you know it. Go celebrate with your family.” Sam shook her shoulders and pushed her in the direction of her friends and family in the stands. She ran over while clapping to the crowd around her but was more focused on making it to her parents. 

“MUM! DAD!” Astrid smiled once she spotted the back of their heads, pulling their attention to her and away from their current conversation. She made it to the barrier and began climbing over so she could give them a proper hug. 

She always felt safe in their arms and it had been so long since the last time that every bit of homesickness she bottled up over the last few months began to come up. 

“I missed you so much.” Tears pooled in her eyes and Joanna pulled Astrid’s face out from her chest, looking slightly up at her due to the height difference. 

“Oh my darling. We missed you too.” She wiped her daughters' tears and smiled at her, Mark standing beside them with a hand on Astrid’s shoulder. 

“That was a cracking goal my girl.” Mark shook her shoulder as she laughed with him, shaking her head at him. 

“Thanks dad.” She gave him a side hug, Mark giving her a kiss on the head. 

“Clearly working hard over there in Sweden huh?” He commented and she silently nodded, a pang to her heart as she remembered again just how far away she really lived from them. 

“Yeah, guess so.” Astrid let out a small chuckle. It’s very easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of playing matches and training, that often Astrid forgot she was only 18 and living halfway across the world away from her family. But it was what she wanted and needed to do for her career. 

“Do you need to head back and get ready to leave with the team?” Her mum broke Astrid out of her thoughts, rubbing her arm gently. 

“Uh yeah.” She looked back at the field and saw them wrapping up their interactions with fans. “Are we still on for lunch tomorrow?” Astrid looked between her parents. 

“Of course.” Joanna and Mark nodded. “Go on darling, we’ll see you later.” Joanna signalled for Astrid to head off, seeing Kyra, Charli and Courtney waiting for her at the tunnel, waving over at her parents. 

“Bye.” She blew them a kiss and jumped back over the barrier, waving to a few fans who were calling out her name, stopping for a minute to take a few photos. 

“Excuse me?” A young boy called out from the end near the tunnel, Astrid turning her head to find him, walking over and bending down to his height at the barrier. 

“Hi there. What’s your name?” She put her hand out for a high five. 

“Liam.” He smiled and completed the high five.

“Nice to meet you Liam, did you enjoy the game?” She asked him, holding on the barrier to talk to him. He nodded eagerly in excitement. 

“I cheered really loudly when you scored.” He jumped up and down, Astrid laughing softly. “You’re my favourite.” He smiled largely and Astrid’s heart practically melted. 

“Well thank you Liam.” She placed a hand on her heart. “Kyra, did you hear that?” She looked over to the brunette, grinning. “He said I’m his favourite.” She raised his eyebrows and Kyra dramatically clutched her heart in pain. Astrid laughed alongside Liam as they watched Charli and Courtney shaking their heads at Kyra in disapproval. “Well Liam, would you like my jersey? Since I’m your favourite?” His jaw dropped and Astrid started to stand. 

“Yes, please.” He asked while in shock, nodding his head excitingly. 

“Okay, one sec.” Astrid ran to find a bib, putting it on in place of the jersey and heading back to Liam and his parents who were standing behind him. She was given a sharpie and put her signature under her number before handing it to him. 

“Thank you!” He looked up at her with wide eyes and a smile.

“You’re more than welcome bud.” She gave him another high five before walking down the tunnel with the girls. “Sucked in.” Astrid stuck her tongue out at Kyra confidently but quickly lost it when Kyra began chasing her down the tunnel towards the change rooms.

“You two are children!” Charli yelled as they ran down the hallway, Astrid looking back to see how closely Kyra was running behind her until she finally caught up, wrapping her arms around Astrid and picking her up and throwing Astrid over her shoulder. 

“Put me down!” Astrid pounded on Kyra’s back as the older girl just laughed and carried her into the changeroom where the rest of the team were getting unready after the match. “Please someone help me.” She cried out as Kyra continued to carry her, now spinning around in circles. 

“We’ve learnt it’s best not to become involved when it comes to you two.” Alanna snickered from the corner, Caitlin and Mackenzie laughing alongside her as the rest of the group silently agreed. 

“You all suck!” Astrid continued to hit Kyra’s back but it seemed to be no use. “Mini!” Astrid spotted Katrina walking in the room with Harper and reached her hands out to her. “Please tell your child to let me down.”

“Not my child.” Mini stated but deep down she knew that these younger players were her kids in a way, and she doesn’t like when her kids misbehave. “Kyra put her down before she throws up all over us.” Mini crossed her hands over her chest and Kyra knew that meant business. So she slowly stopped spinning and gently placed Astrid down. 

“Thank you Mini.” Astrid brushed her hair back down, gave Kyra a death stare and collected her things before walking to the showers without another word. 

“Ooooo silent treatment. In the bad books now Kyra.” Charli commented from the doorway, everyone else laughing at the midfielder standing in the middle of the room looking very lost. 

Astrid continued to ignore Kyra, not only because she was mad at her but also because it was fun to watch her walk around with puppy eyes and wait for Astrid to talk to her. Even on the bus ride, the younger took a seat next to Steph and Kyra was left to find another one to sulk in and watch Astrid from a distance. 

The next day after recovery, Astrid had been picked up by her parents and taken to lunch, wanting to catch up with their daughter after so long apart, even though they message and facetime as often as they can with the time differences and Astrid’s busy schedule. 

Meanwhile, Kyra spent those few hours thinking up ways to apologise to Astrid, something she normally wouldn't do after being childish like that. But the fact Astrid had yet to speak to her, she felt really bad and wanted to make it up to her. 

So when Astrid returned to her hotel room, she was surprised to hear a knock on her door, interrupting her packing process. She didn’t know what to expect when opening the door but it certainly wasn’t this.

“What the fuck Kyra?” Astrid struggled not to laugh at the ridiculous sight she saw in front of her.  Kyra was standing there, a pout on her face and a small cake that had Taylor Swift’s face printed on it in her hands. 

“I’m sorry for yesterday, I just wanted to have fun and I took it too far. Will you please forgive me?” Kyra finally spoke and Astrid could not believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

“You’re actually such an idiot, oh my god.” Astrid finally let out a laugh, in absolute disbelief that this was real. She pulled her phone out from her shorts pocket and took a photo of Kyra in the doorway. “I appreciate it though, thank you.” Kyra seemed to let her breath go after hearing that. 

“You’re welcome. Can I come in?” Kyra asked and Astrid opened the door wider, using her hand to gesture back into the room, shutting the door after Kyra made her way in. 

“Where did you get this?” Astrid further inspected the cake Kyra had now placed on desk, pulling out two forks from her pocket. 

“Some cake shop I found online said they did realistic photos on cakes. So I called them up and asked for a Taylor Swift cake.” Kyra spoke casually, watching Astrid’s facial expression change with every word. 

“That is genuinely the funniest thing I’ve ever heard you say, and you’ve said a lot of things.” Astrid bit back her smile. “But to be honest I was only ignoring you to see how long you could go without begging for my forgiveness. And it's safe to say I’m impressed.” Kyra smiled at her and handed her a fork. 

“Thank you. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without talking to you ever.” Kyra spoke as she ate a bite of cake. Astrid ate her own piece and thought about it. 

“I think you’re right.” She nodded before another thought popped into her head. “Should we be eating this?” She paused before her second bite, Kyra shrugging in response as she shovelled more cake into her face. 

“Who cares? We’re technically on break and we can call it a cheat day.” Astrid silently agreed with her and ate more cake. 

They sat in silence as they ate almost half of the cake together before lying back on Astrid’s bed and slowly entering food comas. 

“That was really good.” Astrid finally spoke and Kyra hummed in agreement. “Thank you for doing that Ky, you didn’t have to.”Astrid turned her head to look at Kyra beside her. 

“I had to make it up to you in some way. Thought that was a pretty good way.” Kyra turned her head and smiled at her. 

“Yeah it was.” Astrid spoke then let out a yawn. “I think it's time for a nap.” She rolled onto her side more.. 

“I’ll go then.” Kyra began to sit up, Astrid furrowed her brows at the sudden movement. 

“You can stay,” The words rushed out very quickly, stopping Kyra in her tracks. “Only if you like. You don’t have to.” Astrid corrected herself, Kyra turning to look down at her. 

“Uh… sure.” Kyra nodded and slowly laid back down beside Astrid, turning to face her body inwards and looking at Astrid. “So you forgive me then?” Kyra wanted confirmation that all was forgiven and no longer in the bad books. 

“You know… I could never stay mad at you Ky.” Astrid’s eyes fluttered shut as she found herself drifting off into sleep. Kyra bit back a smile and slowly closed her own eyes. 

“Oh…my…god.” Charli whispered as she entered her and Astrid’s shared room, trying to compose herself as she stumbled upon Astrid and Kyra asleep on the bed…cuddling… together. Throughout their food coma nap they had subconsciously moved closer and Astrid was now resting upon Kyra, who had laid a hand on her back. 

“Shhhhhh. Don’t wake them.” Mini gripped Charli’s arm, the rest of the team trailed behind them, wanting to find out where the pair of young misfits had been hiding for the past two hours and why they were yet to turn up for dinner. Most of them expected the duo to be plotting ways to mess up the other players' lives or arguing with one another over something stupid. But what they were looking at was certain to be at the very bottom of their list’s. 

“Enough gawking!” Steph had begun quietly pushing everyone back out the door, all sharing the photos with one another for later blackmailing purposes. “Leave them alone.” She reached Charli and Mini who were both trying to hold back their laughter as they urged closer to the bed with their phones, Steph gripping their elbows and escorting out of the room. 

The door closed and that’s when they both finally woke up, Astrid opening her eyes to find her arm had ended up draped over Kyra’s waist and her head resting upon her chest. She looked up to meet Kyra’s eyes, both of them very confused as to how they ended up like this, quickly separating from one another. 

“Shit, we almost missed dinner.” Kyra looked at the time on her phone, now seeing multiple messages from Charli, Mini, Courtney and even Steph asking where she was, Astrid receiving the same amount as she reached for hers.

“Let’s go then.” Astrid brushed her hair back down before standing and walking to the door, Kyra following behind. 

A week later Astrid was back in her childhood bedroom and enjoying time off from her hectic schedule, but finding herself missing the craziness of living and playing abroad with some of her favourite people. 

So it was decided among the Sweden squad that they would spend the quality time needed with their families before and during Christmas, but meet up together again to celebrate new years with one another and welcome in the new year while holidaying in Fiji. And because they were on their break, things were allowed to get a little crazy. And what happens in Fiji… stays in Fiji.

to be continued...

[carnagechicken]

the Florida Panthers won the Stanley cup

and with that I have officially watched my first season of hockey.

I started as a fan of the penguins with an affection towards Flower as well. Now I’m ending the season a kraken fan, pens fan, flower fan and with more mattdrai interest than I expected.

The kraken stuff happened in mid April really suddenly, but ever since I started dabbling in hockey fandom in late 2021 I knew that becoming a kraken fan was going to happen eventually, a matter of when not if. Those beautiful jerseys, my love of cephalopods, and the team’s newness were strong draws but I still needed to have a special little guy to seal the deal. I discovered Adam Larsson in late march (thanks @angry-geno-is-score your fics* are brilliant<3) and what do you know that’s kraken hockey baby!

They’re probably going to be my main team next season. Still love the pens, their narratives are exquisite, but my brain wants kraken more.

(The mattdrai is a playoffs discovery that I fear I’ll never recover from. Leon’s disdain for the media and Matthew’s understanding that hockey is supposed to be theatre entertainment is *chef’s kiss*)

And with that here is a list, in no particular order, of some of notable things I saw this season,

: Tristan Jarry goalie goal!!! There was so much to like about this, the bench reaction, EK shaking Jars vigorously, Lars Eller going for a head boop and missing and then going for another one with more force, Ned trying to get Jars to skate over to do a fist bump line at the bench, Jars looking so bashful at the attention. :When Bryan Rust had that mustache and it was….kinda working. : Jeff Carter, the team Old Man that season, scoring like 3 breakaways and 2 short handed goals. : that shootout that went for 12 rounds (thank you Ned). : when Tanger got on all fours and started rocking back and forth in the locker room during Sully’s pre game speech (seriously wtf). : when Rusty scored in OT, had it waved off, and like ten seconds later scored again in a cooler way. : Sully becoming a grandpa<3. : when Jeff was a healthy scratch (the only time) and when he was asked about it was basically like ‘whatever, it doesn’t bother me, I just work here’. This was when I really started to like him btw. : Flower getting to 1000 games!! : Flower reaching the most wins!!! : kreider pulling out Matthew Tkachuk’s mouth guard and failing to throw it over the glass. : Florida beating Boston *again*. : that game were Sid got so pissed he screamed ‘no! No!’ at a ref so loud you could hear him over the crowd. He then proceeded to tell the ref ‘you fucked up’ :when Erik Karlsson made a mistake that sent the game to ot, scored in ot and then fell to his knees in relief. : that 10 to 2 victory over the sharks that was also Sid’s 1200 game. : sid scoring a goal off his ass. It had to happen one day : the pens ot win against vancouver back in Feb. The notable thing was that I was there with my dad and sisters <3

It's the little things that make hockey so fun!

Here's to a wonderful 24/25 season!

(*Seriously, if you haven't already, read Serenity in Those Deep Waters by @angry-geno-is-score on ao3, it's *fabulously* emotional and I can't recommend it enough)

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - STAR TREK

PROPAGANDA

T'Pol

1.) dressed as a sex object. far more qualified & experienced than the (male) captain yet treated as less capable. had her agency removed when her past rape was revealed against her wishes & the episode treated it as a good thing. her taking command of the ship got humanity wiped out in an alternate timeline & she "redeemed herself" by becoming a housewife. there was a scene where the captain fell face first into her boobs. whatever they paid her actress, it should have been at least 3x more

2.) i think you can most clearly see the misogyny t'pol deals with in her costuming and makeup. she is given clear special treatment to make her look "more attractive": she wears catsuits throughout the show (despite neither institution she works for having any other similar uniforms, even for other women), sexy little silk pajamas, a cropped jumpsuit one time (even tho…it's a one piece?? and makes no sense to be cropped????), and SFX makeup that doesnt make her look as "alien" as other members of the literal alien species she's a part of. enterprise's main crime is sexualization, and while everyone (quite literally EVERY member of the cast) is hit with it at least once, t'pol pretty much never gets a break. there's a difference between sexy and overly sexualized, and ent is FAR into the over sexualized side of that spectrum. love you t'pol wish your canon was better xoxo

3.) The classic “Rick Berman Star Trek needs a woman who is strong and competent and part of the crew but gets skintight jumpsuits with low necklines instead of standard issue Starfleet uniforms to show cleavage and keep the male audience on board”.

Kes

1.) Poor Kes had it so bad. She's an Ocampan, which is a kind of alien with psychic powers and a 9-year long life-span. I was pretty interested in what they were going to do with her character when I started watching because in theory with the show having seven seasons, we could have seen her go through pretty much her whole life span over the course of the show. Unfortunately, most of her character is tied up in her terrible boyfriend Neelix, who is at a lower estimate in his mid 30s, and at an upper estimate his mid 50. He met her and started dating her while she was taken prisoner after being kidnapped. Neelix is mostly meant to be comic relief, he acts like an annoying, forcefully cheerful clown for the majority of his time on-screen (when he's not having war flashbacks) except for when he's interacting with Kes. With Kes he is possessive, controlling and manipulative. He's constantly accusing her of trying to cheat on him or leave him, throwing himself pity parties whenever she talks to another man and belittling her. And worst of all he's often framed as being in the right. She hardly gets any screen-time that isn't somehow actually about her boyfriend, the Doctor she's the assistant of or another male crew member who has a crush on her (also too old for her). When she does it's pretty much always focused on her psychic powers and not her as a person.

Some of the highlights of her time on the show include the time that Neelix's lungs were stolen, and after he spends the whole episode feeling sorry for himself and accusing her of being happy about it because he thinks she wants to leave him she donates him one of her lungs. Then there's the time some space anomaly makes her prematurely fertile so she has to decide if she ever wants kids right at that moment, and for some reason, almost the whole episode is focused on whether Neelix wants kids. She eventually breaks up with Neelix. Which is great! But she was possessed at the time. So she didn't even get to do that herself.

She was written off the show at the start of season 4 when another character was added and they needed to boot someone. She "ascends to a higher plane of existence". And then everyone on the crew proceeds to completely forget her about her straight afterwards. I'm not sure anyone was actually sad about her essentially dying. She comes back in a later episode called "Fury" which is about her trying to take revenge on the crew for her poor treatment. You'd think this would be good. But for some reason, she's mostly angry at the captain for allowing her to get on the ship in the first place, despite one of her few character traits being that she's adventurous and always wanting to learn things that no one else has. So the episode mostly focuses on trying to pick apart one of the only parts of her character that was well-defined and consistent. Her past self does tell her that she's forgotten what she truly wanted or something to talk her out of her revenge plan. I'm not really sure what they were going for. She tells the captain she was only an innocent child, so she shouldn't have been allowed to make the decision to get on the ship. She is never shown to be angry at Neelix. The man who started dating her when she was according to her future self a child. And a prisoner.

2.) She's kind of the sexy born yesterday character who's already taken. She's an alien whose race only lives nine years, so when i say that she got married at two that's a bit less alarming. She lived underground her "whole" life (about a year and a half) before she left her town, to find the surface, got kidnapped and then rescued by Neelix, a middle-aged scavenger/smuggler/chef who looks like a Cats character from a regular aging alien race. Neelix promises to show her new places and they apparently fall in love and get married and then Neelix takes her to the Voyager, and she leaves her home forever. At the age of 2. She lived in a cave her whole life, then found this gross little man, married him for some reason, and then was convinced to leave everything she had ever known, her entire family and life, to get on a star ship whose express mission was getting to the other side of the universe as fast as they were able.

Once on the ship she was able to find some independence and her own interests, and eventually left neelix, but god their entire relationship was really just loser old man and naive teenager and it was soooooooo uncomfortable

3.) I rewatched the Kes parts of Voyager. The "General Observations" section can be taken as a TL;DR (sorry for the essay). Here are a few not-so-fun facts about Kes:

General Observations:

Kes was kidnapped 4 times over the course of the show.

Kes often talks like a child especially early on in the show. She acts like a classic Disney Princess; sweet, but not quite understanding what's going on around her.

A lot of Kes's character revolves around the fact that she is very young, and a lot of the more uncomfortable aspects of her treatment revolve around this too. It's not like it's an impossible concept to pull off, in the same show the EMH is actually younger than Kes, and has several romantic relationships that don't feel super creepy in the same way most of Kes's do. This is because the writers don't make him act like a child and they actually give him agency in his relationships.

Kes's people, the Ocampa, live underground on a desert planet. Kes travelled to the surface when she was less than 1 year old, where she was captured by the people living there and tortured for information using "every method of persuasion" that they know. This is where she met and started dating Neelix. He explicitly says he thinks she is dating him because she owes him for getting her out of that situation, and yet it seems like the writers think this is a cute and heartwarming relationship.

Nearly all of her screen time is devoted to emotionally counseling the men around her, helping their character development, comforting and caring for them. She is hardly ever shown to have negative emotions ("Fury" aside), and then it's generally only when a man she cares about is in trouble. This includes when she is kidnapped. Even then she has to be calm, understanding and empathetic.

Kes's established character traits: curious, smart, psychic, caring, kind, young, innocent, naive. Pretty much all of these get tossed out the window in "Fury". She kills people she's known most of her life and tries to sell everyone out to organ harvesters because she gets "confused". She decides not to do this in the end because her younger self tells her she's acting out of character. This episode is one of the worst instances of character assassination I have ever seen.

In about 10 of her 70 total episodes on the show Kes makes a significant contribution to the plot that is not focused on a man. Most of those were more her acting as a psychic plot device rather than anything about her as an actual character. There was only one episode "Before and After", which I would count as truly being devoted to Kes as a character.

Practically every man Kes comes across is attracted to her. Often her attractiveness is mentioned in the same breath as the fact that she is literally a 1-3 year old.

Kes's love interests: Neelix, the EMH, Tom Paris, Tuvix, Ameron (while possessed), Nori (while possessed), Zahir. Aside from Zahir, she has pretty much no agency in any of these relationships.

Neelix calls Kes "sweetie", and talks to her like she's a child. When he's not shouting at her, anyway. Kes unconditionally loves and adores him for some reason.

Observations while watching:

When Neelix's lungs are stolen Kes refuses to leave his side and one of the first things she does is offer to donate one of her own, refuses to let the EMH perform any medical procedures until she's sure it's safe. Meanwhile, Neelix goes on a jealous rant at her because she called another man by his first name.

When Kes donates a lung Neelix refuses at first because the operation would be too dangerous, but Kes says "you've done so much for me, let me give you something once", implying that Kes owes him a lung for him helping free her from the people torturing her.

The episode "Elogium" was apparently meant to be a metaphor for teen pregnancy. With Kes as the teen and Neelix (whose actor says that he sees him as being in his 50s) as the father.

Ocampan puberty apparently happens between the ages of 4 and 5. Kes starts the series at less than 1 year old, and leaves at 3. She is apparently at an age where it would be dangerous to conceive a child in "Elogium". She is not sure she is finished growing. She has been dating Neelix for about a year (possibly more) at this point.

When the EMH hallucinates Kes as his wife, she makes him promise not to tell Neelix, because he tends to get "a little jealous"

In "Elogium", Neelix interrogates Kes over the fact that Tom Paris says "see you later" to her because he "Sees the way he looks at (her). (He) used to look at women that way (he) knows what it means." Neelix is later implied to be in the right here, Kes is being naive thinking Tom Paris could be her friend, apparently.

In "Twisted" Kes turns two years old. Tom Paris gives her a locket for her birthday. Neelix gets pissed off because he thinks he's trying to charm her. Neelix is, again framed as being in the right here.

Kes has a very good memory and is able to remember where everyone's rooms are. When she demonstrates this, Neelix implies she knows this because she's slept with every man on the ship. At the end of this episode, Kes decides to put his photo in her locket to always keep him close.

When Kes is upset that Neelix attacked Tom Paris over her, the EMH tells her she should consider herself lucky to have two men fighting over her.

Tom Paris admits to Neelix that he finds Kes attractive, but says that he won't try anything with her because he respects Neelix. He asks if Neelix would allow him to be her friend. Because who cares what Kes wants right? I guess if Neelix had said no he would have just stopped talking to her?

Tom says Kes is very devoted to Neelix, and Neelix admits he thinks she's only with him because he saved her life and she's grateful he freed her from captivity and she owes him. He is dating her despite this. This is never addressed.

Tanis, another Ocampan, calls her innocent and naive, so she seems quite young even by the standards of her own species.

Tuvix, having inherited Neelix's manipulative tendencies tries to manipulate Kes into begging the captain for his life.

Kes gets kidnapped by caveman aliens. When someone comes to rescue her, the cavemen try to trade another woman to them so they can keep Kes.

Kes goes into a coma and acts as the damsel in distress again in "Sacred Ground"

"This is typical of you Neelix… it bothers you that I'm making friends of my own, you always have to involve yourself somehow." "You can spend time with anyone you want" "As long as I spend most of it with you… I never realised a relationship could be any different. I've never been with anyone but you." Kes when she breaks up with Neelix. Except this isn't Kes because she's actually possessed at the time. She doesn't even get agency in her own breakup.

Kes is dressed in skintight leather trousers and high heels and tries to seduce everyone while possessed by a male warlord. He describes Kes as a "little girl".

In "Darkling" Kes starts wearing form fitting jumpsuits somewhat similar to the ones Seven of Nine wears (though not quite as tight). This is possibly because she's supposed to look more mature, and she starts having "young adult" storylines instead of teenager storylines.

"Everyone seems to be treating me like a child, I'm three years old now"

The EMH kidnaps Kes in "Darkling" when he turns temporarily evil. His treatment of her in this episode includes shoving her into a wall and putting his hand around her neck, repeatedly grabbing and shoving her, holding her at gunpoint and throwing her off a cliff.

The evil EMH kidnaps Kes because she wants to leave the ship to travel with her new boyfriend. This is framed as the good inside of him because he is trying to "protect" her. Kes decides to stay on the ship because of this. She never expresses any negative emotions about this incident.

In "Before and After" Kes goes through her entire life in reverse. In the future she sees, she has married Tom Paris and had a daughter with him, and her daughter has a child with Harry Kim, who was the best man at Kes and Tom's wedding. This is by far the best Kes episode, but she never really gets to react to anything that happens in it. Soon after this she ascends to a higher plane of existence in "The Gift".

In "Before and After" Kes sees threats in advance and warns the crew about them, preventing the Captain's death in the future. This isn't really acknowledged.

Half of "The Gift" is focused on Seven of Nine and the Borg. Not even Kes's send-off episode is really focused on her.

In "The Gift", Neelix and Kes have one final scene together. Neelix gets quite self-pitying again and says she broke up with him because he was holding her back. Kes says that wasn't it but doesn't say why it happened. This is the only time they directly talk about their breakup outside of when Kes was possessed.

When Kes decides to ascend, the captain begs her to reconsider. Kes insists she has not lost her judgement or come under an alien influence. Captain Janeway tells her she's family and tearfully embraces her. Tuvok puts out a candle in mourning (everyone forgets about her after this episode ends though).

In "Fury" Kes is back in physical form somehow, despite ascending into some higher plane of existence in the last episode she appeared. She is also much older in appearance.

In "Fury" Kes gets onto the ship, starts exploding everything she can with her psychic powers, kills everyone she comes across and goes back in time to the start of the show to kidnap herself.

Kes and Neelix have a scene in "Fury". It makes Neelix much nicer than he ever was in the early parts of the show (especially to Kes). He actually notices something is wrong and asks her how she is and prepares her favourite meal for her because she had a bad day. I'm not sure he ever even asked her how she was before. I guess at this point they must have wanted to pretend the relationship was a lot less creepy and unhealthy than it actually was. Especially since Kes is the villain of the episode.

Older Kes's plan in "Fury" is to travel back in time, sell out the people she spent the majority of her life with to organ harvesters so she can send her and her younger self back to her home world because the crew "abandoned her a long time ago". I think this manages to dismantle practically every established character trait she has.

Older Kes's explanation of her actions in "Fury": "You (Captain Janeway) took her (young Kes) from Ocampa. Her home. She's a prisoner on this ship. I was a child, you corrupted me. Your ideas. Exploration, discovery. I believed you. In three years I'm going to leave Voyager in search of higher things because you encouraged me to do it. You encouraged me to develop my mental abilities. What I found, I couldn't control it, it scared me… I trusted you!" Neelix was the one who took her from Ocampa. As noted before, Captain Janeway begged her not to ascend.

Old Kes is killed by the captain. They know something terrible happened to Kes when she ascended, but apparently all that they did was get Kes to record a video of herself saying that she shouldn't take revenge because it's not who she is. This worked for some reason, she says she killed everyone because she was confused.

Kes decides to go back to Ocampa. Due to the Ocampan lifespan, everyone she knew before she left is probably dead. To add insult to injury, Neelix is the last person she sees before she leaves for good.

[bittrlys]

Season 4 ruined TDP for me and I haven't been able to drum up the interest to watch it since, so maybe this is an out of date take but...

Terry is kind of a pointless character. His role is sort of presented as being Claudia's last tether to her morality, but his actions are otherwise so ride-or-die it seems weird when he calls her out or gets upset about what's happening (especially since they've seemingly been together a while so he should be familiar with how Claudia operates). Plus there was already a character who could serve this role: Soren.

After season 3 I was excited to see their sibling bond evolve as their outlooks were beginning to diverge. And then with Viren resurrected I wanted to see how that affected things. I was deeply disappointed when the established familial relationships fell by the wayside in favor of a timeskip romantic one (and I usually LOVE romantic plotlines).

See, I get Soren leaving his family behind and hopping to Team Hero and thus becoming unavailable to Claudia as someone to bounce off of. I don't love the execution because I think he feels rootless and lacking in significant depth in his relationships with the main cast, but I think it works for his character. He's a prodigal young knight who swore vows to defend his king and his nation, and he's a very straightforward guy. He shares pragmatic qualities with his family, but at the same time, their pragmatism operates on an abstract level he doesn't exactly understand. Once he was forced to choose between family and what he's always known and how he's vowed to live his life, I can see him making the very hard choice to pull away from them. I think him staying as Claudia's morality pet would have been a disservice to his character, though he may have more interesting things to do just because Team Dark Magic are always doing interesting things ... but again, that's more to the execution than the conceit. I don't mind characters moving apart from people they were closest to at the start of the series, and like when they can bond with new people.

I think the limited number of episodes + breakneck pace of the plot does leave their lack of interactions more noticeable, but also more inevitable. Technically, we've seen all this: Soren and Claudia have met again and fought over their differences, and Soren and Viren got their chance to hash it out a little bit. We've been informed of the status of their relationships and their feelings for one another. For a nine episode twenty minute children's animated TV show, this is relatively decent screentime offered to their relationships considering they've been apart so long. I'm not necessarily defending it as 'good' because I'll gladly say this show has very weak screenwriting with my whole chest, but the Magefam would have to be proper protagonists and not just deuteragonists to the Main Three for the screentime to really shift in their favour. But they're not, and you can't even imagine stuff happening off screen because almost everything in the plot happens one after another barring the mid-season timeskip -- and not a whole lot of interesting things happened during that.

(Like, seriously, other than some romantic relationship statuses changing characters are basically the exact same post timeskip as they were before it. It's like ... okay!)

I hope this doesn't sound like I don't get your frustrations because I do; the Magefam are one of my favourite parts of the show and it's always better when some combination of them are on screen together. And it's like, sure Viren and Claudia were hanging out in the later seasons, but he was borderline comatose for most of that, so it doesn't feel like they were. The fracturing of a family is interesting, but you always hope for more of a resolution or at least a sense of poignancy this show is never quite going to master. I'll actually say that my feelings still hinge on season 7 or god forbid the final arc. If we see Soren and Claudia get more than one or two scenes as all our players move into place for the final confrontations -- if Soren were to learn what Viren wouldn't tell him -- if Claudia gets to have a properly satisfying confrontation with Aaravos about the death of her father if she learns the truth ... if Soren and Claudia get to mourn their father together, even if it's briefly -- if we have Claudia have complicated feelings if she were to learn about Soren asking Viren to do the spell -- of Soren offering his heart, but Viren sacrificing himself instead ... I mean, all of that could be really good, and for me it would serve as a kind of epilogue to tie together the seasons of separation and growing apart from each other.

How hopeful am I for any of this? Well, about as hopeful as I am for this show ever pleasing me. But hey! I do think it's possible, with the narrative they've already established.

Anyway, to get to the Terry of it all: I think he serves a purpose as not just Claudia's tether to morality but as someone to work off of, so I get why he's here. I also think Claudia getting a random elf boyfriend is still extremely funny and charmingly quirky of her. As I said in response to a previous ask I think Terry could use more personal development but I like his dynamic with Claudia. People call him an enabler but he does offer her some pushback, generally gently. He's just someone who loves Claudia enough to stick with her, and hey, I love Claudia too so that's nice to see. Honestly, even if Soren were around, you're obviously going to have a different relationship with a romantic partner than you would a sibling, so Terry could easily fit in the group that held Soren as well.

This season Karim (love him) was like "Janai is my sister! Of course I love her! But I'm still going to depose her violently!" and like that is great. That's siblingcore. That's I love you but I want to beat you up. That's no matter how far apart we drift you're still bound to me. Soren and Claudia are this. Meanwhile Terry and Claudia are your first serious relationship. They're young and passionate and desperate to make it work because who else would match their freak quite this way? But if they fall out there's nothing to keep them together anymore. They'll just be forced to move on. Soren can walk away from Claudia and know that on some level they are always close; if Terry walks away from Claudia he may end up meaning nothing to her. So, just like real life, there's a lot of stuff they're willing to overlook and rationalize because they WANT to keep wanting each other ... and Claudia can use someone like that on her side, as we see Soren and Viren both leave her in time.

I think Terry being down to clown but taking issues with some things is fine; he often frames his objections around the harm they will cause Claudia, and that's nice. The one thing I still don't get is his reaction to Claudia threatening the coins. I will preface this by saying I can believe he's more sensitive to elf death after he murked Ibis, and doesn't like reminders of the differences between him and Claudia when it feels very her, a human, against an elf. Yet whenever I rewatch it, I still find his censure unusually stern for him, and it's hard to shake the feeling that this is the writer's doing as they do best, that is not knowing how to write from their own established lore and character motivations.

Like, in-show it says, Claudia was cruel to mockingly threaten the lives of Rayla's loved ones, and trick her into thinking they nearly burned in agony, not offering her the real coins. Is that cruel? Sure, sure. What's the context? Oh? Rayla was THREATENING TO SLIT TERRY'S THROAT? Rayla, the Moonshadow elf ASSASSIN they have every reason to think would go through it, even if we the viewer know Rayla probably wouldn't? Hmm! If Claudia is cruel, Rayla is a monster. Rayla, who was offered the coins in fair trade as she THREATENED TO SLIT TERRY'S THROAT, but refused. Like, Terry? Are you this mad at Claudia because she did an actually extremely reasonable thing to save your life (+ her father's life) in as pacifist a way as possible, or are you mad because the writers need to tell the audience This Was Bad and ensure Rayla gets the real coins while not having to change that emotionally charged sequence they were probably really proud of writing? I still think this was Terry's characterization faltering just so they could get the outcome they wanted.

Ultimately, I see Terry as someone who is lacking in prejudice, maybe due to his own presumed desire to be taken at face value. He can date a human and not have a kneejerk reaction to dark magic, but he isn't amoral. Nothing he's really seen has been enough to push him away but he is cautious that Claudia may stop walking the knife's edge and fall off of it. He's realized even he can do terrible things out of love and this has bound him more tightly to Claudia. He's someone who is CHOOSING to join this life, and wasn't just pre-built loyal as a sibling would be. All of this does give him a role in the narrative that's pretty unique to him and their dynamic, and I like that. Again, I hope he gets more to do beyond just being Claudia's partner, but I really don't mind him existing.

Thank you very much for the ask! ♥ Really don't blame you for dropping the show post season 4 .... if I wasn't Virenpilled I would have dropped it after season 1 I think.

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

Just started rewatching OUAT for the first time since I fell off in like mid-season 3? I think? And the only thing I can think about is how in the world I forgot how much Mr. Gold slaps as a character

like when I tell you I instinctively cheered when he first appears? I didn’t do it on purpose! I don’t remember favoring him much more than any other character the first time I watched it! back then I just thought “ha ha the actor looks like my English Lit teacher” but this time when he shows up I was like

[sashketter]

The Captain and the Senator

Chapter 2 - Coruscant Covers

Summary: Riyo Chuchi shelters Rex and Echo in her senatorial living quarters for the night. With Echo fast asleep, Rex confronts Riyo about the danger she’s in, and sexy time ensues.

Word count: 4.2k

Warning: Porn With Plot. Starts with angst, continues with sexy times, ends with fluff. Oral (M and F receiving), fingering, PiV, unprotected sex (no glove, no love), creampie, cockwarming.

Notes: This take place after season 2 episode 8 of The Bad Batch, “Truth and Consequences.” It’s my first attempt at writing something spicy, and it, uh... got away from me lol This can be read as a standalone separate from the series. However, subsequent sexy times in the series will build off this chapter.

Chapter 1 - Table of Contents - Chapter 3

“Senator, a word?” Rex’s voice rumbles close behind her.

Riyo places a blanket over a lightly snoring Echo, prone and peaceful on her sofa. Rex had insisted that the corporal shower first after the senator. He had arrived at the apartment hours earlier, after all, and the captain wanted a chance to do his own sweep of the premises. Echo fell asleep as soon as he changed clothes.

Rex stood bare-chested with a Pantoran guard’s purple pants hanging loosely around his waist. A damp towel hung over his left shoulder.

Riyo pivots to face him. “Of course,” she whispers. Rex turns and misses her blush lavender.

Despite Rex’s misgivings about staying with the senator, he was grateful for the change in pace and scenery. He had spent countless rotations frantically hiding his movements, scurrying between the Outer and Mid Rims and scavenging sources in dark corners while subsisting almost exclusively on caf. It all blurred together in a sleepless haze. He more than welcomed having the Pantoran guards relieve him of watch duty while he enjoyed the use of a ready fresher. Riyo’s apartment was modest compared to other senators’, but it was luxurious to the clones who had been on the run since the fall of the Republic.

Riyo follows Rex down the hall. The door to the fresher is open, steam still clinging to the mirror and drifting above her head. Rex pops his arm inside quickly to discard the towel on the vanity and turn off the light. Something about the movement strikes the senator, his seeming familiarity with her surroundings, and she wonders idly if he’s known apartments like hers before. She shakes her head at the thought of Rex off-duty, her focus landing instead on the muscles on his back as they twist and go taut on their way to her bedroom. She looks down and tries to rub the heat from her cheeks.

Rex walks through the double doors and holds one side open for Riyo. She smells her soap on him as she passes. She walks to the bedside table on the left and turns on the two lamps on either side of her bed, their low warmth contrasting with the cool lights of Coruscant glowing through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Rex faces and closes the doors quietly. “Senator, we appreciate your help,” he starts cautiously, “but you need to trust my judgment on this.” His shoulders hunch as he looks down and rubs the back of his head.

Riyo blinks in surprise. “On what exactly?”

He turns around to look at her, eyebrows furrowed on the edge of anger. “I know you don’t think my presence here is necessary, but you’re in greater danger than you realize.” His voice is low and gruff. “The emperor wanted you to expose Rampart. That was his plan. He was using you, and now you’re a loose end.” For a brief moment, Rex remembers when he himself had been unwittingly used against his brothers and winces at the memories of Umbara.

Riyo hadn’t thought ahead to what the consequences of her actions might be. She had only hoped to provide the clones with some amount of justice. Now knowing the depth of the emperor’s cunning and forethought, she wonders how far he would go to keep her from revealing more.

She sits at the foot of the bed, her hands on her knees. “What could he do? The Senate would never stand—"

“The Senate doesn’t need to know for the emperor to act.” Rex enunciates each word like stubborn nails to be hammered home hard. His stare is cold steel.

Riyo flinches. She remembers friends and colleagues who had faced threats to their lives because of their political stances. Padmé, Onaconda, the Duchess of Mandalore, even Bail – all bore the bouts and bruises with dignity. Still, she always looked on in shock and horror that such brutality could exist at the center of a centuries’ old republic. Never could she have imagined that she herself could be caught in the crosshairs of the highest ruling member of the government she serves.

Rex watches the senator contemplate his words. He hadn’t meant to upset her, but he can see fear start to creep into her face. Before he could move to comfort her, she stands and crosses the floor to him.

She’s all determination, her voice as firm as his. “I said I wouldn’t give up.” She stops just a hair’s breath away from him. She pulls herself up to her full height and stares up into the captain’s eyes. “I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, Rex. I can’t thank you enough for saving my life.” Rex starts to shake his head, but she puts a hand up to stop him. “I apologize if I seemed to question your counsel before, but I can’t ask you to put yourself in more danger just for me.” Tears start to blur her vision, so she takes a deep breath to collect herself and raises her chin. “After all you and the clones have sacrificed, it’s my turn to protect you.”

Rex freezes in surprise. He had expected her to say something about fighting or putting herself in danger for him and was ready to counter, but this was a different tack. This wasn’t a reckless inversion of their duties or a desperate attempt to lash out at him or the emperor or anyone else standing in her way. This was care and reciprocation. This was a clear declaration of her intentions as a senator and an assumption of responsibility as another living being – something more than a soldier and a politician in a mutually beneficial arrangement. This was loyalty.

Rex stands for what feels like a lifetime. Unsure of his thoughts, Riyo instinctively reaches out to comfort him and meets the bare warmth of his abdomen. Her fingers pull back, but not fast enough. Rex catches her hand. Eyes fixed on her knuckles, he brings them up to his lips and kisses the backs of her fingers. He had meant it as a gesture of gratitude, something he’d seen his Jedi general do several times with high-ranking women, but he feels Riyo’s breath hitch. He catches her eyes glow darker with something more than surprise. Testing her nerve and looking for his own, he closes his eyes and turns her palm to cup the side of his face, his hand warm over hers. Riyo holds her breath as she watches him. Eons pass before he opens his eyes.

For the second time in half a rotation, Rex reconsiders Riyo Chuchi. During the war, she had been just another politician to him; one of the good ones, he had decided. While it was true that they had technically known each other for a long time, they were never close and had no reason to be. Their disparate duties kept them apart, him on the battlefield and her on the Senate floor. In this respect, not much had changed. But the galaxy had, more than they could imagine, and it was forcing them to change in ways they couldn’t predict. Adapt and survive. With this in mind, Rex was ready to take the next step.

Riyo never saw brown as bright and fiery as in Rex’s eyes. She searches his gaze and finds a mix of fear and determination, but no hesitation. Gravity seems to lurch as she steps into him and his hand reaches for the back of her head. Their mouths meet in a muffled moan. His stubble scratches her cheeks, but his warm lips and probing tongue soothe any anxieties she might have had just a moment ago. All the danger in the galaxy could wait while the captain and the senator seal their alliance.

Rex makes quick work of the buttons on her loose pajama top. Featherlight fingertips push the periwinkle fabric off her shoulders, and he brings her to equal his state of undress. His right hand finds the nape of her neck, his left the side of her waist, and he pulls her back into a slow, tender kiss. Her hands move down his forearms and reach for his chest, looking for purchase and finding only unyielding muscle. Unable to grasp him, she hooks a finger into the waistband of his pants and walks them both towards the bed. His hands leave her face and trail after her own waistband. He keeps his breath on her lips, not wanting to break contact. She sits down when the backs of her legs hit the edge of her mattress.

Wasting no time, Riyo rids Rex of his trousers and comes back up to do the same with his briefs. He stops her with a hand over hers.

“Wait,” Rex pants, his head swimming. “Senator, you don’t have to–”

“Call me Riyo, Rex,” she says softly. She frees her hand and works his briefs down to meet the purple fabric already around his ankles. “Please.”

Before Rex could breathe her name, she grabs him midshaft and places his head in her warm and waiting mouth. She pinches her lips as his frenulum meets the flat of her tongue, and he moans raggedly at the sensation.

Riyo quickly finds her rhythm and bobs in earnest. Her hand covers where her mouth can’t reach, and her wrist twists with each pass. She hollows her cheeks and sucks hard, breathing tightly through her nose. She lays her tongue flat against the underside of his shaft, and her mouth waters as her tongue explores every bump and vein. Wet, sucking sounds fill the air and grow louder to match Rex’s low moans. Eventually, she works herself up to take him further down her throat where she swallows shallowly. It earns her a breathy grunt, so she holds him there until he starts to paw at her hair and buck lightly into her face. She looks up to find Rex watching her intently, brows furrowed and jaw tight. The pained look on his face betrays the intensity of his impending orgasm.

“Riyo, stop,” he gasps, fighting hard not to come. She cups his balls and dislodges her mouth. He growls, “My turn.”

Rex takes a step back away from her grip. He bends down and finds her mouth with his. Any sense of apprehension is blown away when he feels her wet chin. He uses the kiss to push her back flat onto the bed. He breaks away to start a scorching trip down her torso. He presses soft lips and burning stubble to her neck and collarbone, stopping to nip and lick at her left shoulder, before continuing to her chest and leaving a damp trail of wet kisses down the valley of her breasts. He palms and kneads her soft mounds before dragging the flat of his tongue from her breastbone to her right nipple. Her head feels light from the sensation.

Riyo’s hands leave Rex’s scalp to try to push her pants off, but her knees connect with his erection, and he groans. Before she can apologize, he mouths at her stomach, and his hands wriggle her pants over her hips and down her legs. He leans back up over her for another kiss, soft and sweet in contrast to the rigid tension bumping into her leg. Riyo’s mouth waters at the thick sight, but Rex still has one piece of clothing left to remove. He heads back down her body and grazes his teeth on her left hip bone before biting on the thin strap of her underwear and pulling it down past her knees. Hunger and anticipation linger between them.

Rex stands as he reaches Riyo’s feet, bringing her legs up in the air and her heels on his chest. He throws the last piece of fabric behind him. Rough hands slide down the sides of her legs as he slowly lowers his knees to the floor. When she can, she bends her knees and rests her legs on either side of his head. He shifts his hands to the insides of her thighs and parts them, wedging his wide shoulders between her knees. Riyo feels impossibly exposed, but Rex kisses and rubs his cheeks on the insides of her thighs, calming her. He watches her blush from violet to mulberry wine, holding her gaze with promises of intoxication.

With a wink, Rex licks from opening to clit, earning him a mewl muffled by the hand that isn’t squeezing his hand on her thigh. As he laps and sucks on her bundle of nerves, Riyo starts writhing, her back arching off the bed and her heels pressing into his back and shoulders. Her movements push him on. He parts her folds with two gentle fingertips and searches first with the tip of his tongue and then with the flat of it flush and rolling against her inner lips. Her moans start to rumble from lower in her abdomen.

Riyo glistens from mound to cleft, but Rex wants more. Focusing his tongue on her clit, he pushes his middle finger in to the second knuckle and looks up in time to find her biting down on her own. He thrusts shallowly until he can feel her dripping down his finger and then adds his forefinger. Her hands fly to her sides, clawing the sheets and releasing her howls.

“Careful, senator,” Rex rumbles low as he seats his fingers fully and starts to slide. “Don’t want to wake the trooper in the other room.” In and out, in and out, from the webs of his hands to the tips of his fingers, never leaving her folds.

Riyo’s laugh turns into a moan. She looks down at him, determined to say, “Speaking from experience, captain?” She’d heard the stories. Not of Rex specifically, though she knew those must exist, too, but of the clones and their fan clubs and parties and incident reports.

Rex catches the allusion, but files it away for later. For now, he starts to kiss his way back up her torso, the two fingers massaging her walls now joined by his thumb on her clit. She’s chanting his name between breathy whispers and resonant groans. When he reaches her face, she uses both hands to pull him in for a searing kiss, open-mouthed and searching. Their tongues dance for dominance, and Rex smiles as Riyo tries to bite his bottom lip.

He withdraws his hand from her weeping core so they can crawl up to the head of the bed. Riyo finds a pillow, her pastel hair fanning out, and Rex sits on his knees between her open legs. Looking down, he smirks at his wet handiwork, but before he can get too smug, Riyo reaches two fingers down to pinch his engorged head. Two pearly beads of precum bud on his tip, and she swipes them on nibble fingertips up to her mouth. Rex groans and turns impossibly harder. With no time to waste, he tucks his forearms under her knees, pulls, and hooks her legs on top of his thighs. Riyo giggles at his strength. He brings the head of his heavy shaft to her entrance, pushing just enough to part her folds. He catches her watching them meet.

“Hey,” he checks in softly.

Her eyes snap up to his. “Rex, please,” she whines, impatience bordering on incredulity. Her hands pull on his forearms, bringing herself a little more but not enough onto him. That’s all he needs.

Gripping the swell of Riyo’s hips, Rex pushes in, slowly and steadily, one delicious inch at a time. Her chin tilts up, and she lets out a long, satisfied moan. His stretch meets her tight canal in a simmering blaze. They take their time feeling each ridge and every crevice of each other until Rex bottoms out, his balls tapping her perineum. He drapes his body over hers for a meandering kiss, pausing to melt and mold into each other. Riyo moans at the matching sensations above and below, the rough stubble of Rex’s five o’clock shadow and pubic hair paired with the hot velvet of his tongue and shaft inside her. It was a lot until it wasn’t enough. Eventually, she plants her feet and wiggles her hips. Rex takes the hint and starts.

Still fully seated inside her, he sits back up on his knees and grips the flesh between her waist and hips. He pulls out half way before pushing back in fractionally faster. Riyo hums low in her chest. He keeps a leisurely pace until she starts to push back to meet him sooner and faster. Then he’s off, his hips crashing into hers at a force that bounces her breasts with each thrust. He’s chasing his own pleasure, but keeps his eyes on Riyo’s face, careful not to confuse the vice grip on his wrists for a sign of pain.

On the contrary, Riyo is blissed and breathless, her mouth open in a wide smile that lets out choked moans. She feels the pressure start to build low in her abdomen. His thick piston is molten along her walls, hot and heavy and so good. His every bump and vein catches on a part of her that sends searing electricity to her extremities. Her nerve endings catch fire, and her skin prickles with heat. They meet in warmer and louder squelches that spur them on.

The intensity of Rex’s focus moves her. Riyo sits up on her elbows and stops his motions. His confusion fades quickly as she wraps an arm around his shoulders and brings him down to her. Her back meets the mattress, and his arms snake under her shoulders, leaving his hands to frame her face. He dives into a warm, passionate kiss. Riyo’s heels find his lower back and give him a nudge.

“Don’t stop,” she whimpers into his mouth.

Rex snaps his hips eagerly. He can feel his balls start to tighten. A few more thrusts would throw him over the edge, but he slows to let Riyo catch up. She’s clawing at his back and scalp and muffling her moans into his neck and shoulder. Her grip above and below grounds him. The pressure in her belly swells and bursts into spasms as Riyo comes and clenches Rex tight. Her wails are soon joined by his grunts. Rex seats himself fully and thrusts shallowly, emptying himself in her contracting chasm. Riyo squeezes her legs tighter around his back, not wanting to waste the sensation of him engorged and throbbing inside her. They take their time coming back down.

Sensing Rex’s exhaustion, Riyo lets his weight fall to the side and take her with him. Her thighs are tight around his hips as he rolls. She lands astride him, still fully seated on his shaft. She looks down and finds Rex still halfway to the heavens, eyes closed and torn between laughing and moaning. She leans down and kisses his jaw, his chin, the edges of his lips to even him out.

“Are you alright?” Riyo ghosts the question lightly over his open mouth. She’s unsure of how to proceed, their tentative alliance now perched on a precipice.

Rex is still catching his breath, but laughs. “Sir, yes, sir,” he teases. His mind is empty and light – a feat he hasn’t achieved in a long time – bereft of anything that isn’t the beautiful Pantoran on top of him. It takes him a long moment before he realizes. “Oh, scrag!” His abs clench and pull his head marginally off the bed, his nose almost bumping into hers. “I didn’t pull ou—"

“It’s okay.” Riyo is quick to ease his mind. She sits back up, holds up her arm, and pinches her left tricep. “Implant. Thought it’d be a good idea.” She smirks and wiggles her hips, reminding him he’s still inside her. He smiles back and realizes suddenly that for the first time, he’s allowed to linger.

Rex would never let on the exact veracity of the stories Riyo must’ve heard about his brothers’ reputations. He was well aware as much as she was that for every anti-clone sentiment bandied about, there was an equal amount of love for the troopers – love that had often found itself hurried in the barracks, muffled in supply closets, frantic behind stacks of crates, any quiet corner a clone could catch for a few minutes. After awhile, Rex stopped filing the incident reports; it would’ve been hypocritical.

Part of the hope he kept in continuing to fight and freeing his brothers was knowing that there were others like Riyo who saw the clones as more than just soldiers or science experiments, expendable pieces of frag from a fallen Republic. They were willing and capable of being more than what their training and conditioning had made them. If only they were given the chance. They were men, and there were those who knew and trusted them to act like it, in all the ways that mattered but had been prohibited by their duties.

Rex may have needed release that night, as he had every other night on distant planets and Jedi cruisers, but Riyo knew that without regulation manuals and chains of command, this was different. This was no longer forbidden, no longer hurried and abridged between boxes and battles. Rex was free to choose and stay for as long as he wanted, and she was honored that at least for tonight, he chose to stay with her.

Feeling exhaustion start to settle in her bones, Riyo holds Rex at his base and gently rolls off him. He groans at the sudden loss of contact. After her feet find the floor, she steps to the head of the bed where Rex found a pillow and bends down to claim a chaste kiss. She feels his smile on her lips and his fingers curl around the strands of her hair tickling his chest. She stands and grabs a robe from a chair next to the bedside table, tying its ties on the way to the door. She swivels back around and catches the captain eyeing her. He smirks, flops back down on the bed, and gives a curt, two-finger salute towards the ceiling.

When Riyo returns from the fresher, Rex is fast asleep, the covers drawn to his waist. She throws the robe back onto the chair and tucks herself under the sheets and into his side. In moments, she falls asleep to his light snores.

Dawn is beginning to break when Rex wakes up. He watches the gradient stretch across the windows, light pink to dark blue. He finds himself entangled in Riyo: her head on his right shoulder, his fingertips on her scalp, her long hair spread down past his elbow, and their legs intertwined underneath the sheets. He runs his fingertips along the arm on his chest until her head turns to bury her face in his side.

“Hmm, good morning,” she croons, her voice drowsy with asleep.

“Morning.” He squeezes her arm. “Sleep okay?”

“Mm-hmm.” Riyo inhales his skin deeply. The smell of her soap is gone, replaced by a scent she hopes to memorize again and again and again.

Rex doesn’t want to leave the comfort of her bed, but the squad of Pantoran guards will be arriving soon, and he didn’t want to alert Echo by having him wake up alone in the living room. Reluctantly, Rex asks, “When do your handmaidens get in?”

Riyo starts to snap to full attention. “I don’t have handmaidens,” she says curiously. She looks up and sets her chin on his chest. “What made you think I did?”

Rex blushes at the memories of playing lookout for his Jedi general. He had never seen anything more incriminating than a kiss, but even in death, he felt duty-bound to keep their secret. “I, uh, remember seeing them in the Senate building,” he tries, “a few times.” He hopes she doesn’t feel his heart race underneath her palm.

“You’re thinking of Padmé,” Riyo deduces. Normally, she’d follow his train of thought and try to unravel and understand them, but her body is still light from the night before, and her mind isn’t quite up to the task. Instead, she crushes her face back onto his chest, unable to satiate the need to feel and smell his skin. “She was a queen, after all,” she says listlessly. “I’ve only ever been a senator.”

Rex thinks back a lifetime ago to Orto Plutonia where a shy but promising leader found her resolve in the middle of a snowy skirmish; back a few days ago to the Senate floor where a strong-willed idealist broadcast her defense of an unpopular cause to the galaxy; and back just hours ago on the repair shop platform where she had bent down to meet his sister’s young eyes and reassured them all that she was loyal to them, the clones. “You’re more than a senator,” he assures her gently.

Riyo looks back up and smiles at him. She thinks back a few years ago to the classified reports of Jedi General Pong Krell on Umbara and the captain’s horrified testimony in closed-door sessions to select Senate committees; back a day ago in the repair shop where a rogue but righteous clone recounted the story of Anaxes and Skako Minor while they waited for Clone Force 99; and back a lifetime ago to Orto Plutonia where a young but promising leader found his resolve in the face of his brothers’ annihilation. “And you’ve always been more than a soldier, Rex.”

(Footnotes here.)

[eatsleepbreathefutbol]

One with Chris- you find out you’re pregnant but you don’t tell him immediately cos he’s been super distant and stressed cos of his injuries this szn and you felt that putting this on him would be too much atm, but he finds out and gets upset with you that you didn’t tell him and you say “ you’ve been so stressed these past few weeks, we’ve barely even been a couple and you want me to put this on you as well??” And he feels like crap... please give a cute ending !!!! Love your writing xxxxxxx

Of course

Recently Christian had been stressed out because of the season and the amount of injuries he kept having. He would come home late and would leave at the crack of dawn, before you would wake up. You started feeling like your body was off, you couldn’t put your finger down quite yet on what it was but you knew something was up.

This morning Chris had left at like 6am, and right after you had woken up to throw up. So right after you brushed your teeth got into your car and drove to the closest pharmacy in a oversized hoodie so the paparazzi wouldn’t recognize you, but why would they be up this early you thought. The minute you pulled up you went into the store bought the pregnancy test then left right after to not cause commotion.

You went home and took the pregnancy test, waited five minutes for the results. The results came back positive, so you started freaking out because your mind kept telling you it’s not going to work out because you’ll end up being a single parent. So you kept pacing back and forth thinking of who to call and what to say. You left the test on the counter and went to the kitchen saying you’ll throw it away when you think of something.

You went to the kitchen grabbed a water and laid down on the couch, and fell asleep. You didn’t notice Chris had came home from training not that much after! After he had put his bag down he grabbed the blanket off the couch and threw it on you and went back to yalls room to take a shower, in the bathroom where the pregnancy test was in. The minute he walked into the bathroom he screamed realizing what was laying on the counter. Which woke you up from your nap, and you ran to the bathroom seeing the picture in front of you unfold.

Chris held the test in his hand “Are you serious Y/N, you couldn’t had the decency to tell me about this? Like is it even my kid to begin with? I can’t start to explain how hurt I am about this-” you cut him off mid sentence, “For fuck sake you’re hurt about this Christian? You’re constantly leaving early or coming home late, and the one time you come home early I leave the pregnancy test out without reading through my crystal ball that my boyfriend who is constantly stressed out and constantly injured is coming home early” you said sarcastically “You’re out here trying to start World War 3 for something that shouldn’t be a big deal, and yes it’s your child dumbass cause I would never cheat on you no matter how forgotten you have been of me!” Chris was standing there with his head down “how far along are you Y/N?” you got irritated “Oh so now I’m Y/N to you because I supposedly messed up, well Christian Mate Pulisic I don’t fucking know cause I found out this morning” you were tapping your foot against the hardwood floor, “you’ve been so stressed these past few weeks, we’ve barely even been a couple and you want me to put this on you as well?”

Chris came up to you and embraced you in a hug, “ok babe we’ll get through this and I’m sorry for making you mad! I know I haven’t been a good boyfriend, I need to let you in and talk to you so we can be a couple instead of strangers!” You hugged him back and started crying, Chris kissed your forehead “Let’s go get your favorite snacks and watch Encanto along with Someone Great babe” you got excited “ok but this better not be a fluke of fate like I want to be here for you but I’m starting to not know how to!” Chris wrapped his arm around your waist, “Yeah babe I know and I’m sorry for making you feel like this”

I’m sorry for taking this long to write this piece! I hope you enjoy reading it anon 🫶

[casasupernovas]

You watch invisible? 🫂 the hype deffo fell off cause of the pointless mid season break after like 3 eps 😒 (well atleast on twt) That fight scene with kate rex and the green lady (forgot her name- see this hiatus was a bad choice) had me gripped like I did not expect the ending. Also I just wanna give Amber a hug like babygirl been through a lot on her own. Her and mark are cute and I like how theyve developed from s1 (tho she was valid in her reason y she was upset w mark- ugh the amount of racist bile that was being said was infuriating #defending amber bennett online isnt enough I need a gun). Also yh Ik from the comics who ends up tgt, but ima be delusional hoping that doesnt happen. #blasia UP periodt

#blasia up please. amber, yet another character that gets dogpiled because she's black. like you can think she's annoying but the criticism has a certain...flavour. this is why im personally not a fan of when they race bend characters. because amber's fate is to be the disposable black girlfriend.

I need to rewatch the 1st season and read the comics. I do enjoy it and it's a shame they're killing its hype with all these gaps...

[kiss-my-freckle]

Full Episode Commentary

2x1: The Return

It doesn't take much to understand Damon's character.

Damon's journey in season 2 becomes Elena's in season 6. I often refer to Elena as Damon's Liam. Different than Liam in the fact that she's in the know about vampires, and Damon already fell in love with her, but you get the idea. If you want to see Elena un-fall for Stefan in season 3, pay close mind to Damon un-falling for Katherine in season 2. This is a tragic episode, but necessary for Damon's character journey. The first step in rehabilitation is admitting the problem, and Damon doesn't believe he has one. He's... currently content with who he is.

They open season 2 where they left off in the season one finale. Katherine is in the kitchen, cutting off John's fingers and stabbing him in the gut. I'm 100% certain this is about John trying to kill her Salvatore boys. She's possessive that way. Elena walks into the house, having no idea Katherine got herself an invite because she's a doppelganger. She hears the struggle in the kitchen and finds John on the floor, clutching at his gut wound. John tries to warn Elena that Katherine is behind her, but she disappaears before Elena catches sight of her. When Katherine leaves, Elena rushes to check on Jeremy. He overdosed on pain pills after drinking Anna's blood. "You mean I'm not a vampire? Damn it!" lol… Jeremy is fun to watch because even though he has a lot in common with Elena, he's just as different. Elena has Stefan checking to see if Jeremy is a vampire. He's not, and he's upset about it. Stefan smacks Jeremy and puts fear into him by lying. While he is being honest about Anna's blood leaving Jeremy's system, it's not as quick as Stefan makes it sound. Her blood is still in his system when Stefan threatens him.

Bonnie has guilt to feel when she meets up with Matt. She knows the Gilbert device affected Tyler, and Caroline is in the hospital because of it. When Damon makes his way to the hospital, Liz pulls him aside to talk about Mayor Lockwood. He hides his knowledge because admitting he was there is an automatic admission he's a vampire. This is the episode he starts to care about Caroline. He would've healed her using his blood and done so for Liz, but he runs into Bonnie and Elena standing outside her hospital room. Liz cries in Damon's arms, and I find it altogether beautiful.

Bonnie and Elena are mid-conversation when Damon rolls up to Caroline's hospital room. As I said, he was planning to heal her on his own, but why not try to kill two birds with one stone. Damon offers to heal Caroline, but Elena refuses. It's because of her guilt that Bonnie is hard-pressed for Damon to heal her. He tries to use his healing powers to strike a truce between him and Bonnie. "No. But you'll do it anyway. For Elena." When Damon gave Elena the Gilbert device, he revealed himself to Bonnie. She's smart like Isobel that way. It didn't take Damon long to prove he's willing to die for Elena. Bonnie had him dead in her father's basement. Yeah, that man will do anything for Elena. Not necessary for Elena to know that Damon is in love with her, but she should know he'd do anything for her should she choose to help change him.

Damon talks to Elena about the porch kiss. Elena thinks a tomb vampire got into her house. She has no idea it was Katherine. They think Damon was bad lol… Katherine is worse because she doesn't care about Elena the way Damon does. "If you want to forget what happened, fine, but I can't." When he actually kisses Elena, it will require compulsion for her to forget lol. When Jenna shows up, Damon realizes he kissed Katherine rather than Elena. She enters the Gilbert residence pretending to be Elena and hugs Stefan. It doesn't take him long to realize she's Katherine. Different for him because he's been dating Elena for an entire season, so he would feel that difference. "At least I fooled one of you." Stefan doesn't have to know, he wants to know… there's a difference. He digs for the sake of starting a fight with Damon. "What happened tonight when you thought she was Elena?" Absolutely nothing stops Stefan. When he wants to start a fight, he starts a fight. This is one of the scenes I point out whenever I talk about Stefan being the stronger brother. Damon is courageous, but he's not stupid. He's using Elena as a shield because he knows Stefan won't go through her to get to him.

Elena invited Damon and Stefan, Jeremy invited Noah, and Jenna invited Katherine. Apparent the house is in all their names, so John would have to put it in his name for them to rescind Katherine's invite. "She's Katherine. She loves to play games, and you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to find out what she's been up to before she wants you to know." Damon is almost always right, and he's speaking from experience. He kept the tomb a secret for 145 years, and only spoke of it when he chose to. "John could know something through Isobel. Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine, so maybe we can go to the hospital and get him to talk." Elena is hardly ever right. She doesn't know how deep John's hatred goes. But Damon does. He just watched John kill Anna ffs. "Stake [her], rip [her] head off, something poetic. We'll see." Damon isn't specific to Katherine.

Killing Jeremy is something poetic.

Putting Elena in the position to hate him by killing Jeremy is only half the equation. For it to be the beginning of Delena's love story, Damon has to be someone Elena would fall in love with. Killing Katherine would've done nothing. Killing Jeremy does everything. That's why the kill is poetic. When Katherine takes over Elena's body in season 5, she pushes him back into the kind of monster that would kill Jeremy. Knowing this, you should know what killing Jeremy does to Damon in 2x1. It has the opposite effect.

Bonnie is back at the hospital, visiting with Caroline after Damon healed her the night before. "I'm just happy you're okay." It's pretty to see Bonnie crying because Caroline is okay, but her hate for Damon is gonna upend everything. "We have to stick together, okay? Trust each other, we'll get through this." Damon is playing peacemaker for Liz and Carol, and his comment is one of the beautiful things I love about Delena. It's what makes them work.

I don't know why, but I love the fact that Liz and Carol both end up with supernatural kids. Probably the fact that parents should have that one person they can relate to. Liz and Carol can relate to each other, so neither one are in it alone. "So the black sheep returns." Mason drives the supernatural issue for Damon. He knows that whatever they are, Mason is different from Tyler and his father. He's the reason Damon feels the need to investigate.

"My daughter should have driven a stake through your heart by now." As hateful as John is, no parent in their right mind would want their child dating a vampire. Elena should understand this given the parental role she's taken with Jeremy. Elena expects John to be okay with her dating a vampire, but has a problem with Jeremy dating one and fully expects him to stay out of their supernatural business. Elena has to accept the reality that Jeremy will do what he wants just as she does.

"You see the world with such hatred. It's gonna get you killed." This is another parallel John has with Damon. That's why Damon nearly dies as John does. "You know the hate you're feeling towards Stefan? Towards everyone? You think you have it under control, but you don't. It will get the best of you." Different as Damon lived in truth while Stefan lived in denial. Stefan was able to enjoy the world while hating Katherine. Damon hated the world while loving her. If not for Stefan's ability to twist his love into hate, he'd be more like Damon. And if not for Lexi, he'd probably be in a prison world like their mother. Stefan flipped his lid because Anna risked turning Elena while Damon's blood was in her system. Now he force-feeds John his blood and threatens to turn him into a vampire. Stefan only needs his girlfriend to be human, he doesn't need her father to be. Stefan has a tendency to pull pages from other peoples playbooks. Rarely does he have an original thought.

Liz piques Damon's interest when she tells him Mason wants nothing to do with the council. Avoid like Mason or infiltrate like Damon, they don't wanna get caught. Damon uses investigations as distractions. He'll investigate either way, but actually bury himself in it when he and Elena are at odds. Katherine is wickedly courageous showing up at the Lockwoods pretending to be Elena. Even though I don't like her, she's sexy af. "Now, I need to go find Damon. No Elena, he tried to kiss you. I'm not okay with that." Stefan is still aching to fight with Damon, and he's been this way since Isobel's episode.

"Speaking of your guilt, how's Caroline?" Hilarious because he's speaking truth. Say what they want about Damon, but they always turn to him when they have a problem. Bonnie's talking to him about the Gilbert device affecting the Lockwoods. "Yes, Bonnie, I would love to know why a non-vampire was tortured by the vampire torture device that you let John Gilbert use against us." Bonnie has been building up her Damon-hate since the night he nearly killed her in 1x9, screwing herself in the process. She thinks she's venting to Elena, but she's venting to Katherine. She might as well have told her to go kill Caroline. "Oh, my god! Damon drives me crazy. He's walking around like he's some kind of hero for healing Caroline when it's his fault all of this happened in the first place." Bonnie is pissed at Damon because he threw her guilt in her face while she judged him for his past actions. Easier to pass blame than carry it yourself. An issue that remains constant for Stefan.

I consider the vampire device and its effects on everyone to be Bonnie's fault rather than Damon's. Utlimately, Mayor Lockwood's death is her fault as much as it is John's. However, I like Bonnie's hate for Damon because it shows what hate does to people. When Bonnie touches Katherine, she realizes she's not Elena because she gets that same death vibe. She rushes into another room to call Elena. When Katherine gets her cornered, Bonnie tries to do her head trick, and is quick to learn that she's much more powerful than Damon. I happen to love it when Bonnie does her head trick on Damon, but Katherine's strength makes me wonder how she would've faired with the vampire device. Katherine choke-slams Bonnie against the wall and draws her fangs. I don't know what it is about Katherine, but… she starts to underestimate Bonnie when she shouldn't.

"Damon was much happier to see me, then again, he thought I was your girlfriend, so…" Stefan saves Bonnie just so Katherine can torture him instead lol. Katherine is avoiding Damon. "Damon's here, somewhere. I've been avoiding him." Partly because he's madly in love with her, and partly because if anyone is gonna figure out her plans… it will be him. She works like Isobel, that's why she drops in to see Damon at the end of the episode.

Katherine picked the wrong brother to love, that's for sure. Damon has to un-fall for Katherine. Until he does, Elena only has him to a certain extent. It's like… you can feel the power shift when Damon un-falls for Katherine. Elena ends up with an insane amount of control over him.

Jenna, Elena, and Jeremy show up at the Lockwoods. Elena stops to talk to Damon.

"That's not a surprise." Elena isn't surprised that Damon would kiss her, but Stefan sure is lol

"I'm surprised that you thought I would kiss you back." Ah, to be young and naive. Jeremy's whole Vicki-Anna shift should've given her a clue. Similar to the way a lot of their episodes are written, their seasons tend to end opposite how they start. It's gonna take Elena 21 episodes to kiss Damon back.

Bonnie interrupts to tell them about Katherine. Tyler and Jeremy bond for a moment… over the loss of their fathers. As great as I think it is for Tyler to be around family, Mason didn't have to interrupt them and act as if he's the only one that can be there for Tyler. He's a dick to Jeremy, but that's just my opinion. Katherine talks to Stefan about how the Lockwoods struck it financially because they stole from the vampires they tried to kill in 1864. Typical of the founding families. They did the same to the Bennett witches.

"Don't flirt with me, Katherine. I'm not Damon, I haven't spent 145 years obsessed with you." Stefan takes every chance he can to slam Damon. Apparently, ignorance is bliss. At least Damon has been living his truth. If Damon wanted, he could slam Stefan for living in denial for 145 years. Stefan would rather paint Katherine a complete monster than admit he fell in love with her. He finds it easier to play the victim than own his shit. "Yeah, based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise." Katherine is pretty damn hilarious. Damon has an excuse. But Stefan… he waited 145 years just to get emotionally involved with her doppelganger. I mean… had Damon known Katherine's true feelings, he likely would've moved on and fallen in love with someone else long ago. "I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me. So none of my feelings were real." It takes an insane level of dedication to believe your own lies, but this is what Elena does with her love for Damon in season 3. That's why Alaric has a problem finding her signature moment. Denial is one of many things Stefan and Elena have in common. It's what makes Stelena last longer than they should've. "If I admit it, if I even thought it for just a second… What does that say about me?" Stefan is likely in denial about falling in love with Katherine for the same reason Elena is in denial about falling in love with Damon. "Well the truth is you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that you've always been." Funny how Stefan fell in love with said lying, selfish, manipulative bitch… how he didn't have a problem loving her until he found out she's a vampire. "You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one." Not a comment that works for Steferine, but it does for Delena.

"Oooh, cover up, Fabio." lol… tbh, I never understood the fascination with Fabio. "You better watch out, looks like Katherine is trying to steal your guy." Stefan's actually gonna sit there and lie about Katherine trying to get with him. I honestly don't know how Elena does it because this guy just can't stop lying to her. It hasn't even been that long since he last lied to her lol. "Because you feel something for her, because you actually care." Speaking of Stefan in denial. He can't even accept the fact that Damon is in love with Elena.

Redemption in an 8 season storyline is unrealistic for Damon's character, but a resurrection isn't. It'll take 8 seasons to undo the damage Katherine did to him. I mean… he's been living as a vampire without care for 145 years. "And I'm not gonna let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally, after all of this time, willing to feel something." Stefan himself will try to destroy that part of Damon, and do it for the sake of holding onto Elena. This happens in season 3.

"What happened to your parents wasn't supernatural, it was an accident. There's nothing that can save us from that." This ring scene with John and Jeremy solidifies their season 5 storyline. Because Markos' spell couldn't be used in the drowning death of Elena's father, they basically removed Damon as the Silas doppelganger in their 3x22 flashback. I'm basically saying this episode and 3x22 solidified Stefan as the Silas doppelganger, and there was no way out of it.

Like Jeremy, Damon is emotionally sensitive. Turn someone like that into a vampire, and you magnify their emotions in addition to turning them into a predator. Damon is what Jeremy would look like as a vampire. However, Damon's best character parallel is Tyler, and there's no easier way to explain this. Emotionally, Damon is in parallel with Tyler UNTIL Tyler triggers his werewolf gene. That's why Damon pushes to kiss Elena the way Tyler pushed to sleep with Vicki. When Tyler was fighting Matt and Alaric intervened, he knew something was up with Tyler because he was literally acting like Damon.

Tyler's emotions push him to kill just as Damon's emotions push him to kill. Tyler's emotions are stronger pre-trigger because it's kinda like vampirism. His emotions push him to kill to complete his transition. And that's how Damon is. Damon's emotions drive him to kill like a werewolf pre-trigger. That's why he's insanely impulsive. They have to get Damon to a safe level like Tyler is after he triggers his werewolf gene. So I'm watching Tyler assault his mother like an impulsive person would. This is all Damon you're seeing while watching Tyler and his mother. Anyway... I feel bad for Tyler, his family secret is emotionally damaging.

I really love this soundtrack they chose for Tyler and Damon, The River Has Run Wild by Mads Langer. Consider how Katherine was supposed to die and how Tyler's father actually died, and you catch onto the lyrics. It's their history repeat of The Battle of Willow Creek.

"The river has run wild tonight It hurts to see you burning, burning oh so bright"

I love the way they wrote these scenes with Damon at the boarding house, replaying his moment with Katherine before he sees Elena and after. They do the whole jacket on the chair and the drink in hand. It's so powerful to see what Katherine did to him, and it was Katherine that did this to him. They gave plenty of warning in advance, in this episode alone.

By the time "It's Katherine" came out of Stefan's mouth, I was like... No shit, Sherlock. Damon was trying like hell to avoid her because yeah, there's no way he's gonna kill a woman he's in love with. "Come on. Kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know that you're only capable of one." And Damon was insane in his scene with her. I mean… Katherine was out in the world for those 145 years, and not once thought to stop in to see him. He's so in love with her that he's offering a clean slate. He's willing to forgive it all. I'd be like…. bitch, get out of my house lol

"I have a question. Answer it, and it's back to fireworks and rockets red glare. Answer it right, I'll forget the last 145 years I've spent missing you. I'll forget how much I loved you. I'll forget everything, and we can start over. This can be our defining moment because we have the time. That's the beauty of eternity. I just need the truth, just once."

Forget, forget, forget. This is his parallel to Elena and her season 6 compulsion.

This is more of Damon's parallel with season 6 Elena.

They wrote Damon's mourning process a certain way. Katherine's return is written on the other side of the tomb. That's why Jeremy dies like Alaric does… with a Gilbert ring. They shift Elena from being mad at Damon for killing and turning her mother, to hating Damon for killing Jeremy while talking about his desire to become a vampire. So when Damon kills Jeremy, you might as well picture Isobel.

You then get this understandable self-loathing shift. Damon is no longer content with who he is. He sees just how badly Katherine ruined him.

This is still my favorite part because Elena is the voice of Damon's humanity, and she's looking at him as if he's a monster. Well, he is a monster, but he doesn't need judgements or hatred. He needs help. Fans can talk all the shit they want, but there's no ignoring the fact that Stefan is only who he is because he had Lexi helping him for 145 years. No one has been helping Damon... until now.

Damon is extremely unstable, and Elena is the only person he truly trusts with his humanity. Going to see her was a mistake, but like I said, necessary for his character journey. It had to be Jeremy, period. Damon leaves after he snaps Jeremy's neck, which is his #1 indicator. He had no idea Jeremy was wearing the Gilbert ring. You have to compare this to his scene with Bonnie in 1x9… then you'll get what I'm saying. He truly believes he killed Jeremy, so he's running home. That's what he does... he makes a mess and runs.

So yeah… I love this scene for what it does, what killing Katherine couldn't do. Damon promised something poetic, and he delivered. It's kinda like that moment when Stefan threatens Elena on the bridge, and he stops drinking human blood. It also reminds me of a quote from The Blacklist. "Maybe someday… if you're very lucky… you might wonder, At exactly what point did I become this… thing?" Damon is a monster for killing Jeremy, and he's about to start his journey of redefining himself because he's no longer content with who he is. Katherine ruined him.

Damon: I did it for a… I did it for a very long time, and life was a lot easier. Elena: He doesn't want to feel, he wants to be hated, it's just easier that way.

So anyway…. you can overlay their conversation in 1x22 over this neck snap. It's the reason Jeremy doesn't try to kill Damon. He's written like Alaric in reverse.

Fans have to pay mind to the Tyler-Damon scene cuts because they're cut that way for their parallels. So when you listen to Tyler, you can see what killing Jeremy did to Damon.

Tyler: I don't know why I get like this. Mason: It's the curse of being a Lockwood. Tyler: So how'd you get the chill gene? Mason: I didn't. I've just learned how to manage it. Tyler: I don't want to be like this anymore. Mason: None of us do. That's why it's a curse, Tyler.

For Damon, it's the curse of being a vampire. He has to learn how to manage his emotions. After killing Jeremy, is no longer content with who he is. So like Tyler, doesn't wanna be like this anymore. It's all in the writing, just a matter of paying close attention.

"Hey, Caroline. My name is Katherine. I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me. Game on." Here comes Katherine, omg lol... this woman is a force, and Bonnie's gonna feel it.