#and then in episode 12 she fucking snaps and it's absolutely the best part of the show

[the-s-exy-squad]

I have so many headcanons about all for the game and the parts of everyone’s lives that weren’t discussed in depth. Also a few oc/canon character interactions yk. (Another post bc I am not adding it to this today)

To start off, things about canon characters.

I don’t think the entire reason Neil stayed was bc Andrew and Exy. I think he decided at some point whether it be subconsciously or not that even if it results in death, he wanted to help the people who treated him the best. He wanted to make sure that they were better so that he’d have the comfort of knowing that in his last moments when his dad finally caught up to him. He was the foxes team captain and lead most of the practices until he left palmetto and got signed to a pro team with Andrew. They lived together and everything.

Nicky still have spurts of depressive episodes around thanksgiving for sure and during random times bc he feels guilty. Andrew wouldn’t have been there if he didn’t ask Neil to get him to go. Andrew snaps at him once about how it isn’t his fault and he didn’t hand him on a silver plater to drake and that even though he wanted him to go, it wasn’t like he KNEW. Which would also mark the first time Andrew openly talks about the shit drake did to him. He eventually goes back to Germany but makes sure to stay in contact with everyone so he doesn’t miss them too much and can make sure they’re staying out of trouble.

Andrew gets better. He still struggles with his feeling and emotional control but it’s gotten to where he knows his limits and the little tells that his body gives him in regards to what he needs to do to calm down. Mostly includes alone time with Neil and Neil touching his shoulders or hair. I also like to believe that one day he forces himself to budge on his touch boundaries. They start off small like one of Neil’s hands on his arm and when he gains a positive association (Neil) with that touch they do another. I also like to think that he goes back to criminal Justice and gets a career as a social services worker or juvenile court lawyer. He wouldn’t want any kid to get some shitty ruling like he had with the meds and he’d be trying everything he can to ensure it doesn’t go that way bc fuck he knows those meds didn’t do shit but make him find stupid shit funny.

Kevin goes to pro obviously and that’s his entire life. He gets traded to a team and agrees to go because it’s the same city Aaron is a doctor in. He missed his college team and despite how he disregarded their well-being over exy, he hopes they’re doing good. He and Neil still stay in contact and occasionally taunt each other on social media that the fans go WILD for. Andrew rarely pops in with some embarrassingly clumsy thing Kevin did in college or a picture of him half asleep during a practice HE scheduled and the fans eat it up.

Aaron leaves the state and goes to a city that was hiring for doctors. During his intern/probationary period, he would work 3- 12 hour shifts a week and usually pick some up as well because he didn’t like having entirely empty days. When Kevin moved to that city to play exy Asron debated letting him stay in his apartment bc he’d have social interaction and he closer to someone on the team again. I read in a fic once and I absolutely love this idea: Neil is still working on fixing their relationship by making them have calls. I edited it a little to be at least 10 minutes once a week instead of however long once a month.

I think Matt would (since he majored in business administration) just go get a job at some big corporate business of some sort. He’d be the funny work friend guy and a lot of people would ask questions about college and how he and the team get during the whole thing with the ravens to which he’d laugh and say something light hearted about the situation. Even though they asked, they still treated him great and never brought up his life before palmetto.

Renee on god I love this so much. Since she’s adopted, I think she’d start a summer camp for kids in foster care and adopted kids so they didn’t feel alone. I feel like it would be the same way a Christian summer camp is but that wouldn’t be the priority at all. She’d mention it a few times as camp Dean and they’d pray before meals (if kids didn’t want to partake that was entirely fine), but the main thing for the camp is to be able to feel less alone and gain some friendships through exy and religion just like she was. I love this idea sm and it is entirely based off a camp I went to when my dad got full custody of me that was entirely for kids in bad homes or in distaste/was in distaste and adopted.

I think Dan starts her own little league exy team and would take the team to the camp. I just don’t see her slipping out on letting her team go to a camp that’s p much CENTERED around Exy but also super fun and nice and also missing out of her friends.

I believe Allison would also work at camp with Renee bc she thinks that if there’s support at a younger age, kids won’t turn to drugs. When the camp isn’t open, She runs a non profit organization for helping families with struggling kids to work through finding ways to support them. (She would very clearly state she is not a psychologist but she does have a thing for helping people see things through their kids eyes and emotions) she runs a small fashion and clothes/accessories business that she uses for funding the non profit that allows for more people to have a chance at getting assistance through her or other programs. A lot of the kids she works with through her non profit go to Renee’s camp since she can send a majority of them through her business profit. The ones she doesn’t send have stated their stance on it and would rather not go. (Usually it was for it being too overstimulated and/or anxiety about being away from home or with a bunch of strangers).

I DEFINITELY want to believe that since Exy is one of the main topics of this camp, Kevin, Neil and the rest of team go visit for a few summers when they can. Matt would even save up his vacation days so he could go. It’s like a annual reunion with the team (Nicky would call and be on call with them every second he isn’t working or something if he can’t go back to the states to actually be there). All the kids that knew of exy previously would be jaw dropped that the entire team that beat the ravens were standing in front of them.

As for Seth, I think he didn’t cross over yk. I think he decided to stick it out until his found family was happy so he can say he’s seen them happy before he goes to the after life. I think he’s been with them since his death and the beginning broke him. Seeing Allison miserable and so broken. I guess he just wanted closure on their closure. Seeing everyone together and smiling as they played Exy with kids left him feeling genuine joy her never thought he would. They were still foxes, the disfunctional, and emotionally stunted college kids that he knew, but they were happy.

This doesn’t really fit into the the previously stated ones but I think when his old teammates going to interviews he fucks around behind them bc cmon. He would. He’s dead nobody’s gonna see him 😂 and always adds in his own two sense about the situation. He’s also joked several times about his death bc what’s gonna happen? Ghost therapy?

[diseasedcube]

Ugh cringe fail remembering that I watched the entirety of Hatsukoi Monster just so I could pretend that it was cutthroat saying the lines

[sillysunshinesstuff]

The Absolute Fuckery that was 15x20

Ok there were a lot of reasons why the final was bad. Like so many fucking reasons. Even without the queerbaiting,this is some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen and here’s a few reasons why: 

Destiel

Yes. Big main reason here. They should not have included a confession and have one of the main plots of season 15 be Castiel’s and Dean’s relationship if they didn’t intend to follow through in any way. It shouldn’t have been introduced because the story became disjointed and thematically unsatisfying due to not being addressed in the final in any sort of way. Also, queerbaiting in 2020? Just to get your views up for the last few episodes because they knew Supernatural had become a shit show of bad ratings? Calculated and cruel toward the LGBTQIA+ community who has supported their careers for years. 

Saileen

The absolute least they could have done was see this plot point through but they did not. We do not know if Eileen lives and even if they release information that she did, it’s still bullshit because we don’t get to see any part of her story. She has been reduced to a two dimensional character with no agency or purpose. Another woman just meant to prop up the male lead. Bullshit. 

The Empty

What the fuck was the point of everything about this plot line if it would just be trashed half way through? Why did Cas make that deal with Ruby? Why did she beg to get out? Why did the Empty accuse Jack of making it loud? I really thought they were going somewhere with this one but they chickened out. There was so much potential for this; the angels and demons being awakened, balance being restored in heaven and hell, a big final show down between them and God. There were so many things just dropped when it came to this and that is why season 15 is absolutely frustrating because it feels like we just wasted our time with useless world building that didn’t amount to anything. 

Kevin

I truly did think they’d address this in some sort of way, but the last time we saw Kevin, he was cursed to wander the earth until he became insane because his soul couldn’t ascend to heaven. I was really excited about this because I thought it meant there was going to be some restructuring of the Supernatural universe. The plot would be how the universe Chuck created wasn’t perfect and it had flaws and it was up to Team Free Will to fix some of these gaping holes. They made a point of calling it unfair. It was a wrong that should have been righted in some sort of way in the final. 

Benny

This really isn’t just about Benny, it is about the concept of purgatory. A running theme in the show is that good people don’t deserve what happened to them. We see a lot of “good” monsters throughout the show. Characters who helped, sacrificed, and died for the brothers. At the end, they are sent to monster hell or purgatory. There was an episode this season where Sam and Dean killed a teenage boy who had been turned into a vampire. The teenage boy accepted his death because he knew it was for the best. He was afraid of hurting more people and he accepted that it was unfair. They made sure to emphasize how unjust the rules of this universe were and the emotional toll these universal rules took on the boys. Benny’s demise was spoken about briefly and we see Dean very hurt about his death. But the audience is left with the feeling that this is wrong. That the way the Supernatural universe is structured is wrong. Good people get turned into monsters, die, go to purgatory, and then die the ultimate death there. Is this what’s in store for all the “good monster” characters in the show? Garth? His family? They’re werewolves who fight their monster instincts, do they they still deserve purgatory? Did that teenage boy? A gaping hole that I thought the show was going to address in some way. Maybe offer redemption to those in purgatory or have Jack completely wipe away the concept of monsters in the universe. After all, it was just Chuck’s shitty writing, why couldn’t they wipe it clean and just leave people? “Cure” people of the monster and officially give the boys a way out of hunting? No monsters means no hunting. They’d be truly free. I thought this was direction they were going based off the certain episodes and characters discussed. But nope.

Jack

They reduced Jack’s character to plot food and that’s it. His ending was sloppy because it didn’t take into account any of the growth he’s had over the last three seasons. We predicted his ending from season 12 and that’s bad writing. Just. Awful writing. This character had dreams, motivations, relationships, but that all quite literally dissipated. He was used as a magic button that solved all their problems. 15x19 truly showed the lack of thought put into his character. He should not have been a main character if he didn’t have more influence on the plot than simply being a cop-out for having to write a well thought out solution. He was literally just there to snap his fingers and fix all their problems. 

Dean

Oh yeah, Dean’s ending was a big fuck you to any character growth this character has had over the last 15 seasons. There is a line in his final 15 minute goodbye monologue where he says they always knew it would end this way. Which, exactly. We always thought it would end this way because it’s so goddamn predictable. It’s shitty writing because it doesn’t try to subvert this. It quite literally says that any growth Dean has had meant nothing because it didn’t change his end. Dean Winchester was always meant to die a young, bloody death. Everything he’s done, everything he’s bled and sacrificed for meant nothing. His prediction came true. It makes the audience wonder why they stuck around for this long ass journey if they knew the ending all along. It isn’t about what this character deserves. We have always known that the hero deserves happiness, but the ending should say something about why the story matters. Why did we see Dean struggle all his life about accepting himself? Loving himself? Seeing himself as someone who deserves to live? It was yet another theme and plot point throughout season 15. It’s what Castiel proclaimed to him in his confession and it is what Dean finally acknowledged by telling Chuck that’s not who he was. Dean Winchester is not a cold blooded killer. Dean Winchester deserved to live. It was beautiful character growth. A wonderful end to him. But they said fuck that when his last words were that he always knew it would end this way. That he always knew he wasn’t meant to live a long life. The writers wanted tears and they got them. I was crying, not because it was a beautiful satisfying death or ending, but because they tore apart 15 years of development for my beloved character. Dean Winchester has shown consistently that he wanted more than hunting, he wanted more than the life he got stuck with. But they didn’t follow through. They just decided to make an emotional ending because that was the coolest broest bro masculine thing to do. 

Castiel

Literally everything. Literally fucking everything. Another character that was reduced to plot food. Castiel, the angel who rebelled against heaven and fell for the man he raised from perdition, was not deemed important enough to be in the final. This was the biggest fuck you of all. His story had become so complicated over the last few seasons and his purpose was kinda everywhere but they finally focused it when they had his happiness be Dean. When he said he found his faith when he found a family. When he became a father to someone who would one day save the universe. Castiel lived for the love he learned he was capable of. His ending just made no sense. I guess we’re supposed to assume Jack saved his from the empty but he wasn’t shown. He was not shown greeting Dean, the man he died for over and over again, his happiness. He was not shown being reunited with Jack, his faith. He was not shown enjoying the life he fell from grace for. He was a book with half its pages ripped out. Castiel didn’t get an ending. He got erased. 

Sam

That fucking wig. 

This is just some of my rambling thoughts I wanted to share will all of you. I have been a fan of this show for so many years. I invested so much time and love into something I’m going to look back on with bitter disappointment. Some of shittiest writing I have ever seen. Thanks for reading and add some more reasons. I know a missed a shit ton. 

[destiniesfic]

132 Hours, Chapter 12

No, Cardan doesn’t hate the smell of cinnamon. And maybe somehow, inexplicably, he doesn’t hate me.

Previous

Note: This chapter contains explicit content. Proceed with caution!

Read chapter 12 on AO3, or read below:

I don’t know when I decide it.

Maybe it’s in that moment, curled up on that mattress, clutching at his shirt and wishing it wasn’t empty. That a boy was there to fill it with warmth and body, the shape of his kiss lingering on my forehead, the ghosts of his fingers in my hair. I stay like that for a long time, marveling at his gentleness. Then I peel off my dress and pull on his shirt. It’s big. It makes me wonder about the way he’d fit on me, against me.

Maybe it’s later, when the Bomb comes to check on me and sits down with me for a while, talking to me as I swallow my pride and blink back tears. “You’re doing so well,” she says, with her knees pulled into her chest, rocking back and forth on her heels. “You’re great. Not too much longer now.” And when she puts her hand on my shoulder, I wish she was Cardan, that her small hand was his larger one.

Maybe it’s after that, when the Ghost hangs out with me for a little while, standing, not sitting, propping himself up against the wall. “You want to watch anything?” he asks, as I blink at the glare in his palm and realize this is the first phone I’ve seen in almost five days. “News? Bachelorette season recaps?” I ask him to play an old episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved if we have the bars for it, and he does, tilting the screen in my direction. I appreciate his aloofness—it makes me feel like my situation is less dire—but I wish I were watching it with Cardan.

Maybe I never decide it. Maybe it was always decided for me, all the way back when I hit puberty, when I came back to school and suddenly he was the only thing I ever wanted to smell again. I don’t know. I don’t want to believe that biological determinism runs my life, that all our choices are coded into our genes. I want to have free will. Yet maybe it does all come down to that moment, when I scented him, and then a breeze picked up my hair and drove him absolutely bananas.

Because that must have been what happened. Because Cardan doesn’t hate cinnamon at all. Because he was just in here to help me drink down my water and tell me I was good. Because he tucked my hair behind my ear and seemed so sad when I asked him not to hurt me on purpose. Because he sat in the chair outside and rattled off a list of supposed achievements of mine, things he admired me for.

No, Cardan doesn’t hate the smell of cinnamon. And maybe somehow, inexplicably, he doesn’t hate me.

I don’t know when he decided that any more than I know when I decide this. Maybe it’s the spur of the moment. By the time Cardan returns that night, I am once again drenched in my own sweat and various other fluids, I am just about on the verge of screwing anything or anyone, and it feels like fire ants are crawling all over me. Still, I think I can push through it. My symptoms have been steadily escalating, so it’s not like any of this is new, just worse.

“Hi,” Cardan says, folding himself up in his usual corner. Lavender lingers in the air, riding the coattails of his scent. “How goes it?”

“Bad,” I manage. Single syllables are about my limit, even though the worst of my cramps have subsided for the moment.

“Yeah. I could’ve guessed.” He pauses, wrestling with himself over something. “Um, this is going to suck, undeniably, but I’m kind of glad to be back in here.”

“What?” I pick up my head. “You’re crazy.”

“For sure. You knew that already, right?” He laughs at himself, tilting his head back, exposing his throat to me. I think my mouth starts watering. God, I need this to be over. “But out there I kept wondering how you were doing. I was really distracted. I wanted to keep checking on you, make sure you were okay.” He shrugs. “It’s just… like, alpha stuff. Hardwired, instinct stuff.”

“Yeah,” I say mildly. I put my head back down.

“I can’t wait for this to be over.”

It’s weird how his words echo my thoughts. Feeling defensive, I say, “So you can go back to just caring about yourself?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Jude, if you think I care much about myself, your brain really is scrambled eggs.”

“I think you’re vain.”

“You would be too, if you were me. I like to look hot and wear nice clothes, so what?”

I roll my eyes.

“Vanity’s not what I’m talking about,” he continues. “Self-preservation, either.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.” He runs a hand through his curls, distracted, restless. “I don’t know. But I don’t think either of us are very good at it.”

I turn over then. I don’t want to talk to him anymore. There’s a feeling in me, like smoldering embers, that has very little to do with my heat, with fever or desire. It takes a little prodding to realize that it’s annoyance, or even anger. I’m angry with him. Why am I angry with him?

Because I remember Cardan saying he wanted to take care of me. And the part of me that I tamp down on, the omega part, the vulnerable part, the part that is now exposed and very naked, very raw, wants that so much. If he doesn’t hate me, what is he waiting for? He’s the alpha. Everything points to him making the first move, and he is not moving.

Is he going to make me do it? He’s going to make me do it. Well, I hate him for it. I refuse.

Except when the next cramp rolls through me, it decimates my self-control.

“Cardan,” I whine.

Cardan has not said anything in a few minutes, so I think he might be sleeping, but he picks up his head immediately. “What, what is it?”

“Come here.”

I hear him inhale sharply. “Oh, fuck. Jude, no.”

“Why?” On the verge of tears, I try to twist toward him and end up with my shirt—his shirt—hiked up, my body tangled in the blankets. They scrape at my skin, but if I throw them off I’ll be too cold. Everything is discomfort, everything hurts. “Why not?”

He doesn’t answer.

“You think I’m disgusting,” I say for him. Some part of me is aware that I am babbling. Some part of me is aware that none of this is true. But it’s what I know. It’s what I revert to. And it’s easy to believe. I certainly feel disgusting. “You hate me.”

“No,” he says again, more quietly now.

“I know you hate me. You don’t want to want me. It’s okay. You don’t—have to like me.” My body spasms again. I thrash in the blankets. “Just touch me.”

“Jude.”

“It hurts so much.” My face is wet. Have I started crying? I rarely cry at pain. It must be sweat.

“You’ll hate me.” He’s trying to hold firm, but his voice shakes.

“I hate you a-already.” I duck my head into the pillow. I am not sure that’s entirely true anymore.

There is a long silence. In between my shivering and snuffling, I can hear the sound of Cardan’s breathing, ragged and heavy. “Are you sure?”

I nod, then remember he can’t see me very well. “Yes, yes. Just—”

I don’t know how he crosses the room so quickly, but one minute he is there, and the next he’s climbing on top of me, pulling down the blankets I’ve swathed myself in. I’m lying on my stomach, so I can’t see him, see what his face is doing, but I feel him. His hands are warm when they brush my skin. They do say alpha blood runs hot, don’t they? I feel a spark with every touch and can’t help writhing, trying to pull closer to him. My legs are still caught in a sheet.

“Okay, okay,” he says. “Okay. Just—hold still, okay?”

That’s easy for him to say. I growl, but still as best I can. With him so near, I am shaking.

Cardan pulls the borrowed shirt up over my head, the skims a hand down my bare spine. “God,” he says, and it’s kind of a sigh and kind of a growl in return. “You, I mean… Jude…”

“Hurry up,” I snap.

He takes his hand away, and I nearly sob. But then I hear fabric rustling behind me and realize he’s just pulling off his own shirt. He practically falls on top of me after, and when he slides a hand around me to rest against my lower abdomen, I can feel him trembling too.

“Oh, fuck,” Cardan breathes, when that hand trails into my shorts, between my legs, and he feels how absolutely soaked everything is —which would make me want to die of embarrassment if I wasn’t aching to be touched. I press into his hand, rub into it, and bite into the pillow under my face to keep from being too loud.

I kind of expect Cardan to pull out some of the cheesy lines alphas are supposed to say, like to tell me how wet I am or chuckle and say that I want it so bad, don’t I? But he’s as quiet as I am and just as desperate. His breath is hot and ragged on my neck. He makes a cursory effort to finger me and then abandons it, pulling my shorts down instead and positioning himself behind me. Maybe I should care that the foreplay’s cut short, but I don’t. Fingering’s not going to help me feel any better, I just need him to—

And then he does.

Oh.

I bite down hard again and accidentally catch my tongue in my mouth, tasting blood. That hurts.

“Jude?” Cardan asks, breathless. I must have made a sound.

I shake my head; isn’t he supposed to be so flooded with hormones that he’s incapable of coherent thought? I certainly am. “Go, go,” I urge him. It’s the only thing I can seem to say.

He starts moving his hips against mine. At first I think he’s trying to take it slow, but he quickly loses the plot. Both of his hands grip my waist, pulling me into him, pulling us together and apart, and I hold onto the pillow for dear life to muffle the sounds I know I’m making.

It doesn’t hurt, not after the first couple of thrusts. Does it feel good? It’s hard to say. It feels necessary. It feels like so much. And just when I think that maybe being filled up by him isn’t so bad, that maybe it’s actually kind of good, I am caught unawares by an orgasm that’s more like a full-body convulsion. There’s not a lot of pleasure in it, but at least there’s something like catharsis.

Cardan moans and surges forward, his chest pressing against my back. He isn’t done yet, but his rhythm is breaking, his hips rolling into mine at desperate, uneven intervals. I can’t think about what any of that means as I let my own climax work through me. All I know is that he’s suddenly gripping me tighter, and he presses in—all the way, all of him—and his teeth sink into my neck, just above the juncture with my shoulder.

“Ow!” I yelp, jamming my elbow back into his side. “What the hell?”

He comes back to himself and releases me. “Sorry, I’m—sorry,” he says, and I’m surprised how easily the words fall from his lips. He nuzzles the place where he bit me, then lets out a nervous chuckle. “That, oh, that wasn’t on purpose.”

I am confused for a moment before I remember what I had asked of him, just before all of this started. It is hard to think. “Are you trying to end up with a mate at nineteen?”

“Twenty.”

“Whatever. Get off of me.”

Now he pauses. “I… can’t.”

I kick myself. Of course he can’t. We had discussed this, and both of us know the logistics of it. We’re stuck like this for a while. I am uncomfortable and relieved at the same time; a choice has been taken away from me, but maybe it’s okay. The heat rolling off of him is keeping me comfortable, and he is trembling, oddly vulnerable. I’m not alone in that. Even better, my brain is no longer clouded by fever. It must have broken while we were distracted.

“Here,” he says, and he rolls us onto our sides, which is a little better. His arm is draped over my waist, and his skin is still warm—warmer now that I don’t feel so feverish. I can feel his face pressed to my hair, hear his breathing, so when he inhales deeply, there’s no hiding it.

“Are you smelling me?” I mean for it to come out hard, annoyed, but instead I feel like it sounds curious and calm. I am so tired, and a little achy, but water has been thrown over the frantic fire in my chest.

“What?” Cardan’s voice is soft and sleepy.

“Never mind.” I shift, settling against him. “You were definitely smelling me.”

“Mmm.” He noses at the nape of my neck. “You smell good.”

“The pheromones must be going to your brain, Greenbriar. I could have sworn I reeked.”

Now Cardan outright laughs. “You’re the worst omega I’ve ever met, you know.”

“You’re not such a great alpha either.” I turn my head to try to look back at him. “You don’t hate me?”

It comes out as more of a question than I mean for it to be. Cardan shifts uneasily behind me. “You should try to get some sleep. It’s probably going to start again soon.”

“Can you sleep like this?” I ask, incredulous. He is very hard and still very inside of me. But I think I had expected that to feel worse than it does, awkward and invasive. Instead, I am strangely comfortable. I got used to him quickly, and now he fits.

“Well, I guess I’ll find out—ah.” He presses his forehead to my shoulder and I feel his cock twitch inside me which is, frankly, weird. His hand grips my bicep, hard, and he shakes all over again. “Oh.”

“So that seems like a ‘no,’” I manage, feeling flushed all over. I had almost forgotten the purpose of knotting us together like this was to lock in semen and ensure a better chance of pregnancy. Ugh. I should be getting some of those spontaneous, rolling orgasms, too, but I don’t know if I want them. I mean, yes, in theory, orgasms are good, but not being able to control when they hit…

“I’ll get used to it.” His voice is strained.

“All I’ve done is sleep for two days,” I say, but I have to stifle a yawn as I say it. I also sweated, and shivered, and maybe cried. Plus, it’s not like any of the sleep I got was particularly restful. But I won’t admit he has a point about trying to sleep. “So you… do you like me?”

Cardan smooths his hand over my side. His trembling has subsided, and he turns his head to rest his cheek against my shoulder. “That’s what I was going to tell you,” he says, “when I followed you to the beach. Before we got taken.”

Nothing, not even the fact that I just had sex with Cardan Greenbriar—something that hasn’t really sunk in yet—could have shocked me more than that admission. “What?”

“Yeah, I was going to say, uh, sorry, and that I thought you were cool, and that maybe we could start over. Locke said Taryn said you’d be there, and I figured I wouldn’t have a chance once you got busy with college, so—”

I cut him off, because it seems like he might go on forever if I don’t. “So you were going to be like, ‘Sorry for the years of psychological damage, I actually like you, can I make out with your face?’”

“Yes?”

I laugh wildly. It’s like someone’s stuck a key in my chest and unlocked it. “Wow, you are really bad at this.”

He groans. “I know.”

“I would probably have punched you.”

“You’d be well within your rights.”

I pause. “Are you into that?”

“Huh.” Cardan considers this. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t actually know. I’m going to go with ‘No, I’m probably not into erotic face-punching.’ Except maybe if you did it.”

“Oh my god.” I hide my face in the pillow even though he can’t see me. “Terrible alpha.”

“The worst.”

“You like me.”

He drapes his arm over my waist. “You’re okay.”

“You do,” I insist, more to contradict him than anything else. Do I believe it? It is so hard to believe. And yet… “It’s the most… it’s the most stereotypical thing in the world. It’s a cliché. Alpha likes omega, alpha makes omega miserable over it.”

“Alpha and omega get locked in a basement together for a few days.” He nuzzles my shoulder. “That’s how that normally ends up, right?”

I shake my head. I don’t understand how I feel so different. Our circumstances haven’t really changed. Sure, I’m not in excruciating agony anymore, but we’re still kidnapped, waiting for ransom or rescue. And yet it’s like every part of me that was coiled up has come loose in his arms. I blink. “We had sex.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” I can picture his brow furrowing as he asks, “Wait, did you somehow not notice?”

“I should be freaking out,” I inform him. “I mean, this is—you’re—”

“Your body’s flooded with happy chemicals right now,” he reminds me. “Dopamine or whatever. If you’re going to freak out, it’ll happen when your heat’s over. All the way over.”

“Yeah, right.” I shiver, but pleasantly. I’m not sure if it’s an aftershock or something else. The mattress is still grody, the blankets are still scratchy, but I am somehow more cozy, more at ease, than I can remember being in a long time. I yawn again. “Cardan?”

“Mm-hm?”

“I think I could sleep like this.”

His hand brushes my hair away from the nape of my neck, and I feel his lips come to press against it. “You should,” he says. “I’ll make sure to wake you up before it starts again.”

Again. There’s going to be more, at least a few hours more. I don’t know what to do with that information, so I don’t do anything with it. That’s a problem for the Jude who’s had a little bit more rest. With Cardan’s face against my hair, and with his body fitted against mine, I steal a precious few minutes of real sleep for the first time in days.

Next

[eerythingisshaka]

The Coffee Prince Pt. XIV

[T’Challa x Reader]

Word Count: 4.3K

*Part 1* *Part 2* *Part 3*  *Part 4* *Part 5* *Part 6* *Part 7* *Part 8* *Part 9*  *Part 10* *Part 11* *Part 12* *Part 13*

A/N:  Long break, but it’s back!  Hope those who read are still here to enjoy and new ones get with it too.  SO much has happened for a recap but shit went down. and now we are here.  Links to previous chapter above.

Tavia stands before you, looking healthy in plain clothes, less bewildered than your last meeting with her hair braided back like Cleo in Set It Off.  Your mouth goes dry from anxiety as you grip your door, thoughts ping pong in your mind to let her in or slam it in her face.  She has no right here.  Why didn’t you throw her shit out anyway?

Shuri steps between you both, speaking softly.  “This doesn’t have to happen if you don’t want it.  She is only here because she has made strides in rehabilitation but you have the final say.”

You swallow the rock in your throat, feeling damned by this choice being up to you. But at least you could control this situation.  “I don’t want this.”

Shuri nods,  “Then we will leave.”

“But I need to.  If it’s over with now, I can be done for good.”  You step your feet heavily aside from the doorway to allow Tavia entrance.  She hesitates, looking away but once Shuri gives her the go ahead, Tavia shuffles by to go straight to her room.  

“Do you need me with you?”  Shuri asks.

“No, it’s fine.  Thanks.”

“Ok, I will be just around the corner, waiting.”

You thank Shuri, before shutting the door slowly.  You instantly feel warm and stifled.  Having this space alone has been Hell itself but having someone there you absolutely loathe was worse.  You choose a spot on the couch, biting your fingernail anxiously.  Each click of the nail to tooth comforted you during the ransacking Tavia was doing in her room.

Tavia steps out with a duffle bag over her shoulder and a rolling luggage bag by her side.  She closes the door behind her, meandering to the middle of the living room and stops.  

“(Y/N),”  Tavia says calmly.

You lift your hand up  between your face and her.  “Don’t fucking say my name, just...”

“Ok.”  

You both sit in a stalemate of silence, making you gradually angrier.  The presence in your place felt stifling, felt evil.  You can’t stand it.  “Tavia, why aren’t you leaving?”

Tavia shrugs.  “I want to talk to you.”

“Then talk!” you shout out.

“(Y/N), you told me not to.”

You stand up, clapping aggressively.  “I said don’t say my name, Tavia!  You don’t listen, damn!”

“I’m sorry!”  Tavia screams out.  Her hands fall to her sides in defeat.  “I can’t make it better but I can’t stop being sorry!”

“And you can stay being sorry, but I will never give a fuck about the apologies!”  Your voice shakes your core, making your head throb from the energy you’re exerting.  The adrenaline you get from letting her know exactly how you feel is exhilarating and long overdue.

Tavia closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.  Tavia has never been the bigger person in an argument.  If the old Tavia caught this attitude, the whole apartment building would’ve had a show to watch.  “I just hope when you see him again, you’re as tough on him as you are on me.”

You feel your feet moving before you can think, bounding towards her.  Tavia retreats behind the kitchen bar.  “Chill, chill!”

You glare at her from behind the counter.  “Who are you threatening?  After all this bullshit, you’re still fucking around and throwing Erik in my face like he’s your personal hitman now?  Don’t think I won’t tell Shuri.”

Tavia scoffs.  “Erik?  Fuck him!  I haven’t seen him since that day.  I just know he ain’t dead, since Wakanda doesn’t fuck with that kind of thing.”

“What do you mean?  If you don’t talk to him, how do you know he’s not dead?  He almost killed T’Challa.”

“Because when I thought my head was on the chopping block, one of the red chicks said capital punishment isn’t practiced anymore.  I was talking about T’Challa, actually.”

“Shut up.”  You walk away, shutting her out as much as possible.

“I’m serious.  You want to come at me for what I did, that’s fine but you got a lot to talk to him about and I just hope cuz he dickmatized you, that you don’t let him off easy.”

You fold your arms defiantly.  “What do I have against him?  He protected me from you all acting up on me.”

Tavia bucks her eyes at you wildly.  “Do you really feel no anger towards him during all of this?”

“Of course I do!  But this isn’t about him right now!  Why are you deflecting so damn much?  You should be telling me how you and Erik decided kidnapping me and taking over an African nation could possibly turn out for the best!”

“I wasn’t a part of that.  I was-”

“But you were Tavia!  YOU put that gun to me just like he did.  I had no autonomy because you stole that by putting fear in me because I was so shook my best friend could flip on me like this.  How am I supposed to take that Tavia?  Should I just forgive you for being so close to ending my life?  And ending my child’s!”

“I didn’t know you were pregnant!  There’s no way I would’ve put you through that with that on information.”

“I didn’t know either, Tav.  But it sure is great to know that is where your moral code sticks.  ‘Let’s not wreck the fetus but send her through all the hell she can take.’  And you want to talk about T’Challa?  T’Challa the bad guy??  I would’ve taken his lies way better if they didn’t have to come out because my life was in danger!”

Tavia shakes her head, picking up her bags to leave.  “He is selfish.  If you know him, he is barely any better than Erik.  He just has a nicer way of talking.  They all lie, they all kill, you just gotta pick a side.”

“So which are you, Tav?  You still deciding?”  you ask, plopping on your couch with exhaustion, unscrewing the cap of your room temperature wine to take a swig, your hands shaking.

Tavia points to her chest, “I’m for me.  I suggest you do the same.  Don’t let him lead your life anymore.”  

“I haven’t seen him in months.  Trust me, I’m over it.”

She walks over to the door, stopping to look back at you.  “Stop thinking about him.  Get rid of that damn stuffed panther plushie, and maybe move cuz I know you can’t afford this place alone but you need a new environment.”

“Step, Tavia.”

“I’m sorry girl.”  

When she finally leaves, you glug the wine bottle a little more to drink down the pain, coughing it up when your throat closes too tight to swallow anymore.  Wiping the drips of wine off your mouth, you cry out harder than you had since you came back home from Wakanda, feeling your loneliness hit you hard.  There was no way to repair things with Tavia, no matter how badly you wanted it.  And there was no way you would reach out to T’Challa for anything ever again, no matter how badly your heart ached for a glimpse of him.  You hoped he would stay in Wakanda for good.  If he could do anything for you now, that would be the best gift you could ask for.  

The weather was getting cooler by the day as fall snapped the summer heat wave, you had more reason to stay in and unsocialize from the world around you.  You stay up late watching a marathon Will & Grace, laughing at Jack using his teaching position in his acting studio as a means to pick up guys.

“That would not fly today,”  you quip between laughs, hugging your panther plushie under your chin in the darkness of your bedroom.  The world around you grows quiet as the days get shorter, giving you peace with a sprinkling of eerie sensations.  You look at your bedroom door instinctively, feeling a shiver run down your spine ominously.  You close your eyes and shake your head.  Being alone and in the dark makes your imagination run in a dangerous direction.

“It’s nothing.  There is nothing.  It’s just you,”  you repeat to yourself again and again, pulling your covers tighter.   Your brain visualizes the worst at night.  Prowlers, murderers, ghosts, and monsters plague your brain when night falls no matter what you have watched before bed.  You say a prayer for protection to ease your worry, but something hovers above you, waiting for you to trip over your words.

The brightness of your TV creates a halo that makes your eyes tired, so you rest them while listening to your episode play out in the background.

*BANG*

The sound makes you hop up in your bed.  Listening carefully, you try to orient yourself and find out where it came from.  Your TV is off, leaving you completely wrapped in pitch darkness.  

“Heyyy, princess.”

You gasp sharply, seeing for the first time a dark intimidating figure standing by the window,

His voice is calm but in a way that you know you fucked up.  “You thought we were through?  Nah, far from it.”

He lunges at you, ripping your blanket back and pulling you by your ankles off the bed.  Yu land on the floor hard, feeling yourself land on a charger.  Your body seizes up, voice completely stolen as he gets on his knees, pushing your shoulders back until he has a clear grip on your neck.

“Just cuz that bitch punked out on me, don’t mean it’s over.  I’m taking you out regardless, and that fake ass T’Challa can come get you once your soul gone.”

His grip on your neck tightens harder and harder.  You try to beat his hands off of you but it feels like you’re underwater as your arms move slow and heavily.  You reach for his face to give him any reason to let off of your neck, but he won’t let loose his hold.  

His snarl glows in the darkness as his hands compress your neck.  “See how you like the afterlife without ancestors to take care of you, princess.  He has no clue what it’s like to be us.  Where is he now?”

You let in a deep breath suddenly, sitting up continuing to gasp for air.  Your hand rests at the base of your throat, making you pull it away, quickly running to the lightswitch.  Once your room is illuminated, you see your wrinkled up blankets, your plushie on the floor.  The TV is still off but no one is waiting at your window.  

Your heart is still pounding as you pick up your plushie and sit on the edge of the bed, taking time to evaluate what happened.  The violence of your dreams were nothing new, keeping you from being able to rest most nights.  Most of them are short, and jolt you awake so soon that you barely remember them but this one was vivid and completely etched in your brain.  Erik waking you, dragging you, choking you.  Your neck still feels sore like it happened but that must’ve been your own doing, there’s no other way.  

You fall back on your pillow but your body was too energized by the fight to rest anymore.  You watched the sun come up in its bright orange hue, lovely but nowhere near Wakanda’s views.  

At work, you feel the lack of rest overcome you as you type away at your computer, wanting nothing more than to rest your head on the keyboard.

A coworker of yours tosses a scarf around their neck with a flourish.  “Hey!  I was going to make a coffee run, and you look like you could use some!” they say in a sing songy manner.

You look up at them before leaning back and rubbing your temples.  “Ah, that’s fine.  I’m disciplining myself to finish this report before I get any treats, and I am just about there.  I’ll get some for lunch but thanks.”

“Suit yourself.  I just need something warm.  This building is terrible with heat in the winter time.  Uh...is that a hickey??”

You pull up the collar of your shirt further, feeling hot from embarrassment.  “No, uh, I got an allergic reaction.”

They squint their eyes.  “Lemme see…”

You grab your phone, pretending to take a call and apologize.  They shrug and mouth that they will talk to you later.  No way in hell could you explain that you choked yourself last night, which sounds even more freaky than the hickey assumption.

Making their exit, you rest your head on your arms for just a couple minutes and it feels so good, you can’t stand to be at work anymore, wishing you could snap your fingers and be done with the day.  Instead you shake yourself loose and type away, continuing your project until the very last minute before lunch.  

You feel a small sense of accomplishment, having done something arbitrary in the grand scheme of things but to add some positivity to your life, you decided not to deny yourself your promised treat:  a hot cup of a frilly coffee drink and maybe even a little cake pop or something.  Treat yourself Tuesday is afoot!

As you bundled up for the weather, you took your time crossing the street to make your way to the coffee shop near your job, crunching the red and orange leaves habitually along the way.  As you walk in, the smell of the roast livens you up on impact.  You wait in line behind the others, looking over the menu for fall specialty drinks until it’s your turn and you order our usual macchiato along with a big chocolate chip muffin..

“Abby!”

“Tall vanilla latte, no foam!”

“Sausage egg sandwich for Steven!”

“Order for Thomas!”

You check your phone lazily scrolling through celebrity feeds until your order is ready.  

“Oh shit, I forgot to ask for it to be warmed,” you say to yourself.

“Already done!”  The peppy freckle faced barista says.

You hold your hand over your heart, touched.  “Thank you so much!”

You put the warm pastry in your pocket and walk out taking a sip of your drink.  As you round the building, a figure in the distance looks familiar.  Long black coat, broad shoulders, a contemporary confident gait.  Your stomach does a somersault, feeling dizzy and breathless all at once.  You take your time watching him walk away, heading for the garage parking lot.  There was no doubt in your spirit that that was who you thought it was.  Your reaction told the truth that your eyes couldn’t confirm.  Was he in the coffee shop while you were?  Did he ignore you for his benefit?  No, that wouldn’t matter because that’s what you wanted.  But how could he not say anything?

After work one day you head over to the community center to visit with Shuri.  It had been a while since Tavia came that you got to talk to Shuri.  As you turned the corner the parking lot of the center looked pretty empty compared to what it used to look like during the school year.  

Walking up to the building you look around and catch a glimpse of a balloon caught in a powerline.  Across the street from the center is a park.  That park was the area in which the community block party was held that T’Challa invited you to early on in your relationship.  The bustling bodies congregated around food and music was so awesome, they really pulled something off great that day.  When T’Challa carried your weak ankle self back to your place to help mend, he seemed like the most important thing to you on Earth.  You never thought he would be the kind to lie and leave.

“HEY!”

The bang of the doors in front of you opening startles you.  A body rushes towards you suddenly.  You feel doom impending upon you as you raise your hands to stop the attack.  This wasn’t going to happen again.

“Stop stop stop!”  You yell out, stepping backwards your heel collapses over the edge of the sidewalk.  The rough asphalt catches your hand behind you as you watch two youths run past you giggling, not even noticing you on the ground.  Their laughter fades in the distance as they run across the street in the grass, slinging their backpacks at each other morning stars.

“Hey!  Why are you on the ground?”

Shuri comes out of the doors, leading with a hand out to you.  You instantly feel foolish having this stylish teenager helping you up as you sit amongst rocks and old gum.

“No reason.  I wanted to come by but some kids-”

“Eh!  It was Marcus and Angel, right?  They play too rough, and I try to tell them but they have NO RESPECT!”  She shouts at the top of her lungs to the unknowing kids.  “Come in, I was just thinking about you.”

Walking inside, the warm colors greet your eyes, entertaining you with their aesthetic.  Deep, cherry wood lines the hall with intricate carvings along the ceilings and baseboards.  Touchscreens displaying activity schedules, meal menus, and student achievements are located at the end of each hall.  You can just barely see the inside of the gym through the double doors to the left.  

“I don’t think you have ever been in here before.  Have you?”  Shuri asks.

You shake your head.  “I guess some things got in the way.  It looks amazing in here.”  

“Thank you.  It took a lot of planning on my part.  Jabari can be very stingy with help sometimes.”

“Who is Jabari?”  you ask.

Shuri starts to speak but catches herself.  “Come this way.”

Her square block heels clop down the hall as you follow behind.  She takes you to a podium in front of a frosted window.  

“This is something I especially like.  New visitors to the center are shown this during the tour, usually toward the end.  It gives a bit of some background on what brought us here and what our mission is.”

She pushes a black panther head embedded in the stand, which begins to stream a flood of light onto the frosted glass.  A voiceover talks to you about the long reign of Kings and Queens that reside in the independent nation of Wakanda.  Images of the sprawling landscape and the beautiful sunset lure you in.  Images of King T’Chaka come in that show him making a boisterous speech that is translated by a narrator. Stating his desire to close the gap of education, generational wealth and health disparities between whites and minorities across the world.  He says he wishes to make a better world for himself and his son.  As he picks up a toddler, you see a young boy with multiple beaded necklaces around his neck, smiling and clapping as a crowd cheers.

“I wasn’t born yet, so don’t worry, it gets better,”  Shuri whispers to you jokingly.  

Your eyes begin to water and it catches Shuri’s eye.  “Sorry.  He just looks...like himself.”

You feel butterflies, holding your stomach as you reminisce on what was.  The little boy in that film is T’Challa with his father.  And he looks so much like Bean did in your dream, shockingly so.

The voice over goes on to showcase the outside of the community center during its construction.  Some big burly man lug logs of wood, breaking them down to lumber.  

“Those are Jabari,”  Shuri says.  

A shot of T’Challa looking over blueprints and directing construction workers fill your vision.  You focus on him, looking at his hair coils, his black clothing with the pop of embroidery.  The camera zooms in on his long finger pointing to the blueprints and fades back in to show the constructed center.  As the film closes a final shot of T’Challa welcoming you and hoping you stay crumbles you.  This was him before he ever knew you.  He looked so happy and accomplished and looking forward to the future.  Nothing like how you left him.

Shuri touches your arm.  “Is everything alright?”

You shake your head.  “Is there a bathroom close?”

“Two doors down.”

You jog down to find the unisex bathroom, pushing open the door heading straight for the sink.  Your head is pounds as you gasp for breath through your tightening throat.  Each inhale feels more painful than the last as you lean your back against a wall and tears roll down your cheeks.  You heave a big breath and sob out loud, wringing your emotions out like a sponge.  This amounted to too much today.  Tavia’s words ring in your ear as you realize she’s right.

The door opens a crack as Shuri pokes in and sees you weeping.  She doesn’[t say a word as she wraps her arms around you, taking on your pain with all her little frame can handle. You feel like you’ll never stop crying, especially with Shuri there to help you through it.

“Please...I can’t,”  you squeak.

Shuri squeezes you tighter.  “Yes you can.  Just cry, it is fine.”

-

Shuri offers you some tissue to wipe your face and says, “He isn’t here, I’m sorry if you were looking for him.”

Wiping your eyes, you barely look at Shuri out of guilt.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have come.”

“It’s ok.  But he’s been spending more time in Wakanda now, so if he’s here it’s for official business.”

You purse your mouth before saying, “I swear I saw him this week.  Leaving the coffee shop near my job.  But it couldn’t be, I know he would’ve said something to me.  Has he been in town at all?”

Shuri stands quietly, looking past you.

You look at her face suspiciously.  “Has he mentioned me at all?”

Shuri’s shoulders fall as defeat washes over her face.  “I don’t want to be the one to talk to you about him.  He should be doing that.”

“I know!  But...I can’t contact him except through you or by coming here.  I shouldn’t have to hunt him down, why hasn’t he even checked on me?”

Shuri tightens her jaw, refusing to answer.  You get up and walk past her to throw away your tissue.  

“Ok.  Well tell him he needs to take his bank info off of my rent.”

“He won’t do that.”

“So you have talked to him about that?  He said something?”

“He won’t let you be without.  Even if he isn’t talking to you currently.  He may just think you need space but I haven’t got a single idea what is going on besides Wakanda.”

“It’s fine.  I’ll move then.  That will cancel it officially and he won’t have to extend his charity to me anymore.”

“What?  Where are you moving?”  Shuri asks.

“Shuri, you know I can’t tell you.  But I have to leave that place.  Probably this city.  I hate my job and I haven’t been myself since Erik came and fucked things up.  I’m done, there’s nothing for me here.”

Shuri takes our hands in hers, eyes heavy with sympathy.  “I know he wouldn’t want that.”

You shrug.  “I can’t care anymore.  It’s holding me back.  I want to leave all of what happened behind.  But here while I’m here, I have had nothing but constant memories of it.  And Shuri I love you, but your brother is job.”

Shuri nods.  “With no benefits that I can see, if you ask me.  I understand, you deserve more.”

At your office, you draft a resignation letter a couple times before the verbage hits just right for you to print and sign.  Giving it an official trifold, you put it in your desk drawer and feel your excitement in your toes just thinking about a new chapter in your life that could lead to bigger and better things.  Most of your work hours have been filled with researching homes and jobs in other counties or and some neighboring states.  

“Hey hey!  You look a little peppy!  Have you had your coffee on time today?”

Your coworker invites you to join them on a field trip to the shop, talking your ear off about the office gossip, which reminds you not to tell them about you leaving until after you have given your letter to your manager.  When you make your order, they treat you by paying for the two of you and you sit together waiting on your name to be called.

“One order for Kibble, one for Bits!”

“That’s us!  I’ll get it, stay here.”

You look out the window watching the breeze whip the trees loose of their leaves until they come back, setting your drink in front of you.

“Here you go.  My phone is buzzing the hell out my ass.”  As they take their call, they get more irritated with each minute, rolling eyes and mouthing words they choose not to say.

“Sure thing, thanks Karen!  Girl, I apparently have to help fix a fuck up that wasn’t mine AGAIN!  Fuck this job!”

“Right?  Well, hit me up another time.  You still have to tell me about who ate Lawrence’s lunch when he went the fuck off.”

“You right.  It was me, but there’s more to it.  Catch you later!”

You smile after them, taking your cup in your hand to carefully remove the top to release some heat.  Coffee jumps onto your hand, hot and messy.  You shake off the excess liquid and subtly lick your finger, spinning outward to get up and get a napkin.  

“Need this?”

You take it thankfully, looking up at your good samaritan and freezing in place.  He takes a seat in front of you, using another napkin to wipe the table up.

“How are you, umhle?”

Your mind is empty.  Your sight goes black.  You can’t recall what happens, until you hear him holler as your drink is tossed down his lap.

Masterlist

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I rewatched the second season of South Park and took so many notes that I had to split them into two parts. Like seriously, I took so. many. notes. And pictures this time. I started rewatching just in case I’d find some cool little facts to sprinkle into my fanfic but I went way too far and now there’s a million facts under this cut (including gay stan, a domestic violence psa, and craig fucking dying)

Stan doesn’t like hospitals, he finds them gross and he gets sick 🤮. Also the hospital in South Park is called Hell’s Pass hospital. Early seasons have the name as Hells Pass but it gets fixed later

Cartman has to sing all of Come Sailing Away by Styx if he hears a part of it. After he says this, Kyle sings the first part and Cartman has to sing the rest. Kyle does it again later, which is kinda mean

Cartman’s mom tries to abort Cartman, who is an eight-year-old child and thus cannot be legally aborted. Later, after she slept with Bill Clinton to change the law and make 40th trimester abortions legal, it turns out she meant adoption

Kenny sacrifices himself to turn on the generator to the hospital and save Dr. Mephesto’s life along with others. He says “I’ll fucking do it” then does it and dies, absolute legend

Cartman gets way too into his deputy role. He goes undercover, pretends to be a prostitute, says “Respect my authoritah!” a lot and beats people up with his police stick

Kenny’s brother first appears when Cartman responds to a call about a disturbance at Kenny’s house. Apparently there are like 10 adult family members in the house at that time. Kenny’s dad has a black eye because Kenny’s mom punched him. She says he can’t hold a job

Token sits in the classroom in season 2

Cartman starts hating hippies in this season, like a lot

Chef tells the boys that the right time to do drugs is in college

Ike’s name is Ike Moisha Broflovski and he was born in 1996, making him 2 years old in 1998 when this season aired

This is probably obvious but yeah Kyle and Ike are circumcised

Kyle says family isn’t just blood, it’s who you care about, and he says “That’s why you guys are more than just friends, you’re my family. Except for Cartman.”

Craig’s finally sitting in the classroom in S02E04

None of the boys like dodgeball

Clyde gets a dodgeball to the face and he cries :( and he’s the only one who cries by the way

Pip throws a dodgeball in Kyle’s face and breaks Kyle’s nose

When Kyle’s mom tells the boys about conjoined twin myslexia (which isn’t a real term) and says anyone might’ve absorbed their dead twin in the womb, Stan and Cartman run away screaming but Kenny and Kyle stay to listen. Kenny even leans in to look at the book “Freaks A-Z!” that Mrs. Broflovski is reading from, and when she leaves, Kyle grimaces and Kenny laughs

Stan’s mom (Sharon) calls Kyle’s mom (Sheila) when Stan is all freaked out and trying to put an icepick through his brain, and Sharon tells Sheila to get run over by a truck. Sharon is pretty mean in these early episodes

Mr. Broflovski doesn’t really listen to what Mrs. Broflovski is saying, bad husband >:(

South Park’s team is always called South Park Cows no matter the sport

The school nurse, Nurse Gollum, went to Colorado State University

I just realized Butters exists. I think he appeared before S02E05 but I didn’t notice but yeah he’s there with the dodgeball team, injured

Here’s a picture to make up for my disgusting anti-Butters bias

Kenny’s dodgeball uniform number is 69 obviously. Kyle is 7, Stan is 4, Cartman is 325

Sheila smacks Gerald in the face so hard he falls off his chair, lots of violence perpetrated by women in this show. Remember, don’t do domestic violence no matter your gender, it’s not cool

I realized after this whole Butters thing that I should’ve made more notes about Pip, so I’ll make a note about his anger issues now. When people call him French, he gets angry and throws dodgeballs at them

The boys launch a jelly roll at Ms. Crabtree and make her crash the bus. They do it just for fun

The kids somehow go to China in the school bus

Cartman references Moby Dick, but he probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about

Kevin Stoley gets named in S02E05 and has his first speaking role when he says he has Chinese parents and after Cartman hears it he immediately says something racist. smh cartman, what a problematic fave

Cartman says “I love you guys 😊” but Stan and Kyle just stare at him and he goes 😐 “Eh, screw you guys 😠”

If Jimbo and Ned really fought in Vietnam, they youngest they could’ve been in 1998 is early forties, which means in the latest seasons they would be early sixties. Btw they met in Vietman

Jesus and Pals is a recurring TV show in seasons 1 and 2. Jesus just kind of lives in South Park

I just remembered that Terrance and Phillip are really old in canon, it’s so weird, like how can South Park canon still be changing, it’s been 20 years

Also the early seasons are casually racist who knew

Kenny flashes his ass on a tape the boys send to Jimbo and Ned’s TV show, which airs and at least 12 people see Kenny’s bare naked ass

Cartman really doesn’t like hippies in these early seasons. He throws a chair at Ned and yells, “Take that, hippie!” (Ned is in a catatonic state and did nothing to provoke this)

Jimbo and Ned live together I guess. Jimbo’s gonna take Ned home and show him some hardcore porn to snap him out of his catatonic state, good husband unlike Gerald Broflovski

Saddam Hussein is in hell and has a Canadian accent and is Satan’s lover in S02E06, I guess he died in Canada in the first episode this season but I wasn’t paying much attention since that’s the Terrance and Phillip episode that pissed a bunch of people off in 1998 because the audience wanted to know who Cartman’s dad is instead. It was kind of a boring episode so I understand why everyone was pissed, but it is funny that Matt and Trey did that so I’m not mad about it

Aww look at them!!! We’ve got background Style, the vaguest inkling of Crenny, and Cartman/Cake

I’d take more screenshots but it’s a pain since I’m watching legally and stupid legal websites block screenshots so I have to find youtube videos instead ughhhh piracy is the answer kids

Apparently there’s a huge waterfall and canyon somewhere close to South Park, maybe? At least in Stan’s dream

Mary Kay Bergman was an incredible voice actor. How the hell did she voice all the moms, Wendy, Shelly, principle Victoria, the mayor, Nurse Gollum, and fucking Ms. Crabtree??? Holy shit what a queen

Kenny has some feelings about death. He reimagines the episode where death boops him to death and in his version, he beats death the fuck up, then has ice cream and is happy 😊 But again, this is in Stan’s dream

S02E07 kind of establishes that nobody remembers Kenny dying because when Cartman tells a story where Kenny dies, Kyle questions how Kenny could’ve died then when he also died just a few hours ago when a giant monster took him

rip craig, he falls out the bus and into a canyon

But it’s okay because it was all Stan’s dream so everything in the episode is questionable. Everything after this is no longer a dream

Pip’s parents are dead and he has to go to summer school while everyone else is having a nice summer break

Officer Barbrady and the mayor are having sexual relations, I’m sure this is the most interesting note I’ve made so far. Idk I’m just writing everything down, this is how I enjoy things, I have no off switch

Ew summer bus stop, cursed

Kyle casually sings little tunes every once in a while, how cute

This is pretty obvious but Kenny likes dirty jokes, he laughs when Cartman innocently says he loves Chef’s salty chocolate balls (which are chocolate candy). Nobody else laughs

Cartman says “Screw you guys, I’m going home” or variations of it a lot in this season

So Stan throws up when he likes someone, right? Well, he’s watching an indie movie about two gay cowboys who start making out and he throws up, which is either a terrible homophobic joke or confirmation that Stan’s a little gay. I know which one I prefer

Kyle says Mr. Hankey is his best friend after Stan. Like I know it’s definitely canon that Stan and Kyle are best friends but it’s still nice to see confirmation, it’s very precious. Also Kyle is best friends with literal shit, so cute 😊

Kenny deaths:

S02E02 Kenny sacrifices himself by connecting a generator wire, which electrocutes him but brings power back to a hospital

S02E03 A tree falls on Kenny and crushes him

S02E04 Kenny falls in a grave and the gravestone falls on him

S02E05 The Chinese dodgeball team throws a ball at Kenny and he gets splattered against a wall

S02E06 Two guys pull on Kenny and tear him in half, as in one has the head and one has the legs

S02E07 A big scary monster plucks Kenny out of the school bus and carries him away. Also in Cartman’s fake memory of Fonzi jumping over cars, the motorcycle hits Kenny and crushes him against a brick wall. Kenny gets smashed against walls a lot, doesn’t he?

S02E08 Flashback: Baby Kenny has a firecracker and it explodes, sprinkling little baby Kenny parts everywhere. Later in the episode, current day Kenny dies when a giant firework snake bumps him off a stage and under a fence, which then crushes him.

S02E09 Kenny is playing with a yoyo outside a movie theatre when a bunch of people come outside and trample him to death. They say “Oh my God, I found a penny!” and “You bastard!”

I’ll post part 2 of season 2 in a couple days. I’m having way more fun writing these stupid notes than I thought I would (also gnomes is coming up soon and i am fucking ready for tweek)

[meladotjournal]

Esther - Like A Stone

Esther Abigale Lebel, despite everything, is still human. It’s her time. For now, at least. And all hunters go the same way- bloody. But what exactly happens when someone like her dies?

ESTHER has left the chat. 

Feauring: Aeszura and Dionysus. As always, I have no idea what I’m doing. If I write your character wrong, or if you have any comments at all, please tell me! I encourage it! I need to be more productive, and if you need me to rewrite absolutely anything/everything, I am more than willing to have something to do!

Takes place during Supernatural Season 12, Episode 21, set at the end of Esther’s story. Near 1800 words. 

/////

May 11, 2017

I walk out of the cabin, not bothering to clean up the mess inside. The fire I had started inside was already spreading. Sure, the bodies would smell, but at least I could be sure that I wouldn’t have to worry about any more undead spirits in this town anytime soon.

It was an easy hunt involving a couple of serial killers and a surprisingly helpful ghost. I was surprised that no local hunters (whose names I rarely bothered to remember) had picked up on it before I did. Jobs were becoming unsettlingly easy to find. I’m not one to back off of a case- I’ve been known to force other hunters off of jobs, but it felt wrong, and the recent British invasion was nothing if not suspicious. It made me almost glad that I hadn’t made many friends in the hunting community. 

And not that I was lonely or anything, but damn! I haven’t even heard from Aes. And I think we all know how much she likes to talk my ear off about things I hardly understand. But at least she sticks around, you know? I was worried about her, but don’t tell her I said so.

I start towards my car before I hear rustling in the trees. Or was it the fire? My paranoid ass wasn’t looking to wait to find out. That’s when I notice my tires were slashed. Shit. Shit! Here I am, moping like an idiot just to find out that someone’s tailing me. Just my luck. Shit!

I’d go back into the cabin, but that thing is on the verge of collapse at this point. I make a break for it, running into the thickest-looking stretch of forest, aiming in the direction of the shitty little town where I booked a shitty little motel suite.

I find a clearing nearby. Bad for cover, but a hell of a lot easier to run through. Just as I’m plotting my zig-zag formation, I see a big black SUV. Definitely bulletproof. Ominous. There’s sigils etched all over the thing. Shit. Those British fucks were onto me. I’ve been avoiding these cars for months.

I’ve spent too much time examining this thing. Lucky for me, this dumbass left the passenger door unlocked. Sloppy for one of the Men of Letters, though. What was he, drunk? Even the footsteps were sloppy. Small, around my size.

I hop in and crawl into the backseat, locking all the doors manually. I spot my reflection in the window. Jesus, I look terrified. My hands are shaking, and I find myself fiddling with my necklace. Stupid! Be productive! I use my stupid shaky hands to call the first person on my contacts list.

/////

We were getting ready for the next hunt, just like always. This was a big one, I can’t quite remember what, but it was something to do with demons and some weird hoodoo drug trade. And as much as I hate needing help, Aes and Dio were helping. In their own ways.

If I hadn’t met them while I was soulless, I doubt I’d have had the balls to stand my ground. In all honesty, they’re terrifying. I feel like at any moment, they could just eat me alive, or tell me that whatever bond we’d built was a part of some elaborate prank. But even I‘ll admit that I’m not exactly “best fwend” material. So I guess it works.

None of us sleep much. We were fooling around, getting drunk off the minibar while we watched the sunrise from the comfort of our surprisingly classy hotel room, thanks to Dio’s snappy finger magic.

“I think I finally figured it out,” Aeszura cackled. “I know exactly how I’d kill you.”

I rolled my eyes while Dio played along. “I really fucking doubt you could, little miss musical.ly star.”

“Yes, I could. I’d film it. No- I’d livestream it. And people would give me so much fucking money just to watch your smug ass die. I know the websites. Hell,” she laughed, “Facebook Live would work just fine. My followers would love it. Idiots.”

“You don’t even know what I am. I’ve been alive for thousands of years. I could be anything.”

“Time works different in hell. Like Australia. You can’t imagine how long I’ve been kicking ass. But I know exactly what you are. Dionysus.”

“I honestly doubt it. Dumbass.”

“You’re a little bitch, that’s what you are.”

I downed another one of the funky little cinnamon drinks. Not Fireball, but something fancier to match the room, and the Greek cotton I was spilling it on. Higher thread counts were pretty good at absorbing alcohol. Nice. I tried drawing patterns with my finger on the sheets before it could evaporate.

/////

I ran my nails along the face of my phone, fidgeting with the cracks in the screen. “Aes. Please, fucking pick up. I’m going crazy here. Crazier than usual. I’m talking to myself. I swear to-”

“Hey, bitch! What’s up?”

“Oh thank fucking god- Aes, I-”

“HAHA! Just kidding. This is my voicemail. Ha. Sorry. Follow me @stankthottie on musical.ly and-”

“SHIT.” I pound my head on the window, immediately regretting it. I can’t believe I fall for that stupid fucking voicemail every fucking time.

There’s no way I’m gonna be able to hotwire this car or anything. And even if I could, the Men of Letters would know that I stole it and track me down before I could even look at an asphalt road. I don’t know what I was thinking, getting into this car in the first place.

“-anyways, leave me a message after the scream or whatever. Except if you’re an angel or some shit. Eat a dick.”

“Aes, I’m such a dumbass. I’m in one of their cars. They slashed my tires and I- I can’t-” I squeezed my eyes shut, taking a deep breath.

“It doesn’t look good. I’m alone. Haven’t been able to figure out where all the hunters have been going and you know my knife hasn’t been working the same since Asteraoth… you know…” Shit, I’m crying. “-and I’m just so fucking scared, okay? I don’t know where you’ve been and why you’ve been avoiding me or whatever but now would be a really really great time to pop in and do that whole dramatic-as-all-hell smokey thing and save my sorry ass-”

I could’ve sworn I saw something in the trees. Someone? Blonde.

It’s started to rain. Great. Awesome. Fantastic. I try to shuffle my body lower into the seats and closer to the floor of the car. I can see the sky through the windows. The sun’s setting. It’ll be dark soon. I was hoping on getting some biscuits and gravy or something from the diner for dinner before heading out of town. My hiding spot smells like leather. And blood.

/////

“Fine. Fine! Then how- how’d you kill Esther, huh?”

“I don’t even know if that bitch can physically die. Can you die?” Aeszura threw an empty beer can in my direction, laughing, barely missing my head.

“Hrruhgh?” I grumbled.

“CAN. YOU. DIE.”

“Of course she can. Everyone does…” He paused, slouching. Before he thought we noticed his change in tone, he winked. “‘Cept me, of course.”

“I dunno. I’ll go to hell probably. Jus’ like everyone else.”

“Yeah right, with all those angels up your ass? You’ve got half of heaven on your stupid speed dial. It’s disgusting.”

“You’re sounding pretty self-righteous for a demon. What’s got your panties in a twist, huh, pink eyes?”

“They’re RED, fuckhead. Shut up. I hate you.” She coughed. “Ess, I don’t even know if you could go to hell. Trust me- I practically run the joint. Your soul isn’t, like, ‘soul-y’ enough. I don’t know what that angel did to you but-”

“He saved my-”

“Shut UP. Call it whatever the hell you want, but I know souls, okay? It’s kind of my fucking job. But even I’m not exactly sure what would happen if your m-eatsuit-” she paused to gag, “-exploded or something. It’s not a soul anymore. I’m not sure if it- if you - could even go anywhere.”

“Can’t become a ghost, can you? Your soul is already Tethered. I bet like, eight goats that you’d get trapped inside the knife or some shit like that” Dio giggles, snapping his fingers.

“Too bad your pretty little angel can’t tell you anything.” Aeszura joked, but she was getting genuinely angry. “That’s what you get for trusting some stupid fucking feathery-”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, guys. We have a case, remember? Why should I care, anyway? It’s not like I can do anything about it. It’s just eternity. I don’t have to worry about that when I’m busy here. Working cases. And I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”

Dio chimed in, singing. “That’s what they all say…”

/////

I’m still on the phone. I don’t want to turn it off. I want an audience. It’s stupid and childish, but even hiding from whoever’s out there, I don’t wanna be alone.

I can hear the rain attacking the roof of the car. The leaves on the trees are shaking just as badly as I am. Stupid. I’m probably overreacting, right? It’s nothing. This is nothing. I’ve been through worse. I’ve come out of worse. Who says I’m gonna die? I don’t know the Men of Letters’ M.O. but the thought just leaves a rank taste in my mouth and a lump in my throat. There’s something outside, I can feel it.

That’s when my knife, the Tether, starts humming. I take it out from the inside of my jacket, squeezing it tight. It’s glowing for the first time in months. The thing is practically singing, the vibrations making the worst noise imaginable, like a cross between a bell and a scream. The windows start to shake and the car alarm goes off.There’s a chirp and all the doors unlock. The rear door, the one by my feet, opens.

I sit up a little (might as well) and lock eyes with a blonde woman. Short hair. Big green eyes, but they’re glazed over. She looks tired, but she’s smiling. She’s holding some complicated device, as all these British fucks do- but she doesn’t look like one of them. She’s a hunter. They must’ve recruited her. Bitch. She fiddles on something on the device and the Tether stops screaming.

She pulls out a small gun and aims it right at my chest. I flip her the bird.

[disasteralex]

voltron + vine/memes pt 3 (feat. klance)

because we all need some lighthearted fun after this season

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 

(spoilers for s6)

during his time on the space whale thing, keith tells krolia about all of lance’s stupid vines to pass the time

krolia, trying her best to understand earth culture, says keith’s father was thicker than a bowl of oatmeal. keith has regrets

keith has a dopey smile on his face the entire time. krolia’s spidey senses are tingling. she knows

lance tries to get keith to name his cosmic space wolf gabe. keith is confused. whenever he asks who gabe is, lance just thumps his own chest, raises his hand up to the sky and says “rip gabe”

lance and pidge try to get the wolf to bork like the “smoke weed every day” vine. shiro is Disappointed but can’t say anything because that would mean admitting he knows the vine and he can’t do that

pidge constantly refers to lance’s fursona and refuses to call him anything but pike for three weeks. the tables have turned

a few days into their journey back home, they land on a planet where the aliens look like dog-people and pidge makes about 10 furry jokes in the span of a minute

lance, finally snapping: “stop kinkshaming me!” pidge, with the most deadpan look on her face: “kinkshaming is my kink”

shiro laughs before he can stop himself and blows his cover

after shiro is brought back, the team decides to catch each other up

when they tell shiro what happened with lotor, everyone goes a quiet because they don’t want to bring it up in front of allura. finally, she takes matters into her own hands and goes “well, as i believe the phrase goes, i yeeted him across the bridge”

lance has never been more proud of someone in his life

pidge, that little shit: “did you mean yoted allura”

lance, at one point: “and we just drop in, like hey there galra, it’s me, ya boi”. hunk, nodding: “we dropped in like whupow and balalala”

keith is intrigued when lance explains buzzfeed unsolved. lance promises to show him as soon as they get back to earth and keith is suddenly a Very Flustered Boy

krolia: “is this boy propositioning my son?” coran: “i don’t think so?”

the garrison keeps them overnight (preventative quarantine), so lance drags keith over to his room to watch unsolved. they end up binging the first two seasons of supernatural. keith absolutely loves it and lance is so happy

the next morning, he makes sure to download every single episode for when they’re in space

when matt meets up with the group and is informed of what happened, he immediately shouts “I WANT TO SEE MY LITTLE BOY”

lance, as keith helps shiro out of the black lion: “HERE HE COMES”

shiro regrets everything, especially once matt breaks out the grandpa jokes

at one point, hunk and pidge go a little too far in teasing lance and he snaps and shouts “I’M SENSITIVE AUBREY” before running away from them (I have a headcanon that whenever lance panics or freaks out he reverts to vines/memes). hunk and pidge immediately realize what they’ve done/been doing and feel horrible

the next day, they get allura to bring lance to them. they’ve got pidge’s laptop already set up and playing music and they’re both wearing sunglasses and shrouded blankets

when lance walks in, they hand him another blanket and pair of sunglasses. lance smiles a little, accepts the unsaid apology and promise, and takes his place in front of them

in preparation for returning to earth, the garrison trio try and teach the others “earth slang”. nobody can tell how much they’re making up

coran then spends the next week asking the paladins what the tea is at breakfast. shiro feels too old for this

hunk, eating earth food for the first time in months: “finally some good fucking food”. lance cries of laughter

once they’re back on earth matt rigs his communicator to play the intro to bill nye the science guy whenever he enters a room. every time the garrison trio will drop everything and compulsively shout “bill bill bill” and he finds it hilarious

one time he catches shiro bopping his head to the music and nearly loses it

pidge discovered halfway to earth that she has a whole folder of memes and vines saved to her laptop and gathers everyone around for Family Meme Time 

pidge also has a strangely large collection of bad commercials. coran loves all of them, but his favourite is the shamwow guy

allura and coran are confused by earth’s geography (specifically the fact that north america is broken up into continents, then countries and provinces/states)

pidge, hunk and lance at the exact same time: “AMERICA, EXPLAIN”

keith enlists pidge’s help because he catches on pretty quick to the fact that lance freaks out every time he uses a vine/meme successfully

keith, as they land on a planet full of space deer: “hey lance” “yeah?” “look at all those chickens” lance freezes

pidge, in the background: lance.exe has stopped working

krolia to coran: “is this a weird earth mating ritual?” coran, squinting: “i’m... not sure”

before they all leave for their separate homes on earth, the paladins decide to get mcdonalds together

keith, walking up to the drinks station: “hey lance” lance: “yeah?” keith quickly samples all the drinks, takes a sip and says “fuck you”. lance thinks he’s in love

shiro, shook to the core but also not really surprised: “is he flirting???”

krolia, quietly but fiercely: that’s my boy

everyone is given communicators while they’re apart in case of an “emergency”. lance uses his to send keith memes and stuff from the strange side of youtube. keith mostly uses his to send lance videos of krolia reacting to weird earth shit and to tell shiro that yes, dad, he’s taking care of himself

keith’s favourite video is one lance sent him of him and his older brother recreating "when mama isn’t home”. lance’s is a video of keith laughing as krolia tries to fight a revolving door

before they leave for space, the group makes a trip to costco. coran is enthralled. krolia is fascinated by all the weapons and tries to use one. somehow, they manage to lose keith. by the end of the day, they’ve been banned indefinitely

when they leave earth again, they have approximately 20 multipacks of kd, a shiro-sized freezer of bacon, 12 giant jars of nutella, a cabinet full of costco brand vodka (coran is weirdly obsessed with it), and 60 pounds of ground coffee specifically reserved for shiro

[kurara-black-blog]

Terror Of The Ancient Noah Mask

Date: 02/12/18

Words: 2048 *snorts*

Warnings: Klance, Inuyasha AU, Crappy.

Tag: @moonsworllld ; @xarphay ; @skydisneylover ; @mutantgurls ; @spooky-the-owl

A/N: I love Inuyasha, I love Voltron. I love Lance. his is not very good, but I really wanted to write it~

This is episode 11 of the anime!

With his bicycle ready to go, Lance carefully looked around him, trying to spot any red in the middle of the green forest. He was alone, thankfully, no signs of the hothead nearby. With a short relieved sigh, he started pedaling with everything he had, which was a lot, mind you, in direction of the well.

Sadly, Lance didn’t have much luck.

“Wait a second, idiot!”

Lance was able to stop before he rolled over the boy, although a part of him told him he should have just rolled over that annoying dog. Said dog was standing there, looking like the angry bastard he was, violet eyes flashing with a temper.

“You’re going back to that weird world?! Are you trying to run away?! We have shit to do!”

“Oh, out of my way, mullet dog! I have exams to take and I can’t afford to miss them!”

The fact was that Lance had to keep his grades up if he wanted his Exchange Program to go on without any difficulties. He was already risking a lot by not attending class for so long, and maybe Mr. Shirogane was destroying his reputation with all the weird diseases he used as an excuse. Because life couldn’t be hard only in Feudal Era, no, it had to be hard in his world too.

“Well, fuck that! I’ll destroy this so you can’t run away anymore!” Keith—the half-dog—grabbed a large rock, ready to destroy the wooden well. Lance didn’t hesitate.

“Keith, sit!”

Keith stubbornness was no match for Lance’s consecutive commands of “sit”, the boy falling face first on the floor, the rock falling on top of him. He groaned, cursing Lance in between his groans of pain.

“Who said I’m running away, dog?! I’ll be back in three days! Stay here!”

With that, Lance was gone inside the well.

“Why didn’t you bring the dog man with you?”

“No way, that mullet head is impossible to deal with! It was a bother to even come here without him stopping me!” Shoving the last bit of food in his mouth, Lance huffed, “Talking about coming back, Mr. Shirogane, I am glad you worry so much, but can you not throw sake in my head next time?”

The old man only laughed heartily, petting the family cat, Black. Lance smiled softly, it was hard to be angry with the man. He reminded Lance of his own grandpa, all wise eyes and cheekily knowing smiles. Finishing his meal, Lance thanked Mrs. Shirogane, Mr. Shirogane’s daughter, for the food, messed Tsuna’s hair, Mrs. Shirogane’s son, washed his dishes and went to his room to put on his uniform.

It would be a long day at school.

At least his hair didn’t smell like sake anymore.

After a very embarrassing conversation with his friends about his really bad health, and an even more embarrassing encounter with who could be the cutest boy in school about his very poor health, Lance could say with absolute certainty he was done.

“You’re dating Inai?!”

“No.”

“I think he likes you!”

“I know, Taira.”

“Well? Don’t you want to date him?”

“I’m not really interested in dating right now.” It was a complete lie, of course. It is not that Lance didn’t want to date, it is because how could he explain to his boyfriend or girlfriend the reason they couldn’t go out in the next month it’s because he has to go back in time to collect pieces of a super powerful glass ball?

Yeah. No.

Ushijima Amari, Akagawa Taira and Yuhara Natsumi were three kind and funny girls that were glued at the hip even before Lance came in the picture. They had promptly welcomed Lance in their group, and he was forever grateful. He hated feeling like a fish outside water.

Staring at the honestly horrendous slippers Inai Hachiro gave him, Lance wondered if the boy was somehow related to Mr. Shirogane, remembering the old man’s weird medicines and whatnots.

“Could it be… that you are already dating someone?”

“No, no, no! Nope. Not dating. Single as they come.”

“Then, then! What’s your type?”

Lance sighed, knowing they wouldn’t shut up unless he gave them something to satiate their hunger for gossip. He loved the girls, but they could be pretty annoying when they wanted. Not as annoying as Keith, but almost.

“Someone who’s not violent or selfish… Also, someone accepting and affectionate.”

The complete opposite of Keith, go figure.

While Romelle prepared some herbal medicine for a sick villager, Keith grunted. Hot pain pierced his spine every time he tried to get up. That rock really did a number on him.

“Keith, stop laying around and go find information of the Jewel fragments.”

“Shut up, you old witch! Go eat some grass!”

Keith swore that day, laying on the floor of the old priestess’ house, that he would punch Lance in the face as soon as that boy came back from his world.

“Can I sleep here today?” Tsuna asked, interrupting Lance’s studies.

“Of course, if you don’t mind the lights being on.”

That day could, at the very least, be called weird. A sudden fire in one of the deposits, Mr. Shirogane getting hurt and being found passed out with sacred seals all over his face and even inside his mouth, then suddenly one of the firemen trucks taking off like a madman was driving it. As if it wasn’t enough, Mr. Shirogane had recovered the conscience for enough time to mutter some random words about the Meat Mask and how no one should touch it.

Lance surely didn’t blame the boy for not wanting to be alone.

“Something weird is happening, I think. Grandpa wouldn’t do something so weird.”

The older boy opened his mouth to agree, but the sudden noise made him change his plans. Grabbing the flask were he kept the Jewel fragments—it was an instinct to immediately search for them when something happened—, Lance threw himself on Tsuna, protecting him from pieces of what once was a wall.

The basket of a firetruck was struck inside his room, and from it came out something. A creature made of melted blackness, with no defined form. It seemed to leak away and yet gravitate towards its center, that center being a white mask in the middle of the blackness. Painted eyes stared at Lance, carved smile sending shivers down the boy’s spine. The creature’s voice came, smooth and monotone.

“The Jewel… give me… the Jewel…”

“A demon! In this time?” Lance thought, eyes widening, “Must be the jewel’s presence!” As soon as he reached that conclusion, the boy lifted Tsuna in his arms and ran. He had to get out of that house. He had to get Keith. He had no means to fight at the moment, dressed in his cotton pajamas and comfy slippers. He should’ve brought his bow.

He would do that if he survived to see a next time.

Lance did not stop running when the monster attacked, dogging to the best of his abilities. He was glad Mrs. Shirogane was visiting her father in the hospital, he really didn’t want to think what would’ve happened if she was. Stopping for a moment, he put Tsuna down. His bleeding hand-when had he cut himself?—left a trail of blood on the boy’s shirt, but they didn’t have time to worry about it.

“Tsuna, I need you go to the well and get Keith.”

“And you?”

“I’ll distract it until Keith gets here. Please, Tsuna! Go get Keith!”

With that, Lance started to run in another direction, attracting the monster’s attention to him. All he could do was to hope for Keith to come quickly.

If anyone asked, Keith was not anxiously expecting Lance’s return while staring intently at the bottom of the well. He was not.

“How about of going after her instead of staring at the end of the well?”

“Shut up, stupid fox, isn’t it time for you to go to bed?”

“I’m just saying, you should go after her, you know, actually be productive?”

“Pidge, you have five seconds before I kick you back to where you came from.”

The damn fox just smirked, amused by the dog’s temper. Keith opened his mouth to growl out some insult when his nose picked up a familiar smell and his head snapped to look back at the bottom of the well. Pidge looked at him puzzled.

“I can smell… Lance’s blood.” Pidge widened her eyes, staring at what to her was just a normal well. Keith didn’t waste time, preparing to jump inside, “Pidge, go back to Granny Romelle, I’ll go find Lance,” Without giving her time to answer, he jumped.

“… That idiot is so in love with Lance.”

If anyone asked, Keith would admit being a bit surprised at finding the boy that Lance lived with crying while trying to open a hole in the well’s floor. Not sure how to deal with kids, Keith smiled cockily, hoping his show of self-confidence would somehow calm the boy down.

“What’s the matter? You seem troubled.”

In a few minutes, he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, the boy on his back. He could smell Lance’s blood clear as day, even with the overall weird smell that world had. The hanyo disliked the smell a lot, Lance’s smell wasn’t made to be tarnished with blood, his own or otherwise. Keith could feel a growl trying to rip through his throat, whatever made that boy bleed would bleed twice as much.

He almost sighed in relief when he saw the boy alive and relatively well.

“Sankon Tessō!”

With his claws he opened the way by slaying the strange glob monster in half. Getting near Lance, he let Tsuna get down, who immediately hugged the blue-eyed boy.

If anyone asked, Keith was not glad the boy was ok.

“Don’t worry, Tsuna,” Lance said, trying to make the boy stop crying, “Keith will help us now.”

“Dunno about that.”

“What do you mean, mullet?” Lance soft gaze rapidly turned into a glare.

“I may help if you apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?”

“Don’t tell me you forgot!” Keith pointed accusingly at him. “You almost destroyed my back with your sit command and now you’re asking for help as if nothing happened?!”

“Oh, that! Well, I’m sorry.”

“You aren’t being sincere!”

“Just help us already, mullet dog! That thing has a fragment and I can’t fight right now, so stop whining like a kicked puppy and fight!”

“Who are you calling a kicked puppy, stupid boy?!”

Their fight was cut short when the monster’s body came together again. Lance informed Keith about the mask being the center of the creature, the half-demon taking out his sword, ready to fight despite his last fight with the Cuban. It’s not like Keith was actually planning to leave the humans to fight the demon alone. The mask did had a fragment of Jewel.

“I am the Meat Mask… centuries ago, I was carved from the tree trunk that received a fragment of the Jewel… I have been devouring people since then… I want a body… a body that won’t deteriorate quickly…”

Lance shuddered, muttering about creepy masks and stupid glass balls. Keith let a growl finally get out at seeing the boy’s fear.

“I don’t know how many people you’ve devoured until now, but you’re way too fat!”

To think all it took was a swing of the Tessaiga to end it all. The mask was gone in a flash of light, the fragment falling in front of them. Lance was quick to grab it and put in the flask with the rest of the fragments.

“Hey.” Lance turned to look at him, bluest blue eyes soft and thankful, “You okay?”

“Thank you, Keith.”

“Tch, whatever.”

If anyone asked, that was not a blush on Keith’s cheeks.

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Hm?”

“Take us home? I have exams to take and Tsuna has to go to school too.”

“What am I?! Your horse?!”

“Oh, c’mon, mullet dog! Just take us home before I get late!”

“No!”

“Keith!”

Tsuna could only watch as Keith begrudgingly let Lance hop on his back, the two still bickering.

“Tsuna, come on!”

“I’m coming!”

[teamflby]

RWBY Volume 6 Episode 3 Rundown

Spoilers below the cut as usual

So let me start out by saying one thing, and this is going to come off as extremely arrogant but I’m going to do it anyways:

I fucking called that Ozpin did nothing wrong, and his actions were dictated by years of experience and knowledge literally no one else had. The people that overreacted and wanted him burned at the stake for telling a few lies can go suck it, because he literally did nothing wrong.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get onto the main point of today, and that is simply this: 6-3 was probably the best episode in the series next to 3-12

Yes, you heard me of all people say this. 6-3 is by far the best episode of the series next to 3-12, and has been the episode fans like me have been waiting for since 3-12. Now I’m going to explain myself and talk about the good first, because I do want to talk about some things that I felt weren’t up to par. But just know that like 90% of this episode is either good-extremely well done and the other 10% is mediocre-subpar, but never actually delves into full on bad or anything.

The episode focuses on Ozpin’s and Salem’s backstory, something I knew was coming sooner rather than later and something I was a bit fearful of when I saw it was happening this week. My biggest fear was that it was going to be generic and bland and the focus was going to be all over the place, rather than grounded in Ozpin as a whole. And... I was right about some of it. The backstory is relatively generic, BUT generic is not always a bad thing. There was genuine spice in this episode and story that made me happy, and a lot of Hoenheim vibes with it too for my Fullmetal fans. I’m going to give you guys an abridged version of it, and then talk about what I liked and what I didn’t.

So basically, Salem was Rapunzel’ed in a castle and Ozpin (who’s Ozma at this point) goes up to that castle and saves her because he believes in truth, justice and the American way. The two of them fall in love and have their magic together (since all humans have magic at the moment) and they live happily ever after until Ozpin dies from an illness. Salem doesn’t like that and goes to the god of light to get him to revive her, and he says no and Salem throws a hissy fit. She then goes to the god of destruction and asks him to do it, which he does until the GoL shows up and is like “she asked me first and I said no because reviving people from the dead is no bueno” and the GoD is like yeah you right and kills Ozma. The two make Salem immortal as punishment for being a bitch so she can never be with Ozma. Salem gets mad and pits the humans against the gods, until the gods Thanos snap everyone except Salem away and then leave the world and destroy the mood in the process. Salem hops into the GoD pit since she thinks it’ll kill her, but since she’s immortal it just makes her all Grimmy (pun 100% intended). The GoL revives Ozma and tells him to gather the relics and let the judge the humans once more, but Ozma goes back and finds Salem and they get it on and try and play God themselves. Then Ozma realizes this is a mistake and they can’t do this, so he gets killed and the cycle of reincarnation repeats itself over and over again. He gathers the relic of knowledge and asks his three questions, and he immediately finds out that he can’t defeat Salem at all and that it’s impossible, so ergo:

Ozpin is fighting a losing battle

So that’s kind of a lot to unpack, but not too much that I can’t talk about it all. For starters, let me just say that the fact that Salem was the one who was the obsessed, pseudo evil one here and not Ozpin. Let’s be real here, Ozpin was never the evil one, especially when you pit him up against literal evil incarnate. I expressed this last rundown, and I’m glad they doubled down on the fact that Ozpin himself is not evil. He’s quite literally a man that was forced into his own destiny, and while he did have the choice given to him by the GoL he’s just trying to do what he can to bring humanity together so that way he can show the Gods that humans are good and won’t get Thanos snapped again.

Also, speaking on the Gods I think they were handled relatively well. I thought that they reminded me of the Forest God from Princess Mononoke a little too much, but they weren’t harmful at all. I think they looked a little dumb, but they sounded nice and did their job well. Granted, I think that the way they destroyed the moon was stupid. Like, they just up and left the planet and destroyed the moon in the process. Some could argue that it’s symbolic now and whatever, but really? It’s not. It was just “look we answered that question you all wanted to know since the Red Trailer!” Not that there’s anything wrong with some fan service now and again, but like... this was one of the more poorly executed versions of it.

The real highlight of the episode for me was the cinematography and actual structure of the episode. The episode never takes focus off of the story and you’re constantly engaged with Ozpin and Salem the whole time, and that works extremely to its benefit. After 6-2, I was worried that this episode would cut back and forth between things, but it focuses entirely on Ozpin and Salem, and I think Ruby is the only other person in this episode outside of them and the Gods that even has a legit speaking role? It just works out extremely well at the end of the day, and I love that. Also the shot selection was just... mmmmmmm. There were a few standouts to me, like when Ozma gets told about his actual goal and why he’s being brought back, he falls onto his knees and behind him you see Oscar staring down at him in absolute fear and worry about this job being too big for him. There’s also the scene were you see in shadowy detail Salem trying to kill herself after first becoming immortal, and Ruby watches on is horror as it happens. There’s a few more that are also really good, but those two stood out the most to me. Another small part of me I really liked was how we only focused on the kids and not really Qrow when we saw them in the story, which gives me an indication that next time he’s going to play some big role because now he won’t be mad about trusting Ozpin, but how they’re fighting a losing battle. Which brings me to another thing I loved...

The fact that they can’t beat Salem. It’s made abundantly clear that Salem is immortal and cannot die, and it’s starting seem like there’s no way to do so. Personally, I think the silver eyes thing will be the bridge to that defeat of Salem (how I’m not sure), but at the moment there’s no way, and that’s a good thing. For the entire time of the show, we have this confidence that there’s a way, that Team RWBY can pull it together to do so, but then the episode ends with that resounding “No. You literally cannot.” and it just sets a tone that I love. All the girls look dejected as the camera pans out, and you’re left feeling that same dread Ozpin has felt for hundreds if not thousands of years. That’s what we felt at the end of 3-12, and that’s what we’ve needed to feel since then. This was the first time in my opinion that any type of real weight can be felt on the cast since then, and man does it feel good to finally feel it.

Now onto the smaller things I didn’t like: I think the score was kinda lame. RWBY music has always been an issue for me, and I think their scores are horrendous. The instrumentals that play in the back never entertain me, and I think they were somewhat of a mood killer here, but not enough to drag me away from what was happening on screen. I think the story as a whole was a little cheesy and campy, but honestly cheesy is good, especially for RWBY which kinda revels in it from time to time. This was a good kind of cheese, and while I think it could’ve been presented better, I still like.

Now, my final thing is a small worry that I won’t touch up upon too much: We are three episodes in, and we’ve gotten plot and lore and exposition that is Volume finale level. So that raises the question: Now what? Where do we go from here? I’m a bit worried that M&K metaphorically blew their load early and don’t have enough to keep up for the rest of the Volume since this is the trend, but for now I’m going to bite my tongue on it since it’s not too much concern. All in all, this was a great episode and did a masterful job at finally answering our questions about Ozpin and Salem (who might I add can certainly get it).

FINAL VERDICT: 9.5/10, A great story wrapped up in a RWBY-like charm that shows what Miles and Kerry are capable of when they’re on the top of their game.

[thunder-the-ranger-wolf]

Memory Lane, the Adopted remix

AN: AU of the story scrap where Tony was adopted.

Summary: Anthony Rodriguez is twelve years old when a butler says that the Starks, who have just lost their son, want to adopt him. Weirdness ensues as he tries not to get too wrapped up in their lifestyle and remember his parents’ hard-working roots.

This place is strange, and he doesn't know what he's supposed to do, so he does nothing. He sits on the floor in the center of the carpeted room that the butler claims as his, and eventually he falls asleep there. The floor is what he's used to. Not because the orphanage is bad, but it is a bit crowded. He earned something of a second income for the place as a mechanic. (Sure, I'll fix your radiator and see why your sink is backed up. Of course I'll figure out why your brand new TV is running static. It shouldn't be doing that, sir. I can get my brother to mow your lawn for you as well, would you like that?)

Richie wasn't really his brother. Richie was a couple years younger than him, but still able to get cash for work just like everybody else. He was a master with machines almost as much as Tony was, and would probably go on to actually be a mechanic.

At any rate, someone is shaking him awake and he knows exactly who it is.

“Stop it, Collin, you get breakfast when the Mickers say you do.”

The shaking persisted, with a strange voice calling his name, and he eventually opened his eyes.

“Can I help you?” He deadpanned. It was the butler from the day before.

“The floor can't be that comfortable.” He offered.

“Better than hardwood.” Anthony snorted. “Don't get me wrong, I'm not some abused headcase. The orphanage just gets crowded every now and then. Is something wrong?”

“I simply wished to inform you that breakfast is almost ready.”

“Cool. Is it always ready around this time?”

“Most of the time. If I'm not the one to wake you, someone else on the staff will.”

“Thanks for that.” Anthony offered before looking around the room.

“Did I bring my clothes in here?” He muttered to himself.

“There are some clothes that should be your approximate size in the drawers, Anthony.”

Sure enough, the 12 year old spotted a chest of drawers nestled in a corner of the room.

“I shall leave you to get dressed.” The butler offered.

“I'll be down as soon as I'm done.” Anthony informed him.

“I assume so.” Jarvis acquiesced.

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

That left Anthony to go through his new clothes and survey his room. The walls were a light shade of green with emerald trim, the curtains over the window matched the trim, and the floor was a nice beige color that didn't remind him of dog poop in the slightest. He rifled through the drawers to find several pairs of jeans that fit him perfectly and a bunch of t-shirts that had cartoon characters on them. The Flintstones wasn't his favorite show ever, but he'd wear it. Why not? They had Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Pink Panther and Looney Toons, so that more than made up for it. They even had a couple shirts with cartoon characters that weren't even out yet. GI Joe and ThunderCats had been advertising lately, but wouldn't come out for another year. Maybe these folks wouldn't be so bad after all. Or maybe it was just the butler.

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

Okay, so it wasn't just the butler. Howard Stark liked to talk shop at the breakfast table (which was pretty damn big) despite his wife's best efforts to appear normal. Anthony got wrapped up pretty quickly when he heard the words Stark Industries pour out of the man's mouth, and Howard knew it.

“If you're interested, I might take you on a tour of the R&D department. I have government contracts, so you won't be able to see everything we're working on, but I do have some things out for civilians.”

Maria Stark’s charities were no secret, and while Howard was a genius, Anthony doubted that he was willing to focus solely on civilian products. Then again, not all wars involved the US, so something had to keep the company going during peacetime.

“If you don't mind, I'd like that a lot.” Anthony responded.

Breakfast continued to be a relatively silent affair, after which Jarvis and the others collected their dishes and Howard went about his day. Maria asked a few questions about how he liked the room before doing the same.

“Edwin tells me you slept on the floor last night.” A woman with dark brown hair and green eyes approached him after breakfast. Who-? Oh, the butler. (Edwin Jarvis, but only my wife calls me Edwin as it's a name I greatly despise.)

Although he quite liked the idea of the name, Edwin wasn't something he'd bestow on his firstborn (if he ever had one of those, which, after a few years of taking care of kids, he doubted he would.)

“Was there something wrong with the bed?”

“Not at all, Miss. I simply had to get used to my surroundings before I could presume anything to be mine. It was absolutely a one-time thing and I apologize if I offended you.”

“My dear boy, you shall be quite the flatterer when you grow up. You and Howard are quite alike in that way.”

“I doubt I have anything in common with a millionaire, but whatever helps you sleep at night is fine by me.”

“Oh, certainly. You'll see what I mean eventually.” The woman assured him.

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

“Your wife's got a sense of humor, Mr. Jarvis.”

“Dark brown hair, green eyes?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That'll never be necessary, my boy. Jarvis is just fine by me.”

“I'll have to get used to that, sir, but I'll never be able to see you as a servant.”

“Housekeeper.”

“Housekeeper, then. It'll still take me a bit to get used to that.”

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

Apparently school was a must, and he was expected to be some kind of special snowflake just because he'd been Warbucked. Well he said fuck that noise. Yes, he was smart enough to skip a grade or two, but what did that help when there was nothing after high school? Because college sure as hell wasn't free, and his knowledge of how the Earth rotated wouldn't help him as a mechanic.

“What do you want to do when you're done here?” One teacher asked. Assuming she meant long-term, Anthony has no clue. He could be anything, considering the Stark’s insistence on footing the bill. Howard had thrown countless pamphlets at him about various colleges, and he seemed particularly keen on MIT.

“What's even at MIT, anyway?” He snapped one night. “Like, I get that you all want me to do something with my life but until a couple weeks ago I was actually busy living and now there's just… there's nothing here! There's no one to keep track of, no job to do, and it's fuckin weird but now you're all in my face about shipping me off to some random school… why adopt me in the first place if the goal was to have me out of the way the entire time?!” He'd snarled. And nobody had an answer to that, all stunned into silence as they were.

“That… was never the goal. You do realize that you're coming back here when school’s out for winter and summer, don't you? And at this point, I don't give a shit what you do. Get a job as a mechanic, for all I care, but you're going to need to further your education before you do anything. That's what I wanted you to think about.”

“So I'm not being kicked out?”

“Hell no, kid. You're one of the smartest people I've met. I wouldn't give you back if someone dared to pay me.” Howard scoffed.

“I… I'd like to check on the other kids every now and then. Is that something that can happen?”

“We'll do it regardless. You should've told me you were bored earlier. I've got a few things in my workshop that could use your input.”

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

Life went on, and Tony (as everyone took to calling him) went with it. He got to MIT just fine, thank you very much, and at the age of 12 at that. He'd have his first degree by the time most kids were getting their high school diplomas, and wasn't that rattling.

Turns out that it wasn't. Not really. He wasn't as young as he could have been. Old enough to partake in almost anything except for drinking, which he wanted no part of already.

“Why not?” Twenty-two year old Whitney Frost snorted.

“You ever been around an alcoholic, sweetheart?” He drawled. Predictably enough, she shook her head. “It's not a pleasant feeling.”

Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*Adopted*

“Gettin’ all big for your britches, Mechanic?”

Tony froze, running the voice through in his head.

“Fuck off, Lakeland.” He snorted. The other man slid into step beside him and he wrapped an arm around Lakeland's shoulders.

“You doing alright?”

“As well as I can be.”

“Yeah, but that could be anything. You eat recently?”

Tony recalled with ease the fact that food had sometimes been a scarcity, and the oldest scrounged or went without when that happened. He'd been through a couple winters of that, and it was right around the time that Jarvis had picked him up. All of 12 years old and way past anything a high school could offer him.

“Not really.” Lakeland mumbled.

Tony stopped short, forcing his old friend to stop with him.

“You really think I don't remember what hunger looks like, John?” He demanded.

“You look like you eat pretty well, to me.”

“And I've been making sure everyone at the old place does too. Or I tried. You seen anyone from around our age lately?”

“You can't fix everything with money, Tony. Some of them are sick.”

“I know that well enough.” He snorted. He remembered what Frankie junior did to the younger kids when he had one of his episodes. Woe be unto any kid who crossed the bio kid's path at that place. They'd be sore for weeks.

“Thank God they ended up revoking that license.”

“Actually, I think it had something to do with you.”

“Me? I never said anything. Are you crazy?! Saying something meant Frankie would hunt you down and beat you bloody no matter where you were. Why would I speak up?!”

“Maybe you wouldn't. Buy someone did. And Frankie had no sway over them.”

Tony smacked a hand to his head and ran it down his face.

“What happened to Richie and Collin?” He asked, already regretting the answer.

“College. Last I checked they moved in together. Richie's over at Hammer, if you feel like rescuing him.”

“Hell yeah. Didn't they buy out Tasco or something like that a few weeks ago?”

“Yep. Been there since he graduated high school, according to Collin. Man, was that boy pissed.”

Tony snorted and smothered his next question. Poking around in people's lives got you nowhere if you didn't know how to do it right. Lakeland answered it for him though.

“They been roommates since Collin dropped outta high school. You'd have been 23, I think.”

“And they haven't driven each other mad.” Tony snorted.

“Something like that.”

Tony stepped away and turned so that he could see the other man's face.

“Come back to the Mansion with me. You look like you could use a drink.”

Lakeland snorted, knowing good and well that he wouldn't take a damn thing that reminded him of old Frank's place.

“Alright.” He agreed. “Better be something good.”

[mirrorfalls]

Lego Liveblogs ST: TOS, part 12 (of who-the-hell-knows-how-many?)

Lotta high hopes riding on this one, folks, in spite of the permanently-Simpsons-tarred villain name. Will they wind up breaking the Conscience of the King? Let’s find out.

* Easily the least science fiction-y opening we’ve had so far: no Enterprise bridge, no stars, just a single line of dialogue this is an Earth play being done by non-Earthlings. * Aww, Kirk’s pals with Nick Fury! * So the inspiration for this one isn’t hard to figure - fugitive Nazi hunts were all the rage back in the ‘60s. Which makes it all the more interesting how eager Kirk is to brush the whole thing off. * The best forensics Starfleet has to offer... what, couldn’t even get fingerprints for comparison? * Hope you’re read up on your Poe too, good Captain. You oughta know what happens to Lenores... * Woo. Now there’s a mood-killer. ** I swear, if it turns out he faked his death just to guilt Kirk into investigating... * Now, now, Mr. Spock. Green isn’t your color. * “The regulations are very clear about taking on passengers... especially after that Charlie kid passed through.” * Another benchmark (I think) the first solo Spock-Bones dialog. ** “Now I know why they were conquered.” Jesus, Bones, I thought you were past your racist phase! * So... the tour scene. I can practically feel the effort dripping off every word of the script, but it still falls a ways short of actually convincing me Kirk has any  emotional investment in this, rather than just stringing her along for leads. At the very least, they could’ve found a slightly more organic metaphor to tie into the idea of Kirk being chained by his command. * In contrast, this very next scene is something that shouldn’t work but does: Spock spits out the entire story behind Kirk’s behavior in roughly two minutes, before the episode’s even halfway done. Part of it is Nimoy, letting just the right amount of “fuck Vulcan culture, I have things to say about eugenics” fury seep through, and the other part is all in the script: Kodos’ butchery is one of those things that looks kiiiiinda reasonable if you’re in the ruler’s seat, and absolutely goddamn horrifying from literally any other POV. Both options, at least on paper, could driving Kirk’s own stake in this whole thing. * Oh hey, it’s the Irish guy from The Naked Time! Welcome to the “only people who can hang Kodos (assuming he’s still alive)” club! ** Aaaaaand goodbye. Really, hanging out in that big a room by yourself, you were kinda asking for it. ** (Also: Windex in his milk is a hilariously Realistic(tm) way of going about it, but I kinda wish they tried ear-poison for full Shakespeare points.) ** (Also also: Why do I get the feeling someone on-set probably cracked a “Christ, Uhura’s singing was that bad?!”) * So Bones and Spock confront Kirk over... something. I’m theoretically happy that the script isn’t taking the easy way out and making them go “You’re just seeing things, Jim!”, but the whole oooh-Kirk-might-snap thing isn’t much good for building suspense, since at this point Kirk still insists on taking the investigation slow. Hell, if anything they should be dragging him over not putting more men on the case! * And now, Kirk and Spock reenact me searching for my car keys * Alright, we’re deep in the third act now, so let’s get that face-to-face showdown going. I’m sure Kirk’s carefully arranged the most subtle, intricate questions for teasing out- ** Or he could just ask him “Are you Kodos?” point-blank. Captain’s privilege. ** In all seriousness, this scene jumps out to me for one reason: neither of these men needs to go this far. All Kirk needs is a straightforward voice-print; all Kodos (or is he?!) needs is to go “Oh gee, this Kodos of yours sounds like a douche! Sure hope he’s gone for good!” Instead, they lay all their cards out, because tiptoeing around their motives feels inherently repugnant; what they’re doing is Right, element of surprise be damned. * Alas, we end the act not on this, but on another goddamn sitcom cue of ~Lieutenant NPC overhearing something~ * Alright, so I guess this thirty-second sideshow is meant to prove how Kirk is still keeping a level head, but it’s a bit dulled by this being the exact part where the script tosses out any ambiguity. He is Kodos... and it looks like Murder For The Greater Good runs in the family. * Still, whatever problems I have with the script (which is getting less morally nuanced by the second), Lenore’s actress sells the hell out of her being genuinely delusional enough to think murdering people to cover someone’s tracks is equivalent to being a Soldier In A Cause. ** And I’ll admit: “The play’s over. It’s been over for twenty years.” is an absolute banger of a line. * Welp. ** C’mon, guys, I know you remastered this - couldn’t you have made it look even slightly less like she shot him on purpose? *** Unless... that was the point...? * Even if it was, though, this finale tips things from Unsettling to Just Plain Silly - rambling famous Shakespeare lines does not a compelling breakdown make, guys. ** And on top of that, because Females Are More Innocent, she doesn’t even have to live with what she’s done. * “You really cared for her, didn't you?” “I had about two-and-a-half scenes with her, Bones. What do you think?”

This play’s the thing, all right - it’s not quite as good as Balance of Terror, but it aims just as high, if not higher, and it get more than halfway there. Whatever my problems with the direction or Lenore (who’s a bit of a nonentity before the last act - I couldn’t even buy into her having a fake romance with Kirk), Shatner’s clearly having an absolute ball doing Shakespeare in Space, and Kodos’ actor brings a kind of pained gravitas that even the Romulan Commander never quite hit, almost enough to make you forget he massacred 4,000 innocents and didn’t even have the guts to own up to it until the very last second.

And more important than any of that, this is probably the biggest plank in Kirk’s backstory we’ll ever get: past friends and flames will definitely be walking onto the Enterprise for years to come, but none of them could cast such a haunting lens onto every action he takes from here on out. His Captaincy isn’t just a matter of playing hero or serving the Federation, but because he personally saw what horrors the self-righteous and powerful can wreak - and, so long as there’s a single breath left in him, vows he’ll never see again.

Next: Seven men walk into a planet...

[aliapohno]

character information

this will be edited upon the creation of a new character, or if i decided to add an already existing one into the jumble.

Ezemshil Qestir | Formerly of the Himaa | 19 years old | Female

Being of the Himaa, Ezemshil is one of the many to of had a twin sibling at birth; however, her sibling was still born, and the clan took note of the striking difference between the living child and the dead, as well as how she looked nothing akin to her parents. Born with blood red hair, and eyes as pitch black as they abyss, they were edged with red limbal rings.

Since birth, she was thought of as a demon - a monster - in disguise. Her parents believed that she had killed her sister in the womb.

She grew up hearing the whispers behind her back, and was always under the hateful, scrutinizing eyes of her parents.She listened. She dealt with it on her own by ignoring it. But, a child can only take so much and for only a certain amount of time.

At the age of 12, an older child of another family in the tribe decided to loudly call her names and throw insults at her. She ignored it - ignored him - until something within her snapped. All she saw was black, and then red. Upon her hands, upon her clothing. Her face stained with other child’s blood after she had near-pummeled him to death, and it was only because of his brother that the boy hadn’t died.

I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin

She left the tribe after that, not wanting to succumb to whatever drove her to that bout of madness, and to get away from everyone that had been the cause of it. She wandered the Steppe, hiding from the creatures that roamed and called it home; she hid from the other, more vicious tribes, and wandered alongside the Goro for a bit. Up until she reached Reunion.

Shedding herself of her old tribe, Ezemshil proved herself to the Qestir and joined their tribe at nearly 14 summers of age, and she has been a part of it ever since.

Please note that she is not a yandere; she is a yangire. The latter is easily mistaken as the first, but the only reason she would kill someone? Isn’t because she wants to be the only person in her senpai’s life. It’s because of the bullying and abuse she went through as a child, during her time with the Himaa; she easily becomes violent went stressed out, and pushed into a corner that she can’t find an escape from. The “monster” within in her - the creature that was created - “escapes” and “takes control”. In this state - in this psychotic episode - Ezemshil is extremely dangerous so please proceed with caution.

Currently, after meeting a few Eorzean travelers, Ezemshil has taken to adventuring herself and finds herself in a foreign, far off land.

( Server: Siren )

( More characters below the cut )

Ayame Shokunin | 23 years old | Female | In a relationship

Born in a trading village in Hingashi, Ayame grew up learning the ways of the monk from her father - a man that had gone and trained alongside the Fists of Rhalgr. He had left before The Mad King annihilated the temple, and had returned back to his home to prepare for his marriage to his future wife.

She lost her father when she was still a young girl, during an Oni’s attack on their village; her father had - years prior - retired from hunting and any sort of fighting because of an injury. However, he had continued to train his daughter in the ways he had been trained. Because of his retirement, her father had taken up to opening a bakery in town.

None of the other hunters in the village could match the creature, so Ayame’s father took it upon himself to fight it. A long, bloody battle, and one that took both his, and the oni’s, life. Ayame had no time to mourn the passing of his her father, and took it upon herself to be strong for bother herself and her mother.

This was the start of how their relationship with one another began to crumble.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Ayame helped her mother at the bakery, all whilst keeping up with her training. She used her training as an outlet, due to some of the kids in their village picking on her for being overweight, and the weight never shed even as she grew up and older.

Ayame would always remain a chubby little newt, but it didn’t bother her in the slightest.

As of current, Ayame has opened three of her chakras, and is still doing her best to have her father’s Soul Crystal attune to her. She is also living in Eorzea with her boyfriend/basically husband.

Because of her training - and the extent of opening chakra - Ayame has various scars along her body. By this point, most have healed and have left light marks on her skin. She is also missing a number of scales, leaving only darkened, scarred skin where the trauma was too much for them to grow back:

○ On her left arm (shoulder area). 》》 Ripped off. ○ On her right leg (upper thigh). 》》 Scratched and chewed off; unable to heal due to burn scars overtop the area. ○ Along her chin and jawline. 》》 Bitten and torn off during her first chakra opening. never healed properly, making it impossible for the scales to grow back.

( Server: Mateus )

Miah Aliapoh | 28 years old | Identifies as Male, appears Female °° In a relationship (married)

Born in the South Shroud, Miah is the fifth son of Nhagi Aliapoh - a woman of less tradition than most other members of her family. Her (male) children don’t follow the usual naming conventions of Keeper families and each was given their own unique name; the reason for this? Was because Nhagi believed that if she did this, her next child would be female.

Sadly, that would not prove itself to be true until a handful of years later, after Miah’s birth. She took to raising her fifth son as a girl; she dressed him in cute, pretty little girl’s clothing, and kept his hair long. Whilst the practice may not be as uncommon in some families and Keeper villages, the others that lived with the Aliapohs kept the young boy from developing any sort of dysphoria as he grew older. 

Miah knew he was a boy - despite his name (something that would - for a very long time - be a bother to him) - and he never questioned his mother’s behavior or reasoning behind what she did. 

When the calamity struck, Miah’s family packed up their things and moved northward, from their home near Camp Tranquil. They took to the outskirt of Buscarron’s Druthers. It took them a handful of years to set themselves back up, to what they had been.

At 16, he left home. At 18, Miah took to a little home in Bentbranch Meadows, taking to a life of hunting and foraging.

Miah took up adventuring at 21 and found himself pulled into a whole hulabaloo of a mess; he is a warrior of light, but not the warrior of light. He doesn’t like everything that comes along with the title, nor does he think of himself as any sort of hero; he absolutely abhors it all, and wishes the Mother Crystal had never chosen him as one of her own. At some point - after his physical change - Miah wound up telling Mom Crystal to go and fuck herself, and retired from adventuring all together. (Canon point this took place: Heavensward, before the battle with Estinien/Nidhogg.)

He has taken to a more simple life, working as a healer (canonly a White Mage, which took a lot of talking and begging and training to have the Padjal and Elementals allow him to become one), a mother, as well as running a spa and eatery in the Lavender Beds (The Healing Winds - Lav Beds Ward 9, Plot 21).

°° Was using a male character model; however, due to an alchemy incident and accident, Miah retains his gender idenity while having a woman's form and body.

( Server: Mateus )

[ts-crossroads]

Episode Three - “The World’s Smallest Violin, Playing Just For You” - Rebecka

Hey so....guess who we just got out? EMILY. It’s wild because she was so confident and strategic and that made for the perfect blindside. I feel like she was doing well until she thought she had solidified Johnny’s vote, that was a little messy. I hope she isn’t right about us losing challenges now. I think we can do well and hopefully pull through, if anything me and John are pretty solid on either side with Haley or with Johnny/Ryan. Now that Rhone is gone and I literally only know John I’m trying to cling to him a bit just because I feel like he has a stronger social standing. But we shall see!

I cannot believe someone called out Emily for liking our tribe better. I mean I don’t blame her, impala is great. But their tribe was safe last round literally bc they worked with us. Also I’m nervous about this switching tribe thing bc I love my tribe and I really don’t want to lose them hahaha. At least I don’t have to worry about Emily and Bryan later down the road. But Emily did seem like someone I wanted to work with :/ oh well Ok everyone I talk to on this tribe loves it and ned even took it as far as saying he wants all of us at final 6. I’m sorry but like, no Hahahaha. When we merge, I will rely on some of these relationships (ned, Chris and Dane) but I will work with others, I can’t just stick with my start up tribe hahaha

Fatum's tribal went a lot better than expected. Now that Emily's out of the picture, I'm not as concerned about Bryan flipping. What I AM concerned about is the possibility of Fauna and Onion teaming up against us, because if the questions from the last tribal are any indication, it sounds like people aren't too happy about our winning streak. As Storymaster, Chris chose to let everyone decide if they want to mutiny. I think everyone on our tribe is staying, but I imagined a horrible scenario where the entire Onion tribe mutinied to Fauna and the tribes were suddenly 10-6. Please no.

Wow. Tribal went fantastic. I had my formal last night and was completely blackout during tribal council, so I didn't fully wrap my head around what was happening until right now, and THANK GOD IT HAPPENED!! Emily was playing too hard, and not only that, but the five of us were very together on what was happening, which is good for team cohesion. I am going HAM on the next immunity challenge because I do not wanna go back to tribal council, but I know it's bound to happen again. I definitely think the next vote is going to be between Nicole and Haley, in terms of the names being thrown out there, but without a doubt, I am not voting out Haley. I need to bring her rookie-try hard ass to the merge, because I think I've officially found someone who is going to be a bigger target come merge than I would ever be, because I somehow always seem to be that target, and to be quite honest here, I'm fairly confident in making merge now that I've made it through one tribal. I have this very serious goal this round to have an edgic of MOR2. I need to not be under the radar, because obviously a winner is never under the radar, but I really need to be low-key this round. I didn't take any heat in particular last round, but Ryan was a bit confused as to why I was agreeing to vote for him, and the good part is that he was saying he was scared because he didn't wanna expose our relationship, so he can just be saying that, or he can actually mean it. I need to just lay low and really hope we don't go to tribal, and I don't get selected to go a tribal council. I want to quietly look for the idol, by myself, and hope to make progress, while not being super communicative in hopes for the best. I'm playing in a risky reward challenge, and I think I'm not gonna try too hard in the challenge, since it's all about knocking people out of the challenge, unless I get later in the challenge and it's advantageous for me. I don't want to make those moves against anyone, so we'll see what happens since that's an auto target on my back if I play that challenge a bit poorly. We'll see what happens.

A bitch has a confessional, socially im flopping. Which is bad. Because my alliance of me, Brandon and Jake is fucked bc Rebecka or Bran has an idol. But they both hate eachother omg. Rebecka SNAPPED on his ass! 

Chris thinking he is slick but then accidentally messaging Bryan about me and Bryan and then deleting it immediately. I see how it is, you’re done :)

Ok me and Bryan are working together without Chris. I don’t know if Chris knows I know. I’m sure he does bc Bryan confronted him (not sure if that was the smartest) but Bryan didn’t specify if he told Chris or if Chris would assume a relationship between me and Bryan. I really thought I could trust Chris but that’s shady that he messaged Bryan (obvs meaning to send it elsewhere) about how he told me and Bryan to not do 13. It makes me want to try 13 anyway. I am hoping he meant it for his confessional chat rather than another castaway. I would hate to feel like the entire tribe is working against me

Also going back to earlier, I’m pissed bran won. He used a movie poster and like 4 edits on photoshop whereas I made my flag from scratch and I only lost by 5 points. I came so close compared to the other submissions and I just worked so hard on it 

Ok so I smoothed things over with Chris and with Bryan and I think I can now work with both of them in this idol hunt. I just really want to find it bc I find idols so rarely :( I think since we haven’t been in trouble yet, paranoia is just taking over some of this tribe. I want to believe that Chris was just telling his confessional chat and that he lied to Bryan about working with me to maximize his chances of finding the idol. It’s a great plan, I don’t blame him for it. But a small part of me worries he is working with someone else on the tribe against me and Bryan. I know it wouldn’t be ned. The more we talk, the more we have in common. I really see us going far together. I haven’t spoken to autumn since day 1 in one world so it could very well likely be her or even Dane. Just bc he’s on so infrequently and he doesn’t say much when he is online. But a majority part of me is saying that Chris meant to make it a confessional.

this game is lame, i trust no one on my tribe, i trust no one on the other tribes. 

Bran can't submit even 1 item for the scavenger hunt but can somehow show up to win the reward challenge AS WELL AS argue with me that they should be team captain? oh im so sorry that i dont want you to be the captain. in fact, here's the world's smallest violin, playing JUST for you, bran.  Sometimes i think I should've mutiny-ed but I dont think i'd be any better off. I don't fully trust brandon after the whole let's blindside rhone and make him first boot like what the actual fuck who thought that was a good idea our tribe sucks but at least brandon will talk to me even if its not game related? idk everything is lame im lame i give up bye !!!!

Alright so a lot has happened. Ned found half of an idol so I HOPE we’re able to find this other half after immunity results. Autumn, Ned, Dane, and myself have officially formed our 4some. I fucked up by making Bryan something NOT meant for him. I basically said I was using Sam and Bryan. I think I recovered with Sam but Bryan definitely doesn’t trust me. Regardless we can split votes 2-2-2 if needed. My tribe volunteered me to compete in the challenge... That was NOT the plan. I do not want to be the guy everyone looks to for challenges because then I become Joe Anglim. And I don’t want to be Joe Anglim. But I beat Johnny so I’m safe. I hope I beat BDC cause if so, Johnny is taking me to his tribe to vote with him at tribal. This’ll be my Opportunity to gain some trust with them for the inevitable swap. 

I'm so broken apart by what happened this round. I honestly love playing, since it's going to be the most survivor-like experience I can possibly get, and I love getting to know people and play the game and be a power player, but I can't do that if I'm getting voted out third. So to start why I'm so upset, let's rewind to last night. I decided to volunteer to compete in the immunity challenge for my tribe. I know I'm a pretty decent competitor, and I really really thought I had a chance at winning immunity this round, but that clearly isn't what happened. I am fairly confident in my challenge skills, but once I'm ready to compete, Owen tells me that we'll be competing in a logic puzzle..................... For anyone who doesn't know, logic puzzles are absolutely the worst thing to ever happen to me ever, I literally take nine hours to do the simple ones, so this was just death. I actually really honed in on the challenge, but couldn't come out with a W. I was prepared for me, as the losing captain, to choose someone from the winning tribe to win to bring to tribal with me, and I was going to pick Jake, but OF COURSE the twists keep changing every round, which is getting more and more annoying to deal with, but I'm rolling with it. The decision was this: On 12/18/17, at 6:47 PM, Owen (Crossroads Host) wrote: > This round, your tribe is going back to tribal. However, only three of the five of you will be eligible to WALK THE PLANK. Because you failed as a captain, you are automatically one of the three eligible. The winning captain has selected Ryan to join you. Between John, Haley, and Nicole you must select the third person to face elimination with you. Only the three of you will be able to get votes. It will not be revealed which person the winner picked and which person you chose. It is your own decision as a captain. SOOOOOOOOOOO Now Ryan and I are forced to be the two votes, and i'm basically forced to single handedly choose, before everyone else finds out, who I'm voting for this round, because I'm clearly not voting for Ryan this round since i trust him. My thought process was that I was either going to have to choose between the "stoners" (john haley ryan me) or the vets on our tribe, which is Nicole Ryan Haley me, and I basically chose the stoners to side with since I don't have an alliance chat with the vets, and I didn't want shit blowing up if I chose Haley. The biggest reason John was off the table was because the names going around last round were everyone except him and I, so I just wanted as many people to potentially get voted for to be up for eviction with me.

As for what I'm thinking for this vote.... i'm tripping out a little bit now that it's been announced. I told Nicole that I am the reason she's up to be voted out, because i wanted to be transparent. I figured lying about it doesn't really help the situation this round. When it comes down to who I'm voting for. I'm locking in Nicole because i can't vote for Ryan. I know that Ryan and Haley are never going to vote for me, and I'm hoping John wouldn't vote for me, but now I'm hearing a few other things that are making me a bit disappointed with him, where John wants to keep Nicole, but says he won't vote for Ryan or I. This is all according to Haley. I think I'm going to have a knot in my stomach until tribal council happens, and I'm tip toeing on the idea of telling Haley I have a half of an idol, but I'm thinking that I'll probably find another half very soon, so I'm just trying to hold onto the fact that I can have a completely secret idol, while consistently telling people where to search, and me knowing that I can't possibly have found something, when in all reality, I've got a half an idol and I'm being very cautious about it. What some people AREN'T being cautious about is how much they tell Haley. I trust that Haley wants to work with me very well, I'm not questioning that, but I am questioning how smart that girl is. She seems very eager, which is good, but she told me that SHE and NICOLE both have halves of idols to where I'm like WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK OWEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU GIVING AWAY THIS MANY HALVES!?!!?? The good thing is that I know where three of them are, and that's because Haley told me. Once Haley knows something, everyone knows. I'm being good at keeping my mouth shut this time around :)

Ok I’m glad we won the challenge. But how imperium stands right now I think if we do go to a vote it will be a 3 to 3 vote with me, Sam and Ned against Chris, autumn, and Dane or 4 to 2 with me, Sam, Ned, and Dane against Chris and autumn.

Okay so I am about to single handedly make a blindside happen at tribal, alongside the help of Haley. I went on call with Haley, and told her I had a half an idol, which wasn't my first choice of things I wanted to do, due to my traumatic idol PTSD from past games, but I took a different route by telling Haley, and I made a pretty ingenious plan to get me into the best position on this tribe as possible. Step 1: Get Haley to give me her other half of the idol. (DONE) Step 2: Tell Haley that it's okay to vote for me at tribal, and that it's going to be 3 votes for me, 2 votes for Nicole (DONE) Step 3: Watch the blindside unfold. Step 4: Do damage control with John. Let Ryan be mad at John and Haley for voting for me, let John have to apologize for voting for me, and me play victim and try to really rebuild the strength of our relationships. And then after that, make sure that John and Ryan are the ones at odds with each other, while me getting John back on my side, and putting me back in the driver's seat. I know that this is going to put an insane target on my back when it gets to later in the game, and I'm going to be the guy who had a good idol play in the third round, and I'm going to be the guy that's like "he found the idol once, he can probably find one again" so I'm going to have to be real tricky with getting to merge, because I think the target is going to be on my back a lot more now than it would have ever been this early in the game, but I'll just have to throw caution to the wind and really come up with some shit and hope for the best. I did not want to have to play this hard this early, but it's happening :/ I need a swap soon. I would LOVE for us to go to tribal one more time before we swapped, to vote out John, and then Haley, Ryan and I all make it to a swap, to where I need to build some super strong relationships with some people. Haley ratted out John so much to me in the midst of this whole thing, and that Nicole and John are trying to vote for me this round, and John is going to say some snarky shit like "There's only room for one John." I'm torn on when I'm going to use the "throw haley under the bus" card, but I'm not quite there yet. I know it's going to come eventually, because that girl is playing very well very hard and very early in this game, so it'll be too tough to tell. I don't like that this is how this round is happening, but I'm ready for that OTTP5 edgic this round..... Me when I wanted a MOR3 NFVNVKSLDNFJKLVNLJKSDF

So more information coming your way live from Johnny's bed :) So Haley also tells me that Nicole is negotiating Haley's vote for the half of an idol that Nicole has, so now the plan is for Nicole to give Haley the half an idol before tribal, and then I'm going to be idoling out Nicole at tribal, while Haley has the half an idol in her pocket, which means we're back to Haley having a half, and all we have to do is find one more half, and we're golden. This is a very productive round for my game. If only this was a merge tribal council this was happening at, I'd be making a winning move here, but it's cool. I'll just hope for Owen to continue to throw twists my way that can hopefully get me out of these snake holes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

So it's been a lot more calm now that we won the last two challenge which is nice although there was some drama picking team captain, I thought Rebecka was getting close with Bran but them fighting over Bran being captain or not showed that Rebecka isn't with him.

And I'm kinda worried about her cus I know Julia and her have some kind of connection now, I also think she's doing anything she can to get back into good graces. Like when I said I was doing my final project yesterday she PMd me saying that I could do it and she believed in me and shit which is nice and myabe that's her being genuine but she wasn't that talkative until she realized she was on the bottom so hmmm I feel like she might just be trying to get me to trust her now. But hunny I don't buy it, you're a threat. I don't trust you and if we ever swapped tribes and it was just you and me on a new tribe I already know you'd try to get my ass out. So i'ma strike first. Idk if we're gonna tribe swap next round or not but if we don't and we lose the challenge I am pushing hard for Rebecka to go. She is a threat to me and her torch needs to be snuffed.

Things are finally getting wild. I brought together my two alliances to form the Kids Next Door, an alliance consisting of Chris, Autumn, Dane, and myself. I've also been forming better relationships with Sam and Bryan, because it's looking pretty likely that we'll end up swapping soon- and I genuinely like them both. Like, if we ended up as the final 6, I'd be incredibly happy. Chris also screwed up and sent Bryan a message that was meant for Autumn and me, and Bryan went and told me about it- so I'm hoping he trusts me enough to give me information in case we ever lose. The only person I haven't talked strategy with is Sam, so it feels like we're both walking on thin ice trying to avoid mentioning the elephant in the room: that she betrayed me once, and we'd LIKE to work together, but we don't know if it's possible to completely trust one another given our history. Also, my pockets are overflowing with little knickknacks that I can't really do anything with. https://78.media.tumblr.com/ea49454532a394d02c4f61d90a7c7362/tumblr_nhrjgwdRhp1u4mldxo1_400.gif So far, in the Storybook, I've found a challenge advantage, half a Hidden Immunity Idol, and a coin that might possibly one day do something if I'm lucky. I'm hoping I get to stick around to see all these things pay off. In the meantime, only Johnny, Ryan, and Nicole are eligible to be voted off, and I'm really hoping Nicole goes home. If Johnny goes home I might cry.

BDC is a real asshole to pick me over Haley and John. I know he doesn’t like me , I wish he wasn’t so fucking fake 

Our tribe has alliances within alliance and it's starting to unfold. Our tribe is a mess and very sloppy you never know where people heads are at you get told one thing one minute and next it's a whole new thing. Hopefully the people who I trust which is Ryan, john and Johnny all stick with the original plan tonight and vote Nicole .

Ok so there's officially two alliances within Imperium- one with Dane and one without him lol. Ned, Chris, and I are the closest so we're Mystery Inc since I said our tribe feels a lot like Scooby Doo. We believe the three of us are Fred, Shaggy, and Daphne while Dane, Sam, and Bryan are Scooby, Velma, and Scrappy. Honestly I can't unsee it and that alliance could highkey go all the way because no one really picks up on it. The one with Dane is Kids Next Door based off of Codename Kids Next Door haha; Ned is No. 1, Dane is No. 3, Chris is No. 4, and I'm No. 5 (we've given Owen No. 2 lmao). Both alliances are solid and I feel really good about that so no complaints! Imperium talks all day every day so I really don't even want us to go to tribal. We're very 60's and all about peace, love, and good vibes. Yes we have a suballiance and I know Vietnam is coming but so far we don't really have any major problems or issues to work out. I think Sam and Bryan are too dangerous to make merge but we're lowkey a family now so I'm slightly torn. THERE BETTER NOT BE A TRIBE SWAP OR ELSE ILL FIGHT KNOW THAT

So like this tribe is so sketchy. Like bitch if you are gonna be so sketchy get a sketchbook smh. Anyways, so like I only trust Brandon on this tribe. Fuck the rest of these hoes. I can sniff out the BS. So Brandon and I are pretty positive that Bran got an Idol. And we are also pretty posititve Bran is throwing the challenges because he has an idol, and wants to play it. Which puts anyone at risk in this tribe. Like shit! I ain't got time 4 it. And ALSO Rebecka and Jake. Don't even get me started. I used to make alliances and close friendships of mine very obvious on accident, and they are no different. Like bitch OBVIOUSLY you are messing around. And that is VERY DANGEROUS. Because it outs the Brandon /Jake/Julia allaince, and makes Jake safe, and screws Brandon and I. UgHHH. I am really hoping for a goddamn swap ngl.

https://youtu.be/Nf6Gt2hLBHI

I'm so annoyed, but if this works, it may be one of the biggest early moves I've ever made. First off.... the confessional from earlier. It was a genius idea, but of course our tribe's village idiot fucks it up yet again (dull) So OF COURSE (surprise surprise) Haley tells Ryan about the idol, which means that our cover is blown, Ryan is mad I didn't tell him, and now Haley is "telling" me she is 100% voting for Nicole. I don't trust Haley for shit, so I run to John because I've just gotta get him 100% on my side to make sure that he is going to be voting to keep me, and he knows that he can use me in the future, and that even though he loves Nicole, he's gotta trust me. I tell John that Haley gave me her half of the idol, and that I've got the whole thing. I told John that if he doesn't tell anyone that he knows about my idol, it gives us a lot of wiggle room and we can figure out how Haley is going to use her knowing about my idol to her advantage, and we can just out her more as a snake than she has been for the first three rounds of this game. John also told me that Nicole gave her half of the idol to John, since she is so confident she is being voted out, so now Haley has nothing (thank the lord), i've got a full one, and John has a half, which can turn into a whole very very soon since apparently these things are dumb easy to find. (Note: I told John that if I found another half, I'd give it to him, but there's no way in fucking hell I'm giving up a half an idol, are you fucking kidding me? The only way I'd give it to him is if I had to do something dumb, publicly, to obtain the idol... Then I'd give it to John *eyeroll*) Nicole and John both promised me I'm not being fucked with, and that I'm a good guy and this isn't some master blindside, and if they're correct, then we're going to have four stoners here after tribal council, and our alliance of four is what is going to remain. Here is where I stand right now: 1. I don't trust Haley for shit 2. I need to work on John's trust, and I kinda expect him to tell Ryan about my whole idol, but he knows that Ryan knows and that may get back to me, so he may not tell Ryan 3. Ryan needs to know that I still have utmost trust in him, and that him and I are probably at the center of this tribe right now, because next tribal will probably be between John and Haley going home. 4. Nicole is a saint, does not deserve this if she's getting voted out, but if she has an idol of some kind, and i'm being fucked with, rip Ryan. I'm praying this tribal goes in my favor.

https://youtu.be/NhG5oWDSHpw https://youtu.be/6NYH_XsYX8c

[lumateranlibrarian]

huuurrrrkkkkKHHHKHK I SAW A STAR WAR

Ok, so, THOUGHTS:

1. This movie fucked up all my pre-existing ships and I am A-OKAY WITH THAT. Still hate Reylo 10000% though, sorry not sorry. And oh jeez, did this episode feed SO. MUCH. FUEL. to the Reylo fire. Urgh.

2. I literally gasped when Yoda happened.

3. Speaking of, Yoda, what the fuck. “Eh, dry reads, they were.” Yeah, it’s cool, the Order did kind of suck. What’s that? You want me to convince you not to do it? LOL, still such a padawan you are, young Skywalker. Ima torch this shit with my FORCE UNEXPECTED WEATHER PATTERNS.

4. My new theory is that Rey is the child of two of the apprentices Kylo Ren took with him after destroying Luke’s temple.

5. Poe. I kinda wanted to smack him too. Except then Finn had to go and pull an Independence Day, and I was all “LISTEN TO POE, HE LITERALLY JUST FINISHED HIS CHARACTER ARC FOR THE MOVIE”

6. Gwendolyn Christie, my goddess. It was so amazing to see her fighting. She’s such an inspiration, and to see her put her hard-earned skills learned on Game of Thrones to use in a completely different genre was SO satisfying. If she had to go, well, she got one hell of an ending. 

7. OF COURSE REY ISN’T GONNA TURN. HOW COULD YOU EVER HAVE DOUBTED HER??!!!?!

8. Of course, now the interesting question is raised... there is no “master and the apprentice” to face in the final episode of the trilogy. Kylo Ren made sure of that. Is this going to be as straightforward a fight as good versus evil? Look. Listen. I honestly don’t feel like Kylo Ren can be redeemed. He can turn, sure (although I’m honestly doubting that that’s gonna happen). But redeemed? Oh, hell no. BOY. YOU LITERALLY KILLED EVERY. SINGLE. MEMBER. OF. YOUR. ENTIRE. FAMILY. Except your mom.

9. Why was it Yoda who showed up, and not Ben? It seems to me that Ben was the one who always appeared to Luke in times of crisis, and Ewan McGregor must have been more than willing to play the part. Though, I have to say, I really appreciated the way they animated Yoda. It seemed much more like the puppet of the original trilogy, which I found preferable. Was it a puppet? Oh god, I hope it was, that would have been amazing.

10. Hux is literally about to snap. I’ll be waiting with popcorn and pompoms when that happens. Too bad Hux will probably die before he can get off a second shot, but. Y’know. It’s the spirit of the thing.

11. The more I think about it, the more I really want to know the identities of the students Luke had alongside Ben. This seems like an important detail to leave out, especially given that we don’t know what happened to the ones that left with Kylo Ren.

12. HOW CAN ONE LINE BETWEEN POE AND REY MAKE ME WANT TO SHIP THEM INTO THE SUNSET. LITERALLY HOW. “I’m Rey.” “I know.” But honestly, I called the Finn/Rose ship from first taser, thank you Thor.

13. ROSE. MOTHERHUGGING. TICO. WHAT A BAE. WHAT A WONDERFUL BRAVE UNCOMPROMISING WOMAN. HOW INTELLIGENT. HOW KIND. HOW HONEST. 

14. Finn has a tyyyyyppppeeeeeeee, and it is adorable women with hearts of gold who are super amazingly competent and who are “nobodies” “just like him” (the extra quotations are for extra sarcasm). I swear, if Rey and Rose aren’t like best friends come Episode 9, I will flip a table, I swear I will. I need Rey to absolutely adore Rose, and I need Rose to really work to make sure people see the person beneath the Jedi persona Rey’s building around herself.

15. LUKE. JUST PHASING OUT. GOODBYE, EVERYONE, I’LL REMEMBER YOU ALL IN THERAPY.

16. Han with his fucking dice ornament. What a nerd. AND THEN LUKE WAKING UP THE FALCON WITH THE FORCE. LUKE LOW-KEY HIGH-KEY USING THE FORCE TO JUST GET FISH FOR BREAKFAST.

17. “... and watch your language!”

18. DO YOU THINK THAT WAS FINN’S FIRST KISS. I THINK THAT WAS FINN’S FIRST KISS. WRITE ME ALL THE META. I WANT IT.

19. While we’re at it, I must also find some Rey/Poe fic, and if I cannot find it, I will try to create it.

Do or do not, there is n o tr Y

20. Seriously, though. Love the twin sun symbolism at the end, but also the black suit with the white undershirt that Phantom!Luke was wearing during the fight. I adore all the callbacks - I know a lot of supposedly “hardcore” fans are being really rough on the new trilogy for how heavily it plays off the original, but I think it’s great.

21. Yeah, ok. The scene where Leia pulls herself to the med bay using the force while she is floating in outer space without a suit pushes all limits of credibility. But who amongst us cannot say that seeing Leia wield the Force so powerfully was one of the greatest sights we have ever seen? That was Carrie, and seeing this movie really struck home just what a wonderful person we lost.

[survivorelsalvador]

EPISODE 12 - Let The Big Dogs Fight It Out - Chips

(If a confessional is just a gif or a picture then it was most likely Veronica, winner of Jeju Island, uwu <3)

Ashton

Ayyy finally on top. I've been playing from the bottom for most of the game and now I finally have the numbers. Me Richie Lily and Chips, That's the four and I plan on going all the way with them. Wow it feels good right now. Finally have some power.

Dana

"WHY DON'T YOU REINTRODUCE YOURSELF LILY... AS QUEEN OF LYING.

I 100% deserve this flip from Lily. But Nicholas? Honestly, he's self-proclaimed bobo the fool part 2. Lily really got us good.  

Realistically, I probably should have seen this coming, but I didn't bring snakey, cutthroat, paranoid, always-paying-attention, and plotting Dana to this game. I brought the most ~causal~ UTR version of myself instead, so I wasn't even thinking about people flipping on me.  

What does this mean for me in the game? I have NOTHING to lose. I called people snakes in tribe chat tonight, basically, I'm being the best version of myself. Don't think you can take sweet beautiful Queen Willow from me without thinking you'll have hell to pay. Me, Zak, and Nicholas are hopefully going to figure something out to keep at least a few of us around as long as possible. Zak added us to an alliance chat called ""are we aligned,"" which I think pretty perfectly describes the fresh hell and confusion this game has been so far. I DIDN'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT NOT HAVING ALLIANCE CHATS. That's how fucking chill i'm trying to be.

Now lets move on to Lily. I'll applaud her, a VERY good move. On a personal level? I absolutely love her, she's a great friend. BUT she must have learned something from Bahamas Dana, huh? Sometimes you have to lie in this game to win, and I think she has set herself up very well to be at FTC and i'd be ecstatic to see her get there, because my questions for her are already nice and prepared. If Lily gets to FTC, she's facing a MASSIVE problem. Lily PREACHES honesty and loyalty, and in this game, I believe her lack of both of those in this game will be to her fault. See here's the thing, if you don't PREACH a loyal game and PROMISE honesty, but people believe you are loyal anyway, you can act however you want and apologize later. You never set any expectations for your behavior in that scenario, other people did, and you simply broke them. HOWEVER, Princess Lily MISSED a piece from my Bahamas playbook. Because she has vowed loyalty all along in this game. She in fact DID NOT vote for me in Bahamas because according to her own metrics for voting, you should vote for someone whose loyalty compensates for what they lack in strategic gameplay. We have had this conversation in and out of game context, where she insists that this is the way to vote in this game. NOW. If that is true, then Lily has basically already asked me not to vote for her at the end of this game and I'd be HAPPY not to.

She's going to have a difficult time because both logically and logistically speaking, how am I supposed to analyze her game play any different than she has assessed and devalued mine in the past? At the same time, how could I blatantly reject the ways she has HERSELF asked others to evaluate her game play in the past?  

Tonight had me SHOOK, but also infinitely more excited to see what happens next. I love waiting on apology tours :')

Nicholas

Dana

Time to cause as many problems as possible. I'm going to be telling lies as fast as I can type them. I'm at the point where I go home if I don't tell enough lies today, so i'm here for it. I have a 50/50 chance of going home according to Lily, which means that I'm going to post my boot list and who i'll vote for to win in the tribe chat and just let that bomb explode. If I go home, it's been fun and I can't wait to fuck with people on jury.

Richie

well that vote went really easy for how complicated it was... willows gone (RIP) and no idol was played so we could have taken either nicholas or dana out but thats fine willow was a threat because people liked her i'm just nervous about an idol this round im still suspicious about nicholas having an idol so i think voting out zak would be the safest thing to do because he'd be the least likely to get the idol played on him if nicholas is in possession of it??? but i just won another immunity even though i didnt really want to and the target on my back is just increasing and theres probably no way i make it to the end unless i win out and ive really just been getting lucky on these comps so thats not realistic lmao

Chips

So, highkey, I'm working incredibly closely with Richie in this game because why not and if he wins over me I honestly don't care since the last game we played in together I robbed him of the final two when I won the final individual immunity challenge.

Anyway, he tells me that Dana is pitching hard for her alliance of three Dana/Zak/Nicholas to stay by claiming that she just NOW started talking to Zak anyway. I'm just - Okay... I want to just say bye to the three of them. After that group from the tribe before merge tried to come for my life if not for an idol play they all need to go before I feel comfortable. Richie feels similarly, we're thinking when it gets to final five is when we're going to turn on our own alliance and cut Lily... but until then our group of four should be sticking together.

The only wrinkle in our plan is that they have two vote cancelers which means they can force a tie or something? I dunno... I'm just gonna sit back and let the big dogs fight it out.

Ashton

Here comes the pagonging. Well hopefully. Thats the best case scenario for my game at least. At this point there isn't much of a reason to vote me out. I'm pretty beatable at the end since I don't even talk to the other side. So rn my plan is to just make sure all my alliance members want to take me to final 2/3. Also please be final 2 I think my only chance to win would be Chips and I at the end. If it's a final 3 then i'm fucked cuz either Richie or Lily will win.

Lily

Well damn. I guess I successfully flipped??? Richie is defiently keeping me in the loop now and I love it (and him) and hope that we can stay strong until the end. I feel so bad for turning on Nicholas but he seemed so adamant on voting with Dana I didn't want to ruin the plan by telling him. We will see how the votes go tonight. If there are three votes or two votes because I'm negating danas vote then I will know Nicholas voted with Dana and zak. This is fine but it would be nice to know that Nicholas still doesn't want to vote for me. It would be nice to some how take him farther if he has an idol or something. But I just don't think it would be possible. I wish I had an idol because I would totally do another flip cause that would just make this game crazier and honestly that's what the confessionals need. Hopefully I make it past this and all the way to an FTC. If not, I really hope they get me out this time so I can keep the 7 streak alive. We will see. Dana claims to have majority but I just don't see it. But you never know I told Dana to always keep fighting and I know she has been working Richie hard   I hope when I explain my entire game to her in FTC (if I magically get there) that she could at least consider voting for me. I still feel as though I played a loyal game. I had to continue the lie from that one vote much longer than anticipated, and I hope she knows how much of a bad ass she is and how much I love her. Nicholas Richie chips Dana Ashton zak Ily (zak thank you for all the snaps it's me or you bud or it's rocks and then it's not me or you so we can continue the snap streak fuck yeah) 🦄