#and they also cut the scene when they speak in code and once again it's something that can be easily moved to the next season

[zuko-always-lies]

In defense of Admiral Zhao and how he treats Zuko (or he's still a dick and an imperialist, but this is why/how his actions made sense to him).

So the first time we see Zhao chronologically is in this scene, when he watched Ozai burn Zuko with a smirk on his face:

Obviously this doesn't speak highly of Zhao, but the context was that Zuko was refusing to defend his honor by fighting back and thus, under Fire Nation culture, getting "what was coming to him." It's pretty like that Zhao didn't particularly hate Zuko before that.

Then almost three years pass, and Zuko and Iroh show up acting all suspicious at Zhao's base with a damaged ship. Zuko offers an extremely unconvincing story, so naturally Zhao investigates further.

Zhao gives Zuko a chance to come clean and Zuko refuses to, solely out Zuko's self-interest. Zuko is willing to screw over the Fire Nation just to have a slightly better chance at going home. That just confirms all of Zhao's negative opinions about Zuko.

Zhao: My search party is ready. Once I'm out to sea, [Cut to a shot from over Zhao's head to reveal Iroh and Zuko sitting in two chairs in front of him in the middle of the tent.] my guards will escort you back to your ship and [Close-up of Zuko, who angrily looks down.] you'll be free to go.

Zhao is willing to overlook this and let Zuko go.

Zhao is being a dick here, but he's also telling Zuko the truth, the same truth Iroh has refused to tell him. And Zuko challenges him to an Agni Kai over it.

Zuko and Zhao fight, and Zuko clearly wins. Zhao, recognizing his defeat, tells Zuko to burn Zhao.

There's two things we need to understand here. First, Agni Kai's can only end with one participant being burned or killed. Second, by burning Zhao, Zuko would show his adherence to the Fire Nation's norms and culture, show he's "manly enough" to adhere and be a "man of honor" within the code of honor. By refusing to end the duel, Zuko disrespects the very practice of dueling.

Then Zuko turns his back and walks away, Zhao tries to attack Zuko, and Iroh stops Zhao and claims that "Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you." The thing to understand here is that the duel was not actually over, at least from Zhao's perspective. That's why he tried to attack Zuko, because Zuko had refused to end it.

Let us fast forward a few episodes. The next time we see Zhao is in "Avatar Roku," where Aang is trying to reach Roku's temple and Zuko is trying to stop him. Zhao is commanding a blockade fleet in their way. This exchange provides important context:

Iroh: [Close-up.] Sailing into Fire Nation waters ... Of all the foolish things you've done in your sixteen years, Prince Zuko, this is the most foolish! Zuko: I have no choice, Uncle. Iroh: [Angrily.] Have you completely forgotten that the Fire Lord banished you? [Fearfully.] What if you're caught? Zuko: [Breaks away from telescope to talk to his uncle.] I'm chasing the Avatar! My father will understand why I am returning home!

By chasing after the Avatar into the Fire Nation, Zuko is violating the terms of his banishment.

Anyways, this happens:

To be clear, what Zhao does here is 100% a dick move. But from Zhao's perspective, Zuko demonstrated his lack of loyalty earlier, and is now also trying to violate the terms of his banishment.

So Zhao chases after Zuko and Aang and doesn't manage to hang onto them since Avatar Roku goes super-saiyan on him.

After that, we get this exchange:

Zhao: [Turns angrily, snapping.] No Prince, no Avatar! Apparently, the only thing I do have is five traitors! Great Fire Sage: [Interjects.] But Commander! Only Shyu helped the Avatar. Zhao: [Close-up.] Save your stories for the Fire Lord. As far as I'm concerned, you are all guilty! [Orders.] Take them to the prison hold!

Again, total dick move. However, it's worth pointing out what Zhao's justification is likely to be: the Fire Sages violated the law by refusing to apprehend and instead helping a banished fugitive, Zuko, who was illegally in the Fire Nation.

The next time Zhao and Zuko interact is when the Blue Spirit breaks Aang out, but nothing particularly interesting happens there.

Finally, in "The Waterbending Master," we get to see Zuko and Zhao's final arc. As Zhao prepares his expedition to the Northern Water Tribe, he shows up and takes Zuko's crew:

Zhao realizes that Zuko is that Blue Spirit and a total traitor, and that just confirms everything Zhao already thought about him. So Zhao tries to have Zuko assassinated by the pirates. It doesn't work.

The next time Zhao encounters Zuko is in the Siege of the North Part II:

Again, Zhao's contempt and hatred for Zuko is driven by Zuko's treasonous behavior.

Of course, the Ocean Spirit shows up, and then this is what happens:

Zhao is consumed by the energy in the shape of a hand and dragged toward the water. Zuko: Take my hand! Zhao considers it for a moment before retracting his hand. The energy plummets into the water, Zhao dragged along with it, and dissipates.

Whatever else you can say about Zhao, he's consistent to the end.

So again, my main point is not that Zhao is a good person. Zhao is a terrible person, an utter jerk, and an imperialist with delusions of grandeur.

However, with regards to Zuko in specific, Zhao's treatment of Zuko is almost always reactive to a degree to Zuko's actions and has a certain logic behind it. Zhao treats Zuko so poorly largely because Zuko keeps confirming Zhao's worst opinions about Zuko.

That doesn't mean that Zhao is right to be a jerk to Zuko, who again is a banished teenager, just that Zhao's actions make logical sense within his cultural context and considering Zuko's actions.

[no-brain-just-akutagawa]

When Fedya said: "melodies of sadness play in his veins" he meant the bsd fandom after today's episode

Bones why? What have we ever done to you?

[captn-trex]

technical devotion, part six: visitors

content warnings: none :)

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“Pliars please”

Kan held her hand out, and Echo placed the requested tool into it. The pair were sat in near silence as Kan worked under the control panel in Echo's ship.

Kan felt that she had broken through a small barrier with Echo. It had been a few days since they got back from their mission on Haidoral Prime, and she had noticed that he now seemed to be more open to spending time with her, even if he didn't say much while he did it. She was just glad that he wasn't avoiding her like the plague anymore.

Echo didn't mean to be so quiet around Kan, but something about her made him lose all ability to speak, to think. He couldn't form a coherent thought around her, let alone speak it aloud, and it was beginning to annoy him.

“So… I overheard Rex saying that your old squad were coming around here soon” Kan tried to spark up a bit of conversation.

“Yeah, should be here anytime now” Echo replied.

Kan nodded, even though the action was obstructed from Echo's view.

“What are they like?”

“Uh…” Echo didn't really know how to answer the question, “They're… different from the rest of the clones”

“How so?”

Echo could never get used to Kan's simple inquisitive nature, but he also couldn't get enough of it.

“I don't know how to describe them, they’re all very different from each other as well”

“Hm, sounds intriguing. Hydrospanner please”

Echo obliged, “Yeah, they're certainly that”

Just then, as if they had been summoned by the topic of conversation, the sound of a ship entering the hangar filled their ears.

“Screwdriver please” Kan held her hand out, but didn't feel the tool being placed into it. She looked out from under the control panel and saw that Echo was no longer there. Kan let out a huff, and reached for the tool herself, a string of unimpressed noises escaping her lips. She finished up with the Phaser rewiring, screwing the cover back into place, and slipped out.

Kan took a rag that was slung over the back of the pilot's seat and wiped her forehead as she stepped out of the ship, her eyes immediately catching the joyous scene of reunion across the hangar.

It was hard for Kan to look away from the Bad Batch's table at lunch time. Though, it wasn't the batch she was looking at, it was Echo.

His eyes were lit up in a way she had never seen, his smile fixed on his face and laughing with his squad, and she thought it was the most wonderful sight. She had seen him smile, but never like this. She almost felt jealous that they could illicit this response from him, and found herself watching intently to find out how she could replicate it herself, not that she garnered much information that way.

She caught herself completely drooling over the sight when Echo looked in her direction. She looked away immediately and sat up straight, taking her hand away from where she had been resting her head in it. She cursed the heat that she could feel creeping up the back of her neck.

Echo looked over at her extremely puzzled, wondering why she had been watching him so intently. He assumed that she was interested in the clones surrounding him, since she had taken an interest in them before, and he left it at that, joining in the conversation again.

Kan didn’t have any other tasks to be getting on with at the moment, so she was listening in on an Imperial comm channel with the device she had made. They used a lot of code names, so it was generally quite hard to decipher, but there were always those who would let protocol slip every now and then. She let out a small sigh as the signal cut out once again, and an even bigger one when it didn’t come back at all this time. With a grunt, she rose to her feet and headed outside to check out the satellite dish.

She could immediately see that it had come out of place and an even bigger sigh escaped her lips. How do I even get up there? She walked around the hangar and found nothing of use, so reluctantly took herself off to the command room, and knocked timidly on the door.

“Come in” She heard Rex shout, and she opened the door.

“Hey Rex, sorry to disturb you, the satellite’s come out of place. Is there a ladder or anything like that around here?”

“Uh…” He thought for a moment, “There should be one in the store cupboard just outside the hangar”

Didn’t know that was there, “Alright, thanks” She smiled gratefully and went and found the ladder.

It was a particularly rickety old thing, and not straight by any stretch of the imagination. Kan felt a little bit scared going up it, but once she was at the top, she felt more in control. Fixing the satellite dish would be easy, it would just take a bit of time doing it by herself.

The ladder swayed with each small change of the wind, and Kan was starting to regret even bothering with it. As she was making one of the final adjustments, reaching around the dish a little more, the ladder began to tip over, and this time Kan was sure she was going down.

“Woah there!” She heard someone call out, and she realised she had stopped tipping to the side. She cast a glance over her shoulder and saw a man - a clone, one of Echo’s squad - holding the base of the ladder. He was the shortest of the group, and wore a bandana over his long hair and blackout face tattoo. Kan finished her final adjustment and quickly scurried down the precarious ladder.

“Thanks for that, I’m Kan” She smiled broadly at him and held out her hand.

“Hunter” He shook it, reflecting her expression back to her, “You must be the technician that Echo told us about”

“Echo told you about me?” Kan raised her eyebrows. She had got little indication that Echo really liked her all that much, so it honestly surprised her that he’d mention her to his squad.

Hunter supressed a smirk at her reaction, “Only good things, don’t worry”

Kan laughed at that, and her gaze shifted when she saw the rest of the squad gathered in the distance. She saw that Echo was watching the two of them, a particularly prominent frown creasing his brow, and offered him a kind smile. His gaze softened marginally, but he was still watching intently.

“Alright, well I should get on” She gestured inside, though nothing desperate was really calling for her attention.

“Why don't you come say hi to everyone? I know Omega was interested in meeting you” Hunter suggested.

“Uh…” Kan hesitated. She was not great in big groups, but she also didn’t want to be rude and decline the offer.

“They don't bite” Hunter added with a small grin, sensing her slightly raised heartrate and the small bead of sweat that broke out from her hairline.

Kan laughed nervously, “Okay then”

Hunter led her over to his brothers as they chatted amongst themselves, and she stood next to Echo. She looked up to him and softly spoke with a smile, “Hey”

“Hey” He replied equally as soft, smiling back at her to try and ease her obvious nervousness, then he turned back to the group, “Omega, this is Kan”

Kan recognised the small blonde girl from watching their reunion in the hangar, and her eyes lit up when she looked to the Mirialan in front of her.

“You're the technician? Echo didn't say you were a girl” Omega gushed, seeming entirely pleased by the fact.

“Heh, yeah that's me” Kan replied, a small grin spreading across her face at the expression of wonder on the young girl’s face.

“Can I see your office? Echo promised me I could see it”

“I didn't promise any-”

“Of course” Kan smiled, “it's very messy though”

“I don't care about that” Omega said matter-of-factly, and grabbed Kan's arm, dragging her towards the compound.

“Omega!” Echo called after her sternly, but Kan just laughed delightedly, looking back at him, and his furrowed brow relieved a little as he watched them go.

“Oh Echo” Hunter chuckled, patting him on the shoulder.

Echo turned to see his amused expression, “What?”

“We leave you for a couple months and you've already found a girl?” Hunter raised an amused eyebrow at his brother.

“What? No! Don’t be ridiculous” Echo denied the claim, shaking his head.

“Oh yeah, how ridiculous of you to like a pretty girl” Crosshair sneered, smirking as he placed a fresh toothpick between his teeth.

“Aw, good on you Echo” Wrecker crushed his shoulders in a side hug, but Echo pushed him off immediately.

“It's not like that, she’s just a… colleague” He glared at his brothers, who all looked at him with matching smirks.

“Whatever you say” Hunter taunted, and walked off in the same direction that Omega had dragged Kan. Echo just rolled his eyes and followed after him, making their way to Kan’s office.

“And that there is the tuner, and you can see on the screen where the signal is coming from”

The two clones stepped into the doorway of Kan's office and saw her and Omega crouched by the transmission interception device.

“That's so cool, did you make this all by yourself?” Omega asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I did” Kan smiled, “Are you interested in this kind of stuff?”

“Yeah, my brother Tech taught me a lot of things, but I'm still learning”

Kan noted the use of past tense and the heaviness of her tone, “Well he certainly sounds cool, I can teach you some stuff too if you like?”

“Yes please!” She grinned, and Kan opened up the back panel of the machine

“This is where everything connects, you see that there? That's the main power source, and this bit connects to the satellite, which is how it's able to pick up the signals”

“How do you know where to connect the wires?”

“Let me show you” She grabbed another motherboard and started walking Omega through it, and Echo couldn't help but stare at her in adoration at the way she interacted with his sister.

“So… you said you didn't like this girl?” Hunter said quietly, gaining Kan's attention momentarily. Echo just sent him a stern look, but it was met with a knowing smirk, “Let's leave them to it” He patted his shoulder, moving away. Echo looked back to Kan who was once again teaching Omega about the connections, and comparing with the already completed device. He smiled to himself and walked down the hall after his brother.

Omega and Kan walked into the mess together at dinner time, still engrossed in conversation about anything and everything technical. Omega was definitely the most inquisitive person that Kan had met in a while, and she was enthralled about it. She loved to talk about her work, and to be able to impart any sort of knowledge to someone else made her feel extremely accomplished.

After the two of them collected their food, Kan tried to say goodbye and make her way over to her regular table, but Omega wasn't having it.

“Come sit with us” She said with pleading eyes.

“Oh, I don't want to impose”

“You wont” She smiled sweetly, “I know Echo would like it if you did”

Kan looked over to the table and saw Echo watching her once again. “Alright then” She said, and allowed herself to be dragged over by Omega.

She approached the table feeling a little sheepish and unsure of herself, and took the free place between Wrecker and Omega. Everyone else at the table were already entrenched in conversation, so Kan tried talking to the large clone beside her.

“We haven't been properly introduced, it's Wrecker, right?”

“That's me” He smiled happily

“It's nice to meet you”

“You too, clever lady” He took her in a crushing side hug, and she grinned up at him, feeling more at ease in the group.

The clones joked and laughed together over the course of dinner, as Omega continued to ask Kan questions about her work, completely enamoured by the inner workings of her brain and her profession.

“What's this? Have the Bad Batch stolen our precious Mirialan?” A clone voice asked and placed their elbows on Kan’s shoulders, and she looked up to see it was Howzer.

Kan let the corner of her mouth quirk into a smirk, “Precious? Really?”

“Come on, you know you're our prized possession”

Kan rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink, relaxing into the embrace of the clone behind her. Echo, on the other hand, was anything but relaxed. He felt extremely irritated by the simple fact that Kan was so physically comfortable with Howzer. This only led to him looking down into his food and searching for the reason why it annoyed him so much. Safe to say, he didn't find it.

“Howzer” Hunter nodded to him in acknowledgement, and he nodded back.

“Hunter” He replied, then he looked to crosshair, “Crosshair”

Crosshair glared at Howzer, and Kan looked up to him, seeing he wore his own scowl. She smirked, and a small laugh escaped her lips, accompanied by the roll of her eyes, “Men”.

Omega laughed at her comment, and Howzer shoved her a little.

“Anyway, you better come back soon or Oscar will go mad”

“That sounds like a tempting offer”

“I'm sure he'd have another tempting offer for you if you came back" He said as he moved away, and Kan scrunched up her nose.

“Not on his life”

“I'll let him know you said that”

“Please do”

Echo watched the exchange with an unpleasant feeling in his gut.

Kan was crouched and organising her office — her version of it at least, which entailed making haphazard piles all around her working space on the floor — when she heard a knock on the door. She called for them to enter and looked up to see Hunter stood in the doorway.

“Nice glasses” He grinned, and she realised that they were still on the end of her nose. She laughed and pushed them up onto her head so she could see him better.

“Thanks, what brings you here?”

He leaned onto the doorframe with his forearm, “We're heading off soon, but I just wanted to say thanks, for entertaining Omega”

“Oh it was no problem, she's an amazing kid, and very smart. It was my pleasure” Kan smiled

“Well, you've certainly made an impression on her, she's just been gushing about how clever you are” He raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, I'm sure she's exaggerating” Kan laughed a little, no sure how to respond to any kind of praise.

“I don't know, Echo seemed to agree” He grinned at her, and her cheeks flushed a little.

“Oh, well that was kind of him” She mumbled her words just as the person in question appeared next to his brother with Omega. Echo saw the grin on Hunter's face and the blush on Kan's and immediately assumed that he had been flirting with her. He felt his blood boil at the thought. I told him I didn't like her, I guess I can't be mad.

Omega made a beeline for Kan but Hunter grabbed her arm before she could enter the mess once again, “It's time to go”

“Aw, but Kanda was going to show me how to solder” She whined. Echo noticed that she called her ‘Kanda’ and wondered if Kan had let slip her full name.

“I can show you another time Omega, don't worry” Kan smiled at the young girl, but she just slumped her shoulders.

“Fine” Omega muttered, going back to the door.

“It was nice to meet you Kan, I'm sure we'll see you again soon” Hunter smiled.

“Yeah, it was nice to meet you guys too”

“Bye Kanda” Omega waved as they left the room.

“Bye Omega” She laughed slightly and called out.

Echo waved and remained in the doorway, looking back towards Kan.

“She's a great kid” Kan declared.

“I know” He smiled, a genuine, content smile.

“She reminds me of myself at that age” She noted, fiddling with the motherboard she was demonstating with earlier.

“How so?” Echo asked.

“I guess… always asking questions and wanting to know more” Kan started, a smile curving her lips as she thought fondly of her youth. She thought of working with her father in his workshop, making him detail every single thing he was doing, and then coming home to tell her mother everything she learnt. “And wanting to do something important with her life” She continued, looking up at Echo.

“Did you ever do anything important?” He asked with a little smile.

“I'm here aren't I?” She grinned, and he chuckled in response.

A silence enveloped them for a short moment before Kan spoke up again.

“Hunter seems cool” She admitted.

“Mhm”

Kan noted the tightening of Echo’s jaw at the comment and stopped what she was doing.

“What is it?” She asked, honestly feeling a little upset that she couldn't seem to ever get anything right when it came to him.

“Nothing” Echo turned to leave.

“Echo” She called out for him and he looked back at her reluctantly.

“Have I said something to upset you?” She asked and when he didnt reply immediately she went into nervous rambling, “I didn't mean to insinuate that you seem uncool in comparison or anything. Not that- I mean- I do think you’re cool, just that Hunter seems nice, you know?”

Echo’s jaw unclenched as he watched Kan stumble over her words, her brows pinched together in concern and eyes looking up at him with a startling intensity. He thought she looked incredible.

“Um, or is it something else?” She continued, sinking onto her knees, “I feel like I keep upsetting you and I don't know why”

“You haven't upset me Kan, you couldn't” Echo said softly and left immediately afterwards, not feeling like answering for what he said.

“Oh” Kan said, sitting back on her heels. What does that mean?

[justlightlysedated]

So update, I have NOT finished the fic BUT since I did say maybe today, I decided to post an update! Here is the last 1/3 of Part Two, which is also known as "The Divorce Era" it is also WIP WEDNESDAY! So yay for me 😊

December 2019

Isobel is just walking through the front entrance of the hospital when her phone blares, sudden and loud. She tugs it out of her pocket and to her ear.

"What?"

"When you get here don't do any Jedi mind tricks," Kyle says without a hello. "I have to talk to you before anything else. Where are you?"

"In the front entrance," she responds and hangs up.

She has to stop herself from stomping forward and demanding to be told what is happening with Michael Guerin. But she trusts Kyle enough to wait.

She still doesn't understand how this happened.

They had been practicing with their powers more than usual, but it didn't make any sense for Michael to drop out of nowhere, publicly enough that the emergency services were called before anyone could do anything about it.

Kyle had recognized his description from the EMTs and had immediately called Isobel, telling her he'd do what he could to avoid exposure.

She spots Kyle coming out of the elevator and heading her way, walking fast. He grabs on to her elbow and begins tugging her forward. Isobel lets this go on until they're in the elevator and then she pushes him away.

"Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?" she demands. "And where is Michael?"

Kyle reaches forward and presses the button to stop the elevator before turning to face her.

"Has Michael ever told you anything about being married?"

Isobel snorts, wanting to laugh, but settling for shaking her head. "He's made comments about a husband before, but it's impossible that he actually got married without Max and I there."

Kyle exhales roughly, "Well either he was telling the truth or it's too late to do anything to keep Michael off the government radar."

Isobel clenches her hands together, resisting the urge to tear into Kyle's brain and find out the information that he has faster. The elevator creaks alarmingly.

"Okay," Kyle says, holding his hands out in front of him like he's trying to placate her. "I'm just the messenger here, okay?"

"Kyle," Isobel snaps. "I need a full and concise explanation in the next thirty seconds or else-"

"I can't access any of his records," Kyle says, cutting her off. "Everything from the stats taken at the scene to the oxygen mask put on his face have been put under lock and classified key. The chief of staff says that there was a military code on his file that puts all of his information on a highly classified need to know basis."

Isobel thinks that over quickly, "So what you're saying is that either they already know and there is nothing that we can do or Michael is married to someone high up in the military."

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, Isobel wants to smack herself on the forehead.

"I stand corrected," she says before Kyle can confirm or deny her previous statement. "There is someone that he could be married to without telling either of us."

Kyle gives her a look, and she raises an eyebrow back at him thinking, Alex Manes really loudly, and somehow it seems to work.

Kyle's eyes flash from realization to surprise to surprisingly, guilt.

Isobel would ask, but she pulls her phone out again instead. 

To Alex's credit he answers the phone almost immediately, "This is not a good time."

"Okay, when would be a better time for you to tell me that you're married to my brother?" Isobel asks as sickeningly sweet as she can manage.

Alex just sighs, "Good. You're here. I need to leave in ten minutes if I want to make it to my meeting in time."

Which meant that Alex was here in the hospital, when he was supposed to be halfway across the country chasing down Project Shepherd leads. Interesting.

"I'm signing all the paperwork, and once Michael wakes up they'll discharge him immediately, no tests or anything," Alex had continued speaking while Isobel wasn't paying attention.

"Alex," Isobel almost shouts, interrupting his flow. "You're married. To Michael."

"Yes," Alex says, sounding annoyed, like he doesn't understand why this needs to be a conversation that they need to have. "Technically separated. Fortunately he didn't actually file for divorce earlier this year so all of the precautions I took are still legible."

"Technically separated," Isobel repeats in a mocking tone.

She can feel the eye roll through the phone.

"Just get out of the elevator, and come over here," he says. "We're in room C118."

He hangs up before Isobel can say anything else.

She scoffs and pulls up Michael's information, but then decides she can berate him better in person.

"He said they're in room C118."

Kyle nods his head once, and presses two buttons, one to start the elevator again, and the other to get to the correct floor.

"So they really are married then?" He asks, sounding both like he wants to know the answer, but also like he doesn't.

"Apparently it's so obvious that Mr. Manes gets annoyed if you ask too many questions," she pauses for a second thinking it over. "Or is it Mr. Guerin as well?"

Kyle just groans and leans back against the wall.

"What's wrong with you?" Isobel asks.

Kyle is saved by answering when the doors open, but Isoebl stops him as they get out, pushing him into a secluded corner. 

"Are you secretly in love with Alex as well or what?"

Kyle splutters, shaking his head, "No. I mean, not that Alex isn't a great guy, and anyone would be lucky to be secretly in love with him-"

"Thanks for saying that Kyle," Alex's highly amused voice comes from somewhere to their right.

They both turn to look at him.

Usually, Isobel has nothing bad to say about Alex's wardrobe. But today it looks like he pulled clothes randomly out of Michael's closet. As a matter of fact, Isobel is sure that the dirty gray shirt he's wearing tucked beneath Michael's jean jacket is the same shirt that Michael had been wearing when she'd seen him last.

"What are you wearing?" Isobel asks, wrinkling her nose.

"My husband's clothes," Alex responds, like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

He grins while she gapes at him, momentarily speechless.

"Alex I'm so sorry," Kyle blurts out like he can't stop himself.

"For what?" Alex asks, giving Kyle a slightly suspicious look.

"You remember when you were in that accident a couple of days before you were kidnapped by your brother?"

Alex nods his head slowly, while Isobel furrows her brow. She had never heard about Alex being involved in an accident.

"Well, I forgot to tell you with everything else that happened, but I  kind of threwGuerinoutofthehospitalforclaimingtobeyourhusband."

He throws the words out as fast as he can, and then looks away, wincing when he catches Isobel’s eye. Isobel has half in mind to set him on fire, but she also didn't believe Michael when he told her that she was married. In her defense, she had thought she had all of the pieces of information. It wasn't until she talked to Max, a couple of years before Liz Ortecho stormed back into their lives, that she realized that there was one big blind spot in her reasoning.

Alex takes a second to get what Kyle was trying to say, and once he does he gives Kyle a look bordering on angry, but still amused.

"You could've just checked my file. He's listed as my next of kin."

And once again, Alex says the words in a way that sounds annoyed that he has to point out something so obvious.

Kyle winces at Alex's tone. And Isobel rolls her eyes.

"I'm sorry, " Kyle says again.

Alex just nods, "It's not me you owe an apology to."

He turns to face Isobel, "Everything is squared away. He's awake and just waiting for the paperwork. You guys can leave once the nurse hands you the paperwork, and a USB drive."

His eyebrows telegraph the importance of the USB.

Isobel just nods her head slowly, "So technically separated."

Alex sighs, "In the last eleven years, we've spent more time apart than together. This marriage has never been about our relationship."

Isobel opens her mouth to argue, but Alex just shakes his head.

"It's a safety net," he says, and Isobel stops speaking, eyes widening a little. "It means no matter what I'll be there for him."

"So it has nothing to do with the fact that you're in love with him or anything?" Isobel questions sarcastically because someone has to say it.

Alex rolls his eyes, "Your brother had ample time to file for divorce any time in the last year, and he failed to do so."

"I have to go," he continues before Isobel can ask another question. "Take care of him."

And he's gone before Isobel can tell him that she doesn't need him to tell her that.

---

Alex doesn't know why he expected that taking a meeting near Roswell would come with no consequences. He hadn't told anyone he was going to be around. He hadn't been planning on making a big deal out of it, which is probably why it's the day that Michael Guerin decides to stop being reliable and lands himself in the hospital.

Alex is only two minutes late to his meeting, and it sets the tone for the rest of the day. 

Alex is tired when he heads back to the house. He intends to sleep for a couple of hours and then pack up a few more necessities and leave.

So of course, when he gets out of the bathroom he hears a knock on the front door.

Alex closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. There is only one person that could be. Well conceivably there are five people that could be. But it's narrowed down to one since there is only one person who wouldn't wait for Alex to open the door before opening it himself.

Alex ignores the new person in the house and drops his dirty clothes inside of the washer and puts it to wash. Luckily the machine is loud enough that it'll remind Alex to put the clothes to dry before he falls asleep.

He walks out of his bedroom, and finds Michael sitting on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on his knees as he hunches over, looking down to the floor. He's still wearing Alex's shirt, that they'd switched at the hospital, after Alex had seen that there were spots of blood on his. They wouldn't take his shirt, but better safe than sorry.

Alex spots the thick folded stack of paper on top of the table and tries, very, very hard not to sigh.

"Tag you're it," Michael says, straightening up and looking at Alex.

He looks tired, but better than he did when he was lying back in a hospital bed. Alex had never wanted to see Michael in one. 

"You lied to me," Alex says, instead of grabbing the divorce papers and shoving them into the paper shredder in his office.

Michael shrugs, "I didn't lie exactly. I just let you believe what you wanted to believe."

Alex doesn't stop the sigh that falls out of his mouth this time.

Alex really only has himself to blame here.

"I don't understand why you couldn't just file them," Alex says, maybe a bit plaintive. He gave the papers to Michael for a reason.

Michael shrugs and leans back on the couch, "My reasons for marrying you haven't changed."

Alex makes a face at his own words being used against him. Especially since they were now, somehow, on opposite sides of this fight, once again.

"But your dad is dead now," he continues, trying to look nonchalant, but Alex can see right through him. "So all of your reasons are void. So you shouldn't have any more issues."

Alex walks away from him, heading towards the kitchen. He cannot have this conversation sober.

Michael walks into the kitchen when Alex is done pouring some bourbon into two glasses.

Alex grabs his glass and downs his drink, thinking about pouring himself another when Michael pushes his glass closer to Alex with just a flick of his fingers.

Alex grabs the glass and downs the drink before he can second guess himself.

Alex sets the glass down and turns to face Michael, who leans back against the island counter facing Alex.

"Why did you lie to me?" Alex asks before Michael can say anything.

Michael sighs, "There just never seemed to be a time to go do it, and if I'm being honest, there was never a reason important enough to do it."

Alex doesn't say that Michael just spent months in a serious relationship with someone else.

"And also I wanted to see if you would come when I called if you thought I wasn't your husband," he says, grinning at Alex as though it's a joke.

Alex wraps his fingers around the bottle of bourbon, tempted to pour himself another glass.

Michael reaches out and wraps his hand around Alex's, stopping him from moving.

"Michael," Alex says, because he doesn't know what else to say.

"Alex," Michael responds in the same tone.

They stare at each other in silence for too long minutes. Alex's hand tingles where it's trapped beneath Michael's, and his eyes drop to Michael's lips, that part as he stares as though Alex's gaze is a physical touch.

Alex vividly remembers the last time that he kissed Michael and he wishes he didn't.

"You were in the hospital today," Alex says, slipping his hand out from beneath Michael's and taking a step back.

"Extenuating circumstances," Michael says immediately, leaning heavily against the counter.

"Still, the only reason that you’re not playing lab rat is because of the special privileges granted to you by our marriage."

Michael opens his mouth, a familiar teasing look on his face, but Alex cuts him off before he can say anything.

"Don't."

Michael just lifts his hands in the air in mock surrender, pushing away from the counter.

Michael stuffs his hands into the pocket of his jeans, rocking back on his heels.

"So," he starts stretching out the o sound.

"So," Alex repeats shortly. "It seems like we're at an impasse."

They stare at each other in silence once again, but Alex is unwilling to break it this time. Because he might just cross the space between them and kiss him.

Luckily, Michael speaks before too long, "I know you're going to leave again."

Alex inhales sharply.

"But I know you're coming back," Michael continues, taking a step closer to Alex, who remains frozen, staring at Michael like he's prey in the eyes of a predator. "And maybe you'll go on dates with someone else, and maybe you'll fall in love."

Michael looks away at that, and only then does Alex feel like he is breathing again.

"But whether you file those papers or not, once you've figured out exactly what it is that you want, I'll be here."

He turns back to face him at those last three words, and Alex finds himself trapped all over again.

"And this time we won't have the excuse of not being able to communicate," he continues, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket and placing it on top of the counter. "You can reach me anytime."

"You expect me to believe that you actually got a phone that you're actually going to use as intended and not as a paperweight?"

Michael rolls his eyes, "Answering the phone might be difficult sometimes, but if you text me, I'll always answer back."

Alex scoffs at that. 

If Michael doesn't answer the phone immediately, he can be counted on to call back anywhere between five to nine business days, if he doesn't by then, he'll never do it. And texting is definitely out of the question when it takes him ten whole minutes to type out a single sentence. Alex has seen it happen, and has seen the frustration on Michael's face.

"It's a phone better suited for texting," Michael says, grinning when Alex's eyes dart up to his surprise. "Izzy came with me when I got it."

Alex shakes his head, but he reaches out for the piece of paper anyway.

Michael's smile gets a little wider, "So, call me or text me, whenever you want. And maybe, we can be friends?"

Alex gives him a look at that.

"To start with," he continued, smile turning sly. "And eventually, I'll ask you to either renew our vows one more time, or to marry me again."

Alex stutters out a disbelieving laugh, feeling warmth flicker in his chest in spite of himself. "Oh is that how it's going to be?"

"Yeah," Michael says, easily. "And when that happens, I'm never giving you the chance to file for divorce again, so you should probably do it while you still have the chance.

"But while we're still here," he continues, moving in too close, too fast and pressing a kiss to Alex's cheek. "Happy Anniversary, Mr. Guerin."

Alex gasps, heart thundering in his throat, as Michael leans away and smiles at him.

And because he absolutely needs to have the last word always, he rocks backwards and away, "See you later, Private."

He waves as he goes, smiling all the way, entirely too sweet. He walks down the hall and out the front door, humming a familiar melody that sends Alex's heart tripping all over itself.

Alex barely resists the urge to follow him out and press him down against the side of his truck.

Alex would like to bristle at the implication that no matter what he decides to do he's gonna end up married to Michael, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't feel happy about the thought.

Alex shakes his head and glances at the bottle of bourbon.

The alarm for the washing machine goes off, signaling that it's done.

Alex takes it as a sign that he's not supposed to drink any more, and sets about to clean up the kitchen, washing the glasses and putting the bourbon away.

March 2020

Forrest really likes Alex. 

If he didn't, he wouldn't have waited almost a full year for him to return back to Roswell so they could actually give this dating thing a try. 

Forrest is not naive, and he hadn't wanted to start something with Alex when he was just coming to terms with being more open with his sexuality. Not to mention the fact, still very obviously getting over his previous relationship. So he'd told Alex that they'd talk when he got back, and had kept communication open the entire year. And he'd felt like they had gotten closer, and that Alex was ready to actually be in a relationship with him.

That was until he realized how stuck to his phone Alex still was. How it seemed like he was keeping secrets. Secrets that involve Michael, who Forrest has been reliably informed by multiple sources, is the first love of Alex's life.

It's not that Forrest actually has a problem with Michael or Michael and Alex being friends. His only issue is all of the secrecy. Everything he's learned about Alex's past relationship with Michael has been by accident.

And sometimes he wished that Alex was more open about it.

He followed Alex home after their date, that wasn't a date since Alex spent half of it frowning at his phone like it had personally offended him and the other half playfully bantering with Isobel and teasing Kyle when they'd dragged their table over after they'd gotten sat down.

Forrest wasn't mad at the impromptu company for dinner. But there was an important conversation he had wanted to have with Alex, something that really couldn't wait since he was leaving tomorrow and had yet to pack anything. Which was the main reason he'd followed Alex home.

Alex gets out of his car, and inclines his head towards the house. Forrest almost scrambles out of his car going after him.

Alex stops before opening the front door, picking up a package from where it was on top of a stool that was just to the left of the front door.

Alex doesn't say much, asking him if he wants something to drink as he lets them both into the house, which Forrest accepts since it means that Alex doesn't expect him to leave.

At least that's what he thinks until Alex pulls out a glass jug filled halfway with lemon and cucumber slices floating in water.

Forrest stares in silence as Alex fills two glasses, and then sighs as he sets the jug down and pulls his phone out of his pocket. 

"We need to talk," Forrest blurts out.

Alex takes a moment to look away from his phone, brow furrowed, before he seems to understand what Forrest said.

His face clears and he sets his phone down. Forrest's eyes drop to it, and he sees the dark screen light up with a new message, the notification totalling to 8 new messages.

Forrest's eyes darted away from the screen and to the package that was resting on the counter. The box looked old, and it was tapped together haphazardly, and instead of a shipping label, there were letters and numbers scrawled on the side: cat:mg:work22.

He looks back to Alex who is once again frowning at his phone.

"Have you thought about what I told you?"

Alex looks away from his phone and frowns at Forrest instead, finally giving him an emotion other than pleasantly passive.

"Which part are you talking about?" Alex asks, like he's confused.

Forrest thinks back to this moment as the moment that he actually realized that he and Alex weren't going to last much longer. But he also thinks that the signs were there from the very beginning.

"It's only one thing, Alex," he replies, putting a hand on the counter and leaning closer. 

Alex just looks at him like he's still confused about what Forrest is trying to say. 

His phone rings then, and Forrest barely sees the blurry contact picture as Alex snatches the phone up. But he'd recognize that cowboy hat anywhere. 

Alex doesn't answer the call immediately, even though it's obvious that's what he wants to do.

"Can you just give me a second?"

Forrest usually would, but he's leaving tomorrow, and Alex seems less than concerned.

"Don't you think answering your boyfriend's question is more important than answering a random phone call?"

Alex's face shuts down in a way that catches Forrest by surprise.

"Okay," he says nodding once, holding his phone tightly in his hands. 

"First of all, you know enough to know that any random phone call could be an emergency."

And really, Forrest should've stopped him there and apologized or something, but Alex just kept talking before he could think of anything else to say.

"Second of all," Alex continued, holding up two fingers. "We're not boyfriends, we went on a couple of dates. Boyfriends is something that we'd have to talk about and what would be the point of doing that when you're leaving tomorrow."

The pointed barb paired with that pointed look is what finally makes Forrest speak.

"So, I guess that's your decision then," he says, feeling upset, but not as much as he'd thought he'd be. "You're not coming with me."

Alex's face cracks a little, and he gives Forrest a complicated look, "I'm letting Deep Sky recruit me."

The words were both surprising and not.

"I'm sorry," Alex says before Forrest can process what he's saying. "But I really have to take this call."

He's making a hasty exit out of his kitchen before Forrest can stop him.

"Is this a life or death situation?" Alex asks as he answers the call, and Forrest doesn't hear a door opening or closing, so he doesn't feel guilty about leaning against the island counter and listening to the conversation.

"I'm listening," he says, and Forrest can see him, leaning back against his closed door, face tilted, eyes closed.

Forrest turns back into the kitchen, eyes darting around everywhere looking for a distraction, and he finds another box sat upon another stool that matches the one that was by the front door. This one was labeled cat:ag:pers33.

Resting on top was an unlabeled folder with several sheets of paper poking out of the top.

He's debating whether or not to go snooping, when Alex laughs, at whatever whoever is on the other side of this, important could-be-an-emergency phone call was saying.

He finds himself opening the folder before he can tell himself that it's a bad idea.

And if he'd thought things between them were over, this was definitely the final nail in the coffin.

It takes him a second to realize what exactly he's reading, even though the words, Dissolution of Marriage don't leave much to interpretation.

Forrest stares at the name Alexander Guerin for so long that he startles when he hears Alex speaking from behind him.

"Sorry about that, what were we talking about?"

Forrest barely hears what he's actually saying, "You were married to Michael?"

"Still married," Alex corrects absently. And it's the casual way that he says the words that has Forrest whipping around to face him.

Alex isn't even looking at him. He's staring at his phone reading a message that was probably from Michael after spending the entire evening being distracted by messages, probably from Michael, who was also probably the same person who he just finished talking to on the phone.

Michael. Who is apparently Alex's husband.

"Still married?" Forrest repeats, and Alex looks up then.

His eyes drop to the folder still in Forrest's hands and an exasperated look comes over his face.

"Have you ever heard of the word privacy?"

"Have you ever heard of not answering a question with a question?" Forrest parries back, almost desperately.

Alex rolls his eyes and stuffs his phone in his pocket.

"Yes," Alex says. "I am married to Michael. Technically separated. But it doesn't matter."

"You think it doesn't matter that you're married while dating someone else?" Forrest asks, feeling not for the first time that he has no idea who Alex really is.

"Yes," Alex says like it should be obvious, walking forward and holding his hands out for the folder.

Forrest doesn't want to give them to him, but he also doesn't want to keep holding them.

He passes the folder over while Alex keeps speaking.

"If our relationship had become more serious I would've said something, but there's no point now."

He stands at attention, folder closed and set aside, and Forrest didn't even realize just how open Alex's body language had been towards him, until this very moment, when he saw how closed off he was.

"Because you're not coming with me," Forrest says, just to get a direct clarification.

Alex just inclines his head without speaking.

"Because of your husband?" Forrest questions, needing to be sure.

Alex sighs, "Yes, but not in the way that you're thinking. And not in any way that I have to justify to you. Not anymore."

Forrest shakes his head, feeling both wrong footed and like he should've seen this coming a mile away.

"So that's it then," he says, trying not to sound as hurt as he feels and most likely failing by the look on Alex's face. "We're done."

"I am sorry," Alex says, sounding sincere. "I really wanted this to work."

"Did you really?" Forrest finds himself asking before he can stop himself. "Or were you just stringing me along until your husband decides to take you back?"

Alex scoffs at that, lifting an eyebrow and shaking his head, "That's not fair."

"Isn't it?" Forrest demands taking a step towards Alex. "You string me along for a year, and then once you're finally home, and we can start making things work, you're too distracted by your phone to pay attention. And I really don't have to guess to know that it's your husband on the other end."

"Stop calling him that," Alex snaps. "Michael and I don't have a conventional relationship. We've never even really lived together. Our marriage is on paper only. For reasons that once again, aren't any of your concern.

"And it doesn't matter anyway," he continues. "Even if you hadn't found the papers, this would've still been over. Because you're leaving, and I'm staying."

Forrest scoffs, "And is that the same sentiment you gave Michael when you left when you were eighteen?"

He knows it's a mistake even before he says the words, and instead of provoking Alex, all it does is make him shut down entirely.

"Okay, I think you should leave," he says, moving so that he's not standing in Forrest's way, but also not turning his back to him.

Forrest wants to stay and he wants to fight. He wants to beg Alex to give him an actual chance. But Alex doesn't look back at him, and he knows that whatever small chance he had at making this work died long before tonight.

He exhales harshly, "Goodbye Alex. I hope you have a great life."

He walks away before he can say anything else, and the sound of deafening silence follows him out of the house.

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #20

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 2, The Clue, crossing street with Aziraphale

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are shorter. They actually became shorter as Crowley started his exit through the pub's special threshold instead of after passing the door frame. He was in the lane with the post and the panel instead of the lane with the post and the wall.

The street is reading Crowley as being in a human space.

I'm stopping this scene at before the cut that actually shows a view from inside the bookshop as he starts to cross threshold because of things that happen in that cut.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

Crowley's hair is still notably saturated, and finding that streak gets even harder with the daylight in the street. The streak itself is actually more like two streaks that fork out a little from each other.

...

Hairstyle Changes

The hair still swoops upward but not as much and with a stronger tilt to the right, allowing tendrils to settle downward from where the hair separate itself at the top. I like it. It is one of my more preferred styles.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

I'm surprised neither of them are required to touch an earthly object for this sequence. It doesn't look set up to be as deceptive as the tutorial from when Crowley stormed out in episode 1.

Possibly related is that Crowley talks while in that bigger threshold, and they just carry the conversation across the street to the other threshold of another building.

The singing could be what would count as an earthly object touch since speaking in a foreign language is shown to count in episode 5.

There is a question about the song and Gabriel's name used in conversation.

Aziraphale does some self-touches, which is why I've said the rules for supernatural beings and self-touches are confusing.

For paying attention to the pockets, a human pocket user can be found in the threshold as Aziraphale and Crowley exit.

Closer to the bookshop, more potential human pocket users can be found on the sidewalk, pocketed between Aziraphale and Crowley, when they are closer to the bookshop.

Regarding the Tied Hands..

The tie strands make a swing to Crowley's right, past the edge of the lapel at first. As they swing toward the middle, there is a potential strike on the lapel edge, but it's debatable compared to another strike in the next scene. Since he's not making a pocket with his body here and is in the other strike, I suspect the next one is the actual strike I should be looking for.

The tie strands keep swinging to his left.

They swing to the right yet again, this time twisting themselves to cross each other over the right lapel itself. The clasps are understood to twist over each other too. The tie strands swing to the left, untwisting in the middle between the lapels, then one strand is mainly over the other by the time they reach the left lapel.

The tie strands are pushed forward, more clear off the apparel area, to twist the clasps to cross each other yet again. With that done, they end up twisted and on the right lapel again.

These actions are presumably part of their retying process or stalling for it to happen soon.

The main word play that comes to mind is "twists and turns" since Aziraphale turns at least once during the walk and yet again by the time the twisting is done. A couple of humans nearby also make a turn. Aziraphale will turn again in the next cut.

Aziraphale's self-touches include self-made pockets with his hands.

...

Story Commentary

Aziraphale is using a lot of hand gestures. It might be a deeper code between the two of them even if it doesn't look like Crowley is following along and looking for some of it.

Both of their reflections can be found on the window panes to the pub and the bookshop, if one takes the time to look.

The Bentley can be partially found behind Crowley during this scene, starting from when he says, "What?" A car is obscuring it at first.. When Crowley answers no, he hasn't heard the song, the car is a little blurry but otherwise more clearly understood to be behind him.

The car is quite important in the story, as well as what will happen near the end of this episode where it is parked.

...

I finally found the red on the jacket for the back of the collar for this scene:

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #19 (crossing the street from the pub to the bookshop )

The numbering no longer matches because I went ahead and covered the first minisode scene with Crowley this time around. I'm finally caught up to where I left off before I put this project mostly on hold to study Earthly Objects!

I expect further posts will take longer from this point onward.

[daydreaming-en-pointe]

birthday bomb bash!

a birthday gift for @hobiebrownismygod 💝 💗💗

Pairing: Maitreyi Jokhar (spidersona [not mine]) x Hobie Brown (romantic), Maitreyi Jokhar x Nikita Raina (spidersona [mine]) and the rest of the spider-gang (Pavitr + Gayatri, 1610!Miles, 42!Miles, Gwen, Margo) (platonic)

Type: Oneshot - Fluff

Word count: 1.4k

Warnings: translated Telugu, one cuss, less dialogue more description, mentions of eating & food, if you’re allergic to birthdays and mild chaos then this is not for you, and I didn’t even attempt Hobie’s accent this time lol

A/N: HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY ONCE AGAIN POOKS 😁 also let’s assume that Nikita and Maitreyi can understand each other when they talk in their own languages though Niki speaks Hindi and Maitreyi speaks Telugu <3

“Pavitr, stop giggling! You are a plant. Plants do not giggle.”

An unaware onlooker might have observed the scene — Nikita and Gwen struggling with neon banners and brightly-coloured streamers, Hobie trying his best to lay the table without dropping the cutlery piled up in his arms, Gayatri cursing loudly in the kitchen every time she spilled hot oil or got the recipe wrong, Miles using some sugary edible spray-paint to graffiti the cheesecake while the other Miles watched critically, and Pavitr posing as a plant with leaves in his hair and modelling Margo’s holographic wreath-like projections while she tapped away at her computer — and chalked it up to a regular day in a mental asylum.

But today was not a regular day, far from it. And they all didn’t belong in a mental asylum. Probably.

How do you tell someone you appreciate them for looking out for the entire group time after time? And yeah, she had done that, faithfully and patiently.

From small things like tucking someone into bed and helping them when they’re sick to larger instances like fighting to protect them and training with them to improve their skills so that they didn’t fall victim to a persistant villain.

Maitreyi Jokhar was no ordinary human being - though in a way, none of them were - and so she deserved a completely extraordinary birthday surprise.

The only problem? None of them knew how to plan a surprise birthday party.

Pavitr had called to wish her and almost spilled everything right then and there, only stopped by Gayatri clapping a hand over his mouth. Hobie had insisted on making his girlfriend’s favourite foods himself before realizing he had no idea how to cook Indian food (though Gayatri’s totally unintentional trash-talking might have played a role in that). Gwen tripped over the same damn low-hanging banner three times in a row somehow, and both Miles and Miles got into an argument about who should decorate the cake (Miles won).

Nikita had put herself in charge of wrapping the presents after a small mishap — turns out, none of them could be trusted with a sheet of wrapping paper and a roll of tape, because when she got back into the room she saw Pavitr and Hobie sheepishly standing next to 4 suspiciously people-shaped wrapped ‘statues’.

Gayatri bellowed another loud Hindi curse and Pavitr audibly gasped while Nikita covered her eyes. “What does that mea-” Hobie eagerly started, but Nikita cut him off with a glare. “Hobie, focus. If you break my plates I’ll break your knees.”

He turned his attention back to arranging the plates and spoons with a little bit of added caution.

Margo let out a loud whoop of satisfaction as she finally worked out the bugs in her code. She hit a button on her keyboard and strings of lights flickered around Pavitr, the little shining orbs slowly changing into little versions of them. And in the centre, mini-hologram-Maitreyi wore a neon purple crown and a bright yellow banner slung across her torso that read ‘BD@Y B!TCH’ in big block letters.

Nikita pinched the bridge of her nose to hold back a comment about the… interesting title. “Pavi! Ao aur meri madad karo please.” (Come and help me)

Since his amateur modelling job was done, he walked over and sat down cross-legged on the ground next to Niki. They both surveyed the gifts - a customisation chip that could be inserted into her wristwatch from Margo, who insisted that Maitreyi’s watch needed to look ‘classy’ and not boring, a new pair of gloves from Gwen, a set of knives varying in size from Gayatri and Pavitr, and a customised (spray-painted) suit from both Miles’.

Nikita and Hobie had schemed together for well over a month to figure out what to get Maitreyi. Of course, since they had basically inducted themselves into her found family - Hobie as her boyfriend and Nikita as somewhere in between her sister and the family pet - they wanted to make sure she would absolutely love their gifts.

So Nikita had decided on a more sentimental gift. She worked for a whole month, filling the biggest, thickest scrapbook she could find with photos of all the spider-teens (and more than just a few embarrassing texts Maitreyi had sent her in the first stages of her massive Hobie-crush) and little colourful annotations - poems, notes, references, and other random stuff.

On every photo of her, Maitreyi and Pavitr, she signed the words ‘the 3 idiots’ in the bottom corner - a reference to the movie she had convinced both of them to watch. There were more than half the pages left blank, ready to be filled in with more memories. She wrapped it up in purple wrapping paper and tied a (slightly messy) green ribbon into a bow to secure it.

Hobie had gone all out and bought Maitreyi all the clothes that she so much as looked at when they were walking along together, both in his universe and hers (and Nikita’s, on the times when she was third-wheeling with them).

“Hobie? Niki… Pavi? Where is everybody?”

Everyone’s eyes snapped towards voice that called out from behind the closed front door.

Fuck, Nikita thought, frantically glancing everywhere. Everything had been done properly — the banners were finally in place, the table had been laid with the food Gayatri had made, and the gifts had been wrapped, but they hadn’t thought far enough ahead to get to the actual reveal yet.

Everyone dived behind various objects in unison as a key turned in the lock and clicked open.

“Pavitr, ow,” Nikita hissed as he promptly sat on her toes. She moved slowly, using her stealth to sneak up on her best friend before leaping and covering her eyes from behind.

“Surprise! Happy birthd- MAITREYI! IT’S JUST ME!”

Maitreyi had spun around as she felt Niki’s hands on her eyes, grabbing her and almost swinging her into a wall before she recognised her.

“Niki? What-”

“Oh, that’s our cue,” came Hobie’s voice from behind a large potted plant. He and the others all leaped out and yelled, “Happy birthday!”

“Happy birthday, Maitreyi.” Nikita lunged forward and crushed her in a hug, drawing back to kiss her cheek affectionately. “We organised a whole surprise party for you! And got pani puri!”

“‘Ey, quit hogging her,” Hobie grinned, coming up to both of them. “Happy birthday, dove.”

“You know she loves me more than you, right?”

“Bollocks.” (for those of you who’ve never heard this word before, it’s another word for bullshit)

“But she does! Right, Maitreyi?”

They both turned expectantly to her, and she raised her eyebrows. “Nope, not getting involved in this one. Hi, Hobie.”

The lovestruck tone of her last two words made him shoot a smug smirk at Nikita as he stepped forward and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug, planting a kiss on her forehead before making a show of having to bend down — so very much, since she was so very short — to kiss her lips.

“Worth a shot,” Nikita chuckled, pushing Maitreyi toward the table. “Look! Pani puri! And pav bhaji!”

Maitreyi’s eyes widened at the crisp mini-puris, the large containers of tamarind chutney and jaljeera pani, the neatly laid-out pav bhaji, and the large glass bottles of goli soda.

“We’re all going to have horrible stomachaches by the end of this but it’ll be so worth it.”

She turned and gave Nikita a large hug, affectionately ruffling her hair, which looked a little funny since she had to reach up a quite a bit to get to Niki’s head. “Thank you so much for all of this, I love everything and I love you for putting this all together.”

Nikita grinned at her. “Of course. And I love you too.”

“Anything for you, darlin’,” She added in an exaggeratedly suave tone, giving her a badly-executed wink.

“Stop trying to platonically rizz up your best friend in front of her boyfriend and come eat,” Pavitr interrupted, standing beside the pani puri and impatiently raising his eyebrows at all three of them. “I’m hungry. Being a plant model - which I absolutely crushed, by the way - isn’t easy, you know!”

“10 bucks that Gwen or Hobie are going to lose their shit when they try the food and realise how spicy it’ll be,” Margo murmured to Miles, who smirked slightly. “Deal. Which one?”

“Well, how about both?”

Nikita and Maitreyi shared a look and both burst into giggles.

“Meeru food order chesaaraa?” (Did you order the food?)

“Nahin. Gayatri ki sab banaiya.” (No, Gayatri made all of it)

“Appadu chaalaa kaarangaa untundi!” (Then it’ll be very spicy)

“Haan. Jab ve khaayenge to aashcharyachakit ho jaayenge!” (Yeah, they’ll be very surprised/get a nasty shock when they eat)

“Manam chaalaa cheddavaallam, kaadaa?” (We’re pretty evil, aren’t we?)

They both cackled deviously, and Nikita threw an arm around Maitreyi.

“Chalo, let’s get this party started!”

@l0starl @therealloopylupin2099

[an-act-of-will]

Random tidbits of advice no one's asked for about writing but I've learned over the years

In no particular order:

Don't worry if your first draft is messy. That's what editing is for.

You won't learn anything from nitpicking the same story for years. End it and then edit.

Between edits, take a break of a specified time so the work can breathe. I do one to two months. You might need only a week or three days.

Don't be afraid to experiment, in your writing or routine. Stepping out of your comfort zone is the way to grow.

Don't worry if you can't pinpoint a precise 'routine.' I don't have one and I've written for almost a decade.

Let your characters speak, but don't let them monologue. You will need to play God to wrangle them into place. If you can't get them to behave, you might need to make a new character.

Don't delete anything permanently. If you really like a scene/chapter/character/whatever else, but it doesn't work in this story, put it in a separate document for future inspiration. You'll be surprised when you can re-use it with some tweaking.

Number your drafts. Please. Just do it.

Back up your work.

Back it up again.

Save your work before you close the program if it doesn't do it automatically. If it does, save anyway, then refer to previous two pieces of advice.

Don't be afraid to try silly writing 'hacks'- the 'writing in comic sans' one works well for me.

Get someone else to read your work and see where it needs some love. Prepare specific questions for them so they know what you want from them.

If you've been stuck for quite a while, the problem is in your last sentence. Don't delete it- I put it in brackets and move on as if it doesn't exist. You can also turn the text white on a computer, or cover it in a dark highlight color on the computer, or cover it with your hand if you're writing longhand.

If you write longhand, I salute you.

If you think the problem is in the last sentence, it might be the last scene. Do the bracket trick and move along.

Momentum is key. Don't stop to research when paper clips were invented (1867, for those wondering, by a gentleman named Samuel B. Fay. They were originally used to attach tickets to fabric.). If you know you need to research something later, put the item to be researched in brackets. Something like [CHECK DATE OF INVENTION OF PAPER CLIP]

Don't feel bad if you can't think of a specific or common word. I've forgotten the word 'lunch.' It happens. Put the approximate definition in brackets like [WORD FOR MIDDAY MEAL] (As you've noticed, I use a lot of brackets).

When it's time for editing, read through it first and take notes either on the manuscript or in the document. I color code mine, then include a key because I'm forgetful. For example, green is often a continuity error, red is something that can be cut, blue is where a scene can be added. I use changing the color of the text, highlights, and adding notes in my writing document.

Don't shell out money for expensive writing tools if you're not sure if you'll use it. Free word processors and office supply store notebooks are fine.

If you're well and truly stuck, move to the physical world and write longhand, even if you write digitally the other 99.99% of the time. I've found that it almost 'unlocks' parts of my brain that are understimulated.

If you do take the physical world approach, school notebooks and index cards are your friend. The notebooks are great for rambling and figuring things out, and index cards are amazing for writing short descriptions of scenes and physically moving them to see where they fit best.

If those don't work, you can always try the rubber duck technique I've heard coders use- use a rubber duck (or a stuffed animal, or a picture, or anything else) and talk your problem out. You'll probably see the solution once you articulate it. I use a wolf stuffed animal and record on my phone. You'll feel ridiculous, but it works.

Don't be afraid to feel ridiculous. It's a hobby that takes you down rabbit holes.

When I'm done with a chapter, I often use my text-to-speech function on my computer and listen to my story. It helps me catch typos that are other words. For example, 'bed' typed as 'bet' instead.

Your word processor isn't perfect. It will miss mistakes, and it might make new ones. To, too, and two and your and you're can be tricky for them.

Research your made-up names thoroughly to make sure they don't exist as other things.

If you have an idea unrelated to your current session, make note of it. You will forget it and you know you will.

Don't forget to take care of yourself- drink water, eat, and take breaks even if you're worried you'll break your groove. The words will still be there when you get back.

[eldritch-nightmare]

You don't have to answer this, but I was curious.. What are some of your general headcanons for the creeps? Nothing romantic or anything like that, just headcanons you have for the creeps.

ah. i have... so many, to be honest with you. but i can share a few!! these are just my own personal headcanons that sometimes influence how i write certain characters so! here you go. gotta put it under a cut bc idk how long this'll be and also i needed to include a photo bc i am terrible at describing things. ignore the numerous liu headcanons i'm so normal about him, i promise.

the mansion itself is a living being in my mind. it's an entity that exists, that just one day appeared within the forest slenderman resides in. think... monster house and the house from encanto. it's a living being, it has its own thoughts and it can only convey those thoughts to a very small handful of people.

continuing on, the mansion isn't a place where people live, the only people who can stay there permanently are ben and sally, as well as any animal such as smile dog and grinny cat. everyone else uses the mansion more as a safe house more than anything else.

it/its slender.

jeff has a pretty bad fear of fire, though he does a very good job at hiding it.

jeff, ben, and eyeless jack are a found family in my mind. they all deeply care for each other and would burn the world to ash to keep each other safe.

liu, sully, helen, and nurse ann are also a tightly-knit group of friends. i can't explain why, they just are.

liu and jeff know morse code. they learned it before everything happened so they could communicate with each other without the people in their community knowing what they're talking about. they still use it from time to time, though it's a lot less friendly

bouncing off the last one, jeff taught eyeless jack and ben morse code.

and liu also taught nurse ann morse code so she can communicate with him without forcing herself to speak.

liu has nightmares at least once a month.

liu is an arsonist. burned his home down elric brothers style. he carries a lighter with him everywhere and finds fire to be very captivating.

liu uses a gun as his go-to weapon. it puts a distance between him and anyone he needs to harm; it keeps the blood off of his hands in a physical sense. he doesn't kill if he doesn't have to, and most of the lives he's taken have been in self-defense. 

meanwhile, sully uses a knife. likes getting up close and personal when he's about to cause someone harm. he's the one who does the killing. he kills people willfully. the blood will always be on his hands.

sully thinks cannibalism is Very romantic and honestly wouldn't mind partaking in it but liu thinks cannibalism is a big no no, so alas. no cannibalism for him.

sully is a hatsune miku fan.

okay i'm not really sure how to explain this one but. i imagine eyeless jack can only see like... white outlines. you know the uh. black paper scenes from omori.

like this. this is how i imagine jack sees things.

nina and jeff have a love-hate relationship. one moment, they get along pretty well and the next, they're at each other's throats.

liu has basically adopted sally as his little sister.

sally has a diary full of her first impressions, current impressions, and tea party experiences of each and every creepypasta that has visited the mansion.

not really a headcanon but slender does Not like children. it took it months to warm up to sally and ben, and it took it even longer to become a parental figure to sally.

slender and zalgo are besties. idc what anyone says, in my mind, they meet up once a month and discuss random things while sally and lazari play together.

liu will never forgive jeff. i could go on and on about how liu hates jeff and how jeff just wants to be a family again and how that will never be able to happen but that's not the purpose of this so i shall withhold myself.

the jeff, nina, jane, liu dynamic. let's discuss it. jeff and nina are frenemies. jane despises jeff. nina doesn't really like jane but doesn't hate her. jane ignores nina's existence more often than not. liu doesn't hate nina or jane, but he doesn't interact with them. jane hates liu. nina doesn't like liu too much, but she respects him. liu hates jeff. jeff wants to be liu's brother again. sully isn't fond of any of them other than liu.

helen has a fear of the dark but is hesitant to admit it.

eyeless jack can eat cooked meat without throwing it up but it genuinely tastes absolutely disgusting to him and it does make him feel nauseous afterward eating it.

sully shows little to no interest in things, so when something catches his interest, it catches his interest.

jason, vine, and the puppeteer meet up every few weeks to have a little doll-making club.

helen is very very very interested in the horror genre and has seen many many horror movies. it's one of the best ways to strike up a conversation with him.

okay uh i think that's all that's coming to mind for now! so. yeah.

[poseidons-lovechild]

i just started to re-watch criminal minds.

my highlights of season 1 (spoiler warning ig)

aaron hotchner is so daddy

reid is so baby

gideon is so unhinged and crazy - and a dad

derek is just sooo cocky and it's so funny how he wears a suit in the first few episodes

the cuts and edits in s1 are peak cinema

elle my darling <3

god i missed the title music

why is gideon always talking to someone, then gets an idea and runs the other way w/o another word lol

"ocd? i'm thinking more like omg." hahhahahahah

reid and gideon playing chess aaaaah

the mandarine scene in ep5 lives in my mind rent free, so dad coded

how is it that i'm surprised everytime again when gideon starts yelling for help in ep7

hotch almost gets strangled and gideon looseness his tie and says "take your tie off for once in your life, huh?" dad energy.

gideon yelling at rats? lol

elle calling gideon dad!!!

"what kind of doctor are you?" harsh

"billie is running out of time, guys." "so are the parents." "oh, come on. a little hope, huh? we'll make it. we'll make it." i'm repeating myself: DAD ENERGY.

aaron hotchner in his vest? ouff. i'm sweating. and elle? oh lord.

"divorce is not uncommon in the bau." is that right, aaron?

"just so you know, you sound like a fortune cookie." whoever said hotch doesn't have humor was blind.

love sassy hotch so much i'd fuck him senseless

"do i look twelve years old to you?" "fourteen." lol

"if i wasn't a lesbian i'd jump your bones. i've always had this thing for middle-aged men." relatable af

reid just called morgan a whore??

haley called gideon hotch's wife? i didn't remember that. also so passive-aggressive: if she's pissed by his job, she should just say so.

also hotch with baby on his arm? lord have merthy

elle speaking spanish: so hot

gideon imitating a russian accent: dad energy (i sound like a broken record)

i am convinced that david rossi taught gideon how to cook

i'll never understand why fisher king I is in s1 and fisher king II is in s2

i love that aaron is cleaning the blood of elle's walls

like always: stay away from white males in their early 20s to early 40s, don't go outside and keep your windows and doors locked.

[princeescaluswords]

What do you think are Gerard’s favorite lines of Shakespeare and why?

Selecting one line took me a long time, to be quite honest, but I finally settled on these from MacBeth, Act V, Scene V:

I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been my sense would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in't; I have supp'd full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me.

In the play, MacBeth is waiting for his enemies to attack when he hears screaming from inside the castle. He explains to the audience that he's become so accustomed to doing terrible things that he is no longer easily frightened. The irony, of course, is that the outcry is due to his beloved wife, Lady MacBeth, having killed herself out of guilt for the murder they performed together. The irony of these lines would work for Gerard Argent just as well.

It might seem strange, but Gerard and MacBeth have an especially important thing in common: they often claim that their murderous actions are impelled by outside forces.  In MacBeth’s case, the Scottish lord betrays his king and his dearest friend, even though he knows these actions are wrong, because he can point to the ironic prophecies of the Three Witches.

Gerard doesn’t have anyone supernatural oracles to blame his actions on.  Instead, he insists that the Argents are at war with the supernatural. Whereas the Code argues that the Argents should only hunt in response to violence ("We hunt those who hunt us"), as embodied by Chris's interpretation, Gerard steadfastly rejects that position. He announces in Omega (2x01) that he's going after every one of them because they killed Kate, despite knowing that isn't his real motivation or that Kate struck first. After sharing the parable of the Scorpion and the Frog, he declares he "know[s] a werewolf's nature" in Visionary (3x08). He declaims on La Bête's murderous tendencies in Damnatio Memoriae (5x12) as if it were an exemplar of a werewolf rather than just another serial killer.

Derek, in a way, is wrong. Gerard isn't declaring war at the beginning of Season 2, because he acts as if he's always been at war. You can see him calculating the use of cutting down the Nemeton (though we don't know for sure he did it); he orders Kate to destroy the Hales, innocent children included. He speaks in strategies and military terms. He quotes Sun Tzu as often as he does Shakespeare. His argument is clear that war not only justifies his family doing terrible things but demands it. "When it comes to survival," he announces in Master Plan (2x12), "I'd kill my own son." He argues that Allison, too, must ready herself to do terrible things because "She'll feel the ground shifting beneath her feet time and again in her life. It is our job to teach her how to keep standing" in Party Guessed (2x09). His first mission for his 18-year-old son is selling weapons to a criminal organization without telling him in Silverfinger (3x17).

One of the keys to note is that, also like MacBeth, Gerard doesn't regret this, not in the way that say Chris and Victoria do like when they wanted Allison to have a choice. In fact, he takes pride in the strength of his will, as the Scottish king has forgotten fear. He gloats when he thinks he has Scott on the ropes about his ability to get things done in Battlefield (2x11), "and if you haven't noticed, I have a very impressive means to motivate people." Even when defeated, he remains confident, as he boasts to Allison and Scott, "I don't go easily, though, do I?" He's proud of his actions as he shares with Liam in The Sword and The Spirit (5x14) "they would call me a necessary evil, but you can call me Gerard." He wants to transform his wicked violence into a legacy through the lens of war and necessity; his entire story in 6B is Gerard trying to reframe his terrible deeds as a legacy. Even when he's making a deal with a demon, the Anuk-Ite in Genotype (6x18), he's triumphant: "The legend is, is that you need silver to kill a werewolf. The truth? You need an Argent."

While both MacBeth and Gerard try to position themselves as not as other men, their ends are the same. They are not kings or generals; they're monsters. "Turn, hellhound, turn!" MacDuff cries to MacBeth at the beginning of the decisive battle, and Chris Argent condemns his own father; "If you're looking for rationality, I think he left that behind a long time ago." These men have talked themselves into evil, and they pay the price for it. They both pay the price for it as well. MacBeth, motivated by prophecy to do wicked deeds, doesn't think that prophecy can be against him, but it is, for Birnam Wood does come to Dunsinane. While Gerard, who always saw the interaction of supernatural and human as a war regardless of the individual participants, is destroyed by someone he refused to see as his own daughter.

The final irony would be that Gerard would quote MacBeth as part of his arrogance and vainglory, because he stands apart from other humans as one who hunts monsters, but like MacBeth, he would fail to see that his own arrogance caused his destruction.

[andrewjosephminyard]

So here’s all my thoughts on the teen wolf movie. This will contain spoilers.

- I’ll start by saying Derek and Eli carried this movie. They were the most interesting dynamic and the characters you feel drawn to the most.

- I do really like Eli, i think he’s pretty funny but he’s very Stiles-coded and I do wonder if that’s partly the reason why so many people like him. He’s definitely there to provide the comedic relief which he did a really good job of.

- The plot holes are prevalent from the start. First of all, why is the nogitsune remains or whatever they are in Japan with Hikari and Liam when at the end of season 3, it’s mentioned that Argent and Isaac are taking them to France and burying them. Also the nogitsune becoming a fox/wolf hybrid makes no sense because we were told in 3b that he can’t be both.

- There’s absolutely no mention of who Eli’s mother is. He’s 15 so he was born around the time Allison died according to their timeline so like who’s the mom? It just doesn’t make sense and it’s so glossed over.

- I don’t care for Scott and Allison’s relationship. I didn’t at the time of the show and I still don’t, they were each others first love, sure, but they weren’t right for each other imo. It just seemed like a whole lotta nonsense just to get them back together again.

- Speaking of relationships, so many of the couples from the show were split up in this movie with absolutely no reason as to why they broke up. Argent and Melissa’s breakup has no explanation, the same with Scott and Malia. We do get an explanation for Stiles and Lydia but its such a fucking dumb one. I don’t know why they spent 6 seasons building that relationship only to break them up because Lydia was having nightmares about Stiles.

- Again on the subject of couples, Malia and Parrish was so left field like it came out of nowhere and for what? Because of the lack of relationship development between them, i ended up not giving a shit about them. The same with Liam and Hikari, we don’t see the connection build between them so why would we care for their relationship? The lack of substance gave us nothing to work with.

- I do like Hikari but she is just used as a plot device. She’s there to dump information on us about certain things and she’s there to aid in helping Scott fake his death by lending him her foxfire (which by the way what the fuck? There’s no explanation of how that’s possible). There’s no personal character development there for her which is a shame because kitsunes and the mythology behind them is so interesting. She had a lot of potential as a character but Jeff clearly forgot to give her a personality.

- Liam is barely in this movie even though he’s a main character. Like it truly felt like a cameo appearance. He has no relevance to the storyline. Even when Scott was supposedly dying, they didn’t even cut to Liam’s reaction once even though he’s Scott’s first bitten beta. Like as a character that’s pretty popular, he deserved more screen time

- Mason and Liam don’t have a single proper interaction even though they’re best friends.

- Lydia and Allison have like maybe two scenes at most together. Which like wtf? They went through so much together and yet they didn’t think it important enough to give them more screen time together.

- They did Derek super dirty. We follow Derek through this journey of trying to connect with Eli and trying to help him transform and the second their ‘conflict’ is resolved, they have Derek die right in front of his son. Also Derek’s eyes turn red right before he burns to a crisp but that doesn’t matter right? bc two seconds later he’s gonna die anyway.

- You could take out the entire nogitsune storyline and the movie would pretty much be the same. Also the mystery hooded figure is so lame I can’t even begin to explain how entirely underwhelming that was.

- Peter is very season 1 peter again for some reason. Jackson is just kinda there, again to try and provide some comedic relief. Should of sacrificed one of these two honestly

- I just feel like they ignored so many of the things that made the show great. The friendships, the comedy, the relationships and let’s be honest, the cheesiness of it all. Characters that we know and love felt super bland to me. All the things that made the characters feel fleshed out and likable was missing.

- lastly and most importantly, they didn’t use the teen wolf theme song for the opening credits. Absolutely criminal.

[kay-elle-cee]

say something about the process of your writing. anything you like

Hi there! Thank you for the ask! :)

I feel like my writing process has actually been top of mind between publishing chapter 3 of restless waves rise and fall and DMs with @alittlebitofeverything23 so hopefully this is coherent!

A lot of times when I have a general idea but I feel like I need to flesh something out more, I'll start typing the beats of the story, add a bullet point beneath that asking questions like "okay but why?" "what does this mean for xyz?" or "then what?" and then start spitballing from there to think of different directions to go in. It's funny because a lot of my rough outlines have all these nested bullet points and then suddenly CAPS LOCKS ENTERS THE CHAT when I get really excited about an idea and it just spirals from there, and I normally get the rest of the outline once I hit caps locks mode.

And speaking of outlines, I've found it so helpful to have a rough outline of whatever I'm writing (specifically for longer pieces like restless waves and saturday night's alright). Whether it's just overarching ideas or lines of a scene or "this needs to happen for plot", it helps when I'm working on something over the course of weeks or months to be able to come back and see what the intentions were, and allows me to skip around if I'm stuck. Also? My outlines change. Sometimes I'll be writing and the scene just takes on a mind of its own and I'll have to cut or rearrange things in my outline and that's ok!

Also for restless waves specifically, I've color-coded my outline for scenes from James' POV and scenes from Lily's POV so I make sure it's roughly even...but that might just me being a little Too Much™️ 😅

Thank you again for the ask!

[watchyourbuck]

No because wait. Give me a minute of your time.

This is so indicative of something. Buck's always saying shit that sounds weird or that people look at him weird for, but the fact that is EDDIE who feels the need to explain is very... interesting. Because Buck clearly isn't uncomfortable being who he is, he is not apologetic about these comments he makes that people don't understand.

It's almost as if Eddie was in charge of Buck, but it definitely isn't as a son, or as someone he takes care of, because is Buck who's usually taking care of him & Chris. So it's not that dynamic.

The more you watch the show and analyze it, the more you realize Buck's always inside his own head. Something's always happening in that little nogging of his (hence, the fact that he couldn't really wait for his leg to heal before trying to go back to work, because he couldn't see the big picture, only the direct info his brain was being fed), while Eddie is grounded.

Eddie is grounded mostly because he has to. The PTSD doesn't allow for a hell lot of daydreaming that don't involve the risk of getting triggered (my aunt has PTSD, so I speak from her own words). So the only possible explanation within canon compliant is that Eddie is Buck's link to the real world.

Buck is always in some cloud, while Eddie is (metaphorically) holding his hand. "He's harmless" he told Marjan, because Buck didn't notice he was being rude while staring.

"That's not how he remembers it" he told Buck himself, trying to make him understand neither Chris or him hated him. He had given everything to save his son.

And then there's the scenes from the gif set. Buck is, once again, saying something related to his current hyperfixation (which is mostly connected to either a recent trauma or the infinite love he has for his chosen family), and Eddie realizes he's the only one who understands what he's saying, and feels the need to connect Buck with the rest of the world. Make people understand just HOW smart he is, because it's a little hard to make his case when the man constantly comments out of place.

(And by the way, the fact that they ALL spend a lot of time together but it's usually ONLY Eddie who knows what Buck is talking about also says a lot).

And that behavior is... not particularly friendship-coded. Yes, it could be, but it isnt necessarily. Eddie could chose not to say anything, laugh with Buck but not explain, or even ask out loud when he himself doesn't know or understand something (the green juice gif or the 'software upgrade' to Buck 3.0).

Yet he says something. Every single time. He watches him shine within his own walls and then translates for the rest of the group, and I can assure you, as a simple viewer... that it is NOT to make himself feel better or to avoid some kind of embarrassment (because we KNOW that the group associates Buck with Eddie - i mean, Bobby's always pairing them off together, and when Eddie went missing underground no one would let Buck go down, 'so we can have two cut off ropes?' said Hen-, so maybe Eddie doesn't want people to think he's the weird one, but NO).

It's because he loves him. He loves him, he understands him. It is not pity or shame or embarrassment, or annoyance. It's love.

And the love I think it is isn't friendship.

#married behavior

[narrative-inn]

Chapter 7: THE HIEROPHANT

The last two contestants, Yellow and Green, come rushing up the stairs, and seeing the others already ahead, they race to their beacons. Yellow puts down the tablets on the ground, and picks up one of them at random. They put it in the slot and when the screen prompts them for their reasoning, they mumble, “Shit,” and frantically look around at the others, trying to spot what tablets they picked. Green had picked the tablet with the cup, and when prompted gives the reason, “Well, the dagger is for fighting, and both crowns and castles have been fought over, but no one ever fights about cups, right?” The screen changes to read: Accepted.

Meanwhile, Red has gathered up the gemstone pieces as best they can, and is now crushing the pill that can heal any damage. They sprinkle the contents over the broken gemstone, mumbling, “Please work,” as the stone glimmers and melds back together. 

Both Purple and Blue have already placed their gemstones in the heart of their beacon, which closes up. Several circlets and cogs spin around and click into place, and then a beam of purple lights up, closely followed by blue. The next beam to light up is red, followed by green. 

“Dammit,” Yellow sighs defeatedly, unable to give an accepted reason. 

“That’s the end of the first trial!” Crimson’s voice echoes out. “Congratulations to our winner, Purple. We’ll see you in the studio in a bit.”

The camera zooms out from the snowy tower scene, and changes to show the host desk once again. 

“Now,” Ozeron fills in, “normally we would conduct an interview with the winner, but seeing as their identity will stay secret until after the last trial, that won’t happen this year. Instead, after each trial we’ll do a run down of the events, along with some speculations from our parts. Meanwhile the contestants will remain in the simulation, taking off their helmets and thus secret identities in isolation. We’ll check on them later as they get to their living quarters.”

“Let’s dive right in,” Crimson says with an excited tone. “First highlight is whether or not they chose to help an injured person. We saw a few who did, and a few who didn’t. What would you say is the right thing to do in this instance, Oz?”

“It’s a tough decision, choosing between speed and compassion. To follow your own moral code; winning versus helping someone in need. Of course, as we saw at the end, the contestants that stopped and helped got an extra hint. But that’s not a guarantee, and could prove damning if they now expect a boon if they help someone else in another trial.”

“Why, Oz, we wouldn’t set out to mislead our dear contestants, would we?” Crimson cuts in teasingly. 

Oz chuckles. “We play our cards close, let’s call it that.” He continues, “Next highlight was at the top of the mountain, where two sleds seemed to slip away right in front of Blue and Yellow. Sabotage, or a mistake, what do you think, Crim?”

“I am keen to think it’s sabotage, always. But I have to admit, if that's the case, it was well done. No obvious cuts in the rope, nor anyone seen lingering. But with so much content to show, who knows what was missed. All we know for sure, is that if someone did sabotage the sleds, it would be either Red, Purple, or Green. Perhaps it’s worth keeping an extra eye on those three going forward.”

“Indeed, and we’ll have a chance to see them in action again in a few days during the second trial,” Ozeron says. “We also want to highlight the ingenuity and adaptability that Yellow and Blue showed when faced with the obstacle of their runaway sleds.”

“Absolutely,” Crimson agrees. “That kind of quick thinking is vital in this competition, and can even turn a problem into an opportunity, as seen with Blue who still managed to snag second place!” 

“It’s also a desired quality in a Regent,” Ozeron notes. “And speaking of Regent qualities, our next highlight is the logic skills of our contestants. I believe they all had different reasonings for which tablet was the odd one out, and of course, there’s Yellow who failed to complete the task. What does this say about our contestants, Crim?”

“It’s interesting to see the different answers, some are very clever, whereas others are… let’s say, more creative. It shows we have a diverse mix of contestants, which always proves interesting. And I wouldn’t count Yellow out yet, while logic might not be their strength, other trials might suit them better. After all, we’re looking for each contestant's unique area of excellence.” “Hopefully, our trials are able to showcase each contestant's strengths and weaknesses,” Ozeron says. “But for now, let’s get ready to check on our contestants, right after this break.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

[a-queenoffairys]

Code Lyoko Dialogue Stats

A while ago, I got curious about how much of the dialogue in Code Lyoko is spoken by each of the main characters, and how often some of them might get sidelined compared to others. I decided a quick way to find out would be to write a script to analyse all the fanmade episode transcripts and tally up the line and word count for each character.

So I did just that! And I ended up with a bunch of statistics I find pretty interesting. Image descriptions are in the alt text.

Ranking main characters across the original series

Jeremie was the clear winner when it came to the amount of dialogue everyone has. And it makes sense, given how he's the one who does the most work helping Aelita and trying to find ways to counter XANA, as well as acting as the group's guide on Lyoko, so he's much more likely to be able to get to the factory and help the others deactivate the tower.

Aelita and Yumi scored pretty low especially in the first two seasons, namely because Aelita spent all of season 1 stuck on Lyoko, and Yumi was in a different class to Ulrich, Odd and Jeremie. This meant that both of them had fewer chances to interact with the rest of the cast. Aelita in season 2 is a bit more strange, as she was living on Earth permanently but she just didn't appear in many of the classroom scenes. If there's some sort of explanation for this, I don't know what it is.

It was Odd who had the most lines spoken in a single episode, and that episode was Triple Trouble. So yeah, it's understandable he would have way more dialogue than everyone else in an episode where there are three of him running around.

Dialogue stats per season

Something of note here is how the average word and line count increase quite a bit by season 4. Season 4 is known for audio quirks such as the occasional sped-up voice line and sometimes cutting off syllables or entire words from the characters' sentences. People tend to think this was due to the English dub struggling to match the French lip flaps, but did you know the sped-up dialogue is present in the original French version too? I can't say for certain, but my theory is they did this because season 4's episodes were so densely packed with dialogue, they had trouble fitting it all in.

I think this shows just how big a role secondary and background characters had in season 1 compared to the other seasons. Speaking of which, Jim was the most talkative secondary character in the series, followed by Sissi.

Ranking main characters in Evolution

Once again Jeremie is the clear winner, by a wider margin this time. I have to give his actor credit for doing so many scenes where he was sitting alone in a chair pretending to talk to someone on Lyoko or the phone.

It's nice to see Aelita and Yumi moving up the rankings, but also disappointing that secondary characters have such a small role. Without more prominent secondary characters around to create interpersonal drama, I feel Evolution's writers would often turn to creating drama between the main characters instead, even when it didn't seem like it made sense for them to be upset at each other. Jim and Laura make up the bulk of the secondary character dialogue; all the other characters score very low.

Another thing to note is how low William scored. Even if you don't count the episodes prior to him officially joining the group, there are still a number of episodes where he only has about 4 to 6 lines - low scores not seen since Aelita was materialised at the end of season 1.

This graph is mostly the same as the previous one, but now with Evolution added and William separated from the other secondary characters in seasons 2-4.

Full data

If you click the link below you'll find the full spreadsheet with my methodology and full dialogue breakdowns for every episode, season, main character and top secondary characters, for both Code Lyoko and Evolution. Enjoy!

[rey-jake-therapist]

Yeah I'm fine with that, currently enjoying the ride as we speak 🥰

He's fictional and it's a fantasy show, he can do whatever he wants as long as he looks good doing it. Actually I think he hasn't done enough yet!! I may let him down once he's condemned to be ugly though... guilty as charged 🤣

And see, I wouldn't fall into the mud like Mirdania, it would never be going to happen, because I don't live in a freaking fantasy show. I never ask myself these questions seriously because it's not that serious lol

As I said yesterday in another post related to another role that Charlie played, in The lost flowers of Alice Hart, I'm much more frightened and disgusted by real life villains who can actually harm people and scar them forever through the abuse they put them through, than by the Dork Lord Sauron and his magic powers, who doesn't find his equivalent in the real world and can never hurt anyone.

I mean I know that Sauron uses techniques that are very narcissist coded, and he has behaviors that evoke human behaviors and when I watched his scenes with Celebrimbor, it always gave me the ick because at times he sounded so much like my ex whenever he was "in a mood"... But also he flicked his hands to make a naive girl fall off a wall, made rain fall to look pathetic and shapeshifted from a human form to an alien looking Elf form, so at the end idgaf, yeah. And I'll keep calling him a poor meow meow and enjoy when he looks sad because his pretty Elf ex girlfriend rejects him again, still because it's not real and he didn't, couldn't harm anyone in my world.

Sauron makes me laugh because at the end, he's such a loser. Seeing him put all his domination plan in motion knowing it will all fall into shambles because a little man cut his finger, and an even more little man and a sort of gremlin tossed his favorite toy in a volcano.... I'd almost pity him if it wasn't so fun to watch 😂.

I mean this with so much love and light but Sauron reached through the tv screen and played y’all like a fiddle. Most of y’all would’ve been in the mud next to Mirdania. And weirdly some of you are fine with that??