#answered this on thurs

[shallowseeker]

Anon(s)-adjacent:

I've gotten like 4 The Trap questions yesterday, but basically my "official" stance is this: I now think The Trap was a much more covert comms than I initially thought, which I've discussed chaotically at turns but summed up here. And that is an aspect I really like!

Note: If Cas and Dean didn't have such a long history of covert communication, I wouldn't probably break it down quite so charitably.

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A good example of the covertness imho is Theeee Bel line: Given the amount of time Dean knew Belphegor, it's distinctly odd for Dean to give Belphegor a cutesy nickname in this specific context/conversation. (Unless, of course, it's an dig. Which it is.)

The Bel of it all

I see a few layers in his mentioning Bel in this way. Make no mistake, Dean's making a not-subtle, purposeful dig. This is what specifically triggers the conversation to take a more negative turn. Cas gets growly and bites back in large part because Dean responded to Cas's condolences and initial vulnerability with a weird dig that included "Bel" in place of Jack. (Cas doesn't respond perfectly to grief either, but this? Cas is responding to Dean being weird about "Belphegor.")

But I don't think it's as simple as Dean wanting to respond to Cas's vulnerability with cruelty: so that leaves... right. Jack. (And Rowena.)

Mostly" Jack's death is still too painful for Dean to mention his name, so you get this smokescreen/stand-in in the form of "Bel." I talk about why I think Bel is such a sticking point here. Basically? I personally think it's about the ruination of Jack's body. I think Dean, in part, was open to Bel being in there to preserve Jack's body, both to delay the process of "decay" and hold out hope they could get Jack back somehow.

///

Covert comms are fun tho

But anyway, like I said, one thing I do like about the structure of this little run of eps is the coded messaging. Ex: These great lines in 15x08...

[Castiel sitting at the table as Dean enters and grabs beer from the fridge] DEAN: Maybe you went too far. CASTIEL: Maybe. DEAN: I mean, he's been in lockdown for quite a while, you know? Maybe you just, uh, went too fast. What's he doing now? CASTIEL: No idea. He was very distraught. DEAN: Yeah, but what exactly did he say? CASTIEL: "Leave. Get out. I want you dead". We didn't bond.

Maybe I went to far. Maybe I was in lockdown because I was in shock. Maybe you upped and left me too quickly. Etc etc.

In theory, I love the big ball of weird covertness that hovers around the season, but I do fall a bit on the Jackles opinion of things: it's a bit too much at times. With the amount of time they had left (ONE SEASON), it often comes off too strong and too opaque.

They opened so many cans of worms that nothing really landed, and then, when they tried to soliloquize it together and shoehorn in some follow-through themes in the last two episodes for each character, it felt... speech-ey and unnatural (imho). And at times, bad in the way that felt... like we were watching shapeshifters HELLO I'LL BE IN EVERY DROP OF RAIN.

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The relationship negotiation is actually ok for me

At heart, I think it's a mostly successful negotiation of a relationship. But negotiations aren't as bad as they sound. It's not an apology per se; it's a needs-based conversation, and they're both aware of that fact as they participate in it. Dean is not obligated to forgive Cas, but if he wants Cas to stay, and his passive-aggressive barbs sort of imply he does want Cas to stay, I think it's reasonable for Cas to voice his grievances...

The conversation happens in part because Dean is signaling he wants Cas to stay. (Even with the: "Where are you going?" in 15x03) He further verbalizes his bitterness about Cas "up and leaving them." And Cas verbalizes where his own discomfort lies: in being disproportionately blamed (for a relatively small detail in the grand scheme of a situation they all had sufficient info to make better decisions about).

There's also the grief-anger that's preventing even the most basic of conversations ("I tried to talk to you over and over again"), and the grief-denial sidestepping Jack's and Rowena's death in favor of overly focusing on some evil ambitious demon Belphegor they met two seconds ago. Which is, again, both a coping mechanism and cruelty.

Dean is retroactively altering the narrative in his head, that he was "okay" letting Bel take over the world if everyone in his fam could stay safe/alive, that they could find a solution "with Rowena." But crucially, his actions towards Rowena and Cas during the actual episode were not safety-oriented. He was cutting and cruel towards both of them, to the point where Sam had to step in to protect Rowena, so it comes off a bit hypocritical in this case...

In a nutshell, Dean's gut has been wrong multiple times now, and he's pretending he's in control and knows what's best when everything's actually spinning out on everyone. There is no amount of "sticking to the plan" that will lend Dean the sense of control he so desperately needs.

I think it was okay for Cas to remove himself to process his own grief, especially on the heels of being blamed for Rowena's death and told to his face that he's what "always" goes wrong. (Always-and-never statements usually signal that Dean... isn't doing well.) You can't say shit like that and expect people to stay. The same way it's okay for Dean to process in his own way, Cas has to process in his, but if they're going to process together... well. You get the picture.

But anyway. The bookend! Is missing! Because Cas can't bear to give Dean empty promises and what will be more lies, he cuts off Dean's "I need to say something." Instead, Cas gives Dean all he can... by taking the Mark.

So, Cas throws his weight and strength around as a stand-in for the emotional support/intimacy/promises he cannot give without triggering his deal.

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I think the anger directed at Dean in season 15 is mostly fan-based, not family-based

I don't actually think Cas or Sam or even Jack hold onto a lot of resentment for Dean's "mistakes" in this season, not even his falling in line with Chuck and proudly pretending he "always knew Chuck was squirrelly." (I don't even think Cas's words in The Trap are that weird on the heels of the "Bel" barb Dean made.)

All in all, I get the impression that the frustration with Dean is largely fandom-based and tends to overlook:

Dean has weathered being a friggin' archangel vessel

He's lost his mom, his son, and Rowena one after the other

Because of these Gatling-gun style traumas, he has soooo much going on that contextualizes all these bad things for Dean:

Trusting in Chuck's "destiny," and "fate-" style decision-making (actually uttering the unholy sentence: "'Cause you just heard it from God Himself…") was attenuated by both Dean's despair and active suicidality.

Thinking the Equalizer gun is the Only Way (TM) was a manifestation of his guilt; he feels like HE should stop Jack because Jack is HIS

Dean's existential crisis was brought on by Chuck's betrayal, but it was a lot rooted in Dean's need to escape that ghoulish voyeurism.

Dean's hardening into a field marshal-style commander was painful, but even in his anger, he relies on Cas as a partner. It's a dark echo of how they function together in Peace of Mind, as a unit protecting the well-being of the family unit.

(Aside: But it is also true that Dean drives over Cas's objections and seems almost entitled to "pressure Cas as the muscle" to go to Hell; it's true that Cas could've died down there and Dean didn't express care. Dean even moved into hard-marshaling Rowena, but Sam shielded her. I think it probably bothers Dean too that in his last moments with Rowena... he wasn't being at all kind to her or a good teammate.)

Dean is acting like this because he has no hope. Jack Kline, his "future," has just died. And just as he's actively suicidal, his extensions of "self," his "intimate family unit," his husband and son, are no longer valuable in the healthy sense, a bit of a off-key to how family annihilation functions

And so, Dean spills words of grief-anger, words meant to wound— to air his grievances

Then he suffers even more existential crises "my life's work is a hoax," "there's no point" etc etc

Then, there's his out-of-character focus on pure, bloodlust and revenge; it blinds him in a way we rarely see from Dean.

He loses sight of what he cares about; the Jack's "not family: line is a psychological balm specifically used to make it easier for Dean to sacrifice Jack for the Revenge/Cause

But Dean initially goes over the line when he resolves to lie to Amara in order to sacrifice her

Dean had resolved to be Jack's "second" in a suicide plot and brutally encouraged him/thanked him for shouldering the burdens so he and Sam can reap the benefits/“be free”

And Jack IS vulnerable to this; Dean knows how much pain Jack has been shouldering since getting his soul back. It's complicated, but Dean's almost... subconsciously using that worthlessness here... Jack's guilt makes Jack ripe for sacrifice. In some ways being a hero almost necessitates a lack of self-worth. This is also something Dark Kaia keyed into, begging Jack for help as she pressed on his wounds.

On the other hand, Dean is trying to remain neutral in some ways: if he's going to sacrifice Amara, then it's only natural he should be okay with losing his own loved ones, including pulling a gun on Sam (And I think Dean was serious in that moment btw, until Sam talked him down)

Cas is the opposite: he is absolutely willing to sacrifice Amara but NOT willing to sacrifice Sam, "I won't allow you to sacrifice your own life!" OR Jack "I won't watch you die, not again!"

I think Cas's line: "Where's Amara?" shows that, like how Dean comes to his senses about Sam and Jack, Cas is also coming to his senses about how wrong it is for Amara to be the martyr here...

ANYWAY, though. My point is...

Unlike the fandom, Dean's family has a lot of grace for him, largely in part because they've weathered their own existential crises and fucked up so much in the past.

I mean. With respect to Heaven-related existential crises, Cas is Theee Poster Child for it. If anyone gets it, it's him. And sure, Dean didn't always have grace for Sam, but mostly he did! I think it's a lot modeled by OG Bobby, too. This set the tone for where the family is with respect to empathizing with what Dean is going through.

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And The Empty of it all

As I said in the long convo, The Trap is missing its natural bookend, Dean's terms, because Dean's terms about Cas would probably include (a) not lying, (b) staying, and ofc the unsaid I love you, and these points are all too tied up with The Empty deal to address. And in this case, that's a cruel, structural, engineered torture actively preventing Cas from being available.

Personally, while I don't agree with Cas initially withholding details about his Empty deal, Dean's fragility after the Michael-possession and his now-current wound of losing Mary, Jack, and Rowena do create extenuating circumstances. I can see where Cas might want to keep it under wraps, the same way Dean wanted to keep the Ma'lak box under wraps. And later in season 14, Cas and Dean had enough on their plates trying to wrangle Michael, soulless Jack, and workaholic Sam.

So, I'm of the mind that The Empty deal itself casts a long shadow over the natural bookend, actively preventing progress and disincentivizing Cas’s availability. (And it is quite surprising to me how often this point gets overlooked. It's not that Cas doesn't have patterns; it's that there are cruel, structural elements inflaming them and punishing openness.)

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With too many character/narrative setbacks on the table, the story runs out of time and stalls

And a few throwaway lines and verbose speeches do NOT fix this. (Cas throwing in a halfsie about Jack being more than a destiny + Dean sparing Chuck with a lil "not who I am" speech come too late in the game, and imho don’t feel as big as they should.)

The actors could feel it, and the writers gaslit them about it, continuing to waste valuable run time in a season where the main plot simply needed to hog the spotlight. All the spotlight.

Dean and Cas get fouled up by the lure of the Almost Victory and virtually fail to recover. Jack's subsequent resurrection casts a long shadow over their progress, and they both take a hard turn into the very things they've spent a lot of time fighting against: Revenge and Destiny.

And even though they sink to unimaginable lows at the very end of season 15, they're allllmost triumphant in the end. Thanks to a combined TFW family support system, Dean comes to his senses and thaws to loving Jack again, and he wounds Death. Cas throws off the expectations for the Grand Story and tells Jack that Destiny doesn't matter. But they're both too late. For each other and Jack. Jack's black hole-destiny is already set into motion, and the story never really recovers.

[hungharrington]

looking at the sleepover prompt list and..

[ JOY ]  sender getting louder than usual which makes receiver start laughing affectionately,  taking the opportunity to check in. 

THAT IS SO REAL!! wbk steve gets incredibly loud and honestly sounds pained when he’s about to reach o-town so having his partner giggle and check up on him is just.. CHEFS KISS!! he’d get go embarrassed abt it too you can’t even deny it

oh hey ali :) thanks for sending one in! this is so totally meant to be sweet (and it is!) but it's also like tehe, a lil bit mean MDNI this entire blog is 18+

You would think, with his face buried in your neck, Steve can't make that much noise.

That would be wrong. There's already so much noise, the subtle slap of skin meeting skin, of your thighs hitting against his with every roll of your hips and the wetness. Your slick leaks out, squelching lewdly as his cock fucks in and out, smearing it across your thighs and his. And yet, there's nothing you can hear more than Steve's raspy low moans.

He's especially vocal tonight — though you have a feeling that's because of the distance from earlier, spending a couple days apart. It makes you feel all the more hot and bothered, listening to his guttural moans that seem to be getting louder and louder. His praise, which he;s been showering you in since he worked you up on his fingers earlier, moaning about how wet you are for him, hasn't stopped either.

"Yeah, f-fuck, good fucking girl, so wet— so, fuck," His hips buckup into yours, his pace ravenous and you try match it from the top. You're bent over him, chest to chest, sinking down on his cock while Steve fucks up into you. His cock fits snug in your cunt and you're taking great pleasure in fucking out cute little noises out of him, including his pussy-drunk rambles. "S-so pretty and wet just for me, mhm. Pussy so good, this pussy's all mine."

You moan at his possessiveness, your cunt gushing at his claim on you— it eggs on another louder moan from Steve as he fucks into the new slick faster, his noises beginning to get more high pitched. You take a page out of his book.

"All yours," you whisper, just to test the water. Steve whimpers and you take it as a good sign. "M'all yours, Steve. No- uh, nobody can treat me like you, baby— no one fucks me as good as you, mhm."

Steve shudders, a loud throaty moan that gets pressed into your shoulder. He tucks his face in closer, his thrusts getting sloppier as he gets closer to falling apart, your name falling from his lips.

You rake your hand down his chest, scraping your fingernails in a way you know he loves and this time, when he lets out another loud gasping moan, you can't help the little affectionate giggle that titters out of you. He's being so loud tonight, so much louder than usual.

Steve slows his hips just a bit, digging his face out of your shoulder to look at you.

"What?" He slurs, voice sounding a bit wrecked. His cheeks are pink, his lips pinker still. You clench around him purposefully just to see him moan and revel in the cute expression he makes, eyes scrunched closed for a second.

"You're so noisy tonight," You coo at him, bringing your hand up to card through his hair. Steve surges to press a kiss to your skin as you do, his lips dropping wet kisses along your forearm. He hums at your words. "That's all, baby. You all good?"

You're so glad he's looking at you so you can see the pure rush of blood to his face, embarrassment creeping over his features. He nods a bit sheepishly.

To drive your point home, you sit up a bit to take away his hiding place and start really fucking yourself down on him. It's glorious, watching him struggle for the first few seconds of you bouncing to try contain his noises— but when the first moan slips out, whines and whimpers follow it, building in volume.

You stroke down his chest again, harder, your fingers toying with his chest hair and smirk at him beneath you. "That's it. Lemme hear it, baby..."

Steve whimpers, loud, in response.

[thorninyourpaw]

after you live with someone for seven years i think it's legal

[ssuckitlosers]

tell me abt pruk proposal headcanons

Yessssss, thank you!!!!! Hopefully at least some people agree with me on this, if not do feel free to tell me your headcanons ✨

PrUK Proposal Headcanons:

I lean more towards Gilbert being the one to propose. Partially because I think he’s the more traditional of the two.

However, Arthur would definitely enjoy having a physical reminder that Gilbert is his (for himself and everyone else).

Regardless of who asks, the actual proposal would be something private though.

I’ve seen other takes on this but I just cannot imagine Gilbert wanting to make a big spectacle about something so personal to him. (I also think Arthur would probably be slightly mortified if they had a crowd of people watching them.)

I could see the proposal being a spur of the moment thing. Like Gilbert’s had the idea of marriage on his mind for a while, debating if he really wants that or not, and it all just clicks into place while he’s watching Arthur do something mundane, like washing the dishes or putting away some groceries, so he just blurts it out because he realises he wants to spend the rest of his life with this man.

In that scenario, Arthur would probably look slightly bewildered and assume he was joking until Gilbert doubles down on it. And ring or not, of course Arthur will marry him.

Another way I could see it going is Gilbert actually asking friends advice and actually planning a nice date, or a fancy dinner at home where he pops the question near the end or something.

Oh actually! I could see him doing both, like he asks him first in the heat of the moment and then goes and gets a ring in secret and plans out a nice proposal because he knows that the kind of thing Arthur would love (even if he’d deny caring about that kind of thing).

I actually like the idea of him doing both because I don’t really view Gilbert as someone whose especially romantic? I’m still working this out… but I don’t think Gilbert goes out of his way to do anything romantic, it just wouldn’t cross his mind. Yet if he sees a flower stall he’ll stop and buy Arthur flowers, because Arthur likes flowers. (On the walk home he might realise and declare the most romantic person ever but I don’t see him thinking about it in the moment beyond a ‘oh Arthur would like that.’)

The only reason I think he’d plan a proper proposal at all is because Arthur would like it and if he’s going to propose anyway he wants to make Arthur as happy as possible (and Arthur’s a romantic sap) whereas Gilbert never put thought into that type of thing and would be just as happy being asked while they watch telly, do you get me? (I might change my mind on this but idk I think I’m making sense.)

I could definitely see Arthur proposing in bed after convincing Gilbert to have a lazy morning with him instead of getting up at the crack of dawn and Gilbert would be more than happy with that. Could also see him planning a day to just spoil Gilbert and do everything he likes before asking him to marry him which is probably the more likely option…

Ahh imagine, Arthur would be acting at least slightly nervous the whole day and denying it whenever Gilbert questions him on it and he’s just getting more and more concerned until Arthur finally just bloody asks him and he’s so realised and happy… it’d just be cute yeah?

Or they could also just get drunk, one of them pops the question and suddenly they’re married in vegas or something lol.

[love4hobi]

im so stressed

[supercantaloupe]

mfw i ask maestro if he needs me at rehearsal on tuesday and he responds by telling me i'm wonderful, i'm always watching and listening, play better than a principal, etc

[ambersky0319]

The words I know all my managers are going to learn to dread hearing from me: "I have class."

[anadorablekiwi]

🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂

🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂

[elytrafemme]

strange 2day

[groundbreakingdot872]

*sees you tagged me in a post an hour ago when you said goodnight an hour before that*

you know I did that purpose. started tagging you *paused* then smiled evily to myself at 4AM bc lying to your mutuals is an under appreciated hobby 😪

[ladyxskywalker]

Did I miss anything? Anyway

oh my goodness no ! you didn't miss anything at all ! I'm good ! all is well ! 💌

giving cozy hugs 🌼🌸🥰 xo

hope everything is good by you also !

[matoitech]

got discharged from the er home and showered i was there umm like nine hours. my final message: fibroid warriors assemble! not for long tho (hysterectomy this yr, maybe i can get it pushed up now lmao)

[aeide-thea]

okay but when does 'making myself go for a stupid lil bike down to the pond when i'm feeling lazy and don't feel like it' start to pay off, asking 4 a friend

[the-composer]

"Self-care is flirting with men and I am in need of some serious self-care."

[yuukimiyas]

good mornie everybun!! ૮꒰ ྀི〃´꒳`〃꒱ა & happy thursday!! the waves are nice & calm here & todays a whole new day to do smth so special & fun!! ૮ ˆﻌˆ ა forever sending love to you all <33

[badolmen]

Babygirl I have. So much to do this week send me spoons.