#anyway this show is great and I’m having a great time

[salty-autistic-writer]

Tommy Kinard's Guide To The Best (And Worst) Places To Take A Nap

Tommy and sleep have always had a difficult relationship. 

When he was a child, he had a hard time relaxing his mind enough to fall asleep. Restless thoughts and the fact that he could also read one more page of this non-fiction book - just one more - kept him tossing and turning until his eyes burned.

As a teenager, he listened to his parents arguing, their shadows dancing in the hallway. When he drank too much, his father’s voice was like the hot sour breath of a dragon, his footsteps booming and his words sharp. 

The neighbours never intervened. They were blind and deaf. Tommy wasn’t. He listened and tried to stay awake as long as possible. At least until the dragon fell asleep. Just in case he had to help his mother. Because there was nobody else.

His time in the military taught him to cherish every possible second of sleep. He developed the talent to fall asleep anywhere, at any time and at remarkable speed. But with this special talent comes the tendency to wake up abruptly as soon as his mind decides it has to be alert.

A noise, even a smell, is enough to push his body out of sleep mode into ready-to-fight mode. That makes sleeping for several hours in a row very difficult. So he usually takes some exhaustion with him when he leaves for work in the morning.

Once he’s working, he has laser focus though, never feeling the missing hours of sleep. No. That only comes later, after the work is done.

His issues made Tommy a napper. And he’s napping a lot.

He’s not picky about where he’s taking his naps. But some places are better than others.

In the helicopter (2/10 - not enough space, leads to pain and embarrassing moment!)

Tommy yawns heartily. He’s working a shift from hell. And he’s tired. So tired that the thought of getting out of the helicopter and dragging himself to the bunk beds at the station fills him with dread. He doesn’t like the beds anyway. It’s never really quiet there. And they are too small. Well. To be fair, most places are too small for him to stretch out his legs.

Finding a comfortable position in the helicopter isn’t easy either. But he has to try. Has to close his eyes. Just … For a few minutes. Then, the alarm is probably going to go off again anyway. He sighs, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. He can already feel his mind drifting away, and his muscles are finally relaxing. At least, it’s quiet in here.

Is this smart? No. But he’s too tired to make smart choices.

Tommy already knows his neck is going to ache later. But it’s too late.

Sleep embraces him.

L aughter erupts when Tommy opens his eyes and he blinks into the sunlight, confused until his swimming vision clears and he sees Lucy in front of him. Lucy, surrounded by a few other colleagues, taking pictures with her phone and grinning in utter delight. Great. He won't ever hear the end of this.

Gr imacing, he stretches as best as he can, sore muscles burning and bones cracking in protest.

When he jumps out, his legs tingling from being immobile for so long, Lucy shows him a picture of his face pressed against the glass, drool running down to his chin, hair dishevelled. “It’s cute,” she says. “But I’m worrying about your poor old bones, Kinard. If you plan on doing more naps in the chopper, I will buy you a neck pillow.”

At a movie theatre (6/10 - comfy but embarrassing, at least Evan thought it was cute!)

Tommy loves the cinema Evan picked. 

He especially loves the seats. They are so comfy. Soft. Warm. Too soft and warm. Tommy can feel himself sinking into them, his eyes getting heavy. He tries his best to keep them open, telling himself he’s not going to fall asleep while he’s about to watch a movie with his gorgeous boyfriend who’s happily snacking popcorn, his shoulder nudging Tommy’s.

For once, they actually managed to go to the movies. Without any interruption. Without anything terrible happening. So he really should pay attention to the movie. Evan is going to want to talk about it later.

But the screen is too bright. He has to rest his eyes. Just for one little moment. He’s not going to fall asleep. He’s not.

It only takes seconds for him to drift off.

A hand on his shoulder. A kiss on the cheek. Soft laughter and warm breath tickling his skin. “Tommy. Hey, Tommy?”

Tommy hums, keeping his eyes closed. Just a little longer. He can tell it’s not even morning yet. It’s still dark outside. Huh. He wrinkles his nose in confusion. Where’s all the noise coming from? Did Evan turn on the TV?

Oh. Oh. Shit.

His eyes snap open and he winces, his hands rubbing over the slightly rough fabric of cushions, the smell of popcorn and sweet beverages reminding him of where he is right now. He fell asleep at the movie theatre. With Evan sitting beside him.

Tommy can feel his cheeks burning. “I’m so sorry,” he murmurs, wiping drool from his mouth and glancing at the screen, where a man and a woman are arguing.

“Don’t be. It was really cute. My highlight was when your head started to tilt and sank on my shoulder,” Evan says, smiling. “You also didn’t miss anything. That movie was horrible so far. I’m going to tell you what happened later.”

Tommy’s face still burns with embarrassment, but when Evan wraps his arm around him and pulls him even closer, he starts to feel better. It happens, he guesses. Especially after a long day.

In a dressing room (3/10 - not very comfy, loud, but leads to a good solution for future shopping! It's good to have someone who thinks of things you never really thought of!)

Tommy doesn’t like shopping for clothes. 

It’s not easy to find something that fits him. He also wishes people would just let him look around by himself before bombarding him with a row of questions, constantly asking if he’s doing alright. Why isn’t one “yes thank you” enough?

Once he does find something that fits and doesn’t scratch or feel too tight, he usually just tries to wear it as long as possible. But his favourite jeans tore and now he has to find a new one.

It’s nice to have Evan with him who gives him something to focus on.

“Hm. No. Let me get you that in another size,” Evan decides, looking at the pants Tommy tried on, frowning. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Okay,” Tommy mutters, too exhausted to really care. He sits on the bench in the dressing room and leans back with a sigh. As he waits, the warmth of the dressing room makes him increasingly drowsy. His eyes get heavy. Soon, he can’t keep them open anymore, his head falling forward as he succumbs to a slumber.

Only to jump when Evan opens the door and presents him with a new pair of jeans. “Sorry, took a while to find it. Here, I - Oh. Did you fall asleep?” “No,” Tommy says automatically. Evan raises a doubting brow.

Tommy notices he’s half lying on the bench now, quickly sitting up and wiping at his eyes. “Maybe,” he admits. “I’m tired.”

Tired of dressing and undressing. Tired of the too-bright shop lights which keep buzzing above his head. Tired of hearing the terrible nerve-wracking music in the background. Tired of seeing his tired eyes in the mirror.

Evan scans him, understanding in his eyes. “Hey, let’s just order some of those online, okay? You can try them on at home,” he suggests.

“Really?” Tommy asks, wrinkling his nose. “But what if they don’t fit?”

“We are just going to send them back,” Evan shrugs. “Come on, let’s leave and buy coffee somewhere.”

I love you , Tommy thinks, getting up happily. And wonders how far away he is from actually saying the words out loud. Feels like they are already lingering on his lips, just waiting for the right moment.

At a bookstore (7/10 - comfy, warm and with cat, but embarrassing!)

Of course, they happen to be outside on one of those rare days when it’s raining cats and dogs. All of a sudden, it pours from the velvety sky. 

They flee into a bookstore at a corner, laughing. Evan’s eyes brighten up in delight as he scans the shelves. It’s a tiny store with old hardcover books and narrow hallways. The dust-covered books are piling up everywhere, even on the window sill.

An elderly lady is the only other person in the store. She’s sitting at the counter, hidden by a heap of books. She has one in her wrinkled hands, reading, only briefly glancing up to nod at them and push her glasses up her nose.

There even is a cat. A tabby with a bushy tail, that raises as she approaches Tommy and curls around his leg with a soft meow. When Tommy pets her and looks up, Evan is already gone, looking at books. Tommy discovers a green armchair in a corner and decides to sit down for a while. The armchair is comfy and smells like oranges. Tommy sinks into the cushions, leaning his head back with a content sigh. He can hear the steady drum of the rain against the window panes. It’s making him dozy. Before he can fight the sleepiness, his eyes are already closed and distantly he thinks he can feel something soft, warm and vibrating on his legs, but then sleep reaches for him and pulls him into a quite pleasant nap.

“Tommy?”

“Hm?” Tommy perks up, blinking in confusion. “Is it time?”

“I don’t know. You fell asleep,” Evan says, amused. “And the cat immediately went to sleep on you. I took pictures.”

Tommy swallows, looking at the cat now sitting on the floor, licking its paw. “Sorry,” he says quietly, glancing at the shop owner. But she’s smiling while still reading her book. 

“No need to be sorry. It’s cute. Come on, let’s go home and take a nap together,” Evan chuckles.

In the bathtub (8/10 - warm, safe, clean and good-smelling, especially when Evan washes my hair, but it gets cold eventually!)

Tommy doesn’t know how he’s still standing. The shift seemed to last forever. His whole body is sore and aching. All he’s smelling is sweat and smoke. Every step he takes seems to add invisible extra weight he has to carry around.

“Come on, I’m going to draw you a bath,” Evan tells him.

“I have the best boyfriend in the world,” Tommy sighs, as he slowly, painstakingly peels his clothes off his body.

He hates the moment his naked body is hit by the chill of the air. Hates the first dip into the water. But once he sinks into the water and it embraces him, he groans in pleasure.

“I’m going to wash your hair, okay?” Evan says, sitting on the edge of the bathtub and pushing the sleeves of his hoodie back. “Please,” Tommy sighs, gratefully. He could feel how greasy it got with every passing hour. He leans his head back and closes his eyes, relaxing into the rhythmic movements of Evan’s fingers in his hair. Soon, he feels his mind drifting away, like a boat on the ocean. He allows it. He’s warm and safe. He can rest. Every troublesome thought and every ache disappears. Fading away as he dozes off to Evan washing his hair and the smell of his favourite shampoo.

“Tommy?” Evan asks, shaking Tommy’s shoulder gently. “You with me?”

“Huh?” Tommy opens his eyes, blinking up at the ceiling. He’s still halfway caught in the pleasantly floaty nothingness of his nap. “Hm. What?”

“Sorry, but I thought you might want to eat something,” Evan says. That’s when Tommy realises he’s lying in the bathtub, feeling boneless and … chilly. “How long have I been in here?”

“Long enough. Did you sleep well?” Evan asks, grinning.

Tommy grimaces as a shiver runs down his back and inspects his wrinkled hands. “Well, now I’m cold. But it was worth it.”

On Evan’s lap (10/10 - warm, comfy, safe. the best place to take a nap!)

It’s been a long day. It’s always a long day.

Evan takes one look at Tommy and says, “Want to order Chinese and relax on the couch today?”

“Yeah, I’d love that,” Tommy says, grateful. There was a time when he tried to hide his exhaustion and went out anyway to please his partners. But now he’s honest about how he feels and what he wants. He also doesn’t apologise for falling asleep anymore. His work is stressful and functioning can be exhausting. Being tired is nothing he has to be ashamed of.

They end up on the couch, Evan with his laptop and Tommy with his head on Evan’s lap, the rest of his body stretched out. He’s happy he can do that now. They bought a new, bigger and comfier couch a while ago.

Tommy has his eyes closed and relaxes while listening to the clicking noise of Evan typing and breathing in the familiar smell of his surroundings. Warm. Soft. Yes. This is by far his favourite place to take a nap.

He allows himself to drift off. When he comes back to himself, Evan smiles down at him. “Hey. There you are. Sounded like you were snoring the alphabet at one point.”

“Hey,” Tommy scrunches his nose. “Says the man who snores like a boar whenever he’s lying on his back.”

Evan chuckles. He clears his throat, eyes on his screen. “Did you know that neurodivergent people tend to get exhausted pretty fast? Due to the stress of sensory overload and the pressure of social situations. There’s even a word for it.”

“Yeah?” Tommy asks, raising a mildly intrigued brow.

“Yes. Autistic fatigue.”

“Hm.” Tommy shifts, frowning.

They’ve been talking about this topic for a while now. Collecting information. Finding certain things that … fit astonishingly well. It started with Evan talking to his therapist about ADHD and led to Evan going on an extensive research spree on which he found out that quite a few of the things Tommy is experiencing fit symptoms of the autism spectrum and that ADHD and autism have a lot of overlapping symptoms.  Tommy grew up during a time when children weren’t autistic, had ADHD or suffered from dyslexia. There were only two possible labels: “normal” and “weird”. At school, Tommy got the “weird” label pretty fast.

Actually, there’s been a teacher who apparently did some research and carefully addressed the possibility of autism, but Tommy’s father was fast to tell her to refrain from calling his son mentally ill. Tommy thinks the exact words Kinard Senior used were “My boy is not a nutcase.” And that was the end of it.

But now, now that he has the freedom to do research and the chance to figure some things out that have always confused him, Tommy is intrigued. 

It might be nice to know why some things are as they are.

For example: why does he hear noises no one else seems to hear? Why does he feel repulsion towards certain foods to the point that he has the urge to gag or spit them out? Why is he fidgeting so much without really noticing it? Why does he take things literally, which has led to many embarrassing moments in his life? Why does he sometimes feel like he’s following an invisible script while talking to people, and when they don’t do what he expects, the conversations become increasingly stressful? 

Or the “I’m so exhausted” thing that sometimes really hits him out of nowhere, especially when he’s outside.

“Do they also say how you can increase your energy if you experience autistic fatigue?” Tommy asks.

Evan hums. “Snacks. Vitamins. And accomodations. Like noise-cancelling in-ear headphones.”

Tommy perks up. “Noise-cancelling? That’s a thing?” He asks, surprised. He has normal headphones for his training. But they don’t cancel noise.

“Uh, yeah. They have been existing for a while now. Do you want me to order some for you?” Evan asks. “Or we can pick them together?”

“Yes,” Tommy says, fully awake now, sitting up and snuggling up against Evan, looking at the screen. “But I can’t promise I will ever take them out once I have them.”

“Well, you definitely won’t hear me snoring anymore,” Evan says, grinning and typing into the search bar.

(AO3 Link)

[immortalbumblebee]

Mom said it's my turn to request!!so anyway👀I love your writing and so I would really like as in Vander x fem!reader where both of them are Mylo's actual biological parentsand just some fluff around them please💙

So this turned more into a Mylo & Reader fluff comfort fic, I hope that's okay! This prompt got me really excited!

Masterlist

Family Ties

You can’t help the soft "oof" that escapes your lips as you lean against the mattress of Mylo’s top bunk. Your feet balance precariously on a rung of the makeshift ladder, while your arms rest atop the edge of the mattress. Carefully, you place a bowl of fruit on the side of the bed. The room is dim, lit only by the faint, flickering glow of a streetlight filtering through the blinds. The rhythmic thud of Mylo’s ball hitting the ceiling fills the small space, a steady beat against the tense silence.

“You want to talk about what happened today?”

Thunk.Thunk.Thunk.

The wooden bunk bed creaks softly beneath the weight of his restless movements. Mylo lies there sprawled out, legs bent awkwardly to accommodate his too-long frame on a bed that hasn't fit him for years. Each toss of the ball is precise, almost mechanical, as though he’s trying to channel all his frustration into the motion.

You stay there, quiet, watching him. Waiting. Mylo’s never been great at hiding his emotions, but pushing him won’t help. You know better.

Finally, the tension breaks.

“We got our asses handed to us out there!” he snaps, the ball clattering against the ceiling with more force than before. It bounces back into his hand, but he doesn’t throw it again. Instead, he props himself up on one elbow, his sharp glare directed at no one in particular. “But I get reamed out while she just gets to mess up without any consequences? How is that fair?”

His voice is tight, the anger barely masking the frustration beneath. He’s not just mad—he’s hurt, and you can see it in the way his hand tightens around the ball.

“I know.” You nod, trying your best to be understanding. “But Powder’s young, and still learning. She needs her older siblings to show her the way sometimes.”

He throws the ball one final time, hard, and it thuds against the ceiling with a force that makes the bunk bed shudder. The ball drops into his lap as he shoots upright, sitting cross-legged now, his sharp gaze locked onto yours.

“Why does everyone let her off easy because of her age, huh?” he demands, his tone heated, though you can tell the anger is masking something deeper. “Just ’cause she’s ‘the baby’ means she can do no wrong!”

You inhale slowly, steadying yourself. “That’s not true,” you say softly, keeping your voice calm and measured. “But we all have to learn our own way—”

“Then we shouldn’t be taking her on jobs!” Mylo snaps, cutting you off mid-sentence. His hands ball into fists, and you can see the frustration etched into every line of his face. “If she’s not capable, why do we have to pick up the slack?”

You catch yourself before the urge to retort takes over. He’s wound so tight he’s practically vibrating, and if you lash out now, it’ll only make things worse.

Instead, you exhale deeply and let the silence linger for a moment, long enough for him to shift uncomfortably under your gaze. Finally, you speak, your tone firm but even. “Because that’s what families do, Mylo. We take care of each other.”

You can feel the seething anger rolling off of him in waves.

“She’s Vi’s family.” He snaps, throwing himself back onto the mattress. “Not mine, remember?”

“Mylo…” You start, but he continues on.

“She makes everything harder,” he mutters eventually, quieter this time. “And I don’t get to mess up. Ever. Claggor and Vi have her back constantly, and you and Dad always have everyone’s back. And I know she's little, but like…I’m supposed to be your son. You��re supposed to have my back, but everyone’s too busy babying her! You know how that feels?”

You try to ignore the daggers stabbing into your heart with every word. Each sharp syllable from Mylo’s mouth cuts deeper than the last, but you remind yourself that he’s young—too young to shoulder the weight he’s been carrying. He’s stubborn, yes, but it’s the same stubbornness you see in yourself and in Vander. It’s a trait that’s both a blessing and a curse. And right now? Gods, he wasn’t making this easy for you.

Rather than snapping or letting your frustration show, you inhale deeply, steadying yourself. You let the silence hang between you for a beat, maybe two, until he shifts uncomfortably, his eyes darting away from yours.

Finally, you speak. Your voice is steady, but there’s a thread of unmistakable warmth beneath the firmness. “You are my son, Mylo.”

You reach out, your hand resting gently on his leg. He stiffens, his body coiling with the same raw energy that’s radiated off him since this conversation began. Then, in one swift motion, he pulls away, retreating like he’s touched a flame.

The rejection stings, more than you care to admit. But you don’t flinch. Instead, you keep your gaze on him, unwavering, as he stares at the floor.

“And Powder is also my daughter,” you continue, your tone softening but losing none of its conviction. “I love you both so much, Mylo. I need you to understand that. But I also love you equally.”

His jaw tightens at the word, his lips pressed into a thin line, but he doesn’t interrupt this time.

“We’re family, my darling,” you say, leaning forward just slightly, trying to close the emotional gap between you. “We look out for each other—not because it’s easy, but because that’s what we do. That’s who we are. You don’t have to like it all the time, and you’re allowed to be angry. But this?” Your voice lowers, growing softer. “This resentment—it’s only going to hurt you.”

For a long moment, Mylo says nothing. His hands clench and unclench at his sides, his knuckles white with tension. Then, finally, he glances up, his expression conflicted. His anger hasn’t fully ebbed, but there’s a flicker of doubt there now, a crack in his armor.

“I just want someone to have my back here…” Mylo’s voice cracks slightly, betraying the vulnerability behind his frustration. He looks away, his jaw set tight, but the weight in his words hangs in the air like a plea he can’t quite bring himself to say outright.

Your chest tightens at his words. You’ve always known how fiercely he feels things, how deeply he longs for validation even when he’s too proud to ask for it.

“I know it feels like you’re alone in this,” you say softly, your voice steady and warm. “But I promise, we’re all on your side. Vander and I are here for you, my darling boy.” You lean forward slightly, your hand hovering near his for a moment before committing to the gesture. “It may not feel like it right now, but I swear, I would take on the whole of the Enforcers for you.”

This time, when your hand brushes his, he doesn’t pull away. His fingers are tense under yours, but the fact that he doesn’t recoil feels like a small victory. Still, he avoids your gaze, his head bowed, the fight in him simmering down to embers.

“And I know your father would do the same,” you add, your tone quieter now, the words almost a whisper.

For a moment, he doesn’t say anything. He just stares at the ball in his other hand, his thumb tracing the worn seam over and over. When he finally speaks, his voice is a low grumble, rough around the edges. “You guys have a funny way of showing it…”

The words sting, even though you know they’re coming from a place of hurt rather than malice. You tighten your grip on his hand just slightly, anchoring both him and yourself.

“We’re not perfect, Mylo,” you admit, your voice tinged with regret. “We’ve made mistakes—so many mistakes—but everything we do, every decision we make, is because we love you and Powder. We’re trying to do what’s best, even when it doesn’t feel like it.”

He snorts, the sound bitter but less sharp than before. “Yeah? Well, maybe you should ask me what’s best for once.”

You nod, letting the comment land without protest. “You’re right,” you say gently. “We should. And I’m sorry if it feels like we haven’t. But I’m listening now, Mylo. Tell me what you need.”

He looks up at you then, just for a fleeting moment, and in his eyes, you see a flicker of something that might be hope. He’s not ready to forgive or forget—not yet—but he’s listening, too.

“What if…” you hum, squeezing his hand gently, “you eat up this fruit, and then meet me upstairs? We can go out? Maybe grab something from the bakery a couple levels down?”

There’s a flicker in his eyes—a spark that’s been missing for too long—and you can’t help the smile that tugs at your lips.

“Race you. Parkour style,” he challenges, and there’s a mischievous edge to his tone now, a hint of the boy who used to dart through the alleyways, laughing like the world wasn’t on his shoulders.

At this, you laugh—a full, hearty sound that shakes loose some of the tension still lingering in your chest. “That hardly seems fair. You’re too fast, and I’m far too old.”

He grins, already stuffing the fruit into his mouth like his life depends on it. Juice dribbles down his chin, and you can’t help but shake your head, your scolding finger already poised.

“Chew and swallow before you speak, Mylo,” you admonish lightly, though your voice is filled with warmth.

He holds up a hand in mock surrender, gulping down the fruit as quickly as possible before grinning at you, unabashed. “There. Happy now?”

“Very,” you reply, matching his grin.

“Good, because you’re definitely losing this race, Mom!” he declares, his confidence radiating as he jumps off the bunk and bolts toward the door, practically bouncing with anticipation.

You hop off the ladder yourself, your joints protesting slightly, but you ignore the ache. Stretching out your limbs, you roll your shoulders and grin after him.

“I wouldn’t count on it, my darling,” you call out, your voice light but challenging. “I’ve got a few tricks left up my sleeve.”

Mylo stops in the doorway, turning to give you a look of mock surprise. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that.”

And just like that, the air between you feels lighter—like the weight that had been pressing down on both of you has finally begun to lift. For a moment, there’s no anger, no resentment, no fear. Just the thrill of the challenge and the bond that no amount of hardship can break.

[themagicafox]

Hogwarts AU: Slytherin Rafayel and Sylus Headcanons

I'm not a professional ficwriter, I’m just having fun

English is not my first language; sorry for the grammar mistakes

Maybe I`ll do part 2 if someone likes it and wants more

@peacedreamer14 I promised drawings but I am busy at uni right now and don't have enough time, but it’ll come!!

I hope someone will like it \ (•◡•) /

Sylus

Smug, calm, and prideful, but never seeks fights with others—he’s too above it. He doesn’t care about the common rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin unless it affects him directly. But no one wants to fight him anyway

He is an excellent student. Favorite subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts. He also mastered the Apparition spell at a young age

Sylus can cast spells without a wand

Mephisto as his companion animal that can mimic speech. Sylus takes great pleasure in watching people jump in fear when Mephisto speaks in a devilish voice out of nowhere

Has declined every offer to join the Quidditch team

His favorite activity is annoying Rafayel

“Oh no, your girlfriends ran away,” he said after releasing toads from Rafayel’s terrarium

Once, he changed Rafayel’s hair color to pink by adding a potion to his shampoo in the bathroom

“What? It suits you, charm boy”

He would never admit that Rafayel is his only friend actually

“Friend? I barely remember his name”

Sylus has sensitive eyes. During a duel with Xavier, he almost lost due to a surprisingly strong light spell

“Professor! That’s cheating, oi!”

“Hey, don’t embarrass me”

“You’re the only one embarrassing yourself and Slytherin. Get up and beat him like you know, jerk”

Sylus goes to bed only after everyone else is asleep. He often sneaks into the Restricted Section of the library, which leads to frequent arguments with Ravenclaw prefect Zayne, who always catches him

“I thought I told you not to roam around at night”

“Sincerely sorry, but I don’t believe I’m under your command. Anyway, I was already heading to my room”

Sylus is a mystery. No one knows much about him. Is he pureblood? Who is his family? How rich is he?! (His entire demeanor screams “beyond rich”)

No one gets close to him except for Rafayel and MC

Sylus and Rafayel often fall asleep in class due to their late-night antics

He absolutely hates Zayne and Xavier because they’re too close to MC

“You know, even you don’t annoy me as much as those two,”

“Mutual”

After working together perfectly on pranks or mischiefs, they instantly start fighting again

“That’s enough teamwork for today with a sly half-blood crow”

“Come again, mermaid misunderstanding”

Rafayel

Very popular among students, Rafayel comes from a famous, wealthy pureblood family

Naturally talented in magic, his favorite class is Transfiguration

He despises worn books, cheap clothes, and people who don’t take care of their appearance

His custom wand cost as much as a new brand car, but he insisted on designing it with mermaid hair and black pearls

He helps restore Hogwarts’ old paintings in his free time

Once, Rafayel saved a group of first-years from mermaids in the Black Lake

“Idiots! What were you thinking? Ugh, I think I’m dying. Now you owe me your lives until graduation”

Rafayel spends way too much time in the bathroom, which annoys Sylus, who also likes his showers

There’s endless competition between him and Sylus in everything: academics, wealth, and even MC’s attention

He once bought the entire Slytherin Quidditch team new brooms just to show off in front of Sylus

MC often has to step in to prevent their heated arguments from escalating into full-blown duels in the common room

Rafayel gets visibly irritated whenever MC compliments someone else’s skills

Extremely protective of Slytherin’s honor, he’ll often team up with Sylus (if he is in the mood, of course) to humiliate Gryffindor or Ravenclaw students who insult their house

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Give me a minute; I’ll get closer,” Sylus says, lifting a student he’s just transfigured into a rabbit up to his ear. “Still nothing. Rafayel, care to try?” Rafayel approaches with an exaggerated, theatrical expression, nodding and humming as though he understands the rabbit’s trembling squeaks

[youruinedmylifebynotbeingreal]

Something about Soren not being able to initially believe that Terry is complimenting him breaks me.

We don’t see him get compliments too often in the show. Especially in Arc 1, he’s belittled by Viren more often than not. Yes, he acts cocky and confident. He knows he’s super strong and great at most tasks associated with being a Crownguard (whether he thinks he’s actually a good Crownguard is a whole other mini essay, but I digress). But that’s all more like a task, something easily measured objectively. And it’s something totally different to be told that you’re good at those things by the people around you, or to be complimented on other things about yourself.

The biggest instances I can think of include:

Corvus calling Soren the mastermind of the plan to get Ezran out of Katolis. Soren immediately makes a joke out of it.

Ezran: you’re the best Crownguard a king could ask for. *hugs him* Soren: *cue shocked silence, followed by literally running away from the situation*

Everybody laughing at his comedy routine (not exactly a direct compliment, but similar in nature in my opinion). He actually accepts this pretty well, but it’s also something he’s been rehearsing and is proud of and is expecting a good reaction to. He even says thank you to the crowd.

“Well, if your sword is as sharp as your wit, then the young king is in good hands.” “Wow, but, thank you. Uh, dragons are SO nice.” He gets super sheepish about this and then in turn compliments dragons. One of the few times he’s okay at accepting a compliment, yet he still turns it around to make it about others.

“Soren, you’re amazing!” “Smort Longpocket is amazing.” Deflecting. Enough said.

“A good man with a big heart.” He gets so overwhelmed he can’t even verbally respond and just has to hug Corvus.

And now. The big/most complicated/messiest one. Viren in season 6. “Oh, you’ve grown so much. You’re so strong, so true to your heart. Your good heart. Somehow… you found the right path, in spite of everything I’ve done. I’m so proud of you.” “What are you trying to do?… Stop it! Just - just stop it! I know who you are. You’re dangerous. Everything you’re telling me is… is some kind of lie! And I’m not going to let you manipulate me again!” “It isn’t a lie, son, please.” There is so much to unpack here, but I want to focus on two big things: Viren compliments both his heart (aka Corvus’s compliment) and his strength (aka Terry’s future compliment). Soren’s gut instinct is to believe that Viren is lying. No deflecting, no avoiding the compliment. Straight up accusing him of more manipulation. Which is completely fair, when that’s all he’s ever known from Viren. So what does that mean for Corvus’s compliment, when it so closely echoes something Viren says? Was he lying, too? But it’s Corvus. He would never. So, of course, this would lead to some Big Feelings Time. (We Were Born the in the Valley/ Of the Dead and the Wicked on AO3 delves into this topic a bit and I think about it SO often. Of course, season 7 adds even more to the idea.)

*If there are other examples please remind me! I’d love to work them into my thoughts.*

Anyway, back to my point. He doesn’t seem to accept compliments very well and doesn’t know how to react to them a lot of the time. From resorting to physical affection, making a joke, or deflecting the compliment, Soren just does not seem to know how to handle people being nice to him. Because, ya know, childhood trauma and a father that was emotionally abusive. He’s used to lies and manipulation and any “compliments” having an ulterior motive.

So here comes Terry. Someone who has also been a bad guy. Who is trying to reform. Soren sees a lot of himself in him (peep the whole speech about abandoning Claudia).

And… he’s nice? And kind? And doesn’t seem evil? But of course, Soren is apprehensive and expects the worst, unsure if people can truly change.

“No, I don’t trust him. Nobody is this charming and, and nice. Nuh-uh.”

This is both an insult and a compliment, yet Terry just takes it in stride, not even hesitating:

“Thanks! You seem great too. Very strong and very, uh, loyal.”

A compliment for Soren? Echoing something Viren said? Oh, that must mean it’s manipulation.

“Ah-ah, I know this trick. You’re just buttering me up.”

I’m pretty sure the last time “buttering something up” was mentioned in canon was likely season 2 (if I’m wrong please somebody correct me), when Soren and Claudia are attempting to get Callum and Ezran back to Katolis. And it includes Soren straight up lying to them. “I know this trick” because he recognizes it, he was raised with it, he has used it before.

Now, we never see Soren’s eyes shift. But in the background he’s sure to see Corvus looking at him encouragingly. Corvus, who somehow has so much hope even in the darkest of times and believes in the best of everyone. Who knows people can change for the better because he’s seen it happen. With Soren. (@stuck-in-jelly made a GREAT post about Corvus and his optimism the other day. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it and it inspired this bit of analysis.)

“But thank you. I kind of needed to hear that today.”

Soren relents. He accepts the compliment. He admits that he needs support, which we know is difficult for him. After he says thank you, the screen cuts to Corvus looking at Soren like he puts the stars in the sky every night.

I like to think that Corvus helped him talk through some of those thoughts and struggles he had after his conversations with Viren. We know they share a lot with each other.

Overall, throughout the series Soren has not been great at receiving compliments. But it seems like he’s got people around him trying to help him see how great he genuinely is. Hopefully in Arc 3 Soren gets ALL OF THE COMPLIMENTS and actually believes them, too.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

Next up are the stories where eddie does (or presumably will soon) yell at his parents! We love to see it (and are eagerly waiting and hoping for it to happen on screen soon)!

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 (diaz siblings reunited! All the buck, eddie, and adriana in the woods stuff had me on the edge of my seat and I can’t wait to read it all through when it’s published! Also eddie freaking out about his back nightmares coming true is really getting to me - poor guy!)

⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️ (oh boy an ominous warning from nemesis! I’m concerned! And seeing the accident that presumably killed eddie in the other timeline! I just want all three of my boys to get back home to LA so i can wrap them up in blankets together on their couch and feed them soup)

🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼 (how do i always forget about covid? It keeps sneaking up on me! But I’m loving the progression of buddieshannon - it seems like they’re getting close! And i really love the way you’ve created maddie and shannon’s friendship! It’s beautiful and it makes me laugh when i think about eddie and maddies completely no existent relationship in the show :p)

Also I’m curious (but obviously feel free to ignore if you want to keep the details to yourself), how far are these stories along in what you have planned for them? Cuz they’ve all come such a long way that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re getting towards their ends, but you’re so talented at plot development that I know they could have so much more to come!

- PCA <3

Hey! Thank you - love this theme, too!

As to your last question - great question!

For Gentle on My Mind I am not sure. I planned it sort of like TWATYTK where I just sort of have things I want to reach and will write until I get there. But it won't be nearly as long.

For Firelight, I am well into chapter 7 out of 10.

For An An Angry Blade, I am almost done chapter 4 out of 6.

96 for 🌲 (Ahh thank you! Yes! Lots of angst!)

---

“Me believing it?” Eddie says. 

Buck nods. 

Eddie inhales. “Then why isn’t the rest of it gone, too?”

“Good question,” Buck says. “I guess it’s only one theory.”

“Worth… Worth keeping in mind,” Eddie mumbles, blushing. He feels embarrassed, all of a sudden. Like a princess in a tower.

Buck smiles a little lopsidedly. “Well, I love you.”

Eddie exhales and smiles back. 

“I know you do.”  

ii. 

They return Adriana’s rental car in the morning, and with Buck at the wheel of Eddie’s truck, they head towards El Paso. It’s going to be a long drive. With Eddie, anxious as hell about confronting his mother and seeing Chris. With Adriana and Sophia, who don’t seem to like him. All good stuff. 

Adriana is quiet. Buck has found her rather frustrating this entire time, but then he remembers what she’s been through, and it’s hard to hold it against her. Sophia, though? Buck’s not sure what her problem is. He hasn’t done anything to her. In fact, he’s kind of been important in helping both her siblings. No big deal. But she’s still pretty frosty to him today. 

It doesn’t really matter, he supposes. It doesn’t matter if Sophia likes him. It’s not like it’s going to impact Eddie’s opinion. He makes his own strong opinions, and he loves Buck. Besides, they aren’t super close. Physically or emotionally. Eddie once told him they were, before Chris. She was still a teenager, and while he was too, he didn’t really get to stay that way.  Makes sense.

“So, Sophia,” Buck says, a few hours into the drive. Because while it may not matter that she doesn’t like him, he still really wants her to anyway. 

“So, Buck,” she repeats.

“You’re a vet, right?” Buck asks. “Like, not the kind Eddie is?”

“No, I served in ‘Nam,” she says flatly.

“Oh my god, you’re such a dick sometimes,” Eddie huffs. “Can you please be nice?”

Sophia makes a frustrated noise. “Yes. I’m a veterinarian.”

“That’s uh… That’s super cool,” Buck says. 

“Yep,” she replies.

“Hey, uh, did I do something?” Buck asks. “Because I know why your sister and I maybe got off on the wrong foot, but you and I-”

“It’s not you. You’re fine,” she cuts him off. “I don’t care… I mean, happy for you and Eddie, or whatever.”

“This is really cool and chill,” Adriana mumbles. 

“What does that mean?” Eddie asks.

“It’s nothing, Eddie. Don’t worry about it.”

“No,” Eddie shifts his body to turn and look at her. “It obviously means something, Soph. So just say it.”

She rolls her eyes. Buck thinks her expression sort of reminds him of Christopher’s, when he’s fed up or annoyed. She’s so familiar, for someone who is more or less a stranger. 

“Fine, Eddie,” she snaps. “Fine. You want to know why I’m being pissy with your boyfriend?”

“We haven’t actually labeled it,” Buck whispers. “But I’m cool with that if you are.”

Eddie doesn’t seem to hear this.

“Obviously or I wouldn’t ask!” He fires back.

“How long did you know what was going on with our baby sister before you told me?” Sophia snaps. “After all I went through looking for her!”

“I didn’t even know,” Eddie defends himself. “It was a hunch.”

“Well, you told someone else before you told me! And I’m sure you’re great, Buck. You seem fine. But you shouldn’t have seen my sister before me. You shouldn’t have known what happened to her before me.”

“My god, Soph,” Adriana sighs. 

“No, my god!” She snaps. “You have no idea what it was like, not knowing! It drove me crazy!”

“I’m sorry,” Adriana says. “But that’s not Eddie’s fault. Or Buck’s.”

---

96 for ⚖️ (Buck especially needs blankets and soup!)

---

“The stories differ,” the officer says. 

“SHE STABBED ME WITH HER CAR KEYS,” the woman shrieks. 

“Ma’am, we’d like to take a look at your wounds,” Eddie says patiently. “Would you come to the ambulance with us so we can treat those?”

“Finally, someone who knows what the hell they’re doing,” the woman snaps. 

The officer refrains from rolling his eyes, but Buck can see it’s a struggle. He guides her over to the ambulance behind Buck and Eddie. She sits down on the open back and Eddie inspects her injuries while Buck hands him supplies from the med kit. 

“These don’t look too deep,” Eddie tells her, checking over the wounds on her arms and torso. “I’m just going to clean and bandage them before you head out, okay?” 

“Head out?” The woman asks. “Head out to where?”

“I’ll need to bring you back to the station to answer some questions,” the officer says. “File a proper report about what happened here today.”

At that moment, Bobby walks over from Chim and Hen, who seem to have their situation under control, to here, just as the woman is growing increasingly exasperated.

“No!” She screeches. “No, you can’t take me to the station, I don’t want to go!”

“Ma’am, it’s protocol,” the officer says. 

“I won’t go!” She throws up her arms, jolting Eddie’s hands as he tries to clean her wounds. 

“Hey, uh, it-it really helps my co-worker if you keep still while he works,” Buck tries. 

She completely ignores him.

“I will not go! You cannot make me!” She continues to protest, gesticulating wildly. Eddie has to move back to avoid getting accidentally smacked. 

“Everything okay here?” Bobby asks, frowning. Like he can see a situation unfolding.  

“I’m not going back to jail!” The woman cries. 

“Back?” Eddie echoes.

“No one said anything about jail, Ma’am,” the officer says. “We just need to take your statement and get some information-”

“No!” She yelps. She stands suddenly, darting out and away from Eddie.

“Wait!” The officer calls. “You can’t just-”

But the woman is trying to make a break for it. Buck and the officer start in her direction, but Bobby is closer. He manages to intercept her, stepping in her way and grabbing her arm. 

“LET GO OF ME!” She shrieks. 

Bobby keeps a firm hold on her. “Now you need to calm-”

He’s cut off by the woman reaching into the pocket of her jacket, pulling something out that Buck can’t quite see, and thrusting it into Bobby’s abdomen. Bobby’s breath catches. His eyes widen with a pained expression. 

“BOBBY!” Buck shouts, sprinting for him. 

He stops short, Eddie grabbing the back of his shirt, when the officer draws his gun and points it at the woman. 

⚖️

An hour later, the woman - Carol, it turns out, her name is - has been arrested, and Buck is waiting in the ER. 

She stabbed Bobby with a pen. Hard enough to cause damage, but not sharp enough to kill him. Still, there was a lot of blood. And Bobby paled so much he passed out briefly in the ambulance. It’s not a blade wound. It’s not like the time Buck found Chim bleeding on the cobblestones out front Maddie’s apartment. But it’s not good. Not at all. 

“He’s not going to die,” Hen says firmly in the waiting room. She still needs to wash Bobby’s blood from under her fingernails. “We’ve all survived way worse than this, right? He’s going to be just fine.”

And Buck knows she’s probably right. She usually is, for one thing. For another, Buck knows it’s not the worst injury anyone has ever sustained. Bobby will get it cleaned and patched up and he’ll be just fine. 

But Buck is still furious. He has anger curling in him, tight and hot. Ready to burst at a moment’s notice. 

When Athena shows up, worried and just as angry as Buck that this has happened, she fills them in on what happened. The pieces they missed.

“The two women who were initially attacked, Carol Brandt and her sister, Vanessa, were visiting on a trip from Utah. Apparently, they’re local leaders in some sort of multi-level marketing scheme. Have been arrested before for an altercation with a former member of their downline. A downline which includes today’s perp, who followed them and confronted them about shady practices.” 

“So Bobby got stabbed over some essential oils?” Buck asks, tone snappish. “That’s what you’re saying?”

“I believe this is protein drinks, but yeah,” Athena confirms, pursing her lips. 

And Buck… He just can’t handle it. 

He stands abruptly, eyes brimming with tears. He feels so tired and frustrated and… And unable to cope. 

“Sorry, Athena,” he mumbles, then he makes a bee-line for the exit. He doesn’t give a reason or excuse. He just needs some air. 

---

63 for 🔼 (Haha yeah Eddie and Maddie need to interact, but for now, at least I've got imaginary Shannon & Maddie):

---

“You have to talk to her, Dad. Please, you do,” Chris begs. 

“Uh…” Eddie thinks. “What’s the name of the game, Chris?”

There’s a long pause. 

“Why?” 

Ah. He doesn’t want Eddie to know. Well, that’s not lending credibility to his story.

“Because your mom likes to make you happy,” Eddie says. “So if she said no, there’s probably a reason. And I’m wondering if that reason maybe has something to do with the game’s rating.”

Another long pause. His eyes are downturned. 

“Christopher,” Eddie presses. “What is the game rated?”

“M,” Chris admits finally. “But only because-”

“Yeah, see. No,” Eddie says. “Your mom is absolutely right, Chris. You are too young to be playing a game with that rating.”

“But, Dad-”

“No buts, Chris. It’s inappropriate. End of story.”

Christopher’s expression twists with fury. He’s mad mad. Well, tough. Shannon was right. Eddie isn’t going to undermine her or let his kid play some traumatizing, violent game at his age. 

“I’m sorry it’s disappointing,” Eddie says. “I know you miss your friends.”

“It’s not fair!” Chris protests. “I don’t get to do anything with anyone. Not even you!”

Eddie’s heart hurts for his son. Here he is frustrated by too much time with his friends, while Chris is over there lonely. Sure, he’s got his mom. And he’s got his sister. But what good company is a baby, really? He’s needing something he can’t get right now, and it’s no one’s fault. It’s just the world right now.

“Chris, I know this is really hard-”

“No! You don’t!” Chris interrupts. “You get to be with Buck and do things every day!” 

Eddie sighs. “I know. I know it isn’t fair.”

“No, you don’t,” Chris grumbles. And then, without even saying goodbye, Chris hangs up the phone. 

Shit. 

◀️

Shannon can hear Chris call Eddie. Despite saying she would talk to him. Whatever. He’s allowed to call his father. Just… It feels underhanded, right? Trying to convince Eddie to make the opposite decision to hers without talking to her. She’s mad. 

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

fight the future part 2

waaaah! what a point we left off on last night. i want to leave a few random thoughts here so that you must click the “read more” link and therefore i shall prevent the girlies who, like me, are only now getting around to watch txf, from major spoilers….

so, thoughts of no particular importance:

scully likes her soda sweet and takes pleasure in teasing mulder :)

mulder is a big ol softie and he seems to not drink alcohol very often (BUT he does occasionally go to the bar)

and they live in different parts of the city! i assumed they lived closer because they are always at each other's place

i like scully's outfit :)

skinner is like an uncle to me

okay, an actual recap beneath the read more link...

i left off last night with the syndicate promising to take away what mulder loves most… what he cannot live without (dramatic cut to scully). the virus is mutating and maybe earth has been a pawn of the aliens this whole time. and since mulder and scully and kurtzweil know this, they must be dealt with. dun dun DUUUUN!

girl, i don’t watch this show for the aliens, i watch it for the slowburn and vague spooky aesthetic. so i hope they figure out the black oil and what not.

but the black oil made the fireman have an alien baby… is it because he was cold? they don't usually get to keep those exposed to the alien virus cold. or is it because the virus that the fireman caught had mutated to the point of producing new life? why didn’t krycek and mulder and all the russian gulag guys have an alien baby when they got oiled up?

shrugs. who tf knows. 

so, i left off at 54:42, and now i must reload the DVD to this point in time. the DVD is so fuzzy and the captions are different from what they are actually saying which is equal parts endearing and annoying, lmao

okay. back to scully and her very cool suit in the desert. she had to have been hot as hell. 

well, it doesn’t look like much of a dig site, but mulder makes scully pinky promise that the fossils were infected with the same stuff she saw at the morgue.

insert that (it fucken wimdy) fox here as mulder’s hair and suit gets blown around in the desert

ooo, how convenient! a brand new playground right over where once a dig site lay. mulder is going to sniff around that newly installed grass, point out that it is brand new, and then talk to some local kids on bikes.

they kids say they can’t talk about it and they don’t believe that they’re FBI agents. and why is this?

“cause y’all look like door-to-door salesmen” <- LMAOOOOO, SCULLY’S SMILE I’M DYING!!

well, a quick show of the badge gets 'em to snitch. so much for the shady government's bribery for silence with new bikes. and off the agents go, in the direction these small children point.

RACING DOWN A DESERT ROAD IN A WEIRD LITTLE CARRR YEAHHHH!!!! SUCH IS THE LIFE OF OUR FAVORITE AGENTS!!!!

LMAOOOO they don’t know which way to go… scully says right and mulder says left… so he barrels ahead straight BAHAHAHHA

“fives years together scully, how many times have i been wrong? never! not driving, anyway” <- LMAOOOO this is a terrible thing for a man with no sense of direction to say 

shoutout to this little grey nondescript car going on quite the adventure

as always, i wonder what they talk about as they drive for hours and hours…. it’s night by the time they roll up to a…. fence?

ohhh, scully is mad :(

“this is great, this is fitting”

“of what?”

“i have to be in washington DC in 11 hours for a hearing, the outcome of which might possibly effect one of the biggest decisions of my life, and here i am in nowhere, texas, chasing phantom tanker trucks” <- AWW MY GIRL IS STRESSED TF OUT!! and can you blame her?!?

too bad they didn’t have zoom back then to do a virtual hearing…

she’s about to tell him she does NOT have time to track down alien viruses (and it is so funny that she straight up asks what he isn’t telling her) when a train appears!!!! time for more chasing!!!

bro is driving up a hill….. and they see something weird…. domes?? big glowy domes??? in the distance!!!!

use the large man to forge through the cornfields that are mysteriously growing in the desert!!! this is an excellent tactic, scully!!

what if the corn has smallpox? like those bees and the honey that we saw before?? please be careful!!

dome time. why does the door open right up when they approach!!! and more it wimdy time as their hair blows about!!! yeah, scully, fix that wind tossed hair!! 

the inside of the dome is temperature controlled and making a weird humming noise. mulder puts his head to the ground as if he’s listening for the floor’s heartbeat. 

NOOOO, THE BEES ARE RELEASED!!!! the smallpox bees!!!!! or some other virus-having bees!! SHE CAN’T SEE WHERE SHE IS GOING SO HE GUIDES HER THROUGH THE BEE STORM.......... OHHH MY GOD….

he asks if she got stung and her hair is all messed up :( 

what if we were coworkers and i was blinded by bees so you took my hand and led me through the storm...........

RUN!!! helicopters approach!!! escape into that cornfield!!! she gets down, but he keeps running. 

NOOO, HE CAN’T FIND HER!!!! he’s doing his famous “scully” screaming!!!! WAHHHH

(i always admire how he never seems to have to inhale before letting out the longest "SCULLLLLYYYYYYY" of all time)

after lots and lots of screaming, they find each other, and i imagine they will also swear off corn mazes for the rest of their life. which is probably fine because they didn't have much appeal anyway

NOOOOOOO, scully is almost late for her hearing, but is now dramatically trying to make herself look okay before going before the scary panel, and not appear as if she has been attacked by smallpox bees…. she wants to make a good impression :(

she’s trying to present the fossils to the panel!!! they don’t seem to like that she went back to dallas

meanwhile, mulder is back at that dingy bar. which has a big moose on the wall. to talk with kurtzweil!!!

NOOOOOO…. a bee is on scully's neck…. 

kurtzweil only guesses that the crops and bees are for spreading a virus, which is NOT pleasing to mulder. fight fight fight in the alley!!!! how do you only take a GUESS about that critical information?

OH NO, SOMEONE IS WATCHING HIM!!!

back to mulder's apartment and the fishies, and he looks through a scrapbook… he has a scrapbook in his desk?? from his father? or is it a bunch of pictures from his childhood he put together himself? hard to tell, but either way, a surprising detail for him. and he finds kurtzweil in there!!! hanging out at a picnic!! oh shit, he really must have known his father!!

(i kind of thought he might have been lying about the whole thing)

scully arrives. “what’s wrong?” “salt lake city, utah. transfer effective immediately” <- NOOOOO, SHE CAN’T DO UTAH!!!! she needs her caffeine!!

so she handed in her letter of resignation….

oh my god, i can tell i’m going to want to quote this whole thing and my fingers cannot move fast enough 

SHE DEBATED ON EVEN TELLING HIM IN PERSON??? she was just going to DIP??

“we are close to something here! we’re on the verge”

“you’re on the verge, mulder. please don’t do this to me” ohhhh…. oh scully….

WHAT?!?!?!??

“i need you on this” “you don’t need me, mulder. you never have. i’ve just held you back” <- YOU CAN’T SAY THAT??? YOU DID THE SCIENCE AND FOUND OUT THERE WAS A VIRUS?? look at his face when she says that…..

oh, he is not going to let her walk away!!!!!!

(what is on his wall…. it looks like some sort of architectural art print thingy)

angry man follows her out!!!!

“why did they assign me to you in the first place, mulder? to debunk your work. to rein you in, to shut you down” 

“but you SAVED ME!” <- OH MY GOD….. i knew she saved him, we all knew she saved him, but to hear HIM tell HER that information will make me fall to my knees and WEEP

“as difficult and frustrating as it’s been sometimes, your goddamn strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times over” OHHHHH MY GOD…. tell her what she means to you…

“YOU KEPT ME HONEST. YOU MADE ME A WHOLE PERSON” MY JAW DROPPED????? did he feel like a half person before her????? oh my GOD?? i feel like i always type "tell her what she means to you" and it NEVER happens, which makes this incredibly satisfying to hear

“i owe you EVERYTHING. and scully, you owe me nothing” OH MY GOD???????? oh my god. hey hi guys!!! can you hear me screaming??

(augh... still losing it over this line after watching it all. the writers so clearly favor him and his worldview and just writing his character in general so to hear mulder acknowledge that he owes scully is just... so perfect)

“i don’t know if i want to do this alone. i don’t even know if i can. and if i quit now, they win” 

oh she’s crying….. and they hug…….. and he bends over to hold her head…. 

AND SHE KISSES HIS FOREHEAD…….??

(still screaming about this btw. stand on your tippie toes to kiss that freak, scully. oh, the intimacy of a forehead kiss, it's always going to punch me in the gut)

and he holds her face while she cries…. are they gonna kiss……. OH MY GOD THEY’RE GOING TO KISS?? THE MUSIC GOT ALL INSTRUMENTAL??

NOOOOO!!! something happened. okay, hold on, i need to watch all of this again for my own sake. 

she got stung by the smallpox bee, but hold on. i need to see this again. i need to see this man desperate and telling her she deserves the world once more. look at her crying. oh my GOD. are these tears of goodbye??!!! and the forehead kiss…. how he puts his hands on her face, and she has a hand behind his neck……. 

AND THEY BOTH LEAN IN FOR THE KISS, BUT HE APOLOGIZES…….

“ow! jesus!” “i’m sorry” oh, he looks so embarrassed to have violated a boundary- OHHH MY POOR MULDER, YOU SOPPING WET TEDDY BEAR- so she clarifies that “no, something stung me” 

she pulls the whole bee out and he peeks into the back of her shirt to try and see what happened, rubbing the back of her head to comfort her (hey guys. oh my god??!? are we all seeing this or is this some sort of figment of my imagination??)

“mulder? something’s wrong” he’s still grabbing her shoulders and he says “what” so softly…

“i’m having lancinating pain in…” “what?” “my chest”

this diva… she might be dying but she is going to use the medically accurate words for what she is experiencing… and i love that about her <3

“my motor functions are being affected” she says as he’s trying to hold her, panicking, saying her name 

oh my GOD (again. hey god. i keep invoking your name. i just wanna say thank you for these characters) he lays her down on the floor, but she has just enough energy to say that she has no allergies, so this cannot be anaphylactic shock!

NOOOOO!!! he calls 911, but as they take her into the ambulance, the paramedics think it’s an allergic reaction and are ignoring mulder when he says it might be a virus!!!!!!!!

WHAT THE FUCK??? THE DISPATCHER PULLS OUT A GUN AND SHOOTS HIM IN THE HEAD????

my jaw is ONCE AGAIN on the floor………… what the fuck!!!! how are they going to get out of this sticky situation!!

meanwhile, an infected body is being brought somewhere…. to CSM!!!

WAIT, SHIT, IT’S SCULLY????????? i thought it would be the fireman from before who exploded!!!!

WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HER, YOU SICK FUCK??!!

who is bickering over mulder……? THE LONE GUNMEN YAAAAY! “cowardly lion, scarecrow, and… toto” <- AWWW he can’t even be mean to byers because everyone loves him 

so they must not have aimed at his head very well if he can still speak...

he wants to go get scully now, but ENTER SKINNER!!! “mulder, EASY, EASY, you’re staying right there!!!” <- OHHHH SKINNER…. this man wants to just go find his partner, but needs skinner to remind him he literally almost JUST died…….. skinner points out that "they" will know if he leaves!!!!

“tell me where she is, i’ll look” “i don’t KNOW WHERE SHE IS, but i know someone who might” (oh, he’s so whiny when he says that………)

(god. after seeing it all, i'm imagining skinner going instead of him to find her. i mean, i know mulder never would have let that happen, but just picture some sort of alternate universe where it did, and all of the things that i write about next took place between skinner and scully... it would have been very interesting)

((and my god, skinner's desperation, offering to go in his place...... he really loves them both. i get choked up about it))

langley wants to help. “what can we do?” “you can strip byers naked” “what?!” “i need your clothes” AWW, POOR TOTO!!!

i have rewatched this scene like 5 times because they put crack in skinner forcing him to lay back down. mulder takes off the bloody headband…….

and he gets out wearing byers slash toto's clothes!!!! run, run man who just got shot in the brain!! i am sure that this is a good thing for you to be doing instead of resting!!! (heavy on the /s)

i know skinner was mad as hell to see him go LMAO. alas. he is an unstoppable force.

kurtzweil is loitering about an alley, presumably waiting for mulder, when WELL-GROOMED MAN APPEARS!! leave him alone……. but no, he is not alone, for someone else pulls into the alley…

mulder’s at the bar, and it seems his presence has killed the party vibe. he runs out the back, looking for kurtzweil, but well-groomed man is closing the trunk!!! he says he’s come and gone!! oh lord!

well-groomed man says that if mulder gets in the car, he will give him the location of scully and how to save her……… and he gets in the car, very suspiciously… where are they taking him?! this has to be a trap. 

well-groomed man says he has vaccine and her coordinates. and it has to be administered VERY SOON. 

so it’s NOT smallpox in the bees this time, it’s an alien virus from the original inhabitants of this planet.

so the aliens never fully left?? because they were the first ones here on earth. they went underground and evolved into a pathogen??? waiting to be reconstituted and use us as hosts. and we have no defense. 

huh! answers! how rare are those for this franchise? i still wanna know about the alien bodies with the vaccine scars in arizona, though, from the anasazi arc. i have a feeling they will never come. but i WANT them.

so, well-groomed man (and i assume the rest of the syndicate) thought that the mass infection would simply make us a slave race, but it began to gestate?? 

man. y’all gotta stop trying to make scully have babies. make mulder have the babies. he has the oil in him!!!

so they’ve been working to secretly develop a cure. but mr. mulder didn’t buy the whole plot.

“he sacrificed my sister. he let them take samantha”

“without a vaccination, the only true survivors of the viral holocaust will be those immune to it- human-alien clones. he allowed your sister to be abducted to be taken to a cloning program for one reason”

“so she would survive… as a genetic hybrid” 

OH SHIT!!! so was mulder NOT the favorite child??!

not sure how i feel about getting so much rapid fire plot explanation in one hefty dose after a slow and tiny drip for 5 seasons. and the retconning this does of the existing lore...

“your father chose hope over selfishness. hope, the only future he had: his children” <- well. he still let the aliens take her. like, i get maybe he was trying to do the right thing, but i’m not sure how much that’s worth when that was his baby girl that he gave to the aliens.

and he hoped that mulder would fight the future (woohoo!! they said the name of the movie!!) and uncover and stop the project. no fucking pressure, right?? geez. mr. mulder and i need to fight it out.

well-groomed man says that soon he will die, and that he is telling mulder about this whole evil plot for the sake of his own children, hoping he can stop it. but he doesn’t answer where kurtzweil is… 

mulder would like to get out of the car NOW. is he gonna hitchhike from some random alley?

OH SHIT, well-groomed man says he was ordered to kill kurtzweil AND mulder, and he WHIPS OUT A GUN and KILLS THE DRIVER?!! BLOOD!! AND BRAINS!! ALL ABOUT!!

“trust no one, mr. mulder”, he says

so the colonists don’t know the vaccine exists?! i guess that gives them hope! they just have to make a ton of it!

"find agent scully!!!! go now!!!" (well-groomed man pulls out his little gun again and tells mulder to gtfo)

OH SHIT!!!! he gets back in the car and it blows up!!!!!!!!!!!

look at that rumpled, bloodied mulder on the ground…….. his shirt unbuttoned a little at the top….

it is a good look.

RIP my bestie well-groomed man… sorry i called you the wrong name for 800 years… it was for consistency’s sake…. you weren’t a great guy, but i guess you did what counts in the end

(unfortunately i knew he was going to die because that time i googled his name to make sure i was spelling it right (and i wasn't), i sadly encountered spoilers. but this is still a bummer. now his grandson has broken legs AND no grandpa. rough day for the kid)

let’s go to antarctica now!!! LMAOOOOO it’s mulder in a big jacket driving a…. thingy!!! he’s gonna find her, don’t you fucking doubt it for a minute!! even if the fuel is low and it is hard to see!!!

(after seeing the whole film i'm laughing because they did not include any context at all as to how he GOT to the end of the world right away to go rescue her. i am pretty sure you cannot simply roll up to antarctica, especially on such a time crunch. but you know, i guess the plot had to happen)

NOOOOO the fuel 💔 he's all out!

okay, so he’s at the exact coordinates where well-groomed man said he would find scully, but doesn’t see anything except for a rocky hill. climb that hill!!! see what is on the other side with your binoculars!!

and what is on the other side? igloos!!!! and vehicles!!!! it looks like the empire strikes back out here!!

NOOOOOOO, he falls into a sinkhole!!!!!!! not after he just got shot!!!!! this has to hurt so bad!!!! his poor head!!!

he decides to go deeper into the cavern, where i fear some aliens may be in there. 

me, anytime i see a cave system: oh, this is JUST like skyrim

he finds a whole labyrinth with all sorts of cave and crypts and people buried in the snow……….

back on the surface, it’s CSM driving the antarctic buggy thing outside the igloos? wow. he is multi-talented, i guess. i wonder when he got his cold weather buggy driving certification. his resume must be so long

mulder is still exploring this… underground city thingy. it looks like blackreach. to me. there’s some sort of conveyor belt thingy. 

he must find his scully!!!! and not slip…..

NOOOOO, he fell down a giant slide!!! AGAIN, his poor head!! please don’t fall into the abyss!!! is the vaccine okay??? did it crack and spill everywhere? eeek, that gave me vertigo!!!

okay, so death by falling from a tall place has been narrowly avoided.

NOW WHERE IS SCULLY???? he finds her clothes and her necklace!!!!!

these people are in ice cubes, and she must be in there somewhere!!!!

he found her in an ice cube or glass tube-y looking thing all naked and frozen, and he’s bonking it, trying to get to her :(

CSM realizes there is some sort of breach while mulder is trying to break scully free from the goop and ice. and he is trying to inject her with the vaccine…. is she even in there???? 

oh my god, there is some sort of like… tube thing?? it’s coming out of her mouth???? 

oh my GOD, stop torturing her!!!!!!

(gagging thinking about the mouth tube in retrospect. icky!!!!!)

he breaks her free!!!! “cold. i’m cold” “i’ll get you out of there” SHE IS GOING TO FREEZE!!! WE NEED TO GET HER A BLANKET NOWWWW

CSM says everyone in the base needs to evacuate NOW, but mulder won’t make it out, so they don't have to bother trying to track him down

god, he’s laying her down like the pieta, and wrapping her in his coat….

(i hope he pocketed her necklace; i couldn't tell if that happened or not)

the scientists and CSM are fleeing as mulder tries to haul her up the ladder…. but all of the goop and ice chambers are melting!!!!! the aliens!!! they will get loose, won’t they??

she says she can’t keep moving, so he hauls her over his shoulder…….. but the alien!!!!! 

she can’t grab the vent because she’s out cold!!!! and the alien is getting mad!!!! there is no time for all of this!!!!!

mulder must give scully CPR while the angry beasts look around……..

SHE OPENS HER EYES!!!!! and he's holding her head, telling her to breathe…

“mulder… i had you big time” <- OHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOD…. their smiles at each other…………

(this will devastate me for a few centuries at least)

meanwhile, all of the aliens are breaking free, and they are mad!!!!!! are they going to get his legs??? 

crawl through the vents!!!! get out into the ice!!!! pull that poor scully around like a rag doll before everything blows up!!!!!

it’s all falling in and the ice is collapsing!!! run, mr. track star, run!!!!

NOOOOOOO, THEY FALL!!!!!!!

so this whole base thing they just escaped from.... it’s a giant UFO??!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is now flying away from them???!!!?

he wants scully to see, but she can barely open her eyes….

(appreciate the commitment to preventing scully from seeing these things LMAO)

are they just going to lay down and die out here??! holding each other????

now she’s holding him!!!!!!!!! cradling his head!!!! ANOTHER pieta tableaux!!!!!! oh!!!!! how tf are they going to get out of there???????

GIANT HOLE where once a spaceship was!!!!!

well. SOMEHOW, they escaped. and how? this is never answered. which, like the lack of context as to how mulder got to antarctica, is deeply amusing to me. the writers didn't think about it that hard. i feel like they never do. still, i feel deprived of a scene where skinner comes and saves them!

scully is before the hearing team again!!! they don’t believe her report!!

so they’re burning down the crops and saying that they cannot investigate what she wrote in her report.

she angrily approaches and presents the honey bee, saying she doesn’t think the FBI has a team that can handle the evidence she has presented!!!!!!

skinner looks at the lady in charge... what does he want to say to her……..

and mulder reads a news report about the “fatal hanta virus outbreak in northern texas” being contained. was he waiting for her??? outside of her hearing!!! :(((

they’re just going to bury this, too…… she told them everything

she wants to go over their heads, but he doesn’t!!! “how many times have we been here before, scully? right here, so close to the truth. and now with what we’ve seen and what we know, to be right back at the beginning with nothing!”

“this is different, mulder”

“no, it isn’t! you were right to want to quit, you were right to want to leave me, you should get as far away from me as you can. i’m not going to watch you die, scully, because of some hollow, personal cause of mine. go be a doctor. go be a doctor while you still can” 

“i can’t. i won’t. mulder, i’ll be a doctor, but my work is here with you now. that virus that i was exposed to- whatever it is, it has a cure. you held it in your hand. how many other lives can we save? look…. (she grabs his hand) if I quit now, they win”

so they walk off, holding hands :,)

WAHHHHHHH. "my work is here with you now" (LOUD SOBBING. SHE FOUND HER PLACE IN THE FBI)

cutscene to tunisia, where CSM finds another cornfield in the desert!!! so there must be more of these dome thingies. ohhh, they know him in tunisia. and he brings up mulder; “oh that name, again and again” LMAOOO get him random tunisian guy

“one man alone cannot fight the future” <- YEAH, WELL HE’S NOT ALONE. HE HAS SCULLY AND THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. IDIOT!!

(CSM hands a paper to the tunisian guy, who walks away sadly)

it says…. X FILES REOPENED!!!!!!!!!!! YEAHHH BABY, WE ARE SOOO BACK!!! go sadly smoke in a desert cornfield, you murderous dweeb!!!

THAT IS THE END????

wait, hold on i better watch the credits for all this. there is even a song playing. and it sounds very 90’s. 

so!!! they simply moved to a new alien plant farming base in tunisia???

so where do we go from here? how are they going to destroy all the other domes of evil bees and toxic corn and alien bases? what about the aliens who got loose from the collapse of that ship? did they get crushed or are they Out There? will the alien colonists know that there is a vaccine now because scully was saved, or will the humans be able to cover it up?? i have so many questions as to what just happened and also what will happen next!!!

(pauses to cheer at gillian’s name in the credits)

blythe danner is a hell of a name. 

woah…. what am i thinking about?

i am thinking about how scully wants to save lives. forever and ever. and how mulder wants The Truth, and therefore their wants intersect, even if they approach it through different methods. and i am thinking about mulder wrapping scully’s naked and frozen body in his jacket and then stopping amid alien explosions to give her CPR. “had you big time” 

and i am thinking about how there was no in-story explanation for them getting out of antarctica. but you know what? it doesn’t matter 💔

(i lied. it does matter to someone like me who needs continuity or my eyeballs start twitching)

and i am thinking about scully steadying mulder on their commitment to move forward. 

and i am thinking about the scene in the hallway, the way he told her that needs her, that he is nothing without her…

wait, what the fuck? i left the credits on, and now the foo fighters are singing 

okay. “i’m on your back”, they are singing. right, right. 

see, i was really lost in thought there, but the fighting of the foo just threw me off. 

oh my god. “i cannot be without you, matter of fact”, they sing, and yeah, that’s Them. 

thinking of scully cradling his head as he lays in the ice…… 

thinking of the attempted kiss, and how mulder apologized because he thought he was violating a boundary (especially after scully had told him to “go home, you’re drunk” a few days before) and how he thought he somehow hurt her, but it was a sting!! it wasn't him that hurt her or broke her trust!!! and how scully described all of her symptoms with medical accuracy as she fell so that he could tell the doctors what she was feeling…

and i am also thinking of skinner trying to shove mulder back into the hospital bed………

wow. i have so much to think about. forever and ever. and i can just rewatch this whenever i want.

so, what did i actually think of the movie?? i liked it!! the dialogue was great and the character development was (chef’s kiss). it was weird to have so much plot when we are used to all of the alien stuff being slooooowly drawn out. and then well-groomed man was like “let’s have a story time in the car before i blow everything up!” which felt tonally off after 5 seasons of veeeeery slowly learning information about the aliens and the syndicate (and then half the time, whatever we do learn about the overall mythology of the series is immediately called into question, leaving us with only murky ideas, such as "there are aliens" and "they can change shape" and "the green goo kills them")

what matters is putting our characters in a situation and seeing how they play out. i don’t really tune in for the aliens. and while i do wish there was more consistency in the myth arc, again, ultimately that is not what i’m tuning in for. i watch for the undying devotion and some general spookiness.

so the aliens turning into people, or oil going into people and growing into aliens... or the oil BEING the virus that mutates and gets you alien pregnant... i don’t really understand that. so they had to cut krycek’s arm off so he didn’t grow an alien baby? and mulder, like, burned his out or something?

or was it the virus that causes you to grow an alien??? and that virus is from the bees and not from the oil? but the fireman that had the whole chest burster thing was hit by the OIL, not a bee!! did they put the oil in the crops and then the bees pollinate the crops and then they sting you and the oil goes in?? or is it evolved from the virus???

girl. i just don’t know. 

skinner :((((( my uncle :((((((

AND THERE ARE EXTRA FEATURES!!

oh boy, i will surely have lots more to say at some point in the future, but now i want to see the EXTRA FEATURES. this is big for me, because i barely know anything about the behind the scenes stuff. so i shall learn here and now.

[instead-of-sleeping]

The other-realm

I had to speed writing this and It isn’t proofread, so I’m sorry it isn’t that good or doesnt make much sense. I think that my favourite part of this AU is transforming the game mechanics in in-universe things, anyways enjoy :3 (This is inspired by this post by @brittle-doughie)

Something was wrong. And It is only a matter of time before it gets worse.

For the past days, every time you tried to sleep you would have the same dream: floating in a dark blue space.

The first time was dazzling, like stargazing but you were in the middle of the stars.  Then a chill down your spine.

“Every cookie keeps a sneaky little secret.”

And you were in your bed again, the clock showing it’s midnight.

You recognise the voice, how could you forget that clown after all the harm he has done, but it was just a nightmare, right? 

Your subconscious playing with your memories.

No one was coming back, No one was in danger, everything was fine and you didn’t have to go back to that damned place again.

Just a stupid nightmare.

Needless to say, falling back to sleep was much harder.

That morning between the usual kingdom matters and your friend’s’ letters, there was one different from the others. What a coincidence…

An invitation, as guest of honor, for “Shadow Milk Cookie’s great masterpiece of deceit, where the truth-”

“No.”

Why things couldn’t be just coincidence for you?

Well, actually It didn’t say it was him but like come on! There was literally his face; and it was so satisfying to see it ripped in the trash can.

But it wasn’t hearing his voice again that night and the night after.

Now eyes were watching, multiplying and giggling at your every move.

And every time you woke up the invitation would be in your bed with a small present, that would go directly to the fireplace, whatever was inside it you didn’t want to deal with it.

Of course, the clown kept tormenting with his ominous words

“Don’t lie to me, I know you still like me!”

“It’s no use to try escape… Deceit would swallow you whole”

“Deceit existed since the beginning of Earthbread, and Earth…”

“Your whole life is a lie. Welcome to my world!”

Honestly, such edginess should be studied.

Like the dark circles under your eyes.

Now you should go to do your every day activities, but your head hurt  like hell, the bed was simply too comfy to get out and the Swan knew how you needed the rest, even after it’s been months since dealing with a Beast 

Nothing could make you get up.

Except that knocking on the door.

Still in your pijama you could feel the floor was colder than usual, and wasn’t like ten in the morning why the shadows were so dark?

Opening the door revealed Pure Vanilla, judging by his face he too wasn’t doing well.

“Look, Pure Vanilla Cookie; thanks for coming all the way here but if you are trying to convince me to go to Beast-Yeast again”

“Do you know anything about the Beast-Binding ritual?”

[scaryscarecrows]

Tim is absolutely concerned that a Jokerized Batman is roaming Gotham. He’s a little more concerned that a literal army is invading Gotham. But right now, he’s just. Awkwardly sitting here.

Barbara’s alive, he keeps telling himself. Babs is okay. It’s a great feeling. Not that it’s helping him at all. He’s still stuck here, with nothing to do besides fiddle, for the thousandth time, with his communication unit and exchange steadily more commiserating glances with Harley Quinn.

“Hey, birdie. Wanna play pat-a-cake?” She grins at him, broken, and starts clapping slowly, sometimes putting her hands flat against the glass where he’s supposed to mimic her. “Aw, c’mon, Robin! We’re stuck ‘ere ‘til Bats comes to let us out.”

“He’s not letting you out,” he reminds her. She shrugs.

“Yeah…probably not. Oh, well…I could get used to Mistah J with bigger shoulders.”

Tim shudders. He doesn’t want this conversation. He’ll fix this. Bruce might have to spend some time-a lot of time-locked away, but he’ll fix this. He’s not really showing symptoms, there’s still time, he can—

BAM!

Oh no.

“Secure the area,” someone growls. “Get those doors locked down, fix the voice recognition lock. I don’t want him getting back in here if he gets loose.”

Well. Shit.

“Yessir.”

Tim’s fingers tighten around the little canister in his hand. The Arkham Knight was here before, God knows why, and he…took pity, is Tim’s best guess, tossed him a thing of mace. Held him at gunpoint the whole time, but still. Him-or his men, anyway, Tim hasn’t heard the man himself-being back here can only be bad.

But he’s not going down without a fight.

“Aww, miss me?” Harley calls, leaning against the glass. A second later, one of the soldiers enters the room. “Didn’t yer mama ever tell ya to take yer hat off to a lady?”

He ignores her in favor of nudging Henry’s bloody corpse and calling, “Hey, boss, you want me to move these outta the middle of the floor?”

Presumably the Knight is here, then. But he doesn’t answer.

“He says yeah!” somebody shouts from the elevator.

Okay?

This isn’t weird, not to the guy, because he leans down, grabs Henry’s wrists with a grimace, and starts pulling.

“Hey, Robin,” he says. “You, uh, you need food or anything? You’re not gonna die of dehydration in there, are you?”

No. These cells have the sad ‘healthy’ energy bars Bruce hands over if anyone dares to say, ‘hey, B, I’m hungry, how about Goth-King?’ They also have water bottles.

“You could let me out,” he says flatly. The guy stops mid-drag and fixes him with an exasperated expression.

“How stupid do you think I am.”

“Most thugs in this city are pretty damn dumb.”

“You know what, that’s fair.”

He doesn’t even try to move Albert King. He looks at him, sure, but then he calls over, “Trent! Come move this guy!”

“Chihuahua,” a voice rumbles in amusement. The other man holds up a middle finger.

“You’re just a freak. I’m not moving him when I can make you do it, so c’mere.”

Another man, this one around Albert’s size, enters. He laughs at the first one before leaning down, grabbing the ankles, and pulling the big man’s remains off towards the side.

Others file in, now. A man with some kind of computer and an antennae strapped to his back, a medic, a—

Holy shit.

Tim blinks, hoping he’s having a moment of…of…tired. Stress. Something. He’s not. Jason Todd is still standing not ten feet away. He’s older, obviously, but even without the brand on his face, he’s still recognizable.

It makes sense, in a horrible sort of way. They never found him, not even a…a likely match. The only thing they had was that tape, and Robin’s burned, bloody cape. Sure, Tim wouldn’t have thought he could do something like this–Jason was reckless and impulsive, this seems way too calculated–but he has the motive, and…well…

Oh my God.

Jason’s (??????) holding an ice pack to his throat, and the medic’s hissing at him like an angry goose.

“—talk, I said, keep your mouth shut, I said! You pay me to know this shit! That is my job! You are making it very hard for me to do my job, and so help me, if you make so much as a peep before I clear you—”

They’re just…completely ignoring him. He guesses it’s better than killing him, but. What do they want? What is going on around here?

Jason starts coughing and an older man thumps Medic between the shoulders.

“Good going. You broke him.” Then a gentler, “Maybe siddown, sir. You don’t look so good.”

No. No, he doesn’t. Ice pack aside, scars aside, he’s swaying on his feet and he looks green. He doesn’t fight, either, when the older man guides him to the examination table and gives him a nudge to make him sit down.

“There we go…you good? You’re not gonna pass out or anything?”

Jason shakes his head and adjusts the pack against his throat before flopping onto his back and rasping, “Gimme a minute.”

“No talking!” Medic shouts from across the room. He is ignored.

“Drouot.” First Man-okay, so he has a name now-is there in seconds. “Bring Robin up to speed, I can’t—”

“You got it, boss.”

Tim is so confused. They don’t seem to be here to hurt him, but they’ve been trying to kill Bruce all night, and Jason isn’t as dead as they thought and—

Drouot comes over to stand in front of the glass. He makes no move to let Tim out, but he does seem to be doing his best to look non-threatening. Well. As non-threatening as possible, being armed to the teeth and all.

“You doing okay in there?”

“Spare me the good cop routine.”

“You try to be nice…fine.” He straightens up and clasps his hands behind his back. “Our understanding is that Batman’s ability to fight the effects of the TITAN disease is shaky at best, and we have secured him to prevent him from harming others. Namely us.” He gives Tim a chilly smile and Tim wonders, then, how much these guys know. “Scarecrow’s Cloudburst was probably the catalyst—” What. “—but in hindsight, he’s been, uh. Not okay for most of the night—”

He’s cut off by Harley pounding her fists on the glass and screaming, “He’s takin’ afta my puddin’, and he’s gonna be perfect! You leave him alone, ya big meanie!”

Everybody cringes, and the big guy, Trent, twists around and steps over to her cell.

“Zip it, clown.”

Harley peers around him and lights up like a Christmas tree.

“Baby boy!” Huh-oh. This can’t be good. “Where have you been?”

Jason lifts a hand to flip her off before letting it dangle off the table. Trent smacks his palm against the glass and growls, “I said, zip it.”

“Make me.”

He looks tempted. Instead, he looks down at the keypad, pushes a button, and the soundproof panes slide into place. Harley isn’t happy about this. Drouot rubs his temples and mutters, “Too many freaks in this town…should’ve just blown it up from the sea and picked through the rubble for the bastard’s remains…anyways. I don’t like this situation any more than you do—”

“You took Gotham hostage!”

Drouot’s eye twitches. Behind him, the computer flashes red as somebody types on the keyboard. Harley’s blurry shape continues pounding on the glass. A Riddler trophy glows sickly green in the vents. (That had been wild-a bunch of robots had just…come in, placed the trophies, and left. Except for a few of them that went deeper into the studio and never came back.)

“I was going to let you out to try and stop Scarecrow.”

“He’s your boss.”

There’s a burst of offended chatter. Drouot looks like he wants to bang his head against the nearest wall.

“He’s a client, and that contract has been terminated at our discretion due to. Ah. Creative differences.” There’s laughter behind him. “And also a critical lack of communication, and unnecessary endangerment.” That’s their problem. It’s not like Scarecrow’s ever made an effort to hide his motivations. Well. Unless he has a bigger, more horrible plan to unveil. “And he creeps me out, so I don’t feel too bad.”

Does Tim recognize that as an attempt to convince him that they’re friendly? Yeah. Does he care? Only a little.

“That’s sort of his thing.”

“Really. I had no idea.” He looks at the keypad. “Are you going to leap at me and try to bash my head against the floor if I let you out?”

Honestly, probably not. He could get this one. He could feasibly take one more before the others start shooting, but if they’ve locked down the front door, who knows what else they’ve done. The odds of him getting out of here alive after mounting an attack are slim at best. For now, playing along is his best option.

“No.”

“Want me to open the cell, sir?”

Jason’s sitting up again, slumped forward with his free hand steadying himself against the side of the table. For a minute, Tim thinks he’ll say no-expects him to, even-but he nods, just once, and rasps, “He tries anything, put a bullet through his head.”

Ouch.

“Yessir.”

Drouot taps at the keypad until the door opens and steps back. The computer is no longer flashing red, which is disturbing, given the circumstances. But it’ll alert Barbara, if she hasn’t been already. Who knows what she’ll be able to do, with Bruce…somewhere…, but he’ll take it.

Jason looks at him and Tim…Tim doesn’t know what to say, if anything. How, exactly, do you make amends for…for…everything, basically. All of it. He hadn’t really expected, or wanted, to be Robin. He’d wanted Batman to stop half-murdering people, to help find Robin.

Something tells him that’s not going to go over well with Jason, or his little bodyguards. Uh. Big bodyguards. Minions.

“Thank you,” he finally forces out. Jason shrugs.

“I don’t like this any more than you do.”

That’s not surprising. This is one of the top five most awkward moments of Tim’s life, right after telling Bruce Wayne, ‘you’re Batman’ and having a horrible stare-off for two whole minutes.

“We’re sure he’s not, like, Joker Junior or anything, right?” Drouot says from behind him. Oh, that is it—

“Yeah. I mean, I’m all for bludgeoning him over the head and taking a blood saaaaample—”

“Stop. Talking.”

“—but I think Batman did that already, because his file’s clean.”

Of course Jason’s seen his file. Tim doesn’t think he likes this tidbit of knowledge.

“I’m standing right here.”

“That’s good.” He just said-! “What now, boss?”

Jason eyes Harley’s cell and swallows a few times before saying, “Sweep the whole building. You see any jack-in-the-boxes, shoot them from a distance, they’re explosive. Leave Riddler’s bullshit alone.”

“Yessir. You, uh, you coming with?”

“No. Robin and I are going to have a talk--no. I do not need a babysitter. Get going.”

They go, but none of them look too pleased. When the doors are shut, he stands up and makes his way to the computers to bring up the cameras. Tim wonders what to do.

“I thought about killing you, you know.” Where’s his staff. Bruce took it from him earlier and he would like it back. “Thought maybe I’d send your corpse back to B in a bird cage.”

Well. This is awkward.

“I’m…sorry?”

Jason snorts.

“Been hearing that a lot tonight.” He frowns and taps the intercom button. “There’s a back entrance behind the haunted house set. Seal it off.” Somebody throws a salute at the camera. Jason stumbles back onto the examination table and drops the half-thawed ice pack down next to him. “I’m not telling you where we left him,” he continues. “He’s out of control. He won’t stop laughing.”

Brr. Tim’s grateful, a little, that he’s been spared that sight. Bruce laughs, it’s not that. But his laugh is…warm. Deep and easy to miss if you’re not listening. Something tells him that’s not what was happening.

“What are you doing?”

“You didn’t really think I went into this without having a ‘ruin Scarecrow’s life’ plan.”

“I thought you were friends now.”

“You thought wrong.”

Maybe.

Tim considers trying to knock Jason out; there’s sedatives in that fridge, fast-acting ones. But he doesn’t know where Bruce is, Scarecrow is at large, and he’s not sure about, like allergies. The last thing he wants is to accidentally kill Jason for real this time.

Or for those sedatives to take a little too long, thus giving Jason the opportunity to kill Tim. That’s not good, either.

“Don’t get any ideas, Drake.” Damn. “You’re out of that cell because this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. Try anything, and I will put you down.” The or my men will is very much implied. “Scarecrow has Gordon.”

Somebody always has Gordon. Tim likes the man, but...but...honestly, over the years, he’s been kidnapped more than all three Robins combined.

His face must say as much, because Jason shrugs and says, “I know. Shocker, right? We know where he is, we’re going to handle it. But as much as it pains me to admit it, you can make yourself useful.”

[karebear923]

Okay I just watched the first episode of The Heart Killers!!

It is 12am now and I just know I’m gonna fall asleep standing up tomorrow 😴🪫 (today?) but gosh that was so good!! I’m not expecting much except to be entertained and that’s what I got!!

I can’t believe Style was that flirty and sassy with Fadel before his deal with Kant! Like that was just him being himself! 😄

My favorite part of the ass-grab moment wasn’t even the ass-grab. It was FirstKhao smiling at each other!!! Ooooh that got me giggling and kicking my feet more than anything!!

I love music but I always pay more attention to the official OSTs than the songs chosen for background, but this time I’m paying attention to all the songs! I gotta look some up cause there were so many good ones!

The visuals are stunning, this is looking like a big production! Sets, props, costumes, amazing! But was it just me or was the audio really bad? It sounded kinda fuzzy/echoey and it seemed to be only when they spoke, not the background music so I don’t think it was my earbuds? Idk if anyone else had that issue, I didn’t see anyone post about it.

Aaahhhh that was so good tho! I can’t wait for more!!!

[ironunderstands]

Sunday’s worldview sucks, his outlook and perception of himself and others sucks… and that’s why he’s so interesting

In honor of his drip marketing releasing tonight (or maybe yesterday for you depending on when I get this out), I’d like to talk about why I think Sunday’s beliefs and perspective is very, very flawed and how his own biases rather than the actions of those who oppose him are what led to his downfall.

Sunday is entirely responsible for his own failure, and that’s exactly why he’s incredible.

This contains mentions of leaks and spoilers for the Penacony quest line… you have been warned

To start with, oh my lord do Sunday’s preconceived notions kick him in the ass. 

I think the best example of this is his conversation with Dr. Ratio in which Ratio pretends to betray Aventurine, selling out his plan to Sunday. Now, what’s incredibly interesting about this exchange is that Ratio doesn’t fully lie to Sunday once in this exchange, rather he says half truths and makes vague statements which Sunday himself interprets as being in support of him. 

Take what Ratio said the whole, “A scholar knows their position and wouldn’t forsake it for the sake of petty pride.” In retrospect, we know this line is actually referring to Aventurine- aka Ratio is saying he’s not just going to sell him out to Sunday for the sake of information about the Stellaron (which he would get anyways if the IPC attained Penacony, plus Mr. Incredibly Dedicated Knowledge Spreader probably has other means of gaining it then through The Family). 

However, since Ratio answered the invitation Sunday gave him, Sunday assumes that Ratio is on his side, believes his cause is righteous, and that he won Ratio over with offering him information about the Stellaron, therefore making that previous statement of Ratio’s null, because Sunday interpreted it as, “convince me this is worth my time + prove to me you’re correct,” when it really meant, “there is no way in hell I’m about to sacrifice my friend to you, and there is nothing you could offer me to make me do so you crazed lunatic.”

But why did Sunday not weigh the options? Why did he unquestioningly believe his perception of the situation was the correct one?

Well- partly it’s because Ratio and Aventurine were doing their damndest to make it seem like they hate each other and that their plan was going off the rails.

But the more important part is that even without Ratio saying a word or even accepting the invitation, Sunday already believes he’d be on his side. 

Let me demonstrate this through Sunday's perspective:

I am a righteous person, I am doing the correct things, my worldview is the correct one. Dr. Ratio is also a righteous person who seems to be doing the correct things. Therefore, since we are both on the side of good, and Aventurine is clearly not on that side considering his status as Stoneheart and his negative relationship to Ratio, then Ratio will naturally want to be on my side. After all, the good guys work together, do they not?- and together will vanquish this evil villain.

This perspective is a simple one, but Sunday’s unshaking belief (up until the end of 2.2) that he is 100% in correct and in the right, that any and everyone who he also perceives to be in the right (like Ratio) would believe/side with him without truly needing to be convinced. Sunday doesn’t come out the gate offering the Stellaron information- he only keeps it as a backup just in case. 

However, this is complicated because Sunday is also not an idiot, and he’s extremely paranoid, so he’s going to make sure that the way he views the world is 100% correct on the off chance he’s wrong which could foil his plans- which is why he invited Ratio in the first place. Nevertheless, this isn’t him hunting for new perspectives, but rather him desiring to prove himself right again, which is a bad thing because Sunday is very much not right. 

A perfect world is a perfect pris- *gets shot*

Reference that approximately 2 ½ people will get beside, Sunday’s ideology that he is fully confident in.. sucks. It sucks ass, it’s terrible, and let me explain.

I’m not going to try going over all the little intricacies to how the dreamscape works because I a) don’t know and b) don’t particularly care because they aren’t relevant to the argument I will be making- which is that Sunday’s ideology is inherently flawed and immediately falls apart under scrutiny.

Essentially, he desires to create the perfect fake reality, enveloping the whole galaxy in Ena’s dream and fulfilling their every desire and whim within it, with himself as the sacrifice to allow it to exist. The seven rest days, no illness, no pain, no challenge, you get the idea. 

And, this perfect world paradoxically sucks ass because of its perfectness.

Improving society is great, eliminating hardship is great, increasing quality of life is great.

But declawing reality itself- absolutely not.

I’m going to try to explain this through my favorite strangely specific anecdote- the process of obtaining diamonds in Minecraft.

Stay with me now.

You essentially have two options- go out and mine them yourselves the hard way, which takes hours, gives you less diamonds per the amount of time spent on it, and likely with you exhausting some of your resources like food, torches, and tools which you will need to replenish.

Or.

You can just.. get them from creative mode or commands, and you can get as many as your heart desires.

However, despite the fact that option one is harder, gives you less diamonds and takes significantly more time, I, as well as hopefully you, would pick it every time (at least in a survival world, although honestly idk why you would even need pure diamonds in creative).

And that’s because the first option is rewarding. 

You did not earn the diamonds you easily and magically summoned into your inventory, there is no struggle, no journey, no challenge to it, therefore it feels entirely unremarkable, as compared to the feeling you (hopefully) get from mining diamonds, which makes you happy because you earned it. Yeah, it was harder, but the process itself is fun- the anticipation of not knowing when you’re going to find them, if at all, the danger, the fighting and digging and mauvering you will have to do in the process.

And with this unconventional example, the fatal flaw with Sunday’s ideology is revealed- it’s boring. 

It’s boring as shit.

Yeah, for the first few months or even years it might be enjoyable- having everything you could ever want served on a silver platter. However, humans are a) inherently a bit greedy and b) desire challenge, and this scenario fulfilles neither of those things. Naturally having everything means your desire for more can never be fulfilled, leaving the wanter forever unsatisfied, whereas in the real world, things are truly out of your reach, meaning that even if you never end up getting them, they are still a tangible thing just out of reach… as strange at it sounds, we like being tantalilus-ed more than you think. After all, if what you want is so easy to get, you will never run out of things to want, and eventually that gets draining. 

Continually, if everything is easy, if everything is just right there whenever you want it- existence itself no longer has stakes. 

And that’s the problem, because much like how a story with no stakes is extremely hard to find compelling, a life with no stakes feels boring at best and downright pointless and meaningless at worst.

I’m just saying, there is a reason why the Nihility was such a strong presence and problem in Penacony.

Anyways, like with the diamond problem, a lack of stakes means that nothing you do feels rewarding, because you didn’t truly earn it. 

Which is where the Sunday’s idea of a “perfect” reality falls apart, because the most enjoyable reality for humans to live in is not one literally devoid of any possible flaw.

So why does he believe in it? When it’s so clearly flawed?

Well, it’s because Sunday doesn’t think a better alternative exists.

The world made you this way.. and you chose to continue what it started.

I’m sure I don’t need to repeat the story of the Charmony Dove all over again because trust me, we’ve all heard it before. Nonetheless, it reveals something important both about Sunday’s personality and his ideology- he’s fundamentally a defeatist.

He doesn’t believe that there is any alternative for the dove, that it could ever be able to fly again with its deformed nature, so instead of being “cruel” and letting it “inevitably fall to its death,” he’d rather keep it in a cage all its life where it has no freedom, but at least it would he alive and “happy”.

And this is where his defeatism reveals itself- Sunday doesn’t believe reality itself can get better because improving it when there are so many factors and things out of your control is hard at best and impossible at worst. Therefore, he resorts to creating an escapist, false version of it- a perfect golden cage, because constructing that is far, far easier than trying to help the dove fly again. 

The universe has endless possibilities, if Robin and Sunday had tried hard enough, they probably could have found a solution. Sure, they were both children, so the capabilities necessary to even attempt that were likely far out of their reach. However, it was still possible, but Sunday doesn’t believe in possibilities- he believes he’s right above all else, which is where that stubbornness and arrogance comes into play again.

Sunday doesn’t think better solutions than his exists, and he believes everyone would could possibly stand in his noble way are either villains, or horribly misguided; so it’s his job to show them the light.

This is why he lets the Express Crew + Firefly try to change his mind- Sunday wasn’t actually interesting in shifting his perspective, or really what they wanted to say. Rather, he just wanted to let them say there peace, because well, Sunday’s a good, righteous person (at least from his perspective), and good, righteous people listen to others. Good, righteous people will let these poor, ignorant souls offer their foolish words before exposing them to the harsh truth- or at least that’s how Sunday sees it. 

Moreover, this also explains his arrogance. If he believes his worldview is the sole correct one, then why listen to anyone else? He’s this world's savior, or at least he’s been raised to believe that- so why not relish in it? He enjoys punishing Aventurine, enjoys the bastard who stood in the way of Sunday’s plans, shrinks away in “defeat” and get what he “deserves.” Despite how miserable it sounds, Sunday also takes pride in having to be a martyr to bring about his beautiful dream. The belief that he is a selfless, good person is a selfish desire of his, even if a genuine one, and it’s what leads to his downfall.

Sunday could have actually listened. He could have reevaluated his loss to Aventurine and realized it was not through the others clever deception, but through his own biases. He could have actually taken the Express’s and Firefly’s advice. He could have looked for other avenues to help the people he truly does care about. 

Despite Gopher Wood’s manipulation- Sunday’s decision to go forward with the pain is entirely his own, because he truly believes- even with all the evidence for the contrary- that he is correct.

And that’s why he fails. Not because of the Express. Not because of Ratio. Not because of Aventurine. Not because of Gopher, or even the rest of The Family.

No, Sunday fails because he is flawed, and he is wrong, and he is the arrogant, selfish and biased one, and his worldview is wrong.

So what now?

This might have seemed like I think Sunday is pure evil and irredeemable, but I think it’s quite the opposite.

He has very good intentions, and he does genuinely care about it the well being of other people around him. He gives Aventurine a chance to prove his innocence, even if he never intended on changing, he does listen to what the Express + Firefly have to say. He pauses when Robin shows up, as she’s the one person (until the very end) he’s actually willing to accept the perspective of. The whole reason he ended up here in the first place is because Gopher Wood twisted Sunday’s good intentions into a fatal arrogance and utmost belief in a flawed worldview. 

However, what really sells me on Sunday’s goodness is when eyes widen at that final moment, the light draining from him as he realizes he is wrong. 

And once Sunday realizes he is wrong, those flaws that bind him can finally be examined and improved upon, as they all stem from that worldview he no longer believes in. 

His whole life, Sunday has been enacting out someone else’s plan for him, even if he’s come to internalize it over time, at the end of the day- it was never his, and without it, he’s empty.

Which is exactly why the only place he can go now is the Express, and the only thing left for him is redemption and growth.

Dan Heng is right- Sunday has a noble soul, and now that he has stopped believing in himself, he’s no longer shackled by the past either. Improvement or utter demise (in a likely nihility-flavored manner) are his only options remaining.

I understand a lot of people want to see him become a Stellaron Hunter, but imo, that just does nothing for him. He’d still be following someone else’s path/script, and Mr. I Will Sacrifice My Whole Existence To Become The Sun To Illuminate These Wandering Souls probably wouldn’t be so on board with the whole.. terrorism part of being a SH. Like yeah, they are our friends (kinda), but they absolutely kill innocent people and cause millions of dollars in property damage to people who don’t deserve it. 

Also, being on the Express Just Makes Sense. This is a game about choices, a game about accepting the mistakes of your past, but not letting them define you in order to move on and forge a better future for yourself and others- with the Astral Express + Trailblaze as a concept being the literal embodiment of it. There’s a reason when you switch to the Trailblazer’s POV in stories, it includes Kafka’s most important words to us- “When you have the chance to make a choice, make one you won’t regret.”

Therefore, I hope the choices Sunday will make in 2.7 are ones he’s proud of, and I can’t wait to see how exactly they get him on board with the crew, because there still is a LOT of development he needs to do before then. 

Anyways, thank you so much for reading, and if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them. This was a stream of consciousness mess, but I hope it was still valuable nonetheless! Also if you are reading this on the day it was written, I hope we don’t get disappointed by his drip marketing!

[xskyll]

Page 15, for the second time! Apologies to those that saw the version I posted last night with the typo. My days lately have been busy, so sometimes I feel a bit brain foggy. A couple of people left comments on either here or Twitter and it killed me to delete everything. ;_;

Prev / Next

First

[fingertipsmp3]

Maybe I did this to myself but it does irk me when people see me knitting and they ask who it’s for and I say it’s for me and the immediate reaction is “you should sell it” yeah… let me spend at least a week’s worth of my free time making an item I like, want, and would wear just to sell it on etsy, making at most a £2 profit on materials and not being compensated for my time whatsoever 👍🏻

[everywaythatmatters]

Wheel of time season two is so fun so far oh my god the actors are absolutely killing it!!!! I adore Dónal Finn’s Mat and the weaves look amazing and Rand wearing the red coat and literally everything about Egwene and Elayne and Nynaeve is just sooooo good

[tequatls-favorite-spoon]

my art from the na vs art party!! took me a lil bit cuz i wanted to color it and that meant cleaning up the sketches and then i wanted to shade them and hajsksldhaflk

the characters from left to right:

Quinn Teeling - @sunsrefuge

Ambrose Wolfsbane - @commander-gloryforge

Finnegän - @pinecone-enthusiast

Astrëllä - @ohpollenpowder

[apostaterevolutionary]

You know what would be really funny, is if people came together to have an anti-crab day. A day where every user who joined prior to automattic’s acquisition logged off for 24 hours to show that yes, actually, older user retention is important and you should listen us just as much as new users

The users giveth, the users taketh away