#anyway. having a moment about it before the new ep

[mistresscitrusslice]

The Season 2 Opening. We Must Discuss.

First of all, small beans. Instead of static, lifeless statues, this time we get moving humans. Mel features significantly more than I expected, so she'll probably be a much more major character than I expected for a non-champion character and I'm so happy for her. I believe the use of moving people instead of statues signifies that immense change will be happening. What we thought was literally set in stone in Season 1 will be turned on its head in Season 2.

Okay, on to the really concerning matters.

Yuhuh. Jinx moves too fast for me to get a good screenshot, but she gestures like this around her face a lot. I think we all already know about the Caitlyn-Jinx parallels, but my sister suggests it could be a red herring for the actual resemblances she has to Silco.

Sis gets credit for the following observation, but Caitlyn's daydream sequences about shooting Jinx are controlled and clearly separated from reality unlike Jinx's.

However, sis has not seen ep 2 yet, where Caitlyn does have that moment in the arcade where she shoots her vision of Jinx among the wooden dummies. Not only does this more closely resemble Jinx's hallucinations, it also parallels Jinx shooting the harmless crow in s1 e5. By the time the strike squad are about to leave, she can clearly tell that what she thought might be Jinx was really just a harmless wooden standee. Startling, but harmless. She shoots it anyway.

Caitlyn is totally gonna spiral more, and maybe she'll start losing her grip on reality too, but for now, she has more in common with Silco than she does with Jinx. Did anyone else get reminded of Silco's coat when Ambessa put the supervillain cape on Caitlyn? The collars don't look similar but they still eerily resemble each other, you get me?

Ok back to intro stuff

Vi wipes off her name from her face. That's two tattoos that are rendered impermanent in this opening theme. In the Fenty x Arcane video, they mention that Mel's golden freckles are tattoos. Later in the intro song, we also see her golden freckles gone. Change, impermanence. That seems to be a theme here.

Vi is literally erasing her name from her face. In any normal circumstance, I'd say that means she wants a change of identity, a desire to start over. However, I know that Vi's League lore involves amnesia. Does she really drink herself into that bad of a stupor? Jkjk. I assumed that her amnesia was replaced by the Stillwater imprisonment to explain how she got topside and with the enforcers, but perhaps I was wrong. Maybe they do still intend to go the amnesia or partial amnesia route with her.

The teasers implied that Vi shares the genetic trait that has Jinx predisposed to hallucinations. It's possible that this eventually contributes to her loss of memory, but I wouldn't call it quite yet. However, if this happens during her emo era when I'm assuming she has no support system, she'll be very vulnerable, unlike if it were to happen while she was still partnered with Caitlyn, in which case they could easily fill in most blanks in her memory.

I have no idea what to make of this. It's clear as day what they're paralleling, but why? Why the flashlight scene? My best guess is that they're trying to draw on déjà vu, implying a repetition of history, but why this particular moment? They could've easily chosen anything else in Jayce's s1 arc. He has many more memorable moments than this. Let's see, I'm literally making this up as I go.

This meeting was a pivotal moment for Jayce. Both his meeting with Viktor and his meeting with Mel changed his fate. The Viktor one is pretty self-explanatory, but without meeting Mel, they would've both just gotten exiled or locked up again. With Mel, they had someone in power who could vouch for them.

That begs the question, is Jayce meeting someone new? Or is this a reintroduction to someone he's already known before, a new meeting after a long time apart or after a significant change, maybe a change in them both. I believe it must be someone who was involved in the original hallway scene.

Jayce is either looking at Mel again or at Viktor. Given the amount of Viktor/Mel parallels in Season 1, I believe Jayce is looking at Viktor after he's undergone his likely final evolution. That'll obviously be another pivotal moment for him... but will it be a good one like it was with Mel? Viktor has power now. He's performing miracles. He's, like, two steps away from parting the Pilt River like it's the Red Sea. He seems to hold a grudge against Jayce, though, for *checks notes* saving his life? Jk I know he feels like he's losing autonomy and like Jayce didn't respect his wishes with the Hexcore and Jayce obviously couldn't let Viktor die when he'd fought so hard to stay alive before.

Anyway, I feel like this could easily be both a good omen and a bad omen for Jayce. More than anything, I feel like it'll be an epiphany. He is quite literally seeing the light. The light at the end of the dark tunnel? The light of the heavens at the end of his life? The light of a revelation sent by a god he once knew as a man?

Seeing Mel screaming bloody murder during the opening, this was the first place my mind went to. The pose doesn't match up exactly, and Jinx/Powder's screams are definitely wilder, but I feel like there's definitely something here. Is there anyone else who screams like this, thrusting their head forward and keeping their arms back?

We also see the shadow hands from this earlier shot:

I'm thinking of the Black Rose (is that their name?) kidnapping her in thin air, incorporeal hands reaching at her and snatching my joy the love of my life Mel away. It could also represent people grasping at the power Mel wields, both as the wealthiest Council member and as a Noxian princess, one of the closest people to Ambessa, the one wielding the most power right now.

Mel is really out of her depth right now. Her power and influence is up for grabs if she dares to blink and let her guard down. I'm also surprised that we don't see her fight back at all when there's danger around. I thought she might have more battle experience as she was raised by Ambessa. For those people wondering about her magical powers, I think she would've used them by now if she had them. Council attack aside, which could've been Viktor's magic, she wasn't able to do anything about the memorial attack or her own kidnapping. I think they're trying to show us that Mel is not as untouchable as she presents herself. Under the right circumstances, she's just as vulnerable as any civilian.

The sliver of light? My sister pointed out that it looks just like the crack of light between two double doors. Almost closed... or barely open? It appears in pretty much everyone's shot in the opening, but it's right down the center of Mel's face here. Is she torn between two sides? Is this about an impossible choice she has to make?

The spotlight is also on her. That's two sources of light. It looks like a red sun. All eyes on her as the surviving voice of the Council?

And her expression... shock, fear, horror. The heavy breathing, the look on her face... I feel eerily like I've seen it on someone else before. I can't place who, but I'm getting déjà vu from this. Does anyone else recognize this expression and these mannerisms?

[daincrediblegg]

people who say foundation is bad and badly written fundamentally misunderstand that it's space lord of the rings and I have literally no idea what they're talking about

[ratatoastwrites]

Playing house

Spencer Reid x gn!reader

[this was specifically written with s2 bratty(suffering from withdrawal)!Spencer in mind 🧚‍♀️]

Synopsis: “has a PhD in engineering and thinks that Ikea manuals are for stupid people” boyfriend vs “isn’t really a good handyman but is determined to follow the rules” s/o get into a bit of an argument 🫢

a/n: it’s me woo! did y’all miss me? 🌝 ofc u did!! 🥰 jkjk but umm i was inspired to write this bcuz i actually got a new chair from ikea a few days ago and i almost ripped out all my hair by the time i managed to put it together ✨ i was listening to the Like a Prayer EP from deadpool & wolverine for the whole two (2) hours it took me to put it together as well lmao 🪑 also, the pic on the left of the moodboard is my own ikea manual on the exact page i messed up!! fun 🧚‍♀️ also, did u guys like that i included a synopsis this time? i hope u did ;)

cw: light angst, arguing about something that shouldn’t really be a cause of an argument, reader has one (1) violent thought but doesn’t actually mean it and also doesn’t act on it ofc, allusion to Spencer’s addiction/withdrawal, some kinda unhealthy thoughts, Spencer is a bit 🤏 of an asshole in the beginning, mostly fluffy ending, also kinda rushed ending which is my bad :( sorry

“This is stupid. And you’re doing it wrong.”

You scoffed in exasperation at your boyfriend’s complaints, but otherwise kept your focus on the task at hand.

You’ve been trying to assemble your new desk chair for the past half hour, while Spencer loomed over your hunched figure, like an unhelpful little devil on your shoulder.

“Well, why don’t you do it then?”

You mumbled under your breath, not necessarily wanting him to hear. He did anyway.

“Well, I would. If you weren’t so insistent on using the manual.”

You could quite literally hear the eye roll in his tone, and while you usually didn’t mind his bratty attitude, right now it wasn’t helping your already frustrated mood.

“Oh, right. Silly me, using the manual that tells me how to assemble this piece of- furniture.”

You had to try your hardest not to start cursing, not wanting to let this swedish nightmare of a chair get the better of you. Spencer sighed behind you, and you were secretly hoping that it was a sigh of resignation.

“I have a PhD in engineering, do you really think that I don’t know how to assemble a chair from Ikea?”

Your hopes were proven to be futile, just like every other time you found yourself not seeing eye to eye with your boyfriend. You took a deep breath, not wanting to turn this petty argument into an actual fight.

“I don’t know, Spencer. And I’m not interested in finding out. I just don’t understand what you’re trying to prove by refusing the very idea of using the manual.”

Your tone became a little sharper by the end, although it wasn’t actually aimed at him. As you read over the manual again, you realised that you messed up the last step, cursing quietly under your breath as you had to undo the last eight screws in the armrests.

“Good thing you were using the manual.”

You were seriously contemplating throwing the screwdriver at your boyfriend’s smartass head after his smug comment. However, you just slowly put it down instead, before standing up from your place on the carpet, ignoring the crackling in your knees as you turned around to face him.

“Spencer, I love you more than words could describe, but you’re seriously getting on my last nerve right now. I’m going to make myself a cup of tea, do not follow me please.”

You told him with eerie calmness, before walking out of the living room and towards the kitchen.

You tried to ignore the guilt gnawing at your stomach at how annoyed you’d gotten over something so trivial. You knew that he was going through a rough patch in his life, and you couldn’t blame him for being more annoying than usual. But you couldn’t always have the patience of a saint, and you were already quite worked up about that stupid chair.

‘I just need a few moments of peace. Then I’ll go back and pretend like everything is okay. As per usual.’

You tried telling yourself, blocking out the voices saying how unhealthy that sounded.

You went through the steps of making your tea, doing your best to silence the myriad of emotions swirling in your chest. By the time you finished your hot beverage and put your cup in the sink, all your previous frustrations were gone, replaced by only tiredness. The weight of the day weighed on your shoulders as you dragged yourself back to the living room, although the slight aching in your muscles quickly faded to the back of your mind when you took in the sight waiting for you in there.

“Wh- Spence?”

You were dumbfounded as you looked at your boyfriend, who was standing next to your -now assembled!- chair with a sheepish smile.

“I, uh, put it together for you. All according to the manual, of course.”

His tone was almost shy, and he gave you the sweetest puppy dog eyes imaginable, which never failed to make your heart skip a beat.

“But I thought the manual was stupid.”

You stepped closer to him, still feeling a little confused, but your gaze softened in fondness as you looked at him. He shuffled on his feet a little, glancing between you and the chair awkwardly.

“It is. But it doesn’t matter. According to the studies, most healthy relationships are based on compromises. I guess I just realised that I haven’t been the best boyfriend lately.”

You frowned at his words, stepping even closer to him, until you were almost toe to toe. You didn’t like it when he talked about himself like that, and he quickly understood your expression.

“You know it’s true. You’ve been nothing but patient and accepting since I… And I can’t even swallow my pride for an hour to help you put together a piece of furniture.”

He continued before you could argue, and your heart broke as he trailed off mid-sentence. You knew that it was hard for him to acknowledge what he was going through, and you really wanted to tell him that it was okay, that he didn’t do anything wrong. But you knew that those empty words of comfort wouldn’t do your relationship any good.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. But Spence, I don’t want you to think that me being there for you is a chore, or a sacrifice. I’m being patient and accepting, because I love you.“

You told him, reaching your hands out to hold his, interlocking your fingers as you smiled at him softly.

“I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. And you being a little annoying about a stupid chair doesn’t make you a bad boyfriend. Not to mention that you ended up putting it together for me.”

You nodded your head towards the aforementioned furniture next to you, squeezing his hand a bit tighter as you smiled at him fondly.

“I don’t deserve you.”

He said softly, tilting his forehead against yours.

“Negative. You deserve only good things in your life.”

You told him, before capturing his lips in a gentle kiss.

The two of you didn’t always agree, and you could both be incredibly stubborn. But at the end of the day there was nothing you wouldn’t do for your beautiful, intelligent, sweetheart of a boyfriend, no matter how much he tested your patience. And you knew that he felt the exact same way about you.

🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️

Bonus badly edited pic of Spencer in my new chair ✨

[mysteriousl0ser]

FUCK IT, TADC EP 2 THOUGHTS MAJOR SPOILERS!! BE WARNED

LETS GO!! Pomni is still pretty screwed up over her first day here, I mean this is all fresh and new to her so like DUH. everyone else here is somewhat or entirely adjusted and kind of just cope with the fact that theyre here I dont think pomni has really processed how long theyve been here?? In the pilot she seems SO bothered by how okay they are with this and willingness to do caines fuckass adventures

i dont blame her, anywho pomni in her nightmare-induced state starts to abstract, she had to face an abstraction early on in her days here which like have to be pretty truamatizing (duh) and cried out to ANYONE, but where she called for help literally no one helped her “oh well” they though

Pomni doesn't feel like anybody else cares, shes the only one whos still going through an adjustment phase and freaking the fuck out while everyone else is just going along with the adventure, something she still thinks is kinda pointless and doesn't get why anybody would waste their time here doing when they COULD be looking for a way out, why is she the only one who seems to still be distressed here? To feel lost? At least from her perspective, it seems that way. Unfortunately, these people have already been here for a while.

Pomski then meets someone whos just like her, their whole reality was shattered and they don't belong anywhere, mirroring how pomni feels at the moment, even if she still has some sort of grip now vs when she first got here

And she finds comfort in that!!! Why is it that this NPC feels more real than the ACTUAL REAL PEOPLE trapped here with her??? Whatever the reason, its something to hold onto. Something to LATCH onto. Hes Real. or at least he feels real, and maybe she feels like she belongs with him because at least he knows the feeling, something shes not really felt w anyone else before

This comfort and solidarity she has with gumigoo is shortlived however as she gets brutally reminded that he wasnt real. The anchor she had vanished and there's quite literally nobody to catch her fall.

And i feel like ragatha trying to comfort her the way she did didnt help AT ALL. it was kinda a sore reminder that gumigoo is easily replaceable, and GOD thats so frustrating?? This thing felt so real to her and nobody seems to care that he just vanished!! If they could be so apathetic to this whos to say they wont just treat her demise just the same as she thought they would???

But then something important happens. They have a funeral for Kaufmo, someone whos been established to be their friend way before Pomni ever came here. And maybe it didn't ever settle in before that kaufmo was a real person! Literally!! And he was real to them. Just like gumigoo though less directly they relate to being in pain and kind of in shock of losing someone who they cared about and who was a real person to care about to them AND LIKE YOU CAN SEE WHERE IT CLICKS IN HER FACIAL EXPRESSION HERE, THE CHANGE IN HER EYES AND THE WAY HER EXPRESSION LOSENS AT THIS IDK IT DRIVES ME CRAZY GOD THE ANIMATORS WENT OFF W THIS EP VS THE PILOT IM IM IM

anyways anyways They have their funeral service, theres quite literally no reason for anyone to just lie and go along with whatever bs caines got going on, this also quite literally has nothing to do with him. This is kind of their own little way of keeping some sort of human traditions and respect for the human persons that get stuck here because they care. HELL you can even see pomni feel a little guilty here when ragatha says that his funeral was disrupted cause she arrived here

anyways thats exactly it!! They fucking car!! This whole time pomni thought that they just didnt care and were kind of apathetic or downright patronizing her over all this and mocking her or whatnot, like in her dream sequence. But no, they all talk respectively about their memories and experiences with kaufmo, the things they shared together and the feelings they had. EVERYBODY was grieving. Ragatha who always tried to put on some cheerful and kind of irritating (to pomni at least) everythings fine facade (which also kind of feels less real to her at least i think so but i don't think she figured it to be a coping mechanism) to just straight up start crying and breaking up a bit, even mentioning how this does not ever get any easier and how shes had to deal with this plenty of times before.

Zooble the usually apathetic and kind of asshole who keeps to themselves and gives off i don't care energy and probably gave off the impression that they didn't care about anyone here and just treated the people stuck here as an unfortunate fact and nothing more actually being vulnerable and probably doing the same as ragatha talking about their memories with kaufmo

Kingers ALWAYS kind of zoned out or not really taking anything seriously and just being there completely lost in space, but here hes grounded, and even earlier in the episode when ragatha needed it most he remained grounded then too (tho pomni didnt see that i just wanted to mention it). Just like the others he grieves and lives in the unfortunate moment

more of the kinger being grounded when the thought counts

GANGLE- dude even if its for just a moment she smiles here despite having her tragedy mask and like her whole shtick is being of whatever mood or emotion her mask is allegedly wether she wants to or not, but no here shes more than just that, she smiles for a bit when reminiscing her moments with kaufmo only to go back into crying, and man shes always crying with her tragedy mask but its beyond as far as anyone can tell wether or not its really her or just because of her mask, but here? its really her, no matter what the mask on her face shows!! shes genuinely smiling despite having her comedy mask and shes genuinely crying which is very blatantly obviously different to the usual mask cry etc etc

heres something about all this, it hits pomni in a way. These people ARE real, and they care. They care about her, they have nothing else but eachother and THATS something to latch onto. Thats something to hold her down, even if they just met pomni

SPEAKING OF JUST MEETING POMNI she literally expressed how she didnt wanna just LEAVE gumigoo there by himself because she believes no one should just be left there

the circus peeps just met pomni and just like how she felt a real connection to gumigoo in this digital hell she feels a sort of connection with these people too. Theyre gonna have her back all the same, maybe she wont feel so out of place and alone. BONUS THING!! The literal only times she genuinely smiles is when she feels this real connection to what feels real to her and has a genuine and sincere moment with these people whether it be an npc or a trapped member. Idk it just means something to me how significant both these moments are tipped off with a genuine smile a REAL SMIE!! (id add pictures but tumblr has a 30 image limit) OH ALSO BONUS BONUS THING THE DIFFERENCE IN OUTRO MUSIC IS SO IS SO ITS SO the outro song for the pilot kinda feels so ethereal and out of the moment at least to me it kinda feels like it you're slipping through the cracks and just, existing within yourself as the rest of the world around you kind of shatters into glass or melts into water or something i dont think ANY of that made any sense but its loud and its blaring and its so out of reach in a way, mad disassociation vibes but the outro song for the 2nd ep is a lot quieter yet its right there, at first it starts really small, lonely even. trapped by yourself but as the music gets louder and more instruments join in on the song it kind of has a comforting feel? bittersweet? even? its grounding ina way which is much different from how the first one felt at least to me lmao and the comforting feel kinda only emphasizes what I was talking about earlier- the comfort in having that anchor of reality with having a real moment with these people and making that connection yk? and like as i was saying at first the song starts off with just one instrument, at the start of the episode pomni feels utter alone and out of place even if these people here with here are stuck in the same situation as her, together alone. but as the other instruments join. in it kinda uplifts the song a bit, its not one sole instrument anymore like how in the end pomni feels that connection with everyone else, not so alone anymore idk jackshit about music theory so this is entirely a feelies talk instead of like- music lore? so don't take anything i say as like- idk some professional speak im just a nerd nerding about silly digital fixations ANYWAYS THATS ALL FOR NOW I AVE MORE TO SAY BUT THIS IS LONG ENOUGH LOL if you actually read all the way down this far thank you for listening!!! i really really appreciate it :]

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Flake (from about 0:04) reading for Drecksack evening 2024-10-18

Topic "His better half" which Flake first mentions is his wife, who everyone who knows them will say is definitely his better half, but then moves on to the actual subject of the reading: his keyboard ❤️

While doing so, he mentions a couple of nice side-notes (like Flake always does) like the disadvantages of playing with Rammstein

like wanting a little painkiller at the dentist only to be laughed at '....but you play with *Rammstein*!"

or people charging him to pay double for stuff because Bild wrote how many millions Rammstein earn, without mentioning the costs they have

or his place getting burgled because the tourdates are published so everyone knows when he's away (but his place is a bit of a mess anyway so he still doesn't know if something went missing)

has a little dig at guitarists who give their guitars a women's name, Flake names his keyboard just what it says on the label. Keyboards and samplers all have nice long names like Ensoniq EPS 16 Plus, not like guitars which are just called 'Gibson' or something.

When Flake got a real keyboard that he could take along to concerts, his dad got him an old violincase, a straight box, which fitted the keyboard perfectly. For concerts further away it also had room for a toothbrush and some underpants. After Flake got a new keyboard that was a little bit bigger, it still fitted the case, but there wasn't room for underpants anymore.

(After 20 minutes and turning another page he says "such a long text...who writes something like that" 😄)

His band (and himself) got a bit tired of the keyboard and got the idea of getting a sampler, with which you can take random noises and play them with the keys, at 0:30 he mimickes how a sampler works 😊

Flake loves music because it just exists in a moment, then it's gone, there's nothing left. Just air being moved in specific waves (at abt 0h32 he mimickes this) which create sound, it's there when you play it, and then it's gone, and evrything is back to how it was, but different because the music changed things. Just like a concert, it's there in that moment, but after that it's over and that's it, everything back to normal. Just like life..

The Ensoniq sampler was very complicated and you had to think of a whole lot of things to use it, and even had to take care to remove the bits you didn't use, because storage space on the device was very limited, for storage you needed floppy-disks (Flake says he sounds like opa before the worldwar talking about it)

At one show (0h36) Flake wanted to play his solo with a broken down micstand, but then the sampler didn't play any samples anymore...when he tried the old trick of turning the sampler of and on, it didn't even do that. At Rammstein Flake's sampler starts the sequencss at which the whole band takes direction to start songs, so when the sampler broke down, the others just stood there and waited (Flake chuckles mischievously at the memory) 😊 after that he got an external harddrive, and a UPS (in case electricity failed) and had to schlepp more and more stuff to shows, but nobody really noticed because by that time the guitarists had started to a (gear) competiton (bringing ever more stuff)

As there came more songs and Flake wanted to have them all on one sampler to avoid having to changes storage in between, he ran out of keys to put the samples on and often shifted an octave to different keys, until no key actually matched the right note anymore... at this point the band 'with soft pressure' to move with the timds and made him start using a keyboard device linked to an Apple notebook, and Flake was amazed how much music he could now play with the one keyboard. He had to redo all his samples, get used to playing this all new, and what was worst...because all the others in the band used a similar system and actually did understand it, they all felt they could help invent new samples and keyboardmusic, some even better than his own.

With all these electronics, when a loud bang happened on stage or a huge pyro or light went on, sometimes the computer froze and had to be elaborately restarted which took it's time. Maybe that's the reason why you can see Flake dancing or walking around on stage so often.

In the end all the electronics failed too often, and the Ensoniq got too old (like Flake himself he says) so he bought a Nordstage organ, two of them, both having the same sounds on it so he can choose which to use. Problem with that one is that everyone has it, you see it everywhere, like a Volkswagen Passat car, everyone has it, it works, but you'd rather have something different.

(0:43) Imagine saying that about your better half, Flake realises he is a lot better off with his wife 🌺

(couldn't help doing a little 'take'...i miss his podcasts)

[ciaomarie]

ESCAPING INTO A SHIP

So what exactly made me latch onto the Sydcarmy ship like a leech on a water buffalo?

It was unexpected (for me)! Yes, the very first meeting between Syd and Carm did make an impact. I thought "Oooh, what's this?!" However, Carmy was/is such a mess that I quickly dismissed it. And Sydney just seemed to want his professional approval and a partner in making something great after the soul-crushing failure of Sheridan. So, the first season I personally didn't feel a mutual sexual/romantic tension, more like an automatic respect and shared goals/passions. Sydney nor Carm were obviously trying to flirt. Most slow burns on TV are 100% obvious like a Jeanine and Gregory (Abbott Elementary), Nick and Jess (New Girl), Jake and Amy (Brooklyn 99), Jim and Pam (The Office)...Until Braciole Ep. 8 that is.

S. 1 Episode 8- I won't get into everything but Carmy was desolate. Yes, he became a psycho chef and two people quit in Ep.7. However, he mourned Sydney more than Marcus. She was in his flashback/nightmare (?), then the way he told Tina that she looked like Syd (the poor pup), him texting her before opening the note from Mikey, and finally the most gorgeous locked gaze scene since Pride and Prejudice (2005). The soft lighting, the music, the colors, the mind-reading...magical. I still didn't get it initially. Silly, blind me.

Mentorship where??? Season 2 Carm and Syd's "mentorship" dynamic is pretty much over. They are true partners and spending more time together. They're dressing alike even when not in uniform, finishing each other's sentences or talking in unison. Sydney is opening up more of herself and Carm is asking to know more. They use the ASL sign for sorry with each other and no one else until ep 10. Then there's that locker scene in ep. 1 or 2, when they almost hang out just cause. However, Carmy misses the moment and there's the return of the kicked pup face. Before being on the ship I was delighted with all of their scenes and was looking forward to the food tour. They just ROCK together on screen.

Classic Love Triangle- Who's Claire? She's "Claire Bear", the prototypical "cool girl", who is willing to chase an socially awkward, wrong-number-giving man, despite being a pretty ER resident with no shortage of options. Did a CW writer get hired? Anyways, why was her presence used almost exclusively to put strain on Carmy and Sydney's relationship instead of The Bear generally? We could have had scenes with Nat, Richie, and Marcus arguing with Carmy about him being distracted due to Claire. They saved 99% of that for Sydney. They CHOSE to insert her in between or just after scenes with him and Claire. Showing Sydney's tattoos and her getting dressed with the stained chef's coat juxtaposed with them was WILD.

I LOVE that both believe their interpersonal problems are solely about The Bear/business partnership. In most "slowburns" the characters are far more conscious and actively work to keep things platonic. Jeremy might be a smidge aware that Sydney means more to him after the panic attack, but I bet he's shoved it down. All he knows afterward is that being with Claire feels wrong hence ignoring her call and recommitting to SYDNEY. He could of said "You all/This/The Bear deserve my full focus etc..." He was also nagged into greeting Claire at Friends and Family, seemed anxious when Fak brought her up right before The Table scene, and also while explaining that "she's great" to Sydney. He was at peace when focused on Sydney in the moment below.

The actors: Jeremy and Ayo's real life friendship is warms my soul and their chemistry onscreen is amazing. DON'T WASTE IT!!!

Jeremy smolders on screen. I want to see Carmy continue to stare, yearn, fall, then eventually confess and for Sydney to reciprocate his feelings. Anyhoo, does anyone else melt when Carm means business?! They do this twice in season one and it's not good for me. Whew, I need to clean my whole house or run a few miles.

Finally, there's so many other parallels between these two. They are fearful avoidants, have a missing or dead parent, jacked up stomachs, use sarcasm, but are generally very earnest, they struggle with anxiety, are compassionate, are perfectionists, peace-makers, give people multiple chances, are workaholics...so much more. A lot of that is also ME, lol.

Sydcarmy is my Roman Empire. I love them as much as you can fictional characters and they deserve the most tender, angsty, triumphant, romantic best-friends to more love story.

[valentiyne]

𝖺𝗐𝖺𝗋𝖽𝗌 & 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗏𝗒 𝗆𝖾𝖽𝖺𝗅𝗌 ☆ 𝖼𝖺𝗅𝗎𝗆 𝗁𝗈𝗈𝖽

Calum Hood x Famous!Reader Summary: Requested! After 4 years of agreed no contact, one phone call and song takes back all that you've worked for. Warnings: Mild Cursing, Slight of Explicit Content. Word Count: 1k (not rlly proofread lol) Copyright © 2023 Valentiyne. All rights reserved. This original work is not allowed to be reposted on any platform in any format.

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"So, Y/n tell us more about Calum Hood"

A name I hadn't heard in exactly 4 years to the very date.

48 months, 1461 days, and 35040 excruciating long fucking hours.

My face immediately lights up at the name nevertheless, brushing my hair behind my ear nervously,

"Hood? I'm not quite sure what this has to do with my upcoming EP coming out at midnight", I breathlessly laugh out, my eyes locking with the interviewer in front of me. My new work titled, "Bittersweet" was launching at midnight, only containing 4 songs to go along with the 4 bittersweet years I've spent away from him. It was hopeless of me to write about him, but he was the only source of inspiration I could find.

"Well you two had a bit of chemistry as far as we know, is that right?"

Sure we did. We spent over 6 years together on and off, but always came back to each other. He was my rock, my everything, but ultimately we knew it wasn't going to work out.

"Sure we did, I mean it was nothing but a mere innocent crush", I cross my legs now, my shaky hands clasped on top of my knees. The crowd was silent as excited fans packed into the small room to hear the soft launch before midnight.

"Well it was surely more than innocent", she motions to the screen next to us. "This picture was taken four years ago in Bali during the second leg of their tour", I mentally roll my eyes but smile anyway. A few people from the crowd squealed as the iconic picture of us in cuddled up on the beach was displayed, the same one he posted himself as an excuse to have me on his page.

"Like I said- It was a small crush" I was trying to convince myself more than everyone else.

I watch as the slideshow continues on, the screen filled with every single moment in time that Calum and I were spotted together across the world. A few innocent ones of us walking next to each other, to one taken on the balcony of a hotel. We were just kids who didn't know what they were doing- lost in the moment together. He will always have a place in my heart. When things ultimately ended, we both agreed to never speak again- it was only weighing each other down.

"Well I thank you for your time, I hope everyone enjoys the album and finds some comfort in the chaos", I stand up abruptly, extending my hand to shake the interviewer's hand. The crowd cheered quietly as I walked off the stage with a slight wave. I needed to get out of here, I felt like a complete idiot working myself up over someone that I no longer talked to.

I slipped past the stage crew as I shuffled out past the backdoors and towards the parking lot, my fingers fumbling with my keys as I tore my driver's door open and plopped down dramatically. The door shut behind me and I sighed to myself loudly,

That was fucking ridiculous, they didn't even ask anything about me. Just about someone I never wanted to mention. Of course, I could talk about him until the end of time, but it wasn't my place to do so anymore. He was playing sold-out shows every other day and had no worry about a girl back home who happened to have matching tattoos with him, right? The tattoo we shared was of a small flower underneath our ribs, the same flower he gave me on our one-year "situationshipversary" as he called it. It was a silly gesture that I treasured, the California wildflower that he pulled over on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway to pick during peak traffic on the way to my house. It now lay inside a small glass bottle hung around my neck, all wilted like our history.

I pull my phone from my purse, scrolling down to the bottom of my contact list, and clicking on the "DO NOT CALL!!!!" number. I hesitantly dial his number and bring it up to my ear,

"Hey! You reached Calum, I'm away from my phone right now but leave a message!", He declined it immediately, either that or his phone was dead. Not quite sure which one makes me feel better. I roll my eyes at the stupid prepubescent voice and turn my phone off.

I tossed my phone down onto my lap and leaned my head against the wheel. I subconsciously wanted to log back into my Instagram and scroll down an update page to find out anything about him. I had no idea what he was up to or who he was with, it's been years since I've last heard his voice.

"You know this isn't good for either of us, Y/n", he rang through my head as I remember standing on his porch in late July.

"Calum, we've been through this so many times- why can't we just try?"

He runs his hand through his freshly cut hair and shakes his head, "It never ends well, I feel like a fucking lost dog who always limps its way back to you.. I just- Fuck- I can't do thi-"

The last thing I remember was the door closing in my face, leaving me all alone with no closure. I could hear him on the other side, a thump on the door indicating he was leaning against it. I tried for the handle, jiggling it a few times before banging on it, begging for him to talk to me. I couldn't stay mad at him forever, as much as I wanted to. I wanted to scream at him, slap him in his beautiful face, and kiss him all at once.

My phone vibrating snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked down,

DO NOT CALL!!!!

My heart skips a beat, staring at my phone on my lap buzzing away. I bit my lip softly, pulling it closer to my face as I accepted the FaceTime call.

The camera was pointing to the ceiling when I answered, his voice booming loudly as he spoke.

"Hello?"

I let let a breath I didn't know I was holding, trying to gather the right words to say. What was I supposed to say after all this time?

"Cal?", my voice is softer than I had hoped for, the word slipping past my lip like it's begging to finally be let out.

"Holy shit", the camera shifts and he props it up against the wall, waving at me with one hand. Calum sits in his studio chair with his old bass in his lap, headphones pushed back against his long curly hair. His eyes are wide as he raises an eyebrow, "Shit, long time no see."

I adjust the camera against my steering wheel and scoot my seat back, allowing for a better view of myself as I smile innocently with an awkward wave. "Hi Cal, how ya been?" I see his eyes travel down to the necklace around my neck, my fingers dancing around the bottle as I speak.

"Shit, Y/n if I'd known it was you calling I would've answered way faster, I just had deleted your number-", he stops himself, looking up with a sympathetic crooked smile before sighing. I raise a hand up to reassure him instead, "Calum", god saying his name tugs at my heartstrings, "It's okay, I get it... we don't have to dance around it.. now what are you up to?"

He was lying, Calum hood was bluffing to my face and I had no idea. After all this time, he still had my contact listed as "My wildflower", but he couldn't dare admit to me that he didn't answer sooner because he was scared.

Scared of what I was going to say

Scared id tell him I found someone new

Scared of seeing or hearing me again

"I'm actually working on a song right now", he laughs and holds the iconic bass up, a small spot right under the strings that once had a star sticker I placed on it- now scraped off.

I make a face, reminding myself that that was the past and I shouldn't dwell on it too much, but seeing him happier without me didn't make me feel like I thought it would. A part of me wished he was as miserable as I was, cooped up in my room writing stupid songs that were confessing my raw feelings.

"What's it about?", I chirp up as he bends down to play a few notes on the keyboard next to him, assuming it's the intro.

"It's about someone that was in my life, uh someone you don't know- she came around afterward", he says slowly, not meeting my eyes through the screen. I just nod in agreement, opening my mouth to speak.

"Would you like to come over for dinner sometime this week?", The words flow out before I had time to think about it. As I wait for his response, I pick at my nails- a habit he absolutely hated. He would smack my hand out of my mouth every chance we were together, telling me "I'd get worms in my belly" I did stop for a while, but my bitten nails were the only reminder he was actually gone.

"Yeah, I would love to!- Look I'll let you go but we'll keep in touch alright?", He speaks quickly, his hand flying down in one swift movement. With that, he ends the FaceTime call and I'm left looking at my reflection. I looked dumbfounded, smiling to myself as wide as I could.

I couldn't let myself fall for this again, for him- we both knew it wasn't going to end well for either of us. But hell it's been 4 years and I've changed as a person, and by the looks of it, he has too.

My phone buzzed once, twice, and then three before I looked back up at it to see three new messages from none other than Hood.

DO NOT CALL!!!!: I kinda lied, you do know the person I wrote it about

DO NOT CALL!!!!: mp3.wildflower.calumdemo.rec

DO NOT CALL!!!!: my wildflower ;)

[airborneice]

VERY late to the party but here’s my piece for @hilda-appreciation-week Day 2 - Favourite Episode - STONE FOREST BABEYY

hmm I was gonna talk a little about why I love this episode so much but it got kind of long so that’s going under a cut lol

ok so this would’ve been a really tough one for me to choose, if it weren’t for the fact that Stone Forest has had a very special place in my heart right from the moment I picked up the comic in 2018 and spent the next 2 yrs hoping I’d see it in the show. since that was pretty much my introduction to the comics and it was a hilda story that was yet to feature in the show it was just. so much fun. the art style of the comic is wonderful and a joy to look at and I would argue that pre-Mountain King it was the first comic to show a bit more dimension to Johanna and really have her along for the adventure, and I love it for that so much

I was so hyped to see this episode when season 2 dropped, and imo they adapted the story perfectly. I admire how the writers adjusted the story of the comic to fit into the show with all the changes they’d made, making the same conflict work with a slightly different Hilda-Johanna dynamic in the show, and how they made room in the story for the supporting characters who aren’t in the comic so much (even if that meant they got rid of my boy the stray sod to have hilda’s friends there instead 🥲 it's fine I snuck him into the bg of this drawing bc he’s still there. in my heart). Anyway I love this ep, I loved seeing how my fave comic moments made it onto the screen while also getting the completely new B plot with Frida, David, Gerda etc. I also really really love that the story being animated meant they had room to expand on some smaller moments in the comic and make them more emotional and nuanced (the part where they try to sleep behind a rock and Johanna thinks about reaching out to Hilda before giving up comes to mind…love little additions like that which take advantage of the medium!!!) also they had Johanna do cool stuff like tell a troll to get lost to its face so in conclusion this episode was made for me specifically and I just think it’s such a treat :D

[sugarrushproductions]

What we didn't see in HH, EP 5

Husker took in a deep breath and tried to stop the tremor in his hands. Tried being the keyword. Angel and Pentious were busy talking to Mimsy, the later complaining about not having another drink.

When he finally felt he could do his job without dropping the bottles he walked into view.

"Well it's about time, pussycat," Mimsy scolded, holding out her empty cup. "What's it gonna take to get some service around here?"

Angel had noted Husker's tremor the moment he came into view. The cat demon was good at keeping it from his hands and his ears, even his wings were as still as possible when moving. The only place he saw it was his tail. As Husk took Mimsy's cup, which he did softer than he needed to, Angel had the sinking feeling that this mood change had something to do with Alastor.

He remembered how Val could sometimes make him feel, how scared he was when....

Angel scratched his neck, looking at his nearly empty drink. His eyes lit up with an idea. One that would have him going back on his word, but at least it would get Husk out of his funk.

"Hey, poor me another too, Whiskers," Angel gave Husk one of his cockiest smirks and let his bedroom eyes shine. Other than a quick flick of one ear, all he got was a quick glance as Husk put down Mimsy's drink.

"Sure thing," was Husk's short reply. Angel shared a worried glance with Pentious when he turned around, but put the look back on when Husk turned around with his new drink. Before he could pull his hand away, Angel put one of his lower ones on it. That got Husk to meet his eyes with a raised eyebrow.

"Thanks, Whiskers." Angel slid his hand further up his arm, getting narrowed eyes in response. "Is there anyway I could... repay you?"

Mimsy scoffed. "This kind of service, it seems he needs to be givin us a repayment."

Husker growled and gave her a glare out of the corner of his eyes. It softened as he felt Angel's grip tighten on his arm. Looking back at him he found nothing of the mask that the spider had just moments before. His pink eyes were filled with annoyance as Mimsy just sipped her drink.

Realization washed over Husker, making him turn his ears back to hide his blush as best he could. He'd been trying to keep them from seeing the darker side of Alastor considering everyone liked him to some extent (and the fact that Alastor would make good on the threat he'd just made). But

Angel saw through it. Of course he would, he knew what it was like. With a small smile, he gently grasped Angel's hand to move it.

"Nothing right now, kid," Husker said, turning around to make sure the heat on his white face wouldn't be see. "Thanks for the offer."

Before Angel could answer, the hotel shook as the front door creaked.

"Mimsy, we know you're in there you lousy bitch!" Someone yelled from outside, the hotel shaking once more.

The bitch in question just winced and ducked to the ground.

Headcannon: Sir Pentious definitely created a defense system after the attack. With or without Vaggie's permission, I don't know.

[candlelightreader]

I was just listening to the DVD commentary on the Snakes episode and I know Grissom and Sara's scene (the only scene they're present in this Nick-centric ep) is big--obviously shipper nirvana--but the commentary by George Eads and the rest (I think one of the writers and either a director or producer) added so much weight that I'd never considered before!

So, Eads remarks on how Sara is the only one who ever talks to Grissom that way. This is, as she really dials up the husky, soft voice she adopts with Grissom. Eads also observes that Grissom is always himself with her, i.e. more of a nerd and rather stripped bare in a way he never is with anyone else. They all make comments on how emotional the scene is and how revealing it is of their relationship because, as always, Sara is 'putting it [her attraction and ongoing interest] out there'. She is never shy about wanting him. (I really need to transcribe the commentaries.)

But Eads keeps coming back to the idea that Grissom is more Grissom or is more himself with her than with any of the others. I'd add that it is not only the fact of their professional position that makes him freeze with her--I think Grissom is talking about himself when he asserts that some men are intimidated by beauty.

You know what magic, Grissom!

Anyways, something I hadn't thought of is that Grissom almost says something back, such as "Let’s go to dinner." But, of course, Sara overtalks and halts his momentum such as it were. But even more, it made me realize how pivotal this scene is, even compared to the Nesting Dolls reveal of her childhood trauma, because this is the moment when Grissom knows 100% that he isn't too late. The flirting takes on a different dimension after this. The looks become more meaningful.

This is especially significant when you consider that ealier in the season, the writers and producers are talking about the explicit intro of Sofia as a romantic interest for Grissom. She was there to create tension and her chemistry with Grissom was very much not subtext. So the decision to make 'this thing' with Sara more solid in the presence of this new love interest adds to the dynamic more than ever. Because the chemistry with Sofia is too easy and too simple. He's too smooth with her. He knows what to say to her at a given moment, because he has no interest in Sofia romantically and doesn't feel threatened by her. She really is just a colleague he doesn't hate. Ultimately, Sofia doesn't leave him speechless the way Sara does. He is not 'himself' when he is with her. Sara, on the other hand, always renders him vulnerable, which of course is why he distanced himself from her in season three, as he realized in four.

And we can see how Sara's effect on him is unique when looking at his other love interests: he does have speechless moments with Terri but by the end, no so much--perhaps there is a sense that while he is attracted intellectually, and somewhat sexually, there is no sentiment after all. With Heather, he never is at a loss for words, which leaves me to lean towards the notion that he was indeed never involved with her romantically--but, perhaps, it is her who makes him discover that sex without love makes him sad whether through conversation or more... In other words, grissom is typically putting on an air with other people. He's fully insulated against them and can act out the persona of an assured, curated Grissom, the bossman, the tin man, the nerd, the professor, the mentor, the father figure, etc.

But with Sara, he is exposed.

[eternal-kosmo-ghoul]

*°:⋆ₓₒ day 11. aphrodisiacs

.｡❅*⋆⍋*∞*｡ “picture perfect”

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ — ❤︎ ivy was not expecting this little christmas get together to get all.. steamy.. but now he has you all to himself

pairing: iv (ivy) x gn!reader

a/n: he’s a slut and i want him

cw: nsfw content. aphrodisiac. there are aphrodisiacs laced in the drinks. dubcon-ish. both parties are affected by the aphrodisiacs. intense foreplay.

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“fuck what are you doing to me…? get over here. now.” —❤︎

┅✦┅

the nighttime bar was bustling with life. it was filled with a variety of many different people, having a good old time and using the night to unwind and just relax, drowning themselves in the rave of chaotic excitement.

christmas was a time for joy, but of course, there were always party animals that wanted to wallow their emotions into the empty sweetness of elicit liquor and frosted sugar pastries that the fancy, rich distilleries had to offer.

that’s where ivy found himself tonight.

accompanied by his lonesome self, he idly twirled a shot glass in his hand, watching the rich drink in the cup swirl around against the glass, keeping his fingers on the rim of it. ivy wasn’t so sure why he came here in the first place, especially on christmas evening of all days, where the party was high and people were rowdy. the guitarist wasn’t much of a party person to begin with anyways. but, his band mates wanted to come here to celebrate another successful year as a musical group, and of course, he couldn’t say no.

still, he’d much rather be home at the moment.

“still by yourself, ivy?”

that familiar voice snapped him out of his trance. ivy’s gaze lingered to your form, and he just let out a heavy sigh.

“you know i prefer to be away from the crowds.” ivy sighed, sipping a little bit of alcohol from his glass. “but i can’t say no to vessel. that big oaf he is.”

you chuckled and took a seat next to ivy, keeping your hands on your lap as you spoke to your fellow member, deciding to distance yourself away from the crowds for now.

“that’s sweet of you, vy. but really, you didn’t have to come out here if you don’t like parties.”

“nah, it’s the least i can do. i love you guys too much to say no to you.”

your heart warmed at the sound of ivy’s words. he was always so intricate and precise with his wording. he meant every sentence of that.

“thanks, ivy.” you thanked with a genuine smile.

underneath his mask, he smiled back. “anytime, y/n.”

you wished that ivy would show this sensitive, soft side to himself more often. it was really a beautiful sight, really. to see someone who’s usually super stoic, be all caring and watchful for those he loves. it was quite nice.

the two of you exchanged small talk for a bit, just talking about your most recent tour and how you’re both excited to get to work on the new albums and eps that vessel had planned for the next year. it was going to be one hell of a year to remember, that’s for sure. ivy was surprisingly a very pleasant person to talk to. he always had different topics to bring into the conversation, and he was just an easy person to chat with.

though, as the two of your exchanged pleasantries, sharing a couple of laughs here and there, the bartender slipped you both two alcoholic drinks in fancy cups. both of you raised your eyebrows at this, considering you did not order another drink, aside from the casual shots.

“sir? we didn’t order this.” you tried to correct, but the bartender only gave a coy smile.

“don’t worry, it’s on the house.” he winked. “consider it a … special holiday drink.”

you and ivy couldn’t even get another word in, because the bartender went off to do his work, serving other clients and customers that came in. the guitarist just side-eyed the bartender for a bit, before taking the time to observe the drink he was given. it was clearly alcoholic, and the rim of the class seemed to be lined with crystallized sugar. the actual liquor itself seemed to dawn a sunset-pinkish shade, with red and purple swirled into the liquid. ivy couldn’t tell what kind of alcohol it was, but he had guessed it to be some sort of vodka, mixed with another unknown drink.

ivy eyed the glass suspiciously. the drink looked pretty… almost too pretty for it to be just some casual alcoholic drink. though, his curiosity was piqued, and his mind wondered how the taste would pop in his mouth.

“strange… that guy was kind of weird, giving us a drink like that out of nowhere.” he chided, still holding his suspicions high as he observed the glass.

“yeah… but i haven’t had a good drink in a while.” you said with a curious voice, tilting your head as you brought the rim of the glass closer to your lips.

the two of you shared a look for a moment, thinking the exact same thing.

“how about it?” you asked. ivy pondered for a moment, before nodding.

“why not?”

the two of your clanked your glasses together, before downing the drink in one go. it tasted sweet, some of the crystallized sugars finding its way into ivy’s mouth and sizzling into a sugary delicateness that bursted with flavor. it tasted sweet… very sweet. ivy actually found the taste to be warm.. but that warmth went from his throat, to his stomach. slowly, it started to simmer into an uncomfortable warmth.

that warmth flowed throughout ivy’s body, and it soon become an itching hotness that clung to his skin. the guitarist’s eyes widened from the sudden feeling, and he could immediately feel himself sweating. he started to fan himself by flapping his shirt, trying to relieve himself of the uncomfortable heat that clung to his body like a parasite.

“what the hell…?” ivy practically panted out, trying to find a way to make himself feel better. “what the hell was in that drink?”

you nodded, arms heavily pressed against the bar counter as you groaned and panted, sweat beads sticking to your forehead. you were having the same problem as ivy.

“i don’t know… but i sure as hell feel so damn uncomfortable right now.” you gasped out, running a hand through your hair as you tried to maintain your composure.

ivy was about to agree with you, turning his head to meet your gaze, but the moment he locked eyes with you, its like the fire burned within him more brightly. he suddenly felt… needy, and just looking at you was enough to send his mind into overdrive. he was practically drooling over your form, aroused by the very sight of you alone.

what?

what was ivy thinking? why was he thinking this way? and why couldn’t he stop…?

“y/n…” he practically growled out. his hands moved to grip your shoulders, and you gasped from the sudden closeness. “stop that…”

your voice was quivering, and you leaned back against the bar counter. the surrounding people didn’t even matter anymore, it’s like it was just the two of you.

“stop what?” you practically stuttered out, feeling a familiar burning hot desire brew within you as you looked at ivy.

“that.” he rasped. “looking so damn… appetizing.”

you looked at ivy with wide, yet lustrous eyes. at this point, you both came to realize what had happened. the drinks you were given were laced with aphrodisiacs, of course they were. however, ivy couldn’t stop himself from what he was doing.

“fuck what are you doing to me…? get over here. now.”

his fingers fumbled with the buttons of your shirt, and he slowly unbuttoned them while kissing your neck, not even caring about the people around you guys. besides, they were too focused on partying to see what you two were doing. you let out soft sighs of pleasure, but tried to snap back into your senses, trying to push ivy away despite your growing lust.

you gasped as you felt ivy start to bite and nibble your neck with his teeth, and his fingers trace over the exposed skin on where he unbuttoned your shirt. this was so provocative and risky, doing this out in public. you couldn’t even think straight, with how your mind was hazy with promiscuous desires, and ivy was only feeding into your fantasies.

“ivy…” you muttered our lustfully, moaning a bit loudly as he kissed your neck, jawline and face with deep, needy kisses.

“i need you.” he grunted. “i need you so badly. this heat, it’s so fucking uncomfortable. please… please let me touch you.. i promise i’ll make you feel good.”

ivy’s voice was desperate, almost like he was in pain. the aphrodisiacs that bastard gave him was making him so incredibly horny and hard. he couldn’t stop kissing you, trying to feel your skin on his.

fuck. you needed this too.

with a heavy sigh, you nodded, looking down at him with hearts in your pupils. “please take me.”

that was all the confirmation ivy needed, before he swept you away into a dark, secluded corner of the bar, away from the party.

from there, he could give you the fuck of a lifetime.

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[becauseimanicequeen]

4 Minutes Theories (Ep. 2)

In this post, I've compiled my theories from my initial reaction to the trailer and the teaser (which were kind of sweeping since the trailer and teaser didn't give me much to get super detailed about), the new ones I wrote down after watching the first episode, and some new wild-ass theories I've written in some scattered posts throughout the previous week. Just like last week, I will go through them one by one.

Let's see how wrong I am this time, and how (un)likely the other theories are. Like last time, I might develop some of my theories and add some new ones as well.

Let's go!

Pre-premiere theory: The moments Great sees ahead of time are moments that might help him redeem himself from a past mistake/transgression. (Unconfirmed)

This one is unconfirmed, but, just like in the first episode, there seems to be a pattern where the moments that are reversed seem to be reversed for Great to do them over, do better, to do "the right thing".

In this week's episode, it happened when Great walked away from the situation where Title wanted to kill Dome. He was immediately brought back, chose to escape from Title, and took Dome to the hospital.

I think Great's out-of-body experience and the "4-minutes phenomenon" (which is what Den calls it in his research) is, in a way, teaching him to be a better person and someone more involved with making choices in his life. So far, he seems to only be existing and whatever is just is (his friendship with Title is one of those parts of his life where he seems to not care).

I mean, not choosing is a choice too. But if this (the moments before the 4-minute rewind) was how his real past played out before his cardiac arrest (I still believe that was Great at the beginning of the first ep), not choosing could potentially have been the reason he ended up in that hospital bed. And now this out-of-body experience is giving him a second chance to do things differently (even though it won't change his present). It's nudging him to make an active choice rather than just run away/go with the flow. It's teaching him a lesson, perhaps.

So, I'm keeping this theory until it's proven wrong (or right).

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Korn will do some shady shit to prove to his dad that he can take over the family business. (Unconfirmed)

Last week, I revised this theory a bit (from Korn being the bad guy) after watching the first episode. It seems like he wants to prove himself to his dad. The question is how far he's willing to go to prove himself worthy. That could potentially put him on the bad guy list (which, to be fair, could include every single character because that's how the Sammon/BOC collab seems to roll, and I fucking love that).

I've got a feeling Korn's actions will destroy more than one person he cares about, and that's already begun with Tonkla. Not that Tonkla is destroyed, yet (not because of Korn, anyway). I'm sure he'll forgive Korn as soon as Korn shows up. But, the more pressure Korn puts on himself to prove himself to his dad, and the more pressure is added on him from the shady side of the family business, Tonkla will fall further down on Korn's list of priorities. And Tonkla might not be the only one.

It will definitely be interesting to see how far Korn will go to get what he wants. His situationship/relationship with Fasai might be a stepping-stone to what he wants.

(Btw, their situationship/relationship is definitely not a new thing. Their dynamic seemed established, even to the point where they were communicating without words.)

(Also, I found the dynamic between Korn and Fasai in contrast to the dynamic between Korn and Tonkla to be really interesting. I loved how Korn kneeled before Fasai (and I don't blame him). I might write more about this in a separate post because power dynamics in relationships are very fascinating to me. But, you know, it's the Olympics and my focus is elsewhere these days.)

Anyway, I'm keeping this theory.

Pre-premiere theory: Title is involved with Korn. (Unconfirmed)

Before watching the first episode, I thought Title might've been a brother or that they had a boss/minion relationship. I based this solely on the promotional posters of the characters. These two are the only ones shown to look away from the camera and their backgrounds are pretty similar. But, Title is (most likely) not Korn's brother. There's still a possibility he is (or will be) working for Korn.

After seeing more of Title in this week's episode, however, I'm getting the sense that Title might come from an influential family (considering he mentioned his dad helping Great and how he threatened Dome with his status). It also seemed like he thought himself superior to Great (which could be true, but it could also be arrogance). But, if Title is as superior as he seems to think he is, perhaps he has the upper hand?

I also got the feeling that Great doesn't really care that much about Title or their friendship (he seems to not care about most things at this point, so that might not mean anything). Their dynamic gave me "our families are close and, therefore, we have to be close too" kind of vibes (or they're cousins). Title seemed to have helped Great deal with a fight at a bar once and it seemed like Title thought that was leverage enough to get Great to get rid of Dome together with him. So there is an interesting dynamic going on here.

Either way, since I think that these two families are close, I will keep this theory that Title is involved with Korn somehow (since it doesn't seem that far-fetched), at least for now. I will probably develop this in an episode or two if it doesn't prove to be wrong before that.

Pre-premiere theory: Tonkla has a target on his back. (Unconfirmed)

This theory was based on the background of the poster for Fuaiz/Tonkla, and I still believe it's a possibility.

Considering what's going on between Korn and Tonkla and how fragile their situationship seems at this point, betrayal is on the horizon.

I know Korn was careful not to reveal too much to Tonkla when he was talking about getting a new position in his dad's business (in the first episode), probably to keep the cards close to his chest. But, Tonkla overheard Korn dropping names when he was on the phone with his dad (he mentioned Fasai and her having dinner with an uncle Warit, who might be an important person). So Tonkla has at least some information that might bite Korn in the ass and potentially put a target on Tonkla's back (either by Korn, his family, or by Fasai's family).

Also, I wonder how Korn will react when he finds out Tonkla is getting involved with a man working for the police (because Tonkla will get involved with Win, the trailer said so). That could paint an even bigger target on his back, which is why I'm definitely keeping this theory.

(Btw, I'm pretty sure Win will be in trouble as soon as Korn finds out he and Tonkla are close/getting closer. If Korn's dad has a man on the inside of the police force, which these mafia-like families usually seem to have, then they can easily get info on Win and screw with his life.)

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Tonkla will betray Korn. (Unconfirmed)

This is a feeling I got while watching the first episode last week. That was mostly based on Tonkla seeming to want more from his situationship with Korn at the same time as Korn seemed to be keeping his sugar baby hidden.

This feeling didn't lessen after watching this week's episode either considering Korn hung up on Tonkla twice (while being under pressure, to be fair) and even snapped at Tonkla one of those times. There's definitely a rift widening between them.

Additionally, there's Win, who is working for the police, and just happens to have taken an interest in Tonkla. One slip of the tongue or cry for help from Tonkla, and Korn can be royally screwed.

There's also the possibility that Tonkla will beat up/kill Korn in the future.

At the same time, it seems too obvious that he will kill Korn at this point, so it might be someone totally different.

(Btw, there's also the possibility that it's not even a person he beats the shit out of. I mean, they didn't hint that it was a person. The only hint we got was red liquid. But, I digress...)

I will have to think about this theory a bit more before I decide whom I believe Tonkla is beating the shit out of in that scene.

But, one thing is for sure, I'm definitely keeping this theory.

Pre-premiere theory: Win is battling some contrasting, opposing forces (internal and/or external). (Unconfirmed)

This theory was based on the background of the poster for JJay/Win. I solely based it on the red and green contrasting colors.

Last week, after watching the first episode, I spun off on a train of thought that Win might be working for Korn or Korn's family's business and that the battle he had to fight was his attachment/feelings for Tonkla versus his loyalty to his boss. But that was before he was introduced in the show.

Now we know a little bit about him. At least that he's working for the police. (Though, since I'm always sus about the authorities in these shows, I'm keeping my observing eyes on him, lol.)

Knowing that he works for the police, perhaps the contrasting forces he's battling are his attachment/feelings for Tonkla (which will develop, I'm sure), and his duty to uphold the law.

What if he gets involved with Tonkla, Tonkla murders someone, Win investigates the murder, finds out Tonkla is the murderer, and has trouble deciding between protecting Tonkla or arresting him? That could be interesting.

Pre-premiere theory: Den has a situationship with Korn. (Unconfirmed)

I'm keeping this theory only because I want to see Bas and Job together.

Also, I wouldn't mind if Korn is the slut of the show. So, sleeping around to get whatever this quiet man wants to get to prove himself to his dad (or whatever) is definitely approved by me.

In this household, we respect sluts. Just do it, Korn. You have my support.

Though... Poor Den if this happens. He's probably the sweetest character in the show at this point (after Tyme's grandmother, obviously).

Fuck... Now I suddenly don't want this to happen, lol.

Well, it can happen once, just once. As long as Den promises to keep his glasses on so he sees possible bullshit with a clear vision.

This is such a delulu dream of mine, though. But I'm still keeping it.

Pre-premiere theory: Dome is a mystery person operating under the radar without showing his true alliance until the end. (Scrapped)

Dome, Dome, Dome. He's such an enigma for me at this point.

At first, when I only had the trailer, teaser, and posters to go on, I thought he would be killed (since his poster has a basically empty background). At first, I thought he might be the person Great runs over in the teaser and that he would suffer memory loss, which proved to not be true.

He's still very mysterious, but I think I will scrap this theory...

Because I have another one about Dome that might be more interesting and more detailed than this sweeping one.

I'm going off of what was shown in this week's episode as well as the blank background of Mio/Dome's poster. This theory connects with another one I had while watching this week's episode, so I'll start explaining that one first before I get into who I think Dome is.

We all know that the show is playing with time, in several ways (the 4 minutes, the clocks that show 11:00 and now 11:01, etc.). Time also plays a part in my out-of-body experience theory since Great is "reliving" the past. But I also think there might be a parallel timeline that might show the past as it actually played out when Great didn't have the 4 minutes to make a different choice.

If this is true, then we're basically seeing three "timelines" (for the lack of a better term) in each episode, whereas two of them are parallel to each other (the real past and the out-of-body experience past).

(I will start calling "out-of-body experience" OOBE because I'm too lazy to write the whole thing every single time, lol.)

Since Great can't possibly change the past while he's having an OOBE (his present will still be the same), and since we as viewers probably need to know some of the things that happened in the real past that led up to the present, I feel like it would make sense if we get to see events from both timelines.

I haven't had the time to look into the details of which timeline is which (the Olympics is giving me no breaks, lol) but it might have something to do with the colors and/or the numbers (because something is going on with both of those details). I have to look into this further, though. But, I would guess that most of what we've seen of Tonkla so far is the real past.

If this is the case, I think Dome is Tonkla's brother who was killed. Title killed Dome in the real past, as he nearly did in the OOBE past if Great hadn't stopped him.

What purpose does this have if it turns out to be the case, though? I still think Great's OOBE is about gathering information of some sort. Perhaps he needs info to take down his own family business. Perhaps to find out who shot Tyme. Perhaps to stop a murder from happening in the present. Perhaps all, or none, or something else. But I still think it's about getting information more than just learning to do the right thing (which I wrote about above).

Also, doing things differently when he has his 4-minute visions (like saving Dome) might give him vital information he will need later. Perhaps he'll even get the information from the people he helps (for example Manee, whom he ran over, shared that her son committed suicide because he lost everything and was hounded for debt, which might have a connection to the illegal gambling side of Great's dad's business).

Anyway, I will look into this theory as soon as I can pull myself away from the Olympics to see if this is actually plausible and if/how I can distinguish between the timelines.

Pre-premiere theory: Fasai is the other character with a condition similar to Great’s (alternatively, it's Tyme). (Unconfirmed)

This won't happen. At least not the part about Fasai. The only reason I'm keeping this theory is because I need the show to prove to me that Fasai doesn't have precognitive abilities so I can label this as wrong and move on. That might not even happen until the show ends (if it will even be addressed). So, here we are.

I will highlight the part about Tyme, though, and turn that into a headline of its own in the post after next week's episode. Because there's definitely something going on with Tyme. Maybe it's precognition (but of another kind than Great’s), maybe it's intuition. But it’s clear that this man is drawn to Great. The way his eyes just caught Great when Great was sitting there silently in the hospital.

And whatever this sequence was in the teaser:

There's definitely something going on with Tyme other than him looking into illegal gambling and getting close to Great because of his family (both of which I'll turn into separate theories below), and I'm choosing to believe (at least for now since there's still time for this to change, lol) that he has a precognitive ability of his own (or will develop one).

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Fasai has a connection with Korn. (Unconfirmed)

Before the first episode, I thought she might be a sister (which was proven wrong by the family photo in the first episode and would be fucked up after this week's episode). As I wrote before, the dynamic of their situationship/relationship seemed established, even to the point where they communicated without words.

I could pass this theory as confirmed and be done with it, but I like to make things hard on myself. So I will take a guess at what kind of connection she has to Korn and only pass it if that's proven to be true (or half-confirm it if it turns out to be wrong).

The obvious guess would be that they're engaged (or even married), considering how Korn spoke about her to his dad on the phone in the first episode. But I don't want it to be that boring (and I definitely don't mind being wrong). So, I will guess this is a purely sexual deal, a situationship no one else knows about.

She gets pleasure (Korn seems more attentive to her pleasure than to Tonkla's, the latter seemed to be an afterthought to Korn, which we saw in the first episode) while he gets access to a higher standing. Perhaps she convinced Korn's dad to give him a new and better position in the family business? Perhaps she's the one who gives Korn direct access to her father (who was a board member or something, right?)? Perhaps she's even his sugar mama?

There's definitely an interesting power dynamic between them. I mean, she (and her dad) was surrounded by golden horse figurines and horses are, among other things, symbols of power (even the nobility).

So, yeah, I'm leaning towards a situationship rather than that they're engaged/married.

Prove me wrong, Sammon.

Revised/developed pre-premiere theory: Great is having an out-of-body experience. (Unconfirmed)

I previously called this theory a "dream world" after watching the trailer and teaser, but an out-of-body experience is a much better description of it.

I'm still keeping this theory because I still believe it even though it might've been odd that they "revealed" this already in the first episode. Perhaps this very obvious theory (to me, right now, at least) is exactly what Sammon wants me to focus on to take attention away from what's really going on.

Either way, I'm keeping this until proven wrong (or right).

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Great's visions of himself and Tyme are his present self's memories of their time together. (Unconfirmed)

This theory goes hand-in-hand with the previous one.

The visions Great had of him and Tyme in these first two episodes are basically his present self's memories (the person who had a cardiac arrest at the beginning of the first episode). The present Great had met, and fucked (good for him), Tyme while the Great we're following (the OOBE version that has "traveled" into the past) hadn't met Tyme until he ran into him at the hospital in the first episode.

If this proves to be true, I think we can also expect Great to have other memory flashes that might involve other characters and events.

Pre-premiere theory: Great’s (Bible’s) tattoos have something to do with the story. (Because I refuse to believe otherwise! lol) (Unconfirmed)

Just like I wrote last week: I swear I'm keeping this theory because it hasn't been confirmed (or denied), yet. That's the only reason I'm keeping this theory.

I swear I'm not keeping this theory to add this image to every post I write...

Pre-premiere theory: Great becomes Korn’s target because he can see ahead of time. (Unconfirmed)

This is highly unlikely to happen considering they're brothers who seem really close. But, I'm keeping this theory because I feel like Korn is a loose cannon. I've previously mentioned the beast I feel is currently sleeping inside Korn. Who knows what's going to happen if/when he releases it? He might turn just as ruthless as Fasai's dad seemed to be.

Will he become so ruthless in his pursuit to prove himself to his dad that he'll turn on Great? We'll have to wait and see.

Pre-ep. 2 theory: Great has a cardiac arrest/near-death experience at 11:01, which is why he sees clocks stopping at that time. (Unconfirmed)

Well, I knew the clocks would turn to 11:01 at some point (since Great mentioned constantly seeing clocks stopping at that time in the teaser).

But, like a comment @whatevenisthishellhole sent into my inbox (that I haven’t had the chance to answer yet because, you know… the Olympics), 11:00 is probably the time Great had his cardiac arrest. I think I'll have to agree with this theory since the clock on the wall as the patient had a cardiac arrest in the first episode showed 11:00, he's been shown to wake up at that time more than once, and the digital numbers on his wall showed 11:00 in this week's episode as well.

So, I agree that this is probably the time he had his cardiac arrest.

Another interesting aspect about 11:00, and about Great's malfunctioning wristwatch in particular, is that near-death experiencers can have issues with technology after their NDE (I've seen it happening with my maternal grandfather).

Maybe I'm staring myself blind on Great's NDE and OOBE, but how could I not when I'm fed clues like this? Maybe Sammon is baiting me so I miss what’s really going on, but I don’t mind. This is so much fun. But, I digress...

We also saw that the clock was counting down in this week's episode. This is where 11:01 will start to show up for Great (which he mentioned in the teaser).

The interesting thing about this, and the 4-minute theme the whole series is based on, is that a quick Google search will tell you that 3-5 minutes after the heart stops, the brain starts to get damaged due to a lack of oxygen. Since Sammon is an actual doctor, I'm pretty sure the 4-minute mark is scientifically supported. And that's what I think is happening here.

Great has 4 minutes (well, now it's only 3) on him to wake up again before his brain gets damaged. My guess is that he needs to find the information he needs/learn whatever he needs to learn/solve whatever he needs to solve before the time runs out so his heart can restart before he suffers major brain damage.

Pre-premiere theory: Someone will die/fake their death. (Unconfirmed)

Well, that was pretty obvious, wasn't it? Look how smart I am, lmfao.

Anyway...

I'm going to wait to confirm this theory until one of the major characters shows up dead. For example, if Tonkla's brother or whomever Tonkla beats the shit out of are characters we already know. I won't confirm this theory after this week's episode because I need to know who Tonkla's brother is first.

If I'm to speculate on who will get axed, I would probably say Dome, Title, and perhaps Korn.

As I mentioned before, I think Dome might be Tonkla's brother. Since Tonkla called his brother Nong, Tonkla is the older sibling. Considering he's working (and has probably already graduated from school), his younger brother may still be in school. Dome is clearly studying, so this could make sense. Therefore, my guess is that Dome is Tonkla's brother and that Dome was killed by Title in the real past.

Tonkla will get his revenge on Title. So, bye-bye asshole. (Too harsh? I think not.)

I also have a feeling that Korn will get killed. It might not be Tonkla who does the killing. What if it's Faisa and/or her dad instead? Her dad has already proven to have the means to kill people he's not pleased with, and Korn seems to be out on thin ice.

(I could add more characters like Great and Tyme as well, but I feel like I want at least some characters to escape this hellhole and continue living their lives, unlike in DFF where I wanted almost everyone to suffer. Well, if Fasai is the last one standing, I won't be mad. I would kneel before her too. But, I digress...)

Maybe I won't pass this theory as confirmed until at least two out of my options above (Dome, Title, and Korn) show up dead.

Either way, I'm keeping this theory for now.

Wild-ass pre-ep. 2 theory: Tyme will have a near-death experience and develop his own precognitive ability. (Unconfirmed)

Wouldn't it be bonkers if both Tyme and Great are having OOBEs and are trying to either help each other or happen to unintentionally get in the way of each other's goals/changes? And that's only if they have their OOBEs in the same timeline.

Anyway, I'm basing this solely on Tyme being shot in the first episode and on the scene from the teaser (which I added images of above) where Tyme seems to have his own precognitive ability.

Come on, show. Prove me wrong.

Wild-ass pre-ep. 2 theory: Great will get Tyme's heart (after Tyme is shot). (This will not happen.) (Unconfirmed)

To be clear, I don't want this to happen. This is not the Transplant I want. But it might be possible?

(Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional. I have no idea if this is medically possible considering where Tyme was shot and how far he might be from a hospital (since I know a body needs to be hooked up to a ventilator to be able to keep the organs alive if organ donations are to be possible). So, excuse my lively imagination, lol.)

New theories after the 2nd episode:

Here, I'll gather the new theories I have (to make it simpler for myself to find them next week) and add one or two other ones I've come up with.

There might be a parallel timeline that shows the past as it actually played out when Great didn't have the 4 minutes to make different choices. (If I get some time over between all the Olympic sports I'm watching, I will look deeper into this theory and develop it.)

Dome is Tonkla's brother.

Tyme has a precognitive ability similar to Great’s (or might develop one).

Tyme is looking into the illegal gambling sites because his family fell victim to them. (Maybe it was just me, but didn't he look particularly moved by Manee's story about her son? Perhaps that story felt too familiar to him?).

Tyme is getting close to Great because of Great's family and their connection to the illegal gambling sites. (The way I laughed at Tyme fixing his looks and flexing his muscles in the mirror before stitching up Great's wound... I couldn't believe he played that card to get close to Great, but I fucking loved it. And then stalking Great... This man is desperately trying to find out more about Great's family, that's for sure.)

Great has 4 minutes (well, now it's 3 minutes) on him to wake up/get his heart to start beating again in the present before his brain gets damaged.

I'm still thinking about that rock and how it relates to the body they found and the rock Great used on Title but I haven't made up my mind about this yet. I feel like the parallel timelines might be at play here, so I'll have to think a bit more about that and perhaps develop it in a separate post.

Results so far:

Total theories since the trailer: 23

Confirmed theories: 1.5

Unconfirmed theories: 17.5

Wrong/scrapped theories: 4

New theories after ep 2: 6

[humblequestvinyl]

dial drunk

DIAL DRUNK, FISHER BROTHERS X SISTER!READER!

APART OF THE ‘WE’LL ALL BE HERE FOREVER’ SERIES,

SUMMARY: after susannah fisher’s favorite holiday, and the fisher siblings throwing one last house party, y/n fisher dials drunk the one person she thinks could save the house.

inspired by dial drunk by noah kahan

◀ ⏸ ▶

lowercase is intentional! wc: 2.4k

warnings: heavy drinking, cursing, a breakdown, fighting & s2 ep 6 spoilers (kinda!)

a/n: i’ve been OBSESSED with 5sos lately but omg 1989tv soon??? also THE SCENE WITH BELLY AND SUSANNAH?? killed me absolutely! anyway possibly taking a quick break with this series and hopping on another on the way series quickly! <333

THE HANGOVER Y/N WOKE UP WITH THE NEXT MORNING WAS WORSE THAN SHE EXPECTED.

and definitely not where she expected to wake up.

seeing her bedroom surrounding her, with a collage of pictures, and taylor swift vinyls hanging from the wall wasn’t what she expected, but yet, here she was.

she also didn’t expect to hear yelling coming from downstairs.

so as the h/c slipped on a sweatshirt, she slowly made her way down the hall, hearing her brothers arguing– actually yelling at someone, and to say the least, she was surprised. jeremiah never yelled, and when he did he was absolutely pissed.

“you never even cared enough to come here in the summertime! this is mom’s place and the only thing we’ve got left of her!”y/n heard conrad yell as she finally made it to the entryway of the kitchen, seeing her brothers with their backs to her, but her e/c eyes met matching ones.

“what is he doing here?”y/n questioned, and her brothers heads snapped towards her, and they could see anger flash through her eyes before she locked it down, keeping a blank face.

“the bigger question is what are the three of you doing here?”their father, adam questioned as y/n pushed towards the front of her brothers, staring her father directly in the face, “you three aren’t supposed to be here and you know that!”

“and?”y/n shrugged, grabbing a bottle of water from the cabinet knowing she needed it, “it took you over a week to realize the three of us were here, and one minor was left unattended. i don’t really think us being here is that big of a deal.”

“it really is.”adam told her sternly, and she threw her hands up in the air, fed up with her father, “why! please enlighten me on why it is that big of a deal that we are here!”

“we’re here every single summer and i don’t see why us keeping that-”y/n’s rant was cut off by conrad, with a solemn look on his face knowing the news he was about to break was going to kill his baby sister.

“y/n he’s selling the house.”

y/n’s face dropped as she looked dead into her fathers eyes, knowing deep down her eldest brother was right, but she refused to believe it.

“tell me he’s kidding.”she begged, knowing that if they lost this house, the final nail in the coffin to her childhood would be gone, “tell me this is some type of sick fucking joke!”

“it’s not.”adam pressed his lips into a fine line, seeing his youngest’s face drop but no emotion escaped from his except for anger, “you three need to leave by the end of this week. all of your belongings out of the house and back to boston.” 

y/n stood there for a few moments, before glancing over at conrad and jeremiah who both shook their heads, telling her there wasn’t anything they’d be able to do. 

after a few moments, the h/c girl turned back to her father, with a stone cold face knowing if she didn’t her anger would take over, “no.”

“no?”adam questioned, seeing what susannah always called ‘his mini me’ staring right back at him, “i am your father y/n, i am the one in charge here-”

“mom left me a trust. i want to use it.”she reminded him, and adam shook his head, “it is my trust, it is under my name-”

“you don’t have access to it until you’re 21.”conrad spoke up, causing y/n to snap her head towards him, “beast we’ve tried everything.”

the two stared at each other, before adam grabbed his things, and walked through them towards the front door, “you three have until friday!”

y/n watched as the photos that hung of her mother and laurel shake as her father slammed the front door, and it wasn’t long before his car had left the driveway leaving the fisher siblings alone once again.

“there has to be something else we can do.”y/n broke the silence as she started to pace the kitchen, “there has to be fucking something!”

“there’s nothing else that we can do n/n.”jeremiah spoke up, with worry filling him knowing his baby sister was about to snap, “we’ve tried absolutely everything.”

“there has to be something else!”she yelled, leaving her brothers standing there in shock, before she pushed past them, grabbing her phone and wallet, leaving the house.

as they always said, like father, like daughter.

—-

IT WAS HOURS BEFORE Y/N HAD RETURNED BACK TO THE SUMMER HOUSE.

doing everything she could to brainstorm to try and get the house to stay in their possession, and not go to some random family who wouldn’t make the same memories that they had.

when she finally returned back to the house with another coffee in her hand, she noticed a different car in the driveway that hadn’t been there when she left. walking into the house, she heard a laughter coming from the kitchen, just like how it should’ve been.

“i’m telling you as soon as y/n get’s back we’re planning this out.”jeremiah chuckled right as y/n peaked her head into the kitchen, and a small smile spread across her face seeing some of her favorite people.

“what the hell are you two doing here?”y/n questioned as belly conklin tackled the girl into a hug, and she saw steven chuckling in the background.

“one last summer blowout at beck’s house.”conrad told her, causing a bigger smile to spread across her face knowing they were about to have the time of their lives, “tomorrow night around 8.”

“when do we start decorating?”y/n questioned with a shimmer of joy in her eyes, something the fisher boys hadn’t seen in almost two months.

“we go shopping tomorrow, but for tonight we’re just going to enjoy everything.”steven explained, before giving the girl a wide smile,

“now come here, i still haven’t gotten a hug yet!”

—-

IT WAS OVER TWENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER THAT BOTH BELLY AND Y/N SAT IN Y/N’S ROOM GETTING READY FOR THE PARTY,

both in retro outfits, and belly sat in front of the h/c girl, putting purple eyeshadow on her to match the shirt she was wearing.

“so how are things with you and emerson?”belly brought up as she went to grab another color, and y/n shrugged, not really knowing how to answer that question, “its going.”

“i hadn’t talked to her since the funeral, and then two nights ago she was at the same party i was at, and i was drunk.”y/n explained as belly finished up the girls eye makeup, and went to grab lipstick, “and the next morning i woke up to find out that my dad was selling the house.”

“try and talk to her tonight.”belly told the girl as she painted her lips a dark red, “she loves you a lot y/n and she knows that you didn’t push her away for shits and giggles.”

“if i’m not so drunk by the time we can talk then yeah, i’ll talk to her.”y/n mumbled as belly gave the girl a soft smile knowing that she never meant to push away the one girl she loved the most.

quickly standing up, belly helped the sixteen year old up, and wrapped her in a tight side hug as they started to exit her room and go downstairs, “c’mon, we’ve got some partying to do.”

as soon as the two made it to the bottom of the stairs, they strapped on the roller blades they had found in the garage, and started to skate around the house while karma by taylor swift was blasting through the speakers cam cameron had found.

it was a few hours before y/n had actually found emerson, and when she did, she was drunk. a bottle of vodka in her hand, and a wide smile on her face as soon as she spotted the brunette standing at the kitchen island talking with her older brothers.

“emmy!”the e/c girl exclaimed, causing emerson to have a small smile on her face as she saw y/n skating towards her, “where have you been?”

“right here sweet girl.”emerson chuckled as she wrapped an arm around the girls waist, making sure she didn’t lose balance and fall, “didn’t know you could skate n/n.”

“when i was little i wanted to be a figure skater.”y/n grinned, before letting out a gasp and turning towards conrad who was standing right beside emerson, “do you still have the polaroid camera?”

conrad nodded, before y/n turned towards emerson with the biggest grin on her face, “emmy we’ve gotta take one.”

“and so we do my girl.”emerson nodded, before conrad stepped in front of the two and y/n wrapped her arms around emerson’s neck.

a flash lit up the dark room before the photo printed, and conrad had handed it to his little sister as she waited for it to develop before she went off to somewhere else, presumably to change the music considering it had changed to some type of country song she hated.

“that’s so cute!”the fisher girl exclaimed as soon as it developed, before she turned to emerson, “can you hold this?”

emerson nodded, before gently taking the polaroid she knew the girl would cherish, and y/n grinned, pressing a quick kiss to the brunettes cheek, “thank you!”

and with that she skated off, finding belly and the two skated towards the room where cam cameron was DJing, requesting the song be changed.

hours had passed since emerson had last seen y/n, and she quickly found the girl standing in the ocean, with the bottle of vodka almost gone.

“whatcha doing out here?”emerson questioned as she joined the girl, standing right next to her and y/n took another swig of the vodka.

“too suffocating.”

the girls stood in silence for a few moments before y/n felt a tear slip down her face, and she took another sip from the almost empty bottle in her hands, “my dads selling the house.”

“i know.”

y/n let the bottle slip through her hands and crash into the ocean as she turned to look at emerson with her mouth slightly open, “you what-”

“i’ve known for awhile sunshine.”emerson told the girl softly, and anger spread across the h/c girl’s face.

“you fucking what!”she yelled as she stumbled back, and emerson quickly grabbed the girl before picking her up bridal style, carrying her out of the water.

“emerson scott let me fucking go!”y/n yelled, but emerson didn’t listen until they were a good distance away from the water, gently putting the girl on her feet, “emerson what the fuck!”

“y/n you’re drunk.”emerson told the girl, trying to stay calm knowing that the girl she loved was about to explode.

“you knew and you didn’t tell me?”y/n shouted as she stumbled back a bit, “you saw the for sale sign and didn’t have the common courtesy to call me?”

“you know how much this house means to my brothers, the conklin’s and i, and yet you didn’t call any-!”y/n was cut off by emerson shaking her head, “i called conrad.”

“oh so you can call conrad but you can’t bother to call the girl who you claim to love the most!”y/n threw her hands up in the air as she had tears involuntarily slipping down her face, “i can’t fucking believe you wouldn’t call me about this!”

“y/n when i called conrad to tell him and i bought up the fact that i was going to call you next, he told me not to.”she explained and y/n gave her a look with glossy e/c eyes, causing the brunette to realize that she was too far gone to realize what she was saying.

“fucking forget it!”y/n yelled as she stormed towards the house where some shitty morgan wallen song was playing, and ran up the stairs, tripping on the last one before she was able to make it into her room.

a sob broke from the girls lips as she locked her door, before lying down on her bed and flipping to her contacts to call the only person who could help them. it rang four times before it went to voicemail, causing a sob to rip through the girl knowing that nothing was fine.

“this is laurel parks, please leave a message and i’ll get back to you as soon as i can.”laurel’s voice spoke through the phone, before a beep rang through the phone, and the girl sobbed.

“laurel,”y/n sobbed, gripping the roots of her hair, “we need you.”

“dad’s selling the summer house to someone and won’t even hear conrad, jeremiah and i out on it and–” another loud sob broke through the girl, not feeling heartbreak this bad since her mom had died, “he can’t sell the house! we need to keep this house.”

“and i want my mom back.”y/n continued to cry, letting everything she had been feeling the last two months go, “conrads going to miss his exams and i fought with emerson and everything is wrong!”

“laurel please.”y/n begged as she felt her eyes getting heavier from the crying and the alcohol, “please just come and fix it.”

with that, the voicemail ended, and the girl slowly drifted off to sleep with tears streaming down her face like there was no tomorrow, and her phone slowly slipping out of her hand, onto the bed.

little did the fisher girl know, she had just dialed drunk the only person who would be able to save the summer house.

[baronessblixen]

Fictober Day 4: Reasonable Requests

Prompt: "No, we're not doing that"

Post-ep for "Rain King": After Holman and Sheila finally get together, Mulder and Scully have their own romantic moment. Unfortunately, Scully also has doubts. Rating T, wc: 1,418.

Tagging @today-in-fic @xffictober24

The rain has stopped and the clouds have made way for a clear, starry night. Mulder gazes at the stars, smiling and humming “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”.

They’d see a rainbow now too if it weren’t nighttime, he’s sure of it. He catches a shooting star and mentally high-fives Holman, unable to suppress a grin. But he’s not concerned with Holman, or Sheila right now; instead, he glances at Scully. He almost asked her to dance with him back inside, but didn’t dare. Here he is, offering Holman advice about not bottling up his feelings while doing the exact same thing.

“Are you ready to drive back to the motel?” Scully asks him, her arms slung around her body.

“Are you cold?” He’s by her side in an instant, taking off his jacket and draping it over her shoulders. She frowns, shooting him a sharp look.

“It is still you, right?”

“Is it- yes, Scully, it’s still me. Do you want me to prove it to you?” She remains quiet. But her eyes seem to challenge him. “Fine.” He’s trying to come up with something easy and fun. There are so many things they’ve gone through together, many if not most of them tragic. He doesn’t want that for tonight. Right now, when Shelia and Holman are learning they’re in love with each other, when couples old and new are dancing together to some old romantic song, he doesn’t want to break the spell.

“You got me a ‘Fun Facts About Cryptids’ book for Christmas and I read some to you until you fell asleep. I woke you when your mother called, asking where you are. She wanted me to join you for Christmas, but I politely declined.” They stare at each other and when Mulder sees the soft flush on her cheeks, he can’t help but wonder what she’s remembering about that night. Maybe the way he touched her cheek to wake her and the way she tilted her head, seeking out his touch until she realized where she was, and what she was doing. A moment he cherishes.

“Believe me now?” Mulder whispers close to her ear, a grin on his face.

“I believe you.” She lets his jacket swallow her whole and it’s on the tip of his tongue to call her cute. But that would just lead to more questions cause she’d think he was an impostor after all.

“So Scully,” he says, opening the car door for her which earns him another eyebrow. “When’s your high school reunion?”

“Not anytime soon. When’s yours?”

“I think I already missed it,” Mulder says, starting the car. “Not interested in going. Would you go to yours?”

“Probably,” Scully replies with a sigh.

“If you need a date,” he trails off, winking at her before he starts the car.

“What’s with you tonight, Mulder?” Her eyes remain on him, but he’s focusing on the road. It seems as if everyone is at the reunion because the roads are empty and it takes them less than five minutes to get back to their motel. Five minutes in which Mulder doesn’t answer her.

“I’m just happy,” he replies finally, admitting it to her and himself.

“Because of Holman and Sheila.” It’s not a question.

“Just- no one died, Scully. It’s the opposite. Love won.”

“I didn’t know you were such a romantic,” she says softly, unbuckling her seat belt and getting out of the car. Mulder does the same; he wanted to open the car door for her again but realizes that maybe it would have been too much anyway. He locks the car and jogs over, falling into step with her.

“Hm, maybe I’m not the only romantic here. What did you tell Sheila?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Scully isn’t looking at him, but she’s smiling. She’s rummaging around in her pocket to find the key. Their key. “Mulder, do you have the key?” He might have the key, he realizes. It could be in his pocket, but right now, he doesn’t care. Standing here in front of this hotel room – their one, shared room – with Scully wearing his jacket, her hair falling into her face and her trying to blow it away, he has an epiphany. Everything else falls by the wayside. There’s only one thing that matters to him at this moment and it’s Scully. It’s about righting a wrong. It’s about taking a chance. Leaping before he can think better of it.

“Scully?”

“Yes?” She lifts her head and her blue eyes are big and wet and questioning. She thinks this is about the key to their motel room. To Mulder, it’s about unlocking new mysteries of the heart. He gently cups her chin and she gasps. A second passes and another. She doesn’t move away and just stares up at him, her lips parting slightly. When her tongue comes out to wet them, it’s his cue. He leans down slowly, giving her all the time in the world to change her mind or move away. She does neither. Instead, she meets him halfway.

He’s kissed her in his dreams once; a hallucination, as Scully called it. Supposedly he was drowning and later on, high as a kite. Kissing her now, though, he is surprised at how oddly familiar it feels. Her lips soft and plush, following his every movement, anticipating him. Their tongues tease and tangle, getting to know each other better and better. He never wants this kiss to end. He tugs her closer to him and she comes willingly. It’s only when his hand sneaks under her jacket – his, really – that she moves away, ending the kiss.

Mulder is still holding her and she’s staring at his eyes, then his lips. Just as he’s about to lean in again, she moves away from him, sneaks under his arm, and stands next to the door.

“Where is that damn key?” she mumbles, searching every available pocket.

“Here,” he says, handing it to her. It had been in his own pocket after all. She grabs it from him and startles when their fingers touch. She unlocks the door with shaky movements and disappears inside.

“I’m just gonna-,” she starts as soon as Mulder has closed the door behind him. “The bathroom. I’m going to get ready for, um, bed. We can just… I mean nothing happened. We can just pretend that we didn’t- it was an emotional night.” It takes Mulder a moment to understand what she’s saying. Her eyes are wild and she still has the key in her hand, playing with it. She looks ready to run out of the room and not come back all night.

Scully, I-” But what is he supposed to say? He licks his lips and tastes her. He can’t forget this happened, because he doesn’t want to forget it.

“So we’re clear on that,” she says matter-of-factly. “Nothing happened. It wasn’t- we’re going to forget this happened.”

“No, we’re not doing that,” he says softly. “I’m not going to forget this happened. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for ages, Scully. You were there in my hallway.” She looks at the floor, but he sees her nod. He takes his second big chance tonight and walks closer.

“We can leave it at that one kiss,” he says, touching her cheek. Her lips still look thoroughly kissed and he has to focus to not lose himself there again. “One spectacular kiss, I must say. But we can decide to leave it at that. If that’s what you want. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen, Scully. I can’t.”

“I don’t want to pretend either,” she says. “I’m just not sure we should-” she looks at him and then over at the bed. Oh. Oh, she’s thinking ahead of him. This time he blushes.

“Scully, we waited all this time to kiss. We don’t- this doesn’t have to be anything but- fuck, let’s call it a goodnight kiss, all right? How about we start with that? Kissing good night?”

“A romantic and a gentleman?” There’s his Scully again, gently teasing him.

“I can be,” he says earnestly.

“Thank you,” she says. “We’re still technically on a case and- I don’t trust this bed, or the weather around here.”

“Can I give you another kiss goodnight, though, before I lay down on that not-very comfortable cot? Just in case another cow tries to kill me tonight.”

“A kiss goodnight sounds reasonable.”

And they’re reasonable people after all.

[stripedstarsblueflags]

i didn't win the wheel: episode 5

why does this episode make me feel like i'm missing something?

alright, here we go. logan's landed on something here. he's really good at finding something that'll annoy alex, no matter how many times he does it (with the utmost affection from both sides, ofc). but now he's found one particular bit that alex will literally always laugh at. and my favorite part is the williams camera crew genuinely seem to not know. they don't do it in here but as soon as he starts doing the "And The Winner Will Get The Chance" game show host act there's literally scenes where they do like a super-zoom on his face, because he's finally playing to the camera. he's playing by the rules, but he's not doing it for the show– he's doing it because alex will laugh even if he doesn't mean to. which he does, right here. it's like their own little inside joke, something that they can do right in front of the crew and pretend like it's an "everybody" thing when it's not. it's just a them thing. and alex laughs like he can't help it, like it's an instinct he's lived with and won't bother questioning, he's literally leaning his head towards logan as soon as logan starts The Bit and then his far-off expression turns into that helpless try-not-to-laugh smile. and they literally cut him off there. but i wish they hadn't because i love this intro so much– not just because of this new dynamic but because of how they look with each other. alex is fidgety and playful and distractable as always, but it's not because he's bored. he's just genuinely excited to play and can't sit still or make himself focus. and logan isn't teasing him or trying to draw him back to reality or make him participate or force him in anyway; but isn't quite ignoring him either. he's leaning back towards alex, half-turned in like he's trying to play to both the camera and alex even though alex is a million miles away. he's letting alex be in his own hyperactive little world like, "it's okay, i've got the intro, you do your thing" but "wait this is your favorite part" and then he leans back in waayyyy closer and when alex hears the change in his tone of voice he finally looks up and logan calls it "The Williams Racing Wheel" full government name and alex just– yeah every time

okay but can we talk about just how... comfortable they are with each other? it's like the collage episode but also not like that. because yeah they're both super focused on getting the ball in the basket (and then finding the balls when they go all over the deck). and it's a little chaotic so they're not quite as smoothly coordinated (logan has a moment of blatantly considering stealing the ball from alex's hands before he thinks better of it). but they're not just focusing, it's not just logan honed in on getting a task done. they're playing. alex is laughing, making comments, there's a short period where he stops for a bit and then logan steps in listing how many baskets he has and they have these out-of-breath half-exchanges with each other throughout the game... but also logan is SO much more expressive than he usually is. not like last ep when he was in some specific lovestruck mood where his nerves were showing on his face; he's just showing normal expressions for this normal situation. it's not just deadpan dead-eyed focus, he's laughing a little, frowning a little, just generally moving more. he's more in touch with the world around him and the people around him. you'd think this ep and last ep were shot weeks or months apart because it looks so much like alex has been rubbing off on him, even in the way he stands... they're not just silently doing an activity together they're in tune. there's a desire to connect, to stay talking, to narrate the events the other can clearly see for themselves because this is what makes it fun when they're together

nothing much. just alex panicking about the stupid plastic hoop and saying in the most unmanly high-pitched voice ever "put the basket down!!!" even though he's the one closest to the basket, and then he turns and nearly runs straight into logan and logan is just muscle car boyfriend era "i got you babe" with that hand on the side to run forward and shove down the fucking basket while smiling and licking his lips and yeah sure NOTHING MUCH THO

but of course logan can't be too nice about it it's like he's just been reminded that alex exists and now he has to go block his shot from the net and then when he jogs back he's not even looking at alex he's looking down but ends up so close anyway that he's like "i'm just gonna block this one too" (not really) and then they're both laughing. like stupid out of breath going back to the game immediately after but still laughing. and yeah they're not touching because they're focusing on the game but they're not being mindful of each other's space not because they don't notice but because they don't care. it's fun and it's carefree and suddenly they know how to be fun and carefree with each other like it's been their dynamic this whole time i feel like we've skipped years

Alex: [makes a pretty outrageous shot, it goes out of the camera frame]

Logan, o/s: "That's in!"

[the ball goes in]

Alex: "OOHHHH!"

my absolute favorite part of this is alex's disbelief. like, he has this sort of naivety and innocence about him that is impossible to believe, because you can't be that successful as a racing driver and be innocent. but he seems so surprised by so many things. when he laughs at something it's like he's hearing it for the first time. and he has this almost childlike joy and exuberance that he slips into so easily, just give him literally any vaguely competitive task and he's over the moon. and i think it's exaggerated in logan's presence, consciously or unconsciously, because logan's such the opposite of that. but even just having alex nearby is good for logan, it's like carrying a little bit of the sun around in his pocket. and that's just alex without even trying. not like oscar and the shoey in silverstone, sweet and empathetic and Aware of a Bigger Picture. alex just is a comforting person as he is and he brings out this silly side of logan that's such a blessing to see

this is what i mean about missing something. because on the surface, this is a pretty familiar scene– an activity wrap up with one of them (usually alex) not focused at all while the other carries the whole script. but it's different. and none of it's spoken (it usually isn't with these two) so it's gonna take me a bit to break down the body language BUT. logan's mannerisms are so much more like alex's now. he talks with his hands, looks back and forth between alex and the camera and the ipad, he shifts as he stands; all in all he's just way more dynamic. even as he's delivering the dryest part of the video. and alex has got most of his excess energy out through the game but not quite all, making himself stay still is a visible effort. but logan is leaning into him, tilting his body, holding out the ipad at the right angle so alex can see it even when alex isn't looking. and even with the hand gestures it's like he's gently but assuredly bringing alex back to the present, trying to ground him. and alex is huddled up next to logan making himself focus and he's still hyper enough that for awhile the only thing he says is just to confirm what logan's saying. logan's describing the wheel and the prizes and alex is just going "yes. yep. yep." like he's pretending he knows what's going on but really he's just following logan's voice, because logan is keeping them both going through the activity while giving alex a space to be scattered and distracted. it's not "you have to focus on me right now" it's "i'm here when you're ready to focus". and alex is literally leaning closer and closer to him as they talk even when he forgets to look at the ipad because logan is keeping him tethered to the flow of this whole video. even alex just giddily saying "ooh strong spin" and logan responding "big spin :)" and alex just echoing him "big spin :D". it's so mundane and so sweet and so i'm going to let you be excited and i'm going to take care of this and alex is so effortlessly comfortable in his own skin and logan is comfortable taking the guiding role for once and they both settle into these roles so comfortably and seamlessly it's like that's how it's always been. it's like i've missed something!!

so much of what happens between them seems to happen in their own little world. completely in their own world, not like charlos who don't always say it out loud but whose feelings are always plainly decipherable from their facial expressions. if you're not looking you will definitely miss it. because the way they connect doesn't make sense, it's unexpected, and from a logistic point of view it should never work but the connection they have just goes beyond words, beyond verbal communication. they just fit each other and it's accepting and it's welcome and it's going to be torn away and fuck

episode 6

[buckevantommy]

thinking about an alternate first meeting at the 911 lone star wildfire for buck and tommy, but it's more like: hen runs into tommy onsite so he's who she calls when they need a chopper rescue. maybe the captain is tormented by his ghosts while unconscious, giving hen and tommy time to catch up while waiting for help or for the fire to pass OR tommy is the unconscious pilot and we get pretty much the same convo between hen and the captain that happened during the ep. and then: when they all get back to LA hen checks up on tommy over the next few weeks, they catch up and go out for drinks with chim, old friendships rekindling anew - especially when hen learns tommy is gay and out and proud over at harbor.

how does buck factor into all this? i'm so glad you asked:

his time with tk and the misunderstanding that buck wanted to date him got buck thinking - because he's been in therapy for 6 months or so trying to figure himself out and open himself up to new possibilities.. and he thinks about tk. about tk thinking buck was flirting, and maybe there was something between them but the guy is taken anyway. buck thinks about the past few years, and his whole life really, all the times he's been mistaken for being into guys or with a guy or when he thought he was just admiring a guy's physique.. he wonders. and then he's out for drinks with the team and he meets the pilot who helped them in texas, who hen and chim had mentioned reconnecting with, who used to work at the 118 before buck got there. buck meets tommy and they start hanging out - like how eddie and tommy hung out in season 7, just two guys and a budding new friendship - and buck knows tommy is gay and he's still wondering about himself (on the dl) so he probably asks a few questions about tommy's queer experience but maybe he doesn't clock his own attraction to tommy at first, he's just enjoying his friendship and having another queer friend.

and maybe it goes a little like season 7: tommy and eddie start hanging out, and buck thinks (on the dl) that tommy is into eddie, and he has mixed feelings about that and maybe still doesn't know why (bisexual disaster). we get the basketball game, the injury, the apologies, with the addition of buck saying he thought tommy was interested in eddie - which eddie already debunked - and tommy is like: ohhh he is jealous, and so he kisses him about it. and maybe buck has already realised he likes tommy, or maybe he realises it in that moment, but he's had weeks of assessing himself and knows by now that he likes guys and yes he definitely likes kissing tommy - he had no idea tommy liked him! - so he kisses back.

anyway. this gives us tommy being around for all the chaos of season 4.