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imherongraystairstrash · 4 years ago

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Puzzles

A/N: Idk if this is good, but I wanted to write it so bad, so I did it because I can:

Ship: Sophideon + Family fluff

Title: Puzzles

...

Sophie woke to the warmth of Gideon’s body and the crackling of the fire in the hearth. She could also hear the children, speaking in hushed tones and giggles. Cracking open an eye, she saw that they were currently sitting side-by-side by the coffee table, their backs facing her. Her left arm was resting on Gideon’s chest, and it rose and fell with his steady breathing.

She realized that their legs were tangled together under the thick blanket that she could only assume their children had placed over them. She closed her eyes and took a blissful stretch before resting her temple on her husband’s shoulder. He was still asleep, emitting soft snores that she felt in her belly.

They had been patrolling all night, and had barely gotten any sleep before their children woke them up again, ready to begin the day. Sophie and Gideon lasted until midday before they must have fallen asleep. The fact that they’d managed to stay awake that long surprised Sophie.

She wiggled her toes a little bit and adjusted herself, so that she could stretch the leg that was thrown over Gideon’s hips. His hand was warm on the small of her back, and she didn’t want to accidentally shift in such a way that would cause it to slip off her. Therefore, each movement was minuscule and delicate.

Gideon’s breath stirred the smallest tendrils of her hair. She looked up at him, brushing a lock of hair away from his forehead. She loved him very much. So much so, she often surprised herself, as she had never thought she could ever love someone again, after what had happened to her all those years ago. She kissed his jawline and put her ear to his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat against her cheek.

It was times such as these that she felt as if the world stopped at her fingertips; like no matter what happened, she would be fine, as long as she were here, with Gideon by her side and their children near.

She heard Gideon grunt softly, as he always did before he woke up, before slowly opening his eyes. He blinked a little, his dazed eyes slowly roaming the room, and closed them once more. He turned to where she was, resting the tip of his nose against her forehead.

“Good morning,” he muttered, his voice an octave deeper than usual and thick with sleep.

“Evening is more like it,” she replied, reaching up to stroke his impossibly soft hair.

She felt Gideon’s muscles shift as he stretched them, the hand he had on her waist tensing briefly as he did so.

Finally, Gideon let out a breath through his nose and said, “that was the greatest sleep I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Sophie chuckled softly. “I would have thought the best sleep of your life would have been on our wedding night.”

Gideon opened his eyes and smiled, “we didn’t do much sleeping that night, though, did we?”

Sophie nudged him with her elbow. “Why is it that you’re only like this around me? You act diplomatically and mature to everybody, and yet you say the most scandalous things when it is just us.”

Gideon pressed a soft and lasting kiss on her lips. He then brought his lips close to her ear and muttered, “I’m not trying to woo everybody else,” before kissing the spot where her jawline began.

Sophie’s eyes shuttered closed, Gideon’s warm breath sending shivers down her spine, but she turned her face away from him and nodded in the direction of their children. “We should spare them the sight of their parents kissing.”

Gideon turned to where they were huddled around the puzzle. Sophie resisted the urge to turn his face towards her and kiss him regardless.

He looks back at her soon enough, his sea green eyes bright in the soft light the fire emitted.

“They’re not paying attention.” He said, brushing a strand of her hair away from her face with his knuckle. “They have their backs to us.”

“They could turn around at any second and begin shrieking, like two of them did last time.” Sophie said.

It was no mystery to anybody who the two that had done said shrieking were.

Gideon presses his lips together at the memory of that before raising his eyebrows and smirking.

“What’s that smirk all about?” Sophie asked.

Before Sophie could so much as to guess what it could be about, Gideon turned on his side and lifted the thick blanket so that it shielded them from the children.

“How is this?” He asked, kissing her nose.

Sophie huffed out a laugh. “It’s better, I suppose. At least this way, our eardrums will remain intact.”

“Hallelujah.” Gideon said, flashing her a dazzling smile, that made her insides melt. She put both of her hands on either side of his face and lowered his lips towards her own. They kissed softly, unrushed and lavishingly so.

Gideon was so warm. His body seemed to emit heat when he slept, which meant that right now, his skin was hot enough that it felt as though Sophie were standing right in front of a furnace. It ended up working in their favor, because whenever Thomas gets too cold at night, they plant him next to Gideon and he’s able to fall asleep. They’re absolutely adorable when they sleep together, if Sophie does say so herself.

Sophie giggled against his lips, causing them to break apart.

“What?” Gideon asked, his smile soft as he kissed the corners of her lips.

“I just thought about something silly.” She said, spreading her hands on his chest and roaming upward, intertwining them at the nape of his neck.

“Would you care to elaborate?”

Sophie shook her head giggling.

“Come now,” he said, playfully, “I’m dying of curiosity.”

“Alright. I was thinking about the time you slipped off the roof while we were patrolling in London.”

Gideon laughed through his nose, burying his nose in a particularly sensitive spot of her neck. “I’m never living that down, aren’t I?”

Sophie shrugged her left shoulder and kissed Gideon’s bottom lip when he lifted his head.

“Not a chance.”

His eyes fluttered shut as he kissed her shamelessly, his hands sending shivers through her as they travelled up and down the sensitive skin of her waist and hips.

“We should stop,” Gideon said, breaking apart. “Before they realize we’re awake.”

“Yes, I suppose we should.” Sophie said.

They kissed once, twice and then thrice (for good measure) before reemerging from the blanket.

Once they’d gotten over their daze, they arranged themselves in each other's arms, fitting like pieces of a puzzle, and gazed towards their children. They were quiet as they built a puzzle Sophie had left out for them while she and Gideon rested on the couch for a while. They hadn’t expected to fall asleep, but thankfully, the children were still entertained by the puzzle. Barbara had a blanket over her shoulders and had placed little Thomas in her crossed legs, periodically hugging him and adjusting the blanket, so that he didn’t get cold.

Thomas, on the other hand, took every opportunity Barbara was looking away to try to crawl out from the blankets and watch the puzzle-making action.

Eugenia was humming to herself, picking up random pieces and fitting them together. Every time she’d manage to get them to go together, she’d get up and do a little twirl, before sitting down once more and starting the whole process all over again.

Thomas was the first to realize they’d woken up. He gave them a toothy grin and crawled out of Barbara’s arms. Using the table to slowly get to his feet, he padded over to Eugenia.

When he got close enough, however, Sophie reached over Gideon’s chest and scooped him up. She tucked him into her arms and kissed his little cheeks.

“You’ve been caught by the love monster.” She said tickling and attacking him with kisses. Thomas giggled and tried to squirm away from her, but she held on tighter.

Part of her wants to hold Thomas forever. It felt like just yesterday he’d been born, four months and two weeks premature. He was still so small and light in her arms and got sick far too easily, but she thanked the Angel everyday for his life. Her miracle child. Who seemed very keen on getting away.

She stopped peppering him with kisses enough to hold him away so that she could see his face.

“You don’t love the Love Monster?”

He met her stare before putting his hands on her cheeks and kissing her forehead. Sophie

raised her eyebrows at him and when he giggled again, she tucked him in her arms.

“No,” she heard a soft voice say.

She pulled back. “What?”

“I love Mama, not the Love Monster.”

Gideon chuckled and ruffled his hair.

Sophie gave Thomas a final kiss on the forehead and let him go to his sisters.

They watched their children put puzzle pieces together, Eugenia aggressively so, going so far as to slam her fist upon two tricky pieces.

“Mama! Papa! Do you like it?” Eugenia said, gesturing towards the unfinished puzzle.

They both craned their necks to see.

“Oh. Erm…”

“We love it!” Sophie said.

“It’s lovely.” Gideon added.

When the kids turned around again, Sophie covered her mouth.

“There’s not a single puzzle piece that’s connected to its corresponding partner, is there?” Gideon asked.

“No, I’m afraid that in the hours we’ve been asleep, they haven’t managed to piece any together correctly.” Sophie said.

Gideon pressed his lips together and shrugged. “Well…”

“They’ll get more intelligent with age.” Sophie said.

“Yes, yes. I should think so.”

“I should hope so.”

They looked at each other and smiled, and then laughed, perfectly content with the life they had made for themselves.

...

Tagging: @tsccreatorsnet @atla-lok143 @rinadragomir @youngreckless @autumnangel20 @julemmaes @cupcakesandkittens @no-scones-allowed @ninacarstairss @stxr-thxif @writeforjordelia @itsdaughterofthemoon @jordeliasupremacy @cordelia-cardale @will-effing-herondale @axoloteca @heronstairs2014 @ilovemanicures @ti-bae-rius @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @readersconfessions812 @nightshade3465 @livvyheronstairs @zemiraa @proudtobealuthor @neurogliadudette

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#sophideon #sophie lightwood #sophie collins #gideon lightwood #thomas lightwood #barbara lightwood #eugenia lightwood #tlh #tsc #tlh fanfiction #tid #tid fanfic #lightwood #ana fics

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steve0discusses · 4 years ago

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S5 Ep 14: So If You Put a Fraction Into a Duel Disk, the Card Explodes

We left on quite the cliffhanger last episode, so I’ll fill you in:

I did not get the haircut.

Like I seriously considered getting a Zigfried for a cool 3 or 4 minutes there, but then I decided to wait a couple of days and I basically forgot.

But, back to the arc finale, Seto has decided to walk, not run, to the Kaiba lab in order to fix the virus rapidly eating his entire company.

I just want to point out that Zigfried went through a LOT of work to get Seto Kiaba to go “uggggh” turn around, and pretend to calmly walk away. I’m used to Seto losing his nut kind of a lot and blowing things up but this season he’s like “be chill be chill be chill” so that the entire world doesn’t think he’s a spaz on TV.

And little aside about Seto’s design choices here, I fell down a hole of interior design videos, and can I just say: apparently these wood frame things on the wall are back in style? Good on you, 2002(3?) Seto Kaiba. Don’t think that current designers are painting them purple but...we’re halfway there to Yugioh fashion.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh decides to remind everyone that these stakes are hella low. The worst that happens is that Zigfried deletes the plane that Yugi needs to fly home...which would be an impressive virus.

Like it’s hard to tell if Yami even has a solid concept of “capitalism” and whether or not he cares about or understands the makeup of Seto’s company (which up till now has operated like a small country and not a business...which is a little more Pharaoh’s understanding. Either way...hard to tell if Yami would shed two tears for the loss of Kaiba corp.)

And, despite what I say in the caps, I feel like Leon and Zigfried are the first villains we’ve ever had that Yugi and Pharaoh didn’t unintentionally disclose that they are 2 people to. Zigfried and Leon are just...completely oblivious to how effed up Yugi’s bean is. They think that’s just a normal kid and lol no dudes...y’all got distracted by Seto Kabia but you have a literal Egyptian God just hovering around in the background and dating 3 people by accident.

Like when the show shelves the main storyline, it is very funny how it’s all “And we’re gonna put the Pharaoh crisis on hold--just put a pin in it. No one will notice this child is two nervous wrecks stitched together” and then Yugi and Yami just kinda hold it in and watch all patiently until it’s their turn to get off the bench.

(read more under the cut)

In the giant computer tower, Seto Kaiba shouts out a string of orders and numbers, admired the many sonar detector looking windows open on every monitor, and then sat down at his desk to like...check the firewall, I guess?

The virus is past the firewall. It’s um...it’s inside the firewall, pretty sure that was the point, but youknow, it’s a kid’s show so they’re just throwing out computer stuff that has no meaning to the writers of this show.

Mokuba thinks fondly of how Seto Kaiba has never screwed him over (which I mean...maybe not on purpose, ((except for that one time he did screw him over on purpose to get Gozaburo Kaiba to accidentally give Seto Kaiba the company, but you could say that was a grander scheme that he knew Mokuba would see through, which...)) but Seto certainly has screwed Mokuba over accidentally. At least once.)

And meanwhile, Yami fixes everything through card shenanigans.

So here’s the shenanigan this episode: I don’t go over cards here but this one requires a limited amount of explanation.

So every round the golden castle deletes half of Yugi’s cards. So he was like...I’ll just draw down to one card. They can’t delete half a card...so that means the card must delete one of the two cards on the field which means it must delete itself.

...which is like the closest Yugioh will probably ever get to abusing a glitch to do a speedrunning tactic like GDQ.

Anyway, like I stated in the title: there are no fractions allowed in Yugioh. If you do that to your priceless one-of-a-kind card you got from winning one of Pegasus’ murder tournies, it will irreparably bust the card.

I’m sure at least one of you will correct me with the proper way to insert a fraction into your duel disk. Cuz like...as I say multiple times so we never forget, I barely pay attention to this card game and I’m just flying by the seat of my pants.

I want to say Seto and Mokuba were in the hacker chairs for like...3 minutes maybe before they realized “oh...Yugi fixed it...” and walked the half a mile back to the duel arena.

and also, as I’m looking at Seto’s glasses here, I just realized...all of Kaiba’s team wears sunglasses all the time. Inside, outside, night, or day...

They haven’t outright said this...but what if those aren’t sunglasses?

Is Roland and that other Roland wearing fancy cyber glasses? They are, right? Because they wear them indoors?

Damn, they can’t take a piss without being on call with Kaiba Corp, can they?

Now the problem is...Yugi played all of his cards (he has two in front of him face down, but none in his deck) and after milling himself, this means he’s now basically a sitting duck for Leon to take the title of “King of Games.”

Leon insists that he defend whatever scraps are left of his card honor and not duel a person who is carrying no cards and Yugi was like “COME AT ME BRO THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I KNOW I’M ALIVE.”

He didn’t even have to do a horror on Leon, he just...played cards good? I skipped it, I’ll be honest, but overall Leon’s card honor was...saved? Maybe? I mean he also go destroyed when his competitor had not a single card in his duel disk so...

...Leon will have to work on his card honor off screen because he’s pretty well humiliated at this point.

But stumbling onto the playing field like he’s half dazed/daydrunk, Zigfried is like “You forgot I already won, bastards!”

Which is when we find out that Zigfried’s “delete all” virus failed to press “enter” and deleted basically nothing. Just like when my Mom attempts to send something in Gmail but doesn’t press “Send” and tells me that Google is down and broken.

Sorry my bro has informed me that he ALSO has had to help my Mother locate the “Send” button and I just...I know she absolutely did that but I’m in denial that this Riddle of the Sphinx has happened to her multiple times.

Honestly, the pep talk we get from Leon at the end to cheer up his bro was a whole lot of “we will pick ourselves up and we’ll do better next time. Together.” and sure you can translate that as “we’ll be honest next time” or you can translate that as “next time we will be not nearly as obvious about inserting a virus into their computer until it is done doing the job, bro.”

Just like Dartz, we didn’t really get a whole lot of retribution or closure when it comes to Zigfried. But, unlike Dartz, Zigfried didn’t do too much murder, so I guess this is fine. He tried to cheat in a card game...

...and I guess tried to delete Kaiba Corp but youknow...

...people let him have that. The police saw the ticket of “this man tried to delete Kaiba Corp” and they just...didn’t arrest him. The judge saw that ticket and didn’t put out a warrant. They just let Zigfried have this, almost like “better luck next time, ya?”

And then Roland clocked out for the day and went home, thus ending this arc.

Look at all these characters, most of which we never saw duel even one card.

We also got one shot of Mai for some reason although she was not in this arc.

AAAHHHH. Every time I’m like “the show is done screwing geography” we get another freakin geography spook!

But we went back to California in order to get a scene of these guys in an airport to get a flight to Japan...

which means Rex and Weevil just...were they shipped home by the Kaibas? Because way to ditch getting arrested by the American Government, hot damn. They are...literally terrorists who destroyed a Caltrain in a plot to kill everyone in the world so like...really surprised Rex and Weevil are in public...but maybe all the FBI were dead at the time so they just didn’t know?

Meanwhile, Duke has to go back to Death Valley and call a tow truck for his car, RIP.

I sure hope he got PTO during this stunt and isn’t going home to a pink slip.

I’m not sure of Dukes life or anything going on with Duke. I’m sure the thing about Serenity is him joking because we have all forgotten about that girl by this point...but also...is Duke...still living in the Tenderloin? The crime rate is very, very high and the ground isn’t solid, so it will liquefy if there’s an Earthquake, but it is one of the few places in the Bay Area that doesn’t light on fire every year. He has that going for him.

I just really hope Duke moves out of the Tenderloin one of these days, he needs a better life.

Meanwhile, Rebecca does one last crime.

This is like a post-epidemic reaction to a hug, but in 2002(3?).

I don’t think I’ll miss Rebecca too much. Wanted to like her more, but she was under-utilized, like most of the characters on Yugioh. Not even just talking girl characters here--most characters on Yugioh are super under-utilized, just Tristan Wallflowers doing nothing, but also being selectively OP as hell about very specific things they never, ever need to do.

Speaking of the devil:

Yugi...just saved his entire company...

But Mokuba is just has to make sure to make it seem like they owed Mokuba and not the other way around. Just in case.

So off they go on this massive plane. It’s probably more to do with the length of the trip as to why the plane is so big but also...

This plane is overcompensating.

But before we analyze that, lets close the book on Seto Kaiba’s very short therapy arc. Overall, it was a nice distraction, but I can see why people call it a filler arc, as it really doesn’t affect...anything going on in the major plotlines, which makes me think it could have been a movie or a game or something. But overall, it’s not bad, it’s just not what you’d expect if you were a Western audience.

Like I’m preaching to the choir, but typically, Western stories are entirely plot focused, and so our arcs always give or take away from that plot. But in a Eastern story arc, it may instead be character focused, where the climax is a character evolving or coming to some sort of cathartic realization, which this arc was, in a big way. We still had some plot, because this is a Shonen, but overall it was about characters, and specifically whether or not Leon and his bro would reconcile or change--which they did.

We did get to see a little more growth on Seto in that he...didn’t go bonkers and hallucinate during a card game. It’s been a while since we’ve had him not do that. Seto was very chill this arc, which makes sense, it was a very chill slice of life arc for everyone involved.

So, next we move on to the next one, which bro has informed me...is

still not Bakura.

According to Bro, the next arc didn’t even air in the Japanese version of the show? Like he’s got a lot of spicy Yugioh headcanons so he could be wrong (He did tell me that he thought that Zigfried was Seto Kaiba’s ex boyfriend when he saw this as a kid which...that sure is a way to interpret this arc, and it probably wasn’t just my little brother who went down that thought tube there...)

(Bro Note: To be fair, I didn’t watch much of this arc as a kid.)

But he says the next arc was originally a movie. But they released it in the States as episodes to be part of S5, just to put more episodes in there. Which, if he’s correct, makes it seem like we’re getting like the Mulan 2 experience kind of shoved in between this arc and the next

But um..

according to bro it has virtually no card games.

.......

I’m so used to only capping 10 minutes an episode, what?

Anyway, until then, here’s the link to read the rest of these from the start in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

I’m kinda itching to do a Season Zero, it’s been a hot minute--so those take a little longer to do, especially since I need to go to a different site I haven’t...checked out yet...I’ll be back...eventually? I just know that at some point in Season Zero they fight it out with yo-yo’s and I want to see it.

#yugioh #yu gi oh #ygo #S5 #Ep14 #Seto Kaiba #zigfried von schroeder #leon von schroeder #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Mokuba #Tea Gardner #Duke Devlin #Rebecca Hawkins #recap #photo recap #episode recap

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not-poignant · 4 years ago

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That last ffs chapter was perfect! Didnt realize just how bad Efs therapist triggered PTSD was and reading the part where he gets scared and starts stuttering got me in the heart. And Dr Gary handling it so well! telling him his hands are important! It kinda reminded me of Ef feeling like his hands weren’t important when Arden first tied them up. And also when Arden told him his hands were perfect. Can’t wait to read this one over and over again!

I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

And yeah, Efnisien’s PTSD that’s triggered re: Henton has been present in almost every session since the beginning actually, it’s just not been very ‘eventful’ in some cases and it’s a lot more subtle (which, frankly, a lot of PTSD is, which is why it’s easy for people to have it to kind of ‘forget’ about it even when it’s ruling their lives). But from... never wanting to touch Dr Gary’s hands, and being hesitant about handing things to him, to thinking that Dr Gary is lying to him because Henton said something different, it’s always kind of been lurking. I could probably point out several places in each therapy session where Efnisien has behaved in a certain way because of Henton-related trauma.

Efnisien’s had two pretty major meltdowns around Mika now, and that’s pushing too close to a pattern for Dr Gary’s liking, so they’ll never have a joint session with the three of them in that office again. If/when Efnisien sees Mika again, it will be a pretty different scenario, and Dr Gary and Efnisien will probably talk a lot about it first.

It’s funny, I think Dr Gary handled it as well as he could given the circumstances, but he made some big mistakes. Aside from creating the environment where this could happen in the first place, he also initially threatened Efnisien with Hillview or a hospital to get him to comply with them while standing and crowding him and being a direct trigger, which is actually not a great thing to do with someone in general, let alone someone who’s self-harming (it’s why he back-pedalled pretty firmly on this, with both apologies, and then reminding Efnisien that it’s perfectly understandable to self-harm when he feels he had no other option left to him - a situation Dr Gary created, and then compounded. Like Dr Gary apologised for a lot of stuff in that session, and he was right to).

Dr Gary has a very pushy style that wouldn’t actually suit a lot of clients. And he took a risk and it did not pay off during that session, because he wasn’t assessing the situation properly. I think sometimes - at least rarely - he can get lax with Efnisien because Efnisien is an ‘easy’ client for him. But easy doesn’t always mean that he doesn’t need some vigilance and gentle handling from time to time.

So while I’m happy that Dr Gary recovered really well, he really did kind of set the situation up to be a perfect storm in the first place. I think he was repeating to himself ‘this is an opportunity, this is an opportunity’ a fair few times in that session, lmao, which is what he reminds himself when something goes wrong and he realises he’s fucked up. But I don’t think he’s going to get Efnisien’s expression and words out of his head any time soon when Efnisien straight up reacted to him like he was Henton and started begging him not to touch him. But that’s why Dr Gary has his own therapist.

I feel bad for Mika though. So much of Efnisien’s feelings around his sexuality and his submission are directly tied to aspects of his past. I think he would have been submissive anyway, even without Crielle, but he doesn’t have that meta in his own head - all he knows is that he was raised to behave a certain way, and now he’s behaving that way around Arden sometimes, and he doesn’t know what that means about him as a person. There’s very few subjects that Mika and Efnisien can safely cover without directly stepping through the minefield that is Efnisien’s past. I honestly think Efnisien was charging headlong into a serious meltdown before Dr Gary even came back in the room and tipped him over.

I think we can see how disturbed Efnisien was at the end of the session by the fact that he was really resistant to being calmed down. Like, he changed the subject several times when Dr Gary started encouraging him to think and talk about Stupidhead. Efnisien wasn’t ready to be coaxed away from that emotional upset, and it’s a sign that he’s not really that stable right now. Like Dr Gary did his best, and they did have a good conversation, but Efnisien really wasn’t ready to leave at the end of that session. I think that’s the first time we’ve seen him really hesitate and stay back to try and grab a few more minutes with Dr Gary at the end of a session, though some of that is because he’s resistant to seeing doctors, but some of it is...he’s very upset, and he didn’t find the equilibrium he usually finds after a session. And that’s a pretty big neon sign that Dr Gary messed that one up. But hey, as he says, he’s only human - therapists make mistakes, and they are opportunities.

Part of therapy is learning how to enter the rupture-repair cycle safely. Which is that - something happens where you’re upset at something the therapist has done (or vice versa) and that creatures a rupture. But ruptures always lead to opportunities to repair. And some of the strongest relationships and friendships in the world are the ones that have a healthy rupture-repair cycle. But this rupture has not yet been fully repaired, which I think Dr Gary recognises by his suggesting that they talk further about the way he can support and help Efnisien when he starts regressing or seeing Dr Gary as Henton specifically.

(I’m thinking about it, I do think Dr Gary’s pushy style actually suits Efnisien a lot of the time! Because it gives/affords Efnisien opportunities to have an anger response, feel his anger, realise that he doesn’t like what someone else has said, and do something about it. And a lot of the time he responds and vocalises that anger safely. Like, yes, he’s rude about it, but for the most part, when he feels safe enough, he will tell Dr Gary that he thinks he’s mean, and that gives them a further opportunity to talk about that, and for Dr Gary to apologise, or course correct, or explain himself - and that teaches Efnisien that pointing out when he’s been hurt by someone doesn’t always have to lead to catastrophe - so in that sense, it’s really crucial to this stage of Efnisien’s development. When it works, anyway).

God I’m rambling salkdfja

#asks and answers #falling falling stars #efnisien ap wledig #dr gary konowalous #fae tales AU #fae tales #god i'm having so many thoughts today!!!#i'm so sorry anon #i did really love dr gary telling efnisien his hands are important #it was a gentle and compassionate thing to say #and i think that really hit efnisien #sometimes dr gary turns things around or pivots in this way that's like #hey actually yuo're doing okay at your job son #even if you did cock up lmao #Anonymous

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lizacstuff · 4 years ago

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Can’t wait to read you thoughts on this episode. Eda and Serkan are getting engaged! ngl seeing the rings did something to me, I haven’t recovered yet.

I KNOW!!!!! I missed the rings so much. When folks were upset during the filming of 20 when it became apparent he wasn't wearing the ring anymore, I remember saying that they have to take them off so they can put them back on for real, and it will be oh so sweet when they do. Flashforward six weeks and YES!!!! Just seeing those rings again is sweet we're going to die when they actually slip them on during the next episode. I'm not attached to any of my own jewelry the way I'm attached to their rings, lmao.

As a whole this episode was very enjoyable for me. The new writers clearly realized they needed a mood change after episode 25, and I was thrilled to see the show return to its roots. The tone felt more like the first batch of episodes than any in recent memory. What a relief. Also I've said prior to this that I suspected that where we would feel Ayse's absence was in the humor and lack of sparkle. Well I thought this episode had plenty of both, so I stand corrected. The first Edser scene with Serkan gliding by Eda without saying a word and then having his trusty sidekick Leyla keep an eye on what they were doing outside set the light comedic tone and put everything on the right footing from the get go.

More later on Edser, let's start with all the nonsense they use to fill the rest of the 2+ hours.

(continue under the read more)

What in the frack is Babaanne's endgame? Does she have one? Is it to take revenge on Serkan? To get Eda back in her orbit? Or just to cause chaos? Or is she testing them? Not sure.

I enjoyed the scene between mom and son, Aydan and Serkan's relationship has really become one of the best on the show, certainly better than recent Eda/Ayfer. Which is interesting, because in the pilot they established that while Serkan may be rich with material things, he was lacking in love and emotional familial support, while Eda was poor in regards to material things, but was surrounded by love in the form of her family/friends. Though perhaps one of the greatest gifts Eda's given Serkan is an improved relationship with his mother, and the impetus to distance himself from his unloving father. While Serkan has inspired her growing independence from her aunt.

Speaking of them, let's move on to Aydan and Ayfer. PLEASE MADE THIS CHEF NONSENSE END! Good grief. I really don't enjoy watching these two ladies making total asses of themselves over this douche. Both of them trying to catch him on his jog and then going along with his aikido nonsense. It feels like he's just playing with them for his own amusement. Both deserve better and I don't even like Ayfer. Also if my boss gave me a single red rose for being employee of the month, I'd find that both creepy and hella disappointing (crash prizes please.)

Meanwhile Ayfer is still testing my last nerve. When Aydan and Seyfi show up and inform her that they've found out that Serkan and Eda broke up and she responds with, "Were they even together to break up?" I wanted to slap her upside the head. Whatever official relationship status Eda and Serkan have, they have been connected and in a romantic relationship this entire time. The bit of time jump at the start of 15 before she goes back to work for Efe, is really the only section of time since they've met where they weren't in a relationship. And while Eda isn't all that forthcoming with Ayfer when it comes to Serkan, she hasn't really hidden it well. It was at Ayfer's birthday when they were on the ice together being very romantic, Ayfer was at Aydan's 70s party and could very well see Eda and Serkan attached at the hip all night and wound around one another intimately slow dancing, Ayfer knows Eda spent the night at Serkan's when she left because of Babaanne, Ayfer was at the NY party and saw them together there. Not to mention Ayfer knows Serkan saved her business and why, she knows Serkan was still wearing his ring, and she knows Eda looked completely shattered over leaving Serkan as Ayfer heartlessly reacted with glee in the last episode.

So asking "were they even together" just completely diminishes what Eda is currently going through, as if parting with him is no big deal because there was nothing there to begin with, when she knows better. When she's seen it with her own two eyes. Seriously.. fuck her. Every other character who is a friend of Eda and Serkan all know that they're a unit. I don't even feel bad that she came to ArtLife to beg for Eda's company, but Eda ended up blowing her off. Surprising Serkan with a proposal was a much better use of her time.

Engin and Piril, yeeesh, I feel for Piril, trying to put off this meeting. I'm sure she's thinking it's for Engin's own good, but her flipping into total bitch mode when they're newlyweds... not great. Not an auspicious start to the marriage. Even if she wants to keep Engin away from her father, she ought to confide in Engin and tell him why she's freaked. I'm assuming we'll get more of that in the next episode since Engin is looking rough in those promo stills.

My favorite side plot was probably Grandog's henchman's (what is his name?) crush on Melo. Melo deserves to be crushed on, and I love that she is so uninterested that she doesn't see it. Much more fun to have him chasing her, and her being oblivious. Poor Leyla, trying in vain to get his attention when he only has eyes for Melo. Enjoyed that Melo and Leyla made the agreement that Melo would help Leyla get the dude and Leyla would help get rid of Erdem. I'm looking forward to see where this goes.

Ceren and Ferit... were there too.

Now onto the A story (and let's be real the only one that matters) Eda and Serkan. Obviously 25 left us off in a very sad, heartbroken place. I'm not sure what decisions were made, when or why, but at some point TPTB decided they needed to get back to their roots and thank goodness. Episode 25 was just so dark, Eda was miserable the entire episode, as was Serkan, and that's not fun to watch for 2 hours. The way they handled them here is much better.

I know some feel the tone shift was too much. To that I would say, it was so dark in ep 25, I'm happy to do a 180, no matter the reason, to get back to a place where watching is fun, and also I think of the breakup as Eda throwing the breaks on a runaway train and once she did, and she was sure the train was stopped at least for the time being, then she could take a moment, reassess the situation and potentially decide it wasn’t as dire as she thought. In the last episode, every moment Eda delayed giving that old bitty what she wanted, something catastrophic befell Serkan, his business, or his family. The pressure mounted, the stakes were high and in the end she had to do whatever was necessary to stop Babaanne's assault on Serkan.

This episode we saw her catch her breath and then formulate a plan. I think a tone shift fits with that. Of course she feels lighter knowing that even though she hurt Serkan, he's protected for the moment. Now that that's taken care of, she's ready for next steps. So it works that the next morning we see her telling Melo and Ceren that she's not going to give up Serkan, and outlining her plan around getting close to Babaanne in order to get something on her. Good girl!

As I said above, I just adored that first scene outside ArtLife. The girls gathered around, trying to warn Eda that Serkan was coming, and then his walk by where he KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING when he got right up in Eda's business without even looking at her. He knows what makes her weak in the knees. And I love that Serkan decided to play it like this. HE KNOWS. He knows she loves him, he knows there's more to the breakup, and he knows how to deal with it. Drive her crazy until she cracks and tells him everything. OR drive her crazy until they end in a passionate, possessive sex explosion. One or the other.

Quick poll, who didn't love watching Serkan take back the reigns of his company? This gal did. YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS. Alpha Serkan is back. Kick the old bag's throne to the curb. Kick the old bag's creepy client to the curb. Now we just have to kick the old bag and her deranged, obsessed sidekick to the curb as well. But for now, I loved seeing him at the end of the table, making decisions, not brooking opposition. The team squabbling over his decision, but he just sits back, unbothered. Total power move. I appreciate Ferit questioning the decision, questioning it is the right thing to do in his position, but he may have gotten a little too pissy about it. Dude, this entire company IS Serkan. The success of the company is due to his talent, his vision, his business acumen. I get they're all worried he's making a decision because of Eda, but he's got a proven track record of, you know, being right, so there's no reason to get shirty. If Serkan doesn't want to work with someone, his instinct is probably on target.

Eda getting Babaanne to stand down warmed me from the inside out. I find it interesting that she used the argument that they were pushing him too hard and he didn't deserve it, and Babaanne bought it. For one I think Eda was worried Serkan was going to snap and do something that might start Babs' Bolat revenge cycle again. For two, she just wants the love of her life to win and be calm. However, if anyone in that room didn't catch onto what happened there, that Eda and BigB leave and then come back a minute later and BigB has done a 180, I question their competence. *cough* Ferit *cough* He's just not the sharpest tool in the shed. However, obviously, Serkan knew.

On another note, they've gotten pretty murky with the line between ArtLife and the holding. Babaanne has 45% of the Holding, not ArtLife. Ferit has 5% of the holding, not ArtLife. So which company was working with the Prince? Since it was a project to design a house, seems like that should be ArtLife? But Babs and Ferit seemed to think they had a vote which they shouldn't if it's ArtLife. Who knows... whatever.

Have you ever seen anything cuter than Eda in her coat and boots and protective helmet, leaning over, clutching her chest, exhausted after climbing all those stairs? I mean she's an adorable bean just bent over and huffing and puffing, but the fact that she just climbed up goodness knows how many flights of stairs (judging by that view, an impossible number, but we'll allow it) just to see Serkan? We giggle at her excuse that she did that because he gave her too much work. Eda, he's not going to buy that, luckily none of us want him to buy it. These two, they can't stay away from each other. Ever. She was also probably worried after the foreman told her he'd been up there for hours. Again, I think she's concerned that she's pushed him too far. So now she's in Serkan's shoes after the first breakup. Navigating that push pull of wanting to be with him, but sticking to the decision to end it for his sake.

It's nice to see that her claustrophobia was not "cured" after going up in the elevator with Serkan one-time. On her own, she's still not able to face it. I'm sure she could do it again with him, but there's more work to be done before she can face it without him.

Serkan was surprisingly vulnerable in both his conversation with Engin and with Eda on the top of that skyscraper. Even just telling Engin he was too out of sorts to join him for lunch, tells us that while he knows what he's doing, he knows there's more to the story, but he's still hurting and unsettled after the breakup. Then, "I create to make people happy, but I myself can't be happy. It's strange." Oh Serkan. I think you ripped my heart out with that... Eda's too.

Eda was so discombobulated by Serkan's attitude. Whatever she expected from him, his acceptance of the break up, wasn't it. His proposal that they be "friends" threw her and she looked so distressed when he said, "Everyone will live their own life." Alarm bells started going off for her, much as they did for him at the top of ep 19 when Eda said she was going to start living her life. She did NOT like the idea of Serkan Bolat out there living a life that didn't include her, lmao.

It's crazy to me that Eda has a friend like Fifi, who probably breaks and enters for a living, and yet she chooses Melo for a clandestine operation. Come on, Eda, you got to choose the right person for the job, lmao. I also question Eda's choice of cat burglar wardrobe. Seemed a bit... restricting and flashy. Though her skin-tight, snakeskin breaking-and-entering dress and fashionable trespassing boots did make it easier to transition to fine dining and driving your man towards rambunctious breakup/makeup/jealousy sex. Not much to say about the restaurant scenes. The prince is creepy af, and was that the most awkward dance.... ever? The looks back and forth between Edser were excellent, so much tension and longing and jealousy. But boy is it hard to watch a scene with Balca in it, ugh she makes my skin crawl and I don’t even like looking at her. Also the deliberate way the actress has chosen to speak is irritating. Anyway, we now know Balca is pretty much capable of anything, if she’s capable of essentially poisoning the man she thinks she loves. Yikes. Did Nana realize that Balca poisoned him? I have to believe she did, because him being sick seemed part of the plan. THEY'RE ALL FULL EVIL!!! .

One thing I don't believe is that Eda Yildiz would ever walk out of that restaurant with Serkan looking that bad. No way she leaves him to Balca's care, or anyone else's for that matter. Nope, regardless of who was watching she would have insisted on taking him to the doctor herself. But I get they were setting up the plot, so they sacrificed that bit.

These villains are really bad at driving a wedge between two people who love each other. AngryGran is all like, "I know a foolproof plan, let's put them in the same room and get 'em all riled up with jealousy, then make Serkan sick so Eda's worried, then I'll convince her to go check on him and let's see what happens!" LMAO. Cheers to you, dumbasses, you brought us a whole heaping plate full of S.E.X. They were really banking that Eda was going to fly off the handle and think that Serkan went from an allergic reaction to sexing up the new obsessed employee very quickly. It's great that they all underestimate Eda and Serkan's relationship and connection, that should continue to help Edser as long as these fools continue to meddle.

Eda was, wait for it, LEGENDARY, in her smackdown of Balca. QUEEEEEEEN. I'll never be over the, "You can only be with a statue of Serkan, darling." BWAHAHAHAHA. Yes! Throw her creepy, inappropriate present back in her face. And Balca's gall asking Eda to leave and then continually lecture Eda that they'd broken up. That takes either big cajones or huge helpings of delusion, because Balca has very little information when it comes to their relationship, yet she's playing her hand like she knows it all and like she doesn't care what gets back to Serkan. However, got to hand it to Balca for keeping her composure once Eda saw through her little staged production, because her story was painfully weak. Let's say for real that you're at your boss's house, the boss is sick so you're hanging around downstairs by yourself just to make sure everything is okay. What's the problem with just... you know... wearing your outfit with a coffee stain? Unless you had a massive big gulp sized coffee and poured it over your head, why even change? Don't you just... live with the stain? It's not like you're making a presentation to the board of directors in 5 minutes. For the love of god you're sitting there and no one else is around. Weak alibi.

Poor Serkan, he's just there trying to sleep off having his allergies maliciously triggered, and he completely misses out on the love of his life fighting for him downstairs. Oh how he would have loved to see that. But oh what a way to wake up, with Eda Yildiz standing over him, looking magnificent, and rousing him with a scolding tone. I've already talked about how HOT the jealousy and possessiveness was here, so I'll focus on the scene itself.

Let’s talk about the fragman first. Due to the short production timeline of this show, when they create a trailer they're doing it from the dailies, not from the show itself. That part of the show usually hasn't even been edited yet so the fragman exists before the episode. That means often there are scenes or angles that appear in the fragman, but not in the episode. It happened bigtime with the shower scene in 19, it happened randomly with the fragman for 20, they showed that really great shot of heartbroken Serkan in red, but didn't show the full thing in the episode, (when giffing it I had to use the fragman) and here, several of the best shots of Eda and Serkan ripping each other's clothes off were in the fragman and didn't make the episode. We can live with it for a lonely Serkan shot, but it's quite a bait and switch in this instance. Especially when pretty much every member of the cast (except Hande, Kerem didn't post anything either, but he did appear in that IGlive where the cast mercilessly teased him about it) promoted the scene. Not cool. I realize that they're dealing with sensors and may have had to cut things in order to avoid fines and such, but then they probably should have found a way to release the uncut scene on the internet as I've read other Turkish shows have done and like they did with episode 13. If you're gonna put something like this in the fragman to entice viewers, and have the cast promote it, you need to be willing to deliver. Badly done on the part of both Fox and MF Yapim.

That being said, one of the great things about the tighter restrictions this show has to adhere to, is they really show the intimacy instead. On an American show, these characters would have started eating each other's faces off and then tumbled into bed. There is something very hot, though, about them just invading each other's space, breathing each other's scent, nose to nose, nose to neck, nose to cheek... without breaching. Plus we got to see him carry her to the bed... even if they darkened it to the point you can barely see. I saw enough. HOT. The scene was short, but more tantalizing than lots of love scenes I've seen.

I was sad she left while he still slept in the morning. For him not to feel her get out of bed, she must have worn him out! It really would have been nice to see them wake up together, but I'm sure that will come. Plus it gave us the tension filled scene in the office. The knocked over lamp in the background was a delicious detail. Things got rambunctious! I'm glad Eda got to return the sentiment that only she can touch him, if only Serkan had heard it! Another thing that would have made him so happy if only he knew about it.

Melo is all of us upon learning about their night of passion. She's a whole cheerleader for them, and I love it.

The post-sex scenes at the office were amazing. For several seconds I thought that he really did think it was a dream. Panic started to set in until she admitted she'd had it too. Phew. No hiding for Eda. I'm glad he flirted, instead of getting offended, and that she was at least honest about there being something she needed to do before they could really be together. Eda also handled the office conversation with Balca well. Love that she didn't show any reaction to her claim about Paris, just wished her a good trip. I felt that deep breath she took before going into his office. Yes, girl, calm down before you march in and accuse him of something, good thing he immediately invited her. I just about melted at, "I don't want to argue... you're precious to me." Serkan is gradually learning how to head off her fits of pique.

The proposal... I... just... okay... my heart... I need a minute... still not over it.

It was perfect. She made a surprise for him!!!! After he asked her for a surprise a few episodes ago she did it and surpassed even his wildest dreams. It was quite a surprise for us too! Thank you for not spoiling it, show! Serkan has told Eda he loves her about 3 dozen different ways, he's made it clear how he feels and what he wants ("Eda Bolat, sounds nice."). There is no doubt that he was ready to propose the moment he felt she'd be receptive, so it was wonderful that she threw caution to the wind and did it. Both Serkan and the audience needed to see exactly how much she loves him, and this was a wonderful way to do that. It's pretty much the biggest thing she could have done. Also for those of us in other parts of the world (I'm in the US) it might not be too out of the ordinary for a woman to propose, but from what I understand it's rare and possibly non-existent on Turkish shows. That's pretty cool.

Did you see his face!?!? He was so happy at first when he registered that she was actually standing in front of him and then just totally gobsmacked when he saw the rings and realized what was happening. As for Eda, she was just glowing. GLOWING. And don't even get me started on the plane. That trip on the day after they met is such an important part of their love story and the call back here is wonderful. The first time around he thought she was there for him, this time he can't believe that she's there for him.

Can't wait to see the way the full conversation/proposal plays out, do ya'll think he'll say yes? (hee)

#Sen Çal Kapımı #sen cal kapimi #edser #sck 1x26 #sck episode thoughts #sckask #edser discussion #sck discussion #edser meta #asklizac #Anonymous

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lovelyirony · 4 years ago

Note

if you’re taking prompts uhh “the darkness encroaches (you keep it at bay)” idk for who maybe tony?

Tony, for one thing, did not like the fact he was apparently part of a long line of magic-users.

His mom had always been tight-lipped about her own family history, even after she left dad and they moved back to New York.

Tony had asked one time about her family. They had to talk about family history in one of his classes, and there was no way in hell that he wanted to talk about Howard in any capacity that was even neutral. (After all for his debate class, he was talking about how much he sucked in terms of universal weaponry policy.)

Mom had given him a sharp look from the kitchen counter, and even though she was wearing rubber gloves and her hair was pushed back by a bandana that had little Mickey Mouse print on it, she still looked terrifying.

“They’re not worth mentioning, Tony. Make something up.”

“Geez, okay. Touchy subject...”

“Not touchy. Just not worth the time.”

Tony didn’t make a comment after that, because in all honesty he and his mom have never been excellent liars to each other, and this time is no exception.

He does make up his family history. He knows his family is probably from Italy somewhere, they moved in...1923? Yeah, that sounds good. And he’s named after an uncle.

(He isn’t.)

Tony doesn’t ask his mom again because he knows that she won’t give in or break down to answer his questions, and there’s probably good reason why he doesn’t know.

Oh, there’s a reason alright.

He likes science. He likes understanding things. In his (correct) opinion, magic is just science that no one understands yet. Everything has an explanation.

Well.

He accidentally set an asshole’s Mustang on fire.

To be fair, he was an asshole. He had been talking over the professor during every single slide in the lecture presentation for his lecture, and Tony had just about yelled in frustration.

So instead as he saw the guy rev his engine for his stupid fucking car and make a whole big scene about how he had a Mustang, how fucking cool is that you absolute shit-heel of a person-

Fire.

Nothing serious, but Tony knows he did it.

He could feel how his hands twitched, how something came to him and from him. Something not normal.

Or at least if it was normal, health class never came close to covering it.

But it’s a one-time thing, he thinks. He’s not really doing anything else, so maybe it only happens when he’s really mad? That’s probably it. That has to be it.

Except the ramen that he likes at the grocery store is on the top shelf, and Rhodey wandered off to get actual food, and so he can’t reach it because he’s not a freak who is like 6′4″.

It floats.

It fucking floats.

The sweet-chili-ramen floats into his cart and Rhodey sees it, and he stares.

"Either I took an edible and it finally kicked in, or you just did something that definitely isn’t supposed to happen.”

“Maybe the latter,” Tony says faintly.

“Oh,” Rhodey says. “Do you think we have time to get that queso you wanted, or do we have to pay for the groceries and go to the car to process?”

“Queso over my mental state,” Tony responds automatically. “Let’s go.”

They eat in silence when they get to their apartment, and they don’t say anything for about ten minutes.

“So. Do you think you can fly on a broomstick?”

“What? No!” Tony exclaimed, but pausing. “Well, I’ve never tried before, so...”

“Then we have to try. For science reasons,” Rhodey says. “Where the fuck do we get a broomstick?”

So...

As it turns out, you can’t really get a traditional broomstick, so they went to the store and bought a mop.

“They have a mop, but not a broomstick?”

“To be fair, it is April.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Well,” Rhodey starts to explain, “April showers bring May flowers, but also wet boots into the hallway. Also, it’s not your holiday yet.”

“Well yeah, it’s not May yet.”

“I didn’t mean your birthday, dipshit. I meant your holiday.”

“What the fuck is my holiday?” Tony demands. “No one has a ‘celebrate Tony Stark’ day in their calendars, as far as I or my ego knows, so-”

He stops.

“Oh, you little shit.”

“I’m not little,” Rhodey brags. “I’m taller than you.”

“For now.”

“For permanence!”

“I’ll make you pay for this broomstick with the last ten dollars in your checking account.”

“Then I’ll tell Jarvis!”

“Damn your need to know my family,” Tony curses. “Fine.”

Tony can’t fucking fly on a fucking mop.

One broken arm later and a phone call to his mother later, Maria Carbonell is sitting on her son’s dormitory mattress and wondering just why the hell he lied to her about how he broke his arm.

Here was her son’s lie:

“Um. I broke my arm because dinner sucked.”

A.) There was no follow up.

B.) Her son is bad at lying as she is.

Unfortunately, she did not announce her arrival, and so she gets Tony’s roommate opening the door and screaming that the liquor is in the second cabinet from the left.

Maria raises one eyebrow.

“Did Tony at least pick out good wine?”

“Uh...you’re Tony’s mom?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t think you were coming to visit until move-out.”

“I...we had an interesting conversation. You wouldn’t happen to know why Tony actually broke his arm, would you?”

“Um...no.”

(Rhodey is also a bad liar.)

Tony gets home about ten minutes later and promptly says:

“Oh fuck.”

“Is that any way to greet your mother?” Mom asks, already sipping delicately on her glass of water.

“Um...move-out isn’t for another month.”

“I know. But you lied to your dear mother.”

“How did you know?”

“You can never hide anything from your mom, and your excuse needed work, honey,” Maria answers. “So. How did you break your arm?”

Tony sighs.

“Promise me you won’t laugh. And don’t tell Jarvis.”

“What did you....what?”

The mop.

Maria doesn’t laugh at first, at least until she sees the pictures that Rhodey took and chuckles.

“You promised me you wouldn’t laugh!”

“What were you doing? And why?” she asks, laughing. Tony rubs the back of his neck nervously.

“Um, well...funny story...”

Maria should have known that her son would have her...abilities. But she had hoped that if he had never known the family, had never known what she could do, that maybe...maybe they wouldn’t come.

“So what you’re telling me,” Tony says, nostrils flaring, “is that there’s magic?”

“Yes,” Maria says. “And what we deal with specifically is good magic.”

“Oh, so I could’ve put Glinda the Good Witch on my family tree project,” Tony says sarcastically.

Maria scowls.

“Don’t sass me, Tony. I did it for your own good.”

“I set a car on fire!”

“Well, what kind of car was it?!”

“A Mustang!”

“Then that makes sense!” Maria says. “Your father drove one, and we all know how that turned out!”

Tony blinks for a moment.

And then laughs.

Maria starts laughing too, until they’re both giggling in the apartment, and Tony tells her about the grocery store incident.

Mom tells him, essentially, that they have a job: defend from the darkness. She doesn’t say if the darkness is someone or a group or a concept. She just says that she’ll send him some of the spell-books (fucking spell-books!) over and talk about how emotions and different hand motions can affect how spells go.

“So, why never the family? I mean, you could’ve told me about them and then just not mentioned the magic portion,” Tony asks when he’s moved back into their house, and has grilled Mom on just about every single page in the book.

“Because as much as your father is a terrible person, you’re still like him in some aspects,” Maria says. “And you are stubborn and don’t let information go. You want to know how everything works, and that includes family. You would’ve been wreaking havoc since you were eight.”

“I was already wreaking havoc when I was eight,” Tony whines. “But, this also raises the question of when are we doing a family reunion?”

She stops, looking at him.

“They weren’t exactly pleased when I married a millionaire.”

“Not even when he became a billionaire and you got half his fortune?” Tony teases.

“Not even then,” she answers. “I have a...complicated relationship with magic.”

“As in, you don’t use it.”

“Correct,” she answers. “You don’t need magic in your life, and quite often, it gets you in more trouble than you anticipate.”

“Are you going to give me a ‘magic has consequences’ speech?”

Maria laughs.

“No. Magic, as far as I know, doesn’t really have consequences. The actions you do have consequences. You could blast up an entire country and as long as you don’t get caught, no consequences other than what you do to yourself.”

“Like having guilt?”

“Like having guilt. But enough about that, it’ll make you feel weird for a week if you keep thinking about it. I want you to light candles from two feet away.”

“Of course I can do that,” Tony scoffs.

“Sure you can.”

Tony also sets the curtains on fire!

Maria realizes that her son is perhaps just a tad (okay, a lot) more powerful than she was (and is).

So, she regrettably calls her mother.

Nonna Carbonell is a very imposing figure. A woman who is four-foot-eight and about seven-feet-tall in terms of personality, and dresses only in questionable 1970s-print dresses.

“Ah, so you finally come back home, Maria. And you brought your boy! Who I only see twice in the magazines!”

“You know exactly why I didn’t come back, Mama,” Maria says, rolling her eyes. “But enough about that. You need to teach Tony.”

“Antonio,” Mama says, grinning at him and pinching his cheeks. “Ah, so good to see you have the Carbonell nose, your father was ugly as a mule.”

Tony pointedly does not say that everyone else seems to think that he is the spitting image of his father, but...

His mom and Nonna do not get along, if family dinner is anything to go by. Tony’s lucky that his mom got him at least some Italian lessons so he’s not completely lost with all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins.

He sees pots and pans coming off the shelves themselves. Ladles and knifes dance out of the drawers.

His baby cousin-Geraldine, who is only two-is waving her fingers lackadaisically, and in what seems to be no effort, her bottle of juice is off of the counter.

Great. A two year old is better at magic than he is.

Nonna is a great teacher, who also happens to terrify Tony with how much she can do.

“You’re important,” she grins. “You have more power than your mother, thank God.”

“Why thank god?” Tony asks.

“You always thank God, Tonio,” Nonna says, waving the curtains shut. “Now, let’s see you get the flour off the shelf.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get, like, a salt shaker?”

“If you spill the salt shaker we get the devil!” Nonna declares. “Flour is better.”

It is not better. It turns Nonna into a ghost, and Tony has to spend ages dusting it off his black jeans.

“Maybe pepper shaker next time,” she says weakly.

Tony does call Rhodey. He was supposed to go on a road trip to see him, and now he’s in Italy learning how to fling flour sacks across the kitchen at his idiot Uncle Theo.

“How goes your magic training you fucking nerd?”

“Literally I call you, and that’s how you greet me?”

“I told my DnD group that you moved to Italy to play on a campaign for a worldwide championship.”

“You are quite literally the worst friend ever.”

“False, because when I moved out I found your favorite Black Sabbath shirt and am saving it for when you move back. Please tell me you’re moving back so I can plan friendships accordingly.”

“I’ll be back. Who knows, I might be able to help with some lifting.”

“I still don’t trust your noodle arms, no matter how much ‘magic’ you have now.”

“Hey! They’re not noodles!”

“Says you, noodle-arm boy.”

“I’m going to curse you into a toad.”

“There’s no way you can do that,” Rhodey says, laughing. “I guarantee you that you wouldn’t be able to turn me back.”

“And then we’d have so much more space in the apartment, darling.”

“But then I wouldn’t have to pay rent! Huzzah! And I wouldn’t have to do my stupid business classes!”

Tony laughs.

“I’ve missed talking to you, Rhodey. I can’t wait until I get to come home again.”

“Me too,” he responds. Tony can practically feel his smile through the phone.

There’s yelling that Rhodey can hear, something about “come back here you American bastard and learn how to knit with magic!” and a hurried “goodbye, love you” from Tony.

Tony does get good at magic. He gets very good.

It’s terrifying to Maria, really.

Darkness has always existed, and it will always exist. Their family exists as a way to keep it balanced, and Tony...

He plays with magic as if he’s always known it, now. He can do things that not even the older family can do. He has meshed magic with mechanics, and he’s started on ideas that Maria was quite sure no one had thought of.

And then, of course, family does what family does best:

They tell you things you should’ve known about three months earlier.

With most families, the thing that they don’t tell you is something like “oh, Aunt Margaret made a terrible choice in husbands again.” Or perhaps “did you see his tattoo? Who in their right mind gets a Sonic the Hedgehog tattoo on their chest?”

With this family, it is the fact that darkness is coming within the next four years, and Tony is probably their only chance.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Maria hisses at her sister.

“Because you moved to America!” Gia hisses right back. “We can’t afford to collect call every single time we had trouble.”

“You couldn’t tell me that the darkness is approaching way sooner than we expected?! Because what, you didn’t want to pay for a phone call!”

“To be fair, Nonna made that decision,” Enzo says. “She thought we could handle it. And we can! We can!”

“Oh sure, that’s why Nonna told me that my son is your only chance,” Maria says, dry tone to her voice. “God, I need wine...”

“Everyone needs wine, it’s practically a requirement,” Gia says. “Don’t worry. Things will work themselves out.”

“But will it work out for us?” Maria asks. “I don’t want to be the modern model for the next pietà someone wants to make...”

Tony, unfortunately, is his mother’s son and has listened in on every single conversation that’s ever been had in their house. Here are three things that he has learned:

1.) Apparently, his mother used to bake the best bread, and they forgot to write and ask her for the recipe, and they also didn’t call her.

2.) He’s the last hope for everyone of existing with good things, and no one’s sure how to beat the darkness and he has no clue how to.

3.) Apparently his grandfather (named Basil, of all names) could out-drink anyone and had publicly threatened at least six government officials just because he wanted to see if he could.

You will notice that one of these facts is most likely important than the others.

Who the hell names their kid Basil?

(Just kidding.)

Tony gets back to the US, promises his mom that he won’t tell anyone, and then immediately tells Rhodey when mom goes to the grocery store.

“Wait, so...they’re trusting you?”

“I know! What a terrible idea!”

“God, I know. You can’t even clean a microwave.”

“That was one time!”

Rhodey laughs, tackling Tony in a hug.

“I know, I know. Welcome back, Tones.”

He feels safe. Protected.

He has to learn how to fucking throw knives. Mom has decided that she is going to call in a favor from Howard, and it involves dragging Tony to a most-likely-illegal-pseudo-government-set-up and training under a guy who goes by Hawkeye and a lady who goes by “Black Widow” and expects Tony to be fine with it.

Rhodey also attends, because Tony appreciates misery with company.

Plus, they can complain together as they’re getting their asses kicked.

“Do you ever think about taking a vacation?” Rhodey asks, panting as Natasha once again slams him down on the mat. “I’m sure that Florida or the Philippines would appreciate you. Tourism or the economy, or something like that.”

“You’re not getting out of your fighting lessons by bribing me with a nice vacation,” Natasha says simply. “Tony, adjust your left arm. You’ll break it when Clint comes into contact.”

“Maybe I want to break my arm!” Tony declares.

“Do you want to have to wrap your cast in plastic every single time you shower?” Clint asks. “Because that’s what’ll happen.”

“Why don’t you just spray the cast with some sort of waterproofing spray?”

“Would that even work?” Clint asks. “Because you might have just blown my mind.”

“It might work, I don’t know,” Tony says, panting.

It is eight months when Tony first brushes with darkness.

It’s the morning, which is...odd. He wouldn’t think that darkness would show up in the morning, but here he is on his morning walk trying desperately hard to fight it off and also not grab attention.

He manages to slam it down on the road and have a car run it over, and for the most part, the darkness retreats. He sends it off with a curse, and he runs all the way back to the apartment.

Rhodey frowns.

“We probably need other people, right?”

“A regular family reunion and then some.”

So as it turns out, they’re not getting a family reunion. At least, not any time soon.

Apparently, Nonna is demanding that they have to be there from October 31st through December 7th, according to Holy Days of Obligation and Holidays (specifically, Christian holidays.)

“Nonna, isn’t witchcraft considered illegal or something?” Tony asks. “Like, I thought the church didn’t like that.”

“Too bad, too late. We stay. Talk to your mama, Tonio. She will have answers.”

Maria has absolutely no answers!

“I didn’t seek out witches who live here, baby,” she says, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Why don’t you email people? Ask around?”

“You can’t just ask people if they’re a witch!” Tony cries.

“Why not?”

“Because you get people who think you’re insane, or they’re insane!”

“So?”

“...good point.”

Pepper Potts is not sure why she answers the post. It is probably something else not related to what she does. Maybe she’ll be meeting with weirdos. But when you get an ad that’s about “stopping darkness from engulfing the world in two-to-four-years: you wanna help?” you listen to that.

So she answers, and she walks in her business-casual outfit, and she meets two guys who are sitting at a shitty folding table at the park.

One of them is wearing cargo pants.

“Are you here about the darkness?” one of the boys says, blinking up at her behind gigantic glasses.

“Um. Yes?”

“Good. My name is Tony, this is Rhodey in the terrible pants. And you are?”

“Um. Pepper?”

“Oh, cool name.”

“Thanks, picked it out myself.”

Rhodey laughs.

“Good. Now, what kind of magic stuff can you do?”

“I’d hardly call it stuff.”

“Tony uses his to make us ramen while we marathon a crime show, I’m calling it stuff,” Rhodey defends.

Pepper watches around her, and satisfied with the lack of people around, lifts Rhodey out of his chair and floats him about thirty feet over.

When he jogs back over, he’s grinning.

“Very cool. What else?”

Pepper is well-versed in technique, spells, and a few tricks that Tony doesn’t know about involving manipulation of light.

“How can you do that?”

“Practice,” Pepper says. “And a late-night conspiracy theory documentary.”

“Cool,” Tony and Rhodey say at the same time.

Pepper actually doesn’t live that far away, and she goes to the same college. They see a lot more of her and become friends.

She helps them update the spell-book, get it organized online, and focus on finding out where the darkness is going to appear next.

Tony is trying very hard not to break down from stress. He’s barely twenty, ate ramen for lunch and dinner yesterday, and is not very sure that he can do this.

People keep telling him that he’s the only hope they have, and he doesn’t want to be that.

He just wants to have a regular summer and make fun of Rhodey’s questionable fashion choices.

He doesn’t even know how to defeat this. At all. And he just wants to graduate college, and get a job somewhere and annoy his mom into teaching him how to make homemade pasta.

Not...not this.

But you don’t get to choose what you have to do for others. You have to do what they need.

Rhodey, at least, understands this.

That is why he is outside of Tony’s door with a half-cold burrito of questionable origins, a smile, and no knowledge of personal boundary space.

(Not that Tony minds.)

“Hey,” he says. “So, you have to save the world and I still remember the fact that you forget to get your shit out of the microwave.”

Tony laughs at that, taking the proffered burrito and biting into it.

“You still have shitty taste in burritos. Where is this even from?”

“A badly-painted truck two blocks from here. I think I was their first customer of the day.”

“No shit,” Tony says, taking another bite of the burrito. “You want to watch a movie or play a video game?”

“Movie. Something light.”

This is how they get to watch a movie that honestly doesn’t mean anything to either of them, but it is mindless and it allows Rhodey to sneak his hand over Tony’s, and it allows Tony some sort of happiness that at least Rhodey is still by his side.

“Hey Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“You think if I managed to find an actual broomstick, you could fly it?”

“Oh, fuck you!” Tony laughs, tossing a pillow over Rhodey’s face.

“I’m serious. You managed to charm the coffeepot into being sentient, so...”

“That was a mistake, and now we’re stuck with Maggie, don’t bother her.”

But it does have him thinking.

If he can charm a coffeepot, what else could he charm?

A suit of armor.

That’s what he charms. He was originally shooting for a broomstick, but then Pepper surprised him and now he has a charmed suit of armor that stands in the hallway of his mom’s old house. (Their base of operations.)

It gives him an idea.

Why not combine the old with the new?

After all, it’s not like darkness hasn’t adapted to hundreds of years of battles. Why not throw a curveball?

“I don’t like using my major,” Rhodey whines as Tony makes him lift one of the arms for his own suit.

“Too bad,” Tony teases. “I’ll get you pizza after.”

“Promise?”

“Mostly.”

“Good enough for me.”

Pepper thinks they’re both idiots, at least until she gets her own suit and is positively thrilled when she looks like she’s a superhero from a television show.

“Yeah, yeah, we look cool.” Tony says. “Now, who’s ready to learn how to conduct magic and electricity at the same time?”

It works out better than anticipated, all things considered.

“You ruined the couch, Anthony Edward Stark-Carbonell!” Mom fumes. “The couch! Where I sit!”

“To be fair, it’s a really ugly couch,” Tony says weakly. “And it’s, um, for the betterment of...magical society?”

“Don’t you dare quote your Aunt Gia at me!” Mom goes on muttering in Italian, and it sounds suspiciously like “why did I have to have a son who blows up couches” to Tony.

The darkness comes in full-force on a Saturday night, which is really inconvenient for a lot of reasons:

1.) A Saturday? Really? It couldn’t come on, like, a Thursday?

2.) They’ve been celebrating Rhodey’s birthday and perhaps Tony has enjoyed two or three drinks and gotten a pleasant buzz out of it, all things considered.

3.) It’s midnight. Why midnight? That’s late, Pepper wanted to get to bed.

4.) Mom is going to kill them, because technically they weren’t supposed to be out on the town.

So here they are, panicking and throwing shitty restaurant chairs around in order to main some sort of ahead-of-the-game mentality.

“Do you think if we called your mom, she would help?”

“She would probably kill me first!” Tony wails.

“Before darkness can?”

“Probably!”

Maria won’t kill her son yet.

Yet.

But god she’s going to come close.

“You could’ve just asked me to buy you wine!” she says. “You could’ve had a movie in!”

“Well sorry, I didn’t think that the darkness was going to come on Rhodey’s birthday!”

“Oh when would you have thought it would come? Next Thursday? Or something more convenient for your year?”

“I mean, when I have to visit Howard over the summer, that would be beneficial.”

“I’ll make up a different excuse,” Mom hisses, deflecting a tendril of darkness from the window and wincing as it smashes a painting down from the wall.

The fight is a hard one. All good fights are. (Although the best fights are ones that are over in five minutes, give or take.)

It’s been hours, Tony is tired, and honestly he really is debating calling a break and going to get a shitty fast-food burger.

Rhodey says “no” even though his stomach is growling.

Pepper has been having fun finding new ways to animate cars, but she’s getting tired.

And then it gets all of his family that he’s made.

He can see Rhodey writhing in it, can see his mom fight it off, and watches Pepper scream.

Tony is not sure if he can do it.

But he has to. He has to beat this fucking terrible thing back because if he doesn’t, everyone else dies. And they don’t get families, they don’t know what will happen.

(And he also really wants to plan a vacation with Rhodey and Pepper next year.)

So he takes himself and all of what he knows, and launches himself directly into it.

By all accounts, he wasn’t supposed to do that. But he hasn’t been able to cut it down into a more manageable size, so he figures that maybe it’s time to try something that has never been advisable by anyone on either hemisphere of the world, or anyone who has ever been rational.

Going into darkness is a very difficult thing, because for one, you can’t see shit.

For a second thing, he can hear everything.

Darkness is not just absence of light. It can be absence of every single damned good thing on the earth, in your head, or anywhere around you. Some people have described it as hell.

Tony is alone, and he is not sure what to do.

There’s a table, and there is someone sitting there.

“So.”

The woman is stirring an olive around her martini, and she looks impeccably dressed. A fitted skirt and suit, manicured black nails, and eyeliner that looks impossibly intricate.

“You are...?”

“The person you’re supposed to destroy.”

“But you’re not exactly a person, are you?”

“Smart guy. No, I’m just the personification of what you’re fighting. You intrigue me, Tony Stark.”

“Just Tony.”

“Fine then. Tony.”

“Why do I intrigue you?”

“Most heroes are alone,” darkness says. (Does he capitalize her name? He’s not sure. “They go alone, they don’t involve people in their struggle. You have involved your family, put them in danger.”

“They would’ve been in greater danger if I had gone by myself,” Tony says. “People have a nasty habit of sticking together, you know.”

“Do they now?”

“Yeah,” Tony says. “And now, I have to make sure we stick together anyways.”

“And what do you mean by-”

He’s already lunging at her.

She wasn’t expecting him to lunge, he guessed.

She goes down, and yells.

Tony scrabbles to fight again as she sends out a blast his way, and he ducks.

“You can’t hide from me!” she yells.

“I’m not trying to!” he yells back. “I’m just trying to kill you!”

The fight goes on, and she plays dirty. Her nails tear into his armor, and he tears his fingers through her hair.

“You can’t beat me,” she howls, triumphant as she manages to pin one of his legs down, and trying to claw at his face. “Darkness always exists! You would be nothing without me!”

Tony pauses for a second.

“So what you’re saying is...as long as you exist, so does everything else?”

“Yes!”

Tony grins.

“Aw, you shouldn’t have told me that honey.”

With darkness being the beginning, everything else comes forth. Tony summons his cousins, his family, Rhodey, Pepper.

And eventually, her physical form gets smaller and smaller.

Darkness is not something that can be eradicated from your life. But you can beat the shit out of it with help. Tony learned that.

He also learned that Rhodey has a phenomenal flying kick.

They spend the following day laying on the couch or adjacent chairs and staring at the decorations that they need to replace.

They also learn that Nonna has learned how to call, and is not quite sure if she can be heard or not.

“TONIO? TONIO! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Nonna, quiet,” Tony groans. “I literally just saved the world yesterday, please don’t yell.”

“I HAVE FOOD FOR YOU. COME TO ITALY. NEXT WEEK?”

Tony groans.

“Sure, Nonna. I will come.”

“BRING FRIENDS. HAVE GIFTS FROM POPE FOR YOU.”

“You...when did you have time to get gifts...the pope?”

“HAVE FRIENDS. COME!”

Tony looks at Mom, Rhodey, and Pepper.

“So. When should we leave for next week?”

#HI THIS IS VERY VERY LONG #VERY VERY LONG #pepper potts #tony stark #rhodey #tony's family from italy !!! is somehow witch and catholic simply because i wanted to make it funny #maria carbonell #lovelyirony writes #tony stark is a fucking badass #yes he is a witch yes he is a badass #darkness can also be representative of uhhh anxiety or how bad things will alwyas be there #but it has to be to point out the good #just my take on that #also yeah rhodey and tony???? together but not mentioned #pepper saying she chose her name was something i meant to delve into but i didn't so #magic au

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thecaptainbriarrose · 4 years ago

Text

The Game of Truth

Also available on my Ao3 account here

Summary: With her secret relationship with Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka should have thought a little bit more about playing truth or dare before she agreed. She spent so much time with the girls in her class that they shouldn't need to ask any questions about a relationship status any ways right? RIGHT?

The girls were just sitting down in the common area of the dorms after a long day of class. They had each changed out of their school uniforms and into comfortable clothes. Many of the boys slowly came to the kitchen/dining area to talk as well. After a little bit of a gossip session between the girls Jiro decided they needed something else to do.

“Alright, that’s enough of that.” She said.

“Aw! Come on Jiro! We are just getting to the juicy stuff!” Ashido wined. Hagakure had been talking about the drama happening between some of the hero support classes which involved a lot of kissing and a fair amount of fist fights.

Yaoyorozu stood up from the couch. “Jiro’s quite right.” She stated. “We shouldn’t be involved in other people’s personal lives.” Ashido whined again but didn’t say anything.

“We could play a game instead.” Asui chimed in.

“That’s a wonderful idea Tsu!” Yaoyorozu said excitedly, as she sat back down.

“Let’s play truth or dare! I’ll start!” Ashido said, and just like that the game began. Ashido was already asking questions before anyone could oppose the idea so there was no stopping it.

“We’re playing truth or dare, would anyone like to come join?” Uraraka asked the few boys who were in the dining area.

“No way!” Kirishima replied. “The last time I played with Ashido I ended up out in the snow in my underpants for nearly an hour. Couldn’t feel my toes for a week.”

“I’m with Kirishima on this one guys.” Kaminari chimed in. “I trust the rest of you but Mina’s brutal.”

“And I must prohibit you from playing!” Ida stated, chopping the air as he rushed over to them.

“Idaaaaa!” Ashido whined as she fell dramatically over Uraraka and Asui’s legs, who were sitting next to each other on one of the couches. “You never let us have any fun!”

“Fine,” Ida stated as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, “but there must be some rules. You can not do anything that hurts any person or any school property. Personal property is fine as long as it’s with permission.”

Most of the girls nodded in agreement while Ashido whined again but didn’t debat the terms.

“Great. Now have fun.” Ida said as he walked back to the kitchen where he had been helping Midoria make something that involved chocolate chips.

The game started off slow. Most of the girls chose truth and the questions being asked were terribly boring. Hagakure had just answered whether she would rather steal Aizawas cat or Shino’s hair gel. She chose Aizawa stating that she was going to get a lecture from him either way.

“Okay, I’ll ask Uraraka.” Hagakure said. “Truth or dare?” Uraraka was about to answer but-

“Hey ladies! What’s up.” Mineta said, coming over to the circle.

“Oh, were just playing a game.” Yaoyorozu said cautiously.

“What game??” He replied, trying not to sound too eager.

Ashido jumped up from the ground where she had been sitting and said, rather loudly, “Truth or dare! Wanna play?!?”

Minetas eyes seemed to sink into his skull in horror. “Um, I uh.” He stuttered as he backed away slowly. “No!” He quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction.

“What in the world did you do to him, Ashido?” Yaoyorozu asked.

“I will never tell.” Ashido responded as she folded her arms and plopped back down onto the couch.

“We’ll see about that.” Jiro said slyly. “Now where were we?”

“It’s my turn to ask a question!” Hagakure said cheerfully. “Uraraka, truth or dare?”

Uraraka thought for a minute. She didn’t want to do dare if she could help it, licking gross things or doing something embarrassing wasn’t stuff she enjoyed and she knew she wouldn’t be able to chicken out. She decided that truth would probably be the better option since she only had one thing to hide, and doubted anyone was going to ask her if she was in a relationship since she was with her class basically 24/7.

“I’ll do truth.” She said with a smile.

“Okay, um.” Hagakure paused to think of a question. Uraraka almost always chose truth and she was so sweet and innocent that there really wasn’t much to ask her. “I’m sure I already know the answer to this one but, have you ever kissed anyone?”

"Oh sh**!" Uraraka thought. Bakugo, who was sitting at the nearest table with his back to the girls, began to cough profusely, catching everyone’s attention.

“Dude! You okay?” Kirishima asked, rushing over to him.

“I’m ef-ing fine!” Bakugo yelled as soon as his coughing fit was over. “Just swallowed wrong!” He reached for the glass of water next to him and downed the whole thing. “Stop staring at me like I’m going to die! I’m fine!” He said as he looked back down at the book he’d been reading, his face just slightly pinker than usual.

“Now that Bakugo’s done being a baby,” Mina said, and Bakugo gave a large HUFF in reply, “let’s get back to your question Uraraka.”

“Well, um,” she hesitated as her face began to go red.

“No way.” Jiro said quietly. Uraraka cupped her face in her hands and she slowly started to float towards the ceiling.

“The last time you played you said you hadn’t! That means it was pretty recently! Uraraka!” Mina was literally jumping up and down on the couch in excitement.

“Okay fine.” Uraraka said as she floated back down and tried to calm her nerves. “Yes, I have.”

“Really Uraraka? ribbit” Asui asked.

“Yes.” She responded as she lightly fanned herself.

“Oh my gosh! Who is it?!? Tell us!” Mina was shaking her so hard that Uraraka thought she was going to give her a concussion.

“That wasn’t part of the question.” Uraraka said, folding her arms. “I don’t have to answer that.”

“Oh but you will.” Mina said.

Uraraka knew that from this point on, she would have to pick dare.

*** “They’re still playing!” Sero said surprisingly as the girls ran out of the room giggling, likely to watch someone do the dare they’d been given. “It’s been like an hour.”

“I know! And the worst part is, they’ve started speaking a lot quieter so we can’t hear anything they’re saying.” Kirishima chimed in.

“Have they really gone this long without disobeying Ida’s rules?” Sero asked.

“No idea. I’m just glad they haven’t pulled us into it.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kaminari muffled. He was sitting at the kitchen table with six charging cables sticking out of his mouth, each one connected to one of the girls' phones. Jiro had been dared to convince him to charge all of their phones for them. She gladly accepted the challenge and in less than two minutes had all of their phone hooked up.

“You haven’t moved much either Bakugo. Is that book really that interesting?” Sero asked and Bakugo sent him a nasty glare from the top of the pages. Less than a minute later the girls came back into the room giggling. Asui was wearing an extremely large, fuzzy, purple hat that had likely come from Ashido’s room.

“We should finish up you guys. I’m getting hungry.” Uraraka said as they sat back down on the couches.

“We can’t finish yet! We have to get that secret out of you!” Ashido insisted.

“Come on! Is it someone we know?” Uraraka folded her arms and turned her head. “What color is his hair?” Uraraka pushed her lips together. “At least tell us if it was a nice kiss!”

Uraraka wasn’t moving. Over the last hour she had done a handstand on the roof of the building, stood in the dumpster barefoot and licked the bottom of Ashido’s shoe. The last two were both dares from Ashido. Yet, she hadn’t spilled even the tiniest detail about her kiss, or kisses because there had definitely been multiple but they didn’t have to know that.

“She obviously doesn’t want to talk about it, Ashido. You’ve put her through enough, just leave her alone.” Yaoyorozu chimed in.

“If you won't spill then at least let me give you one more dare.” Ashido said. “Then we can be done.”

“Ashio, no.” Jiro said. Jiro knew, no, they all knew that this was going to be the worst dare yet.

“You don’t have to say yes Uraraka, we can just be done now.” Yaoyorozu said, and honestly Uraraka was going to agree but-

“Unless you’re chicken. You coward.” Mina said in a tone that was sinister, serious and taunting all at the same time.

“I’ll do it. One more dare.” Uraraka said, her courage taking over. It can’t be that bad right? It has to be within Ida’s rules so it can’t be much worse then what I’ve already done. Uraraka thought.

“Yes!” Ashido shouted, making everyone in the common area jump. As Ashido paused to think, Uraraka looked around. She realized that everyone was in the common room. Every single person in the class could see them, this could possibly turn into the most embarrassing moment of her life. “I’ve got it!” Ashido yelled, startling everyone again. She waved her arm in a motion that signaled all the girls to huddle around her.

As the girls moved in to listen to what Ashido had thought of, many of the boys watched eagerly, some of them, like Todoroki and Tokoyami, trying to hide it. The only exception was Bakugo who wouldn’t look away from his book that was a little too close to his face to read properly.

“Uraraka,” Ashido said quietly. Uraraka gulped as the other girls looked between her and Ashio. “I dare YOU to…” Ashiso paused to create more suspense, “get Bakugo to leave the room.”

“That's it?!?” Uraraka replied. Uraraka laughed, and half of the other girls breathed a sigh of relief, this was going to be stupidly easy. All she’d have to do is say a couple of things to him, maybe just explain the situation, or, in the worst case, make some kind of deal with him. If it came down to it she could always try using her quirk to push him out of the room.

“No, that’s not it.” Ashido’s grin grew. “You have three minutes to do it, you can’t say a word to him, that includes writing, texting and signing, you can’t use your quirk on him and… if you can’t do it you have to tell us who this mystery kisser is.”

“Ashido! You’ve gone too far!” Hagakure whispered.

“She’s not gonna get hurt and let's be honest, she was gonna have to tell us about her kiss eventually.” Mina shot back, still keeping the conversation quiet enough for just their circle.

“Uraraka, you really don’t have to do this.” Yaoyorozu said, giving Uraraka a sympathetic glance.

Uraraka thought about it for a minute. She had an idea, and a half decent back up plan, but if that didn’t work… She was the only girl, besides Ashido, who hadn’t ever backed down from a dare during their time at U.A. She had to do this.

“I’ve never backed down before and I’m not going to now!” Uraraka said and then turned away from the group. She couldn’t see it but all of the girls were in shock, even Ashido seemed a little surprised that she agreed to it.

“Uraraka, I could just go over there and talk to him.” Asui said, putting a hand on Uraraka’s shoulder.

“No, that wouldn’t be fair. I have to do this myself.” She took a deep breath in and said, “someone start the timer.”

Yaoyorozu created a stop watch and clicked the button on top. As Uraraka walked towards the dining area, many of the boys tried to glance away, pretending they were minding their business but Uraraka knew they were all watching.

"Here goes nothing", she thought.

Uraraka walked to the edge of the table and faced towards Bakugo. “What do you want Round Face?” He said, refusing to look away from his book.

She stuck her hand in front of the pages, blocking his view. “Move your hand or I will.” He said, raising his voice so that everyone could clearly hear him. Uraraka did move her hand but not in the way he wanted. She grabbed the book from the top and sent it floating above her head. Bakugo stood up and looked her directly in the eye, he was livid. “Give me back my book and leave me out of your stupid game.” Uraraka pressed her fingers together and the book fell into her hands.

“Thank. You.” Bakugo aggressively said, holding his hand out for the book. Uraraka lifted a finger, signaling that she wasn’t quite finished with it and then threw it out of the room. One of the girls gave a soft, excited “yes!” and Bakugo glared in their direction.

“You wanna go Round Face??” He yelled. Bakugo stood up taller and started to make small explosions in each of his hands. "Please work with me here!" Uraraka’s thoughts pleaded.

Uraraka kept a serious look on her face as she shoved him and then motioned towards the hallway where she had thrown the book. “You want me to fetch? Like a dog?” Bakugo’s voice started to raise and at this point everyone in the room was staring at the two of them, many with mouths open. Uraraka knew that the time was ticking but let a small smile creep onto her face. She knew what she was doing.

“Let’s take this outside and go a few rounds! Then we’ll see who’ll be smiling.”

"Yes! That's what I need!" Uraraka thought as she shoved him again, trying to make him even angrier.

“You two stop this at once!” Ida yelled. “If you two fight I will go get Mr. Aisawa!”

Uraraka looked at Ida and shrugged. “Yes! Let's do this!” Bakugo said as he turned towards the door. “But first.” He paused, and then turned back, “apologize for taking my book.”

"Please Katsuki, don’t do this to me." Uraraka thought.

“Did you hear what I said to you?!?” Bakugo yelled.

Uraraka glanced over at Yaoyorozu. “45 seconds.” She replied.

Uraraka thought for a second. She had to weigh her options here. She didn't have time to try to push him out of the room, he would just dig his heals into the ground, so that idea was out. Everyone was watching but they also all knew that she was just playing a game. She could do what she needed and everyone would just think it was necessary to win. If she couldn’t do this she would have to tell the girls, she couldn’t just lie to them, they would know. So she made up her mind. It was the only thing that she knew would make him mad and embarrassed enough to leave the room.

"Katsuki, I’m sorry." Uraraka thought as she shook her head.

Uraraka grabbed the top of his t-shirt, pulled his face towards hers and kissed him. She kissed him and she didn’t hold back, and, for a moment, he didn’t resist.

She was still holding onto his shirt when he pulled away. His mouth open, as everybody just stared. Someone had dropped something in the kitchen, a pot maybe, but nobody moved until-

“WHAT THE HE** PINK CHEEKS!!” The look on Bakugo’s face was a mixture between rage, confusion, embarrassment and interest. He quickly turned red and continued to shout several curse words as he marched out of the room and headed straight for the boys dorms, ignoring his book.

After taking a moment to realize what she had done, Uraraka took a deep breath and turned back towards the girls. “Well?” she asked.

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat and looked down at the stop watch.“10 seconds to spare.” She stated.

Uraraka immediately walked towards the group of girls, stopping in front of Ashido. Uraraka stood her ground, looked Ashido straight in the eye and stated, “I am not a coward.” Then she turned and left the room.

*** Uraraka layed in bed with the lights off for several hours that night.

She thought about how the room went silent when she finally came downstairs to make herself dinner. She did her best not to look at anyone but kept a grin on her face. Ashido broke the silence by yelling, “There she is! The queen of Truth or Dare!” Some people applauded this while others just laughed. The girls all looked very impressed, a few of the boys did as well, but many of the boys had mixed emotions. Some looked almost embarrassed, others looked as if they were trying to act uninterested and some looked jealous? Uraraka just giggled it off and gave a tiny bow before going back to cooking her food.

Everyone started talking again and the tension eased, that is until Bakugo entered the room. Everyone was already eating at this point except for the two of them. They made their food and both went their separate ways, back to their rooms, without saying a word. Uraraka didn’t need any more attention for the night, she had definitely had enough.

As she sat and ate her dinner that night she stared at her phone, wondering if she should text him. She knew he was mad, but she felt like she needed to make sure he understood why she had done it.

But now here she was, just lying in bed, wondering if she should text first.

She decided she might as well try, even though he likely wasn’t awake at this hour. He always went to bed so early.

As she reached for her phone, it vibrated. It was him.

“What you did tonight was ef-ing stupid,” the text read.

“I know.” She replied.

She watched the three little dots blink for what felt like an eternity, though it couldn’t have been for then a few minutes, before his next message came.

“Kirishima is never going to let me live this down.”

“I know.”

“You did it to save us from something worse though, didn’t you.”

He knew her too well. She figured he would have guessed as much, she’d still have to explain the whole story when she got the chance.

“I did,'' she replied.

The three dots appeared and then disappeared and then reappeared. The pattern continued for longer than 8 or 9 minutes until finally…

“I’m still pissed,” the message read. Uraraka smiled a little and shook her head.

“I know.”

She waited a few minutes for a reply but one didn’t come. No three dots, just a read receipt. He seemed to have gotten at least enough out of his system for the night.

“You love me though.” She sent. He read it immediately and she waited for the three dots to appear but they didn’t come. She probably stared at their conversation for nearly 15 minutes before giving up and plugging her phone back in.

Just as she rolled over to get comfortable in bed, her phone vibrated again. She rolled back to see his reply.

Two words,

“I know.”

#my hero academia #kacchaco #my hero academia fan fiction #katsuki bakugou #ochaco uraraka #uraraka ochako #bakugou katsuki #bakugo x uraraka #katsuki bakugo x ochaco uraraka #class 1-a #truth or dare #fan fiction #kacchaco fan fiction #mha

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canyouhearthelight · 5 years ago

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The Miys, Ch. 99

Here we have the aftermath of the Warlord Bowl.

Here, we finally... FINALLY get to see Jokul as a person and not a far-off mysterious bad guy. Consciously, there was never any intent to compare Jokul to people who don’t understand how politics work: @zommbiebro isn’t even American, for one thing, and therefore neither is Jokul. However, reading it on the last pass before posting, I realized how it could be taken.

The part that isn’t relevant to the chapter: While I didn’t mean that comparison, please make sure you vote in any local elections available to you, if it doesn’t risk your life. No matter how much you feel your vote doesn’t matter, it does. If everyone who didn’t vote decided to do so, it would change the world.

In my own country, I’ll be taking time off work - because I have that ability - and taking local people to polls that ordinarily would be inaccessible to them within their district.

Back to the chapter relevant stuff: Thank you to @zommbiebro for giving me such a good character to play with, @charlylimph-blog for reading to ensure entertainment, and @baelpenrose for beta reading in every way that entails.

After a quick dinner at the first mess we came across - and true to my promise, I didn’t cook anything - Arthur, Antoine and I reconvened with Jokul in my office. As agreed, he brought only two of his own people, who sat on either side of him in a mirror to how I was bracketed by my own friends.

Unfortunately, they entered as I was mulling out loud the possibility of making hot pot for family dinner one night. Even less fortunately, the ginger who I had thrown in the gym was one of the people who walked through my door while I was debating the logistics of meat versus vegetarian options.

“She doesn’t even take us seriously!” the nasal voice complained, interrupting me.

Simultaneously, several things happened. I opened my mouth to retort, Arthur put a hand over my mouth, Antoine pushed my shoulder back into the chair.

And Jokul spoke up.

“We agreed to meet with them if Farro beat me in combat. He did, we are here, and there will be no further argument on the matter.” If anything, he sounded weary rather than angry. “She did not even request that we cease acting against her, only that we meet as equals. It is the least we can do.”

I didn’t even know forehead cramps were a thing until I gave myself one with the speed of my eyes widening. Slowly, Arthur lowered his hand so I could speak. “Right,” I coughed. “So, there are a few things I want to know.”

“Such as?”

“Why am I your target?” I blurted out. Of everything, this was the one that was weighing heaviest on me. I felt if I could understand that, I would know how to tackle the rest.

To my frustration, he fucking shrugged. “You are emblematic of everything that will destroy our chance at a new start,” he stated calmly, like he was telling me his name.

I sputtered before regaining my composure. “How? How am I doing something badly?”

“You only want to consolidate power, rule over the masses!” the red-haired toady honked at me.

The overblown statement and Jokul’s subsequent glare at his own man was a level of ridiculous I couldn’t handle at that moment. Laughing ruefully, I wiped away a tear that warned me I was close to hysterical. “I don’t want to rule over anyone, dude. If I had my preference, I would only decide what I want to eat once or twice a week for the rest of my life.”

“But you rule over the Council,” Jokul pointed out in a confused tone.

“I don’t rule anyone, buddy. I am on the Council largely against my will, and mostly because no one else who is qualified even wants my job. Trust me, I’ve tried.” Gods had I tried.

His next statement was significantly less confident. “But you took the reins of power…”

“I am a glorified event coordinator and human resources officer. I have a staff of exactly two. One is my sister, who has been in her role longer than I’ve been in mine and only listens to me when it’s convenient. The other is my assistant, who is British as hell and listens to me on about equal level with my cat.”

“The Baconists! Your assistant was part of that rebellion! You must have known and hidden it from our hosts!” I had to give him some begrudging credit. Even he didn’t sound like he believed his own words, and if the smug look from Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber on either side of him was anything to go by, that wasn’t his own theory.

Time to set the record straight, it seemed. “Okay, quick reminder: that bitch tried to kill me,” I enunciated carefully, leaning forward as I spoke. “She nearly succeeded. That wasn’t a cover up, it was her realizing that I talk to myself in the shower and listening long enough to hear me think through what was going on. As far as hiding her intent from our hosts… You’re only half right. Miys doesn’t read minds, contrary to what people think, they only read intent. That nutjob really did think she was doing the best thing for the universe by wiping humanity off the proverbial map. Nothing for Miys to pick up, she actually had what she thought were good intentions.”

“You have built yourself to be this legendary hero -”

“I didn’t build myself to be jack. Effing. Shit. If I had my preference, I would give you my position, and open a restaurant that does cooking classes.” When he opened his mouth to interject, I held up a hand to stop him. “Miys likes me because I talk to myself, even in my head, and so badly that they can still hear what I am saying when I don’t move my lips. I only survived being attacked by a crazy person because I treat the person who saved me like, you know, a person? Make sure he’s okay, give him his space when he wants it, sass him back when he wants to be sassy. It was just sheer, dumb luck, and I’m not even sure it was good luck, because voila!” I flung my hands wide at the current situation, forcing both Arthur and Antoine to duck. A quick glance at Antoine only rendered one of his eloquent shrugs. Must be handling the situation okay if he doesn’t think I need help.

I was less concerned with Arthur’s opinion, not because I didn’t care, but because I knew he would jump in when he felt it was needed, without prompting or permission.

“So you do not want to rule over us all?” Jokul asked carefully.

“I don’t even want to top one of my boyfriends consistently.”

“Sophia!” Antoine hissed with a miserable expression, while Arthur burst into a coughing fit. I wasn’t sure if the latter was trying to cover a laugh of choking.

Jokul, on the other hand, seemed to take that at face value “Then why are you in power? Explain that.”

With a heavy sigh, I tried again. “I’m not in power. Decisions are voted on by the Council. If someone brings me an idea for a class, or an architectural project, or a medical possibility, I pass it off to the Councilor who handles that and let it go from there.” Emphatically, I pointed at my own face. “Again, glorified events coordinator and HR.”

“And yet, you have your pet warlord sitting beside you. Explain that away,”Tweedledumb - the brunette on Jokul’s other side - accused.

I whipped my head to look at the subject of that statement before looking back across the table. “Arthur?” I asked, jerking a thumb in his general direction. “You do realize he’s a teacher first, right? Warlord out of need, but that ‘need’ was protecting the students in his history class when everything went to shit? Don’t get me wrong, we butted heads like you would not believe when we first met in person. But we realized halfway through what looked to be one hell of an argument that we knew each other for - fuck, like, a decade? Maybe less? - before the End. I didn’t ‘win him over.’ We just realized we’ve always been friends.” With a shrug I glanced back at Arthur, who also shrugged before nodding.

“Too convenient, Councilor.” Tweedledumb gloated. “You just happened to be friends with someone who - “

“Oh for FUCK’s sake!” Annnnd there it was. Someone had reached his limit for diplomacy and stupidity. “We met on a fanfiction site writing a crossover of two of the worst pieces of science fiction ever written and mutually infected each other! FUCK!” Crossing his arms, he started muttering to himself. “Not like finding someone to kick your asses is hard…”

After a glare at the darker-haired idiot, and with an expression that looked like he was entirely regretting his choice of people for this meeting, Jokul schooled his features before addressing me directly. “Fanfiction?” he asked in a skeptical tone.

And the dirty truth comes out, I thought with another sigh. “StarDoc and Warhammer 40K, okay? It was fun, no fandom to cheese off, nothing smutty. Just… fun.” When the nostalgia threatened to overtake me, I shook my head vigorously. “The point is, we knew each other for years Before the world went to shit, and only realized when one of my friends landed in his class and there was a data error. I don’t even like violence.” Antoine gave me a skeptical look so I clarified. “Usually.”

“And yet you are a combatant!” Jokul stated with certainty, clearly on more familiar ground.

Angrily, I scowled at Tweedle-the-ginger before leaning forward to look into Jokul’s eyes. “Look. I don’t know how it was in Canada, with your mooses and shit, but I really, really want to know: Do you honestly believe that anyone who got through the After did it without learning how to defend themselves? Even more, that any woman who made it, didn’t learn to fight dirty?”

“Not if you know how to have people defend you - “ Jokul tried before I cut him off.

“They don’t defend me because I’m helpless, let’s be clear. They defend me because I will only fight back if I know my life is on the line. But, on the same page, I will protect my friends and family from anything, without reserve, and die for them. No hesitation.” With a deep breath, I sat back rather than jumping over the table. “I have my flaws, and my sister will tell you the biggest among those is that I trust too easily. I assume the best in, literally, everyone.”

“Except smartass teacher, apparently,” Arthur said in a fake cough that fooled exactly nobody.

After making a face at my friend, I turned back to the moose in the room. “What that means is, I don’t try to defend myself until it is literally your life or mine. Or both. I don’t really care at that point, because I assume I’m not going to make it. I just want the person I’m fighting to go down with me.” Trying to imitate Charly’s most savage grin, I put on a forced-cheerful tone. “Now, tell me, Jokul. Who would rather have faced in that fight, knowing that?”

His eyes darted between Arthur and myself as he swallowed hard, mulling the implications of that. “You would kill and die for your friends’ safety and health, even if you would only protect yourself at the last moment?” Here, he scoffed. “There is nothing exceptional or even special about that. Many who were in power in the After felt the same.”

“Except I don’t want power,” I repeated in a tone that I previously reserved only for small children. “I just told you that.” In the corners of my eyes, I saw both of my friends nodding so hard I was concerned for their spines.

Before I could try to reason with Jokul any more, Arthur jumped in. “If you’re both done arguing righteousness, let me explain a few things. Jokull. First off, Soph actually doesn’t want to rule, or be on the Council. She told you this. She’s also bitched about it to me, her sister, and anyone else who will listen, at length. On top of being too trusting, her biggest flaw is actually an impulsivity problem, in general. But she’s not an autocrat.” As he gestured, I saw his eyes glaze over, his voice taking on a serene tone that was entirely too familiar. “If Soph was a real autocrat, she’d have let us have our little duel armed, with my sword and - I presume you’d have had an ax? Maybe a broadsword? You look like a broadsword guy... any rate.”

“However,” he continued, leaning forward with a thoughtful expression, like he was puzzling something out. “she made me promise not to kill you. Think about that. After you’ve been nothing but a headache and a threat to her and her family for months, she makes me promise not to kill you. I wanted to, you know.” The wistful sigh that accompanied that statement was entirely unnecessary and I was certain he only did it to irritate me. “I wanted to kill you and have your lifeless corpse thrown out of the airlock like trash, not because of the Council, not because your Viking gimmick wears out in a hurry, but because you made the mistake of threatening a friend, then slapping a student. I had no idea if you were actually going to seriously harm any of them, and I didn’t care. The threat alone was enough to make me decide I wanted you dead.” Tapping his chin briefly, he pointed at Jokul without actually looking at him. “Because you were an unknown quantity, but no matter whether or not you were actually the threat you claimed to be, your corpse would be harmless.”

Arthur shrugged before looking Jokul in the face. “That’s how warlords handled things in the After, isn’t it? When someone threatened your people, or when someone threatened mine? I didn’t negotiate. I didn’t warn. I doubt you did, either. I took them at their word, and I did unto them first. And I’d bet you did the same. ‘Peace’ was what you called it when everyone who wanted to make war on you or your people was dead. That’s what the After taught me, that’s what it taught you.” After emphasizing his point by gesturing between the two of them, he shook his head. “And that impulse, that set of lessons? That's not what humanity needs right now. Our skill set as leaders is not what humanity needs right now. If you want humanity to have a fresh start as you claim, drop the hostility, drop the self-righteousness, and actually try listening. Do you want a genuine peace with the Council?” Thoughtfully, he stroked the hilt of his sword where it laid across his lap.

I knew it was the fondness of being reunited with a long lost limb, but Jokul didn’t know that.

“Or a warlord’s peace with me?” In a creepy way, Arthur’s tone was downright perky. “I prefer a genuine one. A warlord’s idea of peace is one of the things I want to leave in the ashes of the After. That’s why it’s the Council who make the rules here - not warlords.”

With an alarmed expression, Jokul very slowly glanced at me. “Did he just threaten to kill me and shove me out an airlock?”

“No, he’s pouting because I wouldn’t let him do that,” I answered honestly. The topic had come up, for a solid fifteen seconds. I was even reasonably sure Arthur had been joking.

“I don’t - “ Arthur started indignantly before being cut off by Jokul.

“He makes a good point. Our skills as warlords are not what is needed in this new world. I let myself believe people who told me that the Council in general and you specifically wanted to hoard power and privilege over us, just like the people who led Earth to where it ended up.” He glanced nervously at Arthur, who was still stroking his sword, before forging ahead in a somewhat squeakier tone. “If someone who has had real power agrees that you and the Council are the best option, then I will at least try to see how that would work.”

Here, Antoine joined the conversation. “Militant strength and ruling by force aren’t the only forms of power. We do not want that sort of power over us anymore. The Council leads because the people on this ship largely want to follow them. That is the kind of power no one can force. It has to be earned.”

“But the Council still makes decisions without our will - “

Shaking my head, I angrily flicked open my datapad and shot a file to him like I was thumping off an insect. “No, Bjornson, we don’t. I was elected to my position - without my knowledge, might I add - by the people I represent to the Council. Every decision we make, the people on this ship get a vote with the exception of an emergency like what happened on Level One. There wasn’t time to have a vote on how to handle that.”

“Although, we have had a lot of emergencies lately, so I understand the confusion,” Arthur interjected.

Is this what hallucinations feel like? I wondered. There was no way in frozen hell Arthur just made a point in Jokul’s favor, but the calm, resigned look on his face told me that, at some point, he seemed to have made peace with having to treat Jokul Bjornson as a sentient being. I was going to pass out if I kept sighing, though. “Okay, true. But everything else - Insert Winter Holiday, the swimming area, the diving docks, food festivals, permanent low stimulation areas throughout the ship, Galactic Core education - those were voted on by the people on this ship, with an overwhelming majority in favor.”

“What about the alarms?” Jokul pointed to his own head for emphasis.

“Also voted on, believe it or not,” I confirmed. “ And most of the ship agreed that there was more benefit in not running into people who would react badly to unexpected touch than there was discomfort at the alarms going off.”

“I tested them myself, monsieur.” Antoine offered. “So I am well acquainted with the volume they are calibrated for, and I do not appreciate you disabling them. My staff have had to work around the clock to treat the damage your people have caused to others on this ship, who are terrified to leave their quarters now.”

Jokul looked a bit guilty at that, as well as his entourage. Looked like he hadn’t considered that. “Would you believe me if I told you that was originally an accident?” he admitted sheepishly. “One of the engineers thought it would be funny to shock another one in the neck with a low level electrical current, right behind the ear.” He turned his head and pointed to a small burn scar in the same place. “It took days for them to notice that the proximity alarm didn’t work anymore.”

To my shock, Antoine started swearing angrily in French, so fast even the translator couldn’t keep up. “Sophia, if I find out Charly Harper is the cause of this…”

Jokul shook his head vigorously. “I can assure you it was not Miss Harper.” His focus slid over to me, eyes wide.

Either this motherfucker just lied to keep Charly out of trouble, or she really was innocent.

“That explains why Derek and Zach couldn’t figure out how they did it,” Arthur pointed out. “You can’t hack into something that’s shorted out.”

Jokul spoke up again. “It also… may? Have caused some translation inconsistencies?”

“So the shock corrupted more files than just the alarms,” I stated in clarification.

“Several, in fact, yes…. Specifically signed languages and tonal languages.”

“That’s… that’s at least a third of the ship…” I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to sob in horror or laugh hysterically.

Jokul groaned before cradling his head in his hands. “I am aware, yes.”

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#the miys #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #apocalypse #found family #earth is space australia #hfy #aliens #science fiction #original fiction #my writing

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yourpakichic · 4 years ago

Text

Episode 19 thoughts

- I love the boys vs. girls scenes! The similarly layered conversations that occur are an absolute delite to watch!

- Engin making Serkan PANIC over Eda finding another man! Like he really didn’t think so until at this point! But also, Melo trying to make her eniste really panic!

- Selin really trying to play house with Serkan.... *eye roll*

- Their individual monologues caused me pain. They want each other so bad. To only be each other’s. To only look and smile at each other. And yet, those words only remain in their hearts, unable to find escape into this world, held back by the circumstances they are currently entangled in. As true and bright as the day but hidden in the darkness of the night deep within their hearts.

- AIDAN PLAYING CUPID FOR EDSER? I begged for this and I’m actually receiving it? I’m shook.

- Ferit suspecting Efe? I was taken back by it, didn’t see that coming!

- KIDS IN LOVE, they are literal children in love! Their sarcastic responses give me life!

- The tension at that breakfast table would cause me so much anxiety!

- HE CUT THE BREAD FOR HER OUT OF HABIT....I literally can’t deal with them! They cause me too much pain!

- He’s gonna name that horse Eda. I just know it. And I’m gonna fall to pieces.

- My heart broke for Aidan after listening to the story. Her guilt toward the loss of her elder son was so strong and powerful that it caged her in her home. A mother’s pain is incomparable. It’s understandable how Aidan may have blamed herself for being missing in her son’s life and why she tries to be involved in Serkan’s. She wants to be involved and stay connected with her Serkan in a way she wasn’t able to for his brother. But by sending Serkan away at a young age by himself, she distanced herself from him. It’s not his fault he doesn’t trust anyone because the two people who he was supposed to trust in life abandoned him in trying to deal with their own pain while neglecting his needs. I’m not blaming Aidan/Alptekin because it’s his easy to judge from the outside. It’s such a deep and realistic way that these characters represent the dynamics and struggles of a traumatic event and the aftermath. Serkan’s inability to trust and fear of abandonment is real and justified based on his past. Aidan’s fear of leaving the house is justified due to the circumstances in which Alp died. Alptekin’s strictness toward Serkan can be explained by the fact that he lost his elder son (who he clearly named after himself) due to an illness and he fears he might lose Serkan too. Which also makes me think, did Serkan really have an illness in the past? I means he’s a bit of a hypochondriac but I’m thinking maybe just because of his brothers illness, Serkan got conditioned to thinking and living a certain healthy way to protect himself.

- I’m glad Aidan told Eda this because I think it might make Eda open her eyes a bit more. I’m not expecting Eda to forgive and forget but I think it might explain to her why Serkan is the way he is.

- If you ask me, Serkan was pretty fair in asking Efe to claim his mistake in front of the team. Serkan built and has lead this team to such a great standard and Efe ruined that in minutes. They rightfully deserved an apology. And Engin being pissed and backing up Serkan as the BEST FRIEND HE IS.

- Serkan being honest about his feelings and wanting to improve things with Eda was such a good thing to see. It may have taken him some time to get there but I’m glad that he’s come to terms with the fact that he can’t be without her. More so, he doesn’t want her to be with anyone else. Serkan is hopeful about their relationship and I think that’s the first time since their breakup. He isn’t trying to convince himself or anyone that they are over with completely. And I think what Engin said really resonated with him. If they can overcome the truth, it’s true love. If not, it’s over.

- His seriousness went out the window as soon as he realized the flowers were for Eda, HAHAHAH! He said burn the flowers! He’s such an idiot

- HE REALLY DRAGGED HER FROM THE CHAIR, I’M DEAD! freaking children behavior!

- Serkan is really trying to keep the truth from reaching Eda from anyone but him but everything really seems to be going against him! Let me tell you, my heart broke when Serkan mentioned his fathers mistake taking away Eda from him. He cannot catch a break!

- Aidan burning Alptekin’s clothes was so funny!

- Why is Selin trying to dig! Let my man Serkan handle this!

- Efe doesn’t know.... did I read that scene right?

- He’s gonna record their conversation! EFE, YOU SNAKE!

- SO IT IS THE GRANDMOTHER AMD SHE DID SENT EFE FOR REVENGE. But it seems like she wasn’t sure but sent Efe to investigate. She’s gonna use that recording to kill Serkan’s career! IT IS GOING TO BE NON-STOP DRAMA.

- Eda making Serkan jealous like that was hilarious! She really created a whole jealousy scene with that man!

- Eda and Aidan play off each other so well at this dinner, it’s hilarious! The way they are setting these ladies straight!

- The way his eyes lit up when she said she’s in love with him still! It’s like he can’t actually believe that! Idk but I found it weird how Eda didn’t want to even listen to Serkan as he tried to talk to her. I mean up until now, all she’s wanted is for him to talk and open up and now that he’s spent the whole day trying to do so, she just ignored his calls or runs away when the opportunity is there. It’s so not like Eda! I get that she’s given him chances before and he’s missed them and she probably doesn’t want to waste any more time giving him empty chances but I feel like Eda used to understand Serkan’s tone and words but it’s like... she just doesn’t recognize in his tone how much he really wants to talk to her. It seems like a character downplay to me for Eda.

- I’m not that invested in Ferit/Ceren, but that was cute, mostly because I want Ceren to be happy! But I swear, this whole Selin/Ferit crap ruins everything! My girl Ceren deserves better!

- He loves her so much, he’s just playing along with her! He’s so in love with her!he really just said have fun, but don’t dance with anyone! And THAT CONFESSION. He said everything with his whole chest. And she didn’t hear! They will be the death of me!

- He took the bottle! Lol bruh, you gonna need at least 2 bottles to get over this mess!

- Selin really trying to come on to Serkan while he’s drunk and he just straight up says, I need Eda. How does she not get the message!

- YES CEREN! YOU TELL HIM GIRL! I mean for real, what did he expect! But I will say I appreciate that Ferit was honest and didn’t lead Ceren on any further and just came out with it.

- HE IS SO DRUNK, I LOVE IT! Eda is fascinated by his drunk state, he’s so cute, she can’t help but melt! That was such a cute way of involving the title of the show! And that scene is sooo cute!

- Her carrying him up the stairs and complaining that he’s heavy. Him being wasted out of his mind and saying off the wall stuff. I LIVED FOR THIS SCENE. PURE COMDEY. PURE EDSER. I WANT MORE.

- THE SHOWER SCENE. That’s it? That’s all we get? I’M SOOO PISSED! The trailer made it seem like such a scene and then they give us this? The frack? That is unacceptable! That was such a wasted opportunity! THEY WOULD’VE KILLED THAT SCENE! AND HONESTLY IT WOULD’VE SAVED THE EPISODE! Ughhhhhhhhhh

- AHHHH SHIT! She got her hands on Eda’s family, that’s it. It’s over.

- See what I mean. Somehow, Eda didn’t understand Serkan. Serkan never really had a good way of putting with words but Eda understood and didn’t completely twist it around. I honestly think Eda’s jealousy of Selin really makes her so paranoid that she’s able to twist around to justify her insecurity in regards to Selin. Which I just don’t get. I mean Eda did have that kind of dynamic with Selin but she was never super jealous or anything. She always had a way fighting back against Selin and still being confident. I just can’t seem to understand where all of the sudden, it’s turned into this.

- It’s out. The secret is out. But definitely not how it should have been. It should not have been from Selin. Selin seems remorseful about it but I don’t buy it. And Serkan looks like his whole world just shattered. And bless Eda. She’s about to really go through it. The last scene was sooooo well acted! I loved the tension, the angst, the anger!

- One thing that I really need to see happen is Eda/Serkan working on their communication skills. Because they suck at it. They are both indirect and never really say what they want and mean straight up. Since the beginning both of them expect each other to understand with signs or by indirect words and it was cute at first but now it’s annoying. Like two people in love should be able to tell each other anything and SHOULD tell each other everything as it is, free from judgement. I don’t want an argument and then they make up in one of their houses. I want them to talk out their issues, their perspectives! Because both of them have quite opposite views and beliefs so it’s very important for them to say everything out loud to each other. Otherwise, their chemistry and relationship is just gonna be for a show and not hold real value and show and realistic aspect to it.

Overall: A really good episode even though some parts did feel lagged. So the big explosion (one of them) has happened. Now we wait to see the aftermath. Honestly at first I used to think that I would know how certain characters would react but now I don’t know. It’s not easy to say where they will take the characters or the storyline so we’ll see! Tbh, Hande and Kerem are really carrying this show with their scenes and acting so I would love to see them get justice with their scenes! The show at some parts feels like random and misplaced but it’s still enjoyable! Like there’s no need for all these side character storylines right now, like give Eda/Serkan their full scenes in full cut and let it play out! Once everything is more wrapped up, you can add the side storylines! It’s still an enjoyable and fun show and definitely makes me laugh and keep me on the edge of my seat but there’s just some moments when the magic seems missing!

#edser #hande erçel #sen cal kapimi #serkan bolat #eda x serkan #kerem bürsin #knock on my door #eda yildiz #sen cal kapımı #eda ve serkan #sen çal kapımı #eda yıldız

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bellamyblake · 4 years ago

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I'm dying to know now, what does nepotism have to do with TT? I hadn't heard anything about that before

under cut cause yall are gon start yelling at me

her family and j/ason are friends and that’s how she got the job in the first place. she was never an actress, just did modeling as far as i know. i didn’t thinkn she’d stick that long but i guess she like her bf s/chin are good at as kissing unlike other folks. have you all never noticed how when a secondary character like that comes in they’re usually killed off in a matter of a season unless they’re important to the SL for the next one? and unless they actor’s really good in which case she just isn’t but somehow she stayed for four seasons and was even one of the leads in the last one. didn’t anyone notice j/ason commenting on her IG lives? making jokes about her wigs and so on??

i kinda still am mad about the b/exho thing because i think that this was partly our fault as a fandom. like the entire hiatus before s5 everyone kept saying, no j/ason wont get bellamy together with raven, he’ll get him together with e/xho and ruin our bellarke and i feel like if we hadn’t been so vocal about it, he could’ve like...not done it? i mean there were countless of other possibilities, one of with being b/raven yes, the other being hello, bellamy just being single? hell he could’ve gotten with murphy for all i care but no, we just went out there and said nope, this is it, he’ll do this. and i get that yes, he’s a spiteful piece of shit so part of him was just that-doing it out of spite. just like killing bellamy when he didn’t have to, out of spite, because the actor needed time. and a part of him sure is also putting TT to a like more important position as bellamy’s gf, but still, frankly i think we spoke so much about it and about not wanting it that he just did it just because he could.

he loves spiting fans and shitting on them and doing what people would hate because that’s the type of person and writer that he is. just like all hiatus last year, all we ever did was say bellamy’s dying bellamy’s dying over and over and over again i ever saw edits about it on twitter. that was before we knew bob’s taking time off, before any of that and even after when it became clear he’s not going to be in the first five, people still kept sayinng it with such certainty, even the press, which to this day it frankly amazes me how they fucking knew it’s happening, said-nope, he’s dying, he’s dying. and i was like how da fak do you know?? and knowing now that it was a last-made call i still think that yes maybe we dug our own grave a little just like with b/xcho.

but anyway this isnt about that.

this is about TT and her nepotism and her kis asing which she’s great at. she even kis ased b/ob and e/liza. i wont forget how i think in some interview for season 6 she talked about how great of an actress e/liza is, like how TT herself realizes she’s bad and she’s trying to mimic what e/liza did like go on set pre-shooting and prepare and try to soak it up. just the way she spoke told you she has absolutely no idea what she’s doing. she can sell you the cold face and that’s supposed to fit exho but i think that as a character if we separate exho from TT, you can find that it’s not such a bad one, like at all and it could’ve been made at the very least likable, was it played well. which it just wasnt.

but then again im not sure what should i expect when j/ason himself got this entire show through connections and nepotism because his wife has connections in the network. do yall really think they’d give someone completely inexperienced and never heard of before such an important for the time show about a dystopian society when they wanted it to be a success. he himself talks about it openly that the network put bruce miller and other good and experienced writers like k/yra snyder and d/orthy frottenberry(all now writing the h/andmaid’s tale) and on and on to help him, but mostly b/ruce, because he had no idea what he was doing and they stayed until the show was established and j/ason knew what to effing do which was season 2.

so.

#anti the 100 #anti jason rothenberg #anti jroth #anti becho #anti echo #anti tasya teles #okay i think i tagged everything #negativity for tw #answered #Anonymous

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animegenork · 5 years ago

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Fruits Basket Season 2, Episode 14

I ain’t fucking around this week, friends.

Also, there might be a tad bit of spoilers from the manga, if I don’t type carefully. Watch out!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! The new opening and ending were stupendous! Did anyone else notice how Yuki and Kyo were doing the same poses at the end of the OP that are on their character profiles on the official Furuba site? Just me? THAT’S OKAY, TOO! [Also, I hate CGI in anime, but the one time they used it in the OP? *chef’s kiss* Marvelous!]

So this episode actually addressed a lot more than I thought, which is always impressive for Fruits Basket, considering there’s usually only one or two things at work here. I’ll address the more “sub” plot first and then get to what the gif above covers (haha) and its accompanying point.

Tohru’s grandfather strained his back, and she went to visit him. (As an aside, I think it’s excellent that we see Shigure referencing his relationship with Mayu so soon after the episode that focuses on her. Great job, Sensei.) He mentions that he saw both her parents in his dream, which makes her a bit wistful, but then something else he says hits her: “I want to see them again.”

Now, the thing about Fruits Basket is that when the characters have flashbacks to something pre-series, it’s often very vague and you sometimes don’t know what’s happening. So I’ll clarify: Tohru remembers, if very little, when her mother said something very similar following the death of Katsuya Honda, Tohru’s father. Kyoko went into a very depressive state following his death, and Tohru, being so young, feared that her mother would go away just like her father did. The feelings come rushing back, and Tohru collapses as she tries to walk home. Thankfully, Kyo is there to help her up and comfort her. My favorite line is probably when Tohru says she thought somebody from heaven had descended to where she was. Of course, being Kyo, he brushes it off, but I think he understood just what kind of dark place he pulled her out of.

Despite her adorable smiles and cheery attitude, it’s important to remember that Tohru is holding a lot inside. Though this pain from her father’s death isn’t brought up till now, it’s because she was so focused on moving past the tragedy with her mother, who lived for at least ten more years after Katsuya’s death, that she probably suppressed other pains. Of course, she’s still incredibly strong for surviving this long without letting it affect her, but it is nonetheless something that we need to see, as the audience. Tohru is not a be-all, end-all of happiness. We forget that she has her pain, too. But she’s learning, just like the Sohmas, that she needs to work through her pain rather than suppressing or letting it consume her.

I feel bad that we haven’t seen much of Kyo lately. Or, at least, we haven’t HEARD from him a lot lately. Poor thing has a lot to think about, but perhaps we’ll have some insight soon. (There is a specific scene from the manga I am WAITING for, and I can’t wait!!!)

Before I talk about Haru, I wanna talk about Yuki. He remembers Haru and Rin coming to visit him in his special “room” (which, now that I think about it, is very much a parallel to the Cat’s room????!!!!), and it isn’t until he confronts Rin about her treatment of Haru that he realizes he wouldn’t have escaped if it weren’t for the Ox. Haru begged Shigure to take Yuki away from the estate, and though Shigure’s reasons for agreeing are still somewhat shrouded in mystery (huehue), we see a side of Yuki’s relationships we don’t normally do. Yuki had some great support even before Tohru came along, and we must not forget just how much Haru loves Yuki. I’m still convinced they’d be a great couple, but anyway.

The other thing that happens is Yuki sees Kagura and mentions that Kyo’s been distant since their “date” a few episodes back. When she says she feels guilty, he remarks that he’s envious. Of what, you might be asking? Kagura, unlike Yuki, knows her own feelings and how to handle them. Yuki has never been great with that sort of stuff, and that’s probably why a lot of the awkwardness or arguments or misunderstandings have included him. (Kyo is different, because he physically confronts whoever it is.) Haru tells Yuki to worry about himself (rather than him), and Yuki gets a little mad.

Yuki’s been selfish all his life. He’s ready to think about someone else first, for once in his life.

Now, take that assessment with a grain of salt. Yuki says something similar in the manga, at least, and even in this episode. He gets mad at Haru because he wants to prioritize others, like the Ox does. He wants to care.

Anyway, enough about the Princess.

Rin.

(Where did that nickname come from, by the way? I just-)

First of all, how the hell are Haru and Rin so fucking attractive? Like damn. They are freaking MODELS compared to like everyone else. No WONDER they dated.

Haru makes a passing comment near the beginning of the episode, saying Rin doesn’t say anything to protect herself. Yuki connects the pieces and asks her, later, if she came to his special room with Haru just so she could make sure he doesn’t get in trouble. Mysterious as ever (and looking just as beautiful as she did in the manga), Rin doesn’t confirm this. However, Yuki pushes her, wondering if she’s somehow protecting Haru now, as well, despite breaking his heart. We don’t get a full scope of their relationship, like we do in the manga at this point, but the reason Haru is so heartbroken is because what they had was one of those romances where you know each other forever and there’s really no one else for you.

Try as she might, even though she calls Haru an idiot for calling Shigure “Sensei” in exchange for Yuki living at his current residence, Rin cannot disguise the care she holds for that idiot. Haru’s definitely not stupid, so he definitely doesn’t call Shigure “Sensei” for nothing. He’s willing to do a lot for others, and Rin knows this. Haru is so effing selfless, and she can’t risk him getting hurt.

Which is probably why, when Haru kisses her, she kisses him back.

She does try to fight it, of course. She’s got this ruse to keep up with him. But that’s not how their relationship works, and Rin and Haru both know that.

Props to Haru for getting the first kiss of the series.

Unless... did we see Hatori and Kana kiss? I mean, I wouldn’t really count that, since it was pre-series, but...

There’s still a lot we haven’t seen about Rin and Haru’s relationship, and I’m not sure how much the anime plans to tell us, but at the very least, take this away: the Horse and the Ox are willing to do pretty much anything for each other, and that causes some problems for them. And yet, Haru won’t give up on her, and I have a sneaking suspicion Rin doesn’t want him to. I forget if her current ambitions have been revealed yet to the audience (maybe vaguely, because of Tohru visiting Kazuma/Shishou?), but she’s doing some good out there... even if it comes in the form of ice cold bitchiness.

Now to figure out what the hell next week’s episode will cover.

#fruits basket #hatsuharu sohma #haru sohma #isuzu sohma #rin sohma #yuki sohma #tohru honda #kyo sohma

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xsecretblastsx · 4 years ago

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2x01 Summer Kind of Wonderful

SEASON TWO HERE WE GO.

I was dying to get here, this is one of my favorite episodes in the whole show. It’s also the episode were I really turned into a Chair shipper, so there’s that too, also The Hamptons!! Honestly was not to love about this episode.

I think this is the longest recap I’ve done in a while. As usaul recap under the cut.

Thoughts I had while watching:

I’ve watched this before and yet I’m still surprised our first taste of S2 is Nate going at it

After the super promising tease on Nate and Serena on the S1 turns out... she’s covering for him while he sleeps around... 😒

Chuck being Chuck, still a womanizer, still obsessed with Blair and as always ignoring Serena’s disgusted face. Also hilarious his enormous basket with cuttlery and such.

Look Joe Goldberg!!! Or is it Dan Humphrey? This bookstore setting is making it even more confusing.

Hi Jenny! And her never ending disatisfaction with her place at whatever she’s trying.

This scene between Chuck and Serena is so underrated. Her mocking face is hilarious. Pimp all you want Chuck it’s useless. Good luck in your suicide mission indeed.

What’s a Jitney? 😆How about where Blair returns to the Hamptons with a new beau. On your face Chuck Bass! On the words of GG: ain’t karma a bitch? We know Blair Waldorf is.

“A hot lifeguard is like Kleenex: use once and then throw away, you couldn’t ask for a better rebound” so says Blair 🤔

“The only thing lamer than dating Dan Humphrey is mourning Dan Humphrey” speaking words of wisdom Blair Waldorf

Of course all the wisdom goes out the window when Chuck appears. With the most extra polo ever and the shortest shorts in the history of menswear

Not that Blair wasn’t transparent with all her talk about James but oh my god Serena’s is so bad a going along with it.

“You’re lying. Your eyes are doing that thing were they don’t match your mouth” Chuck Bass: a walking manual on Blairisms

“I bet you’ll like him as much as I do” “If by that you mean I won’t like him at all then you’re right” meanwhile Serena is trying to pretend she’s anywhere else and not there silent witness to that verball pin pong

I always wonder how Jenny and Dan end up being like that with a Dad like Rufus

So this is “Jenny admitting she was a bitch and that Eric didn’t deserve it” first season.

“A honk instead of a knock? Did someone order a townie?" Blair’sn lines this episode are hilarious

I feel bad thinking that Nate’s main contribution so far is looking really good without a shirt.

Chuck Bass: a walking encyclopedia on everything Blair Waldorf.

If only the show had given us more Chuck and Cece interactions.

I feel I should have kept a score for all the Chuck and Blair jibes to each. That pin play on Blair’s part was check mate though. Auch. I almost feel bad for Chuck. Almost

In terms of cinematography that scene were they talk about the pin is gorgeous probably my fave in the show only behind that scene in Paris in S4. The matching outfits, the colors and the scenery are sooo good. Also the acting.

Knowing her like he does it’s interesting Chuck doesn’t realize Blair only gave that pin to James to hurt him. But the fact that it works is very telling on Chuck’s insecurities and feelings.

Nate being kicked out so the husband won’t catch him wouldn’t be half as hilarious if it wasn’t for Serena’s “no effing way face”

“Damn that Motherchucker” a novel by Blair Waldorf

I love Blair’s summer dress by the way

“All I could see was that Chuck Basstard” the sequel novel, also by Blair Waldorf

What a difference a summer makes: Nate and Chuck talking about Blair. I do feel Nate’s like “thank god it ain’t me anymore”

“And unlike you I don’t lose something if I let it out of my sight” Blair strikes again, this girl is on fire.

This episode is kind of proving that I barely care for any other storyline that doesn’t have the original four. After those two side by side arguments, getting back to Dan is really annoying

I kind of love it when Rufus points out to Dan how he never stops talking and doesn’t let anyone else said anything. Is kind of boring already how he only seems to write about Serena and the UES.

Chuck’s cricket outfit reminds me of how I should enjoy the crazy outfits while they last.

Ofc Chuck’s has a PI on speed dial Eric, duh. Gotta love him though: “i know that face, that face is not your friend” sorry Nate

I’m still trying to come up with the reason why the show let the fake dating storyline between Nate and Serena be such a waste. Whyyyy????

Just in case I forget: this white party was sponsored by Vitamin Water. For real there’s product placement and then there’s this.

The constrast between Serena looking like a greek goddess next to Nate’s I didn’t bother of an outfit is making me dizzy.

Chuck’s outfit for the white party kind of deserves a post of his own. Then again is probably my fave outfit of his on the whole show.

James calling out Blair for using him, while mentioning charade feels kind of overplayed now. Anyway he’s already pointing out how Blair and Chuck are the same and that’s why they deserve each other.

“Don’t you see? We’re the same? Stop trying to fight it” “I will fight it to my last dying breath because any resemblance to you is something I would hate about myself” this whole dialogue feels like a premonition.

Serena and Nate kissing and being totally into it while paparazzi plays is the background is just one of those moments. This is the kind of content I’m here for. Only to be ruined by Dan Humphrey.

And here we are again Dan getting mad when he doesn’t have a right to, thankfully karma is a thing in the form of drinks poured all over him

And somehow is Serena the one busy cleaning that suit, useless Dan is useless

Chuck’s “I’m so screwed” face when his PI tells him Blair’s guy is actually a british Lord is priceless.

THREE WORDS EIGHT LETTERS SAY IT AND IM YOURS.

Epic scene aside they both look so good here. This episode is gift in matching outfits.

Dan, Serena and fireworks. 😪 here we go again

I loved this episod the first time I watched it and I think I love it even more so now. It’s really good, full of funny lines, great outfits and epic moments. Season two is as of now my fave season (i think this is also true for many people) and it starts with a bang. Quite literally actually with the opening scene being Nate going at it with an “older” woman, which I guess was meant to be shocking in part because we ended last season wondering if something was going to happen between Nate and Serena.

Sadly it didn’t and that’s my biggest complain for this episode because how on earth did they thought it was ok to waste all that set up, and to add insult to the injury they are like so Serena and Nate are secretly dating... but it is just like a throway line because except for that amazing kiss at the white party we never see them fakee dating and I honestly want to pull my hair out of frustration. Just imagine the possibilities that weren’t, granted fake dating is one of my favorite tropes but it could have been quite the storyline imagine: Serenate fake dates and that sparks the feelings that were pushed aside on S1 but that were always there, and now there’s nothing that can stop them to act on it, except Serena has feelings for Dan too, and she struggles because of it all the first half of S1 until eventually she picks Dan and breaks Nate’s heart, combined with all the other pressures in his life, he wants something easy and this happens to coincide with Blair’s downright spiral and that’s how Nair happens again in the second half of S2.

My point being you could add so many more moments in the Serenate saga, also give more force to the idea the show always tried to do: that Serena can’t really let go of Dan, because Nate and her are quite something and yet... and still have almost the same story on the second half which was important because it gave closure to Nair and also had both Chuck and Blair realizing a couple of things. Alas one can only dream and be happy that at least we got that kiss at the white party

So back to the episode, we learn that Nate is having and affair with a married woman, Serena misses Dan a lot and basically mourned him the whole summer meanwhile he was being an asshole in the City fooling girls he met at his intership and Jenny is working and trying to stand out in her own internship at Waldorf desings. Which reminds me Eric is such a gem of a character, he’s always have good one liners but whe’s also a nice counter balance to all the manipulation and bitchery going around him. Anyway all of these storylines are barely a tease of what’s coming, and they really take off in the next episode, so I’ll get into them then, so at the end of the episode Nate manages to keep the affair goin into the city, Jenny earns a bit of respect from her boss and Serena and Dan see each other again (thanks to Cece which is another character I wish we had see a bit more) they meet at the beach ready to see if there’s something to salvage between them. We’ll see.

The real star of this episode are Chuck and Blair. This episode belongs to them. I’ve seen comments that claim this is the season that made them epic and really take off and I quite agree, and this episode in particular sets up the stage for it, touching on a lot of the aspects that are going to be their arc for this season and even beyond. So at the end of S1 Chuck stands up Blair and she goes alone to Tuscany and he doesn’t goes after her the whole summer. Instead he spends the summer in The Hamptons being Chuck Bass, she ends up in France. We soon learn that while Chuck enjoyed himself during the summer Blair wasn’t far off in his mind:, the minute she’s back he goes aftet her, roses in hand only to find out she came back with a new guy, and she does everything in her power to rub that fact in his face which Chuck should have expected, it obviously bothers him but truth is they both know this is just Blair trying to get back at him for abandoning her, he hurt her, she obviously doesn’t tell him but he ruined his summer and she couldn’t stop thinking about the motherchucker

Shenanigans ensue but there are bits that really stand out: first of them the heart pinn. That's a telling bit about Chuck’s feelings, when that pin make its first appearance on S1 it was the beginning of the end for Chuck, the meaning of it was what got her to accept going to Cotillion with Nate and now she has gave it to James and Chuck buys it because I guess part of him couldn’t believe she would go as far as to use that to hurt him, that’s a low blow and she also didn’t gave it to him that week they were going out after the wedding, even though it went really well but most importantly he believes she can’t really feel that way about him because he’s just not the kind of guy someone can feel something for, but specially someone like Blair Waldorf, who dreams of finding her prince charming and such, and to his utter horror it’s revealed that Blair’s new guy is actually a british lord. Just his luck.

He’s anything but that, therefore not for Blair. He tells her as a much later in the episode when he let’s her know that he basically stood her up because he was afraid of her getting to really know him and see he was not good enough nor someone she could be with. And this is something that’s going to be quite the struggle for him for a long time, more than once during the show he’s going to remove himself from the picture because he believes she deserves someone better who can actually make her happy, and this season this happens quite a few times.

Thing is nothing is ever that simple, and this is the other bit that really stands out for me: when James calls her out on how she just use him to make Chuck jealous she justifies herself by pointing out Chuck’s an awful person, who lies and deceives so he kinds of deserve it, and James points out the fact that well she’s sort of the same, and they deserve each other. She lashes out at Chuck because of this and blames him for her argument with James, it’s his fault she played with James, and Chuck’s point out that no one force her to do anything she did it because they’re the same, meaning they scheme and manipulate to get what they want, so she should just stop fighting this thing between them, she rejects him claiming she would hate any resamblance to him. This whole argument is honestly quite interesting, because variations of it are going to keep popping up the rest of the show, and depending on who you ship you either take literally as if Chuck is the root of Blair worst tendencies or rather see this argument as representation of Blair struggles not with Chuck, but with herself.

Blair struggles in accepting herself, at her core she’s an insecure person, and the fact that she has a dark side that she can’t exactly change because it’s so deep roothed in her bothers her even before she and Chuck were anything, to me it bothers her not because she really wishes she was nice & good person, but rather because Serena is nice person, who’s regarded as literal ray of sunshine at times, and Serena got two things she wanted for the longest time: positive atention from Eleanor and Nate’s interest.So that fight within herself was always there, it didn’t appear the day she started dating Chuck, is just that in the same way they brought out the best in each other, when things go bad between them the opposite sometimes happened, and even then when they blame each other for something half the time it was to share some of the hurt and to avoid dealing with their own shortcomings and mistakes. Truthfully Chuck and Blair did something for each other no one had really done for them they accept each other fully, Blair’s able to accept and love his darkness, and for Chuck there’s no darkness in Blair she’s the way she is and that’s what makes her wonderful. It was easier for them to love each other than to love themselves.

Finally the biggest stand out of the episode is that iconic scene, the one that really puts into place the dynamic they will have for the rest of the season: Three words, eight letters are brought to the table, and they won’t move forward until the words have been said. It makes sense, because they tried this twice before, the first one came out of nowhere and it ended with Chuck getting dumped in favor of Nate, and that burned him badly, the second one Blair was the one who got hurt, and both times this pretty much happened because they aren’t able of telling each other how they feel, particularly Chuck. The first time he didn’t let her know he actually cared and wanted to be with her, the second one he didn’t tell her he was afraid, and all of this was too much too soon. So Blair wants, needs some kind of reassurance, and it makes me wonder how that week after the wedding really went, what happened? how wonderful it must have been that even though he abandoned her a that helipad she still had hope in the fact that he may love her. He doesn’t say it, and yet I still love this moment so much for because jus by asking him to say it is in some way an admittance on her own feellings, and he fails to saythe words but he did try, and the fact that he did try is also a form of admittance and as such from here on no matter what happens, how much they fight and toy with each other there’s always an undercurrent of love behind their actions,and this is (borrowing a phrase from a certain popstar) the most amazing unspoken dialogue ever.

Random bits I’ve noticed

Chuck has a bouquet of yellow roses for his intent on getting Blair back. If my memory serves right, those were his mom favorites

I’m such a sucker for the little backdrop details like the Van der Bass house having all these background pictures of the wedding

Thanks to Chuck for giving us the rank on Blair’s favorite films: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Roman Holiday & Funny Face (even if he said Charades to prove a point)

I’ve read somewhere I think it was on twitter that Blair’s crying in the garden scene was unscripted, Leighton did because she got really caught up in the scene particularly by Ed’s acting. I’ve looked it up but so far I haven’t found anything on this.

There’s a bunch of miniature cyclists under the mirror where Cece’s doing the final touches to her hair, looks sort of weird.

that vitamin water is even on the invitation, agust 30, 2008.

#gossip girl recap #gossip girl rewatch #gossip girl #2x01 #summer kind of wonderful

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mlovesstories · 5 years ago

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Silent

Warnings: death of parent, foster care, cussing

Words: 2400

Tag List

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Masterlist of Masterlists

“We found your father,” The caseworker told the girl sitting in front of her.

“Just effing leave me here, lady!”

“His name is-“

“Jensen Ackles, I know.”

“Oh? Well, we have contacted him. He will be here next week,” the older female pursed her lips.

“He doesn’t care, just-“ she stopped. The girl slumped her shoulders and stormed off to her temporary room.

——————

“Hi,” she walked up to the tall man with green eyes.

“Hi, Charlotte. Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah. Totally fine. My mom didn’t just die or anything.” Charlotte raised her voice quickly.

“That was a dumb question,” Jensen conceded. He sat down across from her at her foster home.

“Just leave me here, Hollywood. And my name is Charlie.” She tried to stand. He touched her hand.

“Sorry. I just want this to be as smooth for you as possible.”

“You have three little kids and a perfect wife. Why would you want me?”

“Because I’m your dad-“ he saw her shutter at the title. “I’m your father. You don’t really want to bounce around from house to house with that-“ he motioned to her foster parent eating pizza and drinking beer, ignoring the children around him, “do you?”

“I deserve it. It’s fine. My life is over anyway,” she shrugged.

“Bullshit, kid. You are twelve. Fine, I get that you don’t know me. No one deserves this though. Especially after-“

“Don’t, Hollywood.” Charlie rolled her eyes. “Let’s go then.” She stood up and stormed out. CPS agents walked out with him to a transport vehicle.

“I didn’t know. She didn’t tell me about you,” Jensen admitted. “If I knew, I would have been there.”

“Whatever, Actor Boy. Just get me outta here,” Charlie sighed and looked out the window.

———-

“Ahh!” Charlie sat up in her bed. “Just a dream,” she said to herself.

“Charlie?” Jensen knocked and pushed open her door.

“I’m okay, Dad.”

“Flashbacks?”

“Yeah,” she sat up in her bed.”At least it was all true this time, I guess.”

“Sorry, sweetie.” He touched her cheek.

“My fault,” she moved away.

“It’s not. That guy hurt you guys. Not you. I’m not having this conversation when your heart rate is this high,” Jensen said quietly. “Lie down. I’ll wait till you fall back asleep.” He sat on the edge of her bed. “Good night, sweetheart.”

“I’m too hyped, I can’t,” Charlie rolled over.

Jensen saw the creases in her forehead. He started to sing.

“You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey. You’re as sweet as strawberry wine.”

Charlie was asleep within seconds.

———-

“Oh!” Charlie screamed. She took a calming breath. “Sorry,” she shied away.

“Shh, it’s okay.” Danneel rubbed her shoulders. “My bad. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Danneel walked to the stove from where Charlie was sitting and plopped some eggs on the stove top.

“It won’t go away,” Charlie put her head in her hands.

“It’s only been a year, sweetheart. It takes time,” Danneel looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Charlie. “Jay said you had a bad dream again. Do you want to talk about it?”

“It’s my fault.”

“That man took your mom. Not you. Yes, you guys went into the store because you wanted a soda, but HE was the one that decided to make a bad choice and-“

“Stop!” Charlie shrieked. She took deep breaths.

“That wasn’t smart of me, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset.” Danneel pursed her lips.

“Can I just have some eggs please?”

“Yes. Of course.”

________

“She got in trouble at school again,” Danneel told Jensen via phone.

“Charlie?”

“Yeah, threw a fit in class, I guess,” Danneel sighed.

“Has she been hanging out with her mentor lady?”

“Monica has been sick. Big Brothers/Big Sisters hasn’t supplied a sub while she has been gone.”

“Yeah. She has regressed a lot, but it’s okay. We’ll get through it. Hey, why don’t you invite her to set. Charlie would love it.”

“She calls me Hollywood, Dee. She wouldn’t.” Jensen rolled his eyes. Danneel could hear it through the phone.

“Ask her. Spring Break is coming up anyway.”

“Fine, Dearest.”

_________

“Hey, Char!” Jensen smiled into his iPhone. She laughed at his huge scar across his face.

“Dean looks hurt a little.”

“Speaking of, I have a question for you,” Jensen changed tones.

“Oh?” She walked into her room and sat down on her bed.

“You know how we made you get a passport?”

“Umm- yeah?” Charlie gave a grin. Her eyes filled with anticipation.

“Well…” he stopped short.

“Tell me!” She nervously giggled.

“Would you like to come up to Vancouver next week with me?” He held his breath.

“REALLY?” Charlie beamed.

“If you want to.”

“YES!”

“Awesome. Well, I can’t wait. I’m excited that you are excited.” Jensen inwardly became thrilled. “I can’t wait to show you everything. Just don’t hang out with anyone and pull shenanigans, you hear me?” He raised a brow. “And no more reports from school, got it?”

“You heard about that?”

“Yep.”

“I didn’t-“

“Whatever happened is done, sweetie. Let’s start over. Good day tomorrow, okay?” He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Why do you forgive me so much?” Charlie confusedly watched his face on the screen.

“Because no one is perfect. Charlie, you’re thirteen. You’re still trying to figure things out, but that’s why I thought it might be a change of pace for you.”

“I can’t wait!” Charlie pumped her fist in the air which moved the phone away from her face.

“Sweetheart!” Jensen yelled to get her attention.

“Oh, sorry! When can I get on the plane?”

________

Charlie felt like a rockstar sitting in first class. When she got off the plane, a driver was waiting for her with a sign that had her name on it.

“I’m Charlie.” She walked up to the woman who looked very business-like.

“Great. Do you have checked bags, Miss?”

“What does that mean?” Charlie had never heard that term before.

“Did you give the airline any of your bags before you boarded?”

“Oh, no I didn’t.”

“Perfect. Then we are good to go. Follow me.” The driver escorted Charlie to the shiny black car.

“Fancy,” she whispered.

“Only the best for Mr. Ackles,” the driver responded.

“You know Jensen? I thought one of his Hollywood people organized this.”

“I pick him and Mr. Padalecki up from the airport often. They are good men. I’m sure you know that. He is your dad after all,” she assumed.

“He’s not my- nevermind.” Charlie bit her lip.

“Miss, we will be arriving in about ten minutes or so.”

——————-

“Hey, Charlie!” Jensen met her at the cub-side drop off.

“Hi, Dad,” she quietly wrapped her arms around him.

“How was your flight?”

“Good.”

“Thanks, Tamera, for bringing her here.” He nodded to the driver. “I can take her backpack.” He offered his hand to accept Charlie’s luggage.

“Have a good evening,” she waved and climbed back into her vehicle.

“Let’s get upstairs.”

She followed him as he entered his keycard and passcodes along the way. She spun around in the lobby mesmerized by the grand architecture. Charlie walked quickly to keep up with her father as they reached his apartment.

“6A, home sweet home,” he smiled.

“Wow. How do you get groceries up here? Must be daunting.”

“Eh. Usually it’s just me, so it’s not that hard,” Jensen walked her to a spare bedroom. “This one is yours. Hope you like it.” He twisted the knob and let the door swing open lightly.

“Wow! For me?” Charlie ran and jumped on the bed. There were pictures of her with the family and her with her mom throughout the room. Her drawing hung on the wall as decoration. “Thank you!” Charlie got off the bed and ran into his arms. “It’s perfect!”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart. I love you,” he squeezed her tightly.

“I love you too, Dad. Thanks for the pictures of Mom. I-“ Charlie abruptly stopped.

“Of course. She’s your mom and a big part of your life. She has to be here too! Come on, let’s get some food.”

————

“Daddy!” YN tried to get his attention. “Jensen!” At the restaurant, she ran into the restroom when she realized Jensen wasn’t going to turn around. When he realized she wasn’t there, he scanned the business. He texted her, willing that she was safe.

“Bathroom,” was all she responded with. “Not coming out.”

Jensen walked to the door and knocked.

“Occupied!” YN yelled.

“YN. Talk to me.”

She slowly cracked it open, scanning the room.

“I- I saw her.” YN slowly opened her arms and wrapped herself around her father. She went on to explain that she thought her mom was sitting across the restaurant. “I thought I saw Mommy.”

“It’s okay. That’s normal, I promise,” he whispered into her hairline. “Let’s go.”

They got their food to go, and they went home.

“We gotta get up early tomorrow, okay?”

“Ugh,” she whined. “What time?”

“4:30.”

“AM?!”

“Yep. It will be worth it, I promise,” he smiled.

“Fine,” she groaned playfully. “I’m going to bed then. Love you, Dad.”

————

“What…?” Jensen opened his daughter’s door to wake her up when he saw blankets and pillows everywhere. She rubbed her red eyes.

“Couldn’t sleep. Bad dreams.”

“You slept on the floor?”

“I couldn’t sleep. So I changed locations. Is it time to go?” She yawned.

“This is your wake up call. You’ve got an hour. You can sleep in my trailer if you want to,” he helped her off the ground.

“Okay,” YN started picking up all of her bedding.

“Don’t worry about that. Just get dressed. We can deal with that later.”

After the two got ready, they were picked up to go to the set. YN fell asleep against Jensen’s shoulder. He took a selfie and sent it to Danneel.

Jensen:

Vancouver really tires her out!

Danneel:

No sleep?

Jensen:

Nope. I’ll let her sleep in my trailer. She’ll be fine, D.

Danneel:

Okay. Love you.

———-

“YN, wake up,” Jensen whispered. “Let’s go.”

Walking onto the set, she saw Jared and opened her arms to him.

“Hey, YN. Glad you’re here.”

“Me too,” she smiled appreciatively.

“Get some breakfast and then you can crash. We won’t be ready for a while,” Jensen nodded toward the food truck.

“I want to see everything though,” YN whined.

“We go through Makeup and all that a million times a day. It’s okay. You want eggs? Chicken?”

“Chicken for breakfast?”

“In the breakfast burrito.”

“Oh. Sure. Thanks,” she shrugged.

——

“That was awesome! So that’s how you get all those cuts on you! Can I get one?” YN asked Jensen but scanned over to the makeup artist.

“”Ugh. How did I know you would ask that?” Jensen chuckled. “Fine. But you can’t text Dee and tell her you got hurt, or you’ll never be able to come back here, you hear me?”

“Okay! Promise!”

YN sat in the makeup chair and waited for the makeup artist to get started.

“ONE only,” Jensen clearly stated. “One scar. You will not walk out of here looking like death warmed over, you hear me?” He looked to the stylist behind the chair.

“Got it,” the makeup artist nodded.

—————-

“Look how cool this is!” YN walked out of the trailer and stood next to her dad. She smiled, showing off a gash that crossed her face.

“DO NOT tell Danneel you got beat up. Why did you have to get it on your pretty face?” Jensen whined at her.

“I texted her a picture in the makeup chair. She thought it was awesome,” YN grinned.

“Oh my go-“ Jared walked up to YN. “What happen-“

Jensen and YN started snickering.

“Haha, so hilarious, you just gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry, unkie!” She opened her arms and wrapped them around Jared’s waist. “But doesn’t it look so cool?!”

“Totally. Come on, your dad and I need to do this shot.” He guided her to the set.

_______

“Come here! Today is a big day!” Jensen opened the door to YN’s room.

“Dad, I don’t feel like doing anything today,” she said.

“It’s my day off! And it’s just you and me! I want to take you to this restaurant, I think you’ll really like it. It’s-”

“No, thank you.”

“Why? You have been having so much fun so far. What happened?” He slowly walked into her room as she sat up but pulled the blankets closer to her chin.

“Not today. Please. Today is-” YN started sniffling.

“Oh, dang it. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the date. I should have- I’m sorry. How can I help you today? I knew your mom had been on your mind lately, but I just plain forgot, sweetheart.”

“I don’t really know, Daddy,” YN said quietly. “We can go to your restaurant if you want though,” she tried to appease him.

“No, we need to do what you want to do.”

“Umm. Watch Disney movies?”

“Sure, pancakes for breakfast?” Jensen smiled, knowing that she would agree to it.

“Yes, please.”

“I’ll leave you to wake up some. Don’t worry about getting ready. Today is Pajama Day,” Jensen smirked.

__________

“How’s this?” Jensen pulled a bunch of blankets out of the closet and grabbed some extra pillows.

“Perfect. Can we watch Snow White? It’s my favorite. It was hers too.”

“Absolutely, sweetness.”

He pulled her into his side, turned on the TV, and bought the movie off of iTunes. Jensen could feel her relax against him. He kissed the top of her head as the dad pressed the play button.

YN fell asleep on Jensen’s lap during the movie. He continued stroking her hair as he thought about what the girl had been through.

Her mom loved her. YN didn’t deserve that. She didn’t do anything wrong.

Jensen teared up. As tears welled in his eyes, one hit YN’s cheek.

Crap.

She instinctively wiped her face. Jensen ran a finger under his eye.

Her eyes opened and YN turned to face her dad.

“Daddy? What’s wrong?” She sat up.

“Nothing, baby. I just love you so much. You’re beautiful.”

YN took his face in her hands and wiped away his tears.

“I love you too, Daddy.” YN brought her hands down and pulled her blanket over both of them.

“You’re mine.”

“I know, Daddy,” YN smiled.

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stahlop · 5 years ago

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Once Upon a Time 3x01 “The Heart of the Truest Believer” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x111x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18 1x19 1x20 1x21 1x22 2x01 2x02 2x032x04 2x05 2x06 2x07 2x08 2x09 2x10 2x11 2x12 2x13 2x14 2x152x16 2x17 2x18 2x19 2x20 2x21 2x22

Well, here we are. Season 3! And we are in Neverland! And Peter Pan is an evil little sucker. And Rumple has some emotional connection that we don’t know about. Plus a lot of fighting, evil mermaids, flying, and some things going on in the EF. This episode deals heavily with the idea of belief and believing, so I think we’ll be seeing a lot of that in this story arc. So batten down the hatches, we’ve got an unbelievable season ahead (see what I did there? Huh? Huh? Whatever.)!

Summary: While Emma tries to dissuade her parents, Regina, and Hook from tearing each other apart, Henry encounters a scared Lost Boy on Neverland and reminds him of the power of belief. In the Enchanted Forest, Neal goes to his father’s castle to figure out what’s going on with Emma.

Opening: Henry and Peter Pan flying.

New Characters:

Peter Pan: Although we don’t know he’s Peter Pan until the end; he finds Henry when he’s running away from the Lost Boys and pretends to be another scared boy. My only problem with this is that the actor playing Pan looks at least 16, so him pretending to be scared to an 11-year-old Henry is a little odd. Maybe it’s supposed to be believable because Felix (Lost Boy Leader’s name according to the credits) is creepy as fuck. Also, why are the Lost Boys so old? Wasn’t the whole point of coming to Neverland to never grow up and be a kid forever? Wendy (in the Disney version) wanted to go there because she was being kicked out of the nursery because she was almost 13. So why are the Lost Boys teenagers? This makes no sense to me. But I digress. Henry tells him how Pan sent people to kidnap and the boy tells him if Pan sent for him he wants him for something. The basic gist of this whole ‘game’ is that Pan is pretending, he wants to make sure that Henry’s belief in magic(?) is real, and tricks him into using pixie dust in order to fly. Only then does Pan reveal himself to Henry and that he basically needs him because he has the heart of the truest believer. And then, in the most menacing way, he calls the Lost Boys and says they’re going to play. Yikes! What has Henry got himself into?

Character Observations:

Emma: We start with Emma giving birth to Henry 11 years ago. Her leg is shackled to the hospital bed and there is a prison guard watching over her. She absolutely refuses to see the baby when it’s born and says she can’t be a mother. But she’s absolutely devastated. We then move to the Jolly Roger where they are going through the portal, a true picture of a mother going after her son. Mary Margaret and David try to cheer her up, but instead, she blames them for giving her hope, for telling her that life is a fairy tale when that’s not her experience, and she can only go off of her experiences when saving Henry. She is just letting them have it while trying to keep herself together, and it’s some of the best acting I’ve seen Jennifer Morrison do on this show. She is so tired of the optimism that David and Mary Margaret have about everything and just wants them to realize that so many bad things have happened to them and to deal with that. But they refuse to deal with reality and still hold on to hope, aggravating Emma even more. Gold comes out, now dressed like Rumple, and tells everyone that he is going to get Henry back. Emma, still upset from her talk with her parents, wants to know why Gold doesn’t think she can get Henry back. He tells her she doesn’t believe in her parents, magic, or herself. Emma says she’s pretty sure she believes in magic after everything they’ve seen, and that’s exactly the point. She only believes in what’s in front of her, she can’t talk a leap of faith without evidence, and since Neverland runs on imagination, that’s not going to fly. He basically tells her she’s the same person who came to Storybrooke and she can’t do anything without a little hand holding. Emma takes her stress out Sarah Connor style by doing pull ups down in the crew’s quarters, delighting Hook to no end. Hook gives her Bae’s old cutlass to fight with. They toast to Neal with some rum before their lovely moment is interrupted by a mermaid attack. Everyone attacks them in different ways, but Mary Margaret and Emma catch one in a net and decide to bring it on board the ship. Everything starts going to hell when they bring her aboard. She calls a storm and everyone starts arguing with each other. You can see that Emma is finding this very strange and that this isn’t normal fighting. Regina finally turns the mermaid into a wooden statue and Emma is freaking the fuck out, especially because a wall of water comes at them after she does that. Emma and Hook are desperately trying to regain control of the ship while Mary Margaret and Regina duke it out. Hook and David end up fighting as well and Emma finally realizes that their fighting is causing the storm. She can’t get their attention, so, in a leap of faith, she jumps off the ship, which probably would’ve gotten them to stop fighting even without the rigging that flies off and hits her in the head, knocking her out under the water. Luckily, everyone works together to save her, and they get her back on the ship and she doesn’t have any type of head injury (not even a bruise!). But their working together gets the storm to stop and Emma gets in an ‘I told you so’ after she coughs up the water that could have drowned her. They finally make it onto Neverland and Emma goes into leader mode. She even admits that she was wrong and Gold was right about belief. Her parents think there’s a right way to find Henry, but Emma wants them to be who they are and do whatever it takes, no matter the consequences to save Henry and just cooperate with each other. Regina questions Emma’s role as something other than the Savior. She tells Regina she is a mother and their leader. She’s pretty much had enough of Regina’s lip and basically tells her to keep out of her way as they try to save Henry. They head off into the jungles of Neverland. So Emma has finally accepted her role as Henry’s mother and is finally taking a leadership role instead of letting everything just fall in her lap. We’ll see how she fares with Henry’s other mother.

Gold: He’s not very helpful to anyone. He does decide to dress more Enchanted Forest appropriate by wearing his crocodile skin outfit. He tells Emma that he’ll be the one to get Henry back since she doesn’t have enough belief. His speech borders on religious when he talks about taking a leap of faith (something Emma does later by jumping into the water and Henry does with the pixie dust), and then he vanishes from the ship, leaving his cane behind (I guess being back in a magical place makes it so he doesn’t need his cane anymore). First he comes across the carnage that is Greg and Tamara. She is still alive so he makes it so she can tell him what happened to Henry. Tamara tells him that Henry ran, and then tries to justify her actions by saying she didn’t know she was working for Pan. She also apologizes for killing Neal. She asks for his forgiveness and Gold is done with this. He almost looks like he’s sympathetic to her plight, but then rips out her heart and crushes it. Bye bye, Tamara. You really did get what you deserved. He wanders around the island until he senses Felix nearby and tells him to come out. Felix addresses him as Rumplestiltskin and Gold does his little Rumple hand gesture with the biggest expression of disdain on his face. It’s hilarious. Felix tells him Pan welcomes him to the island and is happy to see him again. So now we know that Pan and Rumple have some sort of past together. What it is remains to be seen. Gold finds it hard to believe Pan wants him there. Felix tells him as long as he’s not there for the boy, he’s welcome, otherwise he’s Pan’s enemy. So I guess he’s Pan’s enemy. Gold tells him nothing’s changed then. So I guess they’re already enemies. Felix tells him he won’t survive against Pan. Gold isn’t particularly disturbed by this. He’s more concerned about how many Lost Boys he can take with him when he goes down. Gold thinks their confrontation is over until Felix throws him a straw doll which instantly reduces Gold to tears. Holy crap! Who knew Gold could be so emotional when it didn’t have to do with Belle or Neal? Felix says something about things they haven’t thought about in years having the ability to make them cry, so I’m assuming his doll has something to do with Gold’s childhood. Felix leaves Gold crying over the doll in the middle of the jungle. Well that took a turn.

Regina: Annoying as ever, she immediately lays into Hook for the ship slowing down, and if he didn’t realize what the purpose of their trip was, it was to go rescue Henry (because they went through a portal just for the hell of it?). Like this whole conversation is completely ridiculous. Then she tells Hook about how Greg called her a villain, which she seems incredulous about (does she really not think she’s a villain, she is the Evil Queen after all), and that Greg said villains don’t get happy endings. Hook and Regina reflect on this and how they might have been wasting their lives if that’s true. Didn’t they have a similar conversation when they were below the library in The Evil Queen? Where Hook asked if their pursuit of vengeance was basically an ending and not a beginning? So, Regina doesn’t see herself as a villain, and she continues this belief throughout their journey. When the mermaids are attacking, she’s not a villain by sending fireballs after them. When Emma and Mary Margaret capture one, she yells at her (and is not above torturing her) for information, eventually causing a fight between herself and Mary Margaret (Regina wants to kill her or torture her for information, whereas Mary Margaret wants to free her), and Regina turns the mermaid into a wooden statue satisfied that that will end the storm. Except it brings a huge tidal wave upon them instead. She seems genuinely shocked that this plan didn’t work. Listen to Emma and think things through, Regina!!! Always thinking in the short term and never looking at the whole picture. Mary Margaret and Regina continue to go at it with each other (involving an actual fistfight between the two of them) and Regina, once again, plays the victim when Mary Margaret tells her to stop ruining her life. When Emma jumps off the ship she tells Mary Margaret she can’t see her in the storm to bring her back up. But they all end up working together to save Emma which stops the storm. Once they dock, Regina says she can fix the Jolly Roger and they can go with Hook’s original plan, but Emma tells her to save her magic and says that Pan already knows they’re there. Emma makes a moving speech about believing in each other and Regina poo poos this as her wanting them all to be friends. That’s not even close to what she said. Emma says they just need to be who they are to succeed and she calls Regina a villain in this speech. Regina keeps a very cool facade when Emma goes on about being a mother and their leader (both roles that are usually Regina’s forte), but seems to be on board when they go further into the jungle.

David/Mary Margaret: I just want to roll my eyes at their optimism like Emma does. Their unwavering belief that everything will work out is very annoying. They are genuinely shocked that Emma doesn’t share their optimism. You can see that Mary Margaret is doing all she can to not dissolve into tears when she tells Emma that her experience is all she has to go on and she could share some of her wisdom with her. But Emma reminds them that they are the same age with the same amount of experience. Ok, I see where Emma is coming from, but being the same age does not give them the same level of experience. They both have different experiences that they can both learn from. Mary Margaret is doing everything she can to placate Emma, but Emma is pissed off. Mary Margaret tells her that the moment she lets go of her belief the moment things will ultimately get worse (how much worse can it get? You’ve already been cursed, lost your daughter, Johanna was killed, and now your grandson has been kidnapped?). I’d be frustrated too. David and Mary Margaret are trying to control the ship when the mermaids attack, and David’s the first to do something useful by making explosives and shooting the mermaids with the mini cannons (I will not be capsized by fish). And he looks hot doing it. Whew! Mary Margaret gets the idea to catch the mermaids, I’m not really sure what the thought process there was. Later on she thinks that talking to them and seeing if they can make some sort of deal with them will work, but all in all, the capturing a mermaid plan basically almost killed them all. When questioning the mermaid, David first goes from the yell and threaten approach (even bringing a sword to her throat, and Mary Margaret looks horrified at this), while Mary Margaret thinks that killing them with kindness is the way to go (she thinks they are scared of Pan and doing his bidding, even though Hook tells her mermaids are liars and just want to kill them). Regina continues to try and kill the mermaid even though everyone else tells her not to and she brings on a huge tidal wave when she turns her into wood. Mary Margaret blames Regina who doesn’t think this is her fault. She wants her to undo the spell and Regina calls Mary Margaret a naive princess, so Mary Margaret punches her! Damn girl! Get out all that pent up frustration! They continue punching each other so David goes to break them up, but Hook tells him to let them fight because he needs him to help with the ship, but he uses a derogatory term for women and David punches him. So now they’re fighting. He even tries to stab Hook with his own hook. Talk about cold blooded. They finally all get their acts together when Emma jumps in the water to stop them from fighting. Mary Margaret and David are terrified. They all work together, with David jumping into the water to save her and the others pulling them up with rope. Once on the island, Emma tells them all they need to work together and David and Mary Margaret don’t want to work with Regina and Hook. I’m confused as to why they think they’re there then if they weren’t all going to work with each other. David wants to do things the right way (which is what exactly?), but Emma says they just need to be heroes while Regina is a villain and Hook is a pirate. They need those skills to get Henry back. When Emma says her skill is being a mother, Mary Margaret gets the proudest look on her face. Like Emma’s finally understanding what being a parent is all about. And then after she tells Regina to either help or get out of her way, David is the first to follow with a proud daddy smirk on his face.

Henry: Basically, he’s running from the Lost Boys. He has belief in magic and flies. And now Peter Pan and the Lost Boys have him surrounded.

Greg/Tamara: They know they’re in Neverland because it’s the mother lode of magic. They want to destroy it. Henry asks them who they work for that works on Neverland, but Greg says it’s none of his business. The Home Office takes care of them. Henry wonders how they’ll get back home once they destroy magic, but Greg is deep into the ‘it doesn’t matter as long as it gets done’ belief to worry about little things like getting home. They immediately realize something is wrong when their communicator is filled with sand. Tamara even wonders if it’s a toy and Henry remarks that it’s a good thing they don’t ask questions. Greg just gets angry while Tamara starts getting worried. Greg builds a fire to send a signal, but Tamara thinks the broken communicator was intentional. That’s when the Lost Boys emerge. They tell Greg and Tamara they’re the Home Office, and Tamara is getting really frightened now that they know the Home Office is run by teenagers. Henry clarifies that they’re the Lost Boys. Henry’s confused as to why the Lost Boys want to destroy magic, and Greg reminds him that that was their mission. Felix tells him they only told him what he wanted to hear so they could get Henry. Tamara finally gets some balls and asks how they’re getting home and Felix tells her they aren’t getting home. Greg tells them they aren’t getting Henry, but Felix summons the Shadow who rips Greg’s shadow from his body and kills him. Tamara tells Henry to run and gets shot with an arrow from a Lost Boy. Now, I have to admit, I really didn’t like Greg, but this was an awful way for him to die. After everything he went through as a kid he just wanted some justification in destroying magic, and unfortunately, he found the wrong organization who just used him for their own means. Tamara manages not to die right off the bat and is found by Rumple later. He heals her so she can tell him where Henry went. She apologizes for everything and asks him for forgiveness over what she did to Neal. But Rumple don’t play that game and takes her heart and crushes it. RIP Greg and Tamara, you will not be missed in the slightest.

Neal/Mulan: Ugh! I really wish Neal was just dead and I didn’t have to deal with all this. First off, we get no explanation about how they rescued Phillip from the wraith, he’s just there with them. Neal wakes up and is bandaged pretty modernly for being in the EF. Mulan immediately thinks he’s lying about being from the EF since he’s wearing clothes like Emma and Snow did. Which makes no sense because she knows about the curse and how they were all from the EF, so of course he’d be wearing modern clothes if he was from the same place they were. Once Mulan mentions Emma and Snow, Neal wants them to help him find her because Emma’s in danger. He also mentions Henry and Aurora quickly comes to the conclusion that he’s Henry’s father. Mulan questions how Neal got there, but he explains about the portal. He tells her they’re all considered fairy tale characters, or legends. When Aurora can’t make contact she thinks the worst. Neal realizes he needs to go to his father’s castle and reveals his father is the Dark One. Mulan and Neal have a deep discussion about why Emma never mentioned him when she was there. Neal says he broke her heart and then never came back for her even though he loved her and he regrets it. He claims he didn’t try because he didn’t want to be rejected. Or, maybe because you were engaged to Tamara up until she shot you? Seriously, what is up with all the Neal retconning. He didn’t want to risk seeing his father so he let Emma go to jail for him and then didn’t ever look for her once the curse broke because he’d moved on and still didn’t want to deal with his father. This whole still loving Emma thing is bullshit! Mulan seems to understand his regret more than she should. Still wondering if she’s in love with Phillip or Aurora. They get to the castle and Neal realizes that someone is there because they left out a goblet of wine. Then an arrow comes shooting near his head and Robin Hook makes his entrance. Neal is in disbelief. He tells Robin he can have the castle, he just needs to find something first and Robin believes he is the son of the Dark One, because who would admit to that if they weren’t. He also tells Neal that Rumplestiltskin spared his life and Neal wants him to help him find whatever he needs to pay for that debt. Neal is looking for something magical that his father would have hidden away. Neal finds his father’s old cane, swings it around, and uncovers a magical cabinet. Convenient. Neal claims it’s blood magic that made it so he could uncloak the cabinet. Neal finds a crystal ball and laments about how he’s been running from magic most of his life and now it’s the only thing that can help him. Boo hoo. But he can’t make the crystal ball work. Like your father said, you have to believe. Mulan tells him he needs to think of Emma and not a place. And when he does he recognizes that she’s in Neverland. Uh oh!

Questions:

I get having a guard while Emma is giving birth, but shackled? I’ve given birth three times and trying to move without help after you’ve given birth is almost near impossible. I’m honestly surprised she didn’t break the cuff with the sheer force that is necessary to give birth.

With the way Henry fell out of that portal (and that he couldn’t brace himself since his hands are tied), shouldn’t he have broken something? That was a pretty high fall from the portal.

Why didn’t Greg and Tamara’s portal spit them out in water since they went into it in water?

Why does Regina ask Hook about the ship slowing down? He hasn’t cast anchor, it’s not a car, it doesn’t just slow down. That’s not how it works. If Hook hasn’t put the anchor down then the ship is slowing down most likely due to lack of wind, or the fact that they just shot out of a portal, not because of anything he’s doing.

How is Aurora’s dress not shredded by now? She’s in the same dress that she was wearing in Broken.

Why is Aurora’s first reaction to not being able to reach Henry in her dream that he’s in trouble and not that he’s not asleep?

How does Neal a) know about his father’s castle (he left the EF before Rumplestiltskin owned a castle), and b) know where this castle is?

Doesn’t wearing a bag crossed over where Neal just got shot hurt? He’s acting like he was never shot at all.

Anyone else think David’s face is a little too close to the mini cannon? I was afraid he was going to at least burn his eyebrows off.

Why are Mary Margaret and Regina still wearing their suit jackets in the middle of a storm? Emma took off her turtleneck and David rolled up his sleeves. Having that extra soaking layer must suck.

First of all, Robin Hood says he arrived at Rumple’s castle shortly after the curse (I’m assuming after it ended) to find it already looted by thieves. Did it get looted after Rumple was taken captive by Snow and Charming? Secondly, why did he decide to go back to Rumple’s castle after he was tortured and nearly killed the last time he was there? Did he know Rumple had been imprisoned beforehand?

I thought Felix was with the Lost Boys chasing Henry. Did he decide to take a break when they discovered Gold was on the island?

Where did Mary Margaret’s bow and quiver full of arrows come from? She only had a backpack when she came aboard the Jolly Roger in And Straight on ‘Til Morning.

Why is David questioning working with Regina and Hook to get Henry back? They all made the journey to Neverland. Were they just going to leave Regina and Hook on the ship?

Observations:

The lights flicker when Emma gives birth to Henry. The last time we saw this was in the Pilot. It seems this is a manifestation of Emma’s magic in our world.

It looks like Gold lost all the gray in his hair when he had his wardrobe change.

Apparently getting your shadow ripped from you will kill you.

Snow didn’t teach Aurora how to control the dreams and walk the dream world. Henry had the amulet that Gold gave him that let him control things (and David later broke). Not that they ever used it after the first dream.

Neal explains how portals work. You have to think about the place you want to go to.

I don’t know if it’s because of the difference between filming a live ship and then greenscreening a background when filming the actors, but the ship looks like it’s barely moving when it’s just a ship shot, and then it’s speeding along when you see the water behind the actors.

Robin Hood is played by a different actor than when we last saw him in Lacey.

I’ve decided that the forest that we saw in Cora’s bubble must be Sherwood Forest, as that’s the only explanation for Robin Hood to still be in the EF, and why he hasn’t aged.

So that’s the season premiere for season 3! We are officially in Neverland. We don’t even see Storybrooke. And we have to deal with characters we don’t particularly care for in the Enchanted Forest (although I like the smarminess of this Robin Hood). We’ll see how this all comes together. Some other thoughts: Regina is still Evil Queen Bitch. She seems to have learned nothing from her brushes with death just that morning. David and Mary Margaret also seem to think that if they just do the right thing then everything will be alright, when we’ve yet to see that work out for them. Emma is the only one who seems to have made any growth by calling herself Henry’s mother and finally taking a leadership role in finding him. And Hook just fancies Emma when she’s not yelling at him.

Please leave comments and reblog! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future reviews.

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81 @lfh1226-linda

#once upon a time #once upon a time review #once upon a time rewatch #once upon a time 3x01 #once upon a time the heart of the truest believer

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neirawrites · 5 years ago

Text

I was a Twihard in high school. Then I was a Twilight hater. In 2018, I decided to reread the first book, to see for myself on which side I belonged. I wrote my thoughts as I read, in multiple parts, but on my main blog, so I thought I might share them on my writeblr too, because I kinda had fun with it.

Enjoy my many, many notes

Pages 0-50

I’m actually kinda into it. Yeah, there are a many issues every article on editing tells you to fix (filter words, -ing verbs and things like that), but i feel it. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there.

Bella isn’t that bad of a protagonist. Nothing too spectacular, but she’s fine. She is depressed, self sacrificing and hides her feelings, but also a lot more self aware than i though she would be(like when she notices mike, my son, likes her). She’s a typical teenage girl, the introverted type, way into reading. there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t know why i remember Edward being a draco in leather pants,but he’s also fine for now. mysterious and handsome and a bit weird. The first real conversation they have, he’s polite and nice and charming. I expected him to be a dick for like 150 pages at least.

Pages 50-100

I’m still really into it.

Yeah,Edward kinda ghosts her/gaslights her after the whole van incident, but with the benefit of hindsight,i kinda get it. It’s a wonder he didn’t pick up his entire family and moved to Alaska again. I also get her mood during that time and I've been there so i feel ya,Bella,it’s not your fault.

And yeah, Bella gets invited to the dance by three different guys and it’s all kinds of fan fic-y, but the fact she turns them down furthers my belief she’s wake up married to Edward in like a few years and realize she would rather be with Rosalie (a solid choice, might i add).

Edward’s really pushy, especially when it comes to the scene after she faints. like, let her go, you jerk, she can drive herself, but he’s more weird than he’s a jerk and i think that was intentional.

A big surprise was the line “what if i’m not the hero, what if i’m the bad guy?” which isn’t this super cheesy, extra dramatic sentence but a jokey joke told with a laugh. actually, that whole conversation in the cafeteria where she tries to guess what he is is gold and don’t try to tell me otherwise.

I’m reading her interests in him as less of a romantic thing, and more of frustration at his behavior,like she would still be fascinated by him if he wasn’t so hot because he’s just so weird (but being hot is definitely a plus).

Plot? What plot?

Still, while the flaws are there, i’m still enjoying it very much.

Pages 100-150

Is Stephanie Meyer into anime? Cuz she wrote a harem light novel,that’s what she did and that’s how i’ll read it from now on and have more fun doing it. (Might make a post elaborating on this further).

All this to say that we got to Jacob. Not gonna lie, I kinda forgot about him. He seems like a nice kid and i’m glad Bella has some positive interaction. Team jacoj 4 life (jk,man,i was team jasper in high school which is in retrospect very weird of me). I know he becomes a friend-zoned dudebro later, but for now, he’s fine.

Meyer, lady, you’re winning me over as a half hearted defender of your work, but why are the girls so bitchy? Yeah,i know, bitchy girls exist in real life, especially in high schools,but girls are our friends and we need more positive female on female interactions. Just my personal preference, I guess.

Things are getting interesting. Bella’s dreaming weird dreams (just fyi, not a big fan of dream scenes in general), she’s googling like crazy and we’re going to Port Angeles.

I never felt she has any sort of affection for Angela or Jessica who seem really nice and have done nothing wrong. Like loosen up Bella, give them a chance. I know, depression makes you into a bitch sometimes, but it would warm me up to her character if she was a little more affectionate with people around her.

That whole scene where she almost gets at best beaten up and mugged and at worst raped and killed is… not my favorite part of the whole thing. I get what Meyer needed to do, to have her be saved by Edward, but there must have been a better way to go about it. What do I know? I’m the queen of forced plot contrivances. I do like their conversation at the restaurant (again, why do we hate the female waitress, Steph?). I don’t know why, I expected Edward to be mad at Bella for what happened to her and he seems genuinely concerned and his anger feels… human. Some of his actions, however, do not.

He stalked her which is weird and creepy and I hate it. Don’t stalk people, Edward. most of us don’t like it. you’re lucky Bella’s a weirdo.

150-200

I kinda love how ok she’s with the whole vampire thing. she’s just “well, this kid i barely know told me a scary story, so i guess the guy from school is a vampire. it be like that sometimes.” my first assumption would be it’s all an elaborate prank to make fun of me (i have some deep seeded trust issues origins of which remain unknown). and he’s waaay to quick to confirm her suspicions. I think there’s an explanation in the part of midnight sun that got leaked, but that was like a century ago.

I would criticize her for being ride or die with Edward so fast, falling in love with him so quickly, but i exchanged like 5 sentences with a cute girl last night and a part of is ready to propose based on the artiness of her instagam, so who the eff am i to judge?

and i get why he’s fascinated with her. she’s the only one he can’t read.

why? i don’t think that question ever gets a good enough answer, but it’s a fictional story about a girl falling in love with a sparky vampire. i’m not here for complex science or detailed explanations.

he seems waaay too protective of her. She’s a big girl, Ed, she can take care of herself. It’s actually kinda annoying. i dislike how he treats like a child a lot of the time. he seems pretty condescending. also, if he broke her car, i’m taking back everything nice i said about him.

ok, let me finally address bella’s biggest character flaw, her clumsiness. i mean, i get why she has it but Meyer goes a bit too hard on it. i’m clumsy, i really am, full of bruises, always bumping into things, but Bella can’t walk 20 meters without tripping. i guess i’m just glad she becomes a vampire in the book four, otherwise the book five would have been about her struggles when she’s diagnosed with a stage four inoperable brain tumor that’s been mesing with her sense of balance and the whole things turns into a weird version of the fault in our starts.

if i were writing it i would focus on her trust issues and being unable to form real bonds with other people as her main flaw, maybe even use it to try and justify the whole thing with the mind Edward can’t read. Like, she’s too different in a way that makes her unable to connect even on a basic level, like that one Blue whale that sings at a different frequency than all the others. Idk,i write pulpy sci fi. but it’s easy to be a general after the battle.

we got to the two infamous lines:

how are you? 17. how long have you been 17? is another line that’s more jokey than i though it would be, but also the most realistic piece of dialogue in this book. i would so ask the same thing.

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, this paragraph has been memed to death. Second, there was a part of me-and I didn’t know how potent that part might be-that would know every word of it till the day i died. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in like with it.

200-300

Not gonna lie, the whole part where he goes around asking her questions he is legitimately interested in knowing the answers to is at the same time my kinkiest fantasy and my deepest fear. like, yaaas, daddy, get to know me on the personal level and don’t be turn off by the fact i’m a tabula rasa.

We got to the infamous meadow scene and Bella is sooo horny on main for that vampire stake it’s actually kinda funny. She gets so effing into it she faints. I fucking love this girl. Go get that adonis dick, Bella, you deserve it.

I don’t mind vampires sparkle.i mean,it’s lame and fanfic-y but in Bosnia we have the lampires so vampires are creatures with a high dose of plasticity. i don’t know why that was like the worst thing anyone has ever done to the vampires. They are kinda too strong and could use a real weakness tho.

So the lion fell in love with the lamb is kind of another joke. Also, this is the skin of a killer is sadly just in the movie.

I do have the feeling he likes the project that he sees in Bella more than the real girl,but ok. Also stop nagging her. He watches her sleep. What a creep. I don’t know why, but the fact that he’s a vampire who doesn’t have to sleep makes it kinda less creepy for me. I don’t know why.

But “if i could dream at all i would be about you,” is the kind of ultracheese i can get behind. they are both such teenagers and i kinda looooove it.

Also non of the boys were her type is such a lesbian excuse. I feel ya Bella, i feel ya. I hope you discover your gayness after the end of breaking dawn.

We meet the cullens and every single one of them has a backstory like 528 times more interesting than Edward. i need novels about them, all of them ffs. it would be so cool. but, one of my favorite oc’s Errien Lark gets like 30 lines in the whole book so i can only be as harsh on Meyer as on myself (which is to say a lot. neither of us deserve these characters, honestly)

This book would have been more interesting if Bella fell in love in any other cullen. Like, Bella and Alice, Bella and jasper (Bella and Jasper and Alice. Sorry, i’m into solving love triangles with ot3s).Bella and Rosalie, Calilise, Esme, even Emmett, who i remember as mike of the vampires, but it’s been a decade.

300 pages in and plot is yet to happen, but it’s ok. we have the vampire baseball next.

the last part.

get your hot takes! hot takes right here

I kinda like billy. He seems like a nice guy. Also billy/charlie as my new otp.

“The beautiful one,the godlike one.” Bella, you are such a teen.

The less fucks she has about him being an all powerful ancient creature of the night who can murder her in a heartbeat, the funnier it is. She is just soo casual about it. Comedy gold, i tell ya. i mean, this is actually part of the narrative, Edward comments on it, meyer knows what she wrote.

Ed,maybe is you stopped saying she smells good, you would be better at not thinking about her as food. Mind over matter. Just a thought. Maybe i misjudged his virgin ass. Maybe ed the incel actually fell in love with her. Or at least what he thinks is love since they’ve been dating for like two days (look who’s talking?the girl who reads any sign of affection as a statement of love and then gets disappointed).

“Emmett could never be compared to a gazelle”. That’s sexist steph. Emmett, honey, you are as gracious as you want to be.

Also a big yaaaas on the whole concept of vampire baseball. we needed more of it.

Plot! Plot! Plot! Plot! Plot!

We have encountered plot. Only 320 pages in. three bad vampires came into town.

Story time: when i was in high school, all like 20 of us in out class were really, really into twilight (dudes included). we quoted it all the time but the height of comedy happened when someone brought their friend from another school to out class and someone else was like “you brought a snack” and a meme was born to be quoted endlessly for months. it was actually kinda fun. and probably very annoying for anyone who wasn’t into twilight.

Also, any development? Backstory? Motivations other than for the hell of it for out boi James and his ginger girlfriend? come on, it wouldn’t even be that hard. Also, some foreshadowing? There was like one line before. This is a legitimate criticism. it’s kinda shitty writing and a wasted opportunity.

Edward is being a dick again. I get he’s scared but her dad could die. Or maybe they’ll trun him into a vampire too (charlie/Edward? Think about it). But they all call him out on it which is nice. Bella’s plan isn’t bad, but “let me go charlie” is the straight up coldest thing i have read in a long time. it’s supposed to be, this isn’t criticism, just stating the obvious. But she showed like an inclining of love for her dad who has been nothing but nice all this time. Yeeey, she’s not a robot.

“It was the best idea. Of course it was mine” . Yaas, queen, you’re not that much of a doormat; take that credit.

i would do something to foreshadow the ballet studio thing in the first half of the book. at least, have Bella or Charlie looking at pictures from her recital, just to intricate it to the plot a bit more.

Ok, now i remember why i was team jasper. He is so effing nice. And he would be awesome for my depression. Neira/Alice/jasper, i ship it.

i’m kinda digging the explanations of how vampires work and the whole venom thing. They are still op af and need to be nerfed, but i wanna be one.

Of course, he used the mom. She’s like the only person bella actually cares about. She falls for it. i would probably fall too, but i’m dumb.

the fact that james hunted Alice is a nice and a very much needed twist. it did catch me of guard. i would be more mad he’s a bad guy monologing, but i can only introduce stones to my own glass houses.

Bella’s now more into the idea of being a vampire than into Edward and i’m living for it. she’s going to use him for his venom and a baby and run off with rosalie.

“and how many times did she fall our of a window?” (yes, that is a Sherlock reference in the year 2018 of our lord. maybe i should do that for my next project. should i wait a few more years?)

her mom is not worried enough, honestly. my mom would be freaking out. but my mom has anxiety issues, so idk… (i couldn’t get her smooth hairless legs, or her blue eyes but i got that gene. thanks, i guess) .

“And i have a couple of girlfriends” now that’s a novel i want to read but i guess i’ll have to write the lesbian twilight myself.

“I want to be superman too”. yeeees, finally, kristen steward in the role of superman casting of the century. you would all watch it and love it, and you know it.

Charlie doesn’t deserve this shit. when will he retire with his husband billy in their cabin where they can fish all day.

“Do you want me to bolt the door so you can massacre the unsuspecting townsfolk?“ Are we sure she hasn’t been a vampire from day one?

Jacob is a sweetie (for now) just putting that out there.

Edward is kinda being unreasonable. being a vampire in your universe isn’t that bad.

Aaaaw, and that’s a wrap.

i actually kinda digged it. it’s nothing special, but i read these last 150 pages in one sitting. my main issues are writing oriented. very little foreshadowing, many filter words and things like that, but i guess if you aren’t that into writing, you might not even notice more of that.

it’s not the death of literature, it’s not the worst love story ever told. it’s just a silly and mostly harmless wish fulfillment novel.

edward can be a controlling and condescending prick but he gets called out on it very often. it’s not like meyer is completely oblivious to what she’s writing. and even tho he’s 100, i guess they are all mostly stuck mentally at the age when they were turned. or at least that’s how it seems to me. bella is kind of a bitch to everyone who’s not a vampire and she’s never called out on it, there’s a glimpse of change in the epilogue, but i don’t think meyer really considered it a character flaw. which is a shame, as it could have made for an interesting character. all the vampires have stories i would rather read about, as i said before, but what can ya do? that’s what’s fanfics are for.

i may write more of cohesive thought on it when it settles in my brain, but first, i need to watch the movie. i have a hypothesis i need to test.

but i don’t regret doing this. it was kinda fun and now i’m no longer ashamed of my twihard phrase. i could have done worse, as far as teen phases go.

Someone should like write a fanfic, but Edward is not a vampire, but a rich guy. And he’s into some hard core spanky business. And they should take all the problematic elements and just crank them up to 11. And add a looot of sex. I bet they could make millions.

Tho, honestly, how can you read twilight and not make bella the kinky dom? you fundamentally misunderstood the story. for shame

#twilight #stephanie meyer #the midnight sun #edward cullen #bella swan #long post

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