#but I just notice this more in the ca arc

[guardianspirits13]

And look. Netflix has cancelled a lot of beloved and well-received shows over the years. This is far from their first shameless cancellation.

But this one really feels like a tragedy in a way the rest really haven’t, for me.

If you have not seen it, this show has some of the tightest writing I have ever seen. It explores so many ideas and character arcs in the span of eight episodes, and there is not a dull moment to speak of. Every line feels intentionally crafted for the character it is assigned to, and the actors never fail to follow through.

Speaking of the actors, almost the entire main cast are in their breakout roles but you would never know it because they are phenomenal. Need I remind you that everyone’s favorite homosexual from hell (sorry, Cas) is played by George Rextrew, and is his first onscreen role beyond acting school. It’s easy to forget that considering how seamlessly he melts into such a nuanced and uniquely expressive character.

Steve Yockey, the director/writer/producer who made this show happen deserves accolades for his brilliant creative direction and an adaptation that took an under-the-radar comic property and made it into the show stopping narrative of cycles of violence and abuse and learning how to grow from your past and be loved as you are. In EIGHT EPISODES.

The cinematography is also stunning and combined with the sharp editing decisions make it just as visually impactful as it is narratively.

I have not enjoyed a show as thoroughly as this once perhaps since season one of Daredevil like, a hundred years ago. I’ve watched other shows, I’ve liked other shows, but none without a healthy dose of criticism. I struggle to find something bad to say about this show because it is just that good.

Now I’m not going to go into the fact that this show was unapologetically queer and that Netflix has a history of cancelling any show that features a gay character that isn’t either comic relief or has two lines. However, it is hard not to notice that the less divisive a show is, the more market appeal that it has, and Netflix definitely cares more about a majority audience of passive users with autopay subscriptions than they do a dedicated fanbase excited to have something to call their own.

To quote Bo Burnham, “Art is dead.”

[numberoneredriotfan]

It makes me really upset that Kirishima and Bakugou's friendship wasn't highlighted too much after season 4 or the shie hassakai arc. And I don't even mean this in a shipping sense. Kirishima was a HUGE part of Bakugou's character development even if it wasn't shown that way.

At first, Kirishima is introduced as one of the only people who can handle Bakugou and all his intensity- as well as his explosive (haha get it) personality. This is showcased more clearly in the sports festival arc.

Kirishima offers to be Bakugou's horse, because he's the only one that can handle his explosions with his hardening (which is probably the only quirk in 1-A that really effectively deflect Bakugou's explosions, so nobody else could really be in that position other than Kirishima.) Also, he without hesitation called Bakugou a dumbass and told him to remember his fucking name, even after seeing how angry he can get when provoked. And this isn't even the last time Kirishima does this. So Kirishima becomes someone who can handle Bakugou, but their friendship doesn't end there.

Most this development probably happened off-screen, but overtime Bakugou started to see Kirishima as an equal. Not just someone who could handle Bakugou and put up with him, but as someone who is able to stand by his side unwavering while also understanding his perspective to some extent (which I assume is rare for Bakugou, considering most other's view of him is either "what a jackass" or "wow he's so cool").

Which is why I really love this scene they added in the anime, which shows that Kirishima understands Bakugou, even if he seems like just an arrogant asshole. I think the only other character who understands Bakugou on that level is Deku (and of course his classmates learn to understand later on, but I'm talking about early on).

Kirishima was arguably the first person who Bakugou saw as an equal. Something I noticed about early Bakugou is that he either had a superiority complex or a inferiority complex with someone, and there was really no in between lol. That was, until Kirishima. Who came in as someone who neither above or below him. While Kirishima doesn't take any of Bakugou's shit, he also doesn't treat Bakugou like just a jerk.

This is of course, showcased best in the iconic Bakugou rescue scene.

This scene was honestly just such a good show of their bond, and how Bakugou sees Kirishima. Because as Deku pointed out, Bakugou wouldn't have taken anyone else's hand. We know this for a fact, as this was the same man who would've rather been kidnapped by villains then accept Deku's help-

So yeah. I fully believe if it was anyone other than Kirishima to reach out a hand to him, he would've straight up ignored them and would've tried to fight the villains himself. (Death is one thing but his ego is another apparently-).

It would be ignorant of me to say that Kirishima was the only one who understood Bakugou, because that's just not the case. Because as we saw multiple times throughout the series, Deku (as previously stated) understands Bakugou very well from the very beginning. However, while this opens up the gateway for a reconciliation with Bakugou in the future, Bakugou's complex feelings about Deku make it impossible for them to form a relationship based on that. Kirishima came in as a breath of fresh air, in which there was no lingering resentment or complexity involved. And of course, later in the series, we see the other members of class A understand Bakugou on that level as well. But in the beginning at least, Kirishima was the only person he could sort build that bridge of understanding with.

And even if it's never stated explicitly, I truly believe Bakugou wouldn't have opened up to relationships with his other classmates if it weren't for Kirishima befriending him. Or at the very least, it would've taken him a lot longer.

And the we have to take into accountability of how much their friendship has helped KIRISHIMA develop as a a character. As we can see, from the very beginning, Kirishima has a bad habit of comparing his quirk to the others of their class.

This isn't his fault necessarily, as in their society it's probably drilled into your head from a young age that you can only be a good hero if you have a flashy quirk.

And because of this, rather than looking at his own strength, he pays a lot of attention to how he compares to others.

So clearly, he's hard on himself and has a lot of self-esteem issues. (I am him. He is me-)

And it's clear he looks up to Bakugou a lot from just...Bakugou being Bakugou. Bakugou's a very forward person who jumps in without thinking (for better or worse), which is almost everything Kirishima wants to be. I honestly think that might've been- at least partially- what drew Kirishima to Bakugou. He wanted to be more like him, even if he wouldn't admit to himself. He, in a way, was putting Bakugou on a pedestal, even if he didn't realize that Bakugou sees him as an equal.

But then, Bakugou tells him this:

Which in the end, pushes Kirishima to reach his full potential, which came in form of unbreakable. Bakugou, who was originally someone he looked up to and admired, eventually became his motivation. His drive, even. And it wasn't just Bakugou, obviously, but Bakugou still contributed a lot.

And after all this, their friendship gets pushed to the side so we can focus on Bakugou and Deku's reconciliation. Which isn't bad! I love Bakugou and Deku's friendship as well! And I will say it holds a lot more importance to the plot of the story, and it wasn't necessarily a requirement to have Bakugou and Kirishima's relationship showcased more.

But still, I feel as though one could assume that once Bakugou got his character development from Kirishima, he didn't need anymore. Like he was just a stepping stone in order to reach his redemption with Deku. Which is just a sad way to look at their relationship :( and I truthfully believe that that just isn't the case. We did get a few crumbs, but even then we never got to see them talk one-one as friends after a while.

This isn't supposed to be Kiribaku propaganda or anything like that, and some of this will probably fall into headcanon territory and is just my interpretation of their characters. This also isn't me saying that their relationship is more important than Bakugou and Deku's, or Kirishima and Mina's, this is just more of a vent on how I would've liked to see more of their friendship.

[ghomsts]

Supernatural "brothers story arch swap" au.

Sam the righteous man

Dean the boy with the demon blood

Sam is still the baby boy that goes to college

Dean still stays back home, finding Sam because dad has been missing for a couple of days

Consequences from this change:

John either has a different plan for dealing with Dean + the demon blood thing or he at least thought of killing him if he had to while sam was at college. Sick and twisted.

John still has all those fucked up issues with Sam because Azazel just lied about which kid was doing the demon blood thing

Castiel works with Sam from the get go. etc. Etc. You'd think this would make it more sastiel but it means destiel gets the "handshake scene" so it's anyone's game honestly.

Jess lives past episode one because she never would've been used against Sam. BUT they also may not have gotten together because Brady wouldn't have been a demon putting that piece into place. i could put a Sambrady agenda here, if I wanted to.

I think if Dean had any of the fucked up nuanced arcs Sam had paralleling Cas destielies would be frothing at the mouth harder. Maybe.

Dean is a more scared individual due to the implications. (HE'S the one verging on being a monster from demon blood addiction.) in my humble opinion Sam would defend Dean easier I think. A noticable amount easier. (None of Dean's brand of daddy issues lol, just his own defiant ones.)

Boy King Dean 🤔

Dean having a souless!dean arc instead of Sam???!!! can anyone here me? it's so dark in here.

[soullessjack]

another offshoot of jack being infantilized is that it’s leeched into the popular mischaracterization of jack as some soft sensitive crybaby who hates violence, hates scary things and is super nice and sweet and cutesy all the time and of course he’s used to accessorize Claire as a big mean lesbian sister who always gets them in trouble, and what makes it so unbearable besides the ableist rooting, is that it’s just canonically utterly wrong. like go back and watch 13x02 & 03. go back and watch 14x06 when they convince Dean to go on a case behind Sam’s back. or look at any time they’re defiant to Cas (and for the love of god do not look at it as “lol sassy baby dean is a bad influence bad dad 😂” or so help me I am throwing multiple rocks at you). like you can say he’s a bitch. you can say he’s a cunt even. it won’t kill you.

in fact, I implore you to, because it is a step away from infantilizing his every action as silly baby behavior and ergo a step in the right direction. look at the entire apocalypse world arc where he decides he has to personally kill Michael when the plan was only ever to escape through the rift. remember the scene where they’re crying in the woods and it got ran with as hashtag poor baby boy whump and nobody noticed that he’d literally almost strangled someone because of their impulsive temper?? or when they made the decision to brutally torture a man by snapping and twisting his skeleton and burning him so intensely his shirt fabric blackened?? and somehow that gets turned into shit like “daddy hold my sippy cup” because for some fucking reason you guys are so intent on making him out to be a child and infantilizing his canon traits to be more palatable to that idea of him.

TLDR please can we actually recognize how bitchy and violent and rebellious jack is. can you guys realize that his entire behavioral pattern of saying hi and waving hello is him masking and repressing because his emotions literally are nuclear charged and he doesn’t want to be a threat. can we please.

[thevioletcaptain]

🩲😳🫦

Dean’s not staring. He’s definitely not staring.

He’s so consciously and deliberately not staring that he sinks down a little lower in the driver’s seat of the Impala, just in case Cas happens to glance over and see him from where he’s standing like some kind of calendar model on the opposite side of the Smith Center Public Swimming Pool.

Not because he thinks he’s doing anything wrong, though. Cas is hot, and Dean knows that Cas is hot. He's long past having a crisis about the fact that he wants the guy. But he's off limits. He can't quite remember why he'd decided that he was off limits, but he's sure he had a good reason for it.

So he's not staring. And he's not hiding, either.

It's just that Dean doesn’t want Cas to see his face through the windshield, all distorted by the glare of the summer sun, and mistakenly think that he is staring.

Because he’s not.

But. Well. It’s kind of hard not to look, is the thing.

And looking isn’t staring. It’s just — seeing. With his eyes. Which he kind of can’t help but do. And is that a crime? Is it a crime to see?

Anyway, Cas is the one who decided to buy himself a neon green Speedo for the adult swimming lessons he’s insisted on taking now that he’s human again, and it’s hardly Dean’s fault if his eye is naturally drawn to bright colors.

That’s just… evolution. He thinks he read that somewhere, once. Survival instincts, ingrained over countless generations and hardwired into his monkey brain, so that he won’t accidentally put poisonous tree frogs in his mouth or whatever.

Not that he's letting his monkey brain take control right now. Not that he’s thinking of putting his mouth anywhere near Cas’ —

“You can’t park here.”

He jumps, his forearm pressing hard into the horn, and half a dozen people — Cas included — all turn to stare at him from the poolside.

Now they're staring. Not just looking. Definitely staring. Dean knows the difference.

Cas lifts his hand and waves.

It’s probably Dean’s imagination, given the distance, but he’s pretty sure he can see a bead of water — maybe sweat — trickling down his side. It starts near his armpit. Trails down over his ribs.

As Dean watches — looks, really, just happens to see — Cas pushes his fingers through his hair, and shakes his head, and an arc of droplets sparkles through the air around him before he drops his hand back down and wipes it off on his thigh. And now his thigh is wet again.

Who gave him the right to fucking glisten like that? Who the hell does he think he is?

“Sir?”

Dragging his eyes away from Cas, Dean glances up at the woman ducking down to peer in at him through his open window. She’s wearing a navy blue polo with the pool’s logo, and she’s missed a spot with her sunscreen, so there’s an oddly shaped patch of red in the middle of her forehead. The pinched-mouth expression on her face suggests that perhaps she's spoken to him more times than he’d noticed. He shakes his head a little.

“Huh, sorry, what?”

“You can’t park here,” she says, tone harsher than before, and points up at the staff only sign he’d missed when he arrived.

In his defense, the sign is kind of dull, and decidedly not brightly colored, and by the time he’d been pulling into the space, he’d already been kind of distracted by Cas and his glow-in-the-dark-and-the-daytime-too crotch.

Some part of him — the monkey brain, probably — desperately wants his eyes to flick back over toward the pool to see if Cas has decided to do any more post-swim stretching. He valiantly fights it. The effort uses enough brain power that he barely remembers that he's probably supposed to respond to the woman talking to him.

“Oh,” he says, finally.

She waits. Raises her brow. He figures he should say more.

“I’m not actually— I’m not staying. I’m just here to pick someone up. I mean, heh, that sounded wrong. I’m not trying to pick someone up, like, trying to score. I’m just here to pick up a guy. My friend. In my car. To drive him home.”

The woman’s eyes narrow a little, and she half opens her mouth like she’s not quite sure how to respond to his rambling but fully intends to, but before she can get a word out Cas is there, pulling open the passenger door. The hinges creak.

The scent of chlorine and sunscreen and Cas floods Dean's senses.

He glances over, no longer able to force himself not to, and has to bite down on his own lip to keep from letting out a deeply embarrassing noise when he finds him spreading his towel out on the seat so he can sit down, still wearing his Speedo. He drops the string bag with his change of clothes into the footwell and grins at Dean as he climbs inside.

"Don't worry, I won't get your car wet," he says.

Dean's brain is making a strange buzzing sound.

"Uhuh," he says.

“Sir,” the woman cuts in again.

Dean doesn’t even look at her, this time. Just waves a hand in the air and starts the engine as Cas buckles in. Pulls the seatbelt taut across his lap.

"You need to move."

"Yeah, we're going," Dean says.

“See you next week, Doreen,” Cas tells her cheerfully.

“Yeah,” Dean says, but his eyes don’t leave Cas. Maybe he is staring, just a little. “Maybe I’ll come, too.” [written for this prompt game] [find me on ao3 as imogenbynight 💚]

[stardusthuntress]

Ancient Remedies

Rex x female!reader (she/her pronouns only, I think) 

Word Count: ~3k, ~ 8 pgs

Inspired by the fanart below (I found it on Pinterest, but idk if that's where it originally came from) with Rex and Kix talking about how Rex’s arm is still numb -- after the Cut and Suu episode -- and Rex is tired of being in the med bay and tells Kix “It’s fine, I have another one”. Though, while writing this fic I pictured with a slightly different injury, since she keeps touching his chest, but you are welcome to imagine whatever version you like! 

TW: Rex is injured, but it is never described beyond basic symptoms of nausea and annoyance. I guess Rex being slightly more than just a little flirty once he realizes the woman he likes likes him back? Not much else to report here, this one is smut free! BUT still NO minors!!! 

dividers by: @/djarrex

Rex is protesting. He does not want to be bedridden any longer. Kix has recruited the help of the ARC troopers and a few of Rex’s longest friends (Jesse and Hardcase) to help persuade him that the 501st is in good hands, until Rex has healed. They are no more successful than Kix… 

She spots the chaos as she enters the officers’ med tent, her shift just starting. 

Kix gives her an exasperated, pleading look from across the tent. She laughs lightly to herself. 

“No. I’m fine, I need to—“ Rex starts. 

“No, Captain, you really need to rest. I will order you to bed if I have to, but I don’t think the men need to see their Captain falling that low, now do they?” Kix counters. 

“Captain,” Fives pipes up, Echo at his side, doing their best to support Kix, “We’ve finished setting up defense stations around the perimeter of the camp!” 

“And you’ll be happy to know they all meet every regulation requirement for camp perimeter safety and scouting party preparedness!” Echo adds, always happy to announce regulation compliance amongst his teams. “So if we need to we ca—“ 

Rex cuts him off, “Great! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish my reports for the war council. Their decision could affect the next—“ but he never gets a chance to finish. 

As the woman enters the officers' med tent, she begins to sing softly. Her melodic voice is just loud enough to be heard faintly over the din of their chaos, but just soft enough to silence them as they redirect their attention to listen intently. 

She approaches the group huddled around the Captain - he’s the only patient in this tent, thankfully - and the men automatically step aside as she nears, still singing. 

In his protest, Rex had managed to plant his feet firmly on the ground, and was starting to try to stand, though his shakey stature and sweaty skin told a different story. 

She reached out and placed a hand on his bare chest, gently urging him back to a seat on his cot. 

Barely a moment ago, Rex’s senses had been filled with the all too familiar chaos of his troops. Now they were filled with only her. His brothers were merely a periphery artifact he barely remembered was there. She stood so close to him, the pressure of her palm on his chest so soft, her voice so melodic. Rex was shocked into silence. He never knew she could sing like this! She’d sung a few old traditional songs from her people around a campfire for him and his men before, but nothing like this. Her voice was beautiful in a raw, natural sort of way! 

She smiled, voice ringing like a bell, as the Captain finally let himself relax onto the edge of the cot. 

Behind her, Fives smirked, and elbowed Echo. Their faint noises reminded the Captain they were there. He gave them an annoyed look over her shoulder.

Echo elbowed Fives back to shut him up. 

Kix sighed, “Good. Here,” he thrust the bottles of the meds he’d been trying to get Rex to take into her hands, “You try.” 

She laughed, and Rex noticed the melodic tune in her laugh. He was once again entranced, barely aware of his men. 

“Hmmmm,” she hummed, looking at the bottles Kix had given her one by one. Then she shook her head and set them aside on the nightstand. 

Kix opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when he noticed she was singing softly again. She had a way of silencing the men with just a few notes, if she wanted to, he noticed. 

A gentle finger found Rex’s chin and tipped it up, turning his face left and right as she examined him with the expression of a lover who knew their partner would inevitably get into trouble and get hurt, but would be okay in the end. Then she rummaged through her pockets and extracted two gauze pouches. One parcel she untied and picked up a piece of what looked like a sugar-encrusted root. 

She tapped the side of Rex’s chin so gently he barely even noticed it. 

“Open.” She commanded, but there was no commanding tone in her voice, only care. 

Rex didn’t know why he automatically complied, opening his mouth for her, all he knew was that he didn’t object to it. 

She placed a small piece of the sugary root on his tongue, and instructed him to chew. He complied. Unable to resist her instruction when the softness of her fingers brushed against his bottom lip as they left his mouth. 

“MMMMMmmm,” Rex chewed, but savored the flavor. It tasted much better than the disgusting, powder-textured meds and the food rations they were used to. 

“What exactly did you just feed the Captain?” Kix asked from beside them, one brow raised and arms crossed, tone somewhere between bemused and annoyed that he wasn’t consulted beforehand. 

“Old remedy from home that my mother used to use on me, and her mother used on her, and so on, for generations. It’s just crystallized ginger root.”

Rex finished chewing and swallowed. He seemed happier. “That was, really good,” he said shyly, still chasing the remnants of the flavor around his mouth. 

“Is that where all my gauze has gone?” Kix asks, gesturing at the two parcels in her hand. 

“Just one roll. We have plenty.” She points out. 

Kix gives her a look, and raises a brow like he’s still expecting more of an explanation for the ginger. 

“Ginger helps with stomach aches,” she tells them. Turning towards Rex she adds, “You looked a bit pale and clammy, which suggested a stomach ache. And one of those,” she gestured over her shoulder to the medicine bottles she’d discarded on the nightstand, “was supposed to help with that too. Thought something like ginger might, at the very least, cheer you up and put a better flavor in your mouth than those bland ration packs, even if it didn’t help with the stomach issues.” 

Kix and Echo exchanged a glance, picking up pieces of the sugared root and sniffing skeptically. 

“You can eat it, it’s also used to flavor food any old time, it just also helps with stomach aches if you have one.” She tells them. To prove it, she grabs a piece and puts it in her mouth. 

The men watch her for a moment before snapping back into gear. 

Kix pops one in his mouth. His eyebrows raised in awe. “MMMMMMMmmmm!” 

Echo looks at it suspiciously. 

“That does taste good,” Kix swallowed, eyeing the rest like he wants to try another one, just for good measure, “but does it really help with a stomach ache?” 

“I think so. Like I said, my family has been using it for generations. We have recipes to dry it and sugar coat it like this so it lasts and is easy to travel with. It’s also a good snack in the field.” 

“Sugar-coated! Can I try one?” Fives asks. 

“I don’t see why not,” she laughs. 

Fives opens his mouth. He wants her to put one on his tongue like she did with the Captain. 

She laughs and feeds him one too, Echo scoffs and shares a glance with Kix when they notice that her finger does not brush Fives’ lip like she did with the Captain. 

She turns to Jesse, who stands behind Rex, on the other side of the bed. “Could you hand me one of the self-warming mugs from that shelf over there, Jesse?” 

Jesse nods and jumps to it, quickly, seemingly thrilled to have been specifically requested, even if it was a menial task. 

Kix still stands with one brow raised and arms crossed. He’s never seen the men comply so readily for anyone, even an angry Captain Rex. And yet apparently a kind, gentle woman, with one hell of a voice, and a pocket full of sweets could get this reaction from them. He sighed and shook his head with a smirk. Well, it wasn’t like they saw a lot of attractive women around a battlefield filled with identical faces and droids. 

“Hardcase, could you fill the mug with water for me?” She asks, handing it to him, back in medic mode. 

Hardcase too, does as ordered quickly and with a big grin on his face. 

“Thank you, boys.” She smiles at them, placing the now-warming mug on the bedside table and turning back to the other cloth bundle in her hand. 

“What’s that?” Fives cranes his neck to see what’s in her hand. Eager to see if she has other treats he could ask her to feed him too. 

She laughs again, allowing them to see. “More ginger root, dried lemon, candied honey, and lavender, this one is for making tea. Another old remedy from my family. Also good for a stomach ache, warming up, and rehydrating with electrolytes, it goes in the warm water to steep. All things that are supposed to relax a tired mind.” She raises a brow at Rex as she finishes. 

Rex shyly stares at the floor, scratching the back of his neck, laughing as a smirk plays at the corner of his mouth. “Hah, sorry. I know I’m supposed to stay in bed. I just get restless.” 

“Oh, she gets an apology? Who’s been putting up with you for the last 3 hours?” Kix protests, though the expression on his face would imply there’s more brotherly comedy in his question than pain. 

“Sorry Kix,” Rex adds, still not looking at anyone from his seat on the edge of the cot. 

“Hmmmm, well I guess that means now he’s your problem,” Kix nudges her as she bobs the tea bag in hot water, and tries not to smile too much at his comment as Kix grabs Jesse and Hardcase by the arm, propelling them backward out of the tent. “I presume you can occupy the ARCs for a bit?” Kix asks over his shoulder as the flap drops behind them. 

That snaps Rex back into Captain mode. “Fives! Echo! You said you set up permitted stations as requested. I presume that means you are the first two on patrol rounds, for the next few hours?” 

”Uhhh,” Fives is confused. They already did their patrol. They were here because they were done with it. 

“Yes, sir!” Echo answers, grabing Fives’ elbow, and steering them both out of the door. 

Once outside, they seem to forget that tents are flimsy compared to starship walls, and burst out in a fit of giggles and nudges. 

“You are ARC troopers!” Rex calls after them, and their shadows on the tent entrance straighten up, as they attempt to hide the laughter, and scuttle away. 

Rex is now alone with the woman he’s been falling hard for. Both his dream and his nightmare all at once. He fidgets, and considering getting up to speak to her eye-to-eye, like a respectful Captain would.

She turns back to him, mug in hand, and once again places her hand on Rex’s chest, urging him to stay seated, seemingly aware of what he was considering. Rex relaxes with a chuckle. He can take a hint. 

She offers him the mug, and he takes a sip. 

This too is very good, and very flavorful. “Wow!” He says, watching the way the water absorbs the contents of the makeshift teabag. “Your mother used to use this on you as a kid, huh?” 

“Yeah. Old Mandalorian family knows a thing or two about comfort foods and quick remedies on the battlefield.” 

Rex huffs a laugh, “And how to tame a room full of rowdy and annoyed soldiers in a medbay, apparently.” He jokes. 

She laughs. “That was just a trick I’ve always wanted to try. Thought it might help relieve some of the tension in the room.” 

“Yeah, waiting to heal has always been stressful for me. I need to be doing something, it’s… just the way I am, I guess.” He tells her, taking another big sip. 

She smiles, and takes the mug from him to set on the bedside table. Her palm still on his chest, he can now feel light pressure as she pushes him back onto the bed. 

He looks up at her with surprise. 

She laughs. “Lay back, you need rest.” 

He swings his feet up onto the bed and starts to settle onto the thin cot. “Well, it worked by the way. The singing trick. Sure had my men wrapped around your finger there. I think Fives, especially, was quite taken with you by the end of all that.” He tries to keep the jealousy from his voice when he says it. 

She smiles shyly, “He’s not the one it was intended for.” 

Rex looks up at her with a mixture of hope and surprise. Of course, now that he thinks about it, it makes sense that she was trying to charm him, the Captain. He was the one she openly chose to sing to, and touch, and feed in front of his troops and best friends. Now propped up on pillows as she tucks him into the scratchy, standard issue, field med kit blanket, he reaches up with one hand and curls a finger under her chin this time to turn her face towards him. 

She looks happily surprised when her eyes meet his. 

He brushes a thumb over her bottom lip as his eyes watch her mouth part for a moment. Then he allows himself to lean up and press a kiss to her lips. 

She presses back. 

After a moment, she can feel him shaking with the effort of holding himself up, and their lips part. 

Rex sighs, tired of needing to heal. She smiles and again presses her palm to his bare chest, making herself comfortable on the edge of the bed where he once sat. This time, he rests a hand atop hers on his chest. Still watching her lips, he licks his lips to chase after the flavors of the tea and sugared root she’d fed him, not to mention the feel of her lips. He could still feel her warmth where her fingers had brushed his lip when she fed him. He smiles. “That ginger stuff was good, but it tastes even better from your lips,” he tells her. ”Can I have one more?” 

She smiles, reaching for the little pile sitting on the nightstand atop the fabric it was once wrapped in. She returns her gaze to his as she brings the candied root to his lips. Rex reaches for her wrist, and guides her hand with soft fingertips. But this time, instead of letting her place it on his tongue, his lips wrap around her fingers and the candied root, and he carefully sucks and licks the sugar off of her, never breaking eye contact. 

He likes watching the way her chest rises and falls as she swallows hard and pants at his ministrations. 

When he’s done, he gently pulls her fingers from his mouth, and rests them on his chest as he finishes eating the sweet treat. He relishes in the feel of her wet fingers on his warm chest, knowing it’s his doing. He’s not sure where the sudden burst of confidence came from, but as she leans forward to press her forehead to his, he’s glad he did. 

“Stay with me, tonight,” he whispers. 

She laughs again, “Well considering that I'm the only medic on duty in here, it would be irresponsible of me to leave you alone tonight,” she winks at him, biting her lip. 

Rex smirks, and wraps an arm around her waist where she sits at his side. “Well, I can think of one thing that’ll keep me in bed this time?” He tries. 

She nods for him to continue. 

“We both need rest,” he pats the cot next to him, “I know it’s not comfortable – at all, really – but… will you join me?” 

She’s smiling at the floor, more brightly than Rex has ever seen her smile before. 

You look up at him out of the corner of your eye, and bite your lip again. 

Rex’s eyes are drawn to your lips. 

You spot the movement, and decide to do something about it. 

So you lean forward and place a kiss on his lips this time. 

Rex spots your movement, leans forward, and meets your lips in the middle. 

His heart monitor beeps at the two of you, a warning to the medic that the patient's heartrate is accelerating, and you separate. 

Outside Kix chuckles. He had a feeling he knew why. One peek inside confirms his theory. 

Well, he supposes he can tell the others she has succeeded where they could not, the Captain is back in bed and staying there, hopefully for a while. 

“WOW, are you two just the quietest—“ Kix opens the tent flap, expecting to find a new couple making out, at the very least, but is pleasantly surprised by what he does find: his commanding officer and assistant medic sleeping soundly. Captain’s arm wrapped around her waist, and she’s tucked into his chest. 

Finally! Now Kix can enjoy some peace and quiet for a little while. Most of the other troopers have gone to bed now that the adrenaline from battle has worn off, and the exhaustion set in. Well, maybe soon he can, he still has one more check-in with Jesse and Hardcase, who appear to be goofing off near the temporary armory. That won’t do. This must be what it feels like to be Rex, and have to round up his mischievous heathens every day, after every battle… Perhaps the least Kix can do is handle it this time around so the Captain can catch up on sleep, heal, and spend some time with his new partner. 

Please don’t steal my work! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog (don't just like) to share instead of reposting it! And NO dropping it into an AI! That’s stealing my work and feeding it to an AI without my consent. It is not okay to give an AI something you didn’t write yourself! 

taglist: @cw80831

[contumacious-arcadia]

So funny to see 'but was it requited!?' discourse still going on over Dean and Cas.

In my personal viewing experience, it wasn't Castiel/Misha who threw me down the Destiel path - it was Dean.

(Specifically, season 6/7 is when I was like OH SNAP, SOMETHING'S GOING ON HERE).

Up until Godstiel/evil Superman I legit wasn't seeing anything romantic between the two. (I do see it in re-watches, but I'm talking about what first clued me in to this dynamic in the first place.)

It wasn't until after Dean's confrontation with Cas over him working with Crowley ("Just look me in the eye and tell me you aren't working with Crowley"... you know the scene) that I started actively noticing all the little nuances that screamed ''I'm attempting to hide romantic feelings towards you... poorly."

It was also Dean who solidified my whole "Oh! Those two idiots really are in love with each other!" reading of the show. Specifically, the purgatory arc and the widower arc.

Like, yes- the other angels *do* mock Cas by referring to Dean as his boyfriend, but they call Sam his boyfriend too. I always read that simply as an insult to Cas for caring about humanity. And yes- Cas does admit he and Dean have a 'more profound bond', but I didn't read that as romantic either- just as a statement of fact.

It was always Dean's actions that pushed the 'more than best friends' narrative/read in *my personal* viewing experience. Cas' writing/Misha's acting really just supplemented the dynamic for me.

By the time I got to 15x18, it read more as Cas naming something that had been lingering for a long, long time; literally just putting words to something they had some weird unspoken agreement not to verbally acknowledge.

I still HATED how season 15 went and I absolutely wanted to throw my shoe at the screen the very second that I realized the showrunners were legitimately going to leave THAT SCENE as Cas' actual ending in the show; but it really just added to my already heavy dislike of the final season... it did not make me question what I had been witnessing since those early seasons.

Anywho, this is a pointless post. I just saw that people are still arguing that it was unrequited and that Dean was 100% no-homo about the whole thing and persoanlly found that funny because my perception of their dynamic was basically the opposite. It was always Dean who drove the whole Destiel dynamic for me, not Cas.

lol, maybe I'm the only one though. Who knows?

[narrynukezankielover]

If you love Jared please don’t read this.

I started watching Supernatural about 4 months ago. Never wanted to watch to watch but YouTube kept recommending Misha and Jensen con interviews and Destiel videos (I’m guessing where I love Good Omens and was watching a bunch of Crowley and Aziraphale videos the site assumed I’d like almost any gay stuff) and finally I gave in. Basically I started watching because I ended up loveing Misha especially and Jensen and wanted to see if I’d love their characters. Got a bit pissed when I found out I’d have to watch 3 seasons before Cas even comes into it but I watched anyway. First of all I’m not a fan of the first 3 seasons they remind me of the first season of Gotham before they changed to arc seasons but I like season 4. I would love to know how the hell is Jared is the star of the show? I’m not saying that because I hate the guy (which I do. He’s a 2 year old in a 40ish year old body. I also HATE how he treats Misha. I don’t care if he is the star that doesn’t give him the right to physically hurt the guy. Yes Misha lot of the times laughs it off but that’s just because he’s too nice to tell him to stop. The story that Misha and Jensen told once where Jared was really irritating Misha on set and yes Jensen joined in but I think Jensen said he noticed how upset Misha was and he stopped and the next day he apologized and said that Jared doesn’t know when he’s gone too far is just insane to me. How can an adult be so childish. It’s fine to play jokes on each other but that’s going way too far.) I’m saying it because Dean seems to be more in the show and have more stories with him plus in real life Jensen seems to do more with Supernatural. It’s just my opinion but it does seem like Jensen should be the star.

As someone who is watching these eps for the first time I can tell you there is a lot of Destiel in just the first few Cas eps. I’ve read that the first time they looked at each other with heart eyes was in the first 4 eps so I had to look for myself. The first time I noticed they looked at each other with softened eyes (wouldn’t really call it heart eyes) is the scene in the park on the benches. Then the ep Heaven And Hell is full of Destiel stuff. Sam was ready to kill all the angels he asked if the was anything that could kill angels but the look on Deans face was oh f*ck no. I’m sure he wouldn’t have a problem with killing Uriel since he doesn’t keep it a secret he hates him so obviously it’s Cas he doesn’t want to hurt. Then when the angel misses was telling Dean what it’s like being an angel and that if you don’t obey orders you get killed it’s like he understood what Cas was saying on the bench. That he’s not like the other angels and that he has questions. I think that’s when Dean started thinking about Cas differently then he did before. I found it interesting that when Uriel told Dean that Cas has a weakness and it’s that he likes Dean Dean didn’t really react. He now knows why he got out of hell. He knows Cas didn’t pick him just because he had a crush on him or anything he picked him because he was told to do it to help stop the apocalypse. The weakness part is the interesting part because you wouldn’t call someone’s friend their weakness. That’s usually when people are extremely close or family. Yet Dean didn’t react like he was disgusted or confused it was more just ok an angel likes me that’s fine. The next interesting thing is when Dean and misses kissed. Cas looked like he couldn’t handle watching it then he even turned away. I know Misha said he wasn’t playing Cas in love with Dean from the beginning it wasn’t until a little later when he realized there was something there so if that’s the case why would he react this way to Dean kissing a girl? Was it maybe Mishas actual feelings? Then at the fighting scene I love that when Dean saw that Cas couldn’t fight back he protected him. I seriously doubt Sam would’ve done that. Then at the end Cas stopped Uriel from attacking Dean. Cas has been in only a few eps and yet Cas and Dean are already protecting each other. I find that so cute. Then the little eye stare at the end was amazing.

Lastly from almost the start of the show they make gay comments about Dean. Normally it is about Dean and Sam which is absolutely disgusting considering they’re brothers but I noticed Sam just corrects the person then moves on but not Dean he keeps questioning why the person thought he was gay. He then goes and flirts with guys. Why do the writers keep putting Dean in those situations and not Sam. Obviously Dean is bi.

[raplinesmoon]

a somewhat comprehensive, unhinged guide to seventeen's smiles

say the name! it's isi, wasting time and doing everything but what she actually needs to do. in today's episode, we are busting out the dental analysis once more because i have a new hyperfixation: the talented men of none other than SEVENTEEN! now, since i can't stop staring at pics of them, i will just put my energy to (some?) good use and talk about their teeth (since it's what i love)! cue the chip skylark playlist 🦷

disclaimer: this is not me dragging any member or trying to make a comment on their attractiveness based on their teeth. they are all very very handsome men and i'm just going off an objective formula for these analyses!

choi seungcheol (s.coups)

Coups, Coups, Coups! ok so he had an adorably gummy smile beforehand, like literally insanely adorable T_T. as a fellow gummy smile haver and enthusiast, i'm almost sad he got rid of it, but it does make sense aesthetically. if you can notice between the two pics, his gummy smile is reduced and i also think the length of his teeth have changed. it might be twofold; due to both gingivectomy (a procedure to remove some of and recontour the gums) as well as veneers (his teeth are a lot more square now than they used to be)! also the second pic is a bit blurry but i think the veneers had the added benefit of his teeth arc following the contour of his lower lip more closely which is considered aesthetically ideal. and they also fill out his smile so that there are less gaps in between the back teeth and the cheek, so the smile appears more full!

yoon jeonghan (jeonghan)

is this post just gonna be me being sad about ppl getting their teeth done even though i'm a dentist? maybe maybe. ughhh jeonghan used to have that adorable chip in his front tooth, and i'm pretty sure he got veneers to fix it too T_T. i will say though, his teeth look sooo white and his smile is cute despite the minor imperfections that existed before. his smile is considered on the aesthetically ideal side because his lip covers a portion of his front teeth and there's no gum on display. jeonghan definitely had braces too, because i can see his tooth alignment improve from the first to second pic. also he is a bottom teeth smiler unlike so many kpop idols, so points for him because he loves showing them off and i love teeth!

joshua hong (joshua)

listen, am i gonna have to fight seventeen's dentist because what is going on? i understand why the bunny teeth aren't an ideal aesthetic choice, but plssss! they were too cute. fun fact: bunny or buck teeth can be caused by a number of things, and one of them is thumb sucking as a kid (so imagine baby Joshua being adorable noww). i would say Joshua's front teeth have definitely changed shaped due to veneers, and honestly his smile right now is very straight and aesthetically pleasing (look at how it follows that lip line damn).

wen junhui (jun)

ok but like i love Jun for giving me so much to talk about with his teeth? they're so fun and unique and i love that for him! first, we have to address the absolutely adorable gap teeth! they do seem like they've disappeared in the second pic, but i'm gonna chalk that up to invisalign because i don't believe the actual shape of his teeth have changed (which they would with veneers). more evidence for that is that i feel like his bottom teeth used to be crooked and now they appear more straight. also, if you look at jun's smile arc, it doesn't follow his lip, it goes up and down, like the wings of a bird (this is called a gull wing arc).

kwon soonyoung (hoshi)

oh hoshi, what in the horanghae? you can tell his smile has undergone some pretty dramatic changes. the adorable crooked teeth are no more. honestly, the veneers probably did help with that large piece of gum in between his front teeth before, because changing the shape of the teeth will also force the gums to adapt to the change. his teeth also looked a little more pointy to me before, especially the canines, but it is very common for veneers to come in sets, and honestly if you want to completely transform a smile, working from canine to canine is the way to do it.

jeon wonwoo (wonwoo)

no you don't understand bv wonwoo's smile actually breaks my heart (and not just because he's so freaking attractive). wonwoo is a crook because he had me completely fooled. like damn his teeth are so nice, i thought he just underwent a bit of invisalign and whitening. so imagine my shock when the good people of the internet informed me that wonwoo has veneers! honestly, my hats off to his dentist, because while i can definitely spot the changes (softer, more rounded teeth), i think his smile still retains a lot of characteristics of what made the old one so charming, and striking that balance is really hard to do as a clinician.

lee jihoon (woozi)

i hate to bring up the yoongi doppleganger agenda, but i literally think that's why i find woozi's smile so endearing. although I've gotta say that their smiles are one of the less similar features they share. Woozi has those adorable lil vampire fangs, but he does have very short, kind of chubby teeth, which are traditionally associated with a more youthful appearance! also his teeth are lined up really well, and if you look at the second pic you'll hear me scream bc he has a silver crown! those are hard to come by, but it makes me happy that he goes to the dentist and keeps up with his check-ups!

lee seokmin (DK)

hehe so i've already had the privelege of staring in depth at DK's smile thanks to this ask from @hannahbee12719. so i will just reiterate that i think DK has a Disney Prince-esque smile. his teeth are so straight like compliments to his orthodontist! his heart shaped smile means that his lip contour relative to tooth arc is a little off, but the lopsided grin makes him very college crush coded! DK is the perfect example of how much gum you should show if you want to remain aesthetically ideal (he's just cute ok sue me!)

kim mingyu (mingyu)

gyu and these teeth! he's also been one of the members whose had a pretty dramatic smile makeover. Before we get to that though, can i compliment how despite everything, his cute little vampire canines are still alive and kicking. like they make his smile so unique and lovely. the biggest change to mingyu's smile is definitely his lateral incisors - before they were what are known as peg laterals (their odd shape is due to a developmental anomaly)! after what i think are veneers, the laterals are definitely contributing to a more even and more balanced smile.

xu minghao (the8)

listen, i'm not even gonna lie to anyone and say that as a professional, i don't have a favourite svt smile because that's absolutely not true. it's this one right here your honor! idk what kind of magic is in minghao's teeth but they are so straight and shiny. and they've always been that way! like damn if there was an oscar for kpop smile he'd win best in show! i love that his teeth are natural and not overly blocky (which you can get when someone has veneers or crowns), and like idk if he's genetically gifted or whatever, but if not, the awkward teenage braces he probably had definitely paid off!

boo seungkwan (seungkwan)

booo! look at this absolute sweetheart and his amazing heart shaped smile. right off the bat, seungkwan's smile does that adorable up and down arc (although less severe than jun's), which makes it look like a little bird taking off (maybe that's why he can hit those high notes?). also big ups to him because his bottom teeth seem relatively straight and that is hard for bottom teeth to do since there's more limited space for them to come in due to the tongue and muscles blocking them out!

chwe hansol (vernon)

no bc i'm actually gonna cry because wdym we have pics of vernon with braces? i feel like a proud mom seeing how far he's come in his dental journey. like look at those adorable little kid sized teeth turn into the stunners they are today! i will say i think the ortho and veneers definitely paid off for vernon, his teeth look super straight, and definitely lend him a more mature, masculine appearance. and he does have a super gummy smile, but i'm so glad he's embracing it (gummy smiles are the best okay?). and literally how do so many svt members have heart shaped smiles (are you trying to make me fall in love with you?)

lee chan (dino)

the whiplash? ok mr. dino? i think he's the perfect example of how you can transform a smile but still keep the same facial features and characteristics intact. you can definitely see that Dino's teeth appear more square in the second pic to lend him a more mature appearance, but they've kept the edges rounded because that's a defining characteristic of his teeth. the (alleged?) veneers also make them look more straight and take away some of that awkward teenage appearance (nothing wrong with that). you can also see how his smile appears more filled out in the second pic with less empty space in between the back teeth and cheek.

that's all for today, peeps! thank you for joining me on this wild, unhinged journey that took longer than i care to admit to put together, and i hope you enjoyed! maybe we'll see more smile analyses in the future ;)

[m3r1m4r5u333]

Buddie & the timing of their coming outs

I am reposting an old post with some edits because my theory about the show teasing buddie's coming out arcs?

It handled the pressure test of Buck's coming out quite nicely. Now I want to update my theory to speculate on the way Eddie may eventually follow Buck)

(Edit: Btw I wrote this post before Buck came out... Right before Buck's coming out episode there is the episode with the capsized ship.

The basis for this speculation was based on the episode Monsters (s3x6), the one with all those crows. I think the episode teases Buck and Eddie, coming out.

Two young boys symbolize them. One blond boy "Buck", one brunette "Eddie". End of edit.)

You know, I keep thinking of that crow episode in season 3 (Monsters, 3x06). The episode, to me, feels like the show was talking about how to navigate onward without angering the buddie fans with apparent queer-baiting.

The crows symbolized buddie fans - Hen remarked that crows are very docile, and do not attack unless they are provoked.

Chimney also called a crow "buddy" when it was following him. Obviously, "buddy" sounds curiously similar to buddie, and the ship name was well known by then.

Anyway, the team enters a barn to save two young boys who had angered crows:

Chimney: Cap! They know we're in here!

Hen: No, they know they're in here... Crows are smart and they hold grudges. (Much like fans, right?)

Bobby: Do you think they're waiting for these boys to come out?

Hen: They've known to remember the faces of their tormentors years later, and still attack.

Chimney: Murder by crows, great 🙄...(And I can't help but notice that the sentence does also sound out loud like "murder bi crows, great.")

Eddie: How do we get these boys past them? (Btw I can see you smirking, Ryan.)

Hen: Well they're looking for two kids.

Bobby says "We give them something else."

---

Then to get past the angry crows the team disguises the boys.

They all sneak past the crows. One young (brunette) boy is on a strecher, wrapped in bandages.

The second one (blond) is wearing a firefighter's uniform and Bobby's captain's helmet.

----

So let's rewind the subtext. The writing team wonders how they can tell a story without angering the fans.

They decide they will give the fans something else. We were expecting kids, but will get a different version of them. Maybe they will be more mature, maybe they will go through some pain.

What makes my theory-loving brain fizz is that this "future version" of one of these boys is wearing a captain's helmet.

And now, I know that "capsized" basically means a ship that's overturned & in trouble, but it could be a wordplay, right?

Capsized... Captain sized... That captain's helmet on the boy. A boy looking "cap-sized".

And hey, remember that episode called Capsized and the scene we just got in season 7, dears?

The team goes to rescue the ship. The team spots the ship. The team cheers. And they also notice that the ship is

!!!!CAPSIZED!!!!

Okay I've done it, I've unraveled my own brain. Ca-caw motherfuckers!! I regret nothing.

Okay that was my old post.

Anyway. We did get a capsized ship, and very soon after that the blond boy, looking "cap-sized" = an older Buck... Came out.

So how about Eddie? It looks like the show promises he will emerge out of the closet after he's experienced some pain.

In the episode he is attacked by the crows, but it could also be some other kind of anguish I suppose. Either way, when he sneaks past the crows he's wrapped up in bandages, and on a strecher.

To wrap this up:

I think we're about to see Eddie go through some more pain. He won't come out of the closet before that.

[sweetpapercroissant]

When I think about s13-15 I can’t help but feel that Dabb was simply not interested in telling Sam&Dean’s story (anymore) (if he ever was). s12 is a little rocky regarding this too, but it’s still unmistakable that they’re the protagonists, this story is their story. But it’s evident from the start of s13 that he’s not willing to put in that effort anymore.

He introduces Jack and the rest of the season is focused on him, one way or the other. Even the mytharc of the season is about him, from being trapped in the apocalypse world, making a place for himself with the hunters, trying to figure out who he is. And meanwhile the actual protagonists of the show are…..running around chasing leads but actually accomplishing very little. They take turns being sad, make a few speeches but don’t really do anything. They are not the ones who move the story.

He downplays (if not outright erases) all of the older characters’ intelligence to make them fit the story and doesn’t bother with consistent growth/arc for any of them. He beats and forces them to fit the shape he’s cut out for them to portray in his story instead of understanding them: who they were, how they grew and where they are now and logically advancing their story from that point. He makes them regress or progress on a moment’s notice on an episode-to-episode basis and ignores any preceding canonical events when it suits him.

It’s most noticeable with Dean but he also takes away from Sam and Cas’ characters till they’re almost unrecognisable, bearing only the most superficial of similarities with the characters we have grown to love over 10+ seasons. But at the same time he also relies on this very love to keep the viewers watching, since the plot itself is barely held together by retcons or sudden personality changes/loss of logical reasoning in the characters.

There have been discussions on how, as the show goes on the themes (even the genre) change and how vastly different the later seasons are compared to the earlier ones and while that’s true, there is still some coherence to those changes-a graphical line changing direction erratically perhaps, but a line nonetheless-as the story progresses….upto s12. Forward of that Dabb just-tears the graph to pieces and handpicks a few of them to nail to the wall.

He twists the characters, their history, their personalities, the themes and events of the story and it’s very heart to fit the show he wants to make instead of adapting his writing to the show that he’s actually been handed the reins to. And it’s tiring honestly.

I do believe that when a character behaves in a manner you find ooc, it can be interesting to think about why they may act that way instead of immediately blaming the writing, even if the writing may actually be the issue, because I think it can make for a more entertaining narrative sometimes, and because no one always acts true to who they are. It’s the point of being human. But that can only be applied to particular moments and decisions or behaviour concerning a certain element of the story (another character, an event etc). If your audience can barely recognise any of the characters, there’s only the writing to blame.

[dotthings]

The thing about 7.03, with Amy Pond the kitsune, is there are red flags from all sides.

Amy--There's goodness in her. She doesn't want to be a killer, to be like her mom. When they were teens, she saved Sam's life when they were teens, when her own mom tried to kill Sam, she made a massive sacrifice and killed her own mom, who was clearly murderous and wasn't attempting any kind of rehab. She finds a way to live as a conscientious kitsune. Starts killing people to save her son's life. The red flag is she makes a deliberate choice who she kills on the idea that no one would miss them, or they're bad people--making herself judge and jury over people's lives. Every one of them could be saved with the right resources, with the right help. Maybe some were terrible people beyond hope, but given the theme here about monsters can make choices, and are capable of choosing to be good, it doesn't click to say, oh but that drug dealer, or that alcoholic, deserve no second chances. I don't think the story intent is to say it's okay. The story intent is to show the red flags, the classism and flaws in Amy's reasoning. She is rationalizing things for herself. She wants to be good, she wound up in a desperate situation, did things she doesn't want to do...doesn't make it okay and she knows it but she still picks her victims in a way that shows her self-rationalizations.

Sam--I'm glad he acknowledged that he and Dean would and have also done desperate things that cross a line to save people they love. We can't just judge Amy in a simplistic way, because we've seen what all of Team Free Will are capable of too. Do they deserve to die for that? Automatically? We just got finished with an arc where Cas did a bunch of line-crossing things, desperate to save his family, as Amy is desperate to save her son. At the same time, Sam's red flag is his own quest for purity, his need to believe that with his tainted blood, he can be good, and he needs to believe Amy can be good. Plus, he is hardly objective here--he had a big crush on her as a teen, he still cares about her. He's not seeing the situation clearly. So Sam isn't a reliable narrator either.

Dean--sees through the rationalizations and on the surface it seems like he's more objective. It's not just that Amy crossed the line it's how she rationalized it. It's not that Dean doesn't understand she was doing it to save her son, but Amy still proved how dangerous she is. But here's where it gets tricky with Dean's pov--he decides there can be no second chance for Amy, that if she did those things once--to save her child--she'll do it again someday, for sure. So he kills her. He can't trust a supernatural being not to betray their good intentions. It's impossible. It can't happen. Dean may seem to be the only objective one in the room and it's tempting to say, oh he's right. And on some level he is, but I can't analyze Dean's actions without factoring in his grief and anger over Cas, how severely Cas damaged his ability to trust any supernatural being, how personal that is, how much Dean is grieving, not just Cas, but the trust he once had for Cas. He believed. He believed in Cas's goodness. The Amy-Cas parallels are right there waving its arms around begging to get noticed. It's not that Dean is wrong, or Dean doesn't have a point, or that Dean isn't justified in his wariness, but that doesn't mean Dean isn't affected by his own grief, trauma, and anger. Making a cold hard decision that isn't actually objectively.

Nobody is objective in The Girl Next Door. No one. And a whole lot of this is about how Dean is grieving Cas. There's even Dean watching a telenovella where someone is weeping over a loved one's dead body, in case we forgot the loss Dean just went through.

[applesforthis]

Deadloch-specific ask if you’re keen to play! No worries if not.

1. Favourite episode?

2. Favourite scene?

3. Favourite quote?

4. Favourite joke or bit?

5. Favourite character?

💕💕💕

EEEEEEEEE I will gladly squeal about my show. Thanks for the ask! <3

Fave episode:

Hard question! In some ways Deadloch feels more like a movie to me than like a series, I forget where one episode ends and the next begins.

Probably E6. I loved how Abby acts while poisoned, and I loved her breaking up with James. I loved Eddie continuing to care about Dulcie: how protective Eddie gets, how concerned Eddie is when Dulcie is obviously really not okay (during/after the confrontation with Skye, and during their boat ride). I loved Dulcie acting...a bit more casual, with Abby; I loved their dialogue on the island ("James said I was out of my mind." "You are not, Abby, you are entirely in your mind"). I loved Holly Austin's performance as Skye, her anger and hurt when she's being questioned.

And I LOVED Cath and Dulcie's fight, and how it feels like we finally see both of them clearly, we finally understand why they each are the way they are at this point in their lives. We see how deeply miserable and frustrated Dulcie is in this town and in her marriage, and why she's been trying so hard to make it work anyway. We see how Cath has been in an anxious spiral for so long -- on some level, since the affair -- and we start to understand that this is how she got to this point, where she really is completely disconnected from the reality of Dulcie's job.

Also this is a bit weird but I actually loved the final scene in E6, when Dulcie finds the bobbing bodies in the lake, because the music was so beautiful and the way it was shot was weirdly so pretty and dreamlike. It's a scene about discovering corpses and it's...gorgeous? Oops?

I also just loved E8 so much because it gives us the payoff of Eddie, Dulcie and Abby truly working together, the way it always seemed they could. And because I SO DEEPLY LOVE the happy ending where Eddie and Dulcie and Cath end up together in Darwin, and I LOVE the subtext that they're in some kind of triad or throuple or vee or whatever else they might call it.

2. Fave scene:

I loved the end of E5, where we see Abby and Dulcie and Eddie each thinking alone about the murders and trying alone to solve the mystery: Abby with her arsine, Dulcie spotting the newspaper photo of Jimmy on the cross, Eddie noticing the speeding ticket Mike gave to Skye (and then the Doorbell bathroom stall graffiti). We see that each one of them is smart and is working on solving it, but that they're working separately still: Abby goes alone to the high school, to test her theory. Dulcie hasn't yet told Eddie that she suspects Skye, even though the clues are really piling up in her mind. The three of them aren't yet communicating well enough to really be a team.

I loved the way this was shown because it really had me rooting for them to realize that they'd be smarter together, that they needed to lean on each other more and communicate better and brainstorm together. This montage made me really invested in that arc, in them learning to work together.

I also loved Eddie confronting Dulcie about that, really taking her to task for it -- but then also having so much compassion and understanding about why this is hard for Dulcie, to consider one of her closest friends as a suspect. I love that Eddie really gets what a terrible situation Dulcie's in with this, and hates to see her in pain, even though Eddie's still committed to doing what's right and pursuing Skye as the most likely suspect.

3. Fave quote:

"Do you not know my name?"

4. Fave joke or bit:

How Eddie and Cath are both so nonchalant about mentioning sex, and how uncomfortable/flustered this makes Dulcie, and how Eddie immediately clocks this and leans into it harder. My favorite moment is when Cath texts Dulcie a pic of her boobs and Dulcie accidentally opens the image while at work and can't figure out how to close it again and is super flustered...and Eddie obviously sees the pic, is totally unperturbed and seems, if anything, mildly amused by Dulcie's reaction.

5. Fave character:

I can't choose between Dulcie and Eddie.

I'm most similar to Dulcie; I relate to her the most. I love her secretiveness, her shame. I love how ethical she is and I love how it shows up at work as a willingness to let minor/harmless crimes slide where possible. I love that she wants to be gentle with people, even when they're behaving badly. I love her shyness, her hesitation to be herself with people. I love the person we start to see emerging in the last few episodes and in the epilogue. I love her bravery and I love her fear.

I admire Eddie the most. Not as much during the first 3 episodes; I see them as someone who, at that time, was in too much pain to notice much else. But after that: I love their anger, how they're not too afraid to stick up for other people, and for themself. I love how loyal they are, and how protective of the people they care about. I love their rudeness and how selectively they deploy it; even though they don't seem to be taking much care with that, they really are. I love their frankness and I love how perceptive they are about people. I love their honesty and I love how ethical they are -- they break the rules sometimes but they really care about doing the right thing. And I love the way they look at Dulcie, particularly in episodes 6-8: it's so intimate. I see Eddie as someone who's extremely warm and loving, when they feel close to someone.

[cinamun]

Hey Cin,

Good morning! Hope all is well. I'm sure you've answered this somewhere but I'm sure I missed it.

Over the years you've added multiple characters, storylines and overall twist and turns. How do you manage all your characters and keep track of where their storylines go? I noticed you said you actually do play, not just go in CAS and do poses for your story. I'm curious how you keep from getting overwhelmed?

You've gone from just Indya to now five separate storylines.

I'm just so curious because I know eventually with my story, it'll happen and baby the way I get overwhelmed.

Thanks for any advice you can give <3

Good morning friend! I think my imagination just ran away and I had to catch that bitch and tell her to calm down lol. I get overhwelmed too, I'd rather be able to manage a limited number of households than a whole bunch of sims. If I had to manage too many sims I wouldn't even play anymore lol and I'm deadass. On to the next save fr.

Currently there's Indya/Darren, Mercy/HoJay, Dira, DJ. I decided that I wasn't going to write these equitably. There were going to be characters that get way more screen time than others. Initially I was going to focus on HoJay and the twins and keep everyone else secondary. Makes it easier for me to manage and focus. But then, as stated, my imagination laced up her air max and dipped out.

I would say that Mercy's arc put everyone else kinda on hold which was dope because then i could really focus on her. So that is what I do: when there is a major story arc its usually focused on one household and there's no switching back and forth.

I can deal with one family and some in-laws. Definitely not more than that. I would say be mindful of what you can manage, not everyone has to take center stage and don't hesitate to let a household marinate a while so you can develop the others.

I hope this helps!

[soullessjack]

mm ok I have something to talk about finally ! so something I’ve noticed in a lot of discussions/meta around the TFW2.0 family dynamic + cycles of abuse is that it almost always opts to frame jack as a perpetual victim of [sam and] dean’s mistreatment who can’t fight back, and while I don’t mean to say it’s completely without merit, I feel that it does a slight disservice to Jack’s character by always reducing him into a helpless child (even if he is seen as older by the poster) who cannot/should not bear any responsibility in any of his relationships with his fathers.

to start, the cycle of abuse coincides with an imbalanced power dynamic; someone with more or higher power and authority over you (ie parent, boss or teacher) uses that authority to exploit, control, and/or freely mistreat you. i will note that it doesn’t necessarily have to be framed this way to be abuse, like a situation where blackmail grants someone authority over their target; there are also some dynamics that are inherently imbalanced without being inherently abusive (see above examples). the abuse relies on that dynamic being manipulated, not the dynamic itself.

in the majority of posts I’ve seen, the power imbalance between TFW2.0 almost always puts jack at the bottom of the totem pole, in a constant state of victimhood because he’s constantly at the mercy of [sam and] dean [and cas].*boxed these in bc people rarely pick on sam or cas for their transgressions and whether or not they’ll kill him. clarifying again that i understand where this comes from, but I also think it’s a fairly dated perspective on their dynamic that should really be re-examined—especially with Jack’s autonomy more in mind—and i believe @shallowseeker has a post about the exact timeframe of Cas’ death and Dean’s widower arc/mistreatment of Jack that i recommend for it.

but onto my main point, I feel that this representation of their dynamic is inaccurate, and doesn’t really take jack into account beyond the Helpless Child Victim narrative. for the sake of staying on topic let me just summarize a few things:

A) Jack is the most powerful being in the universe and is functionally immortal/unkillable. He is a greater threat to TFW than they are to him, and so he is the one with power in the dynamic, not the other way around. It all hinges on his personal choice to not harm them (because he loves them of course).

B) Jack is and always has been painfully aware of his power, the threat he poses, the dynamic it creates and the underlying tension it constantly causes with his relationships. The majority of his actions and motivations are rooted in his own self-fear, and the determination to prove he’s good/safe.

Another small point I’ll shove in is that Dean canonically never forgave himself for his mistreatment of Jack, and spent almost the entirety of their relationship trying to make up for it (especially in 14x06, 07 & 08). Likewise, Dean’s promise to kill Jack in 13x02 and that scene from Moriah are both often misunderstood as more Textbook Dean Abuse with **Jack’s perspectives (ie: “dean said he’d kill me, and maybe he should,” his admission of guilt and willingness to let Dean shoot him) (also, his choice to forgive dean at some point offscreen) being largely overlooked.

**obviously it’s not healthy or good for Jack to basically consent to being mistreated or killed because he thinks he somehow deserves it, nor does it make Dean’s actions excusable or justified in any way, but i still feel that it’s worth pointing out as examples of Jack’s autonomy and awareness in the aforementioned power dynamic.

Jack’s responsibility is also pretty unaccounted for in these dynamics (especially when it comes to Mary’s death) which I think stems equally from the fact that his soullessness—and by extension, his soulless actions—were caused by Sam and Dean’s actions and the general perspective of him as a child [who doesn’t deserve the burden he carries, and should be carefree], so nothing is directly his fault and nobody can get mad at him either or that’s also seen as unfair mistreatment). I also personally just think it’s odd because Jack in canon is very adamant about being able to take and hold responsibility (as it relates to his autonomy and wanting to be seen as a separate person from his parents). and, going back to Mary, Jack not only becomes psychotic with guilt over killing her, but after his soul is restored in S15, he has a complete breakdown from the sheer horror of what he’s done, and because, in his own words, it’s all his fault.

I won’t go into the worm can of people blaming Dean for how he handled reliving to his root trauma, but suffice it to say: he had every right to be angry, he was well within reason to act unreasonably, and stop trying to fix his conflict with jack by parentifying him with an innocent baby when he already has parentification trauma and that baby is merely an excuse to absolve Jack of any responsibility he had in the conflict.

I will always and forever love the meta side of the fandom, and I honestly owe my blog’s existence to it, but I still think we have a long way to go in terms of how jack is represented/portrayed in these discussions, and likewise, how that portrayal frames/reflects on sam, dean and cas ^_^

[haunting-hari]

plotline: i suppose i will help

[no tws] [hari and a certain other character finally meeting in canon. enjoy :3 ]

6 PM. Hari was only walking through his usual clearing, from the pond back to where he stayed. He held Locket in his arms, content after hours of swimming.

So he was surprised when the froakie jumped out of his arms, going to an upper tree branch. He sighed as Locket bounced off, Hari following suit.

..

How long had she been here for? Maxie had finally found Jelly. That little rascal ditto. But now, where exactly was she? It wasn't familiar- and it certainly was far from Driftveil city.

She shrugged it off. Oh well, she had what was important to her. If she kept walking in one direction, she'd get out eventually.

Since it was winter, it got cold, and dark, fast. Cas, Maxie's morelull offered to light the way. Maxie sighed, worrying he would get cold, but let him stay on her head, if not just for a little.

She stopped when Cas' light suddenly got darker. Was he tired?

She picked him up- no, he had just turned around and got distracted. She noticed Cas staring at something. Maxie too, looked behind her.

She saw nothing, but heard something in the trees. She looked up.

Jelly squirmed and made some sort of a distressed noise right before someone came crashing into her.

Maxie quickly got up. Someone else here?

.

Hari shook his head, and got to his knees. He was looking straight up, not really looking in front of him. Oops.

But.. that was not a tree.

He dusted himself off, Locket jumping right down on top of him. He saw a girl, already off the dirt, cooing at her shaken up ditto she held in her arms.

..Another person? Here?

"I- oh arc. I apologize. I wasn't looking where I was..-" He began, only to be interrupted by a series of 'no's.

"Please, don't worry about it! I wasn't looking where I was going either. And I don't think either of us were expecting another person here, hah."

He sighed, catching his breath for a moment.

"Your froakie is adorable, by the way. Are you from Kalos?"

Hari breathed out a laugh. "No. I was born in Unova. I found this lil' guy as an egg in my room. Dunno where it came from, but I kept him, and here we are."

She smiled. "My name's Maxie."

He smiled back. "Hari."

Maxie brought Cas down from her head- who was still somewhat clinging on her hair after the fall. She chuckled, combed her hair back with her hand, and looked back up at Hari.

"You uh. You come here often?" she asked awkwardly, averting her eyes down to Cas and Jelly.

He chuckles. "Surprisingly enough, I do. I only really ever stay in the forest."

"Really? So that's why I haven't seen you! I am... not as familiar, ahah.."

Hari paused. "Are you lost?"

Maxie slowly nodded.

He scoffed a chuckle. "Where you headed home to?"

"Driftveil."

"Isn't that a port city?" He began to walk in what he knew was east towards a near city. "This is pretty far inland."

Maxie shrugged. "I walk around the region a lot."

"You walk?"

Maxie giggled at Hari's expression. "I walk fast,"

"Doesn't look it."

"Not on mountain terrain," she said, crossing her arms. Hari hadn't even noticed that both Jelly and Cas were resting ontop of her head.

"What's so funny?"

Hari blinked. Oh. He hadn't meant to laugh.

"Nothing. I just.. didn't think they'd just sit up there," He says, still giggling somewhat despite himself.

"Ah! That's their throne, of course," She laughs out, "Sometimes all three will sit on there."

"Three?"

"I have a sobble, Miiko. She'd be cold if she went out now, though."

Hari shrugged. Maxie slowed, walking more shoulder to shoulder rather than simply in front of him. She snorted.

"I suppose i'm not the only one who's a throne around here."

Hari sighed, and shook his head slightly. Sure enough, Locket hopped down into Hari's arms.

"I forget he does that sometimes," He laughs.

Maxie smiles, and Jelly slides down into her coat pocket. Cas jumps down to her shoulder. Nestling in her neck. She sighs happily, and returns them to their pokeball.

"Are you cold too?" He muses.

"Nah. I run hot. Most of everyone else I know doesn't."

"Hah. Opposite for me." The exact opposite, he thinks.

"You're cold?"

...

A pause.

"You are, aren't you? Can I get you-"

"Please, don't worry about it," he says, unknowingly mimicking Maxie's own words from when they ran into the other. " 'm always cold, anyways."

Maxie chews the inside of her cheek.

"May I?"

She holds a hand out.

Hari slowly nods as she takes it.

..

"If my hand's too cold, you can let go, y'know."

"Nah. I don't mind."

"...Why?"

"I don't mind whatever your hand may be. Hell, I hold Jelly's hand, and they're just goo. Doesn't matter how cold you are. I just thought your hand needed holding."

".."

"Did that sound weird? Yeah. Yeah that sounded kinda weird. Sorry. You can let go if you want to. I really hope you're not adverse to touch, like my brother is. I keep forgetting sometimes, but I'm getting better. Am I rambling? Could you stop me if this gets annoying?"

He squeezes her hand.

"Do you plan on coming back to this forest?"

She blinks. "What?"

"...If you had a reason to come back. Would you?"

"I don't need reason to do anything, frankly."

He smiles. "But.. would you? Would you come back?"

"Probably. But hopefully it's not because Jelly gets lost again," She chuckles.

"Hopefully," He chuckles.

"I think I'd rather come back for you."

...

The door to her house clicked shut. Maxie's siblings- a brother and sister, ran up to her.

"Do you have Grape??"

The sister nudged the brother. "Full name is 'Grape Jelly.' But the last name goes first, like in Kanto."

"You only learned that from anime," The boy huffed.

Maxie laughed softly. "Alright, you two, alright. Yes, our friend Grape Jelly is a-okay! Sorry it took me a while. I got lost."

The younger girl crossed her arms. "I'm gonna give Jelly a talking to!"

Maxie laughed. "No, I think Jelly's had enough for one night," She sighs, "And besides. I have Jelly to thank for a new friend."

...

As he walked back to his house- it was 7PM by now. It would have been shorter, but apparently you walk slower while you talk.

Locket had long since fallen asleep on the way back.

..What felt so nostalgic?

..

Didn't matter.

He didn't think it would happen, but he finally found someone- in person, mind you- someone who wasn't... freaked out. Who, for starters, didn't even question why he lived in the creepy woods, or why their hands were as cold as ice- non metaphorically.

He'd found a ray of sunshine. And Arc, had he needed one.

...

..

.

What was he thinking of? What was this reminding him of?

..Wait...

“…why… why did you do that?”

“hm?”

“why are you… hugging me. you don’t know me.”

“I don’t,” she sighed into his shoulder, “but i don’t need to know you to understand.”

“…”

“I can only guess why you’re here, but all i know is that we both need someone right now.”

“……”

“..”

the girl felt the pale boy shake. “th…. thank you.”

she hugged him tighter.