#but do they. do they actually. does anyone in the suburb they actually live in not Go Talk To Neighbors On Street in such a scenario

[wanderingbue]

Turns out, Wilson thinks he’s gay.

He drops that bomb on a Thursday night, sitting on House’s couch, where they’re splitting a greasy pizza and a large order of onion rings. Wilson’s not nearly drunk enough for it to be a joke, is the thing. His hands and voice are steady when he explains how it’s haunted him since he was a teenager, how he ran from it and into three failed marriages, how he cheated because he liked the thrill of the chase but was always unsatisfied with the outcome. He wants to tell the important people in his life to ask them for support in this new era, and House is the first one to know.

And yeah, it could explain things. A lot of things. Like the haircare routine, the regular mani/pedis, the shoe collection. This wouldn’t surprise many people. But House isn’t sure he believes him.

Still, Wilson is his best friend, so he tries.

He doesn’t interrupt the first time he sees Wilson getting a little too close and smile-y with a male nurse. (He interrupts the second time, because he knows that nurse is a vegetarian, and House can’t have that influencing Wilson’s cooking and takeout habits.)

He doesn’t sabotage Wilson’s first date with another man. (He does steal Wilson’s phone the next morning and delete the guy’s text asking for a second date, because anyone asking so soon is desperate, and Wilson can do better.)

He tells Wilson which shirts, ties, and pants make him look gay, only this time, he means it positively. He starts TiVoing Queer as Folk for them, instead of The L Word. He offers Wilson poppers one weekend, then has to explain what they are, and how he came to find out about them in the first place (he used to rave in the 80’s, so what?).

House is being supportive, really. Even if he still doesn’t totally buy that Wilson is actually gay.

Mostly, he doesn’t think Wilson is gay because nothing changes.

Wilson still comes over most nights to watch trash TV and drink beer. He still dutifully drops his responsibilities at work, albeit briefly, to provide a diagnostics consult, or to assist in some borderline illegal scheme. They still hang out, and argue, and laugh, and bicker, and celebrate wins together, and are there for each other in the quiet aftermath of loss. They’re still the same.

Maybe Wilson is just confused because he expected to have a wife and kids, and to live in the suburbs by now. Maybe he thinks the reason for this heteronormative failure is that he’s been chasing the wrong kind of tail, instead of the fact that he spends half his time at work and the other half with House, leaving no room for anything or anyone else. And maybe House should feel guilty about that, about robbing Wilson of the life he deserves and forcing him into a fake midlife sexuality crisis, but he doesn’t.

He sort of feels bad about that part, though—the fact that he doesn’t feel bad at all.

But he’s forced to acknowledge his faults when Wilson approaches him in his office one night, trembling before he can even get the words out, I can’t hide how I feel anymore, I need to tell you the truth.

House accepts that he’s selfish because he lets Wilson kiss him breathless, knowing Wilson will never be able to kiss anyone else like this again, knowing that when he tells Wilson to take him home, he’ll never be able to leave. Now he gets it all, the early mornings and the late nights, the warm beds and the cold shoulders, the biting words and the gentle apologies, and every jagged edge left will be weathered by time.

He understands that he’s greedy because he drinks up all the praises and pleading, every filthy word Wilson moans into his ear and whispers into his skin. There’s a lifetime of hunger behind it, a cosmic collision of pain and joy and grief and devotion. It’s a wine aged for twenty years between them, bottled want and yearning, poured into an overflowing glass.

He recognizes that he’s possessive, because he knows he’s got him now, and it's for good. There’s no more sharing attention, or waiting his turn, or swallowing the bitter bile of jealousy. Wilson will stray from any map to follow his true north.

So, whatever, maybe Wilson is lying about being gay, but at least House is honest about being worse.

[elainemorisi]

still thinking about the movie my friend made me watch, which I ruined (sorry) by being completely incapable of suspending my disbelief over the fact that, when faced with a Weird Power Outage, the characters, who were all at one couple's regular normal longtime everyday home in the suburbs, did not immediately exit the home and talk to the neighbors, who would naturally have been doing the same damn thing

like fifteen minutes after that nonsense began it was revealed that all the other houses/the whole street was devoid of other people so it's not even like doing so would have messed with the spooky suspense. in fact it would have rapidly heightened it. but these people were Californians written by I presume Californians recommended to me by a Californian and I have I am afraid only one explanation for this

[ghouldtime]

Neighbor! König

Probably can't write a full series for this but for now HEADCANNONS

He initially moved to a residential/suburban area because of his need for privacy. He couldn't stand being in barracks provided because it's too close for comfort and there's just too many people and not enough room

He grew up in a rural village which he would really, greatly prefer but his job doesn't allow him to have that amount of space and no neighbors. The upkeep would be too much

While he doesn't have the full amount of space he'd like, it's enough to keep him busy when he's not deployed and grant him the piece of mind he needs

When he's home and in his 'residential/domestic' mode, he's not wearing the mask. That's a quick way to signal him out and lets be real, it sets off red flags. He'd rather not have the police called on what looks like a very suspicious man, thanks.

Not wearing the mask is also a good way for him to come off of 'work' mode, where he can just be himself, no covering that up.

Plus it's for safety. He knows he's taking a risk by living off of base and he's a man with many enemies. Wearing something trademarked to him in an unprepared environment is a dumb idea and is a great way to end up six feet under

His front yard is pretty minimal but he has a lovely garden in the back. Half the reason he settled on the house that he did was because of the mature trees in the backyard that reminded him of home

When you moved in, König - as much as he didn't want to, made the move to introduce himself. The main motivator wasn't out of politeness but rather necessity. Since he's away for so long, he gives out his personal number and email just in case something happens with the house

He's genuinely surprised when you react positively and even ask if there's anything he'd like you to do when he's away (like collecting his mail, watering any plants)

He's so stumped by that, not having expected such hospitality, that when you ask for his name as you enter in his contact info, his brain short circuits. He tells you it's Kevin, because it's the first K name he could think of that wasn't distinctly Germanic.

Also he doesn't want to bring anyone into his work life. He moved out into the suburbs for a reason. König is who he is on field, that's his callsign. And, once again - safety reasons. If he went around, telling people who he was, he's asking to get another target painted on his back

Though you two initially don't really talk much, you still wave when you see him or wish him a good morning. Even if he's blunt and usually brusque, you never mind it and always try to make polite conversation while respecting his boundaries and need for space

Seeing each other in the mornings becomes routine. You're up for work while he's up tending to his garden (it's better to water early morning, he insists)

He's slow to warm up but when he finally does, he's surprisingly talkative

He really opened up to you because you showed express interest in his garden and flowers alike. You always listened to his advice or would ask specific questions to get him talking and when it came to explaining things, he could talk and talk and talk

The moment he was won over though was when you asked if he'd like help weeding his garden. Taking care of it was therapeutic to him (as tedious as it might be) and wanting to actually come over and spend time with him, even if it was a "chore" made him feel something that day

Being allowed into his yard, his botanical sanctuary, is as great of an award as you can get

He finds it significantly easier to talk when his hands are busy and when there can always be things to talk about (mainly his plants, he's so proud)

You learn of his plants, the fact that he's a private contractor (he conveniently leaves out the military part), and he'll start to actually talk about himself instead of avoiding questions for once

If it weren't from exertion reddening his face already, he's sure he would've turned as red as his tomatoes when you inquired about the off handed comment about his miniatures collection

No one had ever asked him about them - or actually taken them seriously. He's used to people making fun of such hobbies

But not you, you embraced him

Seeing your face light up with amazement and hearing your specific comments about the details he made in replicas of things such as his hometown and some of the fairytale stories he liked as a kid officially had his heart feeling the warm, fuzzy feelings that he usually ignored

The next morning, he was already planting your favorite flowers in his front yard 🪻

(Part Two)

(Part Three)

[suzukiblu]

Day nine of “obligatory sugar baby Kon” behind the cut. tw: implications of past grooming/abuse and the inherent problems that causes for someone who was in that situation and hasn’t processed it trying to have a relationship with someone actually age-appropriate. prev: (( chrono || non-chrono ))

Tim doesn't let himself kiss Kon for quite as long as he wants to this time. He doesn't want to say he doesn't want to move too fast and then get them both all riled up five seconds later and, well–undercut that, or whatever. Or seem like he didn’t actually mean it, maybe. 

Also he does still need to make sure Kon’s gotten in enough calories today; he definitely still needs to do that. There’s gotta be a decent place they can get in last-minute with a carefully-applied bribe or two, if nothing else. Kon deserves “nice”, still, and also Tim is not gonna half-ass the date after that conversation. Whole-ass all the way. 

“Um,” he says, clearing his throat again. Kon grins all sunny and pretty at him and it is a very, very flustering sight. Tim wants to smudge his eyeliner and mess up his hair and buy him an entire apartment block, or at least a suburb or two. “Wanna find someplace to eat? Maybe look through a couple shops on the way?” 

“Oh, just a couple, huh?” Kon teases, his grin widening giddily. Tim feels very flustered. 

“I mean, we are in the shopping district,” Tim says, refusing to admit to any embarrassment about being that easily seen-through. He has an entire lifestyle to fund for Kon here, alright, and that he is gonna not only whole-ass but double-ass. Triple-ass, maybe. Quadruple. 

. . . though modeling age-appropriate relationship behaviors was already gonna be hard enough with how little personal dating experience he has, much less the sugar daddy thing. 

Yeah, that’s gonna require some planning. 

“And that was totally an accident, right?” Kon asks with a laugh that is actually more like a giggle than anything else, which Tim’s brain unhelpfully burns down an entire metaphorical warehouse district about. 

“I plead the fifth,” he says, tugging Kon back onto the sidewalk, and Kon giggles again and ducks his head as he shakes it, squeezing his hands one last time before letting go of one to follow him more easily. Tim feels stupidly wooed and soft and definitely wants to destroy the lives of everyone who has ever so much as mildly inconvenienced the adorable bastard. Kon wasn’t cute before, dammit. He was not prepared for Kon to turn out to be cute. 

“You are literally fucking ridiculous, babe, I hope you know that,” Kon tells him, still grinning as his face flushes again and tugging the collar of his jacket up over his mouth with his free hand. “Like, you actually got me a friggin’ flower, you friggin’ nerd. Like–seriously?” 

Tim can’t help suspecting Kon’s joking about that because flowers and cute little dating clichés aren’t the kind of thing he thinks anyone should bother doing for him, which honestly at this point seems like a pattern of behavior. Especially after earlier. Which–it's not like he didn't go into this already knowing that Kon's loudly overinflated self-esteem and cocky attitude was partially bluster and self-defense, but the more time they spend together like this, the more it seems less like “partially”, and more like “entirely”. 

Tim is going to get this adorable bastard so many flowers as soon as he gets him in a cul-de-sac to be keeping them in. He is gonna keep Kon in flowers until the goddamn heat-death of the goddamn universe. He’ll get a florist and set up a weekly order of varying tropical flowers and make sure the neighborhood is full of flowering bushes and trees and bring a bouquet to at least two dates a month, if not just literally every single one of them. 

“I wanted to,” he replies with a shrug, because that sounds more normal to say than any of the rest of it and sincerity seems to be the most efficient way to cut the legs out from underneath any attempts Kon’s making at downplaying the point of the gesture. “I was hoping you'd like it.” 

Kon turns red, then ducks his head and grins helplessly wide, still half-hiding his mouth behind his jacket collar. Tim feels an irrational urge to smother him. Like, affectionately, he means, but also kind of literally. 

Maybe he has some wires crossed right now, given how much of a workout the supervillain timeline’s been getting lately.

[maxwell-grant]

The Penguin: Episode 1 Breakdown

(Episode 2) (Episode 3) (Episode 4) (Episode 5) (Episode 6) (Episode 7) (Episode 8)

Thank you Lauren LeFranc, Mike Marino, Colin Farrell and Matt Reeves, we owe you the world for this, good God. It's finally here everyone and I've decided I'm gonna give each episode it's own post/breakdown of thoughts, because hahaha holy shit you guys this is beyond what I even dreamed of, and we're gonna be covering this for a while I think. I've worked out enough madness about this out of my system by talking with friends and I can't seem to be able to work on anything else till I get this done, so let's do it.

Bottom line: This isn't even just a must-watch if you like the Penguin or if you like The Batman, this is something I'd recommend to just about anyone in a heartbeat, something I can point to when people ask "why do you like The Penguin so much" and, instead of the elaborate nerd ramble that usually turns them off, I can just tell them to watch this. A friend of mine (who already loves Batman and digs the Penguin quite a bit) even told me as much, that he's starting to get why I love the character so much, and truly, is there a better feeling than this? Well, there is, and it's watching the show. Let's dig into this first episode:

Right upfront I'm gonna say that this doesn't really seem to be the Sopranos rip-off that people have been calling it before release, although there are definitely Sopranos comparisons to make here. I've spent the past months finally watching The Sopranos in order to get the comparison and definitely want to talk about those comparisons after I finish it (and this show ends). This thing aims to stand on it's own legs as a crime show and it's smashing out of the gate with an extremely promising first episode.

So this just casually opens with the reveal that all along, there was a second rich Gotham the whole time that was completely unaffected by everything we saw in the movie, already throwing a great twist on the events of that movie, and further reinforcing how fucking full of shit The Riddler was. All we saw Batman and the others deal with in the movie was just affecting the poorer parts of the city. All Eddie did was drown rats, and make life worse for the people already in the bottom, while never even getting close to targeting the systemic rot that ruined his life. He retains ideological worshippers in subways obsessed with the corruption of the city without doing anything to actually improve it, and because of him, the streets of Gotham are waterlogged shitholes while the rich Falcone suburbs are doing just fine, peachy even.

I said a while back that, in spite of having about 6 scenes/10 minutes of Penguin runtime, The Batman managed to squeeze impeccably controlled Penguin Trademark Scenes, and this show opens with the last one they didn't get to then: Penguin killing someone for making fun of him. In the movie, he tries doing that with Falcone and is beaten to the punch, so here he gets to actually do it to disastrous consequences.

Fucking adore that the inciting incident of the show is based on the fallout of Oswald killing someone for making fun of him. He pours his heart about the dream he lives his life for, his new boss makes fun of him for being an embarassment to their profession and then he does the most typical Penguin thing by killing him for it and laughing afterwards. And then he realizes how badly he fucked up, and then we get a fucking perfect titledrop with his musical theme, the exact moment we finish The Batman and enter The Penguin.

God it is so fucking cool how the make-up/lighting, the scar across his face, makes it look like he's got a genuine beak from certain angles, how they're able to achieve that effect without giving him a more literal beak for a nose. Everytime they talk about the character, Reeves and Farrell always emphasize how integral the make-up was to them figuring out what to do with Oz, how little they knew what to make of his six scenes until Marino created their monster and suddenly everything fell into place. Mike Marino fully deserves co-credit for the creation of Oz.

Pretty amusing that Victor, as designed to be Penguin's Robin, has exactly the same origin as Jason Todd, a poor street kid trying to steal the hubcaps off the Penguinmobile (I'm sure this bodes very well for his odds at survival), as is the way in which Oz goes on about his recruitment. He press-gangs this kid at gunpoint to help him bury a body arguing with himself and eventually the kid why shouldn't he just kill him to be safe, while trying to impress the kid with his car and air freshener and later that bullshit about "What, you think I hire any schmuck off the street?". From the tile drop onwards, he's doing everything on the fly while also spinning long-term plans set in motion as soon as he's on screen, he's taking this kid in out of sympathy and because he enjoys a power dynamic over someone weaker than him and because he very much needs someone to help him get stuff done. I'm extremely interested in exploring Penguin having a mentorship dynamic and I'm beyond curious as to what happens with Victor from this point onwards, but that poor kid is in for a terrible fucking time.

Found it very funny how much he half-asses the murder threat to Victor. Like it's his first time actually doing it and he's trying to be serious, but not too scary because he's already seeing himself in the poor kid with a stutter and wants the kid to think he's also a cool guy like he wants everyone to think he's a cool guy. I also think having Victor as the POV helps to sell moments like these, because it's still terrifying to him. Even as we follow their stories, these power players of Gotham are still big scary monsters to people caught in the dregs and Victor helps to reinforce that.

I enjoy Oz being friends with sex workers and drag queens off the street as much as I enjoy Oz being depicted as the kind of guy who deludes himself into thinking the prostitute he's with actually likes him, Lauren and Farrell launched into a bit about in on the podcast and I'm curious to see what's going on with him and Eve here.

Lots of perfect funny little character moments across the whole thing. Oz insulted by the idea of taking extra pickles off a poor kid's dirty mouth, but with zero hesitation whatsoever for picking jewelry off his boss' corpse. Dude is governed by principles even as he actively has to break them to survive.

"Technically it's plum." "He is the - or was the - new kingpin", "He's got nurse-like qualities." The show is not overtly trying to get you to find Penguin likeable as much as it wants you to find him engaging - making you think he's likeable is Colin Farrell's job and he's masterful at it, definitely a lot more matured within the character compared to the movie.

If there's anything in particular I'm thankful for regarding Gotham (well okay Gotham led directly to Telltale Penguin which was the basis for this one, so really I do have a lot more to be thankful with Gotham), it's the decision to give him a legit waddle via the broken foot, but the way they incorporate it here with the club foot does so much for him, so much as a modern day reinvention of The Penguin. Adds so much to why he's never been a serious candidate for mob leadership, why he kinda had to spend all his time in the Lounge, why he actually needs someone to help him run affairs, why he has such a gaping ego wound and is so murderously angry at people making fun of him / calling him a goddamn penguin, adds so much validation and so much darkness and nuance to Oswald's overwhelming anger and bitterness over how the world treats him (and so much power should he opt to reclaim it, in turn). It's the kind of thing that frankly feels like it should have always been part of the character, like what all the previous versions were itching closer to or trying to get at. Of course this is a guy gets called a penguin and he hates it badly enough to murder people over it, of course.

This gets to really highlight how differently Oz acts depending on who he's with. Traditionally, one of my favorite things about The Penguin, and one of the things that puts him above the other villains, is that, due to his position, he has to interact with a lot more people than the other Bat-villains. He has to manage a lot more relationships and dynamics, he has to play peacekeeper and puppetmaster. he's the only one in the United Underworld who's regularly interacting with and recruiting other villains to do business with. He's the guy who you pin stuff on like the Gangland Guardians, Team Penguin, doing betting pools with the Rogues taking cover in his Lounge while Joker War is happening, having to rig games to keep good standing with Maxie Zeus and Frenchy Blake in Batman Audio Adventures, and so on. So I greatly enjoy this beat here of him talking about how makes himself smaller before the Falcones, and that moment of him adjusting his outfit and practicing expressions in the mirror before meeting with them. How he contorts himself is present in all of his relationships, and retroactively adds to the way he carries himself in The Batman.

It seems that Oz is functionally regarded as the Paulie Walnuts of the Falcones: useful muscle, loyal for the most part and amusing to keep around, but largely an unstable self-serving dumb asskisser kept where he belongs, a liability if not kept on a short leash. I think the show does a good job of highlighting all the reasons why Oz has never been seriously regarded as a viable option for a boss, even putting aside his disability. He is a fundamentally embarassing person for these serious respectable criminals to be around and of course, the joke is ultimately on them..

Of course, there is only two people in the show who actually know what he's capable of, Francis Cobb and Sofia Falcone, said to be the central relationships defining the show moving forward. Both of them also a defining commonality with Oswald, being people who are looked down on and dehumanized, and characters who are underestimated until it's time to bear their fangs.

Extremely invested in where they're going with Sofia Falcone, Cristine Milioti's been killing it, and will in fact not stop killing it. What a perfect villain for Penguin they've set up with her, someone who has his Kryptonite: she does not underestimate him. Although we know in advance that Oz is going to live and be in the next movie, the question here isn't even so much who's going to win the gang war, and rather how much damage these two freaks will do to the city until Batman gets back. In many ways, Sofia represents the shape of things to come just as much as he does.

She is this embodiment of both the pristine unfathomable wealth and privilege and power that he both detests and strives for, as well as this brutal new breed of madness and violence attacking the streets that he has to survive against and make deals with (and is himself very much a part of, however he denies it). She is Falcone's legacy in every way that matters, both a Kingpin of Gotham whose existence creates the oppressive conditions under which a Batman or a Riddler are created, as well as the Arkham Rogue, the larger-than-life sadist with a tragic origin and a signature torture-murder method and an embarassing name for the papers.

Even the fact that she is The Hangman, and Carmine was defined around his penchant for brutally strangling women - regardless of whether or not she did the crimes that got her in Arkham, she's become this larger-than-life themed expression of a violent obsession in a way that sets her up as every bit the Batman villain that The Penguin is. The two champions of the two Gothams, duking it out in this new world The Batman and The Riddler made, The Penguin vs The Hangman.

I am so glad Lauren LeFranc made the call for binning Alberto in the first five minutes so the rest of the show can focus on Sofia and make a real character out of her in a way nobody's ever really done before, every step of the way so far LeFranc has been perfectly on the ball about where to take these characters and their conflict. And speaking of those,

I feel very confident in saying that this is the first time anyone's ever really had something worth doing with Oswald's mother as a character in her own right and not just a source of anguish for Penguin (Gotham was almost onto something with Gertrude, but not nearly enough). When it comes to Penguin origin stories, my favorite's always been the Pre-Crisis one, where he's poor and bullied but happy with his mom and birds until she dies and the government seizes everything he has, which doesn't necessarily involve her much. But here? Francine Cobb is a real character in what little time we get to know her, and what a character she is. We quickly understand the role she's playing in Oz's life, not just as his mom and person he loves and strives to protect, but the person who's sculpting him into the man he's going to become.

She is vulnerable and she does need meds and she's not quite all there, and Penguin's need to care for her is visible in other actions of his. But then they turn it around by showing how strong and demanding she is, how she is fiercely ambitious and pushing him to be something he would otherwise not be, how much she loves him and sees greatness in him. She knows he's a people pleaser, she knows how to push his buttons, and she wants him to be more, so of course he's going to be more, because he lives to please his mom.

Related to this is this absolute bullseye of a summation of The Penguin, that Lauren LeFranc delivered in the podcast: "Perhaps his greatest fear is that love is transactional. And that yet, everything he does, every decision he makes, is as if that's true. As if "love is transactional" is a truth he abides by". Oswald's conception of power is being loved and revered like Rex Calabrese, and the love he wants most in all the world is the one from his mother. So in turn this, and all extensions of it, drive him to greater and darker lengths.

He doesn't have that ambition quite down yet, it's his mom that does. She who's pushing him to take over the city and not just be a guy scraping by for survival. He's smart and ambitious and extremely good at slipping out of trouble, but she's pushing him to be the guy who will be taking the city by the horns because that's what he has to be for their sake. Her legacy to her son is nurturing him having that dog in him that will make him the supervillain who picks fights with Vengeance. She is the force that's turning Oswald into The Goddamn Penguin and I can't wait to see how she's developed.

Of course he reprimands Victor in that scene for lacking ambition, who do you think he gets it from?

Really love what they've done with Sal Maroni in here so far. I like adaptations that take these throwaway Batman backstory gangsters and make something out of them, in this case, with Clancy Brown lending his power and voice and reputation as The Grand Boss of Villainy to play the last Respectable Gangster of Gotham, this intimidating principled old tiger who's inversely proportional to how much of a petty and scummy piece of shit Carmine Falcone was. Extremely a guy I'd want to see playing a hand in the creation of Two-Face. Just as crucial is the fact that he is the one who gets the most effortlessly outplayed by Oz here, because this is The Penguin Show: no room for traditional or respectable gangsters anymore, their purpose is to be crapped all over by our wacko birdman.

There's a lot about this that re-contextualizes his behavior in The Batman and the one I'm gonna point out is: even though he can't be sure his plan didn't completely go to shit, he is still keeping his wits and not being terribly scared about being beaten up and tortured and staring down the scariest Falcone with a gun shoved in his throat. But he craps his pants at the sight of the Batmobile. He gets pain, he gets indignity, but he doesn't get Vengeance, what kind of sick freak would come up with the stuff that guy does. A gun in his mouth and Falcone torture is just Tuesday, but a car that wants to eat his soul is some psycho shit he's just not ready to deal with.

It is the delicious tasty fucking irony that Oswald thinks Vengeance is this weird freak who doesn't play or bend to any rules and is here to fuck up everything, just like the madman who flooded the city, and thinks of himself in turn as a justifiable guy standing for the respectable old-fashioned empathetic way of doing things, instead of the exact same thing that Riddler and Batman are. Only Sofia gets what he really is, the same thing as her, and that's why she is the arch-enemy / the biggest thing he's gotta defeat in life for now.

God, how fucking PERFECT it is that he gets caught and tortured because he, after stabbing out a man's eye and causing him to get run over by a schoolbus, stops to wave at the kids in that schoolbus while covered in blood. Just the Rex Calabrese of it all, the self-image, this guy who's both a mean nasty son of a bitch and also a real bleeding heart softie and in ways that ruin his life and allow him to slip and wriggle his way out of shit he has no right to, as demonstrated by the finale.

Thinking about Sofia chastizing Oz saying he thinks she is a toy to play with, while rattling off the ways in which she owns him and everything he has, all the ridiculous little accessories her daddy let him play him, and he in turn is a ridiculous little accessory for the family she is twisting until it breaks. Perfect fucking villain for him. Can't wait to see how badly these two are gonna burn Gotham.

I knew deep in my heart that all I wanted out of a Penguin show, the thing that I simply needed to have in it, was Penguin pulling a heist set-up in advance, and it fucking delivered. He doesn't even complain at Victor for being late, because if anything, getting captured and tortured while the car crashed was even better for him. No, he complains at Victor for not being sufficiently gruesome with the body. See, unlike other cowardly anti-hero reinventions of Bat-villains, the show never wants you to forget that Oz is a weird freak and a disgusting piece of shit, even if he is a very likeable and even aspirational one. Only by the most random stroke of fate it wasn't Victor that he fed to the wolves at that moment, that he sees himself in the kid isn't exactly ensuring that he's gonna make out of this in one piece.

Mr. Vengeance gets Nirvana, and Mr. Boniface gets Dolly Parton, perfect credits.

In conclusion: Out of everything they could have done following the thunderous success of The Batman and it's ensuing influence over the DCU, out of all the offers Reeves must have gotten to helm their new universe after delivering a megahit reinvention of their breadwinner blockbuster character, Matt Reeves went "Nah, I listened to my crew, and what we really want to do is 8 hours of television about the waddling freak who's in my movie for 10 minutes", and he and his crew deserve the world for that. I dreamed as a kid of getting to make a big Penguin story or show, a wild impossible idea that would never actually happen, and now it's here and it's better than anything I'd ever imagined.

I'm fit to burst with joy and riding a high of no longer having to hunt for scraps and washing away decades of put-downs for the character and enjoying a Penguin renaissance like one I never imagined happening. I am extremely not an unbiased reviewer here, this show rules and I've waited for it since I was a kid and it's here, drink it the fuck in cause it's only the beginning.

[caffinated-squid]

Jerry Stokes and the consequences of inaction in The Eltingville Club

Time to talk a lot about the last character in the crew, Jerry Stokes. A couple of quick things before getting into some lukewarm observations, this is not me trying to morally grandstand about a character actually being bad, this is The Eltingville Club, all of your faves are problematic. This is just about how his role feeds into the environment, and because I am not satisfied with only going over a list of bad things Jerry has done in the comics and want to go into why he is like this. I have seen a handful of people already go into his toxic behavior, so this is my attempt to contribute. To summarize, Jerry is both the support and doormat of the group. Even though all the characters rip on each other for their interests, Jerry is usually the main target. He is also the character that attempts to break up a lot of the arguments/feuds that the characters have. However, Jerry never actually fixes the problems present in the group, the most he does is postpone the terrible actions, but still goes along with whatever happens. I call Jerry the support of the group, but only by a slim margin. Like Pete, he has the tendency to enable the clubs behavior, but in his case, it’s by his lack of action rather than exacerbating the conflict.

Jerry’s main concern in the club is avoiding conflict. If he prevents the club from arguing, he won’t lose his friends. But because of that, it leads to a refusal to challenge any of the groups bad ideas. The Eltingville club has cultivated an environment where they all need to have the same opinion, and anyone who doesn’t is wrong or stupid and not a real fan. So the most that Jerry can do is just meekly suggest that something is a bad idea, but because he is also the doormat of the group, and isn’t really going to stop them, his protests can easily be ignored by the rest of the club.

Jerry ends up becoming both a bystander as well as an enabler, which has the tendency to get looked over because characters like Bill, Josh, and Pete are more blatantly toxic and destructive, so Jerry’s behavior usually goes under the radar in comparison to the rest of the clubs.

**The main reason the club will actually listen to Pete when he tells them to cut it out is because he backs up his threats, he will follow though if they don’t listen to him.

Jerry’s tendency to postpone conflict also comes with the result of refusing to call out any of his friends for their terrible behavior. He has almost never defended Josh even though the entire group bullies him for being fat is because it’s been normalized. From how bad arguments tend to get and how no one in the club takes Josh’s concerns seriously, he probably just writes it off as playful jabbing rather than bullying. Even with something like Bill making the Greedo-318 account to tell Josh to kill himself and telling Jerry to keep his secret, Jerry’s main concern is not wanting to lose his friends. He wants Bill to like him, because if Bill still likes him, the club can still exist. Jerry already has a lot of anxiety about the club breaking up, so revealing this would do nothing but add more conflict.

From what I can tell, the characters live in the suburbs. Eltingville is a tiny town with not much to do. None of them have a drivers license so they can’t go anywhere by car, days are monotonous, and the only place that holds any of their interest is a shitty comic book shop. I mention this because in this environment there is the need for community, even if that community is terrible, because it’s better than being alone. It is established that the club takes up a majority of all of the characters time, so outside of this group, there isn't really anywhere else for Jerry to go to.

Even if Jerry was able to make new friends, I have the feeling that the rest of the Eltingville Club would probably try to sabotage any attempt, considering that they spread rumors about him going around telling people that he fucked Agnes Zawatsky to reel him back into the club.

Misery loves company, and even if Jerry is the main punching bag of the group that the characters put most of the blame on, he can't leave, because they are The Eltingville Club, and its always them against the world.

[highonmarvel]

hi hope ur doing well. i was thinking, could u do a buckyxreader where hes paralyzed and like needs a caretaker. through some means reader ends up as the caretaker and all is well. but actually bucky was just pretending and hes not realy paralysed and he just pretended to get closer to reader and reader start expresing the idea that she might have to leave for whatever reason and buck does not like that so like he kidnaps her or something. I rlly luv ur work this is the first request iv sent

this is so good, i’m upset i didn’t think of it first. i’m so sorry for taking so long to get back to you, i really hope you enjoy, and thank you so, so much for the love. okay, here it is:

Himalayan Salt

Bucky Barnes: You’re assigned to a notoriously grumpy war vet, but he’s different with you.

content warnings here!

You nod as your supervisor goes over your final notes: James Barnes, World War II veteran, quadriplegic.

You follow her from the overcast weather into a beautiful but modest home in a fairly quiet suburb to meet the man sitting in a wheelchair in the centre of the room.

“Good morning, Mr Barnes,” your supervisor calls, tucking her clipboard under her arm as she waits for him to turn around. When he does, you’re surprised. You hadn’t seen a photo of him beforehand as this had been a pretty impromptu assignment, but you’re sure you were told he was born in 1917, yet he sits looking like he’s in forties, and aging well, at that.

“Hi, Mr Barnes!” you smile warmly at him, and he returns a friendly smile, introducing himself as Bucky and insisting you call him that.

“I just need you to fill out the last of the forms quickly,” your supervisor mutters, waving goodbye to Bucky as she leads you back out to her car.

You’re leaning against the boot of her oldish, red car, pen scratching against paper when she says, “He really likes you.”

“Hm?” you offer, raising your eyebrows but keeping your eyes focused on the form.

She leans her back against the trunk and shifts down a bit, speaking to you but looking over at your handwriting, “He’s known to be grumpy. You see the left arm? I don’t think he likes being dependent, I’ve had to swap out a lot of people.”

“And you didn’t tell me this before I took the job?” you frown, still finishing off the document, “Didn’t think I could handle it?”

“I know you’re capable, but I thought you wouldn’t want it. But listen, the organisation needs this, I don’t know if there’s anyone else we can find for him.”

You complete your signature with a satisfied smile, handing back the clipboard, “Don’t worry, I can do this.”

She nods then gets in her car and drives away, leaving you in the driveway. You stretch your arms then make your way back inside. When you enter the living room, there’s a draft you swear wasn’t here a few minutes ago. Bucky hasn’t moved, but you notice an open window. You furrow your brows as you look down at him, “Can I close that? It’s a bit chilly in here.”

“Go ahead,” he nods, and you walk over, pulling the handle it, and ignoring the recent-looking fingerprint marks on the glass.

***

A few hours into your first day, you’re a little taken aback by how friendly he is; even despite your boss’ warning, you’ve never had a patient so willing to co-operate, especially not veterans — they tend to be angry they need help, or have episodes due to PTSD, but Bucky seems perfectly in his right mind and understanding of both his and your position.

“Did they tell you I was a pain in ass?” Bucky asks before opening his mouth for a spoonful of food.

You laugh as you pull the spoon back, scooping up more of the rice and curry you made to lift to his lips, “Kind of,” you admit, “Said you were grumpy, is that true?”

He smiles, “I tend to be,” he confesses, “But I can’t keep that brooding persona up around you,” he takes a spoonful.

“So that’s what it is?” you raise an eyebrow as you pile the last of the meal onto the utensil, “A persona?”

He swallows the last of it and shakes his head with a grin, “No, but I can’t not be amused around you.”

***

You have no idea why your supervisor said he was difficult, your next few weeks with Bucky are light and fun, and you feel you’re even developing a friendship. You don’t see to him at night, and he has minimal needs during the day — some days it just feels like you’re there to keep him company.

You’re doing so well, in fact, that your supervisor wants to transfer you to a veteran from Vietnam who’s apparently even worse than Bucky (by other people’s stories — to you, if he’s anything like Bucky, he’ll be nice to see), convinced you have some magic touch.

As much as you’re developing affection for Bucky, you have to put work first, and you’re compelled to leave him for the other man who clearly needs you more. Bucky seems to be doing well, you’re sure you can’t be that special, and you’re sure someone else could take care of him just as well, if not better.

“Hi, Buck,” you greet with a smile as you close the door behind you. You hear his motorised wheelchair come rolling down the corridor to greet you.

“Hi, why could you only come in at ten today?”

You usually come in at seven on weekdays and eight on weekends.

“Sorry, I had a meeting,” you sigh, setting your tote bag down as Bucky switches his chair to manual.

“A meeting?” he asks as you take hold of the handles and push him to the other side of the kitchen island.

“Mhm,” you nod as you open the fridge, rummaging around for something to make, “There’s this other guy my boss wants me to help,” you call with your head still in the cold, “A Vietnam vet, no one else in the org will take him.”

You emerge with some eggs and milk, shutting the door with your foot before placing the contents on the island, “Did you eat? I assume Carol made breakfast but I can make more.”

“Are you going to take it?” he inquires, ignoring your question, “The job.”

“I mean, maybe,” you answer, placing your hands on the counter and tilting your head as you think, “I’m not sure yet.”

“But what about me?”

“The other guy needs full-time care, I’d have to spend virtually all my days there, but if I leave, Carol can take over for me, she can go from night to day, she’s amazing, and she doesn’t complain about you, at least not as much,” you wink, but he doesn’t crack a smile.

“Bucky, I didn’t mean to upset you—”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s just that—”

“It’s your job, I get it,” he replies, and you can see the stoicism build up.

“Nothing’s final, yet,” you say as you walk over, “And you’re doing great either way,” you give him a kiss on the forehead, “We don’t have to talk about that, let’s just eat, I’m starving.”

He nods and attempts to smile, but you can tell it doesn’t reach his eyes.

You try to make conversation as you make yourself an omelette, but you can tell he’s not in it, giving short answers and not reacting to your jokes. When you reach to grab the salt, he stops you.

“Not that one,” he says, “Use the pink salt, Himalayan, I swear it makes everything tastes better.”

You grind some onto your food and sit across from him on the island. Digging your fork into it, you see something flash across Bucky’s eyes. Your first thought is hunger, but he’d just eaten and swore he wasn’t hungry. You ignore it as you bring the fork to your mouth, savouring the taste, though it’s not necessarily a chef’s rendition.

It tastes fine, but there’s something off. At first, you think it must be the salt, but it’s not the taste that’s off; usually when you eat, you feel that warmth in your throat and then your stomach, but now, it’s like it went to your head. You press a hand to your forehead, feeling like you’re burning up. Trying to stand, you immediately sway, only not falling by gripping the counter so harshly and hastily you bend a nail. You try to look to Bucky to tell him you’re not feeling well, but he’s out of focus. In fact, he’s not there. Just as you collapse and close your eyes, you feel a tall shadow over you, but you don’t have time to figure out where it’s coming from before you fall unconscious.

***

You groggily wipe at your eyes when you finally stir before turning over to reach for your phone, at first thinking you had had a dream, but your phone’s not there, and the nightstand isn’t yours. You shoot up in panic and look down at your sheets: Bucky’s sheets. Okay, maybe Bucky rang Carol and she came and set you in bed. Your head still hurts, and everything’s a little hazy.

When the door opens, you expect to see Carol, but it’s Bucky.

“Bucky!” you gasp as you throw the sheets off of you.

He gives a lopsided grin, and for the first time you notice how tall he actually is, because he’s standing.

“Christmas miracle?” he offers.

He walks over to you and sets a glass of water on the bedside table.

“That Himalayan salt is really exotic, isn’t it?”

You don’t even have time to process exactly what he means by that, he’s still standing over you, using his arms and legs just fine, in fact, like he’s been doing it every single day forever. You should have suspected something was up; how could a paralysed man stay in such good shape? The thought briefly crossed your mind once when you ran your fingers over his muscled arm, but you brushed it off.

“Bucky! You- you—”

“Are perfectly fine, I am, and you will be too, soon, those drugs just need to wear off. I know you’re having trouble understanding, just drink some water and sleep it off a little longer.”

He leans down to give you a kiss on the forehead, but you dodge him, nearly falling off the bed in the process.

“Woah, there,” he chuckles as he catches you with ease, his reflexes so sharp it’s nearly unnatural, “Now I’m taking care of you.”

You’re not sure if you can’t speak because of the drugs or if it’s because you’re in shock. He gently sets you back down and your head falls against the pillow as you struggle to keep your eyes open, spots of black blocking little bits of your vision.

“I’ve been needing someone, I’ve gone through a few, but you, honey, you’re special, and I knew it from the moment I saw you. You can’t leave me, I still need you.”

✪

[taglist; @cjand10]

[daradiostarz]

Cults & Society: The Petersons and the American Dream.

I've never seen anyone in the fandom attempt to discuss this, especially the books. I wouldn't blame you if you took the Aaron trilogy at face value, and to an extent, I only know slightly what the Forest Protector Society cult is on a surface level.

But as someone who is researching on HN1/HN2's inspirations, I cannot ignore Hello Neighbour's (possibly unintentional) symbolism to this, as it was a occurring theme in those media.

So we'll start with very surface-level stuff:

Just like the top of those images, next to the Petersons: they are the poster children of the American suburb's dreams that were advertised back in the '40s to '60s:

The Husband, Wife, and their two kids that was usually a son and daughter.

Even to the tee of the kids looking like their gendered parents.

This is also very important as everyone outside the Petersons is actually an unconventional household:

Nicky despite having both parents, Luanne has never been a traditional homemaker, the closest to that role is Jay (Very well aware Diane is a school teacher too but that was around the end of the Aaron trilogy not the start of it and I also have a comparison between those two). Usually, that kind of dynamic was unheard of and frowned upon.

The same applies to the Esposito and Yis are both single parents specifically on the widow and widower side, usually, stepparents would fill the role of that absent-gendered parent so they could go back to that very rigid gender role they were thrust upon.

Though the Bales also have both parents, there are few depictions of families with just a daughter. As having a son to carry family last names was more thrust upon the society.

Stay with me, so this is no surprise to anybody as much as those pictures depict a happy idyllic family in most depictions of media of this family structure (Especially HN's inspo media: Twin Peaks) They HEAVILY critique how this family structure is rigid if not hurting the individual rather than helping especially when the country at the time really pushed this very heavily: woman was forced to be financially depended on her husband and the man having zero help emotionally but to keep providing the family.

And if things took the worst like let's say a domestic dispute it was only till the 1970s that divorce became more accessible so these people were stuck in these marriages.

And for children, as much Bronisław Malinowski saw the good of this family structure it can take the worse if children take the brunt of the abuse as that period had a "Children should be seen not heard." mentality which you can understand how this will fucked the children up for life.

"Okay yeah they are essentially the American Family but what does this have to do with the Forest Protectors?"

What was the biggest goal of the cult?

Fortune, good luck, a dream if you say... And well we know what the American dream represents but this is the reward for these kinds of Family Values....

Despite that by the end of the Aaron trilogy, Theodore came out the husk of a man he once was, maybe worse. For Ted, he was ruined by the cult and destroyed his image of a renowned theme park designer for the kids, real life?

Breadwinner men like Ted end up chasing that dream, some achieve it and definitely reap the rewards... Some never, but it was something to "look forward to" while those who made the movement made sure they still kept their condition so they can exploit that for the rest of their waking lives till their children is next and they'll be exploited the same way.

And if you have nobody to take this out on, who else but the family you come back to every day?

Now I don't think in general the nuclear family is a bad dynamic there is no perfect family dynamic just the one that works the best, but for HN and what I believe is the criticism of conservatism and how it affects the generation after that, it is something to be very introspective.

Someday I'll do Diane and the kids cause this will get longer than it should be as well as generational trauma and what I believe HN1 was all about which was breaking the cycle (despite it not coming from the son but the son's friend but uh... We got some terrible news for the son).

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

Thinking about how Kipps is everything an adult supervisor should be and it’s those exact reasons he cannot live with himself being one... this was just supposed to be a post of contrasting block quotes and it’s still mostly that but I added a bit of commentary/context:

“The adult supervisors had zero psychic sensitivity and, since they were mortally afraid of going anywhere near an actual Visitor, never ventured far into a haunted zone. Instead, they hung around on the sidelines, being old and useless.” 

- Lucy in The Creeping Shadow

Kipps, meanwhile, during the Guppy escapade:

“The one exception was Kipps, who sat cross-legged in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate and reading a newspaper. He didn’t have sufficient Talents to do psychic exploration.”

(emphasized because he’s actually in the home, none of Lucy’s adult supervisors have ever done that -- also he’s staying out of the way) 

Later, he makes an official suggestion in his capacity as Fittes observer, but when the actual psychic kids reject it, he goes along with their plan anyway. Not only that, they’re actively trying to draw out Guppy and Kipps helps: 

“Lockwood inserted his crowbar into a narrow space between a countertop and the cupboard below.  ‘Kips and I will start,’ he said. ‘The rest of you keep watch”  ....After a bit, he moved back and let Kipps take over with the mallet.

And then :

“We have to go and help him, Kipps,” I said.  Kipps didn’t seem to have moved since Lockwood had left the room. His face was white. He gathered his wits. “Yes. We must. Come on.”

He doesn’t end up having to do anything because George finds the Source a moment later but he’s willing! He can’t see the ghost but he’s gonna go help Lockwood fight it! 

I don’t have my copy of Screaming Staircase with me to double check so I’ll edit this later-- I can’t remember if Lucy asking Jacobs to come into the house and offer advice is in the book or a show addition, but it’s such a contrast!!! 

And then, of course, these are all the reasons that Kipps ends up resigning-

“I just had a realization,” he said when we were on the train and rocking slowly through the south London suburbs. “After the Guppy job. I mean, there we were-- in a house possessed by a wicked and powerful entity, and you all were running around like madmen-- fighting, screaming, being fools-- but dealing with it... I was just a fifth wheel. I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t hear it... I was too old to do anything useful. And that’s what being a supervisor is: it’s a life of sending others out to fight and die. I’ve known that for a while, but it took you to make me realize I couldn’t bear to continue with it.... it was probably another dumb decision... like agreeing to come along with you today. Lockwood says he wants my expertise, but I’m not sure what I can contribute aside from standing around like a fence post. Maybe I can make the tea.” 

which like wow! The acceptance that he no longer has Talent, that his leadership can no longer continue to the way it used to -- which is exactly what an adult supervisor should do -- be there for input, listen to the psychic kids, advise and support-- it’s what Kipps does !  

we very frequently see Kipps actively engaged with his Team in Whispering Skull and Hollow Boy- obviously he has a Prideful streak, he’s pompous and makes mistakes, but we generally see him trust his team and do his best as a Leader. Again, don’t have my copies with me so can’t make the point further in those books, but also remember the reason he falls into hot water with Fittes in the first place is he goes a little rogue-- and the reason for that is because none of DEPRAC or the other Adults know what’s going on with the Chelsea outbreak, and, in the wake of his agent’s death, Kipps doesn’t want to lose anyone else to arbitrary nonsense (there’s something here in direct contrast to Marissa but maybe I’ll expound more in another post) -- instead, he trusts a Talent he actually knows and makes the best choice for his team members 

Which is all to say-- Kipps is a good adult supervisor, but the system isn’t made for good adult supervisors 

[izz-ler]

I've got some more stuff for the vocaloid family au: time for the parents!!!

Details under the cut! (Look at me learning how this cite works woo)

Alright lets start with Miku's parents!

First up, Dad-Miku

Dad-Miku is the middle child of three, bc of that he's become a bit of a people-pleaser from trying to keep the peace between a teenage sister(mom-luka) and a toddler brother(Kaito) when he was a kid. He works at a smaller company in the countryside. His parents(grand-mikus) decided to start a small farm when the kids grew up, and he decided to stay close so that he and his wife could keep an eye on his parents since they're not getting any younger.

Dad-Miku used to dream of becoming a mangaka as a teen, and would self publish small comics that never really got anywhere. He hasn't 100% given up on the idea, but he's not actively pursuing it anymore. He would also help Kaito out with his music since he has a good ear for it.

Miku gets her musical creativity from her dad.

Second is Mom-Miku

Mom-Miku grew up in the outskirts of the city closer to the country with her younger sister(mom-rin/len) she's a very blunt person and says what she thinks if anyone asks, however she knows when to keep it to herself and isn't an overly rude person. She enjoys doing home-DIY projects and helps out her inlaws on the farm whenever she can. She's a wiz in the kitchen, but can't bake for shit. She's not overly judgemental and encourages individuality in her kids and other family members, however she's very much a realist and will tell you when she thinks somethings a bad idea or not, tho she won't stop you.

She gives great advice, and is the one to tell the waiter that her husband asked for mashed potatoes and not fries when out to eat.

Miku takes after her mom in appearance and bluntness.

Third is Mom-Luka

Mom-Luka is a bit of an airhead. She's about 5 years older than Dad-Miku and 12 years older than Kaito, so he's her baby brother, tho they could 100% get into fights when they were younger. She lived at home until she got married, so she got to see both of her brothers grow up. She used to work for an international fashion company which is where she met her husband on a work trip to America. He's Chinese-American and grew up in the States, tho he was willing to move to Japan with Mom-Luka as he wasn't handling the long distance relationship very well. Mom-Luka was very much a stunner in her younger years and Luka has definitely inherited that, tho she's not as ditsy as her mom and takes after her dad more in personality.

Last up is Mom-Rin/Len

Mom-Rin/Len is actually about 10 years younger than her sister, Mom-Miku. She was a bit of a wild-child and party animal in her teens and due to some unfortunate decisions had Rin and Len when she was 17. She doesn't regret it though, because having them made her more responsible. She had to drop out of high-school because of the pregnancy, but managed to get a job at a beauty salon where she worked her way up and got her beauty diplomas so she could get a better pay. She now works and runs a somewhat successful salon and has managed to move her and the kids into the suburbs close to the city, which she's very proud of herself for, especially since she's been a single mother the entire time(she never told the father(bc she didn't know who it was)).

Because she herself was a bit of a rebel, she knows all the ins and outs of sneaky teens which means that Rin and Len can't get away with anything. She doesn't want them to have to deal with the same stuff she did, so she's a bit strict when it comes to school and discipline. But she's not an absolute demon and knows how to party when the time comes.

Mom-Luka likes to go to her salon to get her nails done and Mom-Rin/Len always does it personally, so they're somewhat close.

She likes it when her kids express themselves and encourages them to go crazy with their clothes and hair(hence why Len still has longer hair even though it's against the school dress code). Within reason ofc.

She's very sociable which Rin takes after, but Len's calmness and appearance is starting to remind her of someone as he gets older, tho she can't really put her finger on who.

[zmediaoutlet]

Dean pulls off the highway just past Omaha, some suburb Sam doesn’t catch the name of because he’s been reading on his phone, because they haven’t been talking. He looks up in time to catch the off-ramp, the Taco Bell, the Kum & Go that ordinarily Dean would make a crack about, purely to make Sam roll his eyes. There’s no crack. The car pulls into a gas island and turns off and the driver door—just closes, doesn’t slam, but there’s no discussion of anyone grabbing coffee or Ho-Hos or jerky for the road. Just like the last 450 miles from Wisconsin, there’s no discussion at all.

Sam watches in the side mirror while the c-store door opens, closes. Chews the inside of his cheek. Opens up his contacts and finds Garth’s new number, and texts: Want to make sure you know you can ask us for help if you need it, because he has no idea how Dean left it in that house, when Sam was standing outside not wanting to lean on the Impala, not knowing when he’d get back into it again. Not long before a ping: Happy to hear you say that, amigo! Feels better knowing you and Dean have my back. :)  Sam snorts. In the side-mirror, Dean’s coming back out of the store, and he doesn’t look up while he takes the nozzle off the pump, slots it into the back of the car. He sits on the trunk with his arms folded and Sam looks at the back of his head and then out the windshield, instead. Late in the day. He should be more tired but he’s not. He doesn’t know what he is. His phone pings, again: I really am sorry about how things went down. Nothing I can do can make up for leaving Kevin alone, but let me know if I can help with anything.

Sam swallows. Will do, he texts back, and as he hits send Dean gets back into the car. He glances at Sam’s phone but doesn’t ask. “I’m gonna get a motel room,” he says. His jaw flexes. “Unless—”

“Fine,” Sam says, although it’s not. He wants to go back to the bunker. Wants his own room, wants the cold concrete dark, wants those long hallways that make it feel like there’s a mile between them, even if—three weeks ago—but three weeks ago was a different world, wasn’t it. He didn’t know what was actually living there in the dark with them. What was in him, what Dean had done.

The Corn Queen, rooms $99 a night. Dean idles in front of the office. “Should I get two?” he says, and then clears his throat. “Rooms, I mean. Not—”

A king bed, curling around Dean’s back in the warm, the smell of his hair in the morning. Sam’s stomach hurts. Why did he get back in the car. “I’ll get it,” Sam says, and he does slam the door when he gets out, but he has to get—out, away, and he isn’t polite with the clerk at the desk and he’ll feel bad about that later but the misery of this day is really just catching up with him. How impossible this is going to be. He can’t hate Dean because he just—can’t—but he can’t trust him—but trusting him is fired into his bones, cast in from when he was a kid, when he always wanted to make his own way and find his own answers and live his own life, but he knew in some deep place past conscious decision or thought that if he needed his brother, he would be there. He could reach out and Dean’s hand would grip his and it would be—if not okay, then at least better. He can’t be certain of that, anymore, and even if he can’t hate Dean it’s like the emergency exit door has been ripped off the plane and all the oxygen’s streaming out and there’s no mask to put on, there’s nothing to help.

It’s a motel room. There are two beds. Dean drops his bags on the one closest to the door and folds both of his hands over the back of his neck. He hasn’t shaved in a few days. With his eyes closed he looks as tired as Sam’s ever seen him. Sam wants, and doesn’t, and thinks of how that’s just going to—keep happening. How he’s going to look at Dean and from his marrow will come this innate impulse, and then he’ll remember, and his gut will sour and his heart will beat cold and his hands will stay empty. He dumps his own bags on the other bed. “I’m going to shower,” he says. For something to say.

Dean’s hands drop from the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he says, colorless. Sam shuts himself into the bathroom. Weeks or months or maybe the rest of a life, like this. His hand flexes against his thigh and he breathes out until his lungs are empty. Hollow, still. In his head he commits a murder without knowing and Dean’s hands are pleading on his face and when he opens his eyes he’s in a bathroom, in Nebraska somewhere, alone. His heart pumps sick in the pit of his throat.

Something thuds, loud, out in the room. Sam swallows. He takes a shower.

[73lesbiansinfandoms]

I've been thinking about this for a while, mostly because I went from the House MD fandom back into the Harry Potter fandom.

So I have really been thinking about Wilson in the Harry Potter universe. Specifically him being apart of the Marauders.

He would be a Muggle born wizard who somehow knew more than the entire student body combined. Was sorted into Gryffindor.

He was that person that was incredibly kind and sweet to all, was on first names bases with everyone.

Was the type to get away with everything, like this dude received the most detention slips out of anyone for being out of bed past curfew, but didn't attend a single one and never got called out on it.

Made friends with the House elves and that's how he learned to become such a fantastic cook. His specialty was chocolate cake and them pancakes. (You all know the ones)

Was the first person to befriend Remus and figue out he was a werewolf. Gave him his love for chocolate.

(I don't know if animagi and patronus' can be different but for this they can be but are usually the same.) (Also, also I just have to make dead poets society references. And I love the stories where Neil and Wilson are the same person.)

His animagus form is a brown peregrine falcon, his nickname being Perry or Peregrine. His patronus is a brown bear. (Because generally, he's cute and sweet, but can hurt you if provoked.)

Isn't someone who got made at anyone, would get annoyed and irritated at times but never mad. (Was the middle ground for the fifth year incident that I personally refuse to acknowledge.)

The "James" for Harry's middle name was for both Wilson and Potter, though no one was told otherwise.

He was made Neville's godfather, but Neville's grandmother refused to acknowledge that Wilson was a part of the family.

Dislikes Dumbledore, blames him for all the too young lives lost in the first wizarding war.

Told Remus about the change in secret keeper, and that he should also probably go into hiding for the time being.

(Not even 2 days after the Potter incident, the entire suburb that Remus and Sirius had been living in was all burnt down by Death Eaters.)

Was there when Sirius tracked down Pettigrew. He arrived late and turned everyone around, away from the scene before he approached. So no one actually saw him, only Sirius. Something that Wilson deeply regrets.

Tried to fight for Harry and Sirius, with Remus, but no one was going to believe or trust a werewolf and a wizard who was planning on leaving the wizarding world after the war. Especially since there was no proof that Pettigrew was alive.

Moved to America shortly after the funeral. He swore he would never come back.

Remus and Sirius asked him to come back, and he does, because he'd just had his first proper fight with House and seeing old friends could do him good.

He shows up in order of the phoenix as the new professor for defence against the dark arts. (Umbridge is just there, you know)

Umbridge is the first person that Wilson finds himself genuinely hating.

He gets sacked along with Trelawney, but Dumbledore does the whole they don't have to leave the grounds thing. Umbridge becomes the DADA professor from there.

When Bellatrix escapes Azkaban, Wilson builds up the courage to tell Neville about being his godfather, who promptly breaks down.

Wilson helps Harry teach Dumbledore's Army. And does cool, stylish escape by turning into his animagus form, just before Dumbledore does the thing with the phoenix.

In half blood prince, he returns as a guidance counsellor (lord knows Hogwarts needs one). He is genuinely happy for Snape for getting the position he always wanted.

After the battle of Hogwarts, Harry found Wilson standing in front of Remus' body, just staring with tears running down his face. Harry gave him a hug and all Wilson said was,

"I'm the only one left now."

[bengiyo]

sorry if i am misremembering but you seemed fond of porches, so my random question hour question is: what is you idea of the ideal home you want to live in?

This is a really excellent question because it opens up a complicated analysis of personal, economic, political, and social needs that are worth unpacking.

I think anyone loves the idea of having a lot of space to themselves and all sorts of options in their space around them. When I was younger, I might have been interesting in a mansion or something. Today, I would like a multifamily structure in a shady neighborhood with small streets, a robust gridded street design, access to small and large parks, restaurants and services nearby, robust frequent transit networks, a bicycle network, and it would be near my family and friends.

I have found that I don't actually do well living alone. I am the kind of person who takes better care of myself and my space when I'm also concerned that I might negatively impact someone else. I'd need a space designed so that I could live comfortably with another person and they'd have their own space so we don't trip over each other.

I currently live in a first ring suburb. I like my neighbors. Our families have been close for 30-60 years in some cases. But we're definitely a suburb. Things are far away and I have to use my car to do things most of the time.

I'm kind of a simple boy. Easy creature comforts, a big tv, and a kitchen with all the usual appliances does it for me. I don't like homes designed for entertainment. I like entertaining, but my guests don't live here.

So yeah, I want to live in a walkable neighborhood that lets me enjoy a big TV without me or my roommate getting on each other's nerves.

[poxy-domain]

big fat May post, my main sve farmer!!! art is May over the years, ive talked about her here before briefly but not much

rest of the post under the cut is essentially her backstory, it ended up being WAY longer than i thought it would be though so be warned lol

basic run down of her life pre-farm, is she was average in every sense of the word essentially. she basically had nothing exceptional going for her. she lived in the suburbs outside of zuzu city for a majority of her childhood before going to a cheap 2 year college and eventually working at joja. however, she knew nobody at zuzu city nor was she good at socializing at all. it basically caused her to become a hermit, she would hardly ever go outside aside to go to work and she had a terrible sleep schedule as well as diet, she was overworked and underpaid at joja so she couldn't afford much good or healthy food (she also picks up sign language as a way to avoid social interaction after a while). after basically 4 years of this, she decides to read her grandpa's letter and boom!!! stardew plot happens

she started off kinda terrible at farming ngl, like may legit grew up in peak urban area and she saw barely any plant life, now you expect bro to be a farmer?? LMFAO funny joke bro. having a hard time breaking out of her former hermit lifestyle, she barely talks to anyone outside of small talk with lewis, marnie, pierre, and robin, and those 4 are only because its essential for her job, and lewis is because he knew her grandfather. yippie!!! she went out to the country to start a new life and it really isn't that different from her lonely, sad, former one!!!! may was initially hoping this move would be a cure for all her problems, but seeing that she's still the same person as before, and doesn't have a magical effortless personality glow up does go thru a sort of arc of resenting herself. other villagers try to talk to her but she doesn't really try to manage anything further than small talk. She does have a sort of mutual understanding with sebastian because of both of their introverted natures, as well as geeky interests that may especially got into over her years of being a social recluse. 

This all changes when she gets into the adventurers guild, and i mean actually get into it, when marlon first offered for her to adventure into the caves full of monsters, she initially brushed it off thinking he was exaggerating. “monsters were just some made up story that only existed years and years ago, they’re practically extinct now!” which was basically may’s thought process, as the city intentionally covers up any news coverage related to any magical or monster related topics. may learns this is very much not the truth the hard way. rip bozo, deserved tbh. After this encounter, she starts frequenting the caves much more often for the adrenaline rush, a way to escape the thoughts plaguing her that she really needed to fix herself, not just her environment. She frequents the guild for more supplies and ends up talking (generous term for her nods and hm’s) more to marlon and gil. At first the two of them do wonder about her quietness, but they’re both used to eccentric characters from other guilds so they’re not too bothered by it. marlon even picks up on some sign language for her to use with him when she doesn’t want to talk. The wizard also becomes quite used to her behavior, being even more accustomed to unconventional characters, he even knows sign language so she primarily uses it to talk to him!! may finally finds people more like her in the form of adventurers and mages, it sort of clicks in her head when she starts to learn a bit of magic with rasmodius. her love for the adrenaline rush of adventuring turns to a genuine love of adventuring itself. She also meets krobus and IMMEDIATELY clicks with him, and spends a dubious amount of time in the sewers because of it (the villagers start giving her weird looks for going into the sewers so much so she starts going in through the forest entrance). bro smells terrible. by her second year in stardew, krobus and may end up becoming roommates. he doesn’t mind her silence, though she does become comfortable talking to him more often. 

Also i wanted to show in the art of her getting progressively more muscular from her work as well as tanner, if any y’all notice her scars forming over the years kudos to u lol. She also cuts her hair year 4 but decides to grow it out again by year 7.. i should also prooooobably address her relationship with lance, considering she does get married to him later on. but i kiiinnddaaa wanna write a small fic about that ngl. i will work up to it or write another post on this later lol. but this is getting too long so i’ll end it at year 3. also she totally fucks with isaac. she may be quiet and socially inept but she fucks with people sooo much. devious in nature

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: October Books

I've been very much leaning into the October vibes this month. I've loved the long, cosy nights watching Gilmore Girls and spooky things and wrapping up in PJs and blankets.

Work has been pretty busy and I'm getting stuck into some different areas of library work. I'm still really enjoying learning new things and meeting new people, while figuring out where I ultimately want to end up. I'm still not completely sure that academic libraries is where I want to be long-term but right now, I'm happy enough.

Mark is doing fantastically in his first teaching role. He often tells me about the lovely interactions he has with some of the kids as well as the not so lovely! Overall though, I'm so proud of him for doing so well at such a tough job. I definitely couldn't do it and I admire anyone who does and who sticks at it.

We got the chance to watch The Eras Tour in the cinema this month too. Obviously, I've seen plenty of clips online and we were both so excited! To be honest, I feel like watching it in the cinema was the best way to do it, as we got very comfortable seats, an obviously amazing view and we could hear Taylor without deafening screams in our ears. Of course, we would have actually gone if we'd been able to get tickets but I really didn't feel like we hadn't actually gone!

I have a great range of books to recommend to you this month. As it's October, I suppose there is a bit of a spooky vibe going on but there is still some feel-good book appreciation and cute romance to enjoy too. I hope you find something for you!

-Love, Alex x

FICTION: Welcome To The Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum.

Tired of her busy city life, Yeongju leaves it all behind for a quiet suburb and opens a bookshop. Although it's tough at first, with the help of her regular customers who become friends, Yeongju begins to learn what makes a good bookseller and how she can cultivate a thriving community of readers and writers in the little town of Hyunam-dong. This gentle story is ultimately about a deep love of books and what they can give us. It really doesn't matter to me because I'm much more of a character-led reader but there is very little plot. The setting of the bookshop was so vivid and by the end of the book, I definitely knew my way around it! There is lots of reflection on life, society and capitalism as well as how popular beliefs about how we should live and work can be damaging. In some ways, it could be described as a handbook on how to run a bookshop but the eclectic cast of characters makes it much more readable and enjoyable than that!

ROM-COM: The Good Part by Sophie Cousens.

Lucy is done with running around after her boss and not being taken seriously in the world of TV. She's also tired of still living in a grotty flat with flatmates when it seems like all her friends are growing up and moving on. After another terrible date, she stumbles into a newsagent down a side street and finds a strange wishing machine. Before she knows it, she's waking up 15 years in the future with a husband, two cute kids and a fantastic job in TV but in her head, she's still a struggling, single 26-year-old. Has she really time-hopped or has she somehow forgotten a huge chunk of her life? I could easily see The Good Part as a Richard Curtis-esque film and I would completely eat it up. I have read all of Sophie Cousens' other books but this one is definitely my favourite. I really cared about these characters especially Lucy and her son Felix, who I adored. The story talks about the importance of living through the bad patches of life to get the rewards when they're over, which really spoke to me. It also made me think about all the possible lives we're not living but could be, so while it's an emotional read, it's incredibly hopeful and wise. I'd honestly recommend it to everyone who loves a thoughtful rom-com.

MIDDLE-GRADE: Kevin The Vampire: A Most Mysterious Monster by Matt Brown.

Kevin is an 11-year-old vampire but other than that, he's a regular kid. When he and his family get stuck in a strange town called Lower Drudging, a dark, ancient monster is woken. As Kevin and his family attempt to earn the money to get out of this godforsaken place through putting on a carnival, Kevin and his new friend Susie have to save the town from the evil that is approaching. This fun, kooky middle-grade book is full of cute illustrations and silly humour. The characterisations are quite Roald Dahl-esque with names such as Aunts Vileous and Dingy. The story celebrates differences, promoting kindness and understanding, which the best children's books do. It is the first in a Kevin The Vampire series, so I'm interested on what he gets up to next!

FANTASY: The Witches At The End Of The World by Chelsea Iversen.

In the heart of a Norwegian forest, sisters Kaija and Minna have lived for years with magic running through them. Now Kaija has decided that she has had enough and she's going back to the town that they were exiled from when their mother was burned on accusations of witchcraft. But Minna is determined to stay and continue her practice under the shade of the trees. As an act of revenge, Minna curses the people who took everything from her but she is about to learn that she has just ignited a chain of tragic events that will come back to bite her. I wasn't sure what to expect from this stunning cover and intriguing premise but I really enjoyed this atmospheric dark fantasy and story of sisters who fight horrifically but come together in a crisis. I loved the hints to the real, historic treatment of suspected witches and the importance of passing on generational wisdom. The cold, bleak landscape of the setting was also captivating and the whole book had such a misty, ethereal quality to it.

THRILLER: Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker.

16-year-old Sara Parcell went to school one morning and never came home. When her parents agree to become the focus of a ground-breaking, reality TV show following the case in real time, the case grabs the attention of an entire nation. But is anyone actually anywhere near the truth of what happened? Kill Show is a really interesting novel. It's written in script format and the characters are now ten years on from Sara's disappearance. It's a twisty mystery with a pretty big cast of characters. Not all of them really matter to the story but it is fun to speculate on which of them might do! It's really about our obsession with true crime and the public reaction to white girls going missing. It discusses the danger of sensationalising real horrendous events and will almost certainly make you consider the real reasons you get a kick out of consuming this kind of content. Anything that makes me think about something ticks boxes for me!

[matsunoso]

because you’re also Irish and an Osomatsu fan and idk if anyone else in the fandom would get this I want to share my Osomatsu-san if it was set in Ireland headcanons -

- Karamatsu: talks with a fake D4 accent, idolises Ross O’Carroll Kelly, wears chinos and brown brogues, drinks Bulmers

- Osomatsu: big Guinness fan naturally propping up the pub maybe like half doing a crossword and eating a pack of peanuts

- Choromatsu: wanted to get into TCD to live his Normal People lifestyle but ummm didn’t, claims he’s a fluent gaeilgeoir but only knows how to ask to the toilet in Irish

- Ichimatsu: hung out at central bank in the day

- Jyushimatsu: massively into hurling, wears a Kilkenny jersey a lot but isn’t from there

- Todomatsu: also wanted to get into TCD but didn’t basically lives at Brown Thomas

- Chibita: has a strong cork accent, works in a deli in centra/spar/mace

- Todoko: did Irish dancing as a kid but now is an aspiring influencer

hope you enjoy and sorry

OH THIS IS INCREDIBLE literally never in a million years expected to get an ask like this but i loveeeee it. you're so enlightened like this is genuinely magical i wouldn't change a thing.. love cork chibita love ichimatsu at the central bank GAA JYUSHIMATSU SPEAKS TO ME DEEEEEEEPLYYYY

not a concept i ever pondered myself but thinking about it so much now... influencer wannabe todoko doing hauls from dealz and home savers and mr price (cus she usually can't afford hauls from anywhere else) maybe getting to do one of those ads for swappie just once

in the same vein as choromatsu claiming to be a gaeilgeoir but not actually being able to speak it i imagine like. how karamatsu says random words in english to seem #worldly. he does that with irish instead or like deep cut irish slang/phrases that he would not have grown up with at all and gets them wrong half the time.

choromatsu is definitely in forbidden planet like weekly if not daily. goes in there and then brings whatever manga he bought to that clockwork door place up the road and hopes someone asks him what he's reading

struggling to decide who would be a bigger fiend for elfbars out of osomatsu and karamatsu so i'll just leave that thought there

i want one of them to be obsessed with mooju. i don't know which. all of them probably. especially osomatsu and jyushimatsu i think. they could get the strawberry and banana flavours to match their colours.. imagine.. i think ichimatsu likes the cookies and cream flavour but secretly

thinking about jyushimatsu so hard man like the rest probably stick to dublin/whatever suburb of it they live in just cus they seem the sort to not afford to live in the city centre LMAOOO not in a house with 6 adult kids..... but i know jyushimatsu does be getting on the bus/train every week and just disappearing off all over the country for funsies (he's the only one with an autism diagnosis so he's got that sweet sweet free travel card.) like you know how you get those dubliners that are fucking terrified to leave the county or even just the city because "scary culchies ewww boggers" or whatever. todomatsu is definitely one of those maybe choromatsu too (he pretends not to be scared but he is). osomatsu jokes but doesn't actually care. karamatsu pretends to be #cultured and not scared as well but the furthest he's been is like... skerries. nowhere further than the dart or dublin bus goes. ichimatsu is scared even just in dublin and thinks he's gonna get stabbed like all the time so it's all the same to him

BUT YEAH jyushimatsu goes literally everywhere cities towns parishes villages you name it. maybe brings ichimatsu along with him sometimes cus ichi does wanna go & i bet loves the countryside but is too scared by himself and needs someone to hide behind. jyushi goes to sooooo many GAA matches gaelic footballs ok but as you said MASSIVELY INTO HURLING!!!! one of those lads you see walking around with a hurl in hand nearly everywhere he goes.. got that o'neills mála scoile... i know you said he wears a kilkenny jersey a lot which is another INSPIRED idea but i feel in my heart that he has a galway one too just because he loves supermacs. they all love supermacs. i'm projecting now. also jyushi definitely tears up those greenways he'll do the royal canal one and then detour from mullingar to athlone and at the end still be like when are they gonna finish connecting this up to galway :/

sorry i didn't expect to write this long of a reply you've ignited something evil within me i'm going to be thinking about this forever. thank you SO much you have such a wonderful wonderful brain