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viscountessevie · 2 years ago

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The ‘Whites’ Who Loved Me: Interracial Romance, Hollywood, and Bridgerton’s “Post-Racial” Fantasies

Written By Tré Ventour-Griffiths

Public Historian-Essayist | Poet | Speaker: race, whiteness, Black History, dyspraxia/autism and more

[Took me a couple days to write this up but we finally did it so enjoy reading yall!]

This article was sent to me and our group by Lav @sweetestviscount and it pretty much hits the nail on why POC fans - especially Black and Brown fans - of the show who came for the diversity and the respective seasons that repped their communities are so disappointed with the way these characters have been treated. I urge everyone to go read the whole article in full! It’s well-structured, very comprehensive with his sources cited and linked, drops a lot of great truth bombs in the most subtle yet blunt manner that had me gasping so many times because HE IS RIGHT!

Anyways click under the cut only once you’ve read the whole essay and enjoy these highlights and my fave parts of the article with me!

[Note: This became longer than I expected so you all may want to sit down and read this when you have the time!]

Right out of the gate, he explains the use of ‘whites’ in the title which I thought was employed perfectly but glad he gave an explanation still before anyone could get in a huff (and oh boy did people get huffy but more on that later)

To reiterate the last line: the article is purely opinion as is my commentary of the article, that being said doesn’t it say something that this article resonated so deeply with my WoC fandom friends?

I also had a little giggle when he said it’s not research (though he probably clarified this for legal/academic reasons) when he really did put a lot of thought and research into this like I said above, there’s a lot of related links that I will definitely be going through when I have the time!

The Main Thesis of the Essay which is found at the top/sub-header once you click the article is essentially this:

There is a wider dominant media culture and narrative that situates Black and Brown people in interracial relationships only as worthy of love when in proximity to a white person and white families.

And in this article, the author essentially unpacks how and why Bridgerton feeds into this culture and narrative. To me personally, it feels more insidious coming from Bridgerton’s production because their very first and main selling point from Day & Season 1 was that it’s a very diverse show especially with casting actors of different races! This will be explained more in depth by the author and I’ll share screenshots. However now as the seasons go by, and the show featuring more white people thus making it like every other Regency show/movie from the 2000s which,,, what’s new?

I have also spoken about this topic before especially in regards to Mindy Kaling and Shondaland’s works. However, it’s important for me to share this point of view as well. This article to me was also the embodiment of “Ohmygod he put it into words!” So it’s definitely more thorough and in-depth compared to what I’ve said before. Especially since I come from an Indian POV while Tré, the author, provides the POV of a Black person.

Now to my favourite bits and lines!!

That being said, Bridgerton is not an anomaly, but part of an American film and television complex in Hollywood where whiteness dictates who is worthy of love on screen. Such programmes include Master of None, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Girlfriends, Dear White People and Modern Family — which ‘legitimise’ the desire of Black and Brown people as only possible in proximity to a white person — accredited their ‘human status’ via affiliations with ‘white others’.

I AM LOVING THIS SONG! Honestly, if you boil this essay down to these sentences and it relates back to the main thesis statement above: “whiteness dictates who is worthy of love on screen. [Whiteness] ‘legitimise’ the desire of Black and Brown people as only possible in proximity to a white person — accredited their ‘human status’ via affiliations with ‘white others’.”

[God I could write a whole other essay on Aziz Ansari & Master of None. I would do anything to put him and Mindy in a room and write something completely insane chock full of internalised racism against our Indian community kjhdkjas.]

Okay but THIS WHOLE SECTION:

It speaks for itself and I have nothing to add, nor is it my place to do so!

[Also again yall please go give the actual article all the love because everything linked deserves a read too especially to give us a wider context and information of everything!]

THIS BIT HOWEVER:

Kate ends up married to Anthony, with Bridgerton reinforcing the Great White Hope of interracial relationships on mainstream television.

Mr. Tré I AM CACKLING!! ‘Great White Hope’ took me the fuck out because, he’s so so right. I love Anthony as much as the next person - yall know this. I am actually Show Anthony (with his book mortality issue and reckless with his life tendencies) but he is a whole clown and like Tré said, him and the rest of the other Bridgertons being white just fortifies the ‘Great White Hope’ narrative Hollywood has going on.

Okay so these two parts of the same para:

Every time people praise Bridgerton for its ‘diversity’, I am reminded how the ‘the diversity’ ended up being married into white families and thus ‘embodied property’ — as Aileen Moreton Robinson discusses in her 2015 book The White Possessive.

It’s the way THREE of the ‘prominent’ families of the Ton and show are all white - the titular Bridgertons, their foils Featheringtons and the villains, Cowpers. We couldn’t even get some adopted kiddos?? Complete blind casting like the Prince from Brandy’s Cinderella and his parents?

If Bridgerton aimed to do anything provocative, it would have been more useful to have been a Wakanda-esque regency fantasy world with a token white character (heck, Black Panther even has a token white man in Everett K. Ross played by Martin Freeman).

THIS would have been fun to see in Bridgerton. An example - other than Everett - that comes to mind is Nick in Wedding Season who was the token white character who was the butt of the jokes in the best way. He was also very endearing and respectful of his fiancee and their family but didn’t take focus away from the main characters! All of whom were mostly Indian and Damian Thompson who played James, the main girl’s British boss which was brilliant! So refreshing to watch a story that was about my culture and it wasn’t centred on a white person and both of the leads were Indian!

Tré also calls out the show for never resolving Simon’s SA. Now there’s no reason to do so since Regé left and we saw how it was erased in S2 😭😭.

He then breaks down the roles each of the main Black characters played on the show in S1:

He goes on to compare the other media that’s been doing better especially in terms of showing Black love, namely Sandition with Georgiana Lamb and Otis Molyneux and showcasing the Black Tudors in love in The Spanish Princess. He also cites more sources and academic articles to back up his previous points.

I really want to play THIS song for everyone though:

if the Bridgerton showrunners wanted to depict Desi women, where are the Desi men? Bridgerton is a show that has used the popularity of D&I to garner record viewing numbers and it has worked par excellence, while at the same it is a white show pretending to be a diverse.

WHERE ARE THE DESI MEN??

Papa Sharma my beloved!! Lord Sheffield could have easily been an Indian man with a different last time, we could have just left the name Sheffields unmarred and in the old books.

So not only did Mary’s classist parents and her marriage become a class issue, but it has an extra touch of xenophobia all because Papa Sharma was from India! The man was literally a ROYAL PERSONAL secretary to the King and was closer in proximity to a royal than Lord Sheffield himself ever will be AND THEY STILL had a problem with him?

We could have also given Mary a hot brother or something, give the Sharmas girls a cool fun uncle to help them navigate the London season or something!

And of course this is what we’ve all been saying for a while now:

[Bridgerton] used the popularity of D&I [Diversity & Inclusion] to garner record viewing numbers and it has worked par excellence, while at the same it is a white show pretending to be a diverse.

That’s it. That’s the sentence, it speaks for itself.

However, in a 2015 article, Kavita Bhanot writes that “The concept of diversity only exists if there is an assumed neutral point from which ‘others’ are ‘diverse’.” That default point is white.

Ms Kavita Bhanot is R i g h t! Unfortunately, the default IS white that's why that demographic always needs to centre themselves in conversations like these (more on that later - maybe a separate post on how this article was received on Tré's Twitter) and the majority always yell online about how "everything is woke nowadays" when talking about racial (and queer) diversity in media.

Why is the default white though? It's not as if people of colour just randomly materialised out of thin air in the 70s. If we put all of us together we certainly outnumber white people, so why is that not represented in mainstream media?

For the first paragraph, let me be very clear, it’s not that we didn’t know or want Polin AT ALL. We knew from the start - especially those who had read the books before and after S1 - that Polin will be endgame and canon in S4.

What we didn’t expect was for them to be the leads a season earlier than expected and to be heavily promoted across every season, take up space in Kathony’s season and already being centred in their own love story. It’s the unfair favouritism and treatment they are getting over Jimone and Kathony. Them being S3′s leads also completely sidelines a show fan favourite Benedict and the chance for us to see another WOC lead in Sophie being loved up by this incredibly charming Bridgerton that GA has fallen in love with! Because after Sophie, there wouldn’t be a WoC romantic lead til Lucy if we ever get to S8.

We just thought we’d get one more season of ‘the most diverse’ Regency show before they turned it 70% white. [Also Bridgerton has officially lost that title when Mr. Malcolm’s List is right there but I digress, that’s a review post for another day!]

It does not help that a big part of the extreme side of that sub fandom gloats every time something goes in their favour and are completely oblivious as to how awful they sound. You are literally gleefully celebrating in the fact that the cast of colour is being ignored and overlooked for your white faves. As if that doesn’t happen every fucking day of our real lives.

Also let’s talk about this bit:

[Black-ish] still feels like a series tailored to the delicate sensibilities of the white people who do not have any Black friends!

I can’t comment directly on Black-ish (I just couldn’t get into the show’s humour - Mix-ish was more my speed!) as I didn’t watch past the pilot and Tré knows best so I’m taking his word for it!

I brought up this part because that’s exactly how I have been feeling about this show lately. Yes, I’m sure many fans of colour like myself signed up for the show to see ourselves represented in a world where we could be the leads when we couldn’t be before. But now the racial diversity rep feels so incredibly superficial and there just to fill a quota. I LOVE the Mondrichs, don’t get me wrong but why are they still there? They were very heavily tied to Simon. However what I was hoping for in S2, is that they could have made them friends with Kathony with the Simon-Anthony connection. Maybe Anthony visiting the boxing ring again to let off some steam but nope Will is gonna start a bar! Where Colin can commit a microaggression against him YAY /s.

Because of this superficiality and most fans of colour leaving the fandom and no longer tuning in for S3, it feels like the majority of people left behind (note; I don’t mean ALL just a big portion) feel like those kind of people who only appreciate the racial diversity so that they can pat themselves on the back for watching something that has a diverse cast in it. It’s very much giving “I can’t be racist because I have POC friends!” While they turn around and either ignore microaggressions/racially charged attacks other people in the fandom commit. Or worse: commit microaggressions themselves, don’t see ANYTHING wrong with what they did, get defensive and never learn when called out for it. It’s just exhausting to see these type of people on my dash and tags across social media.

The next few sections of the article goes back to the thesis statement of the article and then Tre makes really great comparisons to If Beale Street Could Talk and Moonlight (both by Barry Jenkins) and how they are “so important — when leading white characters are absent from the story.” It’s really great how he breaks it all down!

I want to bring light to this part since this has been a point of heated discussion in our fandom. Especially before they announced who S3 was actually going to be about and everyone was speculating once again who Sophie could be:

Simon didn’t come back cos of Regé’s departure (no one’s fault really) and they didn’t recast him (which as much as I wouldn’t have minded and I even have some fan casts in mind, it wouldn’t have flown with the GA) and now we know the Sharmas aren’t coming back with Chari doing her romcom and Shelley doing The Boys spin off - though they severely under-utilised Shelley as Mary anyways so I’m glad she just took the check and bounced.

So NaniCoolJ is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. It IS a rotation of people of colour as if we are just interchangeable.

With the Sophie casting speculation and fan cast, it felt like everyone was fighting for their lives to be represented in Sophie and as someone on here pointed out, it was starting to feel like the show and fans were trying do a racial Pokemon Catch It All with all the Bridgerton spouses (except Pen and Philip who have already been cast) and trying to fit as many different ethnicities as we can with the limited spots we have. Honestly it’s only 4 of them left - Sophie, John and Michael (though I imagine they won’t be adopted cousins) and Lucy.

[SPOILER FOR SHOW FANS]

If we ever get to see them, Gareth and his family are Black since Lady Danbury is.

Do you see how incredibly fucked up it is, that out of ALL the three main families, we fans of colour are only represented as MAIN leads/characters by 7/9 of the spouses (including John)? That’s only 7 (potential) POC leads vs the current 18 white leads. As it stands, it’s only 2 against 18 are currently in the show - Regé as Simon and Simone as Kate. If we count Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte, that’s 4 but still a HUGE disparity in numbers. I focused on Simon and Kate since they are the romance leads as this is a romance show even if production forgets that most times.

Just some numbers to think about, next time yall wanna yell that the show is super diverse. Don’t even get me started on how some Polins use Nic/Pen’s weight as a ‘body diversity’ bargaining chip to completely invalidate what fans of colour are saying and using it to be against racially diverse casting. It just makes their body positivity activist come across as performative when you have to put down one form of diversity to uplift the other. This is more uncomfortable when you realise that Nicola herself has said multiple times that she doesn’t want people commenting on her body - positively or negatively and she DOES NOT want to be a body diversity activist. But more on that in another post since this is getting long enough!

And now the racists are back, louder than ever, sigh. It was bad enough they were slut shaming and throwing racial slurs at Marina and whoever defended her post-S1 and I was even privy to some of it still happening during pre and post-S2. Not to mention how Simone and Charithra were treated in different ways after their castings were announced. Now with their favourites being front and centre, they have become more insufferable and horrible to the rest of the fandom thinking they are above consequences. It’s really vile the things people will say behind the shield of anonymity.

Tré then goes on to reference the The Blindian Project which sounds super cool and established to build solitary with Black and Brown communities which is such a vibe.

Honestly I feel like most of us on here do get along well and band together against the racists so that’s been a great support system for all of us. Just to say once again, I am always here for you guys. I know all of this is so frustrating to experience and now we have this author outside of the fandom validating our experience. It kinda takes the load off, for me at least. And any time yall need to vent about how its all going in the fandom, my asks and DMs are always open.

Tré goes on to say this, which becomes even more relevant with all the white ladies arguing with him that “fAt ReP iS juSt aS iMpoRtAnT.” Which to be clear I’m not discounting that having fat rep is important. It IS important. However, this is not the conversation happening in the article. As I said above, it feels EXTREMELY performative of them to centre the conversation on a fat white woman when the conversation is about race and how Black and Brown characters are being sidelined and we don’t even have other ethnicities represented at all (not in a leading role at least).

whiteness must be discussed always, even in the politics of love on and off screen. With the breadth of romance on screen still necessitating white people, there is a problem that in a dominant culture of white supremacy it says: ‘Black and Brown people are incapable of love, unless when a white person is present, or if this text is a ‘race show’ or ‘race film’.

These ladies in his replies really read that paragraph (or maybe they didn’t wouldn’t put it past them to just read the title and argue with him for the sake of it.) and specifically the line “whiteness must be discussed always, even in the politics of love on and off screen“ and decided to go “Ah yes, I’m going to discuss my whiteness now.”

Also to Elora, Julia and Tanya (idc I’m naming names): to hijack a necessary conversation on race in Bridgerton by discussing fat representation denies the very real history of racism in the television/film industry and is quite frankly a disgusting case of whataboutism. This isn’t about you and as my friend Triv said (who also helped me phrase this paragraph), “Remember, it wasn't the fat woman who got sat at a segregated table at the Oscars even as she won the award; it was the Black woman.”

It’s so incredibly insensitive of them to diminish what Tré and the fandom is saying by throwing weight in our faces. I bet you, these women wouldn’t blink an eye if a fat WoC was cast on the show, they would probably still overlook her for their favourite girlboss.

And for the finale:

Took us a while but we made it! Much like most of his article, this conclusion speaks for itself and so I shall leave it be.

I have mostly said what I had to say in this commentary. Honestly, it got so long because it’s multiple conversations we’ve had all over the last few months all contained and condensed into one post. These concerns have also been a long time coming, it’s so good to let it out and try to move on now. Thank you once again to Tré for writing piece and vocalising a lot of the POC fans and our friends have been thinking for a while now.

Thank you to everyone who read the article and this post all the way through, hope you enjoyed reading it and feel validated in other people sharing the same sentiments as you. Please know none of you who feel this way are alone and we’re all here for you and as I said earlier, asks and DMs are always open!

#Bridgerton #Bridgerton Fandom #Bridgerton Production #Anti Bridgerton #Anti-Bridgerton S3 #I'm not tagging the other anti tags because EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS

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nicknellie · 3 years ago

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Anonymous requested: Carrie and Flynn play love interests on TV, and viewers ship them together hard core, not knowing that off camera there is some MAJOR pining (hidden by fake “hatred” for each other) happening. featuring background willex being exasperated by their lesbian friends not knowing how to function around each other?

I’m sorry you sent such an amazing request and then I effectively left you on read for literally months. Seriously anon, this is glorious, I had so much fun writing it. I got like 1.5k words in and realised I had not yet got to anything even close to your request, so there’s quite a bit of background, but I’m still happy with how it turned out (even if it is a lot angstier than you were probably expecting). I really hope you like it, thank you for being so patient!

She Was a Goddamn Dream

Despite the way she acted, there weren’t actually that many things that Carrie Wilson was completely and utterly certain that she was good at. There was her singing and dancing, but every time she watched back recordings of her performances she would pick out a dozen things she could have improved upon; there was her acting, but every time it got to the tenth take of a scene she began to feel like she was messing up time and time again, tripping over her words, delivering her lines flatly with no emotion; there was her frequent attempts to connect with her fanbase, but every now and then a fan would take it too far and she would feel like the one who had ruined it all. People could tell her those things didn’t matter or that they weren’t her fault as many times as they liked, but it never stopped them gnawing away at Carrie’s self-esteem, making her feel like sometimes she didn’t deserve the fame or renown she had built for herself over the years.

But there was one thing she knew for a fact that she was good at: being in love with Flynn Taylor and hiding it.

Carrie had first met Flynn in elementary school. She had been playing with her long-time best friends Alex and Julie when little Flynn, a new student, had walked up to them and asked if she could join in because their game (something about aliens and cowboys if Carrie remembered correctly) looked really fun. Carrie could still recall how Flynn had looked that day, even if it was going on twenty years ago – her hair hung down by her shoulders in cute twists, she had worn a bright pink t-shirt and blindingly yellow dungarees, and she wore sneakers that lit up when she stamped her feet.

Carrie remembered thinking how cool Flynn looked (for a six-year-old) and something inside her had turned defensive. She had advocated for leaving Flynn out of the game, claiming they already had enough players and it would ruin it if they had any more, but Julie had pointed out that if Flynn joined, they would have an equal number of aliens and cowboys so Alex wouldn’t be so outnumbered by the two of them anymore. Carrie had quickly been outvoted, Flynn had been allowed to play with them, she and Julie had clicked in an instant, and Carrie decided that day that she didn’t like Flynn Taylor, not one bit.

For a few years, things had been a little rough. Carrie wasn’t shy about how much she disliked Flynn, but in return Flynn didn’t mind telling anyone who would listen about how much she hated Carrie. The two of them would bicker and squabble and argue over the tiniest of things, and Carrie only realised how bad it was getting when Julie blew up at them.

It was sometime in their freshman year of high school and their feud had been going on for years without showing any signs of letting up. Julie had been going through the worst time of her life; her mother (Rose, who was the closest thing Carrie had to a mother as well, but she knew it wasn’t the same thing) had passed away, she was facing getting kicked out of the music programme for lack of participation, her family was considering moving house, and every day it seemed like more and more things got added to her list of things that were going wrong in her life. Carrie and Flynn had made a silent agreement to put their arguing on hold for Julie’s sake, knowing their friend didn’t need that extra stress in her life right then. And for a while, it had been going well.

Until suddenly it was going badly again.

The three of them were having a movie night at Carrie’s house and everything was great. They were watching their favourite films, eating copious amounts of junk food, talking and laughing and having fun, and Carrie couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Julie smile so much. It had all been going so well.

But then Flynn suggested a movie, but Carrie had wanted to watch something else, and one thing had led to another until they were yelling at each other in the middle of Carrie’s living room, the whole world dropped away around them to the point that all they could focus on was each other. They were so enraptured in their argument that neither of them heard Julie’s phone chime, neither of them watched her open a text from her dad, neither of them saw the tears slide down her cheeks as she read it. Neither of them noticed anything was wrong until Julie tried to suppress a sob but instead just made it come out louder than it would have. Flynn and Carrie had turned to face her, argument forgotten in an instant, and rushed to comfort their friend.

Julie had kind of lost it that night. She had told them everything on her mind from the text she’d just received from her dad telling her they’d officially found a buyer for the house to the fact that she had been exhausted for years from all their arguing. She explained that she thought recently the two of them were finally getting better, finally working on having a civil relationship, and maybe something was finally going right for her because they wouldn’t be at each other’s throats all the time anymore.

“I guess not,” she had said defeatedly, fiercely scrubbing at her face in an attempt to dispel any of her tears, “because you two were just faking it for me. I told you I didn’t want anyone to tiptoe around me like I’ll break if I’m dropped, but you still did. I thought you guys would understand that I just want things to be normal again.”

“We were only trying to make things easy on you,” Carrie explained, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Yeah,” Flynn agreed, “we never meant to upset you, Jules.”

Julie had scoffed. “Yeah, well, you’ve done a great job of that.”

Julie had apologised for it all in the morning, but Carrie didn’t blame her for anything she’d said the night before. She had clearly got a lot off her chest that she really needed to, and everything she had said to Carrie and Flynn had been deserved in a way. Carrie knew that her and Flynn’s intentions had only been good, but Julie had asked for reality, and they hadn’t given her that.

Which had got Carrie thinking – in this situation, what was her reality?

For years and years, she would have said she hated Flynn. She would have believed it, too. She would have said that from the moment they’d met on that playground, Flynn had been her worst nightmare. But when she thought back on everything, how she saw Flynn even when they were fighting, she couldn’t call Flynn a nightmare.

She was a goddamn dream.

Carrie had spent night and day thinking about what Flynn really meant to her, why she made her so angry, whether it was really anger at all, and she had come to a revelation that really wasn’t as surprising to her as it should have been. It turned out that it wasn’t anger at all, it was a severe case of repression and Carrie Wilson was very much a lesbian.

That was another thing she knew she was good at – repressing things.

Though she was kind of underwhelmed by her epiphany (really, she thought, she should have worked it out a lot sooner), it did make things harder. Now she knew that she didn’t want to argue with Flynn, she wanted to kiss her, and that was very inconvenient. They didn’t argue as much anymore anyway, making a genuine effort to like each other rather than pretending for Julie’s sake, but that just meant that Flynn smiled at her more often and laughed at Carrie’s snarky jokes and it was nearly impossible not to fall at her feet in worship every time she so much as breathed.

So Carrie got very good at pretending she wasn’t in love with Flynn. By the time they were halfway through freshman year, they were friends and nobody ever pointed out that Carrie felt much more than friendship. Things in all their lives began to improve – Carrie and Flynn were no longer feuding, Julie ended up not moving house and got back into the music programme when she started a band, and she got herself a boyfriend – Luke – who made her the happiest Carrie had ever seen her.

(It had prompted many a discussion about whether or not Carrie and Flynn had anyone in mind they wanted to date. Carrie had panicked and said Nick, the school’s star lacrosse player who she had spoken to maybe three times and was definitely not her type. Flynn had given a suspicious hum and said she was still figuring out what it was she wanted; Carrie had excused herself and had a ten-minute panic in the bathroom over the implications of that.)

By the time university rolled around, Julie entered the big leagues with Julie and the Phantoms, deciding not to pursue further education but instead focus on her career, while Carrie and Flynn had gone to the same performing arts school. The same performing arts school where they’d been hired by the same agent. The same agent who kept getting them roles on the same shows together. It was a ticking time bomb, Carrie knew, and it went off a few days after her twenty-fourth birthday.

Carrie had been hired to play Flynn’s love interest in the third season of a show that Flynn had been cast in two years previously.

The truth was, it was both a dream come true and a living nightmare all at the same time. For one thing, Carrie adored the show and had been aching for a role on it since it came out. But on the other hand, she would be Flynn’s love interest, and according to the scripts they would have their first on-screen kiss at the end of the season – Carrie always made sure to separate her work from reality, but in her mind, kissing Flynn was kissing Flynn, no matter what disguise it was hidden by, and it was what she would have to do if she wanted the job.

She tried not to panic, she really did, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to not be panicked by, which was where everything started to fall apart.

It was the day of the kiss scene and Carrie was a wreck (which was putting it kindly). She had been pacing back and forth in her trailer in front of Alex for more than half an hour, trying not to mess up her hair every time she ran her hands through it, saying words but not making any sense.

“Carrie,” Alex said, equal parts firm and amused. Carrie stopped her pacing and turned to face him so fast she was surprised she didn’t get whiplash. “Will you please stop moving? You’re making me travel sick.”

“Very funny,” she deadpanned, but nonetheless she crashed down next to him on the little couch, flopping against him and resting her head on his shoulder. He easily threw an arm around her and she closed her eyes, trying to ignore the stress she was under, but the pounding of her heart made it very difficult.

“Talk to me,” Alex said. “What exactly is it that’s getting you so worked up here?”

“I have to kiss Flynn,” Carrie grumbled.

“And that’s a bad thing?” Alex asked.

“No,” Carrie groaned. “Don’t ask stupid questions. It’s a good thing, which is why I’m mad about it. Keep up, Alex.”

She felt him shake with a badly hidden laugh and scowled. “There’s no point asking me to keep up when you’re at least a hundred steps ahead of me. Explain it to me, get it off your chest.”

Carrie groaned dramatically but nonetheless she lifted her head and turned to face Alex, looking him in the eye.

“Fine,” she said heavily. “I’m in love with Flynn.”

Alex nodded. “Yep.”

“We have been acting like we’re in love with each other for the entirety of this season.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s been longer than that–”

Carrie smacked his arm and he grinned devilishly. “Don’t interrupt me. We’ve been acting like we’re in love with each other for the entirety of this season, and now I have to kiss her.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Helpful,” Alex said with an expression that suggested it was anything but helpful.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you?” Carrie asked. She was almost certain that Alex was messing with her now, forcing her to admit what he already knew because he probably thought it would do her some good, and she didn’t know if she was grateful for that or not.

Alex just nodded once.

“Fine,” she conceded. “I don’t want to kiss Flynn because I want to kiss Flynn. If I kiss her on the show, it won’t be real, but I won’t be able to stop thinking about it anyway. I won’t be able to stop myself from wanting to do it again, but not as our characters – as us. I already want to kiss her half the time and I know that’ll only get worse once I’ve done it for real. But I won’t be able to do it again unless it’s scripted because Flynn doesn’t love me back. Do you see my problem now?”

Alex was silent for a beat, his face working through a thousand different emotions in one go. He opened his mouth to reply, closed it again, and whipped out his phone, opening up a message.

“Oh, this is how it is?” Carrie said indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest. “I spill my secrets to you and your response is to text someone instead of reacting at all?”

“I’m texting Willie,” he explained. “I’m asking him something.”

“What?”

That moment, Alex’s phone pinged with a text from Willie. He opened it up, smirked, and showed Carrie the screen.

Alex’s text read: hey, Flynn is in love with Carrie right?

Willie’s reply said: only for like ten years, yeah

Carrie read the messages. Then she read them again. Then she read them a third time, refreshed the chat, and read it again. Then she swiped Alex’s phone from his hand and turned it off, chucking it across the trailer so it landed in a pile of clothes she’d been meaning to get washed.

“Okay,” Alex said. “What was that for?”

“That’s not helpful,” Carrie whined. “How do you expect me to focus now that’s in my head?”

Alex blinked bewilderedly. “Because now you know Flynn loves you back. Which means you two can get together. You’d be able to kiss off-screen, and you were literally saying that’s what you wanted about two minutes ago.”

“But she doesn’t love me back,” Carrie said like Alex was being particularly dense.

“Were we reading the same messages?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Yes,” Carrie stressed, “but you’re wrong. She’s never flirted with me or said anything that might sound even a little bit like she thinks of me that way or anything like that. There’s no way she likes me.”

Alex opened his mouth, presumably to argue with her, but at that moment the door of the trailer opened and someone popped their head in to call Carrie to set. She thanked them and they closed the door as she got up to get ready. Alex heaved an exasperated sigh and said, “It’ll be fine, okay? If it helps in any way, just focus on the fact that it’s not you and Flynn – it’s Monica and Kai. It’s your character, not you. Got it?”

“Yes,” Carrie lied, leaving the trailer. “I’ve got it.”

Walking to set felt like walking to her death. Carrie was certain that nothing good would come out of this scene. The kiss would look realistic, yes, but she couldn’t truthfully claim that was because she was a good actress – it would only look real because it was real for her.

She arrived on set and steeled herself, going over her lines in her head and trying to ground herself. She’d been on this set so many times throughout the season; it was Kai’s apartment (Flynn’s character, a charming DJ with a rebellious streak and secret penchant for art and literature), utterly trashed after it had been broken into the previous episode. According to the script, Monica – Carrie’s character – would be helping Kai clean things up when Kai got upset about the whole situation, and it would fall to Monica to help her calm down and search through all her feelings. It would end with a big revelation as they admitted their love for one another, and their kiss would fade to black, ending the episode and the series.

On paper, it looked good. In Carrie’s mind, it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to her, but all she could do was go with it.

All thoughts of calming herself down bled out of her mind the moment Flynn walked onto set. She was in costume, a bright red tracksuit and minimal makeup, and she was smiling from ear to ear. The look was nothing special, but it was beauty if Carrie had ever seen it. Comparing herself to Flynn, she felt underdressed, even though her costume of a floral summer dress and cream-coloured cardigan was much less casual than Flynn’s.

When Flynn turned and met Carrie’s eye, she smiled that wonderous smile of hers, the one that made Carrie feel like they were the only two people in existence, everything else dropping away from them. She tried to smile back, but it was weak and close to a grimace, so she turned away to save herself the embarrassment.

And five minutes later, they began the scene.

To begin with, it went well. Carrie immersed herself in the role of Monica, playing up her concern for Kai, making sure to watch her with the most obvious heart-eyes she could manage (which wasn’t difficult). When Kai broke down crying, Monica rushed to her side, wrapped her in the tightest embrace possible, and tried not to cry herself. She leaned in close and whispered the words she had so painstakingly memorised into her ear.

“This wasn’t your fault,” she breathed. “You could never have known this would happen.”

“But it did happen,” Kai sobbed, her breath rattling heart-wrenchingly. “They targeted me. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Monica said softly, holding Kai tighter. “I can’t imagine how anyone would ever want to hurt you like this. Or hurt you at all. You don’t… you’ve been through so much, Kai, and you don’t deserve any of it. You’re the best person I’ve ever known. I wish I had those magic words that would somehow fix all this, but I don’t. All I can do is be here for you because that’s what you deserve. You deserve someone who’ll pick you up when you’re down, someone who will go out of their way to make you happy in life, someone who would love you forever and not think about stopping that for a second.”

Kai drew back a little but remained close enough to look Monica in the eye. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying… I… Kai, I…” The words died in Monica’s throat.

“I love you,” Kai finished, the start of an incredulous half-smile on her face.

“Yeah,” Monica whispered. “I love you, Kai.”

“God, I love you too.”

And then when they surged together, meeting in a fierce kiss, it suddenly wasn’t Monica and Kai anymore. This was Carrie and Flynn, kissing each other like they meant it, hard and fast and unrestrained and everything Carrie had ever imagined. More than Carrie had ever imagined. Flynn’s intensity hit her like a truck, but for once she wasn’t one to complain. She gave as good as she got, all that built up longing releasing itself in one fell swoop. Carrie Wilson was kissing Flynn Taylor and it was the most incredible thing she’d ever felt.

The call of, “Cut!” broke them apart. For a moment, Carrie looked into Flynn’s eyes, trying to read what was written in them, but it was useless. Her hands were still on Flynn’s waist, but she let go, and a moment later felt Flynn’s hands untangle from her hair.

They did the scene again and Carrie cursed herself for not foreseeing this massive issue. They never did one-take scenes, everything was gone over time and time again. She wasn’t kissing Flynn just once that day; she was reliving it over and over, and every kiss was better than the last as they got more acquainted with each other, figured things out, became less messy but kept all of the passion. It was a change of pace, but Carrie was handling it.

Until she messed up her lines in the worst possible way.

It was supposed to be, “Yeah. I love you, Kai.”

Carrie said, “I love you, Flynn.”

The director picked up on her mistake immediately and was good-natured about it as he made them take the scene from the top. Flynn said nothing, just laughed it off, mentioned that Carrie must be getting a little tired, all that kissing really taking it out of her. Everyone was fine with it and it didn’t happen again, but Carrie was mortified. She knew that those words had held all the sincerity it was impossible to fake, even with years of acting experience under her belt. She knew she had sounded honest in a way she never could have pretended to be. She knew that it was probably the take they would use, editing her use of Flynn’s name to Kai. And it felt like the biggest mistake of her life.

As soon as she was cleared to leave set, she all but legged it out of the room and back to her trailer where Alex was still waiting for her. She sat down beside him, head on his shoulder, and she cried.

The worst part was that she was no longer certain whether she was any good at pretending not to be in love with Flynn.

Promos and trailers for the show gradually released over the next few weeks. Carrie avoided social media as often as she could – it hadn’t taken people long to figure out that she would be Flynn’s love interest, and she simply couldn’t handle their reactions.

Some comments she had seen were harmless, related only to the show. ‘Monikai for life’ seemed to be a common one, as well as ‘she better treat my girl Kai with the respect she deserves’ or some form of ‘I swear they look literally perfect for each other’. Those comments were the kind Carrie could get along with. She liked a few posts, teasing just enough to get speculation up, but not enough to confirm anything.

Then there were different comments. Comments that weren’t about Monica and Kai, but instead about Carrie and Flynn. ‘Oh my god, I have been waiting for these two to play girlfriends forever’ seemed to crop up a lot. If it wasn’t that it was ‘we are finally going to see Carrie and Flynn kiss!’ and sometimes it was the worst comments like ‘they should date in real life’.

Everything about it made Carrie feel bad. For one thing, she hated people saying things like that about her private life – she might have been famous, but she was still a human being, and these people didn’t know her, so nothing gave them the right to talk about her and Flynn like that. But also, it was a constant painful reminder of what she didn’t have, and that was too much for her to process.

She had hardly spoken to Flynn since the wrap party despite Flynn messaging her every day. She was ashamed of her slip up and terrified that if she spoke to Flynn the same thing would happen again. Now that those words were out there, she didn’t think she’d be able to rein them back in ever again.

So Carrie was scared. Scared that she had ruined everything with Flynn, scared people would figure out how she really felt, scared that this was something she couldn’t bounce back from.

And she lashed out.

Admittedly, she knew could have handled the situation better. She could have ignored all the rumours and comments, stuck to one side of the fanbase, been proud of what she and Flynn had created. But she didn’t do any of that. There was one thing she knew she was still good at, and that was acting as if she hated Flynn Taylor. It had seemed like a good idea at the time – reveal to everyone that she hated Flynn to get them off her back. If she had thought it through for more than a second, she wouldn’t have done it, but one night something inside her broke and she let it all out.

She had reverted back to old habits and written a load of unsavoury tweets about Flynn, saying she hated her and couldn’t imagine anything worse than dating her, telling everyone that the idea of them being in a relationship was really creeping her out and she wanted nothing to do with it. She had posted them all before she could think any more about it, but the regret had been instant, as had the furious messages from her PR team and agent, the thousands of unfollows, the way people immediately tried to cancel her, and the way all of Flynn’s attempts to contact her stopped after those hateful words had been said. She deleted the tweets, but they’d already been screenshotted many a time, so it didn’t do much good.

The only surprise that came from it was a follow-up tweet from Flynn reading: You guys don’t need to cancel Carrie. It’s not as if I’m upset. I’d only be upset if I liked her, which I never have done.

Somehow, she had managed to ruin everything, just with a slip of the tongue.

The night of the season premier, Carrie got a knock on her door. That in itself was weird – she hadn’t invited anyone over, planning on spending the night alone, not even necessarily watching the show she’d worked so hard on, and none of her friends were really the type to just show up unannounced.

Well, none of them except–

“Willie,” she greeted with a smile when she opened the door. He stood on the threshold with his skateboard tucked under his arm, helmet lopsided on his head, and a smile on his face that looked half genuine and half like he was up to something. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d come and watch the premier with you,” he said, inviting himself in and removing his helmet, hanging it on a coat hook as he propped his skateboard up against the wall. “Wouldn’t want you to be lonely for something as huge as this, right?”

“Okay,” she said, unconvinced, “and what’s your ulterior motive?”

Willie knew better than to argue. He frowned slightly and said, “Flynn told me what you said and that you’re not talking to her now, Alex told me that you totally freaked out – like freaked out, freaked out – and then went all despondent and sad, and I wanted to see if I could help. Maybe, you know, talk some sense into you.”

She rolled her eyes, leading Willie into the living room and sitting on the couch with him. “I’m not ignoring Flynn, I didn’t freak out, and I’ve got plenty of sense in me, thank you very much.”

Willie raised an eyebrow. “Sense? Or denial?”

She didn’t reply.

“Carrie,” he said, shuffling closer, “listen to me, okay? That day, when you said to Flynn that you love her, you ran to Alex while she ran to me. She was a total mess, telling me she had no idea if you had meant it or if you’d really just messed up. She said she wanted to talk to you, and after that day she said she kept trying but you wouldn’t pick up and she thought she had done something wrong. And then all those tweets… Carrie, what’s going on?”

She sighed, threw her head back to try and tip the tears welling in her eyes back into her skull, and then turned back to Willie.

“I meant it,” she breathed. “When I told Flynn I love her, I meant it. But she doesn’t feel the same way about me.”

“Yes she–”

“No,” Carrie said firmly. “She doesn’t. I shouldn’t have said it, I shouldn’t have lost myself like that. I should have had some freaking restraint. And now that I’ve told her, she’s going to hate me because I will have made her uncomfortable and she won’t want to be around me anymore. I’ve ruined it, Willie. And the tweets were a stupid idea, even I know that. I was scared, which is a terrible excuse, I know. I thought people were figuring out how I really felt so I… god, I’m such an idiot. I never should have done it. And now I know she hates me, she said so herself.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Willie said softly, shaking his head.

Carrie just raised an eyebrow.

“Look, I’m… I’m not going to make you talk about it tonight if you really don’t want to,” Willie said. Carrie breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a little. “But you’ve got to promise me you’ll talk to Flynn. Just to explain yourself. No matter which way your conversation goes, I really don’t think you’ll regret it.”

Carrie just hummed, not willing to provide an actual answer, and flicked the TV on, putting on the season premier of their show. She and Willie settled down together and watched. If Carrie teared up a little watching her first interaction with Flynn, Willie was kind enough not to mention it.

Eventually, Carrie took Willie’s advice, more because she missed Flynn than anything else. And in any case, she felt she owed Flynn an apology and an explanation. She had been awful to her in a way she hadn’t since they were teenagers, and she was ashamed and guilty and just wanted things to go back to some semblance of normal. On the night the season finale aired, Carrie drove to Flynn’s house and knocked on the door before she could change her mind.

“Oh,” Flynn said when she opened the door. Carrie couldn’t read her expression but fought down the panic that arose. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?” she asked, hating how cliché it sounded, but that didn’t matter when Flynn nodded and opened the door wider, letting her in.

They settled together on the couch in front of Flynn’s television. It was set to the channel their show aired on, but it hadn’t started yet. When Flynn didn’t say a word, Carrie took that as her cue to start the conversation.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

“Go on,” Flynn encouraged, sounding unimpressed.

“I’m sorry for everything I said about you online,” she continued, doing her best to look Flynn in the eye when all she wanted to do was look away. “I didn’t mean any of it. You’re such an amazing person and one of my best friends and I can’t believe I let myself do things that would jeopardise that. None of it was true, anyway. I just… I got scared.”

“Scared of what?” Flynn pressed, voice slightly softer than it had been a moment before. Carrie hoped she hadn’t imagined Flynn scooting ever so slightly closer to her on the couch.

She took a deep rattling breath. She had come there that night having promised herself that she would be completely honest with Flynn because she owed her that much. Well, now was the point when she needed to be honest and it was the most terrifying prospect she’d ever faced.

“Scared of people working out how right they are about me,” she admitted. “I saw people saying that we… that we would be good together as a couple in real life. And it hit too close to home because I’ve always thought that exact same thing, but I’ve never been able to do anything about it.”

“What are you saying?” Flynn breathed.

“I’m saying… I meant what I said on set. It wasn’t me slipping up, it was genuine. I couldn’t hold it back that day.”

“You mean when you said ‘I love you’?” Flynn asked slowly.

“Yeah,” Carrie said. “I meant it when I said that I love you. I love you, Flynn, I really do.”

Flynn was silent for far too long. Carrie felt her heart sinking, knowing she had made a mess of this, that they would never be able to return from this, that Flynn probably wanted nothing to do with her now, despite what Alex and Willie seemed to think about the whole thing. She prepared herself for the shouting, the accusations, the breaking off of their friendship.

But then Flynn said, “You shouldn’t have run out of set that day.”

“I know, I know, I should have explained myself and apologised there and th–”

“No,” Flynn interrupted. “You should have stayed so that I had the chance to say it back.”

“So you… what?”

Flynn’s hands, soft and gentle, came up to cradle Carrie’s face. She felt Flynn run the pad of her thumbs deftly over Carrie’s cheeks, looked deep into her gorgeous brown eyes and lost herself in them. When Flynn said, “I want to say it back,” Carrie was so up in her own thoughts that she almost forgot what they were even talking about.

“Then say it,” she returned, leaning into Flynn’s touch.

“I love you, Carrie.”

“God, I love you too.”

They kissed again, leaning forward to meet each other, and it was like their first kiss all over again. This one wasn’t tinged with the bittersweet sting that their on-screen ones had been, but rather peppered with the joy they shared having finally revealed their truth to one another. It was a ‘thank you’, a ‘sorry’, an ‘I love you’, a ‘you are it for me’ all in one go, made of love and care and everything good in the world. Carrie lost herself in Flynn – she thought that would never stop happening – and it made her feel free.

Here was another thing she was good at: loving Flynn and showing it to her.

At some point, long after they had broken their kiss, instead curling up together on the couch to watch their show, Flynn snickered and said, “You know, our agent told me that our little spat online had done wonders for the show’s publicity.”

“Where are you going with this?” Carrie asked, smirking, knowing that Flynn wasn’t just dropping that out of nowhere.

She shrugged. “I think we could do our bit to help out with ratings. For a while it might be a good idea to keep the act up, you know? Act like we hate each other and watch everyone freak out over it. And if it’s super funny for us then that’s just a bonus.”

“Fine, on one condition,” Carrie said. Flynn nodded. “We don’t tell Alex and Willie what we’re doing. They’ve been laughing at our stupidity for years, I think we deserve a little revenge.”

“I love the way you think,” Flynn laughed, leaning up to kiss Carrie again. “I love you. But as far as anyone else is concerned, no I don’t.”

Pressing another kiss to the side of Flynn’s head, Carrie said teasingly, “I don’t either.”

(Alex and Willie were not best pleased when they found out three months later that Carrie and Flynn were not in fact mortal enemies but girlfriends when the girls asked them for help moving all of Flynn’s stuff into Carrie’s house because they’d decided they wanted to live together. They’d been given the silent treatment the entire time, but it was worth it.)

Taglist (if you want to be added or removed just let me know): @ace-bookworm @williexmercer @boggie-brainrot @itstiger720 @the-reckless-and-the-brave @that-one-newsie @bluedarkness @lookingthroughmirrors @tmp-jatp @ghostlydahlia @julieandthequeers @lmaohuh @sunnysbright @sylphrenas @callmeontheleyline

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lupin72 · 4 years ago

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3x09 thoughts

Disclaimer: this was my favorite episode of the season and definitely in my top 5 favorite episodes ever.

I actually loved all of the body cam footage etc. It made us feel like we were on a ride along too and it gave us a sense of unity across each scene which has definitely been missing this season because of covid. The fact that they had each partnership share a call really made the difference but this continued shot just added to it really nicely.

It was amazing to see someone other than Nolan saving the day! Angela was great this episode and it was great seeing her and Jackson together again too.

I thought they handled the themes really nicely as well, as they have been all season. Some stuff is very on the nose of course but things like reminding us the perks of police being college educated via Lucy knowing about the psychology stuff was more subtle and therefore really nice.

Also random kudos to the guest star playing the kidnappers husband, he was really good.

So onto Chenford

All the relationship/partnership stuff in the first few scenes was wonderful. The bickering like an old married couple was just amazing. Tim noting how strong she was, Lucy being prepared with a second list, Tim bringing the list back up to distract her when things were getting too heavy. I’m going to miss them riding together so much.

The confession. I think I’m going to make a separate post on why I think the trailer was actually wonderful but ... I loved it. I think we all knew it was never going to be the real deal and from the second Lucy mentioned trickery whilst holding the list, and then Tim said she couldn’t do UC, I knew straight away what was coming. But then it was then even better than I expected. Mostly because Eric is awesome and his facial expressions were hilarious. As for the confession itself, the best UC is done when you stick partially to the truth. Lucy also had that list of reasons why they couldn’t be together ready far too quickly. I don’t think she realizes she is in love with Tim yet but I do think it has crossed her mind before in the oh he is hot but hes my TO way. You know, those drunk late night thoughts that you don’t think much more of? Tim also notably did not reject her. He isn’t aware of his feelings either because, like Lucy, it was never a possibility in his eyes. For both of them they have been TO/Rookie, and also friends who care about each other, but the door for more has been no where to be found.

That brings us to the final scene which was just awesome. So gutted they didn’t hug. I was so sure she was going to pull him in for one. But then we got the present and that sort of made up for it. (I screamed powder bomb five seconds before it happened and totally ruined the moment for my poor mother but she should know by now not to watch tv with me). I just loved all the callbacks to previous eps this episode it was a nice way to tie it all together. It was made all the better by the subtle things like having them hold hands for so long, having Lucy wearing the ring, even the song in the background with the lyrics that just totally work for them:

So many roads, you never know what’s coming down the next, So many ways to read the signs, Gonna burn like the sun, Go down before I rise up

And, most importantly, they finished the conversation with their first names. I’ve used that in every single fic I’ve written for these two to mark the moment something between them changes. And I really, really think something changed here. Neither one has really considered feelings as a possibility but that fake confession is going to stick with them. And now they are Tim and Lucy. The big TO/Rookie obstacle is gone. The door is actually there for something more. And anything is possible .

#the rookie #chenford #tim bradford #lucy chen #I just really love this show so much

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icegoddessrukia · 3 years ago

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What are some Brittana Valentine's Day traditions? I know Santana said she hates Valentine's Day, but she only said that because she wasn't celebrating it with Britt. I feel like the holiday becomes pretty special to them as we have seen in Heart.

Yeah for sure, we know that Santana wasn’t being completely truthful (lying through her teeth) when she said she hates Valentine’s Day 😅 Then again Santana had some pretty cursed Valentine’s Days in Glee, considering what happened during Silly Love Songs and I Do but I like to believe that after she got back together with Britt in season 5, she looked forward to the day every year. It’s definitely a super important day for Brittana’s relationship.

So I headcanon that growing up, Santana was pretty spoiled by her parents especially since they worked nonstop and didn’t spend much time with her. So they overcompensated by giving her lots of presents. On Valentine’s Day as a child she would always get tons of chocolates and even some expensive jewellery from her parents.

That was all very nice but what little Santana really looked forward to the most the cute handmade, heart-shaped card that Britt would give her each year since they were six. It was just a silly card made with glitter and markers along with some signature Brittany drawings but Santana completely melted everytime she made her one especially because Brittany would always sign it “Love, Brittany.” She kept every single card and she couldn’t throw them away even after they broke up. Santana was always the only one Britt would give a card to every year, except for her parents and LT but Santana knew her cards were more special than theirs even.

For a while, Santana’s Valentine’s Days in her tweens to early teens are pretty depressing and frustrating. She has to go on dates with boring jocks that she never likes. At least she gets free dinner and gifts out of it, not to mention the popularity boost. Even worse, she has to watch Britt do the same thing with other people and even encourage her to do it. She absolutely hates the one time they go on a double date and she has to watch Britt dance with a random popular jock the whole night and feel tempted to cut in.

Of course Santana never says anything about it but she does feel totally empty. Brittana have a tradition of hanging out to watch cheesy romantic movies together a few days before Valentine’s every February while they bake red velvet cupcakes together. Santana loves that tradition the most, along with the card Britt makes for her. Even when Britt is dating Artie, they still have their special movie night the weekend before the 14th.

So here’s the thing about Santana. She’s actually a total romantic deep down and she likes tradition. When they finally make it official, as we see from Heart, Valentine’s becomes super special for them. Santana totally goes all out and spoils Britt every single year with all the works. Which is so cute because Santana used to be the one who expected her dates to spoil her and now she is so determined to make every February amazing for Britt instead, especially since B’s birthday is just a few days after Valentine’s Day (I’m an Aquarius!Britt truther). Whenever Santana hears the lyrics to “Teenage Dream” it always reminds her of herself and Britt, so she thinks of it as their song.

During Heart, I imagine in all the scenes leading up to the Sugar Shack scene, Santana was totally sweet although a little nervous because it’s the first time she’s ever had a Valentine she really loved and wanted to impress. She’s super attentive the entire day - the entire week really and she wants to do the official thing. So she went over to Britt’s house and presented her with a bouquet of roses, along with a heart-shaped necklace that cost her a bomb but it was worth it because it reminded her of Britt. It was a little embarrassing because Britt’s mom took pictures of them and made a big deal about how cute Santana was. Then after the Cherish/Cherish scene, I can guarantee some sweet lady lovin of the most romantic kind was had that night, after they finished watching movies.

After they get back together sometime around 100, Santana goes back to being her romantic sappy self every year. She adores Britt and wants to make her feel appreciated. San is actually even more into the romantic traditions than Britt is. Britt still makes her cards and Santana always brings her roses, even after they’re married. Santana always takes Britt to this one fancy restaurant that she loves so much and Britt always wears that heart-shaped necklace Santana got her as a teen. They definitely slow dance together. When they have kids, Britt and the boys make homemade chocolates as a gift for Santana every year and of course the whole family bakes cupcakes together.

#Brittana #this was fun #Valentine’s Day is definitely special for them #it’s their happiest day but during I Do it was their saddest #Santana Lopez #Brittany S Pierce

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nikibogwater · 3 years ago

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Niki Blethers: The Bad Batch: Kamino Lost

Spoilers beneath the cut!

I know I don't usually do Blether posts about this show, but honestly the finale got me Feelin' kind of hard, and I felt it deserved one.

I was on the edge of my seat for most of it. My goodness, that was both exhausting and weirdly cathartic.

Omega and Crosshair: *tumbling into the tunnel* Echo: *catches Omega and holds her close for a moment, clearly relieved she's safe* Everyone Else: *quietly watches as Crosshair continues to tumble until he slides to an inglorious stop at Hunter's feet* asfjhdagjhagf YEP, CHAOS SIBLINGS IN ACTION

"Understanding you does not mean I agree with you." Dang, alright, Tech out here with the Truth Bombs.

Gonna be seeing that massive sea monster thing in my nightmares from now on.

I really like how they took time to let characters breathe and feel in between all the action. I love that we can tell Omega has mixed feelings about Kamino. Although she initially hated it and wanted to leave, seeing the place where she was born and raised completely destroyed like this is clearly upsetting her. I don't know, it's just a nice little detail that helps her feel more fleshed out. And she had some really great interactions with Crosshair as well.

If I had a nickel for every time I fell in love with a sibling dynamic where the young-looking girl is actually older than her big grown-up-looking brother(s), I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

I like that this is clearly set up as the beginning of Crosshair's redemption arc. He's obviously not going to ditch the Empire all at once, that would be a little too sudden, but we can tell that underneath all his bitterness, he does still miss and care about his squad. It's giving him time to realize his mistakes, and given what we know of his personality, it makes sense that he'd want to be stubborn for a little while longer, even after the squad saved his life.

"You're still their brother....You're my brother too." NO, NIKI, STOP CRYING. THIS IS A SILLY STAR WARS CARTOON ABOUT A SPACE FAMILY, WHY ARE YOU CRYING--

I know this series didn't work for everyone, but I really enjoyed it for what it was. It was a very interesting look at a period of time in Star Wars canon that we haven't seen too much of yet, and how the Imperial takeover affected the Clone army. But more than that, it was very character-driven, often times letting the bigger story phase into the background in order to let us see the main cast just living their lives, trying to cope with this sudden change in galactic powers. Are the characters kind of one-note and simplistic? Yeah, but honestly there's something kind of charming about that to me. I found them all very easy to get attached to, and obviously I'm a huge sucker for anything that takes time to focus on familial relationships. So yeah, it's not anything deep or groundbreaking, but I wasn't expecting it to be. I like how simple this story is, I like the characters and the way they relate to each other...Overall, I'm really happy with The Bad Batch as a whole, and I will definitely check out the next season as soon as the first episode drops.

#niki blethers #star wars #star wars: the bad batch #the bad batch #tbb spoilers

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leggomylino · 5 years ago

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Braked, Trifled | Han Jisung

Genre: slice of life, college au

Pairing: Han Jisung x fem!reader

Word count: ~1.5k

A/n: Masterlist in bio~ | Based on true events ♫

- ♫ - ♫ - ♫ -

[12:11 오전]

The inertia that pushes your car forward makes your head spin. Like being on a roller coaster that stops all too quickly.

“What was that?” Your friend asks, turning around. “Did you just hit the brakes hard?”

Your eyes travel up to peer through the rear view mirror. “No…” you speculate, watching as the shadow of a tall, 20-something year old boy steps out onto the curbside. Your vision narrows. “Some punk just hit me.”

It was just after midnight. Your friend Daewon’s birthday was today, and to surprise him you and your other friend Junyong made plans the previous afternoon to throw him an all-day surprise party, along with the rest of their rookie college music group, Noir. Your town’s local Dunkin’ Donuts was just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road from campus, and being a Tuesday night with a new semester just around the corner, you weren’t expecting anyone to be out, especially at this hour. Even so, there were plenty of better places to go for partying than...a local 24/7 donut shop.

Which is why you were baffled to find the rival enemy, Han Jisung of the infamous 3Racha and Co., quarreling before your newly-imprinted bumper.

"Han I told you for the last time that's the accelerator! Dang it, I should have listened to Chan and not let you drive—“

"How are we gonna tell this to Minho…it's his car..."

Han waves his hands peacefully before the crowd. “Okay, okay,” he states, looking back at the imprinted [car model]. “Everything’s fine, it was just accident so— sh*T WAIT I USED CHAN’S LICENSE!” He suddenly huffs, making an elaborate 180 in behavior to stamp his foot like an immature child. “You're the one that wanted donuts at 12 am!!!” He accuses, pointing to an orangish-blonde boy. Definitely a part of the squad, but not one of the 3Racha fiends.

Freckles huffs back. “Well EXCUSE ME FOR WANTING TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL DONUT DAY!!!”

"THAT'S NOT EVEN A REAL THING!” The one from the passenger’s side erupts; another groupie. “BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!!!"

“Aaaah,” Han groans, palm on his forehead. “Okay, Seungmin’s right, we need to calm down. Like I said, everything is fi—“

“It’s not fine,” you cut in, glaring. Han jumps, seeing as you appeared to be a ghost behind the glow of taillights. “I’m pulling up over there.”

You point a couple parking spaces to the left of the drive-thru, and he nods, swallowing. A nervous glint about him. Ignoring your late-night drinks and dozen Boston Cremes, you pull up to the designated area, sighing as your head hits the steering wheel. Junyong pats your shoulder solemnly. “It’s okay. We’ll get through this. It’s just a fender-bender, so you don’t have to tell the insurance company— I’m sure he’ll agree,” he added, nodding behind him. He turned his head to glare out the back window. “...But seriously, who hits a car in a drive-thru? You’re supposed to inch forward, not ZOOM like Speedy Gonzales...”

Wasn’t that the truth... Shrugging, you open the door, preparing to rendezvous with the enemy. In all truth, in all honesty, you were annoyed at the notion; but the fact that it was Han Jisung, well, that made you livid.

He was, after all, the boy that had instigated war between the two groups; by stealing Seunghoon’s file, and writing his group’s name on it as the demo for their music final. He stole Noir’s song, and made it their own. And nobody stopped him.

“I’m so, so sorry…” he starts, walking up with your order. “Here’s your stuff…”

You take it from him stiffly, passing it to Junyong, who came running up beside you. Sensing the awkward tension, he dips back to the safety of the dented vehicle without a word, gulping his Matcha Latte down.

“Gimme your info,” you demand, wanting to keep this short. Han begins to sweat.

“Uuuh…” he nods, slowly, and juts a thumb over his right shoulder. “R-Right, lemme just—“

“Here,” one of his friend’s says, extending a piece of paper. He has brown hair and matching eyes, paired with a calm, logical aura. You’re pretty sure you heard Han call him Seungmin. “I wrote it all down for you. If it’s alright with you, we’d like to keep the insurance companies out of this situation, so...we’d be happy to pay for the damages out of pocket. We’re very sorry.”

“Hmph,” You scoff, snatching the paper. As genuine as he may seem, it’s probably a fake number, with a false address and a made-up company name. Some forged on-the-spot license numbers. You glout over the paper and nice handwriting.

“Something wrong? Did I forget anything?”

“Show me your license.”

Han flinches, Seungmin remaining very still. Their faces both harden into something frantic. “...Well...” Seungmin begins, “...about that…”

“You don’t have your license?” You frown. “You could be arrested for this, you know.”

Han chuckles nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “Ha-ha, yeah, I-I know—“

“Then why were you driving without it?” Your arms cross. “You should always have it on you, always. It’s careless to leave it at home, or in another car, or somewhere else...what are you laughing about?!” You holler, whipping over your shoulder.

Junyong covers his mouth, bowing his head so only his eyes peer over the hood. He takes an exaggeratedly loud sip of his Matcha Latte. “Nothing!” he shouts, “It’s just...” ...Sip. “...you kinda sound like his girlfriend or something, scolding him like that.”

“Huh?!”

“Oop!” He quickly ducks back into safety. You sigh, overly annoyed and done with it all.

...Zen, Y/n. Totally zen.

“...I’m...sorry,” you manage, biting the side of your tongue. Apologizing to the enemy should be treason! “This is just such a pain. But I understand it was an accident.” You look each of them in the eye. “Are you okay? No one was hurt, were they?”

Han opens his mouth to speak, but his buddy stops him, covering it in an odd fashion. “We’re fine,” he insists, smiling. “And, again, we’re so sorry about this.”

“...Right…” You rummage through the bag around your bodice, flipping out your mini planner and tearing off a page. “Here’s my information. You can call or text me about the damages tomorrow, er…” You smile, just a little. “Later this afternoon.”

“Yes!” Seungmin states, taking the paper and passing it to Han Jisung, Enemy No. 1. “We’ll definitely do that!”

You press your smile further, forcibly, politely. “Grea—”

Flash!

“OW!��

From Han’s...if you’re recalling correctly, “Minho’s” car...you see Freckles squint, hands raised to block the flash bombs going off behind you like the paparazzi just showed.

“WHO LEAVES THE FLASH ON?!?!” he cries, swatting at...the air. You spin around to scowl.

“Junyong! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t worry, Y/n!” Junyong howls. “I got pics of everyone involved, and both license plates! They can’t run now!!!”

“......” Well, the Matcha Latte was certainly kicking in. You would have thrown a donut, had one been available to you.

While being ushered off, Han continues to stare at the paper curiously. Then, as if struck by a realization of some sort, he looks up at you over his friend’s shoulder, smiling.

“I thought I recognized you! Y/n L/n, right?”

You blink, unenthused. “That’s what it says on the paper.”

Han just continues smiling. There’s some sort of sparkle in his eye that’s visible even in the blotched moonlight of storm season. It sends a shiver down your spine, even after you’ve closed and locked the car doors. “I’ll definitely call you!” He yells, waving. Like a couple of old friends reconnecting, excited to catch up over donuts and coffee.

But he was the enemy. Han Jisung had done something wrong, something cruel, something that had yet to be concluded that you weren’t sure you could ever forgive...so, then...

You start the car with a gentle whir of the engine, setting the gears into reverse. Hesitantly, you glance into the rearview mirror once more, watching him engage in harsh whispers and subtle push-and-shoves before getting in.

His face. His charisma. His profile...two months ago you’d sworn he was the enemy, yet...

...Why was it that you were just as excited?

- ♫ - ♫ - ♫ -

“Wasn’t that the girl that accused us of copyrighting her friend’s track? That was her, wasn’t it?” Felix asks. “...I hope she knows that was all just a misunderstanding…”

Climbing back into Minho’s stolen convertible, because Felix just had to have donuts for National Donut Day at 12 am, Seungmin heaves a sigh, running a sweating hand through his exhaust-riddled hair. Too close, honestly. The infamous Y/n, known for being the Campus Blizzard, could have had them fined, reported on campus, and Han behind bars. ...Yet for some reason, she didn’t.

...Must be in a good mood or something. A saving grace, if he did say so himself. “...Please tell me this was really an accident. You didn’t do this on purpose...right?”

The boy in the driver’s seat smiles...sheepishly. Pulling back up to the window to claim his goods, he places the tips of his ringed fingers together. Takes a breath.

“...If I say half yes and half no, will you be mad?”

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jazy3 · 5 years ago

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Station 19 Finale Thoughts

I decided to watch the season finale of Station 19 to see if I could glean any clues as to what the original finale for this season of Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to look like before COVID-19 forced them to shut production down. I was surprised in that I didn’t find as many clues as I was expecting. I did some research and it turns out that this episode and several previous episodes of Station 19 were originally supposed to have more Grey’s content, but when they were forced to shut production down and it subsequently became clear they would not be able to film the remaining four episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, including the finale, they went back in and edited out the content that no longer made sense without the Grey’s episodes that were supposed to follow.

This helps explain why there aren’t as many clues as fans had hoped for because they edited those scenes out. As it stands, we don’t really get any more information about the characters on Grey’s that we didn’t already know. With the exception of Teddy whose comments imply that she’s looking for forgiveness from someone. I do have some thoughts though so let’s dive in. After a night of partying and drinking the Station 19 crew are called in because of an explosion at the old Pac-North hospital. Everyone is hungover except for Ben who was home with Tuck and Joey because they’re sick. Over at Grey Sloan, Sullivan undergoes surgery to try and alleviate his leg pain.

First off, was anyone else surprised to find out that Pac-North still existed? I thought the hospital was shut down and its employees absorbed into Grey Sloan? WTF? The characters go onto explain that Pac-North is only mostly closed with some departments such as admit, the ER, and radiology still operating on the first three floors. I really hope they address this next season on Grey's because I am confused. Watching Ben razz his co-workers was hilarious. I loved his line about the state they were in made him glad he had to stay home with his sick kids last night.

I loved the scenes with Amelia. I have to give Caterina, the actress who plays her, so much credit because in the last few seasons she has taken Amelia from a character I couldn’t stand to one that I love. I hated the character for a long time, but I love post-tumour Amelia. She’s so strong and she’s come such a long way. I'm glad that she's finally doing well and is mentally stable and is managing her addiction and recovery well. She deserves to be happy. I love that we got to see her using her own experience to help Sullivan with his drug addiction and Andy with her fear.

Dr. Alba, the woman who died trying to save her lymphoma research, made me cry! She wanted so badly to save her research and her specimens in order to save countless lives that even when the firefighters told her they had to evacuate she just couldn’t let it go. I cried watching her die. I’m glad the team was able to save some of her research and her mice so that her work could continue after her death. I love that they got the samples. I bet the Bomb Squad and the other Firefighters were so confused! Haha! Bunch of firefighters coming out of a compromised building with a bunch of samples looking like lab techs. My favourite line of this whole episode was when the team walked out carrying all of the samples, research, and specimens and Maya looked at them confused and said, “Why are we carrying rodents 19?” Too funny!

It was great seeing Meredith! I’ve missed seeing her on my screen. I really like Meredith and Andy's friendship. It's great to see Meredith smile and be happy and be herself again. I’m glad she was able to be there for Andy when she needed her and help give her some clarity. My heart broke for Andy in this episode. Especially when she said that the memories that had come back to her made her think that her mother was so unhappy that she killed herself. I loved Meredith’s line, "Sometimes a breakthrough can look another lot like a breakdown." I also liked that she was able to use her own experience with the memories that came back to her about her mother's pregnancy and Maggie's existence to help Andy through her pain.

Also, they have definitely added more plants to the plant room and I'm calling it. That is too many plants. WTF? That's way too many. How does the hospital have such a large budget for greenery? What the heck? I loved the scene where the police showed up and arrested Chief Dixon! He is going down! I’m so glad. Dixon’s not only corrupt, but his lack of regard for human life is just straight up dangerous. Justice!

We also get to see Maya face some hard truths. In this episode her Dad shows up and she finally sees him for who he truly is: an abuser. I thought they did a good job of showing what a powerful force denial is in the face of abuse and how abusers will change things on a dime and blame others for it to mess with them and get what they want. Maya’s Dad does this to her all episode until she finally sees it and takes action. At the beginning of the episode her shows up at the fire station wanting to talk, but she can’t talk because she’s at work and a call comes in. Then he sees her on the news so he comes to the scene. She hears him call out to her so she comes over to talk to him only for him to tell her to get back to work because he wants to see her in action.

Later on she’s in the middle of talking to the bomb squad when he starts shouting at her from behind the yellow tape. She comes over to talk to him confused and he starts yelling at her for doing her job and playing firefighter while her family is falling apart. She explains that she’s doing her job and he shouldn’t be there. He starts arguing with her and then ducks under the yellow tape and continues yelling. She tries to reason with him, but when that doesn’t work she goes into firefighter mode and tells him he’s a civilian and he needs to get back behind the tape. He screams at her that he won’t be spoken to like that and Maya tells he can either get back behind the tape or she’ll have him removed. He doesn’t move so Maya turns around to go get help and that’s when stuff gets real.

Maya’s Dad grabs her by her ponytail and attempts to assault her in broad daylight. Members of the bomb squad and other firefights see this happening and rush to her aid. They hold him back as he taunts Maya about how she needs big strong men to protect her and how he won her all of those gold medals. In a powerful moment Maya finally sees her Dad for what he is and shouts back that she won those gold medals for herself, unlike him who wins things for other people. Later back at the fire house Maya cuts off her ponytail to remove the reminder and tells Jack that she feels stupid for not seeing what everyone else could see so clearly. He tells her that’s usually how these things go. Their talk inspires her to go apologize to Carina and try to make things work.

I’m glad that Maya apologized to Carina and that they're back together! I love them! They’re so cute. Also, Teddy is standing right there telling Carina to forgive Maya if she loves her which is interesting because this episode was supposed to coincide with the Grey’s Anatomy finale. I wonder who Teddy is talking about here. Is she wishing Owen would forgive her for having an affair with Tom? Is she wishing that Tom would forgive her for sleeping with him and then trying to marry Owen? Or Both? Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait till next season whenever that may be to find out.

And of course in true Shondaland fashion the most shocking part of all came in the last 10 minutes of the episode. When Andy went to a motel to see her Aunt Sandra and ask her some questions and we found out that her Mom was not in fact dead, but alive. I’m so confused. My guess was going to be that Andy's parents were going to get divorced and then she died, but it looks like she's alive and well so what the heck? I might actually watch the Season 4 premiere of Station 19 in the fall just to find out what happens with Andy's Mom. Does she know Andy's Dad is dead? Why was she hiding? Was she actually sick? I have questions.

I also have a couple of theories as to how the original finale for Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to go. Clearly, they were supposed to bring the patients from the Pac-North explosion to Grey Sloan for treatment and we know from reports that the original Grey’s finale was supposed to include some kind of explosion which was supposed to take the life of a major character and critically injure several others.

So based on that I have two theories as to how the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy was supposed to go. Theory 1: The firefighters bring the patients from the Pac-North explosion to Grey Sloan for treatment. It turns out one of the people they evacuated was the bomber and that person has a bomb hidden on them that goes off in the ER. Several main characters are caught up in the explosion and the cliff hanger is you don’t know who lives and who dies. In next season’s premiere we find out that one of the main characters died and that several others were critically injured with someone possibly losing the ability to operate. The first half of the season would then showcase the doctors attending this person’s funeral and grieving the loss while working to recover from their injuries and what happened.

Theory 2: The episode starts by creating a false sense of security. The patients from the Pac-North explosion are brought to Grey Sloan for treatment which floods the ER with patients and the doctors there scramble to help everyone. Things are chaotic, but none of the characters lives are in peril until an explosion goes off in one of the upper floors. The Station 19 crew rushes to the scene and together with the bomb squad they determine that whoever set the bombs at Pac-North also planted bombs at Grey Sloan. Either because the hospital has a similar research project that uses embryonic stem cells or something similar or because the bombing was in fact personal against a doctor or researcher that worked at Pac-North and was in the process of transferring to Grey Sloan. The employees struggle to evacuate themselves and their patients and in the process several bombs go off on different floors injuring or trapping several main characters and the cliff hanger and the first half of next season would be the same.

Until next time!

#station 19 #grey's anatomy #finale #thoughts #review #louder than a bomb #3X16 #crossover #Meredith Grey #amelia shepherd #teddy altman #carina deluca #maya bishop #andy herrera #jack gibson #ben warren

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scrappydooisfoundaliveinnebraska · 4 years ago

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Nobody Had to Die: [Batman The Brave and Bold Fanfic]

To me, the saddest thing about ‘Mitefall’ isn’t that the show got cancelled. The saddest thing was that nobody had to die.

“POWER TO THE PUPPY!” Punchichi yells.

Bat-Mite giggles. “Sound familiar?”

He’s not talking to me. He doesn’t know that I’m here, yet. He’s just doing it for himself.

All the same, I answer him.

“It does,” I admit softly.

I’ve been watching this episode, and the more I watch it, the more unsettled I get.

And not for reasons that Bat-Mite seems to expect.

And I’ve finally had enough.

He’s not exactly unhappy to see me. He’s having too much of a blast to be bubble-burst that easily.

“Hello, stranger!” He says. “I don’t remember creating you! Are you Punchichi’s hip new babysitter?! Cousin Olive to his Cousin Oliver?!”

I don’t react for a moment.

Then I take a step forward.

Bat-Mite, intimidated, tries to zap away, only to find he can’t.

He is a reality warper, but I am the narrator.

I have the high ground.

He can’t escape.

We have to settle this.

“I remember Cousin Oliver,” I snap, as he stares at me, helpless with shock. “I remember learning his story when I was searching for Punchichi’s doppelganger,”

“And don’t tell me. You’re the one fan of him, a loon to be taken down. Well, I’m feeling merciful today, so allow me to teach you a little lesson.”

He snaps his fingers, and a small boy appears. The child is clearly very young, and he’s definitely from an era long past-with his long, pale blonde hair and bangs, and his round spectacles, he looks like a baby John Lennon, a figure that I’m a bit more familiar with thanks to my father’s musical taste.

“Welcome to the Cousin Oliver show!” He chirps at me. “Want to watch me forever?”

“Are you OK?” I ask him quietly.

Bat-Mite clearly expected either over the top cheering or over the top disgust, not quiet sympathy.

As a result of his surprise, Oliver spasms, and his round face is filled with pain.

“Do you really expect me to demonize this child?” I ask Bat-Mite. “He’s only eight.”

“Nobody knows, nobody cares,” Bat-Mite sings.

I step closer to Oliver, my hands stretched out to shield him from any horrible plan Bat-Mite has for him.

Oliver, for his part, just stares into space, grinning hugely.

My heart twists. It’s not right.

Bat-Mite rolls his eyes at my emotion. “Oh, still going all sympy-wympy on Cousin Oliver, are we?!” He grins like a loon. “Well then! now you can be stuck with him forever!”

I feel chains clasp around my wrists and ankles, as Bat-Mite forces my body into my chair. Less than a foot away, on a stage, is Oliver, but he’s changed.

Oliver’s face distorts and he begins to grow more deformed. He begins to sing about

Throwing money at the corporate executives. He’s on the part about money when I lift my hand a bit.

“Bat-Mite?”

“Yeah?” He snickers.

“Can you lengthen the chains on my arm a bit? And bring Oliver closer to me.”

Bat-Mite smirks. He thinks he knows what I’m going to do.

“Oliver! Your audience has a surprise for you!”

Oliver makes a noise that sounds like a dying bear and a lunatic before shambling to me.

I do something he doesn’t expect.

I place my hand on his shoulder. I was supposed to just watch him. Or, as Bat-Mite appears to hoped, punch him in the face.

He looks at me in surprise, but he doesn’t shake away my touch.

“I never knew Cousin Oliver.” I whisper. “I was born long after he was gone.”

“Well, if you think that we were wrong about him,” Bat-Mite cackles from somewhere nearby, “Then you’re in for a surprise!”

If he expected me to cringe and back away in fear, he’s dreadfully mistaken. I stand my ground and close my eyes.

“I don’t know much about the brady bunch, Oliver,” I whisper. “But I know that it was about a family of ordinary people. And I know that family is always changing. You’re just an ordinary kid, aren’t you, Oliver?”

Oliver nods quietly. He begins to return to himself, as he truly was.

The bubble bursts. I always had the power to escape, but that would mean leaving Oliver with his tormentor, which is unacceptable.

Oliver looks dazed, but his eerie robotic effect is gone. The ordinary little boy I knew he was is here.

Oliver looks around. “Wh-where am I?!”

“Oliver,” I say softly, trying to get his attention.

He squirms back.

“Ahh! Stranger Danger! Who are you?!” He screams, as he looks around at 2011

Malibu, as far from a fifties suburb as they come.

The eight year old boy begins to sob in confusion, as only eight year old children can.

I kneel down infront of him.

“I can help you,” I explain. I’m vaguely aware of Bat-Mite dropping a hydrogen bomb on us, but without even turning around, I turn it into a pomegranate and chuck it into the ocean.

“I want my mommy,” He whimpers.

“Ssshhhh,” I whisper. “Don’t worry. Just let me help you,”

“Take me to mommy,”

“Soon,” I answer, as soothingly as I can. “Soon, kid. Don’t worry.”

He buries his head into my stomach. I think about how much of an ordinary child he is, how he was always intended to be, regardless of the show or where or when he was added. I think about how much I want to protect him.

A bubble forms around him. “Trust me, OK?” I say. He nods. Between me and Bat-Mite, there is little conflict in his choice.

With Oliver safe for the time being, I turn back to Bat-Mite, who is just in the middle

of preparing to slam a chainsaw on my head. Since I’m really sick of this, I just poof it away

without ceremony.

“BATMITE! You have to stop this, NOW!” I yell. “I may not know Oliver enough to be a fan of him, but I know from the bottom of my heart that I am NOT a fan of murdering innocent children because some immature adults decided to blame them for everything they went wrong! Oliver Tyler died in a car-crash,” (I make sure the bubble around Oliver becomes soundproof, so he doesn’t have to hear) “And that nobody saved him because of you! You turned his family against him! People like you ostracised him! A little boy! Introduced in the middle of a season with the fate of the show set!”

“They weren’t his family! He wasn’t real!”

“If he’s NOT REAL, THEN WHY DOES HIS PAINFUl, LONELY DEMISE MATTER SO MUCH TO YOU!?”

Bat-Mite just stares at me. He’s completely at a loss.

I finally have him on the ropes. But I can’t rest now. I have to drive it home, before he bounces back.

“If they weren’t his family, then how do you know that Batman is your hero?” I say. “You’re a fictional character too.”

“That’s different! I am a well accepted part of the canon!”

“Well, even if he’s not, he looks, talks, and acts like a kid to me,” I say, pointing at him. “I could argue that Batman is secretly just a loon in a mental hospital and that every single story is just through his eyes of madness. Would that become the truth, if everyone believed it?”

“NOBODY WOULD BELIEVE IT!!!” Bat-Mite screams at me. “DESECRATOR!”

“How do you know that Batman isn’t just a man with a wonderful wife and daughter who he loves, and that this cold world where children and young women being murdered is celebrated-”

“THEY’RE NOT CHILDREN!” Bat-Mite screams. He is ripping the world apart, through the reality-warping equivalent of a massive temper tantrum.

But I keep a little piece safe, and the people of this world float and forget this strange twisting of dimensions.

Because I am the one telling this story. I cannot be touched if I don’t let him. And the little boy in my care won’t be, either. Or the ones whose heads Batman is messing with. Because I can NEVER let a child be hurt. This is more important then TV.

“I MADE THEM!” Bat-Mite cries, one last desperate plea to convince me to leave them to suffer at his hands. “Oh, you did, did you? They don’t seem to know you even exist.”

“They couldn’t! I needed to keep absolute secrecy-oooohhh...” He turns away in a gesture of petulant defeat.

I don’t fully trust him, no matter what his motives are at this point, so I don’t lower any boundaries.

Knock, Knock. I turn and see Oliver trying to get my attention, politely knocking on the bubble’s shield like the relic of a bygone era.

I let him out into my bigger bubble.

He skids up to me. “Miss? Can I go home now?”

I look at him, and I feel sad, because none of this needed to happen.

None of this was his fault; not in the past, and not in the present.

And even if it was, taking it all out on him wouldn’t do jack.

“Please Miss,” Oliver says, mistaking my hesitation for refusal. “You said you would help me. And I really want to go home.”

My eyes sting. “Of course you do, Oliver. Of course you do,”

I close my eyes, and, far away from Bat-Mite’s prying eyes, he’s home, with family who will truly take care of him. His parents came home.

Bat-Mite howls. His favorite punching bag of all is gone. He’ll never find him. I’ll never let him find him, not when he has murder and hate on his mind, when he seeks to blame an innocent instead of growing up and seeing the flipside.

The world of storytelling can be hard to define. What’s popular is not always right. What’s right is not always popular. Sometimes the crowd refuses to accept a bit of cannon, sometimes reality just clashes to hard, sometimes-and sometimes there is just far too much at stake to not stand firm for your own beliefs.

“No more dead kids,” I whisper.

Bat-Mite blows a raspberry at me.

I grab Punchichi just before Batman deals the final reality wiping blow. He’s here with me.

“Put ‘em up!” He yells. “I can take you!”

I reach into my pocket and throw a white hankie into the air; a sign of surrender. Then I kneel down and smile at him. “Hi, Punchichi,” I say.

He stares up at me. “Who are you?”

So sweet. So happy. Bat-Mite was counting on everyone being too wrapped up in themselves to see the character for who he was made to be.

“Don’t worry, Punchichi,” I tell him. “It’ll be OK. I just really wanted to meet you. You look so much like someone I know. I love him so much. I love how happy and noble and brave he was. I know you’ll be a great hero. I know you have the right heart.”

I touch his forehead, remembering every time Scrappy did something like crash through a solid wall or something noble or a heart-melting moment with him and Scooby. Now he has the puppy power too.

And then I bring in Kiki Wayne and Helen Wayne to my safe, safe bubble where nobody has to get hurt.

“This is Kiki,” I tell him.

The two children squeal at the sight of eachother.

“A puppy?!” Kiki exclaims.

“A neighbor?!”

And just like that, they’re friends.

I smile. It’s nothing like the Batman that anyone knows, but it’s beautiful in its own way to me. Innocent and joyful and full of so much potential. Not worth being created only to be thrown away. “Have fun, you two,”

They both grin at me. Bat-Mite thought of them, but he didn’t care about them. I won’t let him hurt them.

Next is Batman’s wife.

“Thank you for existing,” I say. “Thanks for being a good mom and a good companion to Batman. You must have done something right for him to develop as a character.”

She just looks at me. Oliver, Kiki, and Punchichi, with the child-like innocence, accepted me and thus, I could reach them.

“Who are you?” She asks. She has taken a fighting stance. She need not be worried. I’ll be brief.

“A friend,” I close my eyes. She’s not gone. She’s safe, where she can raise her cherished daughter in peace.

Punchichi and Ace are there too. Children do make a difference. But they are also the future. And no child should be treated as a tool of destruction.

“C’mon, I needed the realism,” Bat-Mite pleads. Given his nature, he heard my inner musings. “If I had just made them into empty minions, then nobody would’ve hated them. It takes a brave soul to take down a child who needs to-”

“No! Nobody in their right mind kills children! Nobody! Zilch! Zap!” I say. “And you know, Bat-Mite, I didn’t ruin anything. The show was already ending. This was the finale. The fate of this show was already set in stone when you started work on it. Even if you hadn’t played any of your mind games with Batman, then the show still would have been cancelled. The cancellation was part of the story too. You didn’t actually break the fourth wall at all.”

“WHHA?! NO!!-So what was the point of this?!” Bat-Mite demands.

I give him a bittersweet smile.

“Zilch.” I say. “Zippo. Goose egg. Just writers messing around.”

He gawks at me, and I need to do one last thing. I send Bat-Mite somewhere, anywhere, I don’t care, I just don’t want him to be able to hurt anybody anymore.

I only have one thing left to settle.

Later, somewhere else

“Batman.” I say. “I saw the show. I know it was already ending. The family you were given was a red herring, the writers knew the show was ending. I don’t know if Ambush Bug was lying to you, or if he was just another tool. But I know how happy you were to have a daughter. And I know that I don’t want you to be the kind of person who kills people for no reason. Even if you do it without guns.”

He gives me a long look, trying to place my face, and when he realizes he can’t, I’ve already made a nice tough force field. Being the narrator can do a lot of things, but it can’t give me the skills to believably beat Batman in a one-on-one.

So he just continues to look at me.

“Your daughter gave you the will to protect Gotham,” I said. “How do you know that wasn’t real?”

“She wasn’t mine,” “What about your wife? Did you even try to figure out if she was lying to you, or just as clueless a pawn as you were?”

“Was she?” Batman is quick to ask.

“No. She wasn’t. She was too kind to really be just a mindless puppet. Plus Bat-Mite is too lazy to actually put that much work into an illusion.” On this, Batman needs no convincing.

“Plus Bat-Mite is kinda messed up, so I don’t think that he could convincingly fake such well-adjusted individuals,”

Batman nods. “He would know what they looked like, though…”

“So he could copy the inner workings, and let them be real, to trick you better,” I press.

“Batman, is your job to protect Gotham, or be a star on a TV show?” “But all of this is a TV show!” Batman said. “If that’s the only thing I can count on, then that should be the only thing that matters.”

“......Batman, hit me,”

“...No.”

“Because if you did, then I would crumple like a paper tiger, and that would be bad for me.” I smile at him. “None of that would matter if we weren’t real,” “...So, am I real?” “Your story is real. Just think about everything. It doesn’t have to go dark. The story goes on even when nobody’s looking. It lives on in time and fate. It lives on in the words and drawings that remain, even when nobody pays any attention to them. It lives on in the seeds of fate woven in the narrative, that softly point to the future. If you pander to people who willingly kill children, you are no better then if you mindlessly plow on for the sake of money.”

“Batman, think about what it was like with your wife and your daughter. Don’t think about what the people watching felt, think about how you felt.” I’ve seen the episode. He loved them. He loved having worked past enough of his issues to have someone to protect. Punchichi’s skill with the surfboard and his companionship for Kiki was something any father and hero would want in a friend or a sidekick. And who cares how

flashy the new equipment is as long as it helps you do your job and protect them?

Batman gulps. “Helen...Kiki...can I get them back?”

“They’re both A-OK.”

Batman is quiet for a long time. “Can they ever forgive me?” “There’s only one way to find out,” I whisper.

“Thank you…”

He’s not a puppet for fans of the corporation. He’s a fleshed out character who wants his family back, after having an established bond with them.

And now, he has some fences to mend. Choices to make.

I know no matter what happens, no matter what Mrs. Wayne chooses, everything will be OK.

The kids are alright. Kiki will have her mom and Punchichi. Batman will not kill because random people tell him the fate of the world depends on it.

And best of all, nobody had to die.

Batman’s story lives on, maybe not in a way that makes the viewers happy, but in a way where Batman can grow, and isn’t just a toy in the hands of megafans. Oliver is reunited with his parents, the ones who truly cared about him.

It’s the best ending for me, and right now the story’s in my hands.

I feel happy.

And based on that, I can finally say, and they all lived happily ever after.

#mitefall #batman #batman the brave and the bold #fix fic #bat-mite #ace the bathound #Helen Wayne #Scrappy doo #punchichi

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amydancepants-peralta · 5 years ago

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we’re the fortunate ones

Chapter Two of my entry for @b99fandomevents 2020 Vision Challenge!

season two: maybe I’m afraid of the way I love you (ao3) 🥂

Amy drops with a heavy flop into the padded outdoor chair, ignoring the annoyed grunt that falls from her brother Chris’s mouth as she holds her wine glass high in one hand in order to save her drink from spilling. Mama Santiago’s Sangria was potent, but delicious, and needed to be Protected At All Costs.

“No please, don’t mind me at all.” Chris muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm as he scoots towards the other edge, creating a gap between them as he goes.

“Oh Chris,” Amy replies, twisting in her seat to face him and resting an unsteady hand on his cheek, the other raising her glass back up to her mouth for another sip. “You know, you might be brother number five, but you’re number one in my heart.”

“Okay, yep. You’re definitely drunk.”

Amy giggles, swirling the liquid in her glass and giving her brother a shrug. “So what if I am?”

It had been a long night at the Santiago household, with all of the family together under the one roof to celebrate the upcoming year. Earlier in the evening Amy had been lumped with the task of entertaining her multiple nieces and nephews (a number which appeared to keep growing, year by year), and she had been so relieved when her fellow siblings had finally decided to pretend that 9pm was midnight, in the hopes that the children would crash right after. The result was a house littered with scattered remnants of party poppers and banners, but all Santiagos under the age of eighteen were now safely tucked into their beds, and Amy could finally toast to the end of 2014.

And in all honesty, she was glad to see the year was finally over. It had been a confusing one, to say the least. Helped in no way at all by her trusted partner dropping a Romantic Stylez shaped bomb on her before going undercover for six months without another word.

Extending his own drink out, Chris taps the edge of his glass against Amy’s, the tiny clink so soft that the sound is barely audible. “Are we drinking to remember, or drinking to forget?”

Amy scrunches up her face, weighing out the options. She can still recall the moment with perfect clarity, all these months later. Standing outside the precinct, feeling the cool breeze against her skin as she stopped to wish her partner good luck on his assignment. The look on Jake’s face - oddly clear of all facades, with only a mixture of fear and hope remaining - as he told her how he felt. Her hand gripping the strap of her purse just that little bit tighter as he spoke, eyebrows bent with confusion as her overactive (and sometimes frustrating) partner said the last thing she’d expected him to say. The way her world seemed to shift from it’s comfortably slow and steady spin as he walked away, tilting onto an entirely new axis that pulled her into a stunned silence for god knows how long - breaking free only after a fellow officer passed her and wished her goodnight.

And then there was Teddy. Sweet, safe, reliable Teddy. Who probably would have made an excellent (if not a little boring) long term boyfriend, if said partner hadn’t reappeared from undercover; denying then readmitting the truth behind his confession all within a day. Reminding her - without even trying - of a night not so long ago, conducting surveillance on a rooftop that had played on her mind for days afterwards, and the strange little skip her heart would sometimes do when Jake smiled at her like she was the only one in the room.

So they’d broken up, in a spectacularly awkward evening far too far from home, and now she was single and he was dating the kind of woman you’d expect to see on a billboard somewhere. Jake was happy - happy without Amy - and no matter how hard she tried, Amy just could not get him out of her mind.

“Forget” she replies, draining her glass in one final gulp. “Definitely to forget.”

Chris nods, reaching for the pitcher on a nearby table and refilling Amy’s glass. “Drinking to forget it is.”

But try as she might, Amy can’t forget. And as her phone buzzes against her thigh, from it’s position safely tucked into the front pocket of her jeans, she knows all the reasons why.

The texts between them had started out so simple earlier in the evening - Jake texting to double check that Amy hadn’t been called in to cover ‘some stupid assignment’ because ‘working two new years in a row would be a crappy move on Holt’s part but not unlikely’. It had been sweet of him to do so, and Amy hadn’t been able to stop smiling for a good ten minutes after she had responded, confirming that she was in fact nowhere near work this evening.

And then he had kept texting her, because it’s been close to four years working together now and somewhere along the way they had become friends as well as partners, and friends texted each other on New Years Eve. And maybe she should stop replying, so that he stops texting her - because she really needs to get over him and moments like these really weren’t helping - but also maybe she doesn’t want to stop at all.

Pulling out her phone, Amy unlocks her screen and grins at the latest text: a gif, of a drunk woman dancing - obviously supposed to be her after three drinks. Completely ridiculous but also kind of hilarious and exactly what she’d expect to get from Jake after sending him a picture of her sangria.

“Oh, I see - ” Chris’s insinuating voice breaks through the comfortable silence as he looks over Amy’s shoulder, sneaking a peak at her phone. “You’re trying to forget someone, not something.” He raises an eyebrow, shaking his head. “You’re gonna need a lot more drinks then, chiquita.”

“I’m older than you, tonto.” Amy mutters, tapping out a quick reply and shoving her phone away before her brother can tease her any further. “And besides, there’s nothing to ‘get over’. That was Jake. He’s my partner, and we’re friends. It’s perfectly normal for friends to text each other.”

“Yep, sure.” Her brother nods, giving her that totally disbelieving look that he’s thrown at her a thousand times before, and Amy rolls her eyes in preparation for his inevitable comeback. “And friends totally get goopy-schmooey eyes whenever they see texts from each other. Blush and bite their lip and do all those other totally normal things that you’ve been doing all night.” He points with the hand still wrapped around his glass, one finger sticking out in accusation. “You’re not as sly as you think you are, detective.”

“I so have NOT done any of tha- okay fine, I like him.” Maybe it was the wine swimming around her belly, or maybe she was just so damn tired of hiding the reality of all of this even from herself. Whatever it is, Amy finds herself twisting in place, leaning towards her brother and divulging it all: from Jake’s admittance of feelings and Amy’s decision to keep dating Teddy; right down to the inevitably horrible breakup in front of Jake and his stupidly hot girlfriend. She ends it all with a sigh, finishing her drink in a single gulp and dumping the glass onto the table with a thud, dropping her head into her hands. “I like him SO much, Chris. It’s just the worst right now. We keep saying to each other that it’s in the past, but it isn’t really. Not for me, anyway.”

Her brother leans back in his chair, not speaking, and the silence is so deafening that Amy lifts her head to look over at him. With one hand resting against the armrest and the other stroking his chin, he appears deep in thought and (after what feels like forever) he clears his throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk this way about a guy before.”

Flickering her eyes back to the glass, Amy shrugs in defeat. It would appear that Seven Drink Amy makes alcohol turn into truth serum. “In vino veritas, I guess.”

Chris nods, eyes trailing over to the game of cups that Tony and Ricardo are playing in the distance before returning back to Amy. “Maybe. Or maybe … there’s more on the line this time. He’s your partner, right? Once the two of you ring that bell, there wouldn’t be any turning back. And I think that scares the hell out of you.”

Amy nods, suddenly not trusting herself to respond. It does scare the hell out of her. She’s seen it all fall apart so many times before - colleagues transferring departments when things turn sour; holiday parties with both sides avoiding each other. Not to mention the awkward distance she put between herself and Teddy whenever they were forced to cross paths. The thought of having to go through any of that with Jake … even if she took all of the Feels out of the equation, he is still one of her closest friends, and one of the few people who understand her for who she is. The thought of having to spend her day avoiding his smile, or to change precincts and move away from the people that have become her second family, made her feel physically ill.

She’s never been one to back down from a challenge. But maybe this time, the risks were too high to ignore.

Looking over at Chris, Amy gives him what she hopes is a convincingly carefree smile. “Never thought I’d hear such wisdom from you, manito.”

A steady hand reaches out, shoving Amy’s shoulder gently, and she laughs. “Whatever, Amy.” Chris mumbles, standing up to join their brothers. “Seriously, though. If this guy doesn’t come to his senses soon, it is absolutely his loss. We Santiagos are good people, and you’re the best sister I’ve ever known”

Type A Amy wants to pipe up with a correction, and remind her brother that she is, in fact, the ONLY sister he’s ever known. But the sentiment is sweet, and her phone is buzzing in her pocket again, and so she smiles at her brother’s parting figure, digging into her pocket with an eagerness she doesn’t even try to hide.

Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe this time, she was in over her head.

Jake slides a palm against his face as he walks towards the bar, leaning against the granite top as he repeats his order and settles on a stool to wait. Tonight was dragging a little more than he had anticipated, and right now he needed a moment away from the crowd.

He knows, for all intent and purposes, that he should be out there mingling with the crowd. Making small talk with the relatively familiar faces of the people that made up Sophia’s office, and put on his best Perfect Boyfriend face. But as the night wears on, and he’s needed to encounter so many Ghosts of Courtrooms Past, it was getting increasingly difficult for him to pretend that he isn’t an island surrounded by a sea of monsters.

(He’d texted something similar to Amy earlier in the evening, and she quoted some sort of poem about no men not being islands and oh how she’s a dork.)

The material of the tuxedo that Sophia made him rent rubs up against his wrist uncomfortably, and he fiddles with the inside seam as he waits. There was only ten minutes until 2015 would begin, and he wants to get these glasses of champagne over to Sophia before the clock ticks over. But there is one thing playing on his mind, and his fingers are itching to pull out his phone again and text Amy real quick - so under the guise of checking the time, he slides his phone from his pocket and begins typing rapidly.

JP: Do you know what I could really go for right now?

Her reply is swift, and briefly Jake wonders why she isn’t busy this close to midnight.

AS: No?

A soft smile crosses over his face at the memory.

JP: One of those firework cupcakes we had last year.

AS: !!! The firework cupcakes! Honestly, those cupcakes were the best I’ve ever had.

JP: The best I’ve ever had, title of my sextape.

AS: 🙄

His grin is bright as the bartender places two glasses of champagne in front of him, and Jake nods his thanks as he tucks his phone away again, grabbing the drinks and heading back into the fray.

Searching through the crowd, his eyes finally land on Sophia, her dark hair falling seamlessly down her back as she chats with her boss. She’d chosen a simple blue dress for the occasion, hugging her figure in a complimentary way, and Jake tries his best to forget that the first time he saw it on the hanger in her apartment his mind had flashed back to the plastic-polyester blended monstrosity that he’d forced Amy to wear when he’d won the bet.

There were a lot of reasons why a detective of the NYPD dating a defence attorney wouldn’t work, but Jake is glad that the two of them are doing their best to prove it all wrong. Rosa had been right - the only way to move on from Amy was to move on, and Sophia had arrived into his life at just the right time. Sure, it wasn’t ideal that - despite their best efforts - they cannot seem to form a shared social group. And that conversations about work never ended amicably, or that sometimes the resulting silence stretched out for a little too long until one of them (usually Sophia) initiated sex. The point was, things were Totally Fine and he was definitely over Amy.

Sophia smiles at Jake as he hands her a glass of champagne, using her free hand to tuck the edge of his tuxedo collar down. “Thanks, Jake. Ready to count in 2015?”

Jake ignores the vibration of his phone in his pocket, smiling excitedly at his girlfriend as the band on stage begins to countdown. Sophia’s palm remains flat against his chest as they share a chaste kiss at the stroke of midnight, whispering happy new year in that soft voice he’s grown so fond of, and when she steps away to wish her colleagues the same sentiment Jake begins to wonder if this could be the beginning of love. That maybe love was about compromise: about changing to fit into the other’s world. She seems to really like him, and he definitely likes her, and when they’re not avoiding certain topics they get on really well. It’s possible that this whole time, his impression of what love should be has been completely wrong … and it was time to try again.

There’s more buzzing in his pocket as an additional text comes through, and with a quick glance towards Sophia, Jake retrieves his phone again. It’s from Amy; this time accompanied with a selfie with her and several of her brothers, and Jake’s heart does a tiny backflip as he studies the photo of his partner. She looks so relaxed and happy, holding up a tiny sparkler to the camera, and briefly he’s taken back a year - to a moment in an unmarked police car with surprise cupcakes and absolutely no bad guys. A time before unsolicited admissions of affection and ‘maybe, yes, a little’s. He scrolls ahead, reading the text below:

AS: Happy New Year, Jake. Here’s to new beginnings.

And he’s definitely over it all, but Jake’s heart still beats just that little bit faster when he scrolls back up to her photo. Be that as it may, he’s here with Sophia; and the idea of the two of them together deserve a fighting chance, and so he sends Amy a quick reply before shoving his phone back into his pocket, distracting himself for the rest of the evening from the fact that he doesn’t hear from Amy again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of New York at her parent’s holiday house in The Hamptons, Amy switches her phone off - joining her brothers in a toast to the future, holding a single resolution in her head. One simple rule, that will avoid all the potential for mess and force her to get over her ridiculous crush because no rule was made to be broken: no dating cops.

If only she could have realised just how impossible that was going to be.

#pining!amy #pining!jake #NYE throughout the years #Peraltiago stylez #b99 summer 2019 fic exchange #b99 fandom events #b99 fanfic #peraltiago fic #b99 fanfiction #b99 fanfics #jake x amy fic

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mtvswatches · 5 years ago

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Wynonna Earp 3x02 When you Call My Name

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Who is the fucker dragging Waverly away?! And the first thing that Wynonna says, even before she fully regains consciousness, is “Waverly.” I love these two sisters, I love that their relationship is the backbone of this show. Also, WTF.

How the fuck did she get there?

2) And I fucking love Wynonna Earp…

3) Is she… hallucinating her mother? I was wondering why, out of everyone else in her life, she would be fantasizing about her mother, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out. First of all, her ghost-mom reminds her of the survival rules she’d taught her when she was little. But most importantly, she reminds her that no matter how much pain she’s in right now, the pain of losing Waverly will be much worse. And that’s exactly what Wynonna needs to find in her the strength to survive.

4) Is the dude who kidnapped Waverly some time of supernatural weirdo or is he just your run-of-the-mill weird loner guy who lives in the woods and slowly goes batshit crazy? I’m still not sure…

5) Wynonna can’t leave Peacemaker there, can’t she? Why isn’t it like Thor’s hammer? Can’t she just like magically pull it back to her? Anyway, this badass motherfucker is going to climb the fucking rocks wearing a dress and heels. How is not the entire world in love with Wynonna Earp?

6) Oh, he’s not just a weirdo, he’s also a supernatural impersonator. He fucking stole Waverly’s voice and answered the phone pretending to be her. And now Waverly can’t scream for help, that’s just dandy.

7) “You ever seen me move when I’m pissed? I’m a frigging snow cheetah!” How is everything that comes out of her mouth so iconic?

8) So far, Ghost Mom seems to be doing a good job of helping Wynonna keep her head on your shoulders and not act impulsively, which could end up with both her and Waverly dead. She’s following her mom’s survival rules, and it seems to be working, and there’s this little moment when both of them push their hair behind their ears in perfect synchrony…

And I don’t know what I’m to make out of this? Does this mean that Ghost Mom is only a reflection of Wynonna herself? I mean, obviously, she is, it’s a figment of Wynonna’s imagination and it’s what Wynonna believes her mom would do and say in such a situation. But… are we meant to infer that there’s a stronger connection between the two of them than we were led to believe during the course of two seasons? Ghost Mom also called her a “Gibson girl” – her mom’s last name – and also mentioned how Wynonna got her snark from her. Wynonna even jokes that she got the crazy from her. It feels the writers are setting up this relationship as one of the arcs of this season. I guess it makes sense, after Wynonna became a mother herself. But I still don’t know what to make of Ghost Mom or Real Mom, for that matter.

9) Jeremy, Nicole, and Dolls have no idea what’s going on with Wynonna and Waverly, of course, and they’ve figured out that the demon responsible for the massacres is like a Flash demon that got to all their victims within seconds of one another. Also, the massacres may continue. Cool. Cool cool cool.

10) Jeremy is the biggest sweetheart in this show and he’s the biggest fan of literally everyone. I felt so bad for him when Dolls told him to get a life or something and stop bothering him, and did Jeremy get butthurt? No, he told Dolls he’s fighting for him, and my heart swelled a little. He’s the best. He was such a great addition to the gang. At least Dolls had the decency to indulge Jeremy with his pop culture references before leaving, and it was a nice way to say he was sorry and that he appreciates everything that Jeremy does.

11) OMFG, Wynonna was a Hanson fan, just like I was!

12) Not liking Ghost Mom right now…

WYNONNA: Why me, though? You never brought Willa or Waverly, it was always just you and me... GHOST MOM: Willa was Ward's right from the get-go, and Waverly... She was everyone else's, but you... Ooh, you... You came into this world wailing and kicking just like I was so I wanted to make sure you could survive by yourself. But you know what? Being an heir, it has made you soft. WYNONNA: What's that supposed to mean? GHOST MOM: It means... You're leaning on your team of outlaws and misfits. WYNONNA: They're my people and I trust them. GHOST MOM: Yeah, well where the hell are they? It's been hours. WYNONNA: I don't know. GHOST MOM: Yeah. The moment that you rely on someone... to protect you, be there for you... you're dead.

Is this Wynonna’s own fear, that her relying so much on her friends is making her soft and weak and vulnerable? Because I feel that her relationships with everyone else have made her stronger. I hate the idea that a hero can’t be vulnerable, you know? It’s like what Buffy says, “my emotions give me power.” If you don’t have bonds and love in your life, is there really a reason to fight at all?

13) “We are the same, Wynonna, and that is what scares you, how similar we are.” Alright, yeah, definitely Wynonna’s own fears manifesting themselves via Ghost Mom. I mean, obviously, she’d conjure up her mom at this moment! Waverly is in danger, and she fears she’s going to fail her just like their mom did…

14) Wow, Doc is having an existential crisis after being shot by Dolls and going to hell in the alternate reality. He’s afraid that being good and doing the right thing is pointless if he’ll end up in hell with all the other demons anyway. But… I mean, he went to hell in that other reality where he had embraced his dark side, you know? How does he know that he’s destined for the same here and now? I wouldn’t think so. And damn, Dolls has some truth bomb…

DOC: We are murderers, you and I. Destined for the dark. DOLLS: We're not the same. Because I don't need a threat of damnation to fight for the right side.

(EDIT: how did I not realize this was foreshadowing Dolls’s death?! And these words will probably haunt Doc... this was basically their last conversation...)

15) Nicole found the truck!

16) Hannibal the Impersonator is using Waverly’s voice to lure other people into the cabin…

Is he a revenant, though? He seems to be, but what about his weird stealing-voices power? Do revenants get special powers? I mean, Bobo did, but I thought he was an exception…

17) Jeremy is also so emotionally healthy? Like, he immediately called Doc out on assuming the worst of people and basically told him to get over obsessing over losing his immortality. But… why didn’t he call Dolls like Doc told him to? Is he also assuming the worst…? Does he not trust Dolls?

18) Oh, my god, Waverly and Wynonna’s entire “charades” conversation was fucking priceless!

19) I laughed and I also awww-ed.

DOC: You trust Wynonna's instincts? NICOLE: I helped her kill the revenant she had sex with! DOC: Let me rephrase. Do you trust her instincts about Waverly?

20) Are Waverly and Wynonna really having the you-didn’t-tell-me-about-mom talk right now, in this life or death situation? Of course they are.

21) I DIED!

Wynonna doesn’t have Peacemaker, so how is she going to fight the revenant? It should be interesting to see her fight without her special power…

22) So Jeremy also assumed the worst about Dolls. Interesting.

23) Like Buffy said, when scary things are scared, that’s bad news. The revenant almost shit his pants when Waverly mentioned Bulshar. Wynonna used her wits and booby-trapped him, so good on her. But look who’s stalking…

Does he have nazis with him or something?

24) So… Waverly didn’t take it too well. And I get it, it feels like she’s been made a fool by everyone she's ever trusted. She doesn’t even know who her real parents are…

25) Nicole is going to climb down the rocks and get Peacemaker back like a boss.

26) Uh-oh… I guess Jeremy was right…

Why is he saying that Wynonna is going to need Waverly more than ever?

27) WTF!!!

Fucking ghost terminator nazis!

28) Nicole is literally hanging from a wire and trying to get Peacemaker back! And I think Dolls is going to wolf out and get rid of the fucking nazi but will probably lose his soul in the process? I didn’t think the chilliest part of the episode would be a fucking voice-stealing cannibal revenant…

29) Nicole is asking Wynonna to let go of the wire… what the fuck is this episode doing to me?

30) Why did he smile before doing this…?

Was he saying goodbye? Was that why he said that Wynonna was going to need Waverly more than ever?

31) He’s dead, and Nicole is trying to resuscitate him, and Wynonna and Doc are losing their shit… I wasn’t expecting this in episode two…

She doesn’t want to leave his side. Damn.

32) Wow. This is heavier stuff than I’d expected at the beginning of the season, especially after the heartbreak of giving birth to Alice only to lose her in the season finale. I feel like this episode is a game-changer, obviously because of Dolls’ death, who is going to take up his role? I mean, Nicole had become sort of his disciple, but no one can really fill his shoes, can they? There’s also the heavy emphasis on Wynonna’s relationship with her mother, which I think will definitely be one of this season’s arcs. And there’s the dooming presence of Bulshar, who still needs to introduce himself in a more memorable way.

I don’t know what to make of Dolls’ death, though. Personally, I wasn’t so attached to his character as to feel devastated, though I was truly shocked and if Wynonna cries, then I cry. There’s also this nagging feeling that no one can be really dead in supernatural shows unless TPBT wish it so, you know? There’s always a small chance he might return, in different forms – either through flashbacks or because he might actually be brought back from the dead.

Anyway, I’m super excited to see where this season takes us!

33) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi. Thanks!

#Wynonna Earp #Xavier Dolls #Doc Holliday #Nicole Haught #Waverly Earp #WE 3x02 #WE recap #When You Call My Name #mine

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gofancyninjaworld · 5 years ago

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OAV 2 Review: Fishing with the old boys

This was an excellent story that ties into many other developing themes in OPM. Sorry, that means it’s going to be a bit long.

Ah, and heroes are officially made of adamantium.

Story

It’s set a week after the catastrophic destruction of City A by the aliens (may there be an afterlife for Boros to be tormented forever in) with Atomic Samurai and Bang trying to fish in a lake. It quickly focuses on a key concern that both men have: they’re getting older and in the light of the ever-increasing threat monsters pose, who is going to take up the mantle?

They get to talking about their disciples with Bang asking after Iain’s health. We cut to Iaian practising (after one week?!!!!! Yup, adamantium) his one-handed iai in a bamboo grove. Here we see the effect of JC Staff animators merely being worked hard as opposed to worked to death: they can start to bring life and care for the telling detail. Not only is it beautiful, but there’s that moment when he starts to sheath his sword as he used to, realises, flips the sword and then completes the motion. Perfect! It’s things like this that are the strength of animation rather than manga or words!

There’s an interesting flip side to this that I’ll go more into in the meta. When Atomic praises the attributes that Iaian has that he is so proud of, it brings to mind the things that Bang loved in Garou and how bereft he felt when Garou turned on him.

Atomic changes the subject to something that I again will be going more into in the meta: heroes. And how weak the majority are. They single out the Hero Association’s points-based system for especial censure, both being of the opinion that it encourages heroes to focus on the minutiae of progressing at the expense of truly being heroic. Fair enough! It’s something the story will be addressing and it’s interesting to see their perspective, but what they say next is much less fair -- mocking heroes who wear costumes.

We cut to one such costume-wearer, Chain Toad, on the shores of the lake where he’s tracked a monster. He’s accompanied by Mumen Rider. Together, they unwisely decide that they have to try tackle the monster themselves so as not to disturb the fishermen on the lake. Mumen Rider is particularly motivated to try more because he’s seen what the Class S heroes can do.

Their valiant attempts to subdue the salamander monster are beautifully, beautifully animated. Hard to pick a single moment I liked, but if I’ve got to make a still, let it be of Chain Toad throwing his chain, sending his chain past the monster, who thinks it’s dodged, only to send it looping back to snare it.

Once things get too hot for our valiant heroes (Mumen’s underwater battle has to be one of the best sequences this season), the two fishermen finally see fit to intervene. Atomic hands Bang his rod and citing the need for strength as well as guts, casually cuts the monster up, freeing Chain Toad in the process.

Then they carry on fishing. As you do.