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rishi-eel · 3 years ago

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thinking (yet again!) about the differences between the bad batch story reels and the season seven arc and like... some changes just blow my mind because all it did, really, was make the bad batch less likable.

lets star with the whole “reg” thing. if i remember correctly, in the originals “regs” is said twice. the first instance is by crosshair when taunting jesse in the LAAT. the second is said by hunter: he tells tech (who’s hacking into the cyber center) that he and wrecker are going to “go get the regs” (i.e. rex and jesse). that is, hunter only used it among his squad when the others were not present (much like how cody informs that the bad batch are defective clones out of earshot. these words are descriptors, but there’s also an offense associated to being referred to by them). the idea that hunter has restraint referring to regular clones this way in their faces connects, i think, to how hunter was a tad more apologetic to jesse in the original script. “he means regular clones. don’t take it personal. it’s just that we don’t always follow protocol” carried an actual sense of hunter trying to convince jesse that it’s nothing to do with him.

it’s interesting, i think, that in a context where you have clones and defective clones, that the bad batch (as defective clones) would find a way to talk about other clones in reference to themselves in a way that normalizes their own existence. it also introduces the idea that the bad batch experience a level of disconnect, and even animosity, in regards to other clones. all that can be conveyed by only using the word twice. the season seven episodes added three more instances, and in all of them the bad batch members comfortably throw the word around the clones who “are regs.” the sense of separateness (which, again, was already established/achieved by using it just two times) is only made stronger (thus more needs to be done to portray a sense of reconciliation or coming together. the reels succeed this to an extent because that barrier wasn’t built up as high).

so yeah in the original... wrecker didn’t say “we always get shot down when we travel with regs,” he kept quiet as he helped people out of the wrecked gunship (in fact, wrecker lost a lot of subtlety going from the reels to the final eps, which i’ll get back to). hunter didn’t fake-compliment rex with a “not bad, for a reg”! and oh boy crosshair’s comment implying that echo is worthless and expendable because he’s a “reg”... yeah that was not in the reels either. in fact, not only does crosshair not call echo a reg, the meaning of his original dialogue was completely different.

in the original, after hunter voices his suspicions echo might be dead, crosshair suggests that if alive echo could be cooperating with the enemy, making him a traitor. rex takes this as an attack on echo’s character and crosshair explains that no, he’s not intending to insult echo, by saying: “oh i don’t blame him, if i were left for dead, i wouldn’t be so loyal.” and like!!!!! that’s such a radically different line of dialogue because crosshair seems to blame rex for having left echo behind, actually. if you betrayed the republic to survive, or even out of spite, i don’t blame you even if you now present a threat to myself and my family, is such an interesting, empathetic sentiment. and that contrasts with the lack of regard given to rex, making it read like he’s condemning rex for leaving someone behind. crosshair doesn’t seem to understand, as an experimental commando clone, the pressures rex as a legion captain is under, because he’s seen a less expandable (they’re a specially trained four man team, if one dies that’s 25% of the unit gone. is there a replacement for that member? you get the idea). so you’ve got a clash between different povs, but also crosshair being shown as having a set of morals, chief among them being that you do not leave anyone behind. so remember when rex says to move out and crosshair goes “commander cody is in no position to move” yeah i’d say that’s crosshair making sure cody isn’t being left behind. when crosshair saves anakin? that’s because he saw anakin go off on his own and followed him. because you don’t leave people behind. and like... the idea that yeah crosshair is an asshole. he’s unpleasant and that’s deliberate. he doesn’t care if people like him and he’s not trying to be liked. but that he values the lives of other people and looks out for them? that makes an interesting, flawed and multifaceted character. that got lost in the dialogue change because its no longer suggested that crosshair holds these values.

as for what i said earlier about wrecker: he lost subtle, nonverbal moments through the addition of lines that are either anticlimactic or only serve to make him seem loud or ditzy in an exaggerated fashion. he didn’t laugh when the LAAT came down. he was quiet as he helped people out of the downed gunship (no comment about regs!). he didn’t say “boom” when the ship exploded in the background after he flipped it over (the difference? a character moment that’s actually cool and impressive vs something that’s corny). when wrecker comes to crosshair’s aid by picking rex off of him, there was no quippy one liner. there was no need for anything to be said for it to be understood that wrecker is acting as a barrier and it trying to intimidate rex. when he’s afraid to get onto the elevator? that’s conveyed visually through camera angles and through hunter picking up on the fact that he’s scared. he doesn’t scream (if you can call a comical “aah what is that thing oh no its going to get me” a scream) when the organic decimator almost gets him. when they walk across the pipe? wrecker doesn’t whimper or talk to himself for comfort. he is scared of heights, that’s already been established, but he’s also a grown man and a soldier like he’s keeping that to himself? like we see wrecker hesitating to walk on the ledge but doing it anyway because he has to. in a piece of dialogue that was cut, tech said “does anyone want to know the odds of us making it across alive?” to which wrecker (who’s you know already having a bad time) interrupts with “don’t even think about it, tech” (if ur curious, this exchange was replaced with: wrecker: “keep walking tech!” tech: “that’s fine, but if you fall don’t take me with you” which???? uuh weird exchange). also, the fact that wrecker was mostly dealing with his fear silently means that when hunter tells wrecker to hold on because they’re almost there... that’s because hunter knows he’s scared and is checking up on him. basically... any kind of serious moment was cheapened by having wrecker talk in them. now i don’t want to say that DBB is a bad voice actor, but his expertise is making animal noises. he’s not able to do a realistic, deep voice, meaning that whenever wrecker talks he kind of sounds like a joke. it’s fine when wrecker is actual being lighthearted and jokey, but otherwise? the emotion just does not come across as genuine, which breaks the stakes or weakens credibility.

and god the whole plot point about the bad batch being suspicious of echo was nonexistent in the reels. the “don’t worry, echo says he’s got a plan”/”that makes me feel so much better” exchange between rex and tech is in the original, but tech’s sarcasm isn’t from doubting echo’s allegiance, it’s because they’re planning to land on admiral trench’s ship and echo having a plan (that he himself doesn’t know) doesn’t exactly soothe his anxieties. rex acts like tech’s being a big joker and playfully shoves him, telling him to get on board. which is an interesting interaction because these characters are kind of starting to bond?? as for tech and echo, they kinda become nerdy friends really quick. like when tech warns echo not to send the signal right away because he first needs to make it look like it’s coming from skako minor, echo’s like “oh yeah good thinking tech.” and when echo figures out a way to shut down all the droids at once tech is impressed and lightly shoves his shoulder. again there is none of that “oooh maybe echo’s a traitor maybe he’s with the techno union” shit. like i understand that the writers wanted to up the stakes but it falls flat because the idea of echo being a traitor isn’t credible. it does not seem like an actual risk or possibility. so all it did was make the bad batch seem like assholes, cutting away at some very nice character moments.

ok this is a long post and you might ask yourself “but tumblr user rishi-eel, why do you care so much about the story reels, this stuff isn’t canon now” and there are a couple reasons, first, i think it managed to tell a better story overall. so the question is: why is that? because you would expect that writers reworking the plot would add improvements and not downgrades. and to be fair, the s7 episodes had a bunch of upgrades, but not when it came to the characterization of the bad batch. another thing to consider is that changes were made in the context of setting the bad batch up as future protagonists of their own spinoff series (something the original arc was not intended to do because there were no plans for a bad batch series). were the characters made flatter and more archetypal to add to marketability? was the reg/defective clone rivalry (and dichotomy, even) amplified because this separateness serves a narrative in which the bad batch are heroes and the other clones villains?

#long post #clone force 99 #the bad batch #it's late and i haven't proof read so there might be typos and stuff but. here are my thoughts #rishi-outposts.txt

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adhd-adept · 3 years ago

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I have self diagnosed adhd and i was wondering if you could provide some advice regarding reading. I used to be able to just pick up a book and read when i was younger, but now that I'm older it's a bit difficult to just pick up a book and read for the sake of reading. I love reading, but i just can't seem to motivate myself to.

Any advice? I'd really love to get back into reading, but I'm trying to find a way to do it easier

Hello! I’m sorry this took me so long to answer, I’ve been mostly off Tumblr for a little while. I saw this some time ago at 3AM and thought “this deserves a more coherent response than I can give right now” and then forgot that this blog existed for several days.

That said, I absolutely have some advice for reading! I was a big reader as a kid, too, and I’ve recently had to re-discover reading after a long gap in any time spent sitting down with an honest-to-goodness book. There are a number of things you might consider!

DISTRACTIONS

First and foremost, recognize the reason it is difficult to read! For me, it is because reading isn’t the most interesting thing available. That doesn’t mean I don’t love reading! If I can manage to sit down and read a book, it is immensely satisfying - but it’s the satisfaction of the effort you put into something paying off. My favorite hobbies - drawing, writing, reading - are my favorite because of that sense of accomplishment that they give me.

I love the feeling of holding a book and watching my bookmark move through the pages each time I set it down. However, it doesn’t give me the same instant gratification of reading wikipedia, or tvtropes, or scrolling Tumblr, or checking notifications on social media; even when I am unsatisfied, or even frustrated, with the internet, it can be very hard to put down. I know that people will tell you all the time “You need to put your phone down more!!” It gets old. But they have a point. What people don’t tell you is how to do that.

For me, that tends to be about making it inconvenient for myself to get online, or do whatever is distracting me. This doesn’t necessarily mean making it completely unavailable. The distraction just needs to be less available than the task I want to do. I am the kind of person who gets online out of muscle memory, and then gets stuck there. Thus, many of my tricks rely on disrupting the muscle memory that lets you pick up distractions. I will put my laptop charger in another room, so that my screen time is limited to its battery life. I might tie a string around my laptop, or tape it closed, so when I go to open it I will be reminded “Oh yeah, I don’t want to do this right now.” I will occasionally rearrange the apps on my phone, so when I try to open Instagram and end up with the weather app instead, the thought of “wait, how did i get here” will snap me out of the thoughtless habits that led me to pick up my phone in the first place. I’ve even gone so far as to tape my phone to the ceiling. Whatever works.

If the weather permits, I might also walk a little ways down the block and find somewhere to sit and read. This can come with its own distractions, but it gets me away from my laptop, and I get a tiny bit more exercise and sunshine than I would have otherwise! This depends, of course, on whether you have transportation and whether you feel safe. But getting yourself out of the house can be a great way to get away from the things that would otherwise draw you away from reading. If you have a local cafe or library that permits you to sit and stay, those are also great options! I will bring my phone when I leave the house, but I might put it at the bottom of my bag, or put a bit of scotch tape over the power button, so that I have my phone in case of emergency but it’s just slightly inconvenient to get to without thinking about it.

It may not be the internet distracting you. But whatever the distraction is, it doesn’t need to be less compelling than reading. It just needs to be less readily available than your book is!

ENTHUSIASM

Another thing that prevents me from reading is that it often doesn’t have the same sense of urgency that other tasks might, whether that urgency is real or not. Give yourself a time limit! I may own books I haven’t read yet, but I will get to a book sooner if I have borrowed it from the library, because I know there is a deadline to return it!

You can also get other people involved. If you have a friend who wants to read the same book, commit to a chapter or two a week and then call to discuss it.

Or, if you have a friend who would be interested, and you are comfortable with your reading voice, you could read to someone! It might feel weird to offer, but you’d be surprised how many people really do enjoy being read to. If you both have time in your schedules, you could try to set up a regular call to get through a few chapters at a time.

Generally, having a friend who likes the book is great for maintaining enthusiasm, even if they’re not reading it with you - I get to books faster if someone with similar taste says “This is one of my favorites! You would love it!” If you have a friend who has read the book you plan on reading, announce to them that you intend on reading it. Their enthusiasm might help you feel more compelled to read it, and there’s a good chance that if you don’t sit down and read it, they will remind you by asking “Have you read it yet? What do you think?” the next time you talk to them.

PREPARATION

Another great way to make reading easier is to set up a reading space beforehand. It’s one thing to pick up a book and say “I’ve been meaning to read this.” It’s another thing to put on some pajama pants, make a cup of tea, and curl a soft blanket around your shoulders before you settle down to read. For one thing, it’s just nice. But more importantly, it can function as a signal that tells your brain “it is Reading Time now. We are in the Reading Zone.”

Do you ever watch a TV show or listen to a podcast, and you let the theme song play on the first episode, and then skip it for the rest? Even if I’ve watched a show before, I will play the theme song on the first episode I watch that day. It’s the same principle - it serves as a transition, an intro that says “this is where I am now, and this is what I’m doing.” Give yourself an intro for reading! Have a certain spot that you like to sit when you read. Have a certain snack you eat beforehand.

I have all kinds of tasks with little “rituals” before them that help me focus on that task, or certain items that I interact with which I associate with it. I call them “declarations of intent,” and once I’ve made a declaration it’s easier to commit to it. Sometimes that means simply saying out loud, “I am going to do the laundry now.” Sometimes it means I wear a certain shirt if I’m planning to go for a walk that day, or drink from a certain mug at breakfast if I want to get some homework done. I have a specific hat that I put on when I want to write a certain character. Try to find something you can do to act as a cue that says “When I do this, then I will read a book.” Because of this, it can help to really lean into whatever the “aesthetic” of reading is, in your mind. Embrace a reading atmosphere!

It may also help to recognize that reading is something you can work your way up to! There is no shame in being out of practice with a hobby. I took my reading proficiency for granted for a long time because it was just a part of my life. It may help to think of reading as a skill! Start with something smaller and work your way up. Pick up a book of short stories or folktales before you tackle that six-book series you’ve heard good things about! Set achievable goals for yourself when you’re setting out. An early success can make a huge difference to morale, and it’s much better to start “too easy” and accomplish something than to jump in at the deep end and be frustrated by an early setback.

FORGIVENESS

On the topic of working your way up to things, I would like to say a word about mindset. It is easy to feel self-critical about things. Things that you think should come more easily to you. Things that you feel like you have no reason not to be able to do. One of the biggest things I’ve done for my ADHD is recognizing that there is always a reason why I behave a certain way. Accepting that allows me to actually address my struggles, rather than just feeling ashamed of them. I’ve had to accept that I won’t always do things that I set out to do the way I set out to do them.

I bring this up because not all of my advice here may work for you. In fact, some of it doesn’t work for me every time - a technique may work once, but I might fail to make a regular habit of it. I may make a regular habit of something, only to have it become less effective as the novelty of it, or my enthusiasm for it, wears off. I may eventually talk myself out of implementing an effective strategy because there is some part of it that I find unpleasant; or an intentional unpleasantness I once found motivating may eventually become intolerable.

That’s okay. I’m telling you now, it’s okay if that happens. It’s okay if the first method you try doesn’t work. Don’t set yourself up to feel frustrated. If you become frustrated, take a step back. If you borrow a library book and you still haven’t read it by the due date, just give it back. If you don’t actually enjoy the first book you pick up, put it down and try a different one. If you feel badly about not reading something your friend wants you to read, be honest and tell them you have a hard time sitting down, and that you don’t want to disappoint them if they keep asking, but that you will let them know once you have started it!

It can be easy to convince myself that feeling badly about something means it’s important to me, and that maybe if I feel bad about not doing something, it motivate me to do it. There is a balance between making commitments, and not committing to anything that is just going to distress me. Sometimes there is a benefit to a sense of pressure, but I have to recognize when the pressure I create turns into frustration. That’s a fine line to walk! For all I speak of inconveniencing yourself, or holding yourself accountable, your strategies should ultimately feel satisfying, and show results fairly quickly! You may not see immediate results, but if it has been several days and your strategy isn’t working out, change tactics! And the moment you feel apologetic or ashamed about the thing you are trying to do, drop that strategy. Again, this can be easier said than done, but it is so worthwhile to learn how to allow yourself to “give up” on things that aren’t actually helping you, without feeling like you’re giving up entirely.

You want to get back into reading again because you want to enjoy reading again. If you set it up to feel like homework, or a chore, or an obligation, you may make it more difficult for yourself! Getting back into reading is about focusing on what you love about reading.

And hey, I’m always happy to help! I do only check Tumblr every couple weeks right now, but I’ll do what I can to be supportive. If you’ve tried these suggestions and they don’t work out, no worries! Everyone is different, and it’s no insult to me if things that work for me don’t work for you. But feel free to reach out again, let me know anything you have learned about how you function best in the meantime, and we can reevaluate your strategies!

I hope that helps! Happy reading!

#thanks for asking!!#nezjazz #let me know how this works out #a lot of the advice i have for reading is advice i have for Doing Tasks With ADHD in general to be honest #i use the same tricks i use to get myself to read sometimes to get myself to do things like wash dishes #it's about making yourself more interested in what you want yourself to do #and making it easier to do the important things relative to the ease of doing the less important things #i will just straight up delete apps off my phone if i spend too much time on them #most of the time i dont miss them #and tumblr i can access from my laptop it's just slightly more steps to actually log in and type in my password #(i ONLY use tumblr on incognito mode so it doesnt save my login and i have to actually enter my password every time)#(that way i know that if i actually take the steps to log on it's because i WANT to)#(because something about doing that is worth it to me)#(i did that today to come and answer this question lol)#(but that's also why it's taken me so long.)#(do let me know if you have any other questions! i'll be back eventually to help as best i can!)#(and i love feedback)#(if you discover something that works better for yourself let me know that too so i can share with everyone!)

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swiftgronmasterpost · 4 years ago

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Winter 2013 - The Beginning of the End and Dianna’s Private Tumblr

January 4, 2013 - Haylor Breakup

Taylor and Harry publicly split and leave us with this iconic picture:

January 10, 2013 - People’s Choice Awards

Haylor is done, Harry is back in the UK, but Taylor shows up with a hickey anyway. (Dianna is in LA at this time.)

Some time this month Taylor writes How You Get The Girl which is about obviously someone who comes back to get the girl. She references “standing in the rain” and “a long six months.” It’s hard to know if these details are more “fanfic” or actual autobiographical details.

This six months may actually refer to the end of bearding for a while (because it seems like Swiftgron did reunite in Paris in early October.) Exactly six months after Taylor started dating Conor Kennedy would be January 25th, 2013.

As for the rain...

It rained twice in LA this month according to weather reports on the 21st and on the 23rd:

Dianna is in LA at this point and has started a private Tumblr blog under the name whosirmesir (we verified it was hers over on @swiftgron-get-married - and you can click here for more on that if you’re curious and actually I did an entire podcast episode walking people through it if you’re like like to listen to an in depth breakdown of it click here for apple OR click here for spotify OR click here for google.

I also recommend searching the whosirmesir tag on @swiftgron-get-married because we’ve logged a lot of interesting moments and connections to Taylor (quotes, art, and other items that tie DIanna and Taylor together.)

On the private tumblr on January 25th Dianna reblogs this:

It reads “i think we’re just gonna have to be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that...”

This is also the time period it is rumored that Dianna proposed to Taylor. I’m not sure what to make of these rumors. I have not been able to get anywhere near confirming them. It’s entirely unsubstantiated - but I explored the rumor further in this blog post (click for link.) And also on the podcast (will link just a bit down in this post because it relates to something else we’re about to discuss.)

February 4, 2013 - Dianna recommends “Far Nearer” by Jaime on twitter:

The lyrics are essentially:

“I feel better when I, you feel better when I I feel better when I have you near me

You Me You I do, I do, I do“

repeated over and over again

February 9, 2013 - Neruda quote on Tumblr from Dianna

Dianna posts a quote to Tumblr. The translation is, “I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.”

It’s worth noting that Taylor namechecked Neruda in the Red album booklet.

February 10, 2013 - The Grammys

Dianna wants to make sure everyone is watching:

And Taylor posts:

“Look what happened! :)”

She won for Safe and Sound:

And she performs her circus themed rendition of WANEGBT (where she mocks Harry Styles on stage making fun of his accent when she sings the “so he calls me up on the phone” part of the song even though this song was written before she was even with him.)

The only other time Dianna tweeted about the Grammys was when Glee was involved the year before.

February 14, 2013 - Achele breakfast and The Inside Source at Glee Tweet

According to a Facebook user Cory, Dianna, and Lea have breakfast this morning (or around this time):

Later that day Taylor posts the infamous tweet:

The Glee Episode “I Do” airs and there is no Taylor song included. However Dianna and Naya’s characters hook up:

After the episode airs Taylor deletes her tweet.

As always I’m not entirely sure what to make of this but to me it boils down to three possibilities:

1. The fandom seems to think this proves that Dianna purposefully tricked Taylor into watching her “hook up” with Naya on screen. It’s completely possible that that’s the case but I think the next two options make a bit more sense.

2. It was a simple misunderstanding or a joke gone wrong. Taylor had a song earlier on that season of glee (Mine sung as a breakup song by Naya) and I have been told another song of Taylor’s was marketed for another glee episode later that spring. Perhaps someone got their wires crossed and misinformed Taylor.

3. Other nefarious parties:

a. It’s possible that Lea was behind this - she publicly had beef with Taylor at one point and she had been with Dianna that morning. Maybe she met up with DIanna, heard about Swiftgron being happy and back together and got a little jealous and decided to prank Taylor.

b. Ryan Murphy also seemed to despise both Dianna and Taylor around this time. He was also famous for stirring up drama with Gleeks on twitter and generally sewing discontent (particularly surrounding wlw ships and fans). Ryan seems to have a problem with women/lesbians in general. He treated Brittana as a couple horribly on Glee as well as their shippers.

He very publicly shaded Taylor in season one of Scream Queens and said in an interview that Dianna ruined Quinn for him because he said she made her sympathetic.

Not only that but in season 3 he destroyed her character - he made her have a mental breakdown - he had her try and steal a baby - he had her get hit by a car - and a huge plotline in season 3 was Quinn begging Rachel (Lea’s character so Dianna’s irl ex) not to marry Finn (played by Cory - literally the guy Lea chose Dianna over - this is like...emotionally abusive if you ask me.) After season 3 Dianna only appeared in 8 episodes of the remaining 55 after being in every episode and the top third billed of the cast in the first three seasons.

Furthermore in a show called The New Normal there was a bitchy actress character named Brynn who he wrote as high maintenance and unpleasant and then killed off.

So yeah...seems fair to at least consider that Ryan or Lea who publicly had problems with both Taylor and Dianna may have been trying to create problems for Swiftgron. One last note about Lea - there was not a single Achele interaction for the entire year of 2013. The most we got was Dianna liking a tweet about Lea’s album in December 2013 and when asked about one another in interviews they would vaguely say they were still friends. No tweets to one another, no birthday messages, no candids, no hang outs. Lea’s book was also written around this time and does not make a single mention of Dianna - her former roommate and “best friend” even though she spends plenty of time talking about others on the Glee cast.

I did a podcast episode on both the proposal rumors and the inside source at Glee tweet if you want more extensive takes on that!

While I’m not entirely sure Dianna had anything to do with this tweet Taylor references this date (2-14-13) by putting it on a dollar bill as a serial number in The Man music video:

At any rate Taylor deletes the tweet and replaces it with one about her dancers:

Dianna tweets 9 hearts that day (I don’t know if that’s significant but if they were together from March 2012 to July 2012 and then October 2012 to this point it would mean 9 months together...)

February 19, 2013 - Sad Charlie Brown Tumblr post from Dianna:

February 27, 2013 - Fitzgerald quote

Taylor listed this as a quote to live by in an interview with Marie Claire a few months later.

I’m not sure if it’s important but Dianna is very quiet this winter and spring in terms of showing up at events, parties, even being papped out on the street compared to other years around this time. She seems to disappear a bit.

February 27, 2013 - Taylor gives a bday shoutout to her Fiddle player Caitlin:

“Happy Birthday to my magical friend, fiddle extraordinaire @/caitlinbird”

March 12, 2013 - Weird tweets from Dianna “One of those days.”

March 13, 2013 - It’s the first day of the Red tour (is that why Dianna had questions?)

About the Red Tour - the last act of the tour seems to be circus themed which may have been inspired by Dianna’s 26th birthday the previous year and really interestingly Taylor has a white rabbit, which is a reference to Alice in Wonderland (Dianna’s favorite piece of media ever) follows Taylor around stage during the WANEGBT performance as she’s dressed up like a circus ringleader:

March 18, 2013 - Dianna goes on a Girls HBO rant (we know who also loved Girls the show and its creator Lena Dunham (Taylor))

End of March - Lena and Ashley show up at the Red Tour backstage

Conclusion - Swiftgron is on but completely underground. Dianna is blogging and tweeting romantic things about missing girls, Taylor’s interests, and secret love, all while watching Taylor perform at the Grammys and encouraging others to tune in. Something weird happened with the inside source at Glee tweet but who knows what. Dianna seems a bit restless and emo while Taylor leaves to go on tour.

Click here to keep reading!

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neoskidz · 4 years ago

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What A Mess || Kim Sunwoo

WC. 2.3K words

GENRE. Fluff / Fantasy / Witch!au

ELSIE’S NOTE. This was an old work that I wrote back when I was new on Tumblr. It supposed to be a stray kids fiction, but I decided to re-write it as The boyz fiction. And now, I repost it again in here.

SUMMARY.

As a friend and mentor, cleaning the mess Jaehyun made was never an option for you, it was a must. Including this kind of mess that involved Kim Sunwoo.

TAGLIST. [Networks] @tbznetwork @deobiwritersnet

It was a peaceful morning, one of the rarest days you could ever get. It just you and your morning tea. No Jaehyun nor his troublesome mess. You finally could relax for once.

Or so you thought.

A rather loud and impatient knock could be here from outside your house, ruining your peace. Which only means one thing.

Lee Jaehyun.

And that also explained how you got stuck in this situation.

“So… let me get this straight.” Jaehyun winced at your words and tone, shuffling guiltily in place as he took a sudden interest in his shoes. Eyes narrowing, you continued, gritting your teeth slightly as you fought to keep your tone even, so as not to frighten your surprise guest.

“You wanted to give me a gift as apologies for always troubling me, and instead of, oh I don’t know, a damn cake or something, you decided to make a magical perfume from a sketchy spellbook and made Sunwoo test it out… Am I getting this so far?”

Nervously he nodded, and you inhaled sharply, continuing. Out of thousand humans in this world, why did he test it on Sunwoo!?

It’s not like you were in bad term with Sunwoo or something. It just, ever since you became Jaehyun’s mentor, you rarely talk or meet him anymore. You were too busy cleaning your apprentice’s mess. Moreover, he was your childhood crush. How do you suppose to face him when he back to normal?

“Then, somehow, you managed to accidentally turn him into a kid with no memories what so ever, and no way of turning him back because the book didn’t say anything about how to reverse the spell… Have I gotten everything?”

You asked tightly barely fighting back a growl as he nodded again meekly.

Trying not to blow up at him completely, you turned your eyes to the silent toddler in your arms, face softening as you found him peering back at you quietly. Sunwoo had been crying and squirming when Jaehyun had arrived, and instinctively you had taken him from the lad, knowing how terrible he was with kids.

Almost instantly the small Sunwoo had started to calm, cuddling into you and looking at Jaehyun distrustfully, apparently having decided you were safe. He’d been perfectly calm and obedient for you ever since but had refused to let go of you even once, getting frightened every time Jaehyun came too close.

“I-if it’s any consolation, the age regression, and lost memories should fix themselves on their own in about a week… You’ll only have to deal with it until then.”

Jaehyun’s words interrupted your thoughts, and you looked back up from Sunwoo as you absorbed what he had said.

Suspicious, your eyes narrowed on him, your voice carrying a clear warning as you spoke. “…What do you mean I'll only have to deal with it…”

Your body tensed as you saw the way he fidgeted, a nervous laugh spilling from their lips.

“SorryIJustRememberedIForgetToTurnOffMyStoveBYE!!!”

“Yah! Lee Jaehyun!”

After blurting those words, Jaehyun leapt up before you could react, and promptly vanished with a pop, startling the little boy in your lap and leaving behind a truly obnoxious amount of slowly fading sparkles. Blinking numbly at the spot Jaehyun had just been, you slowly looked back down at Sunwoo still clinging tightly to you, meeting his wide eyes with your own, before letting out a deep groan and quiet curse.

Sunwoo simply blinked wide innocent eyes up at you in response, still thoroughly spooked by Jaehyun display, though he was finally starting to relax completely in your lap now that Jaehyun was gone. Seeing the toddler version of Sunwoo sitting in your lap was already doing your head in, and again you fought back the urge to groan loudly in frustration, giving him a small tired smile instead.

“Guess you’re stuck with me. Remind me to dropkick Jaehyun into the sun when he comes back, yeah? Maybe I can make him taste his own medicine.”

Not understanding your words, Sunwoo simply blinked at you, before mimicking your tired smile with a shy one of his own. Unwittingly, your heart melted, and you sighed, holding him a little more protectively against you.

“Noona,” You hummed at Sunwoo. “Are you and that guy witches?”

“Well, I can’t completely say we are a witch, but yeah, something like that.”

Sunwoo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“But, isn’t witch suppose to has hag-like crone appearance? You are too pretty to be a witch.”

You let out a giggle, face redden at his unexpected compliment as you put him down and ruffled his hair.

This Sunwoo was too innocent. It kinda reminded you of your childhood, where you guys didn’t know anything about magic yet, where you couldn’t do anything besides following Sunwoo around like a lost puppy. It was a nice memory.

“Anyway, have you eat any breakfast before coming here? I have some bread if you want.” He opened his mouth, wanting to decline your offer. But, his stomach spoke louder than his voice. “I will take that as yes to my offer.”

A week almost passed and yet, there was no sign of Sunwoo getting back to his normal state. He was still the six years old Sunwoo who still clueless to magic. You almost run out of excuses to not make him go anywhere—like his house, or more like his parents’ house since the old him live away from them—in this state. He seemed worried about something.

“Hey, Sunwoo. May I ask you about something?” The boy looked up and nodded. “Why do you want to go home so badly? It’s not like I don’t allow you or anything. It just… it’s kinda complicated.”

“Someone is waiting for me at home, and I’m sure she must be looking for me now in worry.”

“Your mom?” He shake his head no. “Then, who?”

“[Name], my friend. She is six years old like me but can’t do anything right without my help.” You blinked and titled your head in confusion. Did he just talk about you, the six years old you? Are you too depended on Sunwoo back then?

He let out a sigh before continued. “She is too innocent to the point she can’t distinguish which is dangerous and not. That’s why I have to go back soon and protect her.”

His speech made you stunned. Who would have thought he still could think of the six years old you in a situation like this. You could not help to wonder, is he still worried about you ‘till now. Maybe you should talk to him more often later.

“She is lucky to have a friend like you.”

“… please keep this a secret between us.”

You saw his cheeks redden at your praise before shyly turned away.

That noon, after the talk you two had, you decided to go down to the city with Sunwoo to have some fun. He must be bored staying at your house for almost a week without any particular to do.

You took him to your favourite cafe to try their famous macaroon, which you sure he will like.

As soon as you entered the cafe you were greeted by Jaehyun, the culprit that went missing for days who happen to be the cafe’s part-timer. If it wasn’t because of his shift, he might have run away from you again. He looked nervous as you made your order.

Your interaction with Jaehyun didn’t go unnoticed by the little Sunwoo.

When you two went sit on one of the vacant seats, he couldn’t help but ask, “Are you and that hyung dating?”

Dumbfounded by the unexpected question, you pointed your finger at Jaehyun and you, shuddered at the unpleasant thought. There was no way you could see your apprentice that way.

“No, we aren’t and never will.”

Sunwoo happily smiled, “Great! Someone pretty like noona shouldn’t date a guy like him.”

“Then, what kind of guy should I date?” You curiously asked. It’s not like you will take his answer seri—.

“Like me!”

Okay, that was unexpected and caught you off guard. Did he indirectly just say that you should date him? Oh gosh, your poor heart. You should teach him to not say something like that carelessly, after all, this kid was too innocent to understand how those words affected you.

“Really?” You decided to play along with him. “Too bad you are too young for me.”

His face looked panicked at the realization.

“Um.. give me a few years. I grow up into a man and ask you out again.” You could only laugh in response, spending the rest of your day with stories and sweets.

Later that night, Sunwoo insisted on sleeping together on your small bed. You let him did whatever he wanted since you didn’t know if you can be this close with him in the future.

You somehow couldn’t get a good night sleep, the talk you two had this noon kept you awake through the night.

Let alone a few years, a few more days you sure he will turn back into his normal self. Completely oblivious of this talk and promises, not remembering the memories you shared these few days.

You two will become awkward toward each other again.

And it made you sad.

The next morning, something woke you up earlier than usual. You felt engulfed in warmth as you’ve never felt before, thinking that Sunwoo had turned off the air conditioner in your room. You attempted to stretch out your hands only to realize they were confined by something—more like by someone.

When you shuffled in place a little to try and turn over, Sunwoo arms that were around your waist tightened. It took you a few second to completely awake and realized that his arms weren’t this long before.

Your heart thumped loudly at the realization, letting a buzzing sensation overtake your chest.

Your first reaction should be jumping out of his embrace and wake him up, maybe express some form of embarrassment and then ask him how he able to turn back into his normal state, but you didn’t. You found yourself not able to do that. Instead, you kept lying beside him like that, let yourself slip back into the dreamland like that.

Little did you know, Sunwoo was awake since the beginning. He should be asking you why he woke up beside you like this, what did Jaehyun do to him, and why he saw the six years old he made a love confession to you. Yet, he decided to enjoy the little moment and pulled you closer to him.

He will deal with those problems later.

Bonus:

"Why are you hiding here, again?" Haknyeon confusedly looked under the table where you were currently hiding right now.

Apparently, after what happened on the morning when the potion’s effect wears off, you’ve been avoiding Sunwoo for a while now. You either stay away from the places that he might visit or hiding at some places until he tired of looking for you for the day. Just like now.

You still not ready to face him in person. The same scene of him hugging you without knowing you were awake at that moment kept replaying in your head. And strangely, it made you felt weird. You actually kinda liked it. The fact he remembered everything after the age regression didn’t make you any less worry—not when it made your relationship became more awkward than before. To make it worse, the source of this problem seemed to be avoiding you too.

Most people on the town knew your relationship with Sunwoo. You two were childhood friends. It shouldn’t be a problem for friends to share the same bed. But, it would be a different case if it happens between friends who almost never talk to each other beside giving each other some greeting and including a sleepy hug, which not the type of skinship that Sunwoo likes to do with you on daily basis, that holding a hidden meaning.

Was he have a feeling for you or something? The little Sunwoo sure had—since he had asked you out at the cafe.

That’s why you either staying away from the places that he might visit, or hiding at some places until he tired of looking for you for the day. Just like now. This was already the third time you hide under the potion room’s one and only table.

Before you could explain it again to Haknyeon, Sunwoo came into the potion room and looked around.

"Hyung, do you happen to see [Name]? I couldn't find her anywhere." You clasped your mouth with your hand, shaking your head and warned the older man to not say anything with your eyes.

Haknyeon sighed and shook his head no, wondering how could he get dragged into your problem.

“I haven’t seen her since this morning. Have you checked the library?” Sunwoo shook his head in response. “I just from there, and she wasn’t there.”

“Maybe Jaehyun hyung could help you with that.”

After making sure Sunwoo had left for good, you came out from your hide out and sighed in relief.

“Thanks, Haknyeon.” He chuckled before putting down the potion in his hand.

“In the first place, why you need to avoiding him like that? You know soon or later you need to face him, right?”

Yes, you knew that, but you would worry about it later—

“Oh hyung, I forget to ask you—“

Or maybe you should worry about it now.

“...She has been hiding here all the time, huh?” Haknyeon tiredly pinched the bridge of his nose and nodded.

Realizing the situation, you quickly activated a teleportation spell and escaped the room. But, you were not fast enough to escape from Sunwoo’s grasp. Which teleport him with you. His tighten his grip around your arm, leaving you no chance to get away from him again.

"Stop running away from me!"

"W-who is running away!?" Sunwoo rolled his eyes at your obvious attempt. Knowing you from kids, he still could see how bad you were at lying. "You did. In fact, you were planning to do it right now."

"Well, you- I-" Your brain went overdrive as you tried to find some excuses.

He put his hands on your shoulder and looked at you in the eyes. And for the first time in the while, you finally looked at him in the eyes. You didn't know why he does that, but it did help you with your nervousness.

"Do you feel much better?" You bobbed. seemed like he still remembers about your habit when nervous. "Now, what are you trying to say?"

"I'm not avoiding you nor running away from you. It just..."

"You keep thinking about the confession that six years old me made, right?" He finished. " To be honest, I did think you're pretty, back when we were a kid until now."

Well, he was not completely wrong. You did think about it sometimes— "Wait, what!?"

"I like you, idiot." He chuckled, flicking your forehead lightly. "Hey! What's that for!?"

"For being a stupid and also a dork." You pouted a little while processing this new information in your brain. Great, now you have a reason to even avoiding him more.

Tack!

"Ouch!" You rubbed your forehead that got flicked again by him, "Stop flicking my head!"

"Then you better not thinking about avoiding me again!" He chuckled a little before finally left you alone. "I'm hoping for my answer soon."

#tbznetwork #deobiwritersnet #the boyz imagines #the boyz scenarios #the boyz x reader #tbz imagines #tbz scenarios #tbz x reader #kim sunwoo imagin #kim sunwoo scenarios #kim sunwoo x reader #sunwoo imagines #sunwoo scenarios #sunwoo x reader

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alteritymonster · 4 years ago

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The Gate

ST s02e09

In which I wrap up this little braindump about ST2 ^_^ Thank you, anybody still reading! ST2 is still my favorite season—and I even quite like ST3 (for what it’s worth). I hope everyone’s been able to do something fun tonight, and been safe, and is as close to reasonably happy as any of us can be right now. Love you, tumblr peeps 💚

We know Hopper’s reasons for hiding El and lying all this time, and they’re good reasons, but still I feel for Mike’s anger and hurt and feeling of betrayal so, so much here :(

The Party’s whole “friends don’t lie” ethos has stemmed from Mike, really. I think as their leader (insofar as they have or need one) he’s impressed this on the group as an answer to a need that is more keenly his than anyone’s among them. (Not to say any of them would recognize this.)

We know Mike is flawed, though we also know he has plenty of virtues such as courage, loyalty, tenacity. I don’t think there’s a writing motive to add on a special fixation on perfect honesty so as to put a halo on him.

Lying has meanwhile been thematically tied in this season—repeatedly, overtly—to love, protectiveness, safety from the possibility of loss. We’re shown numerous times that lying is effective for people in meeting their needs and protecting others.

Yet Will is saved in the shed, made himself again even (if only temporarily), by the truth of who he is, told by the people who love him the most. The only one of those people not in his immediate family being Mike.

More than anything then, “friends don’t lie” is a statement of how Mike, distinctly from many/most of ST’s characters, understands love, what he demands of it, what he needs love to make secure for him. And (by extension, necessarily, of course), what he is most afraid of not giving, or being able to give, to someone he loves.

In other words, he’s a closeted queer person.

(Amateur psychoanalyzing? Massive projection? Why not both!)

Okay, I’m not past the opening credits yet. I promise I’m going faster for the rest of this :)

Urgh, Billy with Karen... I know what’s coming in s3 that follows up on this, but what’s weird to me right now about their first interaction is how, even though he’s nominally a kid, my gut-level hostility/discomfort/disapproval are reserved all for him. Just an observation of my own reaction, not sure what I’m making of it.

Meanwhile, Karen’s kids. Stancy are peaceably over; Mileven...? Hopper pulls them apart (seemingly right before they’ll kiss?), again prefiguring a feature of s3. If my amateur analysis of Mike here is not too far off, then there’s a certain symmetry in the conciliation/truth-telling that’s about to happen between El and Hopper, and Mike’s frantic dishonesty continuing through most/all of s3. Hopper, the adult, has grown and moved on from his earlier ways; Mike, still painfully growing up, must lie.

And in that conversation between El and Hopper, he even starts to say “Sometimes I feel like I’m—” then stops, obviously echoing, but then halting and revising, Mike’s “sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy” to Will.

“I could be so...” “Stupid?” “Yeah. Stupid.”

Another Ghostbusters reference (to Zuul) when Dustin and Steve put the demodog in the fridge?

“This isn’t a stupid sports game.”

Billy gets got by Max. Woo-hoo!

Max making Billy repeat that he understands her: a small, unpleasant echo of Neil in his one scene. Hmmmmm.

More Exorcist stuff falling on Will :(

I’ve never seen The Exorcist.

Poor Steve. Fulfilling his contractual obligation to be well fucked up once per season :\

The block helping Max reach the pedals of Billy’s car is, I’m going to assume, alluding to Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (a movie that came out in 1984).

We do not look up into the freaky monster pollen sphincter, Dustin!

Dustin’s farewell to Dart is sweet.

Passing over the closing of the gate, I guess. It’s cool. I just don’t have any good observations to make.

Hawkins, a place where “nothing ever happens.” See: Heaven, song by Talking Heads :)

Hopper meets Owens in, I think, the same bar where in s1 he lied to the state trooper about his daughter. Now he goes there to ratify the truth of his now-daughter.

Caleb McLaughlin is very adorable/funny as Lucas getting ready for the Snow Ball.

I’m also mostly passing over the Snow Ball, only because I don’t have any original observations right now. But the feels!!

Joyce and Hopper. Shared trauma. Let’s be sure to check in on them a year from now...

“Do you want to figure it out?”

The school gym in the Upside Down has the lights decoration for the dance strung up. Its metaphysics/relationship to our world are intriguing. It’s clearly not simply parallel to and independent of our world. Things like this lend plausibility in my mind to theories like Will (or maybe El) having created the Upside Down.

The Mind Flayer watches over this mass public ritual of heterosexuality, and considers its next move.

#stranger things 2 #st2 rewatch #byler #stranger things 2 rewatch #alteritymonster

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lampd-intheface · 6 years ago

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vampire LAMP au

okay but like imagine a vampire au with polysanders except virgil is the only human???

roman got bitten by a vampire in italy just for kicks and then he was left to his own devices. he had to suffer through the shift alone with nobody to help him

for a little while, he was ravenous and accidentally killed a lot of people. in the end, tho, he snapped out of it and taught himself how to control his hunger

roman lived through the italian renaissance and moved between italy and spain (which is why he can speak really good spanish/italian) and even settled down a little in england for some time too

when roman settled down in england, he met patton who'd been a vampire for a while now

patton became a vampire becos he was hit with the plague and his mother was desperate to find a cure. this vampire they met ended up helping and then taking patton under his wing

roman and patton eventually find themselves in america (which was still a pretty new country at the time)

logan lived during the industrial era where everyone was just inventing things left and right and it was booming in terms of science and machinery

he was turned becos a vampire thought his genius was too valuable and death shouldn't put a stop to logan who had a lot of potential

the three then settled down in america

roman made some money writing fantasy books under pseudonyms. logan made money through patents or really any kind of intellectual work he could find. patton spent his time at home, just helping out and taking care of roman and logan

they had to move often, of course, becos people would be suspicious if they just stayed in the same place for too long. they couldn't get attached to people either becos getting attached to people meant people who would keep track of them

after all of their years being alive, patton and logan and roman have amassed enough money that they're just chilling and living comfortably

now, it's the modren era and, in this au, all of them either have online classes and/or night classes

virgil takes night classes and online classes because it limits his social interaction with other people and he's much more comfortable interacting with smaller groups of classmates (night classes)/not physically interacting with classmates at all (online classes)

the others because well duh they're vampires

it's not becos they dont like sunlight (they can be exposed to a little but too much gives them rashes). it's just that it's easier to keep a low profile if they interact with less people

logan is really the only one seriously taking classes and not for any other reason than because he loves learning. patton and roman will take classes here and there but only for their hobbies

insert virgil. i haven't thought this one through but logan probably meets him first because they share a class together.

anyway, LAMP have a meet cute or whatever

maybe like virgil is in an art history class and the prof says something wrong abt a certain part of history

logan is about to correct the prof but virgil beats him to it and logan is impressed with how accurate virgil was with his facts because logan lived that era and not a lot of people are so knowledgeable about it

that aside, their friendship takes time

logan has to introduce patton and roman separately and then the three of them have to keep attempting to get closer to virgil slowly and at virgil's pace

eventually, for their own reasons, they fall in love with virgil

logan falls in love with how much he relates to virgil. virgil is so smart and the two of them can talk and have debates and virgil just understands him so well

roman falls in love with how snarky virgil is becos he'll tease virgil and he knows virgil will serve it right back to him. virgil challenges him and its exhilarating and exciting

patton falls in love with how soft virgil is and how much he wants to protect virgil from all the bad things in the world. he loves how virgil has been through so much and yet virgil is still so strong

virgil is unaware of how smitten the three of them are tho and he falls in love with them too. he kind of just... plans to be with whoever asks him out first (if any of them ask him out at all)

because virgil struggles with his anxiety a lot, he can't really work at normal places. there's too many interactions, too many people.

he had thought that he'd eventually get used to it and then he'd be able go get a job but it's taking him a lot of time to get over his anxiety

precious time he can't really afford since he's putting himself through college

which is where his vamp boyfriends friends come in because hello, if they can't pay for their cute human crush's essential college classes, then what's the point of having all that money?

in any case, they find out abt virgil's financial problems and they're like omg... we're the solutions to his problem!!!

roman: i can finally actually slay what ails virgil!!!

logan: you won't be slaying anything--

roman: LET ME HAVE THIS ONE THING

before they establish that sort of relationship though, logan and roman and patton all agree that they want virgil to know the real them first so that virgil can decide whether or not he wants to be associated with them

the last thing they want to do is make virgil feel like he's obligated to stay with them even tho he fears them becos they're paying for his college and housing him and stuff

so, they plan get to know virgil more and then tell virgil they're kind of sort of creatures of the night

definitely easier said than done

when they tell virgil, he's like *phone error sound* ??? before realizing oh my God, they're serious

he then laughs about it a little and the other three are confused but he clarifies that the situation was very ironic

becos like omg, how hilarious is that??? the one goth guy who's super pale and avoids social contact and is practically the stereotypical vampire is actually the only one that's NOT a vampire??? that's irony at its finest

virgil then also assures them that the three of them being vampires doesn't bother him one bit

virgil, the epitome of tumblr humor: bold of you to assume i wouldn't f**k a supernatural being

jokes aside, he does reveal to them that he couldn't care less about what species they were, just that they loved him and he loved them

and damn did virgil love those three idiots

roman: woah there, you might pull a muscle from all the i love you's you're spouting

virgil, sweating up a storm after showing the most emotional vulnerability in his life: sh*t u rite

jokes aside, they do form a sort of weird relationship where the three of them happily provide for virgil because virgil doesnt have the means to do so

it takes virgil a while to really get used to it since he's not used to accepting things from other people without giving back

he struggles for a little while becos he keeps trying to find ways to repay them for what they do for him but there's only so much he can do

eventually they have a conversation abt it and they're like babe honey sweetie no

patton: you give us your love and that's the absolute most important and priceless thing in the world!!!

virgil, known pessimist who cringes away from romantic gestures out of habit: sounds fake but ok

but like eventually they work it out in like a slowly but surely kind of way.

virgil learns to see money the same way the other three do (replaceable and pretty much worthless to vampires who have a large abundance of it) and the other three learn to kind of tone it down on the expensive gifts

virgil: im so glad you guys dont buy me really expensive things now

roman, sweating profusely as he hides the golden apple he had commissioned to be made especially for virgil: oH YEAH OFC HAHAHA

(logan, when roman had suggested getting virgil the golden apple: first of all, no??? in what way is that even romantic--)

omg imagine if virgil does the thing where he coops himself up in his room??? and then someone tries to get him to get out by pulling the blinds open to let in light??? and virgil hisses???

patton, having just let sunlight in, looking absolutely offended: OKAY FIRST OF ALL, you're not a vampire so don't take that tone of hiss with me--

someone is like teasing or bullying virgil abt his aesthetic and virgil is obviously getting uncomfortable, esp when they call him twilight (in reference to the vampire romance novel)

so one of the boys, probably roman, steps up and he's like 'the person you should call twilight is me' and he scares the bullies by flashing his eyes red and showing them his fangs

omg!!! roman doesn't have a reflection so virgil helps him put on make up or smth!!!

maybe virgil in this au is an artist so he paints a picture of all three of them so they know what they look like becos they dont show up on pictures and reflections

patton, gazing down at the picture: this is what true love feels like

logan, also feeling the same way: really? how unpleasant

logan:

logan: give me more

omg also logan having only really kept up with the intellectual side of history so he doesn't know abt memes and like stuff like that so virgil teaches him and he has his Flashcards™

iDK MAN JUST VAMPIRE BOYS BEING SOFT FOR EACH OTHER AND FOR THIS SMALL LITTLE HUMAN THEYVE PULLED UNDER THEIR (bat) WINGS

#sanders sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #analogical #prinxiety #moxiety #poly am sanders #polyamsanders #polyam sanders #lamp #alternate universe #lampire au #mine

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caranfindel · 5 years ago

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Recap/review 15.13: “Destiny’s Child”

THEN: The pizza man! Megstiel! Oh, lord, I love these two. Ruby 2.0. Lots of pizza for some reason. Jack is soulless. Chuck is destroying his worlds.

NOW: Bunker. The guys are doing research in the library when they hear a weird loud noise. They rush into a room I don’t recognize and find a cute little seafoam green Fiat. With Kansas plates. {Sidebar: I’m thrilled to see Kansas plates. I wish Baby would get replated before the end.} As Savage Garden sings about ch-ch-cherry cola feelings at the base of your spine, two feet (but only one sock) emerge from the Fiat, and those feet are connected to… Sam and Dean! Well, AU versions of them, anyway. As real Sam and Dean watch in horrified confusion, we get glimpses of AU Sam and Dean – an expensive watch, non-flannel clothes, AU Sam’s hair half up. An open rift glows behind them. “Well,” says AU Sam, “we did it.” The AU brothers fistbump (which is smart; you don’t want to shake hands with coronavirus and all) and we see AU Sam is wearing an Apple watch. Which I think the OG Winchesters should wear, considering how often they seem to miss important texts.

All four make eye contact.

Dean? Sam? Sam? Dean? What the hell? What the heck?

The rift flares brighter, AU Dean says “Aw, nuts,” and the AU brothers and their cute little car are sucked back out of our world.

Title card!

Time jump. OG Sam and Dean are telling Cas about their doppelgangers. Dean is particularly disturbed by their car (as am I, because there’s no way those two big guys would be running around in a tiny little Fiat, no matter how fucking cute it is). And all three are just completely confused. Which is odd, considering that they know 1) there are AU versions of themselves in AU worlds, and B) people can move between those worlds. I don’t know why they can’t wrap their heads around AU Winchesters showing up in the bunker.

“How did they get here?” Dean asks. The answer comes from Billie. “They were running. Because God was destroying their reality. He’s almost done wrapping up those other worlds.” And when he finishes his other worlds, he’s coming after the Winchesters. It’s time move on to the next step in Billie’s plan for Jack. Our boy enters on cue, eating a sandwich and announcing he’s ready. Billie explains that the first step (eating angel hearts, ew) was to prepare his body, and the next step is “more spiritual in nature.” He has to find something called the Occultum.

The Occultum? That’s Latin for “hidden.” Where do we find it? I don’t KNOW. It’s HIDDEN.

Hee!

Smart Sam, slightly embarrassed chastised Sam. Love ‘em both.

They don’t really even know what it is, let alone where it is. Or maybe Billie knows what it is, and just isn’t talking. She stresses that since everything will go tits up if God finds out what they’re doing, they need to be ready, and vigilant. “And not stupid.”

Oh, Billie. It’s too late for that.

Research time. Sam’s frustrated, Dean’s distracted. Because he remembered Amara, and he thinks maybe Jack is supposed to kill Amara too. Sam scoffs at that, but Dean reminds us him that the world will be out of balance if Chuck is gone but Amara remains. Sam asks “But then who takes over? Jack?” Jack wanders in, blowing a bubblegum bubble, and proudly announces that he just learned how to do it. “Probably not,” Dean says. Heh. The guys question Jack about how, exactly, he’s going to strike God down, and either he doesn’t know or, again, he’s not talking.

{Sidebar: Neither of them thought anyone needed to take over as God if Chuck was gone. They were, in fact, looking forward to a Godless world. Why, now, does Sam suddenly think someone needs to take over if both Chuck and Amara are gone? Yeah, I know the answer. Bad writing. Thanks, Buckleming!}

They must have brought the Amara situation up for a reason. It’s the kind of monkey wrench that the writers usually ignore if they don’t have a way to address it. What’s going to happen? Here are the possibilities I came up with:

Both Chuck and Amara are killed.

Jack replaces Chuck as God, which means Amara can go on playing keno.

Either Sam or Dean replaces Chuck as God, and Jack or Cas becomes the Darkness. (Neither Sam nor Dean can receive the Mark of Cain again, right? Isn’t that canon? Or is it fanon? And did Sam’s very brief experience with the Mark actually count?)

Jack replaces Chuck as God, and Cas becomes the Darkness. Or vice versa.

Billie pulls a deus ex machina and the whole Chuck/Amara balance thing becomes moot.

The whole Amara situation will never be mentioned again.

Cas wanders in, gathering information from Sergei. Sergei? Again? Will we never be shed of him? Dean agrees with me. “Him? Are we that desperate?” Apparently so. Sergei says the Occultum was housed in a temple until it wasn’t and Dean starts throwing out movie plots to hypothesize what might have happened to it. I’m sure that was amusing to some of you. Anyway, it ended up in the hands of a faith healer with glowy hands. Oh, who could that be? Well, if you didn’t cover the guest star credits, you didn’t see Danneel Ackles. And even if you did, I’m sure you’ve guessed that the faith healer is Sister Jo, who everyone calls Jo rather than using her angel name. Even Cas. I think we should start calling him Jimmy.

Sister Jo’s. She’s wearing some weird combo of satin slipdress/turtleneck/pink blazer. Any one of these items is fine. Together they’re awful. Sam and Dean show up, asking where the Occultum is, and threatening her with angel blades when she refuses to spill the beans. Which doesn’t seem very threatening to me. As an angel, she’s still so much more powerful than they are. (Whatever.)

She says “I gave it to an old friend of yours – Ruby.” And Sam’s first response is “why would you give it to her” instead of “wait, we killed her years before you fell to earth and became a faith healer.” {waves to Buckleming} We get some ridiculous backstory (and again I don’t understand why an angel cares so much about couture brands) about how she was working with Ruby and oh, look, it’s Ruby 2.0! {Sidebar: I covered the credits, as I said, so I didn’t notice that Genevieve Padalecki was not in them. I love the way Show tries to set up a surprise and then their PR department completely spoils it. Because yes, of course I knew Genevieve was coming back. Even the Unsullied couldn’t avoid that spoiler, especially because some people on Tumblr do not use spoiler tags!!! However, I was under the impression she’d be in the final episode, so it was a huge relief to see her in this one. Let’s waste all the nonsense on a Buckleming episode!}

Anyway. According to Jo, Ruby claimed she had a buyer for the Occultum. Jo gave it to her, and then the boys killed her so the deal did not go down. {Sidebar: Once again, Show, flashbacks to older, better episodes are not doing you any favors.} The Occultum is still where Ruby stashed it – in Hell. Dean rolls his eyes, because that’s all Hell is now. It doesn’t inspire terror, just an eyeroll. Hell is basically Walmart. And Dean’s eyeroll is tantamount to me saying “Shit, the only place I can get toilet paper is Walmart? Ugh.” And I hate that, friends. I really, really hate the way Hell has become no more than an unpleasant inconvenience.

Here. Have a palate cleanser.

Bunker. Jack is eating… everything. He and Cas talk about how he’s really into food now, but he doesn’t feel things like he did before he lost his soul. He makes another guilt-free reference about “what happened to Mary,” like he did right before they put him in the box, and wonders if Dean will ever forgive him. {Sidebar: He doesn’t care if Sam forgives him, or he knows Sam has/will? Discuss.} Cas says “You know, Dean, he feels things more acutely than any human I’ve ever known.” Because yes, Dean has to be the absolute bestest at everything, doesn’t he? {Sidebar: How long has it been since someone told Dean he was pretty? What if he forgets???} Anyway, Cas thinks maybe someday Dean will explode and release his Most Acutest Ever feelings and then Jack will be forgiven. (Foreshadowing!)

The guys enter the bunker, discussing Rowena’s spell to get into Hell, and Dean calls Sam “Samwitch.” \o/ Because, as we know, someone over there reads my LJ and/or Tumblr. Um. Does this mean it’s the Buckleming? If so, I’m going to need some time. Cas shows up and looks constipated and says “come with me” and it’s an odd transition because it seemed like they interrupted his talk with Jack, but actually it must be some time later.

Cas takes them back to the mystery room, which I guess was identified as the armory but it looks more like another library to me, and shows them a ghostly AU Sam and Dean. They’re trapped between worlds, apparently. Dean doesn’t care. When Cas assures him they don’t seem to be in pain, he’s ready to move on. I wonder how acutely he feels that.

Sam tells Cas that Ruby stashed the Occultum in Hell and Cas says “Ruby. The demon you were sexually intimate with.” Sam’s all, really, Cas, you’re going there? and it’s another episode of ha ha, funny Cas doesn’t understand human interactions, and then Dean goes all squinty eyed and says ”sexually intimate?” as if this is NEWS TO HIM and WHAT THE FUCKING WHAT, SHOW. This is not news to Dean. Sam told him ALL ABOUT IT in “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Dean even told him it was “too much information.” Sam told him EVERYTHING. And now we’re supposed to think he didn’t know Sam was banging a demon?

FUCKLEMING!!!!

Anyway. Cas thinks they should get some confirmation from Ruby before going to Hell, but she is inconveniently dead. And also, why would she tell them the truth, considering they’re the reason she’s inconveniently dead. The guys don’t want to wait. They tell Cas to stay in the car right outside the door to Walmart and keep the engine running keep the spell to open Hell going.

Hell. Ugh So cheesy; so much hate. The guys come across a minion who says Rowena is hosting a reception, and he’ll take them to her. But Ruth wasn’t in the credits (for those of you who saw the credits) so obviously this is a trap. Fighty fighty, blah blah blah. Turns out they were set up by Jo. We do get a bit of a post-exertion huff from Sam, so it’s not a total waste.

While this is happening, Cas decides to go to the Empty to question Ruby, because he’s pretty sure Jo isn’t telling the truth. He needs Jack to kill him to the point that he’s only mostly dead. And we’re reminded about his deal with the Empty, so I guess that’s still a thing. Cas gives Jack a flask to hold his life force, and tells him that if this goes badly, Cas will be lost forever. And if Jack doesn’t keep the spell burning, the Winchesters will be stuck in Hell and will be lost forever. Wow, a lot of things could go wrong here. Jack puts a hand on Cas’s forehead and we see Cas’s grace drain into the flask.

Sister Jo’s place. She’s packing up and fleeing.

The Empty. Cas calls for Ruby. “Hello, Clarence,” says a familiar voice. It’s Meg! \o/ Oh, no. It’s just the Empty Guy in Meg form. Dammit. Meg’s got to be in here somewhere, and I’d love to see some Megstiel action one more time before I die. But it is very nice to see Rachel Miner. Empty!Meg calls Ruby out from the darkness. Ruby fondly remembers Sam as “the big lug” and tells Cas a completely different story about her relationship with Jo. {Sidebar: I hate to say this, but Gen doesn’t look so good in this episode, and I also remember her as a better actor.} Ruby tells Cas the Occultum is “a place, a thing, whatever you want to call it.” She’ll tell him where it is if he gets her out of the Empty. He promises to try, and she whispers in his ear.

Back at the bunker, the guys have returned and are horrified to find that Cas is hopefully in the Empty, hopefully finding Ruby, hopefully finding the location of the Occultum, and Sam says “that’s way too many hopefullys!” Hee. They demand that Jack bring him back. In the Empty, Empty!Meg tortures Cas and says Billie promised she could go back to sleep as soon as this is all over, while in the bunker, Jack feeds him his life force.

Resurrected from the nearly-dead, Cas gets called an idiot, because neither of these guys have ever risked their lives to get information (ha ha, sure Dean). He tells the guys he knows where the Occultum is, and they’re ready to go. However, Jack points out that if Chuck notices they’re gone and figures out what they’re doing, it’s game over. True. But that was also true when they went to Hell, and it didn’t seem to be a problem. Anyway, Dean has an idea. He thinks they need a visible presence in the bunker, because this is where Chuck will look.

We don’t know that. We don’t NOT know that.

Hee! Down in the armory, the AU Winchesters are still stuck between worlds. Dean thinks they can open the rift and yank the guys back into this world. Conveniently, since they’re stuck adjacent to this world, Cas’s grace should be plenty. The AU brothers are playing rock-paper-scissors and maybe I’m missing something, but it sure looks like Dean throws scissors and Sam throws rock, which means Sam wins, but Dean acts like he won. Maybe it’s different in AU World. Maybe AU World rocks are very soft.

Sam does the spell, because the one good thing I still get to have is that Sam is in charge of the spellwork. The next thing we see is the OG brothers and the AU brothers at the map table, drinking beer. I’m pretty sure Jared is going to take AU Sam’s purple suit home after they shoot the last episode. The AU brothers are awfully prissy and don’t drink much beer – “Dad won’t keep it in the house. He only likes his private label Scotch. He spoils us.” Damn. They really are prissy. And John is alive, and went through the rift with them, but they don’t know where he is now. Nor do they seem concerned at all, even though they toast him as the “best guy ever.” The AU Winchesters hunt worldwide, and get paid, and have their own plane. The originals explain to the AUs why they need them to act as decoys. OG Sam tells AU Sam that he’ll have to “lose the manbun” and AU Sam recoils in horror and this is NOT WORKING FOR ME. (Also, it’s not technically a manbun, it’s just half up.) I guess some of you loved them, and I’m sure J2 had fun playing them, but I’m just. Bleh. Rich hunters wouldn’t be fussy little twits. Maybe if they were MoL; I can see that. But hunters with money would, IMHO, be like those Duck Dynasty idiots. They’d still be wearing flannel, they’d just drive huge expensive SUVs.

Sam, who are these douches and why are they in our house?

{Sidebar: Why are all the AU Winchesters the same age as our Winchesters? If the other worlds were copies of ours, shouldn’t the AU brothers be younger? Shouldn’t we have Dylan Everett or Colin Ford here?}

Carrying on. The Impala pulls up to a church, and even Jack thinks this is too easy. But then it’s not, because we hear the distinctive growl of hellhounds. Dean gets the door unlocked just in time, and they all rush inside. Sam holds the doors closed as the other three casually wander around the church trying to find the Occultum. Sam is clearly having trouble, but no one comes to his aid. The sky conveniently clears, revealing a moonlit cross on the floor that marks the spot. Dean pulls up a floorboard and reveals a small blue velvet bag {Sidebar: Anyone else have a very similar Crown Royal bag full of cassette tapes in their car back in the 70s/80s? Or was that just me and my lowlife friends?} Inside the bag is an orb inscribed in Enochian: In order to be in the Occultum, the Occultum must be in you. Sam continues struggling with the door, and the others are all, you held the doors open against Lucifer himself, I’m sure you can handle a couple of silly hellhounds, which is true but still.

Bunker. AU Sam and Dean are cosplaying as our Sam and Dean, but not well. “They said lose the manbun, Samuel,” says AU Dean. “Look, hillbilly clothes are bad enough. I had to draw the line somewhere, and my hair is sacred.” Sam drinks beer with his pinkie extended, and hates it, and I’m sorry. I can’t stand this.

Scenes from the Writers’ Room

You know, last year, Jared got to play a couple of fun AU versions of Sam. I missed out on that.

Okay, but we’ve got you singing this year. And dancing.

Yeah, I know, but I really want to play a different version of Dean, too. I’m gonna be looking for jobs. I need to showcase all my talents.

All right, we can do that.

Also, make sure someone tells Dean he’s pretty.

Anyway. AU Dean is growing to enjoy beer, and he finds porn on Dean’s laptop (leave it to the Buckleming to bring back Busty Asian Beauties, ugh), and he thinks the OG life – nothing but beer, monsters, and porn – might not be so bad after all. AU Sam decides he agrees.

Back at the church, Sam is still the only thing between the rest of TFW 2.0 and grim death. As Cas and Dean squabble over what to do next, Jack figures out the obvious and swallows the Occultum. He collapses and glows and is transported to… Eden! Which has astroturf! And a weird girl who says Eden will change him “if you’re the one meant to find it.” She disappears and a snake appears in the tree. (Hello, Crawly!) “Who are you really?” it hisses. “Who are you meant to be?” Jack has some flashbacks to his best times and worst times and falls to the ground, crying. Then he appears back in the church as a glowing orb which immediately heads straight toward Sam, if you didn’t notice. But I did. Then it floats back to Cas and Dean. Sam collapses and the door opens, but the ball of light disperses the hellhounds and leaves Jack on the floor.

Aftermath! Bunker. Dean is dismissing the AU Winchesters. AU Dean suggests they all live there together, and OG Dean turns them down. He thinks they need to go to Brazil, and refuses their request to keep the flannel shirts. AU Dean tells him they saw the car – and drove it. I wonder when they did that, since the OG Winchesters drove it to the church. Huh. But that’s not what bugs me most about this. What bugs me most is that there’s NO WAY IN HELL (not even new, wimpy Walmart Hell) that Sam and Dean would have let those guys go. Would have turned them loose without any support. No fucking way.

Dean joins Sam, who is standing sadly in the hallway outside Jack’s door. Cas comes out of his room and says Jack is okay, but something is different. They go inside and oh, it’s not Jack’s room, it’s the kitchen. Jack is sitting at the table, crying. He apologizes for not understanding that killing Mary was his fault and begs for forgiveness. Looks like someone has been resouled. And – scene!

So. I didn’t really care for this one. In fact, it kind of made me lose hope for the rest of the season. And maybe the will to live. But I’m not going to dwell on that. I’m going to dwell on this: We don’t need any more side characters, even if they’re Sam and Dean.

Scenes From the Writers’ Room

Okay, who else can we bring back?

What about Ruby? I know a lot of fans would like to see some closure for her story.

I thought she had closure? When they killed her?

{laughter}

Good one. Yeah, let’s bring her back and wrap her story up. And we’ll give Cas and Jack some time too.

But we’ve gotta use the guys at some point. People are gonna complain.

I’ve got an idea – what if we have Jared and Jensen play two different people, rather than Sam and Dean?

You, my friend, are a fucking genius!

But if we had to get two AU Winchesters, couldn’t it have been the ones from Sam’s nightmares? Wouldn’t Boy!King Sam or MoC Dean have been awesome? And what if, after the AU Winchesters tumbled into the bunker, AU Sam quietly pulled OG Sam aside.

I need to talk to you. Alone. What is it? Do you have a secure room? Someplace we can ward? Why? Um… I’m not sure how to explain… Do you have Cain and Abel in your world? {Sam visibly blanches} We’ve got a dungeon. Come help me set it up. Now.

Wouldn’t that have been better than this crap? Or what about Samifer? Wouldn’t Sam and Dean’s reactions to Samifer have been magnificent? (Yeah, I know. We didn’t need a whole Plot. We just needed a small Device.)

And it turns out they’re not airing any more new episodes until… who knows when. Which means we’re stuck with this one. If I die and the last new episode of Supernatural I ever get to see is a fucking Buckleming episode, I’m going to be so pissed. I will come back and I will be haunting some asses. Enough whining. What did you think? And please help me stay unspoiled; thanks!

#spn #15.13 #recap #tv recaps #spoilers #fuckleming

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dxitydoo · 5 years ago

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So... the iPhone SE...

Alright this one is gonna be a long one so scroll on past if you’re not interested. If you are, then buckle up because here’s a multi-part essay about my opinions on the new SE.

For anyone that saw my post about getting a new phone and wondered what phone I got, I got the new iPhone SE (yes, I’m an Apple person. Don’t come for me).

At first, I was seeing videos of people getting excited over the phone but now, as time has gone on, those same people are now making videos criticising the phone.

Admittedly, they have some good points to bring up. The battery of the new SE is not amazing. It doesn’t outlast my dad’s XR which is somewhat annoying to say the least.

My counter-argument to that is that it lasted a whole day of me playing games on full brightness in the sunlight and didn’t die on me once which is honestly incredible after the last phone i had but anywho we’ll discuss this later.

My problem with a lot of those videos is that I feel like they’re getting the wrong end of the stick about what the SE is trying to be and they’re comparing it to the wrong phones.

The Original SE

The original SE’s main selling point (seriously why did Apple name them like this this is confusing) was that it had the newer internals of the 6S (so the faster processor, the better camera, etc) in the smaller body of the older 5S.

That was why I, and a lot of others I’m sure, liked it. Because it was a newer phone but in a size I preferred.

It also didn’t break the bank.

The old SE was praised for combining new and old in a way that complimented the old form-factor and rejuvenated in while also allowing people to access the newer features that were coming out in updates. At the time of writing this (27/04/2020), the old SE still supports new iOS updates and runs iOS 13 with minimal hiccups (not counting the fact that iOS 13 isn’t the most bug-free of updates).

But now, in 2020, the new SE is released and people are criticising it for the same thing they praised it for back in the day. They’re complaining that it has Touch ID, that it doesn’t have a edge-to-edge display, that it’s small, that the battery isn’t good, that the camera doesn’t stack up.

Look.

Everyone is free to have their own opinion. If you don’t like the SE, that’s fine. You don’t have to. No one is forcing you to. Just keep scrolling coz I do like the SE and I’m about to defend it til I run out of breath.

The “Old” Body

The SE combines old and new. That’s it’s schtick, that’s its gimmick. It was the thing for the 2016 SE, its the same for the 2020 SE. Although I would’ve loved to see an SE with an edge-to-edge display like any of the X or the 11 range, I’m not super surprised it hasn’t happened.

In fact, the small changes they have made, such as all colours now coming with a black bevel (and the better colour matching between the bevel and the screen), make it look really high-quality and beautiful honestly.

It has the same body as the 6, yes, but it doesn’t look like the 6 because of that colour-matching. And I appreciate that.

Oh! And the back being the non-metallic colour? God that’s sexy. The back is more reminiscent of the 11 (or the XR, I suppose, depending on what colour you got) than the 6 or 7. So it’s not unchanged?

Touch ID and Haptic Touch

Again, a controversial topic. The Touch ID in the SE is like the 3rd Gen or something?? I don’t actually know. But it’s several generations in at this point and it shows.

I came from the original SE, which had one of the first ever generations of Touch ID (if not the first) and the speed with which this new phone unlocks is incredible compared to the older model.

I tap the button once and the phone unlocks instantly. That is it.

Maybe it’s cumbersome to have Touch ID back again after all this time but if you’ve come from a Touch ID phone, especially one of the older models (which really... I think that’s probably the intended audience), it’s a big improvement.

And look no further for someone who was viscerally against the fake button Haptic Touch thing.

I hated the idea of it. My view was I either wanted the real button or no button at all. Full stop. End of story. You’d never change my mind.

Yeah... the new SE changed my mind.

I have the haptics turned up to the highest setting and it actually feels like a real button. Its less spongy than a real button, of course, and feels stiffer (kinda? Maybe just shallower) but its actually a really satisfying feature.

I remember first trying the fake button on the 7 and it vibrated at the wrong time or you’d try to press it to do one thing and it’d do another. It was confusing and made it very difficult to use.

I will say now I haven’t actually tried using an 8 so I can’t pass judgement on that but i like the SE.

And the Haptic Touch is really really nice.

I never thought I’d have a phone that has built-in rumble when playing games but here we are. This is the future.

Aside from being kinda nifty to feel the vibration in your hands when something happens on-screen, the Haptic Touch vibrates under your finger when interacting with the rotating dials to set timers or reblogging posts on tumblr. It’s a weird experience but not an unpleasant one and I like it way more than I was expecting to.

The Small Size

As for the size?

I really like it.

It’s big enough that it feels like a step-up from my old phone but not so big that I’m struggling to hold it (*cough cough* the XR *cough cough*).

Okay so my touch-typing is suffering a wee bit at the moment but tbh I started to struggle on my old phone before I upgraded coz the screen was just a little too small so it’s more a me thing than an it thing. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The camera.

I feel the need to mention that my last phone was the 2016 SE so, maybe it’s because my standards are really low, or maybe I’ve never owned an 11 and, therefore, have no comparison for it that way? But I don’t think the camera is bad.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say the camera is really fricking good.

After using a phone with a front-facing camera that could barely shoot 480p, stepping up to 1080p on the front is Wild™. The difference between this new camera and the old one is incredible.

If you want a camera that shoots good quality photos, has good colour balance, can actually show the sky as blue when shooting through a window (yes this is how low my expectations are), then omg this phone is incredible.

Obviously, its never gonna beat the 11 with its two cameras and its not gonna be able to contend with the 11 Pro series with their three cameras but hey, the phone is like half the price so??

The Battery

Okay, so lets talk about the battery.

I know this is a bit of a sore spot with people because iPhones recently have been coming out with bigger and better batteries every year.

I did a quick check through and, according to Apple, the battery life is about the same as both the 7 and the 8, which makes sense as they all share the same body. Unfortunately, that means that its probably a size issue. As in, thats the longest a battery of that size can last in a phone. Which is kinda annoying.

But, this is a post about my experience with the SE and I haven’t ever owned a 7 or an 8. My mum owned a 7 and the battery on that was god-awful and I’ve had a much better experience with my SE than she did.

First of all: some context.

Again, a friendly reminder my last phone was a four year old SE. It was a 64GB one as well, so you know I’m being legit (they stopped selling the 64GB (in the UK at least) about a year after the phone’s initial release).

So the battery on my old phone was absolutely fine. At first. As time went on and the phone got older, it did, unfortunately, begin to struggle.

As a reference, a few months before I replaced it (given lockdown doesn’t give the most accurate overview of what it was like to use on a day-to-day basis), it wouldn’t make it through a day at school without dying at least once, sometimes twice.

I had to carry a portable charger with me everywhere I went.

I left my house when it was on 100% and, by the time I got to school after an hour on the bus, it would be on 60-70% on a good day.

Letting your battery die everyday is really not good for it but, try as I might, I couldn’t stop it from happening.

I tell you this to let you know that my criteria for a good battery is literally just “lasts me through the day”.

I’ve had my new phone for about three days now and it hasn’t died on me once.

I played games on it in bright sunlight with the phone on full brightness for several hours straight yesterday and yet it still lasted me through the day and then some. After being off charge for 11 hours, it just about hit 20% before I put it on charge.

Today, I was on social media: tumblr, instagram, youtube, for the majority of today. Both tumblr and instagram had an uncanny ability to completely decimate the battery life of my old phone. They could reduce it from 50% to 40% after 5 minutes. But, again, no problemo for my new phone.

It got to about 50% today before I put it back on charge to go have dinner.

I’d say that lasts through the day quite nicely.

Especially given it’s getting a lot more use than it would normally because a) I’m stuck inside with nothing to do and b) shiny new phone!!!

But I digress.

So, Why Does The SE Exist?

I’m gonna be real. I don’t think the iPhone SE (2020) is trying to be anything fancy. It’s not trying to be the next iPhone 11, it’s not trying to replace the XR. If anything, it’s replacing the 8.

I don’t think the SE is a bad phone. It does everything it says it does and it does it well.

I think the YouTube reviewers have it slightly wrong. I don’t think they should be comparing the SE to the 11 or the XR because, realistically, the people who own those phones aren’t gonna be buying the SE for themselves.

The people who are gonna be buying the SE are the people who have the 5s or the old SE or the 6s or even maybe the 7. (I’m not sure how noticeable the jump would be from 8 to SE, given they have very similar specs).

They’re the kind of people who want a new phone but don’t have the money to go for the more expensive XR or 11 range.

Or maybe they don’t want a giant phone because idk bout you but I have small hands and the XR is both large and heavy and that’s not practical. Plus, the XR with women’s jeans? Really? Not happening.

So, while I understand why reviewers are comparing the SE to the 11s or the XR—because the SE has the internals of those two and is closer to them in terms of release date—I don’t think it’s actually realistic.

TL;DR

YouTube reviewers are comparing the SE to the recent phones when they should be comparing it to the older ones, which is the more likely transition. The iPhone SE has a lot more going for it than people say and I really like it.

#long post #iphone SE #the new iphone #i have opinions #kinda a rant #apple #ios #apple ain’t perfect but the iphone SE is a decent phone #funny how i made that same argument bout the 2016 SE too #huh #makes ya think

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jj-ktae · 6 years ago

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Erotica - Epilogue - (M)

Pairing: Im Jaebum x Reader Genre: SMUT Summary: You’re a rookie porn actress on the rise and everything goes well until you get offered a role in a big-budget porn movie, starring the most famous actor in the porn industry. Words: 2515 Warning: Read at your own risk Erotica was banned from the Tumblr search engine so it appears nowhere no matter which tags I use and you can only find it in my masterlist or in your dashboard. Might as well link the previous chapters and my masterlist here lol

MASTERLIST

- Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Epilogue -

Epilogue

Im Jaebum is funny.

You wouldn’t be able to explain the past two years without wailing. He has one or two flaws, most of them involving his laziness but nothing out of the ordinary.

It’s like he was made for you.

Today is the last day of his career. Jaebum has an interview for one of these magazines you always refused to appear in and he will be done with porn forever. It’s a day to celebrate, not only because you’re both out of the porn industry, but also because it’s the beginning of a new life.  Erotica made you earn a lot of money and allowed Jaebum to invest into an old building to transform it into an apartment complex.

So naturally, he left this job after months of struggling with the idea of dating someone who regularly has sex with other people. It was hard for Jaebum, but he had no other choice.

It’s the first serious talk you both had, right after your first official night as a couple. You ended up accepting the fact that he had to keep working until the end of his contract, just like he had to accept the fact that you too, had other things planned before quitting.

You found yourself stopping before he did and started looking for another job, while he filmed his last movies as JB the porn star.

Tonight is a celebration yet Jaebum insisted on staying home and enjoy a peaceful night together. He brought food and wine, along with a pretty necklace that he insisted you should wear every minute of your life.

Your stomach is still full as you’re lying flat on your bed. It’s a hot summer day and not even the cool breeze is enough to electrify your moist body. You’re somehow lost in your thoughts, from the stress coming along with your new job to the relationship you’ve spent month building with Jaebum.

Said Jaebum aims for your attention when he sees you all spaced out, visibly full of food and ready to doze off.

He refuses to blame your hazy state on the slow sex you both just had.

“What are you thinking about?” He takes in the sight of your naked body, hand pressing against your burning skin as he leans a little bit to rest his head over your body. He finds shelter near your hipbone where he nibs at the skin before blowing cool air over it. “You look so serious.”

Jaebum isn’t used to you being so unaware of your surroundings. You’re so cautious of everything you do to forget about everything else but now you seem unfocused, not even bothered by the fact that he is drawing tiny patterns on your thigh.

“My tummy’s about to burst.”

He chuckles, biting at the tiny bulge under your navel. “You ate so well…” he mocks, kissing the spot when you start wriggling, falsely annoyed.  “Seriously though, I was thinking about you.” You add, barely lifting your head to meet his questioning gaze. He rests atop of your hip bone, body leaning sideways and arm around your naked waist.

Jaebum even looks pleased, his teasing smile replaced with an expectant gaze. “And what about me?”

You sigh, moving your free leg so it would reach a cooler part of the bedding. “I was thinking about how crazy it is that we ended up dating when we were both porn actors.” You shift a little when Jaebum nods, his chin tickling your skin.

He muses, eyes reaching for the roof as a sign of his reflection. “I think it makes sense. I don’t think anyone can accept that job, let alone introduce a porn actor to their parents.”

“Your parents know.” You scoff. Even his family is chill.

He shrugs, mouth going to your stomach to kiss it. “My parents are supportive, that’s all.” He waits a moment, before lifting his head again. “Not that your mother isn’t, of course.”

You chuckle, nodding. “My mother would have a heart attack. At least I’m really working as a waitress, now.”

Jaebum coughs, moving on the mattress so he can finally reach your level before grabbing your leg to circle it around his naked waist. “Speaking of which, are you sure you want to work as a waitress?”

He has that tone you only hear when something upsets him. Jaebum barely gets mad and even if he does, it starts slowly, like a warning before the actual storm.

But as he nudges you to press his face against your neck, he sighs. “I’m worried about people recognising you and annoying you.”

“Babe I was a porn actress, not Angelina Jolie.” You try to mock him but he doesn’t buy your shit and tightens his hold instead.

“It’s worse. They might think you’re easy or some shit like that.” His hand goes to your side to tickle you and you giggle, leg kicking his butt. “I’ll have to come and check on you every night.” He sounds so dramatic, but his smile can’t be missed. “I’ll be careful.”

“You could be my secretary instead. That way, we can live a real-life porn. ‘Hot secretary fucks angry boss in his office’.” Jaebum laughs when you make a funny face, yet goes back on serious mode, arm tightening your leg around him and it’s starting to be too pleasing to focus on whatever he is saying.

You sigh when he rolls his hips, his flesh rubbing against you. “Seriously though, I’m not fond of this idea…” he trails off, voice laced with a craving you could never get enough of.

You can’t help but whimper, lips parting as you shift toward his chest and breast finding shelter against his broad body. “I never pegged you as the possessive type,” you reach for his neck, bringing him closer until his breath fans your face, hurried. “You didn’t seem to care until I ended my contract with my agency.”

Jaebum hums, the probability of a serious conversation out the window if his growing erection is anything to go by. He rolls his eyes, “Porn is porn, nightlife is different.” His position changes just enough for him to lean and still a short kiss. “Now that we’re both out of this, I don’t plan on sharing you, rookie.”

You tap his shoulder lightly, the sound of your hand slapping his skin stronger than the actual damage it caused. “Stop calling me rookie!”

Your boyfriend choses to stay silent, leaving you expectant as he pushes you onto your back. “Anyways, don’t get mad at me for being petty about you being molested in a bar in the middle of the night.” Before you can protest he plunges, aiming for your collarbone which he attacks vividly. His teeth graze upon the hidden bone, drawing shivers and goose bumps all over your body. He snickers in the middle of silence. “I’ll have to beat up the pervs.”

You wriggle against the sheets, laughter mixed with pleasure as he darts his tongue to trail a path down your chest. “So virile…” you sigh, earning a hidden shrug from a busy Jaebum.

“Yeah?” He smooches your warm skin, liking how unforgiving he sounds.

It’s cute in a way. Jaebum never had to show anything but acceptance toward your job, considering he was still a porn actor himself. Maybe he had it harder than you thought. You understand him though; it’s not cool to greet your boyfriend when he was banging another girl the same day.

“I don’t think I’ll ever have enough of you, rookie…” He whispers and slides on the bed, head back on your stomach and creating messy patterns over your skin. You almost break right there, the confession unusual but not unpleasant.

Jaebum never imagined he could have such stamina. His sexual life was close to non-existent before he met you and his physical interactions were limited to the scenes he filmed in the studio. It had ruined his personal life with such ease, turning sex into a duty rather than a necessity and killing his hormones with a slow and numb burn. When he started filming with you and felt the tingling sensation again, he understood right away.

He couldn’t thank you enough for sticking around and waking him up from his creepy slumber made of daddy kinks and choking in front of cameras. Thanks to you he built up the courage to start his project and stop his career, turning him into more than a guy who has sex for money. He is such a bad actor anyways.

DVDs and CDs are neat into your shared apartment, like a silent memory of something none of you regret doing. Yet it doesn’t mean he will ever miss it.

You forget about whatever names he called you when he reaches your pubis, mouth watering and dropping tiny patches of saliva over the heated flesh.

You almost knock your head against the wall when the first lick falls. It’s insistent and slow, devastating in the sea of your needs as Jaebum knows exactly what pace to use to make you crazy.

It’s something you discovered with time. Jaebum is into slow and deep thrusts, soft doggie style, lazy morning sex and it’s a mixture of finesse and bestiality, along with loving words. He is comfortable for he isn’t disturbed by nudity, can say whatever he wants without sounding creepy and barely has any requirements when it comes to sex.

He welcomes all your faults and imperfections the same way you do and none of you bother with petty fights, the words too heavy to question a future you both want. Jaebum has that honesty which leaves little room for misunderstanding. He confessed the same night he brought you to his flat yet didn’t force anything on you.

And you love him just that way.

You gasp when he grabs your ankles and bends your legs, nestling them on either side of your body to reveal more of you. He barely goes wild and you suspect he is trying to prove a point but your brain shuts down when his tongue probes at your opening, teasing just enough to collect wetness and smear it over your folds. You glance down to peek at the beautiful scene but Jaebum is already looking at you, pleased by your bewildered face and flustered cheeks.

He dips down a second time, eyes darkening and tongue out to lap every engorged part of your pussy. He stops just long enough to show you how he licks his lips and goes down again, head shaking from right to left and making you roll your pelvis against his restless mouth.

You still gather yourself to make fun of him. “Are we…filming…again…?” It’s hard to speak between moans yet your voice is loud and clear, breathless. Jaebum doesn’t like your teasing and attacks you even harder, the hint of a smirk hardly hidden behind his brown locks. He even hums teasingly, the vibration of his deep sounds shaking your flesh.  He doesn’t slow down even when your orgasm hits. You jerk away from his mouth, moaning and grunting but he keeps you in place until you can only shake. It burns your body from every pore, mixing with your blood like a shot of strong alcohol and making your vision blind with pleasure. You complain and beg for him to stop and he only releases you when you freeze from the overstimulation, unable to function anymore.

You shake your head, a false accusation painting your exhausted features as you glance at a smiling Jaebum whose hand is wiping the remains of your climax from his smiling and reddish lips  Your legs fall, lifeless on the bed but you can’t let him suffer. His penis is hard and threatening, the bulbous head a deep shade of red and length swollen by the numerous veins.

He pumps himself slowly, tilting his head to the side. He raises one eyebrow. “You okay?” he rasps.

You nod, deciding to play along with his celebration sex and rolling on your stomach. You raise your butt just enough for him to grab it and rub himself between your asscheeks, grunting.

“You’re so beautiful…” He whispers, free hand running along your curves and stopping by your drenched pussy to play with your clit. “So damn beautiful…”

He penetrates you slowly, his willpower winning the inner battle of his arousal against his brain. You breathe out, searching for air and dipping your head into the pillow.

“Come here.”

Jaebum commands, already reaching for your body so you can lean against him. He sticks your bodies and starts moving his hips, penis sliding deep inside you.

He finds a good pace right away, from the tip of his dick poking out to the base hitting your asscheeks, Jaebum knows how to burry himself inside you. It feels amazing, the pressure from the position and your needy moans lulling him toward an orgasm he can call his own private pleasure.

He is infatuated the way you mould with him. He loves pinching the tender skin of your nipple as his hand cups your perfect breast, he enjoys the way your head finds its home into the crook of his neck and he can’t stop himself from tilting your head steal numerous kisses.

You open your mouth eagerly, tongue out to play against his own in a carnivorous embrace. He bites and sucks on your lips, his sighs spilling from his parted lips whenever the tip of his cock hits a specific spot inside you.

You arch until your back hurts, looking for more stimulation and nearing your second orgasm. Jaebum is struggling, you can feel it from the way his abs tense behind you. He is all stiff, all ready to fill you up yet not giving in.

You know his body language by heart.

You collapse against him when a second wave of pleasure hits you. It breaks your bones and destroys your muscles, leaving your lifeless against a panting Jaebum who can only suffer from the contractions around him. The waves of pleasure hit you as much as they hit him, sending you both into another universe.

He allows himself to cum right when you’re done and he is satisfied with the pleasure he gave you. You’re nothing but a dead weight against his chest, eyes closed and smile smug as you giggle to yourself because your brain is messed up and you can’t think straight.

You still wonder how can someone be so skilled at sex.

Jaebum lets you rest on the bed, not the least bothered by the mess he creates when he pulls out of you.

Instead he wraps you around him again, hugging you close and kissing your nose.

“This is what I call a celebration, rookie. Who needs Erotica when I have you all to myself?” He muses, fingers rubbing against your cheekbones while he pecks you once more.

You giggle, head shaking at this boy’s antics. He can be such a dork.

“The pleasure is mutual.”

AN : Erotica is officially over! Thank you all so much for following this series (I see you, naughty readers). I’m sad that it’s over and I’m going to miss Porn actor Jaebum but Priest Jinyoung is waiting for me so I’m off to new adventures ! Thank you for the support and love you sent me through this series, I love yall!

#Jaebeom #jaebum #im jaebum #im jaebeom #im jaeboem #got7 jaebum #jaebum got7 #im jaebum got7 #jaebum x reader #why do I even tag this #lol enjoy #thx again for reading!#jaebum au #jaebum smut

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abitnotgoodiebag · 5 years ago

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Auditory Affliction

@ironstrangebingo square: Carol Danvers

@metalandfood prompt: from the tumblr prompt: Imagine Stephen’s phone going off a la Irene Adler style during inappropriate moments but it’s Tony’s voice that always comes out. The notification sound always changes from soft moans to a breathless, “Stephen”

AO3 link

Summary: Carol must put a stop to these inappropriate interruptions during avengers meetings.

5 times Stephen’s phone goes off and one time it does not.

The first time it happens, there is silence. Stephen pinches the bridge of his nose and pulls his phone from his robes with a put-upon sigh.

After a few taps on the screen of his hours-new personalized StarkPhone, Stephen looks up to see all of the gathered Avenger’s staring at him.

“So we’re just going to act like we didn’t hear Tony moan your name?” Clint asks with a smirk, his tone implying something rude.

Stephen’s jaw tightens a fraction and he swallows the urge to portal him somewhere unpleasant. He ignores the irritating archer and says, “FRIDAY, please let Tony know that I do not find his antics amusing.”

“Will do, Doc,” comes the reply in an amused tone, suggesting that boss would ignore the sentiment completely.

Apparently being crafted to adapt to the limitations of his trembling hands were not the only thing Tony had customized on the device.

The silence from the other members of the team stretches into something uncomfortable.

“What?!” Stephen asks defensively. “It’s not like I recorded it!”

Sam snorts “Suuuure.” under his breath. Clint snickers in response, while Steve doesn’t seem to be sure how to react to the whole situation.

Stephen rolls his eyes so far back into his head he fears they might get stuck. “I’ll be sure to mention how inappropriate this is next time I see Anthony. I’m sure he’ll agree and immediately do as requested to save me further irritation, knowing how much he enjoys decorum.” Stephen says, his sarcasm heavy.

Carol clears her voice to prevent further comments on Stephen’s unfortunate ringtone. “If we could get back to matters at hand?” she asks as she turns her attention back to the projection at the front of the room.

The meeting begins to drone on as it had before.

*Ooooh, Stephen!*

Stephen resists the urge to bang his head on to the table, having already been the recipient of enough stares today. Stephen opens a small portal and throws the phone through it.

“You were saying?” He asks with a frazzled smile pulling at his face.

---

Remembering that Tony is not only an Avenger, but also the world's foremost genius inventor is surprisingly difficult for Stephen. As such, whenever Tony’s presence is required for presentations, conferences and the like, Stephen tends to sulk.

Tony has been gone for 2 days now and Stephen is not happy about it. Wong has finally gotten tired of his moping around the Sanctum and has banished him until he can ‘get off his sorry ass and act like an adult, not a wounded puppy.’

Stephen finds himself wandering the halls of the compound aimlessly. After a minute, his wandering is no longer aimless as he smells something tasty coming from the direction that he is now headed in.

Approaching the communal kitchen area, Stephen notices Carol, Rhodes, Sam, Scott, and Bruce in various stages of cooking and setting the table.

“Strange! I didn’t know you were here.” says Sam while grabbing two pitchers of what appears to be pink lemonade from the refrigerator. “Are you staying for dinner?”

Stephen nods his assent, hoping that social interaction will cause the time until Tony’s return to go back just a bit faster. “What can I do to help?” He asks moving further into the room.

“Everything is pretty much finished, just waiting on the pasta for another minute or so. Make yourself comfortable.” Bruce stirs the pan of sauce that contains the source of the enticing scent. Stephen can identify spinach and other assorted vegetables simmering in a thick red sauce.

He doesn’t realize how hungry he is, and floats an extra place setting to the table.

The food is delicious and Stephen finds himself glad that he stayed for dinner. The wine and camaraderie is just the thing to drag Stephen from his funk.

“And then Telos said, ‘I’m not going to tell you again, man, it’s a fucking Flerken!’” Carol finishes, to the laughter of the group. She takes a sip of wine and continues, “Goose then thought it was the perfect time to eat the box in question, surprising the hell out of Rastur. I’ve never seen someone faint so fast.”

Stephen lets out another chuckle as he refills his glass. He is seriously contemplating stealing another slice of pound cake when a long, loud, breathy moan emanates from his pocket.

This time Stephen does let his head hit the table. “Fucking Tony.”

Scott can’t help but giggle. “Yeah, that’s what it sounds like, man.”

Stephen shoots him a glare. “Har har, Tiny Tim.”

Carol just sighs in resignation “He’ll never change it will he?”

Rhodes laughs softly, “Probably not. Not when everyone keeps getting all stuffy bout it. Rogers’ responses alone practically guarantee that it’s permanent.”

Carol just shakes her head in disapproval. “It’s unprofessional.”

“It’s Tony.” Rhodey replies with a shrug. “He does what he does when he wants to do it.”

Stephen looks up from his response to the intruding message. “It’s one of the joys of his life to cause as much trouble as possible.” Two more indecent cries follow.

“I-uh feel like we’re interrupting a private moment.” Sam says as he hurriedly reaches for the wine. Bruce motions for him to pass it down when he finishes, Sam complies.

“If only. Wong is regaling me with the tale of the newest novice to accidentally stick themselves in another dimension.” Stephen says absentmindedly, putting the phone back in his pocket.

“Wait a minute, you’re telling me that’s not even Stark?” Scott asks bursting into giggles again. “It does that for everybody?”

“Yup.” Stephen replies, lips popping on the P.

“Fucking Tony.” Says an amused Bruce.

“Fucking Tony.” Stephen agrees.

---

Steve Rogers and his merry band of pardoned rogues enter the common room as Stephen is meditating.

They pause momentarily, debating whether or not interrupting Stephen is the wisest course of action, but Clint rolls his eyes at his teammates and continues into the room.

“It’s my turn to pick the movie and I am not letting you dipsticks put me off again!”

Natasha rolls her eyes fondly and heads to one of the couches, curling on one side as Sam and Bucky bicker over who gets the other prime viewing spot on the couch. “You always pick the shittest movies, Clint. Don’t try to deny it.”

They settle in to various positions while Clint fiddles with the Blu Ray player.

The title screen for Sharknado: The Fourth Awakens appears on the television and a chorus of groans rings out, Natasha’s the loudest of the lot.

“Really, Barton? Why do you hate us?” Sam gripes as he decides that in order to sit through this, beer and popcorn are needed. He gets up and heads to the kitchen to collect the snacks.

Clint replies with a smirk, “This is cinematic excellence, you heathens.”

“What exactly is a ‘sharknado’?” Bucky asks, dreading the answer. “Tell me it isn’t exactly what it sounds like.”

“But it is exactly what it sounds like. That’s the beauty of it!” Clint looks absolutely gleeful.

Steve and Bucky look at each other, each wondering why this even exists and why someone thinks that four of them are necessary.

As they munch on popcorn and pick apart the absurd stupidity of the film, they forget the sorcerer’s presence in the room altogether. When they find out that April is actually alive, but mostly machine (several jokes are thrown Bucky’s way) and that she seems to be part human, part iPhone they are startled by a powerful cry of Stephen’s name drawn out in the most salacious tone yet.

Stephen is jerked from his meditating with a curse and would have fallen to the ground if not for the Cloak of Levitation keeping him off the floor.

He opens his eyes to the blush of Steve Rogers and smirks and leers from the rest of the ex-rogues.

“May I help you?” Stephens asks, one eyebrow raised.

“Sounds like you get enough ‘help’ as is!” crows Bucky trying unsuccessfully to hold back laughter.

Various sounds of amused agreement from Sam, Clint and Scott follow the statement. The phone moans again, omitting Stephen’s name this time. Steve’s face is almost completely red when he manages to tear his gaze away from Stephen’s amused one.

“Why? Why would Tony do that? That is not for everyone to hear!” Rogers looks ready to combust from embarrassment.

Flying sharks dance across the screen in the background completely forgotten as Stephen tries not to crack a smile at Steve’s obvious discomfort.

“I think he was trying to embarrass me. He wasn’t aware that it was an exercise in futility, but your reactions do give him some small measure of satisfaction.” Stephen gets to his feet carefully and stretches.

Steve is still blushing and Clint is throwing popcorn at him chuckling.

“In any case, Everything I’ve tried to change or silence it has ended in failure, so I have to hope that he’ll get tired of everyone’s reactions and give it a rest. Eventually.” With that, Stephen opens a portal and steps through to the Sanctum.

“I just don’t understand it.” Steve groans as he closes his eyes and thumps back against the couch, hitting Bucky’s leg.

“Well Stevie, when a boy and a boy love each other very much-” Bucky begins.

“And one of them is a shameless slut!” Clint interrupts, tossing more popcorn, this time into his own mouth. Bucky collapses into laughter unable to finish his lesson on the bees and the bees.

Steve drops his face into his hands and wishes the floor would swallow him whole. “I hate you guys.”

---

Stephen is still unsure how exactly they’ve ended up at this point.

Somehow during a routine training exercise (in which Clint is not a part of, yet is there for), Steve Rogers acquires two serrated arrows. Said arrows are sticking out of the affectionately dubbed ‘America’s Ass.’ At Stephen’s gesture, the Cloak of Levitation lifts him with as little movement as possible and floats him quickly to the medbay.

Stephen opens a portal to Metro General in search of Christine. After he locates her, they step through to the medbay and she appears to be just as baffled as he is.

“Why do you people even have an archer? What is the actual point?” She mutters to herself as she slides her hands into a pair of latex gloves.

Stephen finds it difficult to find a positive answer to her question. He floats several instruments and supplies over to the cart next to the bare-bottomed, Captain America. Steve’s teeth are gritted and his fists clenched in discomfort.

Bucky is standing at the head of the gurney trying pathetically to rein in the snickers at the sight Steve makes.

“As you can see, the arrowheads are serrated, so yanking them out would not be ideal. I came straight to get you, so I haven’t determined whether or not they’ve lodged into any bone matter.” Strange offers his observations as the cloak floats back to settle on his shoulders.

Christine approaches the gurney containing the super soldier. “Captain? I’m going to have to get a quick X-Ray to make sure the tip isn’t lodged in your ilium or sacrum, can you hold tight for me while I check?” Stephen is already pushing the XRay machine over to her. She aims the beam and takes 2 images. Seconds later, the images are displayed as a hologram above the XRay machine.

“Good news, Captain, No tips lodged anywhere. That will make extraction much simpler.” Christine smiles at him.

The doors open and Carol steps into the medbay with a stern look on her face. She catches the gaze of both Stephen and Bucky and quirks an eyebrow. “I am not happy to reset the critical incident counter in the training area again, gentleman. Why exactly am I unhappy this time?”

Bucky ducks his head and swallows his laughter while Stephen just shrugs and replies, “Barton felt left out, I guess.”

Christine is dabbing the punctured area of Rogers’ backside with betadine, concentrating on the task at hand. She picks up the forceps and places a hand on Steve’s lower back. “This may pinch a bit, Captain.” Steve lets out a breath. “I’m going to remove the tips now.”

Steve grunts in response and a fist shoots out to grab Bucky’s forearm. Bucky looks down at Steve and his gaze softens a bit at the discomfort on his face. “Just a tick, Punk, the Doc will have you good as new.”

Christine maneuvers the forceps into position and is able to get the first arrow out with little more than a grimace from Steve. She places the arrow on the cart and turns to the second arrow, inserting the forceps into the puncture gently.

*Oh Yesssss Stephen!*

Christine jerks at the sound, causing the arrow to tear into Steve’ glutes. Steve’s grip on Bucky’s arm veers into painful territory. Barnes and Rogers both cry out simultaneously.

“GODDAMMIT, TONY!” Steve shouts, face colouring in pain and mortification.

Stephen fights with every molecule in his body, but is unable to stop the “Language!” admonishment from leaving his lips.

Every single person in the medbay levels a glare at the sorcerer who raises his hands in a gesture of contrition. He is only moderately certain that his smirk is no longer on his face.

---

Stephen is hard-pressed to admit it, but he absolutely loves spending time with Peter. He knows that he still isn’t quite as close to him as Tony is, but Stephen has grown fond of the Spiderling.

They are in Tony’s lab, Peter doing his homework and Stephen analysing the molecular structure of a relic discovered by the master of the newly rebuilt London sanctum. Once stephen is assured that it is in fact magical and not some alien detritus, he joins Peter at the workbench.

They quickly fall into a discussion on microbiology when a filthy moan stretches out for much longer than necessary.

Stephen whips his head to his pocket before hearing the sound of a pen hitting the metal worktop. Strange turns back toward Peter, scandalized. Peter’s face turns bright red and he looks as if he has no idea how to respond to the noise that just came from Stephen’s direction.

“Uh, Mr. Doctor? Is everything alright?”

Stephen exhales slowly, counting to ten before retrieving his phone and glaring at it. No matter how hard Stephen has tried, there is no changing or silencing the embarrassing notifications. Tony refuses to do it himself and while Stephen initially found it irritating at worst and amusing at best, Peter is now being subjected to Tony’s ridiculousness.

“How upset would you be if I murdered Tony? Scale of Lang to Banner.” Stephen asks mildly, rubbing at his temples.

Peter doesn’t seem to have heard the question. His gaze is set resolutely forward, avoiding Stephen’s eyes. After hearing his pseudo father like that…well, Peter needs brain bleach. “Erg…I just. Can’t.”

Unfortunately, Carol chooses this moment to enter the lab. She frowns at the look on Peter’s face and opens her mouth, no doubt to ask him the matter.

Stephen’s phone picks that same moment to literally scream his name. Everyone in the room is struck by a powerful urge to be somewhere else.

“Strange! This has to stop immediately!” Carol barks as she throws her hands in the air.

Peter hurriedly throws his work in his backpack and flees the lab muttering under his breath about therapy and neuralizers. Stephen experiences a wave of disappointment at his time with his Spider child being cut short. Stephen feels the first twitch of serious ire at Tony’s foolishness. “Major Danvers, I assure you I will speak with Tony about this idiotic phone.”

“See that you do, Strange. Peter is going to be confounded for days.” Try as she might, Carol can’t help but feel the tiniest bit amused at the expression on his face as the boy bolted. She turns on her heel and exits as Stephen opens a portal to the penthouse.

---

Carol steels her resolve as she heads down the hallway towards Tony’s office. These interruptions and interjections cannot be allowed to continue. Amongst the Avengers it’s an annoyance, but now Peter is being harrassed and Carol must take action. She knows that Dr. Strange has nothing to do with it, that Tony is the one behind the many disruptions, so Tony is who she’s going to dress down. She reaches his office door and turns the knob.

“Tony, we need to-”

Carol freezes.

Tony is spread over his desk on his back with his shirt ripped open, head hanging down so she can see the blush on his cheeks. His eyes are screwed shut and he is huffing out little breaths. He’s covered in a light sheen of sweat and he looks utterly wrecked. Strange jerks from the other side of the desk, his hands gripping Tony’s hips tightly, eyes closed in concentration or ecstacy, Carol can’t quite tell nor does she want to.

Carol has never appreciated the necessity of knocking as much as she does in this moment.

A loud cry interrupts her mortification and she turns and flees, not remembering whether or not she closed the door behind her.

She nearly collides with Rhodey a few meters down the hall, still bright red.

“Mmm, Stephen!”

Rhodey frowns. “Tony still won’t change Strange’s ringtone?”

Carol manages to flush even deeper and squeaks “S-Something like that!” She speeds down the hall away from Rhodey, who shakes his head in exasperation and continues in the opposite direction.

He reaches the cracked door of Tony’s office and pushes the door open, about to scold Tony Stank for embarrassing Stephen and ignoring Carol. The door is abruptly jerked closed and Rhodey quickly heads in the direction Carol went muttering curses at Tony Stank.

Back in his office, Tony and Stephen have not slowed down in the slightest. Tony is gripping the edge of desk for dear life while Stephen rails into him. Tony is past the point of caring about keeping quiet and lets out a low stream of curses scattered with the sorcerer’s name.

Stephen groans and shifts his hips slightly finding Tony’s hot spot. Tony throws his head back hard enough to hit the desk. Stephen moves a hand from Tony’s hip to grasp his erection, rubbing his thumb along the slit. Three twisting strokes later, Tony is undone. His legs tighten around Stephen’s waist and he comes with a loud cry covering his stomach and chest with his seed. Stephen is not far behind him, coming with a strangled cry, eyes popping open to look at Tony.

Stephen drops forward onto Tony’s chest, huffing at the feel of Tony’s spend on his exposed skin. Tony brings his head up and tangles his fingers in Stephen’s hair.

Stephen pulls Tony off the desk and falls backwards into Tony’s chair, ending up with a lapful of sated mechanic.

“They still giving you shit about your phone?” Tony asks with a sly grin.

Stephen rolls his eyes and kisses Tony to shut him up. The genius knows perfectly well how the Avengers feel as Tony gleefully has FRIDAY send him the more amusing reactions.

“At least they’ll just think it’s your phone when we sneak off in here.” Tony quips.

“I hate to disappoint you babe, but both Carol and James barged in here not 10 minutes ago. I think we’ve scarred them.” Stephen nuzzles into Tony’s neck breathing in his scent.

Tony shrugs, “Well, that’s one way to guarantee knocking in the future.”

Soon after there are no more lascivious interruptions from Stephen’s phone. Tony’s office door also now sports an unnecessarily large ‘Knock, please!’ sign in hot-rod red. It doesn’t seem to be necessary as no one approaches that hallway anymore unless it is absolutely vital.

#ironstrange #strangeiron #supremefamily #stephen strange #ironstrange bingo #Winebuzzfics #5+1 fic #Tony is a little shit #ironmagic

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dreadnought-dear-captain · 6 years ago

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On Writing and Reading in Fandom

Earlier this week, I received a couple of asks about Baghdad Waltz that were, frankly, quite rude. I’ve taken them - and my responses - down because I don’t think the conversation was ultimately productive. I have also undone edits that I felt compelled to make to assuage people’s anxiety about the story and characters. These asks and my responses made me think about how readily I defended my words and choices and apologized for things that I’m not sure I needed to apologize for. I’ve thought a bit about this based on my own experience and the input from some of you offline, and wanted to make a few remarks.

1. Fic writing is a hobby. Maybe it’s a serious hobby, but it’s a hobby nonetheless. People who write fic work. They go to school. Many have families. Children. Sometimes they juggle all of these things and more. Oftentimes, they write in stolen minutes and seconds on their cell phones while feeding babies or on breaks at work or while cooking/burning dinner. I take my hobby a bit too seriously, but this is something we do for free in what little free time we have. And in addition —

2. This is supposed to be fun. Period. Yes, there is suffering. Sometimes there is incredible suffering. But at the end of the day, it’s supposed to be something that is satisfying for the writer. Which brings me to —

3. We don’t owe you anything. This is not intended to sound dick - it’s really, really not. It’s just the truth. We are sharing the stories we enjoy writing because we think you might also enjoy them. We can craft them however we choose. We can change our minds. Sometimes stories unexpectedly evolve, because that’s the nature of character-driven fiction. Personally, I make most of my story decisions based on what I think would actually happen to my characters in the cold, real world. It’s not always what I want to write, but I do it anyway because I believe their psychological makeup, history, and circumstances demand it.

You might not like it or agree with our choices, and you are either onboard for what we choose to write or you are not. It’s okay if you’re not. There is something for everyone in fandom. If you are not onboard for a particular author’s work, you have some choices — you can choose not to read more and go find something else, or you stop reading and also get mad and write rude comments. I think you know which one we would prefer, because it’s undoubtedly the one you would prefer if you were sharing your work. Which leads me to—

4. Writing is a profound expression of vulnerability. Yeah, this is a hobby. But it’s also not just bullshit for us. Writing is deeply personal. You think a fic is personal for you as a reader? That may be, and we love when readers connect strongly with our fics. But these stories literally come out of us. They are an extension of us. The characters, relationship dynamics, and plots we painstakingly (and I mean PAINSTAKINGLY) craft, the emotions we explore, they are deeply, deeply personal to us. This is us putting our insides out into the world on the off chance that someone else might also get something out of experiencing them. So when people make shitty remarks about our stories or accuse us of being manipulators/liars who make creative choices for some secondary gain like reads or kudos, this is both hurtful and wildly off the mark.

5. Tumblr is supposed to be fun. Many writers come here to have enjoyable and thought-provoking interactions with readers who want the same. Please don’t drop bags of shit in our inbox. It makes us not want to come back. Most of us appreciate honest and challenging questions and comments, and it doesn’t take much effort to just be polite.

All that said, my fic is one of the most important things in my life. I think about it more than I think about anything else. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing on my mind as I fall asleep. It completely consumes the hours of my commute. I drift to it inevitably during every single staff meeting and training and class. I spend hours upon hours discussing it with by long-suffering beta, @pitchforkcentral86. I calculated that I have spent - at a bare minimum - 1,350 hours on BW since I started researching and outlining it in 2016. I have dumped my fucking soul into this story, and I am not being hyperbolic.

I’m honestly not looking for any “attaboys”; the overwhelming majority of you are already shockingly, beautifully generous with your praise and support and messages telling me how much you connect to my stories and characters, and I really do love you for this. I’m merely trying to convey the immense amount of emotional commitment and time and plain-ass work that people put into fics.

So I implore readers to not shit on writers when they don’t give you exactly what you want in the stories they are choosing to share with you. The thing you want may be plot or character-related stuff, or it may be comfort regarding the future of a fic. I do, however, warmly welcome you to shit on my characters for behaving in ways you don’t like. Get angry at them. Criticize their motives and behaviors. That’s all fair game, as far as I’m concerned. Ad hominem attacks on the writer for fucking with your OTP or whatever other sin you believe they’ve committed, however, is not appropriate.

For those of you with difficulties tolerating the ambiguity and uncertainty with BW, I get it. I really do. This is a very difficult story with huge emotional and relationship stakes. I get your anxiety around the ending in particular, because after so much suffering, we just want everything to be okay.

However, from here forward, I will not be answering any more asks, messages, or comments about future plot points. This includes whether there will be a happy ending, whether Steve and Bucky will end up together, etc, etc. I’ll address issues about content warnings etc., but only enough to say that people will be warned if anything super triggering is addressed in future chapters.

Focusing so much on outcomes diminishes the journey of these characters, and I’m choosing not to say anything more about their future so that you can live in their present reality with them. That is unpleasant, I know. But it’s where we are all at right now.

I am very happy to answer many other types of questions and comments about the fic, so long as they are about present, past, hypothetical, character, or meta stuff and they don’t involve revealing future plot (or historical information that will be revealed later). I will, however, immediately delete any asks that are rude or otherwise disrespectful.

Thanks again to those of you who have offered support and encouragement along the way. I’m especially moved by those of you who have let me know how much the fic has impacted you personally. It means so much to me to know that, and you know I’m right there with you <3

#i told #meta post #fanfiction

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