#by which I mean they’re watching it with their sister but they’ve been stuck on ep 6 for months

[no1ryomafan]

I’m really starting to think I have ADHD because my current objective are torn between “hmmm I wanna rewatch arma but the first 3 eps are hard to get through alone so I may just rewatch it as a I build the kit I need to build anyways” and “hmmmm I don’t feel like writing another ZXG chapter yet for multiple factors but I had brain worms for a different getter fic even if a non getter idea I had is left rotting” but knowing me the end result is actually gonna be after I have dinner I’m going to procrastinate so hard that I end up just calling someone for the night and calling it a day.

[babydollmarauders]

TEENAGER IN LOVE — TREVOR ZEGRAS

trevor zegras x fem! hughes!reader

pt. 2

request: “hi! can i request something with trevor zegras with the prompts 20 and 23 please? thanks sm!! 💗”

20. “can we stay like this forever?”

23. “sleep over? please?”

summary: in which y/n reminisces on how her and Trevor started their secret relationship.

notes: i changed up prompt 23 a little bit to make it fit better, i hope that’s okay!

i was listening to Teenager in Love by Madison Beer quite a bit while writing this so…

Trevor and y/n are in an established relationship during the first little “present” scene.

reader is 20 in the present and 19 in the flashback.

**PRESENT**

i’ve never felt comfortable on planes. it doesn’t matter where i’m sat or what i’m wearing or who i’m with, i don’t like planes. my family knows this, my friends know this, anyone who will listen to me talk knows this, my brother however, simply does not care. and now i’m stuck on the Devils charter plane, not even sat next to Jack because he’s busy sat next to Dougie, talking about some video game they both play. so i’m left beside Jesper Bratt, who’s already asleep after only being in the air for maybe half an hour.

i didn’t intend to even tag along on this road game to California, but i moved in with Jack a couple months ago and he apparently didn’t trust me to stay in New Jersey by myself, citing his reasoning as “i don’t want any chance of you having boys in this apartment.” but the joke is on him, because he’s really just providing me with a trip to see the only guy he should be remotely worried about, Trevor.

as the only girl, growing up with three brothers, they’ve always been a bit overprotective. and by a bit, i mean a lot. even Luke, who’s a year younger than me, has had his fair share of threatening guys “in the name of my safety.” all of their friends have gotten the “if you even so much as look at my sister, i’ll make sure you never see anything again” spiel, and for a good nineteen years, their friends respected that. until Jack’s best friend, Trevor, and i were left alone for a night at the lake house last summer.

**FLASHBACK**

-

all the guys have left for a party down the road, they even took Luke along with them for his first party as an eighteen year old, and i’m looking forward to a quiet night of watching romcom’s on the couch with no judgment and no one complaining that “that would never happen in real life!”

decked out in one of Quinn’s oversized Canucks shirts, pajama shorts, and some fuzzy socks; i’m lounged on the couch, wrapped in a fuzzy blanket burrito. i’m just about to hit play on a movie on netflix when the front door opens and shuts and i hear footsteps getting closer to the living room. averting my gaze from the tv, i look over in time to see Trevor freeze in the doorway to the living room, and i become acutely aware of my current state of no makeup and probably looking like a dork with my blanket draped over the top of my head.

i’ve never had a problem acting normal around any of my brothers’ friends. usually, they’re all just like extended family, unwanted additional older brothers. except Trevor. when Jack first brought him home during their USNTDP days, i immediately got a schoolgirl crush. and unlike usual crushes, it’s only gotten worse with time. luckily, Quinn and Jack have never seemed to notice my awkward and shy behavior when Trevor is around, but Luke has and he’s made it his mission to send me scowls and snicker at my misfortune whenever it happens.

“oh hey.” he cocks his head in one those ‘sup’ nods and takes a glance towards the tv screen before fixing his gaze back on me.

“hey. what are you doing back already? are the others coming back too? i can go back into my room. i don’t wanna be a bother or anything.” cue the embarrassing rambles.

“nah, it’s just me. feeling kinda homesick, i don’t really wanna be at a party tonight.” he shrugs his shoulder and sits on the arm of the couch next to me. “whatcha watching?”

“oh, i was just gonna watch a romcom, but it’s fine, i can watch it in my room. you can have the tv if you want.” i have to crane my neck some to look up at him from my spot. “i can leave you alone.”

i start to stand up, still wrapped in my blanket burrito when Trevor grabs the back of the blanket and tugs me back down onto the couch. he stands and walks in front of me before taking a spot on the cushion next to me.

“so, what romcom are we watching?” he asks, kicking his legs up on the coffee table in front of us.

“you don’t have to watch it. we can watch something else, if you want.”

trevor’s only answer comes in actions, grabbing the remote from my hands and clicking play on the movie. i don’t bother to fight him anymore, allowing myself to get sucked into the movie instead.

i’m sat rigid throughout the entire movie, keeping aware of my limbs, not letting any stray too far towards the cushion beside me. and about halfway through the movie i remember how weird i must look and move the blanket onto my lap instead of wrapped around me. i can barely focus on anything other than the fact that Trevor is sitting next to me. the fact that i can smell his sandalwood cologne. that if i were to lay my hand next to me, i would almost be touching him.

once the movie ends, i expect him to put on something for himself or even just go to his room, but instead he turns to look at me.

“you okay?” he asks. my eyes widen slightly before i catch myself and revert them back to normal.

“yeah, why?” i try to sound calm, but my voice is slightly shaky, and i’m just hoping he didn’t notice.

“you seem uncomfortable. did i make you uncomfortable? did i do something?” i shake my head a little too violently for someone who’s supposed to be calm.

“no! i’m not uncomfortable! why would you think that? i’m cool.”

oh my god people who are cool do not say ‘i’m cool’, what is wrong with me? he chuckles and i can’t help the small smile that breaks out on my face at the sound.

“i was just checking.” he puts his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “we should play a game.”

“what game did you have in mind?”

“truth or dare? i don’t know, i’m just bored.”

“sure.” i have a feeling this will not end great for me, but i’m not about to let him know that.

“okay. truth or dare?” we turn and sit criss-cross on the couch, facing each other properly as i weigh my options.

“truth.” safest option. he takes a second to think about his question.

“okay, i got one. does it ever annoy you, how overprotective your brothers can be?”

“oh yeah. one hundred percent. they have all these rules for me; don’t drink unless we’re with you, no dating until you’re 30, don’t leave the house unless you tell us where you’re going, don’t crush on any of our friends. it’s overwhelming sometimes. and i can never stick up for myself because they’re so quick to hurt whoever hurts me, which is nice, yes, but it’s definitely taken a toll on how i present myself. it’s made me shy and my friends say i can be a crybaby sometimes because i’ve never had to handle problems on my own. like, don’t get me wrong, i’m grateful for my brothers, they’re always there for me, but sometimes it’s just too much. ya know?”

he nods, genuinely seeming interested in what i had to say, and my heart flutters.

“i can’t say i understand because i’m the older brother in my family, but i can imagine it can be difficult sometimes.”

“anyways, truth or dare?” he ponders his options before choosing dare. “i dare you to text the guys and tell them you just watched a romcom. and you CAN’T say it was with me.”

he groans and lets his head drop back for a few seconds before pulling his phone out of his pocket and typing for a minute. turning the screen so i can see what he just wrote, he lets me press the send button.

To: Jack-Attack, Huggy Bear, Moosey Hughes

just watched this great romcom on netflix called Set It Up. you guys should watch it. 10/10

i let my own head drop back in laughter and let out an ugly cackle.

“truth or dare? you evil little witch” his mocking insult rolls straight off my back when i see the smile on his face.

“truth again.” i shrug when he raises an eyebrow at my safe choice.

“have you ever broken any of your brothers rules?” my mind short circuits. there’s only one rule i’ve broken, and that’s by liking him. do i admit that? or do i just say no? technically, he didn’t say i have to say which rule i’ve broken, so-

“yes. but you can’t tell them that i have! it has to be our secret! they’d pester me to no end until they found out which one i broke!”

“okay, our secret. promise.” he holds his pinky out, waiting for me to link it with my own. a pinky swear. how adorable. fuck. i bring my own hand up, linking my pinky with his before breaking away and setting my hand back in my lap.

“truth or dare?” i ask.

“truth.” i take a few seconds to think of a question. how is this harder to think of than coming up with a dare?

“what’s your favorite part about the off season?” it’s a relatively boring question, but the first one i thought of.

“oh that’s easy. coming here. i love spending time with you guys.” more heart flutters, i may need to get that checked out. “truth or dare?”

“don’t kill me; truth.” i joke and he laughs again.

“i should’ve expected that, shouldn’t i? alright, if you wanna keep doing truth, i’m just gonna dig deeper and deeper until you tell me your darkest secret, y/n. which rule did you break?” my stomach drops. can i forfeit? can i plead the fifth? is that a thing that you can do in truth or dare? i wouldn’t know, this is my first time playing. i think i’m just gonna have to say it. it’s not like he’ll ever know it’s him.

“you can’t tell them! remember that!” i remind him before admitting- “having a crush on one of their friends.”

his jaw drops and he lets out a completely fake gasp.

“that is not what i was expecting. i expected you to say the drinking rule or the telling them where you go rule. how scandalous, y/n! a forbidden romance!” his jokes make me feel slightly better, at least he’s not judging me.

“yeah, yeah! it’s not like i’m dating the guy.” i defend myself. “truth or dare, Zegras?”

“dare, i’m feeling adventurous.”

“i dare you to go in Jacks room and steal my book back for me. he took it away from me because he said reading was boring and this trip isn’t allowed to be boring.” he bursts out in laughter, barely able to form words for a few minutes before he speaks again.

“oh you’ve got me doing your dirty work for you! i respect it!” he leaps up from the couch and within a couple minutes he’s back on the couch, my book in his hand. he tosses it on my lap and throws a wink my way. “one book for the lady.”

“my sanity thanks you. i can’t start another book until i’ve finished this one and it was killing me slowly.”

“truth or dare? although, i don’t know why i bother asking at this point.” i roll my eyes at his sarcasm and decide to throw him a curveball. mostly for myself though because i have a feeling i know what his next question would be if i pick truth.

“dare.” he grins, and for a second i regret my choice.

“i dare you to tell me which friend you were or are crushing on. c’mon, i can keep your secret.” he asked it anyways. what the hell. i don’t think you can do that. can you do that?

“that’s basically a truth! i picked dare! that’s cheating!”

“it is not!” now it’s his turn to defend himself. “i DARED you to tell me! i promise i won’t judge you, or laugh, or tell your brothers!”

oh god, i’m gonna have to tell him, aren’t i? i mean, i could always just say one of the other guys. i could say Alex, he’s always been the sweetest to me, so i’m sure Trevor would believe it. but then he might say something. it’s not that i wouldn’t trust him to keep it a secret if i say someone else, but Trevor has a big mouth, and sometimes he talks without thinking. he could slip up. so it’s smarter not to lie, to avoid any trouble or confusion. so i close my eyes and count to ten before i say it. here goes nothing.

“you.” i still don’t open my eyes. too afraid of his reaction. but now he’s quiet and i don’t like the silence. oh god, is he disgusted? is he trying trying to figure out how to let me down gently? “don’t get weird. you don’t have to say anything. you can just forget you heard that. pretend you didn’t hear any-“

i’m cut off by his mouth crashing down onto mine. i freeze, overthinking everything, before eventually melting into the kiss. moving my lips against his. it’s slow and sweet, and not at all the reaction i was expecting from him. we pull apart and i allow my eyes to flutter back open, watching his face as he slowly breathes in and out. he catches my eye and a wide grin spreads across his face.

“i’ve wanted to do that since high school.” his hands grip my hips and i let him pull me onto his lap, straddling him. butterflies are flying around in my stomach and my heart is pounding against my chest, but i let my body relax into his.

“really?”

“yeah.” he confirms, leaning his forehead against my own. “the first time Jack had me over to your house, he gave this whole lecture about how you were off limits. and i thought ‘no problem.’ but then i saw you, and i got to know you, and it turned out to be a big problem. you’re so beautiful, and then you turned to be this sweet, funny, amazing girl. and god, i could not get you out of my head. i still can’t.”

this time it’s my turn to plant a kiss on his lips, this one a chaste peck. i slouch down and lay my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“can we stay like this forever?” i ask, but before he can answer, his phone buzzes on the cushion beside us, and he picks it up and curses.

“Jack just texted to say they’ll be home soon. he said Cole is wasted and they need to put him to bed.” i pull back and nod my head, moving to get off him. but he wraps his arms around my middle and holds us chest-to-chest. “do you want me to tell him you’re asleep? you can come in my room. we can just cuddle, nothing else necessary. but i just got you, and now i just wanna hold you.”

i smile and nod again, silently saying a thank you to whatever higher entity above granted me such luck as to have him like me back.

“yeah, i’d like that.” we get off the couch and make our way to his room, remembering to turn the tv off on our way out of the living room. he opens the door to his room and allows me to enter first before he comes in.

“you can go ahead and lay down, i’m just gonna change into some sweats first.” he walks over to his opened suitcase on the floor and pulls out a pair of grey sweatpants and a t-shirt before leaving the room, going into the bathroom across the hall. i do as he says and lay down on his bed, on my side facing the door.

it’s not but a moment after he gets back into the room and shuts the door, that we hear the front door of the house open and shut, followed by multiple pairs of footsteps and some mumbling.

“jesus Cole, you could help me out here and actually move your feet.” i can hear Quinn say as he passes by Trevor’s door, i’m assuming helping Cole to his room. Trevor snickers and comes over to the bed, clicking off the lamp before laying down behind me and putting his arm around my middle, pulling me close against him. after about 15 minutes i can feel his breath start to even out, and i look over my shoulder to see his eyes fluttering open and shut, obviously having trouble staying awake.

“you can go to sleep, Trev. i’ll go to my room once i know they’re all in theirs.” i whisper.

“no. sleep over here? please? i wanna hold you tonight.” his voice is soft and low so we don’t get caught, but also laced with sleepiness. i shake my head.

“what if one of them finds us in the morning? you know how my brothers will react.” at my words, he pulls his phone out of his sweatpants pocket and taps a few times before leaning over me and plugging it in on the nightstand.

“there. i set an alarm for 7am. you know the guys won’t even wake up before 10, so that gives us plenty of time for you to go back to your room before they can catch us.” i sigh and snuggle back into him.

“alright. i’ll sleep in here.” he plants a kiss on an exposed spot between my neck and shoulder and i can feel his smile on my skin.

[evolutiononthebrain]

Playground Life Games

I love the idea of Limited Life being a big game on a playground with school children. Not based on anything specific, just little bits i thought would be cute

***

Grian glances at the watch on his wrist. It’s Spiderman-themed, which is really cool, but not the most important part. The watch’s time display is the most important thing about the watch on his wrist.

3 hours from now, at 9pm, Grian and the rest of them had to go back to their houses. Curfews were so dumb, Grian thought, but his mum would kiII him if he was home late, so he didn’t argue much.

“Okay!” He shouts to his circle of friends. It quickly gets all of their attention. “Everybody’s watches set?” He checks.

It’s a few moments of everyone checking their watches, before Jimmy pipes up. “I don’t know how to set mine!” He whines. Groans come from the group.

Tango, standing next to Jimmy, grabs his wrist and tinkers with it for a moment before exclaiming, “Done! We’re ready, G-man!”

Grian nods seriously, glancing around the circle. “The boogeyman will be randomly chosen by whoever finds the piece of paper I’ve hidden first. When you’re the boogey-“ He’s unceremoniously cut off by Pearl shouting, “We know about the boogeyman! Can we go play now?” She asks.

To his utter shock and surprise, everyone else starts nodding and agreeing with Pearl.

Grian pouts, “Fine! Go!” He yells, throwing his hands up in the air. Everyone scatters like rats.

***

“Oh, Lizzie,” Joel sighs the girl’s name dreamily. He clutches his chest, leaning against the metal leg of the playground jungle gym the Bad Boys have claimed as their base.

Grian rolls his eyes, flicking the boy on his arm. “Lizzie,” He mocks the dreamy tone, high pitched, “thinks you’re lame.” He says. Joel glares at him, flicking Grian right back on the forehead.

Poor, oblivious Jimmy looks between his two teammates, utterly confused. “What about my sister?” He asks.

“Lizzie? Oh, I love Lizzie!” Scar interrupts their conversation. Grian really should stop rolling his eyes, or he really will get them ‘stuck like that,’ like his mum says.

But he can’t help it, not when Joel glares so hard at Scar that it’s shocking that Scar doesn’t light on fire and explode in front of them.

***

“They want to be known as the Mean Gills?” Jimmy says, again in his, seemingly, default state of utter confusion.

Cleo laughs loudly, “Mean Girls?” She asks, curious amusement on her face.

“No, no, Mean Gills!” Martyn chimes in, walking over. “A very clever pun, if I do say so myself.” He says, self-satisfied.

“It’s your team name, then?” Cleo asks, “Like, Jimmy’s whole ‘Bad Boys’ thing.” She snorts.

Jimmy makes an affronted sound. “I am the bad boy of the playground!” He says insistingly. Cleo laughs, verging on cackles, and hunches over as she puts her hands on her knees to support herself.

“Aww,” She giggles, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye, “Aww, of course you are, Jim.” She says, nodding patronizingly.

***

“Why can’t Ren play with us?” BigB pouts. He’s been asking that for the past two hours they’ve been playing. Grian hands him a stick, which they’re gathering for weapons.

“Because, BigB,” Grian starts, exasperated from having to explain this again, “Ren is at summer-camp all summer. It’s for werewolves or something.” Grian explains, crossing his arms.

“I miss him.” BigB frowns.

“You were literally cheating on him with me last summer. We were secret soulmates and you want to go back to your other soulmate?” Grian squints at him, almost offended.

BigB is silent. Grian throws his hands up in the air and walks away.

***

It has to be the hottest day of the summer. Scar fans himself uselessly with his hand. He starts to pull off his shirt.

Cleo turns around from where she was organizing their lunchboxes-turned-chests. The shirt is halfway pulled off as she shouts, “Scar!”

“What?” He asks.

“Keep your shirt on!” Cleo says loudly. In the distance, Scar hears Bdubs laugh from their farm. He sighs, pulling the shirt back on.

“Okay mom!” Scar chirps, just because he knows it annoys her and the heat is putting him in a gremlin, mischievous mood. Cleo groans, glaring at him as she heads off toward Bdubs at the farm.

Jokes on her, Bdubs thinks calling Cleo ‘mom’ is even funnier than Scar does!

[jemmo]

I need Seonwoo to figure out what HE wants because it’s so frustrating watching him constantly waffle when asked direct questions about his feelings and him not be able to articulate them in an understandable way at all. I understand they’re only in this house for like a week so I don’t expect everyone to immediately know who they like and stick with it, I’m fine with him and anyone else having feelings for multiple people. I also understand that there could be things lost in translation or cultural lenses I am not able to understand because I am not and do not speak Korean. But omg wow is it awkward to watch Seonwoo at this point. Again I feel like he’s insecure and such a people pleaser he’s not able to be direct unless someone basically forces him to be, and thus far no one that likes him has been able to force him to be direct. I feel like that’s the kind of person he needs, but I’m not sure Sungho or Yeonghee are that person, they try but never go far enough I think (side note: I always wonder if since Korea is such an age based society in their interactions and language, does that carry over into dating, like would Yeonghee be more comfortable pushing Seonwoo even more to be direct if they were the same age).

Yeonghee very clearly just wanted a yes or no answer about Seonwoo’s feelings, and he couldn’t even give him that. Same with talking about their age gap, Seonwoo says he doesn’t think he can overcome it (understandable) but then says he’s worried how other people would view it. I think that’s a valid concern for him, especially as he is someone who owns a business and therefore has to care about his image, but it’s interesting he seems more concerned with how others would view their age gap instead of how he himself feels about dating a 21/22 year old. I feel like what’s frustrating is I think Yeonghee could handle just being rejected. Maybe Seonwoo is afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings, or he didn’t want to talk about how he felt until the date was over, but if the latter is true he should’ve just said that. I feel like Yeonghee could handle that, or could even handle rejection, but the back and forth is confusing and frustrating and probably a little hurtful. Though I feel like Yeonghee is also close to giving up so who knows.

anon thank you for giving me the chance to rant about these two bc they’ve been on my mind non stop and me and my sister have been talking about them and their date any chance we get.

bc it’s just so interesting to me and yet I find it hard to dig into the intricacies of it bc my mind just gets stuck on how much I feel sorry for yonghee and want to comfort him. watching their date a second time esp after seeing all the others and having them fresh in my mind really put into perspective how much the vibes were just completely off. there was just no back and forth bc it felt like seonwoo wasn’t engaging with the date at all. it’s one thing to be shy, but we know seonwoo isn’t exactly shy, he’s one of the most outgoing people in the house, but still it might be different one on one in a date setting where there’s certain expectations and pressures that this means something, but doesn’t that just say it all. when he gets down to it, when he’s on a date and that means something, he can’t be that normal outgoing person. bc the whole time it feels like yonghee is in and engaged and trying to share his thoughts and feelings and he just gets met with a brick wall. seriously, go back and see how different it is, how seonwoo hardly ever asks him anything, how yonghee will talk despite seonwoo not prompting him too, and still seonwoo doesn’t engage in return, and when he asks if seonwoo has any questions, he literally turns it back on him, which infuriates me even more bc what’s the point in asking him anything when he doesn’t give a direct answer. it feels like they wasted this whole time where seonwoo should be exploring what his feelings are for yonghee and instead they’re just in the same place still. and the thing is, they didn’t even talk about normal date stuff. like where was the back and forth banter?? where were the talks about likes and dislikes, hobbies etc?? I feel like we just had this spiel from seonwoo at the start about how he feels being in the house, and then when they went to eat, it was all yonghee sharing his feelings and seonwoo giving nothing back. and I think this is my perfect example, when they were in his shop, and yonghee was talking about regrets while being on the show, and he says he has regrets, wishes he could’ve been better, more selfish, I can’t remember exactly what he says but something to that extent. and I think back to when he shared these insecurities and was vulnerable on his other dates with jungwook and hyungjin and how both of them comforted him, especially hyungjin with his age and where he is in life, and what that meant to him. and here, seonwoo just nods, says nothing, moves on. Idk if he was just too in his head about his stuff or just didn’t care, but to have someone be vulnerable and share doubts and not say anything, not give them any encouragement or comfort, that just rubs me the wrong way. I get he might be in his head but for god sake engage with the person in front of you. and it’s for that exact reason I need yonghee to see past that initial attraction and the surface level conversations with seonwoo and see that he’s had much better interactions with other people in the house and that they are options worth exploring. I get tunnel visioning, I mean junsung did it from day 1, but even if sungho never returned affection, he still engaged with him and they built up a relationship. I don’t see any of what yonghee has built with seonwoo, like what about that relationship is taking up all of yonghee’s focus?? what is it about seonwoo that has him so blinded??

and as for seonwoo’s feelings for yonghee… my sister had a good angle actually. she said it might touch a nerve for seonwoo to see yonghee, at his age, not only out, but so confident in how he is pursuing what he wants. similar to how I said he might feel that way watching junsung pursue sungho, wishing he could be that forward and confident with his own feelings, I think he doesn’t know what to do. bc he can’t be that confident in pursuing what he wants bc he doesn’t have that kind of faith in his own feelings, I feel like it takes him real time and consideration to figure out what he’s actually feeling, maybe bc he doubts his own feelings or has just never had to or had the chance to be that strong in trusting and pursuing his own feelings. and that might be why he can’t reconcile with the age gap. it’s not all out jealousy, but maybe he sees this kid out of the closet having this young adulthood he maybe never had a chance to have if he came out only recently. that, or I thought he just doesn’t know how to deal with the strength of yonghee’s feelings, maybe bc his age makes him feel like this is just some kid who’s feelings are strong bc he can afford to be reckless and go all in when he doesn’t have the same amount of relationship experience as others. and such, he feels like even if he was to indicate anything to yonghee, that might then give him too much, might make him come on stronger to the point it limits his chances with others, which I don’t think he wants bc he clearly enjoys exploring other options and wants to consider other people. the thing is, I can sit here theorising why why why until I’m blue in the face but I’ll never know, we’ll never know, yonghee will never know bc he just can’t articulate any of what’s going on in his head. and it aggravates me more and more bc his inability to communicate in a meaningful way is having more and more of an impact on more and more people in this house, and whatever is going on with you whatever, but I feel like there comes a point where you have to realise you have an effect on people, and therefore have a responsibility to communicate clearly for their sake. and the thing is, this behaviour doesn’t do him any favours, bc it makes me think is this just his personality or does he just love creating drama?? and maybe I wouldn’t feel so complicated about him if I had some clarity and could rule out his behaviour being just manipulation and game playing.

and let’s just say… my sister keeps saying that if yonghee and seonwoo did get together, their relationship would not be good, and it would probably change yonghee forever, but I’ll leave that headcanon for her

[dragonseeds]

what is your opinion about the relationship between rhaenyra and alicent?

oh they’re so interesting to me! i think their relationship is just as tangled up and incestuous as anything that the consanguineous targs who marry or fuck or fall in love have going on. they grew up together like sisters (rhaenyra calls her sister in 1x04 and she’s out there lying for her life but i do think she means it), yet there is a sweetly romantic undercurrent to them too. i don’t think either of them truly understood it in that way, or would describe it as such, but it’s there. then alicent becomes her stepmother, the mother of her siblings, and that adds another dimension to what they are to each other. the way alicent fixates on rhaenyra’s body/sexual behavior specifically reads as incestuous to me because she acts like a parent (a mother, an older sister forced into that role or u know… my father lol) trying to correct perceived flaws in their daughter’s behavior in horribly damaging ways, but there’s so much more going on there—like there’s obviously redirected anger mixed with patriarchal and religious indoctrination, as well as about nine thousand permutations of jealousy.

alicent’s trauma can’t be overstated—she’s been through so much and for what? so her father (her family) could have his (their) blood sit the iron throne? so viserys could have a son he can’t love?—but i think she also did very real damage to rhaenyra during the time skip. that’s how i rationalize the extent to which adult rhaenyra feels muted and desperate—it doesn’t feel like just natural maturity to me idk i read trauma into it, especially the way rhaenyra adjusts herself when she notices alicent watching her. emma’s body language conveys so much about rhaenyra’s anxiety and shame to me.

but like. they’ve both hurt each other in so many ways by refusing to/being unable to see each other. so i think things get super toxic insane messy between them for a while, but it’s so clear that they could’ve reconciled. the love was still there, the tenderness and the sweetness, but that aspect of their relationship only becomes really interesting and important to me in 1x08 when they have it again for like a second, a dinner, a touch of their hands, before they lose the last chance of ever getting it back. it was right there, it was so close! but they can’t ever have it back because what that love represents—innocence, childhood, hope, all of that—is gone. you can’t go back. rhaenyra has so much love in her life from her children and from daemon too (fucked as that may be: this is what it is to be targaryen) that she’s been able to heal as much as she can, but alicent is trapped in the red keep which is actual hell. she’s stuck there: she can’t go back and she can’t move on or begin to heal. she’s forever a girl being sent into a room she doesn’t want to go in, looking out the window of her cage, even if she wields real power as queen.

i’m equally frustrated by and obsessed with all of that and i want them to have sad sad sweet saddd fucked up kind of hate but also loving sex after rhaenyra takes king’s landing. obviously this will never happen lol i maybe be stupid but. even if i thought the writers would actually go there, alicent is deeply sexually traumatized and, while i personally think she’s in love with rhaenyra and have the most fun with that interpretation, i still don’t think she realizes that or would be able to think of it in that way. rhaenyra is also very much in love with daemon in an extremely codependent way and i think they’re genuine soulmate level more myself than i am going to be the death of each other inextricable so. that complicates things, but if we’re being honest…. not as much as it would if this were a different family asdfkdgkj

[adamwatchesmovies]

Time Trap (2017)

Time Trap is an honest effort from directors Ben Foster and Mark Dennis, who clearly have enthusiasm for this story. Unfortunately, the film never lives up to its potential. We spend so much time with characters who are stupider than we are that you'll become bored and frustrated waiting for them to catch up to you.

Professor Hopper (Andrew Wilson) has been searching for his missing parents and sister for years. After discovering their abandoned vehicle, he claims to have solved the mystery of what happened to them. When he vanishes as well, his students - Taylor (Reiley McClendon), Jackie (Brianne Howey), and Cara (Cassidy Gifford), her sister Veeves (Olivia Draguicevich), and Veeves' friend Furby (Max Wright) go investigate the site.

As Professor Hopper enters a cavern near his parents’ van, he spots what looks like a cowboy, frozen still up ahead. Not frozen as in ice, frozen as in he doesn’t move. After taking a couple of steps, the rancher begins moving normally while the daylight behind Hopper flickers rapidly from light, to dark, light, to dark, over and over. What could it mean?

If you haven’t guessed, it’s pretty obvious when you see it in action. Professor Hopper has stepped through a time barrier. Inside, time passes by so slowly that to those watching outside, it looks like you’re standing still. The mystery is obvious even if you don’t know the film’s title. I realize the characters in the movie don’t know they’re in a movie but it takes them an eternity to put two and two together, even when they receive camera footage from Furby that show him wondering where they went, waiting for them to return overnight, and then descending into the same cave in which they disappeared even though to them, they've only been gone for a few minutes.

The problem isn’t that it takes long for the students to realize what they’ve walked into; it's that the film makes it too obvious to those watching. There’s plenty of strange happenings: ropes suddenly snapping, phones being unable to contact that surface, artifacts from the past in pristine condition, etc. In any other movie, these would draw you in. Here, they make you restless. Within minutes, it’s clear too much time has passed. Even if the party gets back to the surface, so much time has passed that everyone they know has been reduced to dusty bones and memories. Escape is almost pointless except for the fact that you can’t live underground.

Time Trap is 95 minutes long and it’s about an hour before the non-mystery steps aside so the plot can begin. It gets pretty silly and inconsistent from there. Magic is introduced for no reason except to force a happy ending in a movie that shouldn’t have one. Villains show up out of nowhere. The characters jump to wild conclusions. Meanwhile, you’re still stuck asking questions about this time cave. If the time barrier has been there for millions of years, shouldn’t the place be filled to the brim with random bugs and debris that’s been blown in by the wind? What about rain?

Time Trap is a concept and nothing more. It either needed to keep its cards closer to its chest - and even then, that ending desperately needed a re-write - or do something worthwhile with its idea of people forced into the future against their will. There’s got to be a movie that handles this idea better. Even if there isn’t, not enough about this film works for me to recommend it. (July 16, 2021)

[blackleopardgirl]

🐻 vs A man who doesn't really care about you.

  Watching MTR constantly bring up the man vs bear video and prompt really drives the point home that these kinds of men really do not like being rejected. They’re so bothered by the fact that random woman would rather choose a random ass bear over their random selves and it bothers them because they view it as women not liking or wanting to be around men. However I if creators like MTR REALLY cared about why those women in the video, and the various women online agreeing with the choice to stick with a random bear in the woods over a man, then they’d find out that many of those women were basing their decision on the POTENTIAL danger of being stuck with a POTENTIAL dangerous man, sadly knowing that the dangerous man would probably put them in a type of harm that can literally never be recorded from psychologically or mentally. Those women would rather take their chances on a random bear that might* eat them, as opposed to dealing with a man that could leave with scars that will never go away. 

  It’s not ‘modern day feminism’ or some supposed strange brainwashing that makes these women not want to choose a man, its the fact that they’ve seen, heard, and experienced what its like to be around a dangerous man with ill intent despite their locations, and the mere thought of being around a man like that in the woods without any known help near by probably terrifies them beyond belief. 

  But sure, just blame ‘modern feminism’ because that’s worked for you so much in the past. Content creators like MTR don’t even like women when women aren’t behaving,  pr presenting themselves in ways that he approves of- so I’m not sure why he thinks that random women owe society or men at large the satisfaction of automatically picking them. I promise you, he wouldn’t even be willing to address the true concerns of women who’ve been harmed by men. 

  Lastly, I’ve noticed that at the core of the frustration with men who are angry at women who “say bad things about men” these men are upset that women don’t like them. They want to be LIKED by women, which is why they smile and praise videos of women pandering to men online. There are plenty of wonderful men, most of the wonderful and amazing men I’ve known personally are in my family, and helped raise me. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the amazing men who were sweet enough to love and nurture me as a child and throughout my adolescence; but by the same token, this doesn’t mean that EVERY man- or most men out in the wild are wonderful. I didn’t learn this or come to believe this from ‘modern day feminism’ or any sort of ‘leftist indoctrination’ at my public school. I learned this information from the MEN in my personal life. My father is afraid of other MEN when I leave my house at night, my father is afraid of other MEN when my sister and I are on vacation south of the border and we are away from him at the beach. My father and the other men in my family are afraid of other MEN, in society because he- as well as other people, understand that it’s most likely going to be a MAN that I do not know, that would potentially harm me if someone were to. Yet, you all don’t want to acknowledge that. 

  That is part of the reason why these women will continue to hypothetically choose a bear over a random man, because even when supposed ‘good men’ such as yourself (you’re not really that good to be fair) have the opportunity to check, address, and listen to the fact that men are usually perpetrators of women in crime, you don’t. Its more important for you to mock, shame, and try to humiliate women at every chance you get. This is why it bothers you more that these women hypothetically didn’t choose you. 

[ponds-of-ink]

I have a feeling Puddle Creature would approach FNAF like watching Star Wars in release order. And then completely ignoring the Phone Guys and such because they’re too boring.

To show what I mean by sort of being in-character…

(And I’m putting this under a cut so you can prepare to have your head spin..)

FNAF 1 - Guy named Mike Schmidt takes a creepy six-day job, then gets fired. The animatronics “working” there are confused and bummed out afterwards… Unless we’re talking about the Angry Yelling Yellow Bear, then he’s just happy he gets to sleep again.

FNAF 2 - Guy named Jeremy “Fritz-Gerard” takes the same job, but he’s in the 80s. Everytime the animatronics scare him, they knock him out and show their past involvements with some magenta-and-purple-wearing guys. He doesn’t get fired, but he does retire in the 90s or something. Meanwhile, some other Fritz gets fired for messing with 10-ish animatronics at once.

FNAF 3 - Meanwhile, in Present Day Somewhere-Ville, a robot-bunny named “Spring-Trap” plays tricks on another guard. He doesn’t give out any hints about his past, but the arcade 3Guard plays at home does. That arcade might’ve been by five sad ghosts that vanished after he played… Doesn’t explain the “Bad Ending”, but oh well.

Oh and one of the Purple Guys turned into Springtrap, but that’s probably not as important as you might think. Probably.

FNAF 4 - In a different part of Somewhere-Ville, a random kid gets hunted by monsters at night. Then bullied by his older brother at dawn. Then he’s bitten by Angry Yellow Bear’s brother on his birthday. Yellow Bear’s “son” (Yellow Bear Jr.), however, promises to fix him… Though we never learn how.

FNAF 5/Sister Location - A guy named Eggs Benedict is a technican at a brand-new pizza robot rental service. He fails after getting thwacked by a huge claw on his fifth night there. This… somehow turns him into a zombie? That throws up gray spaghetti??

Also, another guy named Michael Afton tells his dad that he freed his lost sister from… somewhere— But nearly lost his life while doing that. Michael is not happy, and neither are Elizabeth and The Board Member of Somewhere-Ville Technology— Who might’ve been kept from some terrifying secrets Mr. Afton had.

FNAF 6/Pizzeria Simulator - Somebody opens up a new Freddy’s that somehow hasn’t gone wrong… Until an angry cassette player sets everything on Saturday. The casette might be haunted by a very angry manager from the ‘80s.

At least those mean robots from FNAF 3 and 6 are gone now?

UCN - Uhh… A scaredy-cat plays with Freddy’s ‘Ultra Cybernetic Network’ while a red crocodile and Angry Yellow Bear talk about him. They… might be ghosts trapped in another arcade game??

Help Wanted 1 - Freddy’s finally got its act together! Yay! They’ve even made a VR game to celebrate.

Too bad the guy from Ultra Cyber Network might’ve put a rabbit-looking bug in the system.. Or it’s Springtrap’s fault. Either one.

Security Breach - A boy called Gregory gets lost in Somewhere-Ville’s Freddy Pizza-Plex Mall. The Freddy there helps, but nobody else does— Not even this Security Guard named Vanessa.

Also there’s two rabbits named Vanny and… Springtrap but Burnt? One is mean and chases after you while the other one stays behind and calls for help from his “friends”. Freddy doesn’t like Springtrap, which is understandable.

It’s a Choose-Your-Own thing, so there’s no real ending… Well, apart from Gregory escaping.

Ruin - A year later, a girl named Cassie gets called into the mall by “Gregory”. She’s hunted down by Springtrap’s ‘Friends’ (and a blue hare that kinda looks like Purple Guy, with that huge smile…?) until she makes it to the basement. Then she realizes that it’s not Gregory, runs for it, and then… uh..

Either she falls down an elevator or she gets stuck down there. Either way, she’s turned into a ghost for sure. It’s just a guess of how and when.

Help Wanted 2 - Rabbit Bug gets squished by Vanny. That’s the only surprise here. Everything else is just training stuff for Freddy’s or some Freddy-type carnival rides…

OH WAIT. YOU FINALLY BECOME A GHOST AND HAUNT AN ARCADE MACHINE.

FINALLY, THAT PLOT THREAD PAID OFF.

(ahem)

Anyway..

The Story as Puddle Sees It: Freddy’s has a history of ghosts haunting arcade games, broken machines, and bears making messes of things. Most guards either quit or—if you’re Eggs—get turned into zombies with severe spaghetti allergies. Freddy’s has been refusing to shut down, but they might just have to resort to supplying Carnival rides to state fairs at this point. Yay?

Oh and in case you’re wondering about the not-guards:

Michael Afton is still looking for his dad.

Springtrap is messing with Freddy’s somehow.

Yellow Bear Jr. and Bullied Boy have long disappeared.

Elizabeth and The Board Member are probably gonna team up with Michael soon… If Elizabeth wasn’t a ghost trapped in a game, that is.

Mr. Afton is retired and has no clue what’s going on with Freddy’s anymore

Angry Yellow Bear and The Crocodile are still laughing at Ultra Cybernetic Network Guy

Ultra Cybernetic Network Guy still can’t beat Jeremy’s “number of animatronic tampered” record from the 80s.

The Hare is sad he didn’t catch Cassie. And that he’s still trapped in a box in the basement.

Cassie is sad because there’s no arcade machines to haunt (don’t blame her).

Gregory is sad that Not-Gregory is wreaking havoc after trapping Cassie.

Vanny and Vanessa are probably arguing with each other about the Rabbit Bug.

Magenta Guy is nowhere to be found. He probably got arrested?

The Arcade Ghosts from 3Guard’s house are at peace now. They’ve told their story, so now they can move on.

Oh and Mr. Cassette got his daughter back. Dunno which arcade cabinet she was hiding in, but at least she’s free now.

TL;DR: Puddle would assume the ghosts are in the arcade machines, not the animatronics… Among other things.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Now that I have been informed that there is a production of King Lear that is Christmas-themed, I have to watch it to see what sort of insanity it contains. Because nothing reflects the spirit of the holidays like murder and people getting their eyes gouged out! 

-This version of the play runs for one hour and eighteen minutes, which means it’s going to have to be extensively cut. Most productions of Lear (which are still usually cutting some lines) run for over two hours. I suppose the shorter length is a reflection of the younger audience the play is aimed at, but it does mean that we’re going to have an extremely truncated version of the play. 

-Though admittedly, I don’t know how one presents a play with loads of murder and onstage eye-gouging in such a way as to make it friendly to a young audience. I guess I shall learn! 

-We start with footage of people entering the theater, meaning that the play is even a bit shorter than the runtime of the YouTube video. 

- “King Lear was written by Shakespeare over 400 years ago. The play continues to be produced all over the world with many different artistic interpretations. The director has chosen to set the play at Christmastime.” I like the totally matter-of-fact way that this is presented. They don’t provide any rationale for why the director chose to do this, which makes it seem like they think the reasons for setting King Lear at Christmas are totally self-evident when they are, in fact, not. 

-The play proper begins with a pan across the cast standing around doing various presumably Christmas-related things. The Earl of Kent (I think) is taking photographs of Cordelia and Gloucester and his ugly Christmas sweater, Edmund is holding drinks, Goneril is talking to Regan, etc. 

-The three Lear sisters have nice outfits. Goneril is in a red pantsuit, Regan is in a teal dress, and Cordelia’s in a white dress with a cute hat. 

-While taking photographs, Kent accidentally backs into a glass that’s sitting around for no readily apparent reason and knocks it over. Gloucester, who’s a real charmer in this version, orders his son to clean it up like he’s a servant. 

- Kent isn’t impressed by Gloucester’s terrible parenting. And he has an ugly Christmas tie. 

-Edgar is onstage in scene 1 in this version; Gloucester introduces him, rather than Edmund, to the Earl of Kent. Because we’re really doubling down on making Gloucester terrible. 

-Edgar is clearly the bookish, nerdy type in this version, as he looks like the most over-the-top TV stereotype of a nerd. 

-What is up with that paper sign that clarifies that this is, in fact, Christmas Day? It looks like it was printed out two hours ago and stuck on the wall–a bit weird for a king’s Christmas party .

-Edgar’s “how now, brother Edmund” line is moved into this scene. He delivers the line as he squeezes Edmund’s Rudolph nose (there’s a sentence I never expected to write) and makes a squeaky noise before laughing. If the goal of this production was to make us root for Edmund, so far it’s succeeding. 

-They’ve altered some of the lines to make the situation clear to a young audience, resulting in this gem of a line: “Though my BASTARD son, Edmund, came somewhat saucily into the world, yet was his mother fair.” Gloucester is really the worst, isn’t he? 

-Squeaky Christmas noisemaker! “The King is coming!” Truly, nothing better reflects the awe that kings are supposed to produce than party noisemakers! Though given what a terrible king Lear is, maybe it’s appropriate. 

-What? Why are Lear’s daughters playing the recorder for him like they’re in grade school? They’re not even good at it! 

-This show is hilarious, but I have no idea what I’m watching. 

-King Lear’s crown is made of paper. 

-Lear is very happy with his daughters’ sub-par recorder skills. He must be going senile. 

-Cordelia is the only one of the daughters he hugs. That’s a nice touch. 

-Oh, it’s getting better. Now Lear’s putting on a Santa hat and saying “Ho, ho, ho.” I feel bad for any children in the audience who now probably assume that King Lear has that line somewhere in it. 

-Lear is very, very excited about his brilliant retirement scheme. It’d be endearing if I didn’t know what was about to happen. 

-Lear’s throne is a wheelchair in this version. It’s a nice reflection of his age, but doesn’t really do much to establish him as a king. 

- “Know we have divided in three our kingdom”. The Earl of Kent waves the deeds to the land around for the benefit of the audience. Is he breaking the fourth wall, or are there supposed to be other people at this party? 

-Lear acts out “crawl towards death” before chuckling again. This actor would make an excellent Santa Claus, which makes Lear’s actual lines all the more disturbing. 

-Cornwall has a military uniform on. This seems to be a recurring theme with modern-day Cornwalls. 

-Everyone had good, subtle “uh-oh” facial expressions when Lear announced the love test. It also occurs to me that since the dialogue between Kent and Gloucester that establishes that the division of the land has already more or less been decided upon was cut, this Lear might actually be basing his division of the land on what his daughters say in the love competition. 

-For some reason, Goneril doesn’t immediately react when Lear tells her to speak, so he has to repeat the order. Unfortunately, the camera didn’t really focus on the actress’ face, so I don’t know if this was supposed to be a sign of discomfort or anxiety on her part or what. 

-Lear is very childish in this version, which is sort of endearing but also almost more disturbing than the more autocratic Lears. He’s so happy when Goneril flatters him. 

-Lear giving Goneril a wrapped gift as a sign of her passing the love test is both hilarious and creepy. “Good job sucking up to me, honey! Merry Christmas!” 

-For some reason, every time Lear is happy with what Goneril and Regan say, he hugs Cordelia. Gee, I wonder who the favorite is. 

-The fact that Cordelia is smiling and clapping through this sequence seems really bizarre. By this point, she should be nervous and unhappy, right? 

-Cordelia’s present is bigger than Goneril and Regan’s. Because Lear isn’t making any attempt to hide which daughter he likes best.

-Oh, I think I get it. This Cordelia is assuming that the love test is mostly just a cute joke. That’s why she’s still been smiling and applauding. She doesn’t realize that her father is being totally serious and will get angry when she doesn’t play along. 

-Lear actually takes a long time to get mad in this version. It’s not until “so young, my lord, and true” that he stops laughing and treating the situation like a game. Which makes his anger seem like it comes totally out of nowhere. So Lear being an irrational jerk is preserved, just in a slightly different way. 

-To show that he’s mad, he takes off his Santa hat and throws it on the ground. 

-Albany’s the only one who intervenes to keep Lear from hitting Kent in this version. It always seemed odd to me that Cornwall jumped in as well in that sequence; this version almost makes more sense. 

-You know, Lear acting like Santa earlier makes his sudden tyrannical anger here way scarier than it usually is. 

-Instead of 100 knights, Lear has a reservation of 100 staff, I guess as a modern update since the setting is modern. 

-The king has disowned his daughter and exiled one of his closest advisors! Merry Christmas, everybody! 

-Lear storms out and Gloucester follows him, pushing his wheelchair. 

-Kent looks at Goneril and Regan, who both say “Five days” for no readily apparent reason. I guess that’s to indicate that they’re upholding their father’s banishment of him? It’s a really weird addition to the scene. 

-There’s no King of France or Duke of Burgundy in this version, so I guess Cordelia is just going to be hanging around in England somewhere? Where’s she going to get her army? 

-Goneril’s little half-laugh half-sigh after Cordelia exited was great. She knows that things are going to go sideways. 

-Since Edmund is still in a servant role here, he gets to stand between the two older sisters and watch them drink and discuss their new dad problem. It’s simultaneously weird and fitting to have him there. 

-Goneril has a great thousand-yard stare. 

-Not sure why Regan decided to slap Edmund’s behind before leaving, and judging from the look exchanged between Goneril and Edmund, neither of them understand what just happened either. 

-And then Edmund blows that noisemaker he’s had in his mouth for the past ten minutes at Goneril. She gives him a vaguely confused look before leaving. Uh…what? 

-Super close up on Edmund as he starts his “Thou, nature” soliloquy. It’s sort of hard to take the speech seriously when he’s dressed as Rudolph. 

-That being said, him taking off the suit as he gets into the speech is a nice touch. It’s actually a good representation of him claiming his equality/humanity—within the context of a production of King Lear that decided to be a Christmas show, anyway. 

-The letter that Edmund forges here is a Christmas card. That’s all sorts of weird. 

-Hahaha, Edmund’s totally subtle attempt to hide the card is great. 

-Why would Edgar even theoretically send Edmund a “let’s kill our dad” note in a Christmas card? 

- “You should enjoy half his…” Pause as Gloucester tries to decipher the letter.  Edmund: “Money.” Gloucester: “Money.” Either Edgar or Edmund has bad handwriting. Also, they swapped the word “revenue” for “money”, I guess because of the younger audience. 

-Hahaha, Edmund giving Gloucester a handkerchief when he gets upset is great. 

-Edmund’s fake crying is great. He’s putting his A game into this performance. 

-Why are Edgar, Edmund, and Gloucester still hanging out in Lear’s house? Don’t they have their own house? 

-Hahaha, now Edgar’s giving a tissue to Edmund. I think this may be the world’s first fully  comedic King Lear. 

-I like the hugs Edgar and Edmund exchange. It helps to establish that they presumably have a close relationship and to explain why Edgar is so gullible around Edmund. 

-Edmund performs a little magic trick with the tissue as he talks about getting lands by wit. Nice. 

-Edmund changes the calendar before he leaves. It’s December 26th now. 

-Wait. Kent is just…onstage as Kent? He’s there and not in disguise? Lear just shouts “Four days!” at him as though it’s totally normal for the guy he banished and threatened to kill to just be hanging around. 

-Cordelia might be hanging around too, but she’s at least actually in disguise already if that is her. 

-Lear is whipping around in his Christmas wheelchair and making a nuisance of himself. 

-Never mind, I think Cordelia’s actress is just doubling as Oswald. 

-Oswald is being played as a woman in this version. And Lear and his entourage are terrible to her, as per usual. 

-Everything is moving at lightning speed in this version. 

-Kent, who has been wandering around the stage, decides to fix up Lear’s Christmas tree. Priorities! Then he notices Edmund’s reindeer costume, which has just been…lying around. Wait. How’d it get to Goneril’s house? Unless in this version Goneril moved into Lear’s house or something. Or is this a different Rudolph costume that Goneril for some reason has at her house? 

-Anyway, he puts it on and somehow this is going to serve as his disguise. Okay, there is no reason at all that everyone shouldn’t see right through this, especially since Kent never even pretended to leave in this version, but I’m sure that the disguise will be impenetrable. 

-Kent seems to really enjoy the idea of dressing up. The way he tries on different accents is kind of endearing. 

-Lear is chasing Oswald around and hitting her with a garland. Whose idea was it to make this production Christmas themed, again? 

-Oswald has a weird combination of a military uniform and a knitted Christmas hat. 

-Kent’s really long insult to Oswald is moved to much earlier in the play than it usually is. 

-Kent seems to kind of also be the Fool in this version. -Poor, poor Oswald. The way Kent treats her is totally disproportionate to what she’s actually done so far (basically nothing). 

-Disguised Kent gives a present to Lear as he tries to convince Lear to hire him. Because Christmas, I guess. 

-Lear is delighted with his new snowglobe. 

-Yeah, Kent is also the Fool. Boo! I wanted an actual Fool! 

-Why is Lear still waving around that garland? Why does he have it at all? Christmas King Lear is breaking my brain…

-The way Kent and Lear are standing so stiffly next to each other is a bit awkward now that the “sweet and bitter fool” point has been made. Why don’t they face each other again?

-Lear figures out that he wronged Cordelia before Goneril comes in and takes him to task about his knights/attendants in this version. His concern about going mad also happens before she says anything. This Lear is apparently much more introspective than normal Lear. 

-And now Lear is hitting Kent with that garland that he still inexplicably has. What in the world is this? 

-Goneril’s sudden appearance with “ENOUGH!” is new. I’m pretty sure that’s not a line she has in the original play. 

-Why does Goneril treat Kent-in-disguise like he’s been around for a long time? Or like she even knew of his existence before now? He put on the costume three minutes ago! 

-Goneril grabs Lear’s garland and takes it away from him as she yells about him and his obnoxious buddies. 

-It’s literally been one day since the kingdom was divided, so either Goneril is overreacting or Lear and his followers are exceptionally obnoxious and disruptive. Both seem possible. 

-Admittedly, having Goneril come in and give her father a document that shows that she’s already dismissed fifty of his followers does at least explain how he knows she’s dismissed fifty of his followers without her saying that she’s done so. 

-Albany is so confused. And the audience is kind of confused too. 

-Albany attempts to comfort Goneril and she slaps his hand away. Interesting. 

-That being said, their conversation is kind of truncated and hard to follow because parts of their lines got cut. The sense of tension in the relationship got communicated, though, so I guess that’s good. 

-Edmund has a new jacket. 

-It’s literally been one day in this version. How has everything fallen apart so quickly in one day? 

-Wait, how do Regan and Cornwall know that Lear’s left Goneril’s house in this version? Nobody’s sent any letters (or texts, or anything) as far as I can tell. How did they even know that they needed to leave their house to avoid Lear? 

-Edmund has a knife instead of a sword in this version and the text is altered to reflect this. 

-Edgar’s idea of defending himself is to pick up a tray and hold it in front of him like a shield. That’s amazing. They don’t really fight at all, though, maybe because Edmund realized that Edgar wasn’t going to be able to put up a convincing fake fight. 

-Instead of cutting himself, in this version Edmund just slaps himself in the face to give himself a bruise. It’s just as hilarious looking as one would imagine. I guess they didn’t want to show someone cutting themselves in front of a young audience? The lines also have to be changed to reflect the new nature of Edmund’s injury. 

-Somehow, a bruise seems much less serious than a bleeding sword wound. 

-Regan has a new coat, and her hair’s down now. 

-No mention of Edgar being Lear’s godson in this version. Nor does Regan suggest that Lear’s knights put Edgar up to murdering his father. 

-Cornwall picks up Edmund’s knife and points it menacingly when he tells Gloucester that Edgar will “never more be feared of doing harm” if he catches him. Ominous!

-Edmund kisses Regan’s hand in this version. Do you suppose she remembers him as that reindeer guy from the Christmas party? Or was the disguise as impenetrable on him as it is on Kent? 

-And now we get some completely new lines from Edmund! And they’re…not great! What are you doing, Christmas King Lear? 

-Why is the “now, gods, stand up for bastards” line moved to this point instead of falling where it normally does? 

-Pan to Edgar clinging to a thin pole. This was probably more humorous than it was intended to be. 

-Edgar pulls up a manhole cover and is inexplicably able to pull up an entire repairman’s outfit. How? What was that doing there? How is it possible that that’s just lying around? Is Edgar secretly a crazy survivalist who had a backup plan for this sort of thing happening? 

-He doesn’t even take off his old clothes; he just puts these new ones on over top of them. He does take off his glasses, though. Hey, it works for Superman!

-Now-disguised Edgar changes the calendar once more. It’s the 27th now, and we still have no explanation as to how Regan and Cornwall know that Goneril and Lear had a falling out! 

-Kent is pulling Lear in his wheelchair as though he’s a reindeer attached to Santa’s sleigh or something. Okay….

-Wait, Oswald’s pushing his chair? Why? How does Lear not notice that Oswald is there? 

-Oh, and nobody gets put in the stocks in this version, I guess, unless Regan and Cornwall are going to be bold enough to put Kent in the stocks right in front of Lear. 

-Regan must be so confused, since she never received any letters about Lear’s fight with Goneril or that Lear was coming to her house or anything. Though why and how she came to Gloucester’s house without knowing that Lear wanted to see her is beyond me. Did she and Cornwall just want to party with Gloucester and his sons? 

-Regan is very frustrated with her dad in this version and kind of talks to him like he’s about two years old. She also doesn’t sound quite as frightened by him as she usually does when he starts cursing Goneril. 

-Man, that awkward not-hug between Regan and Lear…

-Oh, hey, it’s Goneril! And…Albany? He’s here too? 

-Maybe the reason Regan is so frustrated is that in this version the conflict between Goneril and Lear has just been dumped into her lap with zero warning. 

-Regan has a nice necklace that I just now noticed. 

-Hahaha, Goneril and Regan don’t react at all to Lear calling them “unnatural hags.” Regan even goes “ooh” mockingly when Lear describes his revenges as being “the terrors of the Earth.” 

-Lear runs out into the storm, and Kent follows him with his wheelchair. Probably a good thing to have, though I’m not sure how much good it’ll do him in the middle of a storm. 

-Where is Cordelia, and what has she been doing during all this? 

-Hahaha, when Albany starts to protest what’s going on, Cornwall tells him to shut up (through the command to shut up the doors). It’s really weird to have Albany onstage for this scene.

-Then Albany and Cornwall get into a shoving match, which Cornwall wins. Okay then…

-Is Albany going to go out to help Lear, or is he just going to teleport himself back to his house somehow and not do anything? 

-Who is the battle at the end going to be between in this version? 

-Edmund’s little wave as his father leaves is a nice touch. 

-The Christmas lights that are strung up everywhere are not helping to establish the gravitas of this storm. 

-The hovel is literally just a tarp (or maybe a blanket). It’ll be a minor miracle if three people manage to fit under it. 

-Okay, Kent is using some stakes to set it up like a tent. That makes more sense (or as much sense as anything makes in bizarro Christmas King Lear land). 

-The way Kent looked directly into the camera when he said “This night will turn us all into fools and madmen” made me giggle. 

-Kent has to physically stop Lear from taking off his clothes in the middle of the storm. Though since Poor Tom is fully clothed here, Lear’s impetus for doing so was somewhat lost. 

- Kent using the chair as a shield is also amusing. Though I think it would’ve been funnier with the Fool. 

-Gloucester talking about Kent and Edgar right in front of the disguised Kent and Edgar is always amusing, and this show is no exception. 

-Oh, hi, Cordelia. You’re here early. How are you going to get an army to rescue your father? 

-Somehow Cornwall learns about what Gloucester did without Edmund actually telling him. I mean, I guess we can assume he told him offstage, but still…

-I guess we aren’t going to see Lear put his daughters on trial in the barn.

-Where the heck did Albany wander off to? 

-Edmund’s happy fist-pump when he got his father’s title was pretty funny. 

-The fact that Lear and Edgar are onstage hiding behind a blanket as this scene happens is very distracting. 

-Having Regan, Goneril, and Oswald just stand around motionless onstage as Cornwall talks is more than a little awkward. 

-Goneril kisses Edmund as Regan and Cornwall go offstage. Then they both leave. Okay. 

-I stand corrected: we do get to see Lear’s imaginary trial. It’s just been placed later in the narrative. 

-Lear’s “Goneril” is a folding chair balanced on a pole. Nice. 

-Lear’s over-the-top freakouts when he sees his “daughters” are both funny and a little sad. 

-Kent uses Lear’s coat as a blanket for him, which is kind of sweet. 

-I’m morbidly curious as to how they’re going to do a young audience-friendly eye-gouging scene. 

-Edgar has been chilling in Lear’s wheelchair for this whole sequence. 

-Edgar and Kent have both partially removed their disguises, and it seems that each one of them has recognized the other. Interesting. Then they have to rush to disguise themselves again when Gloucester shows up. 

-It’s the 28th now. Not sure when the calendar got changed. 

-Seriously, how did Cordelia find an army? Is she relying on local support? 

-Gloucester gives part of his speech from Act I Scene ii as he is surrounded by Cornwall, Regan, and (for some reason) Oswald. 

-They’re going to use Lear’s wheelchair as the chair Gloucester is tied to. That’s both clever and really messed up. 

-Oh, look. Cornwall’s still got that knife from earlier. 

-Oswald is apparently the servant who tries to stop Cornwall from blinding Gloucester. This raises many questions, among them how Goneril’s going to be delivering letters to Edmund and how Edgar’s going to be able to uncover Edmund and Goneril’s plot. Unless this isn’t Oswald and is just the same actress playing another role in exactly the same hat and costume. 

-The fight between Cornwall and the servant is pretty brief, and it’s not super clear through the action that Cornwall’s been badly wounded. Regan’s stabbing of the servant (with Cornwall’s knife) is quite blatant and brutal, though.

-This may be the first and only version of King Lear where Oswald mortally wounds the Duke of Cornwall in an attempt to save the Earl of Gloucester before getting killed by Regan. 

-Gloucester still has both his eyes at this point, I think. 

-Scary Regan is scary. And apparently indifferent to Cornwall’s injury. 

-Quick cut to December 29th so we don’t actually have to see Gloucester’s eyes getting gouged out!

-Edmund enters the stage as Edgar is making his comment about madmen leaving the blind. Edgar doesn’t react to his presence, so they’re obviously not in the same place. Was having them on stage at the same time some sort of parallelism? 

-Regan then shows up and she and Edmund kiss. Note that we haven’t learned that Cornwall is dead yet! 

-She then disappears from the stage just in time for Goneril to pop up, which raises the question of just what’s going on here. Edmund escorted Goneril back to her home, while Regan stayed at Gloucester’s place. Edmund hasn’t returned from Goneril’s house, and Regan presumably didn’t follow Edmund and Goneril to Goneril’s home, so how is Edmund able to kiss Regan? 

-However the spatial and temporal physics of this scene work, Edmund promptly kisses Goneril without missing a beat.

-Hahaha, Albany totally saw that. He’s literally right behind Edmund as the latter turns to leave, and then the two of them just silently stare at each other for about ten seconds before Edmund leaves. 

-In speaking of Albany, I guess he really just did go back home without trying to help the king, which kind of makes him look bad since he was on the scene for Lear going out into the storm in this version. 

-Neither Albany nor Goneril is putting all that much emotion into the insults they’re giving to each other, which definitely lessens their impact. They sound less like they’re having a fight and more like they’re just making declaratory statements to each other. 

-Okay, Goneril finally put some emotion into “marry, your manhood mew!”. She also mockingly applauded his attempts at scaring her. 

-Okay, since Oswald appears to be dead, how is Edgar going to intercept the letter she sends to Edmund? How is she even going to send the letter to Edmund? 

-On the other hand, since Albany just walked in on Edmund making out with his wife, it’s not like he needs further proof to know that his wife is cheating on him. 

-Albany changes the calendar to December 30. It’s been five days since Lear divided the kingdom. That’s got to be some kind of record for a dynastic collapse. 

-Cordelia is back and has a new coat. Are they ever going to explain where she got her army from? 

-Gloucester is very convincing at acting as though he can’t see. Some actors struggle a lot with that, but this one is doing very well. 

-This Gloucester rolled sideways off the cliff! That’s a take I’ve not seen yet, so props for originality. 

-This Gloucester is very happy to find himself still alive after his “fall” off of the cliff. It’s cute, and a lot less depressing than the versions where he just seems resigned to staying alive because his first attempt to kill himself failed improbably and spectacularly. 

-Lear pops up from behind the scenery to chat with Gloucester.

-This is the happiest version of their chat I think I’ve ever seen. Even Edgar seems to be having a weirdly good time. 

-Also, Lear’s invective against the mistreatment of the poor is cut, presumably for reasons of length. 

-All of Cordelia’s soldiers still have their knit Christmas hats. 

-Okay, Gloucester’s laughter is starting to get a bit disturbing. Why is he still laughing when he’s asking the gods for death? 

-This is another production where Edgar reveals himself to Gloucester onstage by having Gloucester feel his face. Their reunion is absolutely adorable….at least until Gloucester keels over from a heart attack. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen Gloucester actually die onstage. 

-I’m 99% certain that that was Oswald who got killed by Regan now, though, which raises the question of how Edgar challenging Edmund is going to work in this version. 

-Kent has removed his disguise.

-The reunion scene between Cordelia and King Lear gets me every single time, even if they’re in Bizarro Christmas King Lear Land. 

-Okay, maybe Cordelia doesn’t have an army. She and Lear just get captured by Edmund and his soldiers immediately after their reconciliation. 

-This also means that there’s no battle of any sort in this version of the play. 

-Regan (I think) goes to kiss Edmund, but he dodges her and goes to change the calendar to New Year’s Eve instead. 

-Okay, now he kisses her…right in front of Goneril, who’s come onstage. One would think that this would make Goneril angry at Edmund, but it doesn’t. 

-In this version, Goneril poisons Regan by sticking her with a needle, and Regan responds by angrily chasing her offstage. Okay then…. 

-Edmund has taken over Lear’s wheelchair. Maybe this is symbolism of how he’s now effectively the most powerful man in Britain. 

-Edmund specifically orders that Cordelia, rather than Cordelia and Lear, be hanged. The guy whom he orders to kill her also takes the wheelchair out with him as he goes. 

-Then Albany shows up, dragging Goneril and Regan onstage. He’s mad, but since there’s no plot to kill him in this version and also no letter, I’m not exactly sure what he plans to do here….

-Why does Goneril violently attack Regan over Edmund? She’s already poisoned her….

-Uh, Albany, how are you accusing Edmund of treason? 

-Oh, wait, I figured it out. Since there’s no French invasion in this version, he probably didn’t have the authority to have Lear and Cordelia captured in the first place, so he doesn’t need a letter to prove that Edmund (or Goneril) is plotting to kill him. 

-Regan does try to attack Goneril for poisoning her one last time before she’s led offstage, which is a nice touch. 

-Albany then shoves his wife offstage for…some reason. Isn’t she supposed to be onstage for the duel? 

-Why doesn’t Albany question the arrival of this random guy who offers to fight Edmund in his stead? They didn’t have an earlier conversation like they do in the text, so Albany presumably has no prior arrangement for that to happen. 

-And how did Edgar know where Edmund was in order to challenge him to a duel if there was no war? 

-The sword fight is a knife fight in this version. 

-After Edgar wins the knife fight, he restrains Edmund with a garland. Because this is still Christmas King Lear, and we’re not going to escape that surreal reality any time soon. 

-Goneril’s suicide is…bizarre. What prompted her to kill herself? It wasn’t Edmund losing; that hadn’t happened yet when she left. Was it remorse? That seems unlikely. Was it Albany arresting her? If that was the case, why didn’t she wait to see if Edmund won the fight first? Edgar hadn’t shown up yet, and if Edmund had won she would have been fine….and that’s not even taking into consideration the fact that she probably has more power than Albany. Seriously, having her go offstage so early really confuses this plot point. 

-Kent’s arrival actually prompts Albany to ask about Lear and Cordelia’s fate in this version (in the original, he, Edgar, and Albany spend a long time talking before Albany remembers that Lear and Cordelia are in trouble). 

-Not that it makes all that much difference, as Cordelia is still dead. It just happens more quickly in this version, and we spend a lot less time listening to characters deliver explanatory exposition. 

-This scene also makes me cry every time…

-Though the fact that the Christmas lights and presents are still onstage as Lear is mourning his daughter’s tragic death is bizarre. 

-I know Edmund is dead, but the way he’s sitting against the wall kind of just makes it look like he’s taking a nap. 

-Everyone is dead. Happy New Year, everybody! 

I…honestly don’t know what to make of that. Except to say that, as it turns out, King Lear is actually a really weird choice for a Christmas play.

i missed posting about edmund kinglear. when i explain the lear prod that 100% unironically and effectively used rudolph the red nosed reindeer symbolism on edmund and kent then you will all see

[daysofourlivesrecaps]

Monday, 8 August 2023

I’m not gonna lie to you, kids: the reason I keep falling off doing these recaps is that this show is really starting to bore me. There are so many storylines with excellent potential for drama, and so many of them are just in a holding pattern right now, and have been for weeks. And, as it happens, today’s episode provides a number of excellent examples to support this assertion. So I’ll be deviating from my typical recap format today to bring you a 

STATE OF THE HOURGLASS REPORT

First up: Dimitri, Leo and Gwen.

It’s bizarre to me how much they rushed the first part of this plot (I think it was maybe two weeks between “Dimitri needs to marry someone” and him hooking up and proposing to Gwen), given that they’ve been stuck in the same tedious Groundhog Day loop ever since. This episode delivers, for easily the sixth or seventh time, a situation in which Leo and Dimitri are in bed together…

…only to be interrupted by Gwen, in this case knocking on the door of the hotel that now only belongs to Leo.

Gwen then makes a beeline for the bathroom, where she knows Leo’s paramour is hiding.

And then we’re… treated? … to several segments of tedious farcical excuses and lies about who’s actually in there and why she can’t see him.

I’ve made no secret of my love for Gwen. She’s straight-up one of my favorite characters, primarily because I came in at the end of her amazing rivalry with her sister Abigail and she imprinted on me pretty hard. So on one level, I’m annoyed with all of these shenanigans because they require her to maintain an increasingly implausible level of stupidity to keep happening. Also it sucks watching this happen to her.

But I could not call myself a soap fan if I got surprised or upset that characters I enjoy are enduring hardship. That’s, like, the entire point of all of this. What bothers me is that they haven’t added anything new to this equation for weeks and it doesn’t look like they intend to start anytime soon. To wit: Dimitri and Gwen are about to take off for their honeymoon in Iceland, and Dimitri has bought Leo a ticket so he can discreetly bang Leo on the side while they’re there.

So look forward to more of the same, only with a slightly redressed hotel room set preceded by a couple of exceptionally generic establishing shots of Iceland.

This plot: D-plus. (The D is for dick, Leo!)

On to Eric and Sloan.

Here is the most interesting thing about that one right now.

I know this happens from time to time, but it’s the first time I’ve actually witnessed it! I have seen characters permanently recast, but this is apparently a temporary thing so they want to assure us that Real Eric will be back soon enough. The guy who plays Eric got COVID when they shot this back in February, so they got his friend from General Hospital to step in.

I’m not going to remark on the fact that he isn’t as hot as Eric, or that I assumed he was one of the uggos from GH the second I laid eyes on him. Because that would be rude.

Fake Eric actually proposes to Sloan! Which I guess is something! 

It might have even been a decent moment if we actually got to see the guy we’ve watched fall in love with her pop the question. But we can’t have everything, I suppose. (I mean, we could have had a lot less COVID if we as a society weren’t Like This. But I suppose this isn’t the forum for that.)

Sloan says yes, but I remind you that at this point she’s one month pregnant. Possibly two, since time passes in an extremely nebulous fashion on this show. Apart from her covering up the paternity of Nicole’s baby (also Eric), I see absolutely no potential for any of this to go anywhere for the next seven months. I like these characters. I like these performers.

Well, not these performers. But the correct ones. I’d love it if they did something different with this situation. So far, this has not been the case.

This plot: C-minus.

Which brings me to Nicole and EJ.

Somehow, Nicole has begun to wrestle Main Character status away from Marlena over the past several weeks. And okay, Marlena’s been on the show for 5000 episodes and counting and she’s pushing 70 so maybe it’s time to start prepping a new Main Character. But the thing about Marlena is that she does interesting things, like “getting possessed by the devil” or “dying and waking up in a cryo tube” or “rescuing the amnesiac mayor from a murder/suicide he did not opt into.” Her job (the only psychiatrist in town) brings her in contact with pretty much everyone in Salem. And her weirdly powerful hypnosis allows her to poke around in their heads and, more often than not, fix their problems.

Nicole, on the other hand… doesn’t have a job, as far as I can tell? She ostensibly works in fashion, but we haven’t seen her do that or heard her mention it in months. She has a child, whom we basically see when there’s an excuse to dress her up in a cute costume (so, Halloween and Christmas). And otherwise, she is entirely defined by whatever man she happens to be with.

Also, whatever man she’s with, she always wishes she was back with Eric. Except when she’s with Eric.

I don’t mind watching a middle-aged woman make the same horrible decisions over and over again — I was a big Gilmore Girls fan, after all. But we spend SO MUCH TIME on Nicole’s bad decisions, at the expense of SO MANY OTHER more interesting characters and situations. Also, while they will occasionally get off a good zinger or two, the Days writing staff are hardly the Palladinos.

Anyway, EJ proposes to Nicole as well and she says yes. Yawn.

F-minus-minus. Stop dragging EJ down with you, Nicole.

Oh, also Xander has asked Chloe to marry him.

Which… what? These two have been together for thirty seconds, and it was clearly one of those “this is the plot we’re doing now; the transition will feel a bit abrupt but then we’ll just get on with it like it makes sense and the viewers will follow along” things. Which happen occasionally. But… seriously, what?

I have to admit, these two have some chemistry, and this is the most interesting that Chloe has been since I started watching. But also, they have absolutely nothing in common apart from living together, working together and fucking like rabbits.

Which I suppose is more than a lot of soap characters have, but still. Come on. We all know this isn’t going anywhere.

I’m grading this one as “incomplete.”

And finally… Sarah.

Sarah has been mostly offscreen in Chicago for months now. Nearly nine of them in fact. And she hasn’t told anyone that she’s pregnant with Xander’s baby.

Well, she told Rex. And Bonnie. And Bonnie told Justin. But that’s all! Her own mother, Maggie, definitely didn’t know. So when she pops over for a surprise visit…

…Sarah spends several segments hiding her pregnant belly behind a shopping bag. No, seriously.

Maggie’s been on this show since the early 70s. I daresay she’s seen a lot of pregnant women in her life. Also she knows her own daughter pretty well. So you’d think she wouldn’t be fooled by any of this. But you’d be wrong, because apparently she’s getting the same Stupid Pill prescription that Gwen has. (Do they get these from Dr. Rolf? And why would they get them at all??)

Fortunately, Sarah finally decides to save her mother (and herself) further indignity and just tells her what’s going on.

Of all the plots featured today, this one seems closest to actually turning into something juicy! Sarah’s pregnancy has been handled mostly off-camera, with someone making a call or taking a trip to Chicago every month or so to remind us what’s going on. And that’s how you handle this sort of thing! If there’s nothing inherently interesting about the actual pregnancy, or the mother isn’t doing something especially interesting while she’s pregnant… in other words, if the entire story is just waiting on her to have a kid (which is a whole other set of problems I’m not getting into right now), you need to either time jump to that point or shuffle her away from the more interesting plots for awhile.

So, because of slightly more competent storytelling and the fact that the good part should be forthcoming in the immediate future, this one gets a B-minus.

Overall, this may not be the worst report card I’ve ever seen… but I had an undiagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder when I was in school, so I am an outlier and should not be counted. I mean, this was an episode with THREE WEDDING PROPOSALS and I could not have cared less what happened with any of them!

I know this show knows how to be better. And if it doesn’t turn that shit around in the near future… well, I’ll probably keep watching and probably keep recapping, but I’m going to be a pissy little bitch about it. And nobody wants that.

[natromanxoff]

FELIX TAYLOR INTERVIEW WITH QUEEN ONLINE - OCTOBER, 2006 (INTERVIEW-2)

PART-1

What kind of father is Arty? How you do describe him?

He’s a very nice man – generous and kind-hearted, and actually very funny when you know him well. My brother and sisters and I are quite mean to him, we’re always taking the piss, but we all love very much. He’s as much a friend as a father to me. Good drinking buddy too.

I know you're writing a new novel. Are you planning to publish it one day?

Of course, why else would I bother writing it? No takers as yet unfortunately, and I’m working on my second book – an occult thriller.

What is your unfulfilled dream?

To learn how to surf, become really good at skiing, and have a wicked job that allows me to do both for a good spell of the year. Oh, and have a lovely wife and kids, be really successful, and generally the don of everything. I’d like to be seen as a cross between James Bond, Sir Walter Scott, the Beach Boys and Ghandi. I’m quite clumsy and the idea of being super-dextrous appeals to me, but I know that I will always fall over if I do anything physical (it’s actually quite reassuring now – at least I know what I’m going to get if I try t show off).

Would you like to become a writer?

Very much, you can choose your own hours and be the master of the worlds you create. It’s such fun coming up with storylines and characters. What a great job if you can make any money out of it! The bit I like less is the actual writing, but you just need to grind on with that I suppose. I’ll carry on writing till I’m senile or I get a book properly published at any rate.

Where do you live?

In East London – it’s fun, and it’s the oldest part of London along with the City, so there’s buckets of weird stuff to discover. It’s also changing faster than any other part of London, and you can literally watch the buildings come down and go up.

Are you in contact with Brian's and John's children?

Not as much as I should be. We should see more of each other really.

What was the first single or album you ever bought?

I have never bought singles. I would like to be able to say that the first album I bought was something g really cool, but unfortunately it was Bon Jovi’s Keep the Faith. I later learnt the error of my ways and started liking proper music.

Did you often follow your father when he was and is on tour?

I went to quite a few dates when I was very young, but they stopped playing live when I was six. The only one I can really remember is Live Aid (glad that’s the one that stuck in my mind). I joined my dad on their last tour quite a few times (we got very, very drunk one night in Japan in particular – bet he remembers that one!), and boy was I impressed – they are leagues ahead of most bands in terms of live performance.

Have you ever been in Italy? If so, when and where exactly?

I’ve been to Rome, Sardinia and Naples. Great country, fun people and good food, and the attitude to life is very different. Bad politics though, such a shame for italy to have so many crooks in power (I suppose the UK’s not much better).

What kind of education your parents gave you and your sister?

I went to a French Government school in London, and then boarding school when I was 13. I was very lucky to get such a good education, and I loved boarding school – don’t understand why people would knock it as a concept (though I do understand why people have a problem with the idea of private schools).

Is your personality more on the same wave-length as your dad or as your lovely mum? And why?

I’ve got a temper, which comes from my mum’s side, and I’m quite stubborn (not sure which side that’s from – they’re both a pain like that). I look like my mother, but I’ve got my father’s tastes when it comes to most things, and we share the same sense of humour. They’ve both made me who I am, and I ask them for different types of advice. I love them both to bits though.

PART-2

What are you currently listening too?

Hot Chip’s new album, but there’s only one good song on it. My friend Kamila Thompson’s music, which is quite brilliant, lots of the Who, Muse’s new album (superb), Stevie Wonder’s Inner Visions and a little bit of Razorlight.

Do you plan to promote this single on MTV or other TV channels, perhaps with a video to accompany the song?"

Not up to me, trying to get it out there, and would love to have some video footage, but we need some radio play first.

As Arty and Brian May are close friends I was thinking if you and his son are in contact and if so do you see him often?

I do see him, though not as often as I should. He’s just got married and he’s one of the nicest people you could ever meet.

What did you study at College?

European history, philosophy and politics, with French language and literature. I loved my degree and worked really hard for it, but it was a fat lot of use to me really – a degree’s worth nothing these days, too many people have them.

When you were a child you often stayed with Chris Taylor, Arty's personal assistent. Are you still in contact with him?

No longer. Lost contact with a lot of people since those days. It’s a long time ago.

Is your nature similar to your mother's or your father's?

Bit of both really – good and bad elements from both.

Would you ever consider starring in We Will Rock You?

No, I’m not an actor and I don’t like musicals either. I think they’re silly (apart from the one you are talking about of course, which is the greatest show on earth, a must see for the whole family etc.) Besides, nobody’s asked me to do it anyway.

You have a wonderful voice, you said back in Part 2 that your teenage brother is a drummer, are there any other musical members of your family (apart from the obvious)?

Nope. My sisters are all very talented in other ways (medecine, painting/drawing, showing off…) but my brother is the musical one. He’s quite cool too, and good-looking, the cocky bugger – really annoying actually.

You had mentioned your favorite album by your father is Happiness? which contains a few political statements. Are you as politically opinionated as your father, or share similar beliefs with him?

Yes, I’m quite intolerant sometimes, and have to stop myself from being a dick in conversation when I get too passionate about certain things. I share many of my dad’s beliefs, but we differ on some things. I’m a liberal in the old fashioned sense I suppose, and I think everyone should have the same opportunities and freedoms, but not at anyone else’s expense. I think both socialism and neo- liberalism/Thatcherism are bogus, and don’t concentrate on what actually makes people happy, which is feeling like they are part of a community with those people around them and being free to make their own decisions.

Will we be hearing more of your music in the near future?

I hope so, depends on whether this record goes anywhere. We’ll make some more, but we need to see how well this one does at the moment.

PART-3

What artists, past and present, do you enjoy listening to?

Anyone with soul, balls (not in the literal sense – there are women on my list of favourites) or an attitude.

Are there any other creative outlets besides music that you wish to pursue?

Writing, writing, writing. I’m quite a good mimic too actually, and I want to submit a voicereel for radio, just to see if I get anywhere.

You can save one thing from your burning house, what would it be?

Passport – doh! No, it would probably be my girlfriend, though I might be tempted to take the playstation at the time instead.

What is your favorite memory during your childhood?

Playing doctors and nurses.

Are there any popular songs that you would like to give your spin on (i.e. "cover")?

Several – I don’t like Mondays, concrete jungle by Bob Marley, do you wanna dance by the Beach Boys… loads.

Who created cover to the " 'Woman You're So Beautiful'" single?

I drew it, the graphics dudes coloured it.

What music you DON’T you like?

Middle Of the Road, contemporary R & B (what is it for?), contemporary hip-hop and things like Justin Timberlake… even a pop song has to have soul. Nothing wrong with good pop. I also hate pretentious music which is rubbish but trying to be clever: Captain Beefheart, Franz Ferdinand et al…

My first question is, how did having a famous father affect you as a child? Was everyone eager to be your friend because of your dad's status or were most people pretty relaxed about it? Did your classmates give you a hard time about being related to a rockstar?

No, was always very lucky. Made sure to make friends with people before they knew my dad was a popstar. Never teased about this or anything, always had good solid friends. Never really helped with the girls either – I had to win them over with my natural good looks and charm.

Second, I was reading your answers from your last batch of questions and I was wondering if you would care to elaborate on your ambitions of being an author.

What a vague question. I want to write a book and sell it to lots of people. I like odd stories that involve the macabre or political/spiritual ideas. My favourite twentieth century authors are Lewis, Huxley, Robert Graves and Orwell.

I'd like to see how you look like. How about showing us a recent pic of yours? A real one of course, not that comic thingy. Wink

No sweat, I’ll post one on the Myspace site then. I look better in cartoon though.

What are your 5 desert island discs?

Not necessarily my favourites, as I would play them often…

Dark side of the moon, Inner Visions, The Who, live at leeds, Catch a fire and 2 Many DJ’s (the Soulwax mix comp.)

What did you think of the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour?

Brilliant, my dad has never played so well as on some of those dates… not just saying that. I was really impressed.

Beatles or The Stones?

Beatles! The Stones are a silly joke band after the Brian Jones period… they vastly inferior songwriters compared to the Beatles, they can’t do the harmonies or perfect vocals that the Beatles managed to put together, and they’re a twangy, plinky-plonky white blues band, so much less groundbreaking or sophisticated than the Beatles. They just had attitude when they played live.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Drink, being naked, taking a valium and walking around the house a couple of times a year. I like cold leftovers more than hot food as well, doesn’t matter what it is , if it’s been in the fridge overnight, it’s gold.

Roger’s PA is lovely could you introduce me?

I’m afraid she’s a taken woman! She is lovely indeed, a really special person, and I think of her as family. She can be scary sometimes though – she’s very good at her job.

INTERVIEW-1

[liesoverthec]

OG 911 Character Details from Canon Pt 2

Hi y’all I’m back! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reblogged the last details post - I sort of just thought people would like it and it would die, so to see it travel and hopefully reach more writers was so great so thank you again!

Details under the cut since I went a little crazy 😅 and if this is your first time seeing this, the first part, and any future parts, can be found under this tag here!

Quick note before I get to the details - always, ALWAYS take details from dialogue or plot over details from the set or props if they contradict each other. The writers have the ultimate say over what happens on the show/for the characters, so whatever they say goes, even if it goes against something props has already laid down (eg, Chim’s birthday, sorry Libra crew. He’s an Aries or a Pisces). So keep that in mind for the future in case some of these details I have which are from props/set are changed in the future, or if you’ve noticed something yourself!

Also if you have questions, I am MORE than happy to answer them, although if you leave them in the tags on this post I’m probably gonna lose them, so if it’s something you’d genuinely like an answer to, drop it in my inbox! Besides my standard “ask” tags, I’m also tagging asks about canon details with this tag here. Every time I make a big post like this, I’m going to link all the asks I’ve gotten since the last post, but if you’re looking for more info in the mean time, that’s the other spot to look!

Buck has a grill on his patio.

Eddie doesn’t hang Christopher’s art on the fridge - instead it is either hung on the corkboard in Chris’ room to the left of the door, or Eddie puts it in an actual frame and hangs it using a hammer/nails in Christopher’s room. All the Diaz family has on their fridge is a bunch of bendy people magnets. (I absolutely ADORE him putting all this effort into treating Christopher’s art like it’s something you’d buy from a professional artist).

Info on everyone’s ages can be found here. (Little more discussion of Chim’s situation here).

Albert has a bachelor’s degree! I don’t know in what though, except that it’s some field for which is a Master’s is useful.

Athena was in a sorority in college, Delta Sigma Theta. Their website describes them as “ ...a sisterhood comprised primarily of Black, college-educated women ... [that] considers the issues impacting the Black community and boldly confronts the challenges of African Americans and, hence, all Americans ”, which I love for Athena, and feel is very in-character for her at that time in her life!

Chim is an aviators dude. When he wears sunglasses, they’re always aviators.

Athena also wears nothing but aviators.

Bobby wears square aviators.

Eddie, on the other hand, always wears Wayfarers.

Buck either doesn’t really like sunglasses or he constantly forgets he owns them, since we’ve only seen him wear them once in 60 eps, in a move I’m pretty sure was ONLY for dramatic effect.

Hen’s sunglasses change style over the seasons like her regular glasses do, but she tends to like browline sunglasses.

Info on Christopher’s school can be found here!

There are two colors of dispatch polo, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhythm or reason for who wears what. Maroon - Maddie and Linda. Blue - Josh and May. Jamal has actually worn both maroon and blue, so it doesn’t seem to be TOTALLY set in stone although I’ve never seen anyone else switch. Sue is too badass to wear a dispatch shirt.

Both Bobby and Eddie drive 4 door pickups. Bobby’s is navy. Eddie specifically has a black, 2020 GMC Denali 1500 pickup truck (in case you want to specifically look up what the inside of it looks like or what features it has 😂)

Info on the 118’s medical certifications can be found here.

Correction to Eddie’s living situation from last post: no next door neighbors, but instead UPSTAIRS neighbors. (Pointed out by Abigail in this ask). Also since someone else was wondering the notes of the last post - no, there is absolutely no discussion on the show of whether or not Eddie rents the apartment or owns it. But based on the fact that it’s 1) LA and 2) an apartment, my guess would be he rents it.

When Maddie isn’t feeling like herself, she tends to straighten her hair rather than curl it. It seems to be more when she’s uncertain about her place in her own and other people’s lives, rather than just when she’s simply worried - eg it’s straight in 2B, when she’s uncertain if she wants to continue working as a dispatcher/is unsure about her relationship with Chim.

For work, Chim, Eddie and Buck all use black duffel bags with a LAFD patch on the top. Hen uses several different cute bags, and Bobby seems to have a plain black duffel bag.

Watches - Bobby, Athena, Chim, Hen and Buck all wear their watch on their left wrist (but Athena ONLY wears hers for work, she takes it off at home.) Eddie wears his on his right wrist, and Maddie doesn’t wear one.

Chim (and Maddie by default) literally still have the exact same couch as in the pilot. (Which means that Chim has cuddled Tatiana on that couch, AND Albert has had sex on it. TIME TO GET A NEW ONE, BUCKLEY-HANS 😂)

The 118 has five different rigs - the engine (E118), the ladder truck (T118), two ambulances and the captain’s truck. 95% of the time, when the team is chilling in the cab of a rig and chatting (eg the ‘stuck under a live telephone pole’ scene in Jinx), they’re in the engine, not the truck. (Which I personally learned recently are NOT interchangeable terms!)

Athena and Michael got married when Athena was 37.

If you’d like to give Maddie a full name beyond “Maddie”, you should use Madeline. (I know, I know, in 4x04 she says Maddie is the name on her birth certificate, and that you should never use props details if they contradict script details, but I always thought that was a super weird exchange in 4x04 which could be explained by Maddie getting a nickname since she was born when Margaret and Phillip, you know, actually loved their kids and showed it, so of course Buck doesn’t get one, and in 4x04, Maddie was trying to avoid the entire issue of why she got one and Buck didn’t. But! Do what you want, and use Madeline as the full version of Maddie if you’d like, since that’s what’s on the BOLO in 2x13 😂)

Athena’s call sign is 727 L30, but she doesn’t have a specific squad car - the number changes throughout the series.

Chim really likes chewing gum, but he’s the only one out of the entire family!

The station has an Xbox One S, and it’s white.

In the real LAFD, there are stations 1 through 114. To avoid confusion while filming on the streets (I’m assuming), our fictional LAFD never uses the number of a real station. So if you want another station for a fic, and you want something that would be real in OUR universe, use the numbers 115 and above. They’ve gone as high as 221 in our universe.

Battalions - station 118 is in Battalion 7, which is also not a battalion in real Los Angeles. The 118 has interacted w/ Battalion 1, which is a real battalion, but other ‘non-real which makes them more likely for our universe’ battalions include numbers: 3, 8, 13, 16, 19 and above.

S1 Buck knew the term Jedi, but based on context, didn’t understand AT ALL the context provided by Star Wars, so there’s another edge of his pop culture limits for you.

Chim is the most tech-savvy out of everyone, hands down.

Athena has a VERY active Twitter account.

Abuela’s house number is 8902. I don’t have a street name for you unfortunately though. :/

Athena’s favorite flowers are white roses. None of the other women are really flower people.

Michael likes to wear purple.

When they’re at a call, Buck does pretty much all of the stuff with the hammer and the saw. Eddie does all the work needed with the drill.

Harry goes to Meadowbrook Elementary.

Buck lives on the fourth floor of his apartment building, across the hall from Apt. 416. The lovely @lovelessmotel found this listing for what is more or less the apartment. What happened was: the set crew rented this apartment for the one episode at the end of s2 when Buck moved in, and then over the summer before s3 built their own set of it, and changed some things - eg giving him an island, and moving the sink to a second counter against the far wall, you can see the changes here in this amazing gif set by the awesome Austen, but the listing should let you click around a little more upstairs and figure out dimensions better than what the show provides!

When Athena and Hen go out to eat together, it’s always fast food burgers and fries.

Waffles are Athena’s favorite food, and tiramisu is her favorite dessert.

Every takeout we’ve seen Buck eat has always been in a Chinese food takeout container, and we know he likes Thai food the best. EXCEPT! The one time we see him eat takeout with Eddie and Christopher, they have pizza. So take from that what you will......

Eddie has a cell phone and a landline.

Chim is a shameless multiple texter.

Chim and Bobby sleep closest to the door in their respective bedrooms (both right side of the bed if you are standing at the foot, facing the headboard), and Athena and Maddie sleep furthest away from the door (left side).

Some canon last names for other firefighters at the station in case you wanna add more people to a fic - Mitchell, Sanchez, Serrano (woman), Porter, Meyers (woman), Maxwell, Voyta

Hen and Karen really love decorating their house with dark/red wood.

Karen is Mommy and Hen is Mama.

Bobby has a brother, and a grandmother, and that’s literally ALL we know about his family outside of Marcy and the kids.

Evidence points to Eddie being the oldest child in his family.

Karen has multiple brothers (no sisters), but no idea how many - just that one of them is named Trey, and one of them lives in LA and has kids. They might be the same brother and they might not be.

Both Hen and Athena are only children.

Athena has been on the police force for 30 years.

Christopher and Denny are the same age (born in 2011), and Harry is two years older than them.

Michael lives in apartment 308.

The bank in this universe is CalAm.

Hen and Karen have a picture of Denny, May and Harry on their fireplace mantel.

Eddie having a black thumb + a lot of plants in his living room = him buying fake plants bc he likes the aesthetic ™ or someone (cough Carla cough) is taking care of them for him.

The COVID timeline in OG’s universe is fucked up compared to the real world’s, so it shouldn’t be used as a way to measure time! They just throw it in wherever it makes sense for the story they want to tell (eg the vaccines in s4 ep 8), since s3 was both done before COVID hit but also airing while it was happening. It makes absolutely no sense for May to graduate in March nor for Chris to be going to what is specifically labeled summer camp, and the vaccine plotline was INCREDIBLY early, even for real life, so don’t use anything from that as a measure of time. I’ve found except in specific examples, eg the two tsunami episodes, it’s very safe to say every episode covers a week - fall holidays on the show line up with their real life counterparts, indicating about the same amount of time is passing for us and them.

On that note - Jee-Yun was born in late January, early February 2021. (Conceived in Pinned, which was end of March/beginning of April, meaning Maddie was around a month along at May’s graduation in May ➡ 42 weeks + 3 days from then = late Jan/early Feb. Which unfortunately means we most likely won’t see her birthday celebrated on screen. If we assume she was conceived on the date Pinned aired, aka the very sexy hotel scene, then January 21st or 22nd would be Jee’s birthday, depending on if she was born after midnight or not.

Buck has had at least one other Jeep between the one Maddie gave him, and the one he has now, which means that when he needs a new car, he is purposefully choosing Jeeps.

I hope this was all as interesting/enjoyable to you as it was to me! And just to repeat - I love answering questions so pls let me know if you have any at all ❤

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Tagging: @buckbuckley

[jade-parcels]

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The bunnies’ other jobs!

From my bunny cafe au

((I am so peeved :((( I had this all written out!! And I deleted it by accident!! Darnnnnn!!!))

Anon asked “You mentioned that some of the bunnies have day jobs so do they all have jobs outside the cafe or just a few?” (Something along these lines…again…I deleted it by accident 😔)

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Diluc/‘Angel’

After his father got bored with the wine industry, he passed the whole company off to Diluc on his 18th birthday in order to shift his focus to mining. Diluc found himself swamped with all kinds of business decisions while just barely being an adult. He expanded the company and hired some very trustworthy people to handle things for him so he could finish college

When the business was given to him, Diluc and Kaeya had an explosive fight over it. Kaeya felt like he deserved to have some say in what happens to the business, he’s still a part of the family! But Diluc refused to let him in on any decisions so Kaeya packed his bags and left (not before cussing him out in front of their father, staff and business partners). He was just in a silly, goofy mood. They’re fine now, not on the best terms but they do chat and meet up for lunch on occasion.

He is filthy rich, he couldn’t spend all of his all of his money if he tried, so he doesn’t really need the job at the cafe! Kaeya got him the job because he knew his brother was stuck in a weird, antisocial funk and needed some fun in his life

Diluc loves this job, he has a great time, but it isn’t his main job. His priority will always be the family business!! If he has to quit his job at the cafe, he would in a heartbeat

👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕

Kaeya

Kaeya was going to go into the police academy but was scouted out by a modeling agency. They had seen him at Ragnvindr company events and thought ‘well damn’ so they gave him a pretty generous deal

Kaeya makes a good living off of modeling, the tips and paycheck from the cafe. He rakes in cash pretty quickly just cause he knows how to get it. That, and his dad sends him checks every other month as well. Kaeya thinks of it as ‘I’m sorry’ money. He isn’t wrong

He doesn’t travel much for modeling, which he doesn’t mind, so he kinda just hangs around the city with a lot of free time on his hands between photo shoots. That’s why he got this job at the cafe! It gives him something to do and it’s fun as hell ;)

Albedo

Bedo is one busy bunny. He finished college early and is getting his masters degree online. He works most days at the cafe and on the weekends, he tutors other college students in bio/chem/science related subjects

(He was actually Xiao’s tutor back when he was failing chemistry!! Xiao is very thankful for Albedo’s help!!)

His dream is to become a biochemist, he’s always been interested in cells and what makes up living beings. So having a career in that field would make him the happiest man alive

His mother and sister live outside the city in a more rural area so he spends a lot of time FaceTiming the two of them! Klee is always so excited to hear about Albedo’s experiments or the people he’s met while working in such a bustling, fun city :)

Zhongli

Zhongli is a simple man! He’s a bunny waiter and an artist

He creates intricate pieces based on folklore from different cultures, focusing mostly on dragons. His favorite medium is paint, he loves painting on glass and layering the panes in order to create a 3D piece

He sells his works to galleries, shops and anyone who wants them! As long as they appreciate the story behind the artwork. Sadly…He undersells his work. He could def be making more money but he just does not desire money or material goods the way others may

So he got his job at the cafe in order to help out his dear friend Ningguang, not for money, he only planned on working there for a month or two until she got more bunnies but…he ended up really loving the people he works with :’) he looks forward to working with them now and texts/calls them outside of work to meet up for lunch or bowling (such an old man thing to do omfg)

Dainsleif/‘Sweetie’

Dain was a bouncer at another bar before leaving to come to Celestia’s! He’s good friends with Beidou, they belong to the same motorcycle club so when she was talking to him about the lack of security at the cafe/bar, he stepped in to help out

Little did he know…he’d actually become a bunny…And like it

This is his full time job now, he doesn’t have another for the time being. While he is a bunny at the cafe, he still keeps an eye out for any threats to his coworkers and has access to the offices upstairs (Ningguang’s office and the security office)

When he isn’t waiting tables, he’s upstairs in a tank top and sweatpants keeping an eye on the security cameras and talking to the other security guards through their ear pieces

Ajax

Ajax is a student who doesn’t really have much time on his hands

He mows lawns in the summer and he’s quit his job as a cashier to come work at the cafe! He mostly works night shifts his cause he’s still going to school aaaaaand he’s on his college’s swim team! He’s about to graduate so he works close with his coach to help train the others on the team

He doesn’t really want his family knowing that he skips around in a skimpy bunny outfit and fucking customers most nights but I mean…They’re bound to find out if they see him in pictures people post

Xiao/‘Tofu’

Xiao is an art student!! He wants to be a tattoo artist :)

He’s already got one sleeve of tattoos, it’s unfinished but you can’t really tell just by looking. When he isn’t at the cafe, he’s either in class or shadowing Ganyu, his best friend and tattoo artist. Their art styles greatly differ, she focuses her craft on cutesy, colored tattoos, but she is skilled. And Xiao looks up to her

Xiao admires Zhongli too, they met at the cafe and when Zhongli found out Xiao wants to be a tattoo artist he told him that once he’s licensed, he wants to get a tattoo from him :’)

Baizhu/‘Honey’

Baizhu is a (mostly) full time pharmacist, hence why he isn’t usually at the cafe

He also has a niece, Qiqi, who he babysits often. He loves her very much so he has no problem watching her! Baizhu will even bring her to the pharmacy with him when he’s swamped with work. In the break room, he has a play kitchen, coloring books and a bunch of puzzles to keep Qiqi occupied while he works :)

When he’s not at work, he’s at home resting. He has chronic pain flare ups in his back and shoulders that can make life miserable :( he has plenty of good days that outweigh the bad! And as a pharmacist, he has access to any medicine he needs to make his life easier!

Dottore(Alain)/‘Doc’

Alain’s an oral surgeon who’s a little bit….too into his job

He isn’t phased by blood or gore so he’s easily able to conduct procedures that would make other squeamish. He’ll pull teeth, put in dental implants, remove rotten tissue, any of that without even flinching

Outside of that, he works at the cafe. He wears a mask in order to avoid being recognized even though at his job as a surgeon, he’s usually wearing a medical mask anyways. It’s just a precaution

This has nothing to do with his career but he used to be a tap dancer and actor so he’d join in on local theatre shows! He helped build sets when he wasn’t rehearsing. He doesn’t have time for that anymore (which kinda makes him sadddd) but he has all kinds of theatre playlists on his phone and in his car that he’ll sing along to

Scaramouche/‘Boss’

Scara’s job at the cafe is his main job! His side job is something you may not expect from such a grump

He works at an animal shelter! In fact, he brings cats home to train so they have an increased chance of being adopted. Someone is more likely to adopt a potty trained, socialized cat than a feral cat who doesn’t know what a litter box is. So Scara brings them to his apartment for some one-on-one socializing, training and cuddling

One time he offhandedly mentioned working at an animal shelter while he was working at the cafe and sure enough, three separate customers from the cafe came by to adopt!!! Only one actually took an animal home but he was still surprised that those people had listened to him and cared enough to come by

Scara is a jerk most of the time but when he’s at home…by himself…With a lil kitten sleeping in his lap while he plays games on his PC…Yeah, he softens up a bit

So as you can see, we have a very diverse group working at the cafe! They’ve all learned a lot from each other, come to appreciate each other’s friendship and come to help each other out when one of their coworkers is in need or upset.

[allthingsfangirl101]

The Other Evans–Troy Bolton

I was used to people complaining about my family. It kind of came with the territory of being Sharpay's and Ryan's younger sister. I wasn't used to running into an East High Wildcat every time I turned the corner at my family's country club.

Of all the selfish things my sister is capable of, the worse thing she's done is hired the entire East High student body to work at our country club for the summer. Dealing with the whining Wildcats on top of planning my sister's beloved show was too much.

I thought they were good people until they started working here. I've now realized how much they complained. I suddenly had a new respect for Coach Bolton.

"Next time I see Country Club Princess, I'm gonna launch her and her pink cart straight into the lake," Chad said through his teeth.

I walked into the kitchen as Troy patted Chad on the back. "I'll build the ramp, buddy."

Taylor cleared her throat and nodded towards me in the doorway. The boys' eyes widened when they looked at me.

"Y/N," Troy stuttered.

"What is wrong with your sister, Y/N?" Chad snapped at me. I subconsciously took a step back. "Has she always been like this? Focusing on only herself? How did you take that growing up? Why didn't you ever say anything to her?"

"She can't control her sister, Chad," Troy sighed.

"Still," he scoffed. "She's the only one Sharpay listens to! Y/N, you could at least tell her to be human."

"You think it was a walk in the park growing up with her?"

It was my turn to scoff. I had no idea where this sudden confidence was coming from but I went with it.

"Let me tell you something, Ball Boy," I said, slamming my clipboard on the nearest table. "My sister has always been a terror. Not that my brother helped. In fact, he kind of egged her on. I lost count of how many times they ganged up on me. Either I wasn't dressing right. Or my makeup wasn't the right shade. Or I wasn't standing in the right spot. Or I wasn't on key. Or I was late. Or this. Or that. It was always something!"

"Y/N," Kelsie tried to jump in.

"And try being the untalented sibling!" I continued. "My older siblings love to dance and sing and act. They're good at it and they know it! But I'm not. I can't play an instrument. I can't sing. I can't dance. What can I do? I can plan a pretty decent party. Which Sharpay loves. Instead of paying someone to do all the work, why not just have your sister do it for free!"

"Y/N," Taylor sighed.

"As if planning the Sharpay Bash wasn't bad enough," I laughed harshly, "why not hire the entire East High student body to add their drama to your summer?!"

I angrily left the kitchen, leaving East High shocked. As I walked down the hall, I realized I left my clipboard in the kitchen. Not wanting to go back, I kept walking away.

"Y/N."

I ignored my sister, not wanting to deal with her right now.

"Y/N, we need your help with something," Ryan sighed.

"Y/N," Sharpay whined, stopping her foot like a little kid.

"No!" I yelled, turning around and angrily facing them. "I'm done. I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I'm done with your stupid party. I'm done with this place. I'm done. You have both treated me like an employee instead of a sister. Which is saying something because you treat your employees like crap. Just ask all of East High. They've seen it!"

"Y/N," Ryan tried to defend themselves. When he hesitated, I said something I've always wanted to say.

"I'm done being your personal party planner," I said, standing up straighter.

"What?" Sharpay scoffed.

"I quit."

                                * * * * *

After I quit working for my sister, I made plans to go back home. I didn't have to worry about my parents getting upset because they weren't even in the country.

I had just packed up my room and was heading to my car when I heard someone calling out to me. I ignored them as I kept walking.

"Y/N, wait up!"

I gasped when someone ran around and stopped in front of me. I bit my lip, suddenly embarrassed when I saw Troy standing there.

"What do you want, Troy?" I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You left your clipboard in the kitchen yesterday," he said softly as he held my clipboard out for me to take. I hesitated before taking it and clutching it to my chest.

"I tried to find you but I guess you left," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah," I said, clearing my throat. "I needed some space away from. . . Everything. So I went into town."

"I wanted to apologize for Chad yesterday," he said after a few beats of silence. "He was angry and tired and way out of line. He shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I'm sorry, Y/N."

I subconsciously tightened my arms around the clipboard as I shifted my weight.

"It's fine," I mumbled.

"So," he chuckled, "there's a rumor going around the kitchen. I wanted to know if it was true."

"What rumor?" I asked.

"That you quit being your sister's party planner," he said with a small smile. His smile turned teasing as my cheeks blushed. "Did you?"

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"That's amazing," he chuckled. "I bet she didn't take it well."

"Not at all," I said, clearing my throat. "She freaked."

He looked down, his smile falling when he saw the suitcase by my feet. "You're leaving?"

"I can't stay here," I sighed. "This place used to be one of my favorite places, but ever since I started working for Sharpay as her personal party planner. . . It's not the same here anymore. I come on vacation and end up working. So, I'm going home."

"You are?" He stuttered.

"It's not like I have a reason to be here," I couldn't help but scoff.

"Well," he said slowly as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "You could still play golf, swim. . . Plus the show is Sunday night."

"I don't think my sister wants me there," I said, glancing down at my suitcase. "Besides, why would I want to sit and watch her dance around the stage?"

"Because the rest of us are in the show too," he said barely audible.

"Troy," I sighed. "I don't think the Wildcats want me around either."

Before he could say anything, a honk came from outside. We looked up to see the valet getting out of my car.

"That's me," I said softly. I grabbed my suitcase and started walking past him. I was almost to the door when he spoke up.

"What if I want you there?"

I slowly turned around to see Troy looking at his feet. "What did you say?" I asked.

When he finally looked up at me, his eyes were soft. "I want you to stay, Y/N."

"You don't mean that," I said, my voice getting stuck in my throat.

He sighed as he walked over to me. "I do, Y/N. I want you to stay for the show."

"Troy," I stuttered. I gasped when he reached over and grabbed the clipboard from me. He tossed it onto a nearby couch before grabbing my hands.

"Stay," he whispered. "Stay here. This is still your parents' country club, not Sharpay's."

"So?" I whispered.

"So she doesn't have the right to throw you out," he said simply. "Stay here and enjoy the rest of your summer. I promise the Wildcats will be better behaved."

"I don't know," I stuttered, pulling my hands out of his hold. "What am I supposed to do? It's not like I have any friends. . ."

My sentence dropped and my cheeks burned. I looked away, wondering how much more I can embarrass myself in front of Troy Bolton.

"You have us," he mumbled.

"Yeah right," I scoffed. I cleared my throat when I saw the look on his face. "I just mean. . . It's no secret you guys don't like Sharpay and Ryan."

"But you aren't them," he said quickly. "You're nothing like your brother and sister, Y/N."

He hesitated before reaching over and grabbing my hands again. He intertwined our fingers, slightly tugging on my arms to pull me closer. I looked up at him through my eyelashes.

"Please stay, Y/N," he pleaded. "I'd really like to spend some time with you and get to know you better. And I know the team would say the same. Especially after you stood up to Sharpay."

I bit my lip and laughed. I looked up at him, my breath getting caught in my throat when I noticed him glance down at my lips. He looked back up at my eyes before smiling. I held my breath as he leaned in and pressed his lips gently to mine. It took me a second before I started kissing him back.

As our lips moved slowly in sync, Troy let go of my hands and wrapped his arms around my waist. I slowly slid my hands up his chest and wrapped my arms around his neck. I broke the kiss and leaned my forehead against his.

"My sister would be so jealous," I whispered.

He leaned back and let out a small laugh as he reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, his hand lingering on my cheek. He smirked down at me, slightly shaking his head.

"Let her be jealous of you for once."

[pretend-writer]

Teenagers: Part 2 (Hargreeves x sibling!reader)

Summary: Y/N tries to convince her siblings to sneak out of the mansion and go out to party with her for the night.

Pairing: Hargreeves x sibling!reader

Title Reference: Teenagers x My Chemical Romance

Word Count: 2.3k words

Warning: swearing, mention of drugs and alcohol, partying/clubbing, mention of sex

✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤

'So where are these so-called friends that you have, Y/N?' Five asked impatiently, bothering me for the last five minutes.

'Shut up, they're coming. We just got here like two minutes ago.'

Allison smiled, 'Someone is eager to go in.'

Five glared at her, shaking his head. 'Ha, you're funny. I'm just tired of wai-'

'They're here!' I waved at my friends and ran to them, hugging them and greeting them. Getting the wristbands that they've promised me, I got back to my family and gave them one of each.

'How's Five going to get in?' Luther asked, but by the time we looked over at our not so younger brother, he was gone.

Assuming Five just zapped himself into the club, we lined up and got ourselves into the building.

Smiles formed on everyone's face, making me smile even more. I was happy that everyone was excited, my siblings deserved happiness and more.

Klaus clapped, 'I'm starting to sober up and that's a big fat no. Drinks on me, who wants some?'

Ben and Klaus went to the back towards the bar, buying everyone rounds of drinks to bring back. While the rest of us stayed, still no sign of Five, I looked at them and smiled.

'What's with the goofy smile?' Diego asked, I rolled my eyes and hit him. 'What? You're really happy tonight.'

'Of course I am, dummy. I'm out with you guys, what's not to be smiling about?' I pulled on his arm, 'Come on. Let's go to the dance floor.'

'Ha, I'm not dancing. Take others with you instead.'

'Luther is busy with those girls that's surrounding him, Allison and Vanya has been gone and you're the only one looking like a lost, sad puppy.'

'You don't think Luther needs our help?'

I looked over at him and laughed, 'He seems like he's enjoying the attention he's getting from them. He'll be alright. Now let's go.'

Diego rolled his eyes, 'I'll just watch.'

'Don't be a butt, come on.' I pulled on him again, this time he walked with me as he groaned.

We walked down to the dance floor, shoving ourselves through the sweaty crowd as we found Allison, Vanya and Five squeezed together.

'Exactly why is this fun?' Five said as he was sandwiched between two giant guys that were jumping up and down.

Allison turned around, dancing to the music the DJ was playing. 'Get drunk, dance your stress away. We're out the freaking house, Five.'

'Huh?' Five shouted, not being able to hear what Allison had said to him. She ignored him and continued to dance as she grabbed Vanya's hands.

I started to dance with my sisters, singing along and jumping up and down. Diego and Five just stood awkwardly, watching us drunk girls dancing.

'Excuse me, sorry. Ah, my fault.' Ben screamed from behind as he came with three drinks in his hand, followed by Klaus who was sipping from one of the cups.

Klaus handed us our drinks, 'Damn. It took us forever to look for you guys. I saw Luther's big ass but he's with those girls.'

'Our boy is busy.' I grinned as I pulled the straw into my mouth, sipping on my drink to get myself more drunk.

Five started groaning, I looked to see two girls talking to him and wondering how he ended up here. 'Aw, little kid are you lost? Poor thing.'

'No, I'm with them.' He replied angrily, arms crossed as he scooted himself towards Ben.

'Ah, you brought a boy to a club? What is wrong with you guys!' The girl said, given how bad it looked I never consider how it'll look from other perspective.

'Wait, no. It's- let me explain!' Ben stumbled with words, stuttering as he tried to reason with them. 'He- he's just a really really late bloomer. We're all actually in our 20s okay.'

'I'm just stuck in this body as an adult. Don't lie to them!' Five tried to defend himself, although it wouldn't really help with the confusing situation.

Klaus frowned and leaned towards the girls. 'Yeah, he's in denial. Very sensitive subject that we like to avoid.'

The girls nodded, awed as they were sympathize of our "situation" that we'd explained to them. 'So sorry, you guys have fun.'

'I hate you guys.' Five mumbled, snatching the cup from Allison's hand and drinking from it.

'Hey, I wasn't fini-'

'Y/N, this is the best night ever!' Luther came into the dance floor, cheerful as ever. 'Thank you for bringing me here because this is amazing.'

Diego chuckled, 'Of course. You were practically having a foursome with those girls over there.'

'You're just jealous.' Luther stuck his tongue out like a seven year old boy. Klaus, Ben and I laughed hysterically; it was even funnier because we were drunk, and Luther, our "daddy's boy" brother was enjoying sneaking out of the mansion.

'One of my friends are single, if you want me to set you-'

'Y/N, drop it.' Diego turned away, 'I need to take a leak. You guys better stay here.'

As Diego walked away with Five to the bathroom, we continued to dance and drink. Vanya was giggling, swaying back and forth as Ben and Allison had a dance-off seeing who can bring out the best moves. Klaus and I were downing the rest of our drinks, practically singing our face off as the DJ played such good music.

'Ah, we need more drin-' Klaus paused mid-sentence, looking back and forth between me and the stage. 'So you are whoring around, you whore.'

'Don't know what you're talking about.' I denied, not understand how Klaus came to this conclusion. 'I don't get it.'

He hit me on my side, 'Don't play dumb with me! I see you and that DJ eye humping each other.'

He wasn't making things up when he had said that; I did have my eyes on the DJ. 'We are not eye humping each other. He doesn't even know me.'

'Well, he knows you now because he's staring at you and I swear your clothes will burn off soon because he won't stop.' Ben chuckled, guessing that he noticed it as well.

'You're crazy.' I didn't think he noticed me at all, I mean he was the DJ. He was overlooking everyone on the dance floor, it'd be dumb to assume he had his eyes on me.

Allison joined in on the conversation, 'I noticed that too! I thought you guys fucked before or something.'

'No! What do you guys think I am?'

'A girl with needs.' Klaus smiled.

'Just because I sneak out does not mean I'm going around sleeping with random people.'

Vanya laughed, 'Okay well, you can with him. There he goes, looking at you. Don't look.'

'You guys lost your minds.'

'Says the girl that sneaks behind dad and her siblings.' Luther joked.

'Okay, Luther don't get me started with you and those girls.'

Luther grunted, 'Ugh. I-'

'Hey, big fella over there.' The DJ got on the mic as he pointed at Luther. 'Why don't you come on the stage, get the crowd going!'

'Go, go!' Ben and Klaus shoved Luther towards the stage, even with him being hesitant and shy. 'Go show what the Hargreeves are all about!'

'I-I can't!' Luther hesitated, planted on the floor even when all of us tried to encourage him to go up there.

The DJ smiled at Luther, then looked at me. 'Dude, bring your friends up here too. We're going to turn this dance floor around for a bit.'

'Come on, he's calling for you!' Allison cheered as she pulled me and Klaus' hand, running up the stage.

Luther, Ben and Vanya trailed from behind, standing next to us while we danced to the DJ's new song he was playing.

Pulling Luther towards me, I gave him the last few sips I had in my cup before I threw it away. 'Here, you are probably starting to sober up. You need more.'

'Ah, Y/N. What makes you think I'm not drunk right now?'

'Because I remember when you were the night-'

'Okay, okay. You and Klaus never let that night go.'

The DJ leaned in as he kept playing music, 'Hey. If you and your boyfriend want more drinks, it's on the house.'

'Ha, she's not my girlfriend.' Luther chuckled.

'Ah, I stand corrected.' The DJ then turned to me and smiled sweetly. 'Would you mind if I buy you a drink?'

I couldn't tell if it was the alcohol or him, but I felt my cheeks getting warmer as the cute guy spoke to me. 'No, I wouldn't mind.'

The DJ bit his lip, taking his headphones off and walking downstairs. 'Alright, I'll be right back.'

Allison tapped on my sides repeatedly as he walked away. 'You lucky! He's so cute.'

'Maybe he has a brother. I call dibs though.' Klaus stared at him, eyeing him as he went up to the bar to get some drinks.

While Allison and Vanya continued to dance on the stage, Luther was once again being surrounded by a bunch of girls from the dance floor.

'Y/N is scoring some tonight and Luther is getting all these attention again.' Klaus shrugged his shoulders, looking around. 'What in the hell did Luther do to have these girls crawling around like crazy?'

'Wait, wait. Scoring some? I barely said a word to this dude.'

'Whatever, man. I need to go back down and look for someone now.'

Ben chuckled, patting Klaus on his shoulder. 'I got your back, bro. Come on I'll be your wingman.'

As soon as Klaus heard those words come out of Ben's mouth, they both left the stage so quick I couldn't even speak to them back. Trailing them down the dance floor, I see the DJ coming back on stage with drinks in his hands.

'Here you go, I didn't know which drinks you like so I hope you like this one.' He was sweet, it could've been an act to try to talk to me but I didn't mind for one night. 'I'm Luke by the way.'

'Y/N. And this is perfect, thank you.' I gave him a flirty smile but then was interrupted when I saw something in the corner of my eye.

I looked through the crowd and saw Diego and Five, glaring at me and my siblings that were on the stage. They seemed like how Reginald would react in this situation; catching his children sneaking out at night and hanging out at a club.

Except it wasn't dad, it was my weird brothers that couldn't grasp what fun was. Watching us as if they were disappointed fathers that just saw their crazy teenager kids discovering drinking and partying for the first time.

'Oops.' It came out of my mouth naturally as I stared at Diego and Five, followed by a giggle that I couldn't help. It was funny watching them being weirdly upset with us, especially when it felt like the club was spinning round and round.

'You guys are screwed.' Five mouthed back, shaking his head as he watched us from down the dance floor.

✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤

My eyes shot open, not knowing where I was at for a moment until I realized I was in my room. I then see Diego sitting on my bed side chair, watching me as if he was guarding me.

'Rise and shine, zombie.' Diego chuckled, seeing how crazy I looked with messed up makeup and a bed head.

'Ho-how did I get here last night.' I turned around and looked around, noticed that the cute DJ guy wasn't in my bed. 'I don't remember anything.'

Diego grinned, 'You're curious huh.'

'Where is Luke-Oh no... Did I do something stupid?' I was confused, so confused because I thought everything was going good last night. But now that I didn't remember anything after I said hi to him, I got scared. 'Oh my- Did I do something embarrassing? Fuck.'

'Well, I don't know what you define "embarrassing" but yeah. You definitely made the crowd go wild last night.' Diego started laughing, his loud voice ringing in my ear from my hangover.

Covering my ears, I shook my head. 'Diego... shh. My head hurts okay.'

'This is why I don't drink.'

I shook my head, 'Is everyone back safely?'

'Oh, don't even worry about everyone else, they're perfectly fine. It was you that we had a hard time bringing home, Y/N.'

'So can you tell me what happened?'

'Sure, after you acknowledge that I'm the best brother ever.' Diego raised his eyebrows, adjusting his positioning on the chair.

A light laugh just escaped my mouth, keeping my mouth closed so I wouldn't start burst out laughing. 'You're kidding me right? Really?'

'Yes really. I had to carry you home, tuck you into bed after you kicked and screamed, help you get up so you can throw up. I didn't even know humans were physically able to throw up so much.'

When Diego put it like that, I felt bad that he had to take care of me throughout the night. 'Okay Diego, you're the best brother in the world. Also I'm sorry you had to do all that for me.'

'Aha, no worries. That was probably the most entertaining night ever.' He laughed, 'You were fucking crazy.'

I smiled, I bet Diego really enjoyed me making a fool of myself or whatever I did last night that got him giggling nonstop. 'So are you going to tell me?'

'Hmm, nope. Thanks for the compliment though.'

'Ugh, I hate you.'

'Not according to yesterday you don't.' Diego smirked.

[charlie-minion]

Could the same SPN finale make a little more sense with some additions/changes?

I’ve had the idea for this post stuck in my head for days now, but with every new conspiracy theory and every new eventuality in the fandom, it became difficult to cool down enough to write something less ship-related and more narrative-focused.

What Supernatural and non-SPN fans have to understand is that a lot of us have expressed disappointment and frustration after 15x20, not because of Destiel (that’s just one part of the whole problem), but because the finale doesn’t make sense. Everything was leading up to something beautifully crafted until the end of 15x19. Beyond that, it’s hard to understand what happened. The story rendered all the character growth irrelevant, invalidated the themes of free will and “family don’t end in blood”, regressed to the original brother codependency they spent 15 years trying to overcome, made a queer non-binary character in a male vessel and a deaf female character basically disposable, and kept the show’s reputation of queerbaiting and misogyny until its very last breath.

That’s not going out with a bang! At least not a positive one. We all were ready to mourn Supernatural, but we wanted to feel proud of its legacy, and somehow TPTB managed to tarnish that legacy in less than 45 minutes. What a way to ruin the other more than 13,600 minutes of story!

It doesn’t matter who is to blame (The CW, Robert Singer, Andrew Dabb). It doesn’t matter why it happened (homophobia, censorship, marketing for Walker, bad writing). What matters is that at the end of the day, the finale that aired is what we got and that’s going to hurt for a long time. It hurts even more when we realize that the same finale could have easily made more sense, even without being perfect.

That’s what I want to do in this post. I want to show you how things would have been less jarring (for the fandom), while still keeping the goal to please the general audience.

Before I begin rewriting 15x20, I have to mention that I talked to my conservative boomer sister about the finale. She hasn’t watched the second half of season 15 yet (she’s waiting for Netflix to have it), but she’s been watching the show for a long time (she introduced me to it 8 years ago). She’s the perfect example of a viewer from the general audience. Loves the show but doesn’t give a second thought to it and definitely isn’t paying attention to character development or themes. Doesn’t engage with fandom, actors, or any of the show’s social media. Pure GA! When I told her the series finale had aired, she asked me about it and I refused to give her spoilers. Because of that, she told me the ending SHE wanted. She said she would be happy with either of two possibilities: the boys retiring and finally living a normal life OR they going to heaven and finding peace at last. She saw Sam and Dean as a unit, which means: both retiring or both going to heaven. AND she saw Cas as part of that, too. She wasn’t so sure about Jack. And for her, we could use the “Eileen who?” and it wouldn’t be a joke. She didn’t remember her.

NOW IT’S TIME TO WRITE A NEW VERSION OF 15X20 (KEEPING 15X18 AND 15X19 EXACTLY THE SAME AS THEY AIRED). This will be a very long post:

The opening remains almost the same. No “Carry on my wayward son” to induce feels. Too soon and too predictable! (Reasoning: Everyone was expecting it to play right there, so it would bring more tears at the end)

In the opening, after the scene where Jack says “People won’t need to pray to me or sacrifice to me”, we also see the scene from 15x19 where he says “I won’t be hands on”. Then we see the rest of the opening as it was. (Reasoning: People needed to be reminded that Jack would NOT intervene and that’s why later on, he would NOT save Dean).

We get the same montage, but when Sam takes a break from his morning run, we see him reading a message on his phone. A simple: “Hey Sam, what’s new?” from Eileen. Sam smiles fondly and begins to type a response we don’t get to see. The next scene continues the same, Sam making breakfast. (Reasoning: A text was a very simple way to show that Eileen was alive and still in communication with Sam).

The montage slowly ends as Sam enters the library (not after he sits down). He seems to be talking on the phone but we only hear an “I’ll tell him. Bye”. As he walks towards the table, he tells Dean: “Charlie says hi. Mentioned something about Stevie’s perfect scrambled eggs we have to try.” Dean’s answer is “Awesome!” (Reasoning: Just ONE line was needed to unbury Charlie and her girlfriend. ONE LINE).

Sam sits down, opens his laptop and everything continues the same. The title card shows for the last time.

YOU SEE? In the first 4 minutes they could have acknowledged that THREE WOMEN were alive and safe: Eileen, Charlie and Stevie. It wasn’t hard! Don’t blame bad writing on Covid! Now let’s continue.

Sam and Dean arrive at the Pie Fest just the same. Dean goes to get some “damn pie” and Sam takes out his phone. He dials and when someone picks up, he says “Hey, Jody, how are ya?” We don’t hear the rest of the conversation. The scene moves to Dean coming with his 6 portions of pie. Dean sits down and Sam tells him, “Talked to Jody. The other hunters haven’t had much work lately.” “That’s good, isn’t it?”, Dean says. All we get from Sam is “Yeah.” So, Dean looks at him and asks “what’s wrong?” like it happened in the episode. (Reasoning: Again, a couple of lines to make sure the people that were killed in 15x18 are safe and remembered by the boys in 15x20. Why is this important? Because they’re family!)

The conversation about Sam’s sad face happens the same. Sam is the one that mentions Cas and Jack. (Reasoning: Because this episode was so Sam-centered, it’s obvious he was the protagonist in the finale. If we see him communicating with Eileen, Charlie, and Jody, then it’s NORMAL, even expected of him to be the one to bring up Cas and Jack). Without these additions, it’s harder for people to understand that most of the finale was NOT from Dean’s POV but from Sam’s.

Dean’s “if we don’t keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing” stays the same. (Reasoning: I believe it’s necessary that the show sticks to the importance of “letting go” and “what is dead should stay dead” for the first time ever because the message is “even when you lose someone you love, you can still find some form of happiness and keep living, for you and for them, because that’s what they would have wanted”. Bringing someone back means “I can’t live without you”, and that’s just more codependency. It’s how the demon deals began in the Winchester family –Mary being the first one to do it. This would explain why Dean didn’t ask Jack to bring Cas back, as he asked Chuck. He understood Jack was NOT going to interfere anymore and accepted it. Besides, when Cas saved Dean from hell, Dean thought he didn’t deserve to be saved. This time that Cas saved him, Dean finally feels worthy enough to accept that YES, HE DESERVED TO BE SAVED ALL ALONG, just as much as he deserved to be loved by that angel of the Lord. In this scene, Dean also says that the pain is not gonna go away, which means that from HIS PERPECTIVE, it still hurts that Cas is not there. The problem is that the finale is not showing his POV but Sam’s.  

Sam pies Dean on the face just the same. (Reasoning: That part was just to avoid ending the scene on a sad note).

Everything related to the case happens exactly the same. (Reasoning: At this point, people don’t really care about the MoTW, they care about Sam and Dean).

NOTE 1: The case is important to show that even when the Winchesters are finally free of Chuck’s influence, they CHOOSE to keep hunting. It isn’t something they do out of revenge or because it is their destiny anymore. Maybe they were forced into the life at first, but they’ve learned to find joy in saving people. Being hunters is who they are. However, the fact that a job application was shown on Dean’s desk is also important because it means he was willing to explore what else was there for him besides hunting. Maybe he could find a balance? Maybe he was thinking it was time to quit? We will never know! The thing is that Sam only finds out about it when he goes into Dean’s room after his brother is dead, so maybe that’s when it hits him that Dean wanted to explore his options, and Sam starts to think it’s time for him to do the same.  

NOTE 2: I believe the masks the vampires are wearing is something we can blame on covid. If they had their faces covered, it was easier to use people from the SPN crew for some scenes, instead of using more actors unnecessarily.

NOTE 3: When Sam and Dean arrive at the barn, we get 3 visuals to remember Cas in the same scene (those are for the fandom, not for the general audience): a) the barn, obviously; b) the bag that resembles Cas’ trenchcoat so much that many people thought that’s what it was; and c) two feathers hanging on Dean’s right when he opens the trunk.

The scene with the throwing star happens the same. (Reasoning: The episode is still told from Sam’s point of view, so it makes sense that he fondly sees his brother as a man child).

Jenny the vampire? Uhhh… I mean, it’s not the best piece of writing I’ve ever seen, but it’s not the worst, so okay. That stays the same. (Reasoning: There is none, but she’s not what really ruined the finale, so whatever!)

Dean still dies impaled on a rebar. (Reasoning: OK. HERE ME OUT!!! I hate as much as everyone else that Dean is killed. I think it’s lazy writing, but that’s what we got and I can’t change that in this re-write, so if killing Dean is what we have to work around, then, memes aside, death by rebar is better and here’s why. There’s no one to blame for Dean’s death: no Chuck (the boys were willingly hunting even after Chuck was defeated), no vampires (they were all killed and were no real threat, so it was impossible for Sam to begin a quest for revenge against all vampires. What was Sam going to blame? A rebar? Can you kill it? Hunt it? NO. It was an ordinary death, a stupid accident. Just like any person can die at any moment by slipping on a banana peel. Is it a good death? No, but it’s good to know he doesn’t die trying to save Sam or Cas, because Dean Winchester is NOT willing to give up his life in exchange for anyone else’s anymore.

Sam takes out his phone and says he’ll call for help, but his phone is more visible to the audience. He dials and it’s almost to his ear when Dean stops him and Sam hesitantly hangs up. (Reasoning: People have complained that Sam didn’t call an ambulance, but actually he tried to. It’s just that people missed that part, maybe?)

After Sam puts his phone back in his pocket and says “OK” to Dean, he adds, “I’ll pray to Jack”. Dean’s immediate answer is: “No hands on, remember?” “But Dean”, Sam says, and Dean interrupts him with “OK listen to me” and tells Sam what to do with the kids they rescued. (Reasoning: Jack is God now and how come Sam didn’t remember? The viewers remembered, so it was necessary to include a line that ruled the option out and that showed Dean didn’t want Jack to intervene. The rest was fine).

The lines “You knew it was always gonna end like this for me. It was supposed to end like this, right?” disappear completely from Dean’s monologue. (Reasoning: This is the most problematic part of Dean’s dying speech. He fought God and earned free will, he is no longer controlled by fate or destiny. Accepting that he is supposed to die on a hunt regresses his character development and denies his desire to keep living. This was a total mistake and should be removed).

Instead, if going to heaven is the ending TPTB wanted to give Dean, at least he should say something more empowering. Sam tells him that both of them are going to take the kids somewhere safe. Dean answers and the scene follows like this: “No. Sammy, we made our choice, didn’t we?”, he smiles with difficulty. “We were free to write our own story and we did. We decided to keep saving people, hunting things. Because it’s what we love despite the risks.” (Reasoning: If Dean’s going to die it doesn’t have to feel like it was always meant to be that way. He should die knowing that he exerted his free will until his last breath).

The rest of the dialogue between Sam and Dean happens almost the same. Except that instead of Dean saying “‘cause when it all came down to it, it was always you and me. It’s always been you and me”, he says “’cause when it all came down to it, we’ve always had each other’s backs. Always.” And instead of Sam saying “Don’t leave me”, he says “I still can try to save you.” (Reasoning: It sounds way less codependent without diminishing the importance of their love and support for each other).

Besides, let’s change Dean’s “I’m not leaving you” for “You don’t have to be alone. You’ve still got family.” The rest stays the same word by word. (Reasoning: Dean reminds Sam that “family don’t end in blood” and there are still lots of people out there who love Sam and will be with him).

“I love you so much, my baby brother” stays exactly the same. (Reasoning: Dean always had trouble to express the big L word. I always believed and said many times that before Dean could say “I love you” to Cas or any other character, he had to say it to Sam. So, this is important as part of Dean speaking his truth).

The last part when Dean insists Sam tell him that it’s okay stays the same. (Reasoning: It’s the final moment when the codependency cycle breaks. No more running in circles).

The forehead touch between them stays the same. (Reasoning: I think I would do something similar if my sister were dying. I know there are w*ncest shippers out there, but it shouldn’t matter because the moment feels appropriate for that kind of goodbye). 

See? There are changes but not too many. That’s why I’ve been saying that it was easier to get it right, yet they still managed to screw it up.

The second montage stays the same. (Reasoning: Life goes on, but of course Sam has to mourn).

The call about a case in Austin remains the same. (Reasoning: It’s the only part of the episode where someone from the found family is mentioned, so I think that Donna’s name is perfect in that moment. However, without the other additions I’ve made in this re-write, that off-hand mention feels too little. Its purpose was to tell the viewers that if Donna was alive, so were the others, but the way the episode was executed gave us an isolated Sam, incapable of having friends and a family without Dean).  

After 30 minutes of Sam’s POV, let’s finally see the last bit of Dean’s POV that we’ll ever get.

Dean arrives in Heaven and Bobby receives him. All their conversation stays almost the same, except that after mentioning Rufus and before saying “and your mom and dad…”, Bobby adds an “Ellen and Jo let me borrow their place”. (Reasoning: If you’re gonna put the man outside the Harvelle’s place, at least mention them for Jack’s sake!).

Besides, after Bobby tells Dean that Sam will be along and that time in heaven is different, Dean gives a small smile and says, “Well, there’s no rush. I want him to have a long, happy life.” Bobby answers with: “I would expect nothing less from you, boy” and tells him he got everything he could ever want, etc., just like it happened in the episode, and finishes by asking “What are you gonna do now, Dean?” (Reasoning: It’s important we know for sure that Dean is NOT codependent anymore and that he doesn’t expect to have a miserable afterlife just because his brother is not there yet).

Instead of saying “I think I’ll go for a drive” Dean says, “I think I know what I want” and walks towards baby. Bobby still tells him to have fun. (Reasoning: “Know what I want” is ambiguous enough to help us introduce the last piece of the puzzle, the one thing Dean’s wanted for many seasons and has never been able to express).

 The biggest change is coming:

Dean gets on the Impala and has a moment of silence while he contemplates the wheel. He begins to pray: “Hey, Cas, you got your ears on? I hear you’ve been busy working on this updated Heaven with Jack. You were right about him, Cas. You had faith in him and he saved us all. You could always see the best in everyone, even when they couldn’t see it themselves. Even when I couldn’t see it myself. There’s so much I want to tell you. Maybe you can visit sometime. I hope prayer’s still a thing up here.” (Reasoning: Dean’s side of the confession was unaddressed and that was terrible writing. If there was no way to get him to speak his truth textually, at least take him as close to it as possible).

We listen to a flutter of wings and a “Hello, Dean” from the back seat. We don’t see Cas, but the camera shows us Dean’s cocky smile and he says “Took you long enough.” He turns around slowly. End of scene. (Reasoning: The flutter of wings confirms that angels have their wings back and ties that loose end. The final “hello, Dean” was highly anticipated and it made sense. If Misha couldn’t be there to film, for whatever reason, or if the problem was the kind of conversation Dean and Cas would have, then don’t show it, but leave the door open. Let us know that the two characters were reunited and will talk, but whatever Dean has to say is so private that it’s not for us to hear, only for Cas.  

We finally hear “Carry on my wayward son” and get a montage that begins with Sam playing with his kid. Then we see Dean driving, super happy, and Sam living his life to the fullest. We still get Sam’s Blurry Wife, BUT… we see pictures of Eileen in the living room (not just of John, Mary, Sam, and Dean). We also see photos of Jody, Donna, Charlie, and AU!Bobby. (Reasoning: FAMILY DON’T END IN BLOOD).

The scene where Sam is wearing the party wig and looks miserable inside the Impala is cut and nobody talks about it ever again because it never existed. We get a scene of Sam teaching his son how to fix the car instead. (Reasoning: First of all, don’t give Sam a life where years later he’s still in pain. Second of all, the fucking wig was a crime).

Sam’s dying scene stays the same. The only thing is that his son signs a couple of phrases to him before actually speaking. (Reasoning: More confirmation that Dean Jr. is Eileen’s son).

We hear the final “Evanescence-like Carry on my wayward son”. Again we see the photos and there’s family other than the Winchesters there. (Reasoning: Obvious at this point).

The rest is exactly the same. The show began with two brothers and it’s okay if the last scene is with the two brothers reunited in Heaven. At this point, the other parts of the story are acceptable enough for us to feel happy that they get to see each other again after years of a happy (after)life.

Now look me in the eye and tell me this was too hard to execute. I still think that bad writing is a thing we can’t deny here, adding to the possible meddling of the Network. Maybe Dabb wanted us to hate the finale because he couldn’t get away with what he truly wanted. If that was his intention, then kudos to him. He and The CW really gave us a finale that only 30% of the fandom liked.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this and it helps to give you some peace of mind. In my heart, this was the finale we got. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t drop the ball either.