#easy mode though shes got lesbians

[shevr]

fan non-français de bd mais qui est exclusivement à fond dans les trucs genre bigard en bd caméra café ( la bd ) le guide de la cinquantaine ( en bd ) les 3000 bd nazes de Bamboo sur divers types de boulots ( avec une préférence pour les Gendarmes )

[radfem-rage]

do you ever think about how emotionally immature TiMs and TiFs are? Everything I see them hung up on as been stuff I dealt with when I was 12-18. Yet they're out here hung up on it despite being 23+. Stuff like being obsessed with having followings, treating trivial things like it's their personality (gender, pretending their bad habits makes them cool, etc), being a mindless consumer (they all act like teens- wanting all this junk and being equally bad with money), not wanting to work because it's soooo unfair, being mad at the way SoCiEtY is (in regards to trivial things), etc.

It's honestly kinda creepy seeing TiMs in their 40s sounding the same way as 16yr TiMs, since literally most trans people sound and act the same fucking way. Its so uncanny, but it's due to their sheer lack of personality. They then turn into little "clusters" of appearance. Are you an it/itself/pup *posts pictures of furries and bdsm* trans or are you a they/them *posts pictures of cottagecore* trans? Don't even get me started on their physical appearance, because yes they even look alike physically and there's sets of "clusters" in regards to style. Are you the kidcore-esc dyed hair still feminine they/them girl or are you the porn-addicted dead-eyed blond twink trying to mimic an e girl? Or are you Chris Chan? lolol

When I see how they all function, especially with how I had plenty of friends who transed out.... It makes me conscious of how much I matured over the years. I wonder if I would be less mature if I wasn't actually dealing with systemic issues? Like abuse, homelessness, discrimination, etc. I went from "youre so mature for your age" to feeling like a "child within an adult body" to now feeling like my actual age. Progress! Yet with these people, there is no progress. They all come across as children in adult bodies.

Holy shit, yes!

What scares me is how the trans community has no problem telling the mentally ill youth that if their pretend identity isn’t affirmed at all times or if their insane demands are not being accepted immediately, it is a valid reason to threaten to commit suicide or shoot yourself. Things like:

• Demanding your parents never call you your “deadname” again out of nowhere

• Parents being forced to forget about how their child used to be before they got mentally ill and when they obviously struggle (because duh, a woman that gave birth to a girl will obviously struggle when that now teenage girl pretends she is a boy) they’re evil

• Tattoos of deadnames must be covered up or “fixed” to have the TiP’s new name or be removed all together

• Genital mutilation surgery the moment they want it and if the parents refuse or want to wait they’re evil transphobes who deserve to die.

• Never being allowed to share news articles about Trans pedophiles or rapists because “transphobia”

• TiF’s invading gay bars and TiM’s invading lesbian bars and then act confused when no one wants them around even though they have been shown multiple times no one wants the opposite sex in gay bars.

Trans people are indeed like children in adult bodies. They have never been told the word “no” and can’t accept it, either. They are stuck in a trans hug-box all day long that will affirm their bullshit and lie to them at every second of every day, they will only depend on other trans people because everyone else is transphobic and slowly lose connections with sane individuals. Then the moment they realize they were never born in the wrong body after all and underwent FGM/MGM for nothing the trans community will backstab them and tell them to k!ll themselves.

I used to have 2 TiM friends. Both were addicted to porn and thought women lived life on easy mode. They were acting extremely feminine and like a sexist stereotype, because they thought that was all a woman was, the moment I stopped affirming their bs and told them women aren’t regressive stereotypes or “feminine people” but adult people of the female sex, they dumped me as a friend. I never once regretted it because truth deserves to be spoken and I got nothing to be ashamed of. I too, changed a lot over the years and became more mature and outspoken, and grew & improved myself a lot, from libfem to radfem, and I love that about myself. ✌🏻

[dichromaticdyke]

🗣 - ok, I just got out of the shower and cranked out some more HM!T thoughts.

First time Toki took a shower with Skwisgaar, she thought Skwisgaar was trying to kill her with the water temperature. Skwisgaar likes it scalding hot 🔥 while Toki perfers in luke warm. She hopped in all ready to see soapy sudsy Skwisgaar and got attacked by the pelting of fire ants on her back. Skwisgaar showered alone that night while Toki whimpered and moaned about her "3rd degree burns" on her back.

After eating out somewhere, Skwisgaar sees a dragon squishmellow in an arcade game. Toki tells her she can win it for her, easy peasy. 1 hr later, Toki is getting desperate trying to win this dragon, tried bribing the owner to open it up so she could buy it, and even tried sticking her arm up the winning slot. Skwisgaar said she could probably get him in one try and Toki mocked her but let her try anyway. Skwisgaar got it in one try. Skwisgaar teased Toki all the way home about it but Toki got her back by teasing her all night long.

Toki, for all her feral moments, flips 180 when the dethmoms are visiting. Just like how a frat guy tries his best to impress the folks of his girl, Toki does the same, but does it to the whole group of moms. (Her own mom is the only one that genuinely makes her nervous and scared so she includes her in it as well, even though she doesnt wanna be near her.) She becomes the perfecr gentlemen, pulling out chairs, complimenting them, picking up their dishes, holding doors, listening to their stories, always helping them out. The guys and Skwisgaar can't tell if they're annoyed that Toki has become the moms favorite or relieved that shes the moms favorite because that means they wont bug them for stuff. Toki always tries to make a good impression on Ms. Skwigelf, jokingly calling her Mother-In-Law (Shes know of Toki and Skiwsgaar) or Skwisgaar’s younger sister (She has the guy mentality of complimenting older women by calling them younger. It always works.) However, Toki is still a failgirl and an asshole, and her hands are rated E or Everyone. She will throw down with any one of the moms, especially Ms. Skwigelf, for making Skwisgaar uncomfortable or upset. (Just give me protective Toki IM BEGGING YOU)

Toki shits with the door open and Skiwsgaar yells at her in Swedish to shut the damn door. She does not and just flicks her off instead.

If Toki is like a dumb, strong jock kind of Hey Mama's Lesbian, I definitely see her interrupt Skiwsgaar's practice time or recording time just to show off her muscles by doing poses (Think Muscle Man Contest) but when shes in her dumb gym bro mode, she doesn't 100% realize what shes doing is arousing Skwisgaar to the max. She generally wants to show off her gains AND THEN fuck Skiwsgaar's brains out.

ALL OF THIS. A+ GOLD STAR.

i cant formulate good responses to this but just know i. i think my fave trope is toki trying to do somethign to impress skwisgaar and skwisgaar tries desperately to hide just how much it's working. it's so ucteeee because skwisgaar is a hater by default but a lover at heart.

[lawyeryuri]

The heart thing but im not gonna describe how to kill you cause youre a cool mutual however i wanna hear what makes naruto a good anime and also what makes it bad also i wanna hear your favourite headcanons of the guy on your pfp and sakura if you have any

I wanna hear you absolutely infodumps me into oblivion. Obliterate me with your naruto facts, headcanon and whatever in betweens. Take your time to answer this i will be waiting, until that here take this cat with ya ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ

(giggles and kicks my feet) thank you so much for this ask!!! ^_^

ok so what makes Naruto a good anime in my opinion are the characters, their emotions and how they relate to one another. (also it's like really gay) Naruto has a pretty big cast and a ton of filler episodes, so a lot of the time, it's used to get into different character combinations, specifically at the end of the original series, with the 80 episode stretch of filler, (honestly a bit excessive) that's basically just naruto hanging out with the other teams. filler is truly a double-edged blade, because if its not good, it is a SLOG... i didn't skip any episodes until like ep 450, where it breaks from the war (exiting, fun, plot-relevant) to cut to a parallel universe retelling of THE ENTIRE SERIES UP TO THAT POINT. it lasts like 20 episodes, and sasuke's a cop (old, dumb, acab)

another gripe i have with Naruto (the show) is best summarized by that post that's like "i miss when naruto ran around and bit people. now he's just a liberal" cause he kind of stops growing as a person at age 16. "as soon as you question your ideals, it's all over" ok buddy. how about you learn and grow with your experiences. other than that that though love the show, though I do think it's an interesting choice to redeem/offer justification for every single (canon) villain in the whole series.

OK my favorite head cannons for rock lee (pfp guy) and sakura... I think that rock lee speaks without contractions because he wants to give every sentence his all, and not take the easy way out. in a filler episode, rock lee builds a training dojo, and I think that's super in character for him, and I bet tenten helped him fix it up, and she's got a tool closet in there or something. I also hc that bor🤢 boruto Era 🤮 lee is like a taijutsu teacher and works with shino. as for sakura, I think she and Lee spar together all the time so she can improve her speed. I also hc her as an aro lesbian because I can #relate to.. the whole sasuke deal. I also feel like she would take up art, once she takes a break from work.

I actually also have a theory about naruto (the boy) I've never talked about, I actually think naruto can sense chakra signatures. this is because he sensed zabuza during the land of waves arc. it would also make sense that his sensing ability is just enhanced by sage mode instead of pulled out of nowhere. not to mention that the most powerful and precise sensor introduced is an Uzumaki as well. (shout out to my girl Karin) probably the reason it never comes up is because he doesn't know what a sensor is 💛

uh wow that got long. starting this I was worried I didn't know enough about naruto to infodump, for some reason (I've literally been obsessed since February why would I think that) anyways THANK YOU SO MUCH for sending this ask, it literally made my week :D💛💛💛 I know for a fact you are also a very cool mutual (I have no lame mutuals) and have a great week!

[cripplerage]

An update on my journey playing Yakuza for the first time:

0: Finished the story on easy mode. It felt a bit stretched out but mostly satisfying... the ending made me cry a bit. I'm sort of attempting to 100% it, since I'm playing Kiwami with my partner and can't play when he's not around.

I'm at about 70% on the completion list... if I want all the PlayStation trophies, I'd have to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. I probably couldn't do that. Also I'm terrible at pool and batting so I might not finish all of the achievements anyway.

The cat fights piss me off SO MUCH, it looks so stupid and I never win!!!!

Recently I maxed out all of the cabaret club achievements, and I've done about half the mahjong ones. I did not know how to play mahjong at all before this week... now I've spent about 8 hours playing it (with several guides and tutorials open) and I still don't think I know. I'll probably try to learn shogi next.

Kiwami: Wow, what a downgrade in quality! I'm very sad. The story felt like it could have been different but the execution made it feel IDENTICAL to 0, and not in a clever way. It just feels lazy.

Also, at least in 0 Majima spent SOME bonding time with the girl he needed to protect. It made us connect to her more as a character. But in Kiwami it felt like the girl was a prop - extort exposition, transfer her places, and the ONE TIME we could have had bonding time we had to profit from her with gambling instead.

I'm confused as to how the fuck Majima changed so much inbetween games... his character arc just doesn't make sense to me. I could see 'being tortured for an entire year' being an appropriate origin story to acting like the joker, but he seemed fine from that! In my opinion nothing from 0 would explain it. I waited for the story to see what I thought about Nishikiyama's arc and it's a bit more understandable, but I don't think the cutscenes did a good job at showing us that transition. I really liked 0 as a stand alone, but so far it mostly seems very irrelevant to the rest of the games, despite the references.

The only side content that seemed at all worth doing was befriending the hostesses - it was pretty fun befriending the lesbian one especially. It probably wasn't 10/10 representation, but it was fun! I'm not sure if she's from the original game or not, it would be pretty cool if she was. Once we realised the rest of the game kinda sucked though, I gave up on completing the other hostess/es. Our current goal is to finish the story as quickly as possible so we can move onto 2.

So far nearly all the side stories seem to be 'someone tries to scam Kiryuu. Combat ensues.' It's very boring.

Majima is very funny now but sadly, his fights got old very quickly.

We have about 3 chapters left of Kiwami, hopefully we'll finish it tomorrow! Apparently 2 is one of the best ones, so I'm excited.

No spoilers please! I'm going into this series nearly entirely blind :)

[backjustforberena]

Thoughts about Marcus Dunn.

In my opinion, Marcus, for better or for worse, was a “normal” bloke. He wasn’t exceptional, he wasn’t awful. He was good. Good at his job, good with his kids, good at being a husband. Up until his divorce, there was likely a bit of coddling from his mother and we know he had a sister as well. The life of privledge probably came from his side of the family. They lived in Cheltenham when the kids were growing up, and I bet that was swanky (I’ve lived in Cheltenham and if you’re rich, then boyyyy you’ve got some nice houses to pick from). It was safe, secure and utterly without hardship.

All in all, decent guy. Had to be, for Bernie to marry him. And although having a wife in the army wasn’t part of the plan, it likely attracted him as much as being a kind and decent man attracted Bernie to him. They were married for 25 years after all. What interests me is that Marcus thinks he knows everything about Bernie. He’s right, to a point. He knows what it means when she stamps her foot, can tell what issues might cloud her judgement, knows when she’s scared. He could probably set his watch by what it was like when Bernie was on tour and when she back home. There was a routine to it, a “mode” he could slip into, run his time by the fact that he loved his wife, but that she was away.

Bernie was the “bad cop” parent. She alludes to this in the divorce proceedings, saying that Marcus always induldged them when she was on tour. It shows again when Cam is admitted to AAU in his first episode, where she has to ask about the possibility of drugs and we have multiple references of Bernie trying to impart lessons on her kids and teach them the value of things. Ergo, Bernie was the one to impress. Bernie was the one who was emotionally distant (because she was far more used to the role of commanding officer than mum and she’s also a mess). Marcus was easy. Just easy. Bernie was the one away and being a hero, whether she actively sought that label or not.

Marcus Dunn knew his life, knew his wife, knew his kids. He had been unchallenged for all of his life, he was good at his job, garnered sympathy for parenting solo whilst Bernie was away. Humble. Modest. Marcus. 

Then came the divorce. And Marcus doesn’t get it. He doesn’t want it. Has no clue that his wife is a lesbian. Bernie is wrapped up in herself, in what she did with Alex. He finds out. Finds out, and it’s not the affair that breaks him (though that hurts), it’s that Bernie keeps clinging to a moral high ground. Don’t talk about it in the hospital. A hospital he doesn’t even work at. He hates that it wasn’t her that told him. Had wondered about affairs before, never confronted it though. I doubt Marcus confronts much. But when he does, his main issue is that not that she’s gay but that she lied to him and to the kids. She hid it, even after talking through their marriage, after deciding to divorce. (“But I thought... she would tell me, would Bernie. She’d tell me the truth.”) 

Everything that had happened previously, as upending as the seperation was, Marcus could trust in the “world” they’d built together and the life they shared. Then this happens and suddenly all of that, to him, is shattered. He can’t trust anything about it. (“There’s nothing standing here, Bernie, you’ve torn it all down. But then that’s what you love to do. You people. Heroes.”) - That’s the violation. That’s what he recoils again. His world being shattered, and undeciferable.

And honestly? I think that’s exactly what happens when Bernie dies. It’s easy to blame her again. Easy to latch onto the idea of Bernie being a hero and blowing it all apart again. Easy for him to take charge. After all, he probably always imagined it. Imagined holding his two kids in front of Bernie’s coffin after being KIA. Doesn’t matter if they’re divorced. Doesn’t matter that it wasn’t on a proper commision or that they didn’t get a body properly. He can play the war widower. Barring Serena Campbell just meant that he didn’t have the face the truth that he lost Bernie years ago. She spoils it. And I think that Marcus never stopped loving Bernie.

What happens next? Oh, yes, Cameron becomes a serial killer and his ex-wife returns from the dead. Once again, a man who had spent so much of life coasting along has his world shattered and he doesn’t cope very well with it. Again, normal reaction. Human. Not great for a parent, but you can’t paint him as villainous. He’s not the murderer. And he has to cope with it on his own, and protect Charlotte, all the while they are all still grieving Bernie in thier own way.

I think he disowns Cam. Or as good as. I also think, in his head, Cam just has too much of his mother in him. Charlotte was the golden child anyway. It also explains why Bernie is the one fighting for Juliet, rather than there being any kind of united front. Marcus just doesn’t want anything to do with it. He can’t. He’s got no drive, but Bernie does and Bernie does want to be a part of Juliet’s life.

Ultimately, it was a good and decent man who expected perfection in a good and decent life and when life didn’t go to plan and Bernie was at the the centre of all that, he got angry and lashed out. He’s a good dad, but Cameron’s acts were too much for him and he had Charlotte to protect.

[hamliet]

The Girl Who Gets to Have It All: Buffy Summers

So with @linkspooky​‘s encouragement, I have binged Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relived my childhood culture. And, it's a 10/10 for me. Not that it doesn't have flaws, but it's genuinely one of the best stories I've seen, with consistent character arcs, powerful themes, and a beautiful message. It's also like... purportedly about vampires and demons and superpowered chosen ones, but it's actually all about humanity.

Buffy was able to be a teenage girl, allowed to like the things teen girls are scorned for (boys, shopping, etc), to be insecure about the thing teenage girls are insecure about (future careers, dating, school, parents), and to be a superhero with its good and its bad aspects. The story wasn’t afraid to call Buffy on her flaws (sometimes she got in a very ‘I am the righteous chosen one’ mode) and to respect and honor each of her desires (to be a good person, to be loved, and more). The story listened to what she wanted and respected her desires, giving her the challenges needed to overcome her flaws while also never teaching her a lesson about wanting bad boys or romance is silly or any manner of dark warnings stories like to throw at teenage girls. 

It respected teenage girls--nerdy girls like Willow, jocks like Buffy, lonely wallflowers with trauma like Dawn, and popular/snobby ones like Cordelia, girls gone wild like Faith. It never once reduced them to the stereotypes that were lurking right there: each character was fully rounded, human, flawed and yet with respected interests and goals. This is so rare for a story that I’m still in awe. 

The story as a whole follows Buffy from 15 to 21, of her as she grows from teenager to adult. She acts like a teenager and grows to act like a young adult, wrestling with loneliness and duty. The adults, like Giles, Joyce, and Jenny, are not perfect either, but neither are they “bad parents” or “bad mentors” necessarily. Joyce in particular says something terrible to Buffy, but she tries to do better, and it’s rare to see a parent in YA stories shown with such nuance. Basically, it wrote the long-lasting adult characters as human beings, too. 

Speaking of growing up, I appreciated how Buffy’s love interests mirrored this. Angel was someone Buffy loved and admired, wanted to be like, but who was always either extreme good or extreme bad, and combined with Buffy’s own tendencies towards black-white thinking, made for a beautiful relationship to help her grow, but didn’t necessarily form a foundation for a long-term partner. Spike, on the other hand... they both saw each other at their worst and were drawn to each other even then, and were inspired to become better because they couldn’t bear to be a person who treated the other person so wrongly. They pushed each other to become the best them they could be, and believed in each other. Also, Spuffy is an enemies to lovers ship for the ages. 

(Also, most of the other ships were well-done or at least can be understood. Riley was very obviously wrong for Buffy which paralleled Harmony and Spike in being 100% wrong for each other. Cordelia and Xander were a fun ship even if we all knew it would never last, and Willow and Oz were beautiful and cute. But Xander and Anya and Willow and Tara? OTPs. As were Giles and Jenny, the librarian and the computer teacher.) 

That said, it’s not a perfect series. No story is. All of the characters and ships had problematic aspects to them worthy of critique, and the writing is very 90s in a lot of ways. It’s a product of its time, and in many ways it’s good society has progressed beyond some of the tropes/metaphors used in the show. In other way, though, the show was ahead of its time, and in a good way it wasn’t bound by the fear of purity policing with its takes on redemption (many characters would never fly today). 

So, in order of seasons ranked from my very favorite to my “still enjoyed it very much” (no season was actually bad, imo), here’s my review. I’ll also review my top 10 villains in the show, because Buffy does villains very well in terms of the redeemable and irredeemable.  

Season 7:  Yep, the final season was my favorite. 

Overall Opinion: Buffy's finale is literally "f*ck them men, our power is ours" and while it seems cheesy it actually works (also, f*ck in both a literal and figurative sense). The series strongly hit all the themes: love as strength, and redemption. Buffy consistently shows love as her strength--*all* kinds of love. Friendship w Willow/Xander, familial with Joyce/Dawn, romantic with Spike/Angel. These types of love are also never pitted against each other as is so often the case in current-day media. It's beautiful. Also, Spike’s confrontation with Wood was so powerful in terms of exploring forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation: where they overlap and where they don't, and what it means to move forward. 

Unpopular Opinion: I have seen a lot didn’t like the inclusion of Potential Slayers, and while I agree they could have been better incorporated/characterized, it was a great way to show Buffy’s final stage of growing up to be ending her chosen one status and projecting/multiplying her powers over the world. 

Biggest Critique: Kennedy was female Riley--the anti-Tara to Riley’s anti-Angel (by ‘anti’ I mean opposite in every way). Kennedy was annoying and immature. Her role, like Riley’s, was less about exploring her as a character and more about her just being stamped as “love interest: lesbian.” 

Favorite Episodes: Beneath You, Lies My Parents Told Me, Touched, Chosen

Season 6: 

Overall Opinion: I said this on Twitter, but I felt like this was Buffy’s The Last Jedi or Empire Strikes Back moment. It is polarizing and dark, deconstructing the tropes it stands on--but by digging to the core of these tropes, it actually makes what’s good about them shine brighter. Everyone’s enemy was the worst versions of themselves. Giles left Buffy, Willow's struggle to relate to the world led to her trying to destroy it, Buffy hurt everyone through her anger, Xander abandoned Anya at the altar, Spike... yeah. It ages well as an integral part of the story, and the Trio were eerily prophetic. 

Unpopular Opinion: Dawn is a great character with a good arc. A traumatized teen acting out and struggling to come to terms with loss and identity? She wasn’t whiny; she was realistic. 

Biggest Critique: Willow’s addiction coding (I’ll discuss this below) and Seeing Red as an episode. I see the argument for both of its controversial scenes from a narrative perspective: Willow starts the season not grieving Buffy but instead being determined to fix it with magic and needs to learn to grieve, but. Still. Bury your gays is not a good look. For the Spike scene... he conflates sex/passion and violence (”love is blood, children” is something he said way back in season 3), but like Tara’s death, it had more to do with Spike (as Tara’s death did for Willow) than with Buffy’s arc, and as for the actual execution... they really botched that. Did it like... have to go on that long or go that far? No. Also, the framing was good, but inconsistent with the rest of the series (Xander to Buffy in the hyena episode, Faith to Xander and to Riley, etc.) 

Favorite Episodes: Once More With Feeling, Smashed, Grave

Season 3 (tied with Season 5):

Overall Opinion: The opening continuity of Buffy meeting Lily/Anne after saving her life in Season 2 was sweet. The Witchhunt episode had really powerful subtext: stories of deaths that aren’t even true are actually demons that possess the town and convince them to turn against their children in the name of protecting the children. It’s a good commentary on, oh, everything in society. Faith’s character arc was fantastic, and her chemistry with Buffy was off the charts (look, I may be Spuffy all the way, but Fuffy has rights). The finale was satisfying in so many ways, seeing the entire graduating class unite to destroy the Mayor and the school with it, symbolizing Buffy et al’s readiness to move on to college. Oz's relationship with Willow was very sweet and meaningful for a first romance for Willow. 

Unpopular Opinion: I actually don’t really have one. Maybe that the miracle in Amends was earned? I think you can make a decent case that Season 3 is the best written of the seasons, but can only truly be thematically appreciated to its full potential in the light of subsequent seasons (which finish Faith’s arc and deconstruct Buffy’s).  

Biggest Critique: It forgot Buffy killed the hyena guy in Season 1, making her continual insistence that she can’t kill people very ????? 

Favorite Episodes: Lovers Walk, Amends, Graduation Day Part 2 

Season 5, which ties with Season 3:

Overall Opinion: The entire season is about family and what it means, from Tara’s to Buffy’s to the Scoobies. I loved Glory aka Enoshima Junko as the Big Bad, I loved Dawn’s interesting meta commentary on retconning (like, the fact that she’s retconned in matters), and most of my ships are still alive. Joyce’s relationship with Spike is one of the most heartwarming aspects, and Spike’s arc’s desire is clearly highlighted: he wants to be seen as a person. The episodes after Joyce’s death are the most honest portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen, and absolutely brutal to watch. 

Unpopular Opinion: Buffy’s choice at the end seems a deliberate inversion of her choice at the end of Season 2 (sacrifice a loved one to save the world), but it actually isn’t: much like at the end of Season 2 where Buffy skips town because she’s devastated after killing Angel and doesn’t want to sort out being expelled, her mom knowing she’s the slayer, and her own trauma, Buffy’s sacrifice here was as much about her wanting the easy way out of relationships, family, college, etc. as it was about saving Dawn. Buffy’s death is coded as a suicide, which Season 6 emphasizes as well. 

Biggest Critique: Like Season 3, I don’t have a lot to critique here. I wish the suicidal coding had been a little more obvious in Season 5 itself, but also I’m not sure it could have been more obvious; it’s pretty apparent if you pay attention. Maybe also that Buffy and Riley’s relationship failing should have been more squarely blamed on Riley, you know, being insecure and cheating. 

Favorite Episodes: Family, Fool for Love, Intervention. 

Season 2:

Overall Opinion: Heartbreakingly tragic but exciting and revealing at the same time. It asked the viewer interesting questions about redemption and forgiveness and atonement through Angel being honest about his past, and then decided to show us his past now reenacted, challenging us. And still, we saw them save him in a parallel to saving Willow in Season 6 (but Season 2 was tragic because it wasn’t enough, while Season 6 was not). Jenny’s death was agonizing, and the scene were Angel watches Buffy, Willow, and Joyce get the news through the window was powerful. We didn’t have to hear them to get the grief. 

Unpopular Opinion: Jenny’s death isn’t a fridging; it works for her arc too when you consider her history. She worked to save the person whose life she was tasked to ruin, and it cost her her own--yet she still succeeded, because Jenny brought joy and wisdom to the show. Kendra’s death, on the other hand... was because they needed the stakes to be high--but we already knew that before she died. So, her death was useless. 

Biggest Critique: The subtext was Not It. It was essentially “do not have sex. Your older boyfriend will lose his soul, kill your friends, you’ll lose your family, your school, your home, and have to kill your true love or else hell will literally swallow earth.” 

Favorite Episodes: School Hard, Passion, Becoming Part 2.

Season 1:

Overall Opinion: I really liked it; it’s just lower on this list because the others are just better. It’s a great introduction to the series and to its characters, from Giles to Buffy to Willow to Jenny to Cordelia. It has great subtext a lot of the time (for example, Natalie French as She-Mantis is a literal predatory bug who engages in predatory behavior with students). Additionally, it subverts the typical YA trope of two guys and a girl, in which the girl is usually the least interesting character. Buffy and Willow were both fully fledged characters from the beginning with distinct strengths (even before Willow became a witch, as she wasn’t one in season 1 yet), while Xander was the more ordinary of the group. 

Unpopular Opinion/Biggest Critique: Xander’s arc showed its first flaws that unfortunately continued throughout the series: his writing was either very good or very indulgent in ways it never was for other characters.  (cough, the hyena episode, cough, in which he gets to skirt responsibility--and acknowledges that he is skirting it--for something the show will later hold others to account for). Xander’s just kind of inconsistent, which weakened his character over all. (Which is why both his love interests--Cordelia and then ultimately Anya--were good for him: they did not indulge him.) 

Favorite Episode: Witch, Nightmares. 

Season 4:

Overall Opinion: it’s still a good season. It’s a good portrayal of college and the growing pains of branching out, the strains of college growth on relationships (romantic and platonic). It shows us the first hints of Spuffy, giving us some serious Jungian symbolism between Spike and Buffy early on, and does well in establishing Xander/Anya and Willow/Tara as beautiful OTPs. Faith and Buffy’s foiling is fantastic. The Halloween episode was very fun as well. However, it suffers because its Big Bad, Adam, is not all that compelling thematically--yet, he could have been. See, the final battle pulls off the Power of Friendship in a really strong way but notably the season does not end there. Instead, it ends on dreams of each character’s worst fears, continuing what we saw in Nightmares in Season 1. Why? Because it shows us that the characters’ wars aren’t against monsters, but monsters of their own making: their flaws. Adam, as a literal Frankenstein, exemplifies this, but it wasn’t capitalized on as well as it could have been. 

Unpopular Opinion: Beer Bad isn’t a bad episode, at the very least because Buffy gets to punch Parker. It’s not one of the series’ best, obviously, but it does give Buffy an arc in that she gets her daydream of Parker begging her to come back, but she has overcome that desire and her desire for revenge. If we wanna talk about bad subtext in Season 4, Season 2′s Not It sex subtext continues in the Where the Wild Things Are episode in this season; it’s a powerful callout of abusive purity-culture churches, until the fact that the shame creates a literal curse undermines the progressive message it’s supposed to send. Also, the Thanksgiving episode (Pangs) is a nightmare of white guilt and Oh God Shut Up White People. 

Biggest Critique: Riley is awful. Like Kennedy, he had “love interest:normal” stamped on him and that was it. The thing is, he could have worked as an Angel foil, representative of the normal-life aspect of Buffy to Angel’s vampire/supernatural aspect, but the writers never explore this and seemed to even try to back away from that later on. They threw all the romantic cliches at the wall to see what sticks, from klutzy “I dropped my schoolbooks, that’s how we met” to cliché lines that had me rolling my eyes. Do you know how bad a romance has to be to make me dislike romantic tropes? 

Favorite Episodes: Fear Itself, Hush, Restless

Villain rankings: 

Dark Willow, the only villain to be truly sympathetic. While the addiction coding was insensitive and, while unsurprising for its time, aged extremely poorly. That said, Willow’s turn to the dark side after Tara’s death worked well for her character and the story: it was believable and paid off what had been building since Season 1's “Nightmares” episode (Willow’s inferiority complex). 

Glory managed to be genuinely terrifying, and humorous/enjoyable too. Her minions and their numerous nicknames for Glorificus were hilarious, as was her intense vanity. Her merging with Ben--a human being who genuinely wanted to be kind and good--added complexity and tragedy to her role. 

The First. A really good take on Satan. The seventh season as well as the First’s first appearance in season 3′s “Amends” had kind of blatant Christian symbolism, and so the First being essentially Satan works. Their disguising themselves as dead loved ones and the subtle manipulation they used to alienate people was really disturbing and well done. 

The Mayor, who was a terrible person but a truly good father. He provided an interesting contrast to the normal ‘bad dad’ bad guy character, in that he provided Faith exactly what the other characters refused to: he saw the best in her and offered her parental support, while the heroes didn’t and wound up pushing her away. 

The Trio, who were villains ahead of their time: whiny fanboy reddit dudebros, basically. The stakes seemed so much lower than fighting Glory, a literal god, the previous season. But that’s why they worked so well for Season 6′s human themes, and were especially disturbing because we all know people like them. I also appreciated the surprisingly sensitive takes on Jonathan and Andrew, who got to redeem themselves, but Warren did not, and I don’t think he should have either. 

Angelus + Drusilla. I’m ranking them below the Trio because Angelus was just sooooo different from Angel that it was difficult for me to feel the same way for him. He was still Angel, so it wasn’t possible to enjoy his villainy, but he also wasn’t nearly as sympathetic as Dark Willow, had no redeeming qualities like the Mayor, and wasn’t as disturbingly realistic as the Trio. However, the emotional stakes were excellently executed with him as the Big Bad, in that you were never quite sure how to feel and it just plain hurt. Also, Drusilla was a favorite recurring character. She was sympathetic and yet batsh*t enough to be enjoyable as a villain at the same time. 

The Master, who was just completely camp and really worked as an introductory villain. He was scary enough to believe he was a threat, and was funny enough to introduce the series’ humor as well. He was, like Glory, an enjoyable Big Bad. 

The Gentlemen, the one-off villains of Season 4′s Hush who were genuinely terrifying. It’s not as if they got a lot of explanation or any backstory, but they didn’t need it. 

Caleb, the misogynist priest. Fitting with the First’s Christian symbolism, Caleb serving as a spokesperson of all bad religious beliefs felt appropriate. He was also a good foil to Warren--being actually supernaturally powered instead of a wannabe--and to Tara’s family in being full-out evil. I despised him. 

Snyder. Okay Snyder is not a Big Bad like Adam is, but let’s face it: Adam is lame compared to the other villains. But Snyder as a principal? He was so irritating and yet really well used in the series to critique overly strict, hypocritical teachers. Like, we all know teachers like him. I loved to hate him, and his ending was so satisfying. 

[surveillance-0011]

TBOI Headcanons: Horsemen

Death

He/him

He’s...nice. Not a good person by any means but he’s the most polite of the bunch. Kind of strange though. Creepily calm, a bit sarcastic, and he has a pretty morbid view on the world.

Reserved and usually grumpy. He can be rather chipper off-duty, though. Putting up with the others takes a lot of energy from him.

Tired....

A bit neurotic but good at coming off as a down-to-earth guy.

He’s the most book-smart of the bunch and he’s fairly wise. A bit emotionally stunted, but he tries his best to be mature and make the right choices.

Death is more than a bit nihilistic and pessimistic. He has a hard time just... caring, mostly about himself.

Not to say he’s completely apathetic, he can be pretty empathetic but he tries not to act on that too much because if he did his job would have broken him by now.

He likes to think he’s got it all under control, but he does not. He’s more prone to pettiness and stupid decisions than he’d like to admit.

That being said he’s been pretty good with like. Growing and maturing though. He’s changed more than he realizes in just in the past.... decade or so ago. A bit of a late start for an immortal but hey at least he’s slightly less of a scumbag.

It’s usually not easy to anger him unless he’s really tired or something’s already set him off. When something does piss him off badly he’s a bit prone to freaking out. He’s not very good at handling his emotions. 

Sees his own job as a necessary evil, because hey, someone’s gotta do it.

Interested in botany/gardening, as well as literature.

Genuinely nice- or at least polite- to the kids when he’s not supposed to be murdering them. He sees no reason to go out of his way to do so, especially since unwarranted cruelty towards others has only bit him in the ass.

Famine’s older brother. The two have always had each other’s backs.

Diligent, and always considers the logistics to things instead of acting on emotion alone.

Protective of the other horsemen.

Pretty short tbh

His horse’s name is Chili.

Famine

She/he (bigender). You can use both interchangeably or only use one set, she doesn’t care. Fine with they/them too but it’s never really clicked w/ him enough to be preferred.

Usually prefers more masculine terms (brother, sir, mr...) but fine with anything.

.Flips between bouncing off the walls and having no energy whatsoever.

Impulsive, she’s got terrible judgement and has the most idiotic of ideas sometimes.

Fairly easygoing, tries to forgive and forget and doesn’t let little transgressions get to her

Actually pretty damn sad. Needs some self care but never looks after herself.

I mean she’s optimistic and usually happy but like. There’s always just a bit of sadness, you know? He’s dealt with a lot and it’s definitely taken its toll on him.

Disaster Lesbian

Tries to be a graceful loser but she can get a bit more competitive than she’d like to admit.

Has a hard time relating to others and considering how they feel, at least when it comes to anything more complex than “bad thing happened now I’m sad/mad” He’s a drifter by nature, always onto the next big thing for a quick thrill.

Eats a lot. It’s never enough.

Plants and a good deal of food will decay if she touches them, or even gets too close to them.

Like his brother he has some interest in nature. Famine is more on the adventurous side, though. She’s tried to live off the land a few times with varying success.

Named her horse Frisk

Pestilence

He/him

Calm, quiet, but also a pessimistic jackass.

Always in a bad mood. I mean, he’s permanently sick with just about everything contagious and deadly. You’d be grumpy, too!

Surprisingly high pain tolerance. A good deal of his nerves have probably just.. shut down or something. Or maybe he’s just numb to everything after a lifetime of pain.

Sleeps a lot

Dislikes his situation a lot, but doesn’t mind the company of the others.

Lazarus is terrified of this dude. The other kids are mostly grossed out or annoyed by him.

Likes to be alone.

Fairly smart, but comes off as absent minded bc he’s pretty much too sick to function. He slips up a lot and he’s pretty damn clumsy

Probably the most rational of the bunch, when he’s not in airplane mode. 

He’s also got a fairly strong moral compass. He doesn’t really like fighting the kids unlike War and Famine. Or just having to go up against people in general. Hell he hates the fact people get sick because of him. At the very least Pest has higher standards and is fairly transparent

But that isn’t to say he’s a good person. Yeah he doesn’t go out of his way to hurt others for shits and giggles and He’s Not Conquest but he doesn’t ever object to any of the shit the kids are put through and well. Yknow he still does kill them. He will also encourage some of War’s antics when it’s against someone he dislikes.

Tries to be as supportive as he can for the others. He knows he can’t do too much without overexerting so he tries to be encouraging and comforting as he can.

This compassion usually isn’t extended to humans, though.

Not very emotive, the only emotions he ever really expresses would be disdain and mild concern.

Not very fond of Conquest but they don’t hate each other. They actually work together well, too.

Friends with Mahalath. They’re pretty close!

His horse’s name is Moses.

War

He/it

He’s not very friendly, he’s pretty defensive and always on edge.

Out of all the horsemen, he’s probably the one closest with the Beast.

Lots of scars n injuries, it’s practically stitched together

One gold tooth

Impulsive, prefers solving issues through violence than through reason.

He can be fairly clever, though.

Intentionally angers/upsets others, likes causing problems and ruining things for people.

Desires wealth and power

Gets burnt out pretty quickly.

Emotional, insecure, and sensitive, and he hates this part of him. Definitely overcompensates for it.

Explosive temper, quite literally. Catches fire when upset and explodes if it’s more intense. Damage done to him also makes it happen. It’s not entirely voluntary but can be held off, and his “sobbing” sprite is him doing exactly that (but he’s probably also trying not to cry lmao). In the Ultra War fight, however...

Its daily routine leaves a lot to be desired. It wakes up, goes to work, then it goes home and just. Sits and rots.

Also, his diet is god awful. Please just eat a fruit or vegetable for once maybe you’d feel better goddamn.

He cannot remember if his horse is actually a horse or not but uhh he named her Bellum.

Conquest

He/they.

High and mighty sort of attitude. Can be very selfish. Stubborn, set in his ways. Gets defensive if you call him out or tell him he’s wrong.

Gay + nonbinary but in the closet (and denial) about both of those things. They’re trying to unlearn years’ worth of internalized bigotry.

Used to be worse, now trying to unlearn his toxic behaviors. But he’s still awful.

Doesn’t remember anything before their death. However they’ve held very strong Christian (specifically Catholic) beliefs all their life and they have a pretty black and white way of thinking.

Very cold and clinical. He has a bit of a temper but there’s a sort of calmness to everything he does even when he’s pissed.

Just as argumentative and aggressive as War but like more of a threat.

The others call him Connie sometimes, especially Death, who practically almost always calls him by this nickname.

Doesn’t harbor ill will towards Pestilence. They might have been overshadowed, but it’s not Pestilence’s own fault. If anything, being out of the spotlight has been good for Conquest, even if they do miss the attention sometimes. The only reason the two dislike each other is because their personalities clash.

Now if there’s anyone he hates that would be the Headless Horseman. Fuck that guy amiright

Very protective of Death. The two are close, Death is probably the only person who is consistently nice to him.

Utterly terrified of needles (hypodermic, not sewing needles, though he’s not good with sharp objects tbh) and medical stuff makes him anxious

Seems very... off. Just weird vibes but no one can pin point what about him is wrong.

Oh uh and his horse’s name is Josephine.

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 E8 Lock & Key

5 Things I loved/ 3 Things to Consider

I loved this:

1. THE KEY PARTY was excellent and ultra high stratospheric camp, that you can only appreciate if you really know the show.  Achieving this tone- ‘this isn’t how things are but wouldn’t it be so amusing if it was?’ -  is very difficult,  and I felt rewarded for the close attention I’ve paid to the show.   Further, at this sex party they have a heavily pregnant lady, and the only person who is in any way apprehensive that he might get paired with her is Reggie - everyone else is like, It’s fine.  And also? The majority of the invitees have ALREADY had sex with each other, and almost all of them are also currently cohabitants and/or coworkers and/or doing joint projects, in various states of married, long-term relationship, casual hookup and courting.  Just, absolute catnip I tell you!  

Sidebar: Again CHADWICK FUCKING GECKO being SANE, and objecting to Veronica drawing Archie’s key with - NOT WITH YOUR EX.   I mean, why does this always happen to me??? Why am I *Chad*?

2.  I loved Betty in this episode. Just fell in love with her like I am flippin’ Jughead.  

 #1:  Betty  is so very sexy.  Wow I was so not ready.  Her in the FBI T shirt & him in fire fighter gear! Yeah it’s good looking people in actual Halloween costumes, but what makes it work is Betty's reaction -  electrified, then amused and looking forward to a good time.  Love this for grown Betty.

 #2:  Betty is so very wounded and vulnerable, and by her estimation lovers / boyfriends will never stand by her, but friends will. I love me a character in romantic anguish.  

And related, #3, and yes, this may be wishful thinking, but there are hints that Betty actually feels the impact of what she did to Jughead and Veronica in her Senior year.  Why else would Betty think that engaging in an actual adult romantic relationship with Archie for real will cause the light to go out and the haven bubble to collapse?   Oh Betty.   She’s so accepting about Archie abandoning her immediately after she told him she wasn’t mentally/emotionally well because she feels both ruined and like a ruinous force.

Finally #4, the kindness and care Betty shows to her mother, who does not deserve it, made me respect her a lot.

Sidebar to give Archie Andrews a Demerit:  Betty has a single emotion in front of Archie (waking up from a trauma nightmare) and Archie (who woke up from a trauma nightmare first thing after the time jump) is just unwilling or unable to provide the necessary commitment. He in fact decides RIGHT THEN that Betty needing extra support (of the kind he needs, in fact) means Veronica is the answer. (Archie, please redeem yourself. Tell me what’s happening with you soon).

3. The only reason the high camp works though is because there’s a grounding in reality, with believable human emotions providing a solid foundation, and boy this episode really delivered!  

The  shaky breath Jughead lets out after he says Billy (character in the novel he’s teaching) might be crazy right after he sees MOTHMAN.  Love this detail.  The shame and pain Jughead goes through, writhing with his whole little face, while confessing that he’d been a reckless drug user and drinker to Tabitha, who sweetly feels some of that pain with him, was heartrending.  

The ‘you are a jackass’ face that Archie makes at Chad while also SMILING (because that is how he looks handsomest)  in reaction to Chad dude-bro-ing him with ‘females’ and ‘podunk town,’ without even bothering to reply to his dickhead question, is wonderful. 

And most heartbreaking -  Fangs’ laughter that presages a dawning realization that Kevin really intends to implode (his words) their whole life and his gentle tone in trying to figure out what the hell his boyfriend is doing was very upsetting and wonderful.  Apparently, over the past 8 years,  Fangs has been trying to give Kevin everything he wanted - monogamy, non monogamy, the baby, the marriage - only to have it go up in smoke.

4.  Now that the characters are older, they can meet a wider array of adults and I really appreciate this - the expansion of the world of the show.  Who knows if she appears again, but I very much liked this anthropology professor who has segued into creating a support group for the disturbed people she meets while she pursues her very esoteric interest in alien encounters.  Minerva the campy lesbian art collector who wants an Original Cheryl Blossom and Rick the gay trucker who is like, the most sexually easy going man in the history of humanity are really fun additions too.

5.  And this last one is going to sound mean spirited but I love what is happening to Alice Cooper.  She was so horrendous and monstrous to both her daughters -  I mean between Betty and Polly it’s really hard to tell who had it harder from Alice - and she is having to atone for the damage she did to her smart, resilient girls by the peril that Polly is now in.  Polly, despite being born in Riverdale, could’ve been another Betty in terms of accomplishment -  academic and career - but Alice just bashed her head in, basically, and now look where we are.  So, suffer for your sins, Alice Cooper.

3 Things to Think About

a) Toni has “a medical condition that makes it harder for her to get pregnant the older she gets.”  This is called BEING A HOMO SAPIEN.  I was so amused by this that I actually looked up the production notes and this episode was written by a woman (!) and directed by another woman (!!) and the scene is acted out by two women (!!!) one of whom was actually pregnant at the time in real life (!!!!) so now I’m like, Wait, is Cheryl…an immortal?  Is Cheryl somehow not 100% homo-sapien and that’s why Toni says this?

b) I gathered yet more evidence that Archie is a Riverdale-HS-Sexual.  Archie is in the teacher lounge at Riverdale High  talking remodelling plans with Veronica, who says she needs big changes, and he immediately switches into Let’s Fuck mode.   When Jughead innocently asks what the blueprints are for, Archie TOTALLY acts  like he got cockblocked.

c) The long pointy-nailed manicures on the lesbian couple’s fingers REALLY bother me.  More than 20-something almost-perfect-SAT scorers Cheryl and Toni not understanding that human fertility wanes with age.  I will just say that.

[faustonastring]

Ammm ... hi :"3 . Sorry about that But can you make headcanons ;^; ? the main 6 getting worrying about MC when They disappeared for day's ? But in the end they back but with so many Wounds and injuries ? (Someone kidnapped and tortured them .-. ) . . Please ? :-:

Ahahahaha, I’m really tired but I’ve been waiting so long to write this one, so don’t worry, I’m gonna make sure it hurts

(Thanks for requesting btw, I appreciate it!)

Request are open!

Main six when Mc goes missing.

Asra

To be real with all of you, he could probably track you with his magick, your hearts are intertwined after all. But that’s too easy. So I’m gonna make him suffer for a couple days before he can do that. So let’s say...your kidnapper kidnaps you and throws you in a basement, where the stone walls cancel out your magick so Asra can’t find you. Yet.

The whole entire time he’s looking for you, he’s panicked. He’s having break down after break down, what did he do wrong, where are you, why can’t he track you, are you alive, are you dead, oh god please no he can’t lose you again, he’s made it too far to loose you again

He’s sobbing so hard he makes him self vomit. He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, him and Muriel, are looking night and day for you, he even gets Nadia to send out things like a search party, and a reward to whoever can bring you back alive, but that doesn’t calm asras nerves. Faust is also panicked, she isn’t sure what’s going on, but she knows it’s something bad. She’s actually the one who finds you.

One day while looking for you, faust slithered off and some how squeezed her way to the basement you were in, she didn’t want to leave your side when she saw how hurt you were, but she left anyway, to go get asra, and when him and Julian are done beating the living shit out of who ever did this too you. The sight of you has him vomiting and crying all over again. Sure he’s happy, but he’s hurting. He can’t take to look at you like that.

He isn’t okay for a while, until your fully recovered. For the mean time he lays with you and holds you as tight as he can without further damaging your injuries, but for the most part, Muriel and Julian take turns taking care of you, asra wants to help, he really does, he just can’t bring him self to nurse you back to health. Not again.

Nadia

You’re the countesses spouse. Of course your going to get kidnapped, have you not seen the movies? Though it is a little hard with the palace guards well-guarding you. But one night alone in south end can really make a difference. And when Nadia finds out? She’s never been this angry in her life. And she married lucio, so that’s saying something.

The search is on, an award for who ever brings you back to her alive. She. Is. Angry. She’s shouting orders at everyone in sight, she does apologize for her behavior once your safe and fully healed, and almost everyone understands where she is coming from, but now? Now? She’s on a mission.

She cries her self to sleep every night, she misses you. She wants you back. She’ll never cry in public though. The only time she cries with some one is when she’s crying with asra. And just to make the clear, no matter who your LI is, Asra is sad, and quite possibly mad, with or at you LI, sorry dude, you can’t get rid of him he’s here to stay. Nadia doesn’t mind though, she finds his company calming during this time, or anytime for that matter.

When she finally finds you she is relived. As soon as the palace guards bring you to her, she’s full on sobbing, clutching on to you like she’ll never get the chance too again. She misses you so much. This is also the only time her most trusted staff see her cry. And when the water works are done, she runs you a nice bath and orders for the doctors to take care of you immediately.

She has the professionals take care of your wounds, and injuries, and the person who hurt you doesn’t even get a trial. They are executed on the spot. She’s ashamed she let herself come to this but she had no choice. they hurt you. Even after you’re healed she has a hard time leaving your side, but when she does, you’re guarded twenty-four-seven.

Julian

Julian works around the clock, coming home late- or I should say early in the morning, he just assumes you got tired of his shit and left. Quite simple honestly, but when asra comes banging on his door, telling him he hasn’t seen you in days, Julian freezes.

You thought he was drowning himself in salty bitters before? Ohoho watch him chug down three salty bitters. At the same time. He’s sad okay. He’s crying in the bar every night, drowning himself in drinks, and when he’s not, he’s out looking for you, he doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat proper meals, and when Portia and mazelinka make him, he can never keep them down.

Asra has never been so pissed (that is until Lucios headcanon ahaha) he trusted him. He trusted him to take care of you. To love you like he did. Like he does. Like he wanted too. And now look at him. Drowning himself in drinks at a scummy pub. Pathetic. He yells at Julian almost every night, causing about three bar fights to break out. And speaking of bar fights- everyone in south end is looking for you.

Some one in south end is the one to actually find you (the leech lesbian from julians route, but that’s not her name just what I call her) and he doesn’t believe it, and he doesn’t want to go see you. He doesn’t want to be disappointed if it’s not really you, he doesn’t want to you to see him like this, he doesn’t want you too see him at all actually. Look at him, the man that caused you too get kidnapped. He blames him self for everything.

Asra, Nadia, Mazelinka, and Portia, all take turns slapping some sense into him, and get him to visit you, and when he finally does. He’s sobbing. It’s you it’s you it’s really really you. You’re okay, you’re okay, well you’re hurt- but don’t worry he’s gonna take care of you, he won’t let anything like that happen to you ever again. He promises. Cross his heart hope to die, stick a needle in his eye. His good eye.

Portia

She’s been working all day, she’s excited to finally see you, to finally be able to hold you and hug you and kiss you, but-you’re not there? She goes around asking where you’ve been, and then it hits her like a rock to the face. You’ve been kidnapped.

She’s looking everywhere for you, asking everyone she knows if they’ve seen you. She doesn’t want to ask for their help, she’s fine she doesn’t need their help. But everyone she asks promises to help anyway, they promise her it will be okay, that you’re alive and well. And she thinks is she tells her self that over and over, maybe she’ll believe it. Maybe.

Nadia gets involved as soon as she hears, and of course she tells asra. He’s at portias side almost immediately, coaching her through this, he wants to cry too, but he needs to be strong, for her. For you. The both of them need to be strong for you. And lucky for you Portias really strong.

When she finally finds you, she holds you in a bone crushing hug, which is no bueno if you’re bones are already crushed...or broken....but hey! You can’t break what’s already broken Amiright? But as soon as she lets go Julian is at you’re side looking you over, while Portia asks him and you, a million and one questions, asra ends up escorting her out of the room so Julian can focus.

She takes care of you until you’re back on you’re feet. Anything you need let her know, she’s got it. She isn’t head servant for nothing y’know. Asra, Nadia, Julian,and mazelinka all come and visit you religiously, you even run into some one asking if you’re alright shortly after you recover....but you can’t quite remember his name....but as soon as Portia sees him she goes into flight or fight mode and is ready to whoop his ass. Even if he’s three feet taller than her.

Muriel

I just want to make it very clear that Muriel cares about you no matter who you LI is. The new prologue makes that very crystal clear. He’s just not good at showing it, but now it’s his turn, and he feels like he can’t breathe, and he won’t stop shaking. And asra having a panick attack next to him isn’t helping his cause at all.

He’s having panick attacks left and right. How could this even happen? The two of you live in the middle of nowhere with a pet wolf, not to mention Muriel is 6’10. Why would anyone in there right mine mess with you? Why would any one in there right mind take you away from him? You were the first good thing that ever came into his life, and now you’re gone.

Normally he would say it was a lost cause. You’re gone. But no. Not this time. He has hope. Not a lot of it. But some. He’s not going to rest until you’re back In his arms, alive dead, he doesn’t care at this point, he just wants you back, there’s so much he wanted to tell you, so many times the words never came,and if he found you and you were dead? He would hold your corpse shaking, sobbing, telling you everything he never got the chance too. Telling you how much he loves, you and how sorry he is.

When him and asra find your kidnapper, he beats them to a pulp, now a lot of you are mad at me for saying that cause-y’know, and you’re right, Muriel doesn’t condone violence, but you’re hurt. They hurt you. So he hurt them. Muriel doesn’t condone violence until you come into the picture, then-depending on the situation, it’s a consideration.

He never wants to let you go. He holds you and kisses you’re head, you’re face, arms, chest, brusises, where ever he can, just to convince himself you’re okay. You’re safe. You’re here with him. He never forgives himself for what happened to you, but he promises to make it up too you. He’s gonna keep you safe don’t worry. You’ll be safe here in his arms for now.

Lucio

I love like to make fun of lucio in my headcanons, saying that he is oblivious, and writing him as accurately as possible while still throwing in a couple punches to his ego, but without a doubt, lucio cares about you. He loves you. He pays attention to you and you’re feelings. And the second you’re not in the gardens for your monthly picnic he panicks. You’re never late. (Even if you are he’s usually fashionablely late, so you get there before him nonetheless)

He immediately orders for a search party, he doesn’t care if you just ‘didn’t show up’ that’s not like you, he knows you better, you would atleast leave a note or something. He can feel it at the bottom of his gut, something happened to you. And no one is taking him seriously.

After you’ve been missing for a day, people start to listen, and asra is pissed. Smoke is coming out of his ears, and he gets even more pissed when lucio asks him how he did that. Asra has never yelled more in his life, and by the time he’s finally done, he’s voice is almost completely gone. Lucio knows he messed up. He’s sorry. He misses you, he just wants you back.

When they do find you asra pushes lucio out of the way and is the first one to hold you, he tells you it’s too dangerous here, and you should come back to the shop with him. Lucio is shell shocked to say the least. He stands there, tears running down his cheeks, but in the end he just wants what’s best for you. It’s up to you wether you choose to stay or leave with asra. >:)

If you do choose to stay, asra isn’t going to pull you’re leg about it, but lucio is over joyed. As soon as you get too bed he’s kissing you and holding you and telling you how much he misses you as he sobs into you. He’s so glad you choose to stay. But if you don’t? He goes back to his old ways, he doesn’t want revenge on you or asra, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the coliseum opens back up...

Thanks for reading! (I teared up a little while writing muriels, ahaha) I hope you liked it! (And if you liked what you read you can find my master list here!)

Next headcanon: Main six with an Mc that cries when they’re frustrated

Request are open!

[slarpg]

Melody Amaranth is a kindhearted but meek transgender fox from the small town of Greenridge. Recently, she made two important realizations about herself. One: she's deeply in love with her adventurous best friend, Allison Goleta. (The feeling was mutual.) And two: if Allison has her heart set on becoming an adventurer, then maybe Melody could join her. As a healer.

It all seemed perfect.

And then things got weird.

The Super Lesbian Animal RPG demo update is out now!

Version 2.0 covers the same portion of the game as the original demo (roughly an hour of the game, letting you explore Greenridge and fight your way through the first dungeon) but now features enhanced music, improved battle UI based on player feedback, some art tweaks, brand new sound effects and jingles, a smattering of balance changes, and most importantly, a new major NPC to meet: Allison’s coworker Paula the polar bear!

Of course, if you're sitting out the demo and/or this update in favor of waiting for the full game, we're still hard at work on that! We've made a lot of progress, and we think SLARPG is really shaping up to be something special

Full changelog below the break:

NEW CONTENT

New NPC - Paula!

Can be talked to on the Hiking Trail after Allison joins the party. You literally can't miss her. If you've already played the demo and just want to make a beeline for the one new scene, that's it

Brief new bit of dialogue added when you inspect the scenic view at the top of the Hiking Trail with Allison in the party

SOUND

Sound effect overhaul! Many sounds were holdovers from SLARPG's 2013 predecessor, which have now been replaced. The punches are punchier, the magic is magic-er. (Most of the little menu blips were done specifically for SLARPG, though, so those are mostly the same.)

Updated music! Some tracks received simple mixing and mastering updates, while others have very noticeable changes

A new song! The battle with the Hole Hound now uses a new battle theme from lead composer Beatrix Quinn, primarily used in the Amber Woods area in the full game

Several brand new jingles for things like finding treasure and solving puzzles. They add a lot of personality to the game, I think

GRAPHICS

New non-blurry fullscreen mode!

F5 toggles between fullscreen and windowed modes, F6 changes display size

The game also now remembers your display preferences upon launching

Fair warning--maximizing the display size literally just stretches the pixels as big as they'll get on your screen. This will likely give you some really janky, uneven pixels on most average displays. For a 1080p screen, I'd personally stick to the 2x zoom. But I'm not your boss or anything

Major areas such as Greenridge and the Basement Dungeon now have unique title card graphics that pop up upon entering

Various minor tweaks

Touched up party member sprites (Allison's collar has grown even poofier)

Slightly touched up some of the cutscene illustrations

New tree sprites in Melody's starting area

New water graphics, visible on the Hiking Trail

You can see the Amber Woods in the distance at the top of the Hiking Trail

Allison now owns a fightstick (this is an important character trait)

GAMEPLAY

Battle UI update

Whether skills cost MP or Star Power is now clearly labeled in the menu

Star Power gauge has a new color scheme at 100% that stands out more. It has a rainbow border. It's good

A cursor now appears when selecting which allies to use skills/items on. It's a little heart. It's good

Increased the opacity of the battle log at the top of the screen to make it more readable

Various other visual tweaks

Status effect update

Status effect animations! Enemies afflicted by statuses such as Burn now show simple animations to more clearly indicate their statuses at a glance

Status effects are now calculated more accurately. Due to a faulty third party script, statuses that were supposed to heal or do damage every turn based on the caster's stats were instead using the target's stats. In most cases, this means the effects have been buffed

"Resolute Damage" has been renamed to "Resolute Seal"

Balance tweaks

All party members now receive somewhat greater stat boosts with every level to make each level up feel more meaningful

Allison's Left Jab, Right Jab, Low Kick, and High Kick have all received buffs so that they don't feel like a waste of Star Power as soon as you learn stronger attacks

The Star Power cost of Allison's Divebomb ability has been reduced from 60% to 40%

Dust Bunny, Flaming Dust Bunny, and [secret miniboss] have received a slight attack power buff

Equipment tweaks

The "Accessory" equipment slot has been replaced with the Charm slot

Basic Pauldrons have been renamed to Generic Brand Pauldrons and moved to the Body slot

Iron Gauntlets weapon changed to Iron Gauntlet (singular) so that if you dual wield them later in the full game you aren't equipping four gauntlets. That would just be silly, and everyone knows this is a very serious game

Misc.

Allison and Claire will now get their Easy Mode buffs automatically if Easy Mode is already activated when they join the party

Fixed a few glitches related to turning out the lights in the Basement Dungeon

Removed "Exit Game" option from the in-game Options menu and added buffer around "Return to Menu." Hopefully this will prevent players from accidentally quitting without saving. I'm sorry that it doesn't ask you to confirm before quitting. Blame Yanfly

Various other minor tweaks

[anxiousfanchild]

Since people liked my Teruteru posts, I’m going to be listing every character in V1 and V2 and saying if they are overrated or underrated and why. WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES/ANIME

V1:

Junko: overrated, obviously. She’s very pretty but other then that? Not the best lmao?? Abused and manipulated Mikan and Mukuro

Makoto: Boring, was carried through the whole game by kirigiri. Not even all that funny in the anime, he’s just a boring kid.

Togami: A spoiled rich boy that messed with poor Chihiro’s body. He’s cute but a total asshole and a twink (derogatory). He should have been a victim.

Toko: I love her personality and her design is very pretty, but the way they are further demonizing DID with her character is horrible and I do not stan. 

Leon: Underrated boy, everyone gives him a lot of shit for being the first murderer. He’s cute, he’s got a funky lil shirt (that he shares with nagito?) and hes got some scottish roots like me. A good boi (minus the fact he killed someone.) 

Maizono: Overrated, shes not even all that pretty. The REAL musical ultimate was Ibuki and you can’t convince me otherwise. 

Hifumi: He never did anything *wrong* in v1, but he gives off this horrible vibe. Probably has a body pillow of Kisa from Fruits Basket or smth gross like that. 

Kiyotaka: In the fandom, his personality has been muddled down to “old gay man” but lets be real, if this dude wasnt in a killing game, he’d be a c*p (o)

Aoi: Her personality is literally eating and big boobs and closed lesbian. Not a fleshed out character and honestly, Sakura should have survived, not her. 

Mondo: You’ve heard of mommy and daddy issues, now get ready for “I accidently killed my big brother when he gave me his biker gang when I was literally 15 years old and now I lay awake for nights thinking about and on top of that I might be gay and oh my god I just got turned into butter.” issues

Yasuhiro: 100% underrated. Is there colorism in the fact he’s one of the only dark skinned characters in this series and his personality is literally “spout off random bullshit and have the whole fandom think i’m a druggie?” yeah, but if i remember correctly, in the anime, he’s actually really smart or something? (in the second anime, not the first.) And he was really kind when he was taking care of Kiyotaka when Mondo died. He’s a good character, minus the obvious racial stereotypes

Sakura: Deserved to live. She was a great friend to Aoi and sacrificed herself so her friend could keep going. She’s a good gorl. 

Chihiro: Prefacing this with I’m a Chihiro Kinnie: overrated and everyone in the fandom sexualizes him. Or headcanons him as mtf or nonbinary. It literally explains why he dresses as a girl (he was v v weak and sickly so if he convinced everyone he was a girl, they wouldnt pick on him for being a weak boy). Headcanon what you want, but dont come at me with the “hE wAnTs To Be A GiRl” cause youre literally erasing his entired character and the REASON mondo was able to kill him. 

Celestia: She’s so creepy and mean? and not even in a cool way I just don’t like her. If Junko wasnt the mastermind behind this game, it totally would have been celestia. Manipulated Hifumi, framed Yasuhiro, and killed Hifumi and Kiyotaka. Not a fan with the double kill tbh

Kirigiri: I personally don’t like her cause she has no personality beyond “gotta solve this mystery like im fuckin scooby doo” and “I can’t believe its daddy issues!”

Mukuro: literally wants to fuck her sister. No. 

V2: (I’m not finished with it yet, just finished the Mikan trial) 

Teruteru: underrated and over villainized. he’s literally a horny teenager and was just trying to a) protect everyone from nagito cause he thought twogami was nagito and b) just wanted his mom. 

Nagito: literally insane lol. If I hear him say anything else about hope, I’m going to scream. 

Nekomaru: No personality minus “I need to take a shit”

Akane: (see Aoi) they are literally the same character

Ibuki: overrated, but I can see why. She was really nice and cool. (I also have an Ibuki interject in my system so I can’t really bad mouth her.)

Mikan: Annoying at most. If Junko didnt hurt her, she probably wouldnt have killed anyone. 

Chiaki: I get.... v bad vibes from her, but I also kin her so its an odd toss up

Hajime: Whole personality is “fuck off nagito” and “orange juice in a wine glass” 

Mahiru: No my favorite, I didnt really like her, but she was really nice to Hiyoko so she’s okay in my book. 

Hiyoko: Underrated because no one takes into consideration: she is litearlly like 16 or 17, shes under 5 feet tall, she’s never gone through a killing game before, shes probably terrified. Thats why she’s mean. And she’s not even mean to everyone, just to Mikan really (who didnt deserve if but she was a really easy target)

Fuyuhiko: boss baby, tiny boy, underrated. He lost his sister and his best friend, let him be. 

Peko: Eh?? if she didnt have a literal slave mentality she’d be cool (and i dont think it was hiko’s fault, cause there are many times where he was just trying to treat peko like a friend and she was in full human shield mode.) 

Gundham: nice design, but the theatrics are getting on my nerves. Whats with the hamsters? I like his scarf though

Kazuichi: literally a giant perv, but i like his design and I have a small soft spot for pervy characters. If he would have left Sonia alone, he would have been an okay character. 

Sonia: overrated, annoying, would fuck ted bundy and run a true crime blog on this gods damn website. Not a good girl and I’m surprised she hasnt killed kazuichi yet. 

I dont think I missed anyone so here you go. Read it and weep /j 

[rainbowkittyblossomwings]

So I don’t want to get into a huge retrospective of how 2020 was for me, because it’s personal and I think we can all agree things have been bad. So instead I’d like to talk about great video games I got into in 2020!!! These games didn’t necessarily come out in 2020 just things I discovered and I’d like to talk about my top 10 faves

1.       The first best video game I discovered in 2020 is the entire Trails Series (I played all of them in 2020, cold steel, ao, zero, and Sky). Initially I played Cold Steel 1 because my friend told me it was like “Playing Code Geass the anime”. The story was pretty easy to get into of a guy going to military school and you’re placed in the special class for commoners and nobles when there’s a huge class divide in your country. From there it had some basic anime tropes like a dating simulator like thing and various cliched characters, like the tsundere, the guy who’s trying to get everybody to work, the music kid, and the noble, you know?

But Cold Steel wasn’t cliché in the least bit. I played it after surgery recovery so I was in a lot of pain and out of my mind, but each character had depth, the entire world was fleshed out and after each game more of the story and the villains were revealed, secret robot technologies were given to the main characters and they slowly became more and more powerful after that.

I wanted to know more and more about the world so I played the first series trails in the sky and the Japanese only series, Zero and Ao, and they were even better. Not only that but in this JRPG there were canon gay characters that had traits to their character besides “I’m gay.” There were a lot of lesbians for me to pick and choose between as faves.

Not only that but I find none dating sim video games difficult cuz I get easily frustrated and rage quit. Cold Steel was turn based combat and never made me feel like rage quitting because they had a function called “Retry but easier” where if you died you could start the same battle but make it easier. That made it so I only had to die five or so times on things I was really stuck on and then I could move on with the story. And the game never felt like a grind fest and I could make the game faster in combat.

This series I may have discovered in 2020 but it’s become just as beloved to me as any other series. It’s one of my faves.

2.       My second favorite game in 2020 was 13 sentinels : Aegis Rim. I love time travel so much and everytime a new time travel anime or game comes out I get super excited. Aegis Rim was a game that had all sorts of cool tropes, like time travel, memory loss, androids, different realities, and psychic dreams and it just sounded cool. Not only that but there were 13 different protagonists to play and I had seen it reviewed in LGBT+ articles, saying it had a canon gay character and a canon nonbinary character! It was a very fun game and part of the story followed a point and click formula and the other half followed a kinda strategy blowing up giant robot monsters formula, and I enjoyed it. Also the music and the art was amazing.

3.       The House in Fata Morgana was my third favorite game I discovered in 2020!!! It was a visual novel I had gotten in 2019 but never started because “They didn’t have anime eyes so IDK if it’ll be interesting.” I had seen a lot of horror visual novel people review it though with stellar reviews. I ended up playing it when I was sick and man was it an amazing story. It gave me a lot of respect for people who write short stories that wrap up nicely, and a lot  of the characters were flawed but I really enjoyed reading their stories.  The story was pretty basic in the beginning of a maid telling you several different stories of the previous owners of the mansion she worked in, and the tragedies that befell them throughout her time there, and I really liked the sort of tragedy feel. One of the stories reminded me of Greek tragedies like Oedipus, and as the story got deeper and deeper and connected plot threads of the previous owners it became very cool. Also the game was very LGBT+ friendly with trans and bi characters and possibly an aro character too???

4.       Hades was my fourth favorite game in 2020!!! A lot of people have already talked about Hades before and what it’s about but I’d like to talk about why I liked it. As mentioned before I have a problem with video games that rely on skill. I get so frustrated that I either start yelling or crying because I don’t believe that the muscle memory will ever get into me or that I’ll ever be good enough to get past the hard part. It’s incredibly distressing and it makes me feel bad because I’m like “why can’t I do a simple thing other people can easily do?” Hades is one of the few games that taught me that eventually I will succeed, and the muscle memory will come to me. As you probably know Hades has god mode which increases your damage resistance every time you loose. I got to the max god mode very quickly of 80% and for about 10 runs even that wasn’t enough to beat the first boss and I was incredibly frustrated. I was like “they should have raised it to 90% cuz if even their worst players couldn’t beat the boss on easy mode then they’re missing out.” But as people have probably told you, Hades rewards failure. Each run you learn a bit more and get better skills and friendships with people due to grinding. And eventually I stuck to it and beat the first boss, and then all the other bosses. The muscle memory finally hit and I beat Hades and got the true ending and I’m really glad the developers made it accessible enough that even the worst players could beat it and I’m glad they rewarded failure.

5.       My next favorite is Chaos;Child, which wasn’t made in 2020, but I did discover it in 2020. It’s another horror visual novel but by the people who did Steins;Gate. I absolutely adore Steins;Gate because of the time travel so I was curious about the other games in the series. Everyone said Chaos;Child was the murder mystery of what Steins;Gate did to time travel and they were right. It was a psychic murder mystery story and although it was very gorey it was very fun and I really liked the characters

6.       Sixth favorite was Café Enchante a new otome dating sim released in 2020! You run a coffeshop for monsters basically and I adored it!!! I was a little worried before I got it that it would be boring because what kind of plot can you make in a coffeeshop? But it was very cute and I loved the monsters and the lore. Despite my misunderstanding the entire game did not take place in the coffeeshop and instead went into various monster worlds and expanded on the lore of each world in each route. The art was wonderful and I just love fake monster lore about Fae and beasts and angels and stuff and it was just a wonderful game and is one of my new fave otome titles.

7.       I played Ai: the somnium files in 2020! I knew it would be a favorite of the year because it was made by the same people who did the zero escape series. It had a very different tone of the zero escape series of course, instead of being about psychics it’s about the inner workings of the mind. You play a detective going into people’s psyche’s to try to catch a murderer basically. It reminded me a lot of ID;invaded an anime that I think came out this year? Anyway it was a cool story and I liked the graphics but I did not like the timed missions. Without a guide I would have died.

8.       The dark horse of 2020 was Untitled Goose Game. I did not expect to get it but my friend gifted to me and I hadn’t played it yet. And as everyone can tell you it’s just a fun time harassing people as a goose. It has 2 player mode so my sister and I played it together and it was great. I liked feeling like grand theft robbers and saying “BOOK IT” as we stole people’s stuff.

9.       My ninth favorite game I played in 2020 was Little Busters! It’s by the same people who did Clannad so I knew I would be crying by the end. Clannad’s team is known for their great story telling and heart wrenching characters. It’s about a team of friends who start a baseball team and then it gets sad and time loop-y from there. I played Clannad too in 2020 but it was a little too homophobic for me to let it make it to this list and I don’t remember any homophobia in little busters, so little busters gets its spot.

10.   Finally we get to Persona 5 Royal. I didn’t play much of the original persona 5 besides at my friends apartment so I was able to finally have a copy of this game on my own!!! I loved the idea of going into mean people’s minds and changing their hearts so they could understand the wrong that they did, it was just a good concept. I also loved that Persona 5 royal added a safety mode so you can loose and yet not die. It was a great game of 2020 and it only makes it so low because I spent way too many hours on it (135) and it was a great amazing game that I loved and enjoy talking about but would not replay because it’s just so long and I’m not quite sure what would be different on  replay. Also I’m sad that you can’t date the boys because I love them. They are good beans. Either way though I’d recommend it if you haven’t played before and it was very fun, and still one of the best games of 2020.

If you want me to talk about any of these games in more depth instead of just a short review tell me!!!

[bucks-little-hop]

it cannot wait, I'm yours.

Day 1 of @buddiefirstkissweek

Prompt:  Related to Pride

Read on AO3

Despite living there for several years, Buck had never actually attended L.A pride. He usually flew to New York City to celebrate with friends there. However, with T.K. being in Austin, they had agreed to go to each other’s Prides together. The only issue was T.K. couldn’t get off until the second day, and Buck didn’t exactly want to go alone. His first choice would have been Hen, but she got stuck working as well. He realized that he needed more friends than just his co-workers as he scrolled through his phone trying to figure out who to call. He could ask Maddie, but she would probably spend the whole time trying to find a cute guy for him to date. He loved the support, but sometimes he didn’t need to be reminded he was single when all his other friends had a significant other.

He thought about texting Michael, but they had talked last time he was over at the Grant-Nash household, and Michael was going with his new boyfriend. Buck was ecstatic that Michael finally found a boyfriend. It was about time. He deserved it. If Buck was his type, Buck for sure would have tried to date him. 

Wait, Josh was single and gay. He was probably going to pride, and likely wouldn’t want to go alone either. Perfect solution. He sent a text off and got a quick response before going to get changed. Normally Buck dressed pretty conservatively, but this was the one time a year he really let himself go all out. He put on his crop top that said ‘if you play for both teams you always win.’ It was probably his favourite shirt, he loved the slogan. He basically worked out for a living, and he was glad that crop tops highlighted that. He threw on his ripped jeans that were just on the right side of too tight, and had one rip that went a little too far up his thigh. He was lacing up his pride Dr. Martens when he heard a knock on the door.  

“So glad you could make it.” Buck pulled Josh into a hug. It was a bit of a surprise at first how well the two got along. They even went out on a date together before realizing they were better off friends. The teasing they would have gotten from Maddie would have been unbearable if it had actually worked out. 

“I’m just happy I have someone to go with now. I brought the face paints!” Josh immediately grabbed one of Buck’s kitchen chairs and pushed him down into it. Josh was already sporting a gay flag painted under his eye, and he clearly had plans to put on on Buck as well. “I know you care about your hair, but really I think we need some glitter in it. It’s the spray kind that comes out easy I swear.” 

Buck rolled his eyes but sat still while he got a bisexual pride flag painted under his right eye. “You can do the glitter, but I’m showering at your place. I’m not trying to deal with clogged pipes because of it.” 

“Fair deal. We better get going, or we won’t ever be able to get an Uber downtown.”

******

L.A. Pride was somehow exactly like NYC Pride, and completely different. All the elements of pride were there. The drag queens who were performing up a storm, the baby gays who it was clear this  was their first pride, and those who had been going to prides longer than Buck had been alive. There were definitely more west coast vibes to it. Either way, Buck was thrilled to be at Pride, and happy to have a friend along with him. 

The two wandered through the marketplace, stopping every now and then to buy a couple of items. The two spent a couple of minutes laughing when they found the LAFD calendar, except they were able to get any face photoshopped on all the firefighters. They got one with a photo of Chim sneezing on it for Maddie’s birthday. It was even better because it actually had Chim in it. There were some advantages to Buck not having won that year. Josh saw a lesbian couple from work, and dragged Buck over there to introduce him to them. Buck was known for both being Maddie’s younger brother, but also the firefighter whose name got mentioned more than it probably should have been. His dumbass heroics got him far more recognition than they should have been. 

Buck saw a familiar face in the crowd, and they made eye contact before they turned away.  He let Josh know he was going to talk to them. He knew Josh would be safe with his friends for the moment. 

“Now Athena, I know you’re not just going to ignore me like that.” Buck jokingly called out to her.

“I wish I could say I was ignoring you, but I owe Hen money unfortunately. You just had to get a boyfriend.” Athena sounded almost disappointed,

“What Josh? No we aren’t dating, we’re just here as friends. Actually, you’ve met him before I think. He works with Maddie.” Buck wasn’t offended about the fact she thought he and Josh were dating, he didn’t like the thought of the bet. “Any other important bets going on about my life?”

Athena had the decency to look a little ashamed. “Well there was a bet about whether or not you had a secret boyfriend. Hen said yes, I said no. Mainly because you would have told Maddie, who would have accidentally told Chim, who would have immediately texted Hen, who would have shown up at my house with a bottle of wine to gossip. We all know secrets don’t exist in the family.” 

Buck knew she had a point. Secrets didn’t exist, and because of that betting run rampant. Hell, he had won $50 on the bet of when Micheal was going to announce his new boyfriend. “How much do you have on it, because I’m willing to lie to split the winnings. Hen deserves some payback after how often she keeps winning.” Buck was never above a small lie. He could just say they broke up in a week because it wasn’t working out.

“$200. Go collect your fake boyfriend over there and we’ll go find the 118. They’ve got a tent set up to hand out water.” Athena nodded her head towards Josh. 

Buck didn’t think that they would actually be there. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of being bi, but he had never officially come out to the 118. Hen knew because they ran into each other at a gay bar, and Athena knew because she got called to pick them up when they were too drunk to drive. “Alright yeah, I can drop all my stuff off there too. They’re all going to be too scared to look through the bags.” Even though there was nothing bad in them, the fire fam was going to assume there was. 

Buck walked back to Josh and explained what was going on. Buck owed Josh an expensive bottle of wine for it, but he was totally down to mess with the 118. The wine was to placate him from any of the text Maddie would send him after Chim texted her. On the way over they all chatted. Buck agreed to bring May with him on the second day. Athena wanted her to go with someone who was more responsible, but also not afraid to throw a punch. May was like a little sister to him, and Buck was fully ready to square up for her.  Plus, T.K. and his new boyfriend would defend her too. Actually, based on what he had heard about Carlos, he would get along with Athena. Buck made a note to introduce the two. As they got closer to the tent, Buck put his arm around Josh’s waist. With Buck being such a tactile guy, it wasn’t the first time he had held Josh like this. He allowed himself to be more touchy feely with Josh because he knew the other was okay with it. 

“Hey guys, this is Josh. He’s an operator with Maddie. I’m sure you’ve heard his lovely voice on the phone a few times.” Buck spoke to the 118 with a grin on his face. He could feel the fact that all eyes were on him. Hen scowled at him and then Athena. She pulled out her wallet to pay up.

Buck leaned down to talk to Josh, and softened his voice to talk. “Why don’t you go talk to Chim about Maddie’s surprise stories. I’ll deal with all the questions.” There was zero reason for him to do that, other than to sell the idea. Buck had big plans for that $100. 

Josh walked over to Chim, and pulled him aside as the rest of the 118 descended on Buck. 

“Listen Buck, not that I’m not proud of you for this, but you really had to wear your best outfit the day I’m not with you?” There was no actual malice behind Hen’s voice. She had made teasing Buck into an art form. 

“Hen this is a go big or go home event, and I certainly wasn’t going to go home.” Buck gave her one of his patented golden retriever smiles, before he pulled a small enamel lesbian flag pin out of his  pocket and held it out to her. “I got you a present to make it up to you at least. Figured you could wear it while you work to show support.” 

Hen took the pin, seeming to accept the apology gift. She walked over to Athena, the two already starting to gossip.

Bobby cleared his throat. “So Buck, you know you could have told us before. We would have supported you.” He was clearly into his dad mode, trying to approach the situation delicately. 

“I mean you never came out as straight to the station. I’ve told you about people I’ve gone on dates with. If you assumed Jordan, Addison, and Kennedy were girls, that's on you.” Buck viewed Bobby as a father, but sometimes he was very much a straight cis man. They were working on changing his set views. But he supported them all and that was what mattered the most to them.  

“Buck, can we talk, over there. It cannot wait.” Eddie’s voice was tense, and Buck didn’t like how it had sounded. Buck nodded and followed him, not trusting any words that would come out of his mouth. Buck was fine with Hen, he figured he would be fine with Buck being bisexual. There was a chance Eddie was one of those people who just thought bisexuals were just greedy and needed to make their mind up. He hadn’t been prepared to lose Eddie as a friend, not over something like this. Having Chim and Bobby know made him feel like a weight was lifted off his chest, but Eddie’s reaction made it all come crashing back down. The two walked behind the ambulance, where they were out of view from the public. There was just a couple of photographers hanging out in their event tent. 

“You’re not actually dating Josh, are you?” Eddie crossed his arms, taking a defensive stance.

“Why does it matter to you? If you can’t accept me having a boyfriend then we are going to have bigger problems than who I’m dating.”

“You told me you were single at movie night last week.” Eddie sounded exasperated, and Buck was really confused as to why.

“Fine, Josh and I aren’t dating, but we tried at one point. We’re better friends, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still bi. I’ve dated plenty of guys since we’ve been friends, it just hasn’t worked out.” They were friends, Buck was going to be honest with Eddie. Well, mostly honest. If Eddie asked if Buck had a crush on him, Buck was going to deny it. He didn’t think Eddie would be the kind of straight guy who would get all weird about Buck’s crush, but then again he didn’t think Eddie was biphobic either. 

“Good, because I can’t see you with a boyfriend...” Eddie seemed to have calmed down, and a realization had swept over him. His face looked a lot softer, it was a look Buck had seen many times but was never really sure what it meant. Buck anger was going in the opposite direction. He took a step back.

Buck didn’t bother to let Eddie finish before he cut him off. “Listen, if you’ve got such a problem with me dating another guy, then you should transfer stations. I’m not going to hide a part of me because it’s not something you like.” His words were harsh, but he kept his voice down. He didn’t want any yelling to attract the others. Buck started to walk away when he felt Eddie grab his wrist and pull him back so they were face to face.

“Evan, You didn’t let me finish. I can’t see you with a boyfriend that isn’t me. If I had known you liked guys, I would have done this sooner.” Buck was shocked by the statement, but even more shocked by what came next. 

Eddie leaned up and kissed Buck. 

Buck did not in a million years see Eddie returning his feelings. Buck felt Eddie start to pull back, and he knew the older man was overthinking things the same way he was. Buck brought his hands up to cup Eddie’s cheeks, and pulled him back in. He could overthink this later, for now he was going to enjoy kissing Eddie. Finally it didn’t have to be something of his dreams anymore. He felt Eddie’s hands come to rest on his waist. Buck had every intention of deepening the kiss, but when he moved to get closer, he managed to slip. Thankfully, Eddie managed to catch him before he completely fell on his back. 

They had been pulled apart by the fall, but they rested their foreheads together. 

“We should talk about this…” Buck started to say.

“We’ll have plenty of time to talk later, I got months of kissing to make up for.” Eddie leaned down, kissing Buck with far more passion this time. He wasn’t worried about being rejected. 

Eventually Buck fully got back up to his feet, but not before a photographer had snapped a photo of the two.

******

Buck promised to drop Eddie off at the station the next morning, so he wouldn’t have to ensure the teasing alone. They didn’t have to walk far into the station before the teasing started.

Hanging from the balcony was a blown up photo of the two of them kissing. Buck had seen the photo posted all over last night. Out of context, it looked like Eddie had dipped Buck, not that Buck had just been clumsy first. He knew there were comparisons to the soldier celebrating V-J day, and the navy soldier getting his homecoming kiss. The photo was heralded as one of the defining photos of pride that year. Would Buck have liked their first kiss to be a little more private, sure, but it wouldn’t have been true to the way his life had gone so far. The teasing would be worth it, especially since he got Eddie out of the deal. 

“They’re all just jealous Eds, just remember. I’m yours.”

[comebackali]

Hey there! How is Nancy Drew? Is it worth watching? How similar is it to Riverdale? (I kind of stopped watching Riverdale so I wouldn’t want to end up the same way)

it is very cute. i was worried it was going to be like riverdale, and it kind of took me a few episodes to get into it because of that. it’s similar in that it’s got that small town murder mystery vibe that s1 riverdale really thrived on, but it’s nancy drew, so you’re not gonna get around that. it’s the cw, so everyone is that particular kind of made up cw hot and still playing teenagers in their mid 20s - 30s (though at least they’re not supposed to be in high school, it’s the summer (fall?) after which makes it only marginally better lmao). 

was this show made because the cw wanted to capitalize on riverdale’s success? i can’t say, but i can say that the writers of this show have clearly put much more tender loving care into the execution of their mysteries than the riverdale writers ever have. i can’t say how that’s going to change in future seasons, as things get more ~elaborate~ as tv shows tend to do, but since nancy drew’s whole thing is solving mystery after mystery, they have a good premise going forward. 

i haven’t done a good job selling it so far, but basically, it is very cute and i like it a lot. i remember feeling about half way through the season that i wished more people watched this show because it’s just so throughly enjoyable. it’s characters are so lovable and it’s mysteries are so well done. overall it’s a fun, easy, stress free show that i genuinely looked forward to watching every week and i would 100% recommend checking out. 

edit: also i would 100% die for the ace/bess dynamic. it is the ‘best m/f friendship will always be pure of heart dumb of ass/lesbian dynamic’ and it is truly a joy to behold. it’s the ‘he likes her but then when he realizes she’s gay he goes into BEST WINGMAN FOREVER MODE’ and the two of them are literally just BEST FRIENDS with ZERO BRAIN CELLS between them and i would literally die for them. 100/10 would recommend. they make the show for me.

[murtaghsbeard]

Season 4 Ep 7

I thought Brianna’ time travel outfit is bad. Roger! He looks like an 18th Century Milhouse. Corduroy coulouttes??? Stupid little neckerchief. Nothing is tailored. What a Charlie Brown-looking asshole.

Brianna should have packed more pb&j. She is in for a long walk.

Brianna gets to Laoghaire’s house after contracting a near fatal case of ouchy ankle.

Her plan was to hitch hike to the port?? Girl, please think.

Laoghaire replaces Brianna’s sad clothes with her own daughter’s dress, like she doesn’t have another growing daughter at home. People are so free with their garments, just giving them away all the time to these Randall ladies.

Flashback to Brianna in her dad’s office. Frank is absolutely blasted in the nicest university office I have ever seen. He is feeling sorry for himself and thinking he might just find a new life at the bottom of this whiskey glass. Just this actress (Brianna) trying to go toe to toe with Tobias Menzies....Everyone on set must have been embarrassed to watch this. I am embarrassed watching this. Outlander has such uneven casting sometimes. The girl is completely out of her depth.

Back to Brianna’s residence at chez Laoghaire. Some nice little banter about how much each other’s company is enjoyed. Many smiles from the usually sour Loaghaire plus tender moments in the garden. Brianna completely wins over Laoghaire’s young daughter. Is this the start of a Brianna and Laoghaire lesbian escapade?

Roger tries to get hired on a ship going to America. Roger gets told! “You’re hands are better suited to writing letters than sailing.” He winces. It’s true.

-But wait Captain, Look at me I can carry a small barrel.

-Alright get aboard my ship then.

That is a hard no on the Brianna/ Laoghaire lesbian escapade. Laoghaire swallows a toad when she learns she has taken in Claire’s daughter. So she goes for, at first, subtly nuclear emotional warfare i.e. your father doesn’t want you. She starts to gain some traction there, but then goes full crazy mode. Right back to witchcraft.

I wonder if other highlanders also find Laoghaire to be insane or if they think of her as a fairly normal, if excitable lady about town.

Anyways, Laoghaire locks Brianna in the bedroom and threatens some sort of retribution for being a witch. Loaghaire skitters off, presumably to summon whoever is in charge of witch prosecution these days. They kindly inform her offscreen that it is the 1770s madam and we don’t hold witch trials anymore and even if we were doing that, we don’t execute people for merely being daughters of witches.

Joanie comes to the rescue though, unlocking the door and producing a fully hitched horse and cart. Very impressive for an 11 year old!

Roger must touch every child on this boat. This is meant to make us like him again. These pathetic attempts to redeem him do not move me. Look, he’s not afraid to touch a baby. Whoop de do!

Joanie is so nice! She brings Brianna to Lollybroch. Ian, I have brought you a niece! Ian Sr. is so easily convinced. Oh, sure, Jamie’s daughter whom Jamie has never told us about. Here is all our money! And another chest of Claire’s clothes! We’ve got like a dozen of theses in the attic. Claire bought so many dresses in Paris! I have not a single question about this. It’s probably a good thing Jennie wasn’t there. She would have asked A LOT of questions. The first of which would be, why did neither of your parents ever mention your existence to their closest living relatives?

Uncle Ian is far too kind. “You have Jamie’s fire!” Uttered like that’s the lab result from the paternity test. I’ve pissed on fires stronger than whatever is in this girl.

Uncle Ian transports Brianna to the port for a transatlantic voyage. Also why not have your uncle broker your passage for you when he offers? That is an easy yes. Please handle unfamiliar bureaucracy. Also I can’t recognize different denominations of money in this timeline.

Brianna in matter of 20 seconds buys transatlantic passage for an indentured servant whose dad is very concerned about her current gig and its potential for moral calamity. Oh shit. Is Brianna’s servant girl going to become young Ian’s made to order girlfriend ?