#fails to kill those three dudes or stop them from controlling all the information on earth

[times-chu]

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

i love stories where its just one guy’s really bad day

[tobi-momo]

"The Setter's Help" Chapter 8 - Final Chapter

Pairing: Kageyama Tobio x Volleyball player!reader

Synopsis: With a big game coming up, the confidence in your setting has gone down significantly. Knowing the setter on the Karasuno boy’s volleyball club is good at what he does, you ask him for help. Will he help you build your confidence and skills or will he just tear it down more?

Genre: Romance, fluff, some crack, angst, hurt/comfort

Chapter Warnings: Cursing

Word Count: 3.5k

Taglist is CLOSED

The air that enters your lungs comes out in puffs, a clot in your throat that prevents the swift in take of the oxygen you need for your vision to move somewhere that wasn’t the dirty floors under you. The fear and the intimidation that ran through your jamming pulse radiated out of you, the stuttering of your nerves creating a fog in your abdomen- moths instead of butterflies. Your body felt fuzzy, even as you looked at the trembling hand that floats in the air, it felt numb. A raggedy breath leaves your lips as you gather feeling back into all the nerve endings that rest in the pads of your fingers. Your eyebrows furrow in concentration as you screw your eyes shut, feeling the cool air sweep up against your skin.

It might have been a new, refreshing light that flows through the strands of your hair, or maybe- just maybe, it was the doors opening to let the other team enter.

Holy shit it’s happening.

This is it. The one thing you’ve been practicing for for weeks.

The big game.

You take a quick look around the gym- the room not fully set up, people getting ready to sit down in the stands, the players from the other team setting their bags down and stretching while their coach gives them a quick pep talk- your teammates doing the same. You saw the boys’ team sitting down, as well. Half were munching on snacks, the others indulging in conversation with each other, Nishinoya and Tanaka multitasking and doing both, while the rest just sat and got their phones ready or just watched the other team, including someone in particular.

It’s been a couple days since you’ve taken a good look at him. His arms were crossed as he observed the other team with annoyance, gathering the information he needed on all players. It’s not like he was going to tell you- well, not anymore. He took a chance, when he flicked his pupils to match yours. Even though he didn’t expect you to look back, he did it anyway. And when he caught the color of your iris looking right back at him, he shook with nervousness. You turn away quickly the moment he sets his eyes on you- a hitch in your throat creating a sort of choke that crept up. His stare lingered longer than it should have, watching you pick a ball up from the court with your clammy hands and slap it on the ground before partnering up and warming up your arms.

For whatever reason, he kept his vision nailed on your wrists, watching them carefully. He was surprised at the improvement you showed since he started working with you. Your arm looked strong, powerful. That was good. Your eyes were taped to the ball, as it should be. Your wrists were flicking at the right time and the ball floated in the air gracefully, like he taught you. So why, he asked in his head, why were you so nervous? You’ve had games before, this is just another one. Why was this game so important?

His attention was brought back to the team that practiced on the other side of the mnet, watching for weaknesses and advantages.

This was going to be tough. They had control over their energy- they were confident. Sure they were going to win this. You, on the other hand, had doubt painted over your face in red. God, he felt like an idiot. What was he trying to prove? He made you feel like nothing when he should have been helping you conquer the world. Dumbass.

“Hey, do you see their setter?” Hinata asks out of the blue, pointing to the other team.

“Number three?”

“Yeah, I think she’s a third year. Do you think Y/n can compete with that?”

“What do you mean,” he asks defensively, “why wouldn’t she?”

“Well, she’s probably had more experience and has played against many other people just like this team, Y/n hasn’t,” the ginger explains, using tiny hand gestures.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” The blackette stops him, determination lining his pupils as he focuses on you, “Y/n is a good player, she’s just nervous or something. Give her time, she’ll do fine,” he pauses, “I think.”

“I hope so,” Hinata breathes out, watching the girls do their drills. “Does she play all around?”

“Probably,” Kageyama answers nonchalantly.

“Oh,” the boy mumbles. They continue to watch the girls warm up.

~.~.~.~

“Hey, hey, calm down, okay? You got this!” A girl beside you on the bench holds her water bottle while cheering you on. You give an awkward smile, just wanting the antics to calm down a bit.

You were fine. You were okay. You were good. You got it. You can do it. You recall the moments you got a strained compliment from the man you looked up to, the one who helped you become better. He’s only said subtle things like “that was good” or “nice job”, but every time those words left his lips a sense of comfort and reassurance washed refreshingly over your body, like you really earned it. Maybe you could do that again.

“Thanks, I think I’ll be fine,” you respond, letting her tone down a bit before you get up to your position.

It was a weird rotation, although you thought you had it nailed down pretty well. Practicing over hours everyday helped you feel better about memorizing where everyone goes every time you rotated. So, as you walk over to right-front, you watch the referee check the girls’ spots, then you get into position.

Once the sound of the whistle went off, your vision tightens to the people on the other side of the net. Strangers, they were, trying to invade and conquer your land.

You weren’t about to let them do that.

~.~.~.~

“Wow, she’s really good,” Hinata notes as he watches your form as you jump up to toss the ball, your loud cheer echoing with the smack of the ball once your teammate smacks it towards the other side with power. “Was she like that the whole time?”

“I guess,” Kageyama mumbles with his vision glued to you. He watches you form a fist as you grab another point, a wild smile covering your face. He could almost smirk at the joy he was watching, your smile didn’t have to be that contagious, you know. The happiness and excitement that grew on your face spread to everyone else on the court, your teammates reciprocating that emotion. You did it on purpose, he knew. Even if you weren’t actually feeling like it, you needed your teammates to, or else this game was out of the window. Why didn’t he tell you that you needed that, too?

It seemed that every time he looked at you, there was another thing that he left out. Another thing that he could have taught you, let you know of, showed you. Especially that you were good enough. That you had the talent, the skill. All that you needed…was to believe in yourself.

Why didn’t he help you?

“I’ll be back.” Kageyama practically jumps out of his seat, storming out of the gym without a single glance to pay towards the game once more. The boys don’t question it much, only exchanging quick glances to each other before going back to whatever they were doing beforehand. He exits the gym, his back slamming against the wall while he groans. Upset, he places his hands on his head in frustration, turning away from the people still entering.

He could have done so much better.

~.~.~.~

“Yeah! Nice kill!” Your cheerful shouts reverberate throughout the gym, your smile radiating off to other players. Too bad you were still too nervous to actually enjoy this.

You saw what the other setter could do. Three could do things you couldn’t. Three had talent and skill that was just so beyond your reach. You knew it was the end of the road for you. God, you knew it. You had failed before you had the opportunity to even get your first victory. First victory as first setter.

“Y/n, it’s to you!” You shake your head vigorously back into focus as you plop your arms out in front of you, receiving the aggressive ball. It spins up in the air as you yell, “Setter out!” so somebody else can take hands. The red spot that spread on your arm felt really good, like something that was supposed to be there. The ball was supposed to hit right there, bounce up perfectly and create a beautiful play. Like Kageyama taught you.

Was it bad that you sort of missed him? Were you a bad person for wanting him back in your life? After he was ripped away from screaming insults and attacking you, literally, he seemed to really, genuinely be sorry. You wanted- want to forgive him. You want to do more than forgive him. You want to be with him.

You’re climbing the score board, stealing point after point. Soon, it’s the fifth set. Two to Two. The spike in your nerves were inexplicable, the numbness coming back. This- this was it. You got it, just breathe. Control yourself, you can do it. You were in the perfect place, no need for you to switch position with another after the ball is sent your way, your feet stomping on left-front for grip.

~.~.~.~

“Kageyama, it’s the fifth set, come back in, the game is almost over. You missed a lot, dude.” Hinata says half way in the doorway of the hallway, the loud cheers and squeaks of shoes reiterating. “Kageyama-”

“I heard you,” he cuts the red-head off firmly. He picks his head up from the ground, inhaling to calm his nerves. When he walks back inside, his eyes immediately tape onto your figure, not on purpose, but subconsciously. He didn’t mean to, he just did it. The way you stepped perfectly as you did your approach and hit the ball down on the other side forced his feet to slow down, just to watch you a little longer while you made that court yours.

He saw the nervousness seep into you the moment the score hit twenty-four to twenty-three. One point. One point was all that it took to win, or to tie. He saw the trembling in your hands, the hot breaths that left your mouth, the boiling beads of sweat that helplessly dripped down your skin. He knew what you were thinking, but he was too afraid to say something to help. Coward.

As he sat down, all eyes were on you.

~.~.~.~

Your heart beats irregularly, your lungs almost hyperventilating when you watch the reff raise his arm in the air towards your team, blowing the whistle while folding it to his chest.

This was it.

He watched your fret in concentration with a furrowed brow, his arms crossed and his back leaned forward in the stands.

You get in position at the net, your hands floating in the air, inches away from the net. You make eye contact with the setter on the opposite position, her deathly glare making your deep sigh seem more in defeat than it was in anticipation. The toe of your shoe tapped the floor, your vision zeroing in on the girl in the back that bounces the very ball that determines your fate on the sore floors.

Take a deep breath, Y/n. Just take a breath.

The ball is sent over. Good. It soars over to middle-back, ‘don’t let it get there’, Kageyama told you once. Send the ball somewhere they can’t get it, not directly to the player.

She receives it. Beautiful. “Mine, mine! Nice receive!” You yell to the libero, who nods after she sends the ball towering. To set this, you need to run deeper- it didn’t go directly to you. So you do. You run. You sprint, actually. You rush your way under that ball, which powers it’s way down- God, it’s so low. Squat, you have to squat! Getting down, you stretch your hamstring and balance on your heel while the ball finally makes contact with the tips of your fingers. Remember the wrist, Y/n, remember the wrist. Flick! The ball floats effortlessly in the air, as if in slow motion. You watch as the right-front hitter does their approach, springing themselves up in the air and as you stand, smacks it down.

Shit. Shit!

Where is the defense?? Where are they??

You take a look around the second before the ball is forced over to see absolutely no one covering the hole. The girls weren’t in the correct positions, an entire spot being empty at the front of the court. You needed to get there.

Your ball is centimeters away from making contact with the blocker on the other team, your feet not moving as fast as you need them to. Millimeters, now. And… bash. The hand of the middle blocker hits itself against the ball, ricocheting off her skin back to your court.

Time is running out.

You’re running again. A strained heave leaves you as you almost trip over your own ankles to chase after this ball. Of course it’s off to the hole. Still, nobody moves. They just watch.

‘If you absolutely need to get something, dive. Let’s practice that.’ Kageyama taught you this. You can do it. Dive. Use your hands to slow yourself down, and not go too far or injure yourself. You don’t have time to breathe properly, you just need to get there! Please! Just get there!

Your stomach slides on the floor as your wrist reluctantly pops the ball back in the air. Come on, come on, come on!

Oh! The ball rises just far enough to touch the top of the net, your teammates still frozen as they watch the scene play in front of them. You wanted to be upset, but you didn’t have time for that right now. It wavers, you’re not sure if it’ll make it, and you can’t touch the ball again without giving them the point, and your teammates refuse to work with you.

This was unbearable.

It slowly walks along the net like a tightrope, not picking a side to fall on before- yes! Yes, yes, yes! Your strained, stretched, wide eyes couldn’t tell anyone how fast your heart was beating, how fast your thoughts ran through. Absolutely nothing could compare with the adrenaline and the anxiousness that makes your pulse beat as it falls to the setter on the other team. She was shocked as she crouched her body to get this under the net, her arms stretching to make contact with the ball and-

The whistle blew. All noise stops, your ears are practically ringing, though, as you whip your head to the referee. The ball is forgotten, hitting the ground repeatedly and faster every time it makes contact with the floor until it rolls away. The whistle stays in his mouth, but his arm moves. To the net? Your head follows the line his hand points to, all the way down to the…to the foot that rests past the line.

Your breath wouldn’t come out, your stinging eyes not seeing everyone in the audience stand up and lean down to see and your ears not picking up the sudden screams that they let out. Your teammates were jumping up and down, piling up on top of each other, dragging your body with theirs as they celebrated the victory. Your victory.

Because you fucking won.

The tears that poured out of you were something that wouldn’t go unnoticed by Kageyama. For he was just…watching. Watching you. Watching you cover your mouth with your hand slowly, falling on your knees in realization that you, essentially, won this game. The circle your teammates made as they bunched up together in celebration didn’t include your sobbing figure. Your shoulders bounce as you cry on the dirty, sweaty floors of the court you just dominated. The steaming tears left your waterline and puddled on the floor, splashing on your hand as your back falls forward towards the ground.

You- you did this. After all this time, and all this work and practice, you did it. And as you hunch over and hide the bawling you can’t keep to yourself, the person that you wanted to thank the most’s hand places itself on your back. The warmth and the tingling was undoubtedly him, his fingertips lightly scratching your back when you take the risk of looking up at him. Turning your head, you see his figure already squatting down next you, his head only a couple inches above yours. He smiles, a real smile. One that he showed you when he was proud of you, when he was happy and content with your actions. The screams of everyone in the room were muffled, everything was blurry except his dark blue eyes that bore straight back into yours. Did you deserve this? Did you deserve to win?

His thumb cautiously brushes your cheek when you start to sit up, your spine lining up straight again. “You did-” he clears his throat, “you did good out there,” he mumbles, slightly embarrassed, but doing his best to swallow his pride and tell you what you deserve to hear. You look down in disbelief, almost scared you weren’t hearing this correctly. “Hey, look at me,” he mutters to you, taking your attention once more when your glassy eyes flicker back to him again. His palms rest on your cheeks, his thumbs wiping away the continued tears that slip free from your puffy eyes while his pupils stay focused on yours. “You deserved it, okay? You really did.”

Another sob lets go, and it wouldn’t stop even if his shirt caught it. You both sat on your knees, his hand on top of your head as it rests on his chest while you cry. His other hand just sits on your back, unmoving yet not faltering to give you the reassurance you desperately needed.

“You did good,” he repeated, just in case you needed to hear it again.

“Thank you,” you whimper into the fabric he wears, your lips shaping an ‘o’ while you try and take your breaths slow and steady. The hands that lay dead on the floor come up and wrap around his torso, squeezing him closer. His breath hitches. “Thank you so much, Kageyama.”

He only hums, letting his hands snake around your form as well. It was a subtle embrace, his warmth covering yours, but very affectionate and meaningful, and noticeable, by the way the Karasuno boys’ just won’t stop talking about it.

He tries to ignore the little clicks and flashes and the giggling and snark behind him, but he groans at his friends and glares at them after leaning his head back. They take a step back, but still “observe” from a further distance. He turns back, relieved. His head droops down to lay on top of yours, no care in his body for the sweat that gathers in your hair. No regard for the sweat anywhere on you, really. He just wanted to enjoy this moment.

~.~.~.~

“So…”

“So…” you repeat, walking with him down the sidewalk with your fingers wrapping around each other bashfully, your heads turned towards the ground shyly while you walk hand in hand. Your arm swings back and forth and his thumb rubs the back of your palm.

“Do you want to practice volleyball with me again? Another time?” He asks nervously with speed.

“Ah, volleyball?” You ask, contemplating. “Would you like to do something else?” He blushes. “I don’t know, like, get coffee somewhere? Or maybe just hangout at my place?”

“Uh, we can do both!” He shouts, trying his best. You can tell he’s incredibly tense, anxious about this topic. You giggle at the effort.

“Sure, okay, then. Let’s do it.”

He smiles with you, an excited smile you don’t think you’ve had the pleasure laying eyes on before. His smiles never seemed normal, but they were always the cutest thing to behold. You loved them. You loved everything about him. And you were grateful. For everything. You couldn’t have done this without him, and you made sure to let him know that with the kiss you left on his cheek before you went inside. His burning cheeks seemed on fire when your sweet lips made contact with his skin. He was as stiff as a board, his face melting in shock while your hands placed themselves on his shoulders. Your head moves back, your nose tickling his as you look him in the eye.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Tobio.”

“Uh, yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he stutters. His eyes wide as a deer in headlights with your face as close to his as it is, a breath falling out of him he didn’t even know existed when you turned around to head inside of your house.

He waved to you politely before he watched your body disappear behind the door. But this time, he knew you were coming back.

A/N: holy fucking shit its over omg- like theres the epilogue and then the setter's help is done! im actually so sad its over and im gonna really miss it :( thank you wombat so much for helping me seriously you are a big part of why im posting this thank you love <3 also sorry for the delays lol im buried deep in school

taglist in reblog!

(reblogs are VERY appreciated <3)

MASTERLIST

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 06 (first part)

(Masterpost)(Episode 05)

Warning: This contains spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Bad Boys Bad Boys What You Gonna Do

Nie Huasang’s brought his nuts, and someone’s brought wine, so the boys are drinking in Wei Wuxian’s guest house. Finally he gets to drink some of the Emperor’s Smile wine that he’s been doing all those product placements for.

Boys, get a bowl or something for your shells, were you raised in a barn?

Wei Wuxian hits on waxes poetic about the wine, and Jiang Cheng tells him to shut up. 

Wang Zhuocheng’s raw-fish-eating face may have failed him, but his drunk faces do not disappoint.

Wei Wuxian teases Jiang Cheng about his list of standards for a chick: She should have natural beauty, be virtuous and caring, from a good family, not too talkative, with a gentle voice, and not too capable. Also she should not spend too much money. Drunken running ensues.

Cue Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin

(more behind the cut)

Much of the fandom has decided this list is a good fit for Nie Huaisang himself, and it sorta is. But he is both talkative and unvirtuous, what with all the current sneakiness, and all the eventual murders. 

This also definitely doesn't fit Wen Qing because she's capable as hell.  

This list is, however, a 100% a match for Jiang Yanli. Not in a weird, Jin Guangyao way--a lot of men want to marry a woman like their sister.  In a gender-divided and generation-divided society, a man’s sister might be the only woman he’s ever known well. Jiang Cheng adores Yanli and she’s his ideal model of a woman, as opposed to his mother, who...isnt.  

All these robes and talismans over the door do nothing to stop Lan Wangji from strolling in.  

Okay so - Lan Wangji is the senior disciple of the Lan Clan, yea? There is no way that patrolling the guest area is in any way his job. He is just walking around here at night specifically to see what Wei Wuxian is doing.

I already did a gifpost of the boys and their totally nonsexual horseplay, over here. I’ll just add, for sad factor, that Jiang Cheng is play-choking Wei Wuxian when they’re all on the bed, and later in the running-and-crying episode he is gonna for-real choke him. Foreshadowing! or maybe just coincidence!

One fun thread running through the young-cultivators episodes is that Nie Huaisang is legit terrified of Lan Wangji while also having a major aesthetic crush on him. Look at how flustered he is here, trying to act sober while also checking him out. 

Lan Wangji is shocked and visibly upset - what are you guys doing? This is not his busting face, this is, for a moment, his vulnerable and disillusioned face. He is super not used to what normal people are like. 

Wei Wuxian doesn't lie or otherwise try to get off the hook, which has got to have Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang grinding their teeth in frustration. He invites Lan Wangji to join them for a drink. LWJ cites a the “no drinking on campus” rule and WWX tries to convince him to chill. 

Then we have this lovely coordinated faint by the boys, to get out of going to get punished. Nie Huaisang has been practicing fainting in front of a mirror just in case he ever needs a skill like that in the future. 

Wei Wuxian keeps trying to turn this into a date. Eventually Lan Wangji is so upset he admits he can’t take all three of them by himself. 

Then the boys run away fake-barfing and Wei Wuxian hits Lan Wangji with a talisman. 

Steal His Agency That’s What You’re Gonna Do

What Wei Wuxian does to Lan Wanji here is definitely wrong. But it's not entirely a disaster.  It allows some crucial information to be shared between them, and it results in Wei Wuxian getting the utter shit beat out of him and never doing this again. I mean, he continues to mind-control his enemies and their eventual corpses, but he doesn't intentionally violate a friend or ally's autonomy in the future. Uhh not counting that whole golden core surgery-without-consent situation. And probably some other situations I’ve forgotten. He improves slightly, okay? 

It’s important to note, incidentally, that the Lan rules about drinking and other “vices” should not be viewed through a Christian lens. The Lans are neither puritans nor ascetics (look at their clothes, furniture, and jewelry, for starters). Being drunk is forbidden probably because it’s a loss of self-control. 

Speaking of self-control, mad props to Wang Yibo for being able to have zero physical reaction to fingers snapping in his face.

Drunk Lan Wangji

Under duress, Lan Wangji knocks back a cup of wine and promptly passes most of the way out. 

Wei Wuxian puts Lan Wangji into bed not unkindly, but pretty much like a sack of potatoes. Compare this to how tenderly he handles Lan Wangji the next time he’s drunk. 

WWX tells LWJ to call him Wei Gege, and giggles. Is this a term of endearment in this context? So far the various boys are calling each other -xiong, not -ge or gege.  In Western media, men calling each other “bro” is basically saying “no homo,” but brotherhood and sisterhood in C-Drama is often a way of indicating stronger love than friendship, without saying whether it's sexual or not. 

They finally start to have a conversation, and when Lan Wangji explains that no-one can touch his headband except, etc etc, Wei Wuxian stops trying to touch it. So at least he's not a handsy bastard in addition to all his other faults. 

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that his clan is boring and women won't want to marry him. Lan Wangji says that's fine. On one level this is the show acknowledging that he's gay, but I think he's responding in a gender-neutral way; he doesn't want to marry anyone. Marriage, from his perspective, is the literal worst. 

We don't know how he felt about his father, but he definitely loved his mother deeply, and she had a profoundly unhappy marriage, in which her husband did not provide companionship and her children were taken from her.

A note about all that: The dynamics of heterosexual marriages in The Untamed are not based on contemporary companionate marriage. Sex and reproduction is a wife's job in this world, and giving a gentry woman the option to choose her husband is radical. Wei Wuxian is the only one who dares say that Jiang Yanli should have a choice when Jin Guangshan casually tries to give her to his son in front of everyone.  

OP made this today but will totally reuse it when episode 23 rolls around

So Lan Wangji’s parents' marriage was extremely problematic but not necessarily for the reasons it would be in contemporary terms. Having signed on to marry Lan Dad, Mom would have expected to live together and get laid regularly (important for health, in some traditional views, regardless of love/no love) and to have the company of her children. Instead, she was isolated. Lan Dad wanted to have it both ways and so even though he loved her and apparently hooked up with her sometimes, he didn't do his duty by her. She didn't love him but she did her duty. 

Wei Wuxian continues to not get it, calling Lan Wangji dull and babbling about Lan Wangji’s parents until he realizes that LWJ is an orphan like him. 

A nice shift happens here. Once the penny drops, Wei Wuxian doesn't ask a single additional question - he just sees - by reading Lan Wangji’s face - what the deal is, and shares his own story to show he understands. 

This is the first time Wei Wuxian mentions being chased by dogs, which is kind of a big deal, because why was he left all alone when his parents died? 

Why didn't anyone take him in before Jiang Fengmian found him? How isolated are independent cultivators in this world? 

Tea Time

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen are having tea, and the Lan Clan is so uptight they don't touch each other's teacups. I don't know what this thing is called so I'm going to call it a tea speculum. 

Lan Qiren is back from the cultivation conference and says the red crack plague is happening over in Qinghe where the Nie clan lives.  Lan Xichen fills him in on the water demon, specifically saying Wei Wuxian figured out the connection to the red crack dudes, and explaining who WWX is, as if Lan QIren hadn't already thrown stuff at him and threatened to eventually kill him. 

Fun fact that I just noticed this week so didn't make it into earlier posts: In Episode 46, when Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are in the Jiang ancestral hall, WWX says he was often punished to kneel there, and LWJ said that they heard about this in Gusu.  

So when WWX came to Gusu he already had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Lan brothers were aware of it.   

Busted and Beaten

A Lan snitch comes in to say that Wei Wuxian has successfully corrupted Lan Wangji, which really shouldn’t cause as much surprise as it does.

“Wei Wuxian got drunk”

“Lan Wangji got drunk”

Lan Xichen takes a moment to consider carefully whether Wei Wuxian is a good friend for his little brother and whether perhaps he was too hasty in throwing them together. Ha ha ha no he doesn’t. 

On the punishment porch, Lan Xichen tries to lecture Lan Wangji in a calm way, but Lan Qiren wants to beat him and Lan Wangji wants to get beat. Wei Wuxian can’t understand why Lan Wangji doesn’t let him take the blame for the drinking. 

Lan Qiren goes way the fuck overboard with this punishment because he's angry--losing control and losing his sense of proportion--and Lan Xichen is shocked. The drone camera watching from above is also shocked.  

Lan Qiren has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, but his extreme rigidity and chronic resentment of anyone he perceives as bad are serious problems. His nephews are both struggling with complex moral quandaries as they get older, and he is absolutely no help to them in resolving their conflicts.

This is definitely...a style of parenting & teaching, but you can see how poorly it works, with Lan Wangji straight up saying “fuck it” after many years of conformity.  Lan Xichen is devoted to the middle path and tries to be obedient. But he is actually not walking anywhere near the middle path, as he gets pulled into colluding with a murderer at the same time as getting dragged onto his brother’s carnival ride. These men need parenting that isn’t so, uh, fucking stupid. (Yes, grown adults still need good parenting; watch Go Ahead if you doubt me) 

Wei Wuxian initially yells and falls down when he gets hit, but then he sees Lan Wangji is taking the beating without any reaction and he tries to do the same. 

Aftermath

Jiang Yanli gently lectures the boys, blaming Jiang Cheng for Wei Wuxian's drinking.  Jesus Christ, he's the younger sibling, could you just NOT, Yanli?  

Both boys ask Yanli not to tell their parents. The boys bicker about who's at fault and then Wei Wuxian shifts to baby voice and starts whining to Yanli about the pain. 

Yanli tells him to suck it up, and says after school she'll -- ok and I know this will be a surprise for everyone -- make soup for them. The boys immediately get back on the same team, which is team Please Put Meat In the Soup.

There's a nice character building moment for Wei Wuxian here. When he sees Lan Xichen he initially turns away to avoid running into him, but then he adults-up and goes to face him and greet him, giving him a half of a bow because of the pain, the pain. Rather than complaining about his punishment he meekly asks if he's broken another rule. 

Lan Xichen tells him that he did wrong but that Lan Qiren’s punishment was too harsh, and then in what is one of my favorite Lan Xichen moments, invites Wei Wuxian to use the cold spring to heal, but doesn't invite Jiang Cheng to go with him even though Jiang Cheng also was beaten. Lan Xichen, Matchmaker Auntie Extraordinaire. 

Then he answers Wei Wuxian’s question about his mom by saying she was just like Wei Wuxian and drove Lan Qiran up the wall. Jiang Cheng's reaction to that is really sweet. He does enjoy Wei Wuxian at the same time as being constantly irritated by him. 

Lan Xichen does his patented “breaking off in the middle of saying something and leaving out a chunk of the story” maneuver, although this time he doesn't include a flute solo. 

OP is mildly obsessed with Xuan Lu’s shoulders in this outfit. Also Yanli has an interesting sword, that's got some wood carving similar to Subian, but without the organic look, which OP only noticed because of screen capping Xuan Lu’s shoulders.  

Club Ruohan

Wen Qing continues to be pretty and slightly evil at this stage, sending magic fire notes to her boss using this talisman that is definitely floating in the air and not just hanging from a string. 

Wen Ruohan is in the mosh pit with his zombie groupies while he reads Wen Qing’s extremely vague status update and says "it all makes sense." 

Reach out and touch faith

Soundtrack

Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Writing Prompt

How did Wei Wuxian’s parents die?

Admin Notes

I’m going to start spacing out my “first part” and “second part” posts by a few days.  I’ll update this post to link up the second part once I post it, and my masterpost is always up to date. 

Also: if you want more of my original content but don’t want to follow my whole blog (not following is fine!), I keep a pinboard of fun stuff at the top of my blog. I try to post original content at least once a week.

Continued in the second part later this week!

[coolgirl]

Hey what's Jason's relationship with nocturna? It's the first time I've heard of her😣 and nothing on her wikia mentioned anything about Jason. She seems interesting character and I would like to know more about her.

okay I went. A little insane. Here's a retelling of her pre crisis arc, long as hell  

(this part covers Batman #529 / Detective Comics #363 / Batman #530) ok for some context: it’s pre crisis, meaning this Jason was also a circus boy. He has recently lost his parents, and was taken by Bruce, but isn’t dealing with the loss well, finding himself missing his past life. PLUS Bruce isn’t allowing him to be his partner, and that has him sad as well. 

SO he wants to go back to the circus, since hes lonely and directionless etc.

NOW. ENTER NATALIA KNIGHT! Shes a villain, think.. Catwoman meets Poison Ivy? She’s a thief, but seduces men to do the stealing mostly. 

Her backstory is basically that she was an orphan living in the streets, and met who will then become his adoptive parent Charles Knight when she was 12. When she’s already an adult, Charles gets killed, and she finds out he had big money bags bc he was a criminal. and she said. awn man i like being rich. well. time to do crimes.

she’s rlly into the night and the stars (she was the head of the observatory, which Bruce was funding through his company or w/e)

anyways. she gets away, Jason helps bruce find her (but! bruce wouldnt le him help which rlly hurt jason), and as her and her partner anton are getting away (again) batman catches up to them, but only manages to bring anton to justice, while Nocturna escapes in like. one of those giant balloons idk whats the name

the issue ends with Nocturna/Natalia sending Bruce money for the maintenance of the observatory and with Jason deciding to leave

NOW onto the next part. So in this issue we have Jason escaping home, Bruce going to court against Natalia’s partner Anton, and Natalia just vibing around, and she happens to find Jason running away from home, and they have a conversation in which she tries to convince him to go back home.

but Jason. well.

So Bruce gets back home and Alfred tells him about Jason running away, and bruce, in real bruce fashion, is all like ughg i shouldve listened to him.. well lets go get him. and alfred is like. sir. do i have to remind u u arent his legal guardian yet. u have no right to decide where he stays.

so bruce is like ugh fine. i’ll go patrol then. which he does, and turns out Nocturna was trying to help Anton escape, and well it fails, and she gets captured too. 

and that’s that for Natalia… for now ;)

NOW. this isn’t relevant for Natalia & Jason but again some context. Covers um  covers fuck a bunch of issues. SO. what happens in this time

jason goes back to the circus but is deeply unhappy

he’s still doing detective work. hasnt seen bruce or alfred in a while

alfred visits

case stuff case stuff case stuff it was the clown all along

Jason ends up helping Bruce, since they were both working the same case separately, and they make up

NOW. a lot of shit happens not relevant to nocturna. Jason isnt robin for a while, then he uses Dicks costume, then bruce gets mad at him for that bc its not his costume, so jason uses his own costume, then dick gives him the robin costume, so jason becomes robin. um stuff stuff happens and all it matters is the panel below.

NOW! BACK TO NOCTURNA! 

her comeback arc kinda starts in batman #374, where this lady is like hold on.. bruce wayne isnt jasons legal guardian wtf, is he even fit to have a kid?

so she starts digging around, asking questions 

and shes like yea this is real fishy, give me that kid

so bruce and jason try to behave like uh yes no robin and batman business. let that kid be a kid.

but welp.

and so.. Jason is taken away :( and both of them are heartbroken :( 

but u know what! bruce wayne is one stubborn fucker! and he will fight to have the legal guardianship!

and even if they’re not living together anyomre they’re still the dynamic duo in a way, which like. lol. this lady took this kid away bc she was worried about him but he still ran away.. tch tch tch.

they’re both rlly depressed about the situation

AND THATS WHAT U MISSED ON GLEE!!

NOW. SHES BACK. look at this epic cover

shes now parterning w a dude named nightshade or smth, and he like. rlly wants to hit that, but shes like um pause ⏸️✋my love is the night. the dude, like every other man, is like so im not getting anything from this? fuck u, and leaves. shes like whatevers, ugh how annoying i dont have a partner again & anton is still in prison… &  while shes again chilling she finds out about Bruce trying to legally adopt jason & recognizes jason from the time they talked

& goes to visit him

and theres also this dude, whos not rlly relevant for now, will try to stop bruce from adopting jason which will be relevant later hehe (there's a whole subplot with him and bullock but like it's not rlly relevant to Jason n Natalia) (shrug emoji)

and so. Bruce finds out..

and so the cover becomes a reality, Bruce and Natalia WILL fight in a chuck n cheese parking lot to become Jason’s parent.. and Natalia may try to pull a reverse card on Bruce

and well. Bruce rlly has no chance now does he? and turns out Jason wants this to happen since hes convinced he can unreveal Natalia’s secrets from the inside

and a lil sweet moment between father & son

and then a moment with Amanda, who, in my opinion, did nothing wrong ever

meanwhile Anton comes back, tells Nocturna he killed the dude that was bothering her, and she gets PISSSSEDD OFF shes like u TARNISHED the night by SPILLING BLOOD, u absolute BEAST, Bruce gets there, some weird stuff happens that aged rlly poorly, then Nocturna stabs Anton to save Bruce, turns out she knows hes batman, again shes like marry me to have our son (Jason) and hes like no! and leaves. While Bruce tries to find Anton, Jason is like ive HAD IT i wanna go out, but Natalia stops him

then the next morning Amanda gets her head straight and talks to Jason

but well Jason is hellbent on exposing Natalia from the inside or w/e, and eventually she gets the custody, even if Amanda tries to convince him and the judge Bruce is a better choice (since she noticed Jason clearly favors him and was in pain when he wasnt at the wayne manor)

and everyone is coddling Bruce which im adding bc its cute and i miss this relationship Bruce had with Vicki and Julia 

MEANWHILE, at the knight house. mad hatter is a a weird creepy rat bastard n tries to get control of Natalia & get the information of her brain or smth. Batman gets there & we get a Batman vs Controlled nocturna fight and then Robin also arrives and its Batman & Robin vs Nocturna, but B tells Jason to focus on getting Mad Hatter, which he does and then gets Nocturna back to normal whatever, and she again asks Bruce to marry her, which hes again like no thank u! the issue ends with this page which is rlly sweet imo

next up Anton is back but it doesnt matter rlly. a woman is tending to him, n because shes blind hes like. im batman. yeah. and she believes it. 

AND then Jason is formally adopted by Natalia

Jason is still trying to find proof that shes evil, and they share a moment. 

but jason is like. gotta fight crime! and so Natalia is like well i tried. wanna go be robin a bit?

Batman & Robin go after mad hatter, and then Nocturna joins them bc shes epic

and takes jay home bc its a school night smh

Natalia & Jason spend some time together but Jason still doesn’t warm up to Natalia which like. makes sense since shes a villain and all that, but she tries nevertheless

and then everyones most hated bitch comes back (Yes, anton) n he attacks Natalia, and then Jason when he hears the ruckus and goes to help

but gets a chop

but! Bruce was just on his way to visit them so 

fight fight bruce gets shot in the head n gets amnesia and thinks the dude anton shot & killed was him

Anton swaps their costumes n makes Bruce believe that Anton is batman not him? or smth

afterwards Jason blames himself

and him & Natalia team up to find Bruce which includes.. carrying a corpse around

for three days (well. nights) anton just runs around stealing n shit dressed as batman, n bruce is. literally chilling on a rooftop. alfred is losing his mind bc !? jason hasnt contacted him!? about what happened!? but Julia comes home and comforts him

gotham is a lil in chaos with gordon vicki vale n bullock being suspicious, and the girl who was helping anton finds the stuff he stole and realizes hes not batman.

on the fourth night Jason n Natalia find Anton

n they fight him

but Anton gets the upper hand w Nocturna so Jason jumps in to defend her

and then Nocturna defends Jason bc thats his baby

but Anton doesnt get like. killed w that ofc, and hes like fuck u i’ll kill u one day but when the kid isnt here and after batman has fallen, bye (throws jason from building)

and Natalia reagroup n well.. some things are said

bc like even if Nocturna is helping shes a villain.. right? (thinking emoji)

meanwhile Bruce finally got his mind back. not important. who cares. the lady who was helping Anton goes to the police to tell them about Anton/fake batman dun dun dun. but Anton finds out and knocks out the policeman who went w the girl (Tina!) to check for proof n shit.

and guess whos back! amanda!

back to new dynamic duo

so Jason the little rascal (can i say hes a rascal when hes doing the hero thing n trying to expose a criminal?) goes looking for proof that Natalia is Nocturna n stuff, and finds some stolen things

1. singsonging.. hes such a little shit lmaoo, 2. she was worried… pause…

anyways. they have a confrontation 

in which Natalia swears shes reformed, but Jason doesnt buy it, and is like. im gonna get gordon! and Natalia is like.. do what u think is best

but. he can’t do it..

n hes like. well shes not bad anymore.. i wish i could go back to bruce without sending her to prison which… please development..  n natalia DOES want his love..

AND THEN! BRUCE IS BACK! and he teams up with Nocturna to find Anton, but its just their luck Amanda sees them

they do sm stuff not relevant and then Bruce is like go back to ur son now, and Natalia is like.. OUR son :)

well whatever whatever they get Anton, Bruce goes back to being Batman, they clear his reputation, Jason goes back to the manor since Amanda saw Natalia, etc

(he munches he crunches) also im gonna add this that isnt relevant bc its just so funny, buenos dias alfred

anyways stuff hapens, like idk 14 issues without nocturna, the most important bit that happened is that selina is back. which she was gone. yeah. but shes back and around.

ANYWAYS! 15 issues later! shes back! some dudes entered her old observatory n were vandalizing and she was like hold up

meanwhile we have Jason calling amanda bc he well.. misses his mom and as much as he loves bruce and hes his dad its not the same for some reason

jason in every universe: i miss my mom i want my mom :(

at school Jason overheards some kids talking about Natalia in the observatory

Jason goes looking for Natalia n turns out Bullock was also trying to see what was happening in the observatory, so they kinda team up for two whole panels to find her

but Jason is like im not telling u shit.. n goes w Natalia on his own

google always taking pics

n they share a moment ;_____;

n theyre reunited.. now ur gonna have to excuse me bc i didnt download the high quality of the next tec issues n all the download links are sadly broken

but… what about natalia?

then bullock finds them

well bullock lets her go n while retelling the stuff to gordon he has.. a theory

meanwhile Nocturna.. well Nocturna is back at it again, taking charge of a band of thieves.. sigh. 

anyways, they talk, theres something weird happening w the sky that may mean the world is ending or smth, and they make up AND make out

n they have a talk thats basically like. what now? should we be together? well depends if ur still gonna steal. i need funds to get the observatory back in track (HELLO BRUCE IS RICH HE COULD PAY IT..) and hes like oh so ur gonna be a thief again.. and shes like well havent u noticed im only stealing from corrupt rich politicians!? (QUEEN) n theres this gorgeous shot

n then they go their separate ways bc its fucking batman

anyways. Selina was also investigating the group of thieves (that were like black masks old gang but he was sent to prison so Nocturna took over etc) and she sees Nocturna leaving and follows her to the Observatory but.. Jason is there too

Selina wants her GOOOONE she needs to clear her name but Jason is like. over my dead body

n well ……. the girls are fightinggggggggggggggggggggggggg

but Bruce intercepts

n now Batman n Catwoman fight and its like the girls are fightingggggg… 2! but doesnt matter look at them

and then Selina gets struck by lightning

n then theres a earthquake bc god what a damn comic, and the observatory collapses, and Natalia is trapped inside

anyways Selina is in the hospital, Anton is still killing people and knows where she is and is trying to get to her, and this little scene happens with Jason n B

n while Bruce stays with Selina Jason goes to find Natalia which is so funny like. she went to Natalia, his mom, when Bruce told him to go home and well– we al know that story.

n now its a race to get to Natalia before Anton gets to her

n its rlly sad bc like Natalia is ready to die

n 

but both Bruce n Jason are trying to reach her

and here comes Jason!

AND LIKE. the fact she wants to live after all bc of Jason rlly makes me emotional not gonna lie! not gonna lie!

and no offense but a mother’s love………………………………….. no thoughts head empty

first of all i hate anton so fucking much. secondly here comes batdad..

n Jason tries to help Natalia escape and then get back to Bruce who is getting his ass kinda kicked

guess whos coming in that helicopter.. selina freaking kyle.. the legend.. and she helps Bruce with Anton. 

I REALLY DONT GET THIS TBH LIKE. he puts her into the giant balloon so she can get away but like shes hurt buddy shes gonna die up there.. 

and. shes gone.

n Jason is absolutely devastated

n like. Bruce. as always. is like ok champ i see u got it in control, lmk when u wanna go home

LIKE HES SO SAD.. OF COURSE HES SAD THAT WAS HIS MOM....

And thats. pretty much it. Natalia is gone. 

However Jason still grieves her, and when Bruce and Selina are trying to get back together and... hes not a big fan of their relationship.. at all. But bruce tries to pair them up so they can become at least friends, since he loves them both and doesnt want to like. pick between his son and his lover

and they make a fine team, even if Jason grieving Natalia and how Selina doesnt want to take her place is brought up a couple times :(

and it gives it a bittersweet ending to the arc

and well. thats it. thats the Jason and Natalia dynamic.

Natalia reappers later post crisis but well w/o her connection to Jason.. and i really dont wanna talk about the version of her that appears in batwoman comics LOL.  

conclusion: natalia was a bad lady, who at first wanted to use jason to get money from bruce, but then she had a change of heart, and development and became a kind of anti hero? well not antihero just.. she was trying her best man. i wish she hadnt disappeared like she couldve stayed relevant to jasons story without having to be romantically with bruce? bc if u read her comics u can see that she was killed off/voided for batcat to comeback which... typical batcat! anyways. i think she genuinely loved and cared for jason and that jason loved her and cared for her right back :( 

[the-dumbest-po3-au]

part 4 - the dumbest po3 au

its been. nine. montsh im SO SORRY GUYS LMAO

for those of you who dont know what the dumbest po3 au is, click this link

for those of you who have not read the summaries for power of three, part 1 - part 2 - part 3

alright!!!!!!! dovewing time

the fourth apprentice

the book opens w/ ivykit and dovekit in the nursery. ivykit suggests going out to explore the territory and dovekit is like “wow. that sounds like a fantastic idea ivykit you are so smart"

whitewing says No Absolutely Not, and leaves at some point to go make dirt. they sneak out and not 5 minutes later they get lost. dovekit gets blames ivykit for suggesting it and they get into a fight. they both get really mad & dovekit runs off. because shes like a stupid 2 year old gets distracted, rams her head into a rock and passes out. rip dovekit. she wakes up and sees a fox kit coming towards her. she screams.

her head hurts and shes tired and now shes going to die. out of nowhere a huge cat beats up the fox and scares it away. dovekit passes out (again)

when she wakes up, she is next to a cat messing with a bunch of weird plants. the cat sees that she woke up and introduces himself as littlecloud. he asks what her name is. “dove… dove…?? i dont know” says dovekit.

he asks her how she got there, and if she has any family. she does not remember. so littlecloud tells her she’s gonna have to stay here for the time being. he asks her if anything hurts, and dovekit says she thinks may have hit her head.

he gives her some of the weird plants and she goes back to sleep. when she wakes up her head has stopped hurting and she feels a lot better. she gets up to go walk around and is immediately introduced to the tawnyspawn.

tigerpaw is stupid and friendly (and hellbent on being her future best friend). dawnpaw is obnoxious and a bit (read: extremely) condescending but interested. flamepaw is nice and also the only one with half a braincell.

they take her around and introduce her to the rest of the clan. she sees blackstar and is like. “im pretty sure thats my dad” tigerpaw gasps. flamepaw and dawnpaw are like. “What.” “he saved me from the fox im pretty sure thats my dad,” says dovekit

they go harass blackstar. dovekit follows him around like a puppy and the tawnspawn follow her. he has this train of literal 2 yr olds trailing after him and is wildly unhappy about this development. russetfur is also definitely siccing the kids on him to make him mad.

dawnpaw gives dovekit a passionate speech about the clans, but mostly how evil riverclan kicked completely innocent shadowclan out of their home, and how shadowclan has to set everything right and deliver justice to those cringe fail fishheads, or something.

a few days later the tawnyspawn are off doing their own thing and dovekit goes to see whats going on. dawnpaw tries to shut tigerpaw up but he spills the beans anyways. “we’re going to attack riverclan on a Secret Mission so that we can win back shadowclan’s honor and become WARRIORS so you cant tell anybody”

dawnpaw sighs. “dovekit this is for Big Kids Only, so you cant be here.” flamepaw is trying to talk tigerpaw out of doing this in the bg but tigerpaw is being stubborn. dovekit is sad about it but goes back to sulk in camp (and to harass her new dad).

a few hours later tawnypelt runs over to blackstar and is like. “blackstar my children are missing nobody knows where they went”

"oh!! they went to go attack riverclan to get back shadowclan’s territory!” informs dovekit helpfully.

“what.” says blackstar, tawnypelt, and russetfur in unison. the sky immediately opens up and starts Pouring. tawnypelt freaks out. dovekit is like “why cant we just follow the sound of their voices??” but everyone ignores her bc they think shes just being stupid.

“Fine!! ill just go find them on my OWN” says dovekit, following them by the sound of their voices (theyre proally arguing over something stupid).

now four of shadowclan’s children are missing. “you brought that kid here so you get to deal with her,” says russetfur. blackstar sighs dramatically and goes off to find his new child.

dovekit runs into an old man cat. “whatre you doin here??” says old man cat. “im looking for my friends!! whats your name :0? im dovekit!!” “my names purdy!”

blackstar shows up and is like. who tf are you. “this is my new friend purdy!!!” says dovekit. blackstar doesnt even know how to respond. “look we’re going to go back to the camp right now and we’re not taking this dude with us.”

dovekit is like “??? no??? we have to get my friends theyre right over there??” she says pointing in their direction w/ her tail. blackstar is ready to cry. so blackstar and purdy follow dovekit as she leads them closer to riverclan territory where they hear the tawnyspawn screeching like banshees.

they run over and find several cats w/ the tawnyspawn who are pinned down. “if you breathe in my direction ill kill all three of these children,” says a snotty dude.

“who tf are you” says blackstar

“im darktail you insolent snot,” says darktail.

one of his cats grabs dovekit and blackstar snaps. he lunges at darktail while purdy beats up the dude who snatched dovekit. the tawnyspawn take advantage of the moment, escape, and dogpile the other cats. its a disaster.

darktail swears revenge on blackstar till his dying day or something. nobodys really paying attention to him at this point. he runs off w/ his crew. “alright then” says blackstar. this has been a really weird and long day for everyone. blackstar wants to leave purdy but all the children immediately start crying. they bring purdy home.

“holy crap!!! purdy!!!!!” says tawnypelt. “why are you here??” but then she sees her children. she and rowanclaw give them a very stern lecture about Not Running Off Without Telling Anyone (in which tawnypelt is a massive hypocrite but to be fair god told her to)

in the meanwhile, blackstar asks dovekit how tf she knew they were there. “i could hear them, Obviously. ???? cant u not???” blackstar just looks at her. dovekit realizes that probably not everyone shares this ability. blackstar shoos her off and calls a meeting w/ the senior warriors.

dovekit goes off to bother purdy for stories and play w/ the tawnyspawn. nothing particularly interesting happens. blackstar and russetfur call her over later and start assessing her abilities. its only slightly a disaster because shes wildly distracted 80% of the time and her powers are unwieldy bc shes a kit.

cue training. there is a lot of trial, error, and tears (on both sides) but it works out in the end (mostly).

time skip. its been a few months. dovekit becomes dovepaw and blackstar mentors her b/c of her powers. at this point shes gotten control of how to pick out numbers, locations, troops, etc. basically she is a living radar.

blackstar calls another meeting w/ the senior warriors and afterwards calls a clan meeting. “alright losers we’re going to take back our territory and kick riverclan’s butt”

they go over the clan w/ all the cats and begin the trek home. another time skip because that takes a while and nothing particularly interesting happens.

when they get back, the clan stays outside the border while blackstar has dovepaw do a sweep of the territory. she finds a patrol led by a black cat named reedwhisker. blackstar picks a patrol out and they go to ambush the riverclan patrol.

the shadowclan patrol takes reedwhisker + the patrol hostage, but lets one go to tell mistystar. mistystar takes a patrol and comes over. “if you dont give us back our territory i will kill your son” says blackstar. mistystar is like “bro. i dont even want your stupid crusty territory anyways. screw you.”

she takes her son and the rest of the patrol and leaves. another win for shadowclan, obviously. maybe they have a party idk. end of book.

fading echoes

cinderheart has not been doing well. she’s been doing really badly, actually. her best friend died and she blames herself. she’s still grieving and continually lashing out at everyone around her. poppyfrost and honeyfern attempted to be there for her but after the continual rebuffs they decided to just give her space.

unfortunately cinderheart. doesnt have any other friends in thunderclan, so the only person she can talk to is lionblaze. unfortunately theres only so much he can do from windclan, so mostly shes been just been going into a downward spiral.

ivypaw hasnt been doing great either. she feels extremely guilty because she thinks its her fault that dovekit ran away, and when dovekit is never found, it gets 50x worse.

but she also doesnt want to say anything about her involvement in fear of getting punished. as time goes on, she starts getting babied by the clan (almost like leopardstar when she was a kid) because her sister disappeared and she took it really hard.

and like on one hand, she likes the attention, but on the other hand its too much a lot of the time. she starts adopting this “stop babying me!1!1!!!”/kinda edgy persona. the clan takes it like shes grieving, and she’ll grow out of it, so they dont say too much.

so the book opens w/ ivypaw and fernpaw’s apprentice ceremony. brief context about how fern was recently found by the thunderclan border w/o parents and taken into the clan. fernsong is apprenticed to brightheart. ivypool is apprenticed to cinderheart.

firestar probably thinks that they might be able to bond/break through to each other because they recently lost a sister/adjacent sister. neither of them are particularly enthusiastic about it.

cinderheart isnt particularly invested in ivypaw’s training. ivypaw can tell and gets rightfully frustrated, bc brightheart and fernpaw are getting along great and making lots of progress, while ivypaw is falling behind becuase cinderheart is being a terrible mentor.

ivypaw starts fighting back (disobeying, talking back, etc.), partially because this is the only time she gets paid attention, and partially because shes just mad, which makes cinderheart mad, which then makes ivypaw fight back more. this causes cinderheart to become more and more distant. in short: ivypaw’s apprenticeship is a disaster.

at some point during training, theyre practicing climbing trees and cinderheart tells ivypaw to do something. to spite her, ivypaw does the opposite and ends up falling, dislocating her leg. cinderheart panics and cinderpelt emerges.

cinderpelt basically possesses cinderheart and relocates her arm. they go back to camp and take ivypaw to the medicine cat den, gives ivypaw some poppy seeds and ditches.

“wow um. wtf was that” says cinderheart. leafpool is like, “hahaha………… about that. you’re um… cinderpelt reincarnated.”

“what.” says cinderheart

“CINDERHEART IS CINDERPELT REINCARNATED???” screams foxleap at the top of his lungs in the middle of camp. whatever was left of cinderheart’s life shatters.

so now instead of ignoring her, the entire camp won’t leave her alone - except now they just treat her as they would cinderpelt. “hey cinderheart remember when [enter something that happened in the old forest here]??” “hey cinderheart can you fix my paw??” “hey cinderpelt-” “are you going to become a medicine cat then??”

to pour more salt into the wound, cinderheart now gets a free commentary on everything in her life!! (this definitely includes lionblaze) there used to be sort of a barrier between cinderheart/cinderpelt but since cinderpelt emerged/took control, it shattered.

so between cinderpelt complaining about all the terrible decisions she’s made and the entire clan pretending that she’s cinderpelt instead of a Completely Different Person, when hawkfrost shows up w/ an invite to fight club on the weekends cinderheart is more than happy to take him up.

sure hawkfrost is wildly annoying and clearly hates her guts for some reason (no matter how hard he pretends not to whenever tigerstar is around) but this is great for three reasons.

1) nobody in the dark forest has any idea she’s cinderpelt. 2) warrior training!! emphasizing she is a Warrior not a medicine cat. 3) time away from cinderpelt!! they arent the same soul so they cant read each other’s thoughts (unless theyre trying to communicate) and cant share dreams

so she might be purposely oblivious. whatever. she doesnt even know who hawkfrost is b/c anybody outside of riverclan immediately forgot about him because he really was not very effective at all. and its not like hes about to start spilling the beans until shes ready to be indoctrinated w/ dark forest propaganda.

meanwhile, tensions between shadowclan and thunderclan have been rapidly rising. again. prey is being stolen, scents are on other territories, patrols get into skirmishes often.

firestar is hurt because he was trying to get mistystar to lay off on the territory and blackstar is mad because they literally Just got back and thunderclan is ALREADY trying to reinstate old rivalries.

cinderheart really isnt paying attention to what’s going on cuz shes. more than a little wrapped up in her own problems. until it turns into a war.

this battle feels way more vicious than normal. cinderheart tries to recall how this whole thing started and realizes she has absolutely no idea what tf is going on???

throughout the fight she notices weird stuff happening. mousewhisker and redwillow nod to each other. ratscar + blossomfall swap glances. applefur pulls snowbird off thornclaw’s back. literally wtf thinks cinderheart

and then russetfur takes a stab at firestar. out of nowhere, thornclaw goes for her throat. cinderheart barely saves russetfur in the nick of time - the injuries are bad enough that she is forced to retire.

“screw literally everyone in thunderclan except u” blackstar says pointing @ cinderheart “and i hope the rest of you rot in the dark forest.” he rounds the rest of shadowclan up and then leaves.

“well that was weird” says cinderheart. she goes off to find ivypaw and realizes that shes. not responding. oh thats a lot of blood-

cinderpelt pops up again and works w/ cinderheart to patch up ivypaw until she’s stable. they bring her into the medicine den together and let leafpool look her over. she says that they made it in time and ivypaw will live. she leaves to go look after the other patients, leaving cinderheart with her apprentice

cinderheart realizes that this is her fault. had she actually paid attention to ivypaw and given her proper training, this wouldn’t have happened. she resolves to try a lot harder to be a good mentor for ivypaw’s sake.

cinderpelt approves and apologizes for being so intrusive on cinderheart’s life. she really doesnt want to be in here either - this was a decision the idiots in starclan forced on her. she was taking it out on cinderheart, which wasn’t fair for her.

cinderpelt promises to try to give cinderheart as much privacy as she can (while trying to figure out how to get out of her brain). cinderheart thanks her. there’s a brief bonding moment.

cinderpelt says that since ivypaw seems stable she’s going to go to sleep now, since she exhausted herself earlier.

just as cinderpelt goes out to the back of cinderheart’s mind, blossomfall comes storming in about how cinderheart messed the plan up and how cinderheart screwed everything up for everyone & she’s a traitor to the cause, Honestly cinderheart you’re so useless-

“literally wtf are you talking about” says cinderheart

“you saved russetfur,” blossomfall says. “if we take out the leaders and deputies, we can destabilize the clans enough that taking over will be a piece of cake. are you a dark forest trainee or not, cinderheart?”

end of book

[mickmarstookmyheart]

Life's a Sick Joke pt 2

Pairing: Mick Mars x Reader

Would like to start from the beginning? Here is Part 1 !

Sidenote: As this story is under construction, I would like to warn you that those chapters which don’t have a proper title are written in the main caharcter’s POV!! Be aware!!! Be awaaare! I hope you will enjoy this storyas I did writing it, have a nice day and feel free to leave marks!

2. After-Meeting Party

"Hey Liz, you forgot your helmet! Don't dare to ride without it." Dylan threw it in your way and you caught it smoothly. You said goodbye to him and ran down the stairs, hoping not to meet any of your neighbors.

You packed your stuff into the bag of your motorbike. It was a beautiful, shining jet black chopper. You've worked your ass off to afford it, but it was way cheaper than a car. Perks, you can easily avoid traffic jams. It was just still February and all, but since you hate public transport, particularly people, you got your helmet on and pulled the leather jacket down your waist.

On your way to the meeting, plenty of things crossed your mind. Firstly, in a couple of months, you will be on the road and travel a LOT with Ozzy Osbourne as the opener group during 'Bark at the Moon' tour. Secondly, how should you behave with the boys and the other members of the staff? Should you joke with them or stay calm and silent and ignore all the witty sentences they will tell? And finally, Mick. You hoped he forgot that little chat between the two of you.

When you got there and finally found a parking lot. You took off your helmet and headed towards the building. Inside you took a look at the big clock and saw that you were half an hour earlier, but you didn't mind. Never have you ever been late from anywhere. I gave a look to that clerk from last time and confidently stepped in the elevator. When you got in front of the office door you hesitated a bit. When you stepped in you said a shy hello to the others who were already there. You sat down at the end of the table and started to read the papers on the desk.

"Hey, don't touch them! It's confidential." At the same moment, you dropped the papers and looked over the man in complete shock. You felt my face burn in embarrassment.

"Oh...I'm so sorry. I didn't know..." You tried to say a proper sentence.

"Just kidding, kid. Don't worry. Anyway, I'm Doc." He approached you and shook hands.

"(Y/N). Nice to finally meet you." You were smiling since you truly meant it. He already managed some bands you liked so much.

"Are you the new makeup artist?" He asked rubbing the back of his head guessing.

"Nope. I'm a photographer. I don't, more like I can't really do anything with makeup." You chuckled remembering your many attempts with make-up. You either ended like a clown or you never saw any difference.

"Ohh so you are the nerd one." Yaaay now they will call you The Nerd™. Cool. "Anyway, I read your CV. Nice qualifications. To be honest I expected an old, skinny man with a big mustache to be the photographer. But it's a pleasant disappointment."

"Thank you. I guess." You said after he left you there.

After he left the room, you let your hair loose and fix it a bit due to the helmet completely ruined it. The only body part you adored was your hair. Well, your hair, generally in the family. All the three of you and your bitch mother had silver, almost platinum white hair.

10 am. Finally. Everybody was present except for the four musicians. Nothing really happened, just discussed things which relate to the staff.

10:30 am. The door opened and the dark knight himself entered the meeting. You tried to avoid eye contact with him so you entertained yourself by the color of the wall and the long, shining glass table in front of you.

"I am sorry." Mick apologized and shut the door after himself. So he is the only one who attended the meeting. Nice.

"So, your interview went well I see." He whispered in your ear as he sat down next to you. Next to you. There were plenty of other seats available, but he had to sit down right there. Yay. Becoming invisible mission failed.

"Yeah...I was surprised, too." You said blushing.

You tried my best, really. You tried to concentrate on the meeting and jot down important information, but every time Doc joked and Mick chuckled or laughed you completely lost control. You always felt his eyes on you. It was frustrating. You cleared your throat more than once as a sign for him to look away but he didn't get it or just didn't want to. Doc started to write on the board the important concert dates and so did you.

"Shouldn't we wait until the boys come?" You chuckled. A girl asked who was sitting in front of you. She was a rookie, too if you had to guess.

"It's very unlikely to happen, dear. They are rockstars and they do whatever they feel like." Doc sighed continuing on the board.

"You know I'm sitting here, right?" Mick asked in a serious tone. Everybody cracked up, including me.

"If you really want to see them, check them at the after-meeting party." Doc told the girl.

"After-meeting party?"

You whispered to Mick.

"Yep. You coming?" He asked leaning closer. His breath was doing things to you.

"I don't know. Maybe. Although, I can't really drink, and party without alcohol isn't a party."

"And what if I won't drink either? That would be fair, right?" He offered in a very dangerous tone, it gave you goosebumps.

"Ohh I can't expect it from you. It's a party overall!"

"I want to be sober when I'm talking to you. I want to remember everything you say and tell me." Your heart skipped a beat.

At the party

"Hey, Mick!!! We didn't expect you to be hereeeee!!" Nikki yelled as he, Tommy, and Vince entered the party. They were all drunk as hell but trying to act sober. You and Mick were sitting at the bar drinking juice and water. Shame.

"Fuck. I didn't know what I was missing. These morons." He placed his face in his hands. Somehow you felt a sudden urge to touch his shoulder to comfort him, but you didn't have the guts to do so.

"And who is this?" The boys approached you and stopped in front of you. Vince eyed from head-to-toe and was grinning. "Nice to meet you, dear. I'm Vince Neil, the singer, and leader of this band."

"Vince, you are the lead singer, not the leader. It's not the same, man." Nikki corrected Vince.

"(Y/N)." He held your hand and placed a kiss on the top of it.

"My lady." Mick just rolled his eyes. You were afraid he might eye-roll himself into another dimension.

"And (Y/N)....what?" Tommy asked curiously.

"I'm sure she is (Y/N) Sixx cause I will fucking marry her, man!" He and his terror twin high-fived while you and Mick just shared a look.

"Wow. That was so original. You don't have better pickup lines?" You asked pulling one of your eyebrows at him.

"Hey, that was good. As me." He winked and with that, he just walked away pretending to be offended.

"I'm Tommy. Tommy Lee. And I really would like to know your surname!! Is it embarrassing or what?" He snickered.

"Well if you look me with those puppet eyes of yours I'm gonna tell ya. My name is (Y/N) Cooper." You sighed and waited for the reaction. Tommy was wide-eyed and already turned towards his bandmates.

"Hey Sixx, Vinnie! This is Alice Cooper's daughter!" You facepalmed since you already knew this will happen. A bunch of idiots.

"No, man. This is the reason I didn't want to tell it. Because you, fucking teenagers will immediately think that I'm a relative of Alice Cooper!!" You snapped and now completely understand Mick's thoughts about them.

"Chills, dude. I'm leaving." Lee held his hands up in defense and left you there with Mick.

"Fucking teenagers" is my line." Mick spoke up after they all left.

"You need to copyright it sometime."

∆Still at the party∆

"So I already know that you like taking pictures. Tell me your story!" You were now on the balcony which was much quieter and peaceful them downstairs. You finally convinced Mick to drink something even if you couldn't. He had a bottle of beer in his hands and was gesturing with it.

"I don't really know what to tell. What do you want to know?" You asked while taking a sip from your water. Water at a party. You couldn't believe it either.

"Well, do you live near here? Children?" He paused for a second. He looked at you from the coach. "Husband?" You smiled at the last question.

"Woah, Woah, Woah. Hold on! One question at once! I can't even remember them. Well, if you really want to know we live 30 minutes from here. We moved here at least four years ago."

"With whom?" He asked while he slowly stood up and leaned on the railing of the balcony beside you.

"With my brother and sister. Woah, now just with my brother, cause Isabelle went to uni. And for that husband topic...I haven't really had any proper relationship, there were mostly jerks, dumps, and idiots, in that order." You looked down and laughed at how miserable you were with relationships. "Also looking after my sister and sometimes my brother is just like having a baby." He chuckled. "And what about you?"

"I have a sister, called Susie and three..."

"Brothers?" You asked back not letting him finish his sentence. Mick already regretted intending to mention his children so it was a good come out.

"Yeah, sure." He said before taking a sip of his booze. He stood closer to you so his shoulder was touching yours. Mick met many girls during his life who were pretty and kind, but when he saw you in the office acting nervous, he knew you will completely turn upside down his whole life.

You hummed from the slight touch and leaned your head on his shoulder. You were admiring the view of the city night and the peaceful quiet. Then something crossed your mind like thunder during a storm.

"Holy shit." You cursed thinking he will kill you.

"What is it?" Mick asked worryingly.

"I forgot to call him, my brother. He will kill me. Sorry, but I gotta go."

"Okay, I will wait here." Mick sighed and thought he fucked it up this time. Maybe this touch and personal questions just scared you away. You headed towards the phonebooth downstairs. You felt terrible leaving Mick there all alone, but your brother must be worried sick, not knowing a thing about you.

You found a phone in the kitchen which was not that quiet. Cool. It ranged at least a million times until he picked it up.

"What kind of meeting lasts for more than 3 hours? I worried sick. Where are you?" He ranted on the phone. He was pretty angry.

"I'm so sorry, Dylan. Time just flew. Currently, I'm in a house party near to the office. It's a so-called after meeting party. Sounds ridiculous, I know." You smiled on the phone.

"Sure, it does. But you aren't drinking, are you? I hope you remember...that thing."

"Yeah I remember and you don't have to remind me all the time. And I'm sober. Anyway, Mick is asking of you."

"So...becoming invisible mission failed?"

"It fucking did."

"Who are you talking to, my dear?" A strangely familiar voice echoed from your back so you turned around. Vince. Dear Satan give you enough strength to handle him.

"Hey, Dylan I have to go, but I will set off soon, I promise. See ya later." And without waiting for his respond you hung up. After putting back the phone you glared at him, not in a mood for his attempts.

"What do you want, Vince?" You asked while heading back to poor Mick.

"Just a kiss from a rose." He stepped in front of you and put his fingers under your chin.

"No way, man! You are wasted and I'm not enough wasted to kiss you. So, please let me go." You wanted to walk beside him back to Mick, but he grabbed your wrist and pulled closer to him. Mick went back to the room and was about to leave this party since he supposed you weren't coming back. It was too long now for just a telephone conversation.

"It's just a kiss. From me. From the fucking lead singer of Mötley fucking Crüe." He whispered in your ear.

"But asshole, I don't give a damn of who you are. And get your hands off me!" You were about to walk away but he crushed his lips on yours. You immediately moved away and punched him in the face. He fell to the floor and held his hand on his face.

"You BITCH! You hit me!!" You stood there in complete shock, not believing what you just did. Everyone was staring at you. Your hand hurt like hell and you just wanted to be somewhere else.

"I'm so sorry. I should...go." You ran out of the bar and got on your bike.

"Hey, (Y/N)! Please wait!" Mick yelled from the door and was approaching you. "Where are you going?"

"Didn't you see what I did? I punched Vince. Actually, he is my boss. I fucked it up." You sighed and was gripping the hand clutch so strong your hand was already white.

"In that case, I'm your boss, too. And what did he do? I just saw that he is on the floor and you are running out."

"He...he tried to kiss me. I told him to stop and go away but he didn't. And after all, he did it and I got furious and hit him." You took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. Mick didn't know what to think at first, he was just amazed at how badass you were and angry as hell about Vince.

"Don't worry. He is so drunk he won't even remember it in the morning." Mick tried to chill you down.

"Are you sure? But what Doc will think? He is angry I guess..." You murmured.

"I think he didn't even notice it. And he won't care if Vince will go to him and cry like a girl who just broke her nails."

You chuckled. He stepped closer and you hugged him. You didn't know why you just needed someone to comfort you. He didn't move for a second. Later he hugged you back and rubbed your back. Mick wanted that moment to last forever, though it felt like a minute. Your strong grip, your smell and your hair in his face were just perfect. You were just perfect.

"Thank you for always being there when I need the most." You wiped your tears away and felt awkward." Sorry, this might sound strange." You sniffed.

"Hey, it's okay and I understand." A long pause and awkward silence. "So is this your bike? It looks badass." He took a look at your bike.

"Yap, it's mine. And thanks. I worked a lot to get it. But it worthed." You looked in the distance for a while. You thought about Vince and that you may have to look for a new job and had to leave Mick.

You screwed it up. 

Next chapter

Tags: @cmft-jr-winchester  @leatherandheels​

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

Right-Side Up AU, Part Three: It’s the End of the World {AO3} {tumblr} {Part One} {Part Two}

Chapter Eighteen → Investigating the Flayed

“Okay, so, I managed to get my squad to do something useful,” Hopper said, hanging up the phone. “They just got Ms Driscoll’s test results.” 

“And?” Mike asked, bouncing his leg. 

“Cold.” Hopper crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Very low temperatures. And her ‘seizure’- the way the nurse described it to Callahan, it sounds just like Max.” 

Max shivered. “So Ms Driscoll is flayed.” 

“I’m sorry, what?” Joyce asked. 

“Flayed. Like the Mind Flayer.” Max explained. “He controls people. Takes over their minds. They basically become him.” 

“If there are two flayed-” Lucas began. 

“We have to assume there are more.” El shuddered.

Mike bit his lip, and then looked down at his lap. “Heather.” 

“Who?” Hopper asked, moving forwards a bit, the wheels in his head turning. 

“Billy was doing something to her.” Mike said, hugging himself. “She was… scared. She was screaming.”

“I’m sorry, I’m lost.” Joyce said. 

“Me, too.” Hopper sighed. “Kid, who is Heather?” 

“She’s a lifeguard at the pool.” Max said. 

Mike narrowed his eyes. “Her dad is mean to Nancy.” 

“What?” Hopper said. 

“He’s her boss.” El said. 

“Oh, that son of a-” Joyce began. 

“Mike?” Lucas paused, turning to him. “We saw Heather. At her house.” 

“You went to her house?” Hopper asked. 

“Did we not… tell you that?” El asked, running over in her mind what they had and hadn’t told her father. 

“She must’ve been flayed.” Mike said. “And pretending to be normal, like Billy.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Lucas nodded. “But- Mike- what about her parents?” 

“What about them?” 

“Could they be flayed, too?” 

“I don’t-” 

“Lucas’s right.” El said, staring at her lap. “Billy was there, too. Why would he be there-” 

“Unless they were recruiting.” Max bit her lip. 

“We need to get over there.” Joyce said, clasping her hands together and resting her chin on them. “If we can investigate one of the flayed- find out how they’ve been flayed-” 

“We can stop them.” Lucas finished. 

“And the sooner the better.” Joyce sighed, her mind still on her sons. 

“I’ll drive.” Hopper said. “Get all the stuff you need. We’re moving out before I can get arrested.” 

“Why would you get arrested?” El asked worriedly. 

“Aren’t you the sheriff?” Max asked. 

Hopper sighed. “How do you think we got information out of the mayor?” 

El gaped as Max’s eyes widened, and then she said, “Wicked.” 

“You’re the coolest Dad.” Max nodded. 

“Of course. Of course the fucking car breaks down.” Nancy muttered, tying her hair back and staring down at the car engine. 

Jonathan was standing near the skinny tree they’d handcuffed the prisoner around- Alexei, he’d had managed to find out. Jonathan was attempting to communicate, but not very well. 

“You see, these rocks?” Jonathan held up two rocks. “This one is Hawkins. This one is the Upside Down. You guys are-” he clapped the rocks together. “Which is bad. So tell us what you’re doing so we don’t do that.” 

Alexei stared at him in confusion, and then Jonathan sighed. “That machine you’re building. Machine. Can you tell us about it?” 

“Machina?” 

“Yes! Machina!” Jonathan nodded. “Yes, good-” 

Alexei gestured- as best he could while handcuffed around a tree- to the car, saying, “Machina! Vroom vroom?” 

“Oh, no, no.” Jonathan sighed. “No, no, not the car. The machine, at the farm. Where we kidnapped you-” 

“Jonathan!” Nancy turned, holding out the keys. “I need you to try to start it.” 

“Why can’t you?” 

“If it doesn’t start, I’ll need to see what’s not working!” 

Jonathan sighed. “I’m- I’m making progress.” 

“Okay, well, make progress in the car on the way to Murray’s, yeah?” 

Jonathan sighed and walked to the car, taking the keys. “Okay, but I’m driving there.” 

“Okay, listen, the engine failing is not my fault.” 

“No but those dents are. Hop’s not gonna like that.” 

“We’ll say it was Russians. We’re blaming everything else on them, we might as well.” 

Jonathan hopped into the driver’s seat, and put the key in the ignition, turning it. Instead of starting, the engine made a strange, repetitive wooshing sound. 

“Great. Freaking perfect.” Nancy sighed, staring back at the engine. “Try it again?” 

Jonathan tried it again, and Nancy hoisted her feet onto the edge of the bumper, peering over the engine, the top of her head grazing the hood of the car. As she leaned over, she heard a hesitant call from Alexei. “Machina! Stop, stop!” 

“What?” Nancy turned, glaring at him. He started speaking rapid Russian, and Nancy groaned and jumped off the car, moving back over to him. “Listen, dude, I’ve been having a hell of a week, and you’re not making it any better-” 

Just before she could really start shouting, she heard a small crack from behind, and she whipped around, seeing a puff of smoke emerge from the engine. 

“Oh.” she said. 

“Oh, shit!” Jonathan shouted, rushing out of the car.

He’d only just cleared the vehicle, heading for the trees, when the engine full-on exploded, bursting into flame before their eyes, rising much higher than Nancy would’ve expected. 

Jonathan gasped, looking up from where he’d fallen in the dirt, while Nancy simply stared. Alexei repeated, resignedly, “Stop,” and she shut her eyes. 

“Hop is going to kill me.” 

“Well…” Jonathan said, shutting his eyes. “I guess we’re walking to Illinois.” 

Nancy sighed. “Is there anyone in Indiana who speaks Russian?” 

“Well, I’m all ears, Nance, you have any suggestions?” 

Nancy groaned and turned to their captive. “Come on, Alexei, we’ve got a long-ass walk ahead of us.” 

“Door’s locked.” El said, stepping back. 

“Okay.” Lucas clapped his hands together. “Mike, do you-” 

“On it.” Mike said, flicking his wrist and watching the red door swing open. 

Joyce glanced back at him, putting a hand on his shoulder as Hopper entered, a hand on the gun he’d managed to get a hold of. The kids followed after, with Lucas in front, saying, “We saw them all in the dining room, this way.” 

“Jesus, it’s freezing.” Joyce said, hugging herself. 

“What’d you expect? They’re possessed.” Max said, leaning onto El’s shoulder. 

“We don’t know-” El began. 

“Are we sure they’re not home?” Lucas asked. 

“Nobody answered the doorbell.” Joyce shrugged. 

“Stop.” they stepped into what must have been the living room, and Hopper threw out an arm, causing everyone to skitter to a halt. “Do you all smell that?” 

They inhaled, and Lucas stepped back, throwing his hands over his nose. “Oh, God.” he said. 

The others made their way to the kitchen, where several bottles were overturned on the counter and tables, sticky stains beneath them. Upon closer inspection, the bottles appeared to be liquid cleaners- dish soap, detergent, the full works. Joyce carefully moved to the edge of a counter that had been almost completely melted, which was… not a good sign. 

“Chemicals.” El moved to the table, kneeling down. “They’re mixing chemicals together.” 

“Hey, Hop, Ms Byers,” Max said, moving beside her sister and putting a hand on her shoulder, “Didn’t you say that old lady was eating fertilizer?” 

“What, you think they’re guzzling this shit?” Joyce said. 

“Either that,” Hopper sighed, “Or they went on one hell of a cleaning spree.” 

“Well, I didn’t eat chemicals.” Max shrugged. 

“So,” Mike said, biting his lip worriedly, “This is something new.” 

“Alright, Max,” El clapped her hands together. “Mr Clarke, fifth grade. What happens when you mix chemicals together?” 

“You create a new substance.” Max said. “You think they’re making something? If you drink this crap, it’ll kill you.” 

“Yeah,” Hopper said, looking around the dissolved corner of the counter, “If you’re human.” 

“Guys?” They turned, to see Lucas peering around the doorway. “I went to the dining room. You’re gonna want to see this.” 

“What?” Max asked, tensing. 

Lucas covered his nose again, as the smell of the chemicals drifted towards him, and he just said, “They never cleaned up, that’s what.” 

“What?” 

“El, Mike, when we came over and saw them in the middle of dinner- this is what they had, right?” 

The group hesitantly followed Lucas into the dining room, where he gestured towards plates and glasses still on the table, only half-finished. As El went to the table, nodding that, yeah, this is what they’d seen them eating, Hopper walked past them, to a space that looked like a living room, staring down at a wine bottle on the carpet. As soon as the others followed him, he knelt down, reaching for a dark stain on the rug. 

“Blood.” he said. 

Slowly, he reached over and grabbed the bottle, pulling it closer, to see a small splash of blood on the label. 

Hopper stood up, and Joyce moved past him, looking at another rug that looked like it had been pulled across the floor. “Billy or Heather could’ve dragged one of her parents,” she said, her eyes narrowing, “Which would’ve moved the rug like this.” 

“Which would lead us…” Hopper moved to the next room, pulling the door open and leading the group in after him. The children, silent and just watching the adults as they pieced everything together, kept their eyes on them as they led them into the garage, where the sliding door was still wide open. 

Hopper knelt by the remains of some rope. “They were tied. They had to have taken them somewhere.” 

“Why take them somewhere else?” Joyce said. 

“Maybe the Mind Flayer needs them to be in a certain area to possess them.” Max said, running a hand through her ponytail. “He could reach me in the field, but- but he’s not as strong now. It’ll just be a piece of him. Maybe he’s hiding somewhere.” 

“Somewhere,” Mike said, shivering, “That he didn’t want me to see.” 

“We need to find it.” Joyce said. 

Hopper nodded. “We find the source, we can stop him. Or, at least, whatever the hell he’s doing.” 

“How do we do that?” El asked. 

“What about that lady?” Lucas asked, turning to Joyce. “The one Nancy made you talk to, who was eating fertilizer?” 

“Ms Driscoll.” Joyce said. 

“If she’s flayed, she’ll know.” Lucas said. 

“She won’t tell us. He won’t let her.” Max said, shaking slightly. 

“Then,” Lucas said, “We just… set her free and see where she goes.” 

“Holy fuck, Lucas.” El said. 

“It’s not a bad plan, actually.” Hopper said. He took a deep breath. “I suppose you’re going to insist on going along?” 

“Of course.” El nodded. 

“Then,” Hopper said, “We’re going over there, and you all pray that I haven’t been reported by the mayor as a fugitive yet.” 

“How much farther is Illinois?” Nancy groaned, throwing her head back. 

“Well, gee, Nance,” Jonathan sighed, as he watched Alexei walk a little bit ahead of them, his hands still cuffed together, “It’s only another state. Maybe we’ll be there in five minutes.” 

“There’s gotta be a better way to do this.” Nancy said. 

“Maybe we’ll run into a bus station.” 

“Or a plane.” 

“Or Illinois itself.” 

“Or that Murray guy will just wander out to say hi to us.” 

“Or Alexei will find him.” Jonathan stopped, looking over. “Oh, he’s running.” 

“What?” Nancy looked up, shocked to see that, indeed, their captive was racing ahead. “Goddamnit!” 

“We’re bad at this,” Jonathan said, as they took off after him.

“Yeah.” Nancy admitted. 

They raced through the woods, with Nancy running ahead to yell when roots needed to be leapt over and branches needed to be ducked under. She pushed forwards, finally racing beside Alexei, who’d stopped and now was excitedly speaking quickly in Russian. 

“Son of a- listen, we- goddamn-” Nancy began. 

Then Alexei gestured forwards, and Nancy turned to see, up ahead, a 7/11. 

“Oh, thank fuck.” Jonthan groaned, sliding to a stop beside her. 

“Good work, Alexei.” Nancy patted him on the back. “Now let’s go get some fucking food.” 

“Um, you wanna take a guy in there handcuffed?” Jonathan asked. 

“He’ll be fine.” Nancy waved. “Besides, you know how Steve’s like at work. Nobody in there’s gonna give a shit. Probably won’t be the weirdest thing they see today.” 

“You know what, you’re right. But then what do we-” 

Nancy took Jonathan’s hand, raised his arm, and pointed him towards a parking lot full of cars. 

“No.” 

“Yes.” Nancy nodded, glee written across her face. “I’m gonna hijack a car.” 

“No, you’re not.” 

“Yes I am!” 

“We are so fucking screwed.” 

“That we are.”

[coeurvrai]

Serefin, the idiot, panics that he’s lost his eyesight until he realises it’s night time, so of course he can’t see jack shit. 

Apparently we have gone from the royal gardens to his BEDROOM, somehow! Talk about a hard fucking cut, like jfc

“This is scandalous, Żaneta,” he mumbled, resting his head back against the pillows.

“Definitely more scandalous than the prince being attacked in his own palace gardens,” she agreed.

Żaneta has her head screwed on, which is more than I can say about Serefin for the entirety of this book so far.

Apparently the assassin that Serefin “acrid sprayed” in the face survived and is in the palace’s dungeons, so that’s something; though bad news for Serefin, his father has heard about the whole thing. If the assassins aren’t ones sent by the king, you’d think he’d get better security by now.

Serefin muses that it’s probably not his father’s because they wouldn’t have failed to kill him if it was. I mean... probably not? Considering this whole thing has been that his dad has plans for his heir and those plans are murder plans. Also what’s happening with the Rawalyk? Also how much time is passing in between these chapters? How long has Serefin been back in the palace? Does time pass at the same rate in both POVs?

“My father is going to blame the Kalyazi,” he mused.

“Was it not them?” Żaneta asked, standing up.

“I . . . don’t know.” The Kalyazi did not train incompetent assassins; his eye was a tribute to that. This could have been the work of the Crimson Vulture. Perhaps his father was behind the attack and she had shifted the pieces so incompetent assassins were sent instead to give him a better chance. He hated living with a black cloud of doom hovering over his steps, certain that his future was bleak but not having any clear answers.

I mean, how do we know that? Lmao Those could’ve just been very competent assassins and these could’ve been very bad assassins, if they are Kalyazi.

Serefin makes Żaneta leave the room and Kacper comes in instead, and Kacper comments that Żaneta didn’t look too happy leaving. Kacper mentions that a Vulture is interrogating the remaining assassin.

What information did he have? An attack on his life, a plan to find a queen for Tranavia, and questions with no answers. Why was his father sending thousands upon thousands of prisoners to the Salt Mines? Why was his father working so closely with the Vultures? To what end? Why now?

What was happening?

Well apparently your dad wants you fucking dead and he’s trying to achieved godhood through blood magic and dead people, apparently, so y’know. Why the Vultures are going along with this when it’s been made explicitly clear that they only answer to the Black Vulture, their king, who knows? Maybe this is a play by the Vultures themselves to manipulate and control the king, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“Have you seen the current list of families participating in the Rawalyk?” Kacper asked.

“No, why?”

“It seems to be fluctuating,” he said. “Names of girls keep appearing then disappearing suddenly.”

“What do you mean?”

Kacper shook his head. “I’m not sure. I want to look into it, see if the girls are just getting nervous or if it’s something else.”

Serefin let out a breathless laugh. “We are so paranoid.”

I do hope that this fucking means something and isn’t a plot thread that’s going to be dropped later on in the book. I mean, that’s a futile hope considering @jefflion​ told me that the Rawalyk is pretty worthless. But oh boy, Serefin hasn’t looked at who he could hypothetically marry? Dude, why wouldn’t you?

Serefin decides that after nearly getting assassinated, it’s time to see his mum cause oh well, not the time to procrastinate.

He wasn’t sure she could help him, not with anything. But it was all he could do at this point. He was trapped in a cage of gold and iron with no door to escape from and had been given a dagger when he needed a saw to cut a hole in his prison.

Okay then, Serefin lmao Look, I’m all for that “a golden cage is still a cage” imagery, but like, chill. Being more edgy with it does not, in fact, make that allegory any more impactful.

Serefin nodded absently, before frowning and squinting up at Kacper. “Are you all right?”

Kacper blinked in surprise. “Me? Of course, why? They weren’t trying to kill me.”

Serefin eyed the other boy, taking in his dark hair and skin, the scar that cut across one of his eyebrows, and his sharp, brown eyes. He hadn’t grown up fighting off assassination attempts like Serefin and Ostyia. By all rights, Kacper should have been just another soldier in the king’s army; he was of low birth. His exceptional talent with blood magic and his sharp skills for espionage meant he had been shuffled around in the army until he was assigned to Serefin’s company. Their friendship had been struck a month into Serefin’s first tour of the front when he was sixteen. Kacper had gotten into a spitting fight with Ostyia. She broke his arm, he fractured three of her ribs, and it had taken Serefin knocking them both unconscious to get them apart.

Serefin still didn’t know what the fight was about. Neither would tell him. It had taken another week for Serefin to promote Kacper to his personal service after Kacper had nearly lost his other arm on Serefin’s behalf.

I get it, Kacper is brown, Kacper has dark skin, you don’t need to be Like That about it lmao Also that’s such a heavy-handed way to exposition your way through how the three of them met and became friends. Also Kacper is good at espionage and I’m trying to figure out whether he’s a more functional version of Azriel from ACOTAR or not...

But I mean, Azriel is a lowwwww fucking bar to clear, so I mean even if he is better than him, that doesn’t mean much tbh lol

But a “spitting fight”, fucking what? lmao Also if he’s so good at espionage, what is he doing as a common soldier in the army in the first place? Also I might just be being petty, but I still feel like rewarding a person for personal heroism and saving your life by assigning them as one of your personal bodyguards after your apparent childhood best friend got into an intense fight with them a week before is a bit of an overreaction but that might just be me.

Also, would like to know the circumstances of how and what Kacper saved Serefin’s life from but alas, we don’t get that important detail. A shame.

Anyways, Serefin and Kacper talk a bit more before Serefin leaves with Ostyia to see his mother. She seems like an utter delight.

“I have been in this blasted city for weeks now and my only son has just finally deigned to grace me with his presence.” The graceful lilt of his mother’s voice came floating down the hall. Lena shot Serefin a sympathetic look. Serefin had always found his mother to be a bit baffling. Both of his parents were larger than life, greater than reality. He had seen so little of them growing up.

His childhood had been spent with tutors and servants. His parents were figureheads who would move in and out of his life with little permanence. They sometimes appeared in the evening at mealtimes only to disappear once again at the start of a new day. Serefin had Ostyia—whose family had always lived in the palace—as well as a cousin on his mother’s side, but that was all. The cousin had left when they were still very young, off to the country for his health. His aunt and uncle were still seen around the palace, Serefin knew that much, but he had never seen his cousin again, and had eventually stopped inquiring.

Isn’t he your only child period? lol Also I’m sure this cousin was so important, as ED doesn’t bother to even give him a name. It’s also apparently the next fucking day, which is just a common theme in this book where we just jump from location to location or day to day, and expected to just follow along. I still don’t know how long he’s been at this palace, and how time passing in one POV relates to time passing in the other POV.

Serefin and Klarysa talk a little bit about the assassination attempt while Klarysa reinforces her apparent contempt for the city of Grazyk, and she’s not happy that he visited Pelageya before he visited her. I don’t know how egregious that is considering we don’t know how long it’s been since he visited her on his first day back in the palace.

Oh and Serefin describes the room as lavish, befitting of the Queen of Tranavia but we don’t get any description of its lavishness.

“Do you think I can turn the court to my side?” he asked.

She blinked, straightening in her chair. “Serefin?”

“Oh, I’m sure he knows anyway,” Serefin said, waving a hand. “I just need to know how many steps ahead of me he is.”

“Your father—” she put emphasis on the word ‘father’ as if it meant something to Serefin. Maybe once it had. Years ago when he thought he might win his father’s love. Not anymore.

“I found a cleric in Kalyazin. No one else seems to find that important. Doesn’t it strike you as a bit strange? They sent the Vultures after her, but she escaped.”

Serefin, our incompetent alcoholic prince, we’ve been over this a million times already; let’s not get into your blatant hypocrisy again. Also it’s kind of funny how this chapter just isn’t up to snuff compared to like, the last Serefin chapter. Like of course it’s better than any and all Nadya’s chapters so far, but like, oh boy.

His mum tells him that he should listen to Pelageya and her prophecies. I don’t get why, if his mum cares so much, that she isn’t doing that much to protect her only son. Like if his mum doesn’t really care about him, that’d be another thing, but we have no real reason to believe that she doesn’t so far.

“Listen to her, Serefin. I know you don’t want to. I know you think her mad. But listen to her. She could be the only thing that saves you.”

“Saves me? Yes, I’m clearly trying not to die here, but I don’t think the witch is going to help.”

“Not from your father, from the Vultures. From the gods. From everything.”

“Mother?”

“Pelageya knows what she speaks of.” His mother was speaking quickly, her voice low. She knew whatever they said would return to the king. She cast a suspicious glance toward where the wall met the ceiling, the likeliest of locations for eavesdropping spells. “I can’t help you, Serefin, you know that.”

Firstly, eavesdropping spells?! Can’t Serefin cast a spell to detect other spells or charms??? Also you’re telling me that Serefin, ultra talented general blood mage prodigy that he is, can’t cancel out any potential eavesdropping spells so he can have this conversation in peace??? WHY DON’T THEY JUST HAVE THIS CONVERSATION IN PELAGEYA’S TOWER SINCE NOBODY HAS FUCKED WITH THAT PLACE APPARENTLY.

It’s not like Pelageya cares! Pelageya apparently likes the Queen and the Queen likes Pelageya! She’s a companion of the queen!

Serefin felt cold. “What has he done?”

Klarysa shook her head. There was fear in her eyes.

She can’t tell me, he realized. If she tells me, he’ll kill her, too. What did she know that he had yet to figure out?

“Give me something,” he pleaded.

“Your father has always been a monster,” she said. “But at least he had his own mind, his decisions were his own.” She shook her head. “I fear he too has been taken by the Vultures.”

I swear to fucking god, if his dad is a fucking Valg, I will scream. I am not going through that shit again. FE: Fates already did it too and I am just, leave it be.

It was altogether likely there was discord amongst the Vultures as well. That the Crimson Vulture was working apart from her own king, the Black Vulture. But who was holding the strings?

Serefin still had no answers.

And so don’t we, about a lot of things. But that is the end of that chapter! We learn really nothing new on the whole “king is evil and corrupt” front, that he’s being manipulated and controlled by the Vultures is kind of a given. Not as interesting as this plot initially was. But still, I will take mediocrity over whatever the fuck is going on in Nadya’s chapter.

Which is up next!

[beastking-golion]

Bout to talk about my AUs/ story ideas so watch out I may go on for longer than I mean to. ( these concepts and ideas have a small to large sprinkle of Kallura through all of them, you’ve been warned my dude ).

Experimental

[ short summary ] Missions gone wrong, the future awry. Team Voltron struggles after the sudden loss of their leader, Keith. Now, trying their best to keep it together, they must continue on and save the galaxy. That is, of course, untill they get sidetracked by a weird Galran base that seems to hold answers to questions long past.

[ heavier/ plot description ] Voltron failed a mission horribly and in turn they watched their leader Keith perish because of it. However he didn’t truly die. No, he was spared, kept, and sent off for experimental testing. Galran soldiers, under the permission of the empire, sent the leader to a hidden base inside one of their colonized planets. There they test all sorts of things on him and other unwilling patients, from quintessense to faulty mind control tech. But when the planet gets attacked and liberated by Voltron the soldiers flee, leaving Keith in one of their cryo-pods on accident. Months later the Covyse ( those from the liberated planet ) ask Voltron for help in protection against pro-Galran members of their society ( some of their own having adapted the Galran way of life n giving themselves the name of Galvyse ). While investigating one of the abandonded Galran facilities, Allura sees the mice react rather harshly to a ripped up part of the metal flooring. The mice flee inside leaving Allura slightly dumbfounded. Calling up the rest the team, they are able to open ths hole and reveal a hidden experiment ward. Inside they find blood, pods, and information on a “ patient “ who had recently run away. Fearing the worst, after reading that the subject is “ violent “ and “ dangerous “, Voltron sets out to find this prisoner and hopefully either make ammends or stop them. This prisoner of course is Keith, or as he knows, Red. Red wakes up in an overgrown facility, hair matted, skin scarred, and memories non existant. He struggles to remember anything that’s happened to him, who he even is at that, but with the help of some friendly space mice he sets out to find out who he once was. I’ve only prepped this one for being a single chapter/ oneshot so when I kept writing and writing I began to get nervous that I’d run out of ideas. I’ve got a plan now though and I think once I fully finish this and clean the whole thing up I’ll post it to my Ao3 account ( @ chouchousen ). I wanted an action adventurey thing and I love stories that has an amnesiac character slowly remember the past. The Kallura in this one is minimal romance and more buddies but it’s there. Allura is one of the main povs and is the person who will actually run into and try to help Keith.

Fear Thy Future

[ summary ] When Slav tries to show off a mini portal maker things go wrong and he accidentally sends an Allura from another universe into theirs. This rough and rugged Allura seems to want nothing to do with team Voltron and leaves the team with questions upon questions.

[ heavier/ plot description ] After accidentally pulling in an alternate universe Allura ( going by the name of Atlas ) team Voltron must work to get Slav’s machine back and running as well as send the Altean home. However with Atlas’ aggresive nature, obvious battle scars, and just plain aura of mystery they can’t help but wonder what’s happened to her to make her this way. The truth is harsh, her life had been exactly like ( their universe ) Alluras up untill a surprise attack on the castle cost Voltron the lives of Hunk and Coran. From then Pidge falls in battle at the hands of a Galra and Lance, in a panicked frenzie, accidentally gets himself killed as well. With only Keith and Atlas as the remaining Voltron members, things are far from bright. The castle gets attacked once more and, having barely any ability to defend themselves, the two are split up. Atlas crash lands on a rough sand planet while Keith goes completely off radar, assumed dead. Entierly alone, Atlas plotted to avenge her fallen family, doing anything and everything to survive. Being plucked and thrown into a universe where she sees the faces of her dead friends was a lot for Atlas to handle, causing her to become hostile. Her specific past connection to her Keith making things feel almost painful. Team Voltron promises to give her some form of joy again and, after getting their portal machine working again they all set off to aid the roughed Altean. This one was one of my first AUs I made for Voltron so it’s prolly really weird n fucky timeline wise. In this I wanted to see an Allura of a bad future meet one of a ( semi ) good ( I say semi because allura fucking dying is a damn bad ending to ME ). Due to her and Keith being sole survivors they both grew close rather fast and Atlas fell for him without realizing it, thus making the sight of normal universe Keith so painful. She loves him, or at least her version of him, and seeing the normal universes Allura get to love him makes her envious. In the end I planned for the joy Voltron brings to her being the Keith of her universe getting found allowing them to reunite n something super sad n sappy like that. Idk this whole au was made after I read too many tragidy stories so oof.

The last two will have simpler descriptions ( hopefully ) for theyre less worked on/ not being written out as solidly.

The Red Mother

Keith is fully Galran ( called Yurak ) and at 8 he’s on his way to becoming a solider. But after his mom defects and the truth of his fathers death arises, Yurak tries to run away from the empire. In the process he bumbs into a giant red lion ship who offers to help him get out of there as long as he helps her escape. Together they get out of there and crash land on Arus where Red does her best to raise the young galran boy in the wild jungles. Years pass and Allura is awakened, thus the search for the Voltron lions begins but Allura is left confused when the Red lion is not only close by but here ON Arus and it seems she’s already got herself a, pretty feral, galran pilot. This one would be a slow burn Kallura I suppose. Allura slowly warming up to this weird galran dude that the red lion chose, but with lots of bumps in the road through the process.

Postcanon Positive

Postcanon positive is the happiest and most angst free au. It’s the one that includes Miza, Naveri, and Gassal! Follow the daily life of Queen of New Altea, Allura, along with her husband Commander Kogane and their three kids. Naveri the princess, Miza the roughhouser, and Gassal the quite one. Even with the help of uncles Lance, Hunk, and aunty Pidge, the Koganes have their hands full from politics to pet mice. This one is the simplest and meant for the making of mini comics and doodles. It’s just a feel good au thing that I have a lot of fun with. Ive got a similar versions for VF as well as DDP but neither include fan kids n like....i love creating fan kids soooooooooo.

YEAH SO ANYWAYS sorry for the uncleaned jumbles of text here. I guess this post is mainly for myself really so I can categorize and work better on all of these aus. Sorry to fill up your page :P but also not, this was fun to write down even if it is a bit messy.

[wilhelmjfink]

The Great Divide - Chapter 8

I thought we were on chapter 7...

gonna try something new w/ these chapters in hopes that maybe they’ll get more notes! i’m gonna make a masterlist here for it tonight hopefully.... so the chapters will be in there along w/ the cover photo creds instead of hyperlinks b/c apparently that has something to do with it being searched.......... so whatever :-)

Previously: “I think you’re special, too, Riley.” Lidia leaned forward and used a tattered rag to comfortingly wipe away her tears. “And I don’t think that this is the end of your story. You just need to have hope. You can’t give up on Daryl.”

Rick knew Daryl well enough to always stay one step ahead of him.

And it was a good thing that he did, because the second that Warner decided to stop talking and instead offered a sly smile at the mention of Riley’s name, Daryl lunged at him.

Michonne immediately went to step in but Rick had already been anticipating it, though that didn’t make it much easier for him for control the man thrashing in his arms, trying his best to prevent him from reaching the stranger that sat in the corner before them helplessly.

It didn’t taken much to get Daryl to snap — it never had, especially when it came to Riley. But Warner obviously knew something; it was written all over his face. But he’d been scared when he’d woken up, bound and confused surrounded by three strangers after getting attacked by Daryl once already. If he didn’t learn to control his anger, Rick was worried he might just murder him — accidentally or otherwise — and that would leave them back at square one: absolutely clueless.

Riley had scolded him several times about losing his temper so violently, though she wasn’t any better at controlling her own. And he usually listened to her when she warned him, but she wasn’t here right now to stop him, and it was all because of the bastard in front of him.

“He knows somethin’, Rick!” Daryl growled, still trying half heartedly to escape from his friends grip. He was like a rabid wolf, snarling and gnashing his teeth in anger. “I’m gonna tear that smug look right off that fucker’s face!”

“How do you expect him to tell us what he knows if you break his jaw?” Rick responded firmly, losing his patience due to already having explained it earlier. He didn’t blame Daryl, though; the situation was infuriating in and of itself and the fact that they had a potential goldmine of information about Riley’s disappearance that sat in front of them refusing to speak only made it that much harder to retain his composure.

He was a cop. He’d done this a hundred times, if not more. Everybody had a breaking point... it was just a matter of finding it.

“Listen to me,” Rick sidestepped into Daryl’s point of view and made him focus, the snarl on his face not disappearing from his features and his blazing eyes not softening. “Guys like this, they all have a trigger — all of ‘em. We’ll get him to crack. Trust me. And gettin’ them to crack, well...” he threw a glance over his shoulder at Warner who hadn’t yet moved. “That’s the fun part.”

After a long moment of consideration Daryl finally nodded stiffly, clearly not thrilled or impressed with the lecture but stopping himself regardless. He hoped for Rick’s sake that the process of getting Warner to break was as fun as he said it would be. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be very long until he truly couldn’t stop himself and just completely lost it and they would be left with nothing once again, and it would be all his fault.

So they gagged him again, making sure it was tight enough to silence him but not too tight as to suffocate him, and waiting for the others to show up.

Warner sat quietly when they finally did Michonne wasn’t positive he noticed even when she turned around and closed the curtain in front of her.

“Rick, they’re here.”

He peered through the sheer fabric secretively, observing the crew that had slowly begun to show up one by one at the intersection at the end of the road. And sure enough, the black vehicles with a mysterious symbol painted on the side had arrived and parked in formation, waiting patiently for their friend to return with an innocent victim.

“That’s the same thing painted on what’s-his-names hoodie,” Daryl observed, peering over Rick’s shoulder at the crowd beneath him. “S’gotta be them, Rick. They know where Riley is.”

“That also means Warner really is with them.”

Daryl has already figured that, wanting to believe it was true regardless of whether or not it really was. It gave him something to latch onto, giving him a small spark of hope that he might actually see his girl again. 

“So, he really does know something... so, he belongs to us now.”

Daryl and Michonne were both surprised at the tone of Rick’s voice: dark and sinister, his anger bubbling to the surface as his adrenaline kicked in at the confirmation. He was seconds away from knocking Warner unconscious himself then, making his way over to him to tighten the gag around his mouth in an effort to reassure that he wouldn’t try to make any noise while his friends stood there waiting, watching on curiously. Rick didn’t even care at that point — he was sure they would leave after they decided that Warner was dead or gone... it was just the type of people that they were.

He also had a solid feeling now that Warner was aware of the whole situation, if he wasn't entirely responsible himself. But when he watched the group outside disperse for a short minute, hardly attempting to look for their teammate beyond the hotel building he observed them from, they returned to their vans and gave up. Just like that.

Now confident, Rick took it upon himself to release the built up anger he’d had to bury all morning by swinging at the stranger they had tied up, his fist colliding with his jaw loudly, sending him down to the rough carpet of the hotel room floor unconscious.

Daryl couldn’t help but smirk.

After the time they’d locked Jesus in the cell only for him manage to sneak his way out, they’d fool-proofed it, and Warner sat silently in the corner. He’d remained silent the entire trip home and, as frustrated and angry as Daryl was, he’d made an effort not to show it, knowing it would only encourage Warner’s smug silence.

And though it was driving him mad he took it as a good sign — a sign that he knew something.

And something was better than nothing, which is where he still currently stood.

“There’s lotsa ways to make people talk,” Rick said to the crew of five that sat before him at the long oak dining table in their makeshift city hall. “And not all of them need to involve violence.”

“I don’t want any use of violence,” Deanna said pointedly from her spot at the head of the table, arms crossed. Rick elected to have her there overseeing their meeting and give input on the thoughts and opinions, considering her position in the community. Her input mattered to him and his leadership mattered to her; he’d made it very clear he had only good intentions for the people of Alexandria... and they needed Rick’s guidance.

“That might be the only way to get him to talk,” Michonne argued.

But Deanna wouldn’t budge. “No — that is not what Alexandria is about.”

“Ya don’t get to choose what yer about anymore,” Daryl barked at her after having tried to keep his mouth shut in the matter. The whole process was infuriating him; his natural instincts were yelling at him to run outside of the gate and not stop until he found her. He paced back and forth in the hall, anxious and growing angrier with each passing minute.  “Not in this world. Dude ain’t gonna just offer up what he knows just ‘cause we pinky-promise to let ‘em go free.”

“Daryl’s right,” Michonne agreed, staring intently at Deanna across the table. She was just as angry as anybody about the whole situation it seemed, leaning more towards Daryl in way of support, knowing confidently that Warner wouldn’t budge unless they made him. “People are selfish, now more than ever. If you want Alexandria to survive, you need to learn how to handle yourselves other ways besides sitting around a table to chit-chat with somebody who wants everything that you have and doesn’t give a damn if he has to kill you to take it.”

Deanna only frowned. “There are other ways to communicate with people without hurting them. We aren’t animals — we are civil!”

“Ya know what? Yer right.” Daryl’s voice had risen and he was spitting venom in his words, obviously fed up with her stubbornness and unwillingness to negotiate with them. “S’a big waste of time, Rick. Do you think we should bake ‘em a tray of cookies or somethin’ instead? That might help.”

“Daryl...”

“Nah, nah, she’s gotta point!” He stopped and slammed his empty chair into the table, rounding the group as they sat quietly in front of him. “Or maybe we can just hug it outta him.”

Deanna, who sat clearly unamused at Daryl’s sarcasm, followed him with her eyes as he begun his pacing, trying to suppress his growing fury.

“That is not what I meant. You’re being ridiculous.”

He whipped around and stepped toward her, eyes narrowed, arm swinging. “I’m bein’ ridiculous? Did ya even look at the son of a bitch? We have no idea what he’s capable of, and there’s lots more of ‘em! And say we do let ‘em go after he caves; you didn’t see those bastards lined up at the end of the street with their rifles n’ armor n’ shit, lady. They ain’t fuckin’ friendly, and the lil’ asshole is just gonna run back home, tell ‘em all about Alexandria and ‘what yer about’, n’ then they’ll be knockin’ on the door the next day and I’m pretty sure they ain’t gonna sit around holdin’ our hands n’ singin’ Kum By Yah, all worried about ‘bein’ civil’.”

Daryl was fuming and Rick straightened up, again finding himself anticipating the tantrum his friend was going throwing, regardless of how correct his points were. He watched as Daryl continued to walk briskly back and forth, a scowl on his face, noticeably trying to maintain a level head and utterly failing. “Ya think that someone who literally steals people gives a shit about your god damn morals? I’d bet he don’t!”

Rick stayed silent, having been persuaded by Daryl’s outburst, but was still looking at Deanna and waiting for her response knowing she couldn’t argue.

But still, she only sighed. “Daryl...”

“If y’all are just gonna sit at this table n’ pray for her, to hell with ya. I ain’t gonna wait around for him to spill his guts n’ if y’all don’t let me beat it outta him, then I’m gonna go find her my damn self.”

And with that, he stormed out of the room, slamming the heavy door loudly behind him.

yall know i loooveee me some angry Daryl :)

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 4X06 - Family Business

After spending ten minutes trying to make a pun for this one, I don’t SNOW if I can do it!

...Well, there you go!

Review’s under the cut!

Main Takeaways

Past

I’m torn between disliking and liking the writing choice to have Anna doubt Ingrid so fiercely. On one level, I sort of get it. After being betrayed by Hans (And more recently, Rumple), Anna’s become a bit less trusting. That’s good character development. However, to have Anna be untrusting to this degree is just a little too far fetched for me. I think had Anna wanted to accept her and been more outright friendly, but was too curious to settle for Ingrid’s non answers, the story would’ve been a bit more palatable for me.

So, as far as Belle goes, I’m kind of inclined to treat this episode in a way as a precursor to Belle’s attitude later in life, kind of like“Best Laid Plans.” Just like how Snowing dedicated themselves to being the best people they could be after their horrible sin, Belle does the same thing through a combination of seeing Anna be taken and learning the truth behind her mother’s death. That also having been said, I feel like had they stated that the stone of memories was a one-off item, I wouldn’t be so frustrated with Belle because why not just get another stone after saving Anna?

That also having been said, I get that it didn’t matter. What mattered in this segment was that Belle’s selfishness fucked over someone and the point of this episode was to realize that and show that she’s grown from it. And that is the important part of the episode and it was delivered well. What I pointed out were smaller narrative crumbles that don’t amount to absolutely nothing, but are ultimately less important than the delivery of the theme.

Present

I can talk about a lot of aspects of this episode (And I will), but let’s be real here: The big part of this episode really comes down to a singular moment. While most of this episode is pretty clearly framed otherwise, so much so that I wonder just how much can write about, this moment’s where shit gets complicated and messy. That, of course, is Belle’s use of the “dagger” to make Rumple take her to the Snow Queen’s fortress.

Let’s break my thoughts on this down a bit.

It’s...a complicated situation. I’m sympathetic to Belle in the sense that she’s trying to stop The Snow Queen and making a hard choice like that is something she sees as just something that has to be done. Additionally, the mirror scene establishes that Belle might have doubts about the validity of the dagger, so there might have been a part of her doubting that it would work. I also get that this was Belle’s weakest moment and thus, it’s something she doesn’t want relayed.

That having been said, this episode frames Belle’s motivation as wanting to keep a secret. That’s the reason why she doesn’t relay her information to Emma and Elsa. And for a secret that is so relatively small in the grand scheme of not only the scope of the universe, but what villains have been forgiven for around in these parts, I find it rather weak and makes for a stark contrast to her attitude of just shutting up from the present scenes prior It’s brought on by a sad conversation with Elsa and Belle finds it more appropriate to use the dagger on her husband than just simply tell the truth, a moment that when finally comes to pass, isn’t given any gravitas, meaning that Belle keeping that secret wasn’t that big of a deal. It’d be one thing if Elsa was so mad that she froze Belle or shut her out or something like that, but she doesn’t, making the reason Belle wants to hold out telling the truth fall flat.

I also almost wish this moment had come earlier in the season, maybe before “The Apprentice” because that look of fear on Rumple’s face when he realized that his own wife is using the dagger to control him would’ve been a hella effective point in showing why Rumple feels like he needs to go to the extreme of putting people in a magic hat to ensure that he never has to be controlled again. That said, it does work here, albeit not as effectively.

I do think that the framing of this moment works. Ignoring the motivation behind it, Belle is shown as going too far by using the dagger, BUT the more complicated nature of the dagger being as real as a $3 bill isn’t ignored by the narrative either.

Okay, now that that’s done, let’s move on.

The mirror scene is a really chilling look into Belle’s psyche. Not only is there a great display of Belle’s insecurities on display in this scene, but it truly sets up the mirror as a genuine threat. Belle is one of the purest characters in the show, second to probably only Ariel at this point. And yet the mirror is able to pull at the weaknesses she doesn’t possess as easily as loose Jenga pieces. Within a minute, she feels helpless.

I also really like the way Rumple is presented here! He’s at once a villain and a victim in a way and the balancing of that was well done!

Stream of Consciousness

-I like the costume Belle has in the first bit of her flashback. It does a really good job of painting her youth and naivete.

-I love how literally every piece of Belle’s wardrobe and decorations in her room are Beauty and the Beast colors!!! Dude, if she wasn’t the actual Belle, I’d accuse her of being the biggest fangirl in the world! XD

-Really, Rumple? Belle doesn’t know about the hidden safe by this point?

-”Before we open.” So I guess that library scene really didn’t carry over in any capacity. That’s a shame.

-I absolutely LOVE the zoom out shot as everyone takes in the Snow Queen video tape! All eight of the mains are in the shot as well as Elsa! And everyone is so serious, even the woman in the blue sparkly dress! I know it’s been said 1,000 times, but it’s totally CSI Storybrooke up in this bitch! XD

-Belle, you are amazing at tracking! And you dig any chance to be a hero! Why the fuck are you willingly stepping down?! XD

-Why does everyone diss books?! And if you’re gonna diss the book, maybe take the book? Like, I don’t want Maurice to take the book, but if he’s gonna go to the trouble of being a douche nozzle, at least go all the way.

-I feel the need to ask if Ingrid has employees at “Any Given Sundae.” Does she just switch off between driving the truck and running the shop? Did she ever have an intern? XD

-”Was she afraid someone was gonna steal the rocky road?” You’re three episodes off, Emma.

-Ice powers are the world’s most dangerous mood rings! XD

-”Do you really think she would’ve discovered that if I didn’t want her to?” And what part did you have to play in Emma discovering that evidence? Like, every piece of evidence Emma has uncovered has been by total coincidence! The video, the truck? Both of those were spur of the moment decisions!

-I feel like mirror Belle is what would happen if Lacey had Belle’s memories.

-Ummm, if that was the real dagger, would that slash have killed Rumple or would it kind of be like what happened with Dark Hook where only the lethal cuts matter? But then again, that was close to the throat.

-Belle, where the hell did that gorgeous ass coat come from? Because holy hell, I LOVE it!

-Okay, am I the only one who feels like Maurice had some personal experience with Rumple prior to Belle’s summoning?

-”Spend a little more time in this town love, and you’ll realize that just about everyone’s related.” This is true and I LOVE it! XD

Favorite Dynamic

Regina and Robin. I really like Regina’s scene with Robin in the forest. Lana perfectly shows Regina’s frustration at having tried every possible approach to waking Marian and failing at it as well as this sense of resignation about what she has to tell him. It’s a fantastic moment in how it’s performed and written. Regina’s in her best form by being blunt, but not unsympathetic: If Robin wants to save Marian, he has to fall in love with her again, no if’s, and’s, or but’s. You can tell that this is the last thing she wants to say, but she knows it’s the truth. It’s a really good display of her growth as a character. Something very difficult for her to do and the truth isn’t pretty, but she’s delivering it anyway, even at her own expense. The added bits of snark additionally really help it too by giving the scene a bit of levity and gives the dialogue a bit of that Regina fierceness.

Writer

Kalinda Vazquez comes in for her second episode in a row, a first for a writer for this series outside of A&E! Alongside her is Andrew Chambliss. I gotta say, it’s nice not having a newbie this episode. While there are some character issues, I think the episode works more than it doesn’t due to the more complicated nature of the present segment’s story and the fact that the framing is spot on.

Rating

8/10. I think there are a fair amount of good elements to this episode. The delivery of the themes is solid and that is the ultimate make or break piece of an episode like this. Additionally, the framing of this story was hard, but successful.

-----

Hey! Sorry this wasn’t my best review. I don’t know what happened with this episode, but it just took me so long to figure out how I felt about it. I hope what I put out made sense.

Thank you for reading, if you did as well as to @watchingfairytales and @daensarah. Love you!!!!

Season 3 Total (42/230)

Writer Scores: Adam and Eddy: (9/60) Jane Espenson: (10/40) David Goodman and Jerome Schwartz: (10/50) Andrew Chambliss: (14/50) Dana Horgan: (6/30) Kalinda Vazquez: (14/40) Scott Nimerfro: (6/30)

*Links to the rest of my rewatch will no longer be provided. They take posts with links outside of searches and I spend way too much time on these reviews to not give them that kind of exposure. Sorry for the inconvenience, but they still can be found on my page under Operation Rewatch.

[shirtlesssammy]

4x07: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

We’ve already recapped the closest episode to a Thanksgiving episode Supernatural has so we thought we’d pick another holiday episode this week. Since Cas and Sam’s friendship is getting a little more screen time this season, we thought we’d go back to the beginning and recap the episode where they meet. Yay!

Then:

This badass graced our screens for the first time.

Now:

Ah, Halloween. A young mother comes home loaded down with a literal bucket of candy. Her husband wants to taste test for quality control, but she shoos him away. She then heads upstairs to give their baby a bath --the husband coming in a minute. First, he needs to sneak in a few pieces of candy!

After eating a piece, the husband starts to gag, and finds a razor lodged in his mouth. He starts coughing up blood and razors and dies on the kitchen floor just in time for his wife and baby to find him.

One Day Before Halloween

Agents Sam and Dean are interviewing, Mrs. Wallace, the victim’s wife. Dean finds a hexbag. Sam asks about enemies her husband might have had.

Back at their hotel, Sam is researching the contents of the hexbag. Dean is scarfing down candy (razors or not, I agree with your plan, Dean!). Neither brother can find a reason for Luke Wallace’s death.

At a Halloween party (no booze=lame), Jenny and Tracy, who are clearly rivaling for one dude’s attention (NOT WORTH IT), arrive to assess the lameness. Tracy decides to liven the festivities up by bobbing for apples. Jenny follows, only she gets stuck under the water while it starts to boil and she dies a horrible burning death that I can’t imagine.

Later, Sam and Dean arrive at the crime scene. Dean is gross. Sam finds a hexbag.

While researching the second death, Sam discovers that this might be part of a spell. “Three blood sacrifices over three days, the last before midnight on the final day of the final harvest.” This spell is summoning a demon. Samhain to be exact. (My headcanon is that they mispronounce Samhain because they’re in a completely different universe than ours.) This ritual can only take place once every 600 years. This year just happens to be that year. Of Course! When Samhain rises, every evil and bad thing Sam and Dean fight will rise with him.

On a stakeout, Dean continues to eat his Hell stress away.

While he’s complaining to Sam on the phone, he watches Tracy walk up to the Wallace house. Son of a bitch.

This is A Look:

Sam finds some dirt on Tracy. She’s been suspended from school in the past for an altercation with a teacher. They head to the school.

In the art room, Dean sees horrific masks that clearly remind him of Hell. “Bring back memories?” Sam asks. OUCH. Sam was just talking about high school though (of which Dean didn’t really get to experience and didn’t finish.) Don, the art teacher, comes in and the brothers ask about their altercation. “I was only trying to rap with her about her work.” Far out, man. But really, it seems that Tracy’s art was getting a bit too violent for school appropriate work. Cryptic symbols and gory drawings. The brothers wonder where Tracy is now, and Don reveals that she lives in an apartment.

Later, the boys reconvene at their motel. Tracy is AWOL. A little trick or treater is eager for candy.

Dean ate it all. Then he fat shames the poor kid. The kid has a death stare to end all death stares so I think he’s winning. (Natasha: #TeamKidAstronaut)

Sam forges ahead of Dean and finds an intruder in their room.

“Who are you?!”

“Sam! Sam, wait! It’s Castiel.”

(I just love that both Sam and Mary got to meet Cas the same way --with guns drawn and Dean rushing over to stop them.)

There’s Bunny Colvin another angel there as well, but Dean doesn’t know him.

Sam is SUCH A CUTE BEAN meeting Cas. He’s so flustered and excited. And Cas just poops all over his excitement.

He calls him the boy with the demon blood and congratulates him on stopping his “extracurricular activities.” He then asks Dean if they’ve stopped the rising of Samhain. They haven’t. And now the witch is wise to them. Cas found a hexbag in their room.

AAGGHH, Cas is foreign and formal and he doesn’t even look at Dean (haha, they’ll have plenty of time to stare and stare at each other in the next scene.) Cas informs the brothers that the rising of Samhain will break one of the 66 seals. It must be stopped.

For Posterity:

Uriel, the other angel, is a specialist and he’s here to destroy the town. Dean is incredulous. They can’t destroy this town. Cas is thinking big picture though --destroy the town, save humanity.

Dean’s got to stare think on that.

Sam is incredulous too. “No, you can’t do this, you’re angels, I mean aren’t you supposed to – You’re supposed to show mercy.” Lol, Sam, welcome to the reality of angels on Supernatural. It is a bit crushing to watch Sam’s faith get burnt a bit here. Dean then pulls out the Free Will big guns and asks Cas, “You’ve never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?” Cas bites back with a rhetorical question about John Winchester. Dean’s digging his heels in though. If they’re going to destroy this town, they’re going to destroy Sam and Dean along with it.

Cas acquiesces.

Dean and Sam emerge to find Baby egged. BABY. Heads will roll for this, I swear to god. (Uh, #TeamKidAstronaut?)

In the car, Sam contemplates the hex bag and confronts his disappointment with the righteously dickish reality of angels. Dean urges Sam to not abandon his faith. (Dean Bean!) Sam gently absorbs this moment of brotherly insight and then realizes that the charred bone in the hex bag was cooked by an industrial heat source. Moment. Over.

At the school's art room they narrow the bone char down to the kiln and find a heavily locked drawer in the teacher's desk. In the drawer they find a bowl of children's bones. Blegh.

Meanwhile, Castiel and Uriel hang out in a park, Uriel casually dropping insults to humanity so fast it's like he's on an I HATE HUMANS game show.

Cas admonishes Uriel for maligning God's favored creations and counsels him to settle down and wait to see what happens with Dean and Sam. Uriel proposes yoinking the Winchesters elsewhere before blowing the town straight to Hell, but Cas tells him they need to follow their “true orders,” whatever those are.

On Halloween night, costumed children walk past creepy garden displays while within one very normal looking house, the girl from earlier is held captive in the basement of the witch/teacher's house. He creepily draws his knife down her breast (ew), raising his arm for the killing blow (jerk), when his chest gets riddled with holes. It's the Winchesters! Yay! They save the totally innocent girl, who backs away and begins to...sneer at her dead witch brother on the floor. Before the Winchesters can kill her she power blasts them across the room and presumably holds onto their guts (or their balls?) while she monologues.

While she works a spell to bring Samhain into the world, Sam smears blood over his face and that of his brother's. Is it the latest facial trend? Time will tell. The floor splits open and black demon fog emerges. It gives Sam and Dean the miss and then swoops into Don’s dead body.

“My love,” the witch greets Samhain with a kiss (me: gags at the incestual overtones). He greets her with, “You've aged.” EXCUSE ME, MOTHERFUCKER?

Samhain clearly isn’t one for loving reunions because he immediately snaps her neck and surveys his surroundings. It's time to PAR-TAY. He stares at Dean and Sam, who lie still on the floor, and then shambles past them. After he leaves, Dean asks Sam about the blood. It turns out, Sam gave them both a nice blood mask because masks are what people used to use to hide from Samhain. Nice work, Sam! As an added bonus, that blood mask should also keep away the bunnies. (You're welcome, Dean?) Samhain stumbles through town, past unsuspecting costumed children. Dean and Sam race for the cemetery to head him off.

Sam proposes whipping out his super magic psychic mojo to fight Samhain. Dean begs him to not use his power, handing off Ruby's knife instead.

At the crypt, the not-mourning-their-friend-at-all teens throw their Halloween party when they hear a noise. It's definitely not the cops, unless the cops are six feet tall, undead, and covered in blood. Samhain locks the confused kids into the vault and walks away again without a word. Oooookay. And then behind them, the vaults begin to rattle. The dead are coming out. Sort of. They pull kids into the vaults like sand worms and shoot out viscera, blood canon-style. Dean finds them, shoots out the lock, and joins the party - I mean, saves the kids.

It’s zombie dance off time, baby.

Sam heads off to fight Samhain, who tries and fails to power blast Sam.

They engage in fisticuffs, a demon’s favorite way to hold an ultimate battle. Sam uses his powers to suck the demon essence from Samhain and send him back to Hell, but Samhain's strong. He advances, step by step. It's slow enough that Dean has time to head upstairs and witness his brother mind-whammy the demon straight back to Hell. Err....awkward.

Samhain filters back down to Hell, leaving the Winchesters to shoot sad puppy eyes at each other instead.

The next day, they pack up and get ready to leave. Uriel zaps in to rub salt in the wound, and tells Sam that he was told not to use his powers. Sam tells Uriel that his powers saved the town, thank you very much. Uriel uses his wings to flap about 4 feet across the room so that he lands right in front of Sam's face. DRAMA LLAMA ALERT. Uriel threatens to annihilate Sam as soon as Heaven doesn't need him anymore. “As for your brother,” Uriel advises Sam, he should “climb off that high horse of his.” Sam should ask Dean about what he remembers from Hell. (Us, in a chorus: we wish we couldn't feel a damn thing.)

At the same playground where Cas and Uriel observed humanity, Dean sits contemplatively on the park bench.

Cas appears on the other bench and Dean gives him a less-than-warm welcome. “You're here for the I told you so.” Nope. In fact, Cas tells Dean that their true orders weren't to stop the summoning of Samhain. Instead, their orders were to do whatever Dean and Sam told them to do.

“It was a test to see how you might perform under battlefield conditions.” Dean loves this revelation (not). He defiantly tells Cas that he saved the town – including the kids playing in front of them. And that's enough for him.

Cas reveals that he was praying for Dean and Sam to save the town. “These people – they're all my father's creations. They're works of art.” With the Samhain seal broken, they're one step closer to Hell for everyone on Earth and Cas and Dean share a knowing moment about the reality of Hell's horrors. “Can I tell you something if you promise not to tell another soul?” Cas asks. “I'm not a...hammer, as you say. I have questions. I have doubts. I don't know what is right and what is wrong anymore.” He tells Dean the coming months will continue to test him. It's clear they'll test Cas as well. Cas flaps out.

What in the Sam-Quotes is this?

It’s Halloween, man.

Those little dudes are scary. Small hands.

Yeah, well, if you were a six-hundred-year-old hag and you could pick any costume to come back in, wouldn't you go for a hot cheerleader? I would, hmm…

For us, every day is Halloween.

You're angels! You're supposed to show mercy.

There's nothing more dangerous than some a-hole who thinks he's on a holy mission.

Babe Ruth's a dick but baseball's still a beautiful game.

Zombie ghost orgy, huh? Well, that's it. I'm torching everybody.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[bestfriendforhire]

Entry 380

 I took a seat, watching as Jarod, Maxine, Aurora, and Mila worked.  Maxine was arguing with Mila over the merits of a new type of resistor to be used in Aurora’s car, unaware that Mila was simply helping her to bounce ideas.  The technology Mila could access was vastly beyond Earth, so she was heavily restricted in what she could admit to knowing.  Her mother did allow her to help others toward ideas.

 Jarod, Mila, and Aurora were currently assembling the revised prototype.  By most standards, I was quite certain the original prototype would have garnered tremendous acclaim for its innovations, but these four were always looking for improvements.  Maxine actually helped redesign Portentia’s headset for the superhero suit recently, increasing Portentia’s effective hearing range again and updating the display to the latest specs.

 Jarod hadn’t admitted it yet, but I believed he was enjoying having Maxine around.  She debated with him on his level, came up with brilliant designs on her own, and surpassed his hectic work schedule to keep herself entertained, since she didn’t need sleep.  Mila did tell me that the twins have grown a bit jealous at times lately when Jarod was discussing his work, but Maxine hadn’t actually tried anything… yet.  I was certain she would eventually, given that she probably found his brilliance attractive as well.  He’d handle things well.

 Aurora was doing incredibly well.  I’d had some misgivings when we first met, but the girl had proven herself to be born for engineering.  Her ability to understand schematics at a glance surpassed even Jarod, from what he and Mila had told me.  There were times that Jarod would present her with a new idea, and she’d instantly point to flaws or things that excited her about it.  Even if her ability to communicate would barely improve, she was an asset to the world, though I had faith that she’d make significant progress in communication.

 “James?  When did you get here?” questioned Jarod after he turned around.

 “Several minutes ago.” replied Maxine.

 Speaking over her, Mila said, “Three minutes and twenty-two seconds.”

 Aurora ignored them, still assembling part of the car.

 “Sorry to interrupt.  I’m scheduled to chat with Jarod about an upcoming project, but I didn’t want to rush you.” I explained.

 He seemed to think for a second before saying, “Oh!  That’s right.  Mila had mentioned that a few days ago.  Let me clean up, and we can go…”  He hesitated as he looked around.

 “Let’s go for a drive.” I suggested.

 “Sure!  Yeah.  Meet you up top after I clean up.”

 “He can wait.  He should look at the upgrades.” argued Maxine.

 “Sounds good, assuming we can keep Jarod from getting too distracted.” I teased.

 He pushed my comment away with his hand, smiling as he walked away.

 I listened as Mila and Maxine walked me through the changes they had made since last time.  I didn’t bother telling Maxine that Mila tends to give me briefings as work progresses, since she seemed rather happy about her contributions.  Scaring her into giving up crime had worked better than I expected, but Aaliyah has whatever effect she wants on people.

 When Jarod was ready, we took the lift up and hopped in his Mustang, though little of the original car was left under the exterior.  He let Mila take over driving at my suggestion.  “So what’s up?”

 “Well, we hadn’t really sat down and talked by ourselves for a while, but let’s get to business first.”

 He looked slightly concerned as he asked “Is something wrong?”

 “No, other than my desire to appropriate parts of your latest car design.” I explained with a smile.

 He blinked and stared at me.  “Wait.  What?  You know there’s typically no discussion when something’s appropriated, right?”

 My smile widened as I said, “Thought you might get hung up on that part, but Aaliyah suggested an automated taxi service a while ago.  She’s been getting things prepared with the local governments for use in the city and suburbs.  After glancing through your current work, she modified things slightly to a design we could present for the general public.”  Mila put the display on the windshield.  “With your consent, this will be Best Friend For Hire’s taxi design for the next ten-ish years.”

 “Taxis, eh?  Mila driving them all?” he asked.

 “Of course.  Don’t worry.  This won’t stretch my processing power.  This section”—a section of the screen highlighted—”will give me an unnecessary boost for a small portion of myself to control the vehicle even in the event of a power outage disconnecting the Wi-Fi.” she explained.

 “You’ll also get a percentage from the Wi-Fi network.” I told him.

 “What about Maxine, Mila, and Aurora?”

 “Maxine’s not officially doing the work, but her family’s accounts are being compensated.  Don’t tell her.  She’s still on community service in her mind.”

 ‘Yeah, I guess.  She’s… surprised me.” he replied with a shrug.  “For the first month, I was triple checking everything she did out of paranoia, but something changed in her.  She’s really trying to help out as far as I can see.”

 “I concur.” stated Mila, though she sounded amused.

 “Fine, she still picks fights with Portentia whenever Portentia comes through the garage, but she’s helped Portentia too.”

 “I’ve heard.  That doesn’t make up for all the damage she’s done… or the lives lost.” I pointed out.

 “No, but I’m glad she’s trying.”

 I nodded in agreement and then asked Mila to bring up the details of how the profits would be distributed.

 Jarod looked through the terms and asked a few questions as I went through them.  Shaking his head and smiling, he said, “The other cab companies are going to hate you.”

 “One won’t.  I bought it already.”

 “What about their employees?” he questioned.

 “They’ll each be driving the version you saw with a steering wheel until they retire.  Unfortunately, a few were retired early due to unsavory habits, but the drivers will drive, the office people will keep busy.”

 Jarod looked at me in surprise.  “You had them killed!?”

 “Not how I’d put it, but there were a few whose information was given to the Slayer family.  Most who were retired early have been compensated, probably too generously, and fired.  Of those, I have to admit that a few won’t actually receive their full compensation due to current legal predicaments, but I didn’t make them break the law.  The drug dealer had quite a surprised expression when the police took him away.”

 As I talked, Jarod seemed to be appraising me.  When I finished, he said, “James, you’ve really changed, man.”  Holding up a hand, he quickly assured me “Not in a bad way, really, but… wow.  I never thought I’d hear you talk about people dying or being arrested so casually.  When did you get used to all this?”

 “When I got married to someone who could aptly be described as a living weapon and adopted a former slave.” I admitted.

 “Whoa.  What?  Dani was enslaved!?”

 “When she was quite young.  Luckily, that situation was rectified before too much harm came to her.  Best not to mention that part to anyone.  Hate for bad memories to be brought up if she hears them.” I explained, dancing around the truth.

 “I knew slavery still existed in the world, but wow…  She’s so cheerful and energetic.  I’d never have guessed.  I don’t understand how you three grew so close in two weeks.”

 “You will one day.” I promised.  “Unfortunately, I can’t explain.  My honeymoon seemed rather long and was extremely busy, but good things came of it.”

 He nodded.  “I get the secrecy.  With Ai and Mai, I’ve learned a great deal, but I can’t even begin to guess at the secrets Alma must keep.  Our new relatives are something else.”

 Smiling, I said, “They really are, but things will work out.  I won’t let them cause us trouble.”

 Jarod laughed.  “I still can’t believe you had Raine deliver Godric home.  Ai and Mai were horrified, but Mila showed me the look on his face.  I couldn’t stop laughing!”

 “Well, she’s more than a match for his whole family together.  Imagine if she had formed that keep in midair and let it drop.”

 “That thing’s amazing!  I still can’t believe she called that an ‘oops’.”  Catching my glance, he said, “Mila told me.  I wish I could ‘oops’ things into existence.  You’ve got to get her to help me in the lab occasionally.”

 “She’s a best friend for hire.” I replied with a shrug.

 “Fine-fine, but can you imagine the possibilities with power like that?  I’ve been wanting to tie Ariadne down and get her to help me, but I think we both know the odds of that ever happening.  Mila thinks Raine might be even stronger, which I can’t doubt after seeing that keep.”

 “Ariadne wouldn’t struggle too much with creating a keep, but I agree that Raine could do far more.  She’s practicing.  Ariadne will be visiting soon to help provide some encouragement, so I’ll try to get them both into the lab during the visit.”

 “Really!?” he exclaimed, excited before I could get another word out.  “Dude, I’m going to start planning for it.  With their help, we could have things created spontaneously inside a vacuum.  Then there’s this energy idea I had where…” he started going deeper and deeper into his thoughts on low-energy nuclear reactions.

 I stopped him partway through.  “When you do those experiments, please let me be present, just in case.”

 “Sure!  You’re always welcome.”

 “I’m planning on acting as a safety net, in case things get out of hand.  I’ve actually studied control of radiation through magic and have faith that I could handle a small nuclear blast, if containment were to fail.”

 “What!?  That’s amazing!  If I had known that, I’d have tried this other idea I had much sooner.” he stated, looking at me as if I should have told him months ago.

 “Sorry, but you could’ve asked my thoughts on it.” I argued.

 He laughed and nodded.  “Life’s just so busy for both of us these days.”

 “Really is.  I know we just celebrated the triplets’ birthday before the baseball game, but we’ll be having another celebration soon.”  The triplets’ party was small by my company’s standards, but they just wanted to visit France and spend time with a few people they knew there.  I covered the expenses, at least the legal ones.

 “Whose?”

 “Raine’s on the fourth, and then Jemal’s on the twenty-third.  I was thinking we could do something cat themed for Raine and make use of her fort.  This will be her first birthday since her mother died.”

 “Yeah… that’s rough, but she seems happier these days.  I wonder if she can hear us this far out.” he commented, looking around.

 “If she’s paying attention, probably, but I doubt she is.  Being able to hear everything in a city and wanting to are completely different.”

 “Oh, master.  Just one city isn’t bad at all.” argued Mila.

 “Well, you have certain advantages in that regard.” I argued, knowing that Aaliyah had expanded Mila well beyond the technologies of any world.

 “Maybe a few…” she agreed.

 Laughing again, Jarod said, “I’d be happy to keep up with a single room.  There’s just so much happening all the time.”

 I wished I could tell him what my day was like off-world, but Aaliyah didn’t want me to spoil the surprise.  There would eventually be a day where Jarod and I could discuss aliens, but I had quite a wait.  Still, I enjoyed spending some time cruising around with my best friend.

[samuraiko]

The Price of the Past - More thoughts on THE ROYAL TUTOR

(THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING - I’M GONNA TALK ABOUT STUFF ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE END OF THE SERIES, SO IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE ANIME, STOP READING RIGHT NOW. LIKE, NOW. AS IN, WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?)

A lot of folks seemed to like my Pleading Their Case essay, so I’m going back and doing another one, this time on what’s probably my favorite scene in the entire show, from episode 9 (”The Price of the Past”).

The wine cellar scene.

Now, I adore this scene, as you may know from my Top 10 Moments in THE ROYAL TUTOR post. But I want to kind of expand on that here, rather than just gushing about how awesome it is.

THE BACKGROUND:

From the minute our heroes (Kai, Heine, and Maximilian) end up in the cellar, we get a real sense of the danger that they’re in. All three are handcuffed to the wine racks, and Fuchs is openly taunting them that he is quite willing to hurt them (or possibly kill them) to get what he wants. 

Up until now, almost every single challenge the princes have faced have been mental (and to some degree, emotional) - Licht being ratted out for working in the cafe, Bruno being tempted with an offer to pursue another career, Leonhard having to overcome his learning problems, and even Kai overcoming his natural shyness and reticence. This is a much, much bigger problem.

Sure, the palace will figure out something’s wrong, and sure enough, this is immediately confirmed when Fuchs outright admits that this is for ransom. Why is this important? It means that Fuchs and his cohorts have pretty much gone “all in” on this one. As Fuchs admits to Heine, “High risks yield high returns,” which means they’re looking at prison for possibly the rest of their lives at the least, and possible execution at the worst. And if your captors are willing to risk prison and/or death, this will generally not end well.

THE PLAYERS: 

Maximilian might be awestruck by the estate, but his instincts as a guard are still reasonably solid (he is after all the one to wonder TWICE where Ludwig is, even if no one follows up on that, including himself). And he’s probably kicking himself pretty hard that he wasn’t quite taking this as seriously as he should have. (More on him a bit later, though.) Sure, he might be the best fencer among the guards, but this is real life. And it’s something that I *REALLY* wish the manga would have him learn... like, dude, people’s LIVES are your responsibility here.

For Kai, this is its own sort of nightmarish replay of the incident at the Academy - while Fuchs hasn’t laid a hand on him (yet), Kai already knows that Fuchs has no qualms against fighting dirty, either. (On the flip side, Kai has no qualms about taking care of himself, and he gave Fuchs as good as he got.) And while Kai might not have the same emotional attachment to Maximilian that he does to Bruno, he sure as hell cares a lot about Heine. Not to mention that this is more than a little out of Kai’s league, and he is VERY aware of that fact. So Kai is obviously pissed, and more than a little self-reproaching.

Heine is doing his best to keep things calm (whether defusing it through obstinate humour or trying to rationalize with Fuchs), while providing an anchor for Kai. You also get the feeling that he’s genuinely trying to reach Fuchs in those moments, appealing to things that the princes (Fuchs’ peers) are smart enough to value - solid morals, familial approval, open communication. It also is probably more than a little frustrating for Heine that he knows Viktor is counting on him to protect his sons (”I leave my sons in your capable hands”), and then THIS happens. As we’ll learn later in the series, Heine is more than capable of taking care of himself (yeah, a 16-year-old (ish) kid going up against four of the Royal Guard and WINNING), but now he has Kai (and to a lesser degree, Maximilian) to worry about.

And as for Fuchs, he is clearly a case of someone who claims he suffers at the hands of those of greater privilege, while completely failing to notice how much of his own he actually has. For those not in the know - the traditional ‘von’ you see in most German and Austrian surnames? It’s an indication of nobility. Ralf von Fuchs is actually a NOBLE. The academy he and Kai and Bruno attend? It’s a NOBLES ONLY academy. But over and over, we see how everything is always everyone else’s fault. He doesn’t get top marks? It’s because of Bruno, and not even because Bruno is SMART, but because it’s FAVORITISM. His family disowns him because of what happened? He still “suffers under the pressures and influence of the Royal Court.” And Fuchs’ natural jealousy and not-so-hidden sadism have once again led him to lash out at the princes, to do it where and when he thinks no one else will find out (or be able to stop him), and with others who are willing to back him up (or at least not stop him). Let’s be honest - he could have KILLED Bruno during those ‘training’ sessions.

THE SETUP:

Things come to a head when Fuchs pulls a knife on Kai. Now look at their reactions:

Kai might be afraid, but that stoic facade of his serves him well in this instance because he knows that bullies want to see your fear, and he is not about to oblige.

Maximilian goes from cheerful fanboying over the idea of being famous to being terrified that something will happen to Kai before he can stop it.

And Heine says nothing. Not a single word.

Fuchs’ frustrations lead him to grab Heine by the collar and threatening to cut his throat. And not surprisingly, Kai does not take this well. He takes it even less well when Fuchs tries to make it sound like it’s KAI’S fault that Heine’s about to get hurt (back to that again). And Kai is literally a single breath away from beating Fuchs within an inch of his life (if he doesn’t outright kill him in a blind rage).

RIGHT THERE - that’s when you realize who’s really in control of this situation. And it isn’t Fuchs.

Yes, the focus of the moment is all on Kai as he remembers Helene smiling at him, a remorseful Bruno apologizing to him... but a single glance and two words from Heine freezes him in place.

“Prince Kai.”

(By the way - this is one of the ONLY times in the series we ever hear Heine raise his voice.)

You want proof how intelligent Heine is? Never mind that he’s figured out Leonhard and Kai in the space of a single conversation. Never mind that he beats Bruno at every task the prince could come up with. Never mind that he figures out Licht’s secret in moments.

Watch the scene again.

Here they are in the cellar - Kai is trying to break free, Maximilian is lamenting about the estate, Fuchs is openly taunting them. 

What is Heine doing?

He gets Fuchs talking, and he’s steering the conversation every step of the way. He’s keeping Kai from being afraid by letting Fuchs make him angry. He’s giving Maximilian all the information he needs that this is too well-thought-out, too planned for it to be a spur-of-the-moment thing, and clarifies the scope of the danger to the prince. He knows he’s in no real danger, so he LETS Fuchs manhandle him.

And most importantly, HE’S BUYING TIME. Fuchs can’t help but be focused on Kai, he’s almost obsessed with him... which means he’s NOT watching Heine.

And even when Fuchs has a knife to his throat, Heine is utterly disdainful of Fuchs. The expression on his face alone says volumes. “You arrogant child...”

And then Fuchs goes after Kai.

The first domino falls.

THE ACTION:

Watch the moment when Fuchs turns on Kai... and watch Heine in the background. He’s stopped watching Kai, and is now watching Fuchs... and the second Fuchs turns his back on Heine, boom - Heine’s out of the cuffs and in front of Kai.

“With the requisite amount of time and knowledge, Herr Fuchs, a little toy like this is unlocked quite easily.”

One swing of the chain, and Fuchs is cuffed to the wine rack. But it doesn’t stop there - Heine promptly tears down the young man’s arguments by admitting that yes, maybe his family expectations were too high of him, but had he bothered asking for help, he might have gotten it.

And look at Kai’s face - sure, he’s probably wondering what the hell just happened, but at the same time, I get the sense that he’s suddenly seeing what he could have become, had he not had the supportive mentor that he does. He would have kept withdrawing, kept hiding, kept blaming himself (and maybe others) for what happened.

And then... comes the awesome.

Fuchs’ cohorts come down the stairs (after watching the scene multiple times, Heine is outnumbered six to one, I think). Heine issues his declaration to ‘educate’ them, and after ordering Maximilian to protect Kai (a scene better handled in the anime than the manga, I think, because during the fight itself, Maximilian is all business, and he does the smart thing here - the second the kdinappers are past, he and Kai are heading toward the stairs), Heine proceeds to lay a smackdown that is poetry to behold.

THE FIGHT:

Heine has had the last several minutes to study his surroundings, and he uses that information well. He knows where everything is, and where everyone is.

The first thing Heine does is plant his feet and balance himself. Good plan, since the first one to come after him has a knife. He dodges three times to get the measure of his opponent’s skill (and a sense of his reach), lets himself be backed up toward a second opponent behind him, then neatly pivots, grabs his would-be backstabber and throws him right into his assailant. Two down.

The guns come out after that, but Heine’s as lithe as an acrobat, and draws their fire down the room... AWAY from Fuchs, by the way, who’s still chained up at the other end of the row. It takes a certain measure of confidence to nab his cap as he dodges the gunfire, then he picks up a cask lid just as the kidnappers shoot some of the provisions (namely a flour sack), causing flour to go everywhere. While they’re choking, the lid comes flying out of the dust and bam, third attacker is sent reeling.

Unfortunately, he crashes into Fuchs, dislodging the support beams of the casks and causing two of them to fall toward Fuchs, who can’t dodge because of his handcuffs. No problem, Heine has snatched up the fallen beam and shunts the casks away from Fuchs and the guy he just hit.

And now Heine has a weapon that can attack at greater reach (not much good against guns, but as the martial arts adage goes, “If you can’t stand, you can’t fight”). And when all the kidnappers try and rush him at once (since by now they’re out of ammo, and Heine’s not about to give them the time to reload, so it’s back to knives and/or fists), he swings the beam and takes them down. Even better - he’s swinging clockwise, which means he’s more likely to take out the right arms of each of his opponents (all his opponents have come at him right-handed). Heine’s also not shy about aiming for the head or ribcage, either (”if you can’t see, you can’t fight, if you can’t breathe, you can’t fight”).

Once they’re all down, he goes after the leader, who tries to attack him with the riding crop/teacher’s pointer. Heine’s not having that, and two quick dodges and one wrist lock later, that’s the end of that. The leader is cowering on the floor, while Heine nonchalantly kicks the revolver up into his hand, cocks it, and takes a shot between the leader’s legs. (I can only imagine that concrete shrapnel ‘down there’ must HURT, and lucky for him, the ricochet doesn’t kill him, either.)

(By the way - Heine’s ambidextrous - he fires the revolver first with his left hand, then with his right.) And while he’s spinning the barrel to see how many shots he has left, he manages to load the ammo that ends the scene the way it does.

“Who ARE you?! Tell me!”

“The Royal Tutor... my name is Heine Wittgenstein. Let this be a lesson to you, sir.”

Title first, name second. Says quite a bit about which he considers more important, doesn’t it? And said with utter, chilling calm.

THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS:

Hands down, visually, this is my favorite scene in the anime. The lighting and colouring are fantastic, although I admit that the animation itself is a bit more spare than I’d have liked. Still, it works gorgeously well, and for a street fighter like Heine, a lengthy drawn-out fight might not have worked as well (street fights are more visceral and less elegant). Angles and perspectives are handled beautifully, emphasizing the almost claustrophobic confines of the wine cellar, and constantly showcasing who’s dominant in the scene.

The whole fight scene, by the way, is practically storyboarded from the manga, and made even more impressive by being able to use a moving camera and shifting perspective to give it motion and flow.

(I have to make a side note here - there is ONE notable difference that I caught after first watching the series, then reading the manga. There’s a still frame where Kai is frozen after throwing the punch, and Fuchs is holding up Heine by the collar. In the manga, Heine is pretty much on his knees. In the anime, he has one foot out in front of him. And of the two versions, I prefer the anime one because it captures Heine’s intent more clearly. Heine is ready to make his move as soon as Fuchs turns his back.)

The music is also my favorite track in the series (roughly translated to “Teaching Weapons,” a marvelous dual meaning), to where it almost seems like a dance. The time keeps shifting, keeping things just off-balance enough to convey that sense of chaotic movement. And unlike virtually every other cue in the show, this scene is the ONLY place it appears.

For the dub, you’ve got Micah Solusod as Heine, Daman Mills as Kai, Dallas Reid as Maximilian, Justin Briner as Fuchs (by the way, Justin REALLY needs to play more villains, as he’s fantastic at it), with Chris Sabat cameoing as the ringleader. Everyone’s on their A game here, to the point where it’s hard to point out which one is best. Kai’s emotional reaction to everything going on means that Daman has more of a chance to move past Kai’s usual softspoken voice, Justin manages to give Fuchs an almost delusional, unhinged arrogance, but Micah’s absolute stoicism with its underlying anger and disdain just sells this scene as Heine’s crowning moment of awesome.

So yeah, I love this episode, and I love this scene. Hope you do, too. :)

[tomeandflickcorner]

Umbrella Academy Recap 2x10

1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10

2x01 2x02 2x03 2x04 2x05 2x06 2x07 2x08 2x09

We’ve reached the final episode of Season 2.  Will the Hargreeves Siblings find a way back to their own time?  And can they find a way to help Harlan, who has somehow gained Vanya’s powers and has therefore become targeted by The Commission?

Before we get to address those questions, the episode gives us a flashback to 2006. It’s apparently right after Ben’s tragic death, and the surviving Hargreeves Siblings (minus Number 5, who is still trapped in the future) are gathering for his funeral.  Of course, Reginald, proving once again that he’s the worst, makes the Hargreeves Siblings feel as if it was their fault Ben died.  (Dude, if the students failed, then maybe that just means you failed as a teacher.)  After Reginald goes back inside with Grace and Pogo, Young Vanya tries to comfort her grieving siblings by telling them it wasn’t their fault.  Young Diego, being Diego, lashes out at her, telling her that she doesn’t deserve to have a say since she wasn’t on the mission.  Which, of course, sends Young Vanya running off in tears.  Young Allison and Young Luther both scold Young Diego for being a jerk, and before long, the three of them are fighting amongst themselves.  Young Klaus, however, slips away alone and uses his powers to summon Ben’s ghost.  Once Ben’s ghost appears, Young Klaus tells him that things have been pretty bad sine he died.  Ben then tells Young Klaus that he can’t stay long, as he was getting ready to walk into the light.  Young Klaus, however, scoffs and tells Ben not to worry about it, announcing that the bright light isn’t going anywhere, and he can go off into it whenever he wants.  Ben seems to accept this, and they walk off together.

Okay, probably a silly thing to focus on, but....if Ben is a ghost throughout most of the show’s events, shouldn’t he look the same as he did when he died?  Because in this flashback, Ben’s ghost looks younger than he did in previous episodes.  Can ghosts physically age?  Of course, this is probably just a nitpick.

Getting back to the current time, it turns out that, for some reason, Luther, Allison, Diego, Klaus and Vanya are all wanted by the FBI now.  It’s a bit confusing, really, but for some reason, they’re all suspected to have assisted Lee Harvey Oswald in assassinating President Kennedy.  Not entirely sure why, though.  Although it probably had been noted by the Feds that Vanya was brought in for questioning, and that the agents that had been interrogating her are all dead.  And Klaus, Allison and Diego had been seen entering the FBI building around that time.  Doesn’t really explain how Luther ended up as a suspect, though, but whatever.  The only one who seems to be in the clear is Number 5, but that’s because the Feds seem to think he’s an ordinary little boy who is being held hostage by the other Hargreeves Siblings.  Klaus suggests they hide out in Iceland for a bit, but Number 5 points out that hiding is pointless.  Because even if they can evade the FBI and the secret service, there’s no escaping The Commission.  But because the Hargreeves Siblings can’t seem to get along for more than five minutes, a fight erupts when Diego reveals he was recruited by The Commission himself.  Something that Number 5 finds laughable as he views Diego as an idiot.  Amidst the fighting, Vanya slips off to try and call Sissy.  But as she tries to call, she suddenly gets a telepathic message from Harlan.  It’s here that it’s revealed exactly how Harlan managed to obtain Vanya’s powers.  It seems that when Vanya saved Harlan from drowning a few episodes back, she somehow transferred a fragment of her superpower into him.  Which explains what those glowing lights were.  Not entirely sure how that works.  Can the other Hargreeves Siblings pass their unique abilities on to someone else, or is this something exclusive to Vanya?  Either way, I suppose we’ll just have to go with it.

In any event, Vanya informs her brothers and sister of her accidental connection with Harlan, stating she has to head back to the farmhouse in order to help the boy.  She asks them to come with her, as she’s scared and she wants to have her family with her.  Unfortunately, Diego states that their priorities lie elsewhere, and for once, Number 5 states he’s in agreement with Diego.  When Vanya sees that none of her siblings seem willing to help her with this, she turns to go off on her own.  But as she starts the car, Klaus suddenly appears in the passenger seat.  They briefly discuss Ben, who had finally crossed over last episode after helping Vanya overcome her guilt pertaining to the things she did when her powers were out of control.  Vanya then informs Klaus that Ben left her a message for him.  Ben had wanted Klaus to know that he wasn’t the reason why he’d stuck around for so long.  It had been because Ben had been too scared to cross over.  This news alleviates Klaus’ own feelings of guilt, as he’d long believed he’d been keeping Ben from his ticket to Heaven.  Klaus then announces he intends to stick by Vanya when she goes to help Harlan.  And then, one by one, the others all join Klaus and Vanya in the car as well.  Which is a bit of a surprising heal turn for most of them, but at least they’re finally acting like a family for once.  Which is really fortunate as it’s revealed to the audience that the last remaining Swede is following them.

By the time the Hargreeves Siblings make it to the farmhouse, it’s clear that Harlan is in desperate need of help.  Bolts of lightning are blasting out from the barn and the area around the farmhouse is covered with snow.  As they approach the barn, Sissy appears, aiming her riffle at them.  It’s clear that she’s scared for her son, and she confronts Vanya, demanding to know what she did to Harlan, and if she’d been lying to her the whole time.  Vanya is able to convince Sissy that she wasn’t lying, that she really hadn’t remembered who she was before but she does now.  She goes on to tell Sissy that, whatever she might have heard, they’re not monsters, they’re aren’t there to hurt anyone, and that they didn’t kill President Kennedy.  In the end, Sissy accepts what Vanya is telling her, and she allows them to enter the barn, where Harlan is in the middle of an obvious meltdown, with the powers he got from Vanya spiraling out of control.  As Vanya begins to attempt to calm Harlan down, Klaus spots The Handler and Lila appearing outside and he alerts the others.  Diego and Number 5 decide to go out to face them.  After a bit of back and forth, The Handler reveals that Number 5′s involvement in the death of The Commission’s board of directors has been found out.  (Though the fact that The Handler herself ordered him to do so has been covered up.)  Diego points out that she and Lila (who has also fallen for The Handler’s lies) are outnumbered.  The Handler, however, isn’t phased by this and reveals that they’re not alone. Every single temporal assassin on The Commission’s payroll is also there.  So Diego and Number 5 (as well as Luther, Allison and Klaus, who also came outside to watch) are forced to retreat.

Diego and Number 5 try to seek refuge from the wave of bullets behind a tractor.  Number 5 attempts to teleport them into the farmhouse for refuge, but he’s out of juice.  So Diego decides to cover him by using his own powers of controlling the trajectory of objects, stopping the bullets in midair and redirecting them towards a nearby fuel tanker.  Of course, that’s not nearly enough to stop the temporal assassins, who are continuing their charge.

Inside the barn, Vanya has almost managed to talk Harlan down, but the flying bullets from the horde of temporal assassins disrupts her efforts.  After checking to see if Sissy is okay, Vanya decides to head out to help her brothers and sisters, with Sissy going to check on Harlan, who landed nearby.  By the time Vanya steps outside, things are looking pretty bleak for the other Hargreeves Siblings.  But Vanya is able to effortlessly shove every one of the temporal assassins backwards, effectively stopping their assault.  So for a brief moment, it looks like things will be okay for the Hargreeves Siblings.  But then, out of nowhere, it’s revealed that Lila was able to construct a forcefield around herself and The Handler, which protected them from Vanya’s counterattack.  Lila then begins utilizing the same ability as Vanya. Which obviously stuns the Hargreeves Siblings.  Before they can recover from their shock, Lila fires off a shockwave that sends them all flying off in different directions.

The Handler, on the other hand, doesn’t seem shocked by this and instructs Lila to kill the Hargreeves Siblings.  Lila obediently enters the farmhouse, where Luther and Number 5 wound up.  She approaches them after Number 5 got himself buried under the collapsing brick fireplace.  Luther questions who she is, and Lila replies that she’s someone who wants to kill Number 5.  Luther states he finds this understandable, but since Number 5 is his brother, he’s obligated to protect him.  But when he tries to punch Lila, she’s able to physically stop his fist with her bare hand and effortlessly throws him through the wall.  So it looks like Lila has Luther’s power of super strength, too.  And during the next few minutes, it’s reveled Lila can also mimic Allison and Number 5′s powers as well.

As Lila and Number 5 continue to fight inside the farmhouse, Allison, Luther, Klaus and Vanya all gather to help Diego, who ended up getting pinned beneath the tractor.  After freeing Diego, they start to discuss Lila’s sudden display of powers.  Before long, they reach a shocking conclusion- Lila was one of the Miracle Babies that were born on October 1st 1989.  Specifically one of the 36 Miracle Babies that Reginald hadn’t managed to obtain.  And her superpower was the ability to mimic the powers of anyone near her.  Of course, this does present the problem of how they could bring her down, as anything they threw at her could be directed back at them.  Klaus, however, theorizes that she may be able to only mimic one person at a time.  Meaning that, if they team up and attack in unison, it might do to the trick.

Meanwhile, The Handler makes her way over to where Sissy and Harlan are hiding out.  The Handler punches Sissy out and makes her way over to Harlan, announcing she’s his new mother.  She begins to entice Harlan to come with her, claiming that she can offer him a place where he’ll be understood.

Elsewhere, Lila and Number 5 are still engaged in their battle.  Lila announces that she plans to make Number 5 pay for what he’s done, but Number 5 insists he has no idea what she’s talking about.  Until Lila mentions her birth parents’ names, Ronnie and Anita Gill.   Right away, Number 5 remembers the pair in question.  He agrees that they didn’t deserve to die, but stares it hadn’t been personal when he killed them.  It had just been another job he did as a temporal assassins.  However, he tells Lila that if she’s going to blame anyone, she should look to The Handler, who had accompanied him on the kill order, which is something that executives at The Commission never did.  Number 5 realizes the truth in that moment.  He tells Lila that The Handler must have issued a fake kill order for Ronnie and Anita Gill, with the sole intention of getting to Lila, knowing that Lila was one of the Miracle Babies born on that fateful October day.  At that moment, the other Hargreeves Siblings appear on the scene.  They back up Number 5, saying that his conclusion makes sense, and that The Handler must have stolen her the way Reginald had stolen all of them.  The only difference is that Reginald hadn’t murdered any of their parents.  Lila is visibly shaken by this revelation, and clearly isn’t willing to accept it.  Diego, however, persists at reaching out to her, telling her that The Handler only loves her for her powers, and the moment they stop being useful to her, she’ll view Lila as disposable.  But they can offer Lila the chance to be a part of a real family.  

For a moment, it looks as if Diego’s words are getting though to Lila.  But in the blink of an eye, The Handler appears out of nowhere and guns everyone down.  Lila confronts The Handler over what she’s just figured out.  The Handler doesn’t deny it and simply asks if they can move past it and be a family again.  In response, Lila asks The Handler if she actually does love her, and when she gets no answer, she makes a move to attack, only to get shot on the spot.

However, it seems that Number 5 is not dead yet.  When The Handler notices this, she steps over to him, announcing she’s pleased he could live long enough to see how everything played out.  She then lifts her gun to finish him off.  Before she could fire off the killing shot, the last remaining Swede shows up out of nowhere, shooting her in the back.  Because he’d realized that The Handler had been the one who was responsible for the death of his brothers, on account of her intentionally misleading them.  And with that, The Handler is dead. 

But then The Swede aims his gun at Number 5, with the intention of killing him as well.  At the last second, Number 5 remembers what 1963 Reginald had suggested in 2x06, about making small time jumps instead of big ones.  This inspires him to travel back in time to right before The Handler shot his siblings dead.  This enables him to wrestle the gun away from The Handler before she could kill the Hargreees Siblings and Lila.  She still gets shot dead by The Swede (hopefully for good this time!), but this time, Number 5 is in the position to have a proper faceoff with The Swede.  After a tense moment with the two facing each other, Number 5 drops The Handler’s gun.  This is able to convince The Swede to also back down, with the two of them agreeing that it was pointless to continue fighting and killing each other.  However, amidst the confusion, Lila makes a dive for The Handler’s time traveling briefcase.  Luther tries to stop her, but Diego blocks him, allowing Lila to get away.  Luther questions Diego as to why he stopped him, and Diego admits that he loves Lila.

Of course, things aren’t fully resolved yet.  And that’s proven when Sissy cries out for Vanya.  She has apparently regained consciousness and saw that Harlan’s powers are still flaring up.  Vanya quickly moves to Harlan’s side, comforting him.  She manages to take back the fragment of her powers, thereby freeing Harlan of the burden, much to Sissy’s relief.

In the aftermath, Herb and Dot, the two members of The Commission who had been helpful to the Hargreeves Siblings, appear at the farmhouse to help tie up all the loose ends.  They explain that The Commission is in the process of electing a new board of directors, but until then, Herb is the acting chairperson.  Herb admits he’s nervous about his new position of authority, but Number 5 assures him that he’ll do fine. However, there’s still the matter of how the Hargreeves Siblings will get back to their own time.  Herb suggests they use one of the time traveling briefcases that the dead temporal assassins had used. 

As for Sissy and Harlan, Sissy tells Vanya that they can’t go with her when she returns to her own time.  She explains that she’s worried about Harlan and the danger he might be put into if they travel into the future.  She’s also scared for Vanya, and how they might not be able to have a normal life where they wouldn’t be hunted down.  Vanya is upset by Sissy’s decision, but she accepts it.  She asks Sissy where she’ll go, and Sissy mentions she has friends in California.  Vanya encourages her to go live the full life she deserves.  With that, the two share a goodbye kiss.

As the episode comes to a close, we see Ray alone at home, where he finds a goodbye letter that Allison left him.  As Allison’s letter is read in a voiceover, we see a brief montage. Vanya and Diego seem to be getting along now.  Klaus gazes tenderly at Dave’s dogtags as Past Dave boards the bus to join the Marines.  The last remaining Swede is picked up by the bus filled with Klaus’ former cult, which Keechie now leads.  Luther tries to make a phone call to his former boss, Mr. Ruby, but is unable to reach him.  Because Mr. Ruby, who had been watching the news broadcasts of President Kennedy’s assassination, was driven to pick up a gun.  (In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Mr. Ruby is Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in police custody.)  And Sissy and Harlan drive off to New Mexico.  Though it seems that Harlan has retained some of Vanya’s powers, as he’s able to levitate his bird toy.  When the montage is complete, The Hargreeves Siblings gather around the briefcase and depart 1963 at last. (Though Klaus pauses to pick up a cowboy hat first.)  They reappear on April 2nd, 2019, the day after the original apocalypse.  Which indicates that that apocalypse has successfully been prevented.  What’s more, the Umbrella Academy mansion is still standing, despite the fact that it had previously been destroyed by an enraged Vanya.

Upon realizing that they succeeded, the Hargreeves Siblings all start to celebrate.  But as they make their way to celebrate with a drink, Diego notices that there’s a picture of Ben above the fireplace mantle.  Up until now, that had been a picture of Number 5.  At that moment, Reginald appears, alive and well, even though he’s supposed to be dead.  Reginald announces he knew they’d show up eventually.  He then reveals that this isn’t the Umbrella Academy mansion anymore.  It’s now the Sparrow Academy mansion.  As he makes this announcement, the silhouettes of five people and a glowing cube appear on the upstairs landing.  Seconds later, a sixth person appears.  The sixth person is revealed to be a living Ben, who makes it clear that he doesn’t recognize any of the Hargreeves Siblings.

And so ends the second season of Umbrella Academy.  And it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in season 3.

Closing thoughts/questions:

Okay.  So apparently, 1963 Reginald ended up selecting completely different individuals in this new timeline, completely bypassing Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Number 5 and Vanya this time around.  Kinda makes sense, since he must have concluded them to be failures because of his brief encounter with them in 1963.  But he still selected Ben for his warped experiment, since he hadn’t been made aware of his existence at that time.  Wonder what this new batch of siblings are like.  And what’s with the glowing cube?

Will we see Lila again?  Because I’m hoping she’ll reunite with Diego.  I really ship those two.  Yes, they’re both one of those Miracle Babies, but unlike Luther and Allison, they weren’t raised as brother and sister, so it’s not creepy.

Wonder what became of Harlan, considering he still maintained some of Vanya’s powers.  Granted he seems to have them under control now, but  I still wonder if anyone ever found out about them.  In a related story, I wonder if Vanya will end up getting in touch with Sissy.  (Sure, she’s probably an old woman by now, but I’d be surprised if Vanya didn’t try to check up on her.)

Likewise, I wonder if Allison will check up on Ray.  Particularly since it’s unclear if Claire even exists in this new timeline.

While it looks like Dave is still on the path that will ultimately lead to his death, I’ve seen there does seem to be a slight variation.  Originally, Dave was a soldier in the army when he fought and died in the Vietnam War.  But when he boards the bus to be shipped off, he’s addressed as a Marine, which is a completely different military branch.  Either this was a continuity error or his path was indeed altered and he won’t die at  A Shau Valley after all.

[esseastri]

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 1)

Me: okay but I don’t remember the back half of WoR, I should really, really finish the reread before starting... Also me: okay, buuuuuuuuuuut................what if I just..............start

[insert evilkermit.jpeg here]

There are a few relevant points of information:

Tags: Megan reads OB and Oathbringer spoilers. (I’ll also have housekeepers on there, like Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive, and Oathbringer, but those first two are the important ones.)

Everything will be under a readmore.

Above the readmore will be the page numbers covered in that liveblog, so you’ll know how far I’ve gotten (and that way, if you’ve read that far you’ll be okay to read the lb).

There's…going to be a lot of swearing? I have learned that I have no control over my language when I get overly emotional and I feel like I’m going to spend a lot of this book overly emotional. I would like to apologize in advance, and while I promise to try to keep my swearing to a minimum, there might be more than a few bad words.

Shameless self-promotion for the previous two liveblogs: WoK and WoR.

I’m pretty sure that’s all the important bits. Enjoy!!

Part One encompasses pages 1-90 (subsequent parts)

*screams quietly into the ether forever*

PROLOGUE

hoooolly shiiiiiiiittt: Eshonai

Please tell me this means we’ll finally learn why the Parshendi killed Gavilar.......

SHE’S SO EXCITED I’M SO SAD I hate knowing what’s happened to her

...the Parshendi...didn’t know about the parshmen? what? the heck?

I’m....baby Esh is so excitable and curious and I.. love her. and I’m so. so sad. that she loses this.

“an indoor privy with running water, a concept she still didn’t understand.” Who does, babe. Who does.

me, every time amaram appears: “fucking asshole. fuck off fckkkk” I just.... hiss like a cat every time his name appears on a page. I hate him. ARGH.

I spelled his name as “aramaram” and had to go correct it I was so upset he was HERE that I forgot how to spell.

“Traitors who had abandoned their gods to be free.” And they FEARED the return of their gods, before stormform and the Everstorm. They feared it--because they were not free... But...stormform isn’t freedom, and their gods are back and....history repeating itself?

Also, the fact that Gavilar took the time to learn her name is very endearing and like... Gavilar was A Good, guys. He tried so hard.

NOOPE NEVERMIND, BAD, ACTUALLY. THAT’S SO SELFISH WHAT THE HECK

“Bring back your evil, destructive, enslaving gods so that we can have our nice, honorable, fighty ones back please.” NO, THAT’S SO DISGUSTING THAT’S SO SELFISH WTH

GAVIILAARRRR. I BELIEVED IN YOU! I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU

WAIT, so he was getting the visions before Dalinar? Did we know this already? That makes sense... it’s very Boromir/Faramir, tbh, but like... what, one died, and Honor was like “welp. guess we’ll try his bro”

wait, okay, so ...the black sphere that he gives Szeth...........what. Esh knows what it is--so it’s some kind of spren. But it’s not the angerspren/hatespren that they bond with for stormform--those are red. So what’s...this one? Voidspren? Are there voidspren? Voidspren to create voidbringers...presumably more powerful than stormform.

I AM CONCERNED.

PART ONE

okay, that map tho; after reading Edgedancer, I’m VERY CONCERNED that there’s an Oathgate to Aimia... I don’t need any more 200-cremlings-in-a-trenchcoat popping up out of nowhere, but thanks anyway

it makes sense that this book stats with Dalinar, but HOW! IS! MY! BOY! WHERE! IS! KALADIN!

Dalinar is so polite tho. saying ‘thank you’ to the Stormfather

Also ONLY SIX DAYS???? AAHH

“It had been a hardy, stubborn lot who had grown in this place.” This is Kholinar: it highstorms nine months of the year, and weeps the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have...cats or chickens, we have...cremlings.

(Though Lisa made a good point--are there actually cremlings?? or are all cremlings just...bits of Aimians scuttling about like spy bugs?)

“The queen had gone silent.” I...genuinely don’t trust her, and I’m more inclined to believe she’s radio silence out of a need to save her own damn skin than any other reason.

......somehow I never really thought that Odium would be light...

THE WOMAN HE LOVED

YAASS.

(I have priorities)

They’re being cute. It’s been, like, half a page and I’m just over here making big, cooing noises at them being cute. help.

OH SHIT THAT WAS QUICK

THEY FOUND SADEAS ALREADY AND I AM CONCERN

(tho, I mean...it took them six days to find the body, that’s....actually not really quick. but still.)

OH WAIT NO, OKAY, IT TOOK THEM  ONE DAY WELL SHIT

oh god

Adolin, bby. pls. don’t.... LISTEN, THE FIC I WROTE ABOUT GUILTSPREN WAS A FIC

HI TEFT I HAVE MISSED YOU BUT ALSO PLS CALM DOWN AAAHHHH

this is page frikkin 37 and I’m already dying

I’M SO SCARED OF WHAT IALAI WILL DO. SHE’S GONNA PIN THIS ON BRIDGE 4 I KNOW IT. SHE’S GONNA TRY AND I’M GONNA SCREAM

WHY IS ADOLIN HERE. KIDDO PLS. DOn’T COME BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME I’M

unrelated, but I can’t stop thinking about baby Eshonai basically damning her people to war and revenge to stop their gods from returning and Venli just like...whipping a godling out her pocket like “nvmd, we’re doing this anyway” and like. fuck Venli, tbh.

Back to current events and:

I love Palona.

“steady Adolin and impenetrable Renarin” HE LOVES HIS SONS SO MUCH I’M CRY

“certainly wouldn’t have gone so far as to kill Sadeas themselves” ABOUT THAT

I love that Urithuru has safety railings. like... throwing shade at every big space opera ever.

I still don’t know how I feel about Lopen growing his arm back...

“Our ultimate goal is the preservation of Roshar” Sorry, bud, Preservation is dead...

and also on a different planet.

AAAWWW SNAP! THIRTY-FOUR YEARS AGO! HERE WE GO!!!!

“He didn’t need Shards to intimidate.” Nah, but I bet they help.

tbqh, it’s really, really weird to think of Dalinar fighting not in Shards.

excuse you, that horse did nothing to deserve that.

heheheheh, so much for your nose, bucko

Gooooddddd, Brandon writes battle so cinematically. I want to film this. Gaaaahhh

of...of course punk!Dalinar’s horse is named Fullnight. How deliciously extra of him.

“I tried to kill you!” “from a distance! Which shows remarkably good judgement!” DALINAR, PLEASE. 

Enthusiastic ultra-Gryffindor rambo Dalinar is hilarious

It’s been 50 pages, where’s Kaladin

Sadeas in YELLOW shardplate?? who is he?

Also, ngl, I’m a lil pissed that I still have to deal with Sadeas--even if it’s young, not-quite-so-vile Sadeas. Like......he’s dead! I shouldn’t have to put up with his slimy face anymore!

“What would we do without you?” “Lose.” What an asshole. What a dudebro. I hate how much I love him.

the Thrill concerns me, tbh.

I know that we know it is of Odium, but like. It Concerns me.

THAT WAS QUICK

THE EVERSTORM TURNAROUND??? THAT WAS DISTRESSINGLY QUICK?

I’m sad Dalinar doesn’t get a little spren buddy wandering around with him at all times, because, like. Stormfather. But like. spren buddy.

Now I’m trying to picture the vast and infinite Stormfather just flitting around Dalinar’s head in meetings and making faces at Syl across the table and laughing my ass off.

oh NO not her SAFEHAND

seriously, they. are. so. cute.

“Your stubborn refusal to get seduced is making me question my feminine wiles.” HAAAAHAHA OMG, DARLINGS PLEASE

also, Dalinar, omg, give it up already, bro.

I realize there are like...ecological and climatology implications of the Weepings stopping before they are supposed to, but I can’t help but be glad that Kaladin won’t be suffering for as long as he normally would with the seasonal depression...

WHAT! WAS! THE! BOON! ...unless this is the boon. Unless Dalinar asked for the Nightwatcher to take away the pain of losing his wife and instead she took away his wife... and his punishment is something else.

in which case WHAT! WAS! THE! PUNISHMENT!

“I’d let a confused dishwasher marry us.” I realized belatedly that she meant, like...a person who washes dishes. And not a machine that washes dishes that most people on earth have in their kitchens.

Also, Dalinar and Navani really need to please stop being so adorable, I’m SO HAPPY THEY’RE GETTIN MARRIED AND THE FRIKKIN STORMFATHER IS GONNA OFFICIATE THAT’S HILARIOUS I LOVE THEM

I LOVE THAT THE WEDDING IS LIKE... HIM AND NAVANI AND THE BOYS AND SHALLAN AND A FEW OTHER MINIONS. THIS IS DELIGHTFUL. I LOVE THIS

THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS I DISLIKE

Bridge Four is too important for guard duty! They’re so important! They’ve come so far!!!! I LOVE THEM!!??

she just had a wedding dress just... lying around.

god I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!

...poor Elhokar. “if only we could keep up.” boy has no confidence and no chance to learn it.

NAVANI’S FRIKKIN GLORYSPREN OMG

“What does he remember that I cannot?” Uh...your other wife, my dude. I’m sure this has something to do with how your wife died.

AAHH. HERE HE IS!!!! THE BOY!!!!! MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nooooo. no, kaladin please. you didn’t fail. oh god, no, come on. don’t think like that.

I’m

aaahhhhh

“It felt wrong not to bear the symbol of Bridge Four.” AAAHHHHHHH

I’M

!!!!!!!!!

I’m JUST NOT OKAY

aahh, at least he was properly concerned about the Everstorm filling his spheres with...bad stuff? of some kind? I’m super glad that it didn’t, that it doesn’t, but like. At least he was concerned about it!

hello fronds, I love Syl a LOT

also: covered safehand, that’s hilarious. She’s a real grown up, now!

nooooooooooo

it can’t be all dead

they have to have

someone has to have been smart enough to get a large part of the town into shelter

Kaladin, your dad isn’t stupid, he would have. he would have tried.

(this would be way, way more distressing if I hadn’t been spoiled for the fact that Lirin and Hesina are alive...like...I’d probably be crying right now.)

“How often are you going to make me apologize for that?” Pfffft I mean.

HE GREW UP AND THEY DON’T RECOGNIZE HIM AND I’M

AAAHHH

“Are there wounded” and he just GOES because that’s where his dad would be and he just . goes. to his dad.

I’m crying?

THEY’RE CRYING I’M CRYING EVERYONE IS CRYING

THEY THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD AMARAM FUCKING TOLD THEM HE WAS DEAD AND I’M

THEY’RE

“MY SON IS ALIVE” YEAH HE IS AND HE’S AMAZING AND YOU’RE GONNA BE PROUD OF HIM OH

I’M

AAHHHHHH

I really hate Amaram. A lot.

his mom is a good. and she just keeps her hand on his shoulder like protectiveness and like reassurance that he’s still there and I’m. aaaAAAHH

“For now, he just wanted to be here with them.” GOOD. LET THE BOY REST. LET HIM EAT SOUP AND REST.

“The wrong-way highstorm” I mean...not wrong

“They never got to meet Captain Kaladin” aaAAHHH

I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS ABOUT INCARNATIONS OF HUMANS AND I’M

this is a lot

LIRIN OFFERING TO BUY THE WRIT OF SLAVERY IS A LOT I’M JUST

crying

“Perhaps it was time to stop letting the rain dictate his mood. He couldn’t banish the seed of darkness inside him, but Stormfather, he didn’t need to let it rule him either.”

I...have a lot of feelings about Kaladin.

And I have a lot of feelings about how Kaladin and his depression interact and about how he deals with it. And how he’s seen the worst in himself and promised to never let it get that bad again. And how he’s seen that even though it’s a part of himself that he has to keep fighting, keep dealing with, keep understanding, it doesn’t have to be the only thing in him, the only thing in his life, the only part of him that matters. He can have other parts, other important bits of him and his personality. He might always have bad days, but that doesn’t have to be the majority of them. Not if he chooses to be stronger, to try to get better. There’s always going to be depression, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be other things.

It took me a longass time to come to that same realization and I just...am really, really... proud of him? and of myself? and of anyone who has depression who thinks the same way we do? and though I’ve found it to be a smidge disconcerting to have your own personal thought processes spelled out on paper by someone who isn’t you, there’s a comfort in that...I’m not the only one who feels like this, who has these ideas, who makes these decisions about my depression.

Anyway, I really, really love Kaladin and I’m. emotional . and I’m. “He didn’t need to let it rule him either.” No. We don’t. We can deal.

ANYWAY I’M EMOTIONAL ABOUT KALADIN AND IN OTHER NEWS WATER IS WET, FIRE IS HOT, AND THE WORLD IS ROUND.

WAIT. Did Syl.....was she aiming for someone else? “distant yet demanding”. Who else...was she gonna bond with. before Kaladin? My first instinct is Tien, but that...doesn’t fit. One of his men? in his squad? Or before that, Hesina maybe? I’m? ...surely not Lirin...... he’s not. enough.

god, his first thought is that Adolin would be disappointed in fashion heheheheh I love these boys. becoming friends. maybe. hopefully.

KAL PUNCHING ROSHONE IS A++ 100% GRADE A GOOD SHIT

GOD BLESS

AAAAAAHHHHHHH

“That was for my friend Moash” I’M!!!!!!!!!!!! EMOTIONAL!!!! ABOUT MY BOYS!!! AND THEIR FRIENDSHIP!!!!! PERSISTING EVEN THOUGH BAD DECISIONS!!!!

Kaladin’s stubborn refusal to give up on people is. A Lot. EVeRYTHING IS A LOT. THIS IS A LOT

“and for the first time in a long, long while, he was happy with that person.” THAT’S CAUSE YOU’RE A GOOD PERSON THE BEST PERSON AAAHHH

SUMMONING SYL AND “ANY QUESTIONS” AND OHHH MY GOD. that shit’s hot. I’m. hhnnnggggggg

“until he had enough stormlight to fly home.” home. I mean, we knew that “home” wasn’t Hearthstone anymore, but. Dalinar is home. The warcamps, Urithuru. Bridge Four. I...I am so proud of how far Kaladin has come.

“I don’t like the idea of swinging you around, smashing you into things.” “Firstly, I don’t smash into things. I am an elegant and graceful weapon.” HI, I LOVE SYL A LOT

GET IT, LARAL

HECK YE

“That’s a girl I was never going to marry, no matter what happened.” “I like her.” “You would.” I LIKE HER TOO SHE’S STRONG AND CAPABEL AND DON’T NEED NO MAN. GET IT, GIIIRRLL!!!!

I love that Roshar has a Hippocratic oath equivalent. I also have mixed feelings on Lirin’s incredibly strict adherence to his Hippocratic oath equivalent. like..yeah, Do No Harm is one thing. But being self-righteous about it to the point of not wanting your son to fight evil monsters from the void? Take a chill pill, my dude.

NAVANI SPANREEDING HIM PERSONALLY IS A LOT

also, I really have strong feelings about Dalinar generally addressing Kaladin as “soldier” and the responding “Sir.” I know they had a long talk about chain of command, but it’s just. so satisfying that it’s still going.

“Send us a glyph each evening to know you are safe.” GOOD DAD IS WORRIED ABOUT HIS SON AND I’M EMOTIONAL

AAAHHHHH HIS VERY FIRST INSTINCT IS TO HOLD HIS BABY BROTHER I’M!!! KALADIN IS SO GOOD AND LOVING AND WONDERFUL!!!

guys, I don’t know if you know this about me, but I really love Kaladin.

guys, I don’t know if you know this about me, bUT I REALLY LOVE KALADIN.