#gideon is boyfriend goals

[igotsnothing]

Beginning/Previous/Next

[wendysbooknook]

Quote:

"I think people worry too much about everyone being the same, or like, their feelings are the only right feelings, ya know? Like however I feel has to be how you feel, or it’s wrong or stupid. But really, we’re all unique, and most emotions, experiences, thoughts, being left out or not, or lonely or not, or how we grieve or not—whatever the situation—those can’t be wrong because they’re part of being human, and no two experiences are the same." - Milo in Riley Hart's "Boyfriend goals"

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[youbutstupid]

The BAU ruined Reid’s life and he has every right to separate himself from them

He was a teenager when he met Gideon and he had hopes and dreams that had nothing to do with law enforcement. He had PHDs in engineering, maths and chemistry showing that he clearly wanted to go into something more scientific. He said that he wanted to cure schizophrenia by the time he was 25 so he clearly wanted to go into research and lab work

He went to Gideon’s lectures because he was interested and it was at that point that Gideon himself chose Reid to join the BAU when he was around 21/22 years old. I love Gideon, but this was one of the worst things he has ever done. This decision ruined Reid’s life and no one on the team seemed to question it

It’s important to establish that Reid went to Gideon’s lectures because he had an interest in profiling; that doesn’t mean being a profiler was his goal. He gained a BA in philosophy because he found it interesting but that doesn’t mean he wanted to be a philosopher, he’s intelligent, of course he will study things he is interested in because he can

So Reid joins the BAU, and it takes up all of his time. It takes over his entire life. He can’t meet people, and anyone he does meet is instantly in danger just by being associated with him. His only connections are with his older coworkers who all have lives and relationships away from him. He’s in his early 20s and he can’t have any life experiences, his childhood and teenage years were taken from him but now his early adulthood is being taken away too

@mindfullycriminal brought up a really good point on one of my posts which was a moment in season 2, where Reid says to Gideon ‘it’s all I was groomed for. I don’t know how to do anything else.’ He is 25 years old at this point, his life has been endangered multiple times, he’s been kidnapped and drugged and killed and brought back to life. He needs to escape but he can’t, because he’s trapped in this job. He’s done it from such a young age that he has forgotten how to do anything else

Do you know how tragic that is? This is a man who could learn anything he wanted in just a day, who could collect degrees like stamps yet this job has made it so that he has lost the ability to function unless he’s a profiler.

The word ‘groomed’ is really interesting because it gives insight into the fact that the FBI took advantage of him and his interest from a young age; they took him for his intelligence and didn’t once consider the effects this would have on someone so young. They put him into a job that would take over his entire life to the point where he couldn’t leave the job even if he wanted to, because he has become reliant on it

Later, when he’s 30, we see him talking to Emily and he has so many regrets. He talks about how he wanted to do more with his life, about how he wanted to cure schizophrenia by 25 but he’s not even been able to touch that research because he’s given his life to the BAU. He of course doesn’t leave after this, because he doesn’t know how. He has no identity anymore. His entire life since he was barely into adulthood has been this job to the point where he’s SSA Dr Spencer Reid and nothing else. He’s no one’s boyfriend or husband, no one’s father, he can only be his mother’s son when his cases take him to Vegas. The only thing he knows how to be is an agent and without it he’s nothing

Then by season 15, he has been poisoned, shot twice, kidnapped twice, held hostage multiple times, his girlfriend, his one chance of being normal, was killed in front of him and he’s been imprisoned. His character becomes a shell of itself. He’s done, when he gets kidnapped by the cult he doesn’t even try to fight them anymore, he doesn’t even seem scared. He’s spent almost half of his life in a job which has slowly killed him when he could have been following his dreams and having normal life experiences. Everyone saw this happening to him and no one questioned it, they just expected more and more from him and then got standoffish when he would act out because of it

The BAU were a family and they did their best to protect him, but he was a child who should have been finding his own family, he spent 40 years of his life having his life planned out for him and he deserved to get away and make his own path for once

[juniperpyre]

i have an idea for a post-apocalyptic fanfic where lily and fabian are lovers marauding the decimated landscape together (maybe with gideon and marlene and dorcas as well) and it's just rly dark and hopeless and the smut is intense.

and then they run into The Marauders (along with regulus and barty, who do not want to be there) and manage to join forces. they have a shared goal: whisperings of an oasis.

lily is the medic of the group bc of her biochem background and gardening knowledge. james was the medic for his group, so they spend a lot of time together. they're attracted to each other immediately, and though it takes a while for them to let down their walls (arrogant james vs perfect lily) once they do the emotional connection is strong

society has crumbled, so if lily wants someone she's not going to wait. she tells fabian how she feels. lily has two boyfriends now. james and fabian end up getting together, too, after some time.

of course, over their journey the lose people. one by one they're picked off. first regulus, then barty snaps and they have to leave him for dead. marlene next, and soon dorcas backtracks to hunt down her killers. peter disappears in the night, but there was no sign of struggle. they keep going.

lily gets pregnant. it could be either man's, they're both happy and scared in varied measures. they keep going. they may be close now. remus thinks someone is tracking them. james thinks remus is paranoid. sirius doesn't say when he thinks.

one night they get into an argument on which way to go. fabian, gideon and sirius are the last truly skilled fighters left. sirius wants to go one way, remus wants to go the other. james trusts sirius the most, at the end of it all, so he sides with sirius. so lily sides with sirius, so fabian and gideon side with sirius.

remus stays, but they're bitter. they go off and skulk, coming back around morning. two days later the group is ambushed. lily is about 8 months along now. fabian and gideon take down the whole group, but they succumb to their wounds hours later. they die protecting lily.

sirius blames remus. james tries to de-escalate. lily has nothing to say.

remus leaves.

lily, james and sirius find the oasis.

[magpiefngrl]

2023 Book Review

Photo Credit (original): Ed Robertson

I read 95 books this year. Here's some of what I enjoyed and what I didn't, in genre or arbitrary categories:

Fave SFF books

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik)

All Systems Red (Martha Wells)

The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins)

Mammoths at the gates (Nghi Vo)

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

Amberlough (Lara Elena Donnelly)

Fab m/m romances

Seven Summer Nights (Harper Fox)

The Lodestar of Ys (Amy Rae Durreson)

The Scottish Boy (Alex de Campi)

Magician (KL Noone)

Heated Rivalry (Rachel Reid)

Also Role Model and The Long Game (Rachel Reid)

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (KJ Charles)

The older ones

(recently published books can feel very samey after a while. The irony of these being old books but feeling like a breath of fresh air)

Tam Lin (Pamela Dean) (1991)

Swordspoint (Ellen Kushner) (1987)

Wise Children (Angela Carter) (1991)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (1981)

(more books under the cut)

Best atmosphere

The Likeness (Tana French)

The fun rereads

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (MXTX_

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MXTX)

The King of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo)

The Ruin of a Rake (Cat Sebastian)

The unexpected delight

(it's a biography, and I never anticipated feeling so engrossed in one of them)

The invention of Angela Carter (Edmund Gordon)

The one that hurts so good

Checkmate (Dorothy Dunnett)

Didn't quite love the books but adored the characters

The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater (my typical experience of her stories)

The meh

Bardugo's Nikolai duology

Schwab's Darker Shades of Magic

The dreadful and my only DNF

A Taste of Gold and Iron (Alexandra Rowland)

Most bitterly disappointing

The third installment of Hall's billionaire series How to Belong with a Billionaire.

Biggest book hangover

Seven Summer Nights and Heated Rivalry

Best book boyfriend

ILYA ROZANOV

Most bonkers book

The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins)

The "not sure I liked it but it'll definitely stay with me"

Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh)

The writing craft book that actually offered a new insight

The Heroine's Journey (Gail Carriger)

Overall, a decent year. My goal of completing series I'd started in the past and hadn't finished meant I subjected myself to some less enjoyable books, but I also read some excellent romances and fantasy novels, and I really enjoyed reading some older books, a practice I plan to continue.

past years

2015 2016 2019 first half of 2020 top 5 books of 2020 2021 2022

[accidentarisen]

Hi hello!! :3 Hope your day is going great!

Could I request Gideon Graves x Matthew Patel x male Reader?

The reader is Ramona's ex who also joined the league - not because he wants to date her, but because he has nothing going on in life

At first he's just there out of curiosity but then his sight falls on the two prettiest boys and he has a new goal in life (even though he knows both of them are after the girl, uhoh)

Preferably something with reader's awkward confession and the boys reactions :]

You can change it however you like ofc!!

That sounds like fun! I'll give it a try....

Gideon Graves x Male Reader x Matthew Patel

Warnings: Language, slight canon divergence

----

It's been--how long?-- since Y/n and Ramona broke up. It wasn't even that much of a relationship, just a few weeks of puppy love back in middle school.

Y/n received a summons for some "League of Evil Exes" with no return address.

"Sure," he said after reading the letter. "Why the fuck not? Don't have anything better to do this week anyway."

---

He entered the doors of the great G-Man Media headquarters, stunned at the architecture. He takes the elevator to the topmost floor, as instructed by the letter. As the elevator doors opened, he was greeted by the sight of a large table in a darkened room, with at least six others around it. They were all talking in confusion to one another. Y/n entered the room nervously. He looked around at the individuals seated.

There was a man sitting with his back turned. He was of a hefty build and was talking to someone beside him. Wait, is that....

Lucas Lee and Todd Ingram??

He looked around the room more, eyes landing on a pair of what were obviously brothers. Twins, in fact. With a little robot. Across the room was a girl in what appeared to be ninja attire and a mask. What's her deal?  Wait, Ramona's into chicks??

Finally, his gaze settled on....on....oh damn.

On a handsome man in a white coat and glasses, with dark black hair and sideburns.

He looks important....probably straight, though... Y/n thought, taking a seat at the large table.

"Why'd you bring us here, Gideon?"

"I didn't" said the man in the white coat. "The person behind this event remains a mystery."

"Who invited the robot?" Asked the ninja girl.

"No one did." A voice declares from the dark. A figure enters the light. "For it is I who did the inviting. Matthew Patel!"

Y/n turns in his seat towards the voice and oh my god... Another cute guy? And he's EMO?? Dammit, I'm fucked.

He felt his face heat up as he looked down at his lap, folding his hands. The other exes continued talking amongst themselves. Y/n wasn't paying attention, for he was too distracted by two of the prettiest boys he'd ever seen. Something about Matthew defeating Ramona's new boyfriend, this and that, yada yada.....

He was shaken from his thoughts as the two men of his attention. suddenly stood up.

"I think this league needs a new direction and a new evil ex in charge."

"You really think I'd just hand the league over?"

"No. I think I'll fight you for it!"

Y/n stood up quickly before he realized what he was doing. "Stop it, both of you!"

The two stopped and looked at him. Y/n felt his cheeks warm up again.

"Something you wanted to say, ah...."

"Y-Y/n"

"....Y/n?" Gideon asked. Y/n could feel everyone's gaze on him now. "We-" He cleared his throat. "We don't need to fight, now..."

"You don't understand! I should be the head of the evil exes!" Matthew cried

"You don't even know what you're talking about-" Gideon hissed.

"Hey!" Y/n stepped between them, forcing them apart. "Enough! Come on, it's obvious Ramona doesn't need us anymore." He turns to Matthew "I'm sorry, but she's moved on. She loves that Scott guy now"

"But I killed him!" Matthew protests.

"Doesn't matter! She doesn't love us anymore." Then he mumbled, "maybe she never did "But besides that, you'd all want her to be happy, right?" He looks around the room. "So maybe, maybe we should just leave her alone! I know I will...." his voice lowers "I know I've got my eyes on a few..."

Matthew raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, maybe he should be the next ceo...." Gideon mumbled.

"Ugh, okay, I'm done here" groaned the ninja girl, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. There was mixed chatter as the rest of the exes left the room, leaving Gideon Matthew, and Y/n alone.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely fucked

"Uhm, h-hi" Y/n backs up, visibly flustered.

Matthew and Gideon look at each other knowingly, then back to Y/n.

"You've got some nerve, Y/n." Gideon smirks. "I like it."

Matthew scoffed, then smiled. "You should join me, Y/n. We'd make a great theatre duo."

Y/n's face grew redder still as the boys teased him. He couldn't just pick one to go with. "What if....what if we're all together? ....yeah, sounds good" Y/n replied quickly, still flustered.

The other two boys share silent looks. Then they turn to Y/n.

This is gonna be fun

--- Had some fun with this one! Took a little longer than usual, so I'm sorry bout that.

Hope you enjoyed! Reblogs over likes please

[nysocboy]

Gemstones Episode 1.4 Review: Keefe looks for love in a sports bar, and Kelvin meets a girl

 Episode 1.4 is pivotal to the Kelvin-Keefe relationship, establishing that they both are gay, and that they have similar life goals: treated as babies in their subcultures, they long to prove themselves men.

The Satanists:  Keefe is walking through downtown Charleston, eating an ice cream cone -- a childlike activity, maybe signifying that he has been "born again," started life anew.  He had to give up his old Satanist friends and lovers to follow Christ, and now he's looking for new friends -- and a boyfriend (he does not yet think of Kelvin as a potential partner).

He looks longingly at a hot guy through the window of a sports bar (it's Kyle Walsh, who has been Adam Devine's assistant  in 10 of his movies and tv shows).  Then the hot guy turns around and licks through a v-symbol (signifying cunnilingus).  He's straight!  Disappointed, Keefe moves on.

Next Keefe runs into his old Satanist buds, especially Daedalus and Cryptocore (who wears a gas mask and doesn't speak).  They heard the he was hanging out with "those Gemstone weirdos," but he denies it.  He refuses their invitation to a party at Club Sinister Friday night. "Keefe's a fucking nerd now!" Daedalus exclaims.  The slurs he uses, "nerd" and "weirdo," suggest the taunts of a high school bully rather than critiques of Christian believers.

As Keefe leaves, the Satanists demonstrate their new dance number.  They look like they are having fun; he is tempted to join them.

We cut to the mail room, where Martin and Judy (his secretary in this season) are showing Gideon how they separate the donations from the prayer requests (these are handled by paid prayer teams.  Imagine being a professional prayer). The cash is sorted and placed in the vault. 

Fancy Nancy: At the Sunday dinner, we meet major donors Dale and Gay Nancy, owners of Fancy Nancy's Chicken.

Let's take a moment to look at those names: The third word we hear in the scene is "gay." "Nancy," and "fancy" are long-standing homophobic slurs. The whole scene is a play on homophobic slurs, calling attention to the problems that Kelvin and Keefe will have if they come out.  When we see the restaurant later, it looks like the famously homophobic Chick-Fil-A.

The Nancys' problem: their teenage daughter Dot is on the wrong path, hanging out with an older, decadent boyfriend -- so they won't let her use the family helicopter anymore.  Everybody volunteers to intervene, but Eli gives Kelvin the job (well, he is the youth minister).  He is thrilled: a way to earn his Daddy's respect!

Gay slur: Jesse criticizes Kelvin's glasses: "You look like Jeffrey Dahmer."  The gay serial killer.

The Semen Load: We cut to a scene about Jesse's buddy Chad sending many emails revealing his sexual infidelities, then move on to the Nancy estate. Kelvin announces that they will be performing a Satanic sweep  (Keefe demonstrates by sweeping at his crotch).  

In Dot's room, they destroy: posters of the dark metal groups Bauhaus and Ministry; an ashtray; a "fidget spinner" (toy) that almost hypnotizes Keefe; two Ken dolls (used for gay play?); and a used condom. They bring everything out to their SCU (Spiritual Collections Unit) trailer.  Lots of questions here: did they get a whole Satanic Sweep system started in just the few weeks since Keefe was saved (converted)?  Wouldn't a real Satanist know that those so-called Satanic influences are bogus?  And why are the Satanic Sweeps never mentioned again?  

Keefe apologizes for displaying the used condom; Kelvin advises him that if it contains a semen-load, "don't even touch it."  This queasiness about touching semen appears again in Season 2 with Judy and Season 3 with Jesse.  Here Kelvin seems to be trying to steer Keefe away from his gay "lifestyle," which would involve touching a lot of semen-loads.  To emphasize his heterosexual manliness, he tries to draw Keefe into a play-fight.

Suddenly Dot's boyfriend Austin (Blair Jackson) appears.  "I bet you money that was his semen-load," Keefe says.  As they are drawn instinctively to thoughts of his penis, Kelvin decides to "Snip him right out of this situation." Castration joke, har har.

The 40 Year Old Virgin:  Concerned that the Satanic Sweep had a sexual intent, Austin warns Kelvin "you go through my girl's panty drawer again, I'll whomp your ass."  He then calls Kelvin a "40-year old virgin!"  "So what?" Kelvin responds. "I made a celibacy promise."

Many fans have used this line to indicate that Kelvin and Keefe's relationship is romantic but not sexual.  However, this is Kelvin's only reference to celibacy, and he gets it wrong: Catholics have celibacy (no sex ever), but Protestants have chastity (no sex before marriage).  There is ample evidence in Seasons 2 and 3 that either no such chastity pledge occurred, or Kelvin forgot about it long ago.

Don't fuck it up:  After a scene where Jesse criticizes Chad for not deleting the various emails about his sexual infidelities, we cut to the garden, where Kelvin is telling his Dad Eli that Dot is "very sexual -- a lost cause." But the Nancys are major donors, and Eli won't let him quit.  Besides, he's always saying that he's great with kids, "the Teen Whisperer."  This statement suggests that Dot was never considered a potential girlfriend for a heterosexual Kelvin.  She is always described as "a kid."  

Eli continues: "You're the baby of the family.  I've been babying you too long. This is your chance to prove yourself.  Do not fuck this up." The end.

Next: Episode 1.4 Review, Continued: Dot drives Kelvin crazy, and Gideon and Scotty go out on a date

[jaywalkers]

twenty questions for fic authors

i was tagged by @decaflondonfog! thank you, i loved reading all of your thoughts on your own writing so i'm vv excited to do this.

How many works do you have on AO3? 21 revealed, and then my super secret fic for the @aftgthenandnow fest (which people should totally go and check out if they haven't already)

What's your total AO3 word count? 443,022 words, which is horrifying and likely to hit 500,000 by the end of this year. lord have mercy

What fandoms do you write for? i'm currently very happy in my tfc shaped hole and have been for the last while but i do have some wips floating around for the likes of teen wolf (long live cringe) and mdzs still!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? these bad boys! total pick'n'mix of fandoms here a made thing [10k, sangcheng, T] sunset, like survival [86k, kandreil, E] postcard mouth [7k, matchablossom, G] the post-impact stage [3k, andreil, G] work song, crawl home [3k, sangcheng, G]

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not? in all honesty once i've written a fic it's out there in the world and i am absent from anything going forward of it. i dearly, dearly appreciate everyone who puts time into commenting because it truly is the thing i stick around fandom for, but i don't have the time or energy a lot of the time to reply effectively and to not just keep repeating thank you's!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? considering it uses the 'Bad Ending' tag, it'll have to be a room full of knives! it is canon-compliant though, so is the angst really my fault?

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i feel like most of my fics have a somewhat happy ending, if not just a simple open-ended one, but i might say sunbreak for this because the ending of it is very joyful and there isn't much else left to say to hide the happiness.

Do you get hate on any fics? not really! i did get the worlds most insane comment on NOSTOS a couple years ago that was kind of horrible to read but it was anger at a character and not my fic lmao.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i'd never written it until this year because it was on my writing goals list for the year! i can't really say what kind because i've only written a couple of scenes so i'm not sure where they sit in the grand scheme of things but i have written some!

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written? not really! i am a big AU fan — the kandreil teen wolf au i wrote this year with the beloved and highly esteemed @dayurno is probably the craziest, but i have a kandrew 'gideon the ninth' au planned too! if we're talking actual crossovers, there was a hilarious in-joke au partially written in a group chat a couple of years ago that was a WOH and MDZS law firm au. xue yang owned jby's soul. wei wuxian had bitcoin. i have a customised t-shirt for it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? yup! and it's the reason i put writing away for about four years when i was in high school because i was so demotivated to share my stuff.

Have you ever had a fic translated? i think there's two or three of my fics that i've given permission for russian translations! i don't think they've been finished though so it would be cool if that ever ends up happening!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? as stated earlier, i spent eight months in an echo-chamber with @dayurno in which we went into a mutual fugue state and came out with wet-eyed banshee kevin and his high school boyfriends. maybe one day we'll get to the twinyards sequel of it i do also have to shoutout @picturedframes who was half of the mastermind behind sunset, like survival, and has contributed an insane amount to other works like diachronic and all that looking down.

What's your all time favourite ship? don't ask me this,,,, it chops and changes from year to year! i think in favour of being nice to myself i'm going to just say percabeth — they're the OGs from day one and they still hold up in my heart

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? either my 'the old guard' wenzhou au, or the other installments of the nostos 'verse! i loved them dearly at the time and i do think they would be well worth writing still, but my interests have moved on fandom-wise slightly! maybe one day i'll revist them, but not any time soon i don't think.

What are your writing strengths? ohh. digging my teeth into a character, i think. i use fic as a way to kind of just write thesis' and loveletters and stories all at the same time, and i think i'm good at holding up a character and writing out what makes them tick! and maybe a weird one but fleshing out the wider world? i'm very proud of like, my background characters. describing people who take coffee orders and who are studying in the library too and who are one-line classmates.

What are your writing weaknesses? this time last year i would have said dialouge but i think i've gotten better at it this year! probably being too verbose. i think i have a tendency to get carried away with thoughts and descriptions and i think sometimes that means they lose their potency when i really need them! it's a goal for next year i think; learning how to pare back my writing and make it more effective.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? ahhhhhh aha ha ha aha . you're talking to the bitch who's current fic is all about kevin relearning gaeilge/irish so you bet there's a lot of dialogue in other languages in it! also diachronic and sunset, like survival both have a substantial amount of other languages: diachronic uses french, gaeilge, and japanese, while sls throws german into the mix!

First fandom you wrote for? the bible just kidding lmao though i did write stories when i was in catholic school with biblical characters. i think it was fairy tail!

Favourite fic you've written? noooooo don't make me answer this one. there's many different questions inside of that one question (what one i'm most proud of, what one i feel the most for, what one i had the most fun with), and i don't think there's one that works for them all. i think i'll say diachronic, maybe, for now. my first forway into the head of my beloved kevin day and certainly not the last.

i don't know who has/hasn't been tagged in this so it's an open invite, but i am going to tag @dayurno @sunriseinorbit @moondal514 @kamyska

[cakepoppresent]

Karaoke and Conversations

The karaoke joint is the best place Su can think to bring Grayson where it's just the two of them. No work, no boyfriends, and no disturbances. They sing their heart out well into the night

Done with the singing the boys take a seat and chat "Well, it's always been my goal to open up my own art gallery. I want my first one to be in Windenburg"

Su: Hope I get an invite to that opening"

Grayson: Of course, I've learned so much from you! You have to come. Gideon also said he would help me open one once I'm ready

Su grunts and lets out a puff of annoyance "Let me ask you something Little Man"

Grayson: What?

Su: Is Gideon the only thing you think about? It's either art or Gideon

Grayson: I didn't think it was such a problem for you

Su: It's not. I've never met someone whose childhood relationship lasted this long. They usually break by the time they get to university. But it seems like you are stronger than ever

Grayson: Well we aren't like other people, but it doesn't mean we don't have problems

Su: Oh? trouble in paradise

Grayson: Don't sound so excited!

Grayson begins to share the issue of Gideon's grandparents and their push for him to marry Alaia

Su: Wow, Grayson that sucks I'm sorry(he isn't sorry)

Grayson: Don't worry too much about it we are working through it

Su: That sounds like a heavy burden for you Grayson. What is Gideon doing to help?

Grayson: Well he is working on things on his side, but I still have to wait until the spring before anything concrete happens.

Su: That long? What is he waiting for?

Grayson: Just a couple things with his family company it's a little complicated so he can't rush things.

Su: Little Man don't let anyone pull you along okay? You're too much of a cutie to be tossed away by some spoiled heir

Grayson: Don't say that...Gideon isn't like that

Su: If that's how you feel I will believe you. But promise me that if things go south, you won't wait for him.

Grayson:...Don't say that, everything is going to work out fine

Su: Just humor me okay? if anything happens you can always call me. Okay?

Grayson: okay.

Su: it's getting late little man, let me bring you home before your boyfriend thinks I stole you

Gideon: You don't have to worry about that! We share locations so he knows where I am Su rolls his eyes at Grayson's comment "Of course you guys share locations...so cute"

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[oldsalempost-blog]

THE OLD SALEM POST

Our  Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays           Contact: theoldsalempost@gmail.com                              Distributed to local businesses, town hall, library.                            Volume 7 Issue 33                                                                                  Week of August 5,  2024                https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog                                                  Lynne Martin Publishing EDITOR:   I don’t prefer the rules people agree with to live in a HOA.   I pay taxes and should be able to live the rural life I love, and have a boat or chickens in my yard.  Recently we visited a friend in Easley.  The big joke was that we were driving “Pa’s hideous truck” nicknamed by our grandchildren, and in this HOA the homeowners cannot have a truck in the yard.  We did not get towed, but it was a good joke, but in reality, it is no joke.  Although, I understand people can choose to live in HOAs, just as I choose not to live in one.  Zoning, Land Trusts and Conservation easements are forms of land and property protection.  Most people say they don’t worry about the land because nothing will happen until they are dead and gone.  But it could happen while you are living.  Now is the perfect time to keep your family property, and keep it safe from development and an HOA butting right up beside you possibly placing requirements on you and your property.  LRM                                                                          

TOWN of SALEM: 5 Park Avenue  Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM. Closed 12-1 for lunch.  * Visit the Downtown Market every Sat, Hours 8am-12pm.    A new water line project is coming soon through downtown Salem.                                                                                                                  SALEM LIBRARY- Open Mon-10-6, Tues-Fri 9-5  Closed each day for lunch 12-1.   

Jottings from Miz Jeannie  by Jeannie Barnwell     Cognitive Dissidence                                                 Have you ever been frustrated by seeing BOTH sides of a situation?  Here is an example: A teenage girl comes sneaking back into the house at 3:00 AM clutching a Gideon Bible. Among the conclusions that her parents consider are: Praise God, she's found religion! or She's stolen this Bible from a hotel room. or She told us her boyfriend was taking her to the movies, but they really went to a motel! Is the sight of the daughter clutching a Bible to be celebrated or despised?    Here is my situation of COGNITIVE DISSIDENCE.  I love going down to my dock, BUT there is this gigantic black snake residing under the gazebo. On one hand, I know the black snake kills copperheads.  On the other hand, I am chilled to the bone at the sight of ANY SLITHERING CRITTER. This situation brings me angst.  What I've decided to do is to retrain my brain to equate the Black Snake to a CIA agent.  If I see her, I thank her for keeping me safe.  And I have seen her kill a copperhead. She stretched out  tall and swayed back and forth as she subdued the poisonous snake and then devoured him

SONY 107.9 WFBS-  Jeff Bright with the 107.9 WFBS nonprofit radio station in Salem  has almost met the $1500  goal to meet the expenses for a new antenna to be able to continue his unselfish service to our communities and enjoy the music of  the 60s, 70s, and 80s!  Mail donation to Jeff Bright 178 Madison Pointe Drive, Seneca SC 29678.

ASHTON RECALLS by Ashton Hester   CACHE OF OLD GERMAN RIFLES FOUND IN TREE TRUNK -    (The following story was in the July 16, 1964 Keowee Courier). . .How a cache of seven German Mauser rifles came to be hidden in a hollow chestnut tree deep in the woods of the upper Cheohee Valley--as well as who put them there and why and when--is a mystery two Salem young men would like unraveled. . .The young men, Edward Talley, 20, and Tommy Queen, 19, were starting to return home from a fishing trip Monday about noon when they found the firearms near the banks of Crane Creek, a stream which flows into Lake Cherokee. . .The firearms, ranging in vintage from 1900 to 1918 models, came to light when they spotted the partially decayed butt of one of them sticking out of the hollow trunk of the old tree, which had died and fallen to earth. . .When they pulled it out another came with it, since they were caught together. They then widened the opening and found five others. Two were still in fairly good condition although the ravages of time had worked on the stocks and other wooden portions. . .All but one had their muzzles closed with metal plugs, a precaution taken by the unknown person who hid them there to keep their bores clean. . .Queen and Talley brought the rifles back to their homes on the Jocassee Road, near Salem. Not certain what steps they should take, they called the FBI office in Greenville and carried the guns over for the agents to examine. That was where they learned they were German Mausers and the years they represented. . .The agents told them there was no reason they shouldn't keep the guns, so they carried them back home with them. . .Since then, speculation regarding the mystery has run high among those who have seen the rifles. The most plausible theory seems to be that some local man who fought in World War I brought them back home, and decided that the hollow chestnut tree would be an ideal place to store them.

JOCASSEE VALLEY BREWING COMPANY,(JVBC) & COFFEE SHOP* 13412 N Hwy 11 Opening on Tuesdays 12pm-7pm during the summer season. Wed–Sat 9am-9pm and Sunday 12pm-7pm. Events this week: Wed:  FOOD TRUCK:  BLUE RIDGE GRILL  Music: BLUE GRASS JAM 6:30PM    Thursday: Food Truck:  BLUE RIDGE GRILL 4PM  OLD TIME JAM 6:30PM  Fri: Music:  Mark Campbell 6:30PM   Food:   MAC ATTACK  Sat–  Food:  Pa Chuys  Music:  FINKELSTIEN 3  at 6:30PM   Sun: 12pm-7pm Food: BLUE RIDGE GRILL    Music:   GOERS & ALLEN  4PM.    

2024 UPCOMING EVENTS     Treasure Store open every Sat morning 9AM-12PM.  For donations  call 864-557-2462.   

August 24th, 7PM  Make Reservations for Dinner and a Show with Luke Riley Smith– Enjoy  the tunes of the Big Band Era, Swing and more! Fried Chicken, 2 sides, roll, dessert, tea or coffee. Tickets $25 Call 864-280-1258.

YOUNG APPALACHIAN MUSICIANS– Sign up for YAMs for an evening class each week on Tuesdays at 5:30PM. Cost is $50 each month.  3rd grade through adult.   Call 864-280-1258                                                                                                                                                         

HOMETOWN PROUD:   BEVERLY CHESSER was our speaker on Saturday, August 3, 2024.  She arrived early so I suggested Sister’s Restaurant to enjoy some food and rest before she spoke.  Beverly reported how thrilled she was about her whole trip to Salem and raved about the food and friendliness of the people at Sisters and at the speaking engagement at ENAC.   LRMartin

                                             CHURCH NEWS  Bethel Presbyterian Church (PCUSA),  580 Bethel Church Rd Walhalla, 29691. Worship at 10:30 a.m. August 11 Mel Davis. Come Visit Us!                                                                                                                                Boones Creek Baptist Church, 264 Boones Creek Road, Salem invites you to join us for regular worship service on Sunday morning with Sunday School at 10am and followed by worship at 11am.  

Salem Methodist Church, 520 Church Street, Down town Salem.  Salem Methodist is an independent church.       Sunday Breakfast at 9AM with Sunday School at 9:15AM and Worship Service at 10:30AM.   Holy Communion the first Sunday each month.  All welcome! Tune in to our live service on Facebook or view it later on our website.   Women’s Community Bible Study each Monday morning at 10AM led by Sherill Carothers. NEW PRAYER GROUP: To begin August 8th at 7 PM at the Salem Methodist Church every second and fourth Thursday  each month. 

Clemson Rural Health Mobile Unit Coming to Salem:  August dates are Aug 13th and Aug 29th Time: 9AM-3PM Location: gravel parking lot across from the Salem Fire Department.  They will offer comprehensive primary care that includes chronic disease management and acute care.  The website: https://www.clemson.edu/cbshs/clemson-rural-health/patients.html     I will update the scheduled days each month.    .

MOVIE SUGGESTON:  A 2024 Disney movie Young woman and the Sea  is based on the true story of Trudy Ederle who changed the coarse of women in sports forever when she became the first woman who swam the English Channel and beat the men’s record by 2 hours.  

FOR YOUR HEALTH— “There is no pill that will replace the health benefits of exercise.” “ Make Exercise a priority and make it part of your day.  You will feel better about yourself, look better, and will boost your mood. “ (Beverly Chesser)

FRIENDS OF JOCASSSEE  FALL EVENT– Sept 14th 9AM-NOON  VIP DAY   Volunteer, Improve, and Protect.  This is the clean and sweep of areas.  We welcome divers, boaters, kayakers and more to help!  Come be a part of protecting and preserving this beautiful lake we all love and enjoy.   See friendsof jocassee.org for more information.                        Be a blessing this week!  LRM

[wordy-little-witch]

You add the Best Bits in the tags smdh

Like. Okay hear me out. Is it likely? Not at all. But lIsTeN-

Possible spoilers for EoM

We got witches in this bitch. Edge of Midnight is specifically set in a weird area where magic is polluting the land and the laylines are being specifically targeted for one reason or another - that's a LOT of magic. Add in all the artifacts being stolen, there being 13 witches in total, Caithlenn still being MIA, the fact that they had A FEY QUEEN OF SOME SORT IN AMBER, it's entirely probable to have some sort of avenue to pull things from the Feywild to act as a battery.

In the Feywild itself, Torbek is literally an organic overdose of raw magical juice in tubes and canisters. The party has grown closer, and there are bigger threats they are not hypervigilant of.

With Witchlight being essentially a magical upper, it would stand to reason that the midnight coven of witches would be at the very least Interested in it - and with one being housing a bunch of it in one singular unit, well.... that's more efficient than harvesting the components and learning to synthesize it themselves.

So they try to get their hands on Torbek.

Only there's a few mild complications -

1) the witchlight party is unexpectedly protective of one another.

2) the witchlight itself is much more dynamic than they anticipated.

3) Torbek, threatened and in a cage of amber, panics - and the witchlight in his veins and tubes responds. It's not The Other, though he certainly tries to come forward - no, Torbek, scared, trapped and now with faith in his friends, wants them. Witchlight responds to the body, to magic, and to desires. And it makes it happen, even without a concrete identity to fixate on.

The drug combs through anything and everything in Torbek's memory that he equates with "'"friend"'" and manifests them in Druskenwald.

Kremy, Gideon, Twig, Frost, Gricko and Hootsie tumble through a misty portal, slamming into hard packed earth and stone.

Marius, Briggsy, Jericho and Lethica immediately fall into defensive formation ((and maybe Farryn and Yorgrim too bc I'm happily in denial leave me alone)).

And then there's a sound like a portal twisting open, spitting smth out, and then basically a squeaky toy sound hitting many branches before falling onto the pile of newcomers. Bitsy blinks absently.

Briggsy gapes for a moment. "... Bitsy?"

"Oh hiiii, Captain! Is it Thursday again?"

Cue the absolute hot fucking mess

Bonus points, Gideon hears Chuckles again and somehow the clown manages to possess someone or something - it think it would be extra funny if he possessed a little stuffed toy and made a habit of clinging to Gideon's shoulder. Clown bear or smth idek.

There's distrust all around but once Briggsy connects the dots - the dots being, of course, that these are, in fact, the people his boyfriend talked so highly of - and once everyone realizes that they're all united on the front of a common enemy, shit gets WILD.

For one, the carnival crew is simply flabbergasted that Torbek's boyfriend is real ((K, Gi, F)) or is delighted to be meeting the guy who has made Torbek so happy ((Gr, H, T)).

Marius and Lethica are still wary of this new turn of events but are unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth. They are on guard, but overall willing to let this be. Jericho is simply happy to make new friends.

With the revelation that Torbek has been captured and is likely being held prisoner, the carnivale crew, Briggsy and even Bitsy are suddenly very fixated on helping - the majority know his history, at least in part. Bitsy is convinced that witch prison doesn't have good snacks.

Witha goal in mind and a front now mostly united, they set out to figure out where the fuck this bugbear is being held and absolutely ANNIHILATING the ones who orchestrated all of this.

((Optional events, but perhaps the sending stones still work. Perhaps they're traveling and Briggsy goes to check his stone, reread messages in worry, finds a New One. And they have a method to communicate.

Comfort given and efforts rekindled, they're coming for their bugbear))

Imagine in the EoM campaign, Briggsy wakes up after a "dreamless" sleep in Druskenvald after the Yuletide one-shot events. He vaguely remembers bits and pieces, but it's mostly fuzzy.

Especially the memories about some cute, tall fella with eyes like topaz dipped in magenta glitter.

He also recalls something about bones, getting a date and gorillas, for some reason. Not the weirdest dream he's ever had, honestly, but still pretty out there.

Except he kind of remembers the runes that one guy gave him. It looked like a cat if you looked at it sideways.

Everyone else is still asleep when he wakes up, and he's tired, he's a pirate, and he does whatever the hell he wants.

He grabs his sendingstone, he pops in the number, and he sends a message.

Smth like this shit

And lo and behold... several minutes later, he gets a response.

Neither of their friend groups know quite what to do about/with this new development, but damn if it isn't hilarious.

[separatist-apologist]

Villainous is a card game Disney made. My boyfriend compared it to Magic the Gathering (which frustrated me even more because I know how to play Magic and it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to passably play one character in this game).

You have 5 choices of Villains to choose from (Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Asajj Ventress, General Grievous, and Moff Gideon) and they each have a different goal. You play cards toward your goal and to stop others from reaching theirs.

Anyway, you can just delete this ask. I just wanted to better explain the game, and anonymously complain about my frustration. 😂

Have the loveliest day! ❤️

You're always allowed to complain. I DEFINITELY haven't played this, then. I like games that have a drinking component to them, though I did get MBjr a murder mystery game for Christmas for kids (it was clue but you solve the mystery in game and its apparently a one time thing since we know who did the killing now) and that had so many cards and moving pieces I was like, how do people do this?

For fun????

[criminalmindsjournal]

105: broken mirror

masterlist

air date: 19 october 2005

wiki synopsis

Criminal Minds (season 1) - Wikipedia

When the daughter of an Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney is kidnapped while leaving a party, the BAU juggles protecting the victim's twin sister, identifying the motive behind the kidnapping, and determining whether or not the abductor is one of their own. Guest starring Matt Letscher.

location

new haven, connecticut, united states of america

beginning quote

when a good man is hurt, all that would be called good must suffer with him.

~euripides

ending quote

when love is in excess, it brings a man no honor nor worthiness

~euripides

profile

white, male

wants to sound smarter than he is

unsub(s)

vincent shyer

rating (🌟)

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

thoughts

the boyfriend using her fingers for the sobriety test she was administering to him: top tier comedy

would not have gotten out of the car at all to check on that truck. 100% would’ve just driven around it

reason #1400 why i won’t be murdered: i’m not nice enough

“my code of survival says never date a woman who carries a gun”

this man knows full-well that historically women kill with poison

which is why it’s harder to catch them

i wonder if reid ever gets tired of people being amazed by him

he’s just neat, ya know?

can you believe that this was (i think) matthew gray gubler’s first role? definitely first big role?

did they honestly think the bait-and-switch thing with elle would work

i mean the guy’s obsessed with them

and i feel like they’ve figured that part out already

“$500,000 is what i’m owed”

i never figured out why he thought he was owed money

i know his ultimate goal

maybe he’s just trying to throw them off? idk, man

“the men i hunt down are cowards” -elle

did they…did they give a profile??? did i miss it??? fuck

it’s 3am in the morning and NONE of them are tired?

unrealistic. where are the yawns???

they really only just realized something was fishy???

ooooo this is my favorite part of the episode

nope. nevermind wasn’t that part. whoops

trigger: trish getting engaged

de clerambault’s syndrome

erotomania

ope there’s a bit of a profile

was that orange scripted?

i choose to believe that it was mandy just wanting a snack

mr. davenport, sir, let the man do his job.

🎶gideon knows best🎶 (to the tune of “mother knows best” from tangled)

THIS is my favorite part

you know what i DON’T like?

this camera work. why so round?

this man just trying to rip into the BAU and them not giving two shits

not me trying to shout “THERE HE IS” when i see the man on screen

awh yes, the “we’re nearing the end of this episode” music

THEY FIGURED IT OUT

so proud

did some research

the two girls were played by one actress

never thought to look that up before

[kelyon]

If you could date either Belle or Rumpelstiltskin who would you date and why?

What a question to ask a bisexual! I'm a Gemini too. Choosing is NOT something I'm good at.

It's tricky too, because of the "date" part. "Date" is a perfect intersection between 'fuck' and 'marry.' (Which, for the record: Marry Belle, Fuck Rumple, Kill any other person in the world--except for Gideon or Bae.)

Dating Belle would probably lead to the more stable relationship. She's not going to go on a murder spree or sell our unborn child to the god of the underworld. And I think she'd appreciate that I'm also not a dark wizard. I like to talk my problems out with my partner instead of lying to her face about my actions and intentions. We're both nerds, but in a way that would probably be complimentary. I'm not usually one for adventure, so having a girlfriend who values bravery over safety might be fun. The biggest downside is that I don't think Belle is in a position to be a sugar momma, and my life goal is to be able to write fanfiction full time instead of wage-slaving under capitalism.

I actually think Rumple would be kind of a drag to date if you're not Belle. Cuz that's the whole appeal, of getting behind the persona to see the real man underneath. I think the Gold or Dark One act would be very intimidating and I've never been one to chose a partner that makes me feel less-than. I just don't know what I could bring to the table that would get his attention, unless he was already interested.

In which case...

Because let's be real, that would be the dream. This man is the reason I write fanfiction. Hot sex, luxury lifestyle, knowing that if anyone messed with me my boyfriend would evict them and beat them in the face with his cane. Jesus.

Dating Gold would be a roller coaster ride: thrilling, dangerous, and over way too fast. Dating Belle would be more like driving down a country road: relaxing, beautiful, and not entirely without risk. And at the end of the day, I'm a West Virginia girl. I just want those country roads to take me home.

[popculturebuffet]

Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the Universe or So Sad So Very Very Sad

Hello all you happy Scottaholics! And welcome back to Scottrospective, my 8 part look at Scott Pilgrim: all 6 volumes of the comic as well as the game and movie just in time for their respective 10th Anniversaries. If your just joining us or needa  quick refresher, here are links to the other four parts, in order: Precious Little Life, Vs The World (Comic), Infinite Sadness, and last month’s look at my favorite volume Gets It Together. And if that’s not enough to fill your belly with Scotty Goodness, hop over to my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet.  There you’ll find reviews of all the content I didn’t have time for in the retrospective proper: Free Scott Pilgrim, The Wonderful World of Kim Pine, Monica Beetle, Style, and the bonus comic strips. It’s only a dollar to get access to the bonus reviews, and every bit you can give not only helps me make these reviews int he first place, but gets me closer to my stretch goals, the 25 and 30 dollar ones including looks at O’Malley’s Other Works: Lost At Sea and Seconds for the former and Snotgirl for the latter. 

But more than plugging my past and paid works, there’s something else far more important I need to get to before I get into this one: Thank You. No Seriously thank all of you who have been reading these, liking them. My Precious Little Life Review is easily one of the most liked things i’ve ever had on this blog, getting more viewers every day, and last month’s look at Gets it Together is STILL racking up likes. Given most of my non-duck reviews, paid for and on my own time, tend to be ignored half the time, this just warms my heart. It shows me two great things: that even after a decade Scott Pilgrim still has a huge following and given how young this platform tends to skew that it’s gaining more fans every day, and that people care about what I have to say about htis wonderful comic. It really touches me to both know my voice matters and that something I truly loved as a teen and still do now is STILL picking up more and more fans. What i’m saying is you guys are the best and I wouldn’t be doing these reviews without your support of my very hard work. These are some of the hardest reviews i’ve done at times, but seeing you all enjoy them makes it all worth it. 

As for the Volume itself there’s something I just gotta get off my chest right away: I HATED this volume when it came out. To understand why you have to consider my mental state: I was a teenager at the time, in my junior year of high school. Scott Pilgrim was my goddamn world: while I was picking up comics monthly at the time this was honestly the first north american comic I loved and obessed over and Scott and friends were like family to me. To an awkward teen who couldn’t talk to girls, struggled to keep the video game club a friend founded together in a way that in hindsight was wholly unecessary, and getting messed with due to my anger issues by friend, foe and frenemy alike, Scott was my port in the storm. A sunny version of Tornoto where I could retreat to to feel at peace.

So yeah this shattered the fuck out of that peace and was essentially one long slow motion kick to the balls to a younger me: Hollie gets derailed and horribly betrays Kim, runing my faviorite characters life and leading to her LEAVING, Scott and Ramona’s relationship crumbles, the band breaks up , and the volume ends with Gideon still gunning for our hero because life hadn’t punched him in the face enough for one month. I was livid, not stopping the series, obviously, but upset that everything i’d grown to care about was basically gone in a flash and couldn’t understand WHY O’Malley would fucking do this to me. This volume was also what kept me from re-reading the books for as long as I did as while the rest had fond memories all the ones I had of this one were pure misery.

But by the time i re-read it in december of last year I had two important things in my hands that helped me truly enjoy this one: The first was Volume 6 itself: knowing things would work out, that most of the bad stuff would be undone and in a truly awesome and satisfying way helped.

The other thing was the perspective that came with growing older: For one as an adult while I still like Scott as a character and find him intresting I no longer look up to him, nor put stock in his hapiness for his own. Sure I still care about characters and relate to some, but Bojack Horseman taught me the hard way you CAN’T put all your hopes in a character’s fate or them getting better for you to get better. 

The other is that while this volume again is pretty bleak after a while.. it’s also NECESSARY. Part of the series charm is i’ts realisim and a sad part of real life is people can drift apart from you, and things can change seemingly all at once. And things moving the way they do is necessary for the ending: every step and move here puts things where they need to be for the final chapter.  The pain our heroes go through is necessary so they can all grow.. except Stephen and Wallace. Stephen sucks and Wallace dosen’t need to change. He does need his own spinoff. But for Scott, Ramona and Kim the trials to come are necessary to make them into their best selves by series end. 

So join me under the cut as we get sad so very very sad, this is Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe. 

Precious Little Life:  We open with Scott’s Birthday! Hit it MC Chris!

But yes it’s septmeber and Scott is now 24 years old. Also Julie is there because presumibly Stephen dredged her out of her swamp for the evening despite Julie likely not wanting to be there and Scott sure a shell not wanting her there.  He vows that he will be the best 24 year old ever...... yeah let’s take a brief look into the future to see how that pans out

But we have a full volume and more metaphorical rakes to whack Scott in the face before that paticular one. 

A MONTH AND A FEW DAYS LATER

It’s the day of the dead, whoa ho way down in Tornoto. It’s hosted by Satan Herself, who dosen’t realize the holiday for hags was yesterday. This is for remembering the dead and rising out of the grave to go resuce your young wards by ramming a bunch of guys in butterfly costumes with your car or stealing your children’s kidneys.  This is Rat Girl’s new place, a fancy loft she and 3 other girls went on to throw the best parties beaause of course. She’s also a bitch to our hero and heroine because of course. 

But Scott soon has more important things to worry about: Ramona spots his next two opponents.. the twins hinted at last time, Kyle and Ken Kataynagi, Perfect Jerk and Handsome Asshat respectively.

Kyle and Ken are easily the least intresting of the 7 exes. With the other 4 so far having been a loveable ham, a stoic movie star whose suprisingly nice and dies via skateboard, a gloriously douchey and dumb psychic evil version of our much more loverable dumb douche with personal connections to both him and Ramona, and Roxy who was genuinely sympathetic, held back by her own selfishness and anger.. we get.. two smug assholes who use robots. Their not UNINTRESTING, the robots have cool designs and the fight with them is genuinely exciting.. but they just don’t have the charisma or personal factor. Their jsut two assholes ramona dated at the same time who happen to know more about her well guarded past than the other exes and are more liable to bring it up.. and even then it’s not anything new as Envy pulled similar tactics far more intrestingly in volume 3. THey don’t ruin the volume or anything, thier fine, but I just wish O’Malley had done more. Especially since he clealry had more intresting ideas with them: the sound battle we saw in the movie was an early draft of this and one early draft had Scott’s previously unseen brother Laurence working with them. I don’t knowWHY he scrapped that as it raises the stakes and makes this far more personal for Scott. Which at this point is what the exes SHOULD be: Todd and Roxy BOTH were more personal threats, Todd being his ex’s boyfriend and first love and Roxy being a genuine competior for Ramona. These guys again are just two douchers who show up because we need 7 douchers to complete the doucher circle. 

So the twins declare their not going to fight scott.. and instead send a tiny robot to fight him. Awww. But for this fight O”Malley does something really intresting and creative.. he dosen’t focus on it. No really Ken and Kyle are dicks to Ramona so Kim wisely gets her out of there, and the two have a casual talk on the balcony while Ramona smokes. It’s some fun banter between the two that both shows why their shipped to all hell. The two just play off each other really damn well. Though we also get Craphole asking people if they want to come watch Scott get beat up because the worst. 

Something important character stuff comes up though: As was shown last time at her rightful rage that Stephen HAD an opportunity to book a gig and kept refusing it for his fecking album, Kim is still fairly salty about the whole recording an album bullshit. The biggest part of it..

It’s something you really DON’T expect to here coming out of kim: that she really LIKED the band. But beneath the pillar of salt she puts out daily... these were her friends, this was getting to do something creative and passionate, and it was a break from the daily grind. Even if her job isn’t TERRIBLE, getting to watch movies and hang out with her best friend Clerks style.. it’s still a retail job and those still weigh on you.. though frankly i’d take one of those over food service but sadly tha’ts what i get most of the time. This was fun.. and Stephen ripped that away from her for his own selfish reasons. No one else in the band really cared about making an album.. if Stephen REALLY wanted to find a more professional band.. then he should’ve just told them so Scott and Kim could find someone else to do guitars for them. Instead he forced them into doing something they don’t want to do and refuses to actually play shows, which COULD help both perfect songs for the album version and get them new fans for said upcoming album and provide them recurring venues to SELL said album,  because he really just wants to be with Joseph and fuck anyone else. Stephen is really just an inhernetly selfish git and i’ll get more into that in a bit. But first Wallace has a text for Scott. 

Now I COULD have just skipped over this.. but I didn’t want to. Plus we dont’ se Wallace for a while in this story so i’m taking what I can get. 

So back to Stephen being a repugnant ass. I’ve been waiting for this scene for the entire retrospective. I”ve hinted at it, and largely blamed it for why I hate him so damn much. The time is nigh to explain WHY. 

Stephen is with Knives, as the two are close friends and such. Stephen expalins Sex Bomb-Omb isn’t playing because he and the personfication of bitchiness broke up. Which knives points out is for...

But it’s clear from context this was the LAST time. Why he still got invited I dunno, plot convience. So far so normal.. until Stephen picks up that Knives is STILL hung up on Scott. Which is understandable crushes can last a while but i’ts equally understandable that Stephen is utterly baffled by it. Which I get,  I didn’t make an entire tom lucitor retropsecitve because I liked that his relationship with Star ended with him stepping aside due to what the show thought was “true wuv” but what comes off instead as his self loathing casuing him to blame himself for a realtionship that’s crumbling for reasons that aren’t his fault. 

And his actions here are incredibly well meant: He bluntly gives Knives the wake up call she DOES need: Scott cheated on her, he dated her because she was easy to date, strung her along for a bit while seeing someone else, then dumped her with not one care for her well being. That is stuff she NEEDS to get into her head so she can move on. She needs to see him for what he IS and not for what she’s built him up as in her head. And while yeah his rant DOSNE’T take into account the fact Scott geninely tried to make up for his actions in volume 3, Stephen wasn’t there for that and Knives probbably didn’t tell him about it.  So from his point of view scott broke her heart and did nothing.. and evne IF he knew that, Scott still hasn’t tried to do anything since despite Knives still being obessed with him nor come clean to her or Ramona at any point. Scott deserves this call out and the consequences that come with it. 

So your probably wondering WHY I hate Stephen because of this scene when he’s you know, RIGHT. Well it’s simple: being right dosen’t save you from being a MASSIVE hypcorite. He’s railing on Scott for cheating and hurting someone.. when he cheated on Julie and would’ve hurt her if she had the capacity for human emotion, empathy, or self awarness. The ending of the last volume and how bad, even for them, their relationship was implied the hell out of it, with him nervous when she brings up being paranoid over knives.. as if he WAS cheating. on One Face just not with a teenage girl but a grown ass man who hates everyone as much as BLARARARGAGAG does. 

Not only that.. but he was with Julie for the SAME DAMN reasons Scott was with Knives: it was easy. Now I WILL grant Stephen some sympathy: he’s a queer man and as one myself, bi for the record, I GET how fucking hard it is to come to terms with that, that what you thought you were isn’t ENITRELY true or, if Stephen is gay and not bi or pan, ENIRELY FALSE. So I do have some care that it was hard for him to sort all this out. I do and that Jospeh could’ve seduced him or what not. We don’t have all the context here. But he STILL cheated at the end of the day instead of telling her he was queer until MONTHS later.  And why yes the fact I have to feel bad for JULIE does make it that much worse. And yes their relationsihp COULD simply be that toxic or she could’ve gaslit him, but it seemed more like their relationship was messy breakups and getting back together over and over. While Julie IS vile, she’s not a domestic abuser mental or physical as far as I can tell. She’s a bitch and their relatioship is unehlathy but there was no indication their relationship involved gaslighting or evne phsyical violence: it was just fucked from minute one. So yeah he stayed in an awful relationship beacuse it was easier than coming out, when he should’ve broken it off as soon as it was clear he and Joseph were actually going somewhere. Waiting while he figured out who he was is one thing, tha’ts fiar, but cheating on someone just because you don’t have the nerve to break it off with them when their genuinely awful to you and your only hurting them as much as they can be hurt by dragging this out... yeah that just makes you an ass. 

Another point of contention is that he NEVER called Scott out on this. Never. Not even after this scene. Never encouraged him to tell Ramona or apologize to Knives, again he didn’t know Scott already had tried that. Never gets on him.. he just ignores Scott’s shitty behavior like eveyrone else and unlike Kim, whose still got unresolved feelings and is at the very least clearly bothered by his shitty behavior, and Neil, whose young and thus like me likely looked up to Scott at the time, he dosen’t have an excuse other than “Well I don’t want to ruin our friendship by actually calling him out when he does something objectivionally awful.” Especially since Wallace DID actually take action: he didn’t break up the relationship or say anythign to Ramona, which is wrong... but he did tell scott flat out after his first date with Ramona to break up with Knives. And when Scott chickned out of that, Wallace gave him the ultimatium, may it live in empathy, to do so or he WOULD tell Ramona. And at least Wallace has a motive for not telling Ramona other than “I don’t want to risk my friendship with a guy I really don’t care about and think is shitty”. He wanted to see Scott recover from Envy, something Stephen never gave ONE. SHIT. ABOUT. He saw Ramona was good for him and knew telling her, while the RIGHT thing to do, would severely harm Scott, and by volume 4 leave him homeless. Plus Wallace frankly enabled him for some time anyway, letting him live at their place rent free and paying for all his food and frequently letting Scott steal his credit card. WIth Wallace at least while it’s not the RIGHT move, it’s understandable and complicated vs Stephen who really dosen’t seem to like or get along with Scott after volume 1, suddenly cares what happens to his relationship. 

And what proves this... is this little exchange that ends the conversation. 

Knives despite her issues, despite blinding herself to how Scott treated her, despite everything... thinks Ramona should know. And she’s right. And Stephen KNOWS THIS. He knows it was the right thing to do and just.. takes a swig instead of admitting he’s a fucking hypocrite or explaining himself in any way.  He NEVER cared about Ramona’s feelings or how this would effect her or saw her as important in any way shape or form. Kim at least clearly feels guilty. Wallace clearly is only doing so because it’s better for both her and Scott that their together and is a flawed human being. Stephen.. just dosen’t do so out of some masculine bullshit code of not ratting out your friend and his own cowardace. He clearly COULD go walk up to Ramona right now and tell her, but he won’t. And again I don’t buy he honeslty cares enough about Scott for their friendship to TRULY be enough of a factor to stop that. Fuck. Stephen. Stills. 

So Scott wins naturally, but is bummed there’s no reward.. but Stephen points out there’s tons of free food over yonder so he noms before he and Ramona leave. 

We get some cute domestic bits with Scott and ramona: Scott playing games on her phone all day, the two cooking dinner, and Scott admititng he hasn’t thought of envy at all. “I have you now”. Though through it there are some signs of unease: Scott finds a letter to Gideon, and Ramona asks about her hair and stares out into the window. Nice little hints that even before the big bomb abotu to drop she’s not at ease.. she loves Scott.. but it’s hard for her to let herself BE happy. It’s easy to wager she wasn’t for most of her life. 

Can’t Face Up

So next we find Sex Bomb-Omb working on the album. Or rather Stephen and Joseph are. Scott and Kim are praying for death but death won’t come and Kim wonders why the fuck this isn’t finished. Joseph wants her out of his house... forgetting that Kim lives in said house. 

Still his expressoin implies he’s going to do a murder on her if she stays in the room and since Drummers are hard to come by Stephen spirits them to kim’s room for a band meeting. Turns out they do have a gig but naturally Rosemary’s Baby booked it... and they haven’t practiced in months because Stephen’s a moron. He theorizes it’s Freddy’s Revenge, which is admitely probably valid though Kim can TELL something worse happened Stephen won’t cop to because he’s a piece of shit. I spent several paragraph’s establishing that. They try blaying and two sucktacular minutes i’ts clear their fucked sunday. 

So after a scene of Knives trying HARD to justify Scott’s actions and blame htem on Ramona, to no success, we get one of my faviorite parts of this book: Scott rambling on for god knows how long about the x-men while Ramona gets dressed and is presumibly barely listneing. 

I relate so hard to this it hurts. While not this era I wll GLADLY go on and on about X-Men and anything X-Adjacent at any goddamn opportunity and anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis and you know this. I need to tlak more x-men outside of my slowly failing New X-Men retrospective (Which is on the back burner because no one seeems to genuinely care after chapter one). If I did have a signifgant other, they would probably end up in a situation like this quite a lot and i’d have no shame about it. 

I also love this scene even more as while I DID love x-men at the time, I wasn’t quite the mega fan I was, nor as familiar with Claremont’s long, epic and often fucking weird in the special wonderful way only comics can run. Given I OWN over half his run at this point, that has changed. Though oddly not this part. So not only do I get Scott’s talking about x-men I Know what SPECIFICALLY. 

And for the unitatied, a quick explination of what the fuck Scott’s going on and on about: In the late 80′s, the x-men fought a reality warping malevolent trickster god named the Adversary. IN order to beat him their friend forget had to perform a cermony to lock his ass away that required willingly given life forces. The X-Men did REALLY fucking die.. but the Goddess Roma, daughter of Merlin and enemy of the advesary brought them back to life. With their deaths having been broadcast on live tv, and with tons of dangerous enemies at their heels, the X-Men choose to let the world continue to think they were dead so they could hit said enemies where it hurt.

SO this is where Scott’s story comes in:The X-Men’s first mission was clearing out the reavers, a bunch of racist cyborgs, from a ghost town which they took over as their base. As Scotty said they traveled all over the world, fought aliens, more racists, and then went to New York as it literally went ot hell. it’s a LOT and I haven’t read most of that era. I just know about it. I have read that last part though: the x-men were ambushed while wolveirne was away by said racist cyborgs so Psylocke shoved them through the siege perilous, a gate thingy romana gave them that would give them a new life and amnesia and such, leaving wolveirne to get crucified till Jubilee, who’d been hiding in their base gary busey style, freed him. The two would travel the world, find psylocke body swapped which is why she was asian for several decades, and get into general stuff for a few years real time till the X-Men slowly reunited. And you probbaly dind’t need to hear all of that but your life is better for knowing it. 

As you can tell Ramona’s discontent is mounting. And probably not because of Scott rambling about x-men. Last night he told her about the time Magneto beat them all because they stupidly rushed him one at a time then forced them into high tech chairs while a robotic nanny babbied them and then esecaped because shut up before fighting magneto, getting surrounded by lava and having beast ASSUME they were dead because fuck actually coming back and searching just in case like a rational human being because magma or no the x-men have surivived worse, including the depths of space, and restoring all of reality from scratch.  I may of just read those issues tonight. 

She procedes to make things worse for our hero as when he asks fo rher advice.. she reveals she dosen’t like his band.. and while she means nothing BY that, she’s nice about it, telling him his band sucks days before a sudden show where you guys eat a lot isn’t something you do. Wallace is naturally even less helpful and maybe his not liking the band is why we barely see him interact. Maybe he just figured Stepheen was on the fence sexuality wise but wasn’t willing to put up with Julie to test that. I dunno. 

So at the restraunt Stephen’s a dick, refusing to help Scott with his problems. WHich for once are legitamte as he worries abotu Ramona keeping secrets. He just wants to talk about hte band.. but 48 or something hours after this he has no real plan. 

Scott mopes to Kim about Ramona and she has some sage advice for him...

Also thing one and thing two are at the bar with a remote. This cannot end well... granted givne our heroes are not at all prepared and are playing two diffrent songs, this was never going to end well. 

And things only get worse for Scott in the bathroom.. he’s not there.. but his girlfriend and his ex are. Knives tries to work it out.. but Ramona being a bit short with her, which is fair given Knives tried to stab her a bunch a few months back and never apologized, leading to a quick fight.. but with Knives heart not in it this time and Ramona pissed and this time NOT confsued as to what the hell ihs going on, it ends with Ramona slamming knives into a wall... and Knives sadly revealing the truth to Ramona...

The scene hits like a truck with both devistated.. Ramona not having realized Scott with this shitty.. and Knives FINALLY accepting that he is. Finally letting her obession with him drop and realize what he was and what he did and let the full impact hit. The last part also hits hard “No One Else Would’ve Told You’.  It’s a sad hard truth and it’s CLEARLY something that hits both women hard.  For Knives it’s realizing Kim and Stephen, who she’s increidbly close to at this point, both don’t have the stomach to do the right thing, and thus hid this from her and Ramona. Stephen DID tell her.. but he still didn’t have the guts to tell RAMONA nor the actual care. It’s the realization the people she looked up to truly let her down and that she had to do what they couldn’t, even if it tore her apart to do it. For Ramona it’s realizing her closest friends outside of Scott could’ve told her and never did. No matter how close she’s gotten to Kim and Wallace, neither gave a fuck about her rights or her need to know. 

So Ramona is rattled and barely speaks while Scott has been fighting anothe rrobot and ends the gig accidnetly smashing his bass. Stephen is pissy with him and blames hi mfor runing the gig, which turned out to be a trap anyway complete with fliers. 

Ramona decides to gently throw him out as he forgot his keys while his other friends won’t house him leaving him with the one friend he has who dosen’t hate him right now. WALLACE!

The Glow:

So at Casa De Welles, Wallace has some buddy time, not making any bones about the fact Ramona clearly threw Scott out for the night and wearing a neat robe. Scott mopes about the fact he hasn’t met mobile whose apparenlty on the astral plane. I wonder if he has any buisness with Emma.. I mean the x-men did live in san fran sicsio but given decimation didn’t have many psychics. Might’ve been tryign to get another one. THey didn’t have a whole island that walks like a man yet.  And while Wallace wasn’t in much of a coaching mood last time he is willing to help. He couldn’t get bupkiss on the twins since Scott can’t even remember their names, but he did pull off a miracle. Despite their being a million Gideons in New York.. Wallace found THE Gideon. Granted all he got was his full name, Gideon Gordon Graves, and a few burry photos, one with Ramona confirming this is our douche, but given he had only a first name and an ex to work with this is some damn fine work. Wallace asks scott about his future with Ramona but he just.. has no earthly idea because of course he dosen’t. He hasn’t REALLY thought about what comes after beating the exes because he never thinks anything through. Interesting stuff The next day Scott meets up with Kim at No Account Video and we get our first, and I mean literally first, indiciation things are falling apart with her and Hollie. Scott wants to say hi, Kim refuses him and gives a smart ass comment when he asks if them being roomates isn’t working out. He wasn’t even being a dick it’s just clear SOMETHING bad’s going on she won’t talk about because she puts up walls around hrself on a GOOD day and this clearly isn’t one.

It gets worse when they stop by Stephen’s place only to find Neil whose both taken up a combination of smoking and moping in a dark room. Never a good sign. Nor is Stephen apparenlty being at band practice.. meaning either he lied to Neil about where he went.. or he already started the band we’ll see him with next volume and is already stabbing his friends in the back. There wasn’t much to like about the guy to BEGIN with, but his behavior just gets worse with every volume and it’s reached it’s apex here. The speech was shitty enough, I spent several paragraphs explaning why, but the rest of his behavior isn’t much better. He abandoned two people who were, for god knows what reason loyal to him and abandoned the band because of some bearded asshole probably encouraging him to. 

We also get some telling behavior on Kim’s part. Whlie she’s usually morose around Scott in the face of this both just hang out, it’s plesant. She even smiles when she asks if it’s going to be a regular occurance when he stays with her that night. Granted she brings back her frown soon after, but as has been clear her feelings for him never really went away entirely, and this is the closest the two have been in volumes, just enjoying each others company. It’s also telling that Scott trusts kim with a favor.

We see the favor the next page: Kim hangs out with Ramona.. and Scott marchs in completely on purpose soon after. Granted Kim probably didn’t know THIS was part of the plan, and it’s mildly stupid.. but it DOES show progress for Scott. Keep in mind his usual tactic is “avoid the fuck out of it and hope it goes away’ So ACTUALLY wanting to talk about things and find her again, and not doing it in a creepy way but simply drawing her out with a friend, shows SOME maturlity. It’s still not the most mature.. but with Ramona clearly not wanting him at their place, her work not having a set location as she just picks stuff up and drops it off (And even if she’s picking up packages at the post office we don’t know which one or if there’s multiple and even if we did scott sure as hel l does not), he was out of options. It also WORKS, with Ramona breaking her mopeynesss to laugh and Kim stunned it didn’t just piss her off further. 

So we find out what happened with Hollie when Scott brings up jason. She points out they were dating but... welllllllll

Yeah... as you could probably tell I do not like this plot point at all. For one thing we never really got to KNOW Jason, and with him and Hollie getting a little too cozy at the end of the last volume...

It’s clear his ONLY roll in the story was to be there so Hollie could betray Kim in some way. And look I get a LOT in this series happens while we’re not looking, ti’s part of it’s charm. Things not pausing for the side cast is a trope I enjoy: it allows some things to progress faster and allows for some intresting stories when the main cast catches up. Steven Unvierse and Ducktales both used this well as does Scott Pilgrim but all three weren’t immune to someitnes goofing up and taking it too far. 

This whole situation is that: Hollie is a character I got attached to: She had a great report with kim, they were really close and she offered her a place to stay when it was clear she was miserable with the four horseman of the bitchpocalypse she lived with. So while having her suddenly heel turn is realistic... it just feels thorughly unsatisfying. We do not see Hollie again after she’s sudeenly derailed, so we never get to see what she’s apparenlty REALLY like or get any explination why this happened. Suddenly Kim’s best friend is a douchebag even though it makes no sense for her character. Just because in real life people can turn out to be really shitty on a dime dosen’t mean it’s a neat thing to READ in a story and it feels like a waste of what was one of the series best side characters. And granted i’ve been through FAR worse treatment of side characters, trust me but this one still blows to this day and if there is a netflix adaptation this either needs to not happen or have actual depth. Seriously Netflix your adapting everything else, get on the bus already. 

Scott is GENUINELY apologetic, we’ve rarely seen him this nice but he genuinely feels bad for her.. and unlike Stephen’s thing it’s okay to feel shitty someone got cheated on even if you were a cheater in the past. As I said Stephen wasn’t wrong about how Scott treeted knives.. he just also was trying to take moral high ground which Knives proved he absolutely did not have in seconds.

This triggers Ramona’s glow, the squggly line thing that shows up over her head ocasoinally.. and while Ramona grills Scott... Kim just finally asks what the hells up with her head. Scott’s reaction is “OH good you guys see it too”. Kim does try to show it to ramona but it’s gone by then and she drops it for now and outside encourages her to come to Julie’s latest shitty party.. I mean their miserable but at least it gives thems omething to do

So we get another instalment of “Scott rambles about the X-Men” or New Mutants in this case as we’re talking about Magik, Aka Illyana Rasputin 

So for the long version: The X-Men were staying at a creepy temple that Magneto had been working out of beause the mansion was being repaired. Colossus, everyone’s favorite Russian and Deadpool co-star, had his kid sister Illyana with him as Arcade, a ginger maniac assasian whose gimmick is creating elaborate murder theme parks, kidnapped her in a plot to get the x-men to fight Dr. Doom for him. Given this was during the Cold War they coudln’t exactly take her back, so she stayed with the X-Men and her beloved big brother. 

So naturlaly the spooky temple decorated in Cthulu’s had a portal to hell in it and  an evil and genirc looking fucker named Belasco kidnapped her to a hell dimension known as Limbo>  the X-Men went after her as you’d expect and things got WEIRD as due to some complicated and weird time dialition stuff I sitll don’t quite understand there ended up being two copies of the x-men: ours who came in right after, and a second batch who stayed there for about 7-8 years and got warped by Bellsaco’s magic as he killed or changed most of them. As a result Storm became a sorcerer to fight back, Kitty Pryde became some sort of cat creature and Kurt became a creepy evil version of himself. Illyana stayed htere, learned magics from both storm and asshole, learned to fight from cat kitty, and eventually escaped after a lot of horrible bullshit, hardnered and with her soul scarred from it, now a teenager. She joined the New Mutants, the training class of x-men in the comics, soon after. She’s a member agian in present day, one of the great captains of Krakoa, and one of the two co-leaders of Krakoa’s younger mutants, i.e. 20 something to teens and kids. 

This is the best of the two scenes as the narrative , or at least Scott’s versions parallels Ramona’s own; Getting taken in by an evil man and feeling tainted by that. 

So at the party Ramona runs into Neil whose a dick about it and with some girl. She WAS going to be fleshed out more in the original draft but Brian ended up scrapping it for time, but does regret it. It’s here we get Neil’s face punchingly dickish comment that’s also a massive hint as to Stephen’s sexuality. 

Yeah even if Stephen’s been an UTTERLY shitty friend to him.. this was uncalled for even for the late 2000′s. What a prick. I do like the arc of Neil slowly falling apart though getting more and more bitter as his old friends abandoned him casually, especailly Stephen. While his comment was still HORRIBLY unwarranted even with Stephen being a dipshit. 

Speaking of assholes we get our last major with Julie who berates Scott for grabbing some booze and brings in the twist. I’m.. i’m not even bothering to give her an insluting and weird nickname. She’s still a HORRIBLE piece of shit, as she brought Scott’s enemies there to try and beat him to death for her own amusment and berated him for getting booze at a party she CLEARLY expected him to come to, but she’s ALMOST gone. Seriously after this she’s GONE for the volume and barely in the rest of the series. So i’d rather celebrate FINALLY having earned my freedom over worrying about her any more than i have to. Cue the music!

So with that Kyle.. or is it Ken. 

But the blonde one needles ramona, giving her her faviorite booze and telling her “this is all just temproary”

So Ramona gets all glowy.. and Kim gets her phone out....

The Universe Fights Back So in a random bedroom Ramona gives up the ghost: SHe DOES know what that is she just can’t tell Kim. Kim accepts it and they share some drinks. Scott, after beheading the douche bros latest science project, joins them and we get a lovely scene of the three drinking and bonding and geneuinely just having a good time. Though Kim DOES mention that she wants to go back to school.. This will naturally be very important. 

What’s more important is this scene is ENITRELY while I poly ship these three dum dums. I mean while part of thier hapiness here is their blasted out of hteir heads, it’s also just Kim’s wall sbeing down. She tells the two she loves them, and I think MEANS IT. Not to mention this...

Okay maybe it’s just the two of them but they also love Scott. And again I get htier VERY obviously drunk.. but given Kim and Ramona are clearly actively supressing any bi parts of themselves most of hte time this is telling. The fact Ramona asks kim to sleep in THIER bed, likely with them, is ALSO very telling and Kim only dosen’t because their using sub space. No really that’s the only reason this volume didn’t end VERY diffrently with the three of htem having a three way before the argument coming up.. and possibly fixing said argument by having kim to mediate. I mean I get Scott’s not a big part of this so if you don’t want to ship him with them and just leave them alone that’s fine, ut I like the idea of them as a throuple: they ballance each other out.. and frakly with Scott’s irresponsblity and Ramona’s emotoinal issues they need someone to call them b oth out in the relationship, while these two are two of the only three people in the work i’ve seen Kim take her walls down for. Not even Jason got that, but Jason was also a carboard cutout. 

Things take a turn from Kim.. from an almost threesome where she CLEARLY would be getting most of the attention... to two assholes kidnapping her. Now while I don’t like the twins that much their plan for the final act IS actually clever: their the first ones to think to actually use the people Scott cares about.. or anything resembling strategy really. Matt just charged int here, Lucas coudln’t give less of a fuck, Todd just used brute strength like a teletkentic juggernaught, and Roxy DID use some but it was less to actually fight scott and more to get into ramona’s pants again. The twins see Kim clearly still loves Scott, and that while he acts aloff to her sometimes she really is one of his best friends. No really, think about it. Wallace is his BEST friend.. but Kim sticks by him even when he’s shitty, calls him out when needed, and despite her grumpiness is the one who has the most faith in him out of ANYONE. It’s a large point of the volume: she dosen’t bother watching the fights.. because she belivies he’ll win simply because he’s Scott. That’s love right there. The kind of love that gets you kidnapped as part of an elaborate scheme but love nonetheless. 

So we then get the scene that’s been coming for five volumes... after having sex, Ramona confronts Scott. While Scott admits he didn’t cheat on her with knvies, the other way around, that’s not better. He admits he’s been trying to forget about it.. and she calls him a bad person. And that. .hits him hard. While he DESERVES scorn for what he did... as he puts it next he’s been trying to change for her. To BE better. And all she sees, and outright confirms is another evil ex in waiting with Scott DESPERATE to prove her wrong and wrongly thinking beating the next three exes will fix this. It’s a VERY hard sceen to watch as while Scott does deserve this.. it’s also hard not to feel bad for him too. It really sums up the character: He is a dick.. but he’s TRYING to be better. He WANTS to be, he just dosen’t know how. And MAN can I relate to that.  It dosen’t help that Ramona is clearly projecting her own insecurties about this lasting, about actually being happy and about this really being her life onto him, using this as an easy out after having a month of doubt. Yes Scott did something unbelivibely shitty.. but both are trying to take the easy way out of it instead of genuinely discussing why it’s shitty, what he did was wrong and geniuinely unpacking if this is the end. Ramona clearly wants to bail, and Scott clearly just wants to punch a few guys to make it better. Neither thing will work. They need to work thorugh their issues to work... but neither is capable of that right now. They both want to run from the problem. 

This volume is in part about Ramona herself.. and showcasing her OWN flaws.. and like Scott her biggest is that she runs. She wants to escape her past too and both assumed the other would be an easy fix, that by having a good partner they’d be better.. when really their both mildly shitty people who need to make peace with their past and repair the bridges they’ve burnt and flip off the ones not worht reparing instead of running from it all the time. But sadly before both can.. their just gonna run again. Because sometimes fixing yourself is just not that easy. 

So the next morning Scott’s heart stops fo ra second when Ramona is seemingly gone.. only for her to instead be in teh shower. But Scott gets a text telling him the twins have Kim and TRIES to tell Ramona.. but she’s in the shower. As a result she’s worried he just ran off... and makes a decision , her hair cut back down after growing it out this volume, a sign of her hapiness.. now gone. 

The Glow Part 2 So at an abandoned wherehouse the fight is on. The twins have the advantage in part because Scott is hung over.. something they take offense to.. even though they were THERE last night. He was at a party. They don’t know he teatotles. What state did they THINK he’d be in this morning?

We also find out their origin: as Scott correctly guessed at the end of last volume, Ramona dated them both at the same time and pit them against each other. They found out and vowed to always fight as one.. which means Scott is not only fighting two equally powerful opponents at once, but two who work as a perfct team and double hurricane kick him. They also mentally break him down, pointing out her previous job and how she’s a runner and she’s here to run from her past working for Gideon.

They aren’t but I already went into that so let’s get onto more pressing issues: Scott is not only hung over but now doubting himself and his dumbass plan to beat gideon and magically fix things, while Kim is naturally not happy about being stuck in a cage all night. And while at first she’s genuinely just grumpy as always as it becomes clear Scott has lost hope and the twins are going to win this one her expression is heartbreaking...

After EVERYTHING she still loves him and can’t bear to see him in so much pain... and can’t loose him.. so she gets desperate and claims Ramona texted him to give him hope. 

This is one of Kim’s definting moments, the other coming next month. When faced with the person she loves possibly dying.. she lies to him.. so he can surivive. So he can have hope and make it through this.. despite how much it’s CLEARLY KILLING HER to not only tell him someone else loves him but to clealry lie that person loves him, knowing it’ll hurt him more.. but knowing if she DOSEN’T he’ll die. It’s one of the most painful, heartbreaking and beautiful moments in the entire series. It’s why I said earlier while I don’t like the brothers their climactic fight his excellent.. because it is. Their verbal breaking down of Scott is hearbreaking and Kim’s sacrifice equally so. 

And before stomping them into coins SCott shows further growth.. by showing he CAN give off a good one liner now...

So Scott beats them and gets Kim out of the cage, worried about her.. but despite having a chance, Kim lets him get on his way to ramona and morsoely wlaks off... while ominously the sign points out this will soon be the Chaos Theater. There’s still one left to go. 

But.. it’s sadly not enough. While Scott gives her a heartfelt speech... even if he quotes the song as long as you love me... he dosen’t care who she is.. but Ramona does.. calling herself a bad person.. as she vanishes.... and I cry my eyes out again. God two really heartbreaking scenes in a row sweet jesus this volume will be the death of me.. and not just because i’ts taken so damn long to write this review. And on top of tha the looses the cat and ends up locked out. 

World of Ruin:

So yeah if you thought those bits weren’t easy.. it only gets roughter as we see Scott in the aftermath of the breakup. His dream world is now desolate and he’s alone. Now to his creidt as much shit as i’ve given him Stephen didn’t ENTIRELY abandon Scott: he put him up fo rth enight (though he kicks him out after work) and offers to take him to after work drinks. We also see a nice side of Scott’s intimdating boss as she offers her symaptheties at him crying... while he says it’s the onions... he’s transparenlty lying. 

Next up is Kim. Though she dosen’t have a couch because Hollie sold it.. which as dickish as she suddenly is it IS her couch as Kim points out.. so yeah Kim and Scott end up sleeping awkardly in the same bed facing away from each other.. and to add another emotional guttpunch at the worst possible time: She’s going back home. 

Stacey is even lesss helpful as SCott continues to ask about cats and is unsypantethic about her leaving despite you know,  him REALLY not being at the shit talking her stage yet bud. At least we do get to see Stacey in this one I genuinely forgot she was in it. 

So at Wallace’s he’s no help either pointing out she might be with someone else because he’s wallace and we meet a guy with Glases.. and in his bad state Scott assumes i’ts gideon. it’s not though. WE finally meet Mobile!

He’s exactly what wallace needs.. a fellow sarcastic asshole. 

So next up is Kim’s goodbye.. which once again is really emotinal..a nd not just because  my faviorite character is leaving and again, younger me didn’t know this wasn’t forever.. or that she’d be back for a rather huge role next time. But still it’s a damn good scene that shows how far Scott’s come...

While the first part is standard... the second is Scott realizing that she still had feelings for him, clearly given her actions during the fight, and he’d been a right dick this whole time never dealing with it or apolgoizing for his past. Granted he still has a way to go to REALLY apologize for it... but he’s trying and means it. And with her possibly never seeing again.. she needed that. Also her coat is damn cool. I’d say I want one like that btu i’d really prefer one like Scotts complete with x-men patch. Pax Krakoa bitches. 

We get a really nice scene after where we meet Scott’s parents! Their also really kind helping him get a new place and move on... and runs into another glasses guy. But this time it’s Laurence! Who he drop kicks.. and then gives a broken bass back to. Eh... i’ve seen worse relationship with siblings honestly. He didn’t murder scott’s friend or plunge a whole galaxy into war or try and murder his daughter. Other Scott’s weren’t so lucky. 

So after that awkardness SCott finds the note to gideon which is a break up letter... she never sent. However there’s something more pressing as he gets a call... and you can probably guess given his luck lately who that’s from. 

Eh it’s not that murderoius creep but another one. 

The end.. is in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts: 

As I said I hated Vs the Universe on first read but re-reading it with hindsight and maturity.. it’s damn good. It’s depressing as hell.. but the things it does need to happen to push scott into a bad enough place for the next volume to work, and are natural: Ramona and Kim leaving, The band  breaking up, Scott kicking his brother in the face.. all natural things. It hurts, this was a HARD one to write and I only feel the next one will be harder because it’s way longer with less slice of lifey stuff to skim through in my recapping. 

But it’s a damn good one, with fantastic art, really gripping scenes, x-men refrenes and a spotlight shone on my girl kim. Even it’s weak spots dont’ hurt it: the twins are only weak by comparison, and still work well enough for the story, pushing ramona into the bad mental place she needs to be for the story to work. Hollie’s thing DID Need to be written way fucking better... but it does push kim into leaving which is CRITICAL for next time. So they aren’t GREAT elements, but they work. The only real other problem I have is knives just.. vanishes after her scene outside of one bit with Stephen, but that I can understand as the book is pretty tightly packed and she gets a fitting sendoff next time anyway. All in all another amazing entry and the perfect warm up for one of the best endings in comics history

Next Time: I said it and I meant it: one of the best endings in comics history as Scott hits on some exes, fights himself and betters himself as he prepares for his finest hour! Will Ramona Come back? Will Kim? Will Julie?... to answer your questions yes yes, and god dammit. Thank you all for reading, see you at the next rainbow. 

[dianapocalypse]

Hi! I just found your art through Youtube from a Gideon the Ninth search and I'm so freaking happy! I've watched a bunch of your videos and I'm about to subscribe to your Patreon. I love your art and I love your videos.

In one of your videos you mentioned having ADHD so I there's you might understand a dilemma that I have:

See, I'm 22 years old and I'm just now starting to learn how to draw. I know that I am creative and I do have some talent, but clay and yarn have always been my preferred medium.

I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my goal of doing some sort of drawing in the last few days that I've been quarantined, but I'm worried that I'm going to burn out because my drawings don't look the way I want them to; they're not very good. I know I can't be immediately good at it, but I'm not getting that "finished task dopamine rush" if you know what I mean, and I can already feel it starting to wear my attention down.

I really want to be able to draw people from The Locked Tomb and Star Trek and TAZ and actually have it look good. I know it's gonna take a lot of practice. Do you have any tips for staying with art (specifically drawing people) in the beginning when I'm not getting the results I want?

omg hello!!!! thank you so much for watching my channel and the kind words and aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA you have made my day!!! WELCOME TO DRAWING! something I have noticed with ppl who start art (or any skill) Later In Life is that they start in stage 2 of Learning Stuff. this is a highly scientific term. but basically, the four stages go "being not good but not realizing it at a thing", "being not good but knowing it", "being good and knowing it" and "being good without thinking about it". again, I am explaining this Highly Scientifically. but that's good news, because that means you're already on stage 2! that's one whole stage closer to being good at things!

but that is not your question! the question is how to avoid burnout, and I can help with that too!

the way forward is DRAW VERY SELF INDULGENT THINGS! if you're not getting the dopamine from the finished product itself, you can get it from WHAT you're drawing. example! i have three entire 100+ page photo albums full of art from one of my D&D games because I fell in love with my OC. I wasn't very good at art for most of that game, but by the end of it, I was PRETTY DECENT! it didn't bother me that much that my art was just OK at the beginning because I was just having so much fun drawing that character. over and over again. hundreds of times. maybe more even. doing lots of things. like smoochin her boyfriend. but in a distinctly bisexual way.

where was I. YES. avoiding burnout. so I recommend starting there! draw what you like! draw what brings you dopamine anyway!

i also recommend trying to embrace your mistakes! the fact that you're NOTICING them means you're at the step right before learning how to fix them! and then when you DO learn how to fix them??? the DOPAMINE will FLOW. the way to do that? when you draw something wrong, go find a reference of it! if it's a pose you're struggling with and you can't figure it out, take a picture of yourself doing it or look at yourself doing it in a mirror! (or, if you start from a reference, you'll already have one ready to go! I recommend Adorkastock on DA/Tiktok or https://doll-a.net/. That second one even has an app you can use to download a 3D mannequin that you can pose however you like! It's a little clunky but it's FREE!) references will make you get good so much faster than not references. this reminds me I wanted to make a video about references. I will write that down!

you have also inspired me to make a video with more just How To Draw Stuff advice! I have been batting an idea around but knowing someone would actually GET SOMETHING OUT OF IT is motivating! i will try to make that next week's video!

in the meantime, keep drawing stuff you love!! make more TLT content! or TAZ or D&D or Star Trek! lifehack, you can do figure studies and then just make them into your OCs or characters you like from those things. no one can stop you. what if they were ALL gideon nav???