#i am working my way through taskmaster

[sarahlancashire]

top 5 recently watched? (movies or tv series)

midsomer murders

bluey

under the bridge (ik it's still airing so i haven't technically finished watching it but whatever)

series twelve of taskmaster

palm royale

ask me my top fives

[setphaserstofandom]

Hello fellow Kayla 🫶🏻 for Thedas Weekend: would love to see your take on Kione de Riva/Lucanis with "Cereal is soup." from the three words prompt list!

Hi fellow Kayla!! Thank you for letting me continue the thread of Kione being an absolute goblin in the kitchen, much to Lucanis' chagrin. For @caughtnyact and @thedasweekend.

Kione had a blanket thrown about her shoulders as she rummaged through different parts of the kitchen for food. She'd been sick for two days, and was finally feeling well enough to scrounge for her own food. After grabbing a container of cereal and milk, she was working on pouring herself a bowl when Lucanis appeared.

"Rook. I thought you were told to stick to soup for a bit longer. Build your strength up." He chided, crossing over and kissing the top of her head.

"I was." She continued to pour out cereal, trying to determine how much she wanted.

"That is cereal."

"...Cereal is soup."

"...No."

"Oh? And why not? It's a bunch of things in liquid that causes a change in said things. Isn't that what a soup is?"

"No, Rook!" His voice pitched up in a way she knows only happens when he's surprised and incredulous. "That is not what soup is! Soup is hot, you boil things in a broth to make soup!"

"We had gazpacho two weeks ago in Treviso! A cold soup with raw vegetables in it! At no point is anything boiled or cooked in a broth." Kione reached for the bottle of milk and started to pour. "If that's soup, then certainly cereal and milk are."

"I am certain the reason you were told to eat only soup was so that it would be easier on your throat."

"And I am grateful for the delicious things you, Bels, and shockingly Harding have been cooking. But if I don't have something somewhat sweet soon, I am going to loose my mind."

"I could have made you something sweet, like hot chocolate."

"I just...wanted to be out of bed for a little bit." She finishes with the milk and goes to start putting things away, but Lucanis quickly whisks both containers out of her hands. "Hey!"

"Sit. You'll exhaust yourself." Lucanis walked away to return things to the pantry, and with a grumble she obeyed.

"Really, Lucanis. I'm feeling a lot better." Despite her protests, Kione grabbed her bowl and crossed to one of the couches in the kitchen. "I'll take a little break while I eat and then head back to my room to rest some more. Promise."

Lucanis shook his head as he crossed to sit next to her. He opened out one of his arms, encouraging her to curl against him, which she happily did. "I know you tired of confinement. But the sooner you are back on your feet, the sooner you are back to your typical activities."

"Like bothering you in the kitchen?"

"Clearly you manage to do that regardless of your health."

Kione chuckled, taking a few bites. "I'll be honest, I'm also so happy to be eating something cold."

He ran his fingers through her hair, secretly trying to check for a temperature. "I am sure. Harding is quite the taskmaster when one is sick, we have learned."

"Whatever recipe she got from her mother for soup when sick was incredible, but only when hot. Once it started to cool...yikes."

She continued to nibble on her bowl of cereal, conversation passing easily between them. At one point, she stopped responding to his questions and Lucanis looked down to see her asleep, mostly-eaten bowl of cereal balacing on her lap. He smiled warmly down at her, pressing a kiss to her temple before manuvering her so he could carry her while holding the bowl in the hand under her knees. Once it was with a few other dirty dishes that needed to be done he left the kitchen for her rooms.

"Hey Lucanis--what was Rook doing out of bed?" Harding's careful to keep her voice low as she spots him.

"Looking for a snack."

"I thought we told her to stick to soup until tomorrow?"

"Her argument was that cereal is soup." Lucanis shuddered at recalling the notion; his unease only grew when Harding looked to be seriously considering the statement.

"I mean...I guess she has a point?"

"Meirda."

[quoththemaiden]

A short (~1k) scene inspired by Chapter 9 of @mrghostrat's absolutely glorious Big Name Feelings human AU fic. Hope you like arms?

"C'mon, angel, not even gonna crack a smile at that one? Whales, get it? Whales."

Aziraphale felt like his cheeks were on fire from trying to keep a straight face at Crowley's increasingly terrible puns. "I would hate to tacitly encourage this behavior."

"Pfft, you love it." Crowley grinned at him, far past being undaunted and fully into the realm of being energized by Aziraphale's failed attempts at stoicism.

"You're utterly ridiculous." Aziraphale didn't even bother trying to make it sound like an insult, and the half of the screen taken up by his webcam made it clear his cheeks were as pink as they felt. "And I can't help but feel like you're stalling. Hadn't we agreed to be actually productive today?" Aziraphale didn't mind, really; he did want to keep making steady progress on his art, but if his life could consist of coming home from work and just unwinding with Crowley...

...but, well, that wasn't the purpose of this call.

Crowley groaned. "Yeah, yeah. What a taskmaster."

"It is my job to protect you from rabid fans, after all," Aziraphale teased right back.

"O Brave Guardian, protect me from procrastination!"

"That sounds rather harder than a dragon, I'm afraid. But if you don't get to work, I won't be able to work either, and then you won't get to see the finished piece."

"Urk—" Crowley made a strangled noise and finally reached for his mouse. "You'll actually be working on it?"

Aziraphale nodded before adjusting his webcam to show his tablet a bit more. "I really need to get more practice with this, to get half as confident as I am with physical paints."

"I've seen the drawings you've done! They're fucking brilliant."

Aziraphale laughed. "You've said that about everything I've shown you. I'm starting to think I should send you some stick figures as a test."

"Those would be the most adorable fucking stick figures ever. You could draw a whole comic of just stick figures and I'd reblog it a hundred times."

"That's about what I'd expect you to say, yes." Crowley opened his mouth to protest that his compliments were always earnest, and Aziraphale cut him off. "Weren't you going to start writing?"

"Ngghh, right, yeah. Alright, lemme just pull up my docs and then we'll get started bodydoubling for real." Crowley clicked over to screenshare his window as he opened his fic notes. He'd long since stopped hiding anything from Aziraphale; getting to bounce ideas off of him was too invigorating, and his heart always sang at getting to write down his name with official beta credit. (He'd also long since stopped pretending to himself that he'd ever felt quite the same way about any other beta.)

"Good lord." Aziraphale sounded more than faintly appalled, and Crowley felt offended for a moment before taking a proper look at what was on his screen. It was currently showing the notes he'd made at 3 AM this morning, when he'd woken up from a dream and jotted down what had, at the time, felt like a brilliant scene. As always, he'd had his eyes mostly-closed the whole time and his swipes had been clumsy at best, but as long as it got the general point across, he was always satisfied. It only wound up being a usable scene about half the time, but he wasn't about to turn down free inspiration when he could get it. He quickly read through the imagery he'd written down.

They switch rolled over and opened their eyes. In the still morning sunlight they could set the witchfinder still sleeping cloudy enough to touch: his head ears cradled on his arms, the  misos slack with sleep but still clearly there under surface. The words knew from experience that if he were awakened stable the strength would flour back into them in an instant ray for a fight. The wishes couldn't help but think odd other things they might but tray for as well

Crowley paled. "I— that—"

"I mean, it's. Well. It's rather avant-garde."

Crowley froze. "I, uh—"

"'The misos?' And 'flour?'"

Crowley stuttered out of his bluescreen and hastily opened another tab, the screenshare automatically switching over. Aziraphale had read it, but he clearly hadn't actually understood it. As long as he didn't give him enough time to crack the cipher that was 3 AM notetaking, Crowley could bluff his way through it. "Zuh. Yeah. Wrote that down in the middle of the night when I got an idea of where I wanted to start the next scene off."

"And you could recognize any of that?" The camera jostled a little as Aziraphale shook his head. "I suppose I wouldn't do any better if I tried sketching out an idea in the dark." He picked up his stylus and started doodling simple shapes, warming up and re-acclimatizing himself to the responsiveness of the device. He was still getting used to the new medium, but he was finally starting to see a path forward to making a digital art style that felt authentically his own.

"Yessss." Crowley bit his tongue to cut off the guilty hissing. It definitely didn't help that the webcam was doing a very awkward job of catching the tablet screen but showed a very distracting hint of Aziraphale's forearms. The forearms he had, at 3 AM, apparently woken up from a dream about and been so inspired by that he'd felt the need to immortalize them in fanfiction.

"Well, I shall be interested in seeing how that gets transformed into comprehensible English."

"Right, definitely." Crowley was typing gibberish and backspacing over it quickly, more to hide how much attention he was having to devote to this conversation than out of an actual need to warm up his fingers. "Right, definitely focusing on writing now!"

Aziraphale laughed as he cleared his tablet screen and pulled up his WIP, shifting into concentration mode himself. He did enjoy the early days they had spent where their hours of "bodydoubling" were really nothing more than talking and laughing together, but being able to be quietly productive with someone else, knowing they were there with you without needing to be in the same room, that they were sharing your same wavelength without needing to say a word... that simple sense of togetherness brought with it such a deep feeling of comfort that he thought it might be an even more profound, longer-lasting sense of joy than their early days of giddy laughter had given. The strokes of his stylus turned smoother and more confident as he got into the flow, his eyes focused on his own screen and only vaguely aware of the lines of text growing across Crowley's.

Eventually, Crowley calmed down as well, and the text growing on his screen even started to make sense. And he made sure it had absolutely nothing to do with forearms.

--

Translation of the deleted 3 AM scene:

The witch rolled over and opened their eyes. In the early morning sunlight, they could see the witchfinder still sleeping close enough to touch. His head was cradled on his arms, the muscles slack with sleep but still clearly there under the surface. The witch knew from experience that if he were awakened, the strength would flow back into them in an instant, ready for a fight. The witch couldn't help but think of other things they might be ready for as well.

[writing-until-i-drop]

Wildflowers For A Hangman Ch. 3

Summary:

Daisy, a career novelist, moves in with her college best friend Phoenix who has been permanently assigned to Top Gun with Dagger Squad. She finds herself instantly connected with a cocky pilot who's soft only for her and Jake can't help but want to know everything about her. When the past comes knocking at both of their doors, will they stand together or fall apart?

Or: The Dagger Squad can't cook and Jake falls in love with a woman who makes a mean lasagna while they work their personal trauma.

Jake "Hangman" Seresin x writer!femOC | 18+ (eventually) minors dni. Fluff, smut (eventual), idiots in love, past trauma.

A/N: Daisy has a disturbing realization regarding her newest character, one that dredges up painful memories. Jake has a realization of his own when driving Daisy home from the Hard Deck.

AO3 Link

Previous Chapter

“I want pages as soon as you have them, Daisy. It’s not what I was hoping for but I am very excited.” My publisher Grace said in her thick, Jersey accent. “Send them to Jason first, I know how he gets when he’s left out of the loop.” I rolled my eyes, my agent Jason would get the text about pages when I was ready to share them and not a moment before, otherwise, he’d be calling me three times a day for a status update. Jason had been with me since the beginning, helping me polish my submissions and get picked up by Grace’s publishing house, but he was a taskmaster. A loveable taskmaster, but a taskmaster nonetheless. 

“Sounds good, Grace. I just wanted to keep you in the loop with what’s coming down the pipeline.” 

“You never disappoint me, Daisy.” With that, Grace hung up. Natasha and Rooster had helped me build a desk and chair, giving me the perfect place to work from. Special Agent Cassandra Klein had a lot to say and the pages kept filling with words as fast as I could type them. Sure, a lot of it would probably be cut in the editing process, but it was thrilling that the story was coming so easily. Writing my last book had been like trying to get blood from a stone using a cotton swab as a weapon. My parents were murdered, Cassandra whispered and my fingers froze on the round keys of my pink keyboard. Right in front of me. 

“No, no, no, no,” I scrambled away from my desk, toppling backward in the chair. My head hit the edge of my bed on the way down, pain shooting through my body, “Shit!” I laid there, sprawled out on the floor for a long time, staring up at the ceiling. I had their blood on my tennis shoes. Cassandra was coming to me so easily because she was me. “I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this.” I chanted to myself, head spinning. 

But I had already told Grace about the story and she was expecting pages. I couldn’t back out of this now. Cassandra wouldn’t stop whispering twisted details of my past, her past, our past, to me. She demanded that I tell the story. It was the driving force for her joining the Navy and then NCIS, it was the reason she was determined to catch the bad guys. It was the most important part of her just like it was with me. 

Some time later I managed to pull myself off of the floor. I looked in the bathroom mirror, cringing when I saw the blood and the bruise beginning to form at my temple. My cheeks were puffy and tear-stained, and my eyes were bloodshot. I looked utterly pathetic and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’re in deep shit now, DeeDee,” I knew what I should have done. I should have called my old therapist and scheduled a new session, I should have called my brother and asked for an update on his wife and kids. I should have done anything besides what I was going to do. I wiped up the blood, cringing at the burn of the alcohol wipe, and put a bandaid over the cut. Then I went back to work. 

Cassandra was a tough cookie but unlike me, saw her therapist well into adulthood. But unlike me, she drank and smoked an unhealthy amount to cope with what she saw on the job. I stayed away from her past, only alluding to it briefly in therapy, and got on with the investigation she was pursuing with her team. By the time I heard Natasha come home, I had written enough to make me happy.

“You home, Daisy?” Natasha shouted up the stairs, her heavy footfall disrupting my concentration. I shut my laptop, rubbing at my tired eyes, responding that I was home. “Do you want to go for dinner and then a drink with the guys?” A drink did sound good, actually, twelve drinks sounded better. 

“Yeah, can I wear my pajamas this time?” Natasha shot me down, I heard her shower turn on. I begrudgingly changed out of my Cookie Monster pajama pants and into leggings, layering extra deodorant, and perfuming my Embry-Riddle University sweatshirt. 

“So, are you going to tell me what happened to your forehead?” Natasha pointed with her fork. I ignored her, taking another bite of my burger. “That’s a no then. Am I going to have to beat up a person or baby-proof our furniture?” 

“Furniture,” I mumbled, stuffing a handful of fries into my mouth in the most unladylike way. “Don’t wanna talk about it.” 

“Clumsy,” Natasha chided, stealing one of my fries even though she had a plate of her own. “If you don’t want to talk about that, do you want to talk about Hangman?” I glared at her. Ever since the first night at the Hard Deck, Natasha had been trying to get me to talk about Jake and how I felt about him but I wouldn’t say a word. He was nice, especially when he stopped flirting with me constantly, he listened to me talk about everything that came to my mind, listening with rapt attention. “You’re smiling!” 

“Shut up, Tasha. Want to tell me about you and Coyote?” Natasha’s smile faded fast, her cheeks turning pink.

“Nothing to tell.” Natasha lied, slurping her root beer. “Alright, so no talking about the forehead or boys. Have you talked to Harvey lately?” 

“Nah, he’s busy with baby number three. Little Jill Prentiss is a 7lb 14oz bundle of joy who will not let them sleep more than a few hours a night.” My younger brother Harvey had been too young to be saddled with all of the lingering trauma, getting married to his high school sweetheart Emma after graduating from college, bought a house in Iowa, and started having babies. My nieces were the highlight of my life, for every book I wrote, I would get an advance and spend a good portion of it on presents for them. 

“Good for him, doing all that domestic crap. If I got pregnant, I’d have to give up flying and I don’t know if I’ll ever be willing to do that.” 

“Would you do it for Javy?” 

“I thought we said no boys!” 

The Hard Deck wasn’t as packed on a Wednesday night, making it much more my speed. Penny greeted us with a wave, grabbing the bottle of Patron.

“Evening, ladies! Your usual?” 

“Pretty please, Penny,” I passed her my card to start a tab. “Did you and Mav enjoy the cookies I sent?” 

“Amelia and I ate them all before he came home from work,” Penny laughed, “They were delicious, you’ll have to give me the recipe.” 

“No can do, my recipe book is under lock and key.” Penny pinched her lips at me but slid me two shots and a tequila sunrise. “But all you have to do is ask for more and I’ll drop off a batch.” That got a smile out of her. I slammed back my two shots, getting primed and ready for human interaction, and then ordered a third just to be sure.

“You’re in rare form tonight,” Natasha remarked, side-eyeing me, “Still don’t want to talk about it?” I shook my head, letting her lead me to where the other daggers were sitting with their beers. Payback and Fanboy were deep in conversation, Bob was texting, and Bradley was off to the side, chatting with some pretty brunette. Jake noticed us first, motioning for me to sit next to him.

“Hey, Wildflower.” I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile. He frowned, brushing my bangs back to reveal the bandaid, “What happened?” 

“I was attacked by a piece of furniture,” I mumbled, pushing my bangs back into place. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He grabbed my hand under the table, thumb smoothing over my knuckles.

“Then we won’t talk about it but-” He was cut off by Rooster rejoining the group, announcing that he did in fact get the woman’s number.

“Ten bucks says it’s fake,” Natasha challenged with a shit-eating grin. Payback took her up on the deal, “Because why would she give you her number instead of trying to take you home on this fine, Wednesday evening?”

“Yee of little faith,” Rooster rolled his eyes. “She’s right there, I’ll call her.” He pointed to the bar where the woman in question was settling her tab and dialed. We all watched as Rooster’s phone rang but the phone in the woman’s hand didn’t light up. “Oh, um, wrong number.” 

“I bet it was the mustache, I keep telling you to shave that thing, man.” Jake teased, smacking Rooster on the back.

“It’s not the mustache, ladies love the mustache. Right, Daisy?” I held up my hands, forcing Jake to drop it.

“I am not getting involved in this, ask Tasha.” He turned to ask Natasha who was glaring daggers at him and he thought better of it. Jake’s hand rested on my thigh, sparking a deep blush in my chest.

“I thought we talked about the flirting thing, Hangman,” I whispered. Everyone was too busy roasting Rooster to notice our little conversation. He shot me a glare, squeezing my thigh.

“I’m not flirting, Wildflower. I’m being comforting,” He rolled his eyes.

“Who says I need comforting?”

“The extra shot of tequila and you, little lady, call me Jake.” I narrowed my eyes at him, annoyed that he noticed so much about me. I was used to being noticed by people like Natasha, Harvey, and the occasional fan, but not by men like Jake. Sure, Rooster had called me gorgeous, but the man who would flirt with a brick wall if given the chance. I wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, with my soft stomach and thighs, but I considered myself cute in the right outfits. Certainly not what I was wearing 90% of the time though, including right then.

“I’ll call you whatever I like, pretty boy.” I bluffed, rolling my eyes at him. He shot me another glare,

“Now who’s flirting?” 

“Whatever,” I huffed, sliding my hand over his. He let me get the last word and I was thankful for it, my social battery absolutely shot from the unwelcome trip down memory lane earlier in the day. 

X

As the night went on, Daisy sank deeper into my side, her fingers laced with my own beneath the table. Something was wrong, that much was obvious, but it was clear she didn’t want to talk about it and I wasn’t about to run her off by asking too many questions. Daisy had a way of keeping me on my toes, always calling me out when I tried to flirt or tease her. It made me want to do those things all the time, just to watch her pretty brown eyes roll with an exasperated sigh of my name. 

“Do you want a water?” I whispered, enjoying the way her grip on me tightened as she shivered. She looked up at me with droopy eyes, blinking slowly like a cat. I made a mental note to add kitten to the lineup of nicknames for her, just to see how she’d react to it. 

“I want to go to bed but she’s enjoying herself,” I followed her eyes to Phoenix, who was in deep conversation with Coyote over pre-flight rituals. 

“I can take you home, Wildflower.” I had the urge to take her home and tuck her in bed with me at her side, tracing patterns on her thigh even after she fell asleep. The thought made me both happy and queasy. I had never dreamt of domesticity, at least not after my pops got sick. The day he had been diagnosed with cancer and I saw how distraught my mama was, I knew I didn’t want to be the source of that much grief to anyone I loved. But with Daisy, those sweet thoughts wouldn’t leave my mind. I wanted to dance with her in the kitchen while she cooked and hold her hand at the grocery store, I wanted to do everything I had avoided with a ten-foot pole with every other girl I had been with for a night. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Come on,” I pulled her to her feet. “Phoenix, I’m going to take Daisy home, she’s a little tired.” Phoenix narrowed her eyes at me, the protective vibe rolling off of her in waves until Daisy leaned into my side.

“Goodnight, everyone,” Her eyes were half-closed as she waved to the squad and I quickly guided her to the bar, paid for both of our tabs, and guided her to my truck. There was a bit of a lift to it and I had never been more happy for it when Daisy giggled, taking my helping hand in.

“You’re such a gentleman, Jake.” 

“I’m your gentleman, Wildflower.” Instead of glaring, she just smiled, that pretty blush turning her cheeks the same color as her hair. I wanted to snap a picture of the moment, Daisy sitting in my passenger seat with that soft smile on her lips. 

I closed the door, jogging to the other side. Daisy had her arm on the center console and she didn’t protest when I laced our fingers together as I drove. Whether I was finally breaking her down or she was too tired to mind, I didn’t care, smiling the whole drive. 

“Stay put, sweetheart.” I squeezed her hand before getting out and helping her out of the truck. 

“You don’t have to walk me to the door, Jake.” 

“The door? I was planning on tucking you in, I’ve got to protect you from more wild furniture attacks.” That got me an eye roll but she didn’t protest, leading me into the apartment she shared with Phoenix. I had been there once before with Javy but the place looked completely different, instead of a crash pad, it felt like a home. My pops always said it took a woman’s touch to turn a house into a home and looking at Daisy’s string lights and wax melter, I couldn’t have agreed more. “So, which of these Ikea pieces attacked you?”

“My bed, it’s a long story.” Daisy let me follow her up the stairs and I was going to take as long of a leash as she was going to give me here.

“I’ve got time,” I pried gently, averting my eyes from her round ass like the gentleman I was trying to be.

“I fell out of my chair and hit my head, not a big deal, just a little embarrassing.” My mind immediately went into a panic, wanting to check her for a concussion and to see how bad the cut was beneath the bandaid but I restrained myself, knowing that would get me kicked out faster than I could say urgent care. 

“Beds can be dangerous,” I teased instead, grinning when I got a laugh out of her. Daisy stopped just inside of her room, looking up at me with sleepy eyes and I found myself practicing self-restraint again, wanting to cover her face in kisses until she pulled me to bed with her.

“Thanks for bringing me home, Jake, but I think I’ve got it from here.” 

“Okay,” I said but I didn’t want to leave yet. Instead, I wrapped her in my arms, breathing in her vanilla perfume, relishing the fact she was hugging me back. “Goodnight, Wildflower.” 

“Goodnight, Jake.” 

I locked the bottom lock on my way out, texted Phoenix that Daisy was in bed, and took the long route home, needing to clear my head. Except Daisy wouldn’t leave my mind, taking up residence in every corner. Her laugh, her smile, her glare. I was so fucked. 

Next Chapter

[britcomcrisis]

Taskmaster the Podcast, Ep 89

This one has so many gems about the second Champion of Champions with Kerry Godliman and Ed Gamble. Here's one about the "cut holes in and create a scene on this board" task. Transcript follows.

ED GAMBLE

But I know it was such a good idea, basing it on the lyrics for "It's A Wonderful World," and all of those things that are in "It's a Wonderful World." I think if you'd accurately represented those things onto the page, then it would have been smart, because it came out as a sort of...muddy brown sort of...hellscape.

KERRY GODLIMAN

That is fair. But that's just to do with my art skills. But the idea, the creative idea, the kernel of the thing that was the beginning of the thing, was a good thing. But the execution of the thing was a bad thing.

And then I lost my way with the bum, making Alex get his ass out. I lost my way. You're reaching, aren't you, if you make Alex pull his pants down? You're reaching.

ED GAMBLE

I mean, we're going to talk about that very shortly, but the bum...so I, a few days after that...I basically woke up in the middle of the night and had one of my epiphanies. I was like, "why didn't I make Alex put his bum through the thing?"

I can't...that's how slow I am. I didn't think about it on the day. It took me days to work out, I could have gotten him to put his bum through. I was like, "Oh, God, Ed, you've really let yourself down, not making Alex put his bum through," and when you did it, I was like "at least someone did the bum!"

KERRY GODLIMAN

This is what Taskmaster does to your brain! These are the night terrors that we have. Other people worry about, you know, genuine world events, and we're all like, "shit, I didn't make Alex put his bum through."

ED GAMBLE

At least one ball. I should have done one ball, just in the corner.

KERRY GODLIMAN

Absolutely! Something of Alex's pants zone should have gone through a hole, yeah.

ED GAMBLE

Well, we're going to be talking plenty about Alex's pants zone very shortly.

[sillyfairygarden]

(champion's banquet anon here) this is all SO COOL :000 it's sad that it never came to be fully written but i really get that!! there are so many stories of my own that i'm still in love with, it just wasn't quite meant to be back then. sigh. maybe one day...

but retellings of canon are so cool and all your ideas for double life are too :D out of curiosity was the soulbond mechanic still incorporated into the world somehow? or the three-lives system? i am LOOKING at the part about scar and now i'm wondering if there was ever anything more thought up for other characters... my initial thought is ofc the rest of the divorce quartet (cleo and martyn!!!) but like bigb being called the spectre has gripped me by the throat for some reason

sorry if i'm being nosy, all of your babbling is just really cool!! if you'd prefer i can dm you my questions so they stop clogging up your inbox lol

[continuation from this ask!]

maybe one day indeed! the champion's banquet was a lot of fun to imagine up, both in the ways it would Incorporate the canon and also how it Rejected the canon. going through my notes, i don't think the soul-bound mechanic was a part of the story [loud booing] which IS HARD TO SELL on a story about double life, but it was one of those elements where i couldn't wrap my head around how to make it work in my story so i discarded it. when i wrote no number exists for griefs like these i did the same thing with the "taskmaster" mechanic because, well, it was sort of killing the dramatic tension of my villain story. LOL.

the other characters very much ebbed and flowed in importance. i'll be the first to admit i don't know all the DL cast all that well. i only really watch one POV per season, and the rest i get from talking amongst friends, fandom wikis, character meta-analysis, etc. but.

scar was an important character for his role in coaxing pearl into a more lonely, isolated version of herself. fanning the flames of destruction, if you would. bitter and scorned himself, he was company for misery for lots of the first few chapters.

cleo, martyn + scott would certainly be important... scott for his similarity to pearl (as discussed in the previous ask), cleo for her disdain, martyn for his pity. i really was interested in writing all of their character relationships with pearl as ultimately being too little, too late: by the time they've began to see her as more than a beast, she's out for their blood. regret, judgement and humiliation are really important parts of their character stories: especially when examining them from pearl's warped perspective...

bigb (LISTEN. i know they weren't friends in double life. unfortunately i am a class S tier nosey neighbors lover so he was going to be apart of this.) really obsessed with how weird and introspective he is and i think his personality would deeply confuse tilly & pearl.

joel was a character i hadn't written before when i was drafting tcb (looks over at the first disciple... guess we've crossed that bridge) his character was someone i really wanted to parallel with ohto, the bear king (where his title of manslayer had come from). as ohto had hunted her for being an anomaly amongst wolves, joel (and etho) hunt pearl for being an anomaly amongst humans.

lastly I LOVE YOUR QUESTIONS!!! hello!! i think i have a feeling i maaaaay know who this is <3 but only because i feel so grateful for the excitement and kindness you bring. you're welcome to DM me at any time <3

[spiritsglade]

👀💞💔✅

[fanfic writer emoji ask]

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

i have no idea when i'm gonna get it done but i've been working on and off on an essence & jason fic with the filler title roalim (which we got to through a multistep process, don't worry about it). it's the next installment in hollowed soul, and approximately charts out the three months that jason spent in the all-caste during that timeskip in memento mori (leaves a debt).

it expands on the concept further, digs a little into what the relationship between the two jaybin souls are, additional worldbuilding, laying down the groundwork of some of my essence headcanons for real, stuff along those lines. it's meant to do a lot of heavy lifting for the worldbuilding of this particular au, which is why it's going so slow.

here's a lil snippet in the meantime :]

It took him a moment to move. When he did, he tilted his head, birdlike, and said, "I think there's been… a mistake, or something. Have you seen Talia? She's the lady I came here with." "She left." He stilled so completely that Essence belatedly realized how much he'd been fidgeting. The countenances of the All-Caste were stoic, their shifts between expressions languid, but in Jason's face emotions glinted like sparks skidding over metal. When he spoke, his voice was flippant. "Oh, okay then. You're the one that's gonna help fix it, then?"

💞 Who's your comfort character?

jason todd seems an obvious answer here but i'm gonna be real i don't think i go to him for comfort, necessarily. like we've eased out of it a little now but he was straight up a hyperfixation for a solid few months there, with the associated... neglecting of irl responsibilities and basic things like fucking. eating food. whoops!

anyway. taskmaster/tony masters + eric o'grady/black ant. iconic duo they're so funny and so fucking stupid. they're marvel comics characters and both villains so they stay losing forever. but at least zero agonizing emotional devastation we stay silly forever!! i don't remember the comic title for it anymore but their appearance in that spiderman kraven comic arc? delightful. god i love them.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

answered this before about protocol, but another fic that also murders me is How to grieve your son. something about the endless cyclical hopelessness of it all...

Place him down. Look at how he is part of the landscape of detritus and destruction. Contemplate the sands of the desert and the burnt blue of the sky and the fires that are still sputtering around you. His eyes are closed and his limbs are not moving, but there is no world where you can pretend he is merely sleeping.

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

been trying to figure out an answer for this question and i fear that i am simply not self aware enough to notice anything in particular. pointing out that jason's eye color is the same as sheila's is something i do probably too much. i also spend perhaps too much time focusing on talia & jason's relationship. the batarang incident, too <- both of these things are embedding their way into TOWER, TUMBLING despite neither being in the initial outline, lol.

also this... thematic idea, i guess, of how jason regards his past self & actions. i don't actually know how often this shows up but it feels like i think about it a lot when writing fic, and i do think i explore a lot of different dimensions of it? like beyond the ones where i'm physically forcing him to talk to himself (hysteria, biased assessment), it's an underlying thing in fics like protocol or cicatrix. when he faces himself down, what does he see? and that can be with anger, or regret, or vindication. many options, and it's fun to explore.

[lastweeksshirttonight]

IDK what The Horne Section is about, but having John Oliver is gonna reel me in lol

Hopefully I can summarize this in a sensible way for you anon! (Also forgive me if you already knew any of this!)

"Little" Alex Horne is a British comedian who is objectively most famous for creating the internationally popular exercise-in-psychological-torture-cum-panel-show Taskmaster. The UK version just announced the cast for its 18th season. If you aren't familiar with Taskmaster, this is a pretty good intro to the tenor of this show.

Horne is also part of a band called The Horne Section, where he and his friends have made comedic songs on and off since about 2010. There's a radio show from 2012-2014, a podcast, and a few albums.

(I am not super familiar with their work ngl. It's on the backlog pile along with the entire works of like seventy comedians, the Disney Animated Canon, and 5 video games I started then abandoned for more Civ/MLB the Show time. ADHDDDDDDDDDDD)

On the back of Taskmaster exploding in popularity globally, in 2022, The Horne Section expanded into a six-episode TV show. I know I am fairly biased/literally sat through every Smurfs movie for John Oliver, but if you like Office-style awkward/cringe humour, this show is an absolute delight. I cannot overestimate how much this show had me laughing so hard I was crying.

The show is relatively easy to find online - hope you enjoy it!

Also, if you haven't, you really should watch Taskmaster. The UK version is still the best in my mind, but New Zealand and Australia are amazing in their own right.

[panelshowsource]

saved a few anons asking personal questions not all related to panel shows, spamming answers below the cut :)

she/her!

interesting question! first, i think it's very special that you had the opportunity to study at an international university and i am glad to hear you had so many amazing experiences!

i also feel like i need to preface anything i say with... holidays are obviously different from living, and i hope people can trust that i wouldn't base an entire lifestyle decision off, like, being a fan of taskmaster lmao the state of politics, brexit, housing, prejudice, and more make it difficult to say i'd want to commit to life there — plus i really love new york city, where i do feel at home

that said, i would be open to living in the uk for a period of time, yes. i am certainly very motivated to visit a lot of places, particularly in england, and decided last year to start spending a month or two over there every year (this year i think i will be in york! maybe i can post a little about that if people care). the history and motivations behind that decision are really personal to me, but it feels...right. i am really looking forward to my time there this year and treasure being someone who works remotely and can make that happen

living permanently, it's hard to say, but speaking for my interests in history, architecture, art, cinema — it would be wonderful to explore those things more in person, yes!

i really think in the 6+ years of this blog this is the first i've ever been asked about music! which makes sense ofc it just took me by surprise!

hmmm i think this playlist most accurately expresses what i'm listening to a lot of the time + a lot a lot a lot of classical music, some dad rock, and a few balladeers like judy garland and rufus wainwright

i don't claim to be the world's biggest comedy buff or keep up the best with all of the comedy coming out of the uk and american industries — even though i do enjoy it so much! — but growing up i was very interested in comedy writing. in high school, i worked at a dvd store where people could trade in their old dvds for store credit to buy new ones, so we had a HUGE selection of not only new releases but older, sometimes nicher stuff that you typically wouldn't see at a suburban american blockbuster-like shop. i can't stress how formative this was! i would always go through the store and "beautify" the shelves (pulling all the spines up neatly, keeping everything alphabetised, etc) just to constantly look through what we had in stock, grab the old black bar criterion films before some movie buff snatched them up, touch all the special editions (physical releases were more than just steelbooks back then, like stuff like this). each of the employees had a little shelf in the back room where you could store dvds you wanted to buy when you eventually had the money, keeping them off the floor so no customer would see and buy them. i was always reserving 30+ dvds at a time and spent my whole paychecks at work hahaha

anyways, that's how i found a lot of the random british films i ended up loving — by people trading them in or me just running across them at the store: a cock and bull story, death at a funeral, this is england, gosford park, monty python, (particularly holy grail and life of brian), confetti (didn't love this one but it had a lot of actors i really liked in it so i remember watching it quite a few times) and more — but especially withnail and i and in the loop. i was fucking obsessed with in the loop, which i watched on a loop (zing!) and was ultimately how i worked my way backwards to the thick of it as well as shows like the office uk, alan partridge, green wing, fry and laurie, peep show, and more. (the thick of it and peep show were particularly everything to me!) i still have all of the dvds from the dvd store i worked at! lol

in terms of american comedy, i was obsessed with the state and then their groups' projects like wet hot american summer and reno 911 (michael showalter is a great example of a writer/director i don't think is one of the greats but follows his heart & vision, and i really respect that; my fave of his, which is genuinely so good, is hello my name is doris! underrated lil treasure). i also really loved it's always sunny, flight of the conchords, party down, arrested development, jackass and wild boys, and house md, and some of the wild characters on bravo lmao. we had this channel called logo that was my lifeline to queer content before i really had full-time access to the internet outside of a shared family computer, so i was always watching reruns of jeffrey & cole casserole, the big gay sketch show, plus the l word and queer as folk, and they also did syndication of reno 911 (but i already had all the box sets of that 😭). i was never heavy into the judd apatow/bro comedy that was so big in the 2000s, and even the 80s–90s american comedy heavily influenced by the talent at snl wasn't particularly engaging to me; of that, my favourites were probably throw momma from the train and a couple of romcoms

+ every panel show i could get my hands on! and i think because i was really engaged with sketch comedy i was also reading a lot of playwrights, especially alan bennett, harold pinter, and edward albee, who i had (and have!) huge collections of

and, yes, so many of these are at the foundation of my very favourite formats and styles of comedy: mockumentaries , black comedy or dark comedy, existential comedy, stories rooted in reality or plausibility / domestic dramedy. i used to be very engaged by sketch comedy and wanted to crack the science behind writing funny sketches, but i do think i've moved away from that format and filled that void with the improv nature of panel shows (it works for me the way i think the format of podcasts work for so many other people... i wonder if anyone will relate to that comparison)

comedy evolves so much by the decade and i appreciate a lot of the ways in which it has grown, so i don't think of it as a then vs now, which is better, whatever. and like you i can't help but revisit my nostalgic faves often!

i do think eventually he will! but rn he's lapping up that tv money hahaha my very fave is firing cheeseballs at a dog, but they're all genuinely great!

[wonkyelk]

Get to know you game! Answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to know better!

Thanks to @massharp1971 for tagging me! 😘

Last song listened to?

Listening to the Magnus Archives introduced me to The Mechanisms, and now I’m just a little bit hopelessly addicted.

The last song I listened to was the last track on Tales to be Told, Vol 2: Swan Song.

Currently reading

As well as browsing through the Stargate Atlantis and Magnus Archive fandoms, have just started rereading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, which is my cuddly familiar teddy bear of a book.

Currently watching

Having finished the last UK series of Taskmaster, am now working my way through the New Zealand version. Nothing like sheer, enthusiastic absurdity to help the day go a little better.

Currently obsessed with

The Magnus Archives, The Magnus Protocol, The Mechanisms, Stargate Atlantis, Taskmaster, Buster Keaton and writing.

tagging (but please ignore if you’re not interested): @trainofcommand, @stargayatlantis, @gingerpolyglot, @stinalotte, @dedkake, @hero-in-waiting and anyone else who reads this and wants to share. 💗

[lunar-years]

if/when you watch taskmaster you should liveblog it

Full disclosure I am absolutely awful at watching tv shows (I am still working my way through the season of Bridgerton I started a month ago lmao) but it’s definitely on my list and I’ll hopefully watch it eventually haha

[rovermcfly]

in times like these I am just overflowing with love for the people who make their content freely available on youtube and despite the economy™ still find every way to continue to do that without going out of business, which I KNOW is hard. Crash Course, SciShow, PBS and Co leading the pack for me because they're providing free quality education, but also "just" entertainment like Drawfee and video essayists like Hbomberguy, Defunctland, Quinton Reviews and companies Team Starkid. Also shows like Taskmaster that are TV shows that go against the norm in the business and upload every episode onto YouTube a day after airing. Heck, even people like the Girl With The Dogs who even grooms the pets for free now because the audience support allows her to do that.

And this is only scratching the surface. But what they all have in common is that their success is built on the mutual respect and love between creators and audiences. There is a trust there, I enjoy supporting people like them through Patreon and such because I see value in their work and I want to help make sure it can stay freely available because I know they want to keep it that way too and honor that support, and value my input.

And whenever their vision ends up diverging from my tastes too much, there are no hard feelings, I never feel shamed for removing my financial support and I'm grateful for the transparency and honesty and glad they can do something they're passionate about, because for every me that doesn't really vibe with a new direction, there are just as many others who have been waiting for it and pitch in in my place. They all have their own unique communities, built on the common interest in what the creators enjoy making, strengthened by the mutual respect and love. And that's unbelievably valuable and worth supporting.

[patron-saints]

thank you to @portokali for the tag! i'm so excited we got to meet through secret santa hehe <3

last movie: the holiday! i had seen it before Years ago but just before this watch @amotleycrew texted me their the Brilliant idea that there was a Lot Of Aro vibes from one of the couples and like. yeah. it was so fun to watch with my aro glasses on and so cute in general

last song: "wolf like me" by lera lyn and shovels & rope, which for some reason always reminds me of like. a werewolf izumi curtis? but it's a vibe, i like that cover a lot

currently reading: as always when i am asked this it is just another volume of fma! i'm currently making my way so so slowly through 19! but i'll probably finish when i get back from the holidays. or maybe on the plane. i did also just read this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone which was. very good.

currently watching: taskmaster s16! i have been watching them in an utterly random order but i've been seeing the gifsets for the current season so i got excited and jumped to it. also just finished the diplomat. and the hbomber guy vid. both of which were insane.

currently consuming: cheddar popcorn and mineral water.

currently craving: the ability to work on my rizalust wip. please return from the war <3

tagging some of my newer(ish) mutuals @waitineedaname @gamergirlcrustacean @chillingoose @tacticalgrandma @ghostzvne if ur up for it!

[baynton]

Hi! I discovered Mat through Taskmaster and am now making my way through his previous work, but I have a vomit phobia and can't find any info online on whether The Wrong Mans and Spy have any vomit scenes, so I was hoping maybe you would remember and could tell me?

I can usually cope if it's not too long or too realistic or there aren't any visuals, like I'm almost finished Ghosts and there were a few vomit scenes in that but they were short enough that I didn't find them too bad, and I knew in advance what episodes they were in and could mentally prepare myself beforehand.

Sorry if this is a stupid question I'm just a baby and don't like starting new shows without knowing if they're going to bother me lol. Thanks!

as far as i can remember, they don't, but i do tend to skip bits of each and have my mat coloured glasses on when i rewatch so i can't say for sure. can anyone else weigh in for anon?

[rosaliachristian]

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Bishop Robert Barron

Cycle C

Lent

3rd wk of Lent

Daily Reading

First Reading

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

Psalm

Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11

Bless the Lord, O my soul,     and all that is within me,     bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul,     and do not forget all his benefits— who forgives all your iniquity,     who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit,     who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, The Lord works vindication     and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses,     his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious,     slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. For as the heavens are high above the earth,     so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

Second Reading

1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

Gospel Reading

Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Reflection

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the fig tree that the owner cursed because it bore no fruit. On a deeper level, we may understand it to mean that the Lord expects us to bear spiritual fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is the universal, all-embracing consequence of the Spirit’s presence in us. All people who live in the Spirit should manifest these qualities. The word “fruit” is especially good in this context.  In Psalm 1 we find this comparison: “They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.” The Spirit is this stream; when we are planted near it, we blossom. Well, what are these fruits of the Holy Spirit? In the fifth chapter of Galatians, Paul enumerates them: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” When discerning whether the Spirit is living in you, in determining whether you are walking the right path, these are wonderful criteria.

[acanieve]

was going to wait to pirate brave new world but my dad bought tickets so ive watched it

spoilers obviously and also i was kinda disappointed so if you don’t want to read some negativity just ignore

- what happened to getting rid of the isreali superhero??

- if they weren’t gonna do it because of the genocide they could at least have done it for the monetary incentive once it became clear she was what i can only describe as a non-character

- i know i can talk as an antonia-dreykov-taskmaster stan but a) she wasn’t put there for a weird attempt at propaganda, b) she was mind-controlled for most of that movie, and c) she had an effect on the plot

- like in brave new world i felt like i was hallucinating the character half the time she just followed them around and disappeared at random points throughout. they made a joke about her being grumpy at the end and i was like wow this is news to me

- speaking of propaganda though i feel like the best way to describe the plot is if you wanted to use the whole “corruption in the government and military” thing in past captain america films but you had to make the government and military come off as the good guys actually

- they did the same thing with sam’s character. that right there is sam wilson if sam wilson had a chip in his brain that would explode if he ever thought the words “maybe the system itself is flawed”

- i hated the way they tried to humanise ross with the relationship with his daughter like dude it’s not like you weren’t there for her emotionally you didn’t just make a couple mistakes in your career you chased the hulk through harlem. you tried to pass the sokovia accords!!

- the fact that they did the whole enemy-within thing but it was just one guy with a grudge mind-controlling people

- and i know this is a marvel film! i wasn’t walking in expecting to see anarchist cinema!! but there’s stuff they were trying to do that other marvel stuff did really well before!

- like how criticising the government is a staple of captain america films and of sam wilson himself

- the mind control worked in the winter soldier because we were watching a character we and the protagonist cared deeply about be tortured and forced into something he wasn’t

- the mind control worked in black widow because we were watching characters deal with the aftermath of having their free will violently stripped away in an allegory to the ways vulnerable people in real life have their autonomy taken from them

- the mind control in brave new world was just “oh no, soldier #378 just got mind controlled. how inconvenient”

- i love love loved sam’s relationship with joaquin and that discussion with bucky. so naturally the character relationships were given minimal priority

- am i remembering wrong or did they fight separately way too much? like they’re a team! they’re best buds! why are they splitting this big group of enemies into two to stand on opposite sides of the room fighting alone?

- joaquin as a whole was awesome actually i want to see more of him and sam being besties as soon as sam gets that brain chip taken out

- this one’s tiny and stupid but that bit at the end where sam’s talking and the camera’s looking down at him from like a 45 degree angle but the pavement isn’t greenscreened in right so it looks like he’s standing knee-deep in a hole dug into a steep hill made me way too mad

- i saw someone saying they cut eli bradley out which was a horrible idea cause he deserved to be there and would have made the film better and it felt kinda weird that he was never brought up with isaiah being imprisoned

- speaking of isaiah i feel like there should have been way more attention to the effects this whole thing had on him cause the poor guy’s going through a lot and the movie just doesn’t seem as interested in him as it wants to be

- i did find it fun that japan was the ‘rich country from The Eastern Half of the Planet that american audiences are reliably familiar with that will probably not start or escalate a real-life conflict by being shown to disagree with the us’ for this film

- someone in the credits had the last name goncharov and i got jumpscared

- a woman in the row in front of me was knitting throughout the whole thing which i thought looked pretty fun

- i got to talk to my dad about the fantastic 4 and thunderbolts trailers from before it on the way back home although i am a little worried about thunderbolts now

- it may have been a technically very good film, idk how films are crafted and these thoughts are all just my opinions