#i had to wait to watch s1 and lemme say NOT AGAIN

[idle-compy]

how im ab to look at work thursday pretending like im not running on 30 mins of sleep and only have a kids show on my mind

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Rewatching Shadow and Bone so here are some of my favourite little details that I haven’t seen loads of people talk about (this is almost definitely just part 1 so stay tuned)

The bird cage in Heleen’s office

The masks on stalls in the Ketterdam streets, including Komedie Brute masks, what look like the Jackal masks, and what I believe might have been a sun summoner mask

The song that Ravkan soldiers in Mal’s unit sing whilst they march in s1e4 is the Kerch drinking song Nina sings for Inej on the boat in Six of Crows

Matthias’ hesitation before saying “I feel nothing for you” and Nina replying “then I guess that makes you good at your job” is SO reflective of Matthias’ realisation that Brum didn’t have to drown the good parts of himself to do terrible things the way Matthias always did; Matthias had grown to admire Brum for what he believed was the ability to silence the good in himself in order to do what “must be done” because he found that so difficult to do, and acknowledging that Brum didn’t find those things difficult the way he did was one of the most important moments of being able to separate himself from the Drüskelle beliefs and begin to understand that what he went through was actually abuse and what’s implied to be at least similar to Stockholm Syndrome (I’ve written at length about this and if I get going I’ll never stop, so if anyone wants to know more lemme know and I’ll tag you in my post about it)

“Pomdrakon Players”, the group the Crows join to infiltrate the Little Palace, references Ravkan desert “Pomdrakon” where you soak raisins in brandy then set them on fire and try to grab them in the dark that Nina tells Matthias about on the ice

This isn’t an observation I just thought you’d all like to know that when I was watching the map room scene in episode 4 every time Alina said ‘Aleksander’ I repeated her in a stupid voice, which was really unfair to Alina because she doesn’t know but it was a genuine reaction and I stand by it because screw the Darkling

The comment that the Fjerdans don’t mark ash tress because they’re scared, I love that. I wonder if they pray when they mark trees, like they do when they cut them down? I personally got the impression that all trees were precious but ash trees were sacred when I read the book

The valve to turn out the lights in the Royal Archives Heist because all the lighting is gas powered!! Like I know this probably was just a thing we knew without really thinking about but it’s also really cool in that it reminds us about the class difference between the Crows and the others since, at least in the books, gas lighting isn’t as common to the Barrel as candles and bone lights are but is implied to be more common among the Merchants

Also not an observation but “you’re the quarter master, aren’t you?” “Yep” *wallop* will never not be hilarious and iconic

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the costume department for this show were goddamn miracle performers thank you for your service. I’ve banged on about the symbolism in the costumes before so I won’t now, but I have really only talked about s2 so I guess if you want more I could talk about s1

“No guns” *walking past Jesper* “no knives” *walking past Inej* “no weapons of any kind” *wait where’s Kaz* will always be fabulous

I genuinely have no idea how they did the Tailoring on Alina’s hair when Genya first does it for her but it is incredible like I don’t know exactly what changed but it just… I don’t know, it’s amazing

[black-coffee-and-sugar]

Listen, I actually couldn't finish this episode. Like I lost brain cells, got ingestion and finally KO-ed because I could NOT grasp the plot. Not even seeing Lena again made this enjoyable for me. But here's what I got:

- I wonder how many takes Thomas took to say Nxyly's full name without biting his tongue off

- also I am so sorry Thomas that they had you sing. And yet somehow that wasn't the most cringe thing to happen in this episode

- Nia and Kara desperately assigning blame to themselves instead of just, idk, working together to fix the problem. Who cares who's fault it is??

- Alex jumping in front of kara when mxy brandishes the PZ projector is the only thing I liked

- Kelly's absence felt so odd after 2 back to back episodes of her front and centre

- Nia thinking that Kara would drag her for making a mistake makes me wonder if these characters even know each other

- kara: "I should've told you guys about Nxyly". Yes you idiot you absolutely should have! Like I get that they don't wanna bring it up but like how is ignoring what happened to her any better? Do they not do any Intel sharing?

- the fucking zookeeper is still here?!?!?

- look I wasn't expecting Lena to be talking to kara on the phone, I know better than that, but I had hoped it would at least be Nia considering that Lena and her have been bonding over their moms and it just makes sense??

- andrea's titty window sans kara or Lena to see it. What was it all for?

- I understand Lena using Andrea's resources to help her out and shit and I'm actually surprised the writer's remembered she doesn't have access to the LuthorCorp jet anymore. I honestly wouldn't have batted an eye if she did tho.

- the way we haven't had ANY scenes of dialogue between kara and lena aside from 6x01 and only ONE line from kara to Lena since then. Like are they actually going to brush everything under the goddamn rug? We heard from Alex that they've forgiven each other and it seems that way too but we haven't actually had the chance to judge that as an audience and it's (checks notes) 11 episodes already???

-Kara is back and yet Lena doesn't seem full. Kara is back and yet she hasn't been vulnerable with lena or with anyone really. Or was that all a lie?

- Nxyly is actually kinda hot in this episode. Interesting development there

- the team actually fighting a giant pussy cat and more brain cells have died. If they were hoping it would be amusing like the Legends fighting a giant Beebo, spoiler alert - it was not

- mxy and Nxyly and even the king has some keysmash names but one imp is actually named Jared? Just fucking Jared. Christ

- Lena being bullied by a bunch of Canadians is hilarious and I say this as a Canadian. Like Lena has stood her ground against Lex, Lillian, SG, an interrogation room filled with judgemental pricks, fucking Reign and yet, she looked two seconds from crying when denied her hotel room by some fucking Newfies. Get the fuck outa here.

- not a single Tim Hortons run in this entire episode. Are we sure she even went to Canada???

- at one point, I was rooting for Nxyly to win.

- so not only did they bring back that god awful wig that they actually had the audacity to make footage with it? That thing needs to be snatched and thrown into the sun like the trash monster.

- Katie looked so done in this episode and I don't even blame her. I suffered second hand embarrassment on her behalf. Those lines, her behaviour. It's like what the fuck happened to the Lena from the past 4 seasons?

- the mean bartender says "I've seen you on the news running arm in arm with a bulletproof alien" and the places my mind went is probably why I didn't pay any attention to the rest of the episode.

- so lemme see if I have this right. Lena's mom visits the cave lady in her dreams but never once thought to visit her traumatized little daughter?

- am I supposed to be upset that they killed an abuser? Because I'm not

- so much porn shots of the town car driving up and down some sketch and lonely road

- did Google maps really lead Lena to some random cave?? Bruh

- Lena's scenes felt so disconnected for a minute I thought I was watching a completely different show.

- aluminum foil on the props lord did they just say fuck it and made a Dollarama run for the cheapest 200ft roll they could buy?

- Kara being a mentor to Nia for the first time since that Nia centric episode last season. God I hate it here.

- they do remember J'onn is a shape shifter right? Why do we need an image inducer? I get the little Lena is still with the team crumb but it's stupid.

- still no word on M'gann huh

- yo since the Luthors are technically perceived on Earth-Prime as "good", what trail of bodies is this bar lady talking about? This isn't public knowledge and Lena's mom only killed 1 dude who frankly deserved it.

- sigh. We're really doing this witch Lena thing then.

- kara stop trying to reach the good in people! Just stop. When has this bullshit EVER WORKED? Some people are just too far gone. Accept it.

- stronger together has truly lost meaning on this show

- Alex and Kara being so willing to hold much less use the PZ projector is utter bullshit. Also they just have that thing lying around for any grabby hands to take?

- what the actual fuck is Kara's arc this season? Or Alex? Or poor J'onn. The man has been seriously neglected.

- kara is supposed to be the most powerful being on the planet and yet this show continues to nerf her abilities. God I missed the days of S1 when Kara looked like she could fuck shit up.

- also when is kara going to be the focus of her own show again? Are we ever going to properly address Kara's issues? We got two episodes of James processing his trauma and only 5 mins of flashbacks in 6x08 for Kara and a few fleeting moments sprinkled across the last 5 seasons. Ridiculous. Like it won't diminish her as a character to seek professional help, it won't make her any less of a hero. Think of how impactful that would be and the message that could send about the importance of mental health.

- glad to see a promo for this important episode next week (I honestly can't wait - Kelly in a head wrap is so personal to me y'all) but please I'm begging you, do not make the issue of race come at the expense of kara's intelligence and awareness. She's a journalist, she's seen xenophobia and written about it, she's been friends with James for years. Kara knows about racism. Please show that.

Needless to say I did not enjoy this episode at all. I was happy to see Lena again but all her scenes were just hard to watch. I feel like so much of their very limited time is being wasted and there's still so many things they haven't touched upon yet. When exactly are we gonna get to it? Better question, will we ever get to it? Probably not.

Like I wanted to see the super friends communicating, leaning on each other, character growth, being truly stronger together but no. They're giving us literally anything but that and it's frustrating.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Best Executed Deaths

A few weeks ago, I did a list talking about the Top 5 Character Deaths That Made Me Side-Eye the Writers and I thought it was only fair that I talk about some of the character deaths that I thought were actually done well. So consider this like a companion to that list. 

Like I said in that T5F, this is TWDG, a game series all about people surviving in a world overrun by zombies. Naturally, characters are going to die. Some of these characters get pretty shitty deaths that only happened to fill a quota, some had effort and thought put into them and how they were going to effect the story and remaining characters. These are deaths that served their purpose, progressed the story, or are an understandable conclusion to a character’s arc. 

Do keep in mind that when I say that I enjoy the way these were done/handled/portrayed/whatever, this isn’t me taking joy outta watching these deaths play out. Hell, I kinda hate most of the deaths on this list, but just because I don’t want this character to die or I wish they stuck around longer doesn’t mean I can’t recognize when it’s executed well, y’know? 

5. Larry and the meat locker incident

So.... Larry’s an asshole, y’know? He made it on another T5F because he sucks. No one likes Larry. 

He treats Lee like garbage, treats his own daughter terribly, and is overall just a piece of shit. That being said, he played his role well. He did what he needed to do which was be a antagonistic character within the group who posed a threat to Lee by threatening to expose his past. He creates a lot of tension within the group, he puts all this pressure on Lilly, you can’t even attempt to show any kindness to him because he doesn’t care about anyone but himself and Lilly. 

That being said.... his death scene is pretty good. Y’know, you play through ep2 for the first time and you’ve just discovered that these people are cannibals and they have you locked in a fucking meat locker so they can butcher you later, and Larry is freakin’ the fuck out because he’s pissed. Lilly is sick in the corner, Kenny is desperately trying to find a way out because they have his family, and Clementine is terrified, and Lee is just waking up. 

You go over and try to calm Larry down because he’s pounding at the door and this dude.... this bastard has the gall to be like “Fuck you, you must really hate me! I’m plannin’ on bein’ around waaaaaay after you’re dead! I’ll be the one to put you down!”

Then he has a heart attack. 

And you’re stuck in this meat locker with him. You don’t know if he’s alive or not-- Kenny immediately deems him dead, Lilly is desperately trying to resuscitate him, and they’re both yelling at you. You gotta decide if you’re gonna help Lilly try to bring him back, or if you’re gonna help Kenny make sure he doesn’t turn. 

Not matter what you do, Kenny smashes Larry’s head in with a damn saltlick because I guess he missed the opening of the episode where they remind you that your actions have consequences. 

Larry’s death has lasting effects on your relationships with both Lilly and Kenny, though more so Kenny since no matter what, Lilly loses it a little and ends up murdering Carley/Doug and leaving the group. But boy, Kenny will never forget the time you didn’t wanna play hero with him and smash a guys head in right in front of his daughter. 

It’s a damn good scene, I gotta hand it to ‘em. I hate Larry and I can’t say I miss him, but I can definitely see both sides of the argument on what to do there. Plus it’s... I dunno, a creative death? and I kinda like that? No one else is out here getting their heads done in with a saltlick, y’know? 

Anyway, Larry sucks but his death? Well done. 

4.  Minerva and the tragic showdown on the bridge

Oh man, I really am digging my own grave with the Minnie crowd lately, huh? Ah well, I’m sure it’s fine. 

Listen...okay, look. I have a lot of feelings about the bridge scene. On one hand, I hate it. On the other hand, I kind of love it? 

Like, does it piss me off that Tenn dies here because I trust AJ? Yep. Do I still wish they had maybe put Lilly here so that she could actually do her job as a villain? Sure. Does it upset me that AJ ends up shooting his best friend in order to save Louis? Totally. Does it annoy me that Minerva just won’t fucking die even though I shot her and the walkers keep nom noming her? Absolutely. 

That being said, I can’t pretend that Minerva’s death isn’t pretty great.... which I know will upset the Minnie crowd who always talk about how it’s bullshit she died here and she deserved a redemption arc... but lemme explain. 

Looking at the game itself, the text and story progression, Minerva was never going to get that. She was never set up as someone we were gonna “fix” or as someone who would have a change of heart and switch to our side. From the moment we meet her, she’s too far gone. The delta have their claws sunk deep within her, they brainwashed her, forced her to murder her own sister, and she has completely given up. She never expresses any desire to go back to the school. Nope, the delta is her home now. Her family. And it’s tragic. She and Sophie proof of what would happen to the Ericson crew if the delta go ahold of them-- “which twin will you be?” y’know? 

She fucks us over instead of actually helping us, we escape, the boat explodes, but Minerva doesn’t go down with the boat. Nope, she makes it to land and well... she fucking loses it. She sees her delta family get taken out by walkers and she goes nuts with her gun and gets half of her face chewed off by a walker.

So yeah..... she’s dead. Almost. They try to act like we’re supposed to believe that she’s really dead after she gets surrounded by walkers and throws the grenade at Clementine and all that but c’mon.... unless I see a body or a walker version, I don’t believe shit. 

Which brings me to the bridge.... there’s a lot of dread building up to Minerva’s final appearance, and you just hear her singing the damn song and bringing a bunch of walkers with her. Not to mention that she already looks dead. She looks like a walker who can talk, and not gonna lie, I like it. It’s freaky and sad and fucked up and adds so much to her character at this point. I mean, she’s here to kill Tenn so that they can all be a family again. She’s smiling and relieved that she’s dying and boy she just can’t wait to take Tenn with her and it’s not great.

She’s here to die and to take someone down with her, and she’s not leaving until she does. Hell, if she can take Clementine out, that’s just a bonus at this point. 

ALSO can’t forget that if AJ does shoot and kill Tenn, Minerva is still alive as she’s being eaten by walkers and she looks so damn happy as she reaches out and says, “Yes, come with me...” 

Like..... it’s so fucked, and I hate that I love it. From a storytelling standpoint, it’s a fitting death to conclude Minerva’s character and it impacts everyone there in more ways than one. 

3. Duck and incredible emotional impact

Oh, Duck... poor, poor Duck. 

This one has stuck with me and I hate it. I was never one of those players who hated Duck from the beginning. It’s interesting to go back and see how people reacted to him in the first couple episodes because a lot of them didn’t like him. They found Duck to be annoying, loud, stupid, and would even wonder “yeesh, when can I kill this kid?” 

Which is yikes but not gonna get into that right now. 

But from my understanding, Telltale got wind of this and knowing they were gonna kill him off, were like “Okay, y’all dumb, so here--” and they added in that little segment with Detective Duck where he helps Lee figure out what’s been going on with the stole meds. It’s a cute scene where we get to hang out with Duck and he proves that he’s not stupid, he’s just... y’know, a child. 

Then the motor inn gets attacked, shit goes down after they escape, and it’s revealed that Duck was bitten. 

Oh man, let me tell you about emotional impact both on the characters and the player because wow. 

Duck’s death is slow, drawn out...and since it’s early in the series, there’s a lot of denial, mostly from Kenny. They find the train and Kenny fixates on it because to him, if he gets it working and they can just get away, Duck can recover. Duck isn’t like the others, he’s just a little sick and everyone is making a big fuss about it. 

Then you have Katjaa, who starts out in that denial stage but she moves into acceptance a lot quicker than Kenny does and well.... that might be because she made up her mind about what she was going to do, which that is a whole other layer of fucking despair to this situation. 

They also do something that I like with Kenny by adding that depth of him believing he had something like this coming after what happened at Hershel’s farm. Y’know, when he grabbed Duck and took off, leaving Shawn to die? Yeah that. 

He’s been so adamant about protecting his family to the point where he doesn’t have anything for the rest of the group, aside from Lee if he helps kill Larry. He did what he could to keep his wife and child safe and in the end, it didn’t matter. Duck still got bit, and now everything is shit. 

Then when you thought it couldn’t hurt even more, you find Katjaa dead in the woods and you still have to take care of Duck, whether you have Lee shoot him or have Kenny do it, or even just leave him to turn. Either way.... Duck’s death is just one big ol’ despairing oof.

It’s really good, guys. The music, dialogue, scenery, the pain....They really nailed Duck’s death in such an emotional way and it doesn’t just end there. This sticks with Kenny all the way through S2 and changes him as a character. It impacted Clementine and Lee greatly because this kickstarted Chuck telling them that Clem would end up just like Duck if things didn’t change. 

S1 just... knew how to kill off its characters... well, for the most part. 

2. Marlon and the death that had to happen whether we like it or not

Sigh.... okay. 

So... Marlon. Lemme tell you some things about Marlon’s death. 

First, I hate it. Nothing new there. If you know anything about me, you know that I am vocal in my desire for the Marlon redemption arc, for the “Marlon lives” AU’s and the “Marlon lives longer but dies differently” AU’s. I like Marlon as a character, I find him to be a fascinating character study. Ray Chase’s performance as Marlon brings so much personality and I love it.  So naturally, I wanted more of him in TFS. 

Here’s the thing. I may want all of those things, I may take a lot of joy from discussing these ideas with you guys and coming up with different scenarios,  theories, AU’s about him, and I’ll always be the first one to be like “I hate that Marlon dies in ep1, I wish AJ hadn’t shot him! Woulda liked for him to stick around longer!” 

But with the story TFS is trying to tell, Marlon has to die. AJ has to shoot him. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, no one likes it.... but that’s just how it is. 

Marlon is presented to us as this chill and genuine guy trying to keep his group safe and together. He feels the pressure of being responsible for all the lives in this school and that’s a lot to put on a teen growing up in the apocalypse. 

Then we learn that hey, the twins didn’t die. No, last year they ran into Abel and Marlon made a deal with him where he traded the twins in order to save himself, Brody, and the rest of the school. He wanted to plan a rescue mission, but he was too scared, so he and Brody kept it to themselves. They made up a story about the twins dying and moved on, but that continued to weigh down on them. 

Then Abel comes back, Brody freaks out, tells Clementine the truth, and Marlon hits her so hard that it kills her. 

And it gets worse. 

You go through the whole confrontation with Marlon trying to cover his ass and blame Clementine for Brody’s murder, he’s waving AJ’s gun around and threatening to shoot Clem while everyone is gathered around watching. It’s raining, it’s super dramatic and tense and I love it. 

In the end, Marlon gives up and he just wants to leave. Let him become a bad memory, he’ll never come back, just let him go. 

Then AJ shoots him in the head unprompted. He just.... he just does it and then wonders why everyone is looking at him like he’s a murder baby. 

Marlon’s death is crucial, not just to kickstart the plot but also for AJ’s character arc. His death affects everyone in that school. It makes Clementine question herself and if she’s raising AJ right, it breaks Louis’ heart, it pisses off Mitch, it sets Violet off on her bullshit. Everyone is hurting and confused because they don’t know what to do. Marlon is dead and AJ, this tiny toddler, was the one who pulled the trigger. 

From the beginning, we’re told that AJ is always listening, watching, and what we do will affect him for better or worse.... and maybe you don’t think much when you tell him to always aim for them head, but when he says exactly what you taught him after murdering Marlon...? Yeah, you’re sitting there like “Well, fuck.” 

But if this didn’t happen, if AJ didn’t kill Marlon, then.... there’s not a lot left. Sure the raiders are still coming, but AJ no longer has to go through what he has to or realize how much he hurt everyone. He’s no longer on that path that made him such an interesting and layered character. 

Sure, you coulda made him shoot someone else, but the fact that it was Marlon is what made it impactful.

Ugh, it’s good and I hate it. I hate it so much. 

1. Lee and the death that broke all our hearts

.......Just-

-y’know?

What else is there to say?

Well, alright, I’ll explain. 

We play as Lee in S1, we go on this whole journey with him and develop him as a character, establish relationships, and care for Clementine. He’s a great character. I did a list on why he’s great, too, if you wanna check that out but all you really need to know is that we all loved Lee.

Lee’s got a lot of baggage, given that he was on his way to prison for murdering the dude who was sleeping with his wife. But then the apocalypse happened and he got a second chance to do some good... or I guess bad? if you do a scumbag Lee run? 

Anyway-- no matter what, he cares for Clementine and it’s nice to see them bond over the course of the season... so when shit hits the fan and Clementine gets kidnapped by the Stranger, we’re just as upset as Lee is.

Then Lee gets bit.... and we realize that even though he’s our playable protagonist, he was never safe either. He gets bit and I can still remember the feeling of like... a bowling ball dropping in my stomach and my heart hurting because no... no, no, not Lee. I basically became Kenny like “No, he’s different! Lee isn’t gonna die! Being bit doesn’t mean death!” and while that is technically true.... had to face it: Lee’s going to die by the end of the season. 

Ep5 of S1 is a whole journey... We’re dealing with trying to save Clementine while seeing Lee get worse and worse-- he’s passing out, he’s growing paler and slower and it’s hard to watch. You maybe get a little bit of hope if you decide to cut his arm off, but that’s just... it’s too late for that. 

Not only is he fighting this, but then you got Ben who gets impaled and Kenny “dies” putting him outta his misery and Lee’s powerless to do anything. So great, that sucks. 

But at least he’s got Christa and Omid.... until they get separated at the Marsh House and Lee’s gotta get through a herd of them by himself. 

This slow burn is so good. His condition gets progressively worse but he’s so determined to get to Clem that it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have time to think about what is inevitably going to happen to him, even if the player does. 

And just.... the final scene... y’know, the actual death scene? 

It’s so good. It’s a beautiful, emotional punch in the face. Like, way to end your game like this... Lee is trapped her with Clementine and he can’t walk, he can’t get up no matter how much Clementine begs him to try, he just- he can’t. He knows it’s all over for him and so he has her handcuff him to this heater so that no matter what, he can’t hurt her and just.... their final moments together where Lee is minutes away from death but is struggling to tell her as much as he can and I’m crying.

Then of course, the final choice-- Do you shoot Lee, or do you leave him to turn?

Both ending hurt my soul, but they’re both great in different ways. Shooting him is so heartbreaking... seeing little Clem sobbing as she points the gun at him and closes her eyes, then it cuts to black as the shot rings out and you hear Lee’s final breath....

BUT THEN YOU HAVE THE LEAVE HIM ENDING WHICH-

Lee manages to tell her more when you choose not to shoot him, but just watching Clementine get to the door and her little “don’t go” before Lee closes his eyes and falls over limp... falls over dead, I just--

Ouch... I am applauding this through my ugly sobs. 

It’s the best death in the series. It has everything and then some- emotional impact, works to progress the story and characters, amazing dialogue and performances.... It still gets me to this day. 

---

Honorable Mentions

-Mark’s death technically happens off screen, but I mean, c’mon... Mark wasn’t the most compelling character, but everyone remembers what happened to him. Everyone remembers walker Mark. What happened to him showed us just how fucked the St Johns were and it’s excellent.  -Brody’s death is pretty good, too.  -Abel’s death is an interesting one. He’s a garbage can, but they managed to humanize him just a bit by the way he hands his soon-to-be demise.  -Badger when Conrad kills him. It’s super good.  -I’m looking over this list now and it’s kinda funny that not a single S2 death made it here... it’s almost like all the character death that happened there was because a quota needed to be filled and who cares about complex character development when you got Kenny and nothing really matters I guess... ugh. The best deaths would probably be Carver, and Kenny when you shoot him but they’re not good enough to be in a top 5 so.... good job.

---

So... that was fun. What do you guys think? Do you agree with my choices or nah? Do you have a favorite death I didn’t list that you thought was well executed? Let me know, I’m curious. 

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

---

Next week’s T5F

[nonatowers]

good evening my precious peeps. tis i, rosie, rising from the grave in these crazy times to check up if y’all are still holding up? good work, go fetch yourselves some motivational cookies, it’s been long 12 months for us. 

so while lazily scrolling the tags again, i didn’t see much new stuff except the same old things (which, tbh, is what my anxiety needs rn so thanks). yet this is not what i am up to talk about again so let’s cut to the chase:

my personal input to the whole “s 3 is total trash“ debate. 

first of all, as long as people don’t bother each other about their preferences, i couldn’t care less.

people are entitled to their own opinions and it’s fine like that. that’s how discussions are made and encourage us to share more ideas and dwell deeper into matters. however, some of my friends that recently watched psycho pass (because I need more people to talk about it and convinced them to giving it a try. though I had them all skip s2 out of worry to loose them there ahah) have kept asking me in regards of the commonly used argument against s3, namely being the lack of literary input. and as a local lit/phil major, this is up my alley to answer I suppose? i’ll try to keep it short and watered down.

it has to be made very clear that season 3 is a whole lot more political in its core themes, which is a major motif in all things cyberpunk. futuristic utopias/dystopias always have a heavy correlation with the political doings of past and present, and while we know painfully little about the past (leading up to sybil’s establishment, more precisely) we have been given insights about the present - namely an ex-idol with extremely questionable traits being voted for governor, despite publicly being outed for just a face behind an AI that does all the talking. basically, it’s gone to hell. we been knew. (don’t even ask how my political science friend felt about it, she can write a 90 page essay about what political trash fire is about to break loose). so, whether it was s3 or not, sooner of later the psycho pass world had to talk about the politics of their world- japan isn’t just made out existential crisis and talking weapons, after all. 

i do not know how many active readers in terms of philosophy are in this fandom, but as a major in it, i should tell you guys that the most likely reason as to why there apparently isn’t much philosophy going around in s3 is because of those very politics. political philosophy is a big topic in general, but in s3 the aspect of artificial intelligence is added into the mix and as of now, there isn’t that many reliable texts, dare I say?, in the regards of AI in politics, from a philosophic point of view. at least as of now. the discussion itself has started and is ongoing, and a few publications have been made already (i personally only know of the german ones, feel free to share whatever international texts you guys have your hands on), however, if we look at it historically and consider that AI hasn’t been taken that serious until a decade and a little more ago (around the time siri and co became a daily thing) we might have to wait a little longer for more publications to pop up. majority of what is out right now is hypothetical talks from several years ago, which isn’t up-to-date in most cases and hence kinda hard to use for a fictional society in 2120. and if you read through the more timeless ones, you’ll realise that a good portion of what those publications talked about has been kinda talked about in s1 already. and from a story telling pov, there is only so much you can put things on repeat. everybody that expects discussions from s1 to reoccur to the same extent as when they occurred first, i have bad new for you; the chances are kinda slim. s1 itself was planned to be a one-time thing anyways, which is why the discussions that had been begun there were also sort of finished there, leaving some space for viewers to think further for themselves. you cannot expect them to recycle all that again without being accused of unoriginality (again). and with the digital age becoming more and more established in our current days, i think it was a safe guess to go with the political themes for the recent season.

as a lit major and lover, lemme tell y’all, I wanna rip apart s3 for many annoying mistakes/illogical moves in storytelling they did, but alas, who wants to read a raging rosie these days? as a phil major though i think it should be said that what s3 did was pick a topic that is currently in discussion and on the uprising globally, and on top of that, this is going from the european/american scene. i do not know how the japanese philosophy scene is working with this topic as of now, so its possible that while going for the political route and the will-gibson-reminiscent AI theme, they simply had too little input to work into the season. at least without avoiding major controversies (bcs people tend to steer away from an epoch’s early texts for the longest time due to possible radical views that, if disagreed with fatally, can turn into digging your own grave which, as a show that has to make profit to continue being funded, is the very thing you should NOT do).

with this input, you guys go ahead and merrily continue your discussions (respectfully, please!). and let me know if you want to read a raging rosie go aggretsuko on s3’s literary composure and how it drives me up the wall.

with that said, rosie’s out! stay safe everyone!

[antihero-writings]

Eloquence and Explosives

Fandom: Umbrella Academy (Netflix)

Fic Summary: The world was ending in a few days, and, standing before Dave's grave, high off his ass...Klaus wanted to be eloquent.

Character focus: Klaus

Notes: I actually wrote this last year, for Memorial day, after watching S1...but I was disappointed it didn't end up being longer, and wasn't sure I really captured him, so I didn't post it then. I still am not sure I captured him, to be honest XD But I've been looking through some of my unposted fics and trying to clean them up. I was surprised that this was better than I thought it was, so I decided to post it anyways!

I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a comment to let me know you liked it!! Comments really make my week, and motivate me to keep writing!!

Lemme know if you have any prompts for Klaus, Ben, and/or Five!! I'd love to write for any of them!! (You can put them in the comments, or preferably my ask box!!)

ALSO!! If you are interested in making cover art for this fic, please don't hesitate to let me know!!

Fic:

The world was ending in a few days.

And Klaus wanted to be eloquent.

And that was a sign the world was ending. If Klaus wanted to be eloquent. If he wanted to speak from the heart, to say what he meant, and mean what he said…something must be about to go kablooey.

He never cared much for the speeches of the master warriors and orators of old his dad once forced him to listen to. They were just a bunch of grody old men as far as he was concerned.

He’d never much cared for eloquence. In fact, he cared so little that usually he was the one who interrupted the most well-crafted and touching of moments with a lewd remark. Gotta cut the treacle every now and again.

Not today. Today, before the world ended, he wanted to be eloquent.

Buuut a heart pumped full of fake feelings, a chemical-struck brain, and a heavy dose of grief doesn’t make for a surefooted tongue.

He wanted to speak a fool’s soliloquy to the empty ground; to one name in a long list of somebodies that were nobody to him, about love and loss and living still. 

But instead, with empty words, and too-full sighs bubbling silently in his throat, he laughed. He laughed until the weight of the sound brought him crouched on the ground, head in his hands, his lungs filled with wry, dry chaos.

And he was choking on tragedy. 

There were other grievers and believers here. Veterans sitting in wheelchairs, like worn-out sweaters one only pulls out for Christmas, in front of too-shiny graves, praying their hands numb. Young people with buckets full of flowers and good intentions, the blood of dead men and women coursing through their veins, but no real substance, intention, or heaviness on their hearts. Never knowing about a good-leader’s definition of war and a poor-soldier’s definition of peace. Without a clue as to who those people behind the gravestones were. Here to pay their respects anyways.

He may have looked like one of those types—all young and restless—but Klaus wasn’t here to pay his respects; this wasn’t about respect and it wasn’t about paying. He didn’t stand here with a bouquet of happy thoughts, out of reverence for a man he never knew. He didn’t stand here because it was his duty to those who came before him to stand here today and revere a yesterday he had no memory of. This wasn’t something he had to do, because it was honorable and right.

There was no honor here. And nothing about it was right.

He stood here with empty hands, and a bundle of fragmented, bleeding thoughts, because standing here was the only thing he could do to keep the memories of yesterday from eating today alive, and him with it. He had never cared for things like duty, virtue (ha!), and eloquence.

But he did care about Dave. 

Because, young man, with his reckless spirit, old man, with his time-altered past, he knew what it was like; the dirt, and the sweat, and the blood, and the sound of gunfire, the howling of metal wolves coming closer, ready to eat him alive—(like his memories did now, and all too often he wished, with their silver teeth, and their claws, they would have taken him instead, for there were others who couldn’t talk to the dead, who deserved to live)—and the music that plays, when, in the lull between fronts, the soldiers go to bars dancing. 

There were old men here, who knew too; who knew what it feels like for a sound to haunt your thoughts until it puppets your actions, and you can’t breathe without being addicted to something other than reality. …But they’d had more time to learn to live with the explosives in the back of their brains. They’d learned to live with the ticking…but Klaus just kept waiting for them to detonate. And they may have been the only people he could talk to…but the fact that they would say with sneers and smoke that he didn’t deserve to stand on the same ground as them… just might push him over the edge.

And if he wasn’t high off his ass right now, the sheer number ghosts in this place would send his sanity crashing to the ground.

“I…”

But what did he? Was was he? What was there to say? Wishes, hopes, regrets? Record of a young man’s secrets? I’m sorry or I miss you or I wish it was me? …That’s all that was left. There was too much to say, and not a word left. Too many words bottled, wasting away, waiting to burst forth…and not nearly enough.

The world was ending in a few days.

“Klaus?” One particular ghost asked softly. “Klaus, we don’t have to stay…”

“And he didn’t have to go,” Klaus whispered.

The world was ending in a few days.

But for Klaus, the world had already ended.

[angrycowboy]

Okay, time for coffee and rewatch!

I did a rewatch last night after watching it live and flailed at @haloud​, because this episode was everything I wanted for the premiere and getting the show back. It made me hurt and it made me happy and it made me excited for all the things to come.

After I’m done with this, it’s off to find a decent download and start giffing!

- I love the little Echo flashback. I mean, I think it’s interesting to include Max mentioning the Alighting and the whole “savior” thing. Though, I wonder if it’s going to come into play more than just the mentions in this episode that allowed Liz to connect the dots about Max. But I am heart eyes at this cute Echo moment.

- Liz’s “you smell like rain” comment is also interesting. I am just gonna sit here and think about Maria’s comment about Michael smelling like a river now and what is up with these aliens.

-Jeez, Liz and Rosa. Oh my god, Rosa. And Liz, with tears on her face, needing to switch into crisis mode. 

- Graffitti! Omg Rosa’s artwork. “We don’t believe in humans” Omg I love it.

-This is an Arturo Ortecho appreciation blog. He’s adorable being so proud of Liz. I just smile at this scene so hard. It’s perfect.

- “I reject good-bye” I love Maria DeLuca, y’all. 

- So in my happy place headcanon, Michael did just get some sort of flash about Max’s death, left the Pony, and basically has been avoiding Maria ever since. Simplest explanation and I can live with it. 

- BUT as always, my biggest gripe with the show, it’s been two weeks and no one has talked to one another. Though I kinda understand Liz avoiding everyone while she’s trying to deal with Rosa. 

-”Came to vent about Michael Guerin ghosting me” Yeah, I mean, I’m glad that the show established this right off the bat. Especially after this fucking hellatus this fandom decided to go through in regards to Miluca. I’m actually happy about this. But see ya’ll? Fucking overreaction central.

- “And now just one more Roswell good time before I hit the road.” The delivery on this, and the look on Liz’s face. Fuck, Jeanine just nailed every scene in this episode.

- Michael Guerin, Resident PigPen and Disaster Bi, stumbling int the church and shoving his way into a filled pew. Oh, Michael, you are a mess and I love you so much.

- Oh, Isobel. Also, I love the overacting in the beginning when Isobel is trying to talk about Noah vs how she changes when she starts speaking about Max instead. I love that use of Noah’s funeral to publicly mourn Max. It’s so good. 

- Fuck, this flashback to the cave. To Isobel seeing Max dead. OUCH.

- Oh my god, the staple of every funeral and wake - people bringing way too much food and it’s all the same fucking thing. ISOBEL GIRL, I FEEL YOU.

- “Mrs. Evans! That’s a phenomenal cape.” Listen y’all, have I mentioned how much I love this sad disaster alien cowboy? Cuz I do. A lot. He is a MESS.

- I really love this shot of Alex watching Michael at the wake. Just that little bit of concern - it’s so Alex and I love him so much. And I operate under the “if Alex knows, Kyle knows” and vice versa, which means that Alex isn’t watching Michael like this because he knows Michael is spiraling because of Caulfield and Max, he thinks Michael is only spiraling because of Caulfield. 

- Kyle being all practical and realistic about dealing with Jesse, and Alex is just like YOLO LET HIM DIE. Like I kinda love how Alex just kinda doesn’t want to deal with Jesse.

- “I’m not a murderer.” “No, you’re not. But he is.” Also, are we gonna talk about Alex’s little eyebrow raise and the look in his eyes, and how he’s still possibily talking about himself? Cuz, oh my god. I have feelings. Alex Manes, you stubborn bastard, I love you so much. (cc: @ober-affen-geil)

- “Seemed like a kiss at least worthy of a text back.” Oh Maria, my darling. You keep holding onto the hope you have for him, because girl, you are gonna need it with this massive spiral of his. 

- “Regulars shouldn’t drink alone when they’re grieving.” Oof. The fact that Maria thinks Michael is acting like this because of Noah is dead kinda yikes, and really just makes me desperately want her in on everything else that is going on, because it just makes it so obvious how little she knows. But I also like that line because he comforted her in 1x07, no questions asked, and in a way she’s doing the same back for him. She’s telling him she’s there if he needs someone.

- SHERIFF VALENTI WITH HER HAIR DOWN. I LOVE IT.

- Also her and Ann. “Graffiti is an early indicator of gang violence.” Ann Evans is the epitome of suburban white mom. I love Michelle Valenti just nodding along, like yeah, I’ll get right on that and not looking into this suspicious shit surrounding your son and your son-in-law.

- Lol @ this little public display of anger between Liz and Isobel.

- Oh shit, the fact that Liz hasn’t told Rosa about the cover-up is interesting, because that means that’s definitely coming. And oh my god, I cannot wait. 

- ALSO I CANNOT BELIEVE WE WERE ROBBED OF THIS HUG.

- “a glowing ooze filled egg coffin from outer space” Listen, if that’s not the most accurate outsider description of the pods ever. (Also creepy Noah scenes are creepy.)

- Liz talking about burying Max, y’all that shit HURTS. Like, obviously we know that isn’t gonna happen but the fact that Liz and Rosa are sitting talking about it as a finite ending in that moment is just... OUCH.

- “...where’s my hole t-shirt?” um... as of 1x04 it was in the backpack that Fredrico returned! What’cha doing with it, Liz?

- God, Liz and Rosa is just so perfect. “I never thought we’d get to have this stupid fight again.” I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

- Isobel, darling. What are those pajamas. They’re wild.

- “I meant to call - I heard you and Evans broke up” So that does establish that Kyle was too preoccupied dealing with Jesse, and Liz has been singularly focused on Rosa that they haven’t talked in the two weeks. Cool cool cool.

- “Lemme guess? Alien thing?” Kyle is so tired of this shit.

- Omg Maria beating people at pool. I love it. I love her. More of that please! Also this outfit she wears is super cute. FIGHT ME.

- Mimi and more alien movie references!

- “It’s been ten years since [Rosa] died.” “Not always.” I love love love the roundabout ways Mimi is telling the truth about the things she knows. When you don’t have all the facts, of course it would sound like she’s not making sense, and of course it would appear to present as dementia. But what does she know that she’s even talking in this kinda code at all? And why? And what’s up with the wandering?

- This scene with Kyle and Rosa is fabulous. “Ten years and my half-brother is still pining for my sister. Cool cool cool.”

- Hahaha “What’s your drug of choice?” “Why quarterback, you wanna party?” I LOVE THIS ENTIRE SCENE SO MUCH IT’S HILARIOUS AND FANTASTIC.

- Upon rewatching, it’s much more obvious about the hows and whys of Kyle not knowing Max was dead. Because I missed all of that the first time around, and thought it came out of left field, but it really actually doesn’t.

- Rosa is clearly like, “when the hell did Kyle fucking Valenti get so smart?”

- this continued implication that Alex shows up at the Airstream and just basically invites himself in will never not completely fuck me up about them

- A FUCKING GUITAR LIKE HOW DARE THIS SHOW

- Okay first off, where the fuck is Alex? Is this his new house? Why does Michael know where to find him? Is this Jesse’s house and Alex is housesitting while he’s in a coma? It’s also the same place as this shot Carina posted over the summer that we all died over. Can’t wait to maybe get an definite answer to that (and also, what happened to the cabin). Just the fact that Michael knows exactly where to find Alex when all through S1 Alex always came to the Airstream is again, more shit about them that just fucks me up.

- Michael mentioning Alex had said he was getting out of the Air Force to make music... um, question. Where? When? I am going to handwave this because I can handle it may have gotten cut, and Alex did talk about fighting his own battles and not his fathers in 1x13. And I can see them having talked a bit about it during their junkyard talk in 1x10 too.

- “came back the next morning after clearer heads had prevailed - wanted to show you something.” Okay, Alex, honey, We need to talk about this. Michael just saw and felt his mother die, giving him a folder with that information, with that photo, is not how you should be going about this. I get it - Alex operates on having as much information as possible. If it exists, he wants it to make the informed decision. But that’s not Michael. And Alex pushes just a bit too hard, and Michael snaps. And I love this scene because Michael says things that needed to be said between them. Michael needed to say them, and Alex needed to hear them.

-ugh that photo... but if there’s prop consistency, then it’s interesting that it took a year after the crash for Michael’s mom to end up a prisoner at Caulfield. It really makes me excited for the flashbacks, because if she wasn’t caught in the initial melee after the crash, how did it happen?

- Alex’s little “hey” when MIchael pushes the folder back into him. Just. Fuck me up, okay? I’ll be here, in the middle of the floor, sobbing. It’s just, it makes it so obvious they’re no where near being on the same page. And Alex’s asking if he left, and if Michael would come with him - it really reads like a hail mary attempt on his part. Because he’s still thinking in that moment, that Michael will say yes, like Michael always says yes. Alex doesn’t really know what it’s like for Michael to say “no” to him.

- “I wanna be good for somebody.” (and with the fucking Malex theme playing over them what the fuuuuuuuck) 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

- Hahaha Isobel using the good crystal to practice - THAT’S MY GIRL

- Handprint talk! Also lol @ Liz mentioning the handprint Max gave her in 1x13 during sexytimes and Kyle, not knowing what she’s talking about immediately just assuming she’s talking about the one from the pilot. Though it’s interesting that neither Liz nor Michael had residual physical handprints show up, but we know Liz was able to still feel Max die in 1x13

- “exorcising demons” Yoooo, I am here for this Isobel. She is determined, and she wants her life back and she is going to take it by force if necessary. Also, that’s a fantastic use for that good crystal.

- But it also breaks my heart a bit because she clearly is in this huge denial about Max. She really believes that she can bring him back if she tries hard enough, if she focuses and learns. And the way Michael is just... so resigned to this whole thing. His hope is just... gone.

- “Max’s heart was weakened before he decided to lasso lightning” Michael really does get some great lines. But omg he’s so angry, and he’s so determined to get Isobel to see reason.

- Ahhh Liz and Rosa. Also, Liz in the bathroom. Breaking down because she’s got that moment to herself to finally break. That scene in the shower. It always just fucks me up. It’s fucked me up since the first time I saw it at NYCC, and it still fucks me up now.

- These nightmares are creepy as fuck. 

- ‘Don’t treat me like the little sister.” OH SNAP, LIZ ORTECHO.

- I adore messy flirty disaster Michael. And smiling through a punch? Oh, Michael.

- The way Liz’s mind works, just bouncing and making those connections and conclusions and realizing how there might still be hope for Max. Woo boy, I need to take some time to process that (and don’t get me started on Michael’s loss of hope).

- “So she wants to use Noah’s heart? He’s the actual devil.” TOO RIGHT YOU ARE, ALEX.

- Also, this is @el-gilliath‘s fault but Alex brings up that when cremated, the aliens give off toxic fumes - so what does that mean for Caulfield? All those aliens would have been burned alive someone somewhere would have noticed then, right?

 - Alex is so soft looking in this scene. 

- Which is hilarious cuz the next scene is him throwing the morgue doctor agains the wall.

- “I thought he was you.” Oh boy. Let’s not even begin to unpack that.

- Aaaaah this scene. Okay first off, fuck Flint. I hate him. “There’s a chain of command in this family.” Oooooh boy, so we’re gonna see that this season, right? Cuz I am so curious about the other two brothers and their involvement as well.

- “there’s a sealed incinerator at area 51, can’t exactly storm the place” I’VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU, ALEX. But it’s nice to see confirmation that Liz knows that Alex knows about everything too. Woo hoo, communication!

- “Flint was the Manes in my grade. He was always such a dick.” YESSSSSSSS.

- Michael’s speech about hope. Shit. He is just. “Hope screws people up. Hoping that your family will come and save you from the system. Hoping that anyone can be saved at all.” And poor Maria, she doesn’t know anything. Did she know about how Michael grew up? Because even Alex only knew he was living out of his truck as a rumor, and didn’t know the full extent until the junkyard talk in 1x10. So maybe Michael did have that hope for a moment in 1x13, that he went to the Pony thinking things could be different. But then Max died, and it reminded him that hoping just means more of the same shit.

- Also, Maria. Honey. Taking Michael’s keys doesn’t really mean anything. He’s a mechanic and a telekinetic alien.

- “Need help moving a body.” “If I had a dollar for every time I heard that.” LOL!

- No Kyle, your life is never going to be normal again. Nope.

- “The last thing Isobel needs is to get her hopes up.” Lots and lots of talk of hope this episode.

- “I always thought it was synthetic but if it’s organic” YOU MEAN LIKE HOW LIZ HYPOTHESIZED IN 1x08? Cool cool cool. I also love how their brains work, speaking of that callback. Liz is a biomedical engineer, this is her jam. Michael seems to lean more towards mechanical engineering, especially in 1x08 how he talked about the pods being “tech” and having a seam. But I am super curious about this idea that the alien organs can be fixed in a way, essentially being in line with Liz’s chosen field of study and her career path.

- It’s so cute how Michael gets a bit squeamish before he’s just totally in awe, like he’s probably never really gotten the chance to actually know anything about his own biology, and how it differs from humans - especially not before working with Liz in S1 to develop the serum antidote.

- Liz and Rosa, omg I love them so much. This conflict Liz is dealing with, she’s so happy to have Rosa back, but she’s so angry and so mad and so upset over losing Max at the same time. i LOVE LIZ ORTECHO.

- “I’m gonna fix it” GODDAMNIT Y’ALL LIZ ORTECHO. JUST... LIZ FUCKING ORTECHO.

- I am so looking forward to figuring out what’s up with Mimi and this wandering and why she had Rosa’s bracelet from the roadside memorial.

- Poor Isobel. This is gonna be an interesting story arc to see play out. Knowing what Carina said about it, I am much more interested in letting it play out before making any decisions on it. I’m not crazy about a pregnancy story line, but who knows what Carina has in store with it.

- Zombie!Max I think it’s interesting he says, “you’re the only one I can reach” and how that ties in with Liz’s earlier remarks about the handprints. Why was Rosa the only one to get a handprint? Is it because she was the most recent one Max healed? In the pilot, Max did say, “the mark could show up” so he knew there was a possibility it wouldn’t. But what does that mean? There’s definitely something more there, and I am excited to find out.

[extreme-technicality]

does talking to an anon help about ninjago help? cuz I'm down

DHDKCKGSC YES IT DOES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING YOUR SERVICES

Okay now that I know I won’t be clogging people’s dashes buckle the fuck in my dude and I should stress that I literally would not be talking about this as much as I will be if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the show. I’m gonna go season by season and just Rant

S1 has the serpentine as the bbeg and like, as far as villains go they’re p lit. They’re early enough that they haven’t been done to hell, things are fresh, the characters and dynamics are being fleshed out, and all in all s1 is a pretty solid season. There’s some fuckery that gets brought up re: how the FUCK aging works and what the actual timeline of Ninjago is and how Wu and Garmadon fit into that timeline, fuckery that LITERALLY NEVER GETS RESOLVED IN A SATISFYING WAY BC ITS REVEALED IN A LATER SEASON (s8, dw we’ll get there lmao) THAT THE ONLY REASON THE FIRST SPINJITSU MASTER, WU, AND GARMADON LIVED AS LONG AS THEY DID IS CUZ THEYRE BASICALLY DEMIGODS AND ITS IMPLIED THAT LLOYD WILL ALSO LIVE FOR A LONG ASS TIME WHICH MEANS ONE DAY HES GONNA OUTLIVE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND EVERYONE HE EVER LOVED WHICH IS A FUN THING TO THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT But anyway I digress, s1 also coincidentally introduces Lloyd (he wasn’t in the pilot episodes that set up the rest of the series) and the existence of Evil Dad Garmadon.

S2 is where Garmadon starts acting a lot more Evil and a lot less Dad. He’s the main antagonist for that season, and I actually read somewhere that the show was originally slated to end after s2 which high key explains the fuckery of literally every single season after this lmaooooo. Much like s1, I really can’t find much to complain about, the first two seasons are pretty decent as far as I can remember

Season. Fucking. Three. Where the fuck do I start??? I hate season three for entirely personal reasons revolving around the STUPID GODDAMN ROMANCE WRITING. okay lemme back up and explain a thing first so, Jay is dating Nya and they’re fine, they’re going steady, aND THEN????? THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON INTRODUCES BULLSHIT LOVE TRIANGLE FUCKERY FOR ZERO GODDAMN REASON, BITCH I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES AND I HATE THEM EVEN MORE WHEN THEYRE DONE FOR NO GODDAMN REASON!!! AND THEN. AS IF THAT WERENT ENOUGH. THEY SHOEHORNED A ROBOT ROMANCE BETWEEN ZANE AND PIXAL AND I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING BUT I DIDNT GO INTO ENOUGH DETAIL!!!! THEY MADE THE OTHER NINJA OOC IN ORDER TO PROP UP THEIR SHIP!!!!!! AND AT ONE POINT ZANE GOES “its like we were…made for each other” AND I HAD TO FUCUCJDHVE I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW BRO, IM SO TIRED!!!! NO THE FUCK YOU WERENT!!!!!! YOU WERE MADE FOR YOU AND PIXAL WAS MADE FOR PIXAL AND IF YALLS WANNA BANG BOLTS THATS FINE BUT DONT IMPLY THAT EITHER OF YOU WERE MADE INCOMPLETE!!!! THATS AN INSULT TO YOUR MAKERS AND YOURSELVES, MOVE ON, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. anyway that season also killed Zane (for the first time, but not the last) (spoiler alert lmao) and like, not to be an emotional little shit but I did cry a bit at his funeral.

S4 is honestly one of my favorites, even though the romance crimes continue (the love triangle bullshit is continuing and honestly I maintain that Cole, Nya, and Jay should all have gotten together and in my personal canon they DID, and also Kai has a forced romance) the VILLAIN makes up for it imo. He’s campy!! He’s funny!! He’s a clown!! He’s serious enough that if he says “I’m gonna kill you” HE MEANS IT and that’s so fucking refreshing!!!! S4 is honestly 8/10 just for the villain alone, don’t like that it retconned the SHIT out of the elemental masters and how many different elements there are TO master but eh, it’s ninjago, shit is stupid.

S5 was…interesting? OH WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT S3 INTRODUCED A GARMADON WHO WAS A LOT LESS EVIL AND A LOT MORE DAD, HONESTLY I THOUGHT IT TOOK A LOT OF THE FLAVOR OUT BUT THATS JUST ME LMAOOO. anyway s5 killed Garmadon, and I was a little sad cuz I like him okay??? I just think he’s NEAT, he’s got big dad energy, he was teaching Lloyd some shit that just got DROPPED and literally was never brought up again which is honestly a theme in Ninjago. Ninjago drinking game: take a shot every time they introduce a plot point or ability and drop it at or before the end of the season. WHICH THEY ALSO DID IN S5 WITH A DIFFERENT POWER ACTUALLY, so all the ninja are masters of Spinjitsu right, well s5 introduced the concept of Airjitsu which only Spinjitsu masters can learn and it lets them FLY and they used that for seasons 5 and 6 and then they nEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT WOULDVE COME IN HANDY FOR S E V E R A L DIFFERENT SITUATIONS ACROSS THE SEASONS, ONE OF THEM WOULD BE FALLING TO THEIR DOOM AND MY ASS WOULD BE YELLING “YOU CAN FLY, DUMBASS” - anyway, they do that again later lmao it’s fine. But what’s low key NOT fine is they made Nya the WATER NINJA!!! Like I’m not mad she has powers, except I kinda am, she was doing just fine as Samurai X and honestly the only reason she has super special ninja powers is for plot reasons. Also Cole got turned into a ghost, but by s7 he’s????? No longer a ghost????????? And that’s NEVER addressed or reasoned away, so like. Cool lmao

S6 didn’t happen. Like, canonically, s6 ends with wish fuckery that undoes the entire season and none of the characters remember anything that happened except Jay and Nya because S6 is the season where they get back together so they remember all those events for???? Feelings reasons?????? Unclear, moving on. The actual bbeg for S6 was a djinn with a vaguely Spanish accent, and to this DAY I don’t know why they made him have a SPANISH accent. Djinn are Arabic, not Spanish!! They’re not central or South American, either!!!! Your villain design makes no sense, do better

S7 had MORE time fuckery, and retconned what happened to Kai and Nya’s parents and hmmmhmhmhmhmhm that makes me Upsetti Spaghetti :3 not just the retconning, but the fact that they LITERALLY brought them back oNLY TO NEVER MENTION THEM AGAIN!!!!!! LITERALLY!!!!!!!! Okay so at the VERY very beginning, like pilot episodes beginning, Kai talks about their dad like he died/left fairly recently, BUT s7 contradicts that and claims that both of their parents were essentially abducted when Kai and Nya were little kids, which makes me question what in the fresh fuck two little kids were doing for all those years alone. SETTING THAT ASIDE FOR A HOT SECOND, their parents were also apparently good friends of Wu’s and old war buddies (from the Serpentine wars, which is YET ANOTHER bit of the timeline that doesn’t quite add up but honestly I could make a whole other post about that shit). But if they were such good fucking friends, why didn’t Wu check in every now and again??? What the fuck was Wu doing that was so fucking important that he couldn’t have been assed to visit his friends ONCE in like TEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and realize “oh shit, they’re not here and there are two tiny children running around unsupervised…My Kids Now : )” LIKE????? WU YOU LOW KEY SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR YOUR FRIENDS’ KIDS BETTER, THEY COULDA DIED BRO!!! Uhhhh the time fuckery also results in Wu getting yeeted ahead in time a bit and the ninja gotta find him

Season. Eight. I have…mixed feelings about this one. The beginning absolutely SLAUGHTERED me, and not in a “this is so fucking funny” way. No, the beginning made me feel like I was being flayed alive with just about every episode because Ninjago was back on its forced romance bullshit and this time it was Lloyd’s turn on the chopping block. That hurt my soul cuz like, look at that mans color scheme, he’s CLEARLY alloaro, why are you forcing romance on my aro man, why would you hurt me like that, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE AND THE GIRL HE WAS BEING SET UP WITH HAD A LITTLE HEART TO HEART REALLY EARLY ON AND IT WAS THE MOST QUEER CODED SHIT!!!! IT DEADASS READ AS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN OUT AND PROUD QUEER AND A CLOSETED QUEER AND THEY MADE!!! IT!!!!! STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that kept me watching at first was wanting to find Wu, and then I started enjoying myself once Cole found a plot-relevant baby and had fatherhood thrust upon him. Everything went from “ehhhhh” to “holy shit this FUCKS” once it was revealed that Rumi (Lloyd’s love interest) wAS PLAYING HIM THE WHOLE TIME AND WAS EVIL AND HAD AN EVIL GIRLFRIEND!!!!!! LITERALLY IMPROVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEASON FOR ME, I COULD EVEN FORGIVE THE WHOLE “let’s resurrect Garmadon, but as evil as possible” BULLSHIT!!!!!!

S9 is a continuation of s8, Garmadon is back and 1000% Evil, 10% Dad, but none of the Dad energies is directed at Lloyd - it’s all directed at Rumi, and honestly I could write a whole ass post on just RUMI cuz that’s honestly my DAUGHTER and I LOVE HER and I’m MAD SHE DIES AT THE END OF THIS SEASON!!!! SHE DESERVED THERAPY AND TO LIVE WITH HER GF AND MAYBE SOME CRIME. AS A TREAT. RUMI DESERVED BETTER AND LOW KEY IM GONNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT IT, BUT ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Ah right, so s9 has the four major Ninja stuck in the original dimension with no way home, while Lloyd has no powers (cuz he almost died last season) and has to somehow lead a resistance against Garmadon (who has taken control of Ninjago City and is working on the rest of Ninjago). Actually, s9 is pretty cool. Like, the end of s8 and into s9 are low key my favorite episodes, and I kinda wanna rewatch them now -

S10 is a FUN one. Garmadon got got last season, but he didn’t DIE, so he’s in cold storage and now there’s Another Threat and he’s the only one who knows wtf they’re up against so they let him out and he works with them. The funny part is, he is still Very Much Evil and doesn’t quite Get emotions like he did when he was, uh, human lmao, sO HE WOKE UP EVERY DAY DURING THAT SEASON AND DECIDED TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SHIT. 1000000/10 MY FAVORITE GARMADON, he ended that season by literally fucking off into Ninjago and they never decided to track him down 😭😭😭😭😭and I’m so SAD about it dude

S11 has another Serpentine as the bbeg, though in the setup to that they retconned how the fucking Serpentine tribes and history work??? I think???? Also Wu was a good 150% angrier and generally Done with the ninja’s shit, which was honestly refreshing tho I’m not quite sure I liked what the refreshed view was, but whatever lmao. S11 also had the ninja get yeeted to the dimension farthest from Ninjago, and honestly - okay, so they didn’t all go at the same TIME, Zane left about a week or two before the others did but there was time dilation fuckery afoot which I’m not too mad about cuz low key it makes sense. What I AM mad about is that they didn’t play the angst up to its full POTENTIAL!!!!!! Zane was EVIL in the other dimension!!!! Okay so I’m Ninjago he was only gone for maybe a week or two, but DECADES had passed in the other one, and all that time Zane was alone and disconnected from everyone he knew and loved, with a staff that boosted his power while slowly corrupting him and Turning Him Evil to help him, and like???? The thought of Zane trying to find a way home, trying to get SOME sort of message back, while he has to use the staff more and more to help him survive the long, lonely decades, so that by the time his family DOES show up its too late??? BRO. B R O. THAT JUST HITS DIFFERENT, BUT NINJAGO DIDNT DO THAT!!! THEY MADE HIM EVIL DUE TO MEMORY WIPE!!!!!! MEMORY WIPE IS BABY SHIT COMPARED TO A LONG, SLOW CORRUPTION!!!!!!

S12 was alright. It went into Cole’s mom, touched on some of the adventures she had had, threatened another forced romance (this time on poor Cole, just leave my mans ALONE) but thankfully didn’t follow through this time, introduced cool new powers that honestly hasn’t been elaborated on since that’s the most recent season I think lmao

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me rant!!!! I have,,So Much More I could talk about, PLEASE ask me about Rumi, some of my headcanons re: Garmadon and Wu’s dynamic, the Serpentine, my top five times they butchered Kai’s character for Plot Reasons, or anything else I brought up here that you want me to elaborate on!!!

[water-hates-learning]

nobody knew (and nobody knows)

Crossover with The Magnus Archives podcast because this idea has been bothering me for a while now so I finally just wrote it. Whatever. Not my best work.

Mild spoilers for the end of S1 of The Magnus Archives. Takes place after episodes 39/40 of the podcast. Also contains headcanons, lots of swearing, and the implication that the main EW boys don’t follow the standard laws of time and space. Post The End EW time.

In other words, this is bullshit.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Case number zero-one-one—"

“Six-six-six.”

“Mr. Ritehill, please.”

“Whatever.”

“Statement of Thomas Ritehill, regarding an…unusual trip taken by himself and his companions in January 2007. Statement—” 

“And the shit in 2014.”

“[sigh] Regarding the trip in January 2007 as well as the disturbances on 31st December, 2014. Statement taken direct from subject, 14th November 2016. Interview conducted by Johnathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Before you begin—why are you just now giving a statement?”

“’Cause a bunch of shit went down and somebody needs to hear about it. M’friends don’t wanna talk about it. And if I have to sit on this bullshit by myself anymore I’ll explode.”

“Right. Erm. Statement begins.”

“…now?”

“Yes, now.”

“[mumbling]…can’ believe you’re using a damn tape recorder…what year is this…[sounds of container being unscrewed]”

“Mr. Ritehill—”

“Call me Tom, god. And let a man have his damn vodka. Holy shitake on a sled, lemme just. Fuck. Okay. So, back in 2007, the four of us were bored, right, and Tord—this is when that commie fuck still lived with us—Tord—”

“Full names, please.”

“Christ, okay. Tord Lesion said we should go to Hell. So we did. Just the tourist route, ya know, got to see our personal hells and shit. Won’t bore you with the details. So yeah, me, Tord Lesion, Edd Golding, and Matt Harvice took an elevator to Hell, had a good time, got some souvenirs, and came back. Whatever.

’Cept when we were leaving the…the devil holding the door for the exit said they’d see me in six months. And it was like, haha, mate, yeah, sure, whatever, funny joke. I didn’t mention it to the guys and I didn’t think about it again. Couple months later, Edd’s digging a hole in the back garden and comes up with this door all covered in symbols ‘n stuff. And we’re all a buncha dumbasses so we go down it. Deal with some Indiana Jones traps, beat off a killer mummy, find a mysterious treasure box—you know the drill. So Tord opens the box and then…I dunno. Everything went dark.

If you ask any of the other three, they’d probably just tell you that I was unconscious. They said there was nothin’ in the treasure chest but I’m pretty sure the jackasses kept it for themselves and didn’t tell me. Probably for the best; I just woulda spent it on alcohol.

Anyway, from my perspective, we fell down a hole. When Tord opened the box, the floor dropped out from underneath us and we fell into darkness. I couldn’t see or hear the others, I was just falling in darkness. Or maybe floating. I dunno. Kinda…felt like forever and no time at all. I know that doesn’t make sense but you lot probably hear shit like that all the time. So I’m floating there and it’s dark, pitch black, but I can still see my hands in front of my face, like there’s a light shining only on me but there isn’t a light. Kinda like how someone looks when they stand in front of a black backdrop; the background’s all dark but they’re, like, normally lit or whatever.

And I wasn’t really scared ‘cause it’s not the weirdest thing that’s happened to me. I was just kind of waiting for something to happen. Because something always happens.

Didn’t have to wait long.

I felt something slide its hands around my neck from behind, felt its fingers on my windpipe, its thumbs at the base of my skull. I kind of expected it to be cold, like icy or something. But they were hot, like someone with a fever, uncomfortable. Made my skin prickle. It said…something. Couldn’t tell you what it was now, only have the vaguest sensation of—of a voice, talking to me, right in my ear, hot breath on my skin. I kept thinking I could see it moving out of the corner of my eye but if I tried to turn my head to look, it would start squeezing my neck until it had cut off my air supply.

Sometimes I think I can remember that it had promised me things. Sometimes I think it might have said something about a fight or a war or something. A lot of the time I pretend the whole thing was because I was blackout drunk. But I know that last bit’s not true because I hadn’t been drinking that night. And I wasn’t too worried because, I mean, weird stuff happens to the four of us all the time, stuff that no one even remembers. We’ve been through…three? Zombie apocalypses now? Hell, Matt’s led one of them. All of us have died and come back to life. And—and the thing is, right, the thing is that no one else remembers it. I’m pretty sure there’s stuff that’s happened that we don’t even remember. Tord said somethin’ once about crossing time lines or some shit but I dunno about any of the string theory, philosophical bullshit.

All I know for sure is, that night, in the black that wasn’t dark, with this thing’s hands around my neck, a demon crawled inside me.

A demon crawled inside me and it lives there and it’s so. Fuckin’ angry. Or maybe I’m angry. I don’t know for sure anymore, it’s been too long.

But—[container unscrews, long pause]—mm, anyway. The thing with its hands on my throat somehow—it somehow pries my mouth open. Gets its fingers between my teeth and wrenches my jaw apart so hard it aches. And then there’s this…this purple thing. It looks darker than the black but it’s purple and maybe that’s just because it’s beyond human comprehension or some shit. Hell if I know. It got closer and closer and for the first time in there I was scared. I was fucking scared and I thought—I don’t know what I thought, all I remember for sure is this—this blinding panic. This kind of raw, mind-numbing terror that made my heart beat so hard it hurt and it was hard to breathe and all I could hear was this rushing sound in my ears as this—this cloudy purple thing got closer and closer. I tried to get away but I couldn’t move, I could only sit there and watch.

And it—it…it just…”

“Mr. Ri—sorry. Tom. Do you need a break? We can take a moment to—”

“No. If I don’t…if I don’t say it now—if I leave this room—I’m not comin’ back. And I gotta get this out. [a deep breath, let out slowly] Just…remembering it now…it still scares the shit outta me.

So this cloud thing…it…crawls inside my mouth. And I can feel it. It tastes like…like how ash smells? Or maybe like someone filled my mouth with ash. And embers. Because it was hot and it didn’t exactly burn, it was just—like that moment when you drink some coffee and it’s still hot but not so hot you burn your tongue but still hot enough you gotta sip it. You know what I mean?

And I can feel it s-sort of wr-wriggling…wriggling and squirming to get inside me and I’m t-trying to push it out with my tongue or—or close my mouth or something. Anything to keep this thing out. B-but it keeps flopping around and pushing itself inside my and I’m—I’m ch-choking on it, gagging, and I think I was crying and trying to scream and this thing—[gagging sound]”

“Tom—”

“N-no, no, stop, shut up, let me just—finish. Okay? Don’t! Don’t fuckin’ touch me! I’m fine! Just let me give my damn statement and get out of this place. It smells like death in here.”

“I…I apologize. Please continue.”

“It went down my throat. I could feel it sliding down my throat, feel it under the fingers of that thing that still held my mouth open. It was lighter than candyfloss but I felt it like I’d swallowed a chunk of bread without chewing it enough. It was gross and it was horrible and it was terrifying and I don’t think I’d wish it on anyone. Even that bastard Tord.

And then it was just…done. The hands were gone, the cloud thing was gone, and I was laying on the couch in our sitting room, gasping at the ceiling. Edd was the only one in there, watching the telly. Said he was too tired to carry to my room and then laughed at me for passing out. Maybe I shoulda said something then, should have told him what had just happened, what I’d seen. But I didn’t. Instead I ran to the bathroom and threw up. And it just never came up again, never had a reason to say anything. I kept getting distracted by things.

I didn’t know what had happened until the end of December, in 2014.

You remember that year? It was really wet. Kept raining but we hardly got any snow. Freezing cold but just…no snow, not really, nothing that really stuck.

Anyway, Edd had been on the roof fixing the satellite dish during a rainstorm. He ended up having another dick measuring contest with one of our neighbors, Eduardo. Um, I dunno his last name, actually. Var…something. Var…there was an “L” in there somewhere. Sorry. Can’t remember. Eduardo had this, like, “alien” satellite or something and I guess it was radioactive or whatever. Anyway, he and Edd both ended up with superpowers for 24 hours and I can see by the look on your face that you think I’m takin’ the piss and I swear to fuck I am not. You can look up the incident report yourself, probably. But I bet the coppers only wrote something about property damage due to gang violence or some bullshit. Might be pictures our there somewhere but I dunno how to find them. I’m afraid I’d see myself if I did.

So Eduardo punched me, like, three blocks. Should have killed me. Instead it just…it felt like something clicked into place. And I remembered that demon that had shoved its way down my throat. It was like it had been waiting for this.

It hurt, that first time.

When your body’s stretching and your muscles are tearing and your skin is warping and your bones are snapping and cracking and breaking into new shapes. It hurts like a son of a bitch. I wanted to die. But mostly I was just angry. I was so fucking angry.

Don’t remember much while I was…changed. Flashes of stuff; tearing through building, smashing cars, attacking Eduardo and Edd. I think I might have ate someone. I try not to think about it.

Eduardo hit me with something, some kind of energy beam, I dunno. Sent me flying and ripped that smoke right out of me. I remember it flying away, remember the feeling of it ripping out of my throat and tearing off into the night.

But whatever it had done was kind of…stuck to me, I guess. I can still turn into a monster. Almost did when Tord showed his damn commie face again and blew our house up. You can look that up too. 27 Durden Lane. Nothing but a crater now.

[a pause, sounds of container unscrewing, another pause, the thud of a fist hitting the table]

And the only fuckin’ reason I’m telling you people this is because—fuck it, you probably already think I’m insane—there’s some kind of big…bad thing on the way. Fuck if I know. Just. I just…feel it. Can smell it. Or something. Taste it like some dry fuckin’ rum in the back of my mouth. Maybe the world’s ending for real this time. Maybe everyone will actually remember it. I don’t know.

But this place fucking stinks like a bunch of rotten bodies, like that musty attic stench with dead bugs everywhere. And you don’t believe a damn word I’m saying because you think I’m just a drunk. Ha. I can’t even get drunk anymore.

Whatever. Believe what you want. We went to Hell and I’ve got demon powers. The end.”

“…right. Um. Is the whole…demon powers the reason why your eyes are like…that?”

“What? No. This is just ‘cause my mum’s a bowling ball. They’re hollow. See?”

“O-oh my god. State—statement ends.”

[click]

“I will admit I am…extremely skeptical of Mister—of Tom’s statement. It sound positively ludicrous, the delusions of a schizophrenic at their worst, I’d even hazard. I’d disregard his statement entirely if not for the visceral reactions he showed to some of his own words—though that only proves that he believes they’re true.

But his eyes…Christ, I’ve never seen anything like that. He could obviously see but they were just. Black pits in his head. Gone. He stuck his fingers in them. Not the worst thing I’ve seen, all things considered, but one of the most…disturbing? Uncomfortable, may be the better word.

Tim was able to find a police report on the incident at 27 Durden Lane on 13th March, 2016. It was written off as an accident but with some additional digging he managed to find…more. The rubble and blast patterns look more like they were caused by external explosions. Tim says it looks like a bomb went off. Or several bombs. The neighbor’s house—the residence of one Eduardo Varela, Markus Barnes, and Jonathan Rees—also sustained serious damage. Jonathan Rees reportedly died at the scene due to serious injury.

Martin managed to dig up a few photos from the incident in 2014. Most of them aren’t the best quality and it’s hard to tell what’s happening except for bright flashes of green. But one very clearly depicts a monstrous shape, as big as a building it looks like, with horns on its head. It’s hard to tell in the photograph but it appears to be purple. There was a reported explosion in a local park around the date Tom Ritehill claims he transformed into a monster, and there is a crater there from the police report. But that’s all the evidence we can find to support his…stories.

We tried to get into contact with Eddward Golding and Matthew Harvice but neither of them were very forthcoming. Edd Golding declined to comment altogether and Matt Harvice was…he was difficult to talk to. It was as if he kept losing his train of thought. I doubt he would make for a reliable source.

There was also an attempt to contact the individual Tord Lesion but none of the information we were able to find was up to date. The only thing Tim managed to scrounge up was an old wanted poster,  several months out of date, with Tord Lesion’s image on it. He appears to be in a military style uniform with a shotgun. If Tom Ritehill’s claims that Tord is starting a personal army are to be believed, then I suppose this would be a reason to trust his word. Maybe.

[sigh] I suppose we could investigate these claims more in the future. Though I am very much inclined to ignore them.

End recording.”

[click]

“Supplemental.

It just occurred to me that it’s been very nearly four months since the incident with Jane Prentiss. This place has been scrubbed within an inch of its life, nearly burned with chemicals, steamed so badly that it made my eyes water with the lingering chemical smell when I finally came back from leave. It’s been so thoroughly cleaned that a blind dog trying to sniff his way out would have run into the walls.

And yet…and yet Thomas claimed he could…he could smell the death. He said…dead bugs. Specifically dead bugs. And decay. And I can’t…stop thinking about those tunnels…and what could still be down there.

…end supplemental.”

[end of tape]

[wrenhyperfixates]

It's been a while and I really wanna say hi! So hi! I don't remember what I told you last time I was here tho so lemme recap. 😁 I've since seen all the MCU movies up to black widow I think. I've only seen Loki, and Wandavision of the Disney plus series. I've watched 4 seasons of Agents of Shield and ITS AMAZING. I 100000% recommend. Season 4 has been the best so far sooo many twists and turns. OH and I watched both seasons of Agent Carter. But I liked s1 better than s2. Civil War was my fave Movie and Loki/Wandavision imo are equally good I guess. I really wanna buy some comics but I'm waiting until I go to universal studios again to buy some in the park so they can be ✨souvenirs✨. Annnd now I think I have like 5 or 6 fictional celebrity crushes... So that's interesting. Anyway, I have to go now and idk when I'll be back in your ask box so Happy Valentine's if I'm not back! -🐿️

Hello!!! I’m glad you’re liking everything!! Agents Of Shield went downhill in the later seasons imo and I never watched the last one because I felt it had gotten a bit ridiculous at that point 😅 also the loki series wasn’t for me, but I loved wandavision a lot!! I think falcon and the winter soldier and Hawkeye are also both definitely worth the watch. And I do agree that S1 of agent carter is better. I hope you find some good comics to buy!! Glad to hear from you; stay safe 💖💖💖

and happy Valentine’s Day to you too 🌹

[bellarkefanfiction]

Lina got the chance to catch up with @ticogirls author of I Think You're Cute, Between the Lines, what a delicate heart, what a hard head and many more on ao3.

BFF: Tell us about yourself!

Mel: I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who starts sweating whenever they get this kinda question but here goes: I’m Mel and despite what my Twitter handle says, that’s not short for “Mellamy” lmao. I’ve been on Tumblr for close to eight years now (I just got a small stroke from saying that), I watch a fuckton of TV and movies (I mean. Who doesn’t, right?), and I’m also a proud BoC (Bisexual of Colour).  

BFF: When did you start shipping Bellarke?

Mel: The first place I saw Bellarke was, I think like many of the fandom, on my Tumblr dashboard. During the post-S1 hiatus, one of my favourite gif-makers (she’s changed her URL and gone on several hiatuses so I genuinely don’t know where to find her anymore) was posting a bunch of gifsets of them. Again, like many of the fandom, from the gifs and screencaps of S1 alone, I basically assumed Bellarke was already a canon couple and decided “ooh, they cute. Lemme watch this show for that Good TV Romance™”. (Once more, like many of the fandom, I got a Rude Awakening when I started watching the show because it turned out to be So Much Worse… but also So Much Better.)

As for when I started really shipping Bellarke in the actual show, I think a lot of people fell in 1x02 (Bellamy saving Clarke from the grounder pit) or 1x03 (Clarke relieving him of the burden of mercy killing Atom). While those were both huge steps for me in terms of perceiving their relationship, I don’t think I really fell for this ship as a potential romance until 1x04, ‘Murphy’s Law’. The Charlotte/Murphy conflict peeled back the layers on both Bellamy and Clarke: his posturing and bravado was melted away in front of the delinquents, and all of her cool logic and reasoning was temporarily suspended. That, for me, was the first episode that really showed that despite all their oil/vinegar clashes throughout the show, at their very deepest core, Bellamy and Clarke were always going to be unified by the same goal — to protect their people.

BFF: How long have you been writing fanfiction?

Mel: I used to write (bad) fanfiction for some older fandoms, back when Wattpad and AO3 weren’t even conceived yet and all we had was FanFiction.Net and LiveJournal. Shit, I was really out here when ‘My Immortal’ was still being updated, lmaooo. I stopped for several years for a multitude of reasons — overstuffed schedule, physical exhaustion, a bunch of big life transitions, mental health issues etc. Bellarke was THE ship that restarted my fic-writing engine in 2015, and I think because of that, I’m always gonna have that Soft Spot for them.

BFF: Are you a part of any other fandoms?

Mel: Aside from The 100, I’m a huuuuuuge Star Wars hoe. Original trilogy, prequels, Rogue One, current series — I love them all. I’m genuinely nervous about Disney’s future plans for reviving this franchise but having quite literally grown up on this stuff, I just don’t think it’s ever going to be possible for me to walk away from this franchise, no matter how Messy it gets (and I’ve a feeling it will!).

I’m also really big on the MCU (currently obsessed with Thorkyrie) and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, which I have no shame admitting is the guiltiest of guilty pleasures.

BFF: Are there any writers that you’ve drawn inspiration from?

Mel: I’m going old-school here, but I’ve always been enamoured by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series) and K. A. Applegate (Animorphs series). It’s not so much about their kickass creativity with plot or characters, but more of the rhythm and pacing of their writing. They’ve each got a great way of balancing story and characterisation, all underscored and punctuated with these unique comedic inflections and beats.

BFF: Do you have favourite side-pairings or characters you also enjoy including?

Mel: I love writing Minty and, I’m not gonna lie, it’s mostly as a fuck-you to the writers for refusing to acknowledge Monty Green’s Gayness™. Memori have got a really fun dynamic to write too, and I still include a lot of Jasper/Maya in my fics because they deserve to be happy and in love forever. As for solo characters, Raven is hands down my favourite to voice, mostly because I feel like I can 100% relate with whatever’s going through her head in any given situation.

BFF: What are your favourite tropes to write?

Mel: Oh LORDT, do you got a full hour???

Lmao okay but real talk, I absolutely love writing Enemies to Friends to Lovers. I prefer Modern AU’s, simply because I like the concept of breaking our fave characters out from the grimdark world of The 100, to see how their relationships and attitudes could possibly evolve if they were allowed to care about dumb stuff like TV shows and public transport instead of just whether they manage to live or die. I am also a die-hard fan of the Roommates trope, simply because it’s the most convenient fic-writing device for ensuring that your ship will always have some reason to share the same space alone together with some regularity.

BFF: What do you predict will happen in season 5? Especially for our favourite duo?

Mel: So this is basically just “do you think Bellarke will become canon in S5”, right? (lmaodskjfhks) Well I hate to sound like I’m pushing a fatalistic attitude towards S5, but honestly, I don’t see Bellarke becoming canon in S5. After all, they’ve got a lot of ground to cover once they reunite on the ground. Six years is a heck of a long time, especially when one of them fully thought the other was dead. (It’s hard for us as fandom to grasp because we have been shown that Clarke’s fully alive and well, but we gotta remember, death is a separation of utmost finality. It’s not just like thinking someone’s away or missing.)

I do, however, think it’s feasible to expect some kind of recognition/acknowledgement of explicitly romantic feelings on either one or both their parts.

BFF: Do you have any plans for other fics you’d like to write, if so could you spoil or tease us?

Mel: Oh boy, do I ever. Full disclosure, I’m currently working on about 6 or 7 fics for Bellarke alone, but they’re setting up to hit at least 8k in length each so they’re definitely not going to be ready for publication anytime soon.

I do have one that I’m planning to post as a multichap, which means I won’t have to wait until it’s fully completed. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s based on a French romcom titled Blind Date (Un peu, beaucoup, aveuglément). It’s basically a neighbours / enemies to friends to lovers AU, and I’m really excited for y’all to read it!

BFF: What advice would you give novice writers?

Mel: I answered this question a good while ago in this post here with a few major points, but I think the most important one is this:

You are your best competition. I know it’s a lot easier said than done, but this is seriously the most important thing for me as a writer: DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS. It never makes anyone feel better (especially if you’re, say, writing fic for a big fandom with a lot of existing content). Honestly, it doesn’t even make sense when you think about how every writer is different and has their own unique style.

Be your own harshest critic, but also your biggest cheerleader. Write for you, to express yourself. That way, whatever you write/publish, at the end of the day, you feel good about it.

[inkofamethyst]

June 27, 2021

Finished Picard S1 today.  It was incredibly hot of Riker to come back in command of a ship.  I cried when Picard “died,” even though I knew S2 was coming and I knew there was that golem in the works.  I cried even more when Data died though.

I haven’t finished TNG, and I haven’t seen any of the TNG movies, so finding out in this series that Data sacrificed himself for Picard (it happens in one of the movies I haven’t seen yet) was incredibly sad to begin with.  It made me happy to know that some part of him was still preserved, though.  But seeing Data die for real?  Like, permanently?  ...You remember that sadness after watching Infinity War the first time (my only time so far, actually)?  Or even Endgame?  That one’s probably a better analogy.  Walking out of Endgame knowing that all is resolved, but along the way we’ve lost a lot to reach that end.  Tony, Steve, Nat.  And now, I feel that same kind of weird grief with Data, I think.  TNG has been a comfort show for me since my junior year of high school.  I wrote one of my college essays about it (among other things).  I wrote my AP Lang essay on Data’s search to understand what it means to be human.  He’s such an easy character to love.  A childlike wisdom, a comforting presence, his curiosity, his ability to learn and adapt and feel things in his own way.  So, yeah, it hurts that he’s gone forever.  A fitting end for him, I suppose, but S2 isn’t out yet (apparently it’s going to involve Q (wonder if the original actor will come back omgggggg (but it’s not coming ‘till next year which sucks))!!!!), and I’ve nothing to distract myself from that loss.  

Data’s death was beautiful, symbolic, heartbreaking.

I hate being sad.  But I suppose I appreciate my capacity for emotion.

Maybe I’ll watch Community as a distraction.  I’m on S6 now, so I should be finishing up this week sometime, I expect (it’s... it’s just okay, now, I think, but that’s okay).  I don’t think I’ll go back to finishing TNG afterwards.  Not yet.  I can’t go back to watching and smiling as Data is just being himself, not knowing how that it ends.

Man, I haven’t mourned a character in a while.  This feels ridiculous and weird, but very much real.  I’ve had my fair share of “real” grief, and this feels a lot like that.

You know, I’m listening to Pretty Little Things by (wonder who it could be) The Crane Wives (who would’ve guessed), and I’m wondering if I’ve ever received Pretty Privilege?  I am very aware that this line of thinking can very easily lend itself to either comparison or just downright feeling bad about myself, but I kind of can’t help it?

Anyway, now that I’ve recognized that in a preamble, let’s get down to it, shall we?  Short answer: I don’t think I have, no.  I think I’ve compensated with being polite/kind to the people I interact with.  And I’m not saying I’m not pretty, because, most days, I’m fairly comfortable with thinking of myself as pretty (though, the sooner I start up the Cute Campaign again, the better, I think), which is fine, most of the time (and, besides, a lot of the things I don’t like about myself (physically) are things I don’t have any control over, so achieving a state of neutrality toward those things was a big step that I’m satisfied with)).

Hold on, hold on.

I’m going to actually put a stop to this right here and now.

Y’all, ugh.  I’m getting sneakier and sneakier with my put-downs.  Did you catch it?  Because that’s all this conversation is.  I waited until I was good and vulnerable and sad and tired and whatnot and snuck in a put-down, disguised as a “conversation” about ~Pretty Privilege~.  Even included a preface to try to, well, in a way, satiate and deactivate my watchful side.  Gotta tip my hat to my negative side for that performance; they almost got me.  Two tips of the hat to my watchful side though, because I pulled myself out.

Pretty Little Things is a good song though.

Lemme turn on Sleeping Giants or The Hand That Feeds though bc those will totally pick me up.

Well, being upset got me back into sewing (or, at least, prepping for some projects), so it’s not all bad I guess lol.  I’ve started on a long, black circle skirt (one positive side of being short is that circle skirt require less fabric) in cotton flannel, and McCall’s 8181 (I think) view C in a black cotton sateen (the sateen is such a cool fabric omg I’m excited to see how it’s going to go).  I need to head to the fabric store to get some interlining for the skirt waistband because I want it to be thicker sturdier than my brown skirt’s.  Also would have to grab a few other things (1/2″ black buttons for my green shirt, some white buttons for the green windowpane shirt project, some black shank buttons, two backs of black bias tape (maybes: boning for a waistcoat), probably a few other things).

Last night, I spent some time researching new ukes, and I’ve found a bunch of pretty lookin’ ones, so I’ll be narrowing them down over the next few days.  I’d like to get back to practicing as soon as possible, but I don’t want to rush it, of course.  I’m sure I’ll have just as much trouble switching from Am/F to G as I did a few days ago.

Today I’m, well, I’m thankful for Data.  Fascinatingly superb, you funky little android.

Oh, and, last thing, I’m thinking that, assuming I don’t find an inexpensive wind instrument on ebay or something (clarinet, perhaps?  I know it wasn’t on my original list of, what, three instruments?  But I think I’d be down (especially since brass tends to cost quite a bit more than woodwinds).) within the next, idk, few years ig, I think I might want my next instrument to be the bass guitar.  ...there’s, well, there’s a really cool baseline in Tongues & Teeth, so.  Also it’d finally teach me to learn bass clef, plus, I’m already getting practice in with fingerpicking on the uke, so.  yeah.  um.  yeah.

[d3ndroica]

Big Apple 7

Hey folks. I had hoped to post the next Big Apple chapter today. But it wasn’t done yet. So instead of not posting anything, I’m posting the first half of it.  Apologies if it needed more editing. :) Part 1     Part 2      Part 3     Part 4     Part 5     Part 6

After leaving the coffee shop, Madge was late to work. Luckily nobody seemed to notice. She did a few things at her desk and then headed to the lab to check on her cells. Just her luck, as she examined them she noticed signs of contamination. Contamination meant they’d be no good and she’d have to start over, but first she had to triple check everything was sterile and see if she could find the source of the contamination. She didn’t get a lunch break until after 2, and then her coworker Bea wanted to meet to go over what she’d found, and what supplies and reagents would need to be ordered. The day flew by. There was a light drizzle on the way home, hurrying her. She got home and realized she still needed groceries, and decided to scrounge instead of going out again. She texted with Thom. His show had ended so he was officially back to hunting for the next part, while sustaining himself on his crappy day jobs. They talked about doing something over the weekend, but Thom was feeling broke and didn’t want to spend any money.

Wednesday was more drizzle, gray and gloomy. Madge made some progress in the lab prepping for her next attempt at the protocols, but there wasn’t much on her work to do. Unless she wanted to have to come in on both Saturday and Sunday, she needed to wait until later in the week for the incubation series. No Thank You. So she talked with Bea and they agreed on a schedule. The afternoon was busy helping with general lab maintenance and discussing a protocol, microscope imaging, and results from an earlier experiment.

By Thursday morning the drizzle had lifted but the forecast held more rain. Cold and wet. Madge glowered at the thought. She was still grumpy about her experiment getting off to a bad start, even though Bea had told her not to worry about it. Then on her way into work, her umbrella was caught in a gust of wind and flipped inside out. She’d forgotten her headphones. But she made it to work and got through most of her lab duties before lunch, prepping a new set of cell cultures for her protocol. In the afternoon, she took care of emails and worked on some of the journal articles that were on her reading list.

Madge 2:10pm @ work? Gale 2:43pm how’d you guess Madge 2:49pm :P How’s it going? Gale 2:55pm ok, you?

Madge sighed. She didn’t want to get into her troubles.

Madge 2:58pm OK. Finished my lab work for today. Waiting to see if the rain will let up.

Gale 3:08pm doubt it ☔️

Madge 3:10pm Yeah :( :( cold & wet is the worst

Gale 3:15pm u need more coffee to warm up? ☕️ 😏

Madge 3:17pm So tempting. Too bad we don’t work closer. I guess the coffee in the lab kitchen’ll have to do.

Gale 3:23pm going into a meeting… ttyl

Madge 3:24pm Later

When she left work, she had little choice but to persevere through the rain and get groceries, hurrying home before everything was sodden. Quickly she worked to get it all packed away in the kitchen. She indulged in multiple mugs of hot tea, listening to classical music in her room. After she was warm, she indulged in reading some of a romance novel she’d picked up recently. She skimmed through until she found the next sex scene. After reading through, she set the book down and focused her attention on herself, masturbating to her mental recall from the book … which morphed into imagining Gale’s hands and mouth on her, a private bastardization of the book’s images. She came quietly, and then tried not to think about the ramifications of her sex fantasy. Instead she cleaned up and got some dinner. Later while she was watching tv a text arrived from him.

Gale 9:42pm hey

She wondered if she should feel bad for picturing him earlier. “He’s not going to know,” she chided herself.

Madge 9:46pm Hi :) How are you?

Gale 9:48pm ok. you?

Madge 9:51pm Yeah. I got so wet today Major umbrella malfunction :-0

Gale 9:54pm good night to stay in.

Madge 9:55pm Yeah. I’m just vegging now.

Gale 9:56pm same

Madge 9:56pm What are you watching? The 100?

Gale 9:59pm lol, no kimmy schmidt I needed a break from apocalypse drama

Madge 10:00pm Haha, I love that show I looked for the 100 but cant find s1 anywhere

Gale 10:01pm oh yeah? I have it streaming if you want to watch sometime.

Madge 10:04pm Yeah definitely

Gale 10:07pm How’s the lab?

Madge 10:10pm Had to start protocol over :(  My cells got contaminated. :( I think it was a nonsterile reagent. When I checked them yesterday there was cytoplasmic vacuolation. I had to dump everything restart the protocol with fresh cells from the cryostore. And I still have to learn the protocols for DNA microsatellite fingerprinting to check for cross-contamination.

Gale 10:12pm wow well … that sucks

Gale 10:14pm supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Madge 10:15pm ?? It’s like the opposite of that.

Gale 10:16pm just showing you I can use big words too 😎😉 Madge 10:17pm Thats adorable Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious Omg i can’t believe i remember that

Gale 10:19pm um if you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious? hmm is precocious supposed to be a good thing?

Madge 10:21pm umm Perspicacious would be better Or pulchritudinous but you can’t really control that  ;-)

Gale 10:23pm Now you’re just showing off Madge 10:24pm Who me?? 😇 If you’re trying to distract me from work failure its working :) So thanks

Gale 10:17pm 😉 np

Madge 10:21pm You want to do something saturday?

Gale 10:23pm Sure what were you thinking?

Madge 10:26pm IDK maybe Morningside park if weather is decent? And I owe you a dinner (finally got paid!!)

Gale 10:27pm sounds good lemme know what time you’re thinking

Gale 10:29pm roomie wants something … ttyl?

Madge 10:29pm Gnite

[olivieraa]

so... I’ve been having a weird... two or three days

I didn’t wanna talk about this bc I didn’t wanna make it public for reasons, but then I thought, I’ve never held back before KNOWING this is my blog and that was my ORIGINAL reasons for ever making a tumblr

its my diary

just... happens to be public to some people

its nothing major, my anxiety is just kinda all over the place and I’m not liking it

so okay, regardless of if you ever comment on, like or reblog any of my posts, I think anyone following any time up until 2016 and still is following me, is very well aware of the name Diana

she is my ex best friend who... well, I hate now

she fucked me over big time and it took me years to get over it

I was at the best I ever was when it came to thinking about her mid-late 2016. in which, I was barely doing it. barely thinking about her

I’m just gonna disregard 2017 and what happened then and we move on now to 2018

but to mention 2017, I planned on going back to my Joey RP blog, which is how I met her back when I was 19 (25 now)

I’ve always been conflicted about going back, for many reasons, one being “do I even WANT to roleplay again??? am I even into that anymore???”

but I was never able to answer so I thought maybe if I gave it a chance again then I’d know

but I’m a perfectionist and had to wait for the right time

buuuut as of the past few days I just had cravings to read some old rp’s

one’s I especially remembered

and basically, I got slapped SO HARD in the face but this nostalgic, familar feeling I got when I was online not just roleplaying with her, but talking to her on skype at the same time

I dont like to lie, ever, so I’m not gonna say “I was SO over her and then this happened”, I was just at a good place where I wasn’t thinking about her often, so still not completely over it

I’m too passionate to be over something that was special to me. when something is special, I rememer it for life cause its special and important

which... she was

I thought re-reading them would be fun and it is in some ways but also painful? I guess???

and lemme tell you, I’ve gone over in my head a 100 times on why Diana is a terrible person and the cons outweigh the pros, yet... the pros come to mind more often and I have to tell myself, “no, remember this! and this!”

I could get really deep with this if I want but my posts end up too long when I go into detail, so I’ma leave it at that

maybe this is another reason I should never go back on Joey - cause I’ll always associate it with her. I cant even watch certain movies cause of her, ESPECIALLY if they’re Gerard Butler movies (Phantom being a big one), and it was so hard to watch Junjou s3 when I watched s1 and s2 with her back when we were friends (despite already seeing and being a fan of it before then) and we could see how “FloJo” the main couple were, in... a million ways, and so when Junjou s3 came out, I kept thinking “omg... I cant even look at these as their own characters, I just keep seeing FloJo”

in a way, she did fuck up Ba-kura for me as well. definitely the abridged but I’m THANKFUL that LK has been on s4 the past few years and there’s been little to no “Florence”

EXCEPT for that time he did a Let’s Play and Florence usually says a line or two while Marik dominates the whole ep, but in one of the eps Florence played the game himself and had a LOT of lines and literally all I could see was Diana’s version talking and I hated it

it sucked because her Florence became so developed that I was never able to see him in the real abridged version since he’s... not developed at all

I even told her if I personally had to fuck one of them, it’d be the real one cause I liked her Florence with Joey, but I wouldn’t go near him with a ten foot pole. blegh, not my type lmao

she... well, I was gonna say “was my type” but, I don’t have a type. I just know what I don’t like

but I liked her and she liked me and then she just threw me away like I was old news literally the days she got a job tbh and I just

I hate her

I kept mentally slapping myself wondering how I couldn’t be over a person who I never even met irl, but that connection between us was there the second we talked, NOT something that happens to me ever, especially since I move and had to make new friends every single time and then leave them and make more new friends

with her I imagined SOME sort of future

if I had one wish in the world to do with her, it’d be to just ask her to tell me as honestly as she can

“why”

“why did we stop being friends. WHAT did I do wrong?”

cause if I did do something wrong, that’s one thing. tho I would have liked to fix it

but I didn’t do anything wrong, so my belief has always been “she found something better”, and when I looked back, I realised that’s the person she is, she’s done it to people before, how could I not have expected it to happen to me?

so I’d mostly just want that to be confirmed

to know I was right

closure

but yeah I’ve been reading the rp’s each night and it... I feel like a masochist cause it hurts but I keep... fucking doing it

(also I can totally see where my writing needs improvements!)

I dont know if Joey is gonna be a thing or not

I’ll make the decision by the end of the month

it was 6 years ago Feb... 2nd I think it was? that I created him

so I’ll know then

[takemetotheriotofthestars]

I’m Here Sam (Wendigo- S1, Ep2, Pt 1)

Supernatural Season 1 Episode 2 Part 1 Warnings: None. Words: 3,303

Masterlist

The sun was shining, there wasn’t any clouds covering the star. Birds tweeted to one another and squirrels scurried across the grass and into the trees. You leaned against the Impala with Dean, your arms were crossed and Dean’s hands were in his jean pockets. The service for the funeral ended a few days ago, but Sam wanted to say one last goodbye. He looks down at the gravestone, clutching the flowers in his hands before he took a deep, shuddering breath before he finally began to say something. “I, uh…” Sam let out a laugh despite the situation he was in, he was standing at his girlfriend's grave and somehow he found dark humor in it. The grave should’ve been his, he so badly wanted to switch places with her, she didn’t deserve to get dragged into this mess. Sam looks at the picture of her set into the gravestone, he quickly looked away and choked back a sob that would’ve escaped his mouth if he didn’t stop it. “Jess...oh God…” He said, while taking a step forward. He took a deep breath and kneeled. “I should have protected you. I should have told you the truth.” He leaned the flowers against the cross on the headstone, suddenly an arm shoots up from the grave and wraps a hand around Sam’s wrist. *** “Sam?” You say, watching as his eyelids twitch before he takes a deep breath and his eyes snap open. You frown at him as he looked around quickly before relaxing a bit in the seat. “You okay?” Dean asks, glancing at his brother in concern before returning to the the road. Sam glances at him then you before he looks out the passenger window. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He said, Dean nods while the frown on your face stays. You could tell just by one look at the younger brother that he was indeed not fine. You lean back against the seat and scoff at the man’s answer. “You had another nightmare.” You say, he’s been having them since the night Jessica died. Sam doesn’t say anything, he just continues to stare out the window at the passing scenery. “You wanna drive for a while?” Dean asks, glancing over at his brother. Sam laughs at his brother’s question. “Dean, your whole life you never once asked me that.” He replies. You roll your eyes and lean over the front seat to join the conversation face to face. “So?” You say, catching the young brother’s attention. “Take the opportunity, Dean has never offered to me to drive and I’ve been on many hunting trips with him, he refuses to let me take the wheel.” “Look, guys, I know you're worried about me.” Sam says, turning his body to look at the two of you. “I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay.” You roll your eyes and lean back against the seat while Dean hums a reply. “Sammy” You say, he turned back into the proper seating position and grabs the map out of the glove box. “Just so you know...Dean and I are here if you need to talk.” He didn’t reply but instead asked a question. “Where are we?” “We are just outside of Grand Junction.” Dean replies, staring out at the road. Sam folds the map. “You know what?” Sam says, you look away from the window and to the side of his face. “Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon.” You give him a pitying look. “Sam, sweetie…” You trail off. “We dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you wanna find the thing that killed Jessica—” Dean says but get’s cut off by his brother. “We gotta find Dad first.” Sam finishes his brother’s sentence as he put away the map. “Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence.” Dean says, you nod your head in agreement. “John” You say “he’ll have answers. He'll know what to do.” You reassure the young Winchester with a smile. “It's weird.” Sam says, shaking his head slightly. “These coordinates he left us...This Blackwater Ridge..” “What about it?” His brother asked, you look at Sam as you remembered the map you looked at earlier. “Trees.” You say, catching the brother’s attention. Dean raises an eyebrow at your unfinished statement. “There’s nothing there, just...woods….So, why is your dad sending us to the middle of nowhere?” You look out the window as you passed a National Forest sign. Dean and Sam exchange a curious look for what’s to come. *** You exit the Impala and stretch from sitting too long in a small area, Dean watches you as your shirt raised slightly above your waist showing off some of your stomach until your arms lowered to your sides. He exited the car after his brother and locked it behind him. The three of you walk inside the Rangers Station, it was a small building. Sam and you eyed the map and took in much detail as you could while Dean stared at a picture of a bear. “It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place.” Sam comments on the map, you nod before turning around at Dean’s voice. “Dude, check out the size of this freaking bear.” Sam and you walk to Dean and stare at the photo. It was a pretty good sized bear. “And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure.” Sam says, you tore your eyes away from the picture at the sound of an unknown male’s voice. “You boys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?” His eyes land on you, hidden between the two men that are like giants compared to your height. “And ladies.” he adds before his eyes return to the two men. “Oh, no, sir” Sam says “we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper.” You nod along to the fabricated story with a smile on your face. Sam laughs a little and Dean raises his fist with a grin to make it seem more believable. “Recycle, man.” Dean says, the Ranger frowns and narrows his eyes at the three of you. “Bull.” He says, your smile turned into a frown at his statement while Sam’s eyes flick to you and Dean before his eyes return to the man before him. “You're friends with that Haley girl, right?” You laugh like he actually figured out why the three of you were here for. “Yeah” You give the man a smile as your eyes fall to his name tag before you looked at the man in the eyes. “Ranger Wilkinson.” “Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?” You and Dean shake your heads. “You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine.” “We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?” Dean asks the man, a smile on his face like he’s talking to an old friend. “That is putting it mildly.” “Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date.” The Ranger eyes the three of you with a suspicious gaze before you gave the man a reassuring smile. “We don’t want our friend worrying.” You say. *** Dean held the copy of the receipt with the family's address while laughing, you roll your eyes as the three of you walked towards the Impala. “What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?” Sam asks his brother, you frown at his question. “What do you mean?” You ask in confusion. “The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?” You look at Dean, he stood next to you. His hand hovering with the keys about to unlock the car. “I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?” Dean replies before furrowing his eyebrows. “Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?” “Since now.” Sam replies as he enters the car and shuts the door behind him. You look at Dean with raised eyebrows before the two of you enter the car. *** The boys and you stood before the Collins house, Dean rung the doorbell and not long after that a girl opened the door. “You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Sam, and this is Y/n, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy.” The girl looked at the three of you with hesitance. “Lemme see some ID.” She says, Dean pulls out an ID and holds it against the screen door. She looks at it and back at Dean who had a smile on his face. Haley opened the door. “Come on in.” She says and opened the door wider for the three of you. You gave her a smile as you passed her. “Thanks.” Dean said stopping at her question. “That yours?” You turn around and look them. “Yeah.” Dean replies, You look out the door to the Impala, a smile spreads across your face at the sight of her. “Nice car.” She comments before turning around and leading the three of you to a kitchen. A boy sat at the table with a laptop in front of him. “So” Sam starts, turning to face Haley. “if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?” You look at the female as she walks back into the room and places a bowl on the table. “He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now.” “Well, maybe he can't get cell reception.” Sam offered an excuse. “He's got a satellite phone, too.” “Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?” Dean asked, the boy at the table shook his head. “He wouldn't do that.” He said, you and Dean eyed the boy before you looked back at Haley. “Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other.” Haley said, she crossed her arms and looked at the three of you. “Hey, so can I see the pictures he sent you?” You ask, Haley nods and she walks over to the laptop and pulled up a few images. “That’s Tommy.” She says, as Sam takes a look himself. Haley clicked a couple of times before another picture comes up and then the still frame opening the video. “Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow.” Tommy says before it ended. You narrow your eyes at the flicker of a shadow in the background. “Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing.” Dean says, Haley looks at him and crosses her arms over her chest. “Then maybe I'll see you there. Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself.” She say’s, you turn around to look at her before your eyes landed on Dean. “I think I know how you feel.” Dean says as Sam looks at Haley. “Hey, do you mind forwarding these to me?” Sam asks, Haley shrugs. “Sure.” *** Later that night, the three of you were in a bar, sitting at a table. You watched a crowd of people swarm around a pool table and begin to play a game. Men cheered near the tv’s above the counter at the bar, it was some football game going on. “So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found.” Sam says, you look over at the man as he opened up John’s journal. “Any before that?” Dean asks, he watches as a waiter carrying a tray walks by. He turns slightly in his seat to check out her body. You roll your eyes and lightly punch his shoulder to catch his attention. Sam hands a newspaper article to his brother. “Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack.” You already read the article and knew everything about it. Eight hikers vanish in Lost Creek Area, the same area Tommy was camping at with his friends. Sam pulls out his laptop from the bag hanging on the back of his chair. “And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936.” He opens the computer and turns it towards Dean to show him a video. You were the one to edit the video to slow it down. “Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out.” He clicks the arrow button to show each frame before a shadow crosses the screen. “Do it again.” Dean said, leaning forward in his seat. His brother repeats his actions. “That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move.” You say, leaning back in your seat. You look at the older brother as he hits Sam on the shoulder causing him to look up from the laptop. “Told you something weird was going on.” Dean said with a grin on his face, you roll your eyes. “Yeah, totally.” You say, Sam closes the laptop and puts it back into his bag. “I got one more thing.” Sam said, making the two of you look at the young man.  You raise an eyebrow. “In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive.” He said, you bite your cheek as you took this information in. “So, is there a name?” You ask Sam, he looks at you and nods. *** “Look, ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—” Mr. Shaw starts but gets cut off by Sam. “Grizzly? That's what attacked them?” The old man takes a puff of his cigarette before pulling it out of his mouth and nodded. “The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?” You ask “What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing? We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it.” You say, Mr. Shaw looks between the three of you and gently shakes his head. “I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make.” He says while sitting down. “You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did.” Sam sat down across from the old man, and very gently he asks “Mr. Shaw, what did you see?” The old man looks away from Sam. “Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard.” You press your lips together. “It came at night?” You ask, sitting down on the couch next to Dean. Mr. Shaw nods. “Got inside your tent?” “It got inside our cabin. I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming.” “It killed them?” Sam asks. “Dragged them off into the night.” Mr. Shaw says and leaned forward while shaking his head. “Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since.” He paused, a bit hesitantly he reached to the collar of his shirt and pulled it down. ‘Did leave me this, though.” You eyed the gruesome scars on his skin, three long claw marks stretched across his chest. “There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon.” You looked at the boys, whatever was in those woods was something that wanted this man to tell others that it was not a force to be reckoned with. *** Dean and Sam walked ahead of you through the length of the corridor to the motel room. You trailed behind them, listening to their conversation. “Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls.” Dean says. “So it's probably something else, something corporeal.” “Corporeal? Excuse me, professor.” You roll your eyes at Dean’s comment. What an ass. “Shut up. So what do you think?” Sam replied, irritation clear in his voice. “The claws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it.” You say, the boy’s turn around to look at you, due to being so deep into their conversation they forgot about you. A smile spread across your face. “Hello boys, your one and only is still here.” *** Dean opens the trunk of the Impala, then the weapons trunk before propping it open with a shotgun, you lean against the side of the car as Sam looks into the trunk. “We cannot let that Haley girl go out there.” Sam said stating the obvious, you wrap your arms around yourself to keep warm from the November breeze. “Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?” Dean replies, he moves around a few weapons before looking at Sam when he answered. “Yeah.” “Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend.” Dean picks up a duffel bag, you grab your bag. “Finding Dad's not enough?” Sam asks while slamming the weapon’s trunk closed and then the car’s. “Now we gotta babysit too?” Dean stares at Sam, not saying anything. You pressed your lips together. Sam was angry, he didn’t know how to deal with Jessica’s death and he was taking it out on his brother by lashing out at him. “What?” You glare at Dean, warning him to not say anything to make Sam more angry. “Nothing.” Dean replies before tossing the duffle bag to him and walking towards the motel. Sam and you stare at the older brother’s back until he disappears through the door. You look at Sam and gave him a soft smile, he needed some reassurance that somebody was there for him. “Deep breaths, Sam.” You say, pulling your bag strap over your shoulder. “I’m here if you need to talk about anything.” “There’s nothing to talk about.” He said, you stare at him, the smile never leaving your face. You reach out and pat his back before he took a step away. He didn't need any contact right now, he just wanted to be alone and you understood that. You were the same for the first few months after your parents died. “I’ll be here.” You say to him before walking away and heading to your motel room next to the brothers.

People Tags- (Tags are open!)

@haelyn @trilloku-blog

[thelillykane]

for the salty ask meme #6 #1 #4 #5 and #12 Just pour all the salt, jennie!

oh my god i just refound this in my ask box so sit tight i’m gonna try & answer real quick~~~ 

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get? + 4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

as always, the answer is l*cas and p*yton like!!! it doesn’t make sense to me AT ALL how people ship this couple and consider them to be like soulmates when l*cas spends half of season one, all of seasons 2 & 3, half of season four, and the majority of season five being blatantly and vocally in love with other women* (mostly brooke but then in season five he’s literally engaged to and planning to marry lindsay and um friendly reminder kids that he’s not the one that calls off the wedding!!! he’s not at the altar going “yeah i love p*yton” he’s literally…devastated when lindsay leaves him and he even tries to win her back but like sure ok i guess he loves p*yton) 

also, like…p*yton literally only wants to date him the second he becomes unavailable which isn’t even me being mean it’s just the goddamn truth!! he wants to date her in s1, she isn’t interested, and then he starts to move on (and she finds out brooke has a crush on him let’s sip that fucking tea together) and she decides she wants him!!!. and then she does the same thing in season five when he asks her to marry her and she says no so he?? moves on like anyone who got rejected would do and THAT’S WHEN SHE FLIPS HER SHIT and is like “oh well when you were eighteen-twenty you wrote a book where you promised to love me forever so you can’t get engaged to someone else even though yeah i started dating julian like a week after i said no to you” 

and tHEN when they weren’t pissing me off on screen by treating everyone (brooke) like trash they were boring!!! like how tf 

ALSO LISTEN the fact that not only does the show do a 180 and be like “oh lol l*cas always loved her even when he literally was repulsed by the mention of still having feelings for her” BUT THEY ALWAYS TRY TO PRETEND LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN TREE HILL WAS WAITING FOR THEM TO BE TOGETHER AND NO ONE WAS haley – l*cas’ best friend!!!! – is vocally against them being together on like 3 fucking occasions minimum, nathan is 100189001 team brooke penelope davis, karen & keith – lucas’ PARENTS – actually take the time to get to know brooke and end up rooting for her and her happiness both individually and w/ their son and they never bother to do that w/ p*yton, skills literally calls l*cas out on his behavior and calls p*yton out on hers (re: them being shitty af) but then two eps later is all ~lol i was a fan~ when he clearly wasn’t, i could fucking go on but you see my point like…no one wanted them to be together including them 

the way they treat brooke formerly gets its own bullet point because oh my god even thinking about it makes my blood boil like 98% of the time i’m fucking i’m pissed 

also re: them being ~soulmates~ and they ~were meant to be together from ep 1**~ hilarie burton, who plays p*yton, literally came out in an interview this year and said that they never intended, to her knowledge, as the actress PLAYING P*YTON!!, for l*yton to end up together but that the show switched gears around season four iirc (because sophia bush wasn’t super comfortable filming endless romantic shit with her ex husband who had cheated on her which i support fully) 

ALSO i could be wrong but like….i’m pretty sure l*cas kisses brooke in every season he’s a main in (the s6 is a fakeout flash forward in which he lowkey envisions himself marrying brooke and lemme tell you that sure doesn’t seem like he’s super committed to p*yton) and you can’t say the same for him and p*yton (again i might be wrong but i don’t think they kiss in season 2) and they only kiss in season 3 because peyton thinks she’s gonna die and he’s sitting right there 

^ the above is arguably the pettiest bullet point on here but i don’t give a FUCK i hate this fictional couple with every atom i possess 

FUCK !!!! LISTEN that stupid “you’re always saving me thing” that p*yton says to him and it’s supposed to be romantic like lol he literally didn’t even go into the school for her that day!!! like sure once he’s in there he ends up saving her but that isn’t even what he wanted to do!!! he goes into the school to try and get nathan and to make sure nathan doesn’t get hurt!! when brooke is sobbing telling him she lost track of p*yton when she was getting out of the building l*cas doesn’t get all White Knight and go in to save her he literally was gonna stay with brooke!!! who he loves!!! (there’s an instance similar to this in season one where he only ~saves~ her because he is like…around when brooke is trying to get help for p*yton and probably others too but that’s the BIG one) 

ALSO OH MY GOD in season 3 when they make p*yton realize she loves l*ke again they do it in the dumbest way??? she’s literally…with j*ke and she is asleep and mumbles l*kes name and then j*ke is like “u said his name in ur sleep u don’t want to be with me” and dumps her while she’s crying and saying she flat out doesn’t love l*cas (but then she has no one else so she’s like lol what the heck i guess i will love him romantically)

and btw that^ is another instance where it wasn’t p*yton choosing to be with l*cas it was literally someone deciding NOT to be with her…which come to think of it is how they always get together? like?? they never choose to be with one another except in season one after they fucking cheat on brooke like dirtbags and then l*ke dumps brooke to be with p*yton but after that they literally..only pick each other as last resorts because they have no one else. like lmao!!! that is not my idea of grand romance otp it’s literally…sad in the pathetic, embarrassing way 

*idr season six that well but i am willing to bet he does it a little bit during this season as well (also from what i remember they literally…stopped writing scenes w/ him and brooke one on one together because they knew the audience would take one look at those scenes and KNOW he still loved her and not p*yton) 

also um brooke/lucas parallel nathan/haley so much so it’s just so fake whenever people try and say they weren’t the intended endgame for a while there like…look at the parallels. open your eyes. 

anyway y’all i could probably keep going i am the most bitter and angry about them always and there’s literally 200+ things that are just ??? about them it’s Too Easy 

oh also fandom jumo but uh piper/l*o from charmed are boring as shit they’re okay in s1-2 and after that i was like hey can we get him off my screen thanks 

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I don’t think “ruined” is the right term, but there are definitely some ships that I saw overhyped imo and then when I watched the show I was…underwhelmed. (I’m referring specifically to Ch*ck/S*rah when I type this because the never ending will they-won’t they was just fucking exhausting and by season 3 – which is where i am currently on hiatus – when they actually got together i just could not bring myself to care) (also she can do better and deserves better and season 3 chuck is like the worst version of him so far but) 

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

not to my knowledge! 

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

i was just talking about this the other day with amanda!! (i would normally tag her but she loves l*yton and i respect that so i’m not gonna make her see the seven paragraphs in which i Destroy them) 

essentially we talked about how everyone needs to back up off of season three of veronica mars. like, sure, compared to seasons one and two it’s not as good, but even those seasons have stuff i don’t like such as: gross rape plots, needless and unwelcome attempts at love triangles, sidelining of POC characters for ?? reasons (it’s racism y’all, that’s the reason), sidelining of female characters for White Male Development (re: Mac not becoming a regular that season while Dick & Cassidy both did), etc. and all of those reasons are the big reasons why people shit on season three but [dennis reynolds voice] newsflash asshole! it was there the entire goddamn time 

^to continue the above, i think season three has SO MANY POSITIVES AS WELL for example: logan canonically tells veronica mars that he loves her. um. that’s Good Shit. also!!!: parker lee is there, weevil working w/ keith mars for a bit, logan and veronica making out on the stairs to fidelity by regina spektor, holy fuck does veronica mars love logan echolls so much, THAT SCENE WHEN LOGAN APOLOGIZES TO VERONICA AGAIN!!, BEATS UP GORY SORKIN BECAUSE HE’S RUDE AF TO VERONICA, SHRUGS WHEN GORY THREATENS HIS LIFE, IMMEDIATELY GOES AND APOLOGIZES TO PIZ, AND THEN VERONICA WATCHES HIM WALK AWAY BEAMING WITH HEARTS IN HER EYES LIKE THAT SCENE IS IN SEASON THREE YOU GUYS IT’S RIGHT THERE and then like!!! there’s quality eps in there that i love with my whole heart~~ wichita linebacker!!! poughkeepsie tramps and thieves!!! postgame mortem!!! charlie don’t surf!!! 

in summary: like…yeah parts of it were geuninely awful. just..like….the rest of the seasons. and the movie. which is like.. another Thing 

also fandom jump again but uh Rory’s decision to leave Yale in season six was absolutely the right one for her to make and Lorelai is the fucking worst about it. and if Lorelai hadn’t overreacted and ostracized Rory over it Rory would’ve gone back to Yale and lot sooner and that’s what you missed on Glee