#i heard gerry and i was like uhh no way

[illdragyoudownwithme]

i love listening to the new episodes on Tuesday (early access) and then waiting to see tumblr explode on Thursday about wtv happened

[newsatsix1986]

A rather telling unit still of Sam Reid as Dale Jennings and William McInnes as Lindsay Cunningham from The Newsreader’s S01E01 - Three, Two, One.

.

.

“Uhh, Lindsay.”

“What do you want? Oh mate, yes, uhh… Dale. Listen mate, you may have to walk with me. I’m running late.”

“Okay, sure. Yeah.“

A relationship I find interesting in our show is that of Dale Jennings and Lindsay Cunningham’s. At the beginning of 1986, there would have been no way for Lindsay to predict that this soft spoken and good natured young bloke would end up becoming his overall strongest asset in the office, nor that he would consistently test him and challenge his point blank “nos” that he had a tendency to toss around like confetti whenever a slightly out of the ordinary story was posed to him, namely by Helen.

Where Dale’s power and sway lies in the workplace is in his quiet persistence. He doesn’t really take no for an answer, and fast realises that the more often he approaches Lindsay about matters, the more likely he will be in succeeding. He begins to recognise that Lindsay has come to value this about him; this unassuming bravery and drive to constantly better his position and standing in the office, but to do so in a way that is not argumentative or defensive in nature. Cool, calm, and collected, no matter what is going on around them.

If anyone could get something over the line in that office to Lindsay, it’s Dale. Dale uses this position to help his fellow coworkers (namely Helen and Noelene) get that foot in the door and have their stories heard and considered (like the interviews with the gun lobbyist and Lynus, and standing up for Noelene after she was fired), but as time went on, this power was somewhat reversed and he became more interested in using this to preserve the status quo of the newsroom, such as supporting booting Gerry from the Australia Day telecast.

Seeing where Season Two left off in this respect, I wonder what Dale and Lindsay’s dynamic will be like in Season Three? Will they be a dynamic duo or will they be clashing heads as Dale’s power has been elevated tenfold? What do you reckon will happen between them in 1989?

[jamieontheroof]

Testimant (117) -Another jon statement!! “No, im done with that. No more paranoia” - “im making a decision, im trust them, all of them.” JFDSH YESYESEYSYESYESYES FINALLY - oo a basira statement - melanieee, im scared shes going to (try to) kill elias - eyy martinnn “i need them to be safe, i need him to be okay..” and ‘him’ iss??? ‘No jon, its an expression, chill out’ 💀💀 “ oh and i hope the world doesnt end,” - “just dont die jon.. Or tim or bisera or daisy.. I guess” your not even hiding it anymore jesus - mr stokerrrr i liked nice tim, joking tim. It felt safer - gerad, gerry’s page is still okay, jon you promised :( oh no crackle audio

The Masquarde (118) -Wait what, the statement started and the ended?? Oh nvm hes burning them i think - “sorry elias, i cant hear you, theres a door in the way” - where did the tape recorder come from?? - what was that sound in the background “on three(3).. three(3).” - i swear to god if elias hurts my boy im going to fidahjsai NOOO HES CRYING I SWEAR I HATE ELIAS SO MUCH SDUFHJABI MY BOYYY NOOO he is so mature i love martin - WHAT WAS THAT IS DAISY OKAY?? ?WHASTTT

Stranger and Stranger (119) & Eye Contact (120) - I hate the circus music - what is happening?? Sorryy?? Has that thing like brainwashed jon?? Uhh what did daisy just kill one of those things?? Omg omg so much happened, tim blew everything up, now tim and daisy are dead (i am in so much shock i dont know what to feel), jon’s heart and lungs arent working but his brain and nerves are (idk how thats possible, probably just beholder magic), martin distracted elias enough so that meladie could go and get evidence for elias’s arrest. THAT WAS ONE FUCKING EPISODE IDHAGYU WHAT THE FUCK?? aHem, a lot of jon’s dreams seem to be statements that we have heard. Oh also martin got elias arrested “i’ll be keeping an eye on you..” STFU MAN OADJS (i'll admit i liked the puns) also FUCKING PETER LUKAS IS NOW THE HEAD OF MAGNUS?? WHAT??? Look id absolutely love to hate him and i know i will later but with the way he was like “you can all get paid leave because those of you who survived are going to be #traumatised. If you need a therapist, because lets be real, you all do, the institute will pay for one. Also elias told me that your queer and in love with jon” 💀

I just dont know how to process that, any of that.

The Magnus Archives S3 (81-120) reaction

I’m not ready for this but here we go

-A Guest For Mr. Spider (81)

Former head archivist? Was he fired? Did he quit?

Oooo jon backstoryyy - The Eye = Beholding = the one that ‘claimed’ jon - HE WAS A CHILD IN THE 90’S(that would make him in his what? Late 20’s? Early 30’s?)??? AND HES AN ORPHAN??? OH MY GOD 

awww hes a book worm AND HES LIKE ME “lingering on pages that caught my imagination” 

No no not spiders again - omg this show - i heard ‘eight(8) eyes’ and immediately thought of lore implications 💀

‘Mr. Spider doesn’t like it.’ Thanks, I hate it.

Hold on does he memorise every aspect of this book or did he find it because jesus

I actually hate the description of the book. Like no thank you. Goodbye. Please stop. This might be my least favourite episode (I’m kidding its spectacularly scary). 

Uhhhhh no way the spider is in the house OMG OGM OMG OMG NONONO EWW I HATE THIS - 

once again, ‘statement ends.’ *statement doesn’t end* also I wonder if the supplements will be in the 3rd season. 

Jons going to ask for help this time!! Yes!!! 

Uhh is he staying at someones house?? I cant tell whose voice it is but they seem to have a nice relationship - oh its the ghost podcast lady, goergie

No supplement in this one. 

[thekisforkeats]

So between you talking about it and my convincing a friend to listen to it, I've decided to do a tma relisten (I've only heard it all the way through twice and first time round I missed alot of important details) and just. Wow. So many namedrops super early on I completely missed. Gerard in particular appears waaay earlier and more frequently than I remember

Yeah! It's wild how much of the very very early episodes wind up being set-up for later.

The first time I listened my spouse (who is HORRIBLE at not spoiling things) was not like "oh yeah this shows up again" until Ex Altioria in MAG 004, and was pretty blase about everything else early-on except Prentiss. (Can you tell my spouse is the one who identifies with Jon lol)

But now we're doing a whole red string brigade re-listen in which we are, uhh, taking notes and keeping track of pretty much everything that recurs, because we're nerds. And I am like "you do realize I am making a 'this shows up again a bunch' page for almost everything in every episode except the statement givers."

Like, the Angler Fish and at least two of its victims recur. Breekon & Hope and the coffin recur. The table and the NotThem. Ex Altiora, Mike Crew, the Keays, Leitner. MAG 005 doesn't explicitly mention anything but the guy in it is supposed to be an early version of Tom Haan. And then Prentiss shows up in "Squirm."

I dug through the episodes and I think the first one where none of it shows up again is MAG 007, which is historical--but DOES establish the trend of using real historical people and has a weird oblique reference to Rayner. But then you get Hill Top Road immediately after, the Julia Montauk/Trevor Herbert double feature introductions, Oliver Banks (as Antonio Blake), Gerry again alongside Diego Molina, Naomi Herne and thus the Lukases, and then the first mention (I think) of Mikaele Salesa.

As far as I can tell, the first episode where NOTHING recurs or is ever mentioned again even obliquely is MAG 015, Lost Johns' Cave.

And then you have Carlos Vittery, and then we get our first fellow recurring VA showing up, when Elias comes to gripe at Jon on Naomi's behalf.

It's funny because it's like, first time through you're going "oh this will never show up again" and I think that is largely because Jon himself is dismissing everything. So that's why Ex Altiora and Jane Prentiss stand out--Jon takes them seriously in the moment.

But then other stuff starts showing up again and you're like "wait what??" And so down the rabbit hole you go...

[shinygoku]

Top 10 CSatM Episodes (1/2)

Ahhh, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons...! Probably only Second to Thunderbirds when it comes to the most popular and beloved Supermarination programme, with only Stingray able to compete for that coveted Silver Medal. But for me, it’s my Favourite!

I could go on and on about it, but for now I’ll go over my personal picks for a Top 10, which may give some insight into what about the way the series ticks makes it so enthralling.

Without further ado, let’s jump in! I’m not ordering them by preference, but rather the Episode order as I watched them on my DVDs (tediously the ep listings never seem to be consistent :T) Spoilers for all eps covered! ✂

Winged Assassin

Starting off my Favourites is the 2nd episode of the whole show, featuring a good condensed version of the events of Ep 1 if ya missed it and probably the best explanation on the workings of Retrometabolism that canon media is ever gonna grant us. The plot is fairly straightforward, but what elevates this is the aforementioned Exposition, which feels more organic than it did last episode, the interactions between Scarlet and Blue, and even the shocking twist at the ending, where the mission that had been going so well falls at the very last hurdle, in spite of Spectrum’s best efforts.

One of the most chilling visuals in the series is a surfaced shard of a downed passenger plane floating up from the sea, before the camera pans out to show the duplicated plane flying through the air, and another dark shot later on, of Scarlet’s limp hand with blood running down after he died in the effort to prevent the massive explosion that occurs regardless.

Winged Assassin sets a lot of standards of things to follow; traits like massive collateral damage just as part of the Mysteron’s grander scheme, the close partnership of Scarlet and Blue, Scarlet’s seldom used Sixth Sense and even the occasional downer ending, where the Mysterons manage to sneak a victory in and actually kill or destroy their stated target.

White as Snow

This episode shines a very interesting light on the dynamics between Col. White and Scarlet. It’s obviously one of a superior giving orders most of the time, but in a twist from the somewhat strict nature of Jeff Tracy over his sons who show respect to their father by not arguing back, with these two there’s actually the occassional spark of friction, that Scarlet will voice when he doesn’t like the commands and will only reluctantly go through the motions in the situation. I’m referring mostly to the first Mysteron attack, where a satellite is on a collision course with Cloudbase, but Scarlet unsubtly opposes the plan as there’s the possibility of innocent people on board who would get killed if Spectrum shot it down first. However, he’s overruled... and it turns out that it was indeed a trap, the people on board had been exploded hours ago and what was shot down was a Replicant copy. And that’s just the first half of the episode! But I find it interesting that again, back in Thunderbirds, the call to not remotely destroy something like that on the offchance it was populated would be the Correct course of action, but in this show pragmatism is needed, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Anyway, the episode has another Mysteron attack aboard a submarine, with plenty of tension... but yet, there’s something of a comedic bend to the episode, such as a furious White shouting at the currently dead Scarlet, much to the Naval crew’s confusion, and the scene at the end which I’ve taken the picture from. The weakest part of the episode is probably Blue in charge of Cloudbase, as he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing and I feel they coulda done more with him. Oh well! At least we got the fantastic music insert, which is also titled White as Snow.

Operation Time

Probably ranking in my Top 3, Operation Time is pretty remarkably both one of the most tension filled... yet an extremely funny episode. I guess some of that’s just due to my own odd sense of humour, though some moments are clearly intentional. Both the operation scenes, the Mysteron’s pursuit of the Doctor, and finally Spectrum chasing the Mysteron!Doctor are all played very suspensefully, and I find myself holding my breath. But then the funny scenes, like everything with Magenta and how hilariously pissy and unsubtle the Fake!Doctor gets leave me in stitches! [pun unintended lol]

I dunno, maybe some of the amusement effect is enhanced by the strong contrast between the scenes. Also we get a very grisly death for the Fake!Doctor and this episode establishes weaknesses for the Mysterons that will come up in future instalments. There’s a lot this ep has to offer, even something of an insight into 60′s medicine (though the series is set in 2068). While an extremely minor point, both the scenes with operations have the pssssshh.....fsssssshhhh sound that I associate with ventilators even though they ain’t being used, what’s up with that? But it’s another thing to add to the Atmosphere so s’all good, man.

Odd that I can’t think of much else to put here, I love it so much but maybe it’s so solid in the couple of things it does that’s all there really is to say? I’m feeling frustrated at how I don’t seem to have written enough for it, but trust me when I say it’s excellent and that it’s absolutely a Must Watch if you’re giving the series a look. (Though again, I’m spoiling each ep covered so uhh... read at your own risk if you’re using this to judge it!)

The Heart of New York

An interesting tale that I’ve actually Heard more than I’ve watched, as the audio adaptation is a free sample on the official Gerry Anderson site! [At least at the time of writing lmao, it’s worth a look anyway. This message was not paid for.]

This story is somewhat unique in that the Mysterons’ plan is pretty tame by their standards. They want to blow up... a Bank. Sure, it contributes to the long game they play, causing disruption and destruction, but compared to the casual massive collateral damage they inflict as part of a more focused murder attempt (again, see Winged Assassin and the passenger plane) this is small potatoes. But still, they end up feeling more moral in this episode than the actual ne’er do wells, a trio of would-be Robbers. These guys are pretty assholish, deliberately using the horrible cosmic war that’s already taken lives in the triple digits to hide behind while they take their pickings from a vault. Captain Black locking these morons in with the explosives feels like poetic justice, that they really did get what they wanted and are punished in kind.

Maybe this feeds the Mysteron’s point, that humans are aggressive, corrupt and selfish... though Colonel White challenges this view at the end of the episode, stating the robbers aren’t indicative of humanity as a whole. The whole shebang is a lot like The Twilight Zone, honestly. All we need is Rod Serling to open and close the episode...

Point 783

This episode is a bit harder to go into depth on, to be honest, it’s not one with a particular gimmic that makes it more memorable, but it’s a very solid ep all the same. There’s still a fair few layers that keep me thinking, like how it seems one of the Methane Trunk drivers had seemingly been Mysterionised offscreen to enable the Mysteron’s main pawns to me made. Then the first attempt to kill the Supreme Commander is thwarted by Scarlet’s (somewhat inconsistant) Mysteron Sense and perspex tubes that take their sweet time to descend and don’t even prioritise the actual target lol

Anyway, the meat of the episode is focused on the guest vehicle, the Unitron implacable unmanned Tank that can be controlled remotely by human operator or programmed to destroy something particular, and it will not stop or slow down no matter what’s thrown at it. Something something Proto-Drone Warfare commentary. The Mysterons’ last big attempt to assassinate today’s dude has one of their Mysterionised guys from earlier become the target, unknown to everyone else until he draws his gun inside the SPV (who even points out the 6th sense didn’t activate!). Scarlet gets shot 3 times but manages to eject himself and the Supreme Commander, which leads to the above scene, which offers a nice, human response.

Mr Supreme Commander later chews Blue out as it emerges instead of Scarlet going to a Hospital within 10 minutes, Spectrum insisted on waiting for one of their Helicopters to pick him up, which took 3 hours. Poor Blue has to try reassuring the army guys that Scarlet will be fine, truuuuust hiiiim. It makes me wonder if Spectrum is making things easier or harder overall by keeping his Retrometabolism under their hats, though I can understand they’d have reservations, but just trying to gloss over it with a ‘no no, it’s fine, he’ll get better.’ type answer doesn’t seem all that convincing. But I enjoy that it’s semi challenged here. And this episode summary ended up longer than expected cause all the Thinking I’ve done, haha!

=======

This has gotten a lot longer than expected and will be Two Parts! Find the second half here~

[psychospeak-blog]

Won’t Go Slowly // 28

One // Two  // Three // Four // Five // Six // Seven // Eight // Nine // Ten // Eleven // Twelve // Thirteen // Fourteen // Fifteen // Sixteen // Seventeen // Eighteen // Nineteen// Twenty // Twenty One // Twenty Two // Twenty Three // Twenty Four // Twenty Five // Twenty Six // Twenty Seven

A/N: Sorry it’s late!

One of the great things about working in academics, in your opinion, was the fact that you got extended holiday breaks.  You were spending most of your days hanging around the house with Marshall in your pajamas, going for a nice evening walk in the snow (usually still in your pajamas), taking breaks from the organizing and measuring of your office to look at baby furniture and watch movies, usually watching Grey's Anatomy over the phone with Tyler before bed.  Basically, the only thing you had to get dressed for these days was your prenatal yoga class and, even then, you were just wearing yoga clothes, so it was pretty much pajamas.

Today, though, however, you'd actually put clothes on because you and Marshall had a errand to run.  He was sitting in the passenger seat, sitting up like he was a human, and you got some interesting looks and laughs as you drove.  He looked so happy with himself though, that you couldn't resist taking a picture when you were at a stop light, sending it to Tyler.  Marshall started cowering, however, when you drove towards town, and you suspected he thought he was going to the vet again.

"It's okay, we're going someplace fun," you reassured him, although he still looked doubtful when you pulled into the parking lot.  You definitely knew that he'd been to a pet store when he was a puppy, because you'd been with him a couple of times when Tyler needed to grab dog food, but you weren't sure if he'd actually been to a pet store as an adult dog who you couldn't pick up anymore.  The good thing was that he was pretty well-behaved and even-keeled, so you biggest worry would probably be him taking out a shelf of items with his wagging tail.  

It was pretty humorous watching his eyes widen once you opened the door to the store as if he'd never seen such an incredible place before.  He looked up at you, like he wasn't quite sure he was even allowed to go inside but, once you told him he could, he stepped inside and started sniffing immediately.

"Hi," the girl behind the counter said brightly, her eyes cast downwards, "What's your name?"

You answered for him, and her eyes flicked up to yours again.  "Can he have a treat?"

When he heard the word 'treat', Marshall immediately sat down, and then started swiping at the air, trying to show off his ability to shake a paw.  "Yes," you said with a laugh, and she came out from around the counter, crouching down in front of him.

"I didn't have to ask you to sit," she said, giving him two treats, which he took happily.  Afterwards, she asked you what if you needed help finding anything, and you said you told her you were just looking for Christmas presents, so she left you to browse.  

You went to the Christmas section first, because they needed Christmas toys, in your opinion. You chose a Christmas tree that looked pretty chew proof for Gerry, and a soft reindeer for Marshall because he liked to cuddle with his toys. You were picking out a penguin with a squeaker for Cash, when you noticed a box of candy cane dog treats.  And then you got an awesome idea, and added it to the collection that you were creating.

And then you went to look in the regular toy section, picking Gerry out a puzzle toy that you could put treats inside that would hopefully keep him occupied because he'd apparently been having some....behaviour issues lately, and you found a toy that looking like skipping rocks for the pool or lake for Cash (and that Tyler would probably enjoy, too).  You were just deciding on a ball for Marshall that you could kick and throw and that also floated on water, when your phone pinged with a text from Tyler.

Tyler: Are you taking my dog on a date?

Tyler: Make sure he pays

Tyler: He'll probably try to get in your bed after just fyi

You laughed to yourself, and then you realized, that while you had a collection of presents for his dogs, you had absolutely no idea what to get for him.  Nothing seemed quite right, and you wondered if maybe you should try to do things differently this year.  You'd already gotten gifts for the pups, who were really easy to impress, and you knew Tyler had stuff for the baby.  So, maybe, you could just exchange Christmas presents between your "kids" for this year.  It wasn't like there was anything either of you needed, anyways.  

With your six toys and the holiday dog treats, you went to the check out counter, the woman from earlier before looking over all of your purchases and smiling down at Marshall.  "Someone's a lucky boy," she said, as she started to ring everything through.

"Oh, they're not all for him," you said, "For his brothers, too."

"How many brothers does he have?"

"Two," you answered, and before she could ask said, "All labs."

"Three labs?" she asked, and you noticed her glance at your belly, so you instinctively rubbed it, "that must be a busy household."

You opened your mouth, and then shut it again, because you weren't about to start explaining that they weren't your dogs.  "It is," you said, "But there's a lot of love, too."

"I'll bet," she said, bagging up all your purchases.  "Have a Merry Christmas, guys."

You were so overtaken by the Christmas spirit and all the decorations at the shopping plaza that you decided to stop at Starbucks for a holiday themed drink, and got a puppaccino for Marshall, which he devoured in the car.

When you got home, you contemplated calling Tyler, but you couldn't remember whether he had a game tonight or not.  And then you remembered the internet.

You crashed on the couch as the phone was ringing, to which Tyler answered, "So, did he kiss you?"

You didn't know what he was talking about, until you remembered the text he sent you in the store.  "Yes," you answered, "With tongue."

"That's aggressive," Tyler said, and then, "Hang on, babe, one sec."

You were expecting him to set the phone down while he did something, but instead you heard him say in a stern voice.  "Gerry, stop that.  Those are expensive shoes."

You heard a shuffling noise and then a sigh.  "Sorry," he said, "someone is acting like a two year old."

"Well, isn't he?"

"Not in dog years," he said, and then, in his dog voice, "Oh, and now you want to cuddle with me, huh? Are you sorry for what you did?"

You shook your head, laughing.  "I had a question," you said, "About Christmas."

"Santa's real," Tyler said, "Don't let anybody tell you otherwise."

You snickered, laying back on the couch and running a hand through your hair.  "No, I was wondering if maybe you and I could not exchange Christmas gifts this year?"

" Why?" Tyler whined.

" Because, I know you already got stuff for the baby..."

"So? You always get presents for me and the dogs.  I'm not allowed to get you a present, too?"

" Tyler, I just don't think we should --""

"Well, it's too late," he said, "I already have your present."

"What is it?"

"I'm not telling you," he said, "That'd defeat the whole purpose of a present."

Obviously.  But you really just needed an idea of what it might be so you could get a comparable gift.  "Is it something for the baby?"

"Mmmnope, that's separate," he said, "Well, kind of, I guess, in a way."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you might enjoy it while you're pregnant.  But it's just for you," he said, "And it's not what you might think, either."

"What?" You questioned.  You definately hadn't hinted that there was anything you wanted because there wasn't.   

"I mean, I understand if you want a vibrator, but I don't really feel comfortable buying that for you.  It's kind of personal thing."

"Tyler!" You yelled, in shock that he had just said that.  But, in all honestly, you shouldnt be that suprised. "Seriously...."

He laughed loudly.  When he was done, he said, "It's just a little something.  You don't have to freak out or anything."

You sunk back into the couch, even more if possible.  "I don't know what to get you."

"You don't have to get me anything for Christmas," he said, "you can just get me twice as many presents for my birthday, it's fine."

"If you're getting me something for Christmas, then I'm getting you something for Christmas," you said, "What do you want?"

"A really big hug?"

"Tyler..."

"Uhh..."  he make a noise like he just fell back into the couch.   "Honestly, I'd be really happy if you baked me some cookies. Like, a whole tin I can take back with me and not have to share."

You were about to respond when you heard a knocking noise, and then a ruffle of paws against the floor.  "Hey, babe, I gotta head out for dinner," he said, and then after you said "okay", he added, "With some of the guys.  I'll call you later, okay?  If Gerry doesn't eat my entire house while I'm gone.  Cash, you're babysitting."

After you said goodbye, you laid your head back, looking up at Marshall sitting at the under end of the couch, staring at you.  "What do you think I should get for your Dad?" you asked, and he just tilted his head, still staring at you.  You reached up, scratching him behind the ears.  "Well, you're no help at all."

It seemed impossible, this year, for some reason.  Nothing quite seemed to fit quite right, or be the right combination, and then you realized why.

What did you get for the man who had already given you the best gift ever?

Nothing seemed like it would ever be enough.

**

"C'mon," you said to Marshall, opening the  door to the car so he could jump out, grabbing the box of candy cane shaped dog biscuits, ready to enact the plan that had come to you in the pet store.  You grabbed the tray with your peppermint mocha and Marshall's puppaccino to set the Christmas spirit even more, unlocking the door to Tyler's house with one hand, setting everything down, and then going around to turn on lights.  And turn on some Christmas music.

"Are you going to help me with the tree?" you asked him, but he just sat down and then pawed your leg, and you realized he just wanted his treat.  So, you gave it to him, while you ventured into the garage, realizing that this was going to be the hard part.  You found the box with the tree first, realizing that it was way to cumbersome for you to lift by yourself right now.  So, you took piece by piece out, setting them in the living room, while Marshall was licking his container of whipped cream across the floor.  You might have created a bad habit.

You huffed as you used your legs to push the couch out of the way just enough that you could set the tree up, Marshall looking at you like you were crazy for moving the furniture. Finally, it was out of the way enough that you could begin setting the tree up, standing back and taking a sip of your Peppermint Mocha every now and then, singing along with the music as you fluffed the tree up.  Once you were satisfied with it, you plugged in the lights, and then went back into the garage for the boxes of decorations, bringing them up to the living room.  On your last pass, you noticed through the window that it had started to snow again, so you opened the garage door, deciding to put your car in there while you were here so you wouldn't have to wipe all the snow off it afterwards.  

Marshall was waiting for you at the door when you went back inside, and you leaned down to pet him.  "I'm not leaving you here, don't worry."

He left and came back with a rope a moment later, pushing it against your leg, and you halfheartedly reached down and tugged it a little, knowing that if you went hard, he could pull you over.  You also realized that Tyler hadn't really packed any toys for him, probably because he had thought he was hurt so, other than the couple of tennis balls you had around your house, Marshall hadn't had any toys, so you made a mental note to take a couple with you when you left.

You opened the bins, taking a look at what you had to work with, and then you noticed the Dallas Stars ornaments sitting on top, and remembered that you thought he had a game for tonight.  You turned on the TV, flicking through the channels and muting it, so it didn't compete with the holiday music you had going.  You finally found it, and saw the game was still scoreless.  St. Louis, that's where it was.

His ornaments were kind of a hodgepodge, probably because he didn't always spend Christmas here. There were the Dallas Stars ornaments, a couple of hockey related ornaments you recognized that his Mom had given him when he was a kid, and quite a few dog ornaments, that probably his mom had given him at some point as well, as well as several of those cinnamon ornaments that you'd made together your second year of college, when you'd got yourself a mini Christmas tree for your apartment but didn't to spend money on ornaments.  The rest was a mix of plain Christmas balls, like he'd just bought them at the last minute to fill in all the holes.  They didn't even match. You made do, as best as you could, thankful that the lights were white so there wasn't a huge clash.  You were almost done, when you found something hard, wrapped in tissue at the bottom of the box, and you unwrapped it to find an ornament, one of which you had very similar, that you made in the ceramics portion of art in eight grade.  His was, well, it was absolutely horrible looking, paint swiped across it at the last minute, and you remember Kirsten mercilessly making fun of him for it, even before they were together, and before you really knew him.  You hung it on a branch, right front and centre. And then you dug into the last  wrapped item, but it fell out and you started laughing immediately, half bending and half squatting to pick up the tiny curve of wood.   You remembered it, when he was taking this woodworking class in eleventh grade, and he'd been excited because he had this elaborate plan to jigsaw a skate out of wood.  But the skate, as he showed you, kept getting smaller and smaller, and he ended up having to form it into a hockey stick, and he ended up failing the assignment, and you'd had to bite your lip not to try and laugh when he showed you his finished project. His mom, if you remembered, said something like "that's great, honey," when he showed it to her, and the both of you had exchanged a look like it wasn't.

You hung that on the tree, too, and were about to go about your project, when you realized that Marshall was sniffing the box of treats that you had bought, and you had a sudden vision of the tree toppling over as the dogs attacked it, especially with how Gerry was apparently acting.  You sat down on the couch to rethink your plan, noticing that it was snowing even harder now, and you really, really were not in the mood to drive home while it was snowing.  So, ordered yourself a pizza and went to Tyler's room, rummaging through his drawers to find yourself a pair of pj pants and a shirt. And then you found a string of garland, working on weaving it through the stairs, hanging the candy cane dog treats off it when you were done.  Marshall was very curious about what you were doing, so you had to instruct him not to eat all the treats right now.

It looked pretty great, in your opinion, when you were done.  The only thing you hadn't done was hung the star, because you'd have to stand on something to do so, and you didn't want to do that when your centre of gravity was constantly changing.  But, at least his tree would be up and decorated when he got home for the holidays.

You ate your pizza as you watched the end of the game, finally crawling into bed with Marshall afterwards, arranging a variety of pillows around you, with him curled up by your legs.  Both of you fell asleep pretty quickly, and you could hear Marshall start to snore just as you drifted off, too.

It was so much lighter in the room when you woke in a daze, realizing that what woke you was Marshall growling by your feet.  You reached your hand out to pet him, thinking he was dreaming, but his head was up, and he was staring at the half open door growling. You didn't hear anything, other than snow falling off the tree outside.  "Marshall," you said lightly, frowning when he bared his teeth, not even looking at you, "It's okay."

All of a sudden, he lept out of bed, barking like you'd never heard him bark before, pushing past the door, and  then you heard a voice. "It's just me."   It startled you, but it seemed familiar, and then you placed it, flying out of bed yourself because you could hear Marshall still barking and a commotion on the stairs.

"Marshall!" you yelled, throwing open the door, and seeing Tyler's Dad standing there petting Marshall now, who had calmed, although the hair on the back of his neck was still standing up, a remnant of him trying to make himself more intimidating.

When Marshall saw you, he came back over to you, and you crouched down, petting him, "It's okay," you said, and he licked you on the face, and then you asked Paul, "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Nah, he was fine once he realized who he was," he said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.  Tyler didn't tell me you were here."

"Oh, he doesn't know I'm here," you said, and then you cringed, "I mean, he gave me a key.  He just didn't know I was here, tonight."

He laughed, "It's his house, you don't have to explain it to me," he said, and you stood back up slowly, your legs feeling shaking when you realized you that you were standing here, in front of Tyler's father wearing Tyler's clothes, with a pretty noticeable baby bump.  And you had no idea what to say.

"You're...." Paul said, his eyes eyes drifting downwards and your hand going over your belly, because there was no way of hiding it. "I didn't know you were....expecting."

Shit, shit.  Shit, shit, shit.  

"Yeah," you answered, "Umm...Tyler was going to tell you over Christmas."

He nodded a little, looking like he was deep in contemplation.  "So, you're....living here now?  With Tyler?  I didn't see your car or anything."

"Oh, no, no," you said quickly, "I just came to set up the tree.  My car's in the garage. It was snowing, so I didn't want to drive."

He smiled then, for a moment, "That's just what I was coming over to do this morning."

"Oh sorry, I didn't realize."

"No, no, I'm sure you could do a better job of it than I could anyways," he smiled, "I just wanted it to be here for when Tyler got home."

You stood there for a moment, just looking at each other and then you realized the reason he thought you were living there, was because he thought the baby you were having was Tyler's.  Which it was.  But only kind of.

"It's his sperm!" you blurted out.  And then you realized you just said the word 'sperm' again, to Tyler's father, and you shook your head.  

"What?" Paul asked.

"I...I wanted to have a baby," you said, "And Tyler donated sperm.  At the clinic.  We went to the clinic a lot."  You realized you were rambling now, trying to make sense of anything, and avoid telling him all the details.

"It's not his responsibility," you tried, rubbing your hand over your belly more.  

"Oh," he said simply, and then he scratched the back of his head, much like Tyler did, "Well, I should go.  Let you go back to sleep."

"It's okay," you said.  It wasn't like this was your house anyways.

"Nah, I just came to do that job anyways," he said, looking like he was thinking about going, "You're not, you weren't planning on staying here tonight were you? I'm sure you can, I'm not saying you should go."

"I was going to go home," you said, and then added with a laugh, to make him feel like he wasn't putting you out, "There's no groceries here, anyways."

"Oh," he said, "Do you need groceries? I can..."

"Oh no, I've got plenty.  At home."

"Okay," he said, turning away and then back again, like he didn't know quite what to do.  "I'll just shovel the driveway for you before I go."

"Oh, that's okay," you said, leaning down to pet Marshall, hoping to steal some of his calm.  "You don't have to do that."

"It's no trouble," he said, "you should be safe."

You knew you weren't going to convince him otherwise, so you accepted, a mix of 'take care''s and 'it was nice to see you"s as he left, and you ran your hand over your face as soon as the door closed in embarrassment.  And then you realized you weren't even wearing a bra, either.  Great.

You took a long shower, needing to completely wash all the awkward off you, realizing that you'd need to call Tyler and tell him, but you couldn't face that right now.  Maybe after breakfast.  

After you got out of the shower though and realized that Paul was no longer in the driveway, you went back into Tyler's room and your phone was lit up with a text.

Tyler: HAHAHAHAHA

You groaned, focusing on making yourself pancakes , and feeding Marshall, and then  trying to enjoy said pancakes.

It was probably 40 minutes later when your phone rang, and you answered it with a heavy "hi", to which Tyler responded with giggles.

"I can't believe my Dad walked in on you," he took a break to breathe, "in my bed. And that Marshall tried to attack him."

"It's not funny," you said.  It was mortifying is what it was.  "And I was not in your bed.  I was in the hallway outside your bedroom."

"But you were in my bed," he said, "Why were you in my bed?"

"Tyler," you started.

"I gave you a key, you're allowed to use it," he said, still sounded amused by the whole thing.  "I'm just curious, why were you in my bed?"

"I...." you looked down at the dog at your feet, and remembered not to give away the whole surprise, "I came over to get some toys for Marshell and it started snowing so I just decided to sleep here."

If he didn't believe you, he didn't let on.  "Were you naked?"

"No, I was not naked," you said, "I was in your clothes.  Which is worse."

Tyler laughed.  "How is that worse?"

"Because it's like...it's like we're sleeping together."

"Well, we did sleep together," he said.

"Yes, but I don't want your Dad to know that," you said, and then you remembered there were so much more important things: the pregnancy.  The baby.  "What did he say?"

"Uh...I'm not sure if he really believed you," Tyler said, "Or me.  I might have to show him the paperwork."

"Oh god," you muttured, sitting down at the kitchen table again.

"Babe, it's fine," Tyler said, "Honestly.  Honestly, he's probably just glad I got someone pregnant on purpose."

You made a small noise because telling everyone was a lot, and you didn't expect to be so involved in the process.  Especially when Tyler had said it was his responsibility.

"Don't worry, I'll fix it," he said, "You're really making this easy on me, you know."

"Hmm?"

"You tell everyone, and then I just get to swoop in and smooth everything over," he said.

"Okay,  I did not tell your mother, you let it slip."

"You told her you were pregnant," Tyler said, "that helped.  You wanna tell my sisters, too?"

"No."

"Please?" He asked sweetly.

"Not a chance."

[hopeheartfilia]

everytime i learn anything new about ger-. Gerry, about gerry keay, i am reminded that i love him.

Also just, its nice to cathegorise, i find it a bit suprising that jonh hadnt put together that the entities are fears

I am not sure why only fear would have....Hmm i could spin so many theories about that part, there are at least 5 explanations at the top of my head and I feel that if I get into them it frankly would be wilder then This is a horror podcast, and it wants to tell stories about fears, which is the meta explanation, but there are a lot of in podcast possible reasons as well..

Anyway, I really like the colour analogy, especially how you would strech the variations only as much as they would serve you. We dont make different words for colours if we dont need them, and if the differences between two things are important to us, we willmake the necessary words. Anyway pink is a different colour then red because magenta looks quite a bit different then red and like, we still call light red pink, uts actually the definition, but when i think of pink its much more magenta, yeah there is no way to engage me then making it colour theory

Watch me make a colour wheel of the entities in the podcast, watch me

Im not sure I personally would subscribe as much to the 14 idea of smirk, not just because id happily punt smirk to death with a pipe (.. i remembered the leitner situation after writhing that one so refrence is partially intentional) but also because i uhh. okay so i see msot of those but also i wouldnt really seperate some of theese from eachother. Like the hunt and the slaughter? From a practical standpoint i can totally see it, and also the hunt, on the colour wheel, is between the slaughter and the eye, somewhere closer to the slaughter. There is of course some of the desolation but like. Hmmm. The colour wheel really needs to be done, ill spend hours just thinking about it untill i do it

Anyway I cant bepieve i kept calling the lonely the blue. Well to be fair i mostly called it the loneliness, but still

Anyway, I had heard of some of them online, like outside of podcast when looking at the fandom, I have seen all the names of the watching. The eye. The beholding. The terryfing ordeal of being known. the creep ass nerd entity (that is why gertrude was so dangerous. she had jock energy among nerds)

Anyway I hadnt even wondered about meat not being a common fear because it frankly seemed quite common to me? Maybe its because my grandmothers brother had a meat factory once, and so i learned at a young age all the shit that can go into one, maybe because everyone I know was at one point unnerved by what the fuck is in processed meat, maybe because i just consider it a common enough fear to be desensitised of it. (no wondering baout the name of that one. meat is meat. and like, isnt the fear of being just a slab of nothing more then a bunch of proteins held together in weird ways a common fear? its not about eating as much as about what you are eating, to me i guess)

and like the hunt also, i just assumed it was the fear of loosing yourself to it. And of course we have so much fear of being prey left over actually, like damn have you never felt like pray? Its such a viseral emotion that i wouldnt wonder for a second if someone gave me proof that it had a physical manifestation beyond a wild sprint around twisting alleyways, to get away, away before someone caught up to you. And like its not often about being eaten, its about being murdered or raped at 3 am on the way to your apartment when someone youre not sure you could take into a fight keeps making the same turns as you and slowing down when you slow down, changing routes to intercept you, persistance hunting

I dunno, i guess i just felt it pretty recently, there was this one occasion a few months back when i was certain this man was following me, made several purposeful changes of pace and direction and looking at car rareview mirrors to see if they waited for me to turn first, and i basically just lucked out that i knew the neighborhood better and can run pretty fast. Its not really a something you can proove or is realy worth going to authorities over, and nothing happened and i had other precautions and all, but the situation couldve taken a turn for the complicated or dangerous, and also I can safely say that humans still very much feel like prey, its just other humans doing the hunting

Aaaaanyway, i guess it can also be said that the spiral is kinda between the web and the stranger. I dont think if i wouldve called the spiral that, I used fractal more often? Because they were often mentioned in podcast and I like, its close to the stranger, i think i might just be forgetting the difference, because well the thing that michael wasnt before, i think its the spiral currently, but also the spiral is a bit of a facet to the stranger, but it does have this underline of lack of control over your actions (and also the wanting to know aspect i guess)

Anyway i really enjoy thinking about this stuff and also i should make a colour wheel