#i remember they used the chain in one episode for them and everyone went crazy. redacted is more the chain and they weren't even trying..

[cliveguy]

the test of a good classic 2010-2016 era ship is how hard the 8tracks playlist would go

[kaitlynpcallmebeepme]

Time-out

Time-out 

Jason x Reader

Idea: Jason keeps seeing a girl while he's out as robin or with the titans and she keeps disappearing before his eyes as soon as he asks if she needs help or something. Turns out she can freeze time and she's painfully shy so whenever Jason tries to say anything, she freezes time and hides in another spot. She reveals herself to Jason when she feels bad that the team is calling him crazy. The stopwatch is embedded into her chest and she doesn't remember much about that part. She can later be introduced to the team after Jason convinces Dick that she's real and she can meet everyone and possibly join the team.

Requested: Nope

Author’s Note:  I also haven’t finished the first season of DC Titans. I’ve been having a bit of writer's block where I have a lot of ideas written down but just don’t have a ton of ideas or motivation to write them. Sorry, this took so long to get up. My art below is what I was imagining the stopwatch would look like. I also couldn't resist some brotherliness between Jason and Gar.  The power idea came from a Penguins of Madagascar episode. Tell me if you want a part 2. Requests are still open. 

Warning: Lots of swearing. It’s Jason, what did you expect.  Also, some creepy dude from Arkham that I made up. Also, Dick is a little bit of an asshole. This is supposed to be when the Titans are helping out in Gotham.  The only spot I can think of in the show where it would be is the end of season 2 or very beginning of season 3. 

Word Count: 2,517 Damn this is long

Jason POV

It was a riot at Arkham.  Not the most common day thing we see, but it’s nice to not deal with a ton of people with powers.  Just assholes who think that they have the right to be powerful.  Some of the slippery ones that weren't superpowered got a couple of blocks away, so that was my and Garth’s job.  Find these stragglers and drag their asses back.  He was on the rooftops while I was scouring the streets on my motorcycle checking allies, mainly because people would freak out more from seeing a green tiger roam the streets than a guy on a motorcycle.  Everyone else was making sure the big guns at Arkham were still locked up, so it was just us two on the streets.

The motorcycle noise was loud in my ears as I scanned the allies hoping to find some inkling of where these fuckers went off to.  Then a scream got my attention and the sensors in my visor picked up on the location.  As I rounded the corner into an ally, I saw someone held at gunpoint with a wall to their back.  I flipped forward off my motorcycle sending it flying toward the assailant.  I still had my fists up, in case he wanted to take the fight up with me, but the motorcycle did most of my job for me.  That’s one Arkham scumbag down.  

I turned to look at who this guy was hellbent on getting. A girl, around my age I’d guess, with a brown leather jacket on was staring the guy down.  I approached her slowly because being attacked can do crazy things to people, but being in shock can also do that too.  

“Mam, are you ok?”

As soon as we made eye contact, I blinked and she was gone.  What the fuck.  Nothing left of her, just gone.  

I turned my attention toward the bitch that tried to grab her.  I dragged his ass toward the dock and held him over the edge by his neck.  “What did you want with her?”

“What anyone wants with a young girl.” Punch.  I grabbed his neck as tight as I could and got up in his face.

“You know King Shark lives in these waters.  I knock your ass over you’re as good as dead.”

“You don’t know that.”

Yeah, I didn’t know that, but it sounded good. 

“Try me.”  He was sweating at this point.  As much as I want to get this info out of him, I want this shit to be over with.

………….

“I didn’t know who she was.” 

“What did she look like.”

“About your height. Gold chain around her neck.  I thought I could get that and then make my way out of the city.  I don’t know who she was I swear.” I moved his head closer until I could see my reflection in his pupils.

“Well, you got a nice spot waiting for you back at Arkham.” Headbutt. 

Ow, those hurt.  Those are probably easier for Batman because of his helmet.  I kicked him in the balls for good measure.  If he had any other plans than just to steal her necklace, then he fucking deserved that.  

But she still was a mystery to me.  How can someone disappear right before my eyes?  

I looked at my surroundings one more time.  If being with Bruce and Dick taught me one thing, it was to be observant.  The dock to my back, my motorcycle laying tipped over, a door to the inside of the building.  I looked up a bit further to the corners of the building and found what I was looking for.  A camera.  Even though you never know when those don’t work in Gotham, it was worth a shot to see if it got her.  

“Robin!”  I looked up a bit past where I was looking before and saw Gar on the roof with what looked like three people still intact beside him.  How he got them up there I don’t care to find out.  “You coming?” 

“Yeah. Let’s head back.” I picked up the piece of shit, put him on the back of my motorcycle, and headed back to Arkham with Gar close behind me.  I still can’t figure out what I saw, but I knew I saw something.  

Back at the Mansion

Bruce asked us to stay the night since it was a long way back to San Francisco with another one of our “Family Trips” as Gar likes to call them.  

I, however, didn’t want to sleep.  I can sleep all I want on that RV ride back.  I want to find what I can about what I saw while I’m still in Gotham.  That led me to staying down in the Batcave the whole night.   

I’m not as tech-savvy as Dick or Barbara, so it took me a while to get the footage of the dock where I was that night.  By the time I got it, I heard the elevator ding altering me that someone was coming down.  The doors opened and it was Gar.  At least his first reaction won’t be to call me crazy if I tell him what I’m trying to look for.  “What are you doing up?”

“What are you doing down here Jason?  Dick told us to go to bed hours ago.”  

“I bet he’s not asleep.” Gar gave me that look.

“That’s not the point. What are you doing?”

I contemplated telling Gar, but his help on this would be useful.  Especially since the footage just proved that I’m not completely crazy.  

“Look at this.” Gar came around the desk to look over my shoulder at the screen. “This is the dock where I got the last guy we were looking for tonight.  This here is the person he tried to shoot. This is when I asked them if they were okay, and that’s at 05:32:33.  She looks at me and at 05:32:37 she is not in the frame.  She didn’t move, and the footage doesn’t look like it’s been edited at all.  In those 4 SECONDS, she went from being in the frame to out of the frame and she didn’t move.  I KNEW I saw something!”

Gar was just looking at the screen to see if he could catch anything else.  “Well, that’s physically impossible.  At least when it’s Conner you see a blur of what direction he went.  It’s just like she DISAPPEARED.”

“I know! Which is why I’m trying to figure out who she is.  I don’t think she’s bad because I think she would’ve beaten the shit out of me."  We both stared at the screen contemplating what we should do with this information.

“You think we should tell Dick?” 

“Do you really want Dickie Bird involved?”

“Dick knows more about finding missing people than we do.  He also knows how to deal with things we don’t know much about.  He also would know what to do once we found her.  Have you thought that far ahead of what you’re going to do once you find her?”

No. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.  I think my initial journey just wanted to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, but now I’m intrigued as to who she is, what she can do, and, maybe a small part of me, wanted to see if she can join our band of misfits.  I sighed not willing to put up with much of a fight.

“Ok. We’ll tell Dick in the morning.” And that’s where our night ended. 

The Next Morning

Dick was surprisingly on board with us finding this girl.  Don’t know if it was the camera footage about what she could do that piqued his interest or the fact that Dick just wanted to make her a friend before she was a threat.  Either way, we extended our stay in Gotham.  "And here I was about to call you crazy when you told me what you saw Jason." 

I gave him the slight stink eye before he continued. We're a vigilante crime-fighting gang, no one in this group is a sane mind.

“There have been no robberies where the items were there one second and gone the next, so we don’t have her convicted of any crime nor any evidence that she’s a current threat.  If you do happen to see her out there, don’t focus on taking her down.  Focus on trying to get her to not run away."

"Okay. But does that mean we aren't going on a search for her?"

"Unless you can find her on more cameras around a focalized area to give us a narrower range to search, I don't see us doing much until dark.  But I still don't know if we're both crazy or if this is worth the effort."

Ok, Dick, you're clearly not as invested in this case as I am. This is probably the most invested I've been in a case Ever.

"Ok. I'm going to take a nap and then scout the areas before it gets dark. I don't think after being attacked, she'll be out at night anytime soon."  I headed up to the bedrooms of the mansion before he could rebuttal me.  I grabbed a snack and took a nap in preparation for patrol.

Later that night, on a rooftop in Gotham.

"Both crazy. I saw what I saw." I grumbled as I stood on the rooftop overlooking some of the alleyways with a good view. 

"I'm sorry they're calling you crazy." I turned around fists up at the stranger's voice.  I don't know how she could sneak up on me. 

"Who are you? What are you? How did you find me?" She hesitantly approached me and sat near the edge of the rooftop.  As I sat down next to her I could see her more clearly than I could before.  She did have a thin gold chain around her neck, but her brown jacket covered most of that up. 

"I figured you would come to the same spot looking for me after you knocked the shit out of that guy last night.  Name's Y/N." 

"Robin." We both just stared at the night, not making eye contact.  I figured if she wanted to talk then she would.  She also went to all of the trouble to find me again, so I doubt she would do all of that work just to keep silent.

"As far as who I am and what I am, I'm human, but just a tad bit stranger." 

"How so," I asked intrigued. She moved her hand, and I saw she was wearing a thumb hole shirt, up to her collar and pulling down her shirt to expose her neck and some of her chest. Her skin is really beautiful. Pay attention Jason.  Embedded in her chest was a gold pocket watch. Whit and red scar tissue streaked all around it while a chain wrapped from the pocket watch up around her neck and disappeared down her right arm. She then pulled her right sleeve up to show the rest of the chain still embedded in her skin with the end of it going down the back of her hand and the ring at the end sitting on her ring finger. She started to play with the scarring on her hand telling me she was nervous and possibly self-conscious about it. 

"I don't remember how this got in me.  I just know what it can do now."

"Which is?"

"Freeze time."

"Excuse me." She giggled at my response. I must look like an idiot, but anything to do with changing time is new for me. 

"Stare at me and keep doing it." I looked into her eyes, resisting my urge to look down as her hand went up to the watch in her chest. One second she was in front of me. I blinked, and she was no longer there. 

"What ya looking at?" Jesus fuck. She literally appeared on my other side in ZERO seconds.  

"What the fuck that was awesome." She shrugged her shoulders at my excitement.  

“I mean yeah.  It’s good when you need some extra sleep or when you steal food at the back of the store shelves. No one looks there.”   She and I just kind of stared at each other waiting to see if the other would speak first.  I just went to the edge of the roof and sat down (not too close because that gives me bad memories of almost jumping off). I patted the spot next to me and like a puppy she sat down. 

"Do you have anywhere stable to go? And before you answer this don't feel bad about saying no because I didn't have anywhere either until a short while ago."  She just looked at me with a curious eye debating if she could trust me.  She sighed staring off at the sky before answering. 

"No. Anywhere with a voluntarily open door usually gets slammed in my face.  I usually just stay up all night, freeze time when doors open in the morning and sleep for a while there."  I understood what it felt like to be a rejected street kid.  I didn't want to give her the 'I understand where you're coming from' speech because everyone has different experiences even if you've been there.  Also, no one believes that people are going to help when it gets lectured to them. Or maybe that's just me. I also doubt if she'll believe me if I say 'I got adopted by stealing the wheels off the batmobile'. But this was worth a shot.

"What if I told you that the same person that took me in would be willing to take you in, even with these powers." She turned her eyes back to me with a questioning look trying to find what to say.  I don't think this is how she thought this conversation would go.  “You don’t have to say yes now, you can wait to meet them if you want, but I just feel bad about you being here alone when you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

"Ah, what the hell. You beat up those jackasses last night for me, the least I can do is try to hear you out." Jackpot. My face lit up more than she expected. 

"Great, I mean… I have to ask him first but can you meet me here at midnight tomorrow and we'll be here?" 

"As long as the world's not ending I'll be here Robin." I can't wait until you'll be able to say my actual name. Focus Jason. 

She got up and walked toward the fire escape and just like last time, one second she was there. The next, gone. However, I did feel a slight shiver down my spine as if when she froze time she kissed me, but that part I could be dreaming. I got up and made my way to my motorcycle parked in the alleyway. Now comes the hard part. Asking Dick to trust me. 

[judyhopps934-mt-zd]

Thoughts on Gang of Secrets

Warning: Spoilers and intense emotions. Have fun!

Chat Noit sensed that something is wrong with Ladybug. Love how he can sense that based on what she doesn't say.

She almost didn't pound it and was distracted to do so. Oh boy.

BOIIII WHY DID YOU TAKE HER TO THE MOVIES???? THIS IS NOT THE TIME!!! AND LADYBUG KNOWS THIS AS SHOWN BY HER FACIAL EXPRESSION!!! I am SCREAMING because he took her to a movie ABOUT ROMANCE!!!

The civilians do not mind that superheroes are going to the movies. That is until...

Ladybug goes into this rant about romcoms and I agree with every word she says. There is no such thing as a happy ever after and things do not go perfectly. Go off Ladybug!!! There's a reason why I hate rom coms.

The civilians being shocked/annoyed from her rant just adds to it. I am guessing because this is literally freaking Paris and considering the couples there. Has the same vibes as Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls when he approached a couple to say marriage is terrible in the second episode.

Hurts that the rant was the reflection of Marinette's dilemma.

Chat finds out that it was about heartbreak. He finally picks up about social cues! Good work Chat! Too bad that you learned that after your breakup with Kagami.

Ah, the swimming pool. A great place to go to forget your heartbreak go for a swim.

Realized that akumas cannot attack people if they are submerged under water, which is why she goes to the pool and a theory roaming online that she goes to the pool to cry makes a lot of sense.

I know this is a kids show and that logic gets thrown out the window, but does no one in Paris find it fishy that Ladybug in her swim suit enters the Dupain-Cheng household???? I feel like no one cares.

Ladybug might say that the board of pictures with Adrien and Luka and some of her friends might not bother her, but it seems to bother her somewhat as it is a reminder of the relationships that she can't have as long as she's Ladybug. It hurts badly though.

Unpopular opinion: The Kwamis can be good at providing comfort and probably make them laugh, but they are not the best therapists. Do not blame them though.

Marinette only detransforms for Tikki's wellbeing. She is at that point where the only reason she does something is because someone else is suffering, not for herself. It hurts seeing her suffer like this.

Tikki is fine despite being in the earrings for a long time. She is more concerned about Marinette though.

Meanwhile, the girls have their suspicions about Marinette as they did not know about her breakup with Luka until he told Juleka, which started a chain that I cannot remember, but do remember that it ended with Alya.

They call Marinette, but she does not answer because what will she tell them? The not answering part is a mood, but the reason hurts.

Alix being like "why not get orange juice with her and talk about her feelings" and everyone else staring at her as if she was the one with a crazy idea. I can't! Especially when she was like "*sigh* fine"

Also, Luka is not taking the breakup well either if Juleka's photo is anything to go by.

The bracelet idea is cute. I did something similar to that Junior year.

The scene from the ad that made us mad: Marinette transforming angrily after saying how her life as Marinette is complicated and prefers to be Ladybug all the time. It hurts to see this scene actually be in the 3rd episode as the guardianship and the breakup had consumed her so quickly.

Baby girl, we love you and we know as the audience how hard your life is now. This is why we are very concerned about you challenging ShadowMoth. Concerning.

But she breathes and goes back inside. Glad that you blew off some steam, but is everyone in Paris not aware that this just happened?!?!? Hello!?!?!?! Like Plagg said: People are blind. And a good thing too.

Just as this was happening, the girls come barging in. Good that they are great friends for being concerned, but have they ever heard of knocking?

Rose finds the dollhouse. Its a nice dollhouse, but isn't that too obvious that it will attract other people's attention? Not judging though, its a nice dollhouse and shows the expansion of Marinette's craft.

Originally, I thought they were coming after Marinette because of what happened in the episode "Ladybug", but glad to know her other friends cared about her too!

Alya comes up to find Marinette in the balcony just as she detransformed. That was WAYY too close.

Obviously, this made Marinette angry. Like who wouldn't be? They did barge into her room without asking and she was already stressed out as it is. And they were also snooping through her stuff.

In the heat of anger, Marinette said that she didn't want their friendship, which shocked everyone. So they left. But they weren't mad, they were just upset.

At least no friends means reduced amount to lying??? Yeah, but we need friends in life, so it is a lose-lose case.

Sabine asks of they are okay and no one says anything. I wonder if she will ask Marinette later on.

They go to the park and as they recall their pain, ShadowMoth akumatizes them in a link because of their emotional connection to the bracelet. They didn't even have to hold hands in a circle!

Finally, a safeguard for the Miracle Box that isn't obvious and is protected by a passcode. The record sonogram (or whatever is called) that Master Fu had!

Bruh, they couldn't come up with something different for the Gang of Secrets other than their former akumatized selves???

And then the girls (now the Gang of Secrets) barge into Marinette's room (again) to get her to spill her secrets.

Trixx using their power of illusion to lead the Gang of Secrets somewhere else. And Marinette was hidden.

Lady WiFi wondering how Marinette jumped 3 stories without superpowers was just that wholesome moment like girl you don't even know.

Every kwami using their powers without a holder has their own adverse affect. For Trixx, it was making the Eifel Tower dance (or at least I think it's dancing)

Plagg is like "this isn't a me thing, this is an everyone thing, but more importantly a Trixx thing." Adrien is like "M'Lady needs me!"

Ladybug and Marinette merge into one (figuratively speaking) when she tells Chat why the Gang of Secrets was there in the first place. Poor girl, we need to give her a hug.

Ladybug confronts Lady WiFi and tries to tell her that she is trusted and about Rena Rouge. Then...

SHE BREAKS OUT OF HER SIDE OF THE AKUMATIZATION!!!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALYA HAS BECOME THE FIRST PERSON TO BE AKUMATIZED AND BREAK OUT OF IT! AND SHE HURT SHADOWMOTH WHILE DOING SO! I'M HAPPY FOR MY GIRL.

Ladybug trusts Alya and gives her the Fox Miraculous again. Not complaining, but what about ShadowMoth knowing her secret identity??? Miracle Queen anyone??? You know, a chunk of the reason WHY MARINETTE IS SUFFERING IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?!?

Also, teleportation of the Miraculous from the Miracle Box to Ladybug's yoyo! (Well more like a direct connection!) Cool and smart!

Rena Rouge, THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US MARICHAT STANS AND OUT #justice for Marichat CAMPAIGN STARTED BY SOME OF MY FOLLOWERS ASKING FOR MORE MARICHAT EVEN IF IT WAS FOR 3 SECONDS!!!! (Yes I notice your comments peoples, I am generally a tired and busy person to respond, but I eventually acknowledge everything)

Can we take a moment and point out how amazing it was that Chat was fighting three (four???) akumas ON HIS OWN WHILE ON THE CAT PHONE!!! ICONIC!

IT WAS ALL SO CLOSE! SHADOWMOTH ALMOST HAD THE MIRACULOUS IF IT WEREN'T FOR PERFECT TIMING!

The moment with Alya in the alley! Friendship goals.

Marinette comes to terms that the breakup upsetted her so much and finds that love is complicated and chose friendship at the very least. Their reunion was what they all needed after what happened.

Alya stays behind to say that she knows that there is more, but will not press further. Can we get an applause for character growth?

Marinette asks her to stay longer as she wanted to tell her something.

It really was hard for her to keep lying to everyone and how she had to break up with Luka for this reason while also fearing that it would be the same with Adrien (she does not know, so she has a right to fear, also Chat Blanc!) She really needs a hug and such.

The whole concern about things changing between them is relatable to be but on a different context. It hit hard for me.

My fellow peoples: the moment that we were (sort of) waiting for ages is here:

JE SUIS LADYBUG! MARI TOLD ALYA THAT SHE'S LADYBUG!!!!

And Alya GIVES HER A HUG AS IN SHE UNDERSTOOD WHAT THIS MEANT AND THE REALIZATION OF WHAT MARINETTE WENT THROUGH!

As sad as I am that it was not Chat that she said this to first, I am glad that it was Alya. As her best friend literally hours prior to becoming Ladybug, having stuck by her side unconditionally, and having the willpower to break out of her akumatization, Alya is a perfect choice. Now I look forward to see how Alya helps Marinette deal with this burden.

Overall, this is a top tier episode, aka the best episode in the entire series in my opinion! I love how we explore Marinette's feelings regarding everything that is going on in her life and the ramifications of her being a guardian. It hurts and at the same time, it is beautifully executed! It shows the evolution of the writing and of the characters!

My arm hurt from the vaccine yesterday and these posts are usually long, so that's why it's released today rather than yesterday. Anyways, I recommend watching this episode!

[yellow----daisy]

Here's a Sammy/Marko fic I just wrote that takes place after the vlog where Marko goes crazy and kidnaps Sammy and Griff

Enjoy

Being Forgiven

Marko was in his hotel room sitting on the edge of the bed staring at the floor with a blanket around his shoulders. He just came back from that damn lake of reassurection and a shower and was truly realizing what the actual fuck he just did. He tried to seriously hurt four people he cared about, because he was being insecure about his relationship?? He had no reason to be so insecure. He knew Sammy loved him, yet when he saw him with Griff so often something in him just...snapped. Maybe Sammy's Matt Hardy obsession spreaded to him only he was obsessed with Sammy instead. He didn't know. Whatever it was, he didn't like it. His own creepy voice played in his head over and over. He never spoke like that in his life. He was embarrassed and ashamed of himself.

His thoughts were interrupted when Sammy emerged from his own shower. He was fully dressed minus shoes but his hair was still wet. "You doing ok?" He asked, sitting next to him on the bed. Marko shook his head and refused to look at Sammy. Sammy sighed and hugged his boyfriend from the side. "You know I forgive you right? There's very little things you could do to turn me away."

"I know…" Marko managed to choke out. "It's just...I'm upset at myself. I almost seriously hurt people I care about because I was insecure about us. I should've just talked to you about it and I didn't. I don't even know why I went as far as I did. I saw you with Griff so often and something just...came over me." A few stray tears fell down Marko's face. "I don't even have a reason I was so insecure. I just began to think...what if I'm not giving back enough? What if I'm not doing enough? What if I'm pushing you away into another man's arms? And before you say anything, I know all the answers to that. I know I'm making up fake scenarios. I know it's all in my head but…"

"Marko look at me." Sammy said, scooting back a bit so he could see him better. Marko looked up, more tears falling down his cheeks. "It's ok that you feel this way. There's nothing wrong with having insecurities. It's what you do with those insecurities that determines the type of person you are. While what you did was terrifying, and you should've talked to me, I did the same stuff to you for weeks. Minus the kidnapping. In a way, I got what was coming to me. I wouldn't trade you for the world or any other planet. I'm more than willing to move past this and forgive you if you're willing to talk to me more about stuff like this. If you can forgive me three times for the shit I've pulled, there's no reason for me not to do the same. You're a great friend and a fantastic boyfriend. I'll make sure you won't forget it."

Marko smiled a little and wiped his eyes. "Thanks Sam. And I can promise, you'll never see a crazy Marko like that again."

Sammy returned the smile then gently kissed Marko on the lips. Marko, feeling tired and a little drained, laid his head on Sammy's chest, to which the spanish God wrapped his arms around him. They say there in silence for a while, Marko letting out the last of his cries, until he was ready to sit up and drop the blanket from his shoulders. It was late so they decided to actually lay in the bed and watch a little TV before falling asleep.

Marko adored moments like these. Simply sitting and enjoying something as simple as a tv show with the lights off at night with the man he loved more than anyone. They were simple and small, but everything was large to Marko. Sammy even played with his hair halfway through the first episode they watched, and Marko nearly melted in his arms. He never told anyone, but when people—especially Sammy—played with his hair, he was like a dog who was being scratched in The Spot. Simply in heaven.

That was the last thing Marko remembered before he went to sleep.

The next morning everyone continued their day like last night never happened. Even Kip, Penelope, and Griff. It seemed they forgave Marko as easily as Sammy did. And damn was he lucky for that. He felt like he didn't deserve it. Man is this really how Sammy felt when he pulled that crazy Matt Hardy shit and drove Marko insane?

Either way, what was done was done and Marko spent most of the day with Sam, making sure to have some physical contact with him, whether it was hand holds or shoulder bumps.

Sammy decided to end the day with a little surprise. He was done with his aew duties first, and immediately went to run some errands, leaving Marko a note to meet him in their hotel room when he was finished. It was about half an hour later when Marko came back to the room. It was now dimly lit with green lights, Marko's favorite color, and heart chains strung on the walls. Sammy and Marko's song played on a bluetooth speaker and Sammy stood in the middle of the room, slightly dressed up. Nothing overly fancy, just a nice shirt and pants, but it did the job.

"Sam...what is this?"

"I figured you and I could end the day with a little dance. You still seemed like you could use some cheering up and proper romantic time."

"Sam….that's so sweet! You didn't have to do all this."

"But I wanted to. Anything for my fun sized boyfriend." He kissed Marko's cheek which made him giggle.

"Let me shower first. I'm gross."

"Fair enough."

After Marko's shorter than usual shower, he put on the nicest clothes he packed with him which wasn't all that nice and Sammy held his hand out to greet Marko with. Marko giggled again as he took it, being pulled in close to Sammy's chest. They had a beauty and the beast style position, their hands being held on one end while Marko's free hand rested on Sammy's shoulder and Sammy's on Marko's waist.

"You know neither of us can dance right?"

"Doesn't mean we can't try."

"Lead the way then Sam."

The two began to twirl around and dance as long as the song let them. And it really was a lot of twirling cause that's all they could do besides move side to side. It showed how little they've danced, but they enjoyed it nonetheless. When the song ended, they both stared into each others eyes with pure love before locking each other in a soft kiss. It lasted for a while, neither having the courage or will power to pull away. If Oxygen didn't get in the way, they'd still be kissing.

"That was….horrible. But in the best kind of way. Thank you Sammy. This was way too sweet of you to do."

Sammy shrugged. "What can I say? A god knows how to treat their partners."

"I can debunk that but I'll let you carry on."

"How?"

"Zeus."

"Oh right."

Marko leaned up and kissed Sammy's cheek. "Now come on, I'm tired and want out of these clothes."

"Don't gotta ask me twice." Sammy said, immediately going to the bathroom while taking his shirt off. Once they were in PJs, they both immediately crashed onto the bed and fell asleep in each other's arms. They probably should've cleaned up the small mess they made but, eh, they'd do it in the morning before leaving. Right now, all they worried about was sleep and the other man laying in their arms. Adulting priorities can come later.

[moonlitgleek]

I really enjoyed your post on the Sansa/Daenerys feud. Something I hated about the Starks in Season 8 is Sansa/Arya's kneejerk dislike of Daenerys (at least, before episode 5). They actually had Sansa say "She's not one of us!" And that recalls nothing so much as Cersei telling Joffrey "Anyone who isn't us is the enemy." When Season 8 validates Cersei and repudiates Ned Stark, things gone done got crazy.

It was actually Arya that said that but it’s not like the scene didn’t frame this as a shared sentiment among the Starks. That was basically “we don’t like your girlfriend who we don’t know and don’t care to get to know. She is not one of us and that makes our hostility and pettiness totally justified”. My god, do I hate that scene.

It pains me that they did this to Sansa and Arya. It infuriates me that their supposed victorious ending not only rewarded and validated a rather prejudiced attitude but also leaned heavily into making their abusers define who they are. To be clear, this is not because I expect them to be “good victims” who can only rise above their trauma or behave in the most moral of ways, neither am I saying that experiencing a change due to a trauma is necessarily a bad thing, but the show fundemntally changed who Sansa and Arya are to become some distorted version of their abusers. Sansa was turned into a cross between Cersei and Littlefinger, a person willing to betray and manipulate even her own brother to her advantage and who honest to god smirked over the death of an innocent woman and used it to goad Jaime. Arya became someone whose first instinct is to kill and who absorbed an exclusionary xenophobic view that came out of nowhere. I’ve mostly put the stupidity of last season’s conflict between Sansa and Arya out of my mind because it was so illogical and forced, but the writers genuinely tried to affirm that this is who these two women became (and pls don’t @ me about how they were totally plotting together from the start to bring down Littlefinger. No, they were not and the show’s attempt to make it look like that post-fact was painfully transparent)

The show changed the core of who the Starks are in service to the plot then inexplicably framed this change as a good thing we should side with, which hits at the heart of this series. I am admittedly very attached to the book!Starks but this goes beyond my preference for my favorites to be about changing the very meaning of ASOIAF. This series was never about rejecting ideals or branding those who believe in them idiots. It was never about validating the worldview of the Cerseis and Tywins and Petyrs of the world. It’s about the struggle to hold onto your idealism in a cold and corrupt world that tarnishes it and hollows it out, a world that tries to convince you that idealism is a chain that brings you down and that ruthless pragmatism is intelligence. It’s about our heroes looking into an abyss that tries to convince them that letting the cold in is the smart thing to do, fighting against a world that tries to strip them of their beliefs and saying “no, you move”. The theme of this series lies in characters like the Starks, Davos and Brienne trying to do the right thing even when it looks hopeless. Especially when it looks hopeless. It lies in “he could have tried, he could have died”, in “is there no true knights among you?”, in “he was no true knight”, in “the North remembers”. The message is that honor lives on and trying to do the right thing always matters even if you lose your life. And so yes, it absolutely does go back to Ned Stark, not only as the person whose teachings and ideals the Starks espouse but as the first casualty of the show’s misunderstanding of the main thesis of ASOIAF.

Game of Thrones took the surface victory of nihilistic players and made it its core message. It genuinely embraced Cersei’s sentiment that you either win or die in the game of thrones, and affirmed the worldview that honor is futile and stupid and gets you killed. Oh and also that you cannot escape your past, your trauma or your paternity. Screw idealism and trying to do the right thing. That’s pointless and hopeless. Except that it is not pointless in the books, it never was. Ned died but his legacy, his benevolent ruling ideology, and his honor won by inspiring not only his children to hold onto their ideals but the entire North to rise up in his name. Ned stands as clear proof that Cersei and the entire Lannister ideology is wrong. ADWD openly goes to bat for Ned’s legacy and what he stood for. It proves that the argument that honor is stupid and manipulative pragmatism is better is bullshit.

But the show did the exact opposite and actually went to great lengths to frame honor as this hollow thing that only forestalls and impedes. It scoffed at idealism and made it this naive thing that brings the characters down, which is exactly how Littlefinger described it to Ned in the first book. The show made the North abandon the Starks despite setting up the Northern plot from the books and having Sansa deliver an impassioned speech about loyalty, only to prove her painfully wrong. Jon failed when he bargained on how Ramsay’s apathetic view of his men’s lives would make them abandon him, even when these men watched Ramsay coldly fire at his own forces, but Sansa succeeded when she withheld the information about the Knights of the Vale. It was only natural for Sansa to then brand Ned and Robb as naive men who made stupid mistakes. Why wouldn’t she when the show turned Robb’s story into a simplistic tale of a guy who was led astray by love and who was blamed for the horrendous treachery of the Freys and Boltons, when Ned’s honor was scoffed at and undercut by the show itself at every turn? See also that lovely detour in the Dragon pit scene last season where Jon’s refusal to lie to Cersei was designed to have everyone roll their eyes at the stupid idiot who put his precious honor above a needed cease fire.

It sure fits the story then to have Jon bending the knee to Dany stripped from its foundational motive of her earning his loyalty by answering the call for help to become about his feelings for her. It fits to have Sansa try and push Jon’s claim without caring about his wants or the precarious position this puts him in or even his emotional state because she knows he loves Dany. It fits to have a stunning mix of manipulation, xenophobia, hostility and ungratefulness framed as not only smart but something to be validated. It fits to have the Starks’ triumph be so soured and so meaningless in its willingness to sacrifice people for their advantage. By all means do have them pursue a plan that would necessitate a conflict between Jon and Dany all for Northern independence, or hint that Bran might have known what was going to happen and kept silent.

And when you pair that with them trying to evoke sympathy for Cersei but make Dany into a fascist (don’t think I missed the Nuremberg callbacks) and demonize her visually, with them validating Cersei’s racism by focusing on the Unsullied and the Dothraki brutalizing the King’s Landing population, just what message are they trying to send. Whose worldview are they trying to validate and why?

I missed the Starks this season, especially the girls. I missed the Arya who makes friends with everyone despite rigid Westerosi attitudes towards class and race, who is extremely sensitive to injustice and who would be the first to cheer a Breaker of Chains. I missed the Sansa whose compassion extended to even enemies and whose entire conception of rulership was about protecting people. I missed the Bran who is so connected to Winterfell that he compares its survival and its perseverance to his own. I missed the kids who held onto their compassion, their loyalty and their ideals in the face of a corrupt world trying to convince them such sentiments are futile. I missed the Starks.

[vonlipvig]

Survivor Winners at War Ep 12 Recap

We’re getting close to the end! In this episode, man I knew I shouldn’t have manifested anything, look what happened now...

So after the Sophie vote, Tony’s got some explaining and damage control to do. And oh my god, I love how the episode starts with Sarah on her confessional going “Ok Sarah, be calm, don’t blow up”, and then THIS

I feel the italianness to my bones.

And I really love to see these two together cause aaaaa they’re just so good. Cause like, Tony very much took out one of Sarah’s closest allies in Sophie, but he really managed to make her feel safe and secure and like they still have a trusting bond (which, they very much do!). And as for Sarah, yeah she can scream at him but she was like “I’ll be with you, until I’m sunk and then I’ll sink you too, no mercy” WHICH IS GREAT, cause she can very much benefit from their mutual partnership!

UGH THEY0RE BOTH JUST SO GOOD I LOVE THEM.

And then Tony goes to calm down Ben which ALSO WORKS, although Ben is still very much not wanting to talk to Jeremy. Also Tony gets pooped on by a bird. They are in the jungle, after all.

Because everything is wonderful, we get more Crazy Tony stuff, and after a quick recap of THE SPY SHACK and THE SPY BUNKER (rip) we see the birth of THE SPY NEST.

And god, did I mention how much I love the Tony and Sarah buddy cop partnership?

Can y’all spot Tony? Where could he be!

(Also Sarah saying “if Tony was my partner in real life, one of us would get fired.” Please, I need Sarah and Tony buddy cop comedy PLEASE).

In other news, Miss Kim planted the idea of getting rid of Tony, which...is a very sound idea, considering the dude is doing really well. He does have an idol, but you can always hope to blindside him, and now could be a good time...

Back in Depression Island, it’s Log Challenge 2: Electric Boogalo, coconut edition! Y’all remember the one where they had to bring back a bunch of logs one at a time? Well, they gotta do that again! But with coconuts! Oh, and only the first six actually get tokens. Time to go!

Adam is such a mood. Also, love how even in EoE, the show is like we WILL keep making fun of Adam, bet on it dfjkdfhkdj (him getting lapped, and then seeing Wendell jump from rock to rock and going “huh?? how did you do that?? dkfjhdkh relatable king).

Natalie is being a total Queen, and everyone is like “yo Natalie is killing it” which SHE IS. Then people get injured, too, which scared the CRAP out of me like PLEASE ROB AND DANNI DON’T DIE HERE.

In the end, the placements are Natalie, Sophie, Yul, Parv and Tyson, and Wendell, all with tokens (also then Rob went and tried to complete the challenge, even when it was over, which...I mean good for you dude, but don’t tire yourself over nothing! Save energy for the challenge!)

Back in the game, it’s idol hunting for everyone, now that Sophie’s idol is back in play. Ben and Tony are kind of searching together, and Ben finds the idol and...tries to hide it really obviously, to which Tony is like “dude, I’m right here I can see you lmao” which KDHGKHDKFHDK I love him a lot.

So yeah, Ben gets the idol and is trying to put Tony at ease, cause everyone wants Tony out right now. Also we get this:

aber, bézense :)

Now it’s challenge time--the good ole classic “stand with your arm chained to a rope tied to a bucket full of water” but with a twist of standing on a narrow beam--and.........sigh.......I have issues.

So, there were two immunity necklaces, one for the last woman, and one for the last man. Obviously everyone wants to vote for Tony (at least the vast majority), so you gotta make sure he doesn’t lose, right?

But then what happens is that Jeff comes out with cookies and peanut butter...and all hell breaks loose. First Michele stands down, ok whatever, BUT THEN...KIM STANDS DOWN AS WELL? KIM!? That makes Denise win immunity cause Sarah was out, but KIM...you’re putting together the plan, you’re a Big Threat in everyone’s book...WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THIS?

AND THAT’S NOT ALL. Then Nick tells Tony that he’ll let him win if he gives him one token, and when Tony says yes HE STEPS DOWN, TOO!? FOR FUCKING COOKIES!? WHAT THE HELL ARE Y’ALL DOING!?

So yeah, Tony challenge beast confirmed, y’all are fucking stupid lmao.

People are now trying to go for the second plan, aka Jeremy, but Ben goes and snitches on Tony about them trying to blindside him, and he goes and confronts Nick which dfjkdhkj MAN IT’S SO OBVIOUS. But yeah, Tony finds out it was Kim that tried to bring together the plan, so he goes after her.

BUT he has to try to convince Ben, which is SO deadset on Jeremy, but DAMN HE FUCKING DOES SUCH A GREAT JOB. It’s still like oh which way will they go? But it’s could happen...

And then...Michele gives Jeremy her 50/50 coin? I’m...? What? I mean yeah, he’s your ally, but you’re gonna VOTE FOR HIM AS WELL? To vote with the “majority”? Girlie, Idk...

Then it’s TC time, and I love how when they mention that Kim, Michele and Nick all dropped out for cookies, Parv is like:

LITERALLY ALL OF US AT HOME WATCHING. WTF.

And then it’s...well, it’s a whisperfest again, VERY chaotic, very convoluted and confusing...but there were more subtitles with time! Yay!

(Also Denise being done like OK FUCK IT LET’S VOTE WHATEVER jkdfhdkjfh mood)

When it’s time, Jeff goes “Anyone wants to play anything do it now or find out”, and OH SHIT, first Tony says “Wait a minute Jeff”, and then he’s almost gonna play it for Sarah but she goes “No dude, don’t do it” and AAAAAAAAAAA HOW BALLSY (I guess you gotta trust your alliance, but AAAA SARAH DON’T SACRE ME LIKE THAT).

And then Jeremy ALMOSTTT playing the 50/50 but ALSO not doing it, and in the end THEY WERE ALL RIGHT, cause Kim got voted out. And listen, I’m SO SAD I love Kim to pieces, she’s so hot, but either Tony or Kim was gonna lose this episode, Tony was immune and it ended up being Kim. At least it was entertaining.

[hellyeahomeland]

“Two Minutes”: an  HYH recap

The episode opens as Carrie takes a we-should-really-retire-this-phrase-but “whore’s bath” in what has to be the most poorly lit bathroom in the history of the universe. For some unknown reason she’s watching the news, which is definitely a thing one should do in a crisis to relieve stress. Side note but throughout the show’s entire run they’ve had a fake cable news station called CNB and I appreciate that it’s stuck it out in this imaginary universe for as long as we have.

Somewhere in the Korengal, Max is very sweaty and very tired and—surprise!—still carrying around that flight recorder in his backpack like a hero. The Taliban soldier stops their mountainside trek for a bit to pee. Max sees a plane (or drone?) flying overhead and begins shouting and runs off. A scuffle ensues, Max kicks him flat on his back. We are surprised Max has it in him but, again, hero. All this comes to a gasp-inducing end when the Taliban shoulder shoots Max from behind in the shoulder, the place where everyone on this show ends up getting shot (literally, left shoulder, what is it with this??). He falls to the ground with a thud.

Back at the White House, HIOHHP steps into the Oval Office to give a short address. Linus touches every inch of his face while he looks on.

HIOHHP: Good evening, America. In the words of Shaggy, it wasn’t me.

It’s over after about 20 seconds and HIOHHP and Linus get the fuck outta there and head into the situation room and everyone gets up when he enters and blah blah blah. They’re having technical difficulties connecting to Kabul station, which I take it is something that happens quite frequently at the CIA.

In Kabul station, Carrie asks Saul—for what is probably the eleventy hundredth time—where is Max and is he alive and who is looking for him?? Carrie has no concept of making herself less annoying while everyone is still wondering why the heck she’s stuck around in Kabul this long but THAT IS WHY WE LOVE CARRIE.

Carrie goes and finds another person to annoy, this time poor Lonnie in the computer room. Lonnie is, what’s the phrase, Totally Over It. She badgers him with questions about the phone calls they’re listening to, wanting to know if there’s been anything about Max. She asks for the keywords in the audio that trigger some sort of automated something or other. The words on this list are the names of various mass transit systems in America (??), countries in the Middle East, and ominous noun/verbs like “bomb,” “murder,” and “attack.” Carrie quite astutely points out that they’re NOT THAT DUMB. Lonnie is basically like, “if you want to add more words, be my guest. Also who are you again??”

Keyword list in hand, Carrie heads back onto the main floor just in time to eavesdrop on the arrival of Vanessa Kroll, who is leading the FBI investigation of Just What the Fuck Happened Out Here, Guys?! We can tell right away that she Means Business because she asks for a room with doors that close. Shouldn’t this be every room in Kabul station? Anyway, Carrie overhears the whole thing and has a bit of an “oh shit” look on her face, probably because she’s been meeting with Yevgeny in secret for God knows how long and oh! the CIA are thisclose (actually they’re finished, but she doesn’t know that) to learning what was actually said at her meeting with Yevgeny a few days ago.

Despite all of this, Carrie could really use some fresh air, so she hops on her motorcycle. I know it’s a stunt double and not actually Claire Danes riding this thing but IT IS SO BADASS THAT CARRIE JUST KNOWS HOW TO RIDE A MOTORCYCLE. And she really does. She weaves in and out of traffic with ease. And she also has to reroute herself several times, which is how we know she’s been to the place she’s going at least a few times before. And where is that? YEVGENY’S PLACE, which would be a cool name for a mid-90s sitcom. Anyhoozles, he opens the door like, “oh, you again?” and she barges right in because—I repeat—they’ve done this before.

Carrie: First things first, this is definitely the beginning of an arrangement, despite what I’m saying now. Yevgeny: I’m so tall that I’m literally leaning my elbow on this china cabinet. Carrie: Remember that time you took away my meds and I went totally crazy and then tried to kill myself? Yevgeny: Yeah, I saved you. Carrie: Ok, well saving me wasn’t the actual favor. What I’m asking for now is. Yevgeny: I’m listening. Carrie: My friend, Max, my ONLY friend, is missing. I think the Taliban have him. I have to save him. Yevgeny: Damn, I’m surprised you have a friend. Carrie: I know you have contacts in the Korengal. Can you figure out where he is? Yevgeny: On one condition! Carrie: Which is? Yevgeny: You need to break into the computer room at the CIA and cut off the surveillance over the region, otherwise my contact is gonna get bombed to oblivion right after I call him. Carrie: First, I’m amused you think I even know how to do something in a computer room. Second, no way! Yevgeny: Ok, then I can’t help you. Carrie: But—! Yevgeny: Look, you came to me. I’m not making you do anything. It’s a phone call, two minutes. All I’m asking for is two minutes. Carrie: Hey, I said that line once… I can’t fucking believe this is happening to me and I further can’t believe how attracted I am to you right now. I need to take a few steps backward otherwise I don’t know what might happen. Yevgeny: I’m just gonna lean over here since I know you like when guys lean. Carrie: FINE. I’LL DO IT. Be ready at 3pm. I hope our watches are synchronized.

Over at the presidential palace, G’ulom is asking Saul and resident hottie Scott Ryan where Haqqani is. He’s convinced the Americans have him. They go back and forth about the 300 Taliban soldiers G’ulom has locked up in a soccer stadium without food or water. He’s gonna murder them all soon, they’re pretty sure. Anyway they all hate each other and Saul doesn’t even have the will to pretend anymore. He straight up accuses G’ulom of crashing both the helicopters so he could become President. Phew! G’ulom says they can both gtfo and they do.

Carrie returns to Kabul station for her interview with Vanessa Kroll, which lasts about 30 seconds and she stops just short of being like, “wait you’re not gonna arrest me now?” Give it time, Carrie. Give it time.

…Because Mike is finally listening to the recording of Carrie’s conversation at the mosque with Yevgeny. And it’s even worse now, mostly out of context, and given that Carrie fully lied on her contact report. Mike says things like “fucking Christ.” Jenna, God bless her, thinks maybe Yevgeny is lying and also totally understands why Carrie would lie about all this. Mike wants to report this up the chain but decides to sit with it a while.

Somewhere in Afghanistan, Max is—thank God!!!!—still alive, asleep on a mattress in some random dude’s house. The Taliban soldier picks up his backpack and takes it into town to sell off some of those Hot American Goodz. But not the flight recorder! No one knows what that weird red box even is for. It’s promptly moved to the back of the shop and put on the junk shelf.

In Kabul, Haqqani remains hidden, also in some random dude’s house. Random dude informs him that G’ulom has a million dollar bounty on his head and if he doesn’t turn himself in he’s gonna murder everyone in the soccer stadium, so Scott Ryan was correct. What a quandary!

HIOHHP is in the Oval Office and Linus has rolled up his sleeves so you know shit is getting real. Saul and Scott inform them that G’ulom is gonna murder all these people without due process, which is totally against their constitution. If that happens, they’ll see a wave of insurgency that will once again completely destabilize the country. Which means more troops. Remember two days ago when we were so close to peace? HIOHHP needs to get on the phone with G’ulom ASAP to make sure this doesn’t happen and he can start by threatening to withhold all aid from them.

He agrees to get on the phone and then has a highly hilarious exchange with Linus where they say the word “G’ulom” over and over and fuck, this show is funny again!

The phone call, however, is a bust. HIOHHP plays right into G’ulom’s hand. He says things like “no” when he really means “yes” and just repeats Saul’s talking points, only less coherently, and by the end G’ulom gets him to agree that they gotta murder all these Taliban soldiers immediately since it will be a defining ~presidential moment~. Linus nearly falls out of his chair. Bet Elizabeth Keane is looking pretty great now, huh? I hope she’s enjoying an extended Caribbean vacation.

It is 14:52 which means Carrie has eight minutes until she needs to do something with computers. Jenna attempts to follow her, but Carrie catches on. Jenna is actually inches away from Carrie’s door when she opens it, asks smartly if she needs anything, before Jenna makes up a lie so bad Carrie could have come up with it. I am starting to feel badly for Jenna because she cannot do literally anything she’s supposed to.

Carrie makes her way to the computer room and once again we are treated to some high comedy. She gets Lonnie to print something for her and purposely causes a paper jam in the computer. Lonnie remains Totally Over It but Carrie causes just enough of a diversion to cut off the surveillance to the Korengal region. I know what you’re thinking: this is so unbelievable! The wires would never be out in the open, unlocked, where just anyone could disconnect them. Unfortunately, I totally believe this is how the CIA operates. And also, Carrie could never do something with a computer! On that point, you are right. Anyway, two minutes pass and she reconnects the wire and gets her stack of paper so it was a pretty good day for Carrie!

Oh wait…. Mike decides to bring his concerns to Saul. Carrie and Yevgeny have met, he recorded their conversation, she fully lied about what they said, and it’s all Very Concerning and he thinks that Carrie may have unwittingly helped Yevgeny assassinate Beau! Saul very evenly says “I am going to have to listen to that tape.”

Haqqani decides that he will turn himself in, only to the Americans, not to G’ulom. Because then he’ll get a trial, and everything always turns out cool when you trust the Americans. He must not know Saul’s not running this dealio anymore. Everyone looks at him like he’s crazy and I must stress that this show making me feel badly for Haissam Haqqani is messing with me.

Later, Saul, having just listened to The Tape, knocks on Carrie’s door.

Saul: Let me cut to the chase. What the fuck’s going on with you and Yevgeny? Carrie: Did Mike brainwash you? Saul: Just answer me. Carrie: Lies, lies, lies, more lies. Saul: I know you just said lies. I heard the tape. Carrie: Fuck, the tape. You heard all of it? Saul: Yes. Look, this is all my fault. Carrie: Yeah, I know. Wait, how…? Saul: It was my idea to bring you here and now look what’s happened. Carrie: Jesus, can we stop talking like I’m a child? Saul: No we cannot! Look, here are the facts. You had a relationship with Yevgeny complicated enough to lie about. We’ve literally been here before. Secondly, he saved your life. Even you would feel indebted to him an eensy bit. Carrie: Ok when you put it that way, it sounds really bad. Saul: You told him about Franny. That you thought you were a danger to her. Is that true? Carrie: Goddammit, Saul, you know that’s my trigger… Saul: You never told me these things! How can we be in a codependent relationship if you keep from me things that you know I would absolutely judge you for? Carrie: I’m still putting the pieces together. I’m not trying to be evasive, I literally don’t remember everything. Saul: Yeah, that’s why you have to leave, pronto. Back to Germany. Say hi to Otto for me. Carrie: Absolutely not, I can’t leave Max behind. I sent him here. I mean, actually you did, but I have a thing where I feel guilty about things that aren’t really my fault. Saul: CARRIE, PLEASE JESUS. You look guilty AS FUCK. You talked Warner into coming here. You knew for an hour after meeting him where he was going. That’s enough time to make a phone call! Carrie: This is bullshit. Saul: Of course it’s bullshit, but the FBI needs a scapegoat and baby, you’re it! Carrie: Idgaf. Doing everything we can to find Max means keeping me here because Yevgeny has a lead, I just talked to him. Let me call him back! Saul: I want… to take a nap.

It’s… a devastating, climactic scene. In the way Saul pleads with Carrie, and she pleads back with him. So layered in all they’ve gone through the last seven seasons and beyond…

He thinks Yevgeny is trying to recruit her, just telling her what she wants to hear. She says that’s not what’s happening. They’re at an impasse and Saul finally just tells her she’s getting on that fucking plane to Germany willingly or in handcuffs. (There’s a third option he doesn’t yet know about.)

Thirty minutes later, Carrie does have her shit and is ready to leave. She smiles at Saul, which is how he should have known something was up. She gets in the car and, would ya look at that! Haqqani is surrendering himself in front of the embassy at this exact moment! Guess we’ll see where that ends up.

Elsewhere, Max has finally woken up. No he’s not ok. He was just shot! But his backpack is gone and he needs it back. The flight recorder! Cut to a long procession of donkeys carrying cargo through a mountainous valley. They have all sorts of stuff strapped to their backs including one red flight recorder! And the Emmy for Best Comedy Series goes to… Homeland!! Much applause!!

At the airport, Carrie wishes Jenna good luck, which is Carrie code for “fuck you and lose my number.” She scans her boarding pass and goes onto the jetway with the other passengers. Jenna continues her string of having one fucking job and failing at it because she departs soon after.

Right on cue, Carrie activates the aforementioned third option and makes a sharp right turn off that jetway, down a staircase, out onto the road below. and into the car of Yevgeny, ever punctual. He gives her a look like “damn I missed you,” before they both speed off.

[magaprima]

Part 2 Episode 5 Thoughts (1 out of 2)

Okay, before I begin my usual rambly analysis, just wanna say that first scene with Lilith and it focus on that cabinet...I’m sure I have that, or something very similar. But anyway, onwards

Can’t help but notice that when Lilith is sat in the chair, chatting to Stolas, swigging an enticing glass of whiskey, with the lighting and the way the fire is glowing in the hearth and casting her shadow all around the room, this not only creates the illusion of hell, reminding us of where exactly Lilith truly lives, that for all her time spent living in this cottage, her true home is in Pandemonium, but it also has very old-movie vibes when portraying a ‘devil woman’, all hellish colours and shadows, and we can also go onto the whole ‘shadow self’ idea, and how Lilith’s shadow is larger than her physical body, thus implying she’s much more powerful and ‘larger than life’ than she appears while pretending to be Ms Wardwell.

Also she is talking about this prophecy really openly and loudly with Stolas, fully aware that Adam is in the next room. I get the feeling she’s either totally forgotten about him being there, or her time at Baxter High and in Greendale has convinced her that humans never realise what’s really going on even if it bit them on the nose, so she’s just not being careful at all. 

‘Just as Sabrina performed an exorcism and a resurrection in perversion of the Nazarene’s miracles, she must now bring down the temple’ Some nice exposition there. And that is exactly what it feels like. It might as well be an aside in Macbeth for the way this was written. 

Also, Stolas, why are you asking which temple? What other temple is there besides the Church of Night? Get with the program, dude. But then when Lilith says about setting the bricks tumbling and Stolas replies, she genuinely laughs and I would love to know the sassy back and forth that went on between those two....before we discovered he was a spy for Lilith and so even her own familiar couldn’t be trusted. 

“I do so love stirring the cauldron”

I think this is one of the truest things about Lilith. She likes stirring things for the sake of stirring them sometimes, with no ulterior motive, she just enjoys seeing the chaos and chain reaction a simple stir can cause. And she genuinely has fun with these sorts of things, where she sets things in motion with a word or a look or an dea. I kind feel this goes back to the beginning, and how she essentially ‘stirred the cauldron’ in question God and Adam and defying him, and so comes from her desire to overturn the status quo which is quite intrinsic to who she is. No doubt, within reason, she stirs shit up in Hell too, and it wouldn’t take much for those court members to turn on each other. 

When Adam comes in and says ‘Mary’, Lilith stops mid drink and keeps her glass at her mouth as she looks at him, which I think does slightly imply she had forgotten just a little bit that he was in the next room. She’s gotten used to monologuing in privacy but now there’s someone there. A mortal someone. Also the fact she’s pretending to be someone called ‘Mary’, a Christian name, stands out even more when a moment ago she was all ‘bring down the temple’ and talking about the Nazarene etc. 

“I thought I heard you talking to someone” Yeah ‘thought’. 

Lilith throws him her usual polite Principal Wardwell smile she throws everyone when they’re asking questions she wants them to forget about, but the way she says ‘No, Adam, dear, go back to bed, I’ll be in shortly’, shows us how since the night of the Sweethearts Dance, she has definitely decided to keep him around. The risk of him interrupting her or causing to have to be ‘on’ with her Mary persona more often is worth his company apparently, which is very revealing. There’s no romance here, and they’re obviously not sleeping together (confirmed by his jammies being full buttoned plus the info we learned in Part 3 about his relationship with the actual Mary) but there’s already an odd...comfortability, which I don’t think Lilith has even realised, and most likely is telling herself it’s for convenience so people won’t come looking for him, but that hasn’t stopped her before with the pizza boy, the jock, Hawthorne...so how come Adam gets special treatment? 

Also he smiles so cutely  and nods at the way she says ‘I’ll be in shortly’ and he doesn’t ask her how long, doesn’t ask what she’s doing, he simply accepts that she wants to stay up a little longer on her own. He’s very respectful of her choices and of giving her distance when she wants it, and I think this is a large part about why Lilith didn’t kill him off even before she started to fall for him. 

She does roll her eyes a little once he’s gone, and it just makes me think that with him there she has to be Mary all the time. And she’s being the Mary he expects her to be; sweet, polite, concerned about her students etc. It’s only after the development towards the end of this episode, that we then see in the next episode, that while she’s still being ‘Mary’ she’s now behaving more like the Mary she is with Sabrina, which is more like herself. 

Also the fact Lilith glamours herself to look like Edward Spellman is not only one of only two times we see Lilith appearing as a man (the second time is as Adam when she goes to Mary for help, and yeah I need to analyse the fuckity fuck out of that moment) because Lilith, understandably, seems to prefer being a woman even when wearing a glamour, but it’s also quite an interesting thing for her to pretend to be, considering Lilith does play, inadvertently, a parental role towards Sabrina quite often, and you could reason even more so in Part 3. And then with the fact Lilith is now carrying Lucifer’s child just as Diana did, well the whole Edward connection is even more observationally interesting. 

Also Lilith just popping out of the shadows after removing the glamour and looking down on Sabrina and being all ‘and bring down the temple, she shall’ very clearly shows Lilith obviously thinks they’ll never see her in a million years because they never do; and guess what? She’s right. 

Then when Sabrina goes to her for help, and she’s all ‘And your Father’s ghost told you all of this, that Father Blackwood murdered him and your Mother’, it always makes me wonder how much truth was in that. Lilith never does outright lies, she uses the truth to lie as that’s usually more convincing and harder to disapprove, so I imagine there are some elements of truth here. We do know Edward had a manifesto Blackwood wouldn’t have wanted, and now Blackwood has his own manifesto, so there’s motivation, plus we know Faustus disliked a lot of things that Edward wanted for the Churches of Darkness (Equality for witches, for one)...is it possible Blackwood tried to stop them getting the manifesto to the Anti-Pope and the whole thing went wrong? That he was to blame but by accident? Or was it one of his dedicated Judas Society boys that did it? Taking Blackwood’s words as instruction rather than complaint, and then realising what had happened, covered it up to save himself as much as anything? I just feel there are elements of truth here and it does make sense for him to be connected to it all things considered, but I’m just not quite sure which parts are accurate and which are exaggerated. 

“Well, I’ll be damned” Usually, they stay stuff in the reverse in this show. ‘Those blessed Pagans’ instead of ‘those cursed Pagans’, and ‘what in the heaven’ instead of ‘what in the hell’, so I feel like ‘I’ll be damned’ should be reversed, like ‘I’ll be blessed’ or something along that line. I feel this was just a slip up on the writers part (much how I hated in the little mermaid on Broadway, they had the sisters say ‘she doesn’t even dip her toe in’ rather than ‘her tail in’; keep with the lexicon, people!) but I would really love if it was because she was spending so much time with Adam and so having to be careful what she says and how she says things, and she’s got into a habit of saying ‘I’ll be damned’ and ‘what the hell’ and didn’t realise she did it with Sabrina. 

When Sabrina says ‘you were his secretary, what do you remember about that time?’ you see the slightest flicker in Lilith’s expression where she’s like ‘oh yeah I was his secretary wasn’t I? And...in love with him, I think? But yes secretary...and obviously, I know things’ and so she proceeds to do what she does often with Sabrina; bluffs, bluffs like hell. She even has the same vibe as the exorcism episode where she’s all pacing around, avoiding Sabrina’s eye as she instead looks into the fire, going ‘ah, well, erm, yes, I...’ and buying herself time to come up with a story, trying to remember what she does know about what happens and neatly tying herself into it.

When she finally has a story in mind, she literally swivels around, chin lifted, like yes I am here with a story, I’m good now, let’s start again. Ahem, there was an enquiry. You can literally see that that she has taken that brief hesitant moment to come up with everything she’s about to say now, but the difference from here to exorcism episode, is she now has Sabrina’s full trust, so she doesn’t have to go so crazy and elaborate and all over the place with her story. She keeps it short and simple and it’s safe and convincing.

“An inquiry, immediately after the crash, the very definition of a whitewash”; definitely happened, therefore she starts with the truth, an indisputable fact, but she delivers it with emotion, reminding Sabrina subtly ‘yes I love him too and the whitewash of it all hurt’ and obviously that makes her story not just believable but sympathetic; she and Sabrina both want justice for Edward, don’t they?

“You know who ordered it and reviewed it’s findings of course?” Again, easy fact to know and prove, so we can definitely assume Blackwood was in charge, and it would make sense since he became High Priest in Edward’s place. 

But then Sabrina starts asking legit questions such as why did Blackwood want to kill her parents, was it purely for ambition, what work was she trying to stop and Lilith now has to move into the manipulation part of the story, bending the truth, telling it in a way as to make it work in her favour. 

“Your Mother and Father were bound for Rome, well more accurately the Vatican necropolis beneath Rome, he was to meet with the Anti-Pope and deliver his manifesto, a bold doctrine to reform the church of night” I’m guessing this is all true, unless Lilith went to the lengths of shoving Edward’s manifesto into the bottom of the ocean, this all seems correct, but this would have been information easily researched, and no doubt the reason Hilda and Zelda don’t talk about it, as it’s the idea that maybe someone in the church wanted him dead for his manifesto and they can’t face the idea of that. So they always insist it’s an accident. 

“A traditionalist like Blackwood would do anything to stop Edward from presenting it to the Anti-Pope” Now this is the bit which is more theory than fact, but note how she doesn’t state it as fact, it’s all ‘well he is a traditionalist’ which is very true, so she lets Sabrina fill in the gaps there, she doesn’t commit to the theory, only suggests it. Stirring the cauldron. But, considering how vehemently Blackwood tries to stop Sabrina presenting the manifesto and his wide-eyed look when he sees it, and how he freaking KILLS the Anti-Pope to stop it all, suggests Lilith might have hit the nail on the head. Whether it was Blackwood himself or, as I said above, one of his boys taking it upon himself to do it and Blackwood covered it up, I think we can safely presume he was involved somehow. 

“What was in the manifesto? You must have kept a copy” Sabrina says and you would think, as his secretary. Mary would indeed have a copy. But Lilith knows this is the one bit she can’t bullshit, because if Sabrina gets to the manifesto what she claims was in it could be easily disproven, so Lilith doesn’t even make an attempt, she simply she says no there was only one, but when she says ‘somewhere at the bottom of the ocean’ she yet again plays the hurt and sad card, that subtle reminder that she cared about Edward too, it all encourages Sabrina to share with her, to trust her, to believe they’re in this together. 

“Well, then your parents would not have died in vain” That was the money phrase right there. That’s the one that Lilith knows will push Sabrina into action, the idea that not only have her parents been murdered, but that their attempts were lost and all for nothing, directly appeals to her sense of family loyalty and her ‘I must do what’s right no matter the cost’ vibe. Lilith’s smile is almost smug but she manages to hold it back, because she’s probably thinking ‘Getting Sabrina to take on Blackwood and avenge her Father to bring down the temple is literally the easiest task ever. I’m done and it’s not even lunch’.

Also, later on when Adam asks about Sabrina, that tells us he was in the house when Sabrina was there. Did she meet him? I mean she must have seen him at the dance but did she actually meet him here? Did she realise he was a mortal and so keep quiet, but then think to herself that Ms Wardwell is even more someone she can trust, because she wants a life with mortals just as Sabrina does? Also she told Sabrina the reason she was excommunicated for wanting to marry a mortal; does she think Adam is that mortal? Or that it was so long ago that that mortal has died and Adam is new? Why could we not have had a scene where Adam walked in on Lilith and Sabrina and awkwardness ensued??

[vvitchmemes]

𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐄 & 𝐊𝐄𝐘: 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄

potential spoilers for season 1 episode 05 of netflix’s locke & key. tw: violence, murder

❝ Hello? Hello? ❞ ❝ You hear that? ❞ ❝ Okay, hold on. We should think about his. ❞ ❝ You guys can hear it, too? ❞ ❝ What’d you find? ❞ ❝ Okay, shh. Mom’s still asleep. ❞ ❝ Let me see. I think I’ve seen this before somewhere. ❞ ❝ So, we can all hear them now. ❞ ❝ I’m not alone anymore. ❞ ❝ You were never alone, little man. ❞ ❝ And she’s still out there! ❞ ❝ Always keep them with you. ❞ ❝ And, by the way, before we do it, we’re all talking about it first. ❞ ❝ Enough with the orders! We can manage ourselves. ❞ ❝ Yeah, you’re in great shape. ❞ ❝ Just because I don’t have fear doesn’t make me irrational. ❞ ❝ So, shut your mouth, ________. ❞ ❝ Holy shit! ❞ ❝ These things, these aren’t toys. They’re weapons. So, until we need them, we’re not gonna use them. ❞ ❝ Why can’t they be both? ❞ ❝ I’m not alone. There’s three of us now! ❞ ❝ Morning, Mom. Mom? ❞ ❝ I just haven’t been sleeping all that well. ❞ ❝ I just don’t get it. ❞ ❝ It’s probably just a fluke. ❞ ❝ Actually, I’m not going back. ❞ ❝ Why wouldn’t you be going back? ❞ ❝ They’re not gonna miss me. ❞ ❝ Hey, can I have a piece of your toast? Thanks, bye. ❞ ❝ Hi, Mom. Bye, Mom. ❞ ❝ What were you doing in the shed? ❞ ❝ Did you get anything to eat? ❞ ❝ Love you, Mom. ❞ ❝ I can’t believe you started the movie without me. ❞ ❝ It’s the rest of the damn thing. ❞ ❝ Not what you were hoping for? ❞ ❝ Well, let’s put it this way, if I was hoping for a used car commercial, I’d still be cringing at this mess. ❞ ❝ It’s just a rough cut. ❞ ❝ Rough? It’s bloody sandpaper. ❞ ❝ Mm, a director blinded by the wannabe he’s sleeping with, how classic. ❞ ❝ __________, go away. ❞ ❝ You know, it’s such a shame that desire has nothing to do with talent. ❞ ❝ I hate to break it to you, but wanting to be a ________ doesn’t mean you are one. ❞ ❝ You’re just a pretentious, mediocre little fanboy, and that’s all you’re ever gonna be. Mediocre being the keyword. ❞ ❝ Leave it. It’s not worth it. ❞ ❝ You want some alone time with her? It’s cool. ❞ ❝ Did she say something? ❞ ❝ She’s picky, and I guess she picked you. ❞ ❝ Don’t screw it up. ❞ ❝ Hey, you’re gonna have to find another ride after school. I’m going over to ________’s. ❞ ❝ Next time, why don’t you come up with a complete set of rules? ❞ ❝ Don’t make me that guy. ❞ ❝ Don’t be that guy. ❞ ❝ That was aggressive. ❞ ❝ I’m just sick of bullies. ❞ ❝ I’ve come to accept them as an inevitable part of the high school food chain. ❞ ❝ I mean, it’s like air pollution. You know? You just don’t really get a choice in the matter. ❞ ❝ You know, we’re not powerless here. We have certain tools at our disposal. ❞ ❝ And what exactly did you have in mind? ❞ ❝ That’s an oddly specific guess. ❞ ❝ I’m right, though, aren’t I? ❞ ❝ Physical comedy isn’t easy, guys. ❞ ❝ Think I nailed it. ❞ ❝ But she’s not even upset. ❞ ❝ That’s pretty accurate, yeah. ❞ ❝ This is some sort of prank, isn’t it? ❞ ❝ There’s no way she’d have been able to pull that off. ❞ ❝ It’s real, but you can’t tell anybody. ❞ ❝ Oh, no, no, no, no, no! What is happening to me? ❞ ❝ Funny. ❞ ❝ I think that’s enough now, though, right? ❞ ❝ _______ is just the empirical worst, so… ❞ ❝ Right, agreed. ❞ ❝ Yeah, maybe, but there is a limit. ❞ ❝ Well, I thought that this was about getting back at her for what she said to me. ❞ ❝ It’s now or never. ❞ ❝ This is messed up. ❞ ❝ You guys are nuts. ❞ ❝ I just feel like he’s gotten so far away from me. ❞ ❝ I promise you’re not in trouble, okay? But I need to know why you brought a blacksmith hammer to school. ❞ ❝ Who do you think’s going to hurt you? ❞ ❝ You can’t understand. I wish you could, but you just can’t. ❞ ❝ Oh, I’ll protect you, honey. Nothing’s gonna hurt you, I promise. ❞ ❝ I’m really not gonna tell you. Someone who could use a common misunderstanding for blackmail? No way. ❞ ❝ I don’t think people should trust fortune tellers anyway. ❞ ❝ I think fortune tellers are for lazy people who let the world dictate who they are. If you want something to happen, make it happen. ❞ ❝ I knocked but no one was home. ❞ ❝ You can’t just walk into my house. You should’ve called me first. ❞ ❝ You’re right, you’re right. I’m so sorry. ❞ ❝ Your scar. Sorry to stare, how’d you get it? ❞ ❝ That must’ve hurt. ❞ ❝ Hey, keep it quiet. You weren’t even supposed to know. ❞ ❝ I’m sorry, but, I mean, I do know, and now I feel like I’ve got to know more. ❞ ❝ In my family, we’d call this ‘serious questions’. Ask away. ❞ ❝ How does it exist? Like, how do you think it got made? ❞ ❝ Oh, she deserved it. ❞ ❝ I like to think of it more like she earned it. ❞ ❝ Yeah, I like that. ❞ ❝ For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. ❞ ❝ Oh, hey, what’s up, man? We need to talk. ❞ ❝ Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. ❞ ❝ Can you turn your anger down, like, 90%? ❞ ❝ Our little brother is going to hold onto it because, clearly, he’s far more mature than you are. ❞ ❝ You ________ today when I explicitly told you not to. ❞ ❝ Yeah, you did tell me, but I did it anyway. ❞ ❝ It’s just… it’s not smart. ❞ ❝ You’re not my parent. ❞ ❝ No, no, you don’t know that! We don’t actually know anything. ❞ ❝ Look, I’m sorry that you’re still a slave to your own fear, but it’s not my problem. ❞ ❝ I have to keep an eye on you every second so that you don’t get us all killed! ❞ ❝ No, actually, you don’t. I hereby relieve you of that burden. Go. Live your life. Don’t ever think  about me again! ❞ ❝ I’m guessing Mom told you to talk to me. ❞ ❝ Perceptive. ❞ ❝ So, why don’t you tell me what happened? ❞ ❝ Some things are more important than doing math problems. ❞ ❝ Fair point. ❞ ❝ You want to tell me what is more important? ❞ ❝ We all need to be protected. ❞ ❝ I want us all to be safe, too. ❞ ❝ Do you remember when you were a kid? ❞ ❝ That sounds really, really wonderful. ❞ ❝ Hey, look, kiddo, tell me how I can help, okay? ❞ ❝ It’s okay if you can’t remember. It’s not your fault. ❞ ❝ Okay, I promise, I’m not crazy, so just hear me out. ❞ ❝ I hear you, I just don’t know what you’re asking me. ❞ ❝ And, if it’s not possible, what does that mean to you? ❞ ❝ I’m pretty sure the reason is that something happened. ❞ ❝ Honestly, it’s part of the reason I’m here. ❞ ❝ I kept searching for something, someone I could blame. ❞ ❝ It’s okay to lose yourself in this just as long as you can find yourself again. ❞ ❝ I’m always here. I’ll help you however I can. ❞ ❝ She still won’t open up about it. ❞ ❝ You’re a good friend. ❞ ❝ I thought I had a lot of friends, then all our shit went down and everyone just sort of disappeared on me. ❞ ❝ That’s terrible. ❞ ❝ You all seem really close. ❞ ❝ It’s just like, it’s almost like I have to act like their dad, and I suck at it. ❞ ❝ I mean, you’re not their dad, but you are their brother. And you’re a good one. ❞ ❝ I’m not so sure. ❞ ❝ You’re strong, you’re kind, and you have a good sense of who you are. ❞ ❝ I kinda always wanted to do the pebble on the window thing. You know, it’s romantic. You should be impressed. It’s a pretty long throw. ❞ ❝ Hold on, hold on, hold on! ❞ ❝ I’m certainly not one to be censoring the world of sorcery. ❞ ❝ Let’s keep it that way. ❞ ❝ Great kids, full of potential, and all that. ❞ ❝ I’m kidding, I’m joking. ❞ ❝ I’m not supposed to tell strangers when I’m home alone, but you’re a friend, so my mom isn’t here. ❞ ❝ Listen, I just saw something. I can’t explain it. I think I need to show it to you, alright? ❞ ❝ I’ve been waiting for you. ❞ ❝ Jesus, _____, just give it a rest for tonight. ❞ ❝ I know things aren’t great with us right now. ❞ ❝ You told me to be done with you, so I’m done. ❞ ❝ I actually feel good for once, so please just stay out of my hair. ❞ ❝ Those kids that drowned in the cave were Dad’s friends. His best friends. ❞ ❝ Maybe that’s why he never wanted to come back here. ❞ ❝ Seriously? You want to do this right now? ❞ ❝ It’s coming from outside. ❞ ❝ I want you with me. ❞ ❝ They’re something that connects us with Dad. ❞ ❝ I think that means they’re worth the risk. ❞ ❝ Hey! What’d I say about snooping? Out, now. ❞ ❝ Memories aren’t perfect. They’re very subjective, they’re often distorted. ❞ ❝ Does that look distorted to you? ❞ ❝ There was a plastic bag over his head. ❞

[fortunatelylori]

J0nereys in Winterfell: Let’s make this as uncomfortable as possible for everyone, shall we?

Right before the premiere, the Ds decided to stoke the dying ambers of the J0nereys relationship by saying that they didn’t have time to develop Jon and D*ny’s relationship in season 7, despite dedicating almost 5 episodes to it. But, now, they say, now we’re really going to see Jon and D*ny’s relationship blossom.  

So let’s see how Jon and D*ny spend their time now that they’re “together, together”.  (lolz ... they sound like toddlers).

Jon and D*ny share 5 scenes in this episode and they run the gambit from the strange and ridiculous to the deeply, deeply disturbing. And as with most of their scenes, they’re never really alone. Something always encroaches on the relationship in order to add another new layer of just sheer and utter desolation.

The “skip the awe and go straight for the fear” scene: 

Gods, this scene is unsettling! Everything from the bleak lighting, to the subdued military music, to the rivers of soldiers marching towards Winterfell. There is nothing triumphant or feel good about this scene. 

In order to fully understand this scene and Jon and D*ny’s reactions, I think we need to remember what D*ny said in season 7. There’s two important lines in there that come into play here. 

The first one is in episode 2 of season 7: 

Tyrion: On a night like this, you came into the world. 

Varys: I remember that storm. All the dogs in King’s Landing howled through the night. 

D*ny: I wish I could remember it. I always thought this would be a homecoming. Doesn’t feel like home. 

Since the start of season 7, D*ny has been chasing an elusive sense of belonging in Westeros while the people of Westeros seem hell bent on denying her that. 

No one in the North is acting directly hostile towards her. They’re just subdued, apprehensive and suspicious, as anyone would when faced with 100.000 foreign soldiers marching through their streets. But D*ny is unable to cope with this reality or even attempt to see things from the Northerns perspective, particularly since at the end of season 7, this is how she viewed her relationship with the North: 

D*ny: I’ve not come to conquer the North. I’m coming to save the North. 

The North has, unfortunately, not been informed of D*ny’s benevolence so D*ny is left feeling slighted by the long faces. Jon, who has now been completely colonized (at least in theory) by D*ny, is so attune to her crazy that he’s quick to offer an explanation and a pained smile: 

Jon: I warned you. Northerners don’t much trust outsiders. 

Yeah ... you also told her that they would come to see her for “what” she is, Jon. Which in D*ny’s world can only mean they will fall in love with her the moment they set eyes on her. No wonder she’s dissapointed. And you have only yourself to blame. 

So ... in the absence of masters to crucify and a crowd of brown people to surf, what is D*ny to do to get that validation she so desperately craves? 

Ah, yes. Good ol’ faithful!

In season 7 D*ny also said this: 

D*ny: They [dragons] were terrifying, extraordinary. They filled people with wonder and awe. 

Let’s see some of that wonder and awe, Winterfell!

People are literally hugging the walls! So I’m assuming not so much wonder and awe but certainly extreme emotions of terror. Well, she got, at least, 1 right. 

The Northerners she’s come “to save” are running away in fear and screaming. D*ny’s reaction: 

How does Jon feel about his “new love of his life” terrifying the people he claims to fight for? Who knows. D*ny’s ego blows him off screen. 

The “diplomacy for dummies” scene: 

You know what it’s like ... first time meeting your partner’s family. You’re sitting right across from them while they ogle you like you’re some kind of alien coming to abduct their precious offspring. You smile and pretend to be deeply invested in washing the dishes even though you eat off plastic plates at home. Hell, you even say you love ironing even if you send everything to be dry cleaned. I mean who has time for that shit, am I right?

Well, D*ny hasn’t had this extremely important life lesson hoisted on her until now. Luckily Tyrion lent her his copy of “Diplomacy for dummies” right before they arrived in Winterfell and she manages to hobble together something akin to a galaxy overlord feigning interest in the mere mortals around her: 

D*ny: Thank you for inviting us into your home, lady Stark. The North is as beautiful as your brother claimed. As are you. 

Honestly, the thing I find most insulting about this line doesn’t even have anything with D*ny, but with the Ds. They’ve already pulled this “woman fake complimenting another woman in order to appease her” shtick with Sansa and Lyanna Mormont. At this point, it seems to me they have no idea how women greet each other. 

Of course, D*ny’s attempt is shut down by a Sansa Stark that has decided to go all yolo on everyone’s asses this episode: 

Bitch, please! I’m way hotter than you. I’ve only spent the last 8 hours getting ready so that Jon eats his heart out when he realizes he’s having sex with the wrong relative. 

This frosty look is followed by a tortured: 

Sansa: Winterfell is yours, Your Grace. 

that has D*ny deciding real quick that in fact the North sucks, Sansa is a traitor and she’s not getting her adoration quota met at all by these ungrateful bastards that she’s come to liberate ... aaa ... save ... aaa ... conquer: 

How does Jon think the meeting of his queen/lover/aunt and his sister-cousin/owner of his heart/bane of his existence went? ..... Footage missing. 

The “Roasting of Jon Snow” scene: 

There is one key line in this scene that encapsulates the entire Jon/D*ny dynamic in this episode and it’s delivered by the Ds favorite misogynistic mouthpiece, one tiny Lyanna Mormont, to Jon Snow:  

Lyanna: Your Grace? But you’re not, are you? You left Winterfell a king and came back a ... I’m not sure what you are now. A lord? Nothing at all? 

Jon: It’s not important. 

Jon is doing his best karoake version of Nothing else matters in this scene (careful, Jon! Metallica is famously prickly about their copyrights) but the fact still remains. Through out this episode, when it comes to his interactions with D*ny, Jon is, in fact, nothing at all. He doesn’t express any opinion, he doesn’t react. He’s essentially dead inside and the woman whom he’s supposedly in love with has cost him everything: his position, the respect of his people, his relationship with his family and, ultimately, even his voice. 

In order to exist in D*ny’s world, Jon needs to make himself small because “it’s not important”. He isn’t important. Only D*ny is important. 

I’m sorry but the Jon Snow I know is a proud man. He’s the guy who was ready to kill someone for calling his father a traitor. Which is why, perhaps, he can’t help but slip in this scene and say this: 

Jon: I had a choice. Keep my crown or protect the North. I chose the North!

Perhaps we can now put to rest the argument that Jon didn’t need to bend the knee since D*ny was already willing to help with the apocalypse. And we should put it to rest not just because Jon basically gives everyone the cliff notes to the political Jon theory but because, most significantly, D*ny doesn’t contradict him. 

She doesn’t stand up in this scene and say: Actually I was ready to fight for you all without Jon Snow bending the knee. 

She also doesn’t take the opportunity to ask Jon about it later on in the episode. That’s because she knows she wouldn’t be in Winterfell if Jon hadn’t bent the knee. 

Tell me again how any of this is romantic? Especially when it ends with: 

Sansa: May I ask? How are we meant to feed the greatest army the world has ever seen? While I ensured our stores will last through winter, I didn’t account for Dothraki, Unsullied and two full grown dragons. 

Hold on there, missy! Where do you think you are? In some kind of democracy where you’re allowed to question the glorious leader?!? Besides, I’ll have you know that D*ny is the very smartest leader evah and she has totally prepared supply chains for her humongous army and ... 

Oh ... Well, Sansa, if you must know I have it on very good authority from D*ny’s stans that the loot train attack was a strategic move on D*ny’s part and she didn’t actually burn any of the food. And now she’s going to tell you just how you’re going to feed all these people, ok? 

Sansa: What do dragons eat anyway?

D*ny: Whatever they want. 

.....

Yeah, sorry, Sans. D*ny’s a little busy at the moment eating Jon’s soul so you’re going to have to figure it out. 

You know ... when Emilia Clarke said that D*ny would try to make the Starks and the North like her despite the fact that they clearly don’t, I thought it would last more than 5 minutes of screen time. It basically took one frosty look and the smallest bit of attitude for D*ny to begin to threaten the Northerners and Jon’s family members with death via dragon. 

You might wonder how Jon reacts to all of this? And if you are ... what the hell is wrong with you?!? The man is “nothing at all”. We’ve already established that. 

The “expiration date” scenes: 

Davos, bless him, is attempting to save Jon’s reputation and crown despite the brooding bastard’s best efforts to rid himself of both by proposing a marriage alliance between Jon and D*ny at the end of the war. Tyrion is, surprisingly, subdued in this scene despite knowing that Jon and D*ny rubbed love organs together. 

But it’s Varys that really shoots down the idea for whatever reason. It’s a bit early to really figure out why Varys isn’t keen on the idea of Jon and D*ny marrying but he does utter the best bit of J0nereys foreshadow in the whole episode: 

Varys: Respect is how the young keep us at a distance. So we don’t remind them of an unpleasant truth. 

Tyrion: What is that? 

Varys: Nothing lasts. 

Yeah, I’d say there’s more than one unpleasant truth lurking about in Winterfell, my dear Lord Spider. 

I’m pretty sure that at least a few people had an orgasm when the marriage alliance was proposed, feeling as if this all but ensures that J0nereys is endgame. 

But here’s the thing: this idea of a marriage between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targareyen is being introduced too late into the game. This would have made sense back in season 7, before Jon bent the knee. 

Right now, the damage to Jon’s reputation is already done and the whole world is about to find out he’s a Targareyen. How do you think the people of the North will feel about two Targs on the throne? It’s not going to happen. Not only that but since Jon’s claim supersedes D*ny’s, she would never be able to marry him and rule as Queen of the 7 kingdoms. She would have to pick one over the other. 

Which means that all this scene can hope to be is a pleasant smoke and mirrors technique to distract everyone from the fact that J0nereys is essentially whiling their time away before the inevitable grave of the parentage reveal. 

At this point, we’re about halfway through the episode. We’ve already been informed that Jon and D*ny’s relationship won’t last. D*ny is just about ready to let the dragons loose on Sansa and we have yet to have an actual scene of these two people talking. 

So ... what is on our love birds minds? ... Sansa, of course. 

D*ny: Your sister doesn’t like me. 

Jon: She doesn’t know you. If it makes you feel any better, she didn’t like me either when we were growing up. 

When I first heard this line, it really stung that the first piece of personal information Jon shares with D*ny on screen is a rehash of the old “Sansa was mean to Jon when they were children” show invention. However, I’ve come to reconsider this line and for reasons I will touch upon tomorrow in my Jonsa meta, I find this kind of adorable. 

At the moment, let’s just say Jon is trying very hard not to antagonize D*ny and Sansa’s reactions to her are making it difficult which in turn frustrates Jon.

Speaking of: 

D*ny: She doesn’t need to be my friend. But I am her queen. 

(pointed pause)

D*ny: If she can’t respect me ... 

D*ny gets interrupted by the Dothraki that have been sent to feed her dragons so she never finishes what she was going to say. But ... what was she going to say? What kind of punishment does she believe is warranted for Sansa’s frosty reception and food question?

While Sansa is making it very clear she doesn’t like D*ny, she has yet to disrespect her. But as we’ve come to see with D*ny, she no longer knows the difference. Something Jon is painfully aware of. Otherwise why wouldn’t he be more outwardly concerned about his lover threatening his sister to his face? Talk about disrespectful ... 

Also: 

Sansa: What do dragons eat anyway? 

Dothraki: Only 18 goats and 11 sheep. 

Yeah ... let that sink in. 

The “It looked easy when Hiccup was doing it”scene: 

This scene hurts my souuuuuuul! You’d think with the kind of money HBO sunk into this TV show and into the Ds, they’d manage to come up with something other than a lame rip off of How to train your dragon for Jon’s first time riding Rhaegal. 

The cutesy tone feels anachronistic here for several reasons: 

D*ny’s dragons are not Toothless! Toothless is an angel on Earth and I love him to bits. He does not go around burning people to a crisp or killing little girls. The dragons in GOT have been called weapons of mass destruction not just by GRRM but by the Ds themselves. I’m not sure trying to parallel Hiccup with Jon really works in the context in which Jon is basically riding an atomic bomb. 

Also, this is a momentous moment for Jon. He’s about to ride the dragon that was named after his father. You’d think they’d go for something more emotionally fraught and majestic but no. We’re playing this for laughs, guys. 

In a romantic context, this scene is also deeply frustrating. Because just like in every other J0nereys scene, the Ds have taken a trusted trope (a couple bonding over one of them teaching the other something) and completely wrecked it. 

D*ny does encourage Jon to ride the dragon. It’s actually one of their cuter moments, with Jon being awkward and unsure and D*ny being cocky:

Jon: I don’t know how to ride a dragon. 

D*ny: Nobody does. Until they ride a dragon.  

Jon: What if he doesn’t want me to? 

D*ny: Then I’ve enjoyed your company, Jon Snow. 

The banter is cute ... for about 10 seconds. Until Jon is hoisted into the air, it becomes clear D*ny has no intention of teaching him anything and Jon is flinging around, inches away from being thrown off the dragon and into the abyss of death. Then it becomes less cute. 

Jon eventually lands, somewhere, next to a waterfall that has magically appeared in what is Siberian tundra because ... reasons. 

Despite looking like he was in some kind of never ending nightmare through out the ride, Jon ends the exercise with: 

Jon: You’ve completely ruined horses for me. 

No worries, Jon. She’s also about to ruin your sex life and your will to live so there’s a lot to look forward to. 

In the behind the scenes footage, the Ds said that this is the place where Jon used to hunt as a child and he decides to show it to D*ny. You’d think this kind of romantic motivation would somehow find its way into the actual dialogue in the scene but no ...

Instead we get this generic line that is not really given any kind of context:  

D*ny: We could stay 1000 years. No one would find us. 

The interesting thing about this scene is that Jon has shared a similar moment with someone in the past that gave off the whole “1000 years” feel. Let’s have a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XQ1eTpPL6c

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the scene here but this is Jon/Ygritte atop the wall. There are no lines of dialogue in the whole scene. However, with Ygritte, Jon initiates contact and actually leads her to the other side of the Wall, to show her the expanse of the 7 kingdoms, something Ygritte has never seen. All of it is filmed just as the sun sets around the two kissing, with music swelling in the background. It’s all very clearly romance coded. 

So how does Jon respond to D*ny echoing the same kind of feeling: 

Jon: We’d be pretty old. 

That Jon Snow, huh? He really has a way with the ladies. 

They do kiss in this scene so that’s something but it’s at D*ny’s invitation: 

Jon: It’s cold up here for a Southern girl. 

D*ny: So keep your queen warm. 

They’ve shared 2 one on one scenes in this episode and D*ny felt the need to remind him she’s the queen in both of them. I guess titles aren’t important when it comes to Jon. When it’s D*ny’s titles, they are very, very important. 

You know what they say: All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. 

And because this scene wasn’t odd or awkward enough already, it ends with this: 

Many people have speculated on what Jon’s thought process is during this stare down. Most have come to the conclusion that Jon is thinking about how to get D*ny’s “kids” to like him. 

Except that any romantic kiss where one partner opens their eyes mid-kiss, is a a huge red flag that the person in question isn’t actually into it. So I’m thinking he’s inwardly screaming: The moron just handed me a dragon on a silver platter! Let’s get this dance started!

*thanks for reading, guys! We will reconvene tomorrow for the Jonsa edition of this episode

*none of the artwork in the meta is mine; thank you to all the content creators! 

[atlasfms]

                                                                                                                                                       𝐆𝐐   𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖   𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗   .

                     By   Jonathon   Heaf                      ➥   3   December   2019

The   now   twenty   -   four   year   old   talks   about   his   rise   to   fame   ,   his   family   and   just   about   everything   in   between   .   .   .

Honorable   Mentions   :   @alanncs​   ,   @nsfwviolets​   ,   @veraffs​   &   @viclents​   .

           It’s   been   a   year   and   a   half   since   I   last   had   the   pleasure   of   catching   up   with   the   Golden   Boy   that’s   known   as   Atlas   Deniro   ,   but   in   that   seemingly   short   space   of   time   a   lot   has   changed   in   his   life   and   there’s   so   much   to   catch   up   on   .   At   the   beginning   of   2018   ,   he   was   most   known   for   being   the   son   of   a   billionaire   and   fluttering   hearts   by   his   steaming   Instagram   posts   ,   as   well   as   sauntering   down   runways   in   clothes   designed   by   some   of   our   favourite   names   ,   but   things   didn’t   really   get   started   for   him   until   mid   -   June   .

        After   his   debut   as   being   the   main   face   and   male   Ambassador   of   Paco   Rabbane’s   iconic   1   Million   fragrance   ,   Deniro’s   popularity   sky   -   rocketed   and   it   wasn’t   that   long   after   that   he   released   his   first   song   .   Since   then   ,   the   heartthrob   has   been   the   most   sought   for   male   face   for   most   of   our   favourite   brands   ,   even   having   his   own   clothing   line   collaboration   with   Calvin   Klein   and   winning   the   Fashion   Award’s   Model   of   the   Year   2018   ,   and   only   growing   in   success   after   dropping   his   debut   album   ‘   Damage   Control   ’   which   solidified   it’s   place   at   the   top   of   the   charts   for   months   ,   he   rang   the   new   year   in   with   a   bang   ,   but   2019   was   a   little   more   of   roller   coaster   .

           After   returning   home   from   Italy   once   his   family’s   annual   holiday   get   -   together   was   over   ,   Deniro   and   his   friends   took   Dubai   ,   UEA   by   storm   and   gave   us   something   to   remember   them   by   when   they   aired   a   one   -   hour   documentary   on   Netflix   revealing   what   they   got   up   to   .   If   that   wasn’t   exciting   enough   ,   then   maybe   his   Thailand   Arrest   story   will   ring   a   bell   .   But   that’s   all   been   and   gone   ,   and   after   that   the   now   twenty   -   four   year   old   kicked   himself   into   shape   once   his   Debut   World   Tour   dates   were   released   .   However   ,   we’re   all   aware   of   the   days   that   led   to   Deniro’s   3   day   coma   ,   which   resulted   in   him   having   to   cancel   his   tour   in   favour   of   taking   some   time   to   recover   .

          Since   then   ,   the   model   -   slash   -   singer   has   had   a   relatively   quiet   few   months   ,   and   after   coming   back   to   Instagram   a   few   weeks   back   and   reminiscing   about   his   time   with   long   -   time   girlfriend   Violet   Lennox   ,   GQ’s   International   Male   Model   of   the   Year   2019   is   here   in   celebration   of   his   turning   twenty   -   four   ,   the   struggled   of   growing   up   in   the   spotlight   and   just   about   everything   in   -   between   .   So   ,   how   about   we   get   started   ?   He’s   wearing   a   cozy   looking   black   rib   roll   neck   sweater   paired   with   a   washed   grey   set   of   jeans   decorated   with   his   iconic   silver   chain   .   Sitting   across   from   me   ,  he   looks   as   collected   as   ever   .

𝐆𝐐   :   𝐒𝐨   𝐡𝐨𝐰   𝐝𝐨���𝐬   𝐢𝐭   𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥   𝐭𝐨   𝐛𝐞   𝐆𝐐’𝐒   𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥   𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐞   𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥   𝐨𝐟   𝐭𝐡𝐞   𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫   ?

Atlas   Deniro   :   Honestly   it   feels   kind   of  surreal   .   There   are   so   many   talents   out   there   that   deserve   it   just   as   much   as   I   do   ,  so   I   was   surprised   to   even   be   nominated   for   it   .  Winning   is   crazy   ,   though   .   I   remember   when   I   won   the   Fashion   Awards   last   year   and   was   like   ‘   this   is   it   ,   this   is   the   highlight   ’   .   I   never   even   dreamed   I’d   win   a   prestigious   award   like   this   ,   especially   so   early   in   my   career   so   thank   you   .

𝐃𝐢𝐝   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭   𝐭𝐨   𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞   𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬   𝐟𝐚𝐫   𝐢𝐧   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫   𝐬𝐨   𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧   ?

Definitely   not   .   Up   until   my   (   Paco   Rabanne   )   promotion   I   was   pretty   much   just   getting   booked   into   whatever   gigs   my   agent   could   find   and   working   my   way   through   college   .   It   was   kind   of   weird   ,   because   one   day   I   was   mostly   just   walking   on   runways   and   building   up   my   name   ,   but   the   next   my   face   was   all   over   and   it   was   like   ,   wow   ,   I   did   this   .   I   actually   did   this   .

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭   𝐝𝐢𝐝   𝐢𝐭   𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥   𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞   𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭   𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞   𝐨𝐧𝐞   𝐨𝐟   𝐭𝐡𝐞   𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝’𝐬   𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬   ?

Crazy   because   the   1   Million   fragrance   is   my   absolute   favourite   and   I’d   never   dream   I’d   get   to   be   the   face   representing   it   .   Weird   because   Jordan   Barrett   is   one   of   my   buds   and   replacing   him   on   the   commercial   was   strange   .   But   he   was   cool   with   it   ,   though   ,   so   I   guess   it   all   worked   out   .

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞   𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭   𝐢𝐭   𝐰𝐚𝐬   𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞   𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭   𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠   .

It’s   impossible   to   describe   because   no   word   can   explain   the   amount   of   pride   and   happiness   you   feel   when   it’s   out   there   .   Like   ,   that’s   your   baby   .   You’re   letting   it   out   to   be   judged   by   the   world   and   that’s   ,   like   ,   your   pride   and   joy   .   But   honestly   the   feedback   was   surreal   :   people   always   have   reservations   when   models   turn   into   musicians   as   well   ,   and   I   must   have   said   ‘   music   coming   soon   ’   so   many   times   before   choosing   the   track   to   drop   that   would   put   me   in   the   same   race   as   everyone   else   took   longer   than   actually   creating   an   entire   album   .

𝐇𝐨𝐰   𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠   𝐝𝐢𝐝   𝐢𝐭   𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞   𝐭𝐨   𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭   𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦   ?

Between   college   and   modeling   gigs   ?   Years   ,   probably   .   Writing   the   songs   didn’t   take   two   seconds   ,   but   actually   recording   them   and   putting   everything   together   takes   the   longest   time   .   Like   ,   you’re   creating   something   that   you   want   to   take   people   to   another   place   ,   and   making   the   perfect   song  to   do   that   is   difficult   .   There   was   a   lot   of   switching   and   shuffling   around   ,   too   many   songs   scrapped   because   they   weren’t   good   enough   .   It’s   a   long   process   ,   but   definitely   worth   it   .

𝐀𝐫𝐞   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠   𝐨𝐧   𝐚𝐧𝐲   𝐧𝐞𝐰   𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜   𝐚𝐭   𝐭𝐡𝐞   𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭   ?

I’m   working   on   new   music   everyday   ,   it’s   just   a   little   difficult   because   everything   is   so   personal   and   depends   on   what   happens   during   that   day   .   I think   people   don’t   understand   that   a   musician’s   album   is   literally   their   most   private   and   secret   thoughts   put   into   one   place   .   It’s   like   a   journal   ,   and   that’s   why   not   only   creating   these   songs   ,   but   performing   them   is   so   hard   to   describe   .

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭   𝐰𝐚𝐬   𝐢𝐭   𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞   𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐡𝐚𝐝   𝐭𝐨   𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐥   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫   ?

Absolutely   heartbreaking   .   I   made   so   many   promises   to   my   fans   and   the   dream   of   being   able   to   travel   the   world   ,   playing   my   own   music   is   something   I’ve   wanted   all   my   life   .   Hands   down   ,   it   was   the   hardest   decision   I   ever   had   to   make   .   But   I   needed   to   do   it   ,   and   I’m   feeling   so   much   better   now   .

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬   𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭   𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧   𝐰𝐞   𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝   𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭   𝐧𝐞𝐰   𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬   𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧   ?

I   may   have   something   up   my   sleeve   for   after   the   New   Year   .   It’s   kind   of   an   apology   mixed   with   another   surprise   I’m   not   going   to   ruin   ,   but   it’s   good   .   Trust   me   .   You   won’t   be   disappointed   .

𝐈’𝐦   𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞   𝐰𝐞   𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭   .   𝐃𝐨   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞   𝐚𝐧𝐲   𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫   𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬   𝐟𝐨𝐫   𝐭𝐡𝐞   𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞   ?

For   now   I’m   just   continuing   with   my   music   ,   my   modeling   ,   and   spending   some   time   with   my   beautiful   girlfriend   .   We’re   going   to   Italy   to   spend   the   holidays   with   my   family   soon   ,   so   it’ll   be   nice   to   get   away   from   New   York   for   a   little   while   and   be   able   to   spend   time   with   the   people   I   care   about   the   most   .

𝐘𝐨𝐮   𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞   𝐚   𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞   𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲   ;   𝐡𝐨𝐰   𝐝𝐨   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥   𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡   𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭   ?

With   extreme   difficulty   [   laughs   ]   .   You   should   try   having   to   remember   all   the   names   of   your   Aunts   and   Uncles   ,   as   well   as   your   cousins   and   their   children   .   It’s   hard   ,   but   the   thing   about   my   family   is   that   even   though   there’s   so   many   of   us   ,   we’re   close   .   We   always   have   been   .

𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞   𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧   𝐭𝐨   𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐲   𝐚   𝐥𝐨𝐭   ,   𝐛𝐮𝐭   𝐚𝐫𝐞   𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞   𝐚𝐧𝐲   𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫   𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞   𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠   𝐭𝐨   ?

Bali   ,   for   sure   .   It   holds   a   special   place   in   my   heart   ,   not   to   mention   it’s   so   remote   and   beautiful   that   it’s   hard   to   not   fall   in   love   with   the   place   as   soon   as   you   get   there   .   It’s   a   little   far   from   home   ,   though   ,   so   I   don’t   get   to   go   often   but   every   time   I   do   ,   I   always   have   the   best   time   .

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞   𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲   𝐢𝐧   𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐢   ?

Definitely   when   I   went   for   the   first   time   a   few   years   back   .   It   was   with   Violet   ,   of   course   ,   although   Alanna   and   Amara   insisted   they   would   come   and   didn’t   talk   to   me   for   a   week   straight   when   I   told   them   no   .   But   one   day   ,   we   decided   to   just   stay   on   the   beach   .   We   stayed   there   all   day   until   the   sun   set   ,   and   I’m   pretty   sure   we   left   being   as   red   as   lobsters   ,   but   it   was   the   most   relaxed   we’ve   ever   been   .

𝐘𝐨𝐮   𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞   𝐚   𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝   𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩   𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬   ,   𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭   𝐲𝐨𝐮   ?

The   best   ,   which   I   probably   should   be   grateful   for   since   there    are   a   lot   of   people   out   there   who   can’t   really   say   the   same   ,   but   they’re   my   best   friends   .   I   think   us   all   growing   up   with   the   same   problem   of   having   no   privacy   made   us   closer   ,   and   also   made   us   realise   we   can   trust   each   other   with   anything   .

𝐈𝐬   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲'𝐬   𝐓𝐕   𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰   𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥   𝐢𝐧   𝐭𝐡𝐞   𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬   ?

Yeah   ,   for   sure   .   But   there’s   only   a   certain   amount   of   content   our   producers   can   use   ,   and   given   the   amount   of   episodes   they   need   to   film   to   create   an   entire   season   it’s   taking   a   while   ,   but   it   will   be   finished   soon   .   Maybe   even   sooner   than   you   think   .

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭   𝐚𝐫𝐞   𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫   𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬   𝐨𝐧   𝐭𝐡𝐞   #𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭   ?

Couldn’t   be   happier   for   them   ,   and   people   need   to   lay   off   with   the   judging   .   If   they’re   happy   ,   they’re   happy   ,   so   why   don’t   they   just   leave   it   at   that   ?   Now   we   just   have   to   wait   for   the   wedding   .   .   .

𝐇𝐨𝐰   𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝   𝐚𝐫𝐞   𝐲𝐨𝐮   𝐭𝐨   𝐛𝐞   𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠   𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲   -   𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫   ?

I   think   exciting   is   the   wrong   word   for   it   ;   who   even   enjoys   getting   older   ?   But   birthdays   mean   lots   of   presents   and   partying   ,   so   I’m   looking   forward   to   it   !

[addictofsupernatural]

You Can Tell Me Anything

Jughead Jones x reader

Author Note: This is taken place during season one when everything was simpler.

(I don't remember these episodes perfectly so I'm sorry if I miss some things)

Summary: Jughead is trying hard to make sure you don't know that he's homeless, but sooner or later you find out.

Word Count: 1888

Jughead was beyond mad. They were going to close down the drive in, his job. His home. Of course nobody else could know that, especially not you.

Jughead's had a crush on you for a while. You were just always so happy and ready to help. You helped Jughead with the blue and gold, as well as solving mysteries that you guys got yourselves into. You were the only one who understood his references.

The last thing he wanted to feel like was The Help. He didn't want you to see him as a loser or helpless. Not that you would, but Jughead couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

Jughead angrily climbed over you in the booth. All of you stared at him. "They're going to shut down the drive-in."

"What?" You said, the only one who seemed to care. Betty had switched sides the squish in with Veronica and Kevin. The three of them knew of your crush on Jughead Jones, and were reading to help anyway they could.

"Closing down the Twighlight Drive-In is just one more nail in the coffin that is Riverdale, no, the American dream. As the great Quentin Tarantino used to say-"

"Please, no more Quentin Tarantino references." Kevin said.

"What? I'm pissed. And not just because I'm losing my job, but because the drive in should mean something to Riverdale. People should be trying to save it!"

You slide over your plate to Jughead, and he starts eating your fries. "Well, in the new age of Netflix, who would go to drive-ins anymore?"

"People who want to buy crack." Kevin bluntly says.

"Kev." You say, nodding to Jughead.

"And cinematics and car enthusiasts!" Jughead argues. "Am I right y/n/n?"

"Yup." Nodding your head.

"Also, you guys should come to closing night." He says sadly. "I was thinking American Graffiti, or is that too obvious?"

"Oh, I would love anything starring Audrey Hepburn." Veronica said, with Kevin nodding in agreement.

"Y/n, what do you think?" Kevin asks.

"Mm, maybe Rebel Without a Cause?" Jughead smiles at you.

"I'll be right back." Betty says, getting up when seeing Archie, his dad, and the music teacher.

"Betty wait!" You said, knowing that it was about the weird relationship of the two. You and Jughead shared a look. He knew too.

Betty said something, and her and Archie went outside. Jughead slouched as he stared out the window to watch, and you leaned on him, putting your hand on his chest to watch as well. Veronica then went out to see what was going on.

"What was it like before she came here?" Kevin asked. "I honestly can't remember."

"Huh." You say. Kevin nodded his head.

You and Jughead were passing out flyers for the closing night at the drive-in. "Why didn't you guys give me a heads up?" Archie asked.

"I am, by nature, an objector." Not saying anything to neither you nor Betty was the most moral decision I could make."

"And you?"

"I try not to associate myself with stuff like this." You explain. "Don't get me wrong, I'm nosey and I like to know things about other people, but I physically stay out of drama."

Jughead smiled at that. "And that's what keeps the blue and gold running." You smiled back.

"Could you guys just please let me know if Betty does anything crazy?"

After school you both went to the mayor's office. "I'm sorry, but the Twighlight Drive-In has become a hangout for gang members and transients. The deal is done. Andrews Construction is scheduled to destroy it on Monday."

Jughead was beginning to panic. It was happening too fast, and he didn't know where he was going to go if the drive-in really would be gone. "Mayor McCoy, when I was a kid my family and I would always go. We couldn't afford tickets for everyone, so Jellybean and I would hide in the trunk, then come out when the car was parked. It's like my home."

Jughead felt hot under your gaze. He shifted in his seat, wanting nothing more than for you to have not have heard that. "That's a sweet sentiment, Mr. Jones, but the future of Riverdale is at stake here."

"And isn't Riverdale the town of warm, fuzzy memories?" You spoke up. "I mean, might as well get rid of Pop's for the 50's theme. Riverdale thrives on the fact that it's a place where people build times to remember with their families."

"Look, I'd love to help you both, but the deal is done. You should find out who they are to get some answers."

"Thank you for your time." You said.

Next was Andrews Construction site. "Mayor McCoy says that you have a contract to tear down the drive-in." Jughead said quietly. There was something about Archie's father that made anyone, especially Jughead, calm down. Fred Andrews was a respected man.

"I do. Look, I'm sorry guys. I love the drive-in too."

"Mr. Andrews," you said. "Just give us one week to track the man who bought the land."

"And convince them not to demolish this holy house of cinema." Jughead said angrily.

"Jug, y/n/n, this is a big contract for me and my guys."

Jughead was staring intensely at Fred, before softening his features. He didn't move. "Y/n could you wait outside?" He asked quietly.

You looked at Jughead, confused, then at Fred. He nodded his head for you to go. "Okay." You responded.

"You put one Jones out of work, and now another, huh?"

He sighed. "Jug, your dad was stealing equipment. I had to let him go."

Jughead scoffs. "Right. You're just doing what you had to, just like now. Later." He averted eye contact. Although he was mad, he knew it wasn't Fred's fault.

He found you sitting on the steps waiting for him. "You okay?"

He kept on walking. "He's not gonna do it."

You caught up to him and grabbed his hand, bringing him to a halt. "That's not what I asked." You quietly said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's whatever. I gotta go get everything ready for closing night. See you tomorrow." And with that he walked off.

You then went from gift store to gift store, trying to find Jughead something that he'd like. You wanted to make him feel better. You knew that his sadness wouldn't completely go away from the Twilight Drive-In, but it could probably lessen. And that was your goal.

You went to the back of the drive-in, where Rebel Without a Cause was playing from. You knocked on the door. Jughead poked his head out of the door. "Y/n, what're you doing here?"

You smiled. "I came to see if we could watch the movie back here together."

"I would, but there's a lot of tapes and equipment to organize. Sorry." Jughead hated the words coming out of his mouth. Of course he wanted to watch the movie with you. Of course he wanted to be with you alone, especially right now. He wanted you to make him feel better. But he couldn't have you see the bed.

Your smile faded. "Oh. Okay. Well, could you come out here for a second then? I want to give you something."

He went outside and closed the door. He gave you a teasing smile. "Is it the deed to this place?"

You laughed. "I wish. It's, uh," you raised your hand, showing a Bates Motel key chain with the circular chain around your index finger. "Tada."

He stared at it. He didn't know how to react. You knew him so well. "What? You don't like it? I'm sorry, I was just trying to make you feel better and-"

"What? No! Uh, no, it's not that." He put on a tiny smile. "It's just, thank you. It means a lot."

You went up to him and hugged him, loving the warmth resonating off of him. He was shocked for a second, before coming back to his senses and wrapping his arms around your waist.

"Course Jug. You're my best friend." You pulled away and out your hands on each cheek. "Alright. C'mon, where's that smile I love so much?" He looked away and did his dorky smile that made your cheeks heat up. "There it is." You then slipped out of his hold. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." And with that you left.

Jughead watched you leave, then looking down at the key chain in his hand. As he went back inside and packed his things, he hooked the key chain onto his backpack zipper, sighing as he looked at it.

The next three days Jughead was sleeping in the janitor closet at Riverdale High. It was perfect. He had his sleeping bag, and they had showers and bathrooms. You just couldn't find out.

That was until the fourth day. Archie had caught him. "Jug, what are you doing here so early?"

He put on a fake smile. "Just using this school's amazing state-of-the-art facility."

"No, seriously, what are you doing here?" So he showed his where he was sleeping. He explained that this was his living ever since the drive-in was closed. "I'll be back. I'm going to talk to my dad about you staying with us."

After some arguing, Jughead reluctantly agreed. "But Archie, you can't tell anyone about this. Especially not y/n." Knowing of his friend's crush, he nodded his head. He then headed out of the school, getting his phone out of his pocket to send you some texts.

The was a knock on the closet door. Jughead let out a laugh. "Archie you don't have to knock, it's not like this is my room or anything."

The door opened, you leaning against the door frame with a bag in hand. Jughead's smile immediately came off. "Can I come in?" You quietly asked.

"He told you?!" He stood.

"Please don't be mad at him!" You quickly said, going in and shutting the door. "I'm glad he did. Why didn't you tell me about this Jug?"

"You think I'm proud of this? I'm living in a closet. I use the school showers. I'm pathetic y/n."

"No you're not, Juggy. You You should've just told someone. You could've gotten help!" You huffed, putting the bag in your hand down. "I really didn't think you had a big ego. You should know that I don't care about where you're living, or if things are going bad. You just need to talk to me."

He scoffed, then looking at the bag. He was still angry, but curiosity got the better of him. "What's in the bag?"

You breathed out a humorless laugh. "Pop's. Eggs and bacon. I also stopped by a liquor store and got chocolate milk."

"For me?"

"For us." You looked back at him, his expression still looking angry. "What? Getting drinks separately was cheaper, and I like YooHoo okay? I figured I could make you feel better and save some money at the same time but I guess I was wrong and-"

He cut you off with a kiss. It surprised you at first, but you soon returned it. You cupped his face with his hands finding your waist. When he pulled away for air he kept your faces close. He looked downwards, and you smiled wide. It happened. It finally happened. You had just kissed Jughead.

"Aw, c'mon Jug." You stroked your thumb at his cheek. "Where's that smile that I love so much?" He looked to the side and gave you a big goofy smile. "There it is."

The door then opened and Archie saw the both of us in each other's embrace. "Oh. Sorry should I have knocked?"

Author Note: In case you were wondering this is what I pictured Jughead's goofy smile would be like.

[anoiini]

Classified (Part 3)

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader

Summary: When  an important mission is given to her, Y/N has to reconnect with her past by helping a man she never thought she would meet

A/N:Yaaay i’m back. Soooo, i’m pretty proud of how it turned out and i can’t wait to write the next chapter. Hope it will come sooner this time aha but i finished school so i will have more time to write. Tell me what you thought about it! Please! Bisous! (You can find the rest of the fic and the masterlist with the #classified on my blog) 

Words Count: 7.4k (buckle up guys it’s a long ride) 

Warning: not so much at the beggining it’s kind of soft most of the time. But a bit of angst at the end. A little bit of swearing. I’m talking about a dress, i had a pic linked but i forgot links in posts don’t make them appear in the research so yeah sorry for that, imagine it just like you want, i don’t discribe it so imagine your own dream dress. I’m french so there’re probably a lot of grammar mistakes sorry! 

(my gif!)

A couple of days had passed since Y/N and Steve had meet. During their first meeting she had explained how it was going to be, why she was here, and the best way to help him.

“We’ll go slowly at the beginning, you know step by step” she had said to him.

He had asked a few questions, just some random ones that were going through his mind at the moment. Steve felt surprisingly really comfortable around her, he felt like he knew her for so long, even though he had only met her.

It was still a strange situation for Y/N, she was still waiting for someone to tell her it was a joke, a bad one, or at least a dream. That the man in front of her was the product of her imagination, she was having a breakdown and was imagining everything. All that was more believable than a man coming back alive from the ice 70 years later.

 Y/N was mindlessly playing with the necklace around her neck, a simple gold chain with a little sun as pendant.

“Are you okay?” Steve’s voice snapped her off of her daze.

“Yes, yes sorry, got a bit lost in my thoughts” she smiled softly at him.

They had agreed to meet only when and if after reflection he still wanted her help. It had surprised y/n to hear from him only two days after that. They had decided to meet at a small café Y/N was used to. 

On their way there, Steve was talking about all the things that had changed and some that had stayed the same in the borough. Every place or streets reminded him of some anecdotes. Alleyways where he was bitten up, shops where he used to go with his Ma like he said. Him and his best friend James Buchanan Barnes, Bucky, were always part of his stories. She had listen to him all the way, a smile on her face. He had apologized multiple times saying that he was talking too much, she would always brush him off, saying that it was okay, she was here to listen.

A few moments of silence would follow before he’d start again after seeing something reminding him of another story. Y/N felt like a kid again, it was just like another chapter to her bedtime tails.

“What were you saying?” she asked the former soldier sitting in front of her taking a sip of her coffee.

“I went out yesterday”

The young woman looked at him over her cup and put it down on the table, living her hands on it to keep them warm. She was about to speak when he extended his hands, stopping her before she could say anything

“I know, I should not go out alone, without anyone knowing, but I thought I would just, you know, try to see the world by myself, if I could do it alone.” He stopped talking for a moment, all his attention on his cup in front of him

“And?” Y/N pushed him a little to continue after a few seconds of silence.

“I realized I still had a million questions that needed answers, and I would be an idiot to refuse some help” he finally looked up to her, a hesitating smile on his face.

The woman gave him one of the warmest smile he’s ever seen, he still couldn’t place what was up with her, why it seemed so easy to be around her.

“And that’s exactly why I’m here” she said beaming “Shoot any question you have in mind, I’ll try my best to answer them”

It was such a strange situation for Y/N, she didn’t even recognize herself, all smiley and happy.Not that she wasn’t usually happy or smiley, it just felt too much for her, but she couldn’t help it, she lost every sign of common sense when she was around Steve, all she wanted to do was talking to him for hours, asking him so many questions about his life, if the stories she heard as a child was true, how her grandfather was when he was young.

Telling him who she was, telling him everything.

But she couldn’t just tell him all of that right now, it was too early for the poor man to know all that. She couldn’t just come and say “Hi, you know actually I am your old friend’s granddaughter and you first love kind of raised me when my father, Howard’s son, couldn’t get his shits together and do that when my grandparents died. Any questions?” Really not the smoothest way to tell all that. So the best way to hide all this for now was to smile and act happy, and answer all his questions and avoiding as much as possible any questions related to her life.

The morning passed quickly with Steve asking her multiple questions about what he saw, the evolution of technology, the cars and phones. Y/n tried every time, to explain everything as much as simply as possible.

“Oh, and I wanted to ask you if you knew what it was” he said looking for something in his pocket.

He took out a piece of paper and unfolded it on the table.

“I was sitting at a coffee in Manhattan, and there was this huge tower, really modern I’d say, and the waitress talked about iron, I don’t remember the name she said”

“Iron Man” Y/n cut him off. She was watching the paper on the table, a beautiful drawing of the city buildings and in the middle the Stark Tower.

“Is it related to Howard?”  Y/N’s head jerked up at the name, they would talk about those subjects way sooner than she had expected.

She looked back at the drawing, deciding what she could say, was he ready to know the truth? Was she ready to tell it?

“Yes” she finally said “I mean, yes and no. His son, Tony Stark, built the tower, he owns Howard’s company now”

“Howard had a son?” Steve asked surprised

Y/N chuckled, she had heard her grandfather’s adventures with the ladies back in the days, and how her grandmother, Maria, changed the man.

A silence fell between the two, Steve had a sad expression on his face.

“Is Howard- ?” he didn’t have to finish his question, Y/N already knew what he wanted to ask.

“I’m sorry” Y/N simply answered.

She waited for him to talk again, not wanting to startle him.

“What happened?” he asked after a moment

Y/N took a huge inspiration before answering his question. She never talked about that, she always tried to avoid the subject. Well it was quite easy to avoid it since one of the only person knowing the truth was her father and he was avoiding the subject just as much as her, if not even more.

“Him and his wife, they had a car accident many years ago” she paused, letting him processing the information “Their son took back the company after that… Howard founded SHIELD you know, along with Peggy Carter”

It was Steve’s turn to react to the name. It felt like yesterday for him the last time he saw her, spoke to her when he thought he would never be with her ever again, he thought he had said his last goodbyes to her. For him it felt like yesterday, but for her, many years had passed, god knows what happened to her, Steve was not part of her life anymore.

“I could ask for her information you know, so you could contact her”

She was still alive. Steve had feared to ask that question. But he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t come back to her after all those years.

“Does she know about me?”

“I don’t think so, we’ve been waiting for you to make the decision”

Actually, it was Y/N who was supposed to tell Peggy about the situation. Fury had brought the subject on their first meeting, the night he came to her apartment, and she had told him she’d be the one to tell her. She didn’t want anyone else but her to tell that news, it was not something easy, no one knew how she would respond to the news in her condition. Peggy had been in a good phase recently, with no episodes of memory loss for a long time, and everyone who would come to see her had to be real careful about what they said not to trigger her in any way.

Y/N still didn’t even know how she would tell the news, and she was dreading the moment it’d happen.

“I’ll think about it” Steve finally said.

Y/N gave him a sympathetic smile, knowing too well what was going on into his mind.

“It’s a really beautiful drawing” Y/N said nodding to the piece of paper between them, taking a sip of her drink, changing the subject.

“Thanks” Steve smiled “I tried my best to make that ugly thing look nice”

Y/n chocked on her drink, was he really calling the Stark Tower ugly?

The Stark Tower was Tony and Pepper’s new crazy project. They had started to build it after the events of the last Stark Expo, and of course after fixing everything. The city wasn’t so happy with Tony, and the tower was his way to make everything a bit better, him and Pepper wanted it to be an example for the future. It was about to become the first building of New York functioning with only clean energy, and hopefully not the last.

Y/N was most of the time at her father’s, helping him or just trying to be there to reconnect with him after everything that had happened, so naturally she had helped with the tower, not too much, just with some design ideas or when Tony needed her brain for some new fancy technology to add to the building, it was fun, she’d actually loved every minute of it. Being able to share those moments together had been really beneficial for their father-daughter relationship.

So hearing Steve calling the tower ugly was not something she expected.

  -------

Y/N had finally decided to pay a visit to Peggy, Aunt Peggy like she used to call her as a child. She’d come to D.C. where the former agent was living in a retirement home. She had thought a long time how she would break the news to her, but nothing felt right.

She stepped into the hall and made her way to the desk. She knew well the nurse in charge of welcoming the visitors that day, her name was Lucy, and she had taken good care of Peggy for a few years now.

The nurse gazed off of her computer, and she smiled at the woman making her way to her.

“Y/N! It’s been a while” she said standing up and giving her a hug.

“I know, I’m sorry, you know with work and everything” she started rambling to find a good excuse, even though she knew she could have taken some time to come and visit

“It’s okay” Lucy brushed her off, squeezing her arm affectionately

“How is she?”

“She is pretty okay, no episodes recently, Mary came to visit last month and everything went well”

The young Stark seemed surprised to know that Peggy’s daughter had come to visit without telling her, they’d usually meet every time she travelled from London. But after the recent events, she surely thought the Starks needed some calm.

She made her way to Peggy’s room after talking for a few more moments with Lucy. When she entered the room the former SHIELD agent was sitting on a chair, facing the window. She looked so calm, the morning lights making her grey hair slightly glow. She was not the great agent that she was decades ago, but she still had that fierce in her eyes, also a certain tenderness she only kept for the people she deeply cared for.

It had been so long they didn’t see each other, Y/N was fearing Peggy could had forgotten about her.

She took a chair that was in a corner of the room and made her way to sit in front of the older woman, who, when she saw Y/N, gave her the sweetest smile.

“Hi love, it’s been too long” came the British accent.

Y/N returned the smile, relieved she was still in her mind.

They talked for a couple of hours about their lives, Peggy asked a few questions about Tony, who’d not came to see her for so long she was about to take it personally, she said. But she could feel something was bothering Y/N, she squeezed her hand.

“Is everything alright love?”

Y/n locked her gaze with her, it was time, she had to tell her.

“I have some important news to tell you” she stopped and took a big inspiration.

“He is alive”

The older woman’s eyes started to widen in shock. She knew what those words meant. She had waited all her life to hear them. She starred at the window once again, a look of sadness and melancholia on her face.

Y/N took her hand again, stroking the back of it gently.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked softly.

“Tell me” she simply said in response, still not looking the young woman in front of her.

Y/N explained to her everything she knew, how he was found in the ice, the serum keeping him alive, and young. How Fury had assigned her to help him. How he was dealing with everything.

“I still didn’t tell him who I was, that I knew you. I just thought it would be too much to take. I just need to find the right moment” she sighed.

Peggy finally looked a Y/n “Did he ask about me?”

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll want to see you soon” she said in a hopeful tone.

“I’m sure she needs time” she simply said

She then slowly pushed herself out of her chair and made her way to her bed. Y/n helped her getting into bed and stopped when Peggy took her hand, tapping the back of it.

“Take care of him love, alright?” she said with a soft smile

Y/N simply kissed her cheek and squeezed her hand in return. On her way to the door she noticed a frame on the bedside table, a black and white photo of a young skinny soldier.

 -------

 A few weeks had passed, and Y/N and Steve were still meeting regularly, either for a coffee, visiting the city, museums or just simple nights catching up on movies from the last seven decades.  

Steve felt more and more comfortable around Y/N and considered her a friend, she was the only person he trusted in this new world. On the other hand, Y/N went deeper and deeper into lies and felt guiltier every day. She also had started to take a liking to the man and she knew he trusted her. Many times she had wanted to tell him the truth “my real name is Stark”, “Howard is my grandfather”. But every time she would chicken out and promise herself to tell it another time.It has been a month already, and it felt too late now to tell him.

In a corner of her mind, she told herself she was not supposed to be friend with him, he would never be a part of her life, so lying about that, just like she  always did with everyone, was not supposed to bother her, it was part of the mission. But just like she had said to him, he was not just a mission, he was more than that. He deserved the truth. In a way she was a part of his past, and he deserved to know it.

It was late in the afternoon when Y/N and Steve were both sitting on his couch, him drawing, and her reading some newspaper, searching for something to do the next day. A comfortable silence had settled between them, the only sounds coming from the scratch of his pencil on paper and some light jazz music in the background.

They would found themselves doing that often, just enjoying each other’s company. It had started one day where Y/N had met Steve at his apartment to find him totally demoralized. It would happen sometimes, you can’t expect for someone to be always fine in that situation, even for a super soldier. At the beginning he would ask her to meet another day, but not that time. He had just simply asked her to stay. They had stayed for a moment in silence, and had ended up watching a movie, still not exchanging any words. She had not wanted to push him to anything, he knew she was here for him, if he didn’t want to talk, she wasn’t going to do it first. He had been just glad she was here, it was at that moment he had realized he could count on her for anything.

“Did you get to see the Wizard of Oz when it came out?” Y/N’s voice rose from the silence

“Yeah, I brought my ma with me, I had saved some money so I could offer that to her.” He answered not looking up from his drawing.

“Would you like to see it again?” she sat herself closer to him, putting the magazine over his sketchbook “There’s a screening here in Brooklyn in two days. I’ll offer you the ticket this time” she said a wide smile on her face.

She stood up from the couch, tearing the little piece of paper with the info of the evening and went to the kitchen to put it on the fridge. She heard Steve’s voice from the living room “You really want to see that movie? Isn’t it a bit too old?”

Y/N turned around quickly to face him at his question, she hurried back to the couch, wide eyes on her face.

“Are you kidding me?” she chuckled “It’s one of the best movies ever made. Trust me it didn’t get old even one bit. Still as spectacular as it was in ’39 I’m sure” she paused for a moment, a hopeful look on her face “So would you come?”

“It appears I really don’t have a choice” he said pointing to the paper on the fridge, a smirk growing on his face.

Y/n clapped in her hands and cheered excitedly. Steve laughed at her enthusiasm.

“It’s the first time I’ll be able to see it in a theatre. I’d never stop watching it as a kid, t’was my grandma’s favorite”

It was the first time she would share a childhood memory without Steve asking any questions, he just looked at her, waiting for her to keep going.

She was fidgeting with the hem of her top, lost in her thoughts

“She would play and sing the songs for me on the piano” tears were forming in her eyes, she took a shaky breath “Anyway, I would love to see it again” she said clearing her throat and clapping her hands on her thighs wanting to change the subject.

“What happened?”

Y/N snapped her head to him at his question. She looked at him for a moment, considering what to tell him. It would be a good moment to tell everything.

“She had an accident when I was four” She said looking at her laps, remembering the events.

“I’m sorry.” Steve simply said.

Before he even thought about it, Steve put his hand on hers and squeezed it softly to comfort her, the gesture surprised both of them. He quickly removed his hand and cleared his throat getting up from the couch, he made his way to the kitchen asking Y/N if she wanted something.

She took her phone on the coffee table and saw she had a text from Fury, asking her to come to his office.

“I’m sorry I need to go” she got up and faced him, waving the phone “Duty calls”  

She made her way to the door, taking her jacket and bag on the way, he followed behind wanting to open the door for her but she beat him to it and stepped out of the apartment. She surprised him when she turned suddenly to him.

“So see you in two days for the movie?”

Steve was leaning on the door frame, his hands inside his jeans pockets, a smirk appeared on his face and he nodded yes at her question.

Her smile grew wider.

“Okay, it’s a date then”

She waved at him before turning and making her way to the stairs. Steve stared at her leaving until she was out of sight.

 She arrived at the shield headquarter as fast as she could. She knew exactly why Fury had called her, he wanted a report of what was happening with Steve, how quick he was catching up so he could work for them.

She had successfully avoided him for the last weeks, not wanting any pressure from his side. It was going so well with Steve, she didn’t want anyone to tell her what to do or how to do it. Even though the director had given her total control, she knew he couldn’t help but wanting to know every step of the process.

She knocked on his office door and entered when he told her to.

“Fury, you wanted to see me” she spoke first, making her way to stand in front of his desk.

“I just wanted to check on my favorite agent” he said ironically signaling her to sit on a chair

“Oh really how thoughtful of you” she answered back just as ironically “What do you want to know?”

“How is it going with Rogers?”

“Pretty well”

“How long is it gonna take?” he asked again

Y/N scoffed “Do you really think it’s that simple? It’s not working that way Nick. He’ll be ready when he’ll decide he is ready. What do you wanna do with him anyway?”  

“I don’t have to discuss any of that with you Agent Collins” he said calmly.

“I’m afraid you do Director Fury.”

The man sighed, leaning back into his chair

“You don’t seem to understand how important and useful Captain Rogers could be for SHIELD.”

Y/n chuckled dryly at his answer

“Trust me I really do. But what you don’t seem to understand, is that, this guy needs some rest. You can’t ask him to go back in the field right know, he needs time. Don’t force him, please.”

Fury took his time to think about what Y/n had said, looking at her pensively

“You like him don’t you?”

“Are you seriously asking me that right now?” she said to him, a deadpan look on her face “You asked me to help him and that’s what I’m doing.”

“Did you tell him?” his question made Y/N freeze “You seem to get along well, and he seems to trust you. Would be a shame to break that.”

Y/N scoffed getting up from her chair

“That’s what you wanna do? Threatening me with that?” she chuckled dryly “You need my help with him. What I’m telling to him is not of your business and I would advise you to let me deal with it, if you still want to use him for your stupid program.”

She made her way to the exit but stopped in her track at his voice.

“He needs to move on from his past and you too Y/N. You need to tell him.”

She opened the door but turn to him before leaving the room.

“I appreciate your concern Nick. But like I said, none of your business.”

With those final words she left Fury’s office.

 Two days had passed since her last visit at Steve’s and her meeting with Fury. That night she couldn’t find sleep. She had turned all night, repeating over and over again Nick’s words in her mind. He was right, she had to tell him, but she was the one who had to make the decision, no one had to do it for her.

She had to meet Steve in the evening for the movie, but before that, she had to meet her dad that had called her, asking her to come for an emergency at the tower. She didn’t know why, even if she had asked multiple time to her father to explain, he just repeated her she needed to come as quick as she could.

So she did. She arrived in the center of Manhattan and enter the brand new building with her family name on it.

She entered the elevator, a British voice greeting her immediately.

“Hello, Miss Stark, your father is expecting you on the top floor”

“Do you know what he wants?”

“I am afraid not, sorry”

The elevator doors finally opened, it took a moment for Y/N to adjust her eyes to the bright light coming from the giant windows. The last floor of the facility gave a view of the entire city, and seeing it made Y/n feeling proud of her father’s project.

“Well you took your time” she heard Tony’s voice from behind her.

She turned to see him, a smug look on his face, she went to embrace him and pointed a finger at him warningly

“I hope you didn’t make me come all the way here for a stupid thing because I swear I will-“ she was cut off mid-sentence by Pepper giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi sweetheart, it’s so good to see you, I’m glad you could make it, Tony didn’t tell me you had accepted for tonight!” she said hugging Y/N.

The young woman looked at her father above Pepper’s shoulder with big eyes, what was she talking about? She didn’t remember accepting any invitation to anything. She freed herself from Pepper’s embrace pointing her finger once again to the man with an accusing glare.

“I swear the next time you call me for some emergency I won’t come”

Pepper put her hands on her hips and gave Tony a disapproving look.

“You didn’t tell her?”

Tony had went to make himself a drink, trying to avoid her deadly stare.

“I’m sorry but we don’t see each other a lot, and I had a lot of things in my head, with the tower and everything I just forgot to tell her you know, but” he raised his glass to Pepper to support his saying “I remembered this morning, and she is here right?”

“Tell me what?” Y/N brought back the attention to herself, wanting to understand what was happening.

Pepper turned back to her, after a last annoyed glare at Tony.

“We have a party tonight to present the tower. You know with what happened at the last expo, you father and the industries lost a lot of support, so we need to show them how good the tower can be for the city. That Stark Industries changed a lot, and your father too. That they can trust us.” She made her way to the young Stark and gave her a file showing her all the people invited for the party and a description of the event “And we need you there”

“I can’t tonight.” She cut Pepper off, not wanting her to go on and on about a party she wouldn’t even attend.

“What do you have? A date?” Tony asked her, almost as a joke

“NO!” Y/N was quick to answer “Well sort of, I mean” she took a deep breath before continuing “No, it’s not a date, date, but it’s important. I can’t miss it”

Dating had not been in Y/N’s vocabulary for a long time, after everything that had happened she had way more important things to think than dating. It’s not that she was not ready, it’s just that she didn’t have time for it. She was completely ready. Yeah, completely ready.

“Come on can’t you just call and reschedule?” Tony said “We need you here, I need you here. It’s your project just as much as it is mine and Pep’s” he gave her the sweetest smile, trying to convince her to come.

But she knew her dad too well.

“You want me there just because you don’t want to be alone around those people, don’t you?”

Tony faked a shocked face and gasped, a hand on his chest “I can’t believe you would think something like about your dear old father”

Y/N chuckled and went to plop on the sofa a hand over her face, thinking about what to do. But then something stroke her

“I don’t have anything to wear”

But Pepper had already anticipated

“I already took care of that, it’s in one of the room downstairs” she said not looking up from an ipad she had in her hands, probably taking care of something for the evening.

Y/n groaned loudly.

“Ugh fine but I need to be out at nine”

Tony shook his hands and let out a “yay” of victory  

Leaving the party at nine would let her just enough time to go back to Brooklyn since the screening started at 9:30. But she couldn’t stay a minute more there or she would miss it.

 ------------

The evening came more quickly than Y/N hoped, she had stayed all day at the tower, helping Pepper with some last minute preparations.

If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was social gathering and galas where hypocrite people would gather in the same room, fighting silently to know who had more money, or whose house was bigger. She had successfully avoided them as a kid, being a secret child had surprisingly its perks, but now that she was older, Tony wanted her to be there more often. She would pass has Pepper’s assistant or his and she would follow them all night, trying her best to seem nice and socialize with people.

She knew why Tony wanted her there more and more. He had talked to her multiple times about saying who she really was, not hiding it anymore, that it was not useful anymore, she was his daughter and he wanted everyone to know. At some point she had been pretty okay with the idea, but after the big “I’m iron Man” moment and what followed, she just didn’t want everything to fall over her head, more than it already did. She just needed time.

The dress Pepper had chosen was the most beautiful thing she had seen. Pepper knew Y/N so well it sometimes scared her. Pepper had always been here for Y/N. She became Tony’s assistant when he took back the industries from Howard, and most of the time would play Y/N’s baby-sitter, becoming at some point just like a mother to her. And when Tony and she finally got together, Y/N couldn’t be happier, she had waited for that moment for so long, realizing way before the both of them they were meant to be together.  

The party went by, and it became boring really quick, Y/N would just watch at the time every five minutes, not wanting to be late. Pepper had introduce her to a lot of people. Many old guys, twice as old as her had tried not so subtly to flirt with her, and many times she had the incredible envy to punch them in the face. But most of the time her dad would see the situation and would come to save her. They would stay in a corner, gossiping on the guest until Pepper would come scold them forcing them to go talk to people.

She had been caught with a group of men who couldn’t stop talking about topics they thought they knew better about, and it was impossible to run away from them, every time she would try to escape they would ask her another question, when she looked at the time and realized it was past 9:30. She just left the group, not bothering to apologize to them. She spotted her dad in the crowd talking to people she didn’t know, she run to him and went straight to kiss his cheek apologizing that she had to leave. She started running away again when she realized what she had just done. She turned around to see at least five people including her dad looking her with a shock expression on their face. She walked closer to them and bowed slightly her head, apologizing to ‘Mr. Stark’ of what she had just done before running away again.

 ------

When she arrived to Brooklyn it was past 10 o’clock and she just wished Steve would not be angry at her for standing him up, so she ran as quickly as her shoes would let her to the theatre not expecting for him to still be there.

She turned at the corner of the street and stopped on her tracks when she saw him, sitting on a bench, a worried look on his face. He was not wearing so much different clothes than usual, but you could feel he had made some efforts as he was wearing a simple white shirt. She smiled at his sight, he had waited for her all this time, and now she felt guiltier than ever.

She made her way to him, the sound of her heels quickly alerted him, he looked up to the direction of the noise and his eyes widen when he saw her, he got up from where he was standing. Y/N could swear she saw some red creeping at his cheek.

“I’m so sorry” she said first

But he waved her off saying it wasn’t a big deal

“No it is, I’m so sorry, I swear I wanted to come I just didn’t look at the time and – but really I wanted to see that movie with you”

She started rambling and Steve only chuckled and put his hand on her shoulder and looked her right in her Y/E/C eyes

“It’s okay, I swear, we’ll have other chances to go see a movie”

She looked at him for a little moment, lost in the blue of his eyes

“I’m sorry” she said her voice not above a whisper

“I know” he gave her a sympathetic smile and put his hands in his pocket, looking her up and down. “But I need to know why you were late because, I’m sure it’s the reason you that well dressed, and not because we were going to the movies” he chuckled again

“I had this gala my dad asked me to attend, it was impossible to refuse, trust me I tried, it was a nightmare, and I was supposed to leave early but I’ve been trapped by a group of know-it-all and I just forgot to check the time”

“Did you eat?”

When he asked her that question, she realized how hungry she was, and remember she had not eat since her breakfast

“No and I’m starving!”

 They tried unsuccessfully to find a good place to eat, but everything was either close or completely booked.

Y/N got suddenly an idea and hopped this one would be a win.

“I actually know a place I was going a few years ago, I think it’s still open” She said looking at their outfits “We’re clearly too dressed up for the place but it will do”

Steve couldn’t hold back his smile, she seemed always so full of joy and energy, it was contagious.

They arrived at a small fast food, and made their way inside. Y/N was quick to speak to the owner, Steve understood by the way they talked that they knew each other. Steve only looked at her talk, a smile on his face.  

They had already finished their meal for a long time when they were still sitting at the same table talking and talking about whatever was going through their mind.

“Can I ask you a question Y/N?”

“Sure, whatever you want” she smiled at him softly, waiting for his question

“Why are never talking about your family?”

It was the moment to tell him. He asked the exact question she needed to finally speak about her life, to tell him the truth.

She didn’t realized she was lost in her mind for so long when Steve spoke again

“But it’s fine, I don’t want to pressure you to anything. I understand if you don’t want to talk to me about it”

“No, sorry, it’s okay, I just” she sighed “I just don’t really talk about it at all, it’s not just with you, it’s always been like that actually”

She played with some crumbs on the table, trying to find what to say.

She was not ready.

“It’s just always been complicated. I’ve been abandoned by my mother, my father didn’t know I existed and he was so young, he wasn’t ready to have a child, so my grandparents took care of me, and well... When they died it was hard for my father” She took a big inspiration and exhaled a shaky breath “We were never really close when I grew up, and then I went to the army, so we didn’t see each other for a long time. But it’s been kind of better for a couple of years, I grew up and he got older, and we both got wiser so we understand each other better.”

She stayed silent, a look on her face Steve had never seen and couldn’t quite place. It surprised him when she finally look at him, the smile he knew already back on her features.

 They slowly made their way back to Y/N’s apartment, Steve having insisted to walk her back, so she would not be alone. Even if she insisted too, she was capable of defending herself.  

They stopped at Y/N’s building door, and looked at each other, neither of them knowing what to do.

Steve was completely lost, and had let her lead the way all night, even if it wasn’t a romantic date, it was the first time he would find himself dining with a woman and he realized he really didn’t know how to do it.

He was caught off-guard when she went to hug him. He didn’t dare to put his arms around her, but felt the courage to do it when she squeezed tighter and whisper a ‘thank you’ in his ears. Not another words were exchange, just a simple wave of hand as a goodnight when she entered her building. Steve stayed a moment in front of the closed door, processing what had just happened.

 ----

It had been three days since the failed Wizard of OZ and the confession dinner, and Y/N and Steve had not met since then. They had agreed to meet at Steve’s apartment in the afternoon

She was surprised to find his door slightly opened when she arrived, Steve would never let it open on purpose, something was obviously wrong. She carefully entered the flat, preparing herself to any kind of situation.

But nothing could have prepared her to what she saw. Nick Fury was sitting in the living room couch, she could only see Steve’s back from where she was standing. She caught Nick’s attention, she could have sworn she saw a smirk on his face, one only Y/N could catch as Steve seemed to look at the ground.

“Ah, Y/N, we were just talking about you.” He said standing up from the couch.

Steve followed his action, his back still turned to Y/N.

“I’ll leave you two together, I’m sure you have a lot to talk about” Nick said shaking the former soldier’s hand.

On his way to the door he looked at Y/n a proud look on his face.

“If you have any questions Captain Rogers please don’t hesitate to call me, I’ll be glad to help you”

With that he was gone.

Y/N only heard the door closing behind her.

The flat was left silent, she didn’t dare to speak or to move.

That asshole had told him everything.

“Why haven’t you said anything?” his voice was serious and slow, he was clenching his hands into fists, his knuckles turning white.

Y/N was terrified, she knew she had messed up, she knew she should have said something sooner.

She was just scared to face her past, to talk about memories, stories she had work so hard to forget. She was more hiding the truth to herself than to him.

That’s what she always did, lying about her, about her past. It’s always been easier so she wouldn’t have to face the demons from her past.

All her life it was like that, she never had the chance to be fully herself, she always had to wear a mask, but now that the mask had fallen, she was lost, she didn’t know what to do. She felt powerless, not in control of her own life.

People accessing to her past, to her secrets was the only thing she could fully control. She couldn’t even control her own thoughts. And now someone had taken that away from her.

“Steve” she finally succeeded to say something “Please let me-“she stopped talking when he finally turned to face her.

His eyes were full of anger. Y/N had never seen him like that, and she hated the fact she was the reason of it.

She had been working on his recovery for so long know, it had ruined everything.

“Go on tell me. Why did you lie? I’m listening.” He said through gritted teeth.

She didn’t know what to say. She knew nothing she could say right now would fix anything, the only thing she thought would be good to say in that moment was sorry.

“I’m sure you are yeah” he sat on the couch with a long sigh, his head on his hands.

Y/N was still standing at the entry, she decided to approach him, she just wanted to make him feel better, she was about to put her hand on his shoulder when his voice broke the heavy silence of the room

“Please leave”

She stood there, her hand hanging in the air, so close to him. But she knew better but to argue with him.

She made her way to the door, she had to say something, she couldn’t leave like that.

“I’m sorry,”

Steve scoffed and let his hands fall on his lap, he still wasn’t watching her, it was the wall in front of him that got his intention.

If he looked at her again he would completely loose it. He was furious. She was the only person he trusted after so long. He thought they had something special but he should have known better. She maybe had some good explanation, but he didn’t have the strength to hear them at the moment. HE just needed time alone.

“I wish I could have done things differently. I wish I had told you sooner, really.”

She made her way to the stairs, wanting to quickly leave the building in a desperate need for fresh air, her heart was beating so fast she thought her chest would explode.

“Well, went better than I thought” she stopped at Nick’s voice.

She felt the rage invading all her body, she turned to face him, he had the same satisfied smirk on his face he had upstairs in Steve’s apartment.

“Are you fucking serious? Don’t do that. Don’t play it all cool like that.” She scoffed “Why did you do that? What do you have to win in this situation? Do you even realize what you just did? Are you fucking stupid?” she had started yelling without even controlling it

“I’m gonna ask you to watch your tone Agent Collins”

“No.” she pointed a finger at him “No you can’t ask anything from me. What you did there…”

She stopped and turned away from him trying to contain her tears. She took a deep breath, trying to stay calm

“You didn’t have any rights to do what you did up there. It is my life, my choice. I just needed time. What satisfaction can you get to do that? You just jeopardized the whole mission. If you wanted him to trust you and help you after that, good luck, you’ll need some”

With those last words she left Fury on the pavement and hurried home.

What was she going to do?

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

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[bexorok]

Alright, it’s two in the fucking morning and I’m making this post because I will never sleep unless I do. So, I was thinking about how the world is going batshit crazy right now and for some reason I had this flashback of a weird ass memory from my childhood from, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, the Care Bears; that boring ass tv show that parents showed their kids so they didn’t have to teach them good morals themselves.

But this is about one episode in particular. It was basically this story about a village called “happy village, because everyone their is happy.” (Barf) and there’s basically this giving tree that grows all you can eat apples. And for whatever reason this tree gives them everything they need, it controls the weather (just go with it), it gives everyone resources and shit. Anyway, after an infuriating amount of “la de da we’re all so happy here” the main plot comes in. See, each villager is only allowed to take one apple a day, and some lady decides to take three apples to bring back to her annoying grandkids, but the thing is some other people saw her. These mfs think that for some reason, if she’s taking more apples then she usually gets, then that means this tree is running out of apples. This leads to a chain reaction of all the villagers taking as many apples as the possibly can before the tree runs out, but in doing so, they basically overwhelm and break this all-giving-god-teir-tree. The moral is: don’t be greedy and take more then you need.

So, why is this important and how does this relate today? When I was a kid and I saw this episode, I thought. “That’s stupid. Adults wouldn’t just do something like that just because one person took more then they needed!” But flash forward to today and what do you know

THE SAME FUCKING THING IS HAPPENING

I just can’t believe that a fucking CARE BEARS CARTOON FROM THE 80s bassicaly told us to not pull shit like this and we went and did it ON A GLOBAL SCALE! This is shit they teach to CHILDREN! Children have learned this lesson, adults have forgotten this lesson.

Conclusion: I’m an adult now and can now say, boy was child me wrong. This situation with the corona virus would be at least more bearable if it weren’t for this selfish mass hysteria buying. I flew back to campus with 8 rolls of toilet paper from home because there is no toilet paper in THE ENTIER CITY. There is no bottled water, there is no canned food, hand sanitizer, soap, basic fucking necessities for people. And you know what? This is the mass hysteria’s fault. This is the fault of selfish people who took a fucking life times supply of these necessities in just a week so that way they were garinteed to have them. “Forget everyone else who might need this pack of water! I’m getting 50 because soon they’ll be all out.” YOU ARE THE REASON THEY ARE OUT.

And this isn’t even the only recent example. Remember last summer when Hurricane Harvey hit? There was a “gas crisis” where everyone assumed that every gas station would be fresh out of gas. So everyone and their mother went to the gas stations and sucked them all dry. That was what caused this stupid crisis, not the hurricane, people deciding that they need to take everything for themselves, because if they don’t then there will be none left for them.

When are we going to stop pulling this shit?

[huntertales]

Part Three: Don’t Bite The Hand That Cursed You. (Remember the Titans S08E16)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader are stumped when they investigate a possible zombie case where an amnesiac man, simply known as Shane, dies and then revives himself once a day. After Shane is attacked by the goddess Artemis, the reader and the Winchesters realize he’s not a zombie but instead a God, more specifically, Prometheus. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader. Word Count: 8,819.

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You lost the count of how many times you told the speech about things that went bump in the night. Most of the time you were telling people when they were caught in the middle or witnessed something first hand. However, dealing with a Greek God who forgot who he truly was after going through a cycle of death and revival too many times, along with a woman who just wanted to hike up a mountain with her friends—the same one he was supposed to be chained to—ended with them fighting for their lives. And spending a night together that ended with a son that Shane didn’t know about until today.

Life was strange. And things for you only got even weirder when you found Oliver inherited the same curse as his father. You had to admit this was a first one for you.

The bunker was the best place for everyone to keep your heads low and try to figure out a way to break this curse once and for all. Haley was still trying to wrap her head around everything that you told her after getting her son situated. She sat on the edge of the chair, leaning forward with a look of disbelief. You crossed your arms over your chest and watched her process everything from the table you sat on top of while Dean leaned his body against the edge of the table. Sam and Shane occupied a table, letting the woman process the reason for her son's strange health habits that couldn’t be explained.

“Okay, so Ollie’s dad is a Greek God who has been cursed to die every day by Zeus. And you guys are...ghostbusters.” Haley repeated back the information you told her in some kind of attempt to get herself to believe everything she was hearing. She felt like she could repeat it over and over again to herself and it still wouldn’t make sense. “Am I getting this right?”

“Well, you know, due to the fact that your son is currently, albeit temporarily, dead, I’m gonna let that one slide.” Dean said, not liking the remark the woman made after telling her you and the boys were hunters. You rolled your eyes and softly nudged him in the ribs with your elbow to make him focus back on the part of the conversation that mattered most.

“You have to realize this sounds crazy.” Haley felt she could be told a thousand times over about the real reason why her son was able to recover from death, but it still wasn’t sticking. It was too insane for all of this to be real.

“It’s true.” Shane said. “I didn’t believe it myself at first, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Look, the faster you wrap your head around this, the faster we can solve this problem.” You told her how it had to be, whether she liked it or not.

“Solve the problem?” I’m just not sure if I even understand the problem.” Haley admitted once more of her skepticism about this entire situation that seemed to be getting weirder.

“The sooner you do, the easier this is going to be for you and Oliver.” You said, not exactly having the luxury of time for you to help ease Haley into this new life she spent thinking was just fiction. Her child was more like his father in all the wrong ways, and if she wanted to help break this curse, she needed to get her head out of the sand.

“All right. So,” Dean got to his feet to explain the plan of action all of you needed to take in order to solve this problem once and for all. “The way we usually handle this is we summon the bastard and we work him over until he undoes whatever it is he did.”

“Summon Zeus?” Haley wasn’t sure of what she was hearing was all that correct when she found herself repeating back the information again. You nodded your head to answer her question. She did everything in her power not to smile at how ridiculous all of this sounded. “And if he doesn’t want to undo it?”

“Then we take him out.” Sam said, as if that was simple as it sounded.

“And hopefully,” Dean added on, “the curse dies along with him.”

“This can't be happening.” Haley muttered to herself, spiraling into denial from how her life managed to turn upside down in the matter of only a half of day. She got to her feet and started to slowly pace around and placed a hand against her forehead, brushing some of her hair out of the way to try and somehow tend to the headache that was starting to form. In the distance, you heard the sound of Oliver coughing, signaling he was awake. Haley took it as her cue to get out of this conversation while she still could. “This I can handle.”

Haley didn’t waste a second bolting out of here to attend to her son, leaving the four of you to talk amongst yourselves. It wasn’t a stretch for you to presume Shane was going to be on board with this plan. You decided to take it upon yourself to check up on Haley and Oliver after a minute or so passed, making you curious to see how her son was doing after his recent brush with death. You left the boys and Shane to start on the long search ahead through all the books the library on everything about Greek Gods.

You headed to the bedroom, softly knocking on the open door to announce your presence before you could startle Haley. You gave her a smile when you saw the woman sitting on the side of the bed tending to Oliver, who appeared to be very much alive from the last time you saw him, but now sleeping. It seemed dying tired the poor kid out. Your eyes wandered to the nasty head wound that was still caked with dried blood. You made a mental note of finding the first aid kit to make sure Haley took care of it before it could lead into something else.

“How’s he doing?” You curiously asked, striking up a conversation with the worried mother.

"Better." Haley replied. She turned her gaze away from her child for a moment to look over at you, she gave you a small smile from your concern on his well-being.

All though a few hours passed and Oliver was now breathing again, you knew by tomorrow the cycle would start up again if you didn’t find a way to stop this. It could have been simple as another hit to the head, maybe even choking on a piece of food. Maybe even something brutal like getting hit by a car...the possibilities were endless. Seeing a child die, no matter the way, was cruel and painful, but knowing they were doomed to suffer the same fate every day? Haley might have been dealing with this for only a couple of months, but you could see the impact it made on her. That constant worry, the constant wonder of what was going to kill her child today.

"I know this is a lot to take in all at once. It was for me after I found out many, many years ago." You decided this was the best to discuss how she was feeling right at this very moment, from all the things she heard, Haley’s head had to be spinning. You looked over at the sleeping Oliver, your lips stretching into a small frown. "Not to mention, your child being wrapped up in all of this mess, it only makes things scarier."

"I guess I got a glimpse of what I was in for after seeing it happen with...Shane. When it happened to Oliver, I knew I needed to track him down and figure out what was going on." Haley admitted. You couldn't possibly know what she was dealing with at the moment, but you were sure about the fact that you wanted to help in any way possible. Haley felt herself drifting away from the topic for a moment as her eyes did the same. She felt her lips stretch into a sort of bashful, almost kind of awkward smile. "I hate to ask this, but..."

You noticed her eyes fell right to your stomach, and the morbid curiosity to know if you were just carrying a few extra pounds, or you were in fact carrying. You answered her question when you placed a hand on your bump and nodded your head. "Four months and counting."

"How are you still apart...of all of this? It seems dangerous. Not to mention what all of you have been talking about. Don't you think it's a stupid idea to be putting yourself in that kind of danger?” Haley's questions were valid and had a point from the concern not only for yourself, the baby too. It was something in which you were used to by now. She realized how she sounded a second after the words fell from her mouth, making her suddenly regret them. You smiled slightly in a way to show her she didn't do any harm. "I'm sorry. This is all just so...new to me. You’re trying to help. Who am I to tell you what to do with your life?”

"It's okay. Seriously. I know all of this seems kind of strange. And I guess it is. Going up against a Greek God is a walk in the park compared to what I've seen over the past two months alone." You said. Haley's face changed into a sort of morbid fascination, as if she was tempted to ask what kind of other things you saw. She didn't, wanting to keep what sanity she had left when all of this was over. "I'll be honest with you, Dean and I weren't expecting kids. Kind of comes with the lifestyle. However...one night, six weeks later. Found out I was pregnant myself.”

"Yeah. I kinda freaked out when I found out I was having Oliver. All by myself." Haley admitted to you. She glanced over at her son, a small spreading across her lips at the memory of him when he was just born. Small enough to hold in her arms, seemed just like yesterday before the nightmare started. "Even if I knew what I was walking into, I'd still do it. My entire life changed when I had him. For the good."

"I've got to hand it to you. Motherhood isn't easy. My mom was a single parent. She did her damn hardest. And you did, too. Oliver seems like he turned out to be a great kid." You told her. Haley smiled at the compliment, but it only lasted for a few seconds before you saw it slowly disappear, a somber expression fell across her expression at the realization of the trouble ahead for her son. "Hey, relax. The boys and I have faced a few Gods in our time together. We even stopped the apocalypse if that makes you feel any better."

"It's just a lot to take in..." Haley started talking, admitting more to you about how she was feeling at the moment. When she finally processed what you had said, she found herself suddenly growing silent as she stared at you with a confused expression. Not sure if you were trying to pull her leg, or you were telling the truth. "Wait—did you say apocalypse?"

"Don't worry about it. That was a while ago. Focus on the future." You said, trying to make her mind focus on more important things than what you might not should have mentioned. "Figure out how things are going to be after all of this is over with."

Haley wanted to made a remark about how there might not be a future if things like this went south, but if three people managed to stop the apocalypse all by themselves maybe they had a clue of what they were doing. “I guess I should think about that, knowing that Oliver’s father’s in his life. I mean, I spent all of this time trying to find him. I just he wants to be a part of ours. I felt like I dropped a bombshell on him.”

"If it makes you feel any better, I didn't tell Dean that he was gonna be a father until just a few weeks ago. I was a nervous wreck that he wasn't going to take it well. And he did." You said. "I mean...it seems like you and him had something going on back there. Something good."

“I never forgot him after what we went through. I want him to know his son, and I want Oliver to know his father. Maybe we all can be a somewhat functional family." Haley mumbled, still trying to wrap her head around everything that was going on. "What about you? After this baby comes, are you still gonna be doing all of this?"

"I haven't really thought about that yet." You found yourself taken off guard from her question, making your brow furrow slightly from how you had to think about it. What was life going to be like when the baby was here? Hopefully no more demons, no more anxiety about the future for your child. "We're in the middle of doing something, let's just say. I'm trying to make a better future for my child. I mean, aren't we all? When that's done, hopefully soon, I guess I can be at peace. Maybe even retire and raise this kid. Try to live a normal...ish life."

Haley couldn't agree more with what you just said. Being a parent meant you'd move mountains for your children and bend over backwards, even sticking your neck out to face against Zeus. The both of you headed back to the library after making sure Oliver was sound asleep. You made your way up the few steps noticing the boys and Shane had already cracked down on research from the books all over the table. And it seemed they found something when Dean handed off a rather heavy looking book to Sam, discussing the matters among themselves.

"Hey," Dean directed his attention towards Haley when he saw her heading back and walking in sync with you by her side."How is the kid?"

“He’s fine.” She said, giving an update that everyone seemed eager to know.

"What did you guys find?" You asked, pulling out a chair for yourself to sit down next to Sam and hear what they discovered on their own. "Anything useful?"

"Dragon penis." Dean said. Out of all the things you were expecting to hear, what came out of the older Winchester's mouth was not one of them. You were a bit taken aback from the words, making a slightly confused and amused look cross your face.

"I'm sorry," You somehow managed to compose yourself long enough to hide back the smile at your natural childish reaction at what you just heard. "Did you just say dragon p—"

"Yeah. It’s a rough translation from Greek. He means Drakopoulos.” Sam told you. “He was a hunter who went after Zeus.”

"Oh, thank God." You breathed out a sigh of relief, not sure where this entire thing was going. "I thought we were gonna have to do something weird."

"Right, so, Drakopoulos tangled with Zeus back in the day," Dean jumped right back into the conversation about what he discovered before you and Haley joined. "and the Men of Letters translated his journal."

"The Men of Letters?" Shane asked, wondering what kind of title that was.

"It's a secret society. This is actually their lair. All of us are legacies." Dean couldn't help himself when he he bragged about the fancy title he inherited from his grandfather, per se. Something that was special to the three of you, but not enough to impress Haley and Shane from the looks of it. Sam stared at his brother while you raised your brow slightly, wondering if all that was necessary. Dean's smile slowly fell, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. "No big deal."

"Okay, so it says here he summoned Zeus into a trap and found a way to kill him," Sam read out aloud the information he found after skimming through the journal.

“What’s that?” You asked.

"Wood from a tree struck by lightning." Dean said.

"Frozen energy—you thinking fulgurite?" Dean wondered. Sam shrugged, thinking it made sense that it was what all of you were looking for. "All right. Nancy Drew, why don't you get on the web and see if there's any Greeks nearby that are still worshiping the old Gods."

"Already on it." You said. You got back up to your feet to find your laptop that had to be hidden underneath all the books. When you noticed it snuggled underneath one, you cautiously pulled it out to make sure you didn’t crack the screen and headed back to your seat to start your search.

"What about the wood?" Shane asked. It was the most important thing all of you needed to get if you wanted to see the God dead once and for all. "Is that easy to find?"

"With a little bit of luck." Dean said.

"Oh. Wait—this journal just ends." Haley mentioned something out of the blue. You looked up from the screen to see she had pulled over the book and began reading the translated journal entry out of curiosity. It seemed she found something unsettling. It seemed Drakopoulos never got around to updating how it all ended. "I mean, how do we know if this Drako-whatever survived? How do we know Zeus didn't get to him?"

"We don't know." Sam admitted to the woman. All of you were going into this with blind faith, hoping the lore you read about wasn't going to end up with five people being killed at the hands of a Greek God after you pissed him off.

"How do we know this is going to work?" Haley asked. She found herself losing a bit of faith in you and the boys after seeing how you worked. It wasn't efficient, it was believing in some kind of dusty old book to possibly take down the monster. All you could do was pray that the information was right and it all ended out in your favor.

"We never know for sure, but these books—they're pretty good." Dean reassured her. They haven't failed you on a hunt from the times you used them. Not yet, at least.

"So, we're hanging our lives on the writing on a dead man who..." Haley tailed off for a moment, trying her hardest not to show her slowly dwindling trust in all of you. "is named after genitalia."

“It’s a loose translation.” Dean said, as if he was trying to make this situation somehow better.

Haley scoffed underneath her breath, mumbling something underneath her breath that sounded awful sarcastic. "Experts."

"We haven't failed yet. Have a little faith in us. Because I just found one of the ingredients. Greek pagans two towns over. Best part?" You turned around the laptop you had been working on for the past few minutes to show the website of endless graves to pick from. "They have an obit page with cemeteries."

"All right. Same, Shane—you're on grave duty. Y/N, find out if there's been any recent lightning storms with trees that were struck down." Dean instructed, listing off duties for everyone to do. You nodded your head while you scribbled down an address for Sam before ripping it off the pad of paper and handing it off to the man. Dean looked over at Haley, telling her what she was going to be apart of. "You and I'll handle the B&E."

"We'll be in touch." Sam said.

The two men got up from their seats and began heading out to get the first ingredient all of you were going to need in order to conduct the ritual. Dean called out to his brother, he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out the keys to the Impala. Throwing it over to the younger man, Sam managed to catch the keys straight into his palm in one swift motion. As you saw his shadowy silhouette heading for the stairs, you shouted at him to be careful like always before going back to your research of trying to find a tree that was struck by lightning.

Dean headed over to the table where you and Haley were occupying, grabbing another laptop for his own tedious search for where he was going to find fulgurite. Haley watched the both of you work, finding it rather fascinating at how all of this was coming together, despite her hesitant earlier. The three of you worked together like a well oiled machine, all of you having a special part to play. And it seemed she got to be apart of breaking the law aspect from it.

"B&E? You mean breaking and entering?" Haley asked out of curiosity. “What for?"

"Well, the book calls for fulgurite. It's a little hard to come by." Dean said, explaining the more drastic behavior to get what all of you were going to need. "The last time we needed it, we stole it from a one-percenter."

"You do know that fulgurite is available in crystal shops all over, right?" Haley dropped a piece of information that was about to make your job a hell of a lot easier. Dean found himself feeling slightly embarrassed, as to why he didn’t even think to look there first. He looked over at the woman, pretending to find all of what she was saying rather interesting. "The new age people, they use it to make cheap jewelry."

You quietly chuckled to yourself from seeing how Dean realized his brilliant plan wasn’t going to be so complicated as he thought. All it took was a quick search for you to find exactly what you needed. “Good news. There just so happens to be a crystal shop in town. If you leave now you’ll be able to grab it before closing.”

Dean grabbed the piece of paper of the shop he didn't need to break into after all. You gave him a smug sort of smile and wished him luck, Haley handed off her keys to her car so he could make a quick trip. You had two of the ingredients done for the summoning spell, now you needed to focus on the most important piece of all. How to kill the bastard. That was going to be the tricky part, but with a bit of research and some news article, you happened to have found a tree that was struck down by lightning last summer. Nothing much of it was left after the storm, but you had a feeling there was just enough to spare just for you.

+ + +

Now that all of you had everything you needed to summon Zeus and make him take back his little curse, it was time to put the plan into action. You decided to hitch a ride with Haley in her minivan with Oliver in the backseat to follow behind the boys and Shane in the Impala. The ride to the location where all of this was going to take place was quiet for the most part. You were behind the wheel with Haley in the passenger seat and Oliver sleeping in the back after he nodded off an hour into the drive. Everything was somewhat calm before the storm. You took your eyes off the road for a moment to see how Haley was doing.

"Listen, I know all of this seems a little haphazard, all right?” You spoke up for the first time in a while, breaking the silence to help ease the situation she was about walk into. “But trust me when I say that the boys and I have gone in with a lot less and still came out on top."

"I believe you. It's just all this." Haley said. She didn't expect during search to find her son's father that it was going to end her learning about the supernatural world, and finding out she spent a night with a God felt like it was the cherry on top of it all. "I'm about to ask Zeus, the Greek God, to help cure my son."

"The thing you have to remember is this is not about asking for help, okay? Things like him aren’t your friend. They’re the enemy. You ask for something, they’re going to ask for something back. Trust me on this. I know from personal experience.” You muttered the last part of your sentence to yourself. However it didn’t go unnoticed by Haley, who found herself staring at you with wonder by what you meant from that. You let out a quiet sigh, adjusting your grip on the wheel. “My mom, she...she couldn’t exactly have kids. Tried and tried for years, but nothing. So she went to someone and asked for his help.”

“What kind of help?” Haley found herself asking out of curiosity.

“Would you believe me if I said that she sold her and 

my dad’s soul to a demon for a kid?" You told her the truth, wondering how she was going to react and think you were lying.

“Yesterday? I would have laughed in your face. Today? It seems just about the rest of the crazy things I’ve been hearing.” Haley admitted. She didn’t exactly feel numb or comfortable with the truth about everything, it was still settling. “What happened to you?”

"Let's just say I inherited a curse from my dad. It turned me into a very bad person for a while." You turned your gaze away from the road and to Haley, admitting something to her that you rarely did unless you felt comfortable with the person. And in some kind of way, you did with Haley. Her expression faltured for a moment, a sense of nervousness crossed her face, wondering if you were about to do something. You smiled slightly in reassurance. "Don't worry. It's gone now."

Haley nodded her head, finding some relief come over her at hearing she wasn't riding in the car with a monster. You turned your attention back to the road so you could focus on following behind Dean and not get yourself lost. Haley noticed your expression settled into something that looked like it was calm, but there was a hint of something that was too hard to go unnoticed. She saw one hand fell from the wheel, and to rest on your small bump. A mother's worst fear.

"You know when I first had Oliver, I was scared out of my mind thinking I was doing something wrong. It’s natural for a parent to have that. It means you care. It’s going to be okay.” Haley thought it was her turn to be the one to comfort, as it was you who was having a fear. Not about going up against a Greek God, but the secret you didn’t tell a single soul not. Not Sam, not even Dean. The impending doom of motherhood. Along with the fear all of your worst traits were going to be inherited. She gave you a smile, the kind a mother gave to her child when they were scared. “Who knows that better you, right?”

You felt the weight in your chest that felt like it had been sitting there for weeks lift just the slightest bit. Maybe Haley was right. You had landed on your feet many times before. You beat the supposed curse that was put on you, proving that you were willing to do anything to live a happy life. You were human...good as new. And you were about to give the same ending to Oliver and his parents. You focused back on the road, ready to do anything you could to help fix this situation so it would never happen ever again. Not to Oliver, not to your child.

+ + +

It was the moment of truth; you crossed your arms over your chest while you watched Dean follow the exact same steps Drakopoulos had done in order to summon Zeus and trap him. He placed the bowl full of the two ingredients that was needed and lit a match, throwing into the bowl and backed away when a burst of flame ignited. You saw Haley flinch from the corner of your eye and Oliver stare at the sight with wide eyes. This was only the beginning of what they were about to see. reassured them to be calm as all of you backed away slowly from the trap that was supposed to keep Zeus right where you wanted him. You rang the bell, now it was time for him to show his face.

Zeus; the Greek God of the sky and thunder, king of all of Olympus was all you knew about him. You looked up slowly to the ceiling of the abandoned warehouse you were in when you noticed the lights were starting to flicker rapidly, giving you an indication that this was working. You furrowed your brow slightly when you heard the sounds of roaring thunder above you, and a few seconds later flashing bolts of lightning. The blinding light caught all of you off guard, forcing you to shield your eyes and back away even more when you noticed lightening strike out of nowhere and straight onto the trap, bringing down Zeus himself.

“Oh, come now.” Zeus didn’t seem the least bit afraid of five measly little mortals and a Greek God he punished trapping him like this. “Can’t we be civilized?”

“Well, it depends on you. All we need you to do is break a curse you put on a little kid.” Dean said, giving part of the reason why he was summoned down to earth in the first place. Zeus directed his attention to Oliver, who was huddled by his mother's side. "So, how about you say 'yes,' and we all go home?"

"Nice to see you again, Prometheus. All cleaned up." Zeus didn't seem to be in any rush to do what you asked of him, he was more preoccupied about catching up with an old face he hadn't seen in a very long time. "I've been looking for you."

“It’s gone too far, Zeus.” Shane said. “Break the curse.”

Zeus remained silent for a moment, wondering why after all this time Prometheus would come to him and beg for him to break the rightful punishment put on him. His eyes wandered away from the man, and back to Oliver, making the connection. “It’s your child who has the affliction.” You crossed your arms tighter over your chest when you saw Zeus walk towards the edge of the trap. Even though you knew he couldn't go any further, you found yourself mimicking his moves, taking a few steps until you were right next to Haley and Oliver, as if you were trying to protect them. "Interesting."  

“So, what’s it gonna be? The easy way,” Dean proposed, walking to the trap. He rested his arms across his side, showing off the wooden stake made out of the tree struck by lightning. “Or we could do this the hard way.”

“Break the trap, dear man, and I’ll break the curse.” Zeus had his own offer, as if he was trying to track all of you into thinking his proposition was good to be true. You had been in this exact same situation too many times before to fall for it. He wasn’t your friend, he was the enemy that wanted what he wanted and to see all of you dead.

“No dice.” Dean said. “Fix the kid.”

“Going once…” Zeus pretended to show you that he wasn't fooling around, counting down until his offer expired and you'd be left with nothing.

“Don’t be that guy.” Dean said with annoyance in his tone at the deal the God was trying to fool him into agreeing with.

“Going twice…” Zeus went on again, waiting for one of you to crack under the pressure.

“Hey, you can rot here for all I care.” Dean told the man.

“Yes,” Zeus understood the punishment that would follow if he didn’t cooperate, and how it’d be the same for all of you if you didn’t bend a little. “and the child will continue to suffer.”

Dean pretended to think about the lose/lose situation that would be if none of you compromised. To someone like Haley, she felt giving into Zeus' demand was the only way her son was going to get free. You and the boys had been in this kind of predicament before. Dean decided to head out, knowing it was better for Zeus to have a little time out and think about what he's done. You didn't hesitate a second in turning around and heading towards the exit, letting him rot in here for long as he needed to. It was at this point when the monster began to rethink their choices. But it seemed there was a weak link in your group, someone who was desperate to put this nightmare to an end. Zeus set his eyes on Oliver's mother.

“He needs me,” He told the woman. “And you know it.”

Haley found herself remembering all the things you drilled in her head about how Zeus was the only one who could lift this curse, who could solve this problem once and for all. She seemed to forget the part where monsters aren’t your friend. Their word wasn’t their bond, it was the sweet nothings they told you to fall for their tricks. And she did, a mother who wanted nothing more than to protect her son. You found yourself stopping dead in your tracks when you heard her outburst, making you quickly look over to see what she was about to do.

You reacted on your first instinct, running like a bat out of hell in hopes you had enough time to stop Haley from making the biggest regret of her life. You saw her abandon Oliver for just a moment to head to the trap that was the only thing to keep Zeus in his place, and with the simple scrape from the heel of her shoe, it was destroyed. You managed to yank her back away from the very thing you told her not to go near. The only way this situation could be handled was to bargain with Zeus as if he was the enemy. And now you found yourself face to face with the very being, not sure how it was going to end up. Haley was focused on one thing, getting her son back to normal. Zeus had other plans tonight.

“What do you say?” The Greek God decided it was his turn to have a little fun. With a simple stomp of his foot, a burst of lightning came out of nowhere, striking down Shane and the boys, making them stumble to the ground. You tried to move your feet to somehow gain control of this situation, only to find they were planted firmly on the ground. You were stuck. "Shall we try this the hard way?"

You felt yourself exhale a sharp breath from your nose at how all of this ended up, Zeus found it all rather amusing when you caught him laughing to himself, seeing your pitiful attempt crumble at the hands of a mother who was just trying to do what was best. "Bring forth the child." Zeus commanded. Haley was hesitant to do so, as if she was starting to realize this was a mistake. A scary man with unlimited powerful was intimidating, so the God decided to add a touch of manners to help ease the tension. “Please.”

Zeus stood face to face the mother and child, thinking he had everyone right where he wanted them. He had no clue it was going to take a lot more than being thrown around for the boys to give up so easily. Your eyes wandered away from the situation that was about to unfold into a disastrous ending if somebody didn’t put a stop to it. The boys slowly got up to their feet, silently making a plan to attack Zeus when they noticed his back was tuned to them. It seemed like the perfect plan that was going to work. Neither one of you took into consideration Zeus had family of his own, who would do anything he asked.

The boys managed to get up to their feet before they found their plan foiled in the matter of seconds, and only finding out they were caught when they felt their backs roughly being thrown against a cement wall, pinning them in place. You turned your head to see who it was. The woman from the motel Sam had identified as the Greek Goddess, Artemis. You rolled your eyes in frustration at how all of this went downhill, muttering a familiar frustration out from underneath your breath you remembered Bobby used to say during times of distress. “Balls!”

“I trust you've met my daughter.” Zeus said.

“Haley, don’t do this.” You warned the woman from what she was about to do. You felt your stomach twist into knots from what was unfolding. Somehow you hoped she would remember what you said about your own mother who did anything to get what she wanted, but ended with her rotting in hell. “You aren’t going to win.”

“This is the son of Prometheus. And he’s cursed to suffer death every day.” Zeus told his daughter. Sam watched as Artemis looked over at Prometheus, with a kind of expression he wouldn’t have expected from the woman. “I must admit, I could never have conceived such a horrible fate for such a beautiful child. Just goes to show, we must all leave room for happy accidents.”

“What does that mean?” Haley asked the man, not sure if what he was saying was a little remark. Or something much more sinister. The way he was speaking was cryptic, like it could mean anything. “I don't understand.”

“Tell me, has Prometheus experienced the child's death yet? How did he take it? Did he hurt?” Zeus asked the woman all sorts of questions she nodded her head to, giving him the exact answers he wanted to hear. “Good.”

It seemed Zeus wanted to deliver Prometheus’ punishment of death himself when Shane suddenly dropped down to his knees, attempting to somehow breathe. But it was impossible from the invisible grip around his neck. Haley quickly shielded Oliver’s eyes so he wouldn’t be able to see the sight. “Imagine a thousand children all dying in unison. Only then would you understand my pain. But we can't always have what we want, so...” You felt your stomach drop when you saw him set his eyes on Oliver. “One will have to do.”

Haley suddenly realized her plan backfired right in her face when she figured out what Zeus was trying to do. She attempted to plead for him to change her mind, but she only managed to get out one measly word before she was forced into silence. Oliver had no nowhere to run when Zeus walked over to him and crouched down to the little boy’s level. Zeus looked at him like he was a special gift made just for him. A new little puppet to torture.

“I have a special job for you, my little friend.” Zeus spoke to the child in a sweet and kind tone, making him have no clue what he was about to do. This was a family matter, and it seemed the Greek God didn’t like the fact that you were giving him a deathly glare.

Zeus called over his daughter to take care of you and the boys while he dealt with Oliver and his parents. You knew better than fight your way out of this when Artemis made her way over to you and roughly yanked your arm, forcing you to start walking. You rolled your eyes in frustration and did what you were told, leading the way while she followed right behind. The boys were next to join you, and on your way you went, marching to your death. You pictured a lot of different ways your life would be cut short. You didn’t think it was going to be at the hands of a Greek Goddess, and especially not in the condition that you were in.

You let out a quiet sigh at how this night ended up for the three of you; walking to your deaths, Oliver facing the same terrible and painful fate as his father. While you and Dean were thinking of every way you could sneak your way out of this, it seemed Sam wanted you and his brother to get to know the person who was about to end your life in a very painful manner.

“So, you know who this is, guys, walking us to our deaths?” Sam asked all of you, as if you were honestly going to answer him.

“Don’t know.”

“Don’t care.”

“It's our God, Artemis—the Goddess of Hunters.” Sam said. You looked up at him and have him a sarcastic sort of expression, pretending you were even the slightest bit interested in what he had to say. Dean gave his brother a sort of stink-eye glare, not really in the mood for the brief history lesson on the goddess. “Of course, she's not really worship worthy anymore, uh, having lost a step and all.”

Artemis didn’t think the words being said about her were shining her in a flattering manner. She didn’t waste a second in making Sam regret what he said when she waved her hand, slamming the three of you straight into the wall. You managed to catch yourself just in time from getting a blow to places where you tried to avoid. You were stuck with the side of your face pressed against the cold concrete wall, at the mercy of a very pissed off Goddess. “The hell I am.”

“Really, Sam? Talk trashing a God?” You hissed at the younger man from how stupid he was being. This kind of behavior you expected out of his brother during times like this, not him. “If she doesn’t kill you, I sure as hell will.”

“Still at full power? Really?” Sam asked the Goddess, in the kind of voice that was almost mocking her. He didn’t give her a chance to answer, deciding to see how long he could push her buttons before she snapped. “Then why did it take you seven years to track down Prometheus?”

“He was hiding.” She said.

“Hiding from you? So the God of Hunters couldn't find a shack in Montana?” Sam went on, asking his questions and testing his limits. “Maybe it's that you didn't want to find him.”

Artemis decided to show all of you she was exactly who her name promised to be, a hunter who knew how to make her prey fall in line. You felt your first punishment for the night when you felt yourself being shoved even harder against the wall, making it feel like you were being pinned down by a bolder. “Keep it up, Sammy.” You gritted the words between clenched teeth. “And I’ll make sure you’ll never be able to have children.”

“Your dad’s gonna kill that kid, you know?” Sam reminded the woman about the horrible events going on on the other side of the warehouse that she was ignoring.

“Don’t worry. He’ll come back.” Artemis reassured him about the loophole that wouldn't grant such punishment to Oliver. She pulled out a dagger and stepped forward to Sam, lightly pressing the blade against his cheek to prove he was very much mortal. "Unlike you."

“He was in love with you, you know. He told us.” Sam suddenly said something unexpecting. You furrowed your brow from where he was going with this, taunting Artemis wasn’t to get under her skin, the way someone would with a secret nobody was supposed to know. She stepped away from him, mumbling that he was lying. “Okay, sure, yeah. Believe whatever you want.”

Things fell silent for a moment, long enough for all of you to hear the screams of pain coming from Shane as you knew him. To Artemis he was someone more, in a way that Sam knew how to work against her to his advantage. After a few seconds Artemis hesitantly spoke up, "What did he say to you?"

"This wasn't the first time he escape that mountain, and that you let him go for free as long as you could hide your little trystant from the old man." Sam said. It all sounded convincing, but the  goddess was smart enough not to believe such a thing to come out of the man’s Shane’s condition who didn’t even know who he really was.

“The hell he said.” Artemis muttered. “His brain is mush.”

“Oh, yeah? Then how did I know? What, have you spilled it to anyone? Homor? Hesiod? Herodotus? Of course not. You were afraid Big Daddy would find out that you fell for the person he hates most in this world. Of course, when he saw the zombie article, it kind of forced your hand, and you had to come hunt him down no matter how much it hurt." Sam managed to unravel the situation as what it was, never missing a beat while explaining it back to Artemis. You had to admit you were impressed with his big brain. But what came out of his mouth took you by surprise. "You know what? Go ahead. Kill us. And let your father slaughter that boy. Over and over again. That won't leave a mark."

Artemis had shown no sort of sympathy to Oliver, thinking his curse was a loophole of torture that was better than death. But it seemed she had come to her senses, realizing she wasn't a better than her father. She was beneath him, making her powerless as Prometheus. She was at the mercy of Zeus. If she didn’t do what he wanted, who was to say he wouldn’t punish her as well? The blood of an innocent child would be on her hands if she didn't do something to take control of this situation to make it right once and for all.

Zeus warmed up his punishment on Prometheus with a psychical beating and some extra goodies to shock him back into consciousness. Now that he was in a weaken state. the God decided to take a crack at his son. He stood over Oliver, getting ready to give the child his next dose of death. But he was stopped before he could lay a single finger on Oliver, by someone he would have never expected to betray him. "This has to stop, father."

“Stop?” Zeus found his daughter standing across the way with her bow and arrow, ready to aim and shoot him if he didn’t cooperate with her demand. He didn’t seem the least bit threatened at the attempt to foil his plans. “I’m only getting started.”

“You’ve done enough.” Artemis said.

“I am doing this for us—for our kind. He is the reason we’re here and not ruling the world.” Zeus pointed a finger at Shane, blaming the God who brought light to the world of humankind. The act that doomed Gods and Goddess’ from power, and forced Protemetus to his punishment. “He’s the reason they have forgotten all about us.”

“Let them go.” Artemis demanded in a sharp tone. “All of them.”

"I am your father, and you will obey me." Zeus told his daughter, reminding her about the role that she was to play and who was in charge here. He looked away from her to focus on what he was previously doing before she barged in and talked all of this nonsense.

“You were once my father.” Artemis said. It seemed her words had caught Zeus’ attention when he found himself looking back at her, surprised at what he was hearing. “Now you’re someone else.”

Artemis set her eyes on her father and shot off the arrow, thinking it was going to hit her target. But it seemed even Zeus had his own tricks to beat death. He grabbed Shane off from the ground to use him like a human shield, letting him be the one to get hit with the arrow when it landed straight into his stomach. "I never get tired of watching you die." Zeus taunted Prometheus for the last time, promising that his curse would never stop with his bloodline. "Your boy is going on the mountain."

Zeus thought he was the one who was going to have the last laugh, not realizing that Shane would do anything to make sure that his son wouldn't have to face the same hell he had. With what little strength he had left, Shane grabbed ahold of the arrow in his stomach, shoving it further into his body, and right into Zeus—who had been standing directly behind him. You saw the look of surprise cross his face at what Shane had done, He was finally getting a taste of the punishment that was coming to him. You began to see flashes of lightning start to rapidly fly through from Zeus' body, and, without warning, a sudden bolt of light blinded you.

It took a few moments for your eyes to adjust back to normal at what you saw unfold. When you managed to, you looked forward to see that the deed was done. The curse was broken...but at the cost of a life. You let out a heavy sight at the sight of Shane lying on the ground, all of this went unnoticed by his son. Artemis made her way over to the bodies and crouched down, yanking the arrow out and throwing it to the floor.

You found it slightly odd when you saw Artemis grab her father and Shane's hands to hold them together and looked over at Haley, giving her the slightest glimpse of a smile. The action was as if she was telling the woman her son was free from the misery his father had went through. And with the generous gift, it was time for her to leave to put her father to rest. In the blink of an eye, Artemis and Zeus' body vanished into thin air.

+ + +

You had to admit, you were a little too optimistic for your own good at times. You were naive. You wanted to believe the glass was half full, there was good in people. Sometimes dark days can lead to happy endings, no bloodshed needed to fall in order for things to be okay. No matter how many times you saw it end the same exact way each time...you never learned your lesson.

You thought there was a chance things for Haley and Shane could end with the both of them raising their son like a family, the way you promised it would. Now here you sat, in the middle of the woods with Oliver, watching a fire go in the distance while the boys burned Shane’s body and Haley said her final goodbyes.

Oliver hadn't said a single word over the past day and a half that you knew him. He couldn't from the curse put on him. You made your way over to the kid and sat down on the back of the minivan, joining him for a moment. After the things that he saw tonight, you thought the kid deserved a bit of a break from all the chaos. Feel like a kid for a bit while the grown ups cleaned up the mess before going back to things, pretending like all of this didn’t happen.

"You know what? How about we go get some ice cream sundaes?" You proposed an idea that sounded like it might be fun for him and give him a chance to relax. You thought he was going to  shake his head or shrug his shoulders as a response. Instead, he spoke—for the first time in the past couple of months. The sound of the kid’s voice was bittersweet.

“No. I’d like to stay.” Oliver said.

You were rather taken back at his decision, but you agreed if that's what he wanted. You gave the little kid a smile, the kind you supposed parents did when times were tough and they were trying to fool their children that everything was okay. Oliver wasn't like a normal kid. And he'd never quite be the same after the things he saw tonight. You didn't know which one made your heart break more; the fact that a child's innocence was gone. Or the curse put on him could only be broken by his father dying.

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Yugio S3 Ep 26: Marik’s Low Speed Escape From the Museum

This episode is quite short and contains about two things 1.) this weird 4-way duel that has little bearing on anything except who gets to play Marik and get super cursed first and 2.) flashbacks.

I am so thankful for flashbacks, because this was mostly watching Kaiba doing his damnedest to manipulate Joey Wheeler and Yugi into not working with eachother so that way Joey would lose and go up against Marik when Joey Wheeler has already decided he was going to go up against Marik.

It was very catty. Kaiba at his cattiest. He really thought he was breaking up this friendship of two people who were once chained by the ankles to an anchor when they’re like “no, Kaiba, you don’t get it. Kaiba, this is totally unnecessary, Kaiba. Kaiba, calm down.”

To be fair to Seto Kaiba, he probably absolutely believes that this is what Yugi is going to do before their Senior Year of High School is over. Kaiba kind of lives in a Game of Thrones situation in his head when in reality...he’s in high school playing cards.

(read more under the cut)

We also get a flashback of this show desperately trying to prove to us that they had planned JoeyxMai this whole time. I’m starting to realize this is just how they write most romances on this show, by inserting flashbacks instead of actually showing any romance in the current timeline.

And by romance, I mean aggressive friendship because yes that age gap is...still there. My bro was like “I dunno if they’re even still in High School at this point. I think they wrote them out of High School without telling us” but like, until they show me directly that they have graduated, then I’m just gonna still believe they’re in high school. Except Seto who is like both 18 and 16 and a college graduate at 14 or just never graduated the 9th grade depending on who you’re talking to. Seto will be our outlier of “he’s in class but don’t ask.”

Anyway, lets go hang out with Ishizu to see what happened when Marik decided to pay her a visit at the museum. This occurred directly after she handed over her God card to Seto Kaiba.

Yes, she gave her God card to Seto Kaiba, and then, once he was out the door, decided to lock herself in a vault, just so she could spook her little brother’s cultists. This family and their weird pranks.

But here’s the thing I just realized that I can’t shake. I know it’s a kid’s show so none of this will matter, but let me go a little Ace Attorney on us here and just throw out a very quick “objection!” to the floor because...there’s some continuity issues.

+++++++++++++++BORKED TIMELINE RANT FEEL FREE TO SKIP ++++++++++

(Shocking on this show that has Seto Kaiba’s timeline, that there’d be some continuity issues, but youknow...now we have new one.)

If she JUST gave that card to Seto Kaiba, and she did not leave Japan from the time that she gave Seto the card and the time the tourney started (since this museum show I assume has been in Japan this entire time), then why is Marik here?

Marik came here on a boat in the middle of S2, he made a big fuss about it, but apparently he was already here just weeks earlier. He was already in Japan, then got back on his boat, and just sailed around in the Pacific for a spell before heading back?

Did he just come here to get these cards and then also drop off Bandit Keith???? Except...Bandit Keith was...before Ishizu showed up in the timeline of this show.

Or, and this is might be even more confusing, what if this is happening in Egypt, and it’s a completely different museum, and Ishizu just left Japan at some point to stand in a vault until her brother showed up,and then got back on a plane back to Japan just in time to crash Yugi’s date?

And here’s the thing, lets just pull out that borked timeline. The Ishtar timeline, from the perspective of the Isthars, lets do this.

1. Marik feels like going on a really exotic yachting trip with his cultist buddies and decides to check out Pegasus’ Island off the coast of America(?) While there, he unexpectedly comes across Bandit Keith, who (and this must have been really shocking to every single cultist there who is used to living underground) is violently shot out of a strange slip n’ slide mechanism, that pops him out of a cliff-face and vaults him directly into the ocean. Curious, Marik picks the weird Trash American out of the sea, and he finds out that Bandit Keith knows Yugi, but instead of invading Pegasus’ island where Yugi was currently residing, Marik decides to go allllll the way to Japan (Which is crazy because Bandit Keith did not know what part of Japan Yugi lived in. Japan is freakin huge and made up of several islands.)

2. Since Marik wanted to get to Yugi ASAP, he tosses Bandit Keith onto the coast of Domino in order to abduct Yugi on his way to soccer practice. We can assume this happened...like a few weeks later (I really am not sure how fast his party yacht moves, but like...considering we also don't know where Pegasus’ island is (Maybe like the coast between California and Mexico?????) I can never say.) At this point, Marik probably just peaced out and went to Guam to hang out 20 leagues away from where Noah was currently plotting his revenge.

3. While Yugi is recovering from 3rd degree burns form the warehouse fire, and during which time, Yugi’s doctors were also trying to figure out how the hell to get Yugi to let go of the goddamn golden puzzle that remained in his hands from the moment Yugi passed out to the moment Yugi woke up in the hospital, Ishizu lands in Japan via a plane (although the English version erroneously says she lands in America, because for a little while they wanted to pretend that this entire show takes place in the US.) She unpacks her cargo, sets up a museum exhibit, and then on the news/psychic phone call, invites Seto Kaiba over so she can give a God Card to Seto Kaiba. I assume al that happened the very evening that the museum show opened. Like maybe this happens over the course of maybe a week or so from when Marik left Japan after dropping off Bandit Keith?

4. Shortly after (within the amount of time it takes Kaiba to get the idea to do the tourney and the time to hastily throw it together (which could not have been long, this tourney is a complete disaster)) Marik crashes Ishizu’s museum in.......Japan? Japan or Egypt. Something like that. Considering he wants to go where the God Cards are, he’d probably go to the exhibit that also has the giant God Card tablet that will curse everyone that looks at it. So...probably Japan. However, there are palm trees here, and so maybe it’s Egypt? I don’t know. After that doesn’t work out, he peaces out yet again, and then gets back on his boat for the second time, and goes straight back to Guam or wherever.

5. A few days later, Ishizu crashes Yugi’s and Tea’s date. (and if she has been in Egypt spooking Marik in a vault, this means she had to get off of a plane in order to make it in time to spook this date as well on the other side of the world) She tells Yugi about the tourney because for some reason, Kaiba has invited everyone with invites but just...didn’t send an invite to Yugi for some reason although Yugi is the only reason he’s throwing this tourney. Then she shows Yugi the cursed God Card tablet and then peaces out so she can join Kaiba’s tourney and play cards peacefully while everyone else was getting attacked by cultists.

6. About a few days later into the tourney...Marik arrives in Japan and we act as if this is the first time he ever has and it’s with a MUCH better motorcycle, but we’ll get to that motorcycle later.

It’s not as bad as the Kaiba timeline--I can’t even put the Kaiba timeline in a consecutive order, but mm. This brother sister team realllly likes to travel across the entire world and back within the span of a couple of months, huh?

++++++++OK THAT’S ENOUGH ABOUT THAT TIMELINE, BACK TO THE SHOW+++++++++++

I am so weirded out that Marik doesn’t wear like anything under his cloak. Like nothing. It’s just a gross sweaty cloak and that’s it...and like I have NO idea if he has pants on, they never scroll down. I mean, I assume he has matching purple pants...or probably cargoes, but...does he? Or does he just wear that cloak over a pair of golden boxers?

Also, why is he wearing golden arm bands with a long sleeved cloak? It’s because he knows he’s gonna take that cloak off at EVERY opportunity, right? Like that’s the only reason you would bother with the arm cuffs?

And then we get the most unexpected motorcycle in history.

So like...remember how Marik was hella into Motorcycles? Remember how it was really cool hot rods that made him start towards the evil side in the first place? Think about the coolest motorcycles you know and then...admire this one

This motorcycle that moved so slowly that the cultists casually jogged behind him like it was a parade or something. Like, did he steal the motorcycle from this museum collection?

Anyway, bro let me know that apparently in the Japanese version she’s got armed guards with guns, but they were edited out. Funny thing is, bro also mentioned that since Marik can just mind control people, it makes more sense that Ishizu wouldn’t bring an armed militia with her. I gotta agree, this is the one instance where the English version actually works better.

Although that motorcycle though. Wow. It’s like out of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Marik just stuffed himself into that baby side car, making vroom vroom noises with his mouth as he glides away at a smooth 10 mph.

This is our serial murderer that killed Bakura, folks. It was this guy.

Kinda wish he kept the side car this entire time, that would have been a treat throughout S2.

Anyway, here’s a link to read all the recaps from Ep1 S1 in chrono order.