#i say bungled because bungle is a funny word

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

in the google doc straight up bungling it and by it i mean my WIP

[darcytaylor]

Hi there, I stumbled upon your blog and I am so glad I did! I really enjoyed reading your deep dives. I agree with a previous commenter; your posts have been articulate, understanding and compassionate while also being on the nose with your critiques. With all the heightened emotions right now, thank you for keeping things calm while also being able to explain your take on everything - it’s been very interesting to read! I��ve been desperately trying to find other posts/people that have similar vibes because this whole… situation-ship has been a bit much. I have to admit I learned a lot about Luke from your deep dives, mostly because I wasn’t really paying much attention to him until the press coverage started in earnest earlier this year. And I’m not entirely sure what to make of him now; it was very eye opening and gave me plenty to think about. I genuinely liked him up until this all happened, and I think I still do, but my god, has he (and his team) created a mess for himself. Some thoughts, in no discernible order: 

Saying he was most like his character/Colin. I 1000000000% agree with you here! I think that’s why it was so jarring when people found out about the (not so secret, I now realize) gf. “Colin as a character made them feel seen. They couldn't separate Luke from Colin because he kept saying he was like Colin” Ugh, that’s some heartbreak right there. 

I also feel very strongly about the age thing, and I’m heartened to hear I’m not alone in this. The age gap would be one thing for a “normal, everyday couple,” but I agree when there’s also a power dynamic involved, it just makes me feel even more uneasy. Then you add in his comments about how he remembers being in his early 20s…

His social media is a fucking mess. Someone else needs to take control ASAP. Especially if he claims he was moving it into a more professional direction. JFC, there are literal professional who get paid to do this; hire them.

I agree that he should be booked for, like, the next 2 years from this point, and that’s a huge mistake that he isn’t. He can’t just seriously think he can fuck off to Fashion Week and this will all blow over, right? Right!?!?

I think we can all agree that Nicola is fucking perfection. 

(Can you tell I have a comms background? Everything about how all of this has been (mis)handled has made me want to cry, scream and throw up - and not in the funny meme way. But seriously, how can his team bungle all of this SO POORLY???) Anyway, I have a lot more thoughts but I’m now worried I’ve flooded your ask box. Thanks for humoring me!

Thank you for taking the time to read all of the deep dives and your kind words!

The whole situation has been wild to look at from the outside. I could see so much hate going around from all sides and felt that maybe if I put everything together, people could look at the situation with clear eyes.

I think that Luke still has the potential to go places in his career and hopefully the situation that he has found himself in will help him. You know the saying "sometimes you have to hit rock bottom", this could be that for Luke.

[hungergamesheadcanons]

Because I'm weak and anyone who follows me must suffer my immediate train of thought:

Behold some kpop artists that remind me of Hunger Games characters.

Katniss is a difficult one. I flitted between a couple of different artists, but ended up settling on Dreamcatcher. A lot of their songs are powerful, which shows the impact she has on people, but they also have some beautiful ballads which remind me of her softer side.

Songs that remind me of Katniss: Scream (Quarter Quell), You and I (relationship realisation), Polaris (singing for Rue)

Rosé from BLACKPINK has some solo songs, although anyone who listens to them is very aware of that. A lot of her songs really remind me of Peeta though, especially because she has an undeniably softer tone but still carries a lot of power, like how Peeta is physically weaker than Katniss but is incredibly skilled with his words and pinpointing weak spots in the Capitol's front. Special mention of Somi's Fast Forward though BC accurate.

Songs that remind me of Peeta: Hard To Love (hijacking), On The Ground (post first games), Gone (Peeta realising the first love was an act (even though Katniss wasn't sure herself))

Ok for Finnick we've got two, and that's because his personality in and out of the Capitol are two sides of a coin. In the Capitol, it would be a crime if I didn't say Taemin. Soft, sensual and sexy, Taemin's music makes me think that if Finnick had at any point sang, he would have been turned into a performer like Taemin. Outside of the Capitol though, I lean towards Red Velvet. The mix of upbeat pop that shows how fun and silly he can be, to slower more r&b songs, to emotional ballads, really just encompasses the main facets of his personality.

Songs that remind me of Finnick - Taemin: Guilty started this whole post, and I have to throw Slave and Thirsty in here too.

Songs that remind me of Finnick - Red Velvet: One Of These Nights (Annie in Capitol), Rose Scent Breeze (filming reveal propo), Red Flavor (can't pinpoint it but I can see him vibing to this idk)

I don't really think Johanna would listen to much music, but I will shoehorn her into liking kpop because this is my world now Suzanne (and Finnick survived). So Johanna I would say probably listens to Jessi? Jessi's music gives off bad bitch vibes and she's sometimes criticised for her attitude etc etc, so I think Johanna would resonate with that. Also, confidence is sexy y'all.

Songs that remind me of Johanna: Nunu Nana (idk just vibes man), What Kind Of X (interview), ZOOM (feels like she mocks Finnick with this song but jokes on her he vibes to it too)

I wanna say Twice, because I think it'd be really funny, but I'm gonna go with Lee Hi. She has a lot of easy listening music that wouldn't bungle his brain when he's drunk out of his skull, and also some jazzy tones that I think he'd appreciate.

Songs that remind me of Haymitch: Special (mourning his family), Am I Strange? (realising he's incredibly fucked up but also realising so is every other Victor), Scarecrow (joining the revolution and being hopeful for the first time in a while)

Twice, unironically this time. Young Prim in particular is so happy and hopeful, and I think that slightly-older-revolution Prim would hold onto those cheerful songs like a lifeline in the darkness of 13.

Songs that remind me of Prim: Cheer Up (when Katniss comes back alive), Dance The Night Away (vibing at Finnick's wedding), What Is Love? (Pure vibes again idk)

[thenightlymirror]

Memorial Day weekend, Harms sees a post from a woman she met recently that she’s going on a sudden vacation for the weekend and needs someone to watch her kid.

Now, this sounds pretty crazy to her that someone she just met is going to allow her to stay at her house for three days to watch her 14 year-old kid, but she volunteers.

She brings her 6 year-old little girl with her, and calls me up, because they are maybe 10 minutes from where I work. I meet them at a pizza pub down the street, and this is where I have to explain Benson.

Benson is OBSESSED with Mr. Bungle. Yes, Mike Patton’s Mr. Bungle. She knows his entire discography. She can recite the entire early history of Mr. Bungle, demo by demo, record by record. She does this while speeding around the kitchen in a baggy black S.O.D. T-shirt and trucker’s cap, walking the same circle over and over again.

I say “she” in the loosest terms. Me and Harms have our suspicions, and Benson says she goes by he or she, but NEVER they. She’s non-binary but not woke about it. Whatever.

I stop calling her by her dead name and call him Benson for the rest of the night, which he prefers.

The night starts off with Harms taking the kids to buy birthday paraphernalia for the cat, this gray longhair named Smokey. So, I’m just sitting in some strangers house with their cats for a half hour. We have a birthday party for the cat. I break out my tarot cards. We listen to some records and interrogate this little non-binary kid. Harm’s daughter loves the tarot cards.

I say, we have to keep this hush-hush, but who would like to take a golf cart ride around the cemetery? Everyone. Amelia sits up front and tells me her ideas about reincarnation. I tell her about Jorge Luis Borges and eternal return. They love it.

Me and Harms love these kids. And it was like this weird spontaneous family that felt perfectly right. We talk for another hour or two. Benson wakes up to pace some more. You can tell he likes the audience. He’s being himself at full volume.

In the morning, I get a text from Harms asking wouldn’t it be funny if I came over to watch the kids so she could talk to an old boyfriend of hers for a few? She says he’s over there now, teaching Amelia how to use a switchblade. I look at my phone. Put it down.

Later I get a text that they dropped him off and want to get dinner somewhere. I meet them for some ice cream. You can tell Amelia and Benson are getting on each other’s nerves a bit. I feel like Harms’s little girl is learning what it’s like to not be the coolest kid in the room, what it’s like to be a little younger, not punk enough. She’s trying to act up a little, and it’s both sweet and a little sad.

They come over to my place, and it’s clear that they are the first visitors I’ve had in over a year. It’s not a place for visitors, let alone kids. I clear off some chairs, put on some music, and sit at the kitchen table with Amelia to do another tarot reading. I try my best to pay her some childlike attention. It’s funny, because all my friends’ kids are about the same age. With a teenager, they’re like appropriately aged versions of my lowlife friends, but with Amelia, she’s a goofy little girl. You have to be a goofy little girl.

She cries a little bit when they go.

A few days later, Harms texted me, asking if I remembered what we were chanting together, that one warm October night where we were swimming together in her backyard, gathered around Amelia in her floaties, making huge tidal waves squeezed together like huge sardines.

For the life of me, it’s like she pulled the words out of my memory, and we went back and forth for a few hours trying to figure it out.

[welcometomybraincomics]

Bungling language is such a fun pass time

Like, I am currently learning languages, right? So, that puts me in the perfect position to create semi-accurate dialog of a person who is not proficient in a language trying to speak to a native speaker. And make it fucking hilarious XXDXDXDXD

Like, because of this, I now have a "Fumi lives in Japan and Heim came to visit" AU where Heim is not proficient in Japanese, but damn is he trying.

So, in this AU, Heim managed to land himself a job working customer service bc he's memorized all the transactional call and response phrases needed to work that kind of job ("Welcome," "What would you like to order," "That'll be [insert price]," etc.), but he's shit at conversational Japanese. So, Heim is working in the back, washing dishes, and while doing so, he accidentally cuts himself on a knife and can't find the first aid kit. He frantically looks around the kitchen for a co-worker, finds one, catches their attention, but in the time they're comming closer so they can talk and they ask Heim what's wrong, Heimdallr realizes he doesn't remember how to say "Help," doesn't know the word for "wound," and doesn't know the word for "bandage," so he quickly bungles up a sentence that goes "I have a new mouth. It says red. Where are the clothes?" Which clearly makes no sense, so at his co-worker's confounded expression, he solemnly holds up his profusely bleeding finger and goes "Itai," which promptly sets his coworker into a panic because that's a lot of blood.

So, my thought process for the phrase "I have a new mouth. It says red. Where is the clothes?":

You can get all those words and phrases from low level language classes, but I think the mouth bit needs a bit more elaboration:

When I was younger, I got a deep paper cut on my finger that surprisingly didn't bleed. As such, I was able to see the shape of it. It looked like a little muppet mouth on the pad of my finger. I treated it like a puppet and made a funny little voice to freak out my classmates.

Surprisingly, when learning a new language, I have never seen anything about wounds or wound care (and I was in a language class for 3 years and started learning several other langusges), so without hunting the words down, Heim would have no idea how to ask for a bandaid. Bandaids/gauze are types of cloth though, so asking for "clothes" isn't the worst option

Alternative bungled phrases:

Where are the pain clothes?

Pain.

Red? (while holding out bloody hand)

I have food for the clothes ("food"= blood)

The knife/small sword ate me

At the end of the day, Heim regales Fumi with the day's activities and proudly presents him with his completely cracked sentence for asking for a bandaid and Fumi laughs his ass off before telling Heim the actual words he needs to know to ask for a bandaid.

In this AU, Fumi knows English, Heim just told him to talk to him in Japanese as much as possible so he can learn. Heim will often come up with wack ass phrases and proudly present them to Fumi for the 2 for 1 deal of making Fumi laugh and getting clarification on the actual phrase

[gumballavocadoharry]

Someone:

*Mentions of death and car accident*

Dear Harry,

I know it's been 8 months since we last talked and I felt that it was vital that I finally told you how I felt....even while we were together. Don't get me wrong, I loved us and the relationship we shared but, well, you and I both knew why we were together from the start. I knew we were mismatched in our love and it killed me because I loved you. I still do. 

Last Saturday I thought about the Mimi trip we took and how we actually had to stay there for 3 extra days because you lost your passport. I remember something so nostalgic about that day. What we thought was a disaster turned into a beautiful mistake. Maybe it was fate that led us to it, those nights bungled up by the shore that was under our balcony. The tunes of the seagulls were our symphony for paradise.

Even if it was only for the three days. The whole trip in itself was as you described, "a flagging waste of passport". Maybe you said that because of the rude man that had pushed past you after he mistaken you for taking his place in line for the ice cream stand on the beach. A silly thing to ponder over with vexation, I know. But of course your optimism needed to take a bigger hit than that, which showcased itself when the elderly lady in front took all day to buy her gift shop items and by the time we (and everyone else who hadn't already left at the back of the line) left, sky fall had already hit.

But that lost passport was supposed to be the end all, the final straw, but somehow that was a second wind. You took your hair out of that tight bun that subliminally resembled the up tightness, the frustration you had now all being released with this new start.

I wish I could say the same for us, new start....huh seems funny don't you think?

Our relationship was east L.A traffic type complicated. The red flags were up and I ignored them...my common sense went on holiday I guess. But that eventually caught up to us. The little petty fights about what places to eat at and visit on our vacation, then they escalated.

Then it became about what the plan was 3 years from now....have kids or not, get married or not, have a bohemian traveling lifestyle or settle down and raise a family or just as a pair.

Sleepless nights, battle cries became the new normal for us. Tears and broken dreams were the reality of the path I chose. And the worst part was....I could only blame myself.

You were never wrong for wanting something different, something different from what I wanted out of life. But I didn't listen to that I wanted or maybe hoped you would change your mind like those movies and books I religiously read dreaming of an imaginary relationship between the perfect guy.

I mean I loved you, but you just weren't my type. We were bound to fall from grace sooner or later once the sheets or rose colored veil whatever you may call it was lifted from our eyes to see the beautiful destruction we made. That little girl we saw at the grocery store with a hairstyle that was far too senior for her had absolutely caught my eye. Her big brown eyes and sweet little smile only encouraged my dream of becoming a mother, the title itself was an absolute honor.

But I knew you. You adored children and their sweet little sounds, but raising one was out of the question. "I can't raise a child, they can be expensive and they take up a lot of time. And I just don't have it." When you said those words, my world was in shambles. That's when the red flags weren't so much an annoyance....they should have been lifesavers. I met your family only once and they were wonderful. And it was then I started thinking about commitment and so I took you to meet mine.

I once mentioned the word marriage to my mother who became ecstatic. I told you in the car what I said and that's when you became uneasy and silent. You didn't agree. Here I go, my world once again facing it's own Armageddon. The car ride back to the apartment made me feel tense as I didn't and did know what to expect.

Fire: We had in fire in our words of hate as they poured out. You didn't want marriage and I did.

Smoke: The tension was so thick the next day that we could've burnt the place down with our words.

Ashes: A permanent crack in our weakened relationship was more prominent.

That's when another blazing argument was sure to come after the first fire had started. The intense mismatched relationship we shared was never going to work and somehow we knew.....we just were too in love and stubborn to admit it. Although I wish we could've ended things better.

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

Now 3 years from now I'm setting flowers down on your dirt bed. If only I could've stopped you from driving in the rain. You walked out in the middle of the fight and that was it. The next few scenes became blurry. I just couldn't believe that you had slipped away just like that. I never even got to tell you I love you. Scenes. Ha, like a movie. When is the director ever gonna yell cut? The plots thicken and the unexpected twists and turns are everywhere.

But I love you Harry and I always will. It's easier to blame myself as if to not lose control of the situation despite that, that's not the way you would've wanted it. I'm sorry for wasting the time you did have on a dead end.

But even though.....well I still wish you the best and that maybe you'll find someone who's perfect for you. Someone to turn your crooked roads into her streets. On the other side my friend. Rest easy.

Sincerely, 

Yn

[female-buckets]

I was at the Merc game in Minny, sitting a couple of rows up from the phx bench. I could see the board as coach drew up plays. From what I could tell, they ran very few that were actually drawn up. It was kind of funny. Helluva game to see live.

LMFAO OKAY 😂😂😂

That was a tight 2OT game where Phoenix executed a bunch of extremely clutch plays. And they weren't using Nygaard's chicken scratch X's and O's.

Hmm... this confirms my Mercury Mutiny theory. Commander Taurasi and Commander Diggins have seized control of the ship away from Captain Nygaard.

In other words, the team is now run by Coach Skyana.

This makes a lot of sense. They're recycling Sandy's small ball playbook from the 2020 wubble. And this is why Diamond isn't starting. She's the only major player that wasn't on the 2020 team. So they're still getting her familiar with the 2020 play calls.

It started the morning Tina left. The morning of the Dallas game. Skylar and Diana saw their opportunity and they took it. They told Nygaard "don't worry, we know what to do. We'll cover for you today." And they ran the Dallas game. They had 3 games in 5 days and they ran them all. I remember Nygaard saying something odd in a press conference back then. She was like "we haven't had time to practice yet but everything seems to be working."

Nygaard has no prior head coach experience with superstar team leaders. Court leaders won't hesitate to seize a team if they lose faith in the coach. She didn't realize that was happening until it was too late. It's generally very bad for the front office if the coach can't control the players. The front office would've pressured Nygaard to restore order. So she hit the mutineers with her counter-attack.

Nygaard: "It's not an All-Star game without Diana Taurasi."

(Translation: "Skylar, you may be an all-star, but you have no sway over this team without Diana backing you. And I'll win Diana over.")

Skylar: "🤡"

(Translation: "Try it.")

You can't win Diana over with flattery. You can't beat her at her own game. That didn't work. In the Sparks/Mercury game after the 🤡 exchange, Sky and Diana were still huddling up after every Nygaard huddle. That was the game with the crappy final play from the Mercury. You could clearly see Sky and Diana huddle up immediately after Nygaard's final timeout. They weren't gonna run Nygaard's play, but they failed to execute the Skyana play right. Mutiny is tricky in the clutch. It takes trial and error to figure out how to get the whole team on the same page.

After Skyana bungled that final play, Nygaard and the front office got serious about breaking up the mutineers. The mutiny is effective because there's two court leaders. Together, they can run a full game from buzzer to buzzer. Diana can't do it on her own. If she didn't have Skylar, she'd be forced to work with Nygaard again. So the front office threatened to trade Diana's co-conspirator. But Skylar is backed by Diana and the entire Mercury fanbase. The front office can't actually pull off that trade. They were trying to intimidate the mutineers into backing down and working with Nygaard.

Then came the Liberty game, and Skylar and Diana made their stance on Nygaard clear. Right before tip-off, they marched their roster over to Sandy and gave her a line of hugs. It was very sweet. But it also felt very deliberate. They don't just miss their old coach. They're literally ignoring their current coach and running Sandy's plays 😂

So the mutiny is here to stay. The 2OT Lynx game was frustrating, but it gave Skyana a bunch of practice communicating and executing clutch plays.

And now they've won their season series against the Mystics.

SKYANA!!!

Idk how they're pulling this off. Maybe they communicate telepathically through their buns. What a nightmare for their own front office lol. But at least they're having fun. And that's what matters.

[a-world-of-whimsy-5]

Soft Hands - part four

ʚ P.O.V. : Ares

ʚ Summary : Aphrodite runs into Ares after her discussions with his parents turn sour. Ares tries to help, but bungles it up instead.

ʚ Word count: 828 words

ʚ Read time: Approx. 3 mins 18 second

ʚ Warning: Aphrodite practices her punching on Ares

I hold her steady to stop her from falling backward.

She keeps shaking her head and mumbling about dancing stars and pretty singing birds. I am confused, as I have no idea what she is talking about.

"Are you all right, my lady?"

One final shake of the head, and she looked right as rain again. "I am now," muttered she. "Walking into you feels like running into a large boulder. It is a wonder I was not knocked unconscious altogether. "

I thought a jest was needed to lighten the mood. "Well, I have been known to have that effect on people."

My grin vanishes as her eyes narrow to slits. Oh, dear. She is not happy. "Forgive me, my lady, but are you truly well?"

What anger Aphrodite had vanished in an instant. "No. I am not well. And no, it is not because of your effect as a boulder."

"Is it something to do with my parents?" I remember seeing her walking towards their palace as I went on a walk.

"Aye. I went to your mother and father, thinking they would help where that brother of yours is concerned."

Ahh, yes, dear old Hephaestus. A man who preferred the company of his anvil over all else.   What convinced my father that marrying Hephaestus to her was a good idea was beyond me, really.

"Your mother, surprisingly, was very kind and understood my plight."

She was still going at it, so I listen to her.

"Your father, on the other hand? The wise and merciful Zeus?"

Aphrodite looked quite enchanting even when she was enraged. Very delicate and ladylike, even when angry. I am starting to see why mortals chose her as the living embodiment of all that is love and beauty.  

"He says I am just supposed to deal with it. Can you imagine that? Telling me to just be content with a cold bed?"

Here she let out a scream and stamped her feet.

“What did you tell him?” She probably simpered and accepted his decision, I am sure of it. 

"I more or less told him it was not my fault he made a poor choice, and that I am not to be blamed for his terrible matchmaking skills."

Wait. What? Did Aphrodite tell my father off? And I missed it?

I fought back a smile at the thought of Zeus being chastised for anything. "What do you want to do about it?"

"I just want to hit something. Urgh!"

Now here was something I could help her with.

Aphrodite forgets her tirade and stares at me as if I had just lost my mind.

"Go on, hit me. It might make you feel better. Come on," I keep still and straighten myself. "Give me your best shot."

She bunched up a tapered hand into a tiny fist and made her first punch. I feel a tickle on my chest, nothing more. On my nod, she does it again and again. This time I couldn't help but giggle. Her cheeks grow red in concentration with her last punch. I ended up laughing.

"What is funny?" asked she in frustration.

"Your hits," I wipe tears from my eyes. "Forgive me, my lady, but they merely tickled me."

"What?" Here, she looks at her hands, and I blather on, oblivious to her changing mood. "It felt like... like... a tiny kitten patting my chest with its paw and..."

Her trembling lips catch my attention, and I stop talking. "No one takes me seriously," she whimpered before running off.

Why do I feel a strange sense of remorse? I am the God of war. Bloodletting is my forte, not making people feel good about themselves.

And yet I still feel bad. Something I have never experienced in my entire life. I am overwhelmed with a need to apologize.

Apologize I will. I take after her and find her, sitting near some rose bushes. She caught wind of my presence and sighed. "Perhaps your father is right, and that I am just a silly girl."

"Father was just angry, that is all," I sit next to her, my breath filling with the sweet scent of roses. I find it oddly pleasant. "You stood up to him, and that was not something he is used to. Give him time... maybe he will come up with some sort of compromise for your situation, or not. But until then, let me take the chance to apologize for what I said."

"You are the God of war. Of course, my punches will do no harm to you."

"They did make me laugh. Something no one has ever done before. My sister Athena would compare it to a solstice miracle."

I was rewarded with a smile.

"Come on. Let me make you a meal, help you take your mind off of things."

She looks at my extended hand. Then me.

I help her up as she puts her hand into mine.

[fox-poke-fanatic]

Oh... oh we really are just two Unovans aren't we. It always comes back around to Truth vs. Ideals with us, doesn't it. Ah skies above (ignore the Trifectist slang, I've been in Hoenn too long), it's like we learned nothing from the Plasma Incident.

It's funny, actually. In this debate I'm obviously on the side of Ideals (I'm... not actually sure what ideals I'm defending cause my ideal world is not one that ends every other week) but I think in practice I'm aligned more with truth. Maybe it's just the ADHD and Autism but I'm a very perceptive person. I notice verbal tics, speech patterns, inflection. It's a bit easier online where I can see the words written out in front of me (it's easy to lie on the internet but most people really do just let their true personality shine through). I can see through a lie or tell when somebody is putting up a front. If I bungled a social cue I notice immediately. I especially know if somebody's mad at me but that's probably just the anxiety.

But also sometimes you just gotta accept the truth when it's handed to you. Do I believe that Subway Boss Ingo Nessha has been to ancient Hisui and come back (funny coincidence, you said you were inside for about five years? His disappearance was five years ago)? Yes. Do I believe that because "well the world is crazy guess it's true?" No. I believe it because from what I can tell Ingo is not a liar.

Honestly, I Don't think any of these Legendary blogs are lying. They seem too sincere, the way they speak is too consistent (and I Don't just mean the all caps thing). A role player, even a really good one, is bound to slip up. When I see Palkia reblogging my post I go "Oh hey, Palkia reblogged my post." If I'm right, well I'm right. If I'm wrong then I just made some kid's day.

Saying the truth doesn't matter was kind of dumb, honestly. It was, like, midnight when I typed that. Not thinking straight.

Don't really have anything to end this on other than stop giving Kyogre crap. He's already under fire on both sides from Quinn and Mare he doesn't need any more people yelling at him.

Oh, also swing by Hoenn sometime so we can change the fact that you don't know the Magikarp Sanctuary guy. Koi's real nice and the Sanctuary's really cool. You might even catch a glimpse of Kyogre in the Magikarp ponds (that's a joke). Or, hey, Mare hangs around sometime. Maybe you can actually get to meet Latias in person. Cross that one of your bucket list.

Why are people such dicks to the Legendary blogs? Like, yeah, okay, a Legendary using Rotomblr is pretty unbelievable I'll grant you that but honestly that's even more of a reason not to be a dick. If you think this is just some kid having fun doing roleplay why are you trying to ruin that by being mean? Like, just humor them and move on. Or ignore them. Or, heck, if it annoys you that much block them.

[lovecolibri]

Things that did NOT Spark Joy-4x11

Tyler and Vlamis may be able to make an absolute FEAST out of crumbs, but that doesn’t mean I have to forgive the writers for fucking up this entire arc 🤷🏻‍♀️ If you want the Malex flailing, that post is here, but this post is All Salt, All The Time. 

First, I made these posts about Tyler’s absence so I’m not going to has it all out again, but I will say that nothing about Tyler’s health or ability to be physically present changes the fact that the writers bungled this whole storyline.  *chugs some vodka* Okay, let’s do this.

We are still so unclear on what Ophiuchus actually is. It’s become this season’s “The Science”, just a convenient name to drop in to conversations without ever explaining anything. Also, I love that now, after Max and Michael both have tattoos and we’ve seen the symbol pop up around them, that it’s suddenly tied to Ophiuchus. Clyde says the brand is given only to the loyal followers to make them family and Tezca couldn’t hide hers when she shapeshifted, but the symbol itself showed up on Bonnie’s glass, and all the way back to season 1 it showed up around Isoble when she was in the desert and they ladies who told Max about it said it drew itself around Louise all the time. But sure, it’s an Ophiuchus thing now. I thought their symbol was the U with the snaky thing through it? Or was that supposed to stand for “The Alighting” which is the other thing we still know nothing about?

 I was right when I said they would handle this “Liz addiction” storyline with all the grace of a raging bull in a china shop. And It’s almost funny how Liz’s actions and actually some of her words too aren’t any different than regular Liz, it’s honestly only her tone of voice that’s changed, saying things with a vicious bite instead of a more steady tone. But she’s absolutely told Max she needs to talk with someone who understands science, and the writers have had her be dismissive of Rosa plenty of times before, she’s just a little more cruel about it now. Maybe I would buy this if she had been huffing mist all season but it’s been like, a day. Which was apparently enough for Kyle to some up with a detox solution and reserve space at that place that still doesn’t know about aliens for her to do it (instead of, oh IDK, one of their thousand bunkers? Maybe the cabin in the woods designed by Kyle’s dad to be a detox bunker?) Yet when Alex goes missing for long enough for his hair to grow out and him to have quite a bit of facial hair, no one can be bothered to notice or help. Of course.

How is Liz going to re-create the “blue flame” in a lab when it’s not just fire, it’s tied to the ability to heal people (though for 3 seasons and actually the time he healed Liz this season, we’ve only ever seen it as a glowing handprint but sure, it’s the special blue fire now)? Never mind. I don’t care and the writers clearly don’t either, it’s just an excuse to make it look like they’re having Liz doing something because if she’s not doing science they don’t know what to do with her character.

*deep sigh* I said in tags on a post that as Echo is the “main couple” it’s expected that any other couple would borrow some imagery from them to show the viewers that these side relationships are the same, but that it’s weird to do it in reverse and pull things special to another couple and give it to the main couple because they should be the ones setting the tone. Which is why it never lands right when they take things from Malex to give to Echo like the turquoise. And honestly it’s so stupid because that was all about grounding forces which Max actually needs and Michael doesn’t so they could have made the turquoise an Echo thing all along! It didn’t ever need to be a Malex thing to then take and give to Echo.

I already mentioned it more in this post, but Isobel calling someone brainwashed and controlled just like she was “the most irredeemable person” she’s ever met is...ridiculous. Do the writers even watch this show?

I like Dallas, and Bonnie is fine I guess (entirely down to the actress making her likable because the writing is all over the place and she had FAR too much screentime and focus), but I just do not care anymore! Dallas should have been trapped with another main like Isobel and it’s absurd that the second Michael goes into the portal to look for Alex, the next cut is “we’ve already searched half the town” without showing us Michael looking. We could have seen Michael checking out their house, the junkyard, and all their bunkers, looking for (and maybe finding!) signs of Alex. Why not stick Bonnie on the roof of the Crashdown and have her set up flairs and wait for Alex to show, while Michael and Dallas searched elsewhere? Then, as soon as Michael splits off, we quit seeing him and focus all this time on Dallas and Bonnie instead of our main character looking for the love of his life!

Sidebar, who wants to bet “alien powers don’t work on lead” came up the day they wrote this scene and everyone shrugged and said “yeah sure why not”, completely forgetting they had Max moving bullets earlier this season. Maybe that’s why he was bad at it?

Why is Alex setting traps, and trapping people he knows? Why isn’t he hunkered down in a fallout shelter out bunker since there are 700 of them in Roswell and they probably offer more protection than a gasmask and cloak?

Love that Michael tackles not just a disabled Alex, but one suffering from radiation poisoning who things he’s dying and it’s just not brought up. We don’t see him wincing in pain as Michael is sitting on him, we don’t see Michael helping him up, we don’t see him limping when he’s been on his prosthetic for days, like, WHY?! It’s the perfect set up for some drama and for Michael to offer some tenderness, plus, why have Alex dying from alien radiation when he easily could just have gotten an infection because he’s disabled and unable to properly care for his leg? Oh right, because then the writers would have to care about Alex outside of Michael and they clearly cannot be bothered. 

Also, creating an entire dimension the size of Roswell and leaving an open portal anyone could fall into makes NO sense, especially since it’s just supposed to be a trap for Jones. Which, considering Tezca heard about that plan from Theo, and she got taken by Jones before they left Oasis, why did they continue having that plan?! If she knew all their plans and that it was a trap, why would Theo chose to make it when they got to earth? This whole plot is so duuuuumb!! But on top of that mess, you have Bonnie making comments about popcorn and gummy bears at the drive in but like, WHY would Theo have crated food? Would any of it still be good if it’s earth food sitting in alien radiation for 75 years? If it’s breaking Alex down after a week or two, how has anything else survived that long? The whole place should be falling apart, no? 

How many caves are there now? Clyde has Liz in one apparently owned by Jones. Is that the same cave Nora and Lousie trapped Jones in (for 70 something years without him aging at all)? Or was that a different cave. Also, if Jones had a cave on his land, why were he and Tezca hiding in a cave on WALT’S land? Why did they know about it, or was it happening to belong to Walt just a coincidence? Why did we need that whole side story about Walt and his land when Clyde didn’t even keep using it and all it did was make everyone ask why TF Walt didn’t move the alien pods onto his private land? 

Clyde says he doesn’t need an engineer, he needs Liz and her biochem knowledge to get around the “lock” Theo put on the portal, but it’s just because the brand has alien glass which...still sounds like an engineering solution would be easier instead of a “serum” of some kind. Hell, cutting the brand off would be easier! But again, the writers don’t know what to do with Liz if she’s not making a serum. 

So Shivani IS the bad guy this season? Okay. I don’t care. I only care that because Liz took her to see the pods, she was able to take them. And that wasn’t even Evil!Liz. 

As much as Max is at his best when he’s allowed to be soft and supportive and a cheerleader for Liz, I am very much disliking this storyline of her making demands on his bodily autonomy, and him being made to look like the bad guy for standing his ground on that choice, only to relent when he thinks he might lose her and this idea that he’s going to step up and be the man she needs him to be, instead of the kind of man HE wants to be. Because this is the Echo problem! Both of them get twisted out of shape and unhappy trying to be what they think the other wants instead of being themselves. Because season 1 told us they genuinely liked each other for who they were! Liz was brilliant and Max adored that about her! Max was quiet and kind and Liz loved that about him! But they have spent the past several seasons showing us a Max and Liz who are fundamentally different people with different goals, and different moral stances on things! I feel like the writers saw the phrase “opposites attract” and decided to do that with Max and Liz, without realizing the “opposite” is not life goals and moral compasses. It’s a shame because Echo could have been so good and when they are allowed to have their moments Jeanine and Nathan deliver!

I cannot believe after everything Rosa suffered and how hard she worked to FINALLY get out of Roswell and build her own life, that the writers think it’s in any way satisfying to have her come back to be Liz’s “sober companion” like this hasn’t been 2 days out of Liz’s week and like she doesn’t have multiple people perfectly qualified to do that instead. Rosa is still barely out of her teens, let her live her life!

To quite the spoilertv review, WHOMST burnt the trees?!  Why did no one see the smoke of an entire grove of trees burning down that Alex was recently at? Either we have a whole new mystery to solve in the last 2 episodes, or it’s just another plot hole reason to keep them from saving Alex for another episode because this show has never understood how to pace anything.

Far be it from me to say m*ria should be getting more screentime, but out of every episode this season, this is the ONE that feels like she needed to be in (Mimi’s death has served no purpose so we didn’t need that to happen at all), so of course she’s not here. As the one who is supposed to be Liz’s best friend, why didn’t they have her at the intervention and Isobel the one psychically connected to Max and Michael, keeping an eye on the portal? Why didn’t they have HER being the one controlled by Clyde and in danger to motivate Liz instead of some rando side character we barely know or care about? Why have HH, who has had some pretty disrespectful things to say about people’s (typically Malex fans) genuine hurt at THAT triggering episode, directing the big Malex reunion episode when it’s an episode her character actually had a purpose to serve for once? Why have her direct a massive Malex episode and a reunion fans have been waiting ten weeks to see, knowing she would get all the post mortem interviews so instead of getting Vlamis or Tyler’s thoughts on these pivotal Malex scenes, we had to get the thoughts of someone not part of the ship who has talked down to fans? And that’s not even getting into the ridiculous writing choice of taking away m*ria’s powers for the *drama* only to give her basically Rosa’s power, but supercharged so they could wedge her into the middle of the Malex relationship, literally making a gay man go through a woman to reach out to his boyfriend, and the incredibly gross scene of Malex having to stop and talk about how they couldn’t have ever been reunited if it wasn’t for m*ria. Give me a fucking break. (At least I get a final cackle that her “schedule didn’t work” so she’s not included in the Vlambase finale character drops.)

Speaking of gross m*ria things this episode, why the FUCK is she telling Rosa about Kyle and Isobel’s personal business? It’s not as bad as her outing Michael to Liz, but it’s not far behind. For some unknown reason (j/k the reason is m*ria has no purpose and if they didn’t take things from other characters she’d have nothing to do)  Alex wasn’t allowed to be Kyle’s confidant last season about Isobel, and Michael wasn’t allowed to be Isobel’s this season, but m*ria is just going around blabbing their personal business to Rosa. She’s literally the WORST.

I have never been so happy for a show to end and characters to be taken out of the hands of incompetent staff.

Link to previous episode posts: 4x01, 4x02, 4x03, 4x04, 4x05, 4x06, 4x07, 4x08, 4x09, 4x10

[vannahfanfics]

Bird-Isms

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff, Comedy

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Fuyumi Todoroki, Keigo Takami

“Ahh, I shouldn’t be doing this,” Fuyumi scolded herself as she stood in line at a fried chicken joint, patting her cheek and pouting at her weakness. She’d only meant to run to the office supply store to grab more red pens, but the scent of deep-fried chicken tenders had simply been too strong for her hungry tummy to ignore. She’d yielded to its insistent yowls and cramping tantrum, trudging into the small diner with a heavy heart and salivating mouth. Since the new year, she’d vowed to eat healthier, but it seemed that her stomach still clung stubbornly to unhealthy morsels. A cheat day or two isn’t terrible, right? she tried to convince herself as she walked up to the counter. 

She was still trying to persuade herself that she wasn’t committing some kind of cardinal sin when the employee handed her a basket of hand-breaded, crispy tenders and golden-brown crinkle-cut fries. Despite her wrestle with guilt, her mouth flooded with saliva at the promise of the salty meal to come. Slurping at her soda as if she could drown her sorrows with it, Fuyumi drizzled ketchup across the fried foods before headed to a table in the corner. As she weaved around the young teenagers and families packing the joint, she kept her basket tucked against her chest to avoid spilling it. 

That ended up backfiring, however, when someone cut in front of her and she slammed right into their red-winged back. 

Fuyumi released an unflattering sound when the basket flipped up, painting the bust of her skirt in bright red ketchup as the chicken tenders and fries smooshed against her body. Worse, she gripped her soda on reflex, popping off the lid and sending fizzy soda and ice cascading down her hands and to the floor. In her shock, she lost her grip on the basket, and it clattered to the floor. She couldn’t even lament the cosmic joke that was foiled lunch. She just stood there, blinking rapidly with her mouth open, as the stranger whirled on his heels. 

“I’m so sorry!” he cried, crimson wings flapping anxiously and ruffling the napkins sitting on the table nearby with their winds. “Ugh, I tell the owner all the time that they need to upsize, I’m always bungling around in her trying not to knock over things,” he groaned while grabbing a fistful of napkins from the nearby container. He blushed a little and gestured to her chest with a meek, “May I, miss?” 

“O-oh!” she stammered, his question bringing her out of her stupor. She pulled at the hem of her shirt, stretching the fabric so the man could lean in to carefully scrape the thick globs of ketchup away. His wind-tossed tufts of blond hair bounced with each coordinated movement, and his golden eyes flickered up every so often to make sure that she was comfortable. After her frazzled neurons regained their function to synapse, she let out another gasp when she realized just who was wiping ketchup off her clothes. 

“Y-You’re Hawks!” 

“The one and only,” he winked and straightened, tossing the bunched-up, soiled napkins into a nearby garbage can. “I would say ‘pleasure to make your acquaintance,’ but I’m sure you’re not jazzed about me ruining your shirt.” 

Eyes fluttering, Fuyumi glanced down. Her nice button-up, ruffled white blouse was now blotched with orange-pink stains and smears. She hurriedly looked up, flapping her hands dismissively. 

“No, no! It’s my fault for running into you! I should have been more careful!” 

“Nonsense,” Hawks insisted, then looked down to the remains of her chicken tenders and fries scattered across the red-and-white tiled floor. “It appears I’ve also ruined your lunch,” he chuckled, looking up at her with gleaming eyes. “We could sit here and argue about who’s fault this travesty is all day, but regardless, I won’t be satisfied until you let me buy you a replacement meal.” 

Fuyumi flushed darkly and began to refuse, but the creep of Hawks’ eyebrow up his forehead silenced her. She swallowed her words and nodded meekly, prompting the hero to smile. Dizzily, she fancied that he had a rather nice smile, bright and warm and charming. She was floating on air after the whirlwind encounter, so she offered no resistance as Hawks led her to his booth by a hand on the small of her back. She sank into the pleather seat, slumping into its squeaky embrace, and pinched her thigh to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Instead of the gloom of her bedroom, when she opened her eyes she was greeted with the sight of Hawks sliding into the booth and placing a fresh basket of chicken tenders in front of her. 

“Thank you. This is really too much,” she said shyly, squirming and wringing her hands in her lap. With how much her belly was twisting, she doubted she could even manage two bits of the tenders now. Completely unfazed, Hawks plucked a chicken tender from his own basket and waved it around emphatically. 

“Please, it’s the least I can do for causing you the trouble of having to go to the dry cleaners,” he smiled. “I insist.” Not wishing to be rude, Fuyumi took a French fry and nibbled half-heartedly on it, giving Hawks a bashful smile. “What’s your name, miss?” 

“Fuyumi Todoroki. You work with my father, Endeavor.” 

“No kidding?” he said, eyebrows shooting up his forehead as he continued to wave the chicken tender around like a baton. “You must take after your mother because a woman as pretty as you sure couldn’t have come from a brute like him.” Fuyumi’s face flushed the color of the ketchup that had just stained her shirt, and Hawks only smirked mischievously, crunching down on the end of the chicken tender at last. “So what do you do?” he asked, the bit of chicken tender wedged into the pouch of his cheek. 

“I’m a teacher,” she answered. Though it was intimidating at first to reckon with eating lunch with the number-two pro hero, Hawks’ effortless charisma had already appeased Fuyumi’s nerves somewhat. She found that her stomach had settled so she could actually enjoy the meal he’d graciously bought her. “I teach elementary school not far from here,” she continued as she munched on her chicken. “I didn’t inherit a powerful Quirk, so I decided that instilling knowledge in the next generation was the best way I could serve my community. Besides, I love children.” 

“Hehe, yeah, the little rascals are adorable,” Hawks hummed, leaning a cheek in his hand as he casually tossed a chicken tender up, let it land in the basket, picked it up, and repeated it. Fuyumi watched him play with his food with slowly pinching eyebrows; she thought at first that he wasn’t even aware of it, yet his eyes glittered and looked down at his food every few seconds, implying otherwise. She jumped when he suddenly snatched it in mid-air and shoved almost the entire thing in his mouth. “So are you the oldest?” he asked around the large tender crammed in his cheeks. 

“Erm… yes,” Fuyumi said, really not sure what to think about Hawks’ odd behavior. “I have a younger brother in college, and then you must know Shoto, who attends U.A.” She tried not to shudder as Hawks chewed and swallowed the chicken tender, making a loud gulping noise. When he looked down at the basket, he picked up a French fry and then inexplicably tossed it at the window. It collided with the glass with a loud thunk, and Hawks cooed in delight, feathers ruffling. Fuyumi hid her chuckle behind her hand, though her amusement showed in the scrunch of her eyebrows. Hawks was completely oblivious to her, bobbing his head a little as he tossed another fry at the window. 

He’s a grown man! Is he really enjoying playing with his food? It was so impossibly ridiculous. Fuyumi scolded her students at lunch all the time for playing with their food, yet here was a sophisticated twenty-something pro hero chucking French fries around! Though she should be disgusted, Fuyumi found it oddly endearing; his golden eyes sparkled like topazes as delight filled them to the brim, and a childlike smile adorned his face. 

When a snicker managed to sneak out from behind Fuyumi’s fingers, Hawks looked at her quizzically. 

“Is something funny?” 

Fuyumi debated whether or not she should say anything, but she really couldn’t think of a good excuse for laughing. Besides, she was madly curious.

“Hawks, um… Do you realize that you play with your food?” 

The hero blinked at her, then looked down at the French fries and crumbs littering the table. A pink haze blossomed on his cheeks, prompting him to wrap his hands around his face and look at Fuyumi in complete embarrassment. His wings drew close around his body as if to shield him from her inquisition, but he looked so cute that Fuyumi couldn’t help but let out another light-hearted chuckle. “Don’t be embarrassed! I’m only curious, that’s all.”

“It’s my Quirk,” he admitted, parting his fingers so he could mutter but still hiding his blush from her. “I’ve got bird tendencies, and one of those is… playing with my food. I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Sorry, I must have looked like such a kid! And here I was wanting to impress Endeavor’s pretty daughter…” 

Fuyumi blushed at his second mindless flirt but fought past her bashfulness to reach out and pat his arm encouragingly. 

“Don’t worry! As I said, I was only curious. To be honest… It’s kind of adorable.” When Hawks looked at her owlishly, she flushed darker and flapped her hands wildly. “I-I’m sorry! That just kind of slipped out. You probably don’t take well to being called something like that; I didn’t mean to insult you, I just— oh my, I can’t believe I just called the number-two hero adorable!” It was her turn to cover her face; she buried it in her hands, wincing at the heat rolling off her flushed skin in waves. Though part of her didn’t want to look at him but rather wanted to melt through the pleather seat, she couldn’t bear not knowing Hawks’ reaction either. Meekly, she parted her fingers to peer worriedly at him. 

Hawks’ expression could only be described as “a kid in a candy store.” 

“You think I’m adorable, Fuyumi?” he grinned. His wings flapped behind him, feathers vibrating to try to channel the sheer elation welling up in his body. Fuyumi slowly lowered her hands, almost confused by his happiness. He continued to beam at her as he explained, “Everyone always teases me about my bird traits. Nobody understands how hard it is having DNA that’s basically part avian… So it’s really reassuring to hear you call me that!” He tipped his head slightly, scrunching up his eyes as he smiled so hard it was blinding. A warm, fuzzy feeling bubbled up within Fuyumi, making her return his smile. 

“Oh, well… I’m glad you feel that way.” 

“Hehe, adorable,” he cooed, wiggling his shoulders in satisfaction. Fuyumi giggled again; he really was quite a childish man, but she simply couldn’t help but be endeared by his antics. 

Little chirps and tweets of delight bubbled from Hawks mouth as he polished off his chicken tenders and fries. He even finished off some of Fuyumi’s meal that she couldn’t finish. As he was licking the oil and crumbs from his fingers, Fuyumi bowed her head respectfully. 

“Thank you for treating me.” 

“Of course! My pleasure,” he quipped, popping a finger out of his mouth. He walked out the door with her, despite her embarrassment that someone would see them together. He slipped his hands into his pockets as they lingered on the sidewalk outside of the diner. Fuyumi stood shyly in front of him, clasping her hands while slowly swaying from side to side. “I enjoyed meeting you, Fuyumi. Really,” he said, giving her a serious look that made her heart thrum in her chest. “Maybe this is too forward of me, but perhaps we’ll see each other again sometime?” 

Reeling, it took Fuyumi a moment to process before she quickly sputtered, “Yes! I would like that very much.” Her face continued to redden as he gazed at her with lidded eyes, embers burning in the golden seams of his irises. “Hawks—” 

“Keigo. Call me Keigo,” he said softly. Fuyumi let out a little gasp, her cheeks growing even warmer. It was an honor to be trusted with his true name, one she wouldn’t take lightly. 

“Keigo,” she repeated, enjoying the way it rolled over her tongue. “Keigo, I look forward to when we meet again.” 

Ever the devilish flirt, he licked his teeth and tossed her a wink. 

“Until next time, then, Fuyumi Todoroki,” he said before diving in to kiss her on the cheek. Before she could even process the brush of his lips over her blushing skin, he was gone, flying into the air in a flurry of crimson feathers. She reached up to cup her cheek as she whirled on her heel, watching him bank around the corner and disappear from sight. The titillation of her nerves was the only proof it had even happened, bringing a giddy smile to her face. She wondered how close she would get to know Keigo and his bird-isms in the coming days…

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[marvinator]

what are your opinions on commander x-2? asking as a fellow marvin person

OH MY GAWD WELL You see I HAVE THEM. OK so to be clear i dont Hate commander x-2. I think he is funny guy and duck dodgers is a funny show with funny writing so like, its enjoyable. But my opinion is that commander x-2 is decidedly Not marvin the martian.

Which like, should be obvious i mean he's supposed to be marvin playing a character it says so in the intro. But the other characters,although they're also portrayed as "actors", feel more like themselves in a different setting. Duck dodgers still acts like chuck jones's arrogant and pitiful daffy duck (albeit more overtly stupid), and porky acts like the slightly meek but reasonable character he'd evolved into at that point.

Commander x-2, on the other hand, is a snarky straight man. (To be clear, yes i do also mean that kind of straight man.) Which is a fine enough role for the purposes of THIS SHOW, his characterization as pretentious and sarcastic make him a humorous foil to dodgers' blustering stupidity. BUUUHHTT, although marvin the martian is also an arrogant dweeb, his arrogance manifests differently than the standard cartoon smart-guy. Commander x2 is the type of person who will express his disdain for people with barely-masked sarcasm or in a lot of cases overt insults.

Marvin the martian, on the other hand, would never do this because one of his most defining traits besides being a freak is the fact that he is always ALWAYS polite, even when he is badmouthing an entire species and/or plotting its violent destruction.

i am sorry for the ifunny meme i can only put 1 video.

ANYWAYS yeah he's expressing the fact that he thinks humanity is a bunch of insignificant pests, but there is absolutely no malice here. He does not even know he is being a dick. That's part of the joke: he's an unhinged megalomaniac, but he's not only completely oblivious to this but he also refuses to speak unkindly to or about anyone and that's the only hill he's going to die on. The most aggressive thing he says, at least in the older cartoons, is the iconic "you have made me VERY angry very angry indeed" which is funny for a couple reasons: 1) his whole character is that he is always dissonantly serene and polite and 2) nobody says that. But note that even in his least-collected moments he's never directly insulting the adversary: he's employing the good ol' therapy "'I' statement" to express his rare moments of outward anger without breakjng his dubious code of honor that is never saying a rude word. Commander x-2, on the other hand, would just call you a bungling oaf, because he is a normal person.

And that's really the core of why commander x-2 feels so far removed from Marvin, is that he's just a normal guy. A pitiful, kinda dweebish one, but otherwise pretty well-adjusted, even going beyond the points i just made. Commander x2 destroys earth because he's a military commander and his government told him to, marvin the martian destroys earth because it's blocking his view of venus. Commander x2 is in love with an attractive woman, marvin the martian is in love with his giant lazer. (And yeah marvin is named as commander x-2 in "the hasty hare" and does allude to being directed by some form of authority, but that concept has pretty much been dropped outside of his namesake from the duck dodgers cartoon, and he's later portrayed as being viewed as a destructive crackpot even among his own alien kind.) Bottom line is, marvin the martian is a FREAK!!! And this characterization is sadly dropped in the duck dodgers cartoon for something more conventional. Which, again, works for the show, but it's not the same. In conclusion:

[lightdancer1]

The ICJ in the real world said that Israel's actions don't qualify for a genocide and gave it freedom to carry on with the war. I realize that people on Tumblr don't bother to read anything like that themselves because that would be reading and reading's scary when it's not your little uWu fictional crush, but that's what the actual ruling did say. The attempt to use genocidal rhetoric as proof of genocide is also especially funny because by that standard the biggest genocidaire in South Africa is Mr. Malema.

If you've never heard of him or what he likes to do for fun you'll see the fallacy here in claiming people's words count more than the bodies. Nazism wasn't guilty of genocide in the 1940s because it preached hate of Jews, it was guilty because of mass graves and chimneys full of human smoke.

Also no surprise that the same ANC that can't keep electricity consistently running over South Africa bungled a court case.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Fault”

Hello, everyone! We’re not even bothering with an introduction today, let’s just get straight to the only thing that matters.

HERE HE IS, THE MVP OF THIS EPISODE, OF THE WHOLE VOLUME, THE SERIES, THE ONLY ONE I CARE ABOUT RIGHT NOW

I’m joking… but only a little. In all seriousness we will get to Ren, but you all want to hear a funny story first? I somehow got it into my head that there was no RWBY episode this week—the holiday and all—so I poured all my meta time and energy into a ridiculous Ironwood analysis as a placeholder, only to wake up this morning and find the strongest (and most complicated!) episode this year waiting for a recap. Like some sort of grimm nosing into my inbox. 

Okay, so it’s not a funny story, but if RT would just do a better job with their website my life would be a whole lot easier.

So here we are, taking a look at the episode “Fault.” Quick question, is every episode this volume going to have a one-word title? It’s not a criticism, I’ve got nothing against a punchy name, I’m just curious since RWBY has never done that before. If anything, they’ve gone more for symbolically significant phrases like “A Brawl in the Family,” “Players and Pieces,” and “The Lady in the Shoe.” I wonder what sparked the change.

Anyway, we open on Robyn laughing about some story she’s told, something about Joanna losing a fair fight for the first time, presumably to her. This is what we’ve learned about Robyn since this volume started: she refuses to acknowledge that she had a hand in Clover’s death; she was asked by Blake and Yang to keep the Amity secret but, according to May, couldn’t keep her mouth shut about it; and she tries to cheer Qrow up by bragging about her own skill.

Alrighty then.

Obviously, this little story fails to land. “Tough crowd tonight.” Robyn looks to Jacques as well as Qrow when she says this and since she clearly doesn’t care about cheering him up, she must want to get a rise out of him. Create something, as she says at the end of the scene, that’s exciting. Robyn just really loves to start fights. Against Ironwood, Clover, bickering matches with Jacques—stories told about winning them! If she’s not fighting someone she’s not interested.

Qrow does eventually give the smallest smile though and Robyn cheers. “Did I win?” They both quickly grow serious again though and Robyn says she’s “sorry for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.” Her apology would mean more if she was apologizing for her actions, not providing a generic ‘Sorry for your loss’ like she had no hand in this.

Qrow then insists it was his fault… but, of course, not for the reasons why he’s actually responsible (also, didn’t we do this two weeks ago?). For starters, Qrow blames his semblance for everything that went down, despite the fact that his semblance is not responsible for him breaking Clover’s aura, or Tyrian stabbing him. The most we’ve seen his semblance do is cause minor mischief, which in and of itself is absurd considering we’re meant to believe that it has kept him from his family most of his life, and informs choices like whether he’ll travel with the group in Volume 4. Still, it’s not unexpected that he would blame his semblance and think that having friends is a “childish dream”—depression is one hell of a liar—but rather, it’s frustrating that no one is helping Qrow see the truth of the situation, both the good and the bad. He certainly doesn’t need Robyn providing generic platitudes that absolve them both of their choices.

You know what the worst part is? The two kind, level-headed adults with enough distance to help Qrow acknowledge his mistakes while also correcting him about his misconceptions… are Ozpin and Clover. The former is still ignored by the cast, the latter barely got to be a character before he was killed.  

Qrow goes on to say that he “made a deal with the darkness and [Clover] paid the price.” I’m sorry, what does that mean?? Outside of referencing his team-up with Tyrian, that’s the most dramatic, nonsensical thing he could have said. Qrow doesn’t admit to the team-up though, rather he starts blaming Clover for his own death.

Precisely like a good chunk of the fandom has done 🙃

He says that Clover just “wouldn’t let up” (translation: he wouldn’t agree to let me go when I was under arrest) and that they could have “worked together against Tyrian if Clover had just—”

There’s a lot to cover this episode, so I’m not going to dive into another explanation of all the justified reasons why Clover didn’t trust Qrow in that moment and why Qrow was the one who “wouldn’t let up.” If you’re interested in that rundown, head here.

Side note: can RWBY please stop with the weird mouth closeups? I’m begging the animators. Especially when so much else in this episode is gorgeous.

Yes: 

No: 

Robyn’s response is to make it all about her. I say, as a hypocrite, because my instinctual response in comforting someone is to also bring up a way that I might, sort of, know what they’re going through. It’s something to work on and, as always, I’d be more receptive to Robyn’s attempts if she weren’t failing so spectacularly in every other aspect of her characterization. Case in point: she says that having a truth semblance tends to make people push her away, but we’ve never once seen that. We’re introduced to Robyn as she’s adored by Fiona. The people celebrate her. Yang and Blake trust her immediately, for no reason, and comment on how useful her semblance is—they’re not concerned with it. Ironwood likewise works with her and allows her to use her semblance on him in public, at least for a time. May spoke fondly of Robyn last episode. She just finished a story about Joanna… where is this pushing away you speak of, Robyn? I really wish RWBY would consider things ahead of time and actually show them to us, rather than just having characters announce that they’re (supposedly) there.

Nice symbolism though with Robyn touching the electric bars and pulling her hand back. You reach out, you get hurt, curl in on yourself, blah, blah, blah. Too bad it’s not a moment attached to an actual struggle of hers.

Qrow buys it though, saying he’s never thought about it that way before. 

You know, I get why a lot of people in the fandom hate Clover. I can’t even claim I’m much interested in him as an individual. I’m sick of straight, white, able-bodied men getting the spotlight, which is one of the things that drew me to RWBY in the first place… so theoretically Robyn should be the better choice for Qrow’s BFF, right? Especially in a world where FairGame only existed in RT’s social media queerbaiting. Give us the badass gender-bent Robin Hood instead of the boring military man!

On paper it sounds great… which is why it’s astounding that RT bungled that so badly.  

Qrow never finishes his thought about Clover because the Ace Ops come in to return Watts to his cell. Interesting. The writing has definitely made Ironwood stupid, but perhaps not as stupid as he could have been? If he got Watts to hack Penny (we don’t yet know what’s going on with her during all this) and then promptly shut him away again, that’s just about the best way you can follow up on your worst decision.

Harriet spots Clover’s pin and tells Qrow “You don’t get to keep that,” but then doesn’t take it from him. See, that right there is a better motivation for potentially opening the cell. Qrow says he didn’t kill Clover, Harriet shoots back that his blood was on Qrow’s blade (again, focusing on the wrong way that he’s guilty), Robyn challenges her to get the truth via her semblance… and Harriet considers it? Why? She’s not the one struggling with her loyalty here, that’s Marrow, yet he’s the one who has to pull Harriet back with “What are you doing?” when she looks at the keypad. Have Marrow almost be swayed by Robyn’s taunting, or have Harriet almost open the door because she’s furious and desperate to get Clover’s pin back. Either one of those would make more sense than this.

Also, no one checked Qrow during his arrest/before he was thrown into his cell?

Also, note that Marrow uses a nickname here—“Hare”—so I’m continually unpersuaded by the ‘They’re not friends’ claim. Yes, Harriet hits his shoulder on her way out… and Ren will later scream at Jaune about cheating. Harriet being in a bad mood because their leader was just murdered isn’t evidence that they’re not close, no more than Ren responding to Everything Traumatic Ever is evidence that he doesn’t care for his friends.

Also (x3), Robyn calls Harriet “mohawk”?? Can’t this woman come up with a single good insult?

As the Ace Ops leave Robyn lays back down on her bunk, exactly as she was before, and says, “Well, that was almost exciting.” Kind of like this scene! Luckily, the episode is about to get a whole lot better.

The music immediately picks up as we segue to Ren, Jaune, and Yang chasing after Oscar. On the whole I really enjoyed this scene, largely because it shows the group doing their best—in a way that feels persuasive. I’ll admit that others have a point about them just standing around while the Hound changes form—yet still failing because, you know, our villain is actually powerful! However, there are, as always, some nitpicks.

One of the first bits of dialogue we get is Ren noticing that the bikes can’t stand being in the cold for very long. It bugs me that bikes suffer more from the cold than the civilians do. To say nothing of the fact that it once again doesn’t amount to anything. Their bikes carry them through the whole battle and Jaune looses his because of a grimm. Then Yang manages to fix the totaled bike with a single part, despite the continued cold. Why bother introducing this as a problem when it’s meaningless each and every time?

The three do demonstrate some great teamwork though. When Yang yells that she wishes one of them could fly, Jaune uses his shield to launch Ren at the Hound… so that he can get dragged through the air, hitting rocks. This poor guy. I like that though because no, these teens shouldn’t be perfect, strategic masterminds and yes, they’re in the kind of situation where they just have to try something and see if it works. Jaune can’t think ahead to what Ren will do once he grabs the Hound, they just have to get him to that point and go from there. Which they do. Ren snags a boulder to slow them down further (that’s smart) and Yang goes higher to fire at the Hound’s face (don’t hit Oscar he doesn’t have aura!!). They’re at a crazy disadvantage here and still trying their best to get our boy back.

The overall tone is… fine? Again, love supportive Yang—that high five with Jaune was wholesome—but it continually feels weird to get that when Oscar is in the literal jaws of death here. On the whole though the scene keeps to the action and seriousness of the situation, which I appreciate. We’ll talk more about tone during the outpost scene.

It's looking like they might be making some sort of headway when the Hound lets out a roar that, as Yang puts it, calls for backup. 1. Yay giving this grimm even more power to mess with the cast, 2. Holy shit there are so many grimm around. See, scenes like this is why I’m side-eyeing the anti-army rhetoric in the show (a stance I’d otherwise agree with 100%). Because do you see how many there are? That’s not Salem’s army, that’s just the normal grimm hanging out around Atlas. The cast is screwed if anyone were to, say, order them to attack the kingdom…

Kudos to RT for bringing back the centipede grimm though. I honestly thought they’d just be a one-off action sequence in Volume 7.

While everything is falling apart Ren catches a glimpse of Oscar, complete with rosy cheeks to make him look super young, and the sight fills him with 

He starts climbing towards the Hound and we cut away. 

Meanwhile, Jaune’s bike is hit with some of the centinel’s acid (again, not the cold causing problems) and he takes a tumble, managing to keep his feet before Yang snags him. Moments like that really do show how far he’s come and I’m glad we got to see such a moment in an episode where his cheating was brought up. Jaune then uses his shield to fly over one of the dragon-y grim, but... wait. The shield is flexible?

Literally what is the point of that? As a shield, I mean (it clearly works fine as  a ramp). If you can just tip it over like that then so can the grimm or another fighter. Forget how tiny the shield is, all a monster would have to do is boop it and it would fall over. In fact, it probably should have with the grimm scratching at it before. Seems rather useless, unless you’ve got writers crafting convenient situations. Also, does Jaune have multiples of this thing? He picked it up before, but there’s no way he found that one again. Idk, I’m really not feeling this addition to Jaune’s arsenal. Better to give him a range option so he’s more versatile.

Still, they fly over the grimm and the two let out a sigh in synch. Whatever else we might have to say about this volume, RT is definitely giving us different interactions and team-ups. Well done there. Why, Jaune and Yang have managed to survive all that together!

Oh wait, never mind. They’ve gone off a cliff.

Honestly, I’m shocked they actually went over. I thought Yang would stop in time, or we’d have a classic moment of them tumbling off the bike and ending an inch from the edge, maybe going off slow with time for one to hang on. But nope, they plummet and it was done with such confidence by the camera that for a split second (the illogic of killing them both off aside) I thought that was it. They’re done for. Lucky for them, Ren catches them at the last second, managing to snag Jaune’s sword and them and immediately use his semblance so the grimm doesn’t eat them. That’s skill, baby!!

But you can see why he’s pissed, beyond just the fact that his semblance is holding this group together. It’s not Jaune and Yang’s fault that there was suddenly a cliff, but last we saw Ren he was heading towards Oscar. He had a plan. Granted, not one that was likely to lead anywhere given the Hound’s power (and the plot needing Oscar to reach Salem), but that’s not the point. He was pulling himself towards their kidnapped friend and then at the last second had to cut himself loose to save two others. This moment wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it would take someone with no emotions at all not to be frustrated by it. 

So we leave the trio literally hanging out and return to Ruby’s group who is threatening kids! 

Seriously though WTF, Weiss? Look, I haven’t always been kind to Whitley. In fact, I think there’s a Volume 7 recap where I really laid into him for his attitude and for supporting Jacques. But then—with the help of some friends and other anon perspectives—I thought about it for a hot second and considered how little power this child has. I was wrong to blame him for so much given the various circumstances here. It took, like… five minutes of thinking, and that’s for a fictional character, not a real life brother. Weiss clearly hasn’t given her brother five seconds of thought. He’s in the same abusive household that she was. He wasn’t blessed with combat abilities and a semblance to easily escape. He didn’t have Weiss there to guide him like Winter guided her. He had to watch BOTH his sisters abandon him to Jacques… so when exactly was he supposed to learn to be better? Why would he be inclined to? Weiss was an entitled racist when she got to school and needed new friends to show her a new path. She admitted as much last volume! Yet the fact that Whitley is completely alone in this house while their mom locks herself in her room to drink doesn’t register at all? This woman, an adult out to save the world as we’re frequently told, never once considered what it took to get her here and realize that Whitley has had none of the resources she did? 

I want to emphasize that Weiss threatens him with her weapon. It’s not just that she’s dismissive of him and his plight, she’s also happy to use violence if Whitley doesn’t do exactly as he’s told. Violence… against her brother… who is a child… without any training. Again: WTF, Weiss? You know how I was praising RWBY last episode for not having the group beat up the Atlas personnel? Yeah, we get this instead.

Then she tells him to go to his room??

Speculation is that Whitley is about 2-3 years younger than Weiss. Or, to put it another way, roughly the same age as Weiss’ leader, Ruby. She’ll follow Ruby unquestioningly into world-changing decisions, but sends her brother to his room like a toddler? Which is it, RWBY? Are 17 year-olds leaders you should listen to, or babies who must leave the room while the grownups talk? He certainly can’t be any younger than Oscar, so again, she’ll fight beside him, but treat Whitley like this? Whitley isn’t exactly going to offer help in a respectful, eager manner, but that “Fine. What do you expect me to do?” was incredibly open given his situation. He was willing to help and that was the perfect opportunity to have him, you know, do something. Something small and innocuous that wouldn’t threaten the team if he betrayed them, but kept him around so he could talk to someone. But nope. Weiss just sends him to his room after criticizing him for not understanding that they’re “busy trying to save Atlas.” Weiss, what does Whitley know about all that? He’s locked up in this manor after your father was arrested and the one news clip we’ve seen said that no one knows why Ironwood recalled his forces, or what’s up with those grimm overhead. She’s acting like he should have any idea what’s happening right now.

Also, all of this is coming on the heels of Willow begging Weiss not to forget her brother, so that’s just great. RWBY has the rest of their time in the manor to fix this, because if Weiss comes out of that scene having only been handed the means of arresting Jacques… that’s just bad all around.

Finally, should we talk about how strange this choice is? Last episode we saw the group flying away and I assumed it was them leaving Atlas to go back to Mantle. It certainly looked that way, but now they’ve decided to stay until Nora is awake. Why? Isn’t it more dangerous here? I mean, they didn’t know the staff was gone and there are still arrest warrants out. Was Weiss just going to threaten anyone who dared report her? Where are these shields Ironwood spoke of? Have they gotten through them somehow, or are they currently trapped in Atlas?

This is “Oscar is in the slums, leaves the slums, learns they’re going to the crater, but the slums are actually the crater, so we’re heading back now” all over again. 

The one good thing about this scene is that Blake and Ruby talk! …for about two seconds lol. Eh, better than nothing. Blake says that if Ruby is worried about Yang she could try calling her. Ruby has, and Yang isn’t picking up.

Does Ruby think she’s in danger or ignoring her? Unclear. We, however, know that Yang is now lost in the middle of nowhere with no reception and no transportation back to Mantle. The three of them start trudging towards an outpost Ren spotted, needing to find shelter “before this weather drops our aura levels completely.” So what about everyone without aura?? I wish that I could check off the bingo space again because this is ridiculous.

Ren, once again, isn’t in the mood to talk, but unlike Jaune, Yang can’t leave something alone. So she coaxes him to tell him what’s wrong and you know what? She does a real good job at first. She’s encouraging, but her voice is level and she doesn’t come across as accusing. Well done, Yang.

Things quickly fall apart though as Ren says EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED TO SAY TO THIS GROUP. Holy shit, everyone, let’s count ‘em up:

Nothing is going smoothly so let’s stop pretending it’s all fine

Oscar has been horrifically kidnapped that’s #bad

This is not a normal part of being a huntsmen

We don’t know the first thing about being huntsmen!

Every time we’ve had to make real decisions we got them all wrong, yay us

We’re trapping a city here for Salem to destroy whenever she feels like it, yay us x2

Our leader is barely more than a kid and one of us cheated our way here

People are going to die because of us

“I’m just saying what nobody else wants to”

Yang’s response? Incredibly weak imo. Just as weak as the fandom’s has been since this conflict started in Volume 7. Her argument against letting Atlas go is that Salem won’t just let it fly away with her whale… but no one knows that. She’s certainly just letting it sit right now! Assuming that something won’t work because you expect the worst is not a compelling reason not to try.

Her argument against their ineptitude? They saved Haven, took down a leviathan, and got the lamp to Atlas. Let’s break that down a little more.

Did they fight well at Haven? Yes… overlooking that Weiss would have died if not for a timely semblance reveal. But the real point here is that they “saved” the school by getting the Relic. Problem is, they never won the relic, it was handed to them. Literally. They retrieved it not because they were capable of overpowering Salem’s forces and a Maiden, but because Raven decided she’d rather her daughter be a target than her. That doesn’t tell us anything about the group’s skill, only about Raven’s flaws.

They took down a leviathan… after drawing it to Argus in the first place. That’s kind of an important detail when Ren is trying to make the point that their decisions suck. Also, how did they take it down? Using Ruby’s silver eyes, which only worked because Jinn randomly decided to let her stop time. Oh, and also using the rest of Cordovin’s mech that they hadn’t yet destroyed. Again, nothing about that fight demonstrates their skill, only others’ abilities, resources, and the strange favoritism they benefit from.

Getting the lamp to Atlas. Well, you drove Ozpin away who was your ticket across the border. Then Maria told Ruby how to save you all from the Apathy (and Ruby herself was the only one able to resist long enough to demand you get the Relic back in the first place). You started that leviathan fight and ended it surrounded by Cordovin’s fleet. So how did you get to Atlas? Because she let you cross. How did you reach Ironwood? Because he dropped your arrest. Yang stopped Adam, yes, but that was its own, separate fight. Regarding the “getting to Atlas” point they botched that up completely. 

Basically, this resume of victories is unpersuasive, to say the least. Yang highlights the end goal rather than acknowledging Ren’s point: have we, as individuals, actually made things better lately?

They absolutely have not. 

Note how, in contrast, Ren includes himself in this criticism. He doesn’t just lay responsibility at Ruby and Jaune’s feet, he’s second on the list for being underprepared. For messing up. He’s just an “orphan from nowhere” and this tells us that, unlike Qrow, Ren is actually concerned with this problem and his own place in it. He’s not just blowing off steam and running from his responsibility. Rather, he’s making important points here yet, as he says, no one else wants to listen.

And that’s why the scene ultimately sucks. “But, Clyde! It’s a speech straight out of your metas!” Yes it was and it was beautiful to witness, but the problem is that Ren’s supposed to be wrong. Jaune glares at him before leaving. Yang clenches her fists and asks if he just wants to push everyone away. He’s left hanging his head. Then later they talk about how “broody” he is and provide advice about how to stop doing that. The takeaway here is not, ‘Holy shit, Ren is right and we should rethink our choices,’ but rather that Ren is wrong and needs to come over to their ‘correct’ perspective.

I love that this was laid out. I love that the group is actually fighting for once (way better than Ruby and Yang’s ‘fight’). I also love that we finally see what’s bothering Ren… but we all know this isn’t leading anywhere. The scene ends with Jaune dismissing everything by stating that if Ren doesn’t want to be a huntsmen, fine, but he has a job to do. Ren is supposed to feel guilty here for… telling the truth? Jaune is supposed to look like the hero for soldiering on with his responsibility while moody Ren drags behind. The scene is great, but the purpose of the scene sucks.

Actually, I’d like to talk about a portion of the outpost scene real quick. Skipping ahead, because we really see here how little RT believes the words that they’ve put in Ren’s mouth. Jaune admits that he’s right about cheating into Beacon… but nothing else. Indeed, that “mistake” is swept away because he’s earned his right to be here now. You shouldn’t care about that anymore! Ignoring the point Ren was making about how much they’re in over their heads. Yang apologizes to Jaune on Ren’s behalf, making it clear that she cares more about his potentially hurt feelings than any of the points Ren made. Remind you of anything? Like oh, say, that time Yang cared more about Jaune’s feelings than whether he’d hurt Oscar after slamming him against a wall? All of this despite the fact that Yang JUST accused Ruby of the horrible situation they’re in. Now Ren acknowledges that they’re in a horrible situation and Yang… doesn’t care?? Again, RT is good at giving us the pieces we want, the surface level stuff, but is rarely able to combine it into something fulfilling. If anyone actually takes Ren’s stance seriously, changing their ways rather than talking him out of it, I’ll be shocked.

Especially since the real nail in the coffin of this scene is Jaune telling him that “The more you hide from what you’re feeling, the more alone you’re going to feel.”

Jaune………..buddy……….pal…………were you asleep during that scene? Ren DID tell you what he was feeling. For the first time he did come clean about everything he was experiencing and you both rejected him for it! He’s not pulling away because he’s hiding from what he’s feeling, he’s pulling away because he did show it and both his friends reduced it to “pushing [them] away.” Which is it, Jaune? Should Ren be more open, or should he stop saying things you don’t want to hear? It’s a more complicated version of telling your parents about your interests, them mocking those interests, and then they’re surprised when you don’t share things with them again. I mean, the gall of Jaune to reject everything Ren said in the moment, ignore it after he’s calmed down, and then lecture him about being hiding his emotions.

Jaune and Yang (and the story) don’t want Ren to say what he really thinks, they want him to say what they think. Ren should speak up, but only if he’s going to agree with them.

So Ren sits out in the snow because potentially dying from cold is better than staying in a room with Yang and Jaune. I can’t really blame him lol.

One last thing about the fight scene. Remember how May was put in her place last episode for not using Penny’s name? Well, Yang doesn’t either. Granted, “the Maiden” isn’t as overtly insulting as “tin can” (or whatever it is May said), but it amounts to the same thing: both are replacing Penny’s individual identity with her status as a tool they can use. May sees Penny as the cool tech girl who can get them into the military base. Yang sees Penny as the cool magic girl who is the answer to all their ‘How do we win this?’ problems. Everyone is using Penny. Ruby to launch Amity, Ironwood to open the vault, but you know RWBY will never have a scene where Penny corrects Yang about her name and Ruby looks on, smug. Because the group can continually make the same mistakes as the adults/antagonists around them, but aren’t called out on it in the same way. Ren calls them out and he’s told he’s wrong. 

Anyway, the tl;dr of this scene is that Ren is the best. Too bad the story doesn’t realize that.

We then move to my poor Oscar who wakes up looking at his own feet, Ozpin’s voice is as reassuring as it can be under the circumstances. “Oscar? Don’t panic. We’re going to be okay.” I mentioned two weeks back that I hoped the show would explain why we didn’t see Ozpin try to take control during the Hound fight and we still don’t have an explanation, so that’s disappointing. This line is all we get from Ozpin because that’s the norm now. We moved from him being written out of the story entirely to having one or two lines an episode (excluding a speech meant more for the audience than the characters). So, improvement? But a lackluster one, I think. Especially given that he is the focal point of this entire situation with Salem. 

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room though. Oscar’s torture is horrifying. In the sense that it should be horrifying. Salem might still inexplicably not be attacking Atlas—and what she’s after at any given time might be getting more and more muddled—but she’s absolutely terrifying here, which is what we needed. The mix of assault with that nurturing tone is just skin crawling. “My long lost Ozma. Found at last” while she (I think?) shows images of their daughters. Honestly, I only heard that from friends, didn’t catch it myself, but then my eyes are shit to begin with. I couldn’t see a thing in this shadowed shot.

(It’s like watching Game of Thrones all over again.)

Oscar tries to pretend to be Ozpin and he does a damn good job with “I’m sorry the reunion isn’t living up to your expectations.” It’s not enough to fool Salem though. She says he’s “not him” yet and I’m again reminded that the show continually references this merge without showing us any change. They’re apparently closer to one person now, but they still speak as individuals. Oscar has Ozpin’s magic, but hasn’t used it, even when his life was on the line. The closest we get to evidence that the merge is underway is that Oscar attempts to lie about knowing Jinn’s name… but what the hell else is he supposed to do here? I suppose he could go the action hero route and shout that she’ll never get the answer out of him, but trying to lie is by far the safer option. That doesn’t tell us that he’s becoming like Ozpin, or even that they’re truly “like-minded souls” as Salem claims. It just tells us that Oscar has two braincells to rub together and can say a short sentence without totally giving himself away. Maybe the kid played a few rounds of Remnant’s Among Us.

This moment highlights another justification for Ozpin’s secrets though. He lives an existence where he is not in control of his own (“own”) body. At any point the host he’s with could falter, fail, turn on him, and in doing so give crucial, world ending information to the enemy. It’s already happened on a small scale, with Oscar successfully taking control, stealing the Jinn information, and giving it to the group. Now here he’s being tortured. How long can he last? Will Oscar give up Jinn’s name? If Ozpin didn’t have the location of the Relic locked up tight in his own consciousness, would that information be lost too? I’m not looking to blame Oscar for anything here—I don’t want to imply that this situation is karma for him taking Jinn’s name, or some such nonsense—I just want to acknowledge that this is the sort of stuff Ozpin has to worry about. If he shares these secrets then that’s more fallible people who are capable of giving that information to Salem. If he keeps them…well, he’s the only one who has to keep his mouth shut during a torture session. His host might want information about the Relics, there’s an argument to be made that they’re entitled to them, but if I were Ozpin I wouldn’t want to take that risk either. The question has essentially become, “Would I trust a 14 year old to keep quiet while tortured by a witch?” Maybe Oscar will! He’s enough of a BAMF to manage it… but that’s still not something I’d want to bet on. Better that Oscar simply doesn’t have that information to give Salem, period. 

So obviously this “working relationship” that Salem wants isn’t going well. When Oscar lies she jumps straight to torturing him.

This was legitimately hard to watch and I’m torn about that. On the one hand it’s what I wanted: a scary, powerful Salem who uses the tools at her disposal to get what she’s after. That’s great! Yet I’m still reminded of how far this show has gone to literally beat up the child of the group. Oscar is the one punched into a tree, attacked by a friend, shot by an ally, the star of the show’s most horrifying kidnapping, now the first to be outright tortured by Salem. I don’t really have a point here, I’m not looking to level any specific accusations at RT, I’m just commenting on the pattern and acknowledging that it makes me uncomfortable. There are parts of a story where you’re supposed to be uncomfortable—like the villain torturing a hero—and then there are parts where you’re uncomfortable because the writers seem overly focused on showing images of a specific kid suffering and that’s… weird.

I’m not sure what to make of that just yet. 

Anyway, Salem’s magic here is surprisingly pretty. Pretty and painful, but I expected more red and blacks, perhaps some spikey imagery, so the rainbow was an interesting surprise. Given the amount of pain Oscar is in, I suspect too much of that would kill him, so Salem calls in Hazel to continue the interrogation. The first few hits he deals are for Haven, the others for his sister.

See, this is why RWBY needs to actually embrace its “life isn’t a fairy tale” theme. You cannot show me child torture in one week and then move to Ruby “We’ll win because we’re the good guys ^_^” Rose the next. The whole reason why Ironwood (and Ren now) was right is because this is the shit reality they’re dealing with. You didn’t run when you had the chance and now Oscar (and Ozpin) is being tortured. You keep talking about saving Mantle, but the only reason why they’re not already dead is because the writing randomly turns the cold danger on and off. This mix of horrific, real world danger and unjustified confidence doesn’t work.

…also, I officially don’t want any redemption arc for Hazel. This guy is beating on a child because he’s convinced that he’s Ozpin, blaming Ozpin for his sister’s decision, all while forwarding a genocidal maniac’s plans. Hazel and his ridiculous shirts can just get on out of here, thanks.

Finally, I just want to say... this is the woman a lot of the fandom defended. This is the woman you wanted raising those girls and blamed Ozpin for trying to escape with them.

This is how Salem treats children.

Oh, and all of this is without his aura because it just broke. So Oscar is in serious, non-fantasy trouble here. 

Someone please rescue him soon 😭

We finish up with some frankly boring stuff with the rest of the villain cast. We learn that the Hound is an “experiment” and a new one given that Cinder has never seen it before. Salem’s dialogue is admittedly great—“Do you hear that, my pet? She thinks. She wants.”—but Cinder just rehashes everything we’ve heard from her before. She wants the Winter Maiden power. She has trouble remembering that she’s playing at Salem’s slave. She even rehashes the exact same line, “Without you, I am nothing.” Why are we wasting time on this when we had that tantalizing backstory before? 

Bleh. 

Salem tells her in no uncertain terms to stay put.

So Cinder immediately leaves LOL.

She just wants to “check on” Amity tower because she “knows those kids” in ways Salem doesn’t. I’m admittedly slightly confused as to how Cinder knows to go there? Did she believe Ironwood’s lie that it was finished even though it apparently IS finished now? Has she overheard something? I’m not sure. Frankly, keeping track of that stuff in RWBY is headache inducing, so let’s just roll with it.

Neo, the only one with a brain around here, makes it clear she thinks Cinder is an idiot for going. Emerald, always the Cinder fan, offers to go in her stead. She’s been working on her semblance, so I expect we’ll see something cool with that soon. They head off, apparently not worried about what Salem will do to them when they get back.

Which is when we move to the outpost for our final scene, most of which I’ve covered. I only have two more things I want to bring up here.

The first is the tone. As said earlier, the tone of the Hound chase wasn’t horrible, but I find myself disappointed in the overall attitude of Jaune and Yang. Yang is making jokes about how they can’t fly, high-fiving Jaune, and they’re both shrugging off Ren’s concerns. Jaune says he won’t be able to sleep due to worrying about Oscar, but neither of them act particularly worried. Which isn’t to say they need to be sobbing the whole time or whatever, just that Ren is the only one who feels real here. They may not agree with his stance about everything else, but they’ve all experienced the same event: watching a grimm that can morph, talk, and think horrifically kidnap a teammate. Shouldn’t there be more emotion attached to that? Things have gotten better with Oscar than they’ve been in the past, largely due to details like Nora’s hug at the beginning of the volume, but let’s be real, they’re still not perfect. Do we think Jaune and Yang would be this nonchalant if Ruby were kidnapped that way? Say all you want about Ruby being her sister, or others being teammates for longer, but the fact remains that Oscar has been taken to Salem herself and the only one reacting to that in any meaningful way is Ren. 

Who they say will “brood himself to death.” That right there. The one guy freaking out about your kidnapped friend should not be described as “brooding.”

All of which segues into my second point, namely that Yang doesn’t seem to care about Ruby anymore either! She asks Jaune, “Do you think she thinks less of me?” for not going to Amity and when Jaune reassures her that Ruby will always love her, Yang’s response is, “Yeah… Ruby.”

She was thinking about Blake.

The kicker? I thought she was talking about Ruby too. Because Ruby is her sister. Because she and Ruby had the fight (“fight”). Because Ruby was trying to call her to check in. Because Blake and Yang didn’t even acknowledge that they went on different missions here. I thought Blake was like Jaune, not really taking a side and just heading with Ruby because the team is splitting down the middle. Where did this worry come from?

And I want to praise RT here (I really do) because I can see the effort. I said Blake and Yang needed to spend time apart, they have. I said they needed to work through their co-dependent identities, now Blake is reminding Nora (and theoretically herself too) that someone you love is just a part of you. I said that the group couldn’t be a hive-mind, now there’s disagreement. I said the show needs to make Blake/Yang canon at some point and you can’t do that if they don’t talk about and to each other. So I fully admit that this is everything I asked for… so why does it feel so badly done? No matter how many boxes it checks off, it’s still a moment where we thought Yang was finally worrying about her sister again—like she used—and then it’s ‘Sike! It was really just about Blake! Again. Yang is worried about a problem that was never even introduced.’

I suppose that’s why it doesn’t work for me. Yang and Ruby had the falling out, but Yang and Blake, somehow, become the focus. Is it really so hard to write Yang as a sister and a potential love interest? Yang apparently can’t care for Ruby and Blake, Weiss can’t care for her team and her brother, Ruby can’t care for Mantle and Ironwood… it’s like each character gets one (1) thing to put their emotional energy towards at any given time and that’s it. That’s all they get.

On the flip side, this is why Ren feels like a person this episode. He cares about Mantle, and the future fight, and their past mistakes, and his place here, and the problems within the team, and Nora… He feels like a well-rounded person! vs. Yang and Jaune who don’t even consider his perspective, vs. Yang having a fight with her sister but only cares about Blake. They’re one-dimensional in comparison.

It is, as always, disappointing. 

As the group “broods” then the camera shows us a piece of the ice nearby, slowly cracking as Jaune says that “Things always seem to get worse before they get better.” Well, that’s unexpected. I didn’t think our opening would be literal. I’ve been worried about Atlas falling on everyone, not everyone falling… to whatever is underneath the kingdom as a whole. Is the kingdom falling apart? Or is something waking up and moving towards the surface? If RWBY can reproduce the characterization we got with the Hound, I wouldn’t be opposed to another leviathan grimm rising from the snowy deep to assist Salem…

Though how the fuck group will survive everything and that, who knows lol.

And that’s our episode! Issues aside—most of which have been ongoing issues. We knew they were there—I think this was our strongest episode so far this volume. Well done! There are still problems, no doubt, but at least I was only bored for a small portion of that 20 minutes. Let’s just keep heading in that direction.  

Exciting Saturday, huh?

Regarding bingo updates:

RWBY actually re-used a grimm I thought they’d abandoned, so well done there.

No civilians around for the giant grimm army to attack, so that was fine. Kind of strange though that they completely disappeared after the Hound left.

The timeline is starting to get wonky. For example, what kind of stakes am I supposed to expect when Cinder decides to head to Amity? Is it currently empty? Is Pietro there? Has Penny made it yet? I said weeks ago that RWBY would need to follow multiple groups to fill out fourteen episodes in just two days—and they’re definitely doing that—but that means we don’t have a clear sense of what events are happening simultaneously and what are meant to be linear.

No Winter or Ironwood this episode.

Watts is back with Jacques! Potential for team-up 2.0? That will admittedly be hard with Qrow and Robyn there, unless those two escape.

(Oh yeah, I thought Qrow and the others would be held in the military base and Ruby would find him during her heist… but she doesn’t even care that Qrow is in jail.)

Maria is still a ghost. If we hit the halfway mark with her not doing anything I’m calling the space.

I definitely wouldn’t call this cliffhanger needless. That’s actually a cool way to end things, even if Jaune’s line was pretty on the nose.

Neo may be getting closer to backstabbing Cinder if those expressions are anything to go by. 

Still waiting to see if Amity works.

And finally, drumroll please! …

“More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship.” Yup, I’m marking that this week. After Blake’s ‘just a part of you’ comment and now Yang only being worried about her reaction? Definitely calling it. If RWBY confirms a relationship this volume I’ll eat my words—and some celebratory cake — but until then salt prevails. Especially after the fiasco that was Supernatural.

Still no bingo. Ah well, maybe next week lol.

Until then! 💜

[Ko-fi]

[seekingseven]

Hello Seeking! For a drabble request: I would love to see you write some beautiful friendship with Legend & Ravio! bonus if Warriors is there too :D

Linked Universe Prompt Requests #7!

Thanks for the awesome prompt! I'm always down to write some platonic shenanigans. Enjoy this first-person minific!

(You can also read the fic here on Ao3!)

~~~~~~

It's twenty minutes to opening time, but I've already swept the floors and opened the door. The window blinds are pulled to the side—sunlight makes the merchandise look better, I've learned—but now there are bugs crawling over the sill and leaving smears on the white paint. Sheerow picks them off. I feel a little bad about it, letting Sheerow eat the bugs instead of an actual breakfast, that is, but I think he'd prefer them over green onion omelets.

I take a seat at the table and twirl a fork between my fingers. He eats, and so do I, and there's only the sound of clicks and clunks and clinks. Dust motes fizz through the air. From across the room, I notice that the masks hanging from the wall are misaligned. White fuzz from the duster curl atop their wooden faces, and I grunt to myself. Sheerow glares at me as I stand up to brush the must off. He wants me to finish first, I’m sure.

I sneeze. It sounds aggressive, and Sheerow turns his attention back to his bugs. We talk like this, in sneezes and clicks and the occasional scratch. Mr. Hero says it's off-putting. I don't say anything, because Sheerow doesn't speak Hylian, and I don't want him to feel left out.

The masks squeak as I pinch them between my palms. Left, right, left; I never had a good sense of askew or aligned. I take a step back. It still looks crooked. Sheerow squeaks from the window, and I squeak back. He's still hungry, I know, but it doesn't look professional to be fixing merchandise when there are customers in the store, so say I'll make him breakfast once the customers come in and the wall doesn't look so slanted.

Tile creeks as I step back again. I sigh, give up, wipe the slip of sweat at the back of my neck and dry it off on my apron. My apron! I need to change into my uniform! The elemental rods on the wall bounce in their racks as I run across the store. My heels ache and my hair flops in front of my eyes. The doorknob whines as I pull it open and dart to the back room.

A purple tunic, brown boots, belt clasp. White gloves, I pull them on finger by finger, huffing as the cloth crumples and knots under the swift movements, and I stub my toe as I jam my feet in the boots. I hiss. From across the room, Sheerow makes a noise. I can't tell if he's laughing or asking if I'm okay.

I'm breathing through a curtain of hair by the time I get my belt clasp on. It sticks to my face, the hair, like licorice overcooked. I really need to get it cut. I won't, of course, because I'll forget as soon as I step back into the shop, but I tell myself that anyway. It makes me feel better. Pretending I won't forget, that is.

I pull the leather through the clasp, down to the last notch, and twist the overhang around three times so it doesn't fall off. There's not enough stuff in my size, not in Hyrule. Mr. Hero says it's because I'm XXS, I say it's because Hylians are too big. We always laugh about that. I smile to myself as I give the belt one shake, two; it's snug over my hip bones, so I leave it alone. I pull my apron off the floor and roll it between my hands—it's faster than folding it—and notice something on the windowsill. I look closer.

It's a book, green and leathery, and there's a big clasp between it's covers. A lock. I flip it over, see the gold stitching on the back. Air hisses through my teeth, and my eyebrows pull the skin of my eyelids up.

This isn't mine.

I toss the book under my arm, and, apron forgotten, dash out the door. Sheerow chitters after me, hopping away from my half-eaten breakfast (so he does like green onion omelets!), and flutters to my shoulder.

"We're heading after Mr. Hero," I say, breath short. With the back of my heel, I kick the shop door shut. Sheerow flips the "OPEN" sign over for me. A handful of villagers walking up the road give me an odd look—I would have felt bad if they were customers, but I know they aren't, so I give them a fake smile as I run along.

Immediately I regret tightening my belt so much. Something soft and moving presses against the strip of leather, and Sheerow picks anxiously at the knotted overhang. I wave him away with one hand, already sweating, and jerk my shoulder up until the book is snuggled safely under my arm. My back is wet. Sheerow's wings flap against the tips of my ears, and the floor blurs underfoot. My chest starts to feel fuzzy, and I stop for a minute to catch my breath. The blood running to my heart bulges into my head, and I pressed the back of my head to my cheek. It's hot—the air, my head, and my cheek. I groan. Sheerow pinches the sweatiest part of my shirt between his beak and flaps backward, allowing a wisp of breeze to slip in, and I thank him.

"We need to keep going," I insist, more to myself than to him. Slowly, I uncurl my spine from its hunch. Bones click as I pull my hips forward and grind my heels into the floor. There's a reason I don't play sports. "He's going to be very upset if he realizes he left this at the shop; we need to catch up to him before he makes it to that portal."

Sheerow twitters. Legs burning, I try and break back into a run. I ignore the head tilts and squinting eyes of passersbys. Usually, I wouldn't, but if I spent too long brooding on it I would get distracted, and then Mr. Hero would leave, and his adventure would be ruined when he realized what he forgot.

The stone underfoot turns to dirt, then to water as I splash through a brook. I could have hopped over it, the brook, that is, but the water feels good against my shins, and, anyway, if I turn up looking weather worn, maybe Mr. Hero would feel obligated to buy something from the shop.

There's chattering up ahead, baritone, and sweat drips into my smile.

"Almost there," I puff, trying to shake off the blades of grass sticking to my wet legs. I shift the book from one arm to another and comb a hand through my hair. Sheerow is circling my head. Curled breezes slide down my hair and neck, and I thank him again as I pick my way through the underbrush. Something bites me. I squeak. Sheerow bites it in retaliation as I swipe off the bead of red on my leg. I want to look rugged, but not that rugged.

The voices ahead grow louder as I pull closer. There's a flash of blue between the trees.

"Hey!" I cry. Sheerow lets out an avian equivalent of the greeting, and a face turns towards me. Pale, blond, blue-eyed; just like Mr. Hero's, but a little shapelier. I said the same during dinner last night; everyone laughed. Except Mr. Hero, of course. He kicked me under the table.

I'm pretty sure he thought it was funny, though.

"Oh, hey there, Ravio! Where did you come from?

"My house! Uh, is Mr. Hero ahead? He left something!"

The man glances backwards, then turns towards me. It's only when he's a few paces away that I realize how tall he is. What was his name, again? Captain? Warriors? I'll just call him sir; better to be safe than sorry.

"Legend already ran ahead, but if you want me to give him anything I can take it for you,” he says. “Want to hand it to me? Must be something important! You look a little bungled up. Is that cut on your arm okay?"

I glance at my arm. Something has torn at my sleeve, and there's red under the cut cloth. I groan. The other hero lets out a friendly laugh and extends his hand, repeating his earlier question.

"Oh!" I say. "I’m fine. And yes, it is very important, you're right! Here you go. Be careful with it. Don't lose it, yeah?"

He takes it, eyebrows furrowed, and lets it bounce lightly in one hand. The look in his eye is familiar.

"You don't know what it is?" I ask. The words sound a little more disbelieving than I meant them to.

"Well, not exactly. Your friend owns a lot of weird stuff, you know."

"That's, well, that's true. Uh, so, that's a coupon book. Very important. Don't lose it!"

The other hero flinched, muscles in his neck jerking back as he gave the book a hard look. "Coupon book?"

I open my mouth. Far away, a clock chimes ten. Sheerow gives me a panicked look. The shop!

"Coupon book!" I blabber, already turning to go. "Very important. He's going to lose his mind if he realizes that he doesn't have it with him. Anyway! I need to go. Bye!"

I turn quickly and run. Something snags my foot, but I stumble only a little before I'm out of sight. Or, at least, I think I am, because it takes Sheerow a minute to find me. Behind me, the other hero is calling, but I don't turn back. Sheerow chatters into my ear as we run along.

"I know, I know, but he would be so upset if he didn't have it. Anyway, business is slow in the morning. I think we'll be fine!"

Only the first part was true, but it didn't matter.

~~ Fine ~~ I hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for reading! [Previous Request] - [Next Request]

[agustdef]

Fear of the Future

Pairing: Demon!Jin x Witch!OC

Genre: Angst; Fluff; Supernatural

Word Count: 4.1K

Warning: Mention of violence (Only quick use of the words and no elaboration.) Quick mention of hanging. (Again only the word is said and the moment passes quickly.)

Rating: PG15

Lovely Banner Marker: @vynusx​ 

Beta Reader: @guktro​

Author’s Note: This fic was written for the @heartsforbtsnet​‘s Hearts for Halloween Collab. The angst prompt “Why do you insist on hurting me so much?” and the fluff prompt “You owe me two years’ worth of cuddles.” were used to craft this story. I was excited to write something else about Jin because writing about Jin makes me happy, despite what my masterlist might say.

The entire time at the party YN felt off. Well, off wasn’t the right word since she could pinpoint what it was that bothered her and it elicited only one emotion.

Fear.

When they’d arrived at the costume party that the coven had convinced her to attend, things were fine for several minutes. YN drank and danced amongst the sweaty bodies, while maintaining a sort of barrier so no one was actually touching her despite the fact that they thought they were. All was good, until she took a moment to step out onto the homeowners back patio for a breath of fresh air.

There were many other’s loitering about, but she stood in an empty spot fanning herself and being thankful that she decided not to straighten her hair and allowed her curls to roam free. She would’ve sweated out her hair and even if she could produce a glamour for others not to see it she would’ve known it happened. And then been saddled with fixing it when she got home, something that sounded horrible in that moment.

It was just as she turned to go back in that the feeling hit. Like a freight train she could feel him nearby, lingering somewhere that was much too close for her liking. She tried to tell herself that it was all in her head, but she knew better than to deny her intuition; doing that got her into difficult situations. So, she stood and waited trying to feel out for where he was, but before she could get a lock on it he disappeared.

That brought relief to her as she didn’t want to think about him. YN wouldn’t even think his name or who he was to her, she refused to do so for her own sanity. Or more like she did it so she could bury feelings for longer than she already had. Either way it helped and so she went back into the party and threw herself into the festivities more than before.

Not long into her attempt at forgetting did the feeling of him return. He was closer that time, but she knew it was far enough that he didn’t know where she was and wasn’t attempting to find her. It was the kind of relief she needed, but when his energy never faded she began to fear for the worst. If he wasn’t looking for her that didn’t mean he wouldn’t stumble upon her, she was at a party with stupid humans and it was Halloween so his power was amplified which meant the thing in place stopping him from finding her wasn’t enough.

And to top it off all her worrying meant that the buzz of the alcohol had all but left her, making the party unbearable. Which added to the reasons she’d rounded up the members and left the party to head to her home. She’d promised alcohol and letting them do whatever dumb thing they wanted without her usual nagging, so they didn’t whine the whole way back. Which was funny seeing as she’d made them take the long way to avoid wherever his energy came from.

Once at her home she left them to rampage her liquor cabinet while she changed out of the Mad Hatter get-up she’d donned for the party. By the time she’d changed, cleaned off her makeup and made it back down they were done with a bottle of whiskey and dancing along to some song that was being played from a phone.

However, YN’s focus went to the spell book sitting upon someone’s lap.

“What are you doing?” YN asked.

Em glanced up from the book and gave the sweetest smile and that’s how YN knew she was up to no good.

“Well, we had to cancel the usual ritual because of the whole energy from the moon being off thing but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something with our magic. Just a small summoning spell and then we banish whatever or whoever we summon. It’ll take ten minutes tops.”

The way she spoke was like a kid trying to get their parents to agree to buy them the thing they wanted or go to that one party with their friends that they swore would have adult supervision. And at some point in YN’s life it would’ve worked, but she’d grown out of that years ago and she also knew Em. There was no such thing as a quick spell and then nothing more.

YN opened her mouth to protest, but then remembered what she’d agreed to and shut her mouth. But that didn’t mean she didn’t look around at the others for some sort of backup. They all smiled at her and looked eager to do it, except for Mo. Poor girl was passed out on the couch and YN didn’t really have it in her to wake her up just to stop them.

Rolling her eyes she left them to their own devices and went to the kitchen to grab a snack and something to eat. She needed something to calm her down some more. The thoughts about him finding her lingered, but since his energy signature vanished miles before they reached her house and she had blockers up she’d calmed considerably.

Plus, with the others surely going to bungle a summoning she had other things to worry about. She was just thankful that they didn’t have enough power to summon him or any other high level being that would overpower them.

When she returned to the living room they’d cleared things out of the way and had placed the needed objects in their circle. They’d even gotten Mo up to help them, forcing her to stand holding their hands in the circle.

YN moved right past them and onto her couch that had been pushed on the far wall. There were a few asks to join, but she ignored them and got comfortable with her snacks. They stared at her for a while as if willing her to change her mind, but when a minute passed of nothing they turned back to their task.

While shoving cheese puffs in her mouth, YN watched as the last candle was lit and they all closed their eyes, chanting the spell they needed. From the way they said the words she could tell they were off to a bad start. They were slurred and jumbled at some points, she was sure it wouldn’t work at all; but then the fire from the candles grew and the air in the room shifted.

However, the moment as they finished casting everything went still and then back to normal. Nothing felt or looked different and no residual magical energy presented itself, it was as if they’d done nothing at all.

“What the fuck? We did it right?” Mal shouted, her brows knitted.

The others released similar sentiments and then dropped hands, moving to step away from the circle. They all turned to YN expectantly and before she could even begin to tell them all the things they did wrong, a voice cleared behind them.

Startled, they all turned to look and it took a second for YN to see behind them, but when she did the bowl of cheese puffs clattered to the floor drawing the attention back to her.

He was there. He was in her house. He was in front of her.

There was a smirk of Seokjin’s face as his eyes met hers, but she saw it falter for a moment before he put on an even more infuriating one that was clearly fake. Or at least clear to her.

“Didn’t you teach them to never break a circle even when their spell fails?” Jin asked.

Despite her clear discomfort the anger flared quickly at that as she moved to stand from the couch, her body moving across the room to the circle. She didn’t say a word, simply reached out for a candle and lit it but before she could get further Jin spoke up again.

“Can’t expel what wasn’t summoned to begin with.”

YN’s head snapped up so fast he heard it crack.

“What do you mean?” she demanded.

Jin sighed and slowly walked further into the room, though he stopped just across the circle from her.

“They casted it wrong. They almost summoned some low-level demon who was up the street, but it broke before she could get here. However, it was long enough to expose the energy for me to lock onto. You should know how vulnerable spells like that make your defenses, YN. And how even without your participation your magic is fused in simply by being near them,” he said.

That caused her anger to rise and she opened her mouth to fly off the handle, to unload on him for entering her home when she’d made herself clear. But then she saw the confusion and the fear that wrecked all of them and she knew that wasn’t wise. They didn’t know Jin like she did, all they saw and felt was a demon that radiated energy like none they’d encountered and who could wipe them out in an instant.

“Leave,” she said when she found her voice.

At that Jin laughed, his head even tilted back as he did so. One would think that it was a real one, but she knew better and when he stopped and righted himself in an instant she was proven correct.

“Oh no, darlin’. You’re right where I want you and we’re going to talk. You owe me that don’t you think?” he asked.

“I owe you nothing,” she hissed.

Despite her words a pang hit her, but she pushed it down and allowed her rage to remain firm. Letting it waver wasn’t something she could afford.

Objections didn’t stop Jin though, he merely stood there and then turned to glance at the coven. They all jumped with the focus on them and scrambled a little, though despite the fear YN swore she saw Em check out Jin for several seconds.

Of course, his stupid handsome face had that effect.

“Calm down, he’s not going to do anything to you. He’s… safe,” YN said in an attempt to calm their nerves.

Naturally, that only caused them to look at her incredulously. Why would anyone believe a demon of his power was safe to be around, especially since the first things he said made it seem like he just swooped into the first witch’s den that he could find.

Frustrated, YN turned and gave him a look, one he returned until she found herself close to snapping.

“Fine,” she said.

That brought a smile to his face immediately and then his arm extended towards her. Without a thought she reached out to grip it, her eyes fluttered closed immediately and after a few words she pulled away. Though the voice in her head wanted her hand to linger on his skin.

There were gasps of shock before her eyes reopened, but she knew what it was for. Giving into his want to talk meant he allowed her to bind his powers. It didn’t render him powerless, but it did weaken him a great deal. And it would only last a few hours, which YN didn’t think was enough for what was going to happen, but it helped them out.

Jin cleared his throat again to draw her attention and she looked to see a small, tense smile play on his lips.

“Please lead the way,” he said as he stepped aside with a flourish of the hand.

YN rolled her eyes at that but walked past him towards the stairs nonetheless. Before she went up she turned to stare at the others.

“Sit here and relax. Everything is fine. Just eat, sleep, entertain yourselves. Everything but running your mouth to someone not here or messing with anymore magic. Got it?” she said.

They all nodded, and after she made sure to glare at each of them she continued up the stairs. She stopped when she reached her room and motioned him in before following after and closing the door. With a flick of her hand the room was soundproof, something necessary since she knew they’d attempt to ease drop.

By the time she’d done that Jin sat on her bed and faced her, eyes flickering here and there on occasion as he took in the room. There was a hum that she knew was meant to be approval of her decorating choices and then silence.

For several minutes they stayed like that too. Both staring and neither speaking a single word to the other. The only change being the tension and anger festering as each second ticked by.

“You sure know how to hide,” Jin said after who knows how long.

YN scoffed. “As if you actually looked.”

That was strike one.

Jin made a sound that sounded like a laugh but was much too humorless to be considered one.

“Going to pretend like you didn’t have Taehyung help hide you darlin’? A tracker demon who’s bound to his word helped you and you want to act as if I had it easy? As if I could force him without him being punished for breaking that? Or worse die for breaking it? And here I thought he was your friend.”

His words felt like a dagger to the heart and that made YN pissed, but she also knew he wasn’t wrong. He could’ve forced Taehyung to tell him and knowing Taehyung he probably wanted to tell him, but it put his life on the line if he did. And even if she had only meant to make a dig at Jin, acting like she hadn’t risked her friend’s life wasn’t okay.

“There were other ways,” she mumbled.

“And you don’t think I exhausted all of those? Tried all I could? You keep acting like you didn’t have demons and witches by your side to ensure I didn’t find you. That I didn’t even stumble upon you by chance. Like I should have at that party you went to, but something blocked me from getting five miles within it until you left. Then I was left knowing you’d been there, but not being able to find you.”

It was YN’s turn to laugh at him and she reveled in how upset it made him.

“Let’s not pretend like you’ve been looking for me all this time, Jin. We both know that you were so preoccupied that you didn’t notice at first. And I know you, you don’t exert that much energy for a lost cause. Why would you when you’d gain no-”

Strike two.

Before she could finish the word Jin was up in her face, pressing her against the door. His eyes flickered and she could tell he struggled to hold himself together, which ended the moment she smirked at him, seemingly unphased by his mood.

“You know damn well that’s not how I operate. You keep trying to use actions from when you first met me as excuses. Habits and traits that dissipated or altered over time. And even things you sure as hell didn’t have problems before. You want to sit here and throw everything back at me as if I was the one who somehow drove you away. As if I didn’t put effort into every waking moment of us. As if I wasn’t fucking invested in you often times more than you were in me. As if I’m the one who left! That was you, YN. Not me. You didn’t give me the chance. You didn’t talk to me. You just fucking distanced yourself and vanished, never once looking back or even lowering the protections to ensure that I could find you. This is on you,” he shouted.

Though there was a clear shift in YN, something close to guilt, it didn’t stop her from boiling over. She felt upset and wronged by his words.

“Me? I’m the one who this is on? You want to fucking pretend that there wasn’t a change in you? That there wasn’t something off? That you weren’t hiding something from me. This isn’t on me Seokjin. I don’t care what grand delusions you created for yourself while I was gone, but surely you’re not so fucking far gone that you don’t remember what happened before hand. How you fucked up and failed to fix it. How I had to hear about your shitty actions and waning attention from accidental eavesdropping and other demons who loved to let me know how useless I was. How I was on my way out. As if I didn’t fucking know that. As if I hadn’t fucking caught you before that.

“You didn’t care, Seokjin. And you cannot and will not stand here and lie to my face because things didn’t go the way you wanted. Because life didn’t go the way you wanted to. Because you didn’t get to live in a world where you got me and anyone fucking else that you wanted.”

By the time she finished her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her heartbeat erratically and her body vibrated from how worked up she’d gotten.

It was strike three.

Jin’s expression fell, his anger still clear but on the back burner. He looked hurt - well distraught was a better word. His shoulders sagged and she watched as his eyes glistened, tears highlighting the pain.

“Why do you insist on hurting me so much?” he said.

The words in argument she’d prepared disappeared and for the first time since she sensed him the anger couldn’t keep everything else at bay. YN’s sadness, guilt, frustration, and longing all came up at once. She didn’t know what to say or do, but Jin wasn’t done.

“You know it’s not true,” a voice break made him pause for a moment before he continued. “You know it. You know that nothing they say is true because they’ve tried many times to play that game. To get inside your head and make you think I’ve done things I haven’t. With them, with people you know, with people you don’t. They’ve tried it all. They’ve even tried to do it to me and we learned how to deal with that. Learned they were a bunch of whiny brats who couldn’t get what they wanted so they would fuck with what we had. And you knew damn well that they would turn to shapeshifting to do it, so don’t try that shit with me, YN.

“You know what else you knew? You knew I wasn’t pulling away because I wanted to. We both did it out of stress and what felt like a lack of time. And when it ended for you, you knew why it was still like that for me. Let’s not pretend I didn’t fucking notice the change in that drawer. The box was nowhere near where I left it. So why don’t you admit the real issue here? Admit that you were fucking scared. That you’re still scared. That you have lived your life not thinking about how long it will be and the idea of me wanting to spend eternity with you, the idea of me proposing makes you think about the long life. Even if it’s for a second it makes you realize the true power you hold. Your fate for the rest of who knows how long. And instead of talking to me about it, someone who was days from proposing to you, you ran. Like you’ve done for who knows how long before I even came onto the scene. Admit how you run at the first sign of something permanent!”

When the tears started YN or Jin didn’t know, but the moment they realized both scrambled to rid their faces of them. Though Jin’s hands stopped a moment after the first wipe to help YN wipe hers, which only made the silent crying turn into a full-on sob.

“I’m sorry,” was all she could utter, so she repeated it several times.

Jin didn’t say anything at all, just took a deep breath and leaned down to press his forehead to her. They stayed like that for a while, silence filling the space. Silence, sadness, and relief.

Several minutes later, YN pulled it together and was able to see and breathe normally. She pushed Jin away a bit, which displeased him but whatever he planned to say died on his lips the moment she began talking.

“You’re right. You know you’re right. I know you’re right. Taehyung sure as fuck knew you were right when I demanded that he make it nearly impossible to track me. The only reason he did it is because he owed me and I finally knew what he could do in return. I knew I shouldn’t have as I asked and after he’d done it, but I was sure that it was the right choice. It was the right choice for a while or at least that’s what I deluded myself into thinking until I could get to a place where I didn’t linger on it too long.”

There was a pause and a deep sigh from her, she wanted to stop talking but she needed to keep going and with a squeeze of her hand from Jin she found it in herself to continue.

“I’ve watched my people be slaughtered for who knows how long. Complacency and permanent things ended in them burned, hung, killed in the most horrible ways or stripped of who they were so another could gain their power. No matter how well things go it’s nearly impossible to shake the idea of that happening. Especially when you run with demons. An extra target is on my back for even having made an acquaintance with one from my own people. Things intensify when you fall in love with one. And that all just came to a head.

“I was tired of everyone trying to do something to tear us apart and I did need a break. I was going to talk to you about it, but then I saw the ring and heard a conversation I shouldn’t and all my fear and anger festered. Well fear fueled anger. It wasn’t hard to latch onto the idea of you failing to remember how I felt about permanent things, even if I really wanted it. And for fuck’s sake I wanted it.”

Her voice broke at the last part and she started to tear up again, but Jin put a stop to that with a quickness.

“No more tears, darlin’. You’re killing me with all the crying. You want me to start crying, because I will make myself ugly if you start that shit again,” he said.

That made her laugh, but it was truly short lived.

“I really am sorry. I regret it. I’ve regretted it the entire time,” she whispered.

Jin cupped her face and tilted her head so she would look up at him. He made sure that he smiled wide and that she could see how genuine and filled with love it was.

“I know. And I regret not seeing the signs. But we can move past it right? Of course, there is more to discuss and bonds to rebuild, but it’s something we can both do with time. Just not right now. Right now, I just want to keep you in my arms.”

YN smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Is that so?”

Jin nodded. “You owe me two years’ worth of cuddles.”

“Don't you mean twenty years of cuddles?”

“Damnit, I was trying to let you off the hook, but you know what, forget it. You’re never leaving your bed.”

Just as YN planned to challenge that there was a timid knock on her door and then some spoke.

“YN is everything okay in there? You’ve been gone for a while. He may be more powerful than me but I will hurt him if need be,” Mo said.

Laughter escaped both of them at that and they collected themselves long enough for YN to lower the soundproof barrier and reassure her. Once she heard her walk away her attention went back to Jin, who still smiled down at her like she was the best thing he’d ever seen.

“How about I reassure and explain things to them and then you lock me away in your tower and ravage me?”

Both of Jin’s hands slid down and squeezed her ass before he let go and stepped away.

“Fine.”

With a slap to his arm YN turned on her heel and exited her room. She wore a smile than any other in the twenty years they’d been apart and it made her so happy. He made her so happy.