#i think if there was ever an episode that would would to see a panel by panel recreation of with silco and vander it would be this one

[boinin]

Last minute speculation about the next chapter, which will hopefully leak today. 247 will carry the title "Originality" according to PO2 Scans.

In this chapter, Noa rounds up the Japanese players for a strategy meeting. He finds Igaguri and Kiyora training (calling it now: they're rehearsing malicia foul 💀), while the other seven are in the monitor room checking out the new rankings.

...but there's ten players in BM.

...Kunigami, I'm trying to give your emo ass plot relevance, bear with me.

More likely than not, "Originality" will be Noa glazing Isagi and his MV powered plays, during the strategy meeting. Maybe it'll be the coach throwing Igaguri, Kiyora and Neru a bone at last, with an order to showcase their originality. Because they're unseen talents, that might give BM an edge over PXG.

Go figure. But what the title made my mind jump to was the inverse of originality: imitation.

Kunigami is Noel Noa's mimic, the Wild Card copycat. Although it's hard to get a read on the frigid bastard, it's unlikely he's pleased by this hulking teenager trying to ape his playstyle. He's an egoist himself, after all, if not one in Ego Jinpachi's mould. Besides, the experiment has arguably failed.

Being Noel Noa hasn't worked in Kunigami's favour.

Wild Card improved his physical stats, robbed him of his ability to co-operate on the pitch, and has rendered him next to invisible in Bastard Munchen. Yukimiya and Hiori had more impact in round 3 against Ubers, and the latter barely played five minutes of that match.

I could go on and on, but I already have: here I talk at length about Kunigami's character arc. But in short, in my view, this is the key thematic question of the Neo Egoist League, for both him and Isagi:

"Originality" is one of the qualities needed to adapt and survive. Isagi shows it in spades, and has all but conquered the team for himself. It's about time Kunigami took that advice on board and changed tactic.

But.... let's see. Watch the next chapter be an Isagi-glaze fest—I'll head to Tumblr Live on its deathbed to wipe the egg off my face.

[the-acid-pear]

Seeing your own trans body and identity as your masterpiece is so important

[rinnstars]

imagineee, aquarium dates with rin. LIKE, SEEING JELLYFISHES AND SHARKS AND CUTE TURTLES WITH OUR RINNIE?? perfecto *chefs kiss*. until you encounter a boy who strayed away from his teacher during their fieldtrip, and starts to tag along with you both. he likes rin but nags you so much?? wow, unfair! anyway, that's all, thank you @rinnstars !! mwa mwa !!

( i got this idea from the C-drama "When I Fly Towards You". the aquarium scene in episode 9 where they happened to be babysitters until the boy was brought back to his teacher and classmates. + please make this in the original timeline. highschool sweethearts with rinrin ( 16 or 17 ) >3< )

sea you with me!

aquarium dates with you

itoshi rin x reader: mainly from rin’s pov, fluff, a little bit of crack, not proofread + likes and reblogs are appreciated

notes: HIIII anon!!!! YES OFCCCC<333 fun fact is that i have never been to one but i hope it’s still sort of accurate TT spent my lesson break for this I JUST GOT A LITTLE EXCITED… just a little!!!! <3 dwww i read ur other part of req tooo although its in the bonus section ish !! <333

holding your hand in the midst of the crowd that forms around different section of glasses featuring different sea creature - from translucent-like jellyfish that practically shines underneath the blue shimmering light above it hovering around, from green turtles that floats around slowly serenely right next and in contrast to the shark that seem to bare its teeth to show its glory to the people looking in awe. he thinks hes lovesick when he sees that and glance at the reflection of you and him, so reminiscent of those sea creatures - with you being as ethereal and breath-taking as the jellyfish as you smile and him being the sharks being placed on display in a separate tank right beside yours in contrast the same way he frowns and grimaces and glares at others.

really, he thinks he doesn’t quite fit the atmosphere - filled with other students with their friends cheerily taking pictures of one another in front of each glass panel with their digicam (that’s inside his pocket if you ever ask for it), filled with noisy kids that yelp and tug at their parents shirt as they attempt to navigate the already-crowded area, filled with people that dress picture-perfect and light to match the atmosphere in contrast to his black jacket hiding his school uniform. and again, he is reminded of his own lovesickness - forgoing a lazy after school hang out with you right in his bedroom playing yours and his favourite song whilst eating food from that cafe he knows youre practically addicted to simply because you asked him to, without any pleadings or begging. yet, don’t get him wrong, hes having fun here although not in the traditional sense - he enjoys seeing you point and brighten up when you see a fish that just catches your attention as you skip right to it, he enjoys feeling your hands against his as though made for each other as you tug against it to move to the next section, and most importantly he really does enjoy seeing you enjoy yourself. after all, he knows you deserve especially after exam season - he’s seen you all drained out lying your head on your desk just days ago clearly exhusasted a few hours after insisting you’ll be fine, he’s seen your piles of notes and assignments and even more printed exam papers to redo for your exam that he thinks your table has already become the equivalent of an library, and hes seen you fallen asleep at your desk way later than you should be after his football club with tears stains that he wished to have been there to wipe away, to kiss away, anything to have prevented you from having cried.

and its this point as you two are chatting about life, leaning in closer to you, where that colourful fish that has been staying still seems to have woken up and in its hurry seem to swim desperately to another side that startles the both of you (he wishes to curse that fish for it would have been a scene out of a manga that you always read if he had mustered the courage to kiss you right there and then), leading you to stumble and almost hit someone - and by someone, its apparently a little kid who looks confused and dazed, not even moving as you almost crash right into him.

you look at that little kid and he looks right back at you with his wide eyes - and hes pretty sure it lasts a while more before you apparently decide to play “adopt me” (just like when you and him were both kids on roblox.. but he digress…) and he’s pretty sure he might just have accidentally glared at the kid with the way he tugs at your jacket as he walks behind you as though hiding from him. and of course, hes used to that sight, hes never been great with kids - having scared his little cousin with just his looks at some point that led him to be reprimanded by said cousin’s parents, having been bitten by said little cousin as soon as his parents left almost letting out a ear-shattering scream that would have completely shattered whatever ego was left from that bite mark that lasted weeks, having being thrown a drink at by said cousin another time whilst he was minding his business playing games beside him whilst having to save his switch and end up soaking wet in his home clothes for another hour or so (and he’s sworn off babysitting for his cousin ever since then) (he had to go to blue lock)

but in front of you, he wants a little pride, to impress you, he digresses - tugging at his pocket to offer the little kid in front of you a candy (out of the many he brings to give to you and to snack on himself). and he knows hes successful, letting himself smile slightly in victory as the kid face appears from behind you, cautiously accepting the candy that rin helps to tear away the packet of for him to enjoy. and perhaps he associates that sugary sweet strawberry flavour that bursts in his mouth with the two of you, suddenly turning from the quiet and confused kid you randomly found to a kid who suddenly was open and talkative, all smiles and laughter, holding the both of your hands in his and skipping, pulling you and rin with him.

and now, he finds himself no longer pulled by you, but this random kid - but when he looks at you who’s attention is clearly on the kid, smiling and nodding to whatever things he’s saying, you practically you look like an angel especially with the way the aquarium white and blue lights were illuminating you. and midway of course, he slowly lets go of rin’s hand, leaving him behind almost comically as he holds yours and his bag. and he can practically feel eyes glared at him, and all he wants to do is to run away as he walks behind you and that little kid that he now suddenly feels was against him all along - with the way he tugs and your arm and..!

“.. mhm! ah! wait those are my parents! bye bye!” he says, turning back at you and rin with a bright smile that practically filled your heart with warmth as though he was the sun, waving excitedly at the both of you before he cheerily skips towards his parents who looked confused at where he was, pulling him by the hand worriedly.

and with that, your hands are back to merging with his, and that tint of red on his face from embarrassment changes into a blush across his face that is only highlighted by the lights from having his hands on you, walking about in the sea exhibition. he wonders a little what that kid told you, for you to hold his hands seemingly a little tighter, leaning your head on his shoulder that isn’t completely uncharacteristic but still a little strange as you glance at another exhibition of fishes swimming passionately around the tank as though dancing, brushing his hair aside before leaning in and merging your lips with his that practically makes his heart flutters and pump even faster than it does on the field - and he swears he understands all those mangas you rave about teenage romance and whatnot when youre practically made for him.

bonus:

“… seriously bachira… i don’t think that’s rin…”

“it seriously is! i followed him from that cafe! i’m serious isagi!!”

“with that kind of personality…?”

“hey! keep it down a little he’s about to turn around..?!”

and rin thinks hes going to lose his mind when he turns around after that kiss only to see his isagi and bachira huddled together whispering clearly about him in their respective school uniform, tugging you by your hand to somewhere else as he sees them through the reflective glass of the exhibitions following him and you a little too obviously. but he guesses if its with you, he doesn’t mind it at all.

[genericpuff]

Lore Olympus just pulled off the biggest whiff in webtoon history.

I promised I would choose one of two headlines and of course, this is the one we wound up with. But should we really be surprised? Rachel herself seemed to be telling on herself down to the minutes leading up to the finale, fully confirming to us that yes, she's been writing this comic at the last minute, by the seat of her pants, for ages now.

(that second one was literally posted TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES BEFORE THE COMIC UPDATED.)

Welp, let's get into it. Possibly the last essay I'll ever write about this dumpster fire of a comic (but probably not, let's be real LOL)

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND FASTPASS SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES FINALE AHEAD!

Holy crap, where to even start with this. I knew it was going to be bad. I knew it was going to be rushed. I knew it wasn't ever going to live up to what I had hoped it would be years ago when I was still a diehard fan.

But I didn't think it was going to fall quite this hard. Despite bracing myself for the worst, Rachel has once again let my expectations down through a final display of explosive mediocrity and disappointment.

Yes, the episode is called "You're Welcome", and yes, that instant "ick" you're feeling is the exact same as what we're all feeling. This title plays into the dialogue later, but what a shitty, lowkey mean-spirited title for the series finale.

Now, before we get into the actual episode, the WT ads for this are just... so desperate and misleading.

They are trying SO HARD to hype up something that isn't there, and at the last minute to boot, because Rachel definitely hadn't written any of this ahead of time.

First off, the bit about the gods being in "eternal chaos" of course isn't a stake worth worrying over because Gaia literally does away with Ouranos in the first 5 panels.

Did you really think I was joking about that 5 panels thing?

That's it. That's the death of Ouranos. As mysteriously and quickly as he arrived, he was gone, after Gaia ripped out of him what appeared to be some purple sunny side up - but it's actually, in fact, Apollo.

And that's when we start to get some of the worst dialogue I've ever seen throughout LO. Remember when I said LO's dialogue was like Shenmue 3? Welp, the finale decided to continue that tradition and further fuel the suspicion that this entire thing was written by ChatGPT.

Oh, by the way, that "thank you, ma'am" was Artemis' first and last line of the episode. So once again, just like in Episode 248, we're completely robbed of her reaction to Apollo being a rapist piece of shit and the character development she could have had as a supporting character. The women in this "feminist retelling" really couldn't be more half-baked.

Gaia stumbles upon Persephone, and I'm not even gonna fucking bother showing the panels where Gaia says it's time to "make things right" because they literally don't matter. Why don't they matter? Because Rachel just had to get in one more pointless time skip.

We're shown a sequence of pointless images that I'm not gonna show as I don't want to waste my image limit on them, depicting Hades having a sad day because his small wife isn't with him and oh nooo what could have happened?? Did Persephone finally divorce him ??

Nah, we couldn't possibly have an actually happy ending in this comic. Instead we get a completely pointless phone conversation between Hades and Hecate-

Not only is the grammar particularly bad in this episode, but the actual script-writing is atrocious. We literally did not need this phone conversation to happen because-

-we're cutting BACK TO THE PRESENT THAT WE JUST CUT AWAY FROM FOR A 3 MONTH TIME SKIP. FOR NO REASON BESIDES SHOWING HADES BE SAD OVER SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY ISN'T THAT BIG A DEAL, AS YOU'RE ABOUT TO SEE.

I- I LITERALLY HAVE NO WORDS. I HAVE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS. ALL I CAN HEAR IN MY BRAIN IS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEM GET MUSIC-

-BECAUSE THIS WHOLE THING SUDDENLY SOUNDS LIKE SOME CONTRIVED FETCH QUEST. WHAT DO YOU MEAN HADES AND PERSEPHONE HAVE PROVEN 'TRUE LOVE' IS REAL? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVEN'T USED 'LOVE' AS A FORCE FOR DESTRUCTION?? ARE WE FORGETTING THAT HADES MUTILATED A GUY IN THE NAME OF 'LOVE'? THAT PERSEPHONE LITERALLY INVADED THE HOME OF HADES' CANONICAL FIRST WIFE BECAUSE SHE FELT MILDLY THREATENED BY HER?

This whole concept of "true love" that Rachel is trying to convey feels so juvenile especially for a series that has sold itself as being mature and thought-provoking and progressive.

HAHAHA SO FUNNYYYYYYY why does Rachel write like this. this is, at best, the writing of a 13 year old on fanfiction.net, which I SHOULD KNOW, because I WAS ONE OF THEM. BUT I'M 28 NOW AND RACHEL HAS ANOTHER 10 YEARS ON ME.

Okay, this is the part where I'm CONVINCED Rachel either just mashed this into the episode in the MINUTES leading up to its release, or she used ChatGPT or something. Because NONE of this dialogue makes any sense. Beyond how stilted and lifeless it is (seriously, this dialogue reads like something from Empress Theresa) Gaia is clearly meant to 'replace' Erebus here which I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO EVEN EXPLAIN IS SO FUCKING DUMB, but ALSO what is even Persephone trying to communicate here? "That is true, but it was a deal I was willing to make and ties me to the Underworld. Please don't change me." What? Gaia hasn't even insinuated that she's going to do anything to Persephone, why is Persephone immediately jumping to this conclusion? What does 'changing' her mean? Is she asking Gaia not to force her to sacrifice something (which she never did)? Or is she asking Gaia not to strip her of her Underworld status? Because again, why is that even something Gaia would do?

Maybe this is harsh but I'm pretty sure even Empress Theresa is more coherent than this, what in the flying fuck is Gaia talking about?

"I can just see the potential for conflict! To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres." Like... okay, first of all, that second sentence isn't even a complete sentence, it's a dependent clause left hanging, but also what the fuck does this MEAN. Is she EXCITED for the conflict but then contradicting herself by saying she wants to relieve Persephone of that conflict? Or is she saying she can see the conflict it would cause for Persephone to have to perform duties in both realms and trying to insinuate that she's going to relieve her of those complications?

Here's what I think happened - I think that second 'sentence' wasn't supposed to be a sentence, but the start of the sentence to the next panel-

So with that theory in mind, the sentence becomes, "To relieve you from the burden of the whats, the hows, and wheres, you are to spend three months in the Mortal Realm to do spring and the rest of the year in the Underworld. That seems fair to me."

It's still a very poorly written line of dialogue, but at least with that fix in mind it makes sense. But man, you can really fucking tell this episode was submitted at the last minute because that's a serious syntax error that should NOT have happened in this two-time-Eisner-winning comic.

Errors aside, it's clear that Rachel is following through on having Persephone spend only three months in the Mortal Realm, rather than the traditional six. There ARE other translations that have that number closer to four, but those four are the time she spends in the UNDERWORLD, meaning she's always spending either equal or MORE time in the Mortal Realm. Of course, Rachel doesn't want her self-insert small wife power fantasy to actually have to be separated from Hades despite this being a retelling of The Abduction of Persephone, so instead of her spending three months in the Underworld, she's now spending them in the Mortal Realm, literally doubling the MINIMUM amount of time (four months) she was originally meant to reside in the Underworld.

But oh no, apparently those three months are STILL NOT SHORT ENOUGH FOR PERSEPHONE-

Of course, Rachel "Retcon" Smythe had to have her cake and eat it too. I always worried something like this was a possibility, but I never thought she would actually prove me right - not only is Persephone only separated from Hades for three months out of the year, but actually he can visit her any time he wants to, so really, they're not separating at all.

I think Rachel needs to look up "reunion" in the dictionary, because if you can visit each other any time, then that means the 'reunions' are no longer special occasions. This completely removes any semblance of depth or meaning from all of the storytelling leading up to this, all of it with the expectation that this was a retelling of the Abduction of Persephone, because that's what Rachel said it was going to be. At this point it's safe to say that Rachel has zero business attempting to "retell" mythological stories, because she doesn't even seem to grasp the concept of why they were written the way they were to begin with. Either that, or she really just doesn't care, and the only reason for making LO a Greek myth comic at all was to propel her career.

This also brings me back to those promotional ads, the other one that posed the question, "Will sacrifice be enough to bring these two back together?"

This is stating the obvious, but I need to make it perfectly clear - Hades and Persephone have never sacrificed a single thing. The only thing they could POSSIBLY quantify as a "sacrifice" is "not being tied at the hip for a few hours", because even Persephone going on the equivalent of a work trip next door is apparently enough to make Hades sad as we saw in the 3 month time skip panels. Why is Hades so sad and lonely if he can visit her any time? Why is he acting like he hasn't seen her in years when he's actually on his way to reunite with her? Why is Hecate calling to ask him if he's "okay" as if he JUST got separated from her, but actually he's about to literally go to the Mortal Realm to reunite with her?

Hades hasn't 'sacrificed' a damn thing, neither has Persephone. They've both always gotten exactly what they wanted, even at the cost of breaking the story's own established rules. Their 'sacrifice' is equivalent to what billionaires think are 'sacrifices' when they can't buy another yacht or go on that third overseas vacation for the month.

And even outside of this episode, when have these two ever sacrificed anything?

I've tried so hard to think of what sacrifices have been made by the characters within LO, and I genuinely can only think of one - and that was when Artemis chose to go to the Mortal Realm with Persephone instead of staying with her family in Olympus. That was a genuine, selfless sacrifice, made by a character who has been shelved in favor of focusing on the self-centered pink and blue airheads.

Being forced to be apart for a couple days to do the equivalent of a day job and whining about it the whole time is not a 'sacrifice'. Neither of these characters have ever sacrificed anything, they just feel like sacrifices because they have the integrity and empathy of soggy cardboard.

sigh Anyways, we're back in the present and Hades and Persephone immediately decide they're gonna have sex because ofc, and then we get this gem of a panel-

MMMMMM

FUNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JOKE

For some reason it's just a common thing for people to just be in Hades' home, and they can't seem to get any privacy as a result of this, but I digress. Turns out they still need to have that coronation for Persephone.

There is... so much wrong in these three panels.

First, to state the immediate issues - why the fuck are they mentioning Apollo at Persephone's coronation? Like first of all, no shit Apollo isn't gonna be there, but also, if this is supposed to be an event for and about Persephone becoming Queen of the Underworld, then why in the WORLD is Apollo even being mentioned? This is supposed to be a "feminist retelling" where the victims are empowered and heal from their trauma, but LO once again can't try to show any sort of positive growth for the victims without bringing up the assaulters and giving them screen time. It just goes to show that Rachel's idea of "healing" is purely rooted in the revenge, and not the growth. It's a very high schooler approach to this subject, hellbent on showcasing how all the meanies from the past are losers now and life just sucked for them forever, but inadvertently proving its own point that the victims haven't and can't move on because the narrative is spending so much time on caring what's going on with the abusers. It's the "I don't care! Look at how little I care! I'll prove it to you by putting in the effort of showing you how little I care!" approach, it doesn't really feel like moving on.

It's not about how Persephone and his other victims could have grown and healed, no, Rachel always needs to highlight just how much worse the bullies and haters and abusers are doing to make the victims seem like they've healed by comparison. Don't get me wrong, I can understand wanting to showcase the downfall of a character like Apollo, but this just... isn't the right context for that? Because it's once again taking attention away from the victim to focus on the abuser. It's once again spending screentime on the voices of the oppressors rather than the oppressed.

And speaking of, what the fuck is this punishment even? I knew Rachel wasn't gonna be able to resolve this plotline properly, she never had the capability to, but ... community service? Are you fucking for real? What is this even a punishment for even? Was this EXCLUSIVELY the SA, or does this ALSO include his attempts to overthrow Zeus by poisoning him, nearly killing Daphne, Eris, Eros and Psyche, trapping Eros and Psyche in an enchanted basement, and framing his father's 'death' on his half-sister? Because if so, how in the world is anyone content with community service? He hasn't even been turned into a mortal, HE'S STILL A GOD, so what's to stop him from going "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDERMAN" and trying something else? How is this a reasonable resolution in ANY context?

This is why I talked at length about what an issue it was to hide what Apollo really admitted to. Because now we really don't know what exactly he confessed to, and thus we can never really see the point of views of the victims outside of just Persephone - and we still don't even get Persephone's, because she just walks away from him and then he gets eaten by Ouranos and next we see of him is him doing community service! Once again, any emotional development that could be given to Persephone and the other victims is stripped away to make room for the point of views of the oppressive men. In this, the two-time-Eisner-winning "feminist comic" that is LO.

And that brings us to the "where are they now" segment. Yes, as we all feared, there's a "where are they now" segment, and it's as rushed and underwhelming as we ought to have expected it to be.

There is just... so much to unpack here, and yes, all of it is delivered in the dumbest way possible that only raises more questions than answers.

So Rhea and Metis are just back and we're not gonna talk about the implications of them being alive again?

Dionysus is a 3 month year old in the body of a teenager / young adult, and his mom is just alive now because Hades conveniently got his hands on more ambrosia and brought her back to life offscreen? But somehow Triptomelus and Hedone are still child-sized relative to their ages?

How did they 'heal Zeus'? And why is he so content with losing his power as King and Apollo being sentenced to community service after making an attempt on his life? How does he feel about the letter that Hera gave him? Did he even read it?

Where the fuck is Hebe in all of this? Is she okay? Do people still think it was her who put Zeus in a coma? Or did Apollo confess to that, too?

You're telling me Hera and Echo are just in a relationship now despite the fact that Hera is literally racist towards nymphs and there is ZERO reason for them to have a relationship in the comic beyond the fans making gratuitous headcanons out of it? How is Rachel, a bisexual woman, so bad at writing actual lesbian relationships and giving them the same amount of attention as the heterocis ones without shoving them into the background as props for insincere queer rep? And what about Hera herself? How did she overcome her role as the Goddess of Marriage to finally divorce Zeus?

"Ares is still a dog!" Haha! Ares is still a Persephone simp! Happy end!

Why is Eros just standing there smiling at the camera struggling to be seen past Hedone who's just floating right in front of him? You're telling me there wasn't a better place to put her out of that entire panel?

"Hades and Thanatos have been making more time for each other. Sometimes they even have a conversation." I'm sorry, is this supposed to be funny? The man abused Thanatos for years, treated him as just a lowly employee when he was literally his adopted son, and now you're trying to play it off as a joke that they're "making more time for each other"? What the fuck is this?

TGOEM disbanded? Why? What about the women who were genuinely a part of it?

Also, Artemis and Selene are just good friends now because reasons? Because they're both affiliated with the moon, I guess? Why is Selene even in this comic-

"They are still looking for Kassandra". Who? And why? This feels like such a last minute addition to acknowledge a character that the comic spent WEEKS foreshadowing only to have her finally appear as a pointless McGuffin, but it's so last minute that it does nothing. I'm assuming it's Eros and Psyche looking for her, but like... why can't they find her? They're gods, tracking down one mortal shouldn't be that difficult LOL ???

And also, where the fuck is Leto?? You're telling me she was an accessory - maybe manipulating Apollo, maybe not - but we don't see what happened to her? Is she just back to being a social outcast then? jesus christ this comic isn't finished-

Kassandra is where the "where are they now" sequence ends, and we're treated to one final horribly written dialogue scene between Hades and Persephone, where they tell each other how much they love each other in a desperate attempt to convince the audience that this is, in fact, a romance.

There's this thing in romances called chemistry, and if you're good at writing it, you shouldn't have to write dialogue like this. You should be able to see how much the characters love each other through their actions, through their small behaviors around each other. It's not always about what they say out loud, it's about what they don't have to say, because when two people really share that close of a bond based on love and trust and chemistry, words often aren't necessary.

Hades and Persephone do not have that chemistry. It has been apparent for years now, but this final exchange really is the nail in the coffin. There are no microexpressions or subtle emotions, no subtlety in their word choice, and nothing unique setting their voices apart. It's all just "wow thank you for being such a wonderful amazing partner, you are amazing and I love you" word salad that has to do all the heavy lifting for the completely non-existent chemistry that's been at its absolute worst throughout this entire season.

And worst of all, despite this story trying so hard to be focused around Persephone, around her story, her trauma and her healing, her voice... it's still all just about Hades. In the end, she's thanking Hades, and forcing him to say "you're welcome". All of it is trying so hard to convince us that Hades has been a positive addition to her life, that she 'owes' so much to him, but we've obviously seen plenty throughout the comic that begs to differ. And even if he were a better person than he is, it still doesn't change the fact that once again, the men are being held up above the women, with the women being grateful to the men who choose them. LO can try its hardest to convince people that it's feminist, but it is, at best, reinforcing the very same structures of the patriarchal system that it claims to despise and rebel against.

We do get one line from Hades acknowledging Persephone's part in the relationship-

-and it falls so fucking flat because it's still about him and what she does for him, and because nothing about their relationship was built on any sort of organic chemistry. There was a lot more chemistry back in S1, but it was still predicated on Hades lusting after a vulnerable 19 year old girl.

Yep, and that's it. That's the end.

Except it isn't because Rachel wanted to try and be smart by including an 'epilogue' that's really just stretching the episode out pointlessly for another few panels. And of course, we had to get another time skip, just a final dose of salt in the wound, this time to years ahead when we inevitably had to reconnect with Persephone and Hades in the future after Melinoe was born.

To recap, Melinoe doesn't remember... because Hades had Morpheus erase her memories.

This plotline has really started to give me the ick because it actually feels very familiar. Bear with me here, because I'm gonna go on a bit of a tangent about my own original work, but it's because I wrote a plotline exactly like this years ago.

There's this... turning point, in Time Gate: Reaper, when the main character Uzuki is kidnapped by a Reaper (see: undead) who wants to experiment on her in the hopes that he can somehow gain her abilities to bond her soul with others (which later allows her to literally possess people after she becomes a Reaper herself). Mitsuhiro, the male deuteragonist who kickstarts the plot by telling Uzuki she's got a limited amount of time left to live (which he knows thanks to his magical death timers that mark themselves on his skin), feels an immense amount of guilt after finding out she was kidnapped by the Reapers (at this point she's been gone for three months), as they were originally after him; he worries that she was made a target simply due to him associating himself with her, and vows to rescue her.

With the help of some other spunky teenagers and anime trope characters, Mitsuhiro does eventually rescue Uzuki - but for the three months she had been gone, she had been tortured, abused, and experimented on, causing her mind to split and for her to lose any sense of awareness of who Mitsuhiro or her other friends were. She was no longer herself after the hell she had been through.

Mitsuhiro's solution to this is to have Springlock - another Reaper with motivations that are not yet clear to the cast - erase her memory. This is not a light decision that comes without consequences - for the remaining duration of the story, Uzuki is plagued by night terrors and panic attacks, unable to really remember what happened to her aside from whatever brief flashbacks her brain recalls in its haze of memory loss. She is traumatized, both physically and mentally. She has lost three months of her life and memories, and doesn't know how to explain why she's covered in scars that are still healing, why she's missing organs, why she's now blind in one eye, and why the sound of scraping metal and ticking clocks gives her panic attacks. Mitsuhiro has convinced her friends that she's suffering from memory loss due to trauma, but only he knows the truth that he forcefully took her memories away from her, without her consent. This was not the right choice to make. It was not noble of him, it was not a grand gesture of love, he made a decision on her behalf without her consent that has now resulted in her becoming a nervous wreck. Sure, she still would have had PTSD if she remembered what happened, but at least she would know why and could then seek adequate help. Without those memories, she has nowhere to begin to heal. And so we see the consequences of this throughout [AFTERBIRTH] and even the upcoming Thread of Fate. It is a long-term problem that is not going to be solved overnight, especially not with Mitsuhiro withholding information from her.

Reading about Melinoe having dreams about her experiences trapped in Tartarus with Kronos ... it felt familiar enough that I had to talk about why the insinuations of this are so fucked up. I know there are people who are gonna handwave it away as "she's just a kid", "these are gods so what does it matter", etc. but ... it just feels like such an oversight to have Hades effectively erase her memory of her trauma and then hint at them still being present in her mind through her dreams. She did not ask for that. And the fact that she's now dreaming about it all does not bode well. But we're supposed to think Hades made the correct choice, regardless.

But none of this is effectively expanded on or explained, because we get one final scene of Melinoe and Demeter visiting Persephone, who has just given birth to... Makaria?

So it turns out Persephone and Hades are just able to have biological children now. Don't know why, but of course they both look exactly like Hades.

What I was really confused by though is the fact that it's Makaria and not Brimos. Do you remember Brimos? The child that was foreshadowed in Hades' original fantasy dream sequence about his future children about Persephone?

Either Rachel completely forgot about him, or she saw all the criticism over the fact that Brimos isn't a confirmed child of Hades and Persephone (rather, an epithet that can apply to basically any Underworld god including Persephone and Hades) and that her "research" was dependent on a book she read when she was 13 and decided to axe that. But she went to the effort of establishing that all the dreams Hades had were , in fact, canon visions of the future, so good job Rachel, you created yet another plothole on top of the hundreds of others.

And that's where the series ends, on a final nuclear-family-photo of Persephone, Hades, Melinoe, and Makaria. Of course, Dionysus and Thanatos aren't present in this shot because this is Lore Olympus and only biological children count /hj

Why Rachel couldn't move the "the end" portion to THIS part, I don't know, but I'm also expecting way too much of the person who finished this 20 minutes before it was due.

So that's it. Six years and that's what we get. I didn't expect much, but I was still incredibly disappointed, as were many others who walked away from this dazed and confused. Maybe it's all the "haters" deserve at this point. But what of the fans? While many of them are celebrating this ending at best and tolerating it at worst, I can't help but think of the fans of this comic who hung on for so long in the hopes it would "pay off", just for it to go out as gloriously as a wet fart.

As for me, I have such mixed feelings about Lore Olympus ending, but none of them pertain to the comic itself. Most of what I'll miss from this comic isn't the comic itself, but the people who have made reading it every week so fun, the artists and writers who have enriched the content with their own interpretations of what could have been, and the experiences of being part of such an amazing community made up of people who are as long-term-obsessed about this piece of media as I am.

I get people who ask me a lot if it's "worth it" to be so engrossed in the LO slander, who assume that I'm going to "regret" ever being a part of it all... but from where I'm standing right now, I couldn't ask for a better view.

Even if I didn't love every minute of it, everything I have here I owe to this comic. This stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing, pile of shit comic.

[blackbird-brewster]

Highlights from Catherine Tate's Q&A Panel at Armageddon Expo 2024 (NZ) :

[I took notes best I could during the panel but some may be paraphrased]

Q: What's your favourite Doctor Who alien?

CT: The wonderful Ood!

Q: Who's your favourite Doctor? (Crowd gasps in anticipation)

CT: Well, I get asked this a lot, and obviously it's David (Tennant). I don't know what number he is, he keeps coming back. But definitely, David. Although, someone recently pointed out that I was technically the first ever female Doctor. So you know what? Me, I'm my favourite Doctor.

Q: What's your favourite episode you were in of Doctor Who?

CT:The Runaway Bride, because that's where it all began.

Q: What's a favourite memory of working with David Tennant on Doctor Who?

CT: The scene in 'Partners in Crime', the one with the Adipose, there's the scene where Donna and the Doctor see each other from across a room. But they're both behind glass and they have the whole mime scene with the windows. Well, I remember it was about 3am when we were filming that - - Russel really likes to film at night if the story is taking place at night - so it was 3am, and I said to the director 'Uh, right here it just says Donna Mimes' and he said 'Yeah do whatever'.

So that whole scene was ad-lib during shooting and David and I were so in sync with it, we did that first take and the director said cut and print!

Q: How emotional were you filming your final scene in Journey's End?

CT: So, we didn't always film in order. And I'm not really a sentimental person, but I will say I thought Donna's ending was absolutely perfect. When she meets the Doctor she was always yelling at the world, and she was so different than what she was by the end, she had so much growth with the Doctor and she changed so much in her time with him, but then, she forgets the him and all those memories. And that final scene, what really got me was how he says 'Donna, I'm off' and she's just, I think she's on the phone, and she just waves dismissively. She doesn't know him anymore. Russell, the way he ties things together, he's brilliant, that man.

Q: What was it like working with Bernard (Cribbins)?

CT: Oh, Bernard. God, I love him. He was so funny and talented. He always had stories and voices and sound effects. He loved making people laugh. But we had a gag where every single time I called him I'd say (Donna Voice) 'GRANDAD!'

He'd say, "Who is this?"

"It's Catherine."

"Catherine who?"

"Catherine Tate"

"Never heard of her."

We did this every time I called him and I loved it.

Q: Is there anything annoying about working with David Tennant?

CT: No, absolutely not. He's perfect. He's the best person to work with. I will say though, I was annoying him a lot. When we did the 60th Anniversary specials, our trailers looked exactly the same and I never knew where my trailer was. I'd walk into his all the time!

Sometimes I'd walk in and see his shoes in the trailer and instead of thinking 'Oops, wrong trailer', my brain went 'What's he gone and left his shoes in my trailer for?'

It got so bad, sometimes I'd walk up the stairs and from inside I'd hear 'NO.'

Q: Was it weird coming back to play Donna after all these years? Especially when it was along side David Tennant?

CT: It was a bit weird, more in the 'Oh I hope i still know how to do this' way than anything. But I did think it would be hilarious if David and I arrived on set and every take we just did completely wrong voices. Just thought it'd be hilarious for him to go (in an airy upper-crust British accent) 'Ohhhh, hellloooo. I'm the Doctor'

Q: If you could take any prop from set, what would you take?

CT: Ohhhh, I'd have very large pockets and see what I could fit. But mostly I think it'd be a sonic screwdriver. It's gotta be a sonic screwdriver, doesn't it? It's small and mobile... Easy to steal. Plus, it'd fetch a great price on Ebay!

Q: Best show you've ever worked on?

CT: The Office, they paid me tons of money.

Q: My mum loves David Tennant, is there something you can say to dissuade her?

CT: Hm, something to convince her he's not.... Oh, he doesn't believe in astrology! I'll say 'It's Mercury Retrograde' and he'll say 'NO, NO, NO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT'.

Other Highlights:

As soon as she came out, she saw the stage had no steps to the audience, so she stayed on mic and went the long way round to go into the audience and interview people, trying to find who had traveled the furthest to be here. She was sorely disappointed everyone was just from Aotearoa 🤣

Donna Lines She Performed:

"Oi Spaceman! You're not mating with me sunshine!" (Crowd went wild for that)

"Binary. Binary. Binary." (🥺)

She did some of her characters: Lauren Cooper mostly, but also wished someone Happy birthday as Nan

[somerandomdudelmao]

Okay okay hear me out.

We all know that Donnie was devastated to discover what happened to his brothers. But in light of the most recent update, new meaning has been added to the panels of him watching their deaths' play out.

Look at him here. At first glance, it simply seemed that Donnie was grieving the loss of his brothers. "We lost. They're all gone. My dumb dumb brothers sacrificed themselves. I'm alone."

BUT after today's update, we realize that NOOO he's not just regretting that they're gone, he's BLAMING HIMSELF. Not only is he sad, he feels GUILT.

Looking back, his face clearly says, "I could have stopped it. I could have saved them. I failed. This is my fault."

"If I had been with you, the outcome might have been better." What hurts is that Don is RIGHT. He WAS the keystone of the resistance. Everything does indeed fall apart soon after he's gone (hence the episode name). It's a cruel, ironic twist on Survivor's Guilt-- because in that timeline he didn't survive. He was gone. And he blames himself for being gone.

We often talk about Future Leo's guilt over the apocalypse, but Future Donnie's guilt is not to be taken lightly. It actually makes a LOT of sense for him to blame himself for his family's deaths. We know that all dear Donton has ever wanted is validation for his tech, and his tech is his way of expressing to his family that he loves them. Ergo, all Donnie wants is to make tech to protect his family to Show Them That He Loves Them.

This is probably why he opened up to Raph, all but admitting his guilt over the less-than-perfect security system: it was like saying he and his love failed to protect them for long.

The character analysis deepens~

Here (and throughout all of The Little Things, really) we see him taking steps to make sure his brothers (and the resistance) will be taken care of. Delegating everything, even The Little Things (ah HA) all to ensure that all he does for them (to prove his love, of course) continues to happen.

Even here, when Donnie has been hanging onto life for so long that the Kraang are shocked he's still alive, Donnie wants to help. He could not "sit here and listen to them get killed," because he is Donatello, and he loves his family. Cass, you said it yourself: Violence is his love language. Rushing into battle, decimating the Kraang, saving his family. Because he may be dying, he may be clinging to life by a few threads, but he is Hamato Donatello and he loves his family.

But in the end, that's what he does. In the end, he DOES sit there and watch them get killed. Watches with his very own tech. One. By. One. They. Die. And deep down, Donnie thinks that if he would have been there, he could have found a way to make a generator NOT from Raph's heart. That he could have supported Mikey enough to keep him from disintegrating. That he could have protected Leo in those final, self sacrificial moments.

Donatello blames himself for not being there for his brothers. He blames himself for his tech not being flawless enough. He blames himself for dying on them.

Which is why he won't rest until they're ALL back home.

He is Mr. "I Can Fix This", so of COURSE he's going to fix this.

And afterwards, when his family is SAFE and HOME and TOGETHER he's going to apologize for "letting them die" and he's FINALLY going to get some SENSE knocked into his OWN dumb dumb brain (probably by Dr. Delicate Touch). His brothers love him because he's DONNIE. I cannot WAIT for the moment when they make him realize that they didn't miss his tech, they missed HIM. He's gonna realize just how utterly loved he is and I'm so excited for you, Cass, to show us that moment.

(I apologize; this got out of hand quickly, but the analysis has been bouncing around my head all day and I NEEDED to share it)

OH THIS IS ONE GREAT ANALYSIS RIGHT HERE

[piracytheorist]

Twilight Eyes Project: "Secure a Wife" (part 2)

First part here

Naturally, "Twilight eyes" stay on during his side mission with Franky. Then he bursts into Camilla's party, wounded and disoriented enough to mess up his introduction.

And thus... slightly different expressions from manga to anime.

In the manga, it's full-on Twilight eyes. Brow going downward to the center, focused and narrowed eyes. The anime has the first two, though as of focused eyes... they make use of animation to show he's so shaken he can't focus his eyes on one place. His slip-up does look funnier when he's trying to present himself as Very Put Together™ as he does in the manga, but I think it's funny either way. Also, I appreciate the small extra whump bone from the anime.

Continuing on the humorous aspect, he switches all the way to reassuring Loid eyes as he tells everyone how absolutely, definitely normal his situation is. No biggie. Just a head flesh wound. He sleeps those right off.

"Loid eyes" stay on as he continues his ploy. Nothing to see here, please continue, are you having fun, my dear wife whom I definitely did not meet just a couple days ago?

Those eyes keep up until Camilla tries to embarrass Yor in front of everyone with details about her "past job"... and here goes.

Loid eyes. He will show everyone how proud he is of his wife.

But then, slowly, his eyes don't look so strained anymore...

... until they're outright sad eyes.

The direct proof (along with the short flashback) that what Twilight says there is the truth for him: he doesn't judge Yor, instead, he honestly supports and praises her for her dedication and her strength.

And when he finishes his praise, he looks towards the others... and the audience doesn't get to see his eyes.

Yor does.

And the truth she sees in his eyes is enough to not only bring tears to her eyes, but to also stay with her and give her strength multiple chapters/episodes later.

This smile isn't the one he actually gave her. But it's the one she remembers.

(Wrong angle in the anime, but we can forgive that)

They leave Camilla's party, get attacked by the smuggling ring, Twilight knocks a few of them out and tells Yor to run for it, Twilight eyes on as he keeps himself alert for any possible attack.

Yor voices her worries about the well-being of his "patients"... and what else can he do but put on the Loid eyes. Which I'm actually sure weren't necessary with her, lol.

Unstoppable force (Yor believing everything she sees and hears) meets immovable object (Twilight suspecting everything and everyone).

Subtle Twilight eyes as he starts to question... well, his own judgment, at this point 😆

They get attacked, and Yor kicks a guy into another dimension before he can hurt Loid. And!

I would just really like to know what his thought process here was. This look is on the verge between "Loid eyes" and "real eyes". But this next panel/shot feels like it's closer to "real eyes".

He was actually amused by how far she kicked that guy, huh 😆

They kick a few more guys' asses, then Yor drops the "why don't we get married" question. Twilight is, understandably, shocked and confused. It's actually something he'd planned for, but it came unexpectedly and just so freely and willingly from Yor.

When his mind picks up from the shock, he puts on the thought process.

And we get investigative eyes.

Twilight accepts, gives her the best marriage proposal to ever grace a screen, starts with Loid voice for "Even in sickness, or in sadness," and switches to Twilight voice for "No matter what hardships await us, let us be there for each other."

Twilight eyes as he finishes his vows,

And... this, as he thinks "Until my mission do us part"

I want to make it clear that I completely doubt he'd already grown any feelings for Yor already. Probably the only thing he'd feel for her at that point was that he sympathized with her mental fortitude and willingness to sacrifice herself in order to protect and support someone she cared about. The pleasant face he has at the end could be merely his expression of relief that the mission was going smoothly.

But then, isn't that what becomes the foundation of the feelings he'll grow later? The relief that she is the kind of person who will protect the peace he fights so hard to maintain himself? A relief that will grow strong enough to lead him into revealing true parts of himself to her?

There's definitely a lot to take away just from the way Twilight's eyes are drawn, in any case.

(anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

[pathologicalreid]

Margot you hate Maeve? :(

Whyyy? She‘s so pretty and has a nice voice and at the end of the day I support Womens rights and wrongs so hating her do keeping her ex-fiancé as a secret is not a solid reason to me! (lowkey joking but still whyyy?

long winded answer to this question below the cut

i do hate maeve! but i love beth riesgraf (if you ever want to see her in another show she’s in leverage her character’s name is parker and the episodes are in full on youtube)

maeve is a mary sue! she’s brought into the show and presented to viewers as a “perfect match” for spencer. we’re given a few phone calls periodically from their 8 months together and it’s just not enough to convince me as an audience member that spencer was in love with her. she’s even referred to as the love of his life which just gets further ruined as the show goes on (re: in season 15 when spencer implies he’s been in love with jj for 15 years).

they have no chemistry! and if you’re thinking “but margot you only see them talking on the phone” and to that i would say exactly! i have dms with mutuals with more chemistry than reid and maeve ever had. i’m observing their relationship with what i’m given as a viewer, and spencer had more chemistry with austin (52 pickup), dylan (hero worship), and dorian (rock creek park) than he did with any of his canon love interests (i’m adding max to the conversation)

i’m not convinced she was very good at her job 😭 b-12 and magnesium for chronic migraines is a fucking crazy recommendation from a geneticist because we see spencer going to all of these specialists and anyone who has ever had a chronic illness will tell you that a blood panel like that would’ve been the first thing they looked at!!! i know they weren’t technically doctor-patient, but there’s still some wonky power dynamic that i don’t like!

one of my biggest quarrels is that she had a stalker. she was dating an fbi agent who was part of this renowned unit. she never asked for help. in fact she refused to let him help even after he offered to bring the case to the team!!!! i had a stalker (years ago dw) and i absolutely would’ve accepted any help offered to me at the time!

maybe if they had given us more of them before the events of zugzwang she could have grown on me! if they had included their conversation about the blindfold so that we could see it again when diane brought it up we could’ve connected those dots and felt more involved in their relationship.

tl;dr, i don’t hate maeve as a person but i do hate her as a character, if that makes sense

[emeryhiro]

My thoughts on The Book Of Carol Episode 1

-Spoiler-free edition-

I know that some information about what was discussed during the panel has already been posted online, but I personally will try my best to refrain from posting about it since that was what was requested before the episode showing, and the panel.

Setting the tone for the rest of season 2

Firstly, Episode 1 immediately starts the season with huge emotional implications, primarily focusing on Carol and her current mindset. I truly believe that if they keep at this pace, we will have Daryl and Carol on an even field within the spinoff by the end of season 2.

Over the seasons of the main show, we got the chance to see so many layers of Carol, but since the screen time on that show had to be shared with so many other characters, we never got to go as far into Carol's mindset as we wanted to. But after watching this episode, I now know beyond a doubt that Melissa has the talent and Carol has the depth to be a brilliant leading character. She can fill an entire episode with her storyline, and there would not be a dull moment; on the contrary, during the showing, I constantly had chills because of the absolute power of Melissa's performance.

Storyline split ratio

As Norman has already said, The Book Of Carol will not be an exact 50/50 split between Daryl and Carol. There will naturally be slightly more of a focus on Carol, which I found was already so evident in Episode 1. The heavier focus on Carol was done beautifully, and like I said earlier Melissa fulfilled the role of a leading character so perfectly that I couldn't help but be a little disappointed whenever I saw that a scene had changed away from her.

Carol's mindset

Carol's mindset and emotional state had me in a chokehold this episode; I don't think there was a single scene between Carol & Ash that didn't bring me to tears or leave me with chills. As Melissa mentioned in her behind-the-scenes interview for Daryl Dixon episode 6, Carol's journey is about her mindset and how she needs to know that her friend is okay.

This theme is already heavily touched on in episode one and delivered in a way that brought me to tears repeatedly. They utilised a few vital flashbacks and some moments where we find Carol alone, going through some powerful emotional moments that opened old wounds and addressed certain things that were never fully resolved on the main show.

One of the most heartbreaking moments we see of Carol alone revolves around a song that Carol sings along with (to herself); even though the song itself has very simple lyrics, I immediately thought that it fully explains why Carol is prepared to do anything to get Daryl back.

Even before watching the episode, we knew that Carol would do anything for the ones she loves, but this current situation with Daryl truly asks more from her than anything she has ever done before. Still, there is no hesitation within her about how many lines she is willing to cross to find him again.

In all this Carol also showed some immense growth, especially in how she handled guilt and loss compared to her actions and mindset in season 10.

Daryl's change

This is mentioned in the new season's synopsis, so I no longer classify it as a spoiler. The synopsis stated that "Daryl struggles with his decision to stay in France" which appeared to be very true to me in episode 1.

I saw a colder, more aggressive, and mentally exhausted side to Daryl, which is evident in how he handles all his conversations with people from the Nest and how there seems to always be an slight undertone of resentment in his words that he is trying to hide.

Additionally, while watching season 1 of Daryl Dixon, I noticed that the longer Daryl is away from Carol, the more he regresses into his trauma. It's like all progress is being lost, and he's slowly turning back to his old ways, not standing up for himself and hiding in Merl's shadow.

Additional quick takeaways:

Ash is an angel and must be protected

Genet looked scary and really creeped me out at one point, which was really thrilling and showed the possibility of a really interesting villain for the season 2 arc

It appears that (according to Norman) we'll be getting more screen time with some of the other characters, like Sylvie and Losang

Some of the nest members' scenes evoked a sense of impending doom and eerieness, which suggests that there may be more to the Nest than meets the eye, with perhaps something sinister hiding within it.

This episode had gorgeous cinematography, which I personally liked more than season 1's, and I found that it felt richer too.

Episode 1 of TBOC is now, by far, my favourite episode from any of the spinoffs. It shows that when a show about Daryl and Carol is true to its characters, it becomes a natural success and a beautiful piece of the story.

Melissa's voice and influence are clear in how Carol's story is told in this episode. And Melissa herself seemed very proud of the work that had been done for season 2.

Norman teased one of his favourite upcoming scenes, which is of Daryl and Carol bickering like an old married couple, and Melissa teased about her favourite location where they slept and woke up surrounded by horses (I'm just imagining Norman waking up and immediately being terrified)

Melissa was absolutely glowing in person and exceeded any and every expectation that I may have had of her

Conclusion and final thoughts

If episode one is a good example on which to base my opinion, then I'd say that season 2 looks very promising, with the very likely possibility of surpassing the main series in ranking as my favourite show.

It has planted seeds to potentially resolve many of Caryl/Daryl's storylines that were left unresolved in the main series, in a way that's true to who Carol and Daryl are and how even we, as viewers, envisioned it should be.

And in Melissa's words from the panel:

"12 years of The Walking Dead, there was a lot unsaid... we picked some of the core issues and built on that"

All I gotta say to wrap this up is get excited!! The future of Caryl is looking bright!

~~~~

I have also written a full spoiler version of my thoughts, which goes into a further in-depth analysis of specific moments and their significance. However, I will post that once season 2, episode 1, is officially released in September.

[justwhisperingfantasies]

Girl At The Rockshow Part 3

Characters: Jensen Ackles (xreader). Aunt Patty (o.c)  Jared Padalecki. Genevieve Padalecki.

Warnings: Language, Fluff,  Talk about losing loved ones. LMK If I forgot any.

Summary: Getting dragged to that live show might have been the best thing that ever happened to you. Now you get to spend the day with Jensen as he shows you around Austin. 

Word count: 6,009 words

A/N: When you get to the question part. Some of his are true (found them via interviews and panels.) some are just for story purposes. I tried to do (insert answer) for reader answers, but it just kept taking me out of the story. Hope ya'll enjoy 💗

Part 1

Part 2

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{} Reader’s P.O.V {}

“I get to drive Baby?!” You said standing there. 

“Yes ma’am,” He said 

“Are you sure? What would Dean say?”  

He chuckled. “ I think he would make an exception for you.” He shook the keys at you. “ You better take them before I change my mind.” You smiled, took the keys, and hopped in. He walked around and got into the passenger seat. 

“So what if I wreck? What if I break her?” He opened his mouth to rebuttal but you cut him off. “ What if I hit a cow and total it?” 

He laughed. “If you see a cow the break is right.” He grabbed your leg and put your foot on the pedal. “There. I think you’re capable of not wrecking and she doesn’t break easy.” You turned the key and Baby hummed to life. “ There’s a bar under the seat to move it up.” He helped you scoot the seat into the right position. “Don’t worry darlin’ you got this.” He slapped your knee for encouragement then wrapped his hand around your thigh. You put the car in reverse and look behind you to make sure you can start backing up. “ Go out the way we came in and turn right on the main road. Who would you rather have as your navigator me or Siri?”

“You, but you have to sing the directions.” He chuckled.  

You made it to the stop sign at the main road turning right when you were clear. You hit the gas pedal a little too hard and the tires squealed for a second. Your cheeks got warm. “Sorry.”

He laughed. “Easy there turbo. I thought you were trying not to break her.” 

“I'm sure I’m not the first to squeal her tires.” 

“Fair enough.” He grinned. “You’re gonna go straight through 4 lights. At the 5th one turn left.”  You gave him a nervous look. “Don’t worry I’ll remind you before you get there.” He turned the radio up and started belting out the lyrics to Back in Black making you smile as you went through the first light. The second one was red as you came up on it. You were more careful with the gas pedal this time as you started to go. You made it to the 3rd light. Red again. 

“Do you intentionally pick the streets with the most red lights on them?”

He chuckled. “Trust me, I feel the same way you do.” Back in Black faded out and The Dance by Garth Brooks starts to play. You turn the volume up a smidge and start singing along. “ You know Garth Brooks?!?” He said shocked. 

“Yes. I like country music too Ackles.”  

He grabbed his chest like he was in pain. “My heart!!’” He smiled. 

You smiled back at him. His thumb started to stroke your leg as you both sang along. The light finally turned green and you started to go.”So Mr. Ackles.” He looked at you with raised eyebrows. “ Why acting?” you said in your best reporter voice. 

“Oh, didn’t know I had an interview today,” He smirked, “ Well, My father is an actor. He played in a few Dallas episodes, and 5 episodes of Walker Texas Ranger, and he did some supporting roles in movies. I used to watch him study the script and help him memorize his lines. I was amazed. How he could flip a switch and just be another person. I did some modeling and commercials when I was young. Got bullied for it so I took a break, and got really into sports. The plan was to go to Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist. Ya know help out my fellow jocks,” he chuckled. “ I loved sports. Still do, but it just wasn’t the same. My real passion was acting. So my sophomore year I decided I didn't care what everyone thought. I took a theater class.” You made it to the 5th light ”Left at this light sweetheart” you got in the turn lane and waited. “After this light straight through 2 lights, over the bridge, then go under the train tracks.”

“2 Lights over water under the train tracks. Got it.  

 He smiled and continued his story. “ After I graduated I moved to L.A to pursue it fully. Started auctioning and landed a couple of guest spots. Then my big break was on Days Of Our Lives.” You looked over at him with wide eyes. He put his hand up “Shush I learned a lot on that set. I did Dark Angel, Dawson’s Creek, and Smallville. Got to do a movie with my dad in 2005 right before Supernatural.” He turned back to you “Why Med school?”

The light turned green and you rolled forward as the traffic started to go. “Well, My father was a surgeon so it was determined before I was even born that I was to follow in his footsteps.” You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye. You had his undivided attention “I wasn’t all in until one night when I was 14 my dad and I were coming home from a baseball game. There was a bad crash and He didn’t hesitate he rushed in and started triaging people and helping them while I dialed 911. It was amazing. I even got to help out after the operator told me help was on the way. After watching him there wasn’t a doubt in my mind. I wanted to be just like him, a hero, saving people.”

 “ Your pop sounds like quite a guy” 

“ Oh, He was.” The smile left his face. “You should have seen him on the day I got my acceptance letter from Columbia. He was so proud. Same premed program he went through ya know.” You made it through both lights green, you started on the bridge. “ The 3rd week into premed he was killed by a drunk driver.”

“What year was that?” 

“August 23rd, 2005.”

“Yeah, 2 weeks before. So after that, I immersed myself in school. Nothing else mattered” You started under the train tracks

“And now I feel like a complete jackass.”

“Don’t feel that way, hun. You didn't know.” you put your hand on top of his. He turned his hand over and laced his fingers through yours. “ But directions might be nice.”

“Shit sorry, straight 2 lights. Right at the 3rd.” He looked at you 

You could feel his question in the air and the silence was getting overwhelming. “You can ask why I didn't go through with it..” He looked at you with furrowed brows. “ Yea like you weren't thinking it?”

“Maybe. So what happened?” 

You got to the 2nd light before you hit a red light. “ So, I got my bachelor’s degree, passed the MCATS, Got through medical school, and during my internship, I talked my mom into moving to New York. We got closer than ever.” you took a deep breath, “ My second year of residency she got sick and didn’t make it.” The light turned green and you started to go. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer. I lost all motivation for medicine and everything that went along with it.”

“I can take over if you wanna pull over.”

“Thank you, but I’m ok,” you said, turning at the 3rd light. He looked over at you with questioning eyes. “Seriously I’m ok.” 

“Watch out for pedestrians up here. Straight through 4 stop signs. Left at the light. Then straight through one light. Right at the second.” He was quiet for a minute. “I'm sorry about your folks, sweetheart.”

“Thank you.” 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?”

“Um, no way. This might be the only time I get to drive this car.”

“Not if I can help it.” He winked at you, and you smiled. You made it past the pedestrian stop signs “ What was your mama like?” 

“She was my best friend. After she moved to New York I swear she decreased in age. More like my sister than my mom. She was crazy.” You said with a smile on your face.” you stopped at the first stop sign and went through it. “You’ll probably like this one. One of the biggest Cowboy fans you’d ever meet.”

“Oh yeah?” 

You nodded.  “She always told my dad she was gonna leave him for Troy Aikman.” He chuckled. “ Everyone tells me I look just like her. Their wedding photo is on my lock screen. You handed him your phone as you stopped at the second stop sign then continued. 

“Aw. You do look just like her.” You smiled. “ They are beautiful”

“Thank you.” You smiled at him as you stopped for the third stop sign. He was so cute. Not just in a physical way. He was genuine and such a nice guy. You thought to yourself, You just hoped this wasn’t too good to be true. 

“What?”

“Oh, Nothing.” You said as you went through the intersection. 

He shook his head and chuckled. “So you ever think about going back into medicine?”

Stopping at the 3 cars deep at the 4th stop sign you sighed. “ I don’t know. Mac mentioned it a couple of times. I’m not gonna lie, I have thought about it. It would be nice for my job to mean something to someone, but if I were going to I would become a Physician assistant maybe. To become a surgeon I’d have to finish the resident years, then go through a surgical internship then a lot of testing for board certifications and licensing. I’m too old for all that. If I did I would just want to jump in and do it.” You looked at him as you stopped at the crosswalk. He was smiling at you now. “What?”

“You’re cute when you ramble.”

“Not rambling, thinking out loud,” you said in a mocking tone. He laughed.  You went through the intersection, You made it through the 3 lights green as you both sang along with the music. 

“Don’t hate me. Straight through 7 red lights.” He said wrinkling his face. 

“SEVEN?!” 

“Yes.”

“Oh my freaking gosh. I’m going to die of starvation Jensen.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make a deal and bring you back.” You let out a loud dramatic sign. He chuckled. You made it through 4 lights green. “See that wasn’t so bad.”

“I'm sorry I couldn’t hear you over the growls of my empty ass stomach.” He laughed and slightly threw his head back. You made it to the last light before you got stopped again. 

“Almost there, I promise. Tell me. Who's your favorite country singer of all time?’

“Randy Travis” you didn't even have to think about it. 

“Really?”

“Absolutely. His voice is incredible!”  You said as the light turned green and traffic started to go.”You?”

“Garth Brooks.”

“I see that. I saw him live once with Mac.”

“Oh yeah? Me too, not with Mac thou.”

“I’m sure she’d be interested if you want me to set it up.” He squinted at you “I’m just sayin.” 

He rolled his eyes. “I think you and Padalecki would get along. You both got some dumb jokes.” you chuckled. “Right at the next road and it's the first building on the right. Uh, how are you at parallel parking?” You squinted at him now, turned right, and parked with ease. You turned to him and stuck your tongue with a wrinkled nose. He laughed. 

 “This is Paperboy.” He said with excitement in his voice. “One of my favorite breakfast/ brunch places in Austin.” You turned the car off and got out. He met you at his side of the front of the Impala. He held his arm out. You took his hand and wrapped his arms around your shoulders while wrapping your around his waist. He grinned. The building was cute, a white building with a funky brown lattice. A small patio by the front door and the second floor was an open patio as well. You stopped at the hostess stand and he asked for an upper patio table. “Of course Mr. Ackles.” The hostess grabbed 2 menus. “Will Mr Padalecki be joining you two today?”

“Nope. Just the two of us.”

“Alright, follow me.” Once you got to the stairs he unwrapped his arm and gestured for you to go first. You followed her up the stairs to the patio. She sat you at a shaded table in the back corner. You pick your chair and Jensen sits across from you.  “Patty Sue will be right with you. 

“Thank you,” you both said as you started to look over the menu. 

“So, what looks good?”  You looked up at him up and down raising an eyebrow. He chuckled as his cheeks got slightly pink. “On the menu darlin’.”

“Well, I'm just so hungry everything looks good.”

“Aww you poor little thing.”  He said in a playful tone making you laugh.

“Hello, my name is Patty Sue. Oh Jensen, How are you dear?”

“Hi, Aunt Patty. I’m good. How’s your day going?” 

“Ya know this place is busy as always.” 

“Aunt Patty this is (y/n). She’s new here in Austin and I got the honor of showing her around today.”

“Hey there sugar.” you shook her hand. “What have ya’ll been up to?

“We just got done canoeing at Barton.”

“Aw, how fun, Are you enjoying Austin so far?”

“It has some good attractions.” you winked at Jensen and he smiled his bedazzling smile again. 

“Well. Ya’ll probably worked up an appetite, Wanna start with some drinks?”

“Just sweet tea for me please,” you said 

“Make it two.”

“I’ll be right back guys.”

“Thank you, Aunt Patty,” he said as she turned to walk away. He sat his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hands.”So, what’s next (y/n)?” 

“I don’t know. You said you had a mini round trip planned.” 

He chuckled. “No, for you. Job, car, Boyfriend?” He raised his eyebrow at the last word. And your cheeks got warm. 

“Well remember how I said Mac has mentioned medicine a couple of times?” He nodded. “The first time we talked about it I told her what I told you. About being a P.A. The second time she brought it up she just so happened to run into Erica. Erica and I interned at the same hospital. And can you believe they have an opening in their office?”

“Let me guess for a Physician assistant.”

“Oh my gosh, it’s like your psychic.” He smirked. 

“Here’s your drinks my dears.” Patty said sitting down your teas.” What can I get ya to eat?” Jensen gestured for you to go first. 

“Can I get the steak and egg sandwich with a side of cheesy hashbrowns, please?”

“You sure can honey, Jay you want your usual?”

“Please” 

“Alright, I’ll get that in for ya.”

“Thank you,” you both said again. And you smiled. 

“So, you gonna call Erica about it?” he asked taking a drink.

“Like I said I’ve thought about it and it would be nice to feel like I’m doing something that matters.” you took a drink “Mmm this sweet tea is amazing.”

“Just wait till you have the food.” He smiled. Then he readjusted his hand.” So, I’m not pushing, but I think you should.”

“I know. I just don’t want my mama to feel like I betrayed her. Since ya know medicine failed her.”

“Sweetheart. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting your mama, but I don’t think she would feel betrayed at all.”

“That’s what Mac said.”

“See 2 against 1,” he said and you smiled. “You could give it a try and if your heart is not there try something else.”

“You make some good points, Ackles.”

“I usually do,”  he said in a smartass tone, making you laugh.

“So, What lies ahead for the famous Jensen Ackles, Big movie? Starring in another TV show? Supernatural reboot?” you used your reporter voice again. You grinned and took another drink.

“Stop.” He said smiling. “ I would actually love to do a Supernatural reboot, but I can’t confirm nor deny if I’m ever going to get to. I’m gotta fly to Vancouver here in a couple of days and shoot this episode for Tracker. Should only take a couple of weeks max. Waiting on a call from Kripke about shooting the final season of The Boys. And Countdown should start later this year. We’ll see,”

“How exciting.” again in the reporter's voice. 

“Would you stop?” he grinned. 

“Ok, I’m done.”

“Here we are, guys.” Patty came back carrying your food. “Everything looks good?” You both nod. “Anything else I can get for ya?’

“No, This looks great. Thank you.” Jensen said as he started mixing the egg and steak tips on his plate. 

“No problem Dear. Yell if ya’ll need anything ok?”

“Will do” you said as she walked away. “Well that looks delicious,” you say looking at his plate. He chuckles stabbing a piece of steak with his fork and reaches it over to you. “Mmm,” 

“I am going tomorrow morning to pick up a car from the dealership,” you said after swallowing and picking up your sandwich. 

He swallowed his food. “So what was next?” He smiled his bedazzling smile. Your cheeks got hot and you could feel them turning red. You took a bite of your sandwich pointed to your full mouth and shrugged. He laughed “ Ya gotta swallow eventually.” You cough almost choking as your mind takes his comment in a dirty way. He smiled. “Perv.”  you raised your eyebrows and dropped them with smirking lips. The food was amazing though. You would definitely be coming back here. 

“ More sweet tea?” Patty asked walking over. 

You swallowed your bite. “Yes please.” Jensen nodded with his mouth full. 

“So her question you’ll answer,” he said after swallowing his bite. 

“I’m sorry i just have to get something in my stomach after stopping at all those red lights.” 

He laughed “So dramatic.” You smiled and continued eating. Patty was back in a flash with 2 more teas. As you finish your food you debate in your head about the P.A job and Jensen’s boyfriend question popped up a couple of times. Was he crazy? You haven’t even known each other for 24 hours yet? But it’s not like he was asking to be your boyfriend more like a Are you open to the thought. Were you open to the thought? “Penny for your thoughts darlin’,”

His voice snapped you out of your head. “I’m gonna call Erica about that job tomorrow.”

“Yeah?” He smiled. “ You sure?”

“Yes. I’ll take your advice if I don’t love it, I’ll try something else.”

“Good.”

 You both finished eating and Patty came to clear your plates. “Anything else for you guys?”

“Nope. I am stuffed.”

“No Aunt Patty just the check please,” Jensen said.

“Ackles?” He turned around as soon as he heard his name. 

“Oh my god! It’s Jared Padalecki!!” And let out a squeal. Jensen stood up to hug his friend. “ And Genevieve Padalecki?!” He squealed again. “(y/n) he played Sam Winchest.. oh wait never mind.”

You rolled your eyes. “And I’m the dramatic one?!” You stood up and stuck your hand out. “I’m (y/n)”

Jared laughed and took your hand. “I’m Jared. This is my wife Genevieve.” 

“You can call me Gen.” She said as you shook hands. 

“So… Whatcha ya’ll up to?” Jared asked Jensen with raised eyebrows and a huge grin. 

“ You’ll have to excuse my friend,” Jensen said to you and turned to Jared. “ (y/n) Just moved here. I met her last night at the radio company show. I’m showing her around Austin.

“So, like a date?” Jared asked. Jensen rolled his eyes. 

“Jared quit,” Gen elbowed his stomach. 

“We just finished, but do you guys wanna sit down?” you asked them.

“No, we don’t wanna impose,” Jared said.

“No imposition, Give me the dirt Padalecki.” You said and Jensen glared at you. You raised your eyebrows and shrugged. “What? You said we’d get along.”

“Really?! “ Jared turned to Jensen.

“Yeah, you both tell dumb jokes. I think that is what I said.” Jensen admitted. 

“Are you sure?” Gen asked. 

“Sit down, Genevieve,” Jensen said. You all sat down. Jensen looked at you and raised his eyebrows and licked his lips.” Jared, get this shit. (y/n) has never seen Supernatural.” Your lips went in a hard straight line as you looked at him with a blank stare. He poked the tip of his tongue out at you.

“Are you kidding?’ Jared turned to you. “How have you never seen Supernatural?”

“Oh I don’t know, just not my thing I guess” You took a drink. Jared opened his mouth to say mouth, but stopped when you put your finger up “However, Gilmore Girl though. So good. Dean Forester seems so much better than Dean Winchester.” You smirked at Jensen with a wrinkled nose. Gen and Jared laughed.

“I like her Ackles.” 

Patty brought your check back. “ Well look what the cat drug in.” Jared and Gen got up to hug Patty. “ How are you two? How are the babies?”

“We are all good Aunt Patty,” Jared said as he squeezed her. “Hey. We’re gonna let ya’ll get back to it. See you later Jensen.” Jensen got up and hugged Jared. You got up to shake his hand, but before you knew it you were in his embrace. You squeezed him back. “It was really good to meet you. I hope we see you again.”  

Gen stuck her hand out. “Again sorry about him. It was really nice to meet you though.” She said with a smile. 

“You guys too.” You said with a big grin. They turned and started walking to their table. You sat back down. 

Patty laid your check in the middle of the table “ I better get his food going. We all know how he eats.” Jensen chuckled. “ Ya’ll have fun and (y/n) don’t be a stranger.” you smiled at her. 

 “Your friend is a goober,” you said to Jensen after Patty walked away.

“I’m sorry have you met your friends?” You both laughed, 

You snatched the check folder. Jensen’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “Uh I think the fuck not!” he put his hand out. You slowly shook your head with a wide grin. He took a deep breath closing his eyes and loudly sighed. He raised his hand then dropped it again palm up. “Now!”

“Or what?” you bit your bottom lip

His eyebrows raised. And he brought his first to his chin resting it on his thumb and closed his eyes. “(y/n)” He said in a deep growl.

“Jensen” You lowered your voice as much as you could. He smiled for a split second then his face was hard again.

He quickly slid to the chair beside you and put his hand on your knee. You manage to keep your composure. “Last chance.” Your heart starts racing as his hand slides up to your mid-thigh. “3.” He tightened his grip. You bit your lip fighting the urge to laugh. “2” he squeezed even harder. He opened his mouth to say 1 but you couldn't hold in the laugh anymore. He releases his grip and then squeezes again.  “Alright, you win,” you said while laughing. He started to squeeze again “Take it.”  He took the folder with his free hand and sat it on the table. He gave you a wide grin and started tickling your leg. You grab his hand and lean towards him, pushing it back into his lap. You swallowed hard when you looked up into his mossy eyes, his lips just inches away from yours. Your heart almost burst out of your chest when his soft, full, perfect lips met yours. The kiss was short and sweet. He ended the kiss and nuzzled your nose with his. You whined. “Public place, there babe.” you nodded and tried to catch your breath. He kissed the tip of your nose as you pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He sat straight up picking up the folder. You lean back in your chair. Your cheeks warmed as you thought about how you’d be kissing him if you weren’t in a public place.

Putting his wallet away he asked, “You ready for that road trip?” His voice snaps you back to reality again.

“Restroom first.” 

“Downstairs by the front doors.” He said.” I gotta make a phone call and say bye to Jared. Meet me at the front door?” he said taking his phone out of his pocket. 

“Sounds good Ackles.” You grabbed your purse, and as you passed behind him you stopped, you felt his muscles tighten as you put your hands on his shoulders and leaned down to his ear.  “Don’t forget to tell him what an awesome driver I am,” you whispered. Walking away you hear him chuckle and then talk into his phone.

 ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

{} Jensen’s P.O.V {}

He couldn’t stop himself from watching her walk away as he finished his call. Damn, what I would do, He shook his head trying to get the naughty images out of his mind. He stood up and slid his phone back into his pocket as he started for the stairs. 

“Oh my god, it’s Jensen Ackles,” Jared said and started fanning himself as Jensen walked up to his table. 

Jensen dropped his jaw. “Where?!” Jared and Gen laughed, 

“So?” Jared asked acting giddy. 

“So?” Jensen repeated. Jared raised his eyebrows. Jensen grinned.“ I’ll call you later.”

“You better.” They bumped fists. “Love you.”

“Love you more,” Jensen said walking away. 

As he walked down the stairs, he couldn't stop thinking about her. He tripped and almost fell. Come on, Jensen. He stopped once he got to the doors and waited for her. He opened the door open for an elderly couple. “Thank you, young man.” The older woman said to him.

“Not a problem ma’am,” he told her as she walked through. He looked over and there she was. Watching him with the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. After the couple passed through he gestured for her to come through. “My Lady.”

“Good sir,” She said as she walked through. She pulled the keys out of her pocket and held them out for him. He opened her car door and shut it after she got in. Walking around to the driver's side he smirked as he noticed her scoot more toward the middle. Her cheeks pinkened as she realized she was caught. So freaking cute he thought. 

He got in and started up the Impala. “Here, connect to this thing.” He disconnected the Bluetooth adapter from his phone. “I want to hear this epic playlist you were telling me about.”

She smirked, “I don’t know if I’d use the word epic, but it’s got some good tunes.” She said pulling her phone out. He watched her. Darlin’ everything about you is epic he thought to himself. 

“Yeah Yeah. Play me some music, cowgirl.” She laughed as Friends in Low Places started to play, He wrapped his arm around her. He watched from the corner of his eye as she snuggled up to him and started to sing. Oh sweetheart what are you doing to me? 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

{} Reader's P.O.V {}

He started singing along as he pulled out. “Jensen, I have a question. “

“Shoot.”

“Can you this one time please.” a puzzled expression came over his face “ Not take the route with the most red lights and stop signs?” 

“I’ll think about it.” He laughed as he turned onto I-35

You made it through about 30 minutes of halfway driving before you had to do something.. “Alright Ackles, you got courage for a round of 21 questions?” You asked raising your eyebrows. 

He chuckled. “ I think I’m up for it” 

 “Ok let's start easy. Favorite color?  

“Blue. Favorite season?” He asked

“Fall. Favorite Movie?”  

“Saving Private Ryan. What's your favorite color?” 

“Pretty Sure there's a rule against repeats.” 

With a smile, he says“Oh I didn’t realize we are in a championship match where the rules matter.”  

You rolled your eyes. “Smartass.”  

“You know it kettle.” he chuckled. 

 You smiled.  “It's Teal or blue. Favorite holiday?”

“Christmas. You get one superpower. What is it?” 

You thought for a second. “ can I pick 2?”

“You get 1.” He smiled. 

You sighed. “Fine. Probably the ability to fly. 

“What was the other one?”

“Invisibility.” He raised his eyebrows. “Oh come, how fun would that be. I would just fuck with people all day.”

He laughed “Of course you would.” 

 “Who was your favorite character to play.” He opened his mouth “Besides Dean.”  

“Hmm,” he thought. “Ben. Soldier boy from the boys. He was really fun. First celebrity crush?”

 “Tom Cruise. Favorite horror movie.”  

He thought for a second. “ The Shining. Dream vacation?

“Uh. Either Italy or Bora Bora.” He smiled. “First concert?”  

“Michael Jackson 1984. Do you believe in ghosts?”

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no.” You shrugged. “ Favorite Food?  

“Steak.” He thought for a second. “The best gift you've ever been given?” 

“My locket.” 

“Go on ” 

“ Mac gave it to me a couple of Christmases ago. It has a picture of my mom on one side and my dad on the other.” He looked at your neck. “ Favorite radio company song to sing?” 

“City grown Willow. What's your favorite radio company song?” 

You smirked. “City grown Willow or Let Me Be.”

He smiled. “ I gotta know why.”

 “City grown willow, the lyrics and melody with your voice is mwah.” You gestured a Chef kiss. He chuckled..” Let Me Be, because of the fun you had last night while singing it.” 

“So you were watching me?” He said in a hitch-pitched voice. 

“Kinda hard not to you.” He smiled and his cheeks turned pink. 

 “Favorite music genre?” 

“Country. Favorite TV show?

 “Friends. If you could look into a crystal ball and see everything about your future,  would you do it?

He thought for a second. “I don’t think I would.’

“Interesting.”

“Ok Freud” You giggled. “Do you have any siblings?”

“Nope. I'm an only child.”

He smiled. “That makes sense.”

“Excuse me?”

“Calm down.” He chuckled. “Only children tend to be more independent.”

“Oh. I thought we were going to the spoiled brat route.”

“Eh, not yet.” He joked. 

You laughed, “What's the first thing you notice about me?”

“ You're hair. It looked really soft and I wanted to touch it. You?”

 “Of course, I'm gonna say you're eyes. Have you seen them suckers?” He laughed. “ When did you have your first kiss?”

He sighed. “Preschool.” 

“Oh, so you started young huh?”

He laughed and then his face went serious.  “Are you looking for a relationship?” 

“Really Jensen?” 

“I'm just playing the game sweetheart.” He grinned slowing down on the exit onto I-35 Frontage Rd.

“Maybe.” You raised an eyebrow at him. 

“A maybe Isn't a no.”

 “Birthday?” you asked. 

“March 1st.  Favorite subject in school?”

“Science. Yours?”

“Look who's reusing questions now.” He chuckled. “Algebra. Favorite food?”

“Loaded nachos. Craziest place you've had sex?” 

He cleared his throat. “Spicing things up are we?” 

“I'm just playin' the game sweetheart”

He chuckled “Bar bathroom.” He slowed down for the red light ahead. When the light turned green he turned right onto Wonder World Dr. “ And no it wasn't a random hook-up.” 

“I wasn't judging.”

“Sure.” He smiled. “ you?” 

“Playground” He looked at you with raised eyebrows. “It was after dark, Nobody else was there.”

You turned to him. “ Have you ever cheated?”

He sighed. “Once. I was 19. I was young and stupid. It hasn’t happened since and It never will again.” At least he was honest and it did seem like he was remorseful. 

He looked at you. “Dealbreaker?” 

You thought for a second. “Not necessarily.” you cleared your throat “Everyone has done things they aren’t proud of. The thing that matters is you learn from them.” 

“Ok, Freud.” you smiled, “ Trust me I did.” 

You two stayed silent as Turn The Page faded and  Sounds Of Someday started to play “Oh my god, this band is so good.” Jensen chuckled. 

“I saw them live last night, They’re ok.” You said as you shrugged your shoulders. He threw his head back and laughed. 

“Is there ever gonna come a day where you don’t give me shit?” he asked.

“Eh, probably not,” you confessed. He laughed again. “What number are we on?”

“16 I think and I do believe it’s my turn.” you gestured with your hand for him to go. “It’s the zombie apocalypse is here. You get 3 people for your team. Who is it?”

You chuckled. “ Well, I have heard about these 2 brothers that are really good with that stuff.” He chuckled. “ Oh, Rambo. He’d fuck some shit up.”

“Is that your 3?” He asked slowing down for another red light. 

“Yeah, I think so. Worse case I have some eye candy before I die.” He rolled his eyes and smiled. 

“So, 17 would you rather be 15 minutes late or 1 hour early?”

“Definitely early. I hate being late.” He shook his head. “When was your first kiss?” 

“About an hour ago. ”You burst out laughing as he looked at you in shock with wide eyes. “I'm just kidding. 4th grade.”

“Not funny.” He declared as he started to go after the light finally turned green. He went straight onto route 12.

“I’d have to disagree”

“So. Mr. Ackles, He looked at you. “Are you looking for a relationship?” you raised your eyebrows. 

“I wasn’t, but ya never know.” He winked at you making you grin.  

“Biggest turn-off?” He asked. 

“Rudeness.. I can not stand rude people.” With an approving expression, he nodded You sighed loudly. as he slowed for another red light making him laugh.

“This is like the third red light, diva.” He joked.

“Of this drive, The 136th one of the day though.”  Your rebuttal made him laugh  “Have you ever sent nudes?” 

He chuckled nervously  “Yes. You?”

“Yes.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Interesting…”  you scrunched your lips as your cheeks turned pink. He smiled 

“Who would you haunt if you were a ghost?”

“Either Jared or Misha. Yeah, I see your point that would be fun.” he chuckled as he slowed down for the red light. Your cheeks got hot as he kissed your cheek. “Almost there darlin’.” he turned left onto County Line Rd 1492 ‘ What smell do you hate that doesn’t seem to bother other people?” 

“Patchouli.” you scrunched your nose. “I can’t stand that smell.” he chuckled. 

“Now, don’t take this the wrong way, Ackles.” 

“Um ok?”

“I’m not asking, never mind. I’ll ask something else.”.

He smiled. “Just ask the question.” He said turning left onto Winn Valley Dr. 

“Fine. Would you ever get married again?”  His face went blank. “See it’s weird we can move on.” 

“Honestly. It depends.” he said as he drove through the open-ended cul-de-sac.“I’m not opposed to it, but I couldn’t just going to jump into it. There would be a lot of thought put into it.” He looked at you. “Does that make any sense?” he nervously chuckled. 

“Yes.” You look over to see a sign. “Ranch Madrone?” You knitted your brows at him.

“You’ll see.” He continued down the road. “Last question. How are you with heights?” 

You looked at him with a puzzled look. “Really? That's your last question?” He pointed to a say that read Wimberley Zipline Adventures. Your heart started pounding “We are zip-lining now?!”

“You up for it cowgirl?” He said with a grin

“Oh hell yeah!!.”

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[thankskenpenders]

I know Ken is notorious for his, um, odd creation habits, but even I’m shocked that it’s been over 10 years of work and THIS is all he has to show for it. I would maybe be a bit more lenient if each new page was hyper detailed or something like that, but as you pointed out in your review, he reused the same images across plenty of panels and so many of his backgrounds are just stock photos. The only way I can reconcile this to myself is wondering if maybe a bunch of that time was eaten up by extensive rewrites to his plans for the whole series, but even then, I’ll be even more shocked if the next volume ever comes out.

So I didn't get into this in the review because I really just wanted to focus on the book and the weird copyright situation that led to its creation, not Ken's personal life or his other endeavors, but he did make something else in the time since The Lara-Su Chronicles' announcement 13 years ago. That being his independent film: The Republic. Because after he left Archie Ken figured he'd move on to a career in Hollywood.

I think this was originally supposed to be a TV show, the pilot episode for which was released in 2010, but then in 2016 he decided to retool it as a commentary on Trump's immigration policies. I think the movie is still somehow not out despite being shot a few years ago, but he put out a trailer here:

Yes, the trailer really opens with 30 seconds of footage of Trump from CNN. I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards etc. etc.

At least the cast is clearly trying their best in spite of the material. It's not Birdemic bad. And yes, that's Sean Young. THE Sean Young! Rachael from Blade Runner! I guess Ken's really eager to flex the fact that he's friends with a couple lower-level Hollywood producers.

Anyway, I think he's still looking for a distributor for this. It's truly a mystery why no one was eager to pick this up.

Ken's also said some stuff about how he waited years to put out TLSC: Beginnings as part of the 4D chess game he's playing with the copyright stuff. He has a general idea of what he can do based on the terms of the settlement, but he's eager to push it as far as he can. He tested the waters with things like a few small pieces of TLSC merch and an NFT announcement, to see if Sega would take legal action. In particular, the announcement that he was going to sell an NFT of Shade from Sonic Chronicles was a stunt designed to see if Sega would challenge his claim that Shade is legally the same character as Julie-Su. Since they haven't gone after him, and now it's been a few years, he's taking that as evidence that Sega isn't actively exercising those copyrights and isn't going to fight for this stuff.

There's some logic here. Part of the reason Dan DeCarlo lost his battle with Archie over the rights to Josie and the Pussycats is that he didn't take action against them sooner for making merch and whatnot. It's "use it or lose it" with copyrights. But it mostly just comes off as an excuse. If it was purely a waiting game and he had all this extra time, why did he need to recycle art so much in Beginnings? Why is he only releasing 30 new pages of material instead of a whole graphic novel? Where's the app? Why didn't he spellcheck the damn book?

[pruneunfair]

This panel perfectly captures how disgusting of a human being Sovieshu is.

What I think it first gets right is how peaceful and happy it looks. Out of context you'd think this is just a happy couple with their newborn baby on a picnic, until you learn that baby is actually his mistresses child and his wife is being obligated to take care of it. It manipulates anyone who doesn't know the truth that everyone is happy.

It also perfectly captures what he really wanted Rashta for, as an unwilling surrogate who'd push out a baby for him and Navier to raise as their own, complelty ignoring the fact that Navier wouldn't want to raise another woman's child and that Rashta wouldn't easily hand over her baby for her to never see again because let's just say in a universe where Navier never remarried and Rashta never went to trial do you really think she would easily just step down from the throne and never see her child again while her husband's ex wife is passed off as the mother? When this would be the second time her child is taken away from her forever? Of course she wouldn't, it'd probably would end with her having a full blown episode and there's no way Sovieshu was going to take care of her afterwords. At best he was just gonna send her to a supervised villa and cut her off from Glorym as not to risk his new family.

Because in Sovieshus mind, a perfect world for him is one where Rashta just let's him take her child and Navier just accepts it like nothing ever happened. While I may hate remarried empress for its misuse of slavery, demonizing women who don't bow down to Navier, and brushing the shitty actions of characters under the rug because they like Navier, there is some credit where credit is due for these panels because beforehand Sovieshu was acting all sorry for himself and you could almost feel bad until panels like this show up and then your hit with the realization that he's not a changed man at all, he's just upset his stupid plan to have his cake and eat it too failed miserably. It perfectly captures the essence of an abuser who only used their victims as means to an end to satisfy one goal.

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

Okay first of all, I am so excited for the Shauna/Nat conflict in Season 3. I have been waiting ever since they showed Shauna writing in that journal at the end of Season 2.

And on this note of tensions over leadership in Season 3, I want to put this out there: I don’t think we have explored the possibility of Shauna being the Antler Queen that we saw in the pilot episode enough. I’m thinking about the writers at the Yellowjackets Vulture Fest panel emphasizing Shauna’s importance to the story and how she serves as the unofficial main character as many of the show’s main events are written with her point of view in mind.

I’m also thinking about how Shauna becoming the AQ would be a completion of her teen timeline arc. She was jealous of Jackie always being the queen bee and living in her shadow. She has always felt invisible. Now it’s her turn to take the throne and have the power she never had when Jackie was alive. Jackie was the queen in civilization and society, Shauna is the queen in this primitive, ritualistic wilderness.

And now that it’s been basically confirmed that Shauna and Nat will have leadership conflicts in S3, I just can’t see Nat winning that fight. We’ve seen how far over the edge Shauna’s emotions can take her (beating Lottie nearly to death, killing Adam, etc.) I don’t think Nat can go to the lengths that Shauna can.

But maybe I’m totally wrong, just wanted to explore an idea I don’t see as often!

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

You're saying that zutara wasn't supported by the writers and shouldn't have been an endgame. That's a lie! and you can verify this, for example, by reading this post. Zutara has a huge support of writers and actors, she was supposed to become a canon! We were just robbed.

https://www.tumblr.com/crienselt/744143410729041920?source=share

I can show you lots of videos of Grey Delisle saying Azula and Zuko are totally fucking (including one she recorded for my birthday), and there's an infamous clip of Bryke proposing Azula and "The Blue Spirit" as a potential ship in a pannel. Somehow I don't think you'll take that as meaning my OTP is canon and was just robbed of it's endgame at the last second - but apparently tumblr posts are solid proof, therefore my argument is perfect and all you Zutara fans are now gonna have to accept that you ship Katara with a guy that canonically (by the standards YOU GUYS are trying to set at least) loves incest even more than Jaime and Cersei Lannister did. And oh, would you look at that! During one of the times Grey mentioned Zucest, Dante said "The Fire Nation are a bit like the Lannisters." See the links if you don't believe me. WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW?

The creators/showrunners, writers, and lead writer have all said a billion times "Kataang was always the heart of the show and by the time the first episode aired we were set on it being endgame. Some people in the crew liked BOTH Kataang and Zutara, but Zutara was NEVER seriously considered as a real possibility for endgame or even temporary romance. The only love triangle ever considered was Aang, Katara and MALE Toph."

It doesn't matter how many interviews yall fake, how many clips you take out of context, how many deleted scenes you claim existed without a shred of proof to back it up, how many times you go "but this actor whose job is ACTING not WRITTING says he likes Zutara" or "This writer that wrote tons of Kataang episodes said the word Zutara once when writting a scene between Zuko and Katara" - your ship is still fanon. That's not a dig at you or saying it's bad, it's just a fucking fact.

Write some fanfic if you like it so much, but don't turn the production of the series itself into your fanfic just so you can lie to yourself about how there was ever any chance of you getting what you wanted in the actual canon.

And for real, you're gonna try to use the LIVE ACTION as proof? The thing the creators disowned? Netflix's over-glorified cosplay session that everyone keeps saying "It's mid at best" is THE argument you go for? Have some goddamn standards, I'm begging you.

[genericpuff]

Are there any things you like about LO? Or is it all shit to you. Personally, I think it could be a great storyline with the right execution, but a lot of the stuff and plot is unnecessary (I.e. Hades being thousands of years older than Kore and making characters fall in love with people they are racist/classist towards 😨😨)

Oh there are LOADS of things that I liked and still enjoy about LO despite all the shit I've thrown at it. I love love LOVE a lot of the older art-

Like, damn, that shit is so charming! I swear I had that Tower 4 panel as my phone background for like, 2 years LOL

Rachel had a really strong understanding of shape language, composition, color theory, and expressive linework in a way that was really appealing and unique at the time, but along the way it was just lost, undoubtedly due to her taking more of a backseat in the character art process and leaving it to her assistants.

That said, there's a lot of... not so charming, too.

I think, on the one hand, there's a lot to appreciate in the old art that shouldn't be rejected as we criticize this series. At the end of the day, as much as we riff on it, many of us did love this series at one point in time, so we shouldn't cringe at what it used to make us feel or pretend like we were ever above it when we were very much lost in it for ages before it went down the tubes.

But there is a lot to be said about the effects of rose-colored glasses, and how LO was never perfect. The reality is that much of Rachel's work is exemplified by the odd beautiful thing that sticks in our memories, but when we actually go back to relive those memories, we find they're all strung together by some not so beautiful stuff that makes us go 'wait what???'

Case in point, with LO we remember beautiful compositions like this:

But then within those same episodes we get:

And it's like oh. Yikes.

Aside from the art, there was also the SA plot as well as the Act of Wrath. The SA plot felt really special to me at the time because I was someone who was once in Persephone's shoes, being pressured into sex that I wasn't ready for but wasn't capable of saying no to. I can appreciate what Rachel was trying to do with that plot, but over time it became clear that she wasn't committed to seeing that plotline through and so I kind of just dropped my expectations for it entirely.

That said, it wasn't the SA plotline that set me off. I had good faith in that one still that it would be addressed eventually. It was the Act of Wrath plotline that did me in. The premise of it was totally my cup of tea in the way of "quirky character has a dark evil backstory!" which is shit that I absolutely LOVE, but then when the "twist" happened that Eris was the one to give her wrath, that was literally when I had my almost "canon event" moment of realizing "wait... I don't think Rachel knows what she's doing." And then it was just all downhill from there. The S2 finale sealed my fate LOL

All that said, as much as my brain is often defaulting to "ew! gross! bad!!!" in all honesty I do still appreciate what LO meant to be back when I still enjoyed it. It meant enough to me that I just couldn't let it the fuck go when it started to go downhill, so much so that I started making my own version of it! And that's something that sets it apart so much more from other comics I really don't like anymore (or comics I never liked to begin with) like Down to Earth, The Kiss Bet, Let's Play, etc. where I really can't even be bothered to think about them let alone talk about them to the extent I do about LO. I may be full of beans when it comes to LO, but I'd still rather be talking about it and all its failings and what it used to mean to me than about any of those other works. I loved it enough to still want it in my life and that's what Rekindled has accomplished for me.

[abstractfrog]

HI I JUST SAW YOUR INCREDIBLE SHERLOCK AND CO COMIC YOU MADE AND I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THE PROCESS AND THE SYMBOLISM AND INTRICACIES AND EVERYTHING PLEASE ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

GOD THANK U ok if i actually talked about EVERYTHING i would be here forever and ever, there were things about the process where it kept surprising me and i kept adding stuff.

I talk about my general comic process here , it started out mostly the same for this one. Analysis of the script, sketches, panel and colour blocking

The scene from Mr Sherlock Holmes presented me with a unique challenge (for me) because...usually I pick scenes from the podcast that are instantly visually stimulating. This scene is NOT that. It's sort of unclear and confusing and even the emotive narrative is sort of hard to pick out. Those things I had to sort of decide for myself. It's hard to draw a whole scene like this without first deciding what the scene is about, what its purpose is. If you go back and listen to the episode along with the comic you'll notice all sorts of changes and tonal shifts - that's because of me and my decision making.

I decided that the direction I wanted to go in was to show John having his realization about himself, his podcast, and Sherlock, showing him getting pulled into, yes, Sherlock's world, but also the world of the podcast as an adaptation. I knew i could do this just with colour, but if you've seen my other comics, you know i almost always use colour to show shifts. I guess I had some insecurity about doing the same thing over and over again so I pushed myself to think of other ways I could accomplish it visual. Enter: rendering technique

I will say I didn't expect this effect to make John seem so SAD and MISERABLE, i only wanted to show him getting pulled in, but its effective for his emotions in this scene as well. Scanning drawings into the computer sort of flattens the paper texture, so I started adding photos of the pages of A Study in Scarlet to make him feel more paper-y. And then, of course, realised i could use that to further elaborate on John's inner thoughts, backgrounds, and motivations. People are welcome to interpreted that how they like and i've seen a number of variations, but to me it operates on sort of a meta level, showing the inevitability of what John is going through. He's a Watson, he's always going to follow Holmes, he's going to try and figure him out, and that's why you sort of see a back and forth between acd and pod Watson, highlighting the ways in which they are similar, and then, John breaks off and becomes his own character, still with those foundations but also entirely different.

there's one piece of text that i haven't seen anyone pick up on or mention and I'm starting to think it's gone unnoticed because it's in an unexpected spot. I won't mention what or where because it is, for now, a very indulgent little secret.

I notice a lot of people are getting a kick out of Sherlock playing with the speech bubbles, which I am so pleased by because I almost didn't do it! I thought i was maybe breaking something in the comic but it was so fun that i didn't care and I'm so glad it came across well. It operates on a lot of levels, it shows his thought process, it plays into that fourth-wall medium play i've got going on, and it feeds into the web metaphor as well as visually showing him roping John in.

on the topic of Sherlock, I feel a lot of people are rather focused on John, which is understandable (he's the main event) but Sherlock has a lot of details I love too.

For instance, him pushing his hair back and putting on a coat when the officer arrives, almost like he's shifted modes, and then his hair falling back down when he gets excited and John starts to understand.

I really love this moment of Sherlock seeing John's potential for interest in mysteries when he's trying to solve the matter of what Sherlock Does, and being surprised and flattered for a moment (until John messes it up again)

John copying Sherlock's pose <3

There's deliberate things in the character design as well, things like the fact that once John comes into colour, it reveals that he's actually wearing more colour than anyone else in the scene, and the fact that the grey in John's hair only appears post-greyscale. Things you are welcome to read into. And there are, of course, the socks, which I've seen people pick up on.

Those are the main things for now so i might leave it there, but thank you so much for your ask and i'd be pleased to elaborate further on absolutely anything!