#i think this may be the shortest we have waited between an episode

[speedydestinydream]

30 MINUTES PEOPLE

[cjsinkythoughts]

In Need of a Breath

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 4007

Warnings: !FATWS SPOILERS!, Cursing, Zemo, Feelings, Another PTSD Flashback

A/N: So…Part 4 is going to have a couple parts to it. Maybe even three. I didn’t even make it half way through the episode on this one, mainly because I really wanted to fit in the Reader’s backstory and I wanted her and Sam to have a heart-to-heart again. I’m suuuuper tired, so I probably won’t be posting the next part for another few hours (it’s 5 am right now and I haven’t slept), BUT it’s my day off work and I won’t be doing anything I planned because my grandmother had a stroke a couple days ago so plans have changed and I’m staying in to help her, meaning I’ll mostly be writing all day. 

This Part is kind of a mix between off-screen and shot-by-shots, but it’s mostly off screen/what’s going on inside Reader’s head.

I’m really excited about future parts and the characters that are being introduced! I will say that after these parts, I will be doing one shots of previous MCU movies with the Reader, due to the information that is being given about the Reader now. You kind of see more of how she was affected/how she affected the previous MCU movies and what she was doing during that time.

Like always, this hasn’t been beta’d, again it’s SUPER early in the morning, and I’m really tired, so please excuse any mistakes! I hope you guys enjoy this part! Stay tuned for more to come later today!

FATWS MASTERLIST

cjsinkythoughts MASTERLIST

!SPOILERS UNDER CUT!

“You know…I’m really starting to regret saying yes to this.” You huffed out, craning your neck and squinting your eyes against the sun as you stare at the facility in front of you, hating the skin-crawling feeling of being back.

“Would you relax? Whenever you’re nervous, I get nervous, and I don’t wanna be nervous about this.” Sam shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Do either of you have a better plan?” Bucky grumbled, crossing his arms.

Gnawing on your lips, you finally take the lead and breathe out, “alright. Let’s go then.” You could feel the hesitance from your - what were they? Partners? Coworkers? Teammates? - the fellas before they started after you.

There was a sick twist in your gut as you entered the building, going through the lobby and security.

You had been there.

You had been there when Zemo impersonated Bucky. You had been there when Zemo unleashed the Winter Soldier at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building in Berlin. You had been there during the battle at the airport. You had been there when Zemo turned Tony and Steve against each other in Siberia. You had been there when Zemo tore the Avengers from the inside out. Your family. The only family you’d ever known.

But you’d always been good about pushing your personal feelings aside for the sake of the mission. It’s what you’d been born to do. All you ever knew.

“Hey. Doll. You hear me?”

“Hmm. What?” You looked up from the ground to look into those enchanting blue oceans Bucky had for eyes, staring worriedly down at you, eyebrows pinched and forehead creased.

“I’m going in alone.” You frowned, opening your mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “Sam already agreed-”

“I didn’t necessarily agree-”

“You’re an Avenger, sweetheart.” Bucky tilted his head, speaking softly, those eyes of his worried. Worried for you. It made your stomach flip. “And you were there in Siberia, and that almost makes it worse. Especially considering you went after him. Just…just let me do this, okay?”

You cracked your knuckles nervously as you thought. It was a terrible idea. But it was an idea. And it was all they had. “Okay.” You finally relented, shrugging as your hands hit your thighs and slid up to your hips. “But don’t do anything stupid.”

“Steve took all that with him.”

Knowing about their little inside joke, you scoffed. “Sure he did. Go before I change my mind.”

You watched him walk down the hallway, hands fidgeting with excess nerves. “I think you’re the only one he actually seeks approval from.”

“Good thing I’m so lenient then, huh?” You joked, turning to Sam with a strained smile. Your smile slipped at the curious expression on Sam’s face, his eyes darting to each of your features. “What?”

“Are you doing okay?”

You groaned, throwing your head back. You thought you got out of talking about your feelings back in Baltimore. “Oh my God, Sam-”

“I’m serious. You…you just don’t seem like yourself.”

You shook your head, looking down the hall to where Bucky disappeared before turning back to him. It was weird to have a self that people recognized. Your whole life you’d been searching for it and when you finally found it…everything went to shit. “Honestly, Sammy, the only time I’ve ever felt like myself was with the team. Zemo took that away from me and now we’re here, practically begging him for help.”

Sam hummed, leaning against the wall. “Have you thought of taking a break?”

“What?”

“A break.” At your bewildered look, he rolled his eyes. “Cher, this time last year most of us were dead. This time a few months ago you found out about Wanda. This time last week you were out looking for her. Maybe you should just stop and take a breather.”

Shoving your hands in your pocket and looking at the floor, you couldn’t help but snort at his advice. “I haven’t taken a breather since I was eighteen.”

He clicked his tongue. “That’s my point. FBI academy as soon as you graduated. SHIELD recruit by 21, undercover operations leader by 24? Slow down. You’re in your thirties. Next thing you know, you’re gonna be ninety something, lying on your deathbed, wishing you had stopped to smell the roses.”

“If I live to be ninety, shoot me.” He chuckled in amusement. “I’m so fucking serious, Sam. I will not be put in an old folks home to play Bingo and be pushed around in a wheelchair. It ain’t happening.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” There was that infectious smile, which you unconsciously grinned back at. “Y/N…I’m serious. You’ve been in and out of missions since you were a teenager. What’s the shortest undercover operation you’ve done?”

“I dunno.”

He gave you an unimpressed look. “Yeah you do.”

Licking your lips, you turned away and shrugged. “A couple months. Seven weeks and three days, to be precise. September to October in 2012.”

“And the longest?”

“August 2007 to May 2009. Twenty one months.” 

Letting out a puff of air through his nose, Sam pushed himself off the wall and caught your chin between his fingers to make you look at him. “That’s nearly two years under cover. And I’m sure you went right back under after-”

“I was sitting at a desk for four months doing paperwork on it.” You defended yourself.

He shook his head, brows knitting together, lips drawn down. “You say that as if four months is enough time.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, Sammy. I’m out. I’ve been out since Ultron and Sokovia. I haven’t been under in almost a decade-”

“A decade half the world was dead for half of-”

“I wasn’t!”

“I never said you were.” Sam sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. You were always amazed at his ability to keep his emotions in check. To stay cool under pressure. Sometimes you forgot how experienced he was with dealing with other people’s trauma. It was no wonder why Steve thought he’d be good for Bucky. “Listen. All I’m saying is once this is done…don’t go diving back into searching for Wanda. Don’t go running to the kid every time he calls - and I know you’ve been doing that-”

“It’s just been homework and stuff-”

“Y/N.” You stopped, biting your lip at the stern look he gave you. “Go home. Order take out. Binge watch TV. Go for a jog through the park. Actually meet your neighbors. Go grocery shopping. Just…live. If only for a couple weeks. Don’t worry about anyone else. Don’t pick up the phone, don’t drop everything because someone needs you. You need you.”

“I-I…” You shook your head, looking at him, sincerely apologetic. “I can’t. I wish I could. But I can’t. I’ve never had one normal day in my life. I’ve never had someone to care for, never had someone to care for me. I can’t let people I’ve come to…I can’t let them think I don’t care. I don’t even know where I’d go.”

“Whaddya mean?”

You winced, not thrilled for his reaction to your next statement. “I, uh, I sold my apartment in D.C.”

He gaped at you in complete disbelief. “You got it in December!”

“I know, I know. I liked it. I really did, but…I dunno. Nomadic life has always suited me better. It’s what I grew up with.”

He took a breath, making you cringe again. You don’t think you’ve ever legitimately gotten on his nerves like this before. “Have you ever thought that, instead of going with the flow and jumping place to place, putting down roots might actually help?” He cut you off before you could say anything, holding up a finger to stop you from talking. “I can’t imagine going from foster home to foster home like you did. I can’t imagine not having a home for as long as you can remember. Louisiana’s my home. Always has, always will be. But I understand your life has been anything but stable. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why you need some stability.”

You clenched your jaw, crossing your arms. “The Avengers were my stability. Steve was my stability.”

“Because you loved him.”

“I’m not doing this with you again.” You turned to walk down to the lobby to wait for Bucky there, but Sam caught your arm.

“You were in love with him! It’s okay! You two were super close! No one would blame you! Why won’t you just admit it? I’m trying to understand! Why won’t you-”

You tugged your arm away, finally snapping at him. “Because he could never be mine, Wilson! Is that what you wanna hear?!” Sam took a step back at your exclamation. You closed your eyes, swallowing the lump in your throat and pushing down the tears. “He could preach all he wanted about moving forwards, Sammy, but we all knew he was stuck in the past. He visited the museum every Thursday because her interview showed in his exhibit on Thursdays. He carried around that broken compass because her picture was in it.” You looked back up at him sadly, shrugging. “And I get it; it’s hard to move past your first love. I get it because…that’s what he was to me.”

There was a silence that blanketed the hallway, before he spoke up hesitantly. “What about Bucky?”

“I thought - I thought I was projecting my feelings for Steve onto him because I knew Steve couldn’t ever…”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You thought? What do you think now?”

You cleared your throat. “I’m still figuring that one out.”

“If you ever need to talk, I’ll be here.”

You chuckled, nodding slightly towards him. “Back atcha. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you not being yourself lately, either.”

“It’s…a tough topic.”

You nodded in understanding. “Just know that I’ll support every decision you make as long as you think it’s the right one. Because I trust you. Steve trusted you. It’s all we can do to try to do what’s right. That’s what makes you a good man, Sammy. He gave you that shield for a reason, and if you think what you did was right…I’ll stand by it.”

The two of you stared at each other for a moment, calming down in each other’s presences and taking comfort knowing you’d be there for each other through thick and thin. “Thank you, cher.”

“Of course, Sammy. Now let’s go see what’s taking the old grump so long.”

He laughed at that, nodding in agreement, taking your offered hand and squeezing it as you made your way down the hall.

****************

“What?”

Bucky eyed you as you spluttered, coughing on the water you were drinking. “Please don’t choke, doll.”

“Break him out of jail?!” You repeated his words and blinked at him, absolutely baffled by his plan. “Oh my God.” You groaned as Bucky and Sam started arguing, moving your flashlight around the room. “Where the hell are we?” There was no response as they kept going back and forth.

“Zemo’s gonna mess with our minds! Especially yours! No offense.”

“Heelllloooo!” You tried again. “Where the hell are we?!”

Bucky turned on the lights, giving Sam a look. “Offense.” Glancing at you he quirked an eyebrow. “Stop worrying your pretty lil’ head, sweetheart. You trust me, dontcha?” Your breath hitched at his words. You quickly recovered, huffing and pouting - although you’d deny ever pouting - and crossing your arms. You stood between the guys like that, eyes darting to whoever was speaking, waiting for them to stop so you could actually think.

“Look. Let me just walk you through a hypothetical. Can I walk you through a hypothetical?”

You and Sam exchanged glances. “What did you do?”

“I…didn’t do…anything.” Bucky shrugged.

“How is it that you, one of the most deadliest assassins basically ever, are one of the worst liars I know.” You tilted your head at him, an eyebrow quirking up in confusion.

“Shush it you. Just, okay. The weakest point in any system isn’t the software, the hardware, it’s the meatware. The human element.”

The more you listened to Bucky’s “hypothetical”, the stronger the gut feeling telling you this was a terrible terrible idea got. You brought your hands up to your head, eyes wide as he spoke.

“I don’t like how casual you’re bein’ about this. This is unnatural.”

You couldn’t help but agree with Sam’s words, your head falling back and your eyes closing. “Sweet Jesus. Listen, God, I know we don’t talk much these days, but please, please don’t let this not be a hypothetical. I’m fucking begging you.”

A noise to your right made your head snap over. “Oh hell to the fucking no!” You shook your head as Zemo himself walked in, wearing a prison guards uniform. “Uh-uh! No way! Bucky, this was not part of the plan!”

“What did you do?!”

“We need him!”

“You’re going back to prison.”

“If I may-”

All three of you faced him, simultaneously shouting, “no!”

You held your face in your hands as your head dropped, shaking back and forth, your eyes squeezing shut, tuning them out for just a minute to think. Bucky had a point. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that, and the Avengers were technically disbanded, which was Zemo’s whole objective in the first place, but…God. You were good at compartmentalizing, but not that much. You were willing to put your feelings aside for the mission so Bucky could talk to him. Not for you to work with him. But he had connections, you knew he did, and he had information…

“Doll?” You looked up, Bucky anxiously licking his lips as he met your gaze. “I need you to say something.”

You looked to Sam, who shrugged, gesturing to Zemo. “What do you think?”

What did you think? What did you think?! You thought that it was the worst idea in the history of ideas and you should turn back and find another way! But…you knew this was the fastest, probably most reliable way to get information that you needed.

Dammit, since when were you the deciding factor?

You sucked in a breath, looking over Sam’s shoulder at Zemo, who lifted his hand in greeting. You raised your eyes to the ceiling, pointing your finger accusingly. “This is why we stopped talking.” Gaze dropping to the still waiting fellas, you gnawed on your lip, before hissing out, “ffffine…” Running a hand through your hair, you threw your hands up as you shrugged. “Fine. Okay. Fine.”

“Okay.” Sam nodded, taking charge again.

You couldn’t believe this was happening. Except, that was a lie. You could. You’d seen weirder. You’d experienced the impossible. Lived through the unbelievable. This…this was completely imaginable.

Which is why, with a lot of hesitation and very little confidence in this plan, you followed Zemo through the auto shop you were in until you reached a large room with a ton of different old cars.

Bucky’s hand found yours as Zemo explained what the plan was, rather vaguely, in your opinion, but at least he was explaining. Point for him. Not that it would make up for the level of distrust you held for him, but it was something.

You looked up at him, giving him a puzzling frown. He usually only grabbed your hand in front of other people when he was feeling anxious. Which, yeah, he had a right to be anxious right now, but it wasn’t the right kind. The type of anxiety caused by large crowds and loud noises, ones that startled him and threw him into a defensive mode.

But the look on his face made you squeeze his hand in reassurance. He was pouting, staring at you although he did something wrong - a puppy that tore up a pillow - and all you wanted to do was give him a hug.

“You’re mad at me.” He mumbled as the four of you headed out with Zemo in the lead.

“No I’m not.”

“Yeah you are. 

“Bucky, I’m not mad.”

“Listen, if I had a better idea I wouldn’t-”

You brought your linked hands up to your lips, pressing a gentle kiss to his gloved knuckles. “I’m not mad.” You repeated more firmly. “It’s just…a lot for me, right now.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, Buck, I-I just…” You thought about your and Sam’s earlier conversation and suddenly understood what he meant. “I need to breathe for a second.”

His features twisted into ones of uncertainty, eyes squinting as you stepped outside. “Do you…do you wanna leave?”

You shook your head, tugging his arm to stop him and grabbing the sunglasses on his collar, slipping them over his eyes. “No. I just need some time to think. Hopefully the plane ride to wherever the hell we’re going will give me that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, James. I’m sure.”

He lowered the glasses on his nose to scan you over the frames, before nodding and sliding them back up. “Okay. You ready for this, then?”

“No.” You breathed, turning back to where Zemo and Sam were still walking. “Let’s do this.”

*****************

Climbing onto the private jet, you raised an eyebrow at Sam, who shrugged, giving you a bemused expression. A Baron…huh…who knew? You feel like you should’ve, yet there you were.

You sat besides Bucky, across from Zemo, crossing your legs and leaning back while staring at him through narrowed eyes.

His butler seemed nice, which made you even more suspicious. You obviously didn’t know as much about Zemo as you wanted to. It was a habit you picked up after years of undercover work; once the mission was complete, that was that. There was no looking back on it. No sitting on it. It was over and you moved onto the next one. It was a bad habit in cases like this.

The moment you spotted the notebook over Zemo’s book you knew something was going to happen, yet you still flinched when Bucky lunged at him, grabbing his throat. You leaned back in your seat again, steadying your now racing heartbeat. You decided you were too tense, trying to relax your muscles as Bucky sat back down in his seat.

“I’ve seen that book. It was Steve’s when he came out of the ice. I told him about Trouble Man. He wrote it in that book.” Sam seemed so proud of himself that something he recommended was written in Steve’s little book and it made you smile.

You remembered that; Steve and you were supposed to meet up for coffee after his run, but Fury called him in so you rescheduled it for when he got back. He asked you about Marvin Gaye. For your opinion. You told him to check it out and make his own.

You remembered asking him about that little notebook of his, and he just shrugged you off telling you about his list. He would read items off to you, but he never let you read the book yourself. You never found out why, and you supposed you never would now. The thought made an ache behind your ribs that you’d come to familiarize yourself with appear.

You smiled a little more as Zemo and Sam told Bucky how awesome Marvin Gaye was. “C’mon, baby. Back me up.”

Chuckling, you looked at Bucky. “They’re not wrong. But,” you quickly added before Bucky could whine at you, facing Sam again. “Neither is Buck. I mean, c’mon. You can’t find music like the 40’s anymore. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Fred Astaire. Ol’ Blue Eyes himself.”

“Thank you.” Bucky grinned at Sam, who rolled his eyes.

“Okay, okay. But, I mean, c’mon! Everybody loves Marvin Gaye.”

“I like Marvin Gaye.”

“Steve adored Marvin Gaye.”

Your face fell as Zemo started talking about Steve and icons and Red Skull, your mind once again slipping away from reality.

~

“Kids love you.” You giggled as you finally made it out of his exhibit. You’d wanted to show it to him since he moved to D.C., and you’d finally got an opportunity after coming back from being undercover for ten weeks. “You’re their hero, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just trying to do what’s right.”

You nudged him, scoffing at his answer. “You’re too humble. You’re a national icon, you know.”

Steve shrugged, looking around the museum at the planes surrounding them. “I never wanted to be.”

“Why not? Everyone loves you.”

“I’m sure not everyone loves me.” He rolled his eyes. “And…I just wanted to help. To fight. Protect my country and the people I cared about. I-I didn’t ask for…all that.” He waved behind his shoulder where his exhibit was getting smaller with each step they took away. “People were dying. Bullies were winning.”

You shook your head, spinning and walking backwards besides him to face him. “Sure, but you did that. And you became someone people could look up to in the process.”

He narrowed his eyes at you before asking, “why do you do what you do?”

“...because I’m good at it?”

“Honey.” He gave you a look. “Answer the question.”

You hummed in thought. “Because I couldn’t stand by, knowing there would be orphaned kids if I didn’t help any way I could.”

“Alright. Why do you do it in the dark?”

“Whaddya mean?”

He shrugged. “Why don’t you come out and take credit for all the lives you’ve saved?”

“Because that’s not why I do it. I don’t want that attention. I just want to know I’ve helped people. I’ve kept them safe.”

He gave you a soft smile. “I just wanted to beat the bully. I never wanted to be a dancing monkey, too.” You looked at him in a new light then, understanding where he was coming from. “Watch out, honey!” He grabbed you and pulled you aside before you could crash into a wall, arms wrapped firmly around your waist. He gave you that charming smile of his. “Wouldn’t want you hurting that pretty lil’ head of yours, now would we?”

~

“Y/N!”

You snapped back into the conversation, moving your eyes from the window to Bucky, who tilted his head, eyebrows pinched and eyes narrowed. “Sorry. So, Madripoor. That’s a fun place.”

You ignored the side eyed glances Bucky and Sam exchanged, Sam turning to you curiously. “You’ve been?”

“Once. Back in 2010 for a few months”

Zemo raised his eyebrows. “You’re lucky to have gotten out.”

You shrugged nonchalantly. “Lucky, maybe. Skills were a part of it, too, though.”

“Good.” Zemo nodded. “Because we’re going undercover…and if we blow it. We’re dead.”

You breathed out, shaking your memory away and getting your head back into the game. Because like the man you were severely wary of in front of you said, if you blew this, you were dead. And, sure, you didn’t want to live until ninety, but you weren’t even half way there yet. So dammit if you were going to die soon.

“Hey.” You looked over at Bucky’s murmur, his head tilting as he grabbed your hand and pulled you from your seat closer to him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. Are you okay? You know you’re going to have to be-”

“I know.” He nodded. You watched his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallowed thickly. “I’ll be fine. Just…tell me right now if you need to step out for this one.”

You gave him a smile that you knew he didn’t buy, just by the slight narrowing of his eye, his lips pressing together. “No. No, I’m good for this. If you think I’m gonna let you two idiots go into Madripoor with him - alone - oil that cyborg brain of yours, because there’s no way.”

He squeezed your hand, eyes still filled with uncertainty. “Are you sure?”

“If there’s even a slight possibility that I can protect you, then yeah. I’m sure, Buckaroo.”

[afan1]

The Wilds: Season 1 Rewatch

SPOILER WARNINGS — While it is an episode recap, there may be spoilers for the entirety of season 1 of The Wilds. Continue reading at your own risk if you haven’t seen all of it yet.

1x01 Recap 

1x02 Recap

1x03 Recap

1x04 Recap

The Wilds | 1x05: Day Seven

Favorite Quote

"We all know she can't survive the wilderness by herself, she can't even survive a Holiday Inn." — Leah Rilke

Personal Highlights of the Episode

The impersonations of Fatin by the girls.

The sequence that flips back and forth with Fatin practicing the cello and partying. Two sides of the same coin, but 99% of people only judge her based on one side of her.

“I’m not fucking crazy!” I know most people either love/hate Leah, but jfc Sarah Pidgeon is an excellent actor and plays Leah’s moments to perfection, especially during her non-verbal scenes. The emotion she displays with just facial expressions is just fantastic.

If you guys don’t know by now, I’m a Leatin whore (but like, even at a basic BFF level too. I’ll take any and all forms) so THE highlight is the makeup hug.

Things I Didn't Catch the First Time

These girls just strolling through the woods with no means of protection. Dot should know better. Why haven’t they at least sharpened a tree branch or something? Even a blunt branch would be better than nothing.

Shelby and Toni catching eyes while they sit by the fire waiting for the water to boil and Martha counting. Then Shelby stealing a second glance back to Toni? The Shoni clues were subtle and built up perfectly throughout the season.

Observations / Theories / Questions

Everything during this episode just screams “Don’t underestimate Fatin.” Everyone at some point underestimates her and it blows up in their face. Fatin’s dad, the girls thinking Fatin wouldn’t rip her own pants, Leah in general, Gretchen, Dot/Shelby/Rachel when they immediately assume she was just painting her nails, and most likely the agent too (even though we don't see them interact with her much). 

THEORY – Fatin’s interview reveals big ass information going forward, whether it be Nora’s fate or something they find out in season 2, which is why Fatin has the shortest interview out of all the girls. Most of the episodes have the girls talking to the agents sporadically throughout it, Fatin gets one sequence and it’s all about believing Leah’s theories. Then all three looking back and forth between each other? It’s weird as hell. And what do we learn this episode? Fatin is really good at reading people. Fatin, per her father, has no respect for authority figures. While I believe all the girls are skeptical of the agents, all of this leads me to believe Fatin will be the first one we see actually fight back against them during the interview.

THEORY – The agents and Gretchen will focus on Leah unraveling their experiment, but in reality, it’s going to be Fatin. She’s the only one that listened to Leah from start to finish (I think the other girls will get on board at some point in season 2) and she’ll be the one that silently questions things when Leah verbally brings it to attention. Fatin blows things up when she’s 100% certain and covers her ass in the process, whereas Leah reacts impulsively and it bites her in the ass most of the time. Therefore, Leah will react too soon, and Gretchen’s team will shut it down, BUT Fatin comes in to save the day when they make the same mistake everyone else does and underestimate her.

Fatin is super critical of her mother (calling her Dragon woman), but immediately takes her side when shit goes down with her dad. We even see Fatin admit to Leah later in the season that she misses her mom. Her mom that we only ever see push her to be better. Fatin’s mom is probably the only person who has never underestimated her and knows exactly what she has the potential to be.

THEORY – Fatin is painted early on as Daddy’s Little Girl and even told by him that “You’re just like your dad, kid.” I think Fatin’s biggest fear is that she really is just like her father, even after telling him that they’re nothing alike. I think, while on the island, we will see Fatin transition into the person her mother has always seen in her: driven, passionate, strong, and successful. Fatin is not like her father; she will be exactly what we’ve seen her mother be pre-scandal. A powerful woman whose success is her own. This is also why I can’t see Fatin’s mom staying with her husband permanently. Everything we’ve seen of her screams that it’s out of character for her to stay with a man cheating on her.

Leah’s emotional distraught over Fatin being lost after dragging her every chance she got earlier. The voice crack when finding Fatin. Not criticizing Fatin for just painting her nails like Rachel, Shelby and Dot do. Where my Leatin stans at?

Not that I’m experienced in any capacity when it comes to infidelity, but like, wouldn’t the smart move be to not have your tablet on full display in the kitchen when you’re receiving/sending nudes? You’re rich (or your wife is anyway), Mr. Jadmani, buy a damn burner phone or something.

“Stop fighting, you’ll see everything gets easier.” Hearing this after knowing what Martha’s backstory is… wow. 

It’s completely fucked that Fatin’s mom lost her listings because her husband cheated on her. Like what kind of logic is that bullshit? This asshole literally sitting right beside her putting the blame and consequence on HER. SHE won’t be able to show her face, dude, what the fuck about you? Society is fucked, man.

Alex is the only one on Gretchen’s team that I like. 

THEORY – I think he’s the one that blows this whole operation open when the girls get rescued. He’s gonna be the one to side with them if/when it goes to court, even if it means incriminating himself. OR Gretchen is going to frame Alex for the death of Jeanette and he’ll go down for her murder. He obviously carries a lot of guilt over her death, and probably will accept his fate if it comes to that.

Why the hell we throwing a whole ass book into the fire when you should be tearing pages out to prolong the longevity of the fire? 

Fatin’s social awareness is not talked about enough. She’s the only one that notices Leah’s in her head after finding Jeanette’s body missing, she notices Leah has separated herself from the group after finding Fatin and is the one that approaches Leah to make amends, she knows exactly what needs to be done to calm her mom down (lipstick), etc.

I think it’s a nice comparison to the flashbacks with her dad when Fatin is the one to initiate the making up with Leah. We see that Fatin makes ZERO effort to apologize to her parents about leaking the nudes, and I think both these scenes really cement the fact that Fatin won’t apologize for something she thinks is right. Her belief in her own ethics and morals will never be put on the back burner to make someone else feel better, but that doesn’t mean she won’t apologize when she knows she’s partially to blame or out of line.

Final thought – Fatin is underrated as hell, and the layers to her character are subtle enough that she really does appear basic to anyone who isn’t actively paying attention to her. She’s a very complex and well-written character. I have a hard time picking a favorite out of the girls, but Fatin is definitely up there.

Field Notes

Field Note #051—Fatin’s mom is one of the top real estate agents in the Bay Area. She sells big-ticket properties in San Francisco and the East Bay, and prides herself in hosting the best open-house events. One of her secrets is playing classical music at just the right volume to make the house feel classy yet cozy.

Field Note #052 – Cellists and other string performers can’t keep long nails because they interfere with technique.

Field Note #053 – Fatin only goes for college dudes. Her take on high school guys? They haven’t done enough living. If a guy doesn’t have a monthly car payment or do his own laundry, how can he be trusted in a hook-up context?

Field Note #061 – How each girl learned to swim: Martha took a class with her mom; Toni would sneak into her neighbor’s above-ground pool by night until she kind of just taught herself; Rachel and Nora had private lessons; Fatin’s grandparents had an infinity pool; Leah learned in Lake Tahoe at a family reunion; Dot went to the quarry; and Shelby’s dad threw her into the country club pool sink-or-swim style.

Field Note #062 – The waterfall is an especially good water source because the water is moving, decreasing the chances of bacteria.

Shelby Curse Count: 3 (4 total)

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Let’s talk: RUN Episode 131

by Admin 1

I know I’ve probably said this about literally every episode but this one was so fun! Admin 2 and I were honestly laughing almost the entire time while also trying our best to follow along their “debates” and just taking in all the chaos. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Quick recap: in this episode we’re at the pool that belongs to the same hotel at which they had lunch at the end of the previous episode and the objective is twofold--not get wet and win a debate. That’s basically it, it’s like the mint chocolate debate episode but even more hilarious and with the addition of wet Bangtan.

Something I truly love is how it took vmin exactly 57 seconds (which includes the 18 second long intro) to find some kind of ‘reason’ to hold/shake hands behind JKs back. Because of course they did.

After the whole “mess” that ensued after the Titanic preview picture was posted yesterday, I can basically just say one thing--there was literally no need whatsoever to get all anxious and uncertain about the picture, or anything the shippers made out of it. As always the best course of action, which is the one I usually apply, is waiting until we get the full thing so we have context for what we’re shown in the picture/teaser/scene. It’s like that scene at the end of one of the ITS episodes where Jimin goes to JK to tell him about a supposed leak in his room which was taken way out of context and proportions until we got the next episode a week later and the actual events were completely different from anything and everything that was theorized. 

So, what’s the lesson? Wait until we get the full thing, dear fellow vminnies, that way we can avoid making each other anxious and unsure.

Anyway, let’s get into it by starting with the ‘warm-up’ which consisted of one-on-one “battles” where the members stood on these floating foamy mats being held by two staff members and having to make each other fall into the water by playing the hand pushing game. 

Yoongi VS Jimin -- I like how the two shortest members went against each other, which I’d assume might’ve had something to do with Yoongi’s shoulder and how chances of Jimin hurting him due to his height/size/weight were the smallest as opposed to Namjoon or even Hoseok. Maybe I’m imagining/overthinking things but it seemed like Jimin was a little hesitant/careful in how he approached the game and in the way he touched Yoongi, which honestly is very thoughtful and cute of him if that’s true, considering his shoulder and all. In the end Yoongi, after they basically goofed around more than actually tried to push each other, offers a deal of just doing it once properly, ending in both of them falling in the water since Yoongi leans forward, hugs Jimin and drags him down with him.

Tae VS Hobi -- These two might’ve been the quickest, given how Hobi said he’s scared at least three times and Tae basically use a moment to ‘attack’ where Hobi was distracted by the fact that a moment prior he thought Tae almost would’ve hit him in the face with his forehead on accident. That lucky did not happen, but Hobi did end up in the water and Tae remained on the float and completely dry.

Namjoon VS Seokjin -- Now these two, how can I put my thoughts/feelings into cohesive words and sentences instead of just a long key smash? They were hilarious, and their round definitely took the longest out of all of them, both trying to make the other fall yet simultaneously seeming like they weren’t trying all that hard since neither wanted to land in the water? After all before the game started Seokjin did complain how the RUN crew told him they wouldn’t have to get into the water. And yet, in the end, after a visible moment of contemplation, Namjoon hugs Seokjin (who hugs him back) and they fall into the water together (when I tell you how much I love them, wow).

JK VS Jimin --Here’s where we get the Titanic moment while JK and Jimin stand on the float and are being pulled to the middle of the pool, the members immediately jumping in with Hobi going “Jack, come back” in a breathy voice while Yoongi (?) sings the melody of My Heart Will Go On and everyone is laughing. It was an absolutely hilarious and cute moment. What made me laugh the most during the whole thing were the Jimin heads used to hide whatever, which I as a joke called the “Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra (Head Edition)” while talking to Admin 2. During the game itself Jimin and JK are hilarious, slapping each other’s chests and trying different tricks to make the other fall, showing how amazing their core strength and balance is, but eventually Jimin shoves JKs chest and JK falls into the water, winning the game since Jimin “cheated” and thus lost.

Seokjin VS Tae -- Interesting to note is how Jimin remained in the water and close by while these two were playing. Seokjin and Tae though somehow seemed the most chaotic out of all of them, despite Seokjin offering that they should just do it in one go...which didn’t work out. They leaned into each other twice while laughing before starting to “wrestle” until Tae put his arms around Seokjin’s waist and basically threw him into the water while subsequently being pulled after him and falling in as well. Sometimes I think we forget how strong Tae is (though after his BE_log earlier today I doubt we’ll forget that again any time soon).

Once “warm-up” was done, the members were split into two groups of three while one person, the MC, sat in the middle in a glass box (though missing the front glass panel). The rules were established and we basically figured out that there are water canons in front of the seated members and a bigger one releasing water onto the member sitting in the middle. They got words and things they were not allowed to do/say since otherwise they would get splashed.

Safe to say they all fairly quickly looked even more like very wet puppies. I mean look at Yoongi and his cute curly poodle hair, adorable!

The debate portion itself was about “crunchy or soft cereal”, “eggs of peas on jjajangmyeon” and “firm or soft peaches” and truly more chaotic shouting than actually debating. The team members and the “MC” changed for each round, which lasted 11 minutes each. Who debated what was chosen by the crew (or the MC). My highlights for the cereal debate (besides Seokjin cutely complaining how he prefers his cereal soggy and Namjoon equally cutely telling him to just pretend he likes it crunchy) were Yoongi (who was team soggy cereal) and his argument that since Kendrick Lamar eats soggy cereal, that’s basically the winning argument, Namjoon arguing that since “cereal” and “crunchy” both start with a c that’s the only right answer, and Tae arguing that if you eat chocolate cereal it’ll melt and you’ll additionally get chocolate milk so obviously soggy cereal is better. The jjajangmyeon portion had discussions about prices, as well as Hobi (team peas) arguing he doesn’t like seeing animals in pain (which was quickly countered by JK saying he’d just eaten pork before the episode) and Tae generally being appalled by having to argue in favor of peas since he doesn’t like them yet used the argument that his dad likes them so if you argue against them...well. 

And finally the peaches debate had Tae and his galaxy brain using their Chilsung Cider ads as argument and how the peaches in it were firm since they bounced and thus they are better, which JK tried to counter by pointing out that those were just CGI to which Tae basically said he’s insulting their beautiful ads, how dare. I also love how Jimin, who was on Tae’s team, went along with whatever nonsense argument Tae came up with as though it was the most logical one in the world. Just lovely soulmate things, we love to see it. Speaking of nonsensical arguments, you have to give points to Namjoon for his ability to sound like he’s making perfectly sensible and logical arguments while doing, well, the exact opposite. Or Yoongi who just bs-ed his way through the entire thing while acting totally serious about it.

Can we please have a quick look at the following screenshot:

And now, can we please talk about how everyone is nicely sitting in their designated place with space between them...and then there’s vmin who are like magnets because “Space who? We don’t know her”. 

Admin 2 asked me to add their comment/thought about how it looks juuuuust a little as though vmin may or may not have been holding hands below the table, which, I mean, we’ll never know but, at this point (especially after the BE unit unboxing video) I wouldn’t even be surprised if it were true.

At one point when Seokjin became the MC the water kept on coming and coming and the members were desperate to figure out what was the thing they were doing that caused it. Jimin thought it could be the caps that some of them wore, so without hesitation or question, he took off Tae’s cap (bless Jimin for giving us another view at wet hair Tae, truly) and then, I swear, it looks like he wanted to ruffle Tae’s hair yet just a second before making contact he stops himself and instead turns his hand in like a “I’m presenting some kind of argument” way. Adorable.

A final note goes out to the fact that they are wearing white button downs which, I mean, makes perfect sense I guess? And also how the crew gave them bathrobes so they’d stay warm, I’d assume, yet very quickly those were drenched as well thanks to the water canons so it basically defeated the purpose completely. And yet, despite all the water etc they all look fantastic.

Overall it’s a hilarious episode that’ll give your stomach muscles and lungs an amazing workout. Bangtan were their chaotic, loud, and mischievous selves and honestly, I can’t wait to see what else they’ll debate in the next episode.

[not-your-damsel]

Mira esto, lookie here, y’all!

*Could be spoilers for some people, please be warned

I swear, it’s like everyone in My Hero Academia is damn well taller than me besides Micro Mineta! So, I just learned the height of Daddy Fatgum and my ass has truly blown to another dimension. Even when Fatgum is Fitgum, he’s damn tall at like 6’ 2”/3”.

That’s a whole foot taller than me.

Almost a year ago, Reddit user RussianKyle was kind enough to make an impromptu height scale up of several characters: Fatgum, Centipeder, Aizawa, Bubble Girl, and someone who knows my pain, Kaniko. It was actually pure luck that someone in the lineup is my height. Kaniko’s the shortest of the group coming in at 5’ 3” like me, Bubble Girl at 5’ 6”, Daddy Aizawa comes in at 6’ 0” Hello Sir, that’s hot as hell, Centipeder scales in at 6’ fuckin’ 9” (no offense to him or his character but I’m the biggest bitch when it comes to any insect under the sun besides inch worms), and last but never fuckin’ least, is Fatgum who dings in at 8’ 2”!!!!!!! EIGHT FEET TWO INCHES!

Teehee, my height kink is showing!

Look at everyone on the list compared to Kaniko/me in that mustard-y color! I’d reach Taishiro’s elbow, his elbow!!! What is this madness?

This is also a great time to talk about how much I can’t wait to see how the guys of 1-A turn out as adults. I’m a firm believer that Hitoshi’s gonna be a big guy (everyone is to me at this point, honestly) and no, I don’t take criticism 😛🤚🏼 When we first meet him, pushing through the other students to stop at 1-A’s door (btw does anyone remember what episode this was?!), if we look at him closely, he’s just about the tallest one in the crowd save for a couple other boys. That nervous neck grab tho, bless💜

Now, Toshi clocks in at 5’ 9” & he’s 15 when we first see him here. Puberty has been known to last for guys into their 20’s and while height may stop, their muscles keep on developing. Let that sink in, because Hitoshi Shinsou’s 5’ 9” at 15 and that’s the same height as Dabi who’s no older than 25 (look in the comments). Strange as shit, I wouldn’t know because I’m a 34 yo woman who’s been 5’ 3” since she was 13/14 years old.

Let’s also touch on the beautiful Daddy Birb Hawks. I really wish someone would make up their mind about his height. Yeah, ok, he may not be the tallest pro hero, nowhere near Enji who towers in at 6’ 4 3/4” (Golly, I swear these are mountain men!), but I keep seeing that Keigo is either 5’ 4”, a whopping inch taller than me, or, he’s 5’ 8”. Idk which I’m more inclined to believe but since I like my men with rulers for bones in ‘em, I’m gonna stick with the latter for now until I know definitively.

I’ll leave you, my beautiful flowers, with this for now and maybe we can discuss who we think out of the guys of 1-A + Shinsou because my mans deserves the whole fucking universe fight me on that, I’ll bite your ankles, who’s gonna be a power tower of a pro hero!

I take the slightest most tiniest comfort that I’m taller than Tokoyami. But something tells me he’s gonna have a growth spurt and be a beautifully tall, intimidating pro hero birb! On the scale here of 1-A, I’d be placed right in between Mina and Izuku at 160cm. No one in the class is my height, kinda dope. Sorry for the long post my darlings! 💟

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 34 S4: The Boys (and Mai) are Back in Town

OK, back to the writing table! It’s been a while! So I made the mistake of like...scrolling down on the playlist when I realized...

This duel is like 6 episodes long (7 even? It’s a lot) and like...yo I have no idea if we’ll finish this season in 2020! Damn you 2020. Damn you.

But wtv, what I like about this side project of mine is that I don’t have to rush things, and I can really spend the time with each episode and just...enjoy the moment. So often I watch a whole series in like half a week and then it’s like...I don’t get to enjoy it. This series I’ve enjoyed for years now. That’s kinda neat. So...we’re gonna be slow...but lets just enjoy this weird ass anime moment together. 2020 deadlines are all fake anyway. I’m not even sure if 2020 was a real thing that happened or like...an alternate universe opening a door and letting through just so many terrible ghosts. We might never know.

Last we left off, everyone has decided to hallucinate Dartz’ terrible backstory.

Unfortunately we have NO darts in the past. Was really hoping to see at least one darts reference in this entire season, just one darts board on his wall. But alas, we will not have a Season Zero death darts match with Dartz. (Man I need to get back to Season Zero. And FMA. And a lot of things)

I feel like if I watched the original version there would have been some things different. First off...what ocean? Second off...well, we’ll get to that. There’s some things I think were changed for English TV.

Including censoring the nude people like it’s James Cameron’s Avatar.

Fun fact did you know that James Cameron’s Avatar was supposed to be ass naked and that they were supposed to have like 8 cat nipples? Yeah.

Man, that movie was a mistake. I’m so glad we all decided to collectively forget James Cameron’s Avatar.

(read more under the cut)

The actual locations of anything in Atlantis does not match up with it when it’s zoomed out. We have giant cities, we have sprawling wheat fields, and we have...THIS situation. This active volcano next to...pine trees?

I feel like they wanted it to feel vaguely Pompeii, since I know people like to put Atlantis in the Mediterranean. Maybe? Maybe that’s what they were going for here?

One of my top ten favorite Yugioh plot twists ever was finding out this episode that this snake who has no limbs somehow created these...rocks...that all of our main characters have been wearing and obsessing over this entire time.

And so this is my theory, this is the thesis of my Yugioh college paper. These rocks are turds. There’s no way these rocks aren’t turds. There’s no way this snake didn’t poop out a bunch of glowy magic stones and then stuff them into a volcano.

THE ROCKS WERE TURDS THE WHOLE TIME.

God bless, Yugioh.

Seto spends this entire episode groveling that he isn’t playing cards that will absolutely kill him. Like Mokuba, Seto isn’t happy until he’s cheating death.

(I really wish we got more super past future tech. I love that type of concept art. Instead, we just got a lot of flying boats--the same boat that I think the team flew on in S1 when they went to Seto’s video game universe.

So those boats are 10,000 years old? They existed in the 10,000 year old Pangea, huh?

Neat.)

Anyway, lets take a gander at Princess Zelda circa Ocarina of Time.

SUPER princess Zelda, and I know it’s not 1:1 but damn it feels so much like a late 90′s Princess Zelda outfit to me. Check out that PURPLE. That low poly circlet. The random ass sword. The thick ass belt. 

Also check out this super dead family.

Yo so this is a 00′s thing, a period of time where we liked to tell stories like LOST, with just a bunch of random ass plot twists in flashbacks instead of just...telling a story from start to finish. And can be a great and fun way to do it--but at the sacrifice of actually making me care about these characters while they were still alive.

Like I would have maybe cared about Chris and Ironheart dying if I had known that Dartz was killing his whole family? With...lightning strikes? But alas, these dumbasses decided NOT to tell us they were royal. It’s so strange both from a logical perspective and a storytelling perspective.

Man...missed opportunity, IMO, but I can see why they did it. The wanted the ‘Gotcha!’ I feel ambivalent about it, honestly.

And who am I kidding, people are still doing unpredictable plot twists this. It’s a way to tell a story. Is it the most impactful way? No. It’s...it’s a gotcha!

It’s at this point in the story that things start ramping up, but it’s not clear if it takes place over years or just a couple hours. People just start going a little cray and turning into Monsters.

Straight up, though--did they turn into monsters that already existed and are modern Duel Monster cards, or are the monsters from modern Duel Monsters cards actually descendants of Atlantis who were once human?

They don’t say, actually. Maybe...maybe every card was a human once. That would be a freakin weird Yugioh twist if Kuriboh was like a 45 year old dude.

PS Dartz was married...soak that in.

ROMANCE ON YUGIOH ALERT.

Love it every time. She was there for like...half a second, and Dartz was like throwing so much shade about how “only the people with evil in their hearts were turned” and it’s like...

...dude that’s your wife? OK then. I can see you guys got along real well.

Anyway, so long to the ship of IonaxDartz, you were here for even less than the amount of time that Seto dated Blue Eyes White Dragon in a hallucination, which kind of sets a new record for us.

This might be the shortest-lived ship in all of Yugioh and they have a 12 year old daughter and what I assume was a 12 year marriage for that entire time.

that is if they...HAD the concept of marriage 10,000 years ago on Atlantis Pangea island. Maybe?

I mean they might have not had the concept of dating and marriage yet because he gets over this like immediately. The show will never hover back to that time Dartz watched his own wife turn into a creature. We have no idea if he was like “OK honey lets uh...let just get you a haircut and maybe no one will notice?” We have no idea how long he was desperately trying to remain married to the beast that was no longer human and was also trying to eat everyone else in his court. We just don’t know.

Dartz just had a lot of other things to think about. He’s been King for like...a year...he’s only 21...he’s just doing a bad job at everything.

(Biden opens Pres Trumps bedroom in the White House come January and it’s juts full of glowing green evil golf balls) (OK that was my last 2020 joke I swear to you) 

Anyway, Dad is here, but it’s a little too late to really do anything with the situation. Everyone is worshiping little snake turds. What can you really do about that?

One eye golden, the other eye, the color of a glistening Leviathan turd.

After the rest of the surviving royal family was chased out of the castle, Dartz decides to just wave his hands around a lot.

I’m not entirely sure what Kings do...never really had one...but I think they’re supposed to do more than wave their hands at a crowd like the Pope. Like...everyone’s dead right? Like everyone?

Who’s he talking to?

Meanwhile, Chris and Ironheart decide to revive some monster tablets to get some real actual duel monsters to do their bidding.

So apparently some monsters are in the tablets, and other’s have just always been here...and...

They didn’t know violence but they did have the cards?

There’s a lot of vague stuff they didn’t feel like ever writing, because it would have probably been boring to write about. I guess we’ll just let our imagination fill in the rest and ignore all the inconsistencies. It’s a kid’s anime. well........kind of a kid’s anime. A lot of people have died this episode and I don’t even know how to add it to the death count.

How many people live in Atlantis? I dunno.

Are the inhabitants of Atlantis even dead, or are they just turned into Monster cards? I dunno. Clearly the Great Leviathan wasn’t awoken this first battle so...did all those souls get returned? I dunno.

Either way I’m not gonna bother the death count about it because I just do not know if they died, and since it was neither an implied death or an on screen death...I dunno.

Just feels like a bit of a translation snafu--where maybe they couldn’t kill that many people on English TV, so they were like “AND IT’S A DRAW!” but also...it could be canon to both versions. The leviathan didn’t work the first time, maybe no one died? I dunno.

In this shot, PS, Raphael just gently backs up out of this flying plane, and it looked really funny to me. I probs won’t cap it because it’s split between two other cuts, but just...they just kind of moved that sprite to the right really slowly, no animation, it was great.

Dartz decides to end the backstory hallucination, and we get introduced to a new twist--a better twist than that last one, that’s right, all our boys are cards!

Including this asshole!

Been a while since our boys have been cards! Man, I miss Bakura!

Yes, I looked back to earlier episodes this season to see what was going on with Pegasus’ new look. I think what happened is that it’s always been this shade of gray purple--but when you put purple next to it’s opposing color (which is yellow colors) it looks even MORE purple. It’s just how color works. Love color theory. mm. Good stuff. Good purple hair.

I can’t wait until Yami kills Yugi for the 3rd time in one season.

Anyway, that’s all for now, and like always, here’s a link to read these in chrono order.

[sestra-inestro]

Just A Really Big Mistake (1/?)

Jane the Virgin!AU 

Pairings: Detective!Steve Rogers x Fem!reader (June is not an OC), Hotel Owner!Bucky Barnes x Natasha Romanoff

Summary: What happens when you accidentally fall pregnant with your boss’s baby, but you’re a virgin?  

Warnings: Swearing, cheating, accidental insemination, mention of smut. 

A/N: You can thank @whatcouldgowrong-ohthat​ for the brilliant idea. I hope this is at least something you hoped for! This was also eight pages long and not even half of the first episode. 

Masterlist 

Ever since you were a young girl, Pepper had taught you about keeping your purity and innocence. You had been the product of a unplanned pregnancy after your mother and father had sex. Now your father wasn’t around anymore and Aunt May felt horrible and took you in as her own. She told June that you dad was a military man. A military man who obviously couldn’t be around to be a dad. But alas, every year a man in a uniform would come to the house and speak with Pepper and May. A dark skinned military man who you painted to be your father in your head. You knew him as the name on his uniform , Col. J, Rhodes. You always watched from the window as he spoke with Pepper and May, never speaking or interacting, always just watching him walk to the house and walk away again. You grew up thinking that he never wanted to see or speak to you, that he regretted having you as a daughter.

Pepper had drilled it into you mind since you got your period. Keep yourself pure, do not damage that sweet white flower that you was blessed with. Sweetly, meaning don’t do the bullshit that your father did if he can’t handle being a father.

-

“Look at the flower, June.” Pepper stood in front of 11 year old you, who looked up at her with a small flower in your tiny palm. 

“Pep, is this necessary?” May asked from where she sat on the bed, watching them. 

“Shush, how else is she going to learn?” Pepper dismisses May, who rolls her eyes. 

“Yeah, shush May.” You glared at the woman before looking up at Pepper. 

“See the flower, so pretty and un-withered?” Pepper asked. 

You looked down at the flower in you hand. You notices it’s small delicacy and pure white petals. 

“Now scrunch it up in your fist.” Pepper told you. 

You looked up at Pepper shocked. Your eyebrows frowned in confusion by Pepper only raised her brow and nodded. 

You glanced at May with concern before looking back down at the flower, scrunching it in your hand with all your might. You squeezed its petals in your hand before releasing it, the flower falling back into place, all bunched up and brown at the tips. 

“You see it crumple? Does it still look new?” Pepper asked the girl. 

You shook your head. “No.” 

“That’s what happens when you lose your virginity.

If you’re not careful, you will crumple and be like that flower.”

-

That idea scared you to death. You couldn’t imagine falling pregnant and not being able to look after the baby. You could barely look after yourself. The image of the white flower of purity crumpling brown flooded your mind every time you made out with someone. And now, was no different. 

Steve hovered above you on your bed. Lips connected and his legs between yours. Your lips moved in sync as Steve’s hands ran up and down your waist, feeling over your clothed skin and practically begging for more. You hum in his mouth at his touch and Steve moves his kisses across your jaw and down your neck. 

You wrap your arm around his neck, feeling his lips against your skin. 

“We should...” You trail off at his movements.

“I know.” He mumbles against your skin. 

You moaned as he pushing his hips against yours. You feel your body run hot against his. You open your eyes to see the white ceiling of your bedroom. The paint of your roof reminding you of those white petals. The brown withering petals crept into your mind. 

“Okay!” You yell out, your body going stiff and your hands push Steve away from you. “We should stop.” 

Steve stops all movement and sits back against his thighs, breathing heavily. 

You pull yourself up to sit, also breathing heavily. 

You both looked at each other, clothing rumpled and hair askew. 

You took a deep breath and gave Steve a smile. “Phew.”

Steve chuckles at your discombobulated self. 

“No matter how frustrated I get, I can never be mad at you.” Steve said softly, buttoning up his shirt again. 

“And that’s why I love you.” You leaned forward to press another quick kiss on his lips. 

Steve always understood that you didn’t want to have sex until you were married. He knew your fear of unwanted pregnancy, even though he called it over the top, he understood and waited. 

You walked him to the front door to give him a proper goodbye. You sweetly kiss just outside your door, cupping his cheeks. 

You pull back and give him a smile. “Don’t forget this.” You lifted his detective badge in your hand. 

He smiles back as his hand closes around the badge to take it. 

“Thanks for stopping by.” You gave him another kiss. 

“No problem.” He pecked your lips again. “I will see you tomorrow at dinner?” 

“I wouldn’t miss it.” 

You let him go as he walked to his car and waved as he drove away. 

That man had caught your heart the minute you saw him at her front door. Even if it was to report to a noise complaint on your birthday. 

You smiled to yourself and skipped your way back into the house where May was seated on the couch. The theme music of the show she put on could be heard from outside. 

“Jeez, you couldn’t turn that down?” You asked as you leapt over the back of the couch to sit next to her. 

“Nope, just shush and eat your grilled cheese.” She handed you a plate with two grilled cheeses on it. Peter emerged from his room and sat on the other side of you, taking a slice of your grilled cheese. 

You all watched as the screen faded into light, showing the main character played by the famous TV star, Tony Stark. May always watched his shows. 

“Do we have to watch this?” Peter complained. 

“Yes we do.” You and May said at the same time. 

“She’s got me hooked on this stuff. You’ll like it.” You told Peter, but instead of agreeing, he groaned and got back up to trudge to his room. You shrugged and got comfortable next to May to watch the horrible but addictive romance show. 

~ 

Only 8.2 miles away from where you lived, and 2 hours later, James Buchanan Barnes stood on the balcony of his hotel overlooking all of the open pool area as it got ready to open. He was very stressed about owning this one and began to doubt himself as he took in the setting. 

“Buck, babe?” His wife’s voice rang from behind him. 

He cringed on the inside before turning around to face her. 

“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked him. 

He shook his head. “Nothing. Just...thinking.” He gave her a tight lipped smile. 

He fiddled with his hands as she stepped forward. 

“You’re worrying about the hotel.” She said, knowingly. 

Bucky sighed to himself. No matter how trapped he felt, they still had a connection that he had found with no one else. And in a way, he owed her. 

“You know, you worry too much about what other people think of your accomplishments. You think you do too little so you try to overdo it.” Nat said on a soft voice as she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his chest and looking up at him with her green eyes. Her velvet red hair blew in the wind and Bucky thinks about how he first fell in love with her. It only happened twice. 

Bucky’s chest rumbles as he chuckles at her words. 

“You just need to relax.” Her voice changes from soft to seductive and her fingers trail over his belt and unbuttons his pants. Bucky watches her as she slowly sinks to her knees, taking the belt and his pants with her.

Bucky leans back against the railing as he feels her hands pull him out of his restraints and slowly rubs him til he hardens and take him in her mouth. He leans back and looks at the sky, just letting himself think of anyone but her, wrapping her lips around his member. 

-

Downstairs in the women’s changing and storage rooms, you were getting ready to meet the new manager of staff. But your friend Wanda was hell-bent on pursuing a conversation you were uncomfortable with. 

“I’m telling you, he’s gonna propose.” Wanda pointed out from the locker next to you. 

“No he’s not.” You told her once again. “He knows my timeline and I haven’t even gotten my teachers degree yet-“ 

“You guys have been dating for two years!” She cut you off. “And you still haven’t boned. He doesn’t give a shit about the timeline anymore.” 

You went to say something say something back to her when the door opened and a man with a big grin walks in. 

“Ladies! Everybody decent?” He asks with a big smirk, disregarding the fact he’s already in the change rooms. 

“Who are you?” Wanda asked, crossing her arms. 

“I’m Sam Wilson, part of the new management team of this hotel and, well, I guess your new boss.” He said, smiling widely at his words. 

You frown at his enthusiastic behaviour at those words. In his hand is a bunch of red straws he holds out to everyone. 

“Pick a straw please? Anyone one is good and it doesn’t matter what straw as long as you are spectacular at your job.” You walked around to all the girls who took a straw from him. “It benefits us all which should be good because we all have the same goal. And that goal is...” he offers one to you with a wink. “To make bank.” He stepped back and observes everyone. “Alright, lets see those straws.” 

Everyone lifts up their straws, and without failure, yours is the shortest. 

Sam walks back up to you with his same grin. “What’s your name?”

“June.” You say quietly. 

“But everyone calls her Jaz.” Wanda butts in. 

You glare at her as Sam smirks at you. “Well, Jaz. You’re gonna be a great tail.” 

You frown at his words. 

-

You soon find out what he means as you lay, gracefully over a plastic clamshell in the hotel pool with a mermaid tail attached to your lower body. Everyone comes up to you, offering their empty glasses and you fill them up. 

“This is bullshit.” You murmur but a co-worker who is in the pool next to you frowns. 

“What do you mean?” He asks, as if he is also wearing the tail. 

You slowly turn your head to glare at him and he shuts his mouth, stating quiet. 

You go back to staring into space, hating the position you were in. You certainly did draw the short straw. 

Bucky sits on one of He circular couches next to Becca. 

“Buck, if you’re not happy, end it.” She says simply. 

“But she stood by me.” He says, running his hands over his face. 

“I know, but that doesn’t mean you owe her your whole life.” Becca says a-matter-of-factly. “You changed, of course you did. The whole cancer thing is going to change you and now she’s dangling it over your head. If it’s this toxic then just leave. It’s not going to make you our father if you do.” 

Bucky sighs because he knows she’s right. He lets Natasha hold the cancer situation over his head and now he’s stuck. 

“I know. Thank you.” He turns his head and looks at his sister. “Now go home to your wife.” 

Becca smiles at him. “I will.” She stands up with him. “Try to enjoy your party.” 

“I will.” They hugged before she made her way out of the party. 

What they both didn’t know was that Natasha sat behind them on the other side of the circular lounge, her head against the back as she listened to their conversation. She knew their marriage was stale but she knew she couldn’t leave yet. If she was going to be divorced she was going to be walking out of that courtroom with 10 million to her name. Thank god for prenuptial agreement. 

Bucky walked towards a waitress who held empty champagne glasses on a tray, a few people stopped him to shake his hand and he made his way over to her to take one, then she pointed him over to you, who still sat miserable on the clamshell. 

You lifted your head to see his figure walking towards you and a rush of anxiety filled you. Before you could think, you rolled your body off the clam and threw the bottle into the pool. 

Bucky frowned and stopped at the splash, watching you kick your way to the other side of the pool. The bizarre action made him turn back to the waitress who also frowned and led him to where a fresh bottle was sitting on ice. 

You ripped the bottom of your tail open so your feet could poke out before getting out of the pool. 

Wanda caught you getting out of the pool and approached you. “Um, what the hell?” 

You lifted yourself out of the pool and moved the wet hair from your face. 

“Do you remember a guy named James Barnes? He worked at the yacht club, he was like a member?” You asked her. 

She raised an eyebrow and put her free hand on her hip. “The jerk You had a major crush on five years ago?” She questioned you. 

“I didn’t have a major crush on him.” You said. 

Wanda scoffed before continuing to walk, you shuffled alongside her in your mermaid costume. 

“Are we talking about the same guy?” Wanda places her tray onto the bar bench for more glasses. “You had a magical kiss-“ 

“I was young, it meant nothing.” You said fast. 

“What meant nothing?” For, another co-worker butted in. 

“I need someone to run champagne to the pool ASAP.” The bartender addressed everyone. 

You rolled your eyes but took it as an opportunity to get yourself out of the hole you just dug with Wanda and Dot. 

“I got it.” You reached out for the bottles. You took them from his hands and quickly shuffled away to the small tent nearby the pool. 

You really thought you would never see him again. And yet you wondered how the hell he managed to be staying at the same hotel that you were working at. 

You began filling the champagne glasses as your mind ran over the reasons why he would be at the opening party. 

People were filling the tent and you felt a presence behind you. 

“I’ll hand out glasses.” He suggests. His voice sends shivers down your spine. You give him a small nod before going back to pouring. 

Bucky looks down at you, curious to know where he has seen you before. 

“You look familiar.” He tries to say in the most polite way he can. 

“Really? Not sure.” You shake your head in denial. 

“No, I really think we’ve met before.” He pushes. 

You stop for a second and pull your lips into a tight smile. “I’m not usually wearing clamshells.” You give him a small laugh and shift on your feet.

Bucky frowns for a second before gasping in realisation. “Oh, the strip club on Birk Street.” 

You whip your head around to look at him in horror. “Jerk.” You say in disgust. 

Bucky is shocked again at your sudden anger. Okay he was definitely wrong. He went to apologise when he heard Natasha’s voice over the speakers. “Can I have everyone’s attention? I would like to make a toast.”  

You both turn to face her and she raises a glass in your direction. “To my husband. For already making this hotel great.” 

Everyone clapped but you gaped in shock. 

He was the new hotel owner. And you just insulted him. 

Natasha came over to Bucky to pull him down into a hard kiss.

As he was distracted, you slipped out of the tent and headed back to the change rooms. You believe it’s time for you to go home. 

-

Becca moves through her front door, quietly closing it behind her, knowing her wife was asleep. She kicked off her heels in the living room before making her way down the hall to her bedroom. But a sound slowed her down, the sound of moaning was coming from her bedroom. 

The door was open ajar and light shone through into the hallway. Becca pushed open the door to see her wife’s legs entangled with another woman’s. Dread literally overcame her and her wife’s head popped up from the bed at the squeak of the door. 

“Oh god, Becca.” 

-

You finally settled into your bed. May lay next to you, it’s one of those nights again. 

Your phone buzzed from your nightstand and you picked it up to see Steve had messaged you. You looked at the time. It’s 4:23am. 

You back?

You smiled. Yep, In bed. 

Phone sex?

You scoffed and lightly laughed. 

May’s sleeping in here tonight. 

Soundly?

You softly laugh at him again. 

Ew. So...I called the new hotel owner a jerk tonight. 

WHAT? Why? 

Long story.

Get some sleep. You have to be up in 3 hours. Doctors apt at 9 and a class at 12.

You frowned at how he knew your schedule. 

Finally enjoying our conjoined calendar. 

You smiled at him. He did still know your timeline. 

Love you. 

You too. 

With that you finally put down your phone and turned the lamp off, drifting to sleep. 

It felt like only a minute since you fell asleep that your alarm woke you up. 

You groaned and pushed your face off the pillow, getting up to get ready for the day. 

-

Becca tried to console herself in the work bathroom before heading outside. The pain was still very much panging in her chest since she’s woken up. Looking in the mirror, she saw how much of a mess she was. 

Hating her life and needing to work was going to break her but she would fight against it. 

She rubbed at her eyes and splashed water in her face to try and make herself look better. 

She huffed, giving up before exiting the bathroom and heading into the doctors hallway. 

A nurse approached her almost immediately. “Dr. Alver, there you are. You are running a little behind. 

Hearing the nurse mention the name she had taken in marriage almost broke her again. The stress of today was already weighing on her. 

“Yes I know, rough start to the day.” 

“Yes, well as you should know you’re filling in for Dr. Peters today. You have an insemination in room seven and a pap in room eight.” The nurse handed Becca over the tools as Becca’s phone rang. Blindly, Becca collected the tools and picked up her phone in the other hand, seeing her wife’s name on the calling screen. 

“Doctor, did you hear me?” The nurse asked. 

“Yes, I did. An insemination and a pap. Thank you.” Becca said dismissing the nurse and turning away from her to answer the call. 

Her wife’s voice flooded her ears. 

“Becca, please. I’m so sorry, she didn’t mean anything! I’m a screwed up person, I don’t even car-“ Becca hung up the phone as her voice became too much for her to handle anymore. 

Trying to compose herself again, Becca walks straight into room eight. 

“Ms Parker, how are you. Are you ready for you’re insemination?” Becca asked, not looking up from your file as she enters the room.

The door closing woke you up from your nap on the examination chair. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry.“ Becca apologises as she sees you startled. 

“No, that’s fine. Sorry I’m a little tired.” You say, noticing that the doctor is a little flustered. “Yes, I am ready.” 

You smile at her. 

“Okay good.” 

“I thought I had an appointment with Dr Peters?” You asked. 

“Oh yes. I’ll be filling in for her while she’s on her...honeymoon.” You noticed her get a bit spacey as she said that. But she was quickly shaken out of it. “I’m Dr Alver.”

“Are you okay?” You asked as she took a seat in front of your spread legs. 

“Oh yeah I’m fine. I’m just going through some personal problems.” Becca tried to give you her best smile. 

Becca reaches to put on the gloves. “Did you bring anyone with you?” She tried to distract herself. 

“Here?” You frown. “No, just me.” 

“Oh you’re doing it alone. Good for you.” You could tell she was trying hard not to break down again. “It’s probably easiest that way.” She tried hard but the tears pushed through her eyes again. 

“Dr Alver, we can do his another time of you want to?” You asked her, a little concerned. 

“No, no I’m okay.” Becca pulls herself together and grabs the insemination tool. 

“Are you sure? Because I can come back later if it’s better- Oh okay, you’re already doing it.” You grasps the sides of the bed as you feel the tool enter you. 

“No it’s not fair one you. Because you’d have to wait a whole month and it’s just a waste of your time.” Becca smiles at you reassuringly and finishes the insemination. 

She slowly pulls the tool out and puts it on the tray. “And you’re all done!” 

You look down. “That’s it?” 

“That’s it.” Becca nods taking off her gloves. “You should get your results in two weeks.” She smiles at you before collecting her forms. “You have a good day, Ms Parker.”

“You try to as well, Dr. Alver.” You smile at her as you let your legs down, feeling glad your first pap was over. 

Becca walks across from room eight and into room seven. 

“Hello, Ms-“ Becca looks up to see Natasha sitting in the examination chair. “I didn’t know that you were coming.”

“I had the nurse unfreeze Bucky’s sperm.” Nat’s words fell onto Becca’s ears as a curse. “That’s why I didn’t tell you, you guys are so close I didn’t want to put you in an awkward position.” 

Becca goes through the appointments she has this morning in her head. An insemination and a pap. Here Natasha is, talking about her brothers sperm after she just inseminated you. 

Her body feels weak as she puts the horrible reality together in her brain and her heart beats hard and fast out of fear. 

“Look, if you don’t do it, someone else will. And I know from the internet that you can’t refreeze the sperm, so...unless you want the sperm to die.” Nat’s threats push more dread through Becca’s body. 

She just fucking inseminated the wrong woman. With her brothers sperm

Let me know if you liked it!

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who Hiatusbreaker Update 2

Although the premiere of Doctor Who Series 13 is still a while off, let alone the announcement of a premiere date, there are a few things I’d like to talk about before that time comes. Let’s get right into it.

Filler series plans to talk about Series 1-10

Some time ago, I had plans to make a ten-part series talking about Series 1-10 in detail, but because I had a lot of stuff going on, those plans were reduced to something I call Doctor Who 10 for 10 - 10 Things for 10 Series, which was to state ten things about each series with at least 4 to 6 of these things being my opinions on each series. This was intended to be a filler series to bide the time before Series 13 comes out, but that may have to come at another time. I’m also continuing with Kisekae Insights if anyone wants to check it out.

The post-Series 13 forecast

Since Series 13 would be Jodie Whittaker’s third series as the Doctor, signs are pointing to this being her final series. There are also rumours stating that there will be two specials in 2022 that would serve as her final episodes. If this is the case, then it means that Jodie Whittaker would have been the Doctor for five years; a five-year-long ordeal of pain because series seem to be released pretty much every other year as a result of the almost-year-long gaps between them, not to mention the fact that less episodes are being produced as time goes on. Whether Chris Chibnall will be remaining on is still unknown at this time. Frankly, I’ll be glad when this is all over because I (and many other fans) have been kept hanging for so long. I just hope the Timeless Child payoff will be worth it.

At this point, the only reason why I’m still watching the series is mainly because I want to know how the Timeless Child arc plays out. The initial shocks have come and gone, but now this is where we wait and see if the aftershocks are as worse.

When I started my Thirteenth Doctor Reviews, I made a pact that I would cut off all ties with the series going forward if the Fourteenth Doctor was another female. Given the Timeless Child arc and the rumours that Olly Alexander would replace Jodie Whittaker (which would make him the first gay actor to play the Doctor) that came and went because his agent stated that he was focusing on music for the time being, I’ve honestly stopped giving a shit at this point. I’ll probably continue being a casual fan of Doctor Who, watching episodes as they come out, but regardless, all that this series will be to me is like what the Koei Warriors series has degraded itself to over the past decade. I’ll still be grateful for all the inspiration and opportunities it has provided me with over the years, but I’ll probably accept that the series has gone on a downward spiral with seemingly no way of coming back up. But hey, all will be revealed in due time, so the forecast isn’t that bleak for now.

The first look into Series 13 (added 26 July 2021)

So just today, two days after I originally published this post, the teaser trailer for Doctor Who Series 13 was released following the 2021 San Diego Comic Con@Home. Aside from the Doctor, Yaz and Dan, the only other character we see is Vinder, a recurring character throughout the series who will be played by Jacob Anderson. Recurring character, you say, and that’s because Series 13 will apparently be a single serialised story. This brings callbacks to The Trial of a Time Lord or more loosely, the multiple two-parters of Series 9. We still don’t get an exact premiere date, only that it will premiere “later this year”, but given that Series 11 and 12 took about 10 months to film, we can predict that filming of Series 13 will likely be wrapping up in the next month. Whether there will be a shorter run of five or six episodes (thereby reserving two of those episodes for the 2022 specials, assuming they won’t be filmed separately to Series 13) is unknown, but regardless, I’m looking forward to watching and reviewing the series for myself.

Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall leave Doctor Who (added 30 July 2021) 

In news that will surprise no one, Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall have announced that they will be leaving the series in 2022. Technically, the news isn’t much of a surprise in terms of Whittaker than it is for Chibnall, as Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have been showrunner for two Doctors each. But hey, with this, it means that my Thirteenth Doctor Reviews will also be a review of Chibnall’s run as showrunner.

My initial thoughts on this, which may or may not change coming up to Whittaker’s final episode - it was an okay run while it lasted, but honestly, good riddance. How’s that five year plan of yours going, Chibnall? If your plan was to divide the fanbase and leave them hanging with gaps between series, then you’ve really done it.

On top of this, Series 13 will be six episodes long, with the remaining two episodes to be broadcast as specials in 2022. The first of them will be a New Year’s Special (surprise surprise) and the second will follow in Spring 2022 (Northern Hemisphere). The Thirteenth Doctor’s final episode will premiere in Autumn 2022 (Northern Hemisphere) as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations. Some tentative dates I’m predicting are 18 October 2022, the 100th anniversary of the BBC, 23 November 2022, the 59th anniversary of Doctor Who, or 1 January 2023, which would make it another New Year’s Special (I’m not discounting 25 December 2022, I just think it’s less likely given how this era has been).

With this, the Fourteenth Doctor is expected to debut in 2023, the 60th anniversary year of Doctor Who. I just hope the new production team doesn’t disappoint the fans with that.

In terms of statistics, Jodie Whittaker has played the Doctor for 31 episodes, making her run the second shortest behind Christopher Eccleston. Peter Capaldi played the Doctor for 40 episodes, Matt Smith for 44 episodes and David Tennant for 47.

My hopes for Whittaker and Chibnall’s final episodes haven’t changed; I want to see what happens with the Timeless Child arc (and also Ruth). Whether the Fourteenth Doctor will be male or female (or played by a non-binary or trans actor), I have a few basic preliminary hopes for the next run; make each series 13 episodes again with a Christmas Special each year and put the series back on Saturday nights, like it was before Whittaker and Chibnall. Also, can we go back to filming in the 16:9 ratio? I can never get over how weird it looks on my screen (at full screen, it doesn’t look so weird when I have it playing on half screen, which is what I usually do when I write my reviews).

Jay Exci - The Fall of Doctor Who

Yes, it has been a while and I know I could have told everyone about this earlier, but better late than never I suppose. A couple of months ago, Jay Exci did a 5-hour long critique of the Chibnall era in his video, The Fall of Doctor Who. For some reason, there are those who see it as controversial because they’re NPCs who don’t want to hear criticism of the Chibnall era or they’re spergs who aren’t mature enough to sit through a 5-hour video they can watch in chunks, but hey, it’s pretty good. This is more in-depth than the reviews that people like Bowlestrek or Nerdrotic make, which essentially put Jay on their level in the eyes of the NPCs despite denying that they are on their level and being a sperg about how they’re better than them. Welcome to the party, Jay, you can check out anytime but you can never leave. 

Anyway, you can check out the video below. Even if you don’t feel like watching the whole video, I highly suggest that you watch section 4.2 onwards (timestamped link here) as it does resonate with my feelings on the Timeless Child arc. I swear, this is just like Dynasty Warriors 9 all over again. I know the feeling.

Cancel culture comes for Noel Clarke and John Barrowman

The thing about cancel culture is that people can be petty about things other people have done or said years ago and they can justify it with the excuse that they’re doing it to hold those people accountable. Depending on the context, it can expose the fact that that person is a major piece of shit or it can be an overreaction to something, which in the minds of today’s society is normally the latter.

Around the time that Noel Clarke was nominated for a Bafta at the end of March, allegations emerged of abuse and sexual misconduct against him. 20 women came forward with their stories and as a result, the final episode of Viewpoint was pulled from broadcast (but still released on Blu-ray and DVD) and Bulletproof was cancelled before filming on the fourth series would begin.

In May, video emerged of Clarke at Chicago TARDIS in 2014 talking about how John Barrowman would expose his genitals and slap it on people and things. This led to allegations about Barrowman surfacing, resulting in him apologising for his actions even though he had already been reprimanded for them over a decade ago and apologised in November 2008. Despite this, his contribution to the immersive theatrical event Doctor Who: Time Fracture was pulled and Big Finish have decided to shelf the release of Torchwood: Absent Friends, which would have featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

Now, I don’t care about Noel Clarke by any means, but this situation is honestly sad for John Barrowman because it shows that cancel culture spares no victims and leaves no fossil undiscovered. These PR stunts have clearly shown that the spineless people involved with those productions are so concerned with saving face that they are unable to just overlook these transgressions for the sake of fans who actually wanted to see him reprise his role as Captain Jack Harkness. But hey, what do I know? I don’t really care for anything other than the TV series, but it really shows how shameless corporations can be.

Once again, we don’t exactly know when Doctor Who Series 13 will premiere, but if you ask me, I predict that it will premiere in October or November. I’ll see you all again around that time.

[ladylillianrose]

First Comes Marriage a Max Richman/Zoey Clarke Fanfiction

A/N: Apologies for taking so long to update, work and school have been a lot to handle as of late. In just a few weeks I'm starting my last semester of grad school so updates may not be as frequent as they have been before! Thank you all for your support and comments, I really appreciate them!

As always a huge thank you to my lovely beta AubreyRichman

Any dialogue you recognize is from the episodes Pilot and Best Friend.

Chapter Two

Chapter One

Zoey quickly ran to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Max was singing her another love song? What was going on here? 

She thought back to the other day when she had been about to tell Max about her strange powers.

________________________________________________________________

“There she is, our new team leader! Is it weird that I’m now a little intimated by you?” Max teased.

“Oh, please,” Zoey grinned, waving him off.

“So first day, how you feeling?”

“Really good actually. You know, I just want to tell you what a great friend you’ve been through all this, Max. It’s just been really comforting to know that I have you, as like my rock. And, crazy thing is, I haven’t even told you everything that’s been going on with me lately. You wouldn’t believe….”

Max suddenly looked anxious, he started playing with the ring on his right finger, something she noticed he only did when he was nervous.

“Are you alright? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Nothing, it’s just…. Last night”

I was sleeping and right in the middle of a good dream

Like all, at once I wake up from something that keeps knocking at my brain

Zoey sighed, “Okay, now you’re singing too. I don’t think I know this one.” She took a seat in Max’s chair and watched as he danced around his desk. It was quite endearing to watch.

Before I go insane I hold my pillow to my head

And spring up in my bed screaming out the words I dread

“What words are those?” she asked, curiously. Max turned around to face her and sang the last words she had ever expected to hear from him.

I think I love you!

“I’m sorry, what?” Zoey laughed out nervously. Max slid over to her on his knees.

I think I love you so what am I so afraid of

He held out his hands for hers, spinning her around in the chair.

I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there is no cure for

Max danced up the staircase, as he continued his song.

I think I love you isn't that what life is made of

Though it worries me to say that I never felt this way

Zoey stared at him unsure of how to react to his revelation.

Max looked at her confused, “What?” 

________________________________________________________________

And now here she was splashing cold water on her face, trying to hide how flushed Max’s newest love song had made her. How long had her best friend had these feelings for her? She glanced down at the ring on her right hand, did he have these feelings for her when they got married? He would have said something right?

Zoey sighed, this was all too much to deal with right now, she would just try and make it through the day and think about it later. She nodded at her reflection and squared her shoulders before heading back out to the bullpen.

________________________________________________________________

Zoey stood at the cereal bar, eating and trying to think about what she should do about Max.  Speak of the devil.

Max approached her grinning, “Great news, I won the lottery!”

“What?”  Does Max even play the lottery?

“Well, the restaurant lottery. I finally got us into that fancy farm-to-table place," he explained.

“You got us into Hand-Picked?!” Zoey couldn't believe it.

“Yeah! Thursday night. Is it a date?"

Zoey panicked, "Is it a date?!"

Max looked at her oddly, "What? No. I just thought we could have a celebration of sorts…."

Zoey was confused, "Like for my promotion?"

Max awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, yes that, but it's also been a year…."

"A year?" She repeated.

He glanced significantly at the ring on her right hand and cleared his throat. "Umm yeah, a year…"

Understanding dawned on her face, "Oh wow, you're right! A year already?"

Max grinned, "I know, it just flew by. So, what do you say?"

Zoey worried her bottom lip, she didn't know what to do. "Let me check my schedule, make sure there isn't any family thing going on that night and I'll let you know?"

Max nodded, "Sounds good," and he headed back to his desk.

Zoey pulled out her phone, "Mo, we have an emergency! Meet me at Golden Gate Grind in 10!"

________________________________________________________________

"It happened again. I heard Max sing another love song to me this morning, and, this time it seemed way less ambiguous than last time."

Mo looked curious, "What song was it?"

Zoey winced, "Sucker."

Mo grinned, "Ooh, that songs hot! How did Max look doing it?"

Zoey blushed as she thought about how distracting and attractive she had found Max while he sang to her. "It doesn't matter. My best friend is super into me, Mo!"

"So what? He’s attractive and single, you’re attractive and single, I don’t know why you haven’t tried to lock that down already!” Mo said, rolling his eyes.

Zoey was about to respond when she heard the notes of a song beginning.

“Zoey, are you even listening to me?” Mo asked.

 "I’m listening, just not to you at the moment," Zoey responded distractedly as she listened to the people in the cafe sing.

"You mean you're hearing a heart song right now?"

"Yeah, and it's very emotional and moving." Zoey stood entranced as she watched the people in the cafe sing and dance to, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

Her eyes followed their usual barista Autumn, as she sadly sang.

I need a man who'll take a chance

On a love that burns hot enough to last

So when the night falls

My lonely heart calls

Zoey could feel a plan forming in her head.

"Hey, Autumn," she smiled at her.

"Oh hey, Zoey, the usual?"

"Yeah. And actually, I think I'll get something to go for my buddy, Max. Speaking of Max, what's your take on Max? You like his vibe? Appearance? General outlook? You a fan?"

She could feel Mo glaring at her, "Zoey, this is not a good idea."

Zoey waved her hand dismissively, "Quiet Mo, I'm working here."

Mo rolled his eyes, "I reserve the right to say I told you so," he murmured.

________________________________________________________________

"Zoey, this feels weird," Autumn said as she nervously smoothed her clothes. "You sure Max is okay with it?"

"Psh, of course, he is!" Zoey led Autumn over to the chair Max was working in.

"Hey. Guess what? I used Dijkstra's algorithm to find the shortest paths between all hunt locations so we can make sure our guests get to…. Hi," Max finally looked up to see Zoey and Autumn standing in front of him.

"Hey Max, you know Autumn right?"

"Umm sure. Hey," he responded, unsure of what was happening.

"So, turns out I can't make it Thursday, but Autumn is a big fan of farm-to-table and would love to take my place," Zoey explained, as she nudged Autumn forward.

"Oh," Max tried not to look too crestfallen. He had been looking forward to spending their first anniversary together.  She's only your wife on paper, it's not a real marriage remember? No need to celebrate an anniversary that doesn't mean anything.

"Only if you're cool with it," Autumn interrupted his train of thought.

"Well, yeah. Um, I mean, I can't really think of anyone else I would take at the moment," Max agreed. Best not to waste the reservation, and Autumn seemed nice enough.

"Great!" Zoey exclaimed eagerly. "I'm gonna go work on the thing," she quickly backed away as Max watched her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Zoey sighed, relieved to have found a solution to her problem. She glanced back and saw Max laughing at something Autumn said. She shook her head, ignoring the ache she felt in her chest as she watched them. Thinking no more on the subject, she threw herself into her work.

________________________________________________________________

Zoey was walking around the bullpen checking in on her team's progress, ignoring Max who was trying to get her attention.

Max got tired of waiting for her to look at him, "Hey, Zo. Will you tell me the truth?"

Zoey's eyes widened in a panic and she gestured for him to follow her.

"Why didn't you want to go to dinner with me?" Max asked, looking at her sadly.

"What? No, I have a thing," she started.

Max raised his eyebrows at her, "Uh-huh, a rather convenient thing. You've been acting weird since I mentioned Hand-Picked. What's going on?"

"I just think that people might suspect something if we were to go to a place like Hand-Picked." Zoey nervously played with her ring as she spoke.

"Everyone knows we're friends, Zoey. It's not like we haven't had dinner together before."

"I just think that it's not such a good idea, especially since I'm your boss now. We need to be extra careful that nobody finds out about…"

"Considering it's been a year and no one is even remotely suspicious, I think we're okay. What? You think that we eat some pickled beets out of a Mason jar, and they suddenly realize that we're married?" Max replied sarcastically.

"Keep your voice down," Zoey hissed.

Max glanced over at the team, none of whom were paying attention to the two of them.

"I'm pretty sure that nobody cares," Max rolled his eyes.

"Max, I don't want to fight about this," Zoey sighed.

"No, wouldn't want the team to think we were in the middle of a lover's quarrel now, would we? If you need to create some boundaries between us, fine, " Max bit out as he walked back to his desk.

Zoey winced at his harsh tone, she knew she had hurt him.

Max spent the rest of the day refusing to even look in her direction. When they were done for the day he quickly packed his things and left, not even saying goodbye.

Zoey felt that ache in her chest again as she watched him leave. She groaned in frustration and placed her head on her desk. This was a disaster, she needed to fix things and fast.

[btsqualityy]

Amour Vincit Omnia / 16

The next morning was Thanksgiving and when Taehyung woke up, Akira was fast asleep with her cheek pressed against his chest and her right leg wrapped around his as she cuddle up to him. 

After the whole episode at her father’s house, Taehyung drove them back to her mom’s place where Tonya demanded to know what happened once she saw the tears streaming down her daughter’s face. Akira was still pretty upset so Taehyung took over for her, explaining what had happened in the shortest terms that he could manage. Tonya was furious, rightfully so, and Taehyung almost wanted to smile as he realized that Tonya was who Akira had gotten her fierceness from. After Akira promised to talk to her mom later, Taehyung led her upstairs to her bedroom where Akira broke down into tears once again.

Taehyung wasn’t exactly sure how to feel. On one hand, he knew that Calvin and his close-mindedness was the cause of all of this but deep down, he couldn’t help but to feel like he had caused this crack to form in the relationship that Akira had with her father and that was a hard pill to swallow.

Realizing that he had to use the bathroom, Taehyung moved to get out of the bed but Akira whined against his chest and tightened her arms around him.

“I have to pee pretty girl,” he chuckled and she reluctantly moved her leg off of him as well as her arms.

“Hurry up,” she mumbled and he smiled to himself as he got out of the bed and walked over to the door, opening it and stepping into the hallway before gently shutting the door behind him.

After going to the bathroom, doing his business, and washing his hands, he stepped out of the bathroom only to literally run into somebody else.

“Akeem?” Taehyung wondered as he squinted his eyes in the dimly lit hallway.

“Hey Taehyung,” Akeem greeted him. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Bathroom,” Taehyung said as he pointed to the bathroom door behind him. “What about you?” He wondered as he looked Akeem up and down, noticing that he was fully dressed at 6am.

“Ah, I have a few girls who wanted to give me some thanks,” Akeem smirked, making Taehyung chuckle deeply. “Hey, how’s Kira doing?”

“She’s hurt,” Taehyung told him. “I think once her anger subsided, she realized what had happened and I think it’s hard on her.”

“I don’t know what she thought was going to happen,” Akeem said as he shook his head. “That man is deplorable and I’m so glad that I’m nothing like him.”

“Wait, Calvin’s your father too?” Taehyung asked and Akeem nodded. “The way that Akira told me, I just naturally assumed that the two of you had different fathers.”

“Nah, he’s my sperm donor too unfortunately,” Akeem muttered. “Our parents divorced when Akira was in her freshman year of college and I was only 12. Towards the end, our father treated our mom like shit and I can’t forgive him for that because I witnessed it all.”

“And Akira still has a relationship with him because she didn’t see it?” Taehyung questioned and Akeem nodded.

“That and she’s too damn forgiving to the wrong people,” he replied.  “I haven’t seen that man in a good three years and I don’t plan to anytime soon.”

“After meeting him yesterday, that’s completely understandable,” Taehyung joked and Akeem smiled at him.

“Can you do me a favor?” Akeem asked and Taehyung shrugged before nodding. “Look out for Kira for me? And I mean really look out for her. She has the biggest heart and she’s gonna try and act like this whole thing with our dad doesn’t bother her but she’s gonna end up breaking eventually and I’d like to know that she has someone there for her.”

“Of course,” Taehyung smiled softly. “I’m always gonna look out for her.”

“Thank man,” Akeem beamed and they slapped hands, half hugging each other afterwards. “Well, I have to get going. I can’t keep the girls waiting.”

“And you also wanna get back before your mom finds out too, right?” Taehyung pointed out.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Akeem smirked before stepping around Taehyung and heading down the stairs. Taehyung just shook his head and walked down the hall to your bedroom door, opening it and stepping inside before shutting the door behind him.

..............................

“I just cannot believe the audacity of that man,” Tonya muttered in annoyance as she angrily slammed the door to the oven after taking a pan of macaroni and cheese out.

“Mommy, can we please just stop talking about it?” Akira pleaded as she finished putting sauce on the meatballs that her mother had cooked before beginning to mix them up.

“I can’t! Not only does he go and disrespect Taehyung, who I know was nothing but respectful to him even though we all know that he doesn’t deserve it, he upset you and made you cry,” Tonya ranted. “You know that I don’t play about my kids.”

“I know Mommy.”

“If it weren’t Thanksgiving, I’d go over there and really tell him something.”

“I know Mommy,” Akira repeated. “But you were right and I should’ve known better than to take Taehyung over there.”

“Your intentions were fine Kira,” Tonya assured her as she walked over to her, taking the spoon out of Akira’s hands and mixing the meatballs herself. “It’s your father being an asshole that caused the problem, not you or Taehyung.” A few seconds of silence passed between them as Akira watched her mother’s movements. 

“Do you feel the same way?” Akira wondered quietly, finally asking the question that had been on her mind since late last night.

“About what?”

“About me dating Taehyung,” Akira clarified and Tonya stopped mixing to look over at her. “Does it bother you that he’s not black?”

“Oh my baby,” Tonya sighed as she quickly wiped her hands off onto a spare rag before setting them on Akira’s cheeks, looking into her eyes. “Of course it doesn’t bother me. I’ve always told you and your brother that I don’t care what your significant others may look like. As long as they make you happy, that’s all that matters to me.”

“And he does Mommy,” Akira nodded, feeling some tears beginning to cloud her vision. 

“I know baby, I can tell by the way you look at him,” Tonya grinned, using her thumbs to wipe Akira’s tears away before they could fall down her cheeks. “He’s good for you, that much is evident. That’s why I don’t get how your father could react like that.”

“I know but its over and done with now,” Akira shrugged before taking a deep breath and reaching up to make sure that the wetness on her face was completely gone. “I just want to enjoy the rest of my visit here with you and Keem.”

“Alright love,” Tonya smiled. “Let’s get this food out there to the boys, yeah?”

..............................

“Alright you all, let’s say grace,” Tonya said as she held her hands out, Akira grabbing ahold of her left one and Akeem grabbing onto her right one. Akira took Taehyung’s hand in her left and Akeem reached across the table and grabbed Taehyung’s free hand.

“Dear Lord, thank you so much for this food that we are about to receive. We come together today to practice mindfulness and to remind ourselves about everything that we have in our lives. Even though we are human and often forget how fortunate we all are, you still love us anyway. Please bless the hands that have prepared this food and in Jesus name we pray, Amen.”

“Amen,” everyone repeated afterwards and everyone began to pass the food around, adding healthy amounts to their individual plates.

“How’s the food Taehyung?” Tonya asked him and Taehyung looked up at her as he chewed a large mouthful, only being able to give her a thumbs up since he didn’t want to talk with his mouth full.

“God, I missed your cooking Mommy,” Akira sighed in delight after she had a bite of her mother’s yams.

“There’s no soul food restaurant in that big city?” Tonya joked.

“As if there’s a restaurant that could even come close to your cooking,” Akeem pointed out and Akira nodded in agreement.

“Literally though,” Akira laughed.

“What do you have planned for your birthday this year Kira?” Akeem wondered. 

“I’m not entirely sure yet Keem,” Akira shrugged. “Probably nothing special though, you know me.”

“Your birthday?” Taehyung interjected with a raised brow. “You didn’t tell me that your birthday was coming up.”

“She likes to downplay her day,” Tonya explained.

“It’s December 1st,” Akira told him. “And I’m not downplaying it. It’s just another day to me.”

“You should’ve told me,” Taehyung pouted and Akira laughed at his face.

“It’s not a big deal baby, really,” she swore before leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. Taehyung was about to reply but his phone started to ring in his pocket. After pulling it out and looking at the screen, his eyes widened as he saw the caller ID.

“Uh, excuse me, I have to take this,” he said as he moved to stand up. “It’s business.”

“Feel free,” Tonya nodded.

“Go ahead baby,” Akira added and Taehyung smiled lightly before walking out of the dining room. 

“Oh and speaking of birthdays,” Tonya said as she looked over at Akeem. “You sneak out of this house again, you won’t make it to your next one.”

“What?” Akeem gasped. “How did you even know that I left? Did Taehyung snitch?”

“I’m your mother and this isn’t my first rodeo,” Tonya chuckled. “Akira did it all the time and I’ve learned what the front door sounds like when it opens.”

“And Taehyung knew?” Akira asked.

“Yeah, I ran into him on my way out,” Akeem shrugged as he waved his hand. “But I just went to go hang out with Alicia.”

“It’s always just hanging out until someone gets pregnant,” Tonya said. “And I’ll kill you if you give me any grand kids before you graduate high school.”

“I’m 17 and in my last year of high school so if I got someone pregnant now, the baby would be born after I graduate so technically, I wouldn’t be breaking that rule,” Akeem explained and the death glare that Tonya gave him made Akira laugh out loud.

“Why do you always insist on stressing Mama out like that? You’re the reason that she has those grey hairs,” you joked. 

“Nah, those are from age,” Akeem snickered.

“These are from wisdom, not stress or my age,” Tonya spoke up.

“Whatever makes you feel better Ma,” Akeem muttered and Tonya reached over, smacking the back of his neck which made him yell out in pain.

“Keep playing with me little boy,” Tonya warned and Akira smiled as she watched the two of them interact. Just then, Taehyung walked back into the dining room and Akira looked up at him, noticing the frown on his face.

“Everything ok?” She asked him and he just sighed heavily before nodding his head.

“Yeah, but I have some bad news. I have to go to Korea as soon as possible,” he revealed and Akira’s eyes widened. “There’s some issue with our board and all of our shareholders are freaking out so I have to go and figure out what’s going on.”

“Isn’t it Thanksgiving there too though?” Akeem questioned and Taehyung looked over at him.

“Koreans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time that Americans do so it’s just a normal day there right now,” he explained and Akeem nodded in understanding. Taehyung then looked down at Akira, reaching down and taking her hand in his.

“I hope you’re not upset,” he muttered.

“I am a little but I understand,” she replied honestly. “When are you gonna leave?”

“I was gonna go up and pack my stuff now,” he replied.

“I’ll come help you then.”

“No no baby, you don’t have to do that,” he shook his head. “You stay here and enjoy your family ok?”

“You sure?” Akira asked and he nodded before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Ms. Tonya, thank you so much for hosting me, even though it was only for two days,” Taehyung chuckled.

“No problem sweetie, it was my pleasure. I hope you’ll come back to visit again,” she smile pointedly and Akira rolled her eyes playfully.

“Yes ma’am,” he agreed. “Akeem, it was nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you too dude and don’t forget what I asked you,” he reminded him and Taehyung nodded.

“I won’t,” he promised before looking back down at Akira. “I’ll come say goodbye to you before I leave, alright?” He said and Akira nodded before watching him walk away and hearing his footsteps going up the stairs.

“Oh great, now she’s gonna sulk for the rest of the time that she’s here,” Akeem teased and Akira pushed her leg out underneath the table and kicked him in the knee. “Ow! Ma!”

“Don’t call my name, you deserved it,” Tonya shrugged with a smile. “And don’t tease your sister. You’d feel the same way if you were in a committed relationship.”

“Yeah, doubt it,” he muttered before stuffing his mouth with more food. Tonya and Akeem continued to banter back and forth, and Akira only spoke up every once in a while as she tried to finish the food on her plate but she just couldn’t bring herself to. She really wasn’t seriously upset about Taehyung having to leave. She understood, she really did but she still didn’t want him to leave and definitely not all the way back to Korea. 

When she heard his footsteps walking back down the stairs, she got up and excused herself before walking into the front hall, where Taehyung was standing with his suitcase at his feet and looking down at his phone.

“Going now?” Akira spoke up and he looked up from his phone, smiling sadly as he nodded his head.

“Come here pretty girl,” he beckoned as he put his phone into his jacket pocket and Akira walked over to him, giggling when he set his hands on her hips and pulled her forward so that her chest was pressed against his.

“Gonna miss you,” she whispered as she set her hands on his shoulders.

“Gonna miss you too. I’m sorry that I have to leave,” he apologized again.

“It sucks but I know you have to be a responsible empire owner,” she joked, making Taehyung laugh heartily.

“Oh, and I’m gonna have my plane fly back here to take you home to New York on Sunday so that you don’t have to worry about finding a flight,” Taehyung told her.

“Tae you don’t have to do that. I’m sure that I can find another flight back home.”

“It’s the holiday weekend and even if you did manage to find a flight, you’d probably have to pay a ridiculously high price for it,” he replied with a raised brow and Akira sighed. “Just let me do that for you.”

“Ok, ok,” she acquiesced as he leaned forward and pressed kisses all over her face, making her laugh loudly. When he stopped and she managed to get her laughing under control, they made eye contact before Taehyung pressed his lips to hers. The kiss quickly grew passionate, with Akira looping her arms around Taehyung’s neck as Taehyung used the grip that he had on her waist to pull her closer to him. When they finally did pull away, it was only because they both needed to breathe and they both smiled softly as Taehyung let his forehead fall against Akira’s.

“I love you,” Akira whispered into the small space between them and she could feel his pulse quicken from where her arms were around his neck. She almost wanted to take it back when he didn’t make any obvious moves to say anything back, but she wasn’t going to be apologetic for how she felt. She loved him and she had known it for a while now.

“I love you too,” he replied back with a wide grin. Akira looked up at him, using her fingers to play with the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Text me when you land?” She said and he nodded, pressing another kiss to her lips before pulling away. 

“I’ll see you back in New York ok?” He said and she nodded, smiling softly as she watched him grab his suitcase and walk out of the house. She sighed dreamily until she heard a soft snicker from the other room.

“Ew, she’s in love,” Akeem huffed and Akira heard him scream along with a smack, so she figured that her mother had hit him again. Smiling widely, she just shook her head and walked back into the dining room. 

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Season 15 - Auditions 6

10: Crystal Powell. Well...I liked the national anthem bit...Reminded me of that funny Maya Rudolph sketch from SNL...

9: Michael Yo. This wasn't my favorite comedian either, but I guess he had some relatable material...At age 31, I dread the coming midlife...

8: Brandon Leake. At the very least, this was an interesting GB pick...Although I don't think he's the FIRST poet we've seen on the show...I vaguely remember a poet trying out for the show FOREVER ago, but he wasn't very good and got buzzed out...I might argue that spoken word doesn't gel the best with this kind of show, but nonetheless it IS a talent, and this guy did a good job with it...My only REAL criticism is the whole manipulative build-up leading up to him revealing that his sister died as a baby in the performance...I figured about as much before that (Why else would he bring her up in the package?), and the whole thing about her being there with him was ESPECIALLY set-up...I liked him for what he was, and I am very curious to see how this act plays out this season...

7: Kenadi Dodds. There's one thing I can guarantee you: If she makes the live shows (and I don't see why she wouldn't), she is going to be UNSTOPPABLE with the votes! Between the country singing and the sob story (especially when we're talking about a sob story that's constantly developing over the act's time on the show), she has every factor needed to suck votes in like a vacuum! Luckily, she is a good singer and a decent songwriter, so if she can stand out enough, she's okay with me!

6: Shevon Nieto. Same thing with this lady, though she scores extra points for having a VERY unique and powerful voice! The singing category's looking to be a tough one this year...even though none of them look like they'll win...I'm still pushing for W.A.F.F.L.E. Crew...And on a side note, it's kinda crazy that we're having former Olympians and E! interviewers competing now, doing things that are different than what they've formerly established themselves as...

5: CA Wildcats. I guess this is the best cheerleading act I've seen on the show so far, and the moves were impressive enough...Then again, V.Unbeatable could almost pass as a cheerleading act...Either way, it's nothing that's gonna really stick with me, though the original music they have playing in the background that's like a cross between a remix and those interludes you hear on radio stations gave me SOMETHING to remember...

4: Elijah. Forget that band I brought up previously, with this kid, Tyler Butler-Figueroa, Brian King Joseph and Lindsey Stirling, we now have the necessary members to put together a groovin' string quartet! (Okay, I guess one of the other three will have to switch their violin out for a viola...) Naturally, he can't jump around and dance with that big thing like the others do, but for his age, he shows a lot of promise! Some scratchy notes here and there, but even more lovely and creative notes as well! (Oh yeah, and one thing other acts have OVER singers is that Simon can be displeased with the backing track, and still let them through without making them do another performance!) This really is the season of extreme instrumentalists, as the next two entries in this list will also show you...

3: Jacob Velazquez. Another of those acts that pulled the ol' “I do this, but what I'm not going to tell anybody is that I also do THIS!” But I'll give him a pass on it, since his piano playing was beautiful (as was his original composition), and his drumming was next-level! Elijah may be very good for his age, but this kid is a straight-up prodigy!

2: Brothers Gage. Not the FIRST harmonica players we've seen on the show, but still blow the old-timers we've seen in the past out of the water! Though I can't help but wonder if I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle other instruments, as well as vocals, or if I think they should just stick with the harmonicas...I'll wait and see what I think is best for them (not that my opinion matters...)

1: Wesley Williams. I'm willing to admit when Simon is right...This guy really DOESN'T mess around! All I can really say is that I wonder how he can top this...With an even TALLER unicycle? Well, either way, I think it's only fitting that I put this at the top of the list, and I hope his good looks will be enough to get him far in this game!

Not my favorite audition, but again, there were a few standouts, and there were parts I liked with ALL of the acts...Even the ones that got rejected had some entertaining aspects to them...(For instance, that one magician with the comic-style graphics was weird, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wondering what more he could do...) Okay, everyone except the “air guitarist”...Romeo Dance Cheetah was a better “air guitarist”...

I have been wondering if next week (since there are no new episodes), I should take the time to go through the acts from the “At Home” videos, but I'm not sure whether or not they'll actually cover them the week after for the last audition...I'll probably just take the week off and see what they do, and if nothing else, I can cover them the week after when they show the “Best Of” episode...

This season is either going to be the longest season ever, or the shortest, depending on the circumstances...But until then, we'll see how they handle it all...

[anellope]

Need and in the snow for reddie?

This is...long. I don’t know why, there just a lot of Bill appreciation and Loser club love, sorry XD

It was a unanimous decision, a promise that had been made at the beginning of the last year of high school, taking away a fear that seemed to have been heavier than the college choice itself. 

Every year, for the Christmanukkah party (official name established by the creative and amazing Richie Wentworth Tozier) and for the summer holidays they would always find themselves having fun, drinking and spending some wonderful time all together back in Derry.

They were the Losers, after all, and they would never let even millions of kilometers separate them for too much to long.

Luckily there was not some strange demonic curse to make them forget about each other the moment they hung out of their hometown. Or something like that.

That end would have sucked after all.

Anyway.

Five years had passed since that promise, and many things had changed, but not the bond that united them, that had remained the same, strong, relationship which had always kept them together, and that had brought them, even that year, to meet up in Derry to exchange Christmannukkah's gifts. 

Well... not all of them.

Who most anxiously awaited the time for coming together every year was Bill Denbrough, the leader of the group. Everyone was looking forward to it, marking on their adults calendars the famous free week, but Bill's smiles were always the biggest, the hugs always the tightest. It was hard not to notice how bad it felt every time someone failed to make it, like the year before with Stanley, or the previous summer with both Bev and Eddie, and the young writer would go on until his own end with the awareness, never said aloud, that he never would have met in his life better friends than the one he had when he was 12.

And maybe that was the worst part for everyone when Mike got the call.

"I'm sorry guys, I... I had organized everything, as usual, but then the thing with the publisher happened, the possibility of going to a more focused school in Europe and all... I really would do anything but the costs are... the line and the apartment... my parents help me as much as they can but I can't ask them to anticipate me a flight to America, interrupting my studies already behind due to the sudden move, I... I am broke, friends of mine."

"Ohh c’mon! Don't whine like that Big Bill, you’ll make me cry!" Richie had said, leaping forward and putting himself in the foreground of the camera (hiding Bill from Eddie's sight, who snorted annoyed and pushed him for an answer, causing him to move and let him space to come to his side). "I'll keep your slice of Mike's pie safe!" He continued.

"You have a big change right there, Bill, it is right that you enjoy it, even last year I couldn’t come, but it's okay." murmured Stan, eyeing from the top of the arm of the sofa and gently smiling at him.

"It's right! You’d better be happy, eh! Or we all come to you on purpose to hit you!” Beverly stated with a bold sneer, then raising the glass of sparkling wine in his hand, as a toast. "Cheers!" The others raised their glasses too.

"You are wonderful guys, I miss you so much... I can't wait summer, there, the world  may even fall, but you will find me in front of Mike's door two weeks in advance!" Bill chuckled, with his improvised at the moment glass full of water, taking a theatrical sip, then making a face "It’s sparkling... yeeks."

They all laughed at his disgusted expression, then a female voice called him, making him turn as red as his hair.

"Ohhhh, Audra is there with you, big boy?" Richie scoffed "So maybe we should do more than a toast tonight! Do you understand Eds? He abandoned us here like dogs for his redhead! "

Eddie let his shoulder be surrounded by the other's arm, allowing without resistance him to be closer.

"Unforgivable" he grinned at the screen, watching as his friend sticked his tongue out to both.

"I have to go now, guys, it was nice to hear you... maybe we'll call each other again later, okay?"

"Okay, Big Bill, enjoy Europe and your British girl," Ben said with an amused smile.

"I'll do it," smiled Bill, watching them all with relief: he had done well to call them, although he now missed them maybe a little more than before. "And don't let Richie eat my piece of cake, Mike deserves it."

"Hey!"

"Always too generous."

"Bye guys."

The call was interrupted and Mike put his phone away, still with that smiled smile in face.

The evening went on for the better and, between a laugh and a bottle -three- of liquor, it soon became very late.

The first to leave were Ben and Bev, strangely it was the third year in a row that they left Mike's farm together, but no one had the courage to have a finger in their romantic situation: the important thing was that they were happy, taking a way and a the time more appropriate to them, it was enough there was no cheat in between (but for that they trusted their friends).

Then also Stan decided it was time to go, hugging all the rest of them, almost like a goodbye, letting go in Mike's arms a little longer than Eddie and Richie, muttering a sleepy "Hi".

Stan was much more physical when he was drunk.

"Excuse me, what was that?" Eddie asked with an amused grin, sprawled on the couch with his head resting on Richie's legs.

"Nothing," Mike replied, too quickly to be taken seriously.

Richie, a hand playing with the hem of Eddie's sweater and the other one caressing his hair, giggled "And how was it nothing, did we miss some episodes of your TV show?"

"Noooo! But Bill and I share the monthly payment!" Eddie complained, making the other laugh, which for a second distracted the shortest from the entire situation.

"You are ridiculous, he has a girlfriend, Patty... beautiful, very kind, too good for this world? Does it say anything to you?" Mike murmured, not quite downcast by the direction he was suddenly taking the speech. Perhaps this is why they often found themselves talking about it only when alcohol was involved.

"Aaaand you all could have a threesome! Think about the benefits, Mikey! The benefits! "

" Okay, it's late, get the fuck out, clowns, we're all too drunk for this talk." Mike said, blushing and helping Eddie get up off his couch. He huffed in response but still let himself be pulled up like a cat. Richie followed him a few seconds, standing back to his side and lazily resting his head on the other’s shoulder. Eddie didn’t even flinch.

"And you even dare try to lecture me, Ben and Bev 2.0, unbelievable ..." Mike muttered as he accompanied them to the door, watching them put their jackets awkwardly.

"What did you say, Mikey?"

"Nothing important, goodnight guys, and don't get hit by some car, please!"

"Night, farmboy!"

But what Mike had said was important, because actually Beverly and Ben weren't the only story in which the rest of the Losers had decided not to poke their nose and "let go", but both boys were too caught up in each other to realize the looks they were given.

No coincidence at all was that even that evening they had spent it stuck, leaving nothing and no one could put themselves between them after months of just video calls, pretending that it was something totally normal for two dear friends in their group of dear friends.

But the others saw the looks, the light contacts, the words that they didn't have the courage to say, and they were rather scared they would never be able to reveal it, but maybe, maybe that was just the right evening. The chosen one.

"So ... here we are." Richie murmured, looking at the large house in front of him. As a child he had always liked the white walls and windows covered with colored curtains; despite Sonia the house had always seemed bright to him. But now he understood what had actually changed since then, what had made it distort, yellowed, saddened.

The difference, and Richie knew it well, was that Eddie no longer lived there, now Richie no longer climbed that window on the side, secretly spending the evening with his crush. And so there was nothing to call him back to that house: because his friend was already beside him, shoulder to shoulder, hands that had touched each other through all the way home. And Richie, for the first time, had hoped that house would never appear around the corner. Yet there it was.

"Yeah ..." Eddie just said, turning and looking at his face. He burst out laughing.

"What?" Richie asked, lost, the other denied his head with that big grin on his face.

"Oh nothing ... grandpa" and he laughed again, then he raised his arm towards his head, running a gloved hand through his hair, dropping a few flakes of snow that had settled on the uncovered curls. Richie missed his breath, Eddie was red in the face, but it was difficult to say why, he was still drunk, cold and... intent on combing it, in short.

Don't put your head up, you idiot, you should have moved on. A little voice said in his head, a little voice that Richie knew well, belonging to the very person who at that moment was touching every strand with surgical attention.

"Here, now you're 24 again." Eddie murmured, smiling happily at him.

"But look at you." Richie grinned in amusement "I don't say anything when you wear woolen gloves and then you tease me for the snow, the audacity."

He put his hand on his cheek, which without alcohol he would never have been able to do without the accompaniment of a stupid joke. Eddie winced.

"You have cold hands," he said, but did nothing to get away from the touch.

Fuck it, you didn't moved on.

Richie was about to move away, or at least lower his hands so as not to annoy his friend, when Eddie stopped him, taking both hands and bringing them to the sides of his face.

Eddie was burning.

"I told you you had to put on gloves too, jackass."

Eddie felt Richie's hands sink down to his neck, his slender fingers brushing it under the collar of his jacket.

"Ngh" ran away from his lips as he shivered with cold and something else down his back.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

"Eds-" murmured Richie breathlessly "I need ... I mean, if you're not okay with this it’s better that you make me immediately get it because-"

He didn't even have time to finish.

Eddie had canceled the distances, quickly making room in Richie's mouth, kissing at least five soft kisses on his lower lip without fear or doubt. Not anymore.

He looked up, meeting Richie's, wide and darker than ever.

Neither of them said anything, there was no need for it after twenty years. They collided together again as if it was the only thing that mattered at the moment, Eddie brought his hands to the other's face, grunting in his inability to feels him. He took off his gloves in quick annoyed tugs, not even bothering to push his lips away from Richie’s in doing so.

"Take that smile off your face or I'll tear your tongue out with my teeth, Tozier!"

The other chuckled "Kinky."

"I'm trying to make out with you, shut the fuck up!" He admonished him again, fastening his arms to his neck and practically collapsing on him.

Richie simply laughed, starting to kiss him again, hugging him closer. It had not yet stopped snowing.

Permataglist: @tinyarmedtrex @madi-personal (ask if you want to be added!)

Ask me more from this (too many kissings, time to change) or freely! 

[cactibarber]

Monster Factory

So I may have decided to write my first fanfic and it may be an awful crackfic between My Brother, My Brother, and Me and The Magnus Archives- two podcasts with completely complimentary humor, tone, and storylines. 

Since it’s my first fanfic- please give me advice/critique! It’s been forever since I’ve written anything non-scientific so I need the practice lol

I’m planning on this only being the first chapter so stay tuned I guess! I don’t have an AO3 account yet, but I’m planning on putting it up there too. 

anyways enjoy the mcelroys annoying the shit out of jon sims or whatever (and also some jonmartin)

Jon tapped his fingers on his desk slowly, while he listened to the clock behind him tick on. Slowly. So, so slowly. He sighed, trying to relax his shoulders past their usual home of “right near his ears”. His boredom started to reach and stretch into that little part of his mind that could See™, but he quickly sucked those boredom tendrils back in.

After his “encounter” with Peter Lukas, nothing much had happened in the institute. Elias had disappeared after his brief meeting with him in the Panopticon, Basira had returned with a slightly more aggravated than usual Daisy in tow, and life at the Magnus Institute had gone back to whatever semblance of normal it had had beforehand. And it was driving Jon insane. He was constantly worrying about where Elias was, if Julia and Trevor were still staking out the institute, and what if Peter Lukas hadn’t been lying about the Extinction, and he was just about to miss the ritual- 

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts, and Jon looked up quickly. Martin’s round, perpetually slightly worried face peeked through the crack in the door. Jon looked up and smiled, shoulders dropping at least halfway back to their anatomically correct position. “Martin,” he said excitedly. “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine, Jon,” Martin replied. He nervously tapped his fingers against the doorframe, looking as if he had marbles in his mouth, and he was rolling them around trying to find the right one.

“We’re still on for tonight, if that’s what you were wondering,” Jon said hurriedly. “Unless-”

“Oh, no- that’s not what I was here to talk to you about,” Martin interrupted. “I mean that’s good-”

“Great, then-”

“Well, there’s another- thing- that’s come up,” he finished. 

“Oh lord,” Jon groaned. “Is it those two again? We should make sure Daisy and Basira know, and get ready to pull the fire alarm-”

“No, no,” Martin interrupted again. “It’s not them, but Rosie said we might have to watch out for anyone taking the east route since it’s full of alleys that they could be hiding in, but that’s not the point.” Martin drummed the doorframe again, taking a second before he said, “Someone wants to give a statement.”

Jon’s reaction was immediate- his shoulders shot up and he slumped in his chair, trying to make himself smaller than he already was. But his eyes seemed to light up, with a ferocity only seen in wild animals and slighted moms at soccer games. “Martin, you know I can’t- I said I wouldn’t- not to another person. Especially after-”

“Yes, I know, and I told them that I could take the statement for them, but the older one started talking about “taking it to the top”, and, well, I feel that, well, I think that we might need a little help from the Eye.”

“What does that even mean- wait. The older one, as in, there are multiple people trying to give a statement?”

“tmfhree.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said, three. Three people are outside waiting to get their collective statement taken.” 

Martin quickly slipped into Jon’s office and shut the door to keep the very loud curse Jon let out inside. 

“Come on, Jon. It won’t be so bad. You might not even have to compel them or anything-”

“Oh, I won’t have to compel them? That makes it so much better, Martin, that I don’t have to compel them. It’s not like you’re basically showing me, no, giving me, a five-course meal when I’m on a diet-”

“Jon-”

“And I know that when- if- I give in, everything will be ruined again. And- and I’ve been making progress, I swear, and-”

“Jon.” Martin brought his hands down on Jon’s shoulders heavily. Jon shakily breathed in, grounding himself through the added weight, and the warmth of Martin’s hands. “Look at me.” When Jon refused to look up from the hole he was drilling into the table with his eyes, Martin gently cupped his chin and raised his head to meet his eyes. “If you really don’t want to take their statement, you don’t have to. I’ll do my best, or get Rosie to send them along. But, their situation is a bit immediate, and they need help. And I know, that you’re worried about what happened before, but I trust you to, you know, rein yourself in.” 

Martin suddenly realized the position he was in, and flushed red, quickly trying to extract his hand from its position on Jon’s face, but Jon moved quicker, pressing his own hand into Martin’s. “Okay,” he muttered quietly. “I’ll do it.”

A slight smile spread across Martin’s face, and he rubbed his thumb in circles on Jon’s scarred skin. “Okay,” he said softly. Martin reluctantly pulled his hand away and moved toward the door. “By the way, if you do scar or retraumatize them awfully, you shouldn’t worry about them too much.” Martin opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “They’re Americans.”

Jon shifted in his chair, waiting for his customers? Patients? To step in. He caught a tape recorder in the corner of his eye, and moved to grab it and place it in the center of his desk. It wouldn’t hurt to seem a bit more professional, he thought, as he willfully ignored the state that his office was in. He heard multiple voices and what sounded like the footsteps of a monster with thirty feet coming down the hallway. “Come in,” he said sharply, before Martin could knock on the door. 

Martin opened the door and let in three men in their early 30’s. The contrast between them startled Jon, and it took a while to let the wild picture in front of him sink in.

The tallest man had bright purple hair and a beard, and what looked like eyeliner behind his glasses. He was wearing what could only be described as a cowboy shirt, and the look was completed with his dark brown cowboy boots. The oldest looking of the three was wearing a garishly neon Hawaiian shirt with a bright green fanny pack, with some weird designs on it. The shortest and youngest-looking looked like he could work in the financial department of the institute. He looked absolutely normal. No, not normal- boring. 

  But that wasn’t the whole deal. Because each one of these men was talking. Whether they were talking to each other or to Martin or Jon or just to thin air was incomprehensible, and Jon felt a migraine coming on. 

“So you’re the big boss, right? The big dog of this little establishment,” the purple-haired man said.

“Well-” Jon started.

“C’mon Trav, the big boss boy wouldn’t have this small of an office,” the Hawaiian shirt man interrupted. “Not that there’s anything wrong with your office,” he said quickly. “It’s homey and cozy in here but I would expect-”

“A penthouse office in the middle of Central London?” the youngest one interjected. “Are you kidding me? How many stories did you see on the building when we walked in, Justin?”

“How many stories a building has has nothing to do with it, Griffin! I”m just saying that-”

“That you’d expect a weird cryptid magic institution to have nice offices? This is probably one of their front offices, and they have the nice ones, you know with the haunted stuff and ghost circles and-” The purple-haired man broke off and turned to Jon. “Not that we have anything against haunted stuff or ghost circles, but-”

“But that’s not what we’re here about, we discussed this, that we weren’t gonna get sidetracked and now look at you trying to get a job here-”

“I’m not trying to get a job here, I’m just saying-”

Jon desperately looked up at Martin, pleading with his eyes for him to stay. Martin smiled, a little too cruelly for his liking, and waved to Jon as he left, shutting the door quietly behind him. 

“Gentlemen,” Jon began, raising his voice over the din. “Please- can we start with names?”

“Oh, of course,” the oldest one said, pushing the other two over to the chairs in front of Jon’s desk. “We’re the McElroy brothers-”

“You might have heard of us from our great bits in Trolls 2,” the youngest one said brightly.

“Trolls World Tour, Griffin, I told you. And I don’t think he’s even watched Trolls 1 so-”

“How would you know that? You don’t know him, he might be the biggest Trolls fan in England-”

Jon cleared his throat, and when it didn’t stop the deluge of conversation, cleared it again. By the time the three men heard him, it sounded like he was trying to hack out a hairball. “Gentlemen-”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” the older man said, shooting the other two a dirty glare. “Like I was saying, we’re the McElroys- I’m Justin McElroy, and these are my two dipshit brothers Travis,” he said, pointing at the purple-haired man, “and Griffin.”

“You didn’t let us introduce ourselves,” Travis pouted. He turned to Jon. “We have this thing we like to do, and I get to say that I’m the middlest-”

“That doesn’t matter Travis, we’re not recording an episode of the fucking podcast,” Griffin said exasperatedly. “Sorry for being blue, but we’re here to talk about some real nasty shit,” he said, whispering the last word. 

Jon took the opportunity to jump into the conversation. “Yes, what are you here to talk about? Martin said it was rather urgent.” 

For once, there was silence in the room, as the three brothers shared glances. The silence went on for a bit too long, until Griffin elbowed Justin in the side. “Ow- I guess since my brothers have decided that they have lost all use of their vocal cords, which is great for our careers, by the way, that I’ll explain.” Griffin rolled his eyes and Travis stifled a giggle. 

Jon, out of habit, reached to turn on the tape recorder, and was only mildly surprised to see that it was already running. Maybe there was a statement here after all. “What is this regarding?” he asked seriously, willfully ignoring the glances at the outdated technology.

“Well,” Justin started, “it’s about, I mean it’s a bit hard to explain.” He stopped abruptly and ran his fingers through his hair. “We-”

“We saw our video game monsters last night,” Griffin interrupted.

Jon sighed, deeper and fuller than he had ever sighed before. “Statement of the...McElroy brothers, regarding,” another deep, deep sign, “video game monsters come to life. Statement recorded direct from subjects, 1st October, 2018. Statement begins.”

[nodesiretogrowup]

I LOVED THIS EPISODE! It was nice to have a kid-focused episode. The past few have focused a lot on the adults, so it was nice to see the kids in the spotlight again. It was SO COOL to see the kids playing off each other. We NEED more of it next season. Lena is my daughter, so I was happy to see her back, though I’d rather she not have to suffer.

Spoilers and more detailed thoughts below:

YAY NERF GUNS! Also, it was super sweet of the boys to reassure Lena that they know she’s a good guy now. 

LOVED all the different jammies on display. I usually rock something similar to Lena and Violet. Dewey in the footie pajamas gives me LIFE. And Huey with his hat. I’m surprised he didn’t say something along the lines of “Warm head, warm dreams.”

Super cute that Lena set this all up. My baby wants friends.

“Self defense weapons, all manner of booby trap.” I feel like Violet would have suggested having those no matter what. I love my slightly feral nerd daughter.

Beakley for BEST bodyguard.

“Nothing weird is gonna happen at this slumber party.” Webby, babe, you’re just ASKING for trouble.

Lena’s little song and cake! MY HEART! I think Huey may have drawn some inspiration from that cake, lol

“Time loses all meaning in the infinite night of the shadow realm.” HELP THIS CHILD! And again, I think Donald would be the perfect parent for her.

“You are a wordsmith!” Webby LOVES her shadow gf.

THE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS! AND THEY MATCHED EACH KID! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS GIRL!

Of course Louie is suspicious. He was wary of his mom AND just spent the last episode getting betrayed by Goldie.

“You literally sound like that now.” Huey, you need to learn how to read a room.

“That’s just my voice, I can’t help it!” I feel ya there. And a nice bit of foreshadowing

“I’ve found it’s clearer to convey no emotion whatsoever.” Also not a good way to talk to people.

Aw, Lena. Like Webby said, you don’t have to prove yourself. That seems to be a running theme this season. Dewey wants to prove himself to his mom, Louie wants to prove himself to anyone, and Della wants to prove that she is a good mom and fits into this family.

“That makes you super-extra-good, right?” “Math checks out.” You two share one (1) brain cell and that’s adorable.

Webby has no table manners and that is valid.

“LET’S EAT PURE SUGAR!” That is just a bad idea in general, much less for Huey.

What happened to Huey? Why was his mouth all grey?

“You know who my best friend is?” “Me.” “Sleep.” A.) Mood, B.) Dewey’s face is PRICELESS! You can’t win them all.

Sleeping Beakley is TERRIFYING.

“It might be sleepy-time.” Webby, you are TOO PRECIOUS!

Anyone getting some Nightmare on Elm Street vibes? Specifically the third one? I guess that was what they were going for, what with the title and all.

Concerned girlfriend is concerned.

MY POOR BABY! HASN’T SHE SUFFERED ENOUGH?!

“Do you need, *whispers* you-know-what paper?” Not sure if Beakley told her toilet isn’t something you should go around saying or if Webby doesn’t want to embarrass anyone. Either way, cute!

Lena pulls of Dewey’s do well.

One of the most precious moments ever! And a reminded that they are still pretty young.

WEBBY IS SUCH A GOOD FRIEND/GIRLFRIEND! *happy tears*

LOVED the shot of Lena with the stars reflected in her eyes.

Heck, the animation for all the dreams is AMAZING! I love how you can INSTANTLY TELL whose dream we’re in.

I’m glad they figured out that they were in a shared dream early. Gives us more time for wacky dream shenanigans!

Webby/hamburgers is otp

I like that they used the “you can’t read in dreams” thing. Nice touch. It looks like at least Launchpad, Scrooge, and Donald had a corresponding emoji.

“Why are you dialing a banana?” DREAM LOGIC!

SWORD HORSE!

Webby CANONLY kins Scrooge!

EXTREMELY EXTREME OBSTACLE COURSE

Louie putting a stop to unicorn shenanigans before they begin.

Those directions. Better than Penny’s at least.

Violet is blunt and to the point. She’s probably a Virgo.

LIVING for all the cartoony sound effects!

POOR LENA! AND YAY SUPPORTIVE WEBBY! Also, love Louie in the background being confused as fuck.

That cute little smile! I WOULD DIE FOR LENA!

I don’t think the whole “don’t wake a sleepwalker” thing is actually valid in real life, but here it’s probably a goodish idea. Magic is weird and unpredictable.

“LET’S FLY, BECAUSE WE CAAAAAAN!” I like the way you think. I love that Louie’s wings have dollar signs. And Lena’s bat wings are DOPE.

“I HATE WALKING!” Louie is MOOD.

Huey and Dewey crashing, lol

That unicorn got DEEP. And I now crackship him and Manny.

Lena walked into Snow White.

“I probably grew horrible bat wings for non-evil reasons.” It’s because you are a baby goth.

“I ATE A BUG!” Dewey, you are a special boy and that’s valid.

“Ew, Webby, why is there a school in your dream?” Again, Louie is MOOD.

Ugh, I wish I could make out what the sign in front of the school says. I see EXCELLENCE though.

Dewey CONFIRMED HSM fan. And I’m getting some Saved By The Bell vibes. He’s binged ALL the high school classics. This is probably how Mabel dreamed high school would look like before the crushing slap of reality hit her.

His hair and jacket. Too cute, expect for his hair being alive. That was freaky. I fear for him when he learns what high school is actually like.

His song. Dewey is in for HEARTBREAK. LIVE YOUR DREAM WHILE YOU CAN!

I know most people are going with Dewey is bi after the whole romantic interest thing, but I feel like he might be aro/ace. Dewey is threatened by choosing a romantic partner. I’ve kind of always seen him as ace though, so it might just be me. Or it could be him trying to figure out his sexuality, which is cool. I love that the crew threw that in. The boy is not straight in any way though.

I love that Dewey’s singing rivals are Beagle Boys.

“Who knows what that’s about?” “I have some theories.” SYMBOLISM!

Dewey Dude is upsetting even BEFORE it turned into Magica.

The balance between comedy and STRAIGHT UP HORROR was handled well.

Lena has watched Wizard of Oz.

“You ruined my big dance!” Priorities, Dewey. Louie looks relieved though.

Dewey’s hair looked super cute when it was wet.

Why did he and Lena taste the water? Is there some sort of significance there?

“I just failed a class called Dew-ology.” “Well I’m the class Dew-torian.” That’s stretching it, Dewey.

“I gotta get outta here.” Haha, Dewey’s dream is Huey’s nightmare.

Louie-field. I WANT PLUSHIES. Also, Louie confirmed furry?

“This is your dream? To be even lazier?” Don’t be a hater, Huey! Louie’s got the right idea.

Wonder if Beakley taking care of Louie-field means anything.

Seriously, Huey is SUCH a hater! He wants out of Dewey’s dream and he mocks Louie’s.

“HOW ARE YOU SLEEP-SLEEPING?” Don’t hate cause you ain’t. Also, I have napped in a dream once so....

Louie’s sleep face is MAJESTIC. HE’S BEAUTY, HE’S GRACE.

“I just am.” Louie is so wise.

Wolf Lena is BEST

Violet, there is a better way to talk about people’s psychological issues.

Why would you choose the litter box?

“WHY, HUEY, WHY?!” No arguments here.

I’m the eldest sibling like Huey and I’m the shortest of the three of us, so I get you, Huey. But there are better, cooler, less upsetting ways to manifest that dream. Like switching bodies with a tall person.

His legs make rubber band noises when he moves.

“Don’t listen to him! Follow your lame dreams.” What a supportive brother.

Huey’s dream is Dewey’s nightmare. Nice.

I too use my feet to do things, like opening doors or getting stuff off the floor. But opening jars of FOOD?! UNSANITARY AND YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

Someone is a Spinel fanboy.

Or is he Slender-Huey?

“And it’s my dream to be in a montage.” While it is pretty dope, why does Dewey get two dreams?! Greedy little bastard. Are we sure he’s not the evil triplet, lol.

HERE’S HOW PHOOEY CAN WIN! Liked that they implied he’s the evil one. He’s a yellow, less 90s Dippy Fresh.

JUST SAY NO TO PHOOEY! His name means the f-word.

MORE DRAGON BALL Z!

NERD ALERT! 

Huey has found a kindred soul.

I like that Violet even has Quackfaster as a librarian.

“It’s almost 6am!” Your old man is showing. Sidenote-I tend to wake up around 6. I’m old.

“Go get some jobs!” Scrooge, do you know about child labor laws?

This is the second episode of this set that Scrooge comes off as a bit of a prick.

POOR LENA! At least all the kids care about her. The poor girl needs some friends.

“She’s gonna be cold without her sweater!” His heart’s in the right place.

I love that all the kids jump in after Webby immediately. NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND.

Louie just spinning in the background.

“I think this is more nightmare.” Thank you, Captain Obvious.

I want that castle as a playset.

Good lord this scene was hard to watch. It reminded me a lot of Raven in Ever After High (and Teen Titans Raven too). She’s so afraid of being predestined to become evil that it’s consuming her to the point that she can’t see anything else and feels stuck. Some of this really hit close to home for me because I deal with depression and anxiety and when a big episode hits it’s hard to find my way out. Luckily, just like Lena, I have a good support system.

 Magica gaslighting Lena was really upsetting to see.

Lena becoming Magica then a literal monster? LET MY DAUGHTER HAVE PEACE!

“Ugh, why does everything I say sound sarcastic?” Callback

Was that a hint at a Gargoyles reboot? I JOKE TO EASE THE PAIN!

#youtriedDewey

Dewey’s spinny eyes, lol

Webby is most competent fighter

Poor Louie. The past two episode have not been kind to him physically.

Lena will ALWAYS be there for Webby.

POOR LENA!

HURRAY FOR SUPPORTIVE FRIENDS!

FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC, BITCH!

“It’s fine, FINE!” Just wait for puberty, Huey. It will be slightly less disturbing.

I TOTALLY CALLED THAT THIS WAS A PLOT FOR MAGICA TO GET HER POWERS BACK! YAY FOR BEING RIGHT!

Magica is meth aunt.

“I don’t need you. You need me!” THAT’S MY GIRL!

FERAL

I bet Magica is gonna lie about still having powers so she can get close enough to Lena to regain her powers and stab everyone in the back. Whether or not she succeeds... 

Boyd and Lena should start a club. The “I thought/felt like I was a real, flesh and blood being, had an existential crises over it, and am trying to deal with my evil relative” club. Huey’s the moderator, he’s working on his consoling badge.

[sailor-cresselia]

Kamen Rider Zi-O 49: Finale

…You know what? No preamble this time. Let’s just do this.

Kamen Rider Zi-O episode 49: Season Finale.

Let’s go.

––––

We re-open with Tsukuyomi’s transformation into Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi!

Geiz is surprised, he didn’t see this coming. Woz and Sougo are both impressed, and Tsukuyomi… throws her hand forward… and… pauses everything…

Except Swartz.

Um.

She goes up to him, and.

Um.

Bows. To him. Dropping her transformation.

And says that she has obtained the powers of a Kamen Rider, and that she will be useful to her brother. That she’s royalty, too, and will do whatever it takes to save the world.

Um. Tsukuyomi? You are pretending, right? This is part of a plot to catch him off guard, right?

Because, uh, your expression isn’t one of, you know, devotion or satisfaction, or even resignation. You look like you don’t want to do this, so. Uh.

Please be faking?

Please?!

––––

If she’s not, and if she doesn’t transform again, this is the shortest Female Rider stint we’ve had. Didn’t think anything would beat Alia’s ‘literally one fight before becoming a prisoner’ run as Necrom-P, but…

––––

Woz’s recap – Oh HELLO.

The recap vault? You know how it has an appearance in the opening, with burning pages falling from the ceiling?

Guess what’s starting to fall around Woz right now.

The contents of his recap are simple. Thanks to Sougo’s efforts, Tsukuyomi’s become a Kamen Rider. And then she defected, which nobody saw coming. This is the last page until the end of the world.

––––

There are no opening credits today. We go right from Woz’s vault to the show title, to the sponsor segment, and to the episode itself.

––––

Tsukuyomi and Swartz stand on a rooftop at night, under a blood-red moon. He asks why they had her become a Kamen Rider.

Her answer? It was part of Tsukasa’s plan, because, according to him, her and Swartz’s world is trying to end because there are no Riders.

Swartz looks… I don’t know if that’s confused, frustrated, or ‘oh shit, I didn’t think of that.’

––––

It actually kind of works with Decade’s lore, too. If a world enters a Kamen Rider season, it has to have Kamen Riders, or it will start to collapse in on itself… even if that world isn’t supposed to have Kamen Riders. The Sentai-verse got a bit screwy when he crossed over with Shinkenger, to the point of the monster-of-the-day becoming Another Diend.

I wish I were kidding about that, but that MOTW was the OG Another Rider.

And we’ve only ever really visited one world that doesn’t, technically speaking, have Kamen Riders in the series that I can remember – during Heisei Generations FOREVER. At which point, Futaros’s actions in bringing Riders there started to mess with the fabric of space-time, to the point of old monsters just showing up, uncontrollably, with nobody there to stop them.

You know.

Like has been happening here.

––––

Okay, so I don’t think they told Geiz about this plan, but Woz and Sougo both knew.

Can… can Geiz just not lie? I mean, he’s super blunt about everything, and Tsukasa did say that his acting was horrible… Did they realize that he would somehow spill the Rider Tsukuyomi part of the plan, and not tell him that part? Because that’s the only reason I can think of for him to not know.

It does also allow us our exposition, though, so that’s something.

Tsukasa starts to detail the plan. By making Tsukuyomi into a Rider, her world could be restored. Thus, as Geiz points out, creating a ‘World of Tsukuyomi,’ not unlike the AR worlds in Decade, that they could use as a refuge from the currently-ending world they’re on now.

Woz says that she’s become a rider, so that means the plan is a success, isn’t it?

Tsukasa isn’t so sure. There are billions of people here. How could they all make it to another world?

(Sougo sort of slumps back at that. Geiz and Woz are still rigid, but Sougo seems resigned.)

Tsukasa continues. Right now, they’re in what could be called the ‘World of Zi-O.’ With Zi-O on one end, and Tsukuyomi on the other, the two powers could resonate, and create a bridge.

(Sougo draws in on himself. My ‘someone has to be there to close the door behind them’ theory is looking increasingly likely.)

There’s a visual of the plan, too. Two Earths, side by side, with a beam of light coming from each and meeting in the middle.

––––

Tsukuyomi is describing the plan to Swartz at the same time, saying that for it to work, both worlds would need ‘many Riders.’

––––

However, according to Woz, it’s all for nothing, because Tsukuyomi betrayed them.

Geiz wants to know why she would do that.

…Sougo looks like he’s thinking of something.

If they need one of them on each end, and the only people we know who can go between the two worlds are Tsukasa, Daiki, and Swartz…

They need some way to get Tsukuyomi to her World without Swartz constantly trying to kill her, now don’t they? What better way to do that then have her working on the inside?

––––

Swartz asks if she will acknowledge him as king, to which Tsukuyomi replies that his ascending to the throne is divine foretelling.

Toki No Ouja’s orchestral version starts to play as she kneels, while she has that same wide-eyed, almost hollow look as before.

––––

The music continues as Sougo stands up, and says that they’ll just have to hold them off, even if breifly.

Tsukasa points out that they’re speeding up the destruction of the world. Is he ready for that?

We cut briefly to the outside of the shop, and then to Junichiro working on cleaning a small gear of some sort. We don’t get to see what it goes to when the shot draws back, showing that he’s working at the front counter, with only the lights above him on. Whatever he’s fixing, it’s hidden behind the box he was holding last episode.

The music hits its final note as that shot closes.

––––

It’s daytime, now. There’s monsters everywhere.

I have no idea who this guy is that’s summoning a smoky cloud over a valley, but he’s got to be someone’s final boss… hang on… I have an idea… I saw this sort of cloud in Decade, during the World of Kuuga arc, so…

Yeah. Yeah, this is Kuuga’s final villain, N-Daguva-Zeba. This is fine. The world-destroying has progressed to end-bosses now.

That’s made all the more apparent by Evolt summoning a black hole and destroying three buildings in the process.

Geiz, in his Time Mazine’s mecha form, is beating up a giant crab…. YUP, same one from Hibiki that they fought off in Decade, a Bakegani.

Geiz is pissed, shouting that none of them are going to get away with this.

As he literally kicks the Bakegani away, those dragonfly like monsters start to swarm him, but he’s just shooting them down with… uh, okay, apparently the Time Mazines have missiles. This is fine.

Ah, and looks like I was right earlier, those dragonfly things are the swarm of mirror monsters that showed up at the end of Ryuki, Hydragoons.

––––

Woz and Decade are fighting against a plethora of mooks and named enemies, including Revol, the Katana Ganma (y’know, the one what did the thing in episode one), a Lion Inves, and Argus, one of the Phantoms.

They use a pair of finishers to defeat the mooks, but it doesn’t do any good – the larger enemies survived, and the mooks just respawned immediately.

A hail of gunfire comes from the other direction. Sup, Diend?

He’s all smiles right now, since he and Tsukasa get to ‘enjoy’ the end of the world together. Now that’s the greatest treasure he can imagine.

…

Rider-Time. Rider-Time, did. Did Tsukasa actually say ‘Enough flirting, and fight!’?!

Because. Uh. I don’t think he actually said that, but my Japanese isn’t good enough to pick up that sort of thing, but oh dear lord if this is how we get confirmation in-show that Daiki and Tsukasa are a thing…

He doesn’t reply to Tsukasa telling him off, and everyone just keeps fighting.

(But seriously, Daiki, this is not the time to flirt. I get that it’s kind of a ‘now or never’ situation, but come on, read the room!)

––––

At 9-to-5… Sougo’s almost finished a meal that Junichiro’s barely started. (Oh no.)

He’s not… taking his time, but he’s getting all that he can out of it.

Junichiro asks if everyone is fighting, and Sougo nods.

He finishes, and thanks his uncle, formally, in a way that he usually doesn’t do.

… oh shit. Junichiro picked up on it, too.

Shit.

“Sougo, you weren’t planning on this being your final meal, were you?” The shot switches from a very justifiably scared uncle to Sougo. “First off, you still need breakfast.” Sougo nods, making an affirmative noise.

He’s definitely agreeing to the first part.

Sougo gets up, and starts heading out – but Junichiro gets him to wait for a moment, and goes behind the counter to get something.

…You know how Junichiro was looking at the broken Build Watch a few episodes ago? And how the stand was empty when everyone headed out last episode? And how I said that the box he was carrying was about the right size for a pile of broken watches? And how he fixes clocks for a living?

Tokiwa Junichiro pulls out a tray, with a soft velvety fabric as a cushion… and eighteen disks, with the mask of eighteen different heroes.

All in full color.

Sougo’s astonished – how?

His uncle is tense. Why wouldn’t he be? His nephew is going off to fight, and potentially die, and there isn’t anything he can do about that. But these are Sougo’s and his friends’ precious watches, and there is no clock that he can’t fix.

“Ask everyone what they’d like for dinner, alright?”

Sougo pauses, smiling. “Got it. I’ll be back.” He looks up at Junichiro, determined.

Sougo may or may not be planning to make it out himself, but… he’s going to make sure that his friends do, at least.

(Seriously, my ‘he’d hoped that they would all keep each other company after he was gone’ line from the 22nd wasn’t supposed to happen, come on…)

––––

With Decade and Diend, Woz starts a Ginga Planet finisher, which starts to rain mini-planets down- and everything freezes.

Tsukuyomi emerges from behind them, hand outstretched, telling them that they can’t avoid the worlds destruction.

Swartz, as Another Decade, comes on scene, calling Woz disappointing. Or calling what he’s doing disappointing, it’s a little unclear. Either way, he blasts all three riders; Decade and Diend being thrown off screen, and Woz being frozen mid-air.

There’s no background music what-so-ever.

Swartz readies an energy blast, the same type he killed Tsukasa with, saying that he’ll make sure that Woz dies.

A second hand ticks, and a golden gate opens to the side, labeled 2017.

Build!

Swartz gets blasted by the Fullbottle buster, as wielded by Build in his TankTank form.

Drive!

He gets triple-struck by Drive: Type Formula running past.

Ghost!

He takes an Omega Drive Rider Kick from Ghost, in his base form.

Ex-Aid!

Five hits from Ex-Aid in Maximum Mighty X.

“Impossible! The history of Riders is supposed to be gone!”

The four summoned riders pose in a line, before turning to light and being de-spawned, the lights going back to the newly-recreated Grand Zi-O Ridewatch.

Sougo, untransformed, wearing his Ziku Driver, strides forward. “It’s not gone.” He holds up the watch. “Erase history all you want, but Kamen Riders are forever!”

There’s one big ol flaw in Swartz’s plan. Well, aside from Sougo’s determinator status. He had all of the riders coalesced into one, saying that it took away their histories. But even Grand still didn’t, since Sougo summons them out of their shows. We could see one of the canyons behind Build when he was summoned just now, and there’s the ‘OOO being summoned along with the column’ from Grands debut.

They’re not gone. They’re just tucked away, nice and safe in a little pocket of time.

Slowly, Sougo activates his two watches, places them in his driver, and, after what feels like a slight hesitation, starts his transformation.

I can’t complain about them using the full Grand transformation. Not in the last episode, not when it counts this much. It’s not nearly as bad as Decade Complete, it gets to the point way faster. This? This is good.

“One last showdown.”

––––

The orchestral battle version of Toki no Ouja plays. I specify that, because it feels… important, this time. Toki no Ouja is used as a battle theme with the higher level Zi-O forms a lot, but here it feels… more significant than usual.

Grand Zi-O and Another Decade trade punches, and knock each other back. Furious, Sougo tells Swartz to feel the power of the Riders.

OOO!

OOO Tajador swoops in, taken directly from an episode. I think it’s the episode Tajador debuted in, too – they’re definitely using archival footage, with OOO flying down and using the medal shield to block energy blasts, before he uses a Scanning Charge and claws Swartz with the Condor talons.

Sougo goes in for a quick sword attack against Swartz, moving him into the path of-

Wizard!

Wizard Infinity delivers a Shining Strike, which I think comes from that forms debut, too. He gets some damage in, but the giant fucking axe is still shoved away.

Gaim!

Gaim Pineapple Arms (this is fine) delivers a kick, but since he’s not anything more than a mode change, it’s easily deflected.

Grand Zi-O and Double CycloneJokerXtreme team up for another, powered, pair of energy slashes, which break through the shielding that Another Decade raised, throwing him to the ground.

(Okay, that’s almost all of the phase two’s accounted for, now where’s our Fourze appearance?)

Two can play at this ‘summoning the past’ game, though! They’re not just fighting Swartz, they can feast their eyes on the… Rider’s Rogues gallery.

Okay, Rider-Time, I really don’t think that’s what he called the endbosses that he just summoned, but it’s accurate enough.

So he’s opened a wall, and pulled through… uh. Not sure who that first one is, then N-Daguva-Zeba, Gamdeus, someone else, and Evolt.

Oh, wait, hang on. Still can’t tell who the first one is, but the person between Gamedeus and Evolt is Saggitarius. I couldn’t tell until he started moving, and I could see the zodiac symbols on his belt.

So, everyone charges forward. Evolt versus Wizard, Saggitarius versus Double, N-Daguva-Zeba versus OOO, and whomstever the fuck that guy is against Gaim.

And it seems that the Riders summoned by Grand can stick around as long as they need to, since they’re actively fighting now. Not that it’s a surprise, we saw this happen with Drive sticking around during the Grand vs Oma fight a while ago, but it’s good to have confirmation.

Swartz and Gamedeus team up against Sougo, and start promptly kicking his ass, knocking his sowrd away. We cut to Kuuga end-boss and whomstever taking out OOO and Gaim, and then to Saggitarius and Evolt doing the same to Wizard and Double.

(Seriously,who is this guy?! Is he one of the Lords from Agito? Because I can’t find a picture of him there, but the belt and weapon style says he would be…)

All six villains start charging attacks, which merge into one huge purple fireball, which strikes Zi-O. He’s tossed back, to the ground, where his transformation breaks and he lays gasping in pain.

Swartz charges a sickly green-and-purple fireball. “Now, die!”

He fires, and Sougo curls in on himself, bracing.

Typhoon!

Geiz Revive Typhoon blocks the blast, holding it off for a moment, before it overpowers him and flings him backward… his visor breaks as he’s thrown back, before the armor dissolves.

I don’t know if his armor broke before or after he hit the wall in an explosion.

But either way… Sougo runs to an untransformed Geiz, who’s lying on the ground, and pulls him into his arms, begging Geiz to stay with him.

Geiz is having trouble speaking, but he’s still managing, somehow, even as he’s in obvious agony. “Zi-O...” (Use his name god damn it) Geiz forces himself to grab Sougo by the shirt, as the piano version of Toki no Ouja starts. “Become Oma Zi-O… become the king of time. You have what it takes… to become the most beloved overlord.”

Sougo shakes his head, barely holding back tears, begging Geiz not to die. (Rider-Time translated this as ‘don’t leave me,’ but he’s straight up saying ‘don’t die,’ come on, guys.)

“I was so happy… to have come to this time…” While Sougo is sobbing, Geiz is staying as stoic as he can, he doesn’t have the energy to have emotions and give his last words.

“Sougo…” (We see the first tear actually fall from Sougo’s eyes, and I start crying in full as well.)

“I’m happy to have been… your comrade… and friend.”

As Sougo (and myself) beg for this to not be happening, Geiz’s hand drops from it’s deathgrip on Sougo’s shirt.

Miyokoin Geiz dies in Tokiwa Sougo’s arms.

Sougo sobs, his whole body shuddering. He turns a cold, hateful gaze in Swartz’s direction…

As sparks envelop his belt, turning the white and black driver into gold.

––––

Another Decade watches as Sougo emerges from the smoke.

Glaring, Sougo crosses his arms, and screams in rage as he throws them down. A clock emblem appears on the ground, dark golds and reds and black, seeming to crack the pavement as magma surges around.

Oh, or maybe it’s not magma, or lava. Maybe it’s molten metal. It would be appropriate for the metallic armor, after all.

The haze of the heat can be seen rising up as Sougo growls the word. “Henshin.”

The transformation is dark metal circles, and shadows and smoke. A deep gong rings out when it completes, and the sheer force of the energy pushes all the villains back a few steps.

Woz runs up, just saying ‘my overlord...’

I don’t think Woz thought that Sougo would ever actually do this. Not this Sougo, the one he’s come to know.

Especially given his shock when Sougo… when Oma Zi-O orders him to rejoice.

It’s the voice of Tokiwa Sougo, but he’s cold and empty, there’s nothing there but a calm fury. And he ordered Woz to make his speech.

The final line of which is “We are now within the moment of history’s final chapter!”

Swartz starts to laugh. (Also, in the background, Evolt’s posing it up, one hand on his hip, and whomstever the heck that unidentifiable guy is tucks his staff under his arm, and is briefly clapping sarcastically.)

Swartz laughs, saying that he’s cornered Tokiwa Sougo for all this time, for this moment. Now he can claim the power of Oma Zi-O for himself. Sending out those energy waves, he starts to draw the powers to himself.

Woz runs back, the energy there is way too much for him, but Oma Zi-O… doesn’t move. He’s standing stock still, not reacting as Swartz drains him.

Swartz is gleeful as he does this, the golden light coursing over him, eventually glowing in the gaps between the ‘cards’ of his Another Decade form. Now, he can finally surpass his sister, now, he can take the throne for himself!

The power stops flowing to him, suddenly, with a burst of fire at his chest as it cuts off.

Oma Zi-O is fine, not even having to really shake anything off. “you think someone like you can take on my power?” Ridewatches start appearing in the air – Build, Ex-Aid, Fourze, Faiz, Wizard. “i have the power of every single rider!”

And he means it. OOO, Gaim, Beast, Decade, Ghost, Kiva, Necrom, Ouja, Drive, Baron, Blade, Zeronos, Kuuga, Agito, Double, Den-O… Kabuto, Mach, Eternal, Cross-Z, OOO Tajador, Genm, Knight, G-3… Sasword, Proto-Drive, Garren, Kaixa, Rogue… and even more that I can’t identify, and more that aren’t any more than multicolored lights in the background.

And each and every one of these Ridewatches turns to pure light and draws into him.

Oma Sougo has not moved a step.

Evolt and Mystery Villain charge him, but are immediately taken out with firey punches. He turns, and a swarm of bats from OG Oma Zi-O’s Kiva attack takes out the swarm of Hydragoons that tried to divebomb him.

Kuuga’s kick takes out N-Daguva-Zeba, and a single burning punch dissolves Dragblacker as it tries to bite him.

Gamedeus gets the ‘ticking golden ball of pain’ treatment that Sougo received from OG Oma Zi-O when they met, and Sagittarius gets punched into the sky, where he promptly explodes.

Oma Sougo has only turned in order to attack. He still has not moved from his spot.

Just like when he fought himself the first time.

Swartz is impressed. But he’s gotten some of Oma Sougo’s powers, at least. He’ll go back to his world, and rule as king. He summons a wall to escape-

“HYA!”

A white blade of energy pierces him in the gut from behind, running him through.

Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi is the one wielding it.

Oma Sougo makes a small sound of surprise, as Swartz makes little choked sounds of dying.

Furious, Tsukuyomi shouts. No one needs a king like him!

“You little wench. You’ve been after my blind spot…”

Swartz turns, shoves her into the air, and blasts her, point blank, sending her flying into the far wall.

Sougo screams her name, and, furious and shaking, activates a finisher.

Demise Hour

An ominious ticking noise accompanies him as he rises into the air. Not jumps. Rises, surrounded by gold light and black swirls of smoke.

Another Decade activates his own finisher, as Oma Sougo descends, screaming in rage and despair, the clock-hand cape spreading like wings as he attacks.

The Overlord’s Decimation

Gold light from Oma Sougo’s kick meets the purple light from Another Decade’s punch, and we circle the balanced attack twice, while the deep gonging of an old bell sounds in the background.

Oma Sougo’s kick breaks through, sending Another Decade flying back, and leaving a torn ring in the air just behind where they connected.

The scene freezes, cast in the green light of the usual freeze.

––––

Tsukuyomi, with her original outfit glowing a bright white, and Swartz, in his black-and-white outfit, smoke rising from him and staggering in pain, appear.

Tsukuyomi steps forward. “This world… is already mine. Brother…”

“Sister… Spare me your words!” He’s barely able to talk, as he’s slowly dropping to his knees, juxtaposed in his human form behind the face of his paused, soon-to-be-defeated Another Rider self.

She turns to face Oma Sougo, frozen in time, as she starts to fade to transparency, pink lights rising from her. “Sougo… the two worlds are now in your hands.” She smiles, sadly and fondly, as the two Earths pictured before are shown again, and merge into one.

The royal siblings both fade. Her by quietly turning to lights as she looks at her friend. Him by crying in pain as he is turned to smoke and what looks like ash.

––––

Time resumes, and the explosion of Swartz’s destruction creates a wave of time energy that engulfs the area, spreading outward and erasing the monsters that filled the sky.

Oma Sougo stands up, and Woz approaches, arms wide. “You’ve done it, my overlord. The world is saved, and you may now reign over it for eternity.”

“No. That won’t be happening.” Oma Sougo’s tone is just shy of despondent. “Because I’m going to be tearing down space and time.”

––––

“So, this is the path you choose.”

Tokiwa Sougo, bruised, bloodied, and burned, stands in a black void in front of his future self, whos face is still obscured in light.

“You have the right to rule the world, you’re the one who saved it.”

Sougo disagrees. It wasn’t him. We cut from the wide shot of the two, to just Sougo’s face. He’s absolutely dead inside, trying not to break down. “The ones who saved the world are Geiz and Tsukuyomi, and the powers of every rider.”

Shots from throughout the show, of their lives together at 9-to-5 – of Sougo, his uncle, Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and Woz. Not as heroes or soldiers, but as people. As themselves.

Tokiwa Sougo, who was so lonely before these three time travelers came into his life, won’t accept living in a world where he rules as king, but none of them are around.

He asks his future self again. “Can the powers of Oma Zi-O only be used to destroy?”

Oma folds his hands. “Destruction… must come before creation.”

(Sir, either you’re trying to give yourself a clue, or you’ve been reading too much Fullmetal Alchemist lately. Just saying.)

Sougo firms his resolve. He’s going to bring about creation, and rewrite history.

Leaning forward, Oma has one last point to make. “You’ll never be a king again.”

Sougo disagrees. “I think it’ll work out, somehow. After all, the hands of time can only move toward the future.”

Over Quartzer starts to play.

“It may seem to move back, but time only goes forward.”

Sougo smiles, real and true, as he reminds his future self of the advice his uncle gave him, way, way back at the earliest points of the show. You can move a clock backward, but it still advances.

Oma chuckles. It’s been a priveldge to see his younger self.

Oma Zi-O, his face still obscured by blinding light, fades into golden motes and disappears.

––––

In the real world, Oma Sougo raises his arms out, and a pale gold wave of light, encircles the planet, little golden clock faces accompanying it.

Tsukasa and Daiki stand on a hilltop, as the Fuuto and Yggdrasil towers, and the Skywall, dissolve.

Daiki comments that time’s being rewritten.

Tsukasa says that it looks like a new journeys starting, and they both smirk as he opens the viewfinder of his camera and takes a picture.

The one Earth is shown glowing, before diverging into 21 separate Earths.

(It’s still only one reality, Toei, nice try. But also nice nod to the fact that there’s a new rider in town. … oh my god is the World of Zero One also the World of Tsukuyomi nah i’m just kidding but that’d be hilarious)

The worlds glow, and the TV-size version of Over Quartzer ends on a shot of the outside of 9-to-5.

––––

There’s a sign saying ‘Rooms to let’ on the door.

Tokiwa Junichiro calls upstairs. “Sougo! You’re going to be late for school!”

…wait, what?

Sougo narrates. “September, 2018. Summer vacation’s over, and the boring school days have begun.”

Wait. What?

Sougo’s on his way, walking his bike down the stairs, when some of his classmates pester him about saying he’s going to be a king, as he always does. Three of them jog past, and the fourth…

Wait. What.

The fourth says he’ll wake Sougo up, just like the anonymous one from the first episode, and flips Sougo onto his back, just like in the first episode.

Except it’s not the student from the first episode.

It’s Geiz.

Or, as schoolgirl Tsukuyomi calls him, Miyokoin-kun. Please note that they do not use her name at all. Thanks.

She tells him that he’s always too rough, grabs him by the collar, and yells at him to just be nice… before flipping him onto his back. She didn’t have to get back up like he did, and flipped him over her, as opposed to how he sent Sougo below where he was.

Sougo is recovering a whole lot faster than Geiz, who is on the ground in pain as Tsukuyomi dusts off her hands and walks away.

Schoolgirl Hora – wait what – comments that they’re always like this, and schoolboy Heure – who looks happy and that makes me happy – says that he sure admires ‘Ou-sama-sempai.’ Or, as Rider-time translates it, ‘Upperclass King.’

Hora asks what that names all about. Heure replies that well, he’s always said he’s going to be a king, right? He’s kinda dumb, but Heure thinks he can do it.

“…Whatever.” Hora checks her watch, and incidentally reveals that she’s got a little toy rabbit keychan hanging from her bag. “I’ve got some bad news for you.”

“Eh?!”

“We’re going to be late.”

All five of them start taking off – and nobody helps Geiz up, because being Geiz is suffering.

––––

They’re all running into the courtyard, and Woz watches from on top of the building. Regular, brown coat, book-carrying Woz.

He says that for Ordinary High School Student, Tokiwa Sougo, a future where he becomes Oma Zi-O is waiting for him. …Or, maybe it isn’t. Time will tell. From here on, a different history from the one in his book will have to be written.

He closes the Oma Advent Calendar decisively.

Our closing shots are of Hora and Tsukuyomi laughing to each other, Heure smiling, and Sougo and Geiz running together.

The end screen has the Zi-O and Geiz watches… and the Zero One watch in the center.

––––

So. That. Sure was an ending.

It was going great up until that world-changing maneuver.

I’ll have to try and write up some proper thoughts on this eventually, but for now…

I’ve never been a fan of the ‘it never happened’ ending for stories. It cheapens the struggles, for me. I’ll have to find a way around this when I finally get there in ReUnited, but that’s beside the point.

This is… I don’t know if I like the decision of how to save everything that Sougo came to. But the others – Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Heure, and Hora – get to have normal lives now. That’s… that’s good. They never had a chance for that before. So I’m happy for them. But…

It still feels hollow. It feels wrong that they don’t remember what happened, that nobody but Woz is around who remembers, and that he can’t even interact with them. They aren’t the same people anymore, anyway. They may be better off, they have the same quirks, but… it’s not the same.

And time even reset back to before Sougo met any of them, so this entire year may as well have never happened for the World of Zi-O.

Hm.

That’s Kamen Rider Zi-O. 49 episodes. A metric boatload of cameos from previous seasons. Two metric boatloads of re-used monster suits. A second season for Decade, and possible confirmation that Tsukasa and Daiki are a cou- okay, sorry, disregard that last bit, it’s not relevant.

But this has been the 29th season of Kamen Rider. On to season 30, Kamen Rider Zero One.

(Toei, I am begging you, find a better naming scheme, and stop using hyphens in your season names. Please.)

EDIT, MANY HOURS LATER: UTOPIA. THE VILLAIN I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT IS THE UTOPIA DOPANT. IT’S KAZU FUCKING JUN. SCREW THAT GUY.

[natsubeatsrock]

My 10 Favorite Posts, So Far

Well, tomorrow makes 5 years of blogging as natsubeatsrock. It’s been quite a crazy 5 years and I’ve made a number of crazy posts in the time between starting this blog and today. To celebrate I wanted to talk about 10 of my favorite posts over the past five years. This list isn’t necessarily ranked from least to most favorite, but there is one post I can call my absolute favorite.

Let’s go!

Honorable Mention: The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Part 16 (Lisanna) [originally posted March 27, 2019]

As an honorable mention, I want to shed some light on my favorite post from last year. I started making this post months before the series was on the verge of ending. As I was working on this post and decided to work on rewriting Fairy Tail, I started to rework this series as a defense for keeping Lisanna in the series, as opposed to cutting her. This has been a theme in a lot of the posts I’ve made about Lisanna since a post I made before that one and I do plan to talk about that in the future.

#10. My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Ships/Zervis [originally posted October 25, 2015]

This is the earliest post in my top 10 and it shows. Around this time two big things happened: I made a post on August 31st called My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Juvia and the fandom exploded over Zervis, due to the revelations in canon. I intended to make that first post a part of a series and this was too big of an opportunity to pass. I remember that writing this was ridiculously easy for me. In fact, it’s one of the shortest posts for me to draft and upload with its relative size.

While I’m not as proud of how my writing prowess shines in this post, almost everything I’ve said in this post has become my philosophy on ships since posting it. My thoughts on shipping fandoms? Check. My thoughts on canon weight of ships? Check. My wishy-washy feelings over Zervis? Check. For a long time, this was my favorite entry in this series, but we’ll ge tto that soon enough.

#9. Bye, Bye Lucy: Part 4 [originally posted May 20, 2017]

A lot of you may be shocked to see this post on the list. “Bye, Bye Lucy“ was a series of posts I did explaining all of the issues I have with the infamous subset of fanfics that has Lucy get kicked off the Strongest Team in favor of Lisanna, resulting in her leaving Fairy Tail. I had a ton of fun working on this series. So much so, I actually ended up writing a story based on the idea I posit in Part 3 of this series, which I released earlier this month. But, individually, Part 4 is my favorite individual post in the series which focused on the idea of Lucy leaving the guild over the whole situation.

Originally, this whole series was going to be one really long post at just over 10,000 words. However, around the time I was working on the part that would become this post, I realized that these stories fail with each successive plot point important to this trope of story. At this particular point, any stories lose me as both stories inspired by Fairy Tail and as their own type of stories. No good story that I know even tries to play with these tropes has Lucy actually leave the guild, even temporarily.

#8. Why I Still Ship Nali (Even if Most of the Rest of Fandom Doesn’t) [originally posted March 1, 2020]

I didn’t want to add too many posts from too recent on this list. As much as I think my current writing is my most consistent writing, it would be hard to say that too many of my posts now are at the same level as many of the posts coming up on this list. But, I’m honestly glad that I made this post, especially considering some of the things surrounding its creation.

About three months into my blog, I made a post called “What I Need to Stop Shipping Nali (and why I still do)”. Around the time I was going to post it, I guess someone made a post questioning why people would still ship Nali. It’s become one of my least favorite posts and I’ve felt it desperately needed to be updated for a while. I decided to tackle an issue I’ve had seen in much of fan interpretations with Nali: doing nothing past Edolas with Nali. I wrote the first draft out months ago and waited for a good opportunity to type it out. When I got the hate messages, that felt like as good a time as any. Speaking of which...

#7. My Response to Anon-san [originally posted March 31, 2016]

A bit of backstory may help with this one. I posted “My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Lisanna” on Easter that year. I check my phone coming out of my church’s night concert and I got the two messages I respond to in this post. When I first saw I got messages, I was worried because that was the first time I ever got negative anon messages. But when I read them, I knew I needed to talk about this as my 3,000th post on this blog - a milestone I was on the cusp of approaching when I got the messages.

While I like the precedent my response seemed to set for my dealing with this type of stuff, the reason this post is here that I legitimately love the messages I was responding to. Every now and then, I read them to myself just to remind myself they exist. I’m not even sure why I got them in the first place. They don’t even seem terribly connected to that Lisanna post. While complaining about fandom has been something I’m apt to do for a number of reasons, I can’t imagine which post got on their “nevers”. But believe me when I say that I am feeling very cooling about the fact that I did.

#6. My Incredibly Unpopular Thoughts on: Nalu [originally posted July 9, 2016]

I’m sure this one isn’t much of a shock too many of you. Around the time I made this post, the “anti-Nalu“ community was very different from how it is now. I had made a couple of posts about some of the issues I had with the ship and its fandom, but nothing on this scale. As a part of Fairy Tail month, I figured should try to explain everything I saw wrong with both.

Even as I wanted to do this and made plenty of similar posts before this, the thought of backlash terrified me. I made sure to set it up to post when I knew I’d be away and wouldn’t be able to see how it was received. When I finally did see the responses to this post, all of them were positive and from people who agreed with me. It’s become my favorite post in the series and still seems to serve as a great primer for people who don’t ship Nalu.

Though I’m kind of sad that a lot of the stuff I talked about in that post regarding the development of Nalu and fandom habits haven’t changed almost four years since I first posted it. When I went to make the sequel for this post, I was shocked how little fandom changed and how stuff inside and outside of canon seemed to embolden fandom to be worse about other actions over abour 18 months. Though, I didn’t hate Nalu when I made this post, even as I stopped wanting to ship it around that time.

#5. Opinion I’ll Probably get Stoned For #100 [originally posted April 29, 2016]

I really have to get back to making these. “Opinions I’ll Probably get Stoned For” was the series I was known for starting less than two months into making this blog. It’s a series where I drop spicy takes ranging from Sweet Bell Pepper to California Reaper. I’ve gotten into it with fans over more than a few of the posts in this series. However, my favorite of the series is one of the longest editions in the series.

Months before posting this, I remember seeing one of my favorite Graytear bloggers get into trouble with Gruvia shippers. One point brought up that particularly pissed me off was the moment that Gray was about to used Iced Shell against Silver. According to the Gruva shipper, the fact that the panel remembering Juvia is bigger than the panel remembering Ultear showed enough of Mashima’s priorities. This argument literally made me sick to my stomach. For months, I’d privately joke that this proved the exact opposite: Gray went through with Iced Shell because he remembered Juvia.

To celebrate hitting the milestone of 100 posts in that series, I decided to make a longer version of the series and explain my thoughts in depth. As soon as I had the idea, I knew that had to be the one. My favorite thing about this post is that, despite clarifying that I’m not terribly serious about this argument twice in the post, I actually got blocked by a Gruvia fan over this post. I guess they didn’t see it as that funny of a joke. Weird how that works.

#4. Nali Week: Scars and Unkept Promises [originally posted July 24, 2016]

Every once in a while, someone will make the remark to the effect of “People should stop complaining about the ships they don’t like and make stuff for the ships they do like”. Thank goodness no one has actually said that in regard to my posts. As much fun as I’ve had over the years complaining about the stuff I don’t like in Fairy Tail and its fandom, I do make a point to talk about the stuff I do like and why every now and then. While the series was running, ship weeks usually meant meta posts from me and this is my favorite of them.

This post was born from my own musings about how the anime dealt with Natsu and Lisanna’s relationship. I wanted to talk about its handing through the perspective of Lisanna being an important person Natsu lost and how that works with his desire to see Igneel again. The big moments I draw on is his promise in episode 75 where Lisanna asks Natsu to save her if she ever gets lost and their reunion in episode 79.

The perspective I took in that post is one I don’t really take a lot. I’m not arguing against an idea a lot of people in fandom agree with. I’m not even really arguing that my perspective is the correct perspective. I’m explaining the thought process that Natsu, as I interpret him, has regarding someone he cares about. The stuff I talked about in this post has become part of my interpretation of Natsu and traces of it can be seen in a lot of the posts I’ve made since. We have to bring Nali Week back.

#3. An Open Letter to the Nalu Fandom [originally posted October 1, 2017]

I love satire as a rhetorical tool. I love taking an idea I disagree with to so large an extreme that the problems with it are obvious to even the people who agree with it. While many of my posts have drips of sarcasm and irony, I love making an entire post based on the idea of pointing out the problems with an argument. Consider that I’ve done similar things with Opinion #100 and, to an extent, my most recent story.

The trick is finding something with problems that are so glaringly obvious, you can’t imagine people actually taking its side. In the case of this post, it was a hilarious letter addressed to the “anti-Nalu’s”. Apparently, the idea that people openly didn’t like Nalu got on “the nerve of every last one of their pussy hair“. So they wrote a short letter they meant for fans who don’t like Nalu to read. I would give them a pass becasue they were apparently on their period, but they were defending those Twitter pics of Natsu and Lucy on chain leashes.

It’s worth mentioning that this was a few months after the original series ended. I had been trying hard not to make a post about Nalu and the stupid things I saw their fandom do. I didn’t even talk about the pictures they were defending. When I made this post, I figured that I was probably not going to be making many more posts about Nalu for a while. So I decided to throw in every issue I had with the Nalu fandom between talking about it a year earlier and then.

As you can probably tell, I haven’t stopped complaining about Nalu and its fandom. This post seems to have set the tone for how I would deal with the ship and its fandom this side of the ending. Instead of pointing to why a ship fails for me, I’ve been talking about why others should have expected the ship to fail. And, if recent events are a sign of the future, it seems like I’m going to have stuff to say about it for a while. Yay?

#2. Why was Ichiruki Popular? [originally posted July 6, 2018]

What does it say that this post is among my top 10, both on this list and in terms of most notes on a post on this blog? This is a Fairy Tail blog for crying out loud. I shouldn’t be able to get so much attention for talking about a series that isn’t Fairy Tail. It almost certainly shouldn’t get more attention than most of my posts about Fairy Tail. A few people even liked and reblogged it this week.

Then again, this wasn’t my first time talking about other series. I’d already spent time talking about Rave Master, Naruto, and Monster Soul on this blog. I asked my followers if it would be cool if I spent time talking about other series, now that Fairy Tail had ended. Since I got a fairly decent response I decided to talk about a few series, including Bleach.

I got into reading Bleach about a year before it ended. At the time, I was following people who were already into it and was well aware of the popularity of Ichiruki and infamy of its fandom. I was fairly behind but I didn’t see much reason to ship Ichiruki when it ended and I saw the fan meltdowns. Imagine my shock when I got to the end and felt exactly the same about its chances when Rukia said Ichigo’s just her friend. I made this post to vent.

If I started reading Bleach about a year before getting into Fairy Tail, I likely would have been a Bleach blogger. This post served as an interesting glimpse into what that timeline might look like. It’s also one of the few posts that sparked actually interesting responses. While many have pointed to the anime as a reason for its fan popularity, I can’t tell how the staff came to the conclusion that Ichiruki needed to be portrayed as more romantic than in the manga.

#1. I’m late to the “Nalu wasn’t the original plan” party, aren’t I? [originaly posted December 10, 2016]

I’ve made a lot of posts on this blog. I’ve said a lot of things, done a lot of analysis and meta, and shared a lot of opinions here. And yet, I can’t say that too much of the stuff I’ve said is important. Not to say that my insight into certain topics isn’t appreciated. It’s just that much of what I’ve said over the years, even in some of the posts on this list, likely has been and would have been said by anyone else if I didn’t say it. The biggest exception to that has been this post.

A few months before this post, there was a leaked image of Mashima’s afterword in Fairy Tail S regarding the extra chapter Special Request, which happens to be one of my favorite chapters in the series. In it, he admitted that he didn’t originally plan on writing Natsu and Lucy’s relationship as romantic and was currently writing them as somewhere between friends and lovers.

When I first saw it as an image on a Tumblr post, I was extremely hesitant to say anything about it. I didn’t know about Fairy Tail S and assumed it was a troll. When it was confirmed by another blog, and it source was ultimately verified, it was a dream come true. Mashima had vindicated my thoughts on the ship literal months after my big post on Nalu. And yet, not many people were talking about what this actually meant for Fairy Tail and the fandom moving forward. So came this post.

In many ways, I’m still shocked that I still have to point people to this afterword and what it means for Fairy Tail. I’m sure many people know Mashima didn’t plan on making Nalu happen, but I doubt many people understand that fandom is outright incorrect to say that Nalu hsa been obvious from the jump. In a weird connection to the previous post, Mashima’s comments on Nalu are similar to comments Tite Kubo made regarding his writing Ichiruki. Even now, it’s hard to say that Nalu will become canon knowing Mashima’s original intents.

Of the most important thing to come from this post, this marked the start of me starting to hate Nalu. Up to this point, I went from being indifferent to it to not liking it. However, once this came to light, I came to actually hate the idea of Nalu as romantic. I’ve had even less patience for the fandom that made itself near synonymous with the Fairy Tail fandom at large on every site ever. I doubt that will change anytime soon and I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing anymore.

Well, that’s my list of my favorite posts. I’m sure you guys have favorites among my posts and maybe some of them are on this list. If you want to see more of my other personal favorite posts and reblogs, I’ve tagged all of them as fav on my blog, including this one. Here’s to 5 more years of whatever the heck I’m doing on this blog!

See you!