#im banging my head against the table i hate twitter i hate twitter i hate twitter why do i go there

[lockandkeyhyena]

just saw someone on twitter dot com say the following combination of words in a sentence

“amity x luz (the owl house) is comship because it’s nonhuman x human”

and then someone tried arguing back as though that person had made a coherent argument, worldview, point, or even sequence of words put together

how about we all just kill ourselves

[manonblaqkbeak]

Dating and Goodreads

Back for Day 8-Blind date (how the hell do u guys come up with good title fics i struggle so bad lol). I wasn’t really going anywhere with this one, but when i read all of the others and saw how fun the fics were, i decided to finish this one.

also for Summertime and Fresh Strawberries, I deliberately left it blank but I can’t hold onto the secret bc two people were curious as to what happened, so i’ll let the rest of you know that aelin and rowan decided to keep summer and be a cute little family, bc im a sucker for happy endings lol (unless its angst, it’s safe to assume that all my rowaelin fics have happy endings bc they’ve all ready been thru so much and even in alt fics i need them to be happy lmao)

anyway, on to the next one. hope you enjoy!

1.8k words

cw: none

Aelin was a confident woman, something that she was proud of. But that didn't mean that there weren't times she didn't feel self-conscious or awkward and full of doubt.

Because right now, all those negative feelings were swimming inside of her.

And those feelings were just magnified today, especially since she had gotten fired only a few hours beforehand. It was utterly unexpected, she had never received any prior warnings, and while she was a fighter, Aelin didn't feel like stepping into the ring for this one. Not when her boss was a demon from hell that made life unbearable and she had to physically push herself into entering the work building.

Aelin told herself that it was for the best. She was miserable there and hated working in an office typing up the worlds most boring reports and working in a space that was entirely too drab.

But she wasn't looking forward to job hunting. Aelin was aware that she could ask her friends for favours, but if Aelin did something wrong, she didn't want it reflected back onto whoever helped her.

And she was still a little peeved over the damned argument she had online again with that haughty prick on Goodreads. Aelin wasn't sure why those arguments kept going, but each time she would post a review, White Tailed Hawk would respond, telling her that she read the book wrong and this and that and blah blah blah.

Aelin repaid the favour each time, telling him how he was wrong and he had no reading comprehension skills. And on and on it went until Aelin or whoever the fuck that guy was went back to their own lives.

Depressingly, it was the most fun she had some days.

Shaking her head, Aelin forced herself to think of the now and not of her shitty day. Still she sighed, not quite believing that she had agreed to this blind date. Couldn't believe that she had let Aedion convince her it was a good idea.

Aelin had said no at first, after Aedion had voiced his offer, and her cousin left it at that. But days went past, and he would bring up the topic of Rowan, about the things he had said that day, how his dry sense of humour took some time to get used to but once you figured it out, he was actually pretty funny, how he had finished a project perfectly and this and that.

But it got to her, annoyingly. So the other day when he was helping her out with some housework that was a two person job, Aelin told him to set up this date. Aedion cheered as if it was the best thing he had ever heard, telling her how she and Rowan were the perfect match for each other.

Aelin rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything of the assessment.

She had only agreed because it was getting frustrating being asked at every family event if she was dating someone, when she was going to give her parents grandchildren (that question pissed her off the most, as if Aelin was nothing but a birthing machine and that was all Aelin could contribute to society), and who was going to look after her when she was old if she didn't have children (because apparently carers didn't exist).

Aelin was also lonely—she could entertain herself just fine, but she did like the idea of coming home and talking to someone that could respond. She loved Fleetfoot and her enthusiasm when Aelin came home, but human companionship would be nice.

But Aelin didn't have high-hopes for this date because the universe liked to kick Aelin's ass from time to time, she suspected that they were going to hate each other.

Taking a deep breath, Aelin got out of her car, smoothed down her romper and went inside the restaurant, head held high.

X X X X X X

Rowan couldn't believe that he was about to go on a blind date. That Aedion had convinced him to go out with his younger cousin. He hadn't dated anyone since Lyria and he knew that his dating skills were going to be rusty as hell. He had been with Lyria since they were nineteen, married at 23 and divorced at 31; he had been single for the last two years.

It had been...fine, a little strange, after being with someone for so long to find himself a bachelor. Rowan never thought that he would apart from Lyria, but their relationship had just faded. Long before the divorce, it had been more like a housemate relationship than a marriage. He wasn't surprised when his ex-wife had come home after work with divorce papers. He had only stared at the paperwork for an hour before he signed the forms. Truthfully, Rowan was just glad that he was still on good terms with Lyria, that they could still talk to one another from time to time.

Rowan had almost called her earlier today, to ask how the hell dates went, but felt that it would have been crossing some invisible line, so he didn't call and instead had Googled the questions instead.

They didn't really help.

Rowan drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, telling himself that if things went wrong, then it wasn't the end of the world. That if he had to be a bachelor for the rest of his life, then that was fine. He had plenty of ways of keeping himself busy—he had a good career, a nice house, plenty of books to read and to argue online about them with.

He had one earlier today, actually, with Queen of Wildfire about a new release that Rowan had eagerly read within days of its release. And once again, he ended up with an argument with the woman about the messages and themes within the book.

It was stupid, he knew, to be at his age and to be fighting online with a stranger, but something about this woman just had his fingers flying over the keyboard.

Some days he looked forward to it, as embarrassing as that was to admit. He didn't really want to look into himself to figure out what it all meant.

Eyes drifting to the dashboard, Rowan realised that his date was about to start. Popping a mint into his mouth and smoothing out his clothes, Rowan took a deep breath and left the car and went to his first date in twelve years.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad.

X X X X X X

The date had started out a little awkward, but that wasn't a surprise to Aelin, because what blind date started smoothly?

It picked up after Rowan admitted that he was divorced and that he had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. Aelin appreciated that stark honesty and admitted that she too had no idea what to do.

Since then, the conversation went well, the food was good and Aelin had even swiped a few bites of his dinner because it just looked so much better than hers. Rowan had playfully grumbled underneath his breath, but smiled as he said it.

It was going really well. Maybe the universe had decided to give her a break for the rest of this evening. There was a part of her that maybe wondered if they would have sex, because the man did look fucking fantastic, but at the same time, she didn't want to rush anything in case this actually turned into something more.

“What's the dumbest thing that you've done recently or in the past?” Aelin asked. There was no such thing as small talk between them—Aelin had all ready asked if he believed in aliens and was glad when he said yes, because “it's ridiculous to think that we're alone in this wide universe of ours. It makes sense that there'd be other lifeforms out there.” Which was pretty damned close to Aelin's reasoning as well, so asking him about stupid moments felt like nothing in comparison.

Rowan smirked at the question and took a moment to think before answering. “I engage in online arguments.”

“Really? About what, exactly?”

“It's stupid. But my all my arguments occur on Goodreads of all places. Not Facebook, or YouTube, or Twitter, but Goodreads. It's never anything insulting but just arguments about how wrong some people's in depth reviews are.”

“Fair enough,” Aelin said, “I've been known to do the same thing as you. There's this one user on there, White Tailed Hawk—a stupid name if you ask me—and he just never...” Aelin stopped when she noticed that he stopped eating and was just looking at her weirdly. “Rowan? Are you okay?”

“Do you, by any chance, go under the name of Queen of Wildfire?”

Aelin blinked, and then blinked again, and once the pieces fell into place, she knew right then and there that the universe really hated her. She let out a harsh laugh, the sound echoing throughout the space. Aelin wasn't really sure what to say, because it was true what he said; it had never been insulting, but ending up on a date with the man she had regularly arguments with was just...she had no words, other then, “It really is a stupid name.” She took a sip of her wine, needing to do something other than wanting to bang her head against the table.

“I couldn't think of anything else to write.” And it wasn't also his favourite animal, he had told her that earlier.

They lapsed back into the awkward silence of earlier, both picking at their food.

But Aelin didn't want this night to go to waste. “It'd be stupid to let something as small as this get in the way of whatever this could be,” Aelin said, deciding to be blunt.

Rowan nodded. “It would be. Although I have to be honest, you really have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to Call of the Wild Winds.”

Aelin just about stormed off when she noticed his playful smile, his eyes sparkling bright. Laughing, Aelin threw a bread-roll at his handsome face, and once he caught it and split it in half for them to share, they went back to their earlier conversation.

And when Rowan walked her to her apartment door and kissed her on the cheek goodnight with a promise to text her later, Aelin couldn't help herself by telling him that all his opinions sucked and that he had no idea what he was talking about—all with a big smile on her face as Rowan sputtered as she closed the door on his face.

They spent the rest of the night texting, and all of Aelin's earlier woes faded away. And she looked forward to tomorrow, despite the horror of job hunting. Maybe the universe will finally let things turn around for the better for her.

Aelin went to sleep with a smile on her face, all because of White Tailed Hawk.

And on the other side of the city, Rowan also fell asleep with a smile on his face.

[miscastcommentary]

Episode 0 - Our Genesis

This is going to be an interesting journey. Going through the old episodes, we wanted to share our thoughts with you as we re-lived these moments. It was interesting hearing me tell the story of how the podcast came to be. It is indeed true that I was watching Marked for Death on my own when the whole idea came flooding into my head. A few back and forth conversations and a sizeable investment later, we had a podcast and this was its beginning. I like to think we have gotten better at it since this one. I hope you enjoy the read.

Miscast Commentary - Episode 0

Released August 19, 2016

Intro : You’re listening to Miscast Commentary.

Joe: Hi guys. How’re you doing here. It’s Joe Findlay

Todd: Hello, this is Todd “T-Bo the Sailor” Murray

Joe: Yeah, and we’re here. This is Miscast Commentary. We’re giving you a little mini episode to tell you who the hell we are before we get started.

Todd: Miscast is definitely the correct name.

Joe: Yeah, exactly. So, somewhere out of the ordinary, we just decided to… do a podcast.  I just… let him know. I just texted Todd and said “Hey, wanna do this podcast? We’re gonna talk about movies.”

Todd: Then i asked you what a podcast was, honestly.

Joe: Yes. and I didn’t have a great answer for him. Essentially, what we’re gonna do… We’re gonna do another commentary for a movie. So you’ve got your Director’s Commentary. You’ve got your Cast Commentaries and you’ve got… you know…

Todd: Two guys who had absolutely nothing to do with the production or the film.

Joe: Yeah, exactly and we’re gonna give you our insights. We’re gonna do some bits. We’re gonna have some fun. We’re gonna talk about all kinds of movies. Mostly old movies. But it’s not gonna just be bad movies. It’s gonna be movies we like, it’s gonna be movies we hate and it’s gonna be all kinds of things. Whatever we enjoyed watching when we were young or whatever we would have enjoyed watching when we were young.

Todd: Which was anything that had explosions and boobs.

Joe: Yes, and if a boob exploded, you were in fantastic shape.

Todd: Oh yes.

Joe: Yes. So we’re really looking forward to doing this. We’re hoping we can get four or five listeners that aren’t related.

Todd: So the idea is that people will turn the movie on and turn  us on and listen to our commentary over top of the film as it plays.

Joe: Well, they certainly can. They’re invited to do that. That’s how this was born, but I mean you can still listen to it anyways. If you’re driving then we don’t want you to watch the movie because if you die, we’ll feel bad.

Todd: And you’ll know what’s happening because Joe will be talking smack and I will literally be describing the movie in English and Espanol.

Joe: If you’ve never seen a commentary that has Arnold Schwarzenegger on it, just go on YouTube and Google it. That’s what Todd’s gonna be doing.

Todd: Pretty Much.

Joe: (Impersonating Schwarzenegger) “This is the scene where I walk into the room and then I say hello, and that’s very funny because I wouldn’t normally say hello. I’d just shoot the man in the chest.”

Todd: Exactly, and I’m not going to be doing it as me or an outsider, I’m going to be one of the characters telling you what’s happening

(Joe Laughs)

Joe: See and we’re still learning technically about things so Todd just learned hard..

(Banging sound)

Todd: Ohhhh!

Joe: Todd just learned not to bang the table.

Todd: It’s a very expensive Table, by the way. You should see the setup in this room it is… It’s as professional as it gets.

Joe: Well, unless you go to a professional studio. We are on a couch. I am looking at my daughter’s… still Easter candy, so that’s where we’re at.

Todd: I’m in the Bathroom. Live via satellite.

Joe: Yeah. I got a cable that was just long enough. When you hear him… I will try to keep the mic down if you hear him start to struggle.

Todd: Grunts. Flushes.

Joe: Yeah.

Todd: Pages turning.

Joe: You’ve never flushed.

Todd: Yeah. I don’t know how.to.

Joe: Alright. So anyways. So let’s talk about the movie we’re gonna do next week. It is a fantastic one. It’s actually the one I was watching when I was like “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if me and Todd were doing a podcast about this?” And then my brain literally went “Woaaaah.” and then my brain went “Woooah” again because that’s what Steven Segal would have sounded like and which movie are we doing Todd?

Todd: We are going to do… You could pick any Steven Segal film, ‘cause they’re all exactly the same. We’re gonna do Marked For Death.

Joe: Fantastic. Marked for Death. The third of his bigger movies at the time. He did three really close together and he takes on Jamaicans in this.

Todd: Yes which is different than the others where he took on a different race of the exact same guy.

Joe: And don’t worry. Are they kind of racist against them? Totally!

Todd: Oh this is… What year did this come out?

Joe: ‘90.

Todd: Stereotypes were the… that was the way to go.

Joe: I know. The fact that we made it out of there and thought “Hey, black people are ok.”

(They laugh)

Todd: Anybody. Especially whitey.

Joe: No. I’ve never been a fan of whitey. Yeah, so we’re gonna give it a watch. We’re gonna be watching it in real time and we’re gonna be reacting. You can join along with us, you can just listen to us watch the movie, If you’ve seen the movie you know what happens. When you hear us talk about “Hey, there’s a girl with boobs.” You’ll know what we’re getting at.

Todd: A girl with boobs.

Joe: Yeah, exactly. If you can't figure it out then I can’t help you. You can get this thing anywhere. You can find it in any cheapy bin in any store. I found it in a video store in the used bin. You can rent it on YouTube for $3.99 right now

Todd: I don’t.. Honestly. I wouldn’t recommend… for $3.99. Yikes.

Joe: I know. I’m sorry (They laugh). Then there’s other things in the states if there’s any possibility that an American is going to listen to this. You can get it on Amazon Instant. You can get it on Vudu

Todd: if you live anywhere in the vicinity of somebody who’s like from the ages of 35 to somewhere in their 50’s range just wait ‘til they go to work, break into their house. I’m sure they’ll have it amongst their Van Dammes.

Joe: If you know anybody who owns a sword, They’ve got this movie or can describe it to you in full. So that’s it guys. We really hope everybody tunes in. We’re gonna try and have these things up on Fridays, so you should always be able to tune in and hear something. Somebody will be talking. If you want to reach us, you can catch us at miscastcommentary@gmail.com. You can find us on Twitter @miscastpodcast. You can find us on Instagram @miscastcommentary. Lots of ways to find us.

Todd: You can… I was just gonna say my local phone number. You can just call me. And yack whenever, really. If you just wanna rap.  

Joe: But you literally have to rap.

Todd: Yes. I will not accept any phone calls unless you are freestyle rapping.

Joe. Yeah. That’s how I had to tell him that, like, a friend of ours died. (They Laugh) It was really bad,

Todd: It was awkward.

Joe: I could not find the rhymes. So I hope everybody tunes in and checks us out; Marked for Death. Find it. Watch it along with us. Don’t find it. Listen along. I don’t care.

Todd: Live it.

Joe: Just be a part of it with us. Be inside us.

Todd: Yes, Both of us.

Joe: Alright. Tune in.