#im just airing out my 2 cents

[anartisticdreamer0]

i wanna talk about the gut-wrenching fight between wilbur and phil in the maze today

as a fan of both of them

so during wilbur’s absence i have mainly stuck to phil’s pov but before that i only watched will, this is to establish where i’m coming from.

wilbur was fucked up for telling phil that he must not care about the eggs. phil was wrong for not thinking that wilbur would want further explanations.

and wilbur would have likely reacted much less rudely had he been told more than “the eggs are missing, no we don’t know where they are, we only have clues, yeah they’ve been missing a month, this maze is meant to help. maybe.” like he was not told how the maze would help, what any of it meant, what clues they had, how people were searching, none of it.

obviously we know they didn’t have time to explain any of it. there was no time to explain everything and phil was already stressed. phil gets stressed just being in the maze, he’s constantly stressed about the eggs in general, and wilbur was just not following along to the point that he needed to be lassoed. so no of course phil couldn’t explain everything.

the problem also came in that wilbur wasn’t even explained as to why they were going into the maze in the first place. he had no idea what was going on or why it was happening. so on top of that you bring him into a maze where he was already asking to leave prior to the fight because he was that uncomfortable in it. THEN you tell him his daughter is missing along with all her siblings and everyone is just in a maze?? of course he thought no one was doing anything, NO ONE TOLD HIM THEY WERE! IN FACT NO ONE EVER EVEN MENTIONED THE EGGS UP UNTIL THAT MOMENT (to wilbur).

both of their feelings were perfectly valid given their povs. not saying i agreed with q!wilbur but that his reaction made sense given the circumstances. of course what he said was rude and awful especially because he said it to PHIL. phil who has suffered in his search for the eggs. who has done everything he possibly could for the eggs. but wilbur didn’t know that and no one told him.

but i also want to talk about how they immediately apologize and forgive each other upon taking time away and doing what each set out to do. phil went through with the spy mission and wilbur conducted his own investigation. but when the spy mission was over, and the investigation came up empty, phil went to will. and he apologized for yelling and wilbur apologized for what he said. and then they stuck together, phil explained some of what they knew, and will made an effort that he hopes will work. even if phil doesn’t fully believe in it, he still let wilbur do it.

because at the end of the day, they care about each other so much and are both grieving. one has just had more time than the other.

[starsomens]

hi ✨ i know that usually you’re the one that gets the prompts and writes on them but can i just give my two cents on the recent events regarding noah’s behavior on tour because there’s literally no one i can discuss this with, so naturally i need to share and i feel like this here is a safe and fun space to do that.

i know how everyone has this image of what noah’s like in a relationship or in bed or whatever and that’s okay, we can all imagine and that’s what i’m here do to today, but you CANNOT tell me this man is not fucked, foul and twisted because

1. breathing into the mic AUDIBLY right after the “the way you fuck, the way you taste” lyric is nothing close to innocent and i am pretty sure he knows what he’s doing

2. spitting in the air after “so i can look you in the eye when i spit in your face” NUMEROUS times. i’m just gonna say that he knows. spitting is spicy and he knows.

3. that devilish grin he gave right before the growl in dethrone in Austin. uhm. yeah, sadistic, sick and twisted.

also this man feeds off of dark shit. he has said it himself a couple of times. when it comes down to anime, he loves watching the really dark stuff. we know he works on the aesthetics of the band a lot and the primary colors are black, red and grey. the visuals are dark. carrying an axe around a dark hallway? wearing a ski mask for fun? and all black outfits all the time? man loves horror movies as well. im positive he’d be down to chase you down an alley wearing a mask and carrying a knife, ghostface style.

also keeping his composure and having a really cool aura and being quiet while also sounding firm and diplomatic. SCREAMS dom. but like a pleasure dom cause we know he’s the clitmaster3000.

oh yeah, i’m not even gonna mention the fact that he lowered his voice when he said “good. GOOD JOB” when he asked the crowd to make a line for the mosh pit. mans got a praise and degradation kink and no one can tell me otherwise. he loves control and he loves exercising it in all ways possible.

okay, thanks. sorry if that was too much but i can’t stop thinking about it and it makes SO MUCH sense in my head and i need to know if somebody else is gonna agree with me. bye 🦦

I am gonna make you 🦦anon

MAAM OR SIR I AGREE THANK YOU FOR YOUR 2 CENTS YOUR DONATION IS APPRECIATED

But honestly this is what I’m saying HE KNOWS! MAN KNOWS WHAT HES DOING! Because I’ve had some people here say that they know about the fan fic, so he BEEN KNOW what makes us tic! I mean look at the video of him leaning over the crowd (not knowing exactly what he was doing) BUT HE KNOWS THE EFFECT! H knows what we’re into and what makes us go wild! IM TELLING YOU. But I’m telling you it’s kinda scary how DOMINANT he can be but also like super super super calm and collected about it. He gets his fill of power from it but super controlled about it as well and THAT makes it a bit scary but also 🌝

Clitmaster 3000 IM DEAD I LOVE IT! Also you and I must be the same person because I was about to write a small thought on him being a pleasure Dom! HE SCREAMS IT! And I have said before he keeps the mask on during sex 🤠 GIRL WE SHARING THE SAME BRAIN CELL RN CUZ I CAN SEE ALL OF THIS. Hopefully my writing can improve so I can write something that rlly expressed this out if the opportunity comes up.

[prettyboykatsuki]

Do you have any tips on how to like. Manage insecurity lol

im told i have a pessimistic way of handling this specific thing so take this advice with a grain of salt but i break like all inner issues down into two parts. the practical application and theory

the practical application for managing insecurity is that theres only two states for that thing. can be changed and can’t be changed. if something can’t be changed than worrying is a waste of time. if it can then i can work to change it, then the question is, is it worth it? as in, does making this change serve me as a person or improve my quality of life and am i doing it for the right reason?

the second and more important imo is the theory of insecurity which is why told im kinda pessimistic shfjsnf

but my mindset is basically 1. there’s nothing self-righteous about your misery and 2. thinking you are by some measure uniquely awful is also a complex of thinking you are special.

insecurity is a really insidious things because it places importance on very arbitrary things. and its made so big by social media. you should care about the opinions of people who are important to you and who love you but strangers are just strangers. and people who don’t know you intimately cant make full enough judgements of what makes you good or bad

but ultimately i think of my own self hatred as kind of lame and thats why i dont sink to deep into it anymore. my insecurity is not accurate measure of who am i in the same way my accomplishments aren’t. im not a uniquely evil monster just like im not a heavenly saint

my bodies shaped like that because bodies look like that. my teeth are yellow because sometimes they stain. im annoying sometimes and sometimes im inconsiderate and i isolate often. these are qualities about me i dislike and can feel insecure about but they’re not some machiavellian, radical evil. just like my good traits arent some inherent divine goodness

insecurities are reflections of the world around us and the people we encounter. your insecurities don’t show up out of thin air. they’re brought and imposed upon you through a long life and its normal to have them and working through them is a life long process

but the reason ive gradually become less insecure is because having this intense fixation on my flaws was honestly a massive waste of my time lmao. my miserable and pitiful outbursts were eating away at my long and beautiful life. if i spent even half of the time i did as a young kid worrying about my appearance on literally anything else i might’ve been the next frank ocean. my suffering wasn’t righteous. it didn’t make me special or cool or interesting.

be cringe and weird. be ugly and outdated. be gross and sad. what do you want to see when you look back at your life? beautiful misery or ugly and unkempt joy? its not a fix but it helped me a lot to think that way even if its morbid or pessimistic.

when im insecure the little voice in my head goes “but does it matter?” because i taught to do that. it usually doesn’t matter because a lot if it’s arbitrary. thats my two cents

[zhongrin]

Hello Miss Rin! It's Aether again. There's just not enough fics or drabbles or HCs about physics student reader! x linguistics major! Alhaitham.

"Are you mad at me why are you giving me the middle finger-" "TORQUE HAITHAM IM FINDING TORQUE" Left hand rule jokes will never get old.

I can imagine myself wiggling a pen in air to simulate wave motion and Haitham is just concerned for my mental well being.

Yes we STEM students will always ridicule bio (bio is not real L bio) and linguistics majors it is a love language

"What do you guys have for homework? Write a love letter in Bulgarian or something? Why are you pulling out that big ass book? Haitham no-" *Haitham bores aether to sleep*

I am serving crack and I love it

i can't put my two cents into this bc personally i wasn't in physics so i have no idea what yall learn there-

but this got me thinking... cs major!reader x linguistics major!haitham....

"i am fluent in 20 languages." "................ do programming languages count as languages-"

"what have you been doing for the past 2 hours??" "trying to derive what the author was trying to convey in this specific passage." "oh. can't relate, if we got stuck we just google them. viva la stackoverflow!" "...."

[pwblogarchive]

February 2006

February 1, 2006

paris in a flash. breath in the air. love is the kind of magic you save for when you are cornered. its your backup. sing a scandal. papparazi on songs. tu es belle.

2/1/06 Q&A

question

are you aware that people are saying that theyll go to many of your shows on the black clouds and underdogs tour that they really arent going to go to? i noticed on the my local bands thing that people from arizona said that theyre going to the columbia show. does this mean theyre getting more points than everyone else? is this fair? what about all the honest kids out there that just want to see you guys and have fun? thanks! love you pete!

answer

we’re weeding out the cheaters. dont worry. keeping it honest will pay off in the end.

question

hey pete, at the aol sessions thing, why was andy in a whole different room? k well shelby

answer

he smells terrible. no. well haha- in order to record live drums and have it sound okay its better to isolate each instrument- especially with cymbals.

question

Yo Pete. I got my bamboozle tickets and I was wondering…are you guys gonna play like 4 songs, or a full set?

answer

we are most definitely going to play a full set.

question

have u ever taken a naked picture with nothing but a box of frosted flakes covering ur pieces and spaces? my myspace friend tony has… get it cuz tony the tiger……

answer

doesnt he wear like a bandana? thats kind of erotic.

question

PETER! So are you really engaged and having a baby?

answer

totally. we live in a castle in the sky and my backyard is made out of clouds. its real great except for when the dragon comes around.

question

hey love…my little sister is getting major surgery next week (7yrs old)….shes getting a feeding tube put into her stomach, and this time theyre going to have to move her organs around and try not to puncture them…and she loves you and patrick, you especially (she only listens to songs where she hears you in it..screaming)so if you have anything to say to her…cuz shes a wreck over this…she should be…and any suggestions for me, because…right now shes emotionally stronger over this than i am…i just keep on thinking if something goes wrong….anyway, thanx pete

answer

prettymuch you just need to think positively. you have not been made sisters by a series of accidents or coincidences. clearly, you love eachother and the best thing you can do is be there for her. ill think about her before i go to sleep tonight.

question

I heard that FOB is breaking up is it true xo

answer

no way. we are on our second honeymoon.

question

Ive never met you. All I know about you are internet rumors and what is on this website. And for some reason I find this easier to say to you than anyone I know. Im going through a really hard time in my life, where I feel that I dont fit in. Even with my close friends. At church, at home, everywhere. I dont even know myself now. Im so confused about everything, Im questioning my own religion, my morals, whats right and wrong…everything. I dont know what to do, and I have times when I just want to give up. I keep a razor in the drawer next to my bed just in case. I need help…and I dont feel like I can tell anyone, but just typing this all down makes me feel slightly better, knowing that maybe someone might read this and care about a small town nobody gives me enough strength to go on for another day.

answer

i totally understand what you are saying. i wish i could say that it all goes away, but i think these are things that will plague us all until our deathbed. i would definitely throw the razor away, you dont need it- its not a solution- sometimes its easier to take it kind of one breath at a time… you know? its easier in small steps.

question

What does “im two quarters in a heart down” mean?

answer

i was trying to through to someone on a payphone, it was a 50 cent call from where i was to them.

February 2, 2006 

1:16 pm 

this city helps me forget love doesn't bore me. it disappoints me. there is a pile of lamps and clocks stuck on 11:11. cause i wish i could fucking believe you. 

February 6, 2006

Amsterdam to los angeles.

I am in love with being home.

If you come out to the house of blues in la tommorrow we are playing a super smal show with: jacks mannequin and shiny toy guns. Its already sold out but were gonna give out 5 free tickets. Don’t get your hopes too high.

You aren’t my goodluck charm anymore.

February 7, 2006

momma and poppa are cute. they were all at the hob la show. my dad says "will you please introduce your mother to jay-z". jigga and my mommy totally chatted.

wow.

oh and the show was amazing.

- petey

2/07/06 Q&A

question

Sometimes you write about seeing “old fall out boy fans” at shows. How can you tell? No way you recognize all those faces. Also, I just wanted to say that my first memory of FOB was in the local section (i guess cause andy is from menomonee falls and the store was in milwaukee) of a record store by my house a few years ago & now the same band is on TV & t-shirts across the nation. fall out boy: what a trip.

answer

my visual memory is pretty good. usually i can remember faces. sometimes i am off. but i definitely remember kids in every single town. i can’t remember any names ever- my auditory memory is terrible.

question

JT LeRoy mystery solved: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11215643/page/2/  

answer

disappointing.

February 8, 2006 

5:04 am 

so you want the truth been living just outside of okay for awhile now. but its changing. whatever story you heard about me is not true. im pretty sure im not gonna bring home a grammy tommorrow. but i will have lots of good pictures. how i am feeling about someone is always changing. except i am allowed to be happy inside my head right now. ive been scared of everything for far too long. i haven't let myself be alright. but ive done alot of thinking on the 12 hour flight here. i just like being around certain people. new friends make my heart flutter. old ones make me feel homesick. been going to grammy parties all week. yeah im that guy in the corner lurking hard. its kinda creepy. ive been training the last month for our video- however i think i may have sprained or fractured my foot in the last day. if this thing turns out the way it is supposed to- it will be the most epic thing fall out boy has ever done. i dont miss you but i do miss the idea of you. i went and looked at houses out in california again today- i want to get a dog and a backyard. maybe not just yet. but maybe. my clock is ticking on your pretty face. my dad got drunk tonight and talked shit to all of my friends. pretty amazing. i wish i had it on video. total release the bats two material. i want to do a tv show like the wonder years starring fall out boy. i don't think any networks would be too interested. dont call it a comeback. put pennies on my eyes when i die. you are new moons and fresh sheets and the end of that one dream. love the fancy kid. 

2/09/06 Q&A

question

do you ever wish you could start life all over again?

answer

yes. i think about it all the time. i would try and be more honest and not make so many mistakes.

question

I am holding my breath until the new Fall Out Boy video. When do you expect it to be finished?

answer

itll be done filming on tuesday- i promise you this is one of a kind. do not expect dance, dance again.

2/10/06

question

In the video Dance, Dance, you wispered to Patrick something. What did you whisper? And what was your favorite album and video that you made?

answer

“ive got to pee so bad”

question

pete, are you and ashlee simpson sexing?? ~the boardies P.S. she doesnt love you like we do

answer

okay just because this question has been asked one million times— we are friends. she is a sweet girl. ps- i could never lololove a girl as much as the boardies.

question

so what products do you use to keep your face blemish free?

answer

pore cleanser, reinvigorator, and a t-zone moisturizer by ponds.

question

why is Patrick the on;y one who smiles in like all of your albums and postres and stuff? i mean i was looking at the cover to “take tis to your grave” and patrick was the only one smiling.

answer

he makes us all super sad right before the pictures are taken always. and then smiles cause he likes it when people are sad. or the other answer is i dunno.

February 19, 2006

things that both currently annoy and amuse me:

ariplanes

"hottie mchottie" and other hilarious lines that should not be said.

east coast weather.

west coast girls.

yawning.

being awake all night.

i am tired.

- petey

February 19, 2006

posted from petes friends or enemies blog

February 19, 2006

i feel like howl from howls moving castle embodies every single feeling that goes through my head.

that is all. i am in the lobby of a hotel in new york city waiting for something that isn't ever going to happen.

i am calculating all of the legs and drunken stutters. i am precise. i am a machine. i am a hot mess.

- petey

February 19, 2006

i heard fall out boy on the radio for pretty much one of the first times ever last night. it made me once again realize that 99 percent of the reason anyone will ever like this band is because patrick has the best voice on the planet. that kid is the golden ticket.

i want a girl that wont laugh at anyone elses jokes.

i want a girl i can love in hour increments.

i want all of my ex loves to love me forever.

the new video will suprise you.

pictures soon at:

www.clandestine.buzznet.com  

www.friendsorenemies.com  

February 19, 2006

we put the f.u. back in fun so ive been reading many peoples diatribes lately. about what punk rock is and how bullshit this whole scene is. about how we all need to fuck off and die. well the truth is youre so fucking brave and i am so fucking cliche. i am okay with that. but i believe in these songs and these eyes and these sweated out rooms. the words your write hurt my eyes and my back is sore from being hunched over the screen all night. you cheapen what i do by casually throwing barbed statements at my friends and fans. leave. we don't fucking need you. we dont care what you think about us. we dont need to sit in clubs and watch you excuse yourself to the bathroom every 20 minutes, just cause we know how it goes. we dont need to watch you onstage. the best songs sing themselves. ive said it since day one. this is my rushmore. this saved me. fuck you for trying to ruin it. new songs are my middle finger back to you. im sorry youre gonna have to wait awhile to hear yourself called out through the speakers. i love the way they always ask to see my room key when i walk into my hotel at night. like i do not belong. because i do not belong. i love opposition. i love the haters. i love mondays. i love accidents. i love "no more chances". i love walking through this city at night where i do not know anyone. because i do not know anyone. i love secret shows. i love coded messages. i love the way you have me figured out so much better than i have myself figured out. 

xo peterabbit

2/19/06 Q&A

question

thank you for not making craptastic videos. Will continue with the making of noncrappiful videos with this next one?

answer

well see. i think this one is gonna be a 180 degree change. i hope you like it.

question

Is the world ever going to be luck enough to get a Fueled By Ramen tour? Say with you guys, the academy is…, panic! at the disco, and days away? Or any other of the Fueled By Ramen crew?

answer

we are planning a decaydance tour for next summer possibly- tai, panic, gym class, and a couple others are all possible tourmates.

question

p33t!please give us some hints about the video?!? do you know when its going to be finished for our viewing pleasure?

answer

okay think kungfu hustle meets the lost boys meets the warriors.

2/22/06

question

Lately it seems like you, not as a band, but as a person have been undergoing a lot of minor changs, which together are seeming to make you an unrecognizable person to some. Is the Wentz we all came to know and trust really deteriorating in front of us? You guys, and your music, and your humor are a stable thing in the lives of many, and the idea that you wont be staying as we thought we knew you for even just now honestly scares the shit out of me. Are the few of us going to have to distance ourselves before we end up following and befriending something we cant even recognize, or are you still for better or worse going to be the ingenious, hilarious smartass we see you as?

answer

i dont know how to answer this question. i think if i was truly deteriorating before you i would still answer that i wasn’t because id feel nervous revealing that. at the same time i feel that i love more and more spending afternoons walking through this city by myself away from all of this nonsense. if that makes any sense. i dont really know who you know me as- i dont really know who i know myself as- i am sorry i dont have a better answer. i am as confused as you.

question

Does Patrick know that he is my Schmexy lil Lepricon?? because he really really is.

answer

wow. haha. i will be sure to pass it along.

question

I miss the old Peter , bangs , eyeliner and all . Im so sad.

answer

the old peter didn’t have any of those things. its just a hair cut. its just makeup. its just my bone structure. its just a picture. focus one evrything else there is- the words, the music, the laughs, the jokes, the connection, the sweaty haze in the room right before the last song. everything is gonna be ok. patrick, pete, joe, and andy are making a new record and a video to scare off anyone that ever thought any of us were pretty.

question

peter, youre such a dino-whore. can we expect you and the guys to be doing any skits on SNL?

answer

no

question

you and hey chris arent friends anymore. sadness. do you think this will be ever resolved and you guys will be friends again?

answer

im only answering this question so it will not be asked again: i don’t believe in bringing or speaking about situations with my friends or family online. they are the only part of my life that i guard intensely. i hope that you will respect that. what goes on with me and chris is between me and chris and i have never and will never address it online or milk it for attention.

2/24/06

question

will we be getting a pre-MTV look at the A Little Less Sixteen Candles a Little More Touch Me music video like we did with Dance,Dance? The few pics i saw reminded me of Michael Jackson for some reason.

answer

there will be more and more pictures over at www.friendsorenemies.com - im not sure if we’ll have a video preview ready in time. this thing is gonna be different. don’t expect 80s highschool movies and usher dancing -

2/26/06

question

why is pete such an asshole and patrick such a sweetheart?

answer

hahaha. true. when we were being made into a boyband by lou pearlman he was like: patrick you are gonna be the shy guy and pete you are gonna be the badboy with attitude. i cant help it. you dont argue with lou.

question

PETE YOU MAN WHORE BAND NAMES. PLEASE

answer

caps lock does not make up for not using enough words to be understood.

question

can you help me think of a new away message

answer

blinkhurleyiheartbilljoe41: “hi, i am outside breathing oxygen. the sunlight hurts my beady little eyes cause i sit in a dark room on the internet all day and night. my legs feel wobbly because i have been looking a n00ds all day. please be my friend in real life and not just on the dorkweb.”

question

I want to go to a secret show obviously, but where are we supoosed to look for these “clues”?

answer

they are all over the place. look hard: clandestine.buzznet.com - friendsorenemies.com - www.fueledbyramen.com

question

Pete, the new october fall cd is amazing. will you please tell Patrick that I think his voice is amazing in that song. his voice is always amazing, but there is just something else to his voice in Second Chances!! and now for my question… is decaydance looking at any new bands that you might sign in the near future?? Youshouldsignfictioncityyoushouldsignfictioncity!!!

answer

thank you… october fall should suprise some people i think… we are always looking for new bands. i will check them out.

question

which person from the simpsons would you most like to date??and why.:0

answer

hahaha tricky….. hmmm. marge i guess. but you know she has a BOYFRIEND.

question

Why is it that the songs do not match their titles?

answer

they do.

question

Im thinking of selling my PATD ticket, persuade me that seeing them will be worth the expenses!

answer

listen to their record. that is your persuasion. trust me.

question

Pete, Ive had a hard time talking to anyone about this, so I just thought that I could say it to you. Recently my Nan died. This has been my first experience with death in my family. Ive been distraught, but no ones really talked to me about it. I keep thinking that my mom or dad or one of my sisters will die, and Im always worrying about them. Its really driving me crazy. I dont know how to get past all this. Thanks for reading this. Your music is what has kept me going this long. x

answer

ive felt this before. its strange how the more you watch tv and the world around you- the more you think about people around you dying. it can drive you crazy. it can make you hang on too tightly. to me the only answer is to treasure the people around you. so youll never feel like you missed out. live every day.

February 28, 2006

3:50 pm (from HeyChris)

an open letter to pete wentz.

it takes a lot to make me mad. 

it takes even more to infuriate me.

so, after all this time i finally learned the truth. that it was you telling my ex girlfriend lies and secrets. despite even giving you the pass card after i caught you trying to talk dirty to her online, this is how you repay me? no wonder why you couldnt look me in the eye on the bus last summer and no wonder why you avoided me every chance you got. 

you hug me and tell me you love me then you tell lies to my girlfriend behind my back to lure her away from me? you tell her i cheat on her and then you tell me to come stay on the bus?

you are a spineless fucking sham.

i regret every second i spent defending you and your selfish ways. 

dont forget, i know you. not that shitty glammed up poser image you present to the masses to consume. the dude i knew never would have worn a fucking dinosaur shirt or sold out one of his friends. the dude i knew had heart and fucking loyalty. well lil buddy, you are fucking done.

you want to sell me out to the most important person in my life and then have the audacity to make ME think I did something wrong to not deserve your friendship? you fucking arrogant bastard. 

since we're discussing sellouts lets discuss how when kids give you presents you laugh at them and throw it straight in the trash. oh yeah, ive seen it many times. lets talk about how you talk shit about the fat girls that are your fans and mock their letters. you are fucking undeserving of every ounce of attention you've ever gotten. from every one of your calculated business moves to your "spontaneous" jumps in the crowd parts to your well rehearsed cliche lines you've been spouting for 400 shows in a row. you're boring, contrived and old. "oooh, no one loves me, its sooo hard being on magazine covers and tv shows. someone save me from me." what are you, fucking 12? go light your little candles ask yourself why no one will ever truly love you. its amazing no one has caught on to your little fucking show. you're nothing more than a shitty opportunist business man with even shittier fashion sense.

so pack up and move to whatever million dollar house you've picked out in california paid for by your lies and hypocrisy and deceit and selfishness and over medicate yourself like youve been doing for years...because guess what? no one wants you here anymore. you are not welcome. 

oh yeah, hows that straight edge tattoo doing? as well as the tattoo for your "crew" who now refer to you as a fraud and a con? stay gold dude, stay gold.

remember this each night of the tour when you play the lie, "hey chris, you were our only friend." 

downplay it all you want by saying the song is about "friends", but guess whos fucking name you're saying each and every night? mine. thats right. what a bunch of fucking phonies. sing the songs you dont even believe in anymore. fucking liar.

you know the friends i have and you know how we feel about loyalty. 

you know who im talking about and you know they're not happy either.

so dont get caught slipping and you better make damn sure you watch whos on your guest list because a plus one might come backstage to punch your fucking teeth out and tear the windpipe from your throat. 

you fucking sell out. 

oh, and next time you decide to write another song about me, do it right you fucking coward.

**********REPOST EVERYWHERE YOU CAN**************** 

Current Music: the promise - crush all fakes."

oh what a monster we've created.

when i am called by my manager to read a post that is burning through the internet it makes me wonder. ive never responded to rumours or shittalking online, no matter who it came from- at the same time there is nothing that makes my blood boil more than reading this- being who i am, my first instinct is to blow it off- but then i consider how anytime anything is written on the internet people believe its true- no matter what, no matter the biases or subjectivity of the sources. my first instinct is to lash out- to say everything i think about you and every situation- to defend myself and attack you. as unbelievable as it is- i am an extremely insecure person- everytime i read something about myself negative or positive i react in probably the exact same way anyone would.

- 

but like i said- i am going to continue to do this my own way, what i consider to be the higher road. i understand when we get angry we often lash out- ive done it myself on many occassions. if you want to talk to me about any of this call me on my cell phone and we can do it one on one-

i will not be responding to anything else-

however, the attacks about our fans and the people that listen to this music and read these words is completely offbase- the fans of this band are my entire life- ive lost my girlfriend, my friends, much of my "normal" life- just to keep this relationship going- this isn't to say that i dont make mistakes, take misteps. just because youve seen me on tv or at a show doesn't make me anything less or more than human. you dont ever see the other side of the way we agonize over every decision we make or try our best to please everyone- because we've given up in bands before and we know how it feels and we dont want that to happen. everyone in the band is upset about this- remember everyone that makes up fall out boy- they all wanted me to voice that we appreciate our fans and friends that weve met more than anything- and that we realize because of where we are all the arrows are pointed at us- but we will try our best. and we do try our best. we also, have far more faith in the intelligence and dedication of the people that believe in us to think that they will be swayed easily. if you want to hear other stories of how we actually talk about our fans or think of them please ask other bands, they will testify to how we really act. we just want you to know that in four years when noone cares, we still hope you are there. im not going to freak out or whatever, but please an attack on our fans or our relationship with them as a p.r. move is uncalled for.

this doesn't need to be reposted anywhere- i am sure that fob fans know where to find it.

chris if you want to talk the phone line is there.

i wrote this pretty fast so i apologize for the typos and run-ons.

until then, thank you to everyone who reserves judgment and has my back until the end of time.

- petey

2/28/06 Q&A

question

IM JUST DYING TO KNOW, WHEN IS “RAINY DAY KIDS” COMING OUT?

answer

ive pushed it back. ill be honest alot of the writing in there was halfassed. words are really the only thing i care about so i want them to be perfect. i will try and figure out a release date and when we do, i will post it. i apologize. i dont want to put out some shitty book.

question

pete i am 13 and have been single my whole life should i stay that way? love ya ~Devon~

answer

its definitely ok to be single when you are 13. you have many years to get in trouble later on. when i was 13 i was into fireworks and skateboarding. girls were not even on my radar.

[lestappenwdc]

what the hell are you blathering on about?

firstly charles' contract is not indefinite. it has an end date, they just haven't made it public.

secondly he's not the first to sign long-term with ferrari, both schumacher and raikonnen did it before him. other drivers have also signed long contracts with teams before him. verstappen's rb contract was two years longer than charles's is rumoured to be and norris himself signed a five year contract last time around.

thirdly if you think mclaren or norris were giving charles or ferrari a second thought when they made their announcement, you're an idiot, not sorry to say. norris has been with that team since he was 16 years old, he's literally grown up with them and mclaren means as much to him as ferrari does to charles.

lastly begging you to pull your head out of your backside and learn the history of this sport. mclaren's history is as illustrious as ferrari's is, even though they had a bit of a dip in the last decade. both teams have always been able to attract wdc calibre drivers to their ranks even on years when they were nowhere. in mclaren's worst years their drivers were literally two wdcs in alonso and button.

i wish so-called fans like you would go and get some air and stop posting sh*t like this and making the rest of us look as ignorant as other fanbases like to claim we are. you're exactly the kind of fan that is the problem and makes people claim charles fans are dts fans with no wheel knowledge.

First of all, calm down, take a breath, it's not that serious.

Second of all, I agree with everything you've written. Which is funny and it just means that a) you have no reading skills and completely missed the point of my post and b)you've written a hateful ask that is the definition of why tumblr is a horrible fandom space where opinions are frowned upon while simultaneously accusing me of the exact thing you are doing by sending this ask. Congratulations. Although I sincerely doubt you have enough reading skills to understand what I just wrote.

And because I love to give my 2 cents everywhere I will answer all your rants one by one. And if you are open for debate youre free to answer back. I love debate. Anyone who has shared 2 (nice) words with me on this site knows how much a looove talking and "blathering". Even when we have opposite opinions. Without further ado:

1. We don't know If Charles' contract has an end date. That's the whole point. When I said indefinite I was referring to "not defined". As in not publicly defined. Like you, I think it has one. In fact, I think the end date is 2026. Do you want a detailed explanation on why I think that? I promise it does not involve DTS it actually involves a discussion about new regulations, team business decisions and pr strategies. Of course I know other people have had long contracts with ferrari (Charles having the longest at 5 years) and of course I know other people have long contracts (did you just tell me the length of Max' contract as if im not dreading 2028 like the devil?). I was referring to contract announcements where an exact date is not given. If you had any reading skills you would get that from my post.

2. I know how much Mclaren means to Lando. I'm not disputing the importance of the contract that Lando signed. I'm not talking about his contract at all. I am talking about the announcement and the announcement only. I don't know how McLarens history in the sport has anything to do with the announcement of Landos contract please come back and enlighten me on that one so I can give you a good answer.

3. Calling me ME!!!! A person who's started watching F1 during Seb's domination era a dts fan is just laughable. I will once again tell you to take a breath. It's just cars going around in circles at the end of the Day. Vroom Vroom.

And if this is a copy pasta thank you for giving me an opportunity to yappa yappa. I love doing that.

[dysautonomia]

Ich habe 61 Mal im Jahr 2022 etwas gepostet

5 Einträge erstellt (8%)

56 Einträge gerebloggt (92%)

Blogs, die ich am häufigsten gerebloggt habe:

@sweetrunawayfox

@anxious-and-in-pain

@fibrofox

@spooniestrong

@chronicillnessmemes

Ich habe 59 meiner Einträge im Jahr 2022 getaggt

Nur 3% meiner Einträge hatten keine Tags

#disability – 25 Einträge

#chronic illness – 17 Einträge

#disabled – 13 Einträge

#ableism – 12 Einträge

#autism – 11 Einträge

#chronic pain – 8 Einträge

#meme – 4 Einträge

#spoonie – 4 Einträge

#chronic fatigue – 4 Einträge

#help – 3 Einträge

Längstes Tag: 41 characters

#postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Meine Top-Einträge im Jahr 2022:

#5

The only pharmacy nearby now nebulises essential oils. They want to increase their nebuliser sellings.

Since I have MCAS, I‘m terribly allergic to that. I can’t enter my pharmacy anymore.

Thank you for taking yet another small part of what‘s left of my autonomy. :(

3 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 20. Dezember 2022

#4

As a disabled person who can’t go to work and stays home all day, money is always tight. I discovered an app that is actually legit for a tiny side hustle. It‘s about filling out surveys and money can be paid out via paypal or even amazon coupons.

I‘m telling you this because it is a real option to people like me who are not allowed to gain money.

So if you are on disability and want to gain a few euros or dollars, this might be an option:

https://attapoll.app/join/sgprj

It‘s sad that people like me have to try ways like these. But right now, I‘ll take what I can get and I bet many of you feel the same. It‘s a bit of work, but I had 15 Euros in three days.

Heads up: If you click on that link and use the app with my reference (sgprj) , you get 40 Cents and I get 20 Cents.

I wish we had better options, but until then, try to stay afloat, everyone.

3 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 31. August 2022

#3

The world is unfair.

I often buy myself a treat

While others can't afford to eat.

I live in a house that's made of stone

While others don't even have a home.

My walls are short, my roof is old

But even in winter, I never get cold.

I'm often so sick that I can't go outside

But I've never been threatened or forced to hide.

When at death‘s door, I get medical care

I won't be left hanging alone in the air.

In the country I live I'm considered as poor.

But comparing to others, I have so much more!

The world is unfair

And I do despair.

I wish we could share.

3 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 22. Februar 2022

#2

And tipps for dealing with Raynauds?

I just can’t find gloves or socks that keep the cold away :(

It‘s 13 degrees Celsius (55F) and I have mean numb, white fingers and toes. It‘s scary and it hurts and happened even through gloves.

8 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 21. April 2022

Meine #1 des Jahres 2022

Autism and hearing difficulties

Hey everyone,

l have a problem and I think it‘s caused by my neurodiversity. I am very sensitive to all noises and I hear things that are too silent for others to hear. Here comes the „but“: I don’t understand people.

I hear them, but their words don’t really make sense. I hear different syllables and then I try to guess what someone actually said. And more often than not, I can’t guess.

I try to read their lips but that doesn’t always work. Whenever there are other sounds around, I can’t understand anything at all anymore.

This is becoming worse and worse and I feel really handicapped by it. But I guess hearing-aids won’t help? I think the „fault“ lies in my brain?

Does anyone have a tip for me?

44 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 4. Juni 2022

Hol dir deinen Tumblr-Jahresrückblick 2022 →

[faith--in-the-future]

MILAN 10/04/2022

(my first concert<333) ok im still processing and a bit in shock so forgive me if I forget anything but I'll just write a few words to remember the night bc it was AMAZING

ok so first of all enormous thanks to @tanktop-lou and her family for giving me a ride and being generally great!

then thanks to the girls I met in line that I spent the night with bc they were SO NICE, when we were in line there was a dad with a sign saying "I'm looking for a ticket for my daughter " and one of the girls had an extra ticket to sell bc her friend couldn't come but when she saw this guy's daughter was like a 13yo girl she just gifted it to her !!! so sweet!💖 louies are great<333

also the line was INSANE and considering I only waited like 2 hours we got a great spot in the pit !! but truly the line went all around the parking lot MULTIPLE TIMES!! let's just say there was A LOT of pushing and running once the gates opened skjdk

then we got in and everyone in the pit was pushing already lol and I left a few girls go in front of me bc I felt bad for being so tall sksj but then the girl behind me started to get angry at me and my ponytail (??) so I just turned around and ignored her ksjzkd

anywaysss OTP were good although basically nobody knew their songs rip but they still made the best of it and the frontman was very good and energetic! and he tanked and praised louis so many times 🥺🥺🥺🥺 (also the security gave us water ! and told us to not throw anything on stage)

then it was another 30 minutes before louis and the adrenaline (and sweat shsh) were saturating the air. it was great to see a lot of guys and older ppl there too! everyone was so excited and it was so beautiful to see such a big arena get filled by people who were there for louis!!

then the curtain came up and the first lights started shining and let me tell you... his intro his AMAZING like there's an instrumental bit and a lights sequence that just builds up the excitement so WELL and you can literally feel everyone's hearts beating faster ! then the curtain falls and everyone just SCREAMS and from there on its nonstop just SPECTACULAR performance, every moment every light every note every smile it's all just so perfect and so well thought out, it's truly an experience worth every single cent I spent (which weren't even that many tbh for a show this good). I LOVED the screens and the various effects he had on them and the fact that we could also see the band at times, Michael's happiness was truly visible on his face and Steve was just SO GOOD and a great presence, they compliment louis and his energy so well,

LOUIS was just..... beautiful incredible SO FUCKING TALENTED like genuinely there wasn't a single note out of place and his voice was either so perfect it sounded like the studio version OR even better than that bc he was adding high notes and virtuosisms to the songs, his high notes are INSANE like truly he has an AMAZING VOICE and it fills an entire arena so well, I will NEVER understand the people who told him his voice was too weak, it's so far from the truth!!! truly I kept my eyes closed for most of beautiful War bc I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest, and most people also stopped singing bc his voice was THAT beautiful.

also man I'm ashamed to say I had not fully comprehended just how much effort and physical strength goes into every show , I jumped around and screamed a lot but I also took breaks bc it's genuinely so exhausting and while I was in one of these moments taking a break It hit me that louis does and will do this multiple times a week every week for MONTHS like it's truly insanely hard, I don't think I'll be able to move let alone talk tomorrow, I have no idea how he does 3 shows in a row sometimes. I've genuinely gained so much more respect for him and musicians in general tonight.

back to the show, the energy was GREAT everyone around me screamed every word (except 7 which I was like come onnn people it's been years!! but it doesn't matter bc I screamed it all!!!) and louis was visibily SO HAPPY to play in such a big venue and it was just 🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖 the most beautiful feeling, also he was SO HOT!!! and everyone was just so in love with him. also he loved getting the shirts and hoodie and he pointed at a sign that called him a work of art<3333

my favorites live were probably beautiful War, walls, only the brave, through the dark and kmm , his voice in walls and beautiful War is SPLENDID and they're such beautiful moments, otb was BEAUTIFUL the whole venue was so pretty and the rainbow project came out so well!!! TTD and KMM are the perfect closing songs!!! SO much energy and everyone was using every single drop of strength they had left to jump and scream and we really gave it all !!!

and the pyros and silly strings are so amazing and a great experience live !!! it seems silly written down but they just add another layer to the experience and make it more tangible in a way, again everything was so well timed and thought out.

you leave the show truly understanding how much louis CARES and how much effort he puts in his work, he's truly an Artist and a Musician with capital letters and I'm just filled with joy at the thought that he'll get to do this and people will get to experience it for many years to come, I certainly can't wait.

louis, you were beautiful and you shine so bright, its no wonder why some people were always scared of letting you shine but you really proved and prove over and over again that real talent, real care, real love, really do make a difference ♡

[sunsetserenade]

damn it’s an angst fest in this tag 😭😭 i completely get it, but like. yknow. it’s kinda sad to come into this tag and see negativity/doubt/people giving up. i don’t mean to be rude in any way, i just wish we’d focus on positives and remember all the things that have been built up/hinted at/given to us.

ive seen a couple people mention the fact that if the duffers forgot will’s birthday, they may have forgotten the details of “the first day that we met”, via mike’s speech to a possessed will in s2 since those were mentioned around the same time.

im gonna say no way.

this season is entirely focused on the past. beginnings.

if will does (and he will) get vecna’d, it would be almost anticlimactic if it wasn’t brought up.

when el stopped One originally, she overpowered him not with an angry memory, but with a memory of her mother saying “I love you.”

it was a bittersweet memory. a warm memory with sad connotations. a happy memory that, when looking back on, makes you sad and angry even if the memory itself isn’t dark.

(It is also, technically, the first day her and her mother met.)

im going into a bit of speculation here, so take the following with a grain of salt, but i have a feeling we may see a slight falling out between mike and will in volume 2. it may not be a fight like season 3, or even anything verbal, but there may be an obvious distance between them. will knows mike is trying to get back to el while mike is juggling feelings he doesn’t understand. it creates tension.

will might take it personally. he will take it personally; he just won’t voice it. that’s how he is. he’s been led to believe (by his father and by bullies) that he’s not worth the trouble. so if he gets vecna’d, and we see flashbacks of his past, it almost has to include the first day that mike and will met. he’d be sad at the thought of mike pulling away from him (cough cough hopper’s letter cough cough) and reminisce about their past.

and even if none of that happens, like mike and will falling out a little, it still feels like that memory has to happen, yknow? their whole thing is about not losing each other. so why wouldn’t you look into the first day they connected?

does this make sense? that’s at least my two cents for the “first day we met” aspect.

for the birthday… although disappointing, i may give them a bit of leeway here. in their defense, i am also shit at remembering birthdays.

but… i don’t know. they worked on st4 for 2+ years… I find it hard to believe no one on the team remembered the detail, especially a story editor whose job is literally keeping track of that stuff. it sits weird with me, but mistakes do happen. even the most meticulous writers will miss their own details. it happens, and im not gonna hold it against them. it’s entirely possible that will’s birthday was genuinely not a significant part of this season’s story. we did kinda hype it up a lot despite, yknow, not being writers of the show and simply guessing.

agh. i guess what im trying to say overall here is to not be angry if we’re wrong. we’re not bound to get everything, but we’ve already been given a lot. i think the “the first day that we met” flashback is inevitable, but the birthday mention is up in the air. (…haha)

so let’s see what happens in a month, shall we?

[kirtokyo]

hey kira me again- hope ur doing well :} !! again, congrats on 100, your writing is adorable and im so happy you’re getting the recognition you deserve <<333 !! for the event, is it alright if you write for feitan at around 7:30am if that’s alright w/ you?? tysm and congrats once more !!!

𝐅𝐄𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐍 — 「 𝟕:𝟑𝟎𝐚𝐦 」 event details • black reader

Rising up just enough for your head and shoulders to lift off the pillow, your alarm woke you up out of your sleep. You planned on getting up early to do chores around the house. It was 7:30 in the morning but you pushed yourself up anyway, standing to stretch. Before you could begin walking to the bathroom your lover— Feitan tugged at your waist beckoning you to lay back down. 10 more minutes wouldn’t hurt you reckoned, joining him. Those 10 minutes then turned into 2 hours.

The air waking you up naturally, curiosity guiding your hand to check the time, you exclaimed. It was 9:42. Knowing you should get up you laid there, never finding the strength to do it. The bed felt so warm and soft like a cumulus cloud, not to mention Feitan peacefully sleeping right beside you. You couldn’t help but stare at his usually tense features turn soft, his chest without clothing, showcasing his bare abs in the sunlight. After a while his eyelashes started to bat open. His first view of the morning was your bronze skin glowing in the morning sunbeams, a sight he loved to see.

You sat up-right on the mattress, comforter resting at your lap. Feitan gave a raised eyebrow, questioning you so you proceeded to tell him why you were so rushed to get up. After explaining he grumbled and dragged you back down on top of him. You now laid with your head on his chest with your hand skimming over the indents of muscles on his stomach. You made small talk while staring up at the ceiling. He mostly listened while you spoke, putting in a few comments here and there. That was a regular occurrence In the relationship, you talked, he listened. Feitan was rather an opinionated person, adding his two cents in every once in a while.

When moments like these occurred you made sure to make the best of them. You promised yourself that. With the job he had you didn’t get to spend time with each other like this as often as you liked. Being able to be yourselves, relaxed, bask in the comfort of your lover. Saturday mornings with him were specifically your favorite. Being able to sleep in, maybe go out for brunch, and find things to occupy your rest of the day… with fei of course ♡︎!

© all rights reserved to @kirtokyo only found on tumblr. do not copy, translate, modify, or repost my work on any platform

Like and reblog !

[bastardtsukki]

OKAY i have collected my thoughts... first that save!

i actually kind of love that hinata was blocked because this moment shows so much growth. we know that hinata has improved insanely as a player and is always thinking like three steps ahead, to the point where he's his own decoy in receiving. but 4 some perspective compare this moment to the times hinata was blocked early in the series? his complete powerlessness against kitagawa daiichi in middle school, and then when he was blocked at the end of krsn vs seijoh and his eyes weren't even open. he hadn't even realized that he'd been blocked until the game was already over. and of course we all know how he learned to spike with his eyes open so that he could compete in the air, but to be in such complete control of his body that not only is he not powerless anymore but rather acutely aware even after being blocked, so much so he's able to retrieve the ball with his foot? im crying. and that little snippet of brazil to remind us that this is all thanks to his time there ;') as a former soccer player that little moment also made me !! because he is totally dribbling the ball without his hands in that panel, and it wouldn't surprise me if he played a few pickup soccer games in brazil... love 2 think about it

and it's just so Right that they won the game with bokuto's spike and hinata's decoy work. and just look at the huge smiles on their faces!!! aaaaa

now 4 all the little moments i loved:

yamaguchi and yachi insisting on going to tsukki's games! i love their friendship so much, and you know tsukki is going to appreciate their support as much as he's dismissive of it lol

FURUDATE IS BASICALLY TELLING US HERE THAT THEY'LL B BACK WITH A NEW STORY! as sad as i am that haikyuu!! is ending i am also super hyped to see what furudate-sensei will create in the future. but hopefully they take a nice long break first! because they totally deserve it lolw

this whole page fucked me up bokuaka canon kings but especially these panels. bokuaka soulmates! udai is like wtf... and like we've known for a while but this is further confirmation that it's not just bokuto who isn't normal, it's both of them! akaashi is just as weird! as different as they are from each other they r incredibly on the exact same wavelength and poor udai is just lost. who wants to bet that this interview will be completely useless. akaashi will present it for publication and his boss will b like akaashi...,honey i love you but this doesn't make any fucking cents

then there was this moment! everyone is in love with kiyoko! she's gorgeous! look at her smile! and i love that callback to nationals and her lil character arc ughhh kill me

anyways i don't need to even say how glad i am to see kuroo. and i gotta say i was not expecting him to b a sleazy volleyball promoting business man but... i get it lmao. and i just am !!! imagining this collab is driving me insane. and the sakuatsu crumb? i love it. (and anyway we won't talk about what happens when u crop out only the first two text bubbles)

and this line!!! callback to fukunaga!!!!!! when i said i miss fukunaga i knew we probably wouldn't see him again and yet with this line! i feel he's here in spirit ;')

AND THIS..... there r no words... their numbers........... japan......

also shoutout to sakusa flop

[elffees]

why i hate parting ways

okay so i haven’t been in the fandom long but i feel a little suffocated by all the love and worship Parting Ways gets while i hate it with a passion.

this is all my opinion. im not saying people that love Parting Ways shouldnt, im just putting my 2 cents in to stop this spiral of silence thing we got going on and just air my thoughts out.

(warning: long and gets a little rant-y at the end)

im gonna start this off by saying i love all the other endings. for the most part i think they’re written very well (i do think Blood Brothers could’ve done with some tweaking tho) and i love them all for the themes and mix of bittersweetness they have. depending on your playthrough, they each feel right and that’s the reason why i struggle a lot choosing one i deem my personal canon. i really love them all.

but Parting Ways? is lodged down my throat like a stuck bone and here’s 2 of the main reasons why i hate it:

reason #1 -> it feels so out of character

most especially on Sean’s part

now as a choice based game, it’s hard to dive into characterizations sometimes bc a lot of personality traits are shaped by the choices you make. still, in LIS2 regardless if you play with Low Brotherhood or High, it is canon that Sean loves Daniel to the ends of the earth. out of the two, the only one that can potentially express overall hatred or dislike is Daniel. like, Sean’s immense love and devotion to his brother is what episode 4 is all about. that he will do whatever it takes as long as Daniel is safe, happy, and healthy and he won’t ever abandon him especially in a place that threatens him with avid danger.

but i guess that all goes out the window in episode 5 huh? :D

i’m gonna spread this into 2 deeper sections, starting with Sean’s decision to cross the border anyway.

now in a Redemption/Parting Ways playthrough, Sean has done nothing but teach Daniel to follow the law above all else. that stealing, hurting, and killing are inherently wrong. meaning, for example, this Sean likely wouldn’t have gone through with the episode 3 heist as it’s incredibly against his Lawful beliefs.

him switching gears at the end and wanting to force their way through the roadblock isn’t where my problem lies bc that’s entirely choice based. no, PW Sean forcing Daniel into life threatening danger is where i take issue and is where the first instance of ooc-ness takes place. it’s this dialogue right here where i started to go “what the fuck”:

[source]

Sean: Trust me, okay? Just… get us through. Hold on tight.

[Sean starts recklessly driving on]

Daniel: No! I don't wanna! I'm not hurting anyone else!

[Flores and the police open fire]

Sean: It's too late! They're shooting at us, Daniel! This is the only way!

[Daniel is forced to use his powers to clear their way]

to better explain, i wanna make a comparison to Lone Wolf ending. there’s an element of betrayal in both of these. in LW, it’s Sean going against the beliefs he’s taught Daniel, that family should come before the law, by suggesting they turn themselves in. and here in PW, it’s Sean also going against what he’s taught Daniel and saying fuck the rules. the biggest and most important difference is how he goes about these last minute changes.

in LW, Sean attempting to surrender is directly about him not wanting to put Daniel in harm’s way anymore. he wasn’t forcing Daniel to use his power, he wasn’t throwing Daniel in the line of fire, he was clearly suggesting they stand down so no one else got hurt, especially Daniel himself. this fits Sean’s character bc, like i said, one of his never-changing characteristics is that he loves and wants to protect Daniel regardless of your playthrough.

in PW, Sean flips into the exact opposite. and again, no i am not referring to him all of a sudden wanting to break the law. i am talking about his sudden disregard for Daniel’s safety. by Sean forcing them to drive through the roadblock, knowing good and well the only way they’ll survive is by Daniel protecting them, he’s purposely using Daniel as a human shield against his will. it’s horrifying but the most unsettling part imo is that it doesn’t fit Sean’s character at all.

up until this point, Sean has done nothing but try his hardest to keep Daniel from danger, and in PW it’s such a drastic flip it doesn’t make sense for Sean “i love you so much i am willing to walk through hell and even die if it means you’ll be safe” episode 4 Diaz to all of a sudden throw Daniel into the lion’s den himself.

i wanna connect this back to Lone Wolf again and explain why Daniel’s “we’re crossing anyway” mindset makes sense while Parting Ways Sean’s doesn’t. Daniel’s “its my turn to take care of us now” fits that Daniel’s character bc over the course of the game, this Lawless Daniel has proven several times he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect them, including things that are directly against Sean’s wishes.

in episode 3, if you try to stop the heist and Cassidy comes along, Daniel, who believes the heist is a good idea, will choke Cassidy bc he sees her as having poisoned Sean against him. Sean will scream for him to stop and Daniel at first won’t listen bc he thinks by hurting her, he’s helping them. the simple fact he even goes along with the heist regardless if Sean agrees or not is an example in and of itself.

and in episode 4, before Sean can even make a choice, Lawless Daniel will step forward and attempt to murder Lisbeth bc he thinks it’s the right thing to do. now if he continues is based on if you have High Brotherhood or not, but the fact he tried to do it at all KNOWING Sean might not agree is what i’m talking about. like here, look at this transcript of the scene. before you’re given the choice to dissuade or not, Daniel is already 100% prepared to fight Sean on this just in case he disapproves:

[source]

Daniel (to Lisbeth): This is your fault! Yours!

[Daniel uses his power on Lisbeth and begins to hinder her breathing]

Karen: Sean…

Sean: Wait, Daniel…

Daniel: She really did try to use me! And she hurt you! She's bad!

and THEN the player is given the choice to intervene or not after Daniel has already shown he’s prepared to argue if Sean doesn’t agree. and then, if Sean doesn’t agree and has Low Brotherhood, Daniel will straight up ignore Sean’s plea and continue to torture Lisbeth.

there’s a few other examples that show Daniel’s, uh “initiative”, but this is what i mean. playing with a Lawless Daniel, he has already shown time and time again that, even tho it’s rare, he is willing to do controversial things that Sean may directly oppose as long as he thinks the ends justify the means. and this is why Lone Wolf Daniel locking Sean’s door and forcing them through the barricade, while fucking terrifying, fits his character bc he’s done things similar to this several times before. but for Sean to do the same???? doesn’t fit at all.

this is not to say Sean hasn’t tried to force things too. in episode 3, if you disagree to the heist, Sean will try to pull Daniel with him in Merrill’s house. in episode 4, when Sean and Karen are confronting Lisbeth, Sean will try to pull Daniel with him then too. and these instances are both after Daniel has shown a clear lack of desire to leave. heck, you could even include Sean’s unyielding refusal to contact Karen even tho Daniel expressed more than once that that’s what he thinks they should do pre-ep4. but what stands out in these moments is the direction in which Sean tries to pull Daniel to. they are Sean specifically trying to force Daniel away from a situation/person he believes to be dangerous. not to them.

this is again why Lone Wolf makes sense where Parting Ways doesn’t. Sean throws the car keys out the window, putting his foot down and expressing that regardless of what Daniel wants, he will force them to surrender bc he believes it will protect them best. it’s him, again, trying to force Daniel in the direction he believes to be away from danger. but in Parting Ways, it’s Sean doing the exact opposite and forcing Daniel into danger, which doesn’t align with the Usual Ways™️ Sean has tried to force their situation at all.

like, the only time i can think of that may come “close” to Sean deliberately throwing Daniel in harm’s way is if you agree to the heist and tell Daniel to use his powers against Merrill. but even then, that’s hardly similar to what he does in Parting Ways for countless reasons. it’d be more of a parallel/type of foreshadowing if Sean forced a resistant Daniel to do the heist and then straight up shoved him towards Merrill’s shotgun and said “think fast!” when they get caught.

i’d also like to take this time to clarify why Sean’s willingness to use Daniel as a shield in Parting Ways is different from when he stays in the car in Blood Brothers.

for starters, Sean is not actively terrorizing Daniel in BB. even if Parting Ways Sean doesn’t see the tears falling down his little brother’s face as he drives the car, there is no way he doesn’t hear the revulsion and terror in Daniel’s voice as Daniel begs him to stop trying to make him hurt people. we have never seen a time when Sean knows his brother is horrified by what’s happening but keeps going anyway (unlike Lawless Daniel), so for Sean to do this at the most pivotal moment in their lives, feels abrupt and extremely out of character.

and alongside him not terrorizing Daniel in Blood Brothers, he’s also showing nothing but patience and complete trust. this parallels the first border scene when Daniel uses his power to tear open The Wall and Sean stands behind him with supportive hands on his shoulders. in Blood Brothers, it is again Sean, now in the car as to not distract him, essentially supporting his brother in what he’s going to do. to sum up, there is a huge difference in standing behind someone to use them as a human shield and standing behind someone in solidarity and support, and that’s the biggest difference between Parting Ways Sean vs Blood Brothers Sean.

the funny thing here is that all this? that i just wrote? is just about Sean forcing Daniel to act as a bullet sponge in the first place. i haven’t even started talking about the events when Daniel jumps out the car! hoo boy howdy!!

so now let’s talk about what happens after Daniel jumps out of the car. (and mind you, i’m still on reason 1! lmao!!)

after Daniel jumps out of the car, Sean keeps driving and Daniel gets arrested. was i gritting my teeth while typing that? yes. bc

FUCK. THAT.

now personally i can relate to Sean as an older sibling with a large age gap between me and my kid sister. obviously i have never been in the life threatening situations the Diaz brothers have. but if my little sister were to EVER be so completely repulsed and terrified of smthg i was trying to do, that she felt the only way she could be safe and happy was to ESCAPE my presence and FLING herself out of our car, you bet your ass i would do a 180 with a quickness. not to force her back in, but bc “damn i must be doing smthg monstrous and absolutely fucked up. lemme rethink my actions cause this clearly isn’t the move” and then discuss with her where i went wrong.

i do not know how Sean wasnt hit with instant shame, self loathing, and guilt to the point of damn immobilization after Daniel threw himself out of the car to escape him. the fact he just??? keeps driving disgusts me. a lot. and i hate that bc Sean is my favorite character in the whole game.

dude doesn’t even slow down!!! we don’t even get to see if he looks back or not! the only thing we see is that he keeps driving at full speed, leaving Daniel in the literal dust and i. hate. it.

a very popular defense for this that i’ve read around the interweb is that Sean not stopping/turning around is him “respecting and letting Daniel make his own decisions”.

heh :)

this is…. a hysterically funny defense bc, on the same breath, a lot of the fandom agrees that Finn having that exact same mindset just 2 episodes ago was wholly fucked up.

bc let’s be real here, Daniel is ten. hes a child! there’s a huge difference between treating a kid with respect and as their own person versus treating a kid like an adult capable of making extremely life altering and drastic decisions. like?? like?????? (from what i’ve seen) most of the fandom agrees Finn saying Daniel is an “old soul” mature beyond his years is brain rot. and yet, that’s the excuse that gets used for Parting Ways Sean???? sorry but i call bullshit.

this is especially bewildering bc the events of the heist only happen a few months beforehand. it’s not like it’s been years, Daniel has become a teenager/young adult, and is a completely different person than he was in episode 3. it’s only been a few months. in the beginning of episode 5, while the boys are in Away, David motherfucking Madsen even points out that underneath it all, Daniel is still just a kid. regardless of your opinion on David, he is right in that.

now if you don’t think Finn’s “Daniel is older than he actually is” mindset is BS, then that’s fine and those that agree with it, i can see feeling less conflicted about Sean’s…. departure (fuck i’m trying so hard not to say abandonment whoops oh well)…. and apply it as being the same situation. i am just addressing that for those of us that heavily disagreed with Finn’s thought process (not the heist itself, simply his “Daniel is grown” pov), it is hypocritical to shame Finn for it and then go on and use it as a defense for Parting Ways Sean.

it just doesn’t feel like Sean is “respecting” Daniel’s wishes by continuing to drive without him, to me. respecting each other’s wishes is Daniel trusting in Sean’s decision to sacrifice himself in Redemption, or Sean trusting in Daniel to be able to physically and emotionally handle the roadblock in Blood Brothers. no, Sean leaving Daniel in the hands of the feds after just terrorizing the shit out of him feels like abandonment to me. which, as i said in the beginning of this post, seems way out of character bc of how much Sean cares for Daniel and his safety.

and this finally leads me to the 2nd reason as to why i hate Parting Ways.

reason #2 -> Daniel is forced to bear the full brunt of their actions alone

this one might be a tad bit confusing so lemme explain.

in PW, Daniel is the only Diaz left in the states. by him being the only one, almost all of america will focus their Diaz-hate on him and him alone and by staying in america he can do nothing but be aware of it.

The Case of The Diaz Brothers was one that gained a lot of media attention. whether it be the conspiracy bros from Stephen’s reddit thread, or activists protesting Esteban’s death, or the trail of news articles you can find throughout the journey that keep tabs on the chaos the boys leave in their wake. whatever episode, The Case of The Diaz Brothers is one the public has interest in. all corners of american society know of it in some way, from simple online traveling hippies like Brody all the way up to the damn FBI.

in Parting Ways, by Daniel staying in america, he would have to deal with the full force of media and government attention alone. he stays with the Reynolds, Chris becomes his bestie, but literally no one else in the world would be able to help shoulder that weight the same as Sean would have the potential to bc Sean was there (btw i’m absolutely not saying the Reynolds and Chris wouldn’t be good support systems, just that in comparison, Sean would likely be the most effective as him and Daniel were in it together).

i’m gonna compare this to what happens in Redemption. by Sean turning himself in and Daniel staying in the states, the brothers shoulder the weight of american perspective together. Sean goes to jail so no doubt most of the media would pin him as the mastermind. but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t still be news outlets constantly badgering Daniel about everything that happened as well. and the same way there are people in the fandom that hate Daniel’s guts for the simple crime of being a 9/10 year old, no doubt there would be people in-universe all over the Life Is Strange interwebs that would accuse, blame, and send hate his way. like, there is just no way that, even with R!Sean taking most of the heat, that police-supporters, racists, and etc. wouldn’t still scramble to find ways to harass Daniel too.

but at least with Sean also in america, the spotlight would be split in two. like i was saying before, Sean still goes to fucking prison, so it can be argued that the consequences the Diaz brothers face would be like a 70/30 divide. but at least it wouldn’t be the damn 0/100 divide that happens if Daniel stays in america as the sole remaining Diaz, having to bear the full weight of a nation wide racist spotlight while Sean just gets a tan and sips piña coladas on the beach.

this is not to say that in the puerto lobos endings, america wouldn’t still hate them there too. but i imagine that since they’re in a whole different country, it’d be much easier to just go “bro change the channel” and click to a different tv station when it airs negativity about their case, than Daniel staying in america and possibly having to deal with racist harassment on his way to and inside school. and by living in beaver creek, a town that seems to be predominantly white and judgemental (the Reynolds, the marketplace dude who harassed Fnn and Cassidy), there is no way Daniel would just live in complete peace. and personally i just find that really unfair. the complete lack of consequence on Sean’s part and the full force of consequence on Daniel’s.

reason #2.1 -> and how tf does Sean survive???

this is a minor addition but one that came to mind while writing this post. one of the key elements in Lone Wolf and Blood Brothers is us seeing that the Diaz Brothers (or just Daniel) stay afloat amongst gang violence because of Daniel’s powers.

but??? how does Sean…. do that if he’s alone, wtf? did Sean even open the auto shop?? how is bro making a living??? all we get is a pic of an empty beach and a vague selfie????? hello?? confusion?????

BONUS:

(you can skip this section completely if you want. it’s just abt smthg i also wanna talk about but the main focus of this post are the 2 points i already discussed)

okay now that the disclaimer is out of the way, in this skippable Bonus Section i want to talk about another defense for this ending that i’ve seen constantly, that Daniel wanted to stay in america and never wanted to go to puerto lobos anyway.

and to that i say:

because what the fuck are y’all talking about????

“wanted to stay in america” my ass! you know what Daniel wanted? a HOME! what Daniel wanted most was security and acceptance. he didn’t give a fuck where he got it! this logic of Daniel never wanting to go to mexico is like saying Daniel never wanted to go to beaver creek because he liked the damn rickety shack they had in the woods and fans saying “well he wanted to stay there so he should’ve 🤷🏾‍♀️” even tho his health was declining. this logic is like saying since Daniel didn’t want to then leave beaver creek (a place he just didn’t wanna go to), even tho the police were literally on their asses, thinking Sean should’ve just left him behind to get arrested and held in police custody bc “well he wanted to stay there 😀”

the reason why Daniel keeps dreading every time theyre uprooted and forced to move isn’t bc he just Really Loves America™️, it’s bc of what those locations all have in common, the ep2 cabin, beaver creek, etc. its that Daniel thought they’d found a home. little dude couldn’t care less where it actually is, as long as their end goal is stability and a solid place to stay, that’s what he wants most.

and alongside this desire for stability is his very prominent fear of the unknown.

in episode 1, Daniel was extremely wary of them making camp on the trail and regardless of what you do, will have a nightmare while there.

later on after escaping the gas station and before finding Brody, Daniel will continue to show anxiety bc while it’s good theyre away from Hank, he’s still terrified as fuck bc he has no idea where Sean is leading them to.

in episode 2 when Sean first suggests going to the Reynolds, Daniel immediately expresses anxiety bc he’s never met them before.

in episode 4, hes even afraid of Karen at first! like!!!! this boy, who has been beating Sean over the head with how much he wants to see Karen, when she actually shows up, he keeps his distance.

and even without including the brainwashing, this reaction makes complete sense bc of how Daniel’s responded to the unknown before! pre-meeting, Daniel always referred to Karen as their mom. “mom” is an extremely generic title. he doesnt know Karen from a can of paint, but he knows that a “mom” is supposed to care about their children and be a parent. the familiarity of the mother role and simply missing what it was like to have a parent is what Daniel craved. but the uncertainty of Karen Reynolds? the unfamiliarity of the actual human being?? is what causes Daniel to hesitate in ep4. when Lisbeth urges him to go to her, Daniel even straight up says “I don’t know her” as explanation for his wariness.

i bring up all these examples to emphasize that Daniel is just really scared of the unknown. and that connects to mexico bc the reason why he expresses uncertainty whenever Sean mentions puerto lobos isn’t bc he just doesn’t vibe, it’s bc he doesn’t know anything about it. it’s not that he didn’t want to go to mexico, it’s that he wanted to go somewhere with the comfort of familiarity. a place he feels is stable and where they can actually make roots. it’s not puerto lobos itself that he’s against. just it’s strangeness.

like even Finn touches briefly on this.

[source]

Finn: Well, going to Mexico is the ultimate road trip.

(Optional Dialogue) Sean: Not to Daniel. He doesn't even want to go. At all. Instead, he wants to go to Arizona to see his mom... Fuck that.

Finn: It can be tough growing up not knowing your folks... He needs closure, that's all. Give him time. He'll follow you anywhere.

puerto lobos is such uncharted territory in Daniel’s mind that understandably what he chooses to cling onto instead are things he does know. he knows their mother is out there and, thanks to the letter, that she cares about them. and it makes sense based on his fear of the unknown that he’d take more comfort in what he knows of motherhood (“moms love their kids. the end.”) over the sheer confusion that is puerto lobos.

like what Daniel craves most is stability and what terrifies him most is uncertainty. and puerto lobos is nothing but uncertainty.

but uncertainty does NOT equal reluctance! like did people just forget Lone Wolf ending exists? that there’s legit an ending where if Sean refuses, Daniel will try to drag his ass to puerto lobos anyways???? and one of the biggest reasons he does this, and why again Lone Wolf makes sense, is bc LW Daniel was clearly more terrified of the uncertainty that came with Sean trying to surrender than the familiar promise of togetherness that came with making it to puerto lobos.

like those 2 things are all it is guys. Daniel’s desire for stability and his fear of the unknown. he wasn’t averse to mexico itself. Daniel just wants a place to call home, and whether that be in Beaver Creek or Mexico, he’ll be satisfied with either bc the location isn’t what matters. the comfort is. so this popular interpretation that Daniel just hates puerto lobos for some reason? sorry but that’s not for me.

CONCLUSION

okay i have run out of steam and have finally voiced my thoughts. this was kinda therapeutic tbh lol.

so as you can see i really don’t like Parting Ways. it feels 1) extremely out of character and 2) Daniel having to deal with all that shit alone just seems so incredibly unfair and 3) it confuses things bc if the boys could only stay afloat in puerto lobos bc of Daniel’s powers then how tf is Sean living the happy-go-lucky vacation life by himself?? and 4) i really don’t agree with the fan defenses for it i’ve seen, that Sean leaving Daniel behind is “freeing” somehow and that Daniel never liked puerto lobos in the first place. both reasonings i find to be just nuts.

honestly out of the reasons i’ve listed, the ooc-ness is definitely my biggest gripe. like, PW isn’t the first time we’ve seen a character behave in a way that wasn’t previously established, but the fact that Parting Ways’ most integral parts are where i find its ooc-ness, Sean terrorizing Daniel and then abandoning him to the cops, is one of the biggest reasons why i can’t overlook it and just vibe.

i think the only thing i like about Parting Ways is getting to see Chris again and that’s it. which is kinda useless bc we can just see Chris in Redemption ending…. so….. like the only thing Parting Ways does different that i guess is cool to some is seeing Sean’s love interest at the end, but personally i didn’t get attached to the romance in LIS2 so i don’t find their reunion that exciting.

so yeah, anyways. these are the reasons why i don’t like Parting Ways. sorry for the annoyingly long post, but if you read this far then thank you for bearing with me!! 😄

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Doom At Your Service: Analysis & Theories for EPs 9-10

Anyone mentally exhausted from watching DAYS? Well, you’ve come to the right place where I do the thinking for you, so you don’t have to! As always, if you have any questions, feel free to click on the ask question button! Happy Readings !

The Contract Revisited

While reviewing the contract, I realized there was something major that I had completely missed! Anyways let’s go over the contract again to clear up some confusion.

The Contract is as follows:

1) Dong Kyung must ask for Myul Mang to destroy the world before she dies (It could be rephrased as Dong Kyung must ask for Myul Mang to destroy the world before her tentative expiration date)

2) During Dong Kyung’s last 100 days, Myul Mang will prevent her from feeling any pain

3) Myul Mang has to grant her one real wish

4) If Dong Kyung breaks the contract (does not wish for the world to be destroyed) then the person she loves the most will die

If Dong Kyung does not violate the contract as in she wishes for the world to be destroyed, the person she loves dies anyways because you know.... the world is non existent. If Dong Kyung does violate the contract, meaning she does not wish for the world to be destroyed, the person she loves dies too because her doom is transferred to them. Some have also wondered whether she can has to ask for the world to be destroyed in order to get her one real wish to be granted. In my opinion, I don't think so. I think she can still get her one real wish to be granted regardless of whether she wishes for doom upon the world or not. Other things to note is that nothing will happen to Myul Mang if he does not stick to the terms of the contract (i.e keeps Dong Kyung pain free and granting her one real wish) because as Dong Kyung said "If I violate" not "If either you or I violate".

Now something to pay close attention to is #4. In Ep 2, Myul Mang had said he would take Dong Kyung’s doom (brain cancer) and transfer it to someone she loves. This is the part I missed! I’d thought that all Myul Mang was doing was transferring the death that was meant for her, not that he was actually removing her source of death which was her brain cancer. Therefore, if Dong Kyung breaks the contract, she will live because her brain cancer is removed and is subsequently transferred into the person she loves, causing them to die instead. I feel incredibly stupid for missing this important piece of info. In light of this new info, I will therefore retract my previous theory that Dong Kyung’s one wish will be to cure her brain cancer.

For those who were confused by that scene of Dong Kyung going to the beach and staying away from everyone, here are my thoughts on that. Dong Kyung was trying to find a loophole. The loophole was that she was planning on violating the contract while protecting the people she loves. This means that Dong Kyung was planning on ending herself at the beach (you can't wish for doom upon the world if you're already dead) and accepting her doom (her doom can't be transferred to anyone else because she accepts it in herself).

Who’s Going to Get Dong Kyung’s Brain Cancer and Die?

I recently had a eureka moment a few days ago before Eps 9-10 aired that led me to formulating a new theory -- it's actually Dora who will inherit Dong Kyung’s brain cancer and die. Let’s think through some things first, “the person you love the most will die”. The most obvious choice is Myul Mang. However, if you think about that statement in a more abstract way, you can see that if Dong Kyung loves her life, then the person who will die is Dora. Remember that Dora is basically the personification of life.

To further add evidence that supports this theory, I present to you Exhibit A, Dora’s massive nosebleed. We know Dong Kyung has a rare type of brain cancer and it’s located in her frontal lobe. As days pass, the brain tumor is growing or metastasizing. In theory, the tumor could grow into nearby areas such as her nasal cavity and cause Dong Kyung to have nose bleeds (FYI: In real life, I’m a scientist with experience in the field of oncology and most of the time brain tumors don’t grow outside of the brain. It can happen, but it is very rare!). Now, think about the events that occurred before Dora's nose bleed. For example, Dong Kyung was out and about enjoying her time with Myul Mang and her family and friends. Essentially, Dong Kyung was beginning to love her life. This causes Dora to suffer because she is taking in Dong Kyung's illness into herself. Subsequently, this leads to Dora experiencing some of the symptoms of Dong Kyung's brain cancer (e.g nose bleed). Thus, as Dong Kyung is beginning to live, Dora is beginning to die.

Exhibit B: Adventures of Pinocchio. At the end of the story, the Fairy (Dora) heals an ailing Geppetto (Dong Kyung) as a reward for Pinocchio (Myul Mang) becoming a good boy. Following this, we don’t hear much about what happens to the Fairy except that she’s in laying in a hospital on the verge of death. It is implied that in order to heal Geppetto, the Fairy had to take his illness into herself. Afterall, nothing is without consequences, someone must pay so that others can be happy. Much like the story of Pinocchio, Dora is doing the same thing as the Fairy. Dora is taking in Dong Kyung’s illness so that Dong Kyung can freely love her son, Myul Mang, without consequences (e.g Myul Mang dying).

Exhibit C: Dong Kyung walking around like she didn’t have brain cancer while in seclusion. You would think that since she didn’t see Myul Mang to recharge, she would be experiencing some severe symptoms, but nope she was walking around as if she was cured! I wonder where her cancer went.......DORA!

Exhibit D: Dora telling Dong Kyung to be madly in love and live. Basically Dora saying, "Love my son and live, don't worry about your brain cancer or him dying because I'm taking care of it."

Why Dora Didn't Want Myul Mang To See Her

For those wondering why Dora didn’t want Myul Mang to see her, here are my two cents. One explanation is that Dora probably didn’t want him to figure out that she was inheriting Dong Kyung’s brain cancer. It would’ve made him feel guilty to see that his mother was willing to take on even more pain just so he could be happy. Another explanation is that Myul Mang still has a lot of growing up to do (to become human). Dora didn’t want him to get the idea that he’s out of the clear just yet. Meaning if Myul Mang had found out that Dora was doing this for him then he would’ve thought life was a breeze now and have no further motivations to want to grow, thus ruining Dora’s plan for him (to grow up to become a good human). There’s no better motivation to make someone grow than the thought of their love ones dying.

Final Theory on Dong Kyung’s Wish

In my previous post, I had discussed that without knowing the limits of what one could or could not wish for, it was difficult for me to accurately predict what Dong Kyung’s wish would be. However, in this week’s episode, I was finally given the limits: the wish must be a wish that is doom in nature. I thought to myself, what could be a good thing to end? Oh, that’s right, Myul Mang’s immorality. Dong Kyung must say “I wish for your immortal life to end” or something along those lines. The combination of Dong Kyung’s wish + Myul Mang’s willingness to sacrifice himself for her + Dora’s plant = the rebirth of Myul Mang into a real boy....oops I mean real hu-man.

The Ending of DAYS

So, what kind of ending will DAYS have? Prepare yourselves. I think it’s going to be a bittersweet ending because it goes with the one of the main themes DAYS which is dualism. I think Myul Mang will be reborn as a human, but still have his doom responsibilities (so more like a fake human). He will probably end up becoming like Dora in the sense that he gets to experience the cycle of life and death over an infinite amount of time. Dong Kyung won’t be reborn in his next life cycle (remember Myul Mang tells that crazy lady there’s no afterlife; humans only have this one life). I guess the notion that the love he and Dong Kyung share will always be with him and forever serve as a shining beacon even in his loneliest days is sweet, but still I want a happy ending!!!

Now excuse my language, but to hell with dualism and what is logical! I want a happy ending where Myul Mang becomes human, lives with Dong Kyung, and when he dies that’s it. No coming back to doing his doom job in a different life. Dora can create another herald of doom. Dora did it once before and she could do it again lol. Or if Myul Mang must come back in a different life, at least allow Dong Kyung to be reborn at the same time. I mean you can grow the same plant again…. EVER HEARD OF PROPROGATION DORA?!! Metaphorically speaking, if Dong Kyung is a sunflower, then wait until she dies, harvest her seeds and grow her again…. it’s that simple Dora!!!

Some Thoughts on the Writer of DAYS

The writer (Im Meari) of DAYS is at best, pretentious and at worst, derivative. She’s more or less just rehashing the works of other great philosophers (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Deleuze, etc). She presents DAYS as a collection of major philosophical concepts with the intention to differentiate herself from that of other kdramas writers. She goes onto placing great stress on the idea that in order to innovate or bring about a new beginning, one must deviate from the norm, yet she herself does not diverge from the ideas of other philosophers. She does not present any philosophy of her own. In this aspect, she is a hypocrite to the very ideas she tries to preach. Oh well, to each their own. Who knows, maybe my opinion of Im Meari will change by the end of the series. Anyways, I’m still here for the romance between the actors and actresses and solving mysteries!

Ep 11 Preview Predictions

Here are my predictions for Ep 11 based off of the preview, they may or may not be correct !

Dong Kyung takes back the bracelet from Myul Mang after their conversation on the beach. Honestly, I’m growing tired of this whole giving/taking the bracelet type situation lol.

Dong Kyung enjoys a nice vacation with Myul Mang on Jeju island.

Dong Kyung returns from the vacation because she finds out that her aunt is sick (probably from worrying about Dong Kyung). Dong Kyung beats herself up about it.

Dong Kyung is sick again (probably from hating life...remember that I had theorized that the more Dong Kyung loves her life, the sicker Dora will be become) and Myul Mang in his desperation pleads with Dora to help him, but Dora’s version of helping him is to …. surprise surprise… teach him another lesson. The lesson is that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and that Myul Mang and Dong Kyung complete each other for the better. Dora shows Myul Mang what their lives would've been like if they had never existed in each other’s lives.

Dong Kyung having never experience any kind of suffering would live a healthy life but become the most unappreciative and spoiled person ever. She may go on to finding that life was pretty meaningless and would want to put an end to it all. And Myul Mang having never met Dong Kyung wouldn't have any motivation or desire to grow as a person and so he would remain stagnant. And who knows… maybe at some point, that Myul would’ve became so angry with humans that he would personally go around killing every last one of them.

[deerixiie]

24/7 ramen.

description: you are iwaizumi’s home; even if he is forced to take you to a ramen place at 2 in the morning.

pairing: iwaizumi x gen!reader

genre/warning: banter, fluff, literally just filler dialogue with an overarching plot, light mentions of violence

word count: 1.8k

a/n: this was inspired by some headcanons im going to post. oh and this is for @hajiimes... hehe <3

“I got into a fight.”

Iwaizumi paused, his phone hovering near his ear. He resisted the urge to let out a sharp laugh—of all the things, why did you have to get into a fight?—and slung his arm over his face. “And you lost?”

Iwaizumi could almost hear you pouting. “To be fair, they were-”

“But you lost.”

A pause. “Yeah.”

Iwaizumi dragged his hand across his face with a heavy sigh. “Why are you fighting people at,” he paused to squint at the digital clock on the dresser, “Two in the morning?”

“Ramen.”

“What?”

“Hot and spicy shrimp,” you said solemnly. “There was only one pack-”

“You’re aware we have finals tomorrow, right?”

“Exactly the reason why I wanted ramen.”

Iwaizumi sighed again. “Are you hurt?”

“Well, someone elbowed me in the eye-”

“The eye?”

“Yes the eye. I’m pretty sure it’s swollen, but other than that I’m perfectly fine.”

“Why do you sound so happy?” Iwaizumi asked, getting up to scour his closet for a hoodie. “You lost a fight over a pack of ramen.”

“Well technically, no one won the fight. We all got kicked out of the store. Poor guy didn’t even keep his ramen.”

“Which store?”

“Walmart.”

“You couldn’t have gone to a convenience store or something?” Iwaizumi pulled on the hoodie Oikawa sent him from Argentina and grabbed an old Godzilla hoodie from his closet.

“Haji, this is Socal, not Japan,” you condescended. Iwaizumi scoffed at how haughty you sounded. “I’m sure Socal has convenience stores,” he muttered.

“Well, Walmart was the closest.”

“You could’ve woken me up,” Iwaizumi grumbled, moving on to grab the keys off the drawer, “I would’ve taken you to a convenience store.”

“But you were sleeping.”

“So? You know how dangerous that was? I’d feel a little better if I was there.”

“Yeah, but I wanted ramen,” you sighed. “Anyway, can you pick me up, Haji? It’s getting cold.”

Iwaizumi shut the apartment door with a quiet click. “I’m leaving the apartment now.”

“That was fast.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling that you’d want me to pick you up.”

“Okay. Oh, and remember to drive on the right side of the road.”

“I know.”

“Are you sure? You almost drove into a tree last time.”

“Because I was tired.” Iwaizumi opened the door to the car, dropping the hoodie into the passenger’s seat. “Tired people don’t think straight.”

“Aren’t you tired right now?”

“No, I’ve been awake since you told me you got into a fight. You need to tell me what the hell actually happened there.”

“I told you, it was ramen,” you huffed. “There was one pack of spicy shrimp and three desperate college students in need of ramen.”

“So you fought for it.”

“I lunged for it, some other dude shoved me, I crashed into the third person, and then he was pushing them and I was on the floor and then someone’s elbow was in my eye and then the employee grabbed us and tossed us out.”

Iwaizumi took a moment to process your words. “You sound proud of yourself.”

“I’m not. I didn’t get the ramen.”

“No one got the ramen,” Iwaizumi deadpanned. “Isn’t that what you said?”

“I mean yeah, but now I can tell people I’ve been in a fight.”

“Why would you want to tell someone you’ve been in a fight?”

“I dunno,” you sighed. “I’m tired and hungry. Tired and hungry people say weird things.”

“Damn right.”

“That was an insult.”

“It was.”

“Ouch.”

Iwaizumi didn’t respond, lightly drumming his fingers against the steering wheel as he waited for the red light to turn green.

“My eye hurts,” you said suddenly, your voice crackling from the phone’s speaker.

Iwaizumi furrowed his eyebrows. “Does it hurt a lot?”

“No,” you decide. “Ramen would make it better.”

“So now I’m buying you ramen?”

“Yeah.”

“At 2 AM?”

“It’s 2:28 now.”

Iwaizumi scoffed.

“I found this ramen place that’s open,” you said. “24/7 Ramen. It’s 25 minutes from here.”

“Why is there a ramen place open for 24 hours?” he muttered, half to himself.

“It’s probably run by college students. That’s why the name is catchy too.”

“Catchy?”

“It sounds like a song. You know, 24 Karat Magic by Bruno Mars.”

“Never heard of it.”

“What?” Iwaizumi found himself flinching, despite the fact it was simply your voice coming from his phone’s speaker. “How have you been living in America for two years without ever hearing 24 Karat Magic? That song is a classic.”

“I think you’re forgetting you’re speaking to a guy born and raised in Japan.”

“Haji, you’ve been here for two years. That’s 24 months. 48 weeks. And a certain amount of days I’m too tired to calculate.”

Iwaizumi thought for a moment. “730.”

“730-” you paused. “How the hell did you calculate that so fast?”

“Dealing with stupid people makes you smarter, I guess.”

“No, ramen makes you smarter.” You sighed. “I really want ramen.”

“I heard.” Iwaizumi turned the steering wheel, bringing the car into the Walmart parking lot. “And I’m here now, so you can stop whining.”

“Oh, I see you. Do you see me?”

There was a figure sitting on the front curb, waving erratically in Iwaizumi’s direction. “I see an idiot waving at me like their life depends on it, so yes, I see you.”

“I think being around stupid people makes you grumpy,” you grumbled.

“No, having to pick my significant other up from Walmart at 2 in the morning makes me grumpy.”

You responded by scoffing and hanging up the phone. Seconds later, you were sliding into the passenger seat of the car. “Aw, did you bring a hoodie for me?” you asked, glancing down at the Godzilla hoodie that you almost sat down on.

Iwaizumi glanced over to you, raising an eyebrow. “Hello to you too.”

You rolled your eyes and leaned forward to press a quick kiss to Iwaizumi’s cheek. “Hi, I love you, thank you for picking me up. Happy now?”

“I’m ecstatic. Yes, that hoodie is for you.”

You smiled, pulling the hoodie on over your shirt and relaxing into the seat. Iwaizumi carefully looked over your face. The only noticeable injury was the ring of darkness around your eye—did they really elbow you that hard?—and a slight cut on your upper lip, but those would heal soon. He let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“What, is there something on my face?” you asked, reaching up to brush your fingers over your cheek.

“You have a black eye.”

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Damn. Is it bad?”

“No, not really.” He checked the dashboard for the time and slightly frowned. “Where’s the ramen place?”

24/7 Ramen was a small convenience store in between an optometrist and a cigarette shop. On the outside, it wasn’t much. The name of the store was illuminated in large flickering neon letters. The exterior brick walls of the store were dusty and crumbling with age and wore. The windows were covered with assorted posters and papers, some for missing children, upcoming movies, and advertisements for Japanese snacks.

“Oh, so this is like a Japanese convenience store then?” you asked, looking at one of the Japanese ads. “I guess you were right.”

“Told you.”

“Just come on and buy me my ramen.”

The door opened with a familiar chime that reminded Iwaizumi of warm yakisoba buns, tangled with the sight of preppy school uniforms, and of course, Oikawa Tooru. The layout of the store was straight out of Japan, overwhelming him with countless reels of tender highschool memories. If he closed his eyes he could see himself standing right there, bag under his arm, Oikawa at his shoulder.

“Feeling a little nostalgic, huh?”

His head whipped toward you standing behind him with an amused smile on your face. “This place does have a Japanese feel to it.” You raised your eyebrow in that insufferably adorable way of yours, and Iwaizumi found it hard to breathe.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets as a flush began to form on his cheeks. “Be quiet.”

You hummed but made no other comment, instead choosing to shoot him another knowing look that made his blood roar in his ears. You started moving through the store, picking cups of ramen off the shelves. He hovered behind you, still embarrassed about his nostalgic moment—was he that homesick?—occasionally picking up cups of ramen and examining them before placing them back onto the shelf.

After what seemed like ages, you presented your armful of ramen cups with a proud smile. “I’m done.”

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow. “I’m not buying you 15 cups of ramen.”

“But you promised-“

“Each one is like, 65 cents? I’ll buy you 5, max.”

“Why not more?”

“I’m just as broke as you are.”

You sighed in defeat. “Being broke in college sucks.”

“I told you we should’ve held off on getting a car.”

“But I wanted a car!”

“More than you want ramen?”

“That’s- that’s an unfair comparison!”

Iwaizumi continued to go back and forth with you, even as you paid for the ramen at the cash register. You were in the middle of a frantic explanation of why investing in a car was important in California when you finally made it outside.

The air was still and cool, save for the slight breeze that occasionally tangled in Iwaizumi’s spiky locks. The only sounds were the distant cars speeding across the road and the faint sound of crickets chirping, for you had both fallen silent after leaving the convenience store. Iwaizumi turned to look at you: one eye swollen, upper lip bleeding, a plastic bag full of convenience store ramen clutched tightly in your hand. He could see the fire in your eyes, that odd determination to make your own dreams a reality, no matter how fickle or ridiculous they were. It was similar to the drive he saw in Oikawa’s eyes, he realized. The reckless, worthless one that seemed to be a double-edged sword.

Maybe that’s why whenever he looked at you, he felt like he was at home.

“I love you, you know that?”

You cocked your head to the side and smiled slightly. “Where did that come from?”

He shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets again, turning away from your curious gaze. The corners of your mouth pulled up into a faint smile. Without warning, you turned Iwaizumi toward you with your finger and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. And then you were bounding off toward the car, the plastic bag jostling in your hand.

“Hey,” Iwaizumi called, starting after you. “Come back here so I can kiss you properly.”

“I want my ramen!” came your response from the car. “No kisses until I get my ramen!”

Iwaizumi chuckled softly. You were annoying and feisty, but you still managed to make him feel right at home.

taglist in reblog; please comment/reblog with comments in the tags or in the post if you enjoyed!! i love hearing your feedback :)

[spnshameblog]

please try and hear what people are saying to you. remember how most people were not fully aware of the extent of jensen's racism until a couple of weeks ago when he signed on to do walker? and how we all believed he'd gotten less homophobic until he started being publicly homophobic again at denvercon? and also how many people did not fully grasp the extent of problematic stuff misha's done until receipts were resurfaced at that same time? NOBODY is putting any blame on people for going to the charlotte con, we are well aware that they bought their tickets months in advance before any of that stuff broke. if anybody is blaming them for that, then yeah that would be shitty and unfair. what people are saying is that continuing to support FUTURE cons, despite everything we have learned over these past few weeks, would be pretty fucked up morally speaking. and no, people aren't hypocrites even if they did interact with con content before. because guess what?? people GROW AND CHANGE, based on NEW INFORMATION. if you feel morally okay going out of your way to give hundreds of dollars to these people (because your ticket costs don't just go to the smaller actors, they ALSO go towards paying jensen and jared to be there) then that's fine. yeah maybe the .0003 cents that go to WB every time someone streams an episode on netflix counts as complicity too, but you are orders of magnitude more complicit here. please do not claim to have any serious commitment to fighting racism in the future. (and PS-- the "i cAn sPeNd mY mOnEY hOw i wAnT tO" argument is VERY neoliberal of you)

ARE YOU OK. IM SORRY ARE YOU FOR REAL????????? my commitment to antiracism hinges on whether or not i publically chastise people for planning to attend cons in the future? Are you hearing yourself?????

Also im sorry if all that info is brand new to you, but it was readily available and i remember people getting backlash bc they didnt buy the "jackles changed and is now a heller warrior" stuff. The walker news have been there for a while now, at the very least before the last con when everyone was still kinda hype for his solo panel.

You CANNOT be serious. None of this information is new, literally none. J.2 have always been like this, the things misha has said are in part years old and get dug up all the time. You just werent bothered then for some reason.

Touch Grass. Please. Youre literally doing nothing, all this hot air is not helping one single person, youre literally wasting your energy on nothing and you think youre fighting a racist System by jcbfhxghg starting con discourse in the supernatural fandom and calling ME a fake antiracist for saying youre barking up the wrong tree.

Also the last sentence is just mwah. Youre hitting all the buzzwords. 'Neoliberal' bc i said you dont get to shame people into giving all their money away, thats just so fucking online. Are you like this to ppl irl too? If your mom orders herself some nice expensive shoes online, do you call her a class traitor for not giving those dollars to charity? Or are you just doing it for the sweet release of having a righteous reason to attack people online?

You dont know me, you know nothing about me, you dont know how many hours ive put into community support, and you dont get to know. Youre so terminally online that the only thing that counts is online optics and you dont even get how ridiculous it is thst youre doing this on spn tumblr.

Go save the world i guess. Block me please.

EDIT: i forgot to add, please dont reblog this, this really doesnt need to be spread around

[halorocks1214]

the law of gender

Word Count: 7773

Summary: The Law of Gender states that everything has its masculine (yang) and feminine (yin) principles, and that these are the basis for all creation. The spiritual Initiate must balance the masculine and feminine energies within herself or himself to become a Master and a true co-creator with God

Previous Parts (in order):  Alan | John | Virgil | Scott | You are here! | Kayo | Gordon | Penelope

hello thunderfam community, its, uh *looks at the last part's published date that says november 2020* been a while, huh

not gonna lie, if i had a nickel for every time i wrote 2/3 of a fic for this series and then didn't touch it for months, only to finish it in a few day-long spam sesh, i would only have two nickels, but its concerning its happened twice /lh

i swear to god this series wont be abandoned. unlike other fandoms of mine that i kinda lost interest in thunderbirds is one that is /gen always in the back of my brain (plus i did outline a TON of this AU, far more than im willing to just say "lol im done" over ya know)

also, to the influx of m/c/y/t-based followers ive gotten over the past few months due to my latest hyperfixation that decided to read this: um, hi, if none of this makes sense, that sounds about right. if you wanna know more about tbs and its various incarnations, my inbox is always open, esp since this series im writing is very much an AU and waaaaay darker than the incarnation its based on :> do be gentle tho, tbs is a very teeny fandom, and i mean that in a 'posts only get a couple hundred notes at most' type deal

also, one last note to the thunderbirds side of things: there will no longer be an ao3 link on the tumblr post of the fic because tumblr likes shadow banning things with links that go outside of tumblr! which is probably why the last part didnt do so well :D awesome! i hate tumblr i swear to GOD

anyways, please enjoy!

Valerie Casey thought Jeff was the craziest man she had ever laid her eyes upon.

“Jeff, you’re the craziest man I’ve ever had the chance to lay my eyes upon.”

Playfully shrugging his shoulders, Jeff Tracy leaned back and gripped his beer bottle tighter while using his other hand to grip the back of his chair so he didn’t fall out of it and onto his ass. They were in public, “C’mon, what’s the issue?”

Casey was going to lose it, “Really? I knew the ego boost that you would get from being the First Man on Mars alongside running your very own extremely successful company would be huge, but I never even dreamed it would be this ridiculous.” She fidgeted with the napkin on the table closest to her before finally saying it, “Colorful rockets that can practically defy God himself-”

“And a submarine and space station.”

She nearly threw her hands up into the air, “That’s not the point, Jeff! Do you seriously see there being no issue in making technology that is more advanced than most technology to date out of the blue without giving those in power input first? You know what they could do if it makes them angry? You’re seriously just going to hop in without thinking about any of it?”

He looked her dead in the eyes, “Yes...”

She was going to form a migraine very quickly it seemed, “Money might be useful but it really can’t fix everything, you know. There’s a nice middle ground between ‘money can’t make you happy ever’ deniability and… whatever the hell it is you’re going through.”

It appeared as if he wasn’t done, however, “... Because I have you.”

Whatever Casey was expecting, it wasn’t that.

Jeff leaned forward, “A respected Major in the GDF? Throwing in her two cents? They would eat that up and maybe take my ideas into consideration.”

Casey blinked and cleared her throat, the point Jeff was going for getting to her for some reason, “Well, that’s your first problem. You don’t even know if I will give my support or not.”

Jeff’s grin got much less cocky and leaned more toward being soft, “Yeah, you’re not wrong there. I can’t force you to be on board, I wouldn’t do that to you. It would be unfortunate to be vehemently opposed to the viewpoint of my best friend, but I’m not going to hold it against you. I admit this idea is somewhat of a pipe dream and based on hopeful desires, but…” Jeff took a slightly pained deep breath, “I just want to prevent another Lucille from happening to anyone else.”

It probably would have hurt less if he stabbed her with a rusty spoon.

Lucy was a spitfire of a woman. Hard-headed, stubborn, but determined and had a sparkle in her eyes as bright as her hair. No wonder Jeff was smitten with the lady when she was there for the Cadets tryout alongside them. Jeff practically fell over backward with infatuation, like a child’s first crush, in a sad, adorable way. Jeff and Lucy were two sides of the same coin, which was why Casey was the only one not too entirely surprised when she said yes to the ring.

The news of her death was… shocking, to say the least, and utterly devastating, to say the most.

The funeral was quick, quiet, the family too busy dealing with a hospitalized Alan as well as the news of the baby of the family being in there spreading through the internet like wildfire. Casey did her best to delete any traces off the web, wringing any rookies a new one for daring to try and stir up the rumor mill, but the world was cruel, electing to see the Tracys as some circus act rather than the grieving family they were.

Jeff was a smart man. An incredibly smart, rich man, one that was a father of five children that he was suddenly in charge of with the help of his mother. Casey too had memories of her parents threatening to move mountains for her if it meant she would be safe. Considering how Jeff… spiraled a little bit after Lucy’s demise, how he left his children to fend for themselves for even just a second too long, it’s no wonder he felt the need to perform some grandiose gesture.

Jeff tended to deal in absolutes a lot. Once he laid his eyes on Lucy he was dead set on wooing her, when he took that first step on Mars he realized he could do even more and made an entire company in his name, so when the man accidentally hurt his children in his grief, what was stopping him in making sure he can go above and beyond to making it up to them (to her)?

Casey was still apprehensive, but, “Okay, let’s see what you can pull off.”

Jeff’s eyes widened and his grin became childlike in its enthusiasm, “Holy shit, you’re really going to back me up on this?”

Casey took a sip from her drink while choosing her next words very carefully, “I will stand by your side when you bring your final presentation to the GDF and other governments who need a say in how this operation will work. If their decision is against that, it’s all up to you. It’s the least I could do after all you have done for me and my wife.”

“Hell yeah, Val, you’re the best!” Jeff cheered, only to get a little too happy in his movements and fall backward out of his chair, straight onto the ground and onto his ass with a loud crash.

Casey could only cover her eyes in the direction of Jeff, wondering why she loved this dumbass as much as she did.

The next two weeks came and went, Jeff and his mother planning blueprint after blueprint after blueprint. Casey even got to briefly meet an old college friend of his, a man by the name… Brains, of all things?

“I-It’s a nickname, M-Miss Major. The name’s Hiram Ha-Hackenbacker, b-but feel free to call m-me Brains.”

So Brains was the third person who joined them on their expedition to impress those above them in power. Casey considered herself an unflappable woman, relatively speaking, so the way her stomach felt like it twisted into knots as she walked into the meeting that would decide their fate was a feeling she absolutely loathed.

The two men gave their speeches, their backstories, and their motivations to the whole idea of a national rescue organization. They talked about the technology and how they would achieve it with no detail being left behind. It was hard to not feel at least some sympathy for the idea when Jeff brought up Lucy, how he had a genuine reason as to why such an operation should exist.

Casey was clearing her throat when the General in the room called for her opinion.

She glanced over at her friend and newfound acquaintance. Brains adjusted his glasses with a grin, and Jeff, being Jeff, gave her a resounding two thumbs up.

Taking a deep breath, she took a step forward and spoke her heart out, “There are bound to be risks with such new and inventive technology, I don’t doubt that. But these guys, these men who stand before you today, well, they are just some of the most special and unique ones I’ve had the opportunity to witness. If there was anyone else behind these ideals, I wouldn’t have even considered it. But Jeff Tracy is no ordinary man, if I may point out. I don’t trust many with my life wholeheartedly, let alone swathes of people, but Jeff? If he put his mind to it, he could lead the world and have my full support.”

She turned back to look at him and felt the tension in her shoulders vanish when she made eye contact with Jeff’s prideful expression. She only hoped the people judging their life choices that could easily nip them in the bud felt the same way. They proceeded to have a brief recess so everyone could relax and make final decisions. This was the first time in a while Casey noticed Jeff rapidly tapping his foot nervously.

It took a lot nowadays for Jeff Tracy to show his nervousness.

Eventually, the recess was over and they were back in the room. No displays or blueprints or holograms, just the three humans standing side by side watching the council file back into their seats one by one. The lethargicness of the whole thing only resulted in making them more worried. Finally, the General was done shifting his papers and clearing his throat, catching the (hopefully) soon-to-be Operatives’ attention.

He stood up and brushed off his pants before giving the final verdict, “We are aware that an idea such as International Rescue is very original, so much so that it’s unheard of. There is bound to be pushback from the leaders of the world due to such an unorthodox method of action.”

The three stood with bated breath.

The General let out an elongated sigh, “However, Colonel Tracy is a valued Cadet, one with unrivaled skills and smarts. If he and his colleagues want to put in the work of figuring out how his operation can interact within the laws of other countries, then we don’t see why he can’t pull it off.”

They nodded their heads with grace and thanked the higher-ups for giving them the leniency to pull off their plan. Only once they were outside the building did they start cheering and whooping. “Hell yeah!” Jeff yelled with a fist in the air, “Operation Thunderbirds is a go, lady, and gentleman!”

Brains opted to get an early night’s sleep while Casey and Jeff went to a nearby bar to celebrate even further. The two clinked a glass, and Jeff froze right before the drink touched his lips, “Do you think she would be proud of me?”

Casey swallowed the liquid that she was holding in her cheeks, realizing who ‘she’ was immediately, “Of course, I think she would have fallen in love with you all over again after seeing the amazing man you became.”

Jeff’s grin got even wider, finally taking his own sip, “Heh, that does sound like something she would do.”

Time flew by faster than expected, and Casey got to know Jeff’s sons more and more. Scott and John were showing early signs of being the best of the best, and Virgil and Gordon might not have been following so closely in their father’s footsteps, but the careers they were pursuing were extraordinary nonetheless. She couldn’t wait to see their names inevitably appear in the news for their accomplishments.

And baby Alan was cute, fine, she’ll admit that to herself.

Throughout all the building and the planning and even the babysitting, she and Jeff continued to go on missions together, laughing in the happy moments as they came and went. The ‘Birds themselves might not have been fully completed, but that was a test of the magnitude of their potential when they looked so good even in their halfway-built stages. Casey was just lucky everyone else heard her occasional slips of the tongue of ‘International Rescue’ as a fun little nickname for Jeff while on jobs.

Not that the man helped in any way to persuade them to think otherwise.

“The magnifique International Rescue, ey? Can’t believe I’m so good at my job I can save the whole world just by flexing an arm.”

The bastard, Casey couldn’t help but roll her eyes fondly.

The days went by quicker and quicker and Casey had no choice but to start planning an absolutely spectacular send-off for Jeff when International Rescue was fully up and running and he was retired from the GDF. Everything was going excitingly smoothly.

Until a very large blast consumed the sky as well those ambitions.

“Colonel Tracy? Colonel Tracy are you there?!”

“Jeff, please respond!”

“... He’s gone.”

What was once a dream as bright as a star exploded, leaving everyone else to be burned in the place of a man who would’ve changed the world.

---

There’s something to be said about the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Casey was never the biggest fan of comparing soldiers (and other workers in general) to their fathers if said father was in the same field of work. It left too many opportunities for the soldier to gain a bigger ego than needed, or maybe put too much pressure on their shoulders, as well as left the window open for their comrades to use that relation to harm them if they didn’t like what the father did in his time on duty.

But here she was, looking at 26-year-old Scott Tracy, seeing nothing but Jeff again in those piercing blue eyes. The fire and determination of a man who wants nothing more than to save their fellow humans. She looks on with fondness, faint hurt, and confusion. She never expected Jeff to be the one to pass on his characteristics so heavily to his sons. Some hobbies and values, of course, but if Casey didn’t know any better she might have said she traveled back in time itself to watch Jeff try out for the Cadets again.

“Alan! The throttle is not a stick you use to test your wrist dexterity!”

Talking to Jeff’s mother these past few months, however, has led her to believe that there were certain generational practices in the Tracy family she wasn’t aware of. From what she’s seen alone she’s genuinely shocked Jeff never talked more about his mother. Every day she’s been here she has had at least one ah, so that’s where he gets it from moment while watching Mrs. Tracy help teach Alan.

Which was the other elephant in the room.

When Scott and Mrs. Tracy had contacted her with the idea to continue Jeff’s legacy, she had jumped at the chance. What Jeff was pulling off was monumental, and she now regretted being against it at the very beginning, but it was hard for a man to continue his ideas when he was six feet under. That’s why she was genuinely thrilled to see that his family was ready to make sure it didn’t die with him.

But when she got to the island and saw that their not-so-adult brother was also going to be a part of that legacy...

“Scott, I know I seem like a buzzkill with the same question over and over again, but are you sure sending Alan out as an Operative is such a good idea?”

Scott glanced at her from the corner of his eye before looking back at his younger brother with a grin on his face, “I know, Colonel, believe me, I know. All arguments have been put on the table in front of us here, some of us have even flipped sides more than once, but if there’s anything we’ve all agreed on, at the very least, is to let Alan show us himself what he is capable of. We shouldn’t make a decision until all the facts are laid out in front of us, right?”

She could feel the Jeff Tracy dripping off those words at an unhealthy level.

Nonetheless, Jeff was a smart man, and his sons even more so, so she finally elected to concede her worries for now, “Fair enough, we shall wait and see.”

Looking back at the scene before them, she watched as Mrs. Tracy placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “Alan, I know you’re just jittery and nervous and laughter is your best way to get it out, but you’re not going to be able to handle it that way in the real rescues. Once you’re out there, there’s going to be a whole lot more pressure than just your grandma and brothers watching you.”

Alan shook his head as he slid the VR device off, using his now free eyes to give the beadiest look possible to his grandma, “I know, I know, it’s just so- to think that this kind of stuff might be real sooner rather than later-”

Grandma patted his back a few times, “Yeah, we get ya honey, but still, the people inside the collapsing satellite aren’t going to want to hear you talk about how cool the rocket is, they’re going to want you to save them before they become deep-fried astronaut.”

Alan nodded while placing the device over his eyes again, “Right, gotta focus, gotta focus!”

Casey turned to watch the screen before Grandma was fully backed away from Alan in the training simulator. With a flick of white, the display was showing yet another asteroid belt. The entire point of these tests was to see Alan’s reaction times and reflexes, as well as the whole ‘how good of a pilot he really was’ thing. It was set up to start right after a few astronauts were saved from a malfunctioning satellite, but right as they were leaving, a dangerous asteroid storm was hitting, and thus to complete the rescue, Alan would need to navigate his way out of it.

Of course, much more training would take place afterward- the etiquette of what to say to the people you were rescuing, how to properly carry unconscious people, where to place your hands on someone who needed the extra support, et cetera- but the main part of Alan’s job as an Operative would be flying a giant red rocket. She could see the merit in testing out that particular skill first.

One could argue that just because Alan couldn’t fly one of the ‘Birds didn’t mean he couldn’t be an Operative on the ground, to which Casey was 87% sure she heard John planning something like that for the youngest if he didn’t do so well in the simulations, but with the whole ‘a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t a square’ idea in mind, if Alan could quite literally pilot a giant red rocket, then they could safely assume he would be able to do many other things.

So far for this run, Alan seemed to be doing quite well. Keeping his rescuees calm when they panicked, reacting right in time to avoid a stray asteroid. The only mildly concerning thing was when a smaller asteroid dinged one of the thrusters of the rocket, causing some turbulence and one of the NPCs to let out a cry in fear. Alan rolled his shoulder with a grin, “Relaaaax, I’m sure that didn’t mean anything. Uh, probably.”

Casey winced, conveniently ignoring the facepalm Scott was making out of the corner of her eye. Aha, teenagers and their occasional lack of brain-to-mouth filter. The whole ‘proper etiquette’ training came back to her mind rather quickly. An issue for a later date.

As the simulation continued, the belt got thicker and thicker, and the controls were shakier and shakier. Gordon, who had apparently come up to stand next to her at some point, had a concerned look on his face, “Is that supposed to happen? The sticks going janky?”

John, who was standing next to Scott (Casey realized she had to have been paying way more attention to Alan’s simulation than she thought if she missed two entire new people in her vicinity), crossed his arms, “Nope, guess that asteroid did a lot more damage than he expected. Let’s see how he handles it.”

The family stood taut as Alan looked around, trying to get a good grasp on everything that was heading his way, judging what kind of moves he would need to take with the faulty thruster now as an obstacle in play. Then, the ending was approaching, a mass of asteroids so large it was almost a wall with how many there were. Casey would later shamefully admit how she squinted her eyes in an attempt to look away from what she assumed would be failure.

Because with a sudden gracefulness Alan must have kept hidden away, he threaded the needle through openings even Scott grimaced at. Still, he kept his voice low as he reassured the NPCs that it was going to be okay, even speeding up a little toward the last little bit so they would be out faster and the fake humans would no longer have to be as worried as they were.

As the rocket’s flight path smoothed out and the YOU FINISHED screen slowly seeped onto the screen, Alan took off his VR device and turned around slowly to stare at his family. He grinned nervously once he noticed how all of them had gaping mouths of various sizes and shock, yes, even Casey. He rubbed the back of his neck, “Um, was that good?”

Good, he asked? It was more than good, he nailed it! Perfectly too!

It’s not that they were expecting Alan to crash and burn (at least, not as the immediate option out of all outcomes), but to see him dodge all of the giant rocks as if he were essentially flying a non-damaged rocket, not even being hit once… Casey would say it was nothing short of literal incredibleness.

Scott was grinning from ear to ear, “Well, I think my vote will be an indefinite ‘yes’ from now on.”

Gordon had his arms up in the air, “Woohoo! Go Alan yeaaah!”

Casey felt her own smile form when she noticed how Alan got bashful at the praise. You would think he would have somewhat of an ego with his eccentric personality, but when push came to shove with the ‘serious’ stuff, he was rather humble at heart. Tracys are the same, Casey thought to herself.

Later, during their downtime, Alan decided to play his handheld device near Casey, partially because his brothers were busy in other parts of the house doing the things they specifically wanted to do for their breaks, but probably also because Alan wanted to let the victory-high dissipate a little before facing them. It made sense; if Scott was as similar to Jeff as Casey pictured, then his smothering instincts had to have been intense, his brothers not far behind. Alan had very valid concern about being overwhelmed by their celebrations.

As Casey looked through files on a borrowed datapad she logged into with her work account, she heard Alan speak from off to her side, “Hey, Aunt Casey?”

She raised an eyebrow in his direction, humming in response yet not looking away from the ridiculous contract they were trying to get her to sign. Seriously, some people just thought they could pull a fast one over her as if she weren’t a highly respected Colonel in the industry, good lord.

It was understood she was listening, though, considering Alan continued onward, “... Do you think I could be as good as them?”

My brothers went unspoken only in words.

Stopping all other thoughts immediately, she abruptly looked down into the bright, blue eyes of the youngest Tracy. It was hard to tell how long they stared at each other in silence, that heavy question needing an even heavier answer to satisfy it. In that moment, she felt the world stop. She saw a lot of things in those eyes: childish naivety, a small fire of an ego just waiting for fuel to be added, but most of all, there was one thing that caught her completely off guard.

She saw Jeff Tracy’s determination shining just as much in Alan as she did in Scott.

Now, she doesn’t like comparing those to their successful family members, but the Tracys had always been a unique type of breed. Jeff always surprised her, and these last few months spent with his family had done even more of that, hell, they’ve practically blown her out of the water altogether.

Taking a deep breath, Casey gave Alan the most genuine smile she could muster, “Yes, Alan, I think you could be even better one day if you put your heart and mind into it.”

The face Alan made would make you think she told him he could be in charge of International Rescue himself. It looked like he was about to say another thing as well, most likely thank her, but a voice shouted from where the bedrooms were located, causing them to look away from one another.

“ALAN! WE TOLD YOU THAT IF YOU WANTED TO TRAIN YOU HAD TO GET ALL YOUR HOMEWORK DONE!”

Casey peeked at him from the corner of her eye to see genuine confusion on his face. He shouted back, “Yeah! I swear I finished all of it!” Alan stood up from his chair and cupped his hands around his mouth like a funnel, his handheld device forgotten on the table, “I wouldn’t lie about that kind of stuff, you know me!”

A brief moment of silence fell over the house before the shouting started up again, “YEAH?! THEN WHAT’S THIS UNFINISHED ESSAY YOU LEFT OPEN ON YOUR COMPUTER?!”

If you were to ask Casey what it felt like in that moment, she would say you could probably feel the air a pin produced when you dropped it. She watched as all the color drained from his face, and before she could give a disappointed glare, Alan practically stumbled and tripped over the chair as he raced to his room, “WAIT! THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME-” he bumped his knee into the wall and let out a small curse before he continued, his voice getting quieter and quieter as he ran up the stairs, “I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMETHING!”

Casey was left there to stare at nothing and process whatever the hell just happened. It wasn’t too long before she started to chuckle and helped put back the chairs where they belonged. Jeff Tracy’s sons were all fine young men who would go on to do great things in his footsteps, but they were also children first and foremost. Children who have been through things only found in other people’s nightmares.

But they were still family; it was always nice getting reminders of that fact. That despite the things they’ve had to overcome, they’re sticking close together. That they’re still ready to be there for one another in the blink of an eye, and that they still hold that shred of magical innocence where other men and women seem to fail. While Casey has never held it against those men and women, she could hardly blame them for it even, that just makes her pride in the Tracy family even stronger.

She only hoped that the magic lasted as long as it could before the inevitable.

---

Mopierre Compound.

Casey shuddered. There was a reason they shut this place down. She just hoped that Jeff didn’t think too hard about it as well. If she had a kid that was taken here, regardless of whether or not it was inactive or god forbid actually active, she would definitely lose it.

When John contacted her out of the blue with information about the Hood’s whereabouts (how he had Alan for weeks all alone), Casey took zero time in storming out of her office and getting her soldiers up and running to support the Tracys. The Hood had been causing chaos for far too long, and to commit such an action of stealing the youngest Tracy away and doing God knows what to him-

Casey was done being a failure, the Hood was being stopped one way or another tonight.

And stopped he was. Casey couldn’t stop the gasp of shock leaving her lips when she saw Scott limping out of the compound with a beaten-up Hood, Alan trailing ever so slightly behind him somewhat bewildered but also visibly overwhelmed. Whatever must have happened in there shaken him up, badly, and Casey’s heart ached at the thought.

Gordon was off with Virgil making sure his older brother didn’t obtain any kind of concussion from the obvious head injury he was sporting. Kayo was off talking to other soldiers about what to do with Havoc and Fuse, so she was the first to see the eldest and youngest toddle their way out to everyone. She didn’t make a big fuss, just grinned and waited for the others to notice as well. Casey’s best guess was the sister was waiting for them to be situated before throwing even more hecticness in their faces.

“Mr. Tracy! Mr. Tracy!” a soldier shouted out next to her. Casey turned back to see about three Cadets make their way over to the disheveled brothers. So much for Kayo’s attempt at giving them a moment of respite. She was unable to get a word in as the soldiers rushed over to the brothers, two of which grabbed the Hood from Scott with the last one taking the villain’s place in a more supportive position. They were a good distance apart, but Casey could tell that the elder Tracy wasn’t fairing the greatest, and there was much more than the limp to base her assumptions on.

She realized mostly everyone went silent at the Tracys appearing out of nowhere, and wanting to save them from as much scrutiny as possible, “Hey! All of you, get back to your jobs! We’re highly trained government officials on a mission, not tourists exploring a tropical getaway!”

Multiple YES MA’AMs sounded throughout the area, and with a satisfied sigh to herself, Casey felt like she could breathe again. The soldier helping Scott get to the nearest medical staff walked in front of her, the Tracy giving her a grateful nod once she looked him in the eyes. Returning the gesture, she continued watching as they made their way down the hill, Scott being deposited into his family’s waiting arms.

Mainly John and Gordon, though Virgil was quick to show his affection when Scott was shoved to sit down next to him. The brunet seemed to get cold feet once he was situated, like he was nervous to admit he spilled a glass of milk somewhere, and before Casey could even begin to come up with reasons why he looked that way, she noticed a mop of blond out of the corner of her eye.

Quickly turning, she released a huff of air she didn’t even know she had inside herself at the moment, “Oh, Alan, it’s just you. Scared me for a second there.”

Alan had a silver tarp wrapped snugly around his shoulders- shock blanket, most definitely- which glinted in the moonlight as he shrugged them. He stuck his hands out in the part where the two edges were held together and moved his fingers very specifically, Glad to see I still have it in me. I’ll be sure to remember this when I wanna do something similar to Gordon.

Ah, Virgil mentioned Alan was selectively mute as a coping mechanism. And as much as she wanted to joke with him, keep the tone light, she had simply lived too long a life where she didn’t get such pleasures.

Casey flicked her vision back and forth between the Tracy next to her and the Tracys on lower ground, and unsavory taste filling her mouth at the reasons on why Alan wasn’t going to them, “Alan, I don’t mean to make any assumptions, but is there a particular reason you’re choosing to spend your free time with me? Not that I don’t want you to if you want, but-”

Suddenly, a blur shot out from the group down below, John responding to its movements just as quick as it was, “Whoa! Gordon, wait-”

Taking a moment to fully observe the situation, Casey deduced that it was indeed a tense one with the way John was gripping Gordon’s arm. He seemed to be holding the younger brother back from charging over to what appeared to be the vehicle that housed the Hood.

Oh.

John’s rather loose grasp gave Casey the idea that the older brother was struggling on the decision to either let Gordon loose and go ham or stay responsible and make sure he didn’t also land in jail, much to what was probably everyone’s chagrin. Honestly, if Gordon landed in jail that would just give him more prime opportunity to murder the Hood, not that John wasn’t two seconds away from doing that himself, “Gordon, I’m as pissed as you are, but we all need to calm down for Alan-”

“Calm down?! I get told that the bastard five feet away from my fists potentially tortured my little brother and you want me to calm the hell down?!”

Hoo.

Well then.

Casey wasn’t sure where to start with that.

Looking over to her right where Alan was currently standing, tugging the shock blanket around himself ever so slightly tighter, she could tell the youngest Tracy was in the same position. However, he wasn’t tensed up so much as he was forlorn. It’s like he suspected this kind of reaction, and he felt bad for it.

Ugh, the Tracys and their unnecessary guilt complexes. The only thing Casey wished for was that Alan never reached any kind of level compared to his older siblings. She should have expected her wish wouldn’t be granted. You don’t even get small mercies like that in this life.

Blinking a few times, she noticed Alan staring more intently at her, even waving his hand a little bit to get her to notice again, “Yes, Alan?”

Immediately regretting her normally harsh tone of voice after watching Alan flinch a little bit back, she didn’t even have a second to apologize before she recognized the telltale movements of ASL from the boy, Was I… he stopped in thought as if he wanted to find the exact right word to convey his emotions, Right?

Casey was a little lost on what he asked. She cleared her throat, purposefully making sure she dropped the serious commander facade if only for a moment, “I’m sorry, right about what exactly?”

Alan thinned his lips. It seemed he was annoyed he couldn’t come up with the right words. After another few seconds of struggling, he found his footing, Scott was impressed by how I decided to save the Hood despite everything he’s done to us and other people. He wouldn’t shut up the whole time we were together, but I… I just…

He stopped. Casey noticed how his hands were trembling more than they were before, and his eyes were starting to get more and more glazed as if he was back in the action itself. Well, they may call her Aunt for fun, but she was given the title of Godmother for a reason. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she managed to speak in her softest voice yet, “You what, Alan?”

Alan inhaled deeply through his nose before gaining the courage to continue, I didn’t know which was which, and I didn’t want to risk it. I think if I had any kind of confidence, any kind of idea of which Scott was the right one, I wouldn’t have… I don’t think... for a brief second, Alan covered his eyes and rubbed his face in frustration, but before Casey could egg him on again, he ripped the bandaid right off, I wouldn’t have even waited until they were falling before deciding to let him drop! I would have let him die and I wouldn’t have even cared. I care for roadkill I see on the street sometimes more than I would have cared for him!

With his biggest and youngest eyes yet, he looked directly into hers, tears forming, Would that have made me bad instead? I’m I wrong for secretly wanting that? He took a deep breath, finishing his thought once and for all, Does that make me like him?

Morality has never been an easy concept for Casey to grasp, frankly, it’s not easy for anyone on planet Earth to truly decide what was right or wrong for a situation. No matter what you decide, people will think you made the wrong choice. This is especially worse for deaths at the hands of people not authorized to kill anyone. It would seem simple, right? Self-defense is a human right, no one would get angry at you for protecting your family, it should be simple, but alas, it was not.

People will think you used the wrong thing to defend yourself with; people will think that person shouldn’t have killed regardless, whether it was because they believed in upholding certain laws when it came to handling criminals or they just had a stringent ‘no-killing anyone’ policy because that’s what they grew up believing. That’s not even taking into account the supposed killer’s own beliefs on how they want to handle killing someone. Maybe they believed no one should die without the right to a fair trial. It feels like it should be easy, after all, that person killed someone wanting to hurt them, guilt is the last thing that should be on their mind…

But the human mind was a fickle thing, and it’ll feel whatever it wanted to feel, even if we realized it was illogical in hindsight. It was worse for younger people, oh god, was it worse. Casey had watched firsthand what the horrors of war could do to a soldier’s state of being. War itself was already a horribly grey subject, the last thing those people needed were to be cast into a problem that shouldn’t have even involved them.

To see Alan struggle with the concept, to see him struggle over it so personally, when he should be struggling over college and what job opportunities he now had, Casey was very violently reminded of those traumatized soldiers who’d seen things no one should have had to see, and her chest ached. She’d never been the best with cushy-feely-type words, but she told herself that if it came down to it, she wouldn’t mess it up.

By god she swore not to mess this up. Leaving her one hand on his shoulder and taking her other to place it on the still free one, she made sure his full attention was on her, “Alan, I’m going to start this off by saying you are nothing like him.” Alan looked like he wanted to move his hands to argue back, but she kept her ground, “I’m not going to lie and say they aren’t any similarities whatsoever, but that’s because he’s human!” She rushed out before Alan could take it the wrong way, “He was an awful, disgusting, selfish human, but human nonetheless, of course, there might be some overlap. But that means there’s overlap between him and John, even Virgil, hell, even Gordon! Scott broke his arm in pure anger, do you think that makes him as bad as the Hood?”

Alan might as well have broken his neck with how fast he shook it. Good, she was getting through to him, “Okay, so now you see you aren’t some orphan puppy murderer, glad we got that out of the way.” Alan’s silent chuckles led her to believe that he trusted her, and while that gave her some reprieve, this last part was going to be the hardest regardless of how he reacted before, “Now, as for the whole ‘I wanted him dead part’... I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be mad at you for wanting to take out the man who had tortured you consistently. Forgetting how he hurt the rest of your family, how he hurt the rest of humanity, it would be hard to forgive anyone who would be willing to torture an 18-year-old.”

Taking a minute to see how Alan was absorbing her information, she was relieved to see him at least considering it. Taking a deep breath, she had one final thing to say, “Of course, there are going to be people who disagree with what you did, but that will be because of a variety of reasons. Some people have a ‘no civilian can kill’ policy, some people are contrarian for the sole purpose of having a devil’s advocate to keep the debate hot, hell, there might be a very small minority of people who supported the Hood for whatever reason, but Alan… none of those people matter.”

She watched him blink some of the tears out of his eyes in confusion. Chuckling, she finally took her hands away from him and crossed them behind her back in her Colonel Pose, taking in the scene of all of her soldiers diligently completing their duties next to them, “I have worked with countless people dedicated to their work having to fall prey to having to make that split-second decision. Years of watching people make them, having to make them myself, the most valuable thing I have taken away is making sure you, the person in question who had to consider it or even finish it, are okay with it.” With most of her energy out there, she took one of her hands and rubbed the bridge of her nose in exhaustion, “Now, whether you decide you want to figure out why you may feel that way, or you get help in deciding that these thoughts are actually okay will be up to you.”

She looked back at him with a motherly grin, “Not even your brothers can help you decide. They can nudge in a direction, and I think we both know which direction that is, but it is up to you to decide if that direction is right for you. Men have been fighting over this topic since we first became homo sapiens, Alan, and I don’t think we’ll ever come to a unanimous decision, not in my life, not in your life, probably not even in your potential children’s life. That’s why it’s only up to you, okay? If you try and get approval from those around you, it only ends in you being ripped apart in five different directions. Don’t fall prey to humanity’s whims, there’s thousands of them, and most of them are garbage anyway.”

A few more silent chuckles gave her the belief that her work was done, but when she felt a pair of arms rapidly make their way around her shoulders, the wind was knocked out of her sails, so to speak. She looked down to see Alan pressing his face into her shoulder, the blanket now wrapped around both of them. The words he was saying were clear: Thank you.

Casey just sighed and hugged him back, “Now then, I have a feeling a couple of other family members are about to trip over themselves trying to see you.” She gently pushed him away to look him in the eyes, wiping away the dirt on his shoulders from underneath the blanket, “Go enjoy this time, Alan. You’ve all been waiting for this for nearly a decade.”

Alan nodded as he dabbed at his eyes, slowly but surely making his way toward the rest of his family. Casey watched as he almost stumbled like a newborn giraffe toward his older brothers, sort of slipping on the part of the hill that went from diagonal to horizontal, catching their attention. With how high-strung he already seemed to be, Gordon was the first to hop over to Alan and grab him in a hug.

It wasn’t for long, though. John came over to place his hand on their shoulders, probably informing them of the fact that Alan should be checked out by the paramedics as well for safety reasons. With as little separation as possible, they helped their youngest brother over to where Virgil and Scott were sitting, placing him in between the older two. With no hesitation whatsoever, Alan was quick to grab Scott’s hand while laying his head on Virgil’s shoulder. A thought rang in the back of Casey's head on how Alan hadn’t done something like that in quite a while, hmmm.

Casey scanned the surrounding area, noticing that Kayo was now talking with a handcuffed Fuse and Havoc in the back of a vehicle away from the Hood. It was easy to assume that she was informing them about their potential punishments, but the small grin she had on her face said that more than chats about disciplinary action were happening. Didn’t John mention Fuse being the reason they noted this location in the first place? Casey would need to ask more about that later.

Looking around a little bit more, it wasn’t long before she found the head of the Tracy family himself. Jeff seemed to be deep in his own conversation with Lady Penelope, both of them waving their hands around sporadically. What a wake-up call poor Penelope must have received. Hey so we maybe found our missing baby brother in this random location please join the entire GDF in getting over there while he head to it first please and thank youuu.

Soon, Jeff waved at her goodbye, shoving his hands in his pockets as he turned around. As he made his way toward his sons, he looked up a little higher than expected and made eye contact with Casey. So many words needed to be said, so many plans needed to be thought out, but with one glance, the only thing they realized they needed to do at this moment was smile at each other. It wouldn’t solve everything right away, but for just a moment, it was enough.

Jeff was just as readable as he always had been. Thank you. Thank you for everything. For being there when I couldn’t.

Casey had hoped she was too. Of course, it was the least I could do for you and your family after everything they’ve done. For me, as well as everyone else.

Of course, they would need to talk more. About the future of IR, about Fuse and Havoc’s futures, of Hood’s containment, of how their family would move forward, hell, ignoring all of that, Casey still wanted to just verbally talk with the man. They were close friends, she wanted to catch up with him out of pure want to keep their relationship alive now that he was as well.

But that was a future problem. After all, Jeff finally had all of his sons in his grasp for once, he deserved a moment with them. Plus, she was too busy watching the sunrise over the horizon of the ocean to join him anyway.

For the first time in a near-decade, things felt like they were truly looking up.