#is this incomprehensible? maybe! it's 2am

[meowzfordayz]

when you stay up late — tanjirou, kyojuro

Author’s Note: … sooo, who else is a night owl? 😅

when you stay up late — tanjirou, kyojuro

Kamado Tanjirou x Reader, Rengoku Kyojuro x Reader

Word Count: ~800

CW: none

Emergency Request Fulfilled: I think I’ve been exhausting my body a little tooo much, so parts of my arm and leg are beginning to hurt. I’ve also like, not been sleeping on time lately.. (cough 2am) 😭

So maybe (if you can) do a Drabble (or anything really) in which Tanjiro helps reader get some sleep on time? Maybe even help in keeping reader from exhausting her body so much?

Suggestion Fulfilled: How would Kyo react to finding his s/o up at an inhuman time late at night? What if she is playing videogames and stuffing her face with snacks or something? "my love, it's 2 in the morning!" "yes but this game is so good and I need answers!!" 😂 (def not what I've been doing)

AND AN EVEN BETTER ADDITION, what if he ends up sitting down next to her to stuff his face whilst watching the screen intently because, indeed, the game is very good and interesting and now HE needs answers? 😂😂😂

~faqs~

Has a couple tried and true methods for helping you sleep ~early

Or at least, sleep at all if he falls asleep first, and then wakes up hrs later to you still awake 😅

Tells you stories

They’re always made up, and always ~nonsensical, but the simple act of murmuring softly beside you till your eyes begin drooping is what matters most 🥺

For example:

“Once upon a time, there was a bottle of hot sauce. His name was Frank.” 🔥

“Tan, shouldn’t his name be RedHot, and his dad is Frank? Y’know, Frank’s RedHot?” 🧐

“You’re supposed to be relaxing, not logicafying my story.” ☹️

“Hmpf.”

 “Anyway, Frank’s best friend was an apple named Macintosh. 🍎 They went on many adventures together, from apple picking to hot wings sampling events. Their favorite festival was the applesauce and hot sauce festival where vendors from all over the land gathered to provide three days of sauces and fun.”

~at this point, you’ve fallen asleep~

Tanjirou doesn’t always know whether to feel proud or offended that you fall asleep so quickly

Like, is he that calming and soothing? 🥰

Orrr bOrInG?! 😭

Takes you on late night walks

Hear me out

Is going for a walk @ 2am a lil counterintuitive for going to sleep?

Yeeeah

BUT

If you’re already awake, and lying in bed isn’t helping, then a cute, moonlit walk couldn’t hurt any more 🌙

“You want to get up now?” you yawn, fixing an amused stare at Tanjirou’s bedhead

“Why not?” 😁

And altho you could technically think of plenty of this-is-why-not reasons, you shrug instead

“Okay!”

Within a block, you’re clinging to his arm, body feeling heavy and content 😴

And within two blocks, you’re whining cutely into his shoulder, “Taaanjiiirooouuu, m’sleeeeepy.” 🥱

11/10 you’re getting a piggyback ride home 🤗

More often than not, Kyojuro ends up getting roped into whatever’s keeping you up 🥴

Suffering through hw?

He’ll get his own notebook, snacks, and water (to share, ofc), and keep you company 🤓

“My love,” he whispers—after ~30 secs—stricken faced

“Hm, Kyo?” you hardly spare him a glance, trying (and failing) to make sense of your lecture notes

“I realize now why you are still studying at 3am. This is incomprehensible!” 😖

Nonetheless, he persists along w/ you, doing his best to hide his yawns, and insisting on 1 min cuddle breaks whenever you have an epiphany aka finally understand something

By the last cuddle break, you’re falling asleep in his arms, and he doesn’t do a thing to stop you 😌

(spiritually, he fell asleep hrs ago 😃)

Fixated on a video game?

Kyojuro trusts you when you tell him, “No worries babe, go to sleep, I’ll join you in a bit!” ☺️

He shouldn’t have 💀

Unless “a bit” always meant “sometime after 2am” 🤡

“Darling,” he rasps, blearily eyeing your focused position in front of your computer (that you haven’t moved from since he was last awake), “What time is it?” 😵‍💫

“Time to destroy this BOSS,” you exclaim, not missing a beat, nor shaken by his sudden consciousness 😎

“Do you think you have enough snacks?” he asks wryly, surroundings slowly but surely registering 🥨🧀🍫🍿🍪

“Nope,” you grin, “But you can still have some.”

“Why did the screen go black?” 🤨

“Because I died,” you huff, “You really ought to know these things.”

“And become a gremlin like you?” he chuckles, blankets tossed aside as he shuffles himself out of bed

“A WINNER, Kyo, I’m going to be a WINNER.” 😤

“Sure, especially when I have seen that black screen at least three times in the five minutes that I have been awake.” 😉

“Y’KNOW WHAT,” you shriek indignantly, pointing a playful finger at him, “Sit and watch, this game isn’t easy.” 😒

“Is it multiplayer?” 🫢

“No.” 😐

(yes, but no hell in way are you letting him join and show you up now — at least, not tonight)

“I can eat your snacks?” 😋

“As long as you promise to fetch more when they run out.”

And that’s how you and Kyo end up pulling an all nighter, eyes bloodshot, stomachs full, and very hydrated (bc water is apparently a snack too)

P.S. You eventually allow him to play w/ you (after you beat the game yourself)

P.P.S. Watching him struggle brings you immense satisfaction 🤠

P.P.P.S. “Kyo, you might break your record of deaths in a minute.” “Oh hush, I am just warming up!” ❤️‍🔥

[friendlylemonade]

the nonsensical ramblings of an insomniac

the other post I made of this broke before I posted it so this is round 2 baybbyyyyyyyyy (it’s the middle of the night and it’ going insane)

this is basically just me rambling about my thoughts and writing them down as the come to me, so you’ll see a bunch of random stuff just jotted down (this is uncut btw, nothing I’m writing is deleted except for maybe spelling [I’ve decided to keep the spelling as is, even if it’s shit])

dpa/dpya steven universe au

black hole as garnet

tree as pearl

marker as amethryt

Fanny as peridot

lightning as lapis

robot flower as jasper

pie as sapphire

Idk who’d be ruby (I’d say Fanny but she works well as peridot)

gays (gaty lol autocorrect hates her) is Steven

idk who’d be rose

THE ALGEBRANIANS AT THE DIAMONDS

ONE IS WHITE WITH THE WHOLE “WELOCME HOME STALIGHT” ASS SHIT, AND TWO IS BLUE BECAUSE THEY’RE DEPRESSED NOT WHAT GATY’S ELOMINATED AND BATY IS STEVEN BUT SOMEBODY ELSE HAD TO BE PINK/ROSE

LIY COULD BE RUBYYYYYY YESSSSS

maybe nine is rose/pink

because of the colour, becudse gaty is a very light purple and nine is white and an algebranian

maybe four is yellow, just more insane

we got blue diamond, other blue diamond (okay, so maybe not four) green diamonds, and white diamond

fuck it, one’s being demoted to purple diamond I’m keeping foru

loser has to change colour because four lol (loser as in the derogatory term, not the object)

PIN IS BISMUTH GIRL HAS ABANDO ENT ISSURE LET’S GOOOOO

imagine if marker was lion

he ain’t even a person, he’s a fuking lion

nah, bottle can be lion

I won’t her how long this post is (probably very long)

I’ve been writing for 20 minutes

golf ball could also be peridot because she’s emotionally constipated and a jerk techie but I like Fanny so she stays

nobody is going to read this far down the post, this entire thing sounds like it’s 2am and I’ve eaten nothing but weed for the past three days (I’ve never had week before but I have been sleep cevred and that’s probably the same thing)

somebody should make this, but since I’m probably the only one insane enough to think of this, that someone is probably going to be me

this post has been saved for incomprehension by autocorrect

Kay bye

[caffeinatedopossum]

same except i dont think im ace(?) cause like to me dating was always like having a best friend that u just do typical 'romance stuff' with. like idk I've been thinking about this a lot actually, how i experience love and what my view on it is. i came to the conclusion that i dont need a romantic relationship, just really close friends who i can rely on and spend time with. and that i also need to satisfy my needs for physical contact/touch that i can easily do with my friends as well by stuff like hugging, cuddling and even just shaking their hands when we meet.

and also whenever i saw romance in movies, books, irl etc i always thought people were exaggerating? kind of acting? like i thought they were doing it for fun, not because of some great once in a lifetime love. it all seemed a bit superficial to me

i still wanna try a relationship tho, like maybe i think all this cause my only relationship was in 7th grade and lasted a week yk. and also i just wanna do it for fun, like cause whenever i do see romance in media and when i imagine what it could be like, its seems fun but in a 'i wanna explore what this could be like for a couple months' way cause i know it most likely wouldnt be sustainable for me

im sorry if this is incomprehensible, im just rambling at this point, its almost 2am and i should go to sleep

Super valid tbh. I feel very similarly and this is why I love the word queerplatonic. Like idk what it is but I sure am feeling it and I don't think it's what everyone else is feeling. People always describe friendships and romantic attraction like two different categories of love but I don't have love categories like that at all, I love everyone in a different way, for unique reasons based on that person.

Like sometimes it just feels like romantic attraction is just another imaginary cultural thing and everyone just doesn't question it because why would they. Not that it can't be real, just that it's hard to believe it is based on the answers non-aromantic people have given me thus far.

[meteormoss]

moss its past 2am and i've just finished rereading your fic, the curtains pulled out of the wall, and god. i'm so not normal about this fanfiction. i've never read anything that manages to capture the mundanity of grief SO well. i tend to read a lot of scifi/fantasy books so it's refreshing to read something so real. i love the fact that nothing actually changed, we got to witness a week of their lives, just a regular week. things happened but it wasn't important enough to change anything. it really felt like i was watching it all play out from the outside, dropped in the middle of the story and not understanding certain references the characters made, also the fact that it's not really addressed what actually happened to etho for a while. all the characters are in the loop, but the reader has to work it out through context clues. it's really cool

this is probably incomprehensible but I really just wanted to say i really like your writing!!

Apple I just woke up to this and I'm crying, thank you so much. This is probably my favorite thing I've ever written and I think about it so frequently. I wrote this story for me, as a way to process things in my own life, and I am very happy other people also enjoy it.

The thing about never discussing Etho's death until the funeral is so important to me. Up until then, maybe he isn't actually dead. Up until then Bdubs is ignoring it actively. He is pushing it out of his mind. Etho is not dead. So therefore he is pushing it out of the narration. It may be 3rd person, but we are following him.

And everything is left unresolved.

[duhbatmann]

2am thoughts

Sometimes, I think my soul was stitched together with threads pulled from the edges of sunsets and the deep blues of twilight. It's like I'm perpetually caught between the pages of a book, somewhere in the middle of the story where everything is too much and yet, not enough.

I find pieces of myself in odd places: the dog-eared pages of my favorite book, the melody of a song I heard once in a shop and can't seem to find again, the comforting aroma of rain hitting the pavement, and in the silence that sits between words when you're talking to someone who understands the art of listening.

I'm a collection of contradictions. A seeker of solitude who fears being alone, a dreamer grounded by reality, a silent observer who yearns to be understood. Isn't it funny how we're all just walking contradictions trying to find our place in a world that's constantly trying to define us?

Here's to the ones who feel too deeply, who spend their nights staring at the ceiling, weaving stories out of nothingness. To the ones who find beauty in the mundane, who can feel the weight of words unspoken. You are not alone. Your feelings, as vast and deep and incomprehensible as they may seem, are what make you, you. And that's truly beautiful.

So, here's my heart, laid bare in a Tumblr post, hidden among a sea of voices, hoping to find someone who understands. And maybe, just maybe, that's what life is about—finding those moments of connection, those sparks of understanding, in the most unexpected places.

[notworkingenough]

june 30 2023

Today I start this blog.

After many failed attempts at journaling, writing, and trying to keep track of my life, I am here in an attempt to give myself a record. A place for me to record my days - the good, the bad, the ugly, and the slightly better. A way for me to track my progress or review my regression. To set goals and hold myself accountable. Maybe, if I think other people will see this, I'll stick to it.

Today, I did not wake up for Fajr. I was up until 2am last night spontaneously watching content on this colleen ballinger drama - it's definitely not funny, but it was a nostalgic reminder of the internet culture I have missed out on in the past few years.

My time on the internet ended rather abruptly around age 14, I want to say? I'm 20 now. So many years have passed; so much development on the internet that I am blissfully unaware of. I think I must prefer it like that; I don't see the point in being invested in other people's drama. I feel it would distract me too much from my own. It was like tuning in to the fifth season of Riverdale after you stopped watching at season 2. Everything has gotten so much worse, the plot lines are incomprehensible, and the chaos makes you appreciate that you got out early.

I told myself yesterday that I would spend today working to catch up on my work assignments, even though today is my day off. It is currenlty 6:42 pm and I have not yet started working. I will do so after this post, maybe. I woke up with greasy hair after sleeping restlessly for 9-10 hours; the first proper night's sleep I've had in weeks.

My goals for this blog are to write something, literally anything, about my day, every day. Even if it's nothing but the date and "I feel like shit".

Mood: after showering, 4/10. Anxious about work emails I didn't respond to. Anxious about work presentations. Anxious about the future and my incompetence. Hopeful that I can get my shit together this weekend. Hopeful that this blog won't fizzle out like the rest of my efforts.

[nadir-barnes]

okay actually I'm not finished. When we meet Troy, he's a mess of compulsory heterosexuality and toxic masculinity. He acts selfishly and mirrors the behaviors around him: for example, we see him bully Abed in 4x12, but he doesn't instigate it and doesn't feel good about it. He wears his Letterman jacket as a reminder of his popular, macho football days; he uses casual homophobia to reject anything that makes him feel weak; he's desperate to be seen as a tough, cool, Very Straight athlete. He has a confident facade ("you're a very attractive young man," "I knew it," 1x7 / "yeah, I'm funny," 1x8, etc.) that doesn't hold up when he feels uncertain of himself. He's hinged his self esteem on his athletic ability and he's repressed the parts of himself that he's afraid would be scrutinized and mocked by his high school friends. He's developed this false persona as a survival tactic - it's overcompensation, and it's very familiar to many closeted teens - and it's also a persona he believes is attractive, both to women and to himself, given that his confidence lies in it.

Enter Abed. Abed is perfectly comfortable with himself, to the point of baffling Troy (1x5, 1x7). He's everything Troy was afraid of being mocked for in high school, and Troy doesn't know what to do with it. He tries making fun of him at first, but that doesn't feel right; Abed has too much self esteem to be bothered, which doesn't make sense to Troy, who has been taught that these traits are things to be ashamed of. So they become friends, and Troy starts slowly opening up.

Then, in 1x10, Environmental Science, Abed asks for Troy's help catching Fievel. Troy: "Take it from a former prom king: real friends help me with things, not vice versa." He's reverting back to the self-preservation that got him through high school, except Abed challenges him, which he doesn't expect. Abed refuses to accept an unbalanced, one-sided friendship. Mentally, Troy is still caught up in the power dynamics of high school, but suddenly they aren't helping him anymore. By the end of the episode he has to put his selfishness aside, and that's his first step toward growing into a well-rounded person.

Then, 1x11. Troy's identity is still largely based upon his skill in sports, and he can't help but feel challenged by Abed's ability. It makes him angry because it makes him scared - who is he if not the star athlete? Is Abed trying to flip the power dynamics? In a way, Abed has flipped the script: he's the strong, confident one now, in a way we're seeing for the first time, and it's attractive to Troy, and that just makes him angrier. He's closeted and uncomfortable and he doesn't understand what he's feeling but he knows it's the kind of thing kids got bullied for in school. It isn't just his skill he thinks is being attacked, it's the defenses he put up in high school. Someone is pulling down his walls and he doesn't want to let them go. So he does what he knows: he overcompensates. He gets competitive. He knocks stuff over. He loses at basketball, and then some sort of toss game I think, and each time Abed is indifferent to his win, which infuriates Troy even more.

Then, arm wrestling. The match is obviously a game to Abed, a fun movie reference, but for Troy it feels like a fight for his masculinity. This is the first time we actually see Abed beat him, and he is confident, self-assured, and strong - all the things Troy has been trying to be. (I think it's noteworthy that Troy's first words after the fight are "you broke my hand, you bastard," and yet his hand is fine in the next scene; this could mirror the way he faked a leg injury the last time he doubted his ability.) With every game Troy loses, he gets more and more desperate to prove himself.

But Abed lets him win the race, and Troy finally gets it. He knows Abed let him win, and that forces him to realize that to Abed, Troy is more important than winning. That it isn't about beating Troy, or making him afraid, or holding power over him. Troy is more than his athletic career, and he's more than the persona he had to create to keep himself safe. It shows Troy that he's safe to be other ways than he's been, and he can be weird and he can cry and he can be something other than a football player.

To me, this is the turning point for Troy. He starts taking dance, being goofy with Abed, softening up and figuring out the way he likes to exist, outside of expectations. It's significant that Abed is the first person to make him feel safe, and he did it while unexpectedly embodying the attractive traits Troy has been emulating. It's literally four episodes later in 1x15 that Troy calls Abed his other half. I don't think Troy recognized it for what it was during the arm wrestling match, as caught up in the competition as he was, but I think that it laid the groundwork for Troy's trust in and attraction to Abed as A. a person he can be fully himself with (comfort is a turn on for him, see his pajamas vs. lingerie comment in 3x16) and B. a person that is genuinely strong and confident and could definitely fuck him against a wall.

This has been said before but s1e11 "the politics of human sexuality" thematically revolves around lust, romance and sex. A plot is Jeff and Pierce realizing what they're looking for in relationships when their dates don't work out. B plot has Annie on a journey of discovery about her repressed sexuality. Logically this means that the C plot is also intended to follow these same themes and what I'm saying is that Troy's competition with Abed not only can but should be viewed as his sexual awakening. In this essay I

[yukinyaminyato]

i watched the first two eps of squid game and man i don't know what i'm feeling but there's a lot of it

[vitaliskravtsov]

For Spotify wrapped - #88 and nurseydex or patater! :)

okay ngl this is a bit of a toughie bc this one is instrumental but i did my best!!!!!!!

88) the thrombey estate - knives out soundtrack

patater!!

Alexei is kind of absolutely bone-tired from the drive and he’s even more tired from camp, and more than anything, he wants to just pass out on his sofa. 

Unfortunately, it’s like 3pm and any passing out will just mean that he’ll wake up at about 2am, starving and unable to go back to sleep, so he has to tough it out.

That’s what he uses to explain why he’s seeing another person in his house, his brand-new house (okay, it’s an apartment), and doesn’t question it. 

The realtor had told him the house had history in the community, whatever that meant, but the plumbing was good and there was no water damage, so he’d taken it without interrogating that statement too deeply.

Now, though, he’s staring down a five-foot-seven blonde kid who looks like he’s straight out of an eighties sports mag.

“Mmh,” he grunts, and throws his stuff at the floor. 

The boy stares at him.

“That’ll dent,” he says, vowels lilting just a little. Weird accent.

“Mmh,” Alexei says again.

“Eat,” the boy says, and then stalks off.

Eventually, Alexei does get up and get a protein shake going. He pours it over a bowl of pasta, immediately regrets the decision, and eats the whole thing anyway.

He’s not as concerned as he should be, but by the time he goes to bed, the boy is gone, so it’s probably fine.

Over the next couple of weeks, he keeps appearing in Alexei’s house, staring at Alexei’s Russian books or petting Alexei’s sticks or leaving little notes about the decor (or the dishes, or the cooking situation, which is maybe a little more abysmal than it should be after two and a half years on his own).

He’s pretty, in an ethereal, incomprehensible, untouchable way.

He’s kind of horribly, awfully, exactly, Alexei’s type.

As the season progresses, he starts leaving hockey-related notes, but also commentary on Alexei’s music selection and on Alexei’s nutrition -- notably different from the cooking-based notes in that these have to do with macronutrients and vitamins and some things Alexei’s not entirely sure how to pronounce, at least in English -- and Alexei discovers that the boy likes Ziggy Stardust and Metallica and Aretha Franklin and Queen, and he stars putting that on more when he knows they’re both around the house.

The hockey notes are good, too, if focused on kind of old-school stuff, but Alexei doesn’t mind; he’s always down to try new stuff in his play, and he does start producing more, so. It’s a win in his book.

He learns, eventually, that the boy is called Kent and that he’s from the hellhole of a city that Alexei cannot begin to imagine why anyone would choose to live in if they weren’t here for hockey.

He starts watching movies with Alexei, too, and in that, their tastes are more similar. Kent is kind of game for anything, including Disney movies, and Alexei’s desire for Russian subtitles or dubs at the end of a long day is very on board with that.

It’s -- it’s nice, to cohabitate with someone who never generates any dishes (or if he does, meticulously puts them away totally clean) and never makes a mess, and who seems to instinctively understand when Alexei needs to be alone.

It’s really fucking nice.

Alexei blames that on the wire-crossing that happens one night when he gets home from a game and sees Kent on the couch, sprawled out all warm and inviting, and his brain, the little part of his brain that still misses the piece of shit who dumped him when he realised Alexei would never be a millionaire, says kiss your boyfriend, and Alexei does, no hesitation.

Or, well, he tries to, because his lips go straight through Kent’s forehead and he lands face first in the arm of the couch, confused and hurt, lips and nose smarting.

When he lifts his head, Kent is gone.

[imtheiliad]

we just had our first kiss and i feel like i might actually explode? 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

“Oh my god. Oh my god- you, you just kissed me!” Buck says breathlessly as he begins to pace around the kitchen.

“Pretty sure you were a willing participant.” Eddie replies a smile spreading, leaning back against the counter,

“I gotta go for a run or something because oh my god you kissed me, and I kissed you back.”

“Buck, it’s 2am. And we kissed, I don’t think that warrants risking your life.”

“And I want to shout it from the rooftops. I’ve never understood that, you know, with a person. I felt it when I finally found firefighting, but it wasn’t like this. This, this is, this is new and different in the most amazing way. None of these words are the right ones, cause I don’t know if they exist.” Buck is talking so fast at times the words fall over each other nearly incomprehensible, “And oh fuck I’m rambling.”

“It’s cute. I like it. Actually it’s one of the many things I love about you.” Eddie catches one of Buck’s wrists as he breezes past him for the tenth time, pulling Buck back into his space, and he fits just as he did before

“No one’s ever loved that about me.” Buck replies, a little sadly,

“I know. That’s why I told you. I love you.” Eddie says, punctuating it with a kiss on Buck’s nose.

“I love you too.” And he finally stops vibrating on the spot, and he kisses Eddie again, letting his fingers thread through his hair and cup his jaw like it is delicate. And he knows that neither of them will ever get tired of it.

“Now, as I mentioned it is after 2 in the morning, and I want to take my new boyfriend to bed.” Buck winks, “For maybe a few minutes of light making out before going to sleep because I and said boyfriend have a early shift in the morning. And our kid is asleep down the hall.”

Intimacy in a relationship prompts

[lilyrachelcassidy]

Titanic

A/N: I'm totally NOT in the writing mood today. That's why I decided to write smth... (incomprehensible enough?)... Enjoy :)

Summary: Y/N tries to keep her Titanic binge-watching in secret, but Draco quickly finds out.

Warnings: language 

Word count: 0.6k

You heard the soft turning of the knob, and you gasped quietly, suddenly releasing the position you were at -- sprawling over the disorganized sofa, having a pail of chocolate ice cream by one side and a mound of used tissues by the other. Hurriedly wiping your face from the leftover tears and stuffing the snotty handkerchiefs out of sight, you plastered on a fake smile, which hopefully didn't look much out of the ordinary.

You probably didn't succeed because as soon as Draco strolled in the living room and set his gaze on you, he raised his eyebrow in suspicion.

Before you could even speak up and greet him, his voice interrupted the reigning silence. "Everything alright?"

"Yes!" you replied instantly. Perhaps too brightly. "How was your day?"

"Don't try to change the subject," he warned you, both drolly and seriously. His eyes darted between the half-emptied bucket of ice cream (damn! you forgot to hide it!) and television. He scanned your face attentively, and the crease of comprehension appeared on his forehead. "Did you watch the Titanic again?"

You scoffed. "Of course not," you furrowed, cursing at his unfailing perceptivity. "Maybe."

An amused smirk crossed his lips, and he walked over to the couch beside you, sliding his arm around you as he sat by. Chuckling lightly, he brushed the strands of your hair behind your ear. "As far as I can remember, you promised not to watch it again."

"I know, but the lying remote and free time I had was a sheer enticement," you admitted guiltily. "And coincidentally, the first movie I happened to find was the Titanic."

"Liar." He grinned, shaking his head.

"I mean it!" you quibbled heatedly. "But then, I saw Rose and Jack shagging, then the Titanic sinking, and it was so emotionally destructive. And it was so fucking tempting I couldn't st-"

"No need to explain more," he interrupted and rolled his eyes, though the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. "Let's watch something else together, shall we?"

Pouting at him, you merely nodded your head, and he smiled in disbelief at your expression. Almost instinctively, he affectionately grabbed your waist and drew you to his side. "So what do we choose?" Draco asked.

You lifted your head to have a better view of him. Then beamed suggestively, wiggling your eyebrows. "Maybe we could finish the movie?" Before he could speak up, you quickly added. "It's only 20 minutes left."

He sighed dramatically, eyes still glittering with mirth. "What would I get in return for such sacrifice?" he asked jokingly.

Offering him a big smile, you leaned forward to softly brush your lips against his. "I can kiss you," you drawled.

He sighed again. "All right. The Titanic, it is," he agreed reluctantly.

"Awww, thank you," you cooed, triumphing over your small victory. "You're the best."

"Don't try to butter me up. I can always change my mind," Draco reminded teasingly.

"Oh," you arched your eyebrow. "So it wouldn't make any difference if I kissed you right now?" You decided to play his banter-me game. Pecking him shortly on the mouth, you smirked playfully.

"Let's try it," he murmured into your ear daringly, his minty breathing tickling your neck. He suddenly grasped both sides of your face, pulling you into another vehement kiss, with a small smile dancing on his features.  

It would definitely lead to more than just a make-out session.

_________________

A/N: I know it’s extremely short, but... it’s just 2am, and I wanted to end it :D I might prepare the prompt list for some time! So stick with me :)

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

What are the major details that confused you about the Hound blurb? The major one that stood put to me was the "way of the farmer opposed to the sword" thing which felt very...un-Cú Chulainn. Also, if you don't mind expanding further, which details didn't you question/be confused by?

and also for anon:

okay so it is like. 2am so there are not going to be any sources here but i can't sleep so here goes!! i will go through this blurb line by line and give youse my thoughts

In 50 BCE,

reasonable. this is roughly the right time period for when the ulster cycle is set. maybe marginally earlier than i'd place cú chulainn, but i'm talking a few years, nothing to get worked up about.

Morrigan, the goddess of war,

fine. normally i'm wary of pantheonising impulses with regard to irish characters (almost none of them can be identified as a god of anything in particular, it doesn't work like that) but tbh the morrigan is like, the most plausible exception to that, so whatever. normally her name has the definite article attached to it because it's kind of a species term as well but whatevs.

has become restless as a long-lasting peace settles over Ireland.

dubious. closest i can think of to peace being reference in any texts is togail bruidne da derga talking about conaire mor's reign being like, prosperous and peaceful and whatever, and even there you've got díberg (plundering/reaving) which is what eventually fucks him over and starts the otherworldly hell spiral situation. that's roughly the right period here but conaire's doom proves you don't have to do much to nudge peace into war, and connacht and ulster are at each other's throats for years before cú chulainn comes on the scene anyway

Deciding the time of peace must end, she chooses Setanta, the nephew of the king of the north, to become her ward.

hmm. i mean. like, this isn't the WEIRDEST choice they could have made. it's still completely made-up, don't get me wrong -- cú chulainn has a lot of different foster parents in different texts and they don't agree with each other but none of them ever mentions the morrígan. but like, they do have a connection of some sort, as evidenced by their conversations. and there's that one moment in the r1 boyhood deeds where little cú chulainn is out on the battlefield and hears her (not sure which name is used here) calling out to him and it like. motivates him to do some deeds or whatever, and i guess you could extrapolate that into some kind of teaching capacity.

so like. could be weirder. if you're gonna pick anyone, you could do worse. still seems weird to me! but not on its own a major issue, i could get past this and consider it a Fun But Unorthodox Creative Decision

(the fact that she tries to seduce him in the táin probably wouldn't get in the way of this considering sleeping with his teachers/foster-mothers is far from unheard of where cú chulainn is concerned)

After a young Setanta slays the demon-hound of Cullan, he becomes known as Cú Cullan—The Hound of Cullan.

weird spelling choices, they could have at least bothered to use the genitive properly. also the hound isn't a demon, it's a ferocious watchdog -- making it sound all Otherworldly and Hellish like this kinda confuses the issue of why he would need to take its place. he needs to take its place because the cattle and people still need protecting because it is a watchdog!! but whatevs, again, it's a brief summary so they can't exactly give us all the details and this is not actively objectionable

As Cú Cullan grows older, it is apparent that an extraordinary power lies within him … and a great darkness.

ugh boring. this makes it sound like he's going to be ~tortured~ and angsty about it. give me an unapologetic murder teen please. is the ríastrad dark? sure i guess, if you're going to be boring about it. it's more like, grotesque neon in my head

When he chooses the quiet life of a farmer over the sword,

this would fucking never happen on like five different levels. obviously like anyone who has ever read anything about cú chulainn can see that this is not in his nature. he is never going to choose a quiet life. this is the kid who tricked his way into taking arms before everyone thought he was ready. also juxtaposed with the "darkness" comment makes it sound like he would Angst his way into this quiet life which. again. have you seen this kid. he is an unapologetic murder teen

the only thing i can think of that might make him temporarily want to walk away is connla's death which... depends where you position that in the timeline really, he does seem a bit fucked up by it and maybe he'd want a holiday although i can see that lasting precisely 5 minutes before someone pissed him off enough for him to murder them. but if he's being raised by the morrígan i can't see him going to train with scáthach so then he'd never meet aífe and therefore connla would never be born so that wouldn't happen. so like. whatever.

but also like. he would not become a farmer. he just wouldn't! it doesn't work! the ireland of the stories is super hierarchical, right? and this blurb has already fucking told us that he's the king's nephew (canon) so we can tell that being a farmer is Not His Place. when we see upper class figures becoming menial labourers in texts, like in cath maige tuired, it's because Things Are Fucked, Shit's Gone Wrong. people don't just decide to change their entire social class on a whim lmfao

if cú chulainn really wanted to turn his back on being a warrior he could probably make recourse to certain other Suitable Professions ... his grandad's a druid so he might have a route into that, though his dad's not so that might fuck things up a bit bc it's one of those things that's usually inherited. he does give "wisdom" in at least one text though and we also know he can write (he carves riddles in ogham in the táin) and he composes verses on various occasions so idk, maybe something in a poetic direction, though again, usually requires two generations of inheritance to be a real poet and not just a lower-class bard. warrior's kinda the main thing he's got open to him tbh. but farming? i'm not a legal expert but as far as i'm aware based on what i have read, that would fuck shit up

more likely an upset cú chulainn would just go off in search of an adventure somewhere conveniently far away until he'd calmed down (alba, or the tyrrhenian sea, or -- if we're going to get early modern about it -- somewhere like india, which frequently gets thrown into the texts with absolutely no cultural context and it's always hilarious)

Morrigan, angry at the betrayal,

of the entire social order, yes,

instigates an invasion of his homeland

i mean. if they intend this to be the táin then.... táin bó regamna does kinda make the morrígan responsible for it? not in the sense of triggering the pillow talk argument that it's in the book of leinster -- it's her getting up to her usual cow-nicking behaviours for shits and giggles. [note to readers: it is probably for more than shits and giggles but did i mention it's 2am]

but all in all, not particularly out of character that she would be at least some way responsible for this so i can vibe with this. echtra nerai also supports the TBR explanation with her fucking around with otherworldly cows and pissing people off so, yeah, whatever. the morrígan engineered this. sure.

and Cú Cullan must challenge fate itself

this is probably a controversial stance but fate feels like a difficult concept to apply to medieval irish texts. like are people sometimes Doomed? yes. there are prophecies, there are gessi, there's all manner of otherworldly fuckery that can trip you up. is that the same thing as fate? no idea. considering cú chulainn comes out alive from the táin though and his doom prophecies don't catch up to him for like, at least another decade, maybe 16 years depending on who you listen to, hard to see how that would apply here

to keep the goddess at bay.

again like she IS causing fuckery in the táin but also it's like... one time. really not the main character. but she or maybe just some crows, hard to say, do get implicated in the death tale so maybe they're doing what people often do and conflating the two? even though there's like 10-16 years in between them?

anyway as you can see i don’t think it’s wholly terrible / i’m not completely thinkshaming it. like, having cú chulainn raised by the morrígan is unorthodox but it could be a fun and creative direction so i don't object to it. making cú chulainn get sad about murder and choose to be a farmer is just fucking laughable tho, and makes me doubt their characterisations in general. so that's offputting and would probably make me think twice about buying it, if that had ever been on the cards.*

and of course sure, their cú chulainn can be a Sad Boy Who Likes Sheep, but that means he's not the cú chulainn of medieval irish lit / irish myth, because that cú chulainn is a feral murder teen who keeps killing his friends and also is way too high social status to ever be a farmer, and whose only relationship to livestock is as the watchdog who kills anyone trying to harm them (which is an important role on a farm! but like. not the same thing as Being A Farmer. mostly because it involves more murder and is essentially just an extension of his role as a warrior. or rather the other way around. he promises to protect mag muirthemne as a watchdog and this like. gets extended into him becoming its sole defender)

this has been my analysis of this blurb i hope you enjoyed it

it's now 2.30am i should try and sleep now that i've exorcised a few thoughts from my head

*as i mentioned in the tags of my other post, i don't tend to read graphic novels due to disability stuff. they're much harder for me to understand and follow than prose, to the point where some are incomprehensible, so i don't really enjoy them. there are a few i've read, but they tend to be short ones, and i'm usually not reading them in order, just admiring the art separately from the text. so it's unlikely i would read a graphic novel of this size anyway.

[azurevi]

2:00am

is this even angsty? either way, you've been warned. (Leona x gender neutral reader) (featuring shitty title♡)

"I'm so sad that I'm going to stay up all night," they said. "Let's just not go to sleep, for the sake of memories," they said.

Ace and Deuce were already tucked comfortably in their beds, competing for the title of the loudest snorer. But no matter how big a noise they made, they couldn't beat the infallible champion that is Grim.

Hung on the wall was the mirror that you've been looking at for as long as you could remember. You'd always known － you could feel it in your bones － that it was connected to something else. And that it could serve as a portal to your own world was not a big surprise either.

You just didn't expect it to be done so soon.

A line of incomprehensible words, perhaps a spell, were scribbled on the worn out frame and were emittng a faint, humming light. Crowley had casted it a week ago, turning it into your ticket back home.

The news spread like wildfire in the campus. The prefect of the two-person dorm, unexpected non-magical user who was nonetheless accepted into the school, was going to leave. Some students, even though they never really knew you, were disappointed at this. After all, you've done so many remarkable things for the school.

Friends you made along the way made their visits one by one, with heartfelt farewells and delicate gifts. Jamil cooked you the grandest meal you'd ever eaten in your life. Floyd gifted you a handstitched shrimp plushie, even though it looked a bit messy at the trims. Riddle held a well-organized farewell party for you, ordering every students in Heartslabyul to make it as memorable as possible.

Almost everyone had sent their blessings. No - everyone except one.

And surprise, surprise. It was Leona, perhaps the person closest to you here in this foreign world.

It was probably safe to say that he despised you at first glance. It took him quite a while to look at you without prejudice, and even longer to accept you as his friend. Even after you'd helped him out of overblot, he was quite hesitant to let you in.

That being said, even Leona could be moved with enough persistence. It was only a matter of time until he started appearing by your side during breaks and lunch, hanging out with you instead of napping around the campus, taking your advice even though he feigned annoyance.

Before you knew it, you'd already got used his presence and his warmth, the safety he promised and the unsaid care.

But time was a mischievous kid, because it never waited. It just kept running and running, even sprinting faster if you called out to it.

Perhaps you'd realized it way too late. It felt as if the very moment you'd figured out your feelings for Leona, you were to leave this world. And of course, you could just stay. Forget about your previous life and live here forever. Alas, no matter how hard you tried, you could never fit in. You never belonged.

Which was... fine. You could just bury your feelings for him and hope for it to fade. It wasn't like you expected him to return your feelings anyways, despite all the subtle signs that you took note of.

The thing was that, Leona, the person you surprisingly found yourself the coziest with, vanished as soon as news about your departure leaked. He was nowhere to be found. He was neither in the garden nor his room. You'd tried going to him at night, sure that he would be in deep sleep, but his bed was vacant with nary a wrinkle on the sheet.

It was like he was avoiding you on purpose.

And it hurt, even though he was known to be amateurish when it came to dealing with feelings. It hurt because you were leaving, and he didn't even bother to say goodbye. Even Tsunotarou came with a dispirited countenance, so why hadn't he?

Thoughts kept you awake despite protests. You decided to take a walk around Ramshackle, perhaps to survey the place one last time before your leave tomorrow.

The moment you yanked open the door, you came face to face with Leona, who had his fist held up in the middle of knocking.

"…Good morning," he said.

"Oh! What are you doing here this late?" you asked.

"To say goodbye, of course. You're leaving tomorrow, right?"

It was hard to make out his face, but you could tell that his eyes were everywhere but on you.

"Yeah, tomorrow. How nice of you to make a visit the night before at 2am," you couldn't help the bitterness in your voice.

"Look, prefect-" he inhaled. "Let's just pretend nothing happened, okay? I don't want us ending on a bad note,"

In all your times spent with him, he had never sounded so discouraged before. You dropped your hostility immediately and invited him into the lounge.

"Tea?" you offered, but he declined in fear that it'd keep him awake. So you sat by him on the couch, without anything to distract you.

"How are you feeling? About leaving, I mean,"

"Well, I ought to be a little sad," you laughed dryly. "But everyone's been trying to make it joyous,"

"I see," Leona ended the conversation so abruptly that you feared that he was going to leave.

"I'm sorry for being out of reach for the past week,"

Leona apologizing. Never had you thought you'd live to see this day.

"Where have you been anyways?"

"…Out?"

"That's the vaguest answer I've ever got," you smiled slightly, but he still seemed to be bothered. "What's the matter?"

His ears twitched in annoyance. It was such a rare sight. "Don't you think you're leaving too hastily?"

"Are you prompting me to stay?"

"No-no," he replied, and with that extinguished your hope. You couldn't understand why he was trying so hard not to say what everyone's been saying. It's not like he was the most understanding person either.

"I just thought you can... maybe linger for a few more days? If that's not too selfish of me,"

"What is all this, Leona? It's unlike you to be this considerate," you teased him gently, and he finally mustered a small smile.

"That's what you've always told me though," he said, puzzling you. "It's annoying... but I kept it in mind. Be more understanding, quit being self-centered, treat people with thought…" he trailed off when he saw your face. "What?"

You closed your mouth with a short chuckle, "Nothing. It's just unexpected. Are you trying to be sentimental on my last day?"

"Did I do a good job?"

You nodded.

"Well, consider this a parting gift, then. The priceless experience of me being sappy,"

The night hadn't gone how you'd quite expected. What had you assumed anyways? For him to make you stay out of selfishness? Would you have stayed, then?

You hated to admit it, but yes. He only needed to ask, but he wouldn't, because you'd told him not to.

"Well then, thank you for opening up to me,"

He growled quietly. You looked down in what felt like disappointment. Tranquility installed between the two of you, but you could feel it even in the air, that the both of you had something to say, but wouldn't. The words lodged in your throats like fish bones, difficult to swallow, even more so to spit out.

"Well then, I hope you don't feel too sad about leaving," he shot up and started striding for the door. You raced, heart pounding in your chest as you grabbed his arm, words blurting out of you without knowing.

"Is that all you have to say?"

"What did you expect?" he asked back, voice suddenly devoid of any emotion.

"I don't know," you confessed. "Something more?"

It seemed so self-centered for you to ask, but you were blatantly desperate. Leona paused for a while, before turning to you looking more defeated than ever.

"Look, prefect, I already spent the past week brooding, and you can't imagine how hard it is for me to act all generous now. But I can't hold you back, can I? You have your own world to return to, and -" he rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "I don't want you to leave, but I have to let you go. Please don't make it harder than it already is,"

Words died on your tongue as you realized how shortsighted you've been, thinking that it would be easy for him. You let your hand slip away quietly.

"Just promise to visit me, okay?" he pleaded.

"I don't know if I can-"

"Just promise,"

"Okay," you forced a laugh, croak and painful. "I promise,"

Leona pulled you into his chest, too tall to even rest his chin atop your head, but it was something he'd got used to already. You stayed in his arms, as if by clenching to him tight enough time would stop its malicious game and let you stay in this moment forever.

In the end, it was him who broke the moment and stepped away. The instant his warmth left, a raw coldness washed over you.

"Well then," he stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to leave. "Rest well, prefect,"

"You too," you answered weakly and watched as his figure reached for the door, and vanished from your sight like he was but a whisk of fog.

乁( ˙ω˙ )厂

[ghostpajamas]

Hey, any advise on highlighting and lighting in general??

this might be nigh incomprehensible bc i. make up rules in my little brain that are perhaps not. true or useful so. h

anyway, an important thing is to establish where your light source is. here's a lil orb that we will use as ours.

its been said that light and shadow should be opposite colors. i think that sucks and is cringe so i don't subscribe to it. i like to make my light or shadow match the local colors (the color of the room or setting bc. ambient light, soft light source, blah) i make the light match the room if the light is far away or soft. the shadow is the the opposite of the light color here (exciting) bc its soft light and soft light is boring. 

here, the light is bright blue, coloring the hand blue-er (its more grey actually) the shadow matches the room here bc the light is stronger than the ambient coloring. i don't know technical terms bc i have been making things up as i go for years.

here is white light, like from the sun, outdoors. the hand is its basic color bc the sun is far away , even tho its bright. the brightness makes sharper contrast with the shadow, which is grey. maybe light/shadow color opposites is the truth and i am just stupid. you can add fun little color fringe at the edge of the shadow bc that's what shadows do sometimes if they're feeling sexy.

if its overcast, the light will be less strong, so the shadow wont be as sharply contrasting either.

if you couldn't tell from this, i don't know things, much less how to say them in words that make sense. i would recommend doing photo studies of pictures with varying lighting, studying how other artists work with lighting, and reading color and light by james gurney where a professional painter explains stuff. 

oh right for highlighting, i just slam pretty colors onto things that i want to looks shiny with wild abandon. i do it sparingly (except for with hair, where i go crazy) bc otherwise it will look silly (like its covered in oil). use a low opacity/density brush with hard edges to make stuff look shiny and be fun colors without being over-powering. there are obviously weird rules for this too but it is 2am and i am rambling.

[citysvein]

                *   //    𝙻𝙾𝙰𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴   …   /𝚃𝙷𝙴_𝙲𝙾𝙾𝚁𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙾𝚁   :    chloe   kim   also   known   as   zero   is   wanted   for   grand   larceny   .   she   is   a   twenty-three   year   old   cis   female   who   has   ties   to   the   mastermind   because   she   hacked   into   his   private   server  ;   once   at   the   request   of   a   benefactor   and   another   time   for   fun   .   𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙾𝙲𝙸𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙳   𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷   :   strawberry   flavored   bubblegum   ,   the   glow   of   a   computer   screen   in   a   dark   room  ,   tattoos   hidden   by   oversized   sweater   sleeves   ,   &   cyber   stalking   your   exes   .   𝙳𝙾   𝙽𝙾𝚃   𝙼𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙺𝙴   𝙵𝙾𝚁   :   yoo shiah   .  

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     QUICK  STATS  !

full  name  :   chloe   kim   .

nickname(s)  :   chlo   .

age   :   twenty-three   . 

codename   :   zero   .

role:   the   coordinator   .   

zodiac  :   gemini   sun   ,   gemini   moon   (  click   !  )

sexuality  :   bisexual   .

alignment   :   chaotic   neutral   .

pinterest   :   (   click !   )  

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     BACKSTORY  !    (  tw  :  death  &  car  crash  )

chloe   kim   was   born   in   and   raised   in   ann   arbor   ,   michigan   .   there   was   nothing   truly   remarkable   about   her   childhood   —   she   was   an   only   child   born   into   a   middle   class   family    .    her   mother   was   a   professor   and   her   father   was   a   physical   therapist   ,   and   they   were   very   happily   married   ,   so   she   had   a   stable   life   .   ann   arbor   was   a   fittingly   normal    place   to   grow   up   .   nothing   too   out   of   the   ordinary   ever   seemed   to   happen   .

the   only   anomaly   in   chloe’s   unremarkable   existence   ,    it   seemed   ,   was   herself   .   from   a   young   age   it   was   obvious   she   wasn’t   like   most   kids   .    she   was   decidedly   smarter   ,   an   intelligence   that   impressed   the   adults   around   her   .   her   parents   often   described   her   as   a   highly   curious   ,   if   not   a   little   naughty   ,    child   .   it   seemed   like   she   was   born   with   the   desire   to   know   how   the   world   around   her   worked   ,   and   it   wasn’t   uncommon   to   find   her   tinkering   around   with   her   toys   or   household   objects    ,    taking   them   apart   just   so   she   could   learn   how   to   put   them   back   together   .   

she   graduated   from   high   school   at   sixteen   ,   a   year   early   ,   and   was   offered   a   full   ride   to   MIT   ,   which   she   gladly   accepted   .   moving   to   cambridge,   massachusetts   marked   the   most   interesting   thing   to   happen   to   her   yet   .   she’d   long   dreamed   of   excitement   ,   the   only   thing   she   had   to   entertain   her   back   home   being   her   love   for   computers   .   chloe   was   ready   for   a   change   ,   which   was   exactly   what   she   received   .  

free   from   the   confines   of   being   that   one   smart   girl   in   ann   arbor   ,   she   didn’t   feel   pressured   to   conform   to   the   idea   of   her   that   had   been   carefully   crafted   by   the   people   back   home   any   longer   .   she   didn’t   just   have   to   care   about   school   ,   or   be   shy   about   how   she   unironically   loved   reality   tv   ,   or   pretend   like   pink   wasn’t   the   absolute   best   color   in   the   whole   world   .   facing   comments   from   nerdy   boys   about   how   she   was   too   pretty   to   be   smart   or   about   how   she   was   clearly   in   the   wrong   class   seemed   like   a   small   price   to    pay   if   she   could   finally   be   herself   .

MIT   ,   however   ,   did   feel   like   the   wrong   place   for   chloe   most   of   the   time   .   she   realized   very   quickly   that   while   she   was   gifted   and   bright   ,   she   had   no   passion   or   drive   to   pursue   typical   careers   the   way   most   people   in   her   major   did   .   she   also   had   a   knack   for   using   her   skills   in   unconventional   (   if   not   illegal   )   ways   ,   like   when   she   started   charging   a   pretty   penny   to   hack   boyfriends   suspected   by   their   girlfriends   of   cheating   ,   or   hacking   into   the   local   police   database   to   browse   through   people’s   criminal   records   like   it   was   the   equivalent   of   reading   gossip   magazines   .

at   the   end   of   her   junior   year   ,   after   voicing   her   concerns   about   whether   or   not   university   life   was   for   her   to   her   parents   in   one   of   her   weekly   calls   back   home   ,   they’d   made   the   decision   to   go   surprise   chloe   .   after   flying   into   massachusetts   from   michigan   they’d   rented   a   car   and   were   on   their   way   to   drive   up   to   her   dorm   when   they   got   into   a   fatal   accident   .   there   had   been   a   nasty   storm   that   night   ,   and   chloe   can   still   remember   how   she’d   gotten   a   severe   thunderstorm   warning   alert   on   her   cellphone   moments   before   she   got   the   police   call   informing   her   of   what   happened   .

in   the   blink   of   an   eye   her   life   had   gone   from   average   to   tragic   .   she   couldn’t   process   the   death   of   her   parents   —   there   was   no   other   driver   to   blame   ,   nothing   faulty   about   the   rental   car    they’d   been   driving   ,   only   the   weather   and   the   slippery   roads   .   chloe   would   have   surely   flunked   out   from   MIT   had   her   professors   ,   who   mostly   harbored   soft   spots   for   the   girl   and   were   especially   sympathetic   towards   her   situation   ,   not   given   her   the   few   credits   she   needed   to   graduate   that   spring   .

armed   with   an   IT   degree   but   not   much   else   ,   chloe   went   back   to   ann   arbor   for   her   parent’s   funeral   and   the   selling   of   her   childhood   home   .   realizing   she   had   no   place   to   go   afterwards   ,   she   became   a   bit   of   a   vagabond   ,   spending   the   entirety   of   her   19th   year   living   out   of   motel   rooms   in   various   cities   .   not   in   the   head   space   for   a   full   time   career   ,   and   with   her   mind   still   foggy   from   mourning   ,   she   started   picking   up   where   she’d   left   off   in   college   in   terms   of   odd   and   illegal   ways   to   make   money.   

when   she   was  20   she   caught   the   attention   of   someone   she  quickly   realized   was   important   ,   a   client   with   a   request   and   a   payday   like   nothing   she’d   ever   seen   before   .   all   he   wanted   chloe   to   do   was   hack   into   someone’s   private   server   ,   and   so   she   did   .   she   didn’t   ask   questions   but   she   did   snoop   around   ,   a   small   act   or   curiosity   that   would   forever   change   her   world   .   what   she   found   was   almost   incomprehensible   ,   a   network   of   some  sort   with   the   most   detailed   plans   and   profiles   .   never   having   been   motivated   by   any   sort   of   moral   compass   before   ,   chloe   couldn’t   explain   why   she   lied   to   the   man   who   had   hired   her   ,   claiming   she   hadn’t   been   skilled   enough   to   get   through   .   

he’d   bought   her   excuse   ,   another   man   who   couldn’t   see   past   a   pretty   face   to   the   brain   behind   it    .   for   months   afterwards   chloe   tried   to   forget   about   the   things   she’d   seen   and   read   ,   that   exciting   world   she’d   only   discovered   by   chance   ,    but   she   just   couldn’t   let   it   go   .   she   was   inexplicably   drawn   to   whoever   was   behind   it   all   ,   proving   it   when   she   hacked   them   a   second   time   around   ,    this   time   for   her   own   entertainment   and   satisfaction   .   she   couldn’t   explain   it   —   especially   not   when   she   left   behind   a   trail   this   time   around   ,   wanting   to   be   caught   ,   wanting   so   desperately   to   be   contacted   .   

when   chloe   is   recruited   by   J    ,   it   feels   like   the   first   blessing   since   her   parent’s   deaths   .   it   wasn’t   the   money   she   was   interested   in   ,   but   him   ,   the   way   he   makes   people   feel   special   and   needed   filling   a   void   she’d   never   let   herself   admit   she   had   in   the   first   place   .   she’s   loyal   to   him   ,   and   so   she’s   loyal   to   the   crew   ,   and   for   the   first   time   in   her   whole   life   it   feels   like   she   might   have   found   the   place   she   truly   belongs   .         

━  ˙ ˖  ☆     PERSONALITY  +  TIDBITS  !

thats   right   ...   i   made   her   a   double   gemini   baby   !   😈   its   just   chaos   all   over   as   u   can   imagine   ...   gotta   love   a   sexy   sign   aha   no   im   not   biased   <3   she’s   got   a   pretty   good   balance   of   intelligence   &   curiosity   in   her   ,   so   instead   of   coming   off   as   a   know-it-all   she’s   more   likely   to   come   across   as   nosy   .   she   just   loves   to   figure   stuff   out    .   whether   it’s   code   or   people   she   wants   to   know   how   things   work   .

generally   speaking   ,   she’s   pretty   easy   going   !    when   it   comes   to   her   relationships   with   people   she’s   not   that   high   maintenance   ,   in   fact   sometimes   it’s   easy   to   mistake   her   easy   going   attitude   with   aloofness   or   disinterest   ,   which   isn’t   the   case   at   all   .   when   she   does   get   annoyed   though   she’s   not   shy   about   letting   you   know   how   she   feels   ,   and   she’s   got   a   BIG   potty   mouth   ...   it’s   like   when   people   have   road   rage   SJDBWJDBJW   she’ll   curse   you   out   in   a   short   burst   of   anger   then   decide   she’s   over   it   before   you   even   have   time   to   process   what   happened   . 

since   she’s   been   on   her   own   pretty   much   her   whole   life   (   no   siblings   ,   no   set   group   of   friends   )   it   was   a   bumpy   adjustment   to   go   from   having   no   one   to   being   part   of   a   team   .   she   definitely   wasn’t   upset   by   it   ,   but   chloe   can   get   into   trouble   sometimes   because   she’s   got   a   knack   for   always   saying   what   she’s   thinking   without   filtering   herself   first   ,   so   she’s   definitely   started   some   arguments   or   hurt   some   feelings   on   accident   </3   

loves   to   joke   around   and   treat   things   like   they’re   no   big   deal   ,   even   when   they   are   .   this   is   especially   true   when   it   comes   to   her   own   abilities   .   she’ll   casually   mention   hacking   into   a   number   of   high   security   facilities   and   servers   and   how   she   bought   a   new   sailor   moon   hoodie   in   the   same   sentence   like   it’s   nothing   .

almost   always   either   dressed   in   pink   or   black   ,   or   a   combination   of   the   two   .   she   swears   she   owns   clothes   in   other   colors   but   those   two   are   definitely   her   defaults   .   switches   between   more   casual   street-styles   and   girly   attire   on   a   day   to   day   basis   .   owns   many   sanrio   themed   articles   of   clothing   ,   accessories   ,   and   plushies   and   will   accept   zero   criticism   about   it   !    

chews   gum   a   lot    ,   but   especially   when   she’s   working   on   her   computer   .   she   claims   it   helps   her   focus   but   who   knows   for   sure   maybe   she   just   likes   chomping   and   blowing   bubbles   ...

she’s   a   serial   dater   .   chloe   finally   had   to   force   herself   to   swear   off   tinder   because   she   kept   doing   extensive   background  searches   (   hacking   )   on   the   people   she   was   going   on   dates   with   .  still   cyber   stalks   her   exes   but   she   swears   it’s   purely   an   act   of   public   service   since   they   were   all   insane   (   in   her   opinion   ,    which   is   never   wrong   )   and   she’s   just   trying   to   make   sure   they   haven’t   committed   any   major   crimes   aha   x   

not   very   good   at   being   romantic   or   emotionally   vulnerable   SDBWJDBJW   truly   the   thought   alone   is   terrifying   enough   but   when   she   watches   pride   and   prejudice   alone   at   2am   she   cries   so   your   girl   has   it   in   her   she’s   just   not   there   yet   <3   physical   intimacy   she   has   no   issue   with   it’s   just   the   serious   stuff   that   makes   her   want   to   eat   glass   ...   or   so   she   says   .

has   questionable   drinking   habits   .   can   she   out   drink   a   man   twice   her   size   ?    sure   .   should   she   be   putting   that   to   the   test   at   10   am   at   a   chili’s   after   a   night   out   ?   absolutely   not   but   it   100%   happened   and   she   would   probably   do   it   again   because   she   simply   pretends   her   mistakes   never   happened   in   the   first   place   and   that’s   why   she   never   learns   !

absolutely   refuses   to   talk   to   anyone   about   her   life   and   what   happened   to   her   parents   .   she   still   hasn’t   fully   grieved   or   processed   it   ,   and   honestly   speaking   she’s   been   using   the   crew   and   J   as   a   coping   mechanism   almost   .   chloe’s   adamant   belief   in   the   heists   they   do   and   their   capabilities   as   a   unit   has   less   to   do   with   the   real   chances   on   whether   or   not   they   can   pull   something   off   and   everything   to   do   with   the   fact   that   she   needs   things   to   work   and   she   needs   them   to   be   together   .   that’s   why   she’s   usually   one   of   the   first   ones   to   pep   talk   people   when   there   are   doubts   .   she   can’t   risk   losing   a   second   family   /: 

low   key   addicted   to   getting   tattoos   .   it   started   with   tiny   ones   on   her   fingers   and   wrists   and   now   she’s   thinking   about   getting   a   sleeve   ...   if   only   she   could   decide   on   what   to   get   tattooed   #AirSignThings   x   don’t   ask   her   to   make   decisions   if   you   want   an   answer   before   this   decade   ends   .

strawberry   is   her   favorite   fruit   and   flavor   !   if   she’s   not   chewing   strawberry   gum   ,   she’s   drinking   strawberry   milk   .

once   started   an   instagram   to   review   different   mozzarella   sticks   after   lorde   was   outed   for   running   an   onion   ring   reviewing   instagram   .

won   a   goldfish   at   a   fair   when   she   was   in   college   ,   named   him   stinky   ,   then   cried   for   a   week   straight   after   she   found   him   floating   dead   in   his   fish   bowl   the   next   day   ...   she   hasn’t   had   a   pet   since   </3   

if   you   ever   tell   chloe   good   job   she   will   act   cool   in   the   moment   but   at   night   when   she’s   trying   to   go   to   bed   she   will   look   like   this   🥺   never   forgets   a   compliment   she   loves   them   even   if   she   pretends   she   doesn’t   need   them   ...

told   myself   i’d   make   this   short   by   not   adding   a   plots   section   and   it’s   still   a   novel   truly   i   hate   this   life   .   once   again   i   am   asking   u   to   add   me   on   discord   glo lovecore ʕ´• ᴥ•̥`ʔ#8172   and   plot   with   me   💖   also   my   intros   are   always   winged   so  if   i   start   writing   as   chloe   and   her   personality   does   a   180   like   dua   lipa   said   PLEASE   mind   ur   business   that’s   why   i   made   her   a   gemini   ok   😭😭😭   pls   enjoy   this   meme   chloe   has   probably   sent   to   ur   muse   at   least   once   ...

[elizabethrobertajones]

13x04 watching notes

TBH that is my exact strategy when I am tired and want to go home.

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it's 2am and I just woke up after a lengthy power nap/full REM cycle because going to bed at 9 is for cool kids so uh I'm watching the episode but also it's 2am. I didn't do it deliberately but here I aaaam.

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Getting right in there with Dean telling the the truth in the recap - is he really gonna spill it all to a therapist? experts have been awaiting it ever since 1x10 so

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"experts" being me, I am an independent judiciary body

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*grief grief grief* *Jack angst*

Oh yeah Cas recap because Cas is back

Should I even write expectations for this episode? I'm a bit late since I already started watching :P Blah blah Glynn blah blah probably going to be fine, blah blah swear I saw someone say she's "never written Cas before" but uh we just had recaps from 12x19 so I mean who wrote that?

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this guy has a weird reaction to the dead wife coming back

like, oh, okay, that happened. guess we say hello

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Is this the "understated" reaction when Cas comes back

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Oh we're doing regular old stabbing? Is this a shapeshifter thing or a revenge curse thing? Is it all going to be romantic couples? because lol pls don't

Also the recap did expressly list off 2 dead moms and a dead crowley along with a dead Cas who is also a brother and father to active main characters

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Sam like "hey"

Dean like >.> Are you trying to be friends after I yelled at you?

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Sam being remarkably cool about Dean's netflix and holy oil suggestion

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Dean being extremely less cool about Sam's suggestion

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They're sort of recapping the argument from the end of last episode for us, which is good because it wasn't in the recap unless it was but it's 2am and my brain randomly discarded that

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oh my god it was

okay these are not meta notes

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Sam's trying to play at grief counsellor and it's super not working because he's using it as their fight. You don't get in a snappy comeback about "oh so you want to move on"

Dean looks extremely murderously done with all this because How Dare etc

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"For me"

God damn puppy dog eyes.

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awww Jack's watching The Clone Wars. Because he is a wee new baby and this is his star wars generation I guess.

mittensmorgul pffft. (I have never seen Clone Wars so I have no idea what that even means)

elizabethrobertajones It's the adventures *drum roll* of Darth Vader when he was still Anakin, before he went evil Ashoka or however you spell it is his Padawan

mittensmorgul aahhh

elizabethrobertajones Jack's identifying with her and not with the pre-evil but still getting the Imperial March music layered over his bad decisions Anakin the entire show is 10000 episodes just an endless "we can't make him go evil because that happens in the movie but we can tease basically everything up to that" stuff

mittensmorgul At least he's iffy about Anakin...

elizabethrobertajones yeah good choice, basically it's also brand new he found the non-dinosaur version of Star Wars of the previous generation :P and it's less political than the prequels I think The Clone Wars is generally well-liked whereas nerd rage dictates the Prequels are the Worst and I guess it's Too Soon to get into the newer Star Wars films since we don't know how the arcs of the new kids pay off

[side note: I haven't watched it per se because there's tons of it but I've been in the same room as my brother watching it, and seen a lot of pop culture general knowledge that I've sponged up so I could be wrong about some little details as I mostly know how it's been described to me]

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Also Jack's identifying with the female character, because fuck off toxic masculinity, she seems awesome and he has no idea he isn't “”supposed”” to. She also is one of the aliens with the huge tentacle things on her head so idk if it's a good idea for him to get too into this without  meeting more of the general population - Sam's probably right

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Uhoh, Jack kinda does a snarky eyebrow about "you're the good guys" - Did Sam fail to sell it or is Jack really just starting to have trust issues now he's watching TV with black or white morality (literally a dark side and a light side - hrm.) and given his experience of the Winchesters yelling their very shades of grey takes on him at each other

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Well he hasn't learned to be cagey about overhearing that

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*blink blink blink* *sigh*

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"You're *using* me"

Oh no, poor Jack :(

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He also implicitly trusts Dean's judgement more than Sam's bonding, despite how Sam has made all the movements towards him. As people have been meta'ing, Dean's being extremely honest and Jack's setting his markers by that, even if it's horrific to the point of deciding he has to be evil because Dean thinks so.

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Sam says he, Dean and CAS closed the rift - hey, Cas got knocked out by Lucifer in round 1 of that as a distraction and Crowley helped you close it.

They probably have not explained Crowley to him at all.

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At least Sam is being honest now about what happened with the rift, and that it's their mom

and Jack speaks the language of lost moms. Now HE looks at SAM with sympathy.

Probably also explains Dean...

I think Jack is defaulting back to thinking about Dean way more than Sam's opinion of him, although perhaps he may like Sam more now he was upfront and some of why "so uh yeah I was KINDA using you" is on the table

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Jack was wearing a darker henley, which tbh with Dean wearing them again all of a sudden makes it blurry to me if this is not about his Dean-alignment more than colour coding his feelings on being evil (like how Amara's nail polish started off black and got right down to light grey by the end of the season). Now he's swapped to being the Cas Intern.

Ow.

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and aww all the fake IDs. There's a lot to take in about these guys :P

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Oh no Dean said "loony toons" on the episode which may or may not be an exact use of 8x08 for Cas, for Jack. Jack's a bit more of a trial run about wanting to BE a hunter since he is mostly just curious. Also amused Dean has to rephrase for Jack because he actually knows he's a week old or so, and he's not going to enjoy repeating himself or explaining, while he always found it kind of funny to just say a whole string of incomprehensible pop culture at Cas without slowing for a breath.

Not funny now, is it Dean?

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Wait have they never actually fought a revenant aka, idk, it sounds like a naturally occurring zombie? They mention it from time to time but as far as I remember they've never actually called zombies revenants because they're one of the shows where they just embrace the horror movie tradition about zombies completely, so it always seemed like revenants were something slightly different, at least, in the sense that they get named like a different category. And they just lumped them in with ghosts here, as restless spirits but i guess this time *with* the body?

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Dean tells Jack to sit, like he was a dog being kept in the car.

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Unlike dogs he knows how to work the door handle.

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Jack no don't touch the blood

oh good Dean stopped him

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Aw no he's still wearing the dark henley under the tan jacket. That's awful :D

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Pfft Dean's like immediately "it's a revenant" because they know what those are really well after a billion years hunting and we've never watched them ever name anything on screen a revenant before with that vocab, and they're really sticking with not crossing them over with zombies exactly...

I mean Dean said he wasn't a revenant after he got back from hell and I think they've chattered about them before

if I check this on superwiki it's way too early for there to be a spoilery "so it's not a revenant" line from later in this episode highlighted when I hit the search :P

Oh good, I'm glad I'm right.

A revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that returns to terrorize the living, usually people it knew in life. Unlike the zombie, a revenant is not under another person's control, and has returned from the grave on its own for a specific and often personal purpose. In 4.01 Lazarus Rising, Bobby accuses Dean of being a shapeshifter or a revenant. Dean proves he's neither by cutting himself with a silver knife. In 8.06 Southern Comfort Garth takes a call from a hunter asking how to deal with a revenant. Garth tells him to get a casket and some silver spikes, then nail it in and bury it. He also warns that getting bit will hurt like hell, but will not turn you into one.

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I wonder if those were revenants in 4x07 and I only ask because it was like almost exactly an anniversary to it in OUR time :P It's still May or maybe June for them in-show

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Okay Dean left Jack to dig but Sam chased after Dean rather than it being a synchronised Winchester ditching of Jack :P

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Little on the nose about "You're starting to sound like dad!" :P

"Is that a bad thing" Oh Dean, no.

Fortunately the theme of this season is fathers so I suspect you're gonna have to deal with this at some point or another

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Sam like "the drill sergent thing won't work on Jack" to the sound of Jack merrily digging in the background because Dean told him to

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I really hope that wasn't an on-set hazing that they actually left him to dig :P

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I love my smol gravedigger son

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I love how Jack did all the digging anyway because Sam's still not actually dirty and Jack's still standing in the hole

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Lol not a revenant, well there's a surprise. I'm glad I double-checked the lore anyway because I have the time to so I'm not going to spend the rest of the episode like "wait what IS the difference between them and zombies anyway and why have we never seen one?"

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I mean it's not gonna be a ghost either, we're 9 minutes in and they're salting and burning because it makes more sense to Dean to do that than not to - I guess a precaution for accidentally angering her spirit for digging her up...?? :P I mean no he still thinks she's a ghost but I mean maybe it's not a total waste of salt.

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OH NO Jack don't ask about if Kelly is a ghost, that's very painful.

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OH NO I thought he was going to ask about Cas but instead Dean said "what gets burned, stays dead" and that hurts a lot

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FORTUNATELY for me the viewer as opposed to Dean the grieving ball of angst over there, I can go check up on Cas immediately.

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He doesn't seem to be doing too good but more in an existential way since he's at least up and walking about.

I like how Jack woke him up but it's probably got to be like a baby bird has to hatch itself.

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He's using up all his "hellos" on the void. Save one for Dean.

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You know if the MotW is imitating dead loved ones I have to say I am not exactly looking forward to this :P I didn't say earlier but the cold open gave me 11x13 vibes and honestly I don't want a repeat of the stress of waiting for Cas to show up for Dean but it not happening... Okay, belatedly 10 minutes in, there's a baseline expectation for the episode that that doesn’t happen. Then again I forgot to check the names at the bottom of the screen except for being happy to see Misha's there so they could spring anyone on us

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Throw a real curveball in just like bring some random dead loved one from the first 3 seasons back :P

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Or waste Jim Beaver's season 13 appearance on it and he's never even in the AU with Mary :P

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Anyway Jack is waiting patiently in the car.

(or, well, not so patiently.. He's starting to get an idea of how the job works, and that Dean is usually repeatedly wrong about everything as he throws spaghetti at the wall about the case...)

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Anyway, dead son, dead wife, so that's quite a neutral combination.

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Asking what they had in common probably means the grief counsellor, but Dean says that and then we go back to Cas right when I've been musing on the loved ones coming back for them thing and honestly it's like Dean's words are just summoning Cas right now.

....... 8x08 used flashbacks to summon Amelia for Sam, just saying

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I hope Cas finds Billie and hopefully a bar immediately and they can become drinking buddies.

I don't even think she's in this one?

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I like those assertive footsteps though. "I have no clue where I am, I am just going to walk in this direction like I mean it"

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Lol they're in Madison i was KIDDING about bringing back a dead loved one from like season 2 or something. Oh well, if it's her, it's her. I'm still bitter about Sarah because I only just re-watched it with my mum the other day.

I should probably stop bringing up Sam's dead or lost girlfriends because it's just bumming me out on his behalf.

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Teehee "he's not our intern"

well

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"I asked you to keep an eye on him" "I can see him"

It's amazing Dean didn't volunteer just to get away from Jack

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Sort of weird existing in a post That Declaration world where I can just canonically know Dean staring at Jack is making him think sad things about Cas without any fear whatsoever

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Oh boy killer grief counsellor probably. "Mia is promising to provide the catharsis I've been craving for so long" and then she gets ripped to shreds by her son.

I feel a little bad reading this woman's diary, but the first line is about not "getting over" it and learning to live with it. Blah blah heal and rebuild yourself, blah blah whole again but never the same

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"Shrinks... Snake oil for the mind." "Or how healthy people deal" Pfft

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Jack being baffled by the issues of customer vs hot dog guy without understanding it's an ancient war fought across the world

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Dean equates "catharsis" to "happy ending" - I can't tell if he's innuendo-ing or accidentally revealing too much and being mournful about it.

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The house has a great fence - its parts are all misaligned. Very visually uncomfortable :D

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Awww someone said "hello" to Jack and Jack was like !!!!! another person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO! :D :D :D

how can you possibly think he's bad

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Anyway I was about to type that Dean hates it because of course he feels the most vulnerable talking about his feelings all the time, either for performing Dean reasons about needing to keep up a facade of strength (LET YOURSELF CRY, MAN) or because feelings for Cas being inconvenient to him

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UHoh Dean grabbed Jack's shoulder - he did it to Mick to be threatening last year in a Glynn episode, while Mick was wearing a long tan coat. And called Jack "Spock" which is not really accurate characterisation at all. Jack's pretty much nothing but a bundle of emotions, he's just not used to using them around other people. Now CAS on the other hand.....

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I do like that Mia decided to see them because Jack is sweet and was upfront about losing his mother and he's just adorable.

They bluff their way in by losing a collective mother, Sam once again lining them up as family and siblings.

Play it cool, man. You’ll scare Jack off.

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I'm starting to think we haven't seen Cas between scenes for a while because Dean hasn't said anything angsty enough

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But idk if we trust her or not. She has a lot of alcohol stashed on that shelf.

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Jack wisely doesn't sit on the sofa with them all.

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"Oh well Mom was great and now she's dead so what's the deal with catharsis" Dean, no.

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Sam continues with what should be the pre-arranged plan of spill closed truths like well we don't journal but our dad did

also I am so annoyed that confirms they don't keep hunter journals??? grarghgh

Google has ruined this generation

And Dean makes fun of journaling as being for little girls, even though Sam literally just said that about John. Last year in 12x04 he said he was a 13 year old girl when trying to text Mary so he's actually regressed even further backwards at losing her again >.>

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"I'm good with death, closure, the whole friggin bottle of Jack"

it's a shame he would never put a bumper sticker on Baby, because that...

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Oh boy we're still having this fight. "My brother's delusional..." yeah oh dear.

Is this going to be one of those things where I basically just want to transcribe the whole thing?

Dean calls out Sam for not being able to even admit that Mary's gone so he hasn't even moved past denial - which to be fair, Sam IS right she's not dead and that they DO have a means of getting her back and everything... Was thinking about how last season was a "Dean is right about everything" season and this time is clearly a Sam is right about everything one... but of course both only to a certain degree, and in this case it's much blurrier about approach and how these fights are going because of course Sam's not being a perfect Saint Sammy that Dean is being unfairly awful to in the entirety of what's going on here. Sam IS struggling and resisting confronting things in his own way and adopting Jack as a pet project is definitely a form of avoidance or at least wanting to get concrete closure on Mary's death before he will fully mourn. Which makes Sam and Dean existing in the same place terrible because they're only in the same physical location

anyway Dean's about to yell  about how hard this all is for him too so I better unpause once I'm holding a stuffed toy again

"At least you had a relationship with mom" WAHEY

I mean that was awful but I'm delighted Sam yelled that because there's ALWAYS something else going on underneath Sam, and I've been waiting for more Sam and Mary angst, since I spent so much time on them last season and at least obliquely referred to this... Talked a lot about how hard Sam had it to reconnect with Mary... That Words with Friends scene from 12x07 was basically floating along waiting to come back up at some point or another, but it took Sam a long time to reach out to Mary personally, and really only in 12x14 (hi Berens, I just accept you and Glynn are brain twins these days) did he pick a side in THAT fight and picked Mary. And we said it was to get closer to Mary but he made it all about the BMoL instead of just confronting that he wanted a relationship with her, and the BMoL ended up just keeping them apart ANYWAY and tl;dr am I going to have to write the reverse version of A World Without Monsters from Sam's POV or can we just agree that my subtext in that fic was exactly what just bubbled up here? :P

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I just spent the entire length of that paragraph trying to work out when I wrote the meta about how Sam felt about Mary and it took me until that last point to realise it was not a meta, it was a fic where I roundly abused poor Sam for the sake of making that point.

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Dean's like hey therapy is great! *eyebrows at Jack* *snarky smile at the doc*

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Sam is like *anger-drinks water*

*refuses to cry as well*

BLOOD

(CRY, DAMMIT, SAM.)

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That sign was down earlier

is this the poor receptionist?

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Or... ew, shifter gunk?

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LOL Dean just takes a flask out of his pocket in the middle of their appointment

Mia asks him to look at Jack, which is the last thing he wants to do, but blah blah meta about 12x22 and how he needs to "see" Jack, and she's pointing out that Jack is terrified which is exactly what Dean needs to see about him

subtle

She actually points out his anger issues as well so I think Dean's getting homework whether he has to write it in a journal or not :P

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*suddenly everyone is pointing guns*

Hey if she's a a shapeshifter why does she live in an all-white house when shifting makes bloody goo stains everywhere?

Or her assistant, I guess. They haven't had eyes on him :P

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Ooh that explains why the guy was not surprised to see his wife. Well, kind of surprised, but not nearly horrified enough.

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Sadly if she is telling the truth that means someone else is using her method to get their guard down to kill them for kicks...

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Also shades of 9x13 because they had that spa where the monster would use their unique skills to help, but then of course another of their kind - a sibling - had to go and ruin it...

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Oh hey, it's Cas! I guess the time ran out on a good transition from Dean, so we go over here on "I'm telling you the truth"

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Lol it's another Cas... Who ever would have expected it. /Misha being the worst at spoilers

Or something with a very silly voice. "Friendly neighbourhood cosmic entity" that sounds like that and won't show its face is either someone pranking Cas or about to go very bad.

Cas is like "do I look like that" "I'm getting a new coat as soon as I'm alive again"

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if this thing is The Empty itself it's probably kinda crazy after eons being nothing

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Oh NO Cas's face when he says "every angel that ever died is here?" because oh boy did you put like 90% of them in here yourself. There's about 3 faces you'd be happy to see again of the entire lot. Hey, it's never too late to give Cas that guilt all over again that made him stay in Purgatory out of penance.

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I mean among other things but it's probably worth mentioning there are a whole bunch of lil purgatory parallels here in the loosest sense of it being a hostile other realm, and the way Cas is basically Dean in Purgatory in here.

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Cas has been back for like 5 minutes of screen time and I want to protect him and wrap him in blankets

there's no need to be mean, The Empty, just because you got woken up... I say... at nearly 4am... because I woke up when I didn't want to...

you know what, The Empty's being mean to Cas probably kind of justifiably, even if it's a dick.

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pretty clever to use a shifter as the motw in this episode too

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oh, poor Cas is horrified to think Sam and Dean made some sort of deal for him

he says "I don't know" which is ironically what Jack's saying all the time

like father like son

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LEAVE HIM ALONE

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last episode we had James keeping memories of Missouri, who he had cut out of his life, in a box. Now Mia has a box still dedicated to "Buddy" her asshole ex who hurt her, and good on her for leaving him. He's another shifter, we're halfway through the episode, so we probably need to find him now, and also have a good 10 minutes more of whatever's going on with Cas. :P

She also owns up to have done much worse things in her past with Buddy, although presumably not killing people, and probably because they were super toxic together, and she had the sense to get out and try and help people now.

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Jack said "I'll come with" which is adorable. He's learning to be like them :D

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Wheeeee he's riding shotgun! Guess Dean couldn't make him stay in the back without Sam around.

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Sam's plan's don't always work out :< Oh no, Dean, you still don't have much faith in Sam's ability to handle himself.

Fortunately this does seem to be a mostly Sam is right season, and I think of all the overwhelming reasons why you don't trust Jack, not trusting Sam to trust Jack is probably relatively low on the list underneath the Cas stuff or you'd have just yelled that at Sam the other day instead.

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Uh, why do I feel like the shifter just phoned Sam and somewhere between here and there something went really wrong?

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Oh god I'm going to have to watch the face peeling scene with my own two eyes at 4 in the morning, aren't I?

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Meanwhile Mia explains why her catharsis works to Sam - I hope he doesn't sneak back at the end of the episode for a chat with "Mary" because that would be AWFUL.

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Oh it was that other guy - wait, also, Sam was already doing this before Dean phoned? Seems like he doesn't trust Dean's methods either :P

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CAAAAAAAAAS

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I love how Cas is so practical like, "will you pay me $200 to stop annoying you and go away?"

UHOH guess we're getting right into it. "You don't want to go back" "Sam and Dean need me" You don't want to be needed, you want to be wanted!

Wheeee text on that and also wheee over on the other side of the story last week Dean finally made the i/we distinction about Cas. Now we just need to get them alive and well and actually dealing with crap

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oh boy I shouldn't have paused there except that i suppose for the sake of meta-ing remotely clearly it was probably a good idea not to watch straight through from that into the empty accusing Cas of having feeeeelings and "I know *what* you hate, I know *who* you love, what you fear." especially since Cas hates being needed but not wanted and uh Dean made the i/we distinction at long last over on the other side of the story so um does Cas fear something related to all that?

I mean to be fair Cas has been through this exact thing before with "he's in love... with humanity" / "all of it for one man" which was an "i/we" distinction of planetary proportions :P Of course he just mutely responded to it there because he was sad Dean was dead, and had no idea Metatron had accused him of being in love in any form, so that was Metatron's private joke to himself.

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The Empty telling Cas there's "nothing for him back there" also makes like next to no sense if you take season 12's family read at surface value and has the bonus of being, I'm pretty sure, a line Elrond tells Arwen in the movie when he's trying to make her leave Aragorn and go across the waters to the undying lands.

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I know they're just starting with it in a long selection of terrible things that happened to Cas but starting with his grace being stolen really sucks :P

Especially when I am still daily haunted by his season 9 arc.

See above: Metatron and "in love with humanity"

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More miscommunication of the "didn't bother to call you" variety (I hope this doesn't blow up in Sam's face, although of course trying to nurture Jack is slow mo doing that, especially if he and Dean are meant to swap stances on the kid >.>)

The intern pulls Mia aside for a chat.

OH NO Jack wants to see his mom. OH NO OH NO

I will be so upset if that happens...

Oh nooooooo

he's crying.

Who can say no?

This is extremely awful.

I guess Glynn didn't want to let Kelly go like that. I'm glad if Mia was going to do this for anyone it would be for Jack and not Sam and Dean's cycles of nonsense.

I REALLY hope the bad shifter doesn't burst in here and try to/actually kill Mia right now. Jack doesn't need that in his life.

In the mean time, Mia better friggin HUG Jack even if it's technically hollow and he would know it.

Also did she do the whole disgusting skin thing or can she transform on the spot?

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HUGS FOR THE NOUGAT BOY

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They look so much alike :')

Oh no Jack you probably don't feel anything because they made you horribly depressed within 2 days. Also you have angel grace. Historically not good for helping you feel things. You're sweet and cry about your mom and feel bad about stuff in other ways so I think you have a heart no matter what, like Cas does.

Mia gets some catharsis from getting to hug Jack and reassure him that even if he's a monster and what makes him in-human isn't letting him emote how he's supposed to, he can still be good. She's got a monster soul, after all. There's a lot of good monsters out there.

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I was about to say lol is this now Sam not on the phone because he actually is a shifter now mostly to tease past!Me but then they panned down and Dean's unconscious, which makes sense because they probably still want to show us Dean tearing his own face off at some point and honestly I'd rather just get it over and done with because if it's still to come after this D:

"that was too friggin easy" though - Dean getting overwhelmed in another fight. He's really not had a great rate of success... He only beat the wraith last episode with Patience's warnings, and other than that it's been a terrible track record even if he fights back as hard as he can when he gets jumped

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shifter!Dean2 better not go in and try and kill Jack

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Not gonna have much luck, I just don't want to watch it :P

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MORE HUGS FOR JACK

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WAIT NO YOU CAN'T HUG HIM AND THEN HAVE HIM KNOCKED OUT IN THE SAME SCENE

I TYPE NOT LOOKING AT THE SCREEN BECAUSE DEAN'S RIPPING HIS FACE OFF

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Shifters are gross

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Oh no don't call Cas a disappointment, The Empty, we're so proud of him!

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He just told him to "save yourself" which is probably going to have the direct opposite result to what he wants while I'd hope Cas goes and does exactly that

"I'm already saved" blah blah Cas insults The Empty and I love him, "because somehow I'm awake, and I'll stay awake" - exactly how many times can I use "i love him" as punctuation in one sentence?

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Where is that gif of the woman banging the pots and pans about not getting any sleep so they're not getting any sleep

that's something I ought to have saved :P

Someone almost certainly has made a post already.

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Cas is the literal embodiment of "fight me"

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This Buddy guy is a total douche. He says in this world everyone uses everyone. Which is a theme of the season I guess - Cas feeling used, Jack feeling used... He's the villain with the most negative version of the theme in his mouth right now

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Dean's got to pep talk Jack if he wants to save the day or Jack goes and saves the daaay - I'd prefer Jack does it

Look, Mia's getting hurt and she was kind to you and in the most literal use of character mirroring in 1000 miles is an actual stand in for your mom!

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Ooh is Jack gonna save Sam instead? Dean just pep-talked him specifically about how Sam believed in him which was having to start to admit that Sam, well, believes in Jack. Which Dean couldn't even accept last episode when he was saying that he was just using Jack

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Yay thanks Jack, kinda figured Sam wouldn't get shot :P Jack's powers are fascinating - he's definitely bending time... from Sam and Dean's perspectives last time they were caught in it they were at least sort of aware of things, but Jack pretty much works in bullet time.

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I also like how he kind of had a ridiculous "NooooO" because he's been watching Star Wars. I don't know if there's a "Nooooo" in the Clone Wars but I mean have you met a Star Wars

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Anyway good riddance douchey ex with extra douchey powers.

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I love the shot of them all standing together and Jack has that benign :3 face on again. He's really insufferably cute.

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Ewww the Bunker sink is gross. I assume that's from decades of lying in disrepair and that those are stains Dean could not get out.

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I guess Jack's getting a glass of water and Dean's midnight snacking. I have no other explanation for this encounter despite the fact it could theoretically happen at literally any point of the clock :P

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Oh gosh, is he going to give Jack a beer

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Yay, actions helped

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Aw, the other beer is for Sam. Guess this doesn't have to be midnight after all. I thought he might have a longer chat with Jack

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oops is this the beginning of the slide in the other direction? Sam's been undermined and even though he was proven right to Dean's eyes and Dean's had to grudgingly hand Jack the win in the case and admit it to Sam, Sam's like, "I guess"

And they don't know what Jack asked for from Mia because patient confidentiality! Argh!

Oh no Sam don't start wondering if Dean is right.

AAAH they're actually talking about things really well. Dean's like "don't say that" - even if he can't believe it he doesn't want to HURT Sam and rob him of his hope... Sometimes yelling about things does make them get better in the long run once you get it out there >.>

And Dean deputises to Sam for the feelings. And admits how HE has been feeling, because he believes in nothing, because all his faith has been taken away because there was only one thing he ever ended up believing in no i didn't see the next scene transition before i hit pause what are you talking about

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Again, though, if this is Cas back in the mortal plane after annoying his way back to life (worrisome, since he's 2 episodes out of reuniting with them and where's Billie? Oh gosh is Billie back for reals too if he IS back? Whaaaat.) then that's another awfully convenient moment to transition scenes from. Dean finally using "i" instead of "we" about Cas and making it abundantly clear that he and sam didn't feel the same about that, was, whether the direct reason or just narrative karma they chose to bestow on Dean, what made Jack reach out to Cas. Now he admits out loud that he doesn't believe in anything with the implication when you look at Dean vs belief that this is about Cas, and we go over to Cas definitely at least in an improved situation.

Goddammit that's the new coat which means he didn't come back naked but wait! Lizzy's hope wasn't the same as everyone else's at all! Although that was a shallow moment of defeat :P Mwa ha ha, I was hoping Cas would come back and be gifted a whole new Cas get up and lo and behold unless he chose to manifest these clothes onto himself and there's noooo ulterior motive at all going on here (uh... probably not going to get more than 1 per show and we used it up on Mary :P) but he's confused and waking up and the last time we saw him he was in the clothes he died in... So of course if he's being sent back to earth then someone else chose the battle armour he'd be returned in. One Cas, fit for purpose.

Also, realising once he sat up more it was the new coat makes me pretty sure he is back on Earth.

Also he looks happy to be here and I think he can tell :P

Same, Cas. Same.