#it was such a fun scene and then him talking to Gabe later after everything AWUGH

[the-squeege]

Unmasked

[ilyasorokinn]

home sweet home , erik johnson

note, this is dedicated to @comphyjost. i'm sad, you're sad, we're all sad. also, this fic is part of the "life with the johnsons" series. check out this masterlist for more. pair, erik johnson x reader summary, for the first time in 13 years, erik johnson is playing against the colorado avalanche. warnings, kids/children, pain word count, 1516 words

(gif not mine. by @mattymartin <3)

The entire flight back to Colorado, you felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest. It was more of an excited/nervous. You were excited to be back and see all your friends.

Out of all three kids, only one wanted to come back to Colorado with you. Zach was the only one out of the three who wanted to come back, so you decided to let him miss two days of school and fly with you to Colorado.

When the Landeskogs heard you were coming with Erik, they insisted on picking you up from the airport. You still had your house in Colorado, but

You made your way out of the airport, one hand holding your suitcase and the other holding Zach's hand. You easily spotted the Landeskog's car. When the kids saw each other, they ran to greet each other, leaving their parents in the dust.

Melissa did the same and ran over to you, wrapping you in a hug, "All feels right in the world." She laughed.

"I've missed you guys so much." You squeezed her before pulling away and hugging Gabe, "Missed you, too," You smiled.

"How's Buffalo treating you?"

"Cold, but it's good." You smiled, looking back over to your kids, who were talking a million miles a minute as if no time had passed, "It's not here."

"That's for sure." Melissa looped an arm through yours, leaving Gabe to deal with the bags, as she led you over to the car and began catching you up on everything.

You weren't in Colorado for very long, so you spent the day catching up with old friends and doing everything you missed and couldn't do in Buffalo. You had lunch at your favorite restaurant with a few of the other girls, you visited some old coworkers and by that time, it was time to get ready for the game.

When you got home, Erik was also home and getting ready for the game. You smiled at the scene in front of you. It felt like old times, "This feels familiar." You hummed.

"Doesn't it." He smiled, "It's weird, isn't it?"

"A little. I've only been here for a day and it feels strange." You admitted, wrapping your arms around his waist and leaning your head on his back, "You ready for tonight?"

"No." He admitted, "But it's a game, just like any other game." He shrugged with a sigh.

"It is, but it's not." You shook your head, spinning him around so he was facing it, "Have fun tonight, enjoy yourself." You told him, helping him tie his tie.

"I will." He nodded, a smile on his face as he watched you, "You have fun tonight, too." He nudged you.

"I will. In between all the crying and cheering." You joked, wrapping him in a hug, "I'm so proud of you, EJ."

"None of this would be possible without you." He hummed happily.

Later that night, walking back into Ball Arena, you were having an intense sense of deja vu. Everything was exactly the same but felt new at the same time.

You made your way down to the ice with the Landeskog family, who had made a sign for Erik, which made you cry the first time you saw it. After Zach saw it, he decided he wanted to make one too, so you quickly bought supplies and made a simple sign that read 'We love you, dad' and had his number on it.

You waited by the glass, Zach standing in front of you, bouncing on the balls of his feet, the Landeskog family on either side of you with their own signs.

Zach looked up at you, gesturing for you to bend down to his level, "I miss it here." Zach whispered.

You pulled away and smiled sadly, pressing a kiss to his head and hugging him, "I miss it here, too." You hummed, hugging him. You danced around with Zach, waiting for warmups to start.

A cameraman stopped beside you and Gabe, asking if you wanted to be on the jumbotron, and before you could respond, Zach spoke up before you, "Yes!" So, before you knew it, the four of you were on the jumbotron, showing off your signs.

You heard the crowd's reaction to seeing their captain, but then also to seeing Zach Johnson and Linnea Landeskog in the arena. you kept your kids' lives private but not a secret so people knew about them.

You looked around the Sabres side of the warmup ice and saw a good amount of people with signs for Erik, which warmed your heart and brought a few tears to your eyes, "Oh no, it's starting." Gabe teased.

When the guys skated out, you easily spotted Erik. There was a loud cheer that you knew would only get louder as the arena filled with more people. He skated a few laps, spotting you on the 3rd go-around.

He skated up to the ice with a few pucks. He handed one to Linnea through the photo hole and gave Lucas a few fistbumps, then handed one to Zach and two more to you, which you would pack in your suitcase and bring back to Lila and Ivy.

He gave Zach and fistbump and blew a few kisses before skating off. You wiped a few tears as you watched him skate off, "Don't cry." Melissa pulled you in for a hug.

"It's only going downhill from here." You laughed, knowing that the tribute video was coming up later. You stayed for all of the warmups, watching and marveling at all the people.

You made your way up to your seats, where a few of the other girls were sitting. They greeted you the same way Melissa had, with big hugs. You took your seat and took everything in. There was a buzz in the air. It felt like home.

A little through the first period, the tribute video played. The video had barely started, and you were already crying. The video started and played the videos of him getting drafts, his best goals, winning the cup, everything. You were surprised to see a clip of you and him in the montage.

It was a short clip of you running up to him after they had won the cup and let all the families on the ice. You found him in the sea of people and jumped into his arms, hugging him. The audio in the video was a little busy due to the commotion around you, but your voices were clear.

"You did it!" You said, your voice muffled due to you shoving your face into his neck, but the microphone he was wearing caught it.

"We did it, baby.” He corrected you, squeezing you tighter and pressing a kiss to your head before shoving his head in your neck.

The montage ended with a video of celly's and the interview he did with Emily Kaplan after winning the cup and talking about how he thought he would have to retire and how proud he was of the team.

After the 'Thank you Erik Johnson' picture flashed on the screen, he skated away from the bench and skated around, raising an appreciative hand to the crowd, a thankful and proud smile on his face as he looked out into the sea of people.

Your phone was out the entire time, taking a shaky video as your hands shook. You couldn't stop smiling and only cried more when the crowd started chanting, "EJ, EJ, EJ!"

After the game, you made your way down to the locker room with Zach, who had fallen asleep halfway through the third period. You could see his eyes closing and then shooting open every few seconds before he finally crashed and fell asleep, his head in your lap.

You carried him to the best of your ability down to the locker room and waited for Erik. A few of the Avs (7 guys) came down to the guest dressing room to talk to Erik, but when they saw you, they changed directions and made their way over to you.

Eventually, Erik came out, and when he did, they all cheered and clapped for him. He smiled, setting his stuff down and hugging every single one of them. He talked with them for a few minutes before they all said their goodbyes and made him promise he would get lunch with them before he left.

Once they were gone, it left you and Erik alone. You stared at him, an overwhelmed look on your face as you thought about the events of the night, "They're letting me stay at home tonight again."

"Good." You nodded, wanting to spend a night with him before he would be gone again. You wrapped your arms around him the best you could without jostling Zach too much, "I'm so proud of you." You whispered.

"I love you." He mumbled into your hair, pressing a kiss to your hair.

"I love you, too." You pulled away with a smile on your face.

-

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[trpiaep19]

I've been saying this for ages!!! that scene gets a lot of recognition because let's be honest Theo looks hot af, but ppl are not talking enough about how we in fact, get a glimpse of pre hell Theo after a very long time.

we definitely don't see pre hell Theo in season 6A. he is just brought back from hell and most of the time he reacts out of fear, he is more vulnerable and his actions are not really thought through. we can see that he is still haunted by Tara and everything he does he does with only one goal. to survive. his redemption arc starts when he saves Liam from the ghost riders (let's not dig into that now) which is something pre hell Theo would never do.

but then, season 6B happens. and we can see Theodore Karl Raeken alone, living in his car and even though it's heartbreaking (let's not talk about how depressed and lonely he was cause that would take a while), he looks more himself. he knows how to be alone, he knows how to survive. then he gets taken and now the fun begins!

just as @outcastpack said we can see him pushing the right buttons, pulling the strings, using his skills again. don't get me started on the fact that the moment Schrader increased the voltage Tierney and Jiang couldn't do anything but scream while Theo kept mocking Schrader like the electricity was just a minor inconvenience. and then later he does the same thing in the holding cell. he pushes Jiang's buttons and walks away as a winner.

even in the zoo he needs to use some of his skill to get Liam out safely and don't tell me that it didn't require some dirty work. Gerard was quite clear about his intentions to kill Scott's only bitten beta.

I refuse to believe that Theo turned into the perfect member of the McCall pack. he, same as Peter, is a creature of habit and his habits kept him alive for almost a decade. he is trying to be better, we can actually see him be better, in the tunnels with Mason or in the hospital with Gabe. but I don't think he ever let his nature die, he is still manipulative and ruthless when he wants to, he just learnt to use his skills for a good cause.

It's the fact rewatching this scene you see that part of pre hell theo. Like he purposely baited Schrader into pressing the button again and again to be able to break the zip tie before tieing schrader back up and turning the voltage back on essentially killing him.

It was a monument to who he was and also ironic to me. Like that voltage must of hurt but then also this is a dude who dealt with the DDs and he definitely either doesnt feel pain properly or has such a high resistance it didn't bother him going back to "real pain is emotional pain" because it's true that was really true in theos case.

He's been shot, tortured, experimented on etc yet he didn't show signs of feeling any true pain until Tara, until it was a never ending loop of his sister ripping the heart that was hers out. Yeah it must of hurt physically but its more the emotional aspect of it I think for theo there.

Anyway going back to the "I'm not impressed" wet shirt scene, theo brought back his manipulative ways and got schrader to do what he wanted. Like he was smiling, speaking in that old S5 theo tone knowing exactly what to say to trigger the man into the response he wanted.

Like don't get me wrong schrader deserved what he got but I dunno I liked that we seen that small spark of Pre hell theo. Like the pack may be against killing but those skills, the things theo will know and do would be big help to the pack, or well the pack members left since when Scott and co left/leave after s6 finale Liam is the only wolf with Corey and Mason and I love them both but Corey would have to rely on his stealth and also Mason being with him, neither heal quick and Mason is human end of the day so you just know Liams gonna be like no stay back etc plus when Alec shows up he's a brand new beta being dumped on Liam a little bit.

Re enter Theodore Karl Raeken. A fighter, someone who will make damn sure Liam lives to the next day potentially through any means. It was his name specifically Scott said in 6x20 to get theo to go, Liam only survived that day because Theo showed up just in time otherwise you just know those hunters were not leaving that hospital alive.

I kinda spiralled all over the place abit here 😭

[returnsandreturns]

hello, i'm going to summarize my novels (in varying states of progress) because they've been nipping at my brain a little. in individual posts so i can refer to them later.

giving it up originated in nanowrimo 2017 and was developed from one of my most popular fics (hurry up now, it's only getting colder) (the concept of hooking up with someone to have a warm place to sleep when your heat is out and also a lot of the actual writing lol) with the title and other influences from another fic. it's about a former english major who got through one semester of law school before having a full nervous breakdown and has been listlessly floating around in the hospitality industry until he ends up hooking up with a hot lawyer (who made it all the way through law school) and it sets off a journey of, like, creative exploration both sex-wise and writing-wise. it features: an attempt to write a version of 50 shades that's both gay and good, wholesome sex dungeons, sex scenes that are absolutely too long, very self aware pining and also at one arrest.

the protagonist is andy, who is a mess and also my everything. the hot lawyer is james who is incredibly bad at feelings, is a nerd in a way that's disarming because he seems so cool and chill on the outside but secretly has strong star trek opinions, and comes from a family of lawyers in which he's the black sheep because he didn't join their firm in nashville and instead moved to nyc to be a public defender.

other main characters include but are not limited to

laurel, his best friend since the first day of undergrad and roommate who is a private elementary school art teacher and also a goddamn delight

laurel's girlfriend stef who is a reference librarian among other things and also smart and mean and bonds with andy over books and mental health because laurel is the most mentally well person who has ever existed so it's nice for them both to have someone who gets it a little more

gabe, who works at the wholesome sex dungeon and guides andy through that world in a largely research-based capacity. he likes to flirt with andy almost exclusively to make james jealous and he's very fun to write.

you can actually read the first six (mostly unedited) chapters here and this is sort of a nice set-up excerpt:

“He calls it a playroom?” James asks, turning around to make a face at him, and Andy beams back.

“Yep,” he says. “Sexy, right?”

“Horrifying,” James says, flatly. “You’ve got to give this book up.”

Andy finished the first Fifty Shades book a couple of weeks ago and is well into the second one, both because he doesn’t care about his well-being and because he’s too emotionally invested now. He also can’t resist telling James about it, because he gets all worked up and angry and it’s really hot.

“I just can’t,” he says. “It’s entranced me.”

“You’re a writer, right?” James asks, which is weird to hear, because Andy’s never actually said that out loud in front of him. He’d self-deprecatingly referenced his novel at one point and talked about undergrad a little—literary magazines and bad love poetry and creative writing professors who were all uniquely pretentious in their own way. Andy’d been in love with half of them.

“I guess—one might say that,” he says, cautiously.

“You write?” James asks, then, after Andy does the closest approximation of a nod that he can do while his head is hanging upside down. “Then you’re a writer. That’s how words work.”

Andy snorts, grinning up at him before the blood rushing to his head gets to be too much. He sits up and stretches out, asking, “What’s your point?”

“Instead of physically hurting me by telling me about—50 shades of white nonsense,” James says, ignoring Andy cracking up and doubling over. “Why don’t you write your own?”

“My own white nonsense?” Andy asks.

“Your own smut,” James says, turning back to his task. He makes a satisfied noise and tugs on the pull up bar just to have it come crashing down on him. Andy bites back another laugh, which earns him a look. “Do you want to try?”

“Nope,” Andy says. “You’re doing swell.”

“Yeah, sure,” James says. “Take your clothes off.”

[casmybelovedass]

The Destiel Folder: Season 5

[Season 4 here]

Episode 1:

Dean is visibly upset about Cas' death, especially at (6:07), and Zachariah notices. From here on, we have a progressive worse reaction from Dean to each of Castiel's deaths

Dean calls Cas a 'friend', again sounding very upset (8:20)

We also get a parallel between Dean and Sam: "I learned that from my friend Cas, you son of a bitch!" and "I learned that from Ruby." (9:10) ICWAW, this parallel would implicate romantic subtext

Cas comes back, bringing top energy onto Zachariah, and Dean just... checks him out (32:43) [this is a frequent thing by the way, I'm on S10 right now, it is]

Episode 2:

I'm so fuckin sorry but I'm laughing too hard at this: D"God" C"Yes" D"God" C"Yes!" (4:09) guys, don't sex-talk in front of Sam and Bobby

"I rebelled, and I did it, all of it, for you." (4:54)

Dean gives in to Cas' top energy "Dean, give it to me." (5:53) shit, guys, enough sex-talk

Episode 3:

The 'personal space scene'. Dean, love, if someone is in your personal bubble, and you don't want them there, you don't stand there for 10 seconds while flicking your gaze from their eyes to their lips TWICE (6:04) ICWAW, these scene would be read as full of sexual tension

Dean here compares himself and Cas to Thelma & Louise, from a movie with HELLA lesbian subtext. And the way he looks at Cas for 7 seconds, tongue between his teeth and just... this fucking look (7:37)

You don't look at friends that way. You don't.

"I need your help, because you're the only one who'll help me. Please". (7:58) Cas trusts Dean will help him while no other would, and he is right... also Dean keeps glancing at his lips

The way Dean fixs Cas' tie and collar, so domestic. (10:34) [This will parallel in 10x05 when Dean messes up musical!Castiel's tie for it to be a legit costume.] Also, the whole police station scene is full of Old married couple moments

"There are two things that I know for certain. One, Bert and Ernie are gay." And then they were voted best chemestry couple like Bert and Ernie. Just saying. (16:23) "Two, you are not gonna die a virgin. Not on my watch... let's go."... and Cas just follows Dean like nothing, but later on...

... Cas is beyond terrified at the idea of being intimate with a woman (11:24),

tho he followed Dean with no problem. ... Did... did he think Dean was making an offer?

He chugs down a beer in fear, poor baby

And he is so jumpy I'm dying

Dean admits Cas is the only one who has made him laugh for real in years (20:58), also, shoulder hug, and Cas, who was on the verge of tears a moment earlier, is smiling and comfortable now.

"Don't look at me, it was his idea." (26:57) the look Cas gives Dean, they're so fucking #MARRIED

"Today you're my little bitch." "... What he said!" Dean is impressed and amused by Cas' smugness (and top energy) (31:55) Basically "Well, mark me down as scared and horny!"

Dean understands how Cas feels, and wants to help. He says he feels good with him "I've had more fun with you in the past 24h that I've had with Sam in years... and you're not that much fun." (36:06) Dean doesn't want to be alone, didn't want Cas to leave.

Episode 4:

Dean sounds and looks like a teenager on the phone with their crush, teasing Cas while smiling softly (1:22). Also "I'll just... wait here then." (2:15)

Even as a mortal, Cas stuck with Dean through the apocalypse, living in pain, chugging down drugs, but never leaving Dean's side. Being his second during hunts. Having only each other

And this Cas can recognize this Dean is not his own only by glancing at him for a moment (... by looking at his dick?!) (18:37)

Dean is stunned and concerned about apocalypse!Cas and how his life turned out

Apocalypse!Cas sits like Dean. Aww, they've been rubbing off on each other [yeah, I bet] (22:27)

"I like past you!" and that smile. So sweet and nostalgic (25:35)

This whole scene (23:48). They are so #MARRIED

Dean is concerned about Cas doing drugs, being basically depressed and living like shit (28:03)

Cas saves Dean again. "We had an appointment." "...Don't ever change." and the way they stare at each other (38:49) look at those smiles and how longingly Cas looks at Dean

Episode 8:

Not a destiel moment, but Dean is totally BI: (12:04); "Sure" (12:42); "What makes Dr Sexy, SEXY, is that he wears cowboy boots!" (12:57); and Dean loves cowboys, just saying

Is... is Dean thinking about Cas being pretty? And about the fact that a creepy guy just called his angel 'pretty'? (20:26)

First thing Dean requests Gabe does is to bring Cas back, threatening him

Episode 9:

Dean reacting to Damien and Barnes being a couple is... LOL (36:27) and after that (38:40), he is on his own, fiddling with his keys, smiling to himself. And when Sam asks if he is okay, he responds "Yeah, you know? I think I'm good." while still smiling to himself. Is he happy about an queer man portraying him, about seeing himself in a confident, openly queer man in a relationship? What else could it be?

Episode 13:

Dean gets more and more worried when Cas gets/is hurt (9:45)(38:02). Also, he got Cas a honeymoon suite. Wow. How sweet.

Episode 14:

The phone call scene. The stares, the tension... look at this shit (10:00)

Dean, stop checking out Cas. You're working. But seriously, look at him. He likes his roughness. AND AGAIN WITH THE LIPS STARING (11:02)

Dean and Cas, after being touched by a cherub, stand shoulder-to-shoulder close to each other, in front of a bi-coloured window (13:26-13:33) I MEAN- Also, Dean, you're staring at a naked man's dong... just saying (13:33-13:36)... stop that, be a professional

Is this the first wink Dean gives at Cas? (14:37) for real? With a cherub in the room? Wow.

(16:16) "Where did he go?" "I belive you upset him." Look at Cas during this scene. #MARRIED

Cas asks Dean where his Famine-induced-hunger is, why he seems unaffected by it... and Dean stares at Cas, then the burger he is holding, then back at him, like he has everything he could want right there, in his Baby (29:22)

Episode 16:

... I'm sorry, but... did Cas really have to MOAN Dean's name to get his attention? (5:24)

I believe this is the first time we ever hear Dean say the words "I love you" (14:38-28:09), and he is saying them to Sam. The only other time we hear him say it is to his mother in 12x22. And the only other person he was supposed to say those words to was, in fact, Cas in 8x17. Let that sink in.

"You son of a bitch." Dean's been rubbing off on Cas, and this is not the only line he has picked up from Dean (38:29)

Episode 17:

This is such a sweet scene. Cas is showing himself weak once again, and Dean sympathises with him, reassures him, confides in him. How sweet. (30:17) ICWAW, this would be seen as a romantic bonding moment

Episode 18:

Cas legit looks like an angry wife. Look how pissed he is at Dean (6:19) #MARRIED

This is such a #MARRIED scene, with Cas being pissy at Dean "being a coward". Also "Yeah, you know what? Blow me, Cas!" and his look after that, like "Does... does he actually want me to?" (13:22)

and this is not the last 'sexual invitation' Dean makes Cas. In fact, minutes later...

"Cas, not for nothing, but, the last person who looked at me like that... I got laid. *wink*" ... just... that (17:53). ICWAW, people would believe this was flirtatious, SHAMELESS, teasing

Look at that FULL TOP MODE tho

"I gave everything for you, and this is what you give to me?" (25:28) Cas is not just angry at Dean for giving up on the plan, but for giving up on life, on them. "So you could surrender to them?" (25:17) not "So you can let them win". It could've been phrased that way, but this is not about the angels winning. It's about Dean giving up on them. Cas is 'cause Dean would be selfishly leaving them

Cas starts taking off his tie and... Dean just stares (31:46). Moments later, we find out Cas totally took his shirt off in front of the boys to make the banishing simbol on his chest, and by the way Dean was STARING when it was only a tie, I bet he either gawked or averted his eyes. Either way, GAY

Cas prefers to die rather than watch Dean fail and die himself (31:55) Also, Sam still thinks of Dean as a hero who can do no wrong, while Cas recognizes his flaws and weaknesses. He knows Dean

Zachariah grabs Dean by the collar and gets in his face. Dean does nothing but flinch a little, mantaining his strong appearance. He only submits and looks overwhelmed when Cas does it (37:50)

Episode 19:

Cas is priority to Dean over Adam. He's more family to him than his actual blood (5:29)

Episode 21:

Cas is basically human, bloody, hurt, powerless and weak. First thing he does? Reach out for Dean (3:16)

Cas is still weak and powerless, and took a bus for miles, just to get back to Dean (12:35)

Episode 22:

Moments before basically going and kill himself, Dean focuses on Cas instead of Bobby, his father figure (24:35)

Cas is on the verge of tears at the thought of Dean dying (25:20)

We know Cas can heal without having to touch the body, but we always see him reach for contact with Dean (35:52) [That's why in S15, it hurts to see Cas not touching Dean while healing him. It feels unnatural]

Dean loves cowboys, and associates Cas to a sheriff. Cas, knowing that, smiles softly at the idea(37:30). Also, Dean obviously doesn't want Cas to leave, and tears up when he does

[Season 6>>]

[somedayonbroadway]

So about that Radio Rebel AU... 👀

I’m oddly excited about this one. I love the concept of this movie, it’s so interesting.

Radio Rebel AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins — Tara Adams

Rafaela — Stacy DeBane

Spot Conlon — Gavin

Albert DaSilva — Audrey Sharma

Obadiah Weisel — Principal Moreno

Jack Kelly — DJ Cami Q

Coffee Bean — Kim

Hot Shot — Gabe

JoJo De La Guerra — Larry

Buttons — Barry

Alright so…

Antonio Higgins never claimed to be outgoing. He never wanted to be popular or even really put himself out there. What he knew he was, was shy. Well, if having severe social anxiety meant being shy, then, yeah… that’s what he was. People terrified him and the mere thought of talking to some of them could send him into a full blown anxiety attack.

Therapy had helped once. But he didn’t go anymore. High school kept him pretty busy. Not to mention his ride had gotten busy with someone else. Walking was just too much. He just didn’t care enough. He would shut himself in his room for the rest of his life and never come out.

That is, until he found out he’d be getting a new stepdad. And that came with a new stepbrother.

Everything happened so fast and Race couldn’t keep up. His step brother was some radio host who loved attention and parties. Race knew he’d been the popular kid in school who played sports and got any date he wanted.

Jack was so open with people.

Race wasn’t.

When Jack starts coming around more, Race finds himself getting jealous of how easily Jack connects with people. Jack puts himself out there in everything he does. He’s a radio host, he’s got a lot of friends. He’s a singer and a songwriter and he plays guitar and he plays sports and everybody loves him. Even Race’s own mother who seems to like having Jack around more than him.

Eventually, when Race and Jack are forced to hang out a bit, Jack tells Race that he didn’t always used to be so outgoing, that he had to work up to it. He hadn’t had the easiest childhood. He tells Race a bit about it, being the more talkative one of the two of them. He admits that his father hadn’t always necessarily been the most loving, affectionate guy. He admits to Race that his dad was a drunk and that he used to get so out of it that he’d beat him. With the bruises and the scars, Jack never wanted anyone to notice. But after his dad got help, straightened himself out and took himself and his son to therapy and worked hard for years and years and still tried to make it up to him, Jack found himself wanting to allow himself to let more people into his life.

He wanted to finally be heard when he struggled through forgiving his dad.

So he started his own mini radio show. He was in high school when it all started.

Without any prompting, Jack pulls out a laptop and shows Race how he did it. He shows him how cool it is to put on his own show and then he stops because he knows he’s rambling. He tells Race that the show really did help him grow, though and make friends and be a part of society.

Eventually, Jack’s dad went back to work at a radio station that he’d run before and he brought Jack on as a host. His radio host name is Jay K and his show focuses a lot on how to stay positive even when bad things are going on in the world or in people’s lives specifically.

Race listened to his show every day that it’s on. But he doesn’t tell Jack that. Jack’s a cool college guy. He’s just his awkward step brother who has trouble getting out two words to someone and whose mother has to order food for him whenever they go out to eat.

But something about Jack’s show makes him want his own.

So he makes one. And he calls it Radio Rebel.

He locks himself in his room and puts on some headphones and just… starts talking.

And people listen.

They like his taste in music and what he has to say about the world they live in, the awful truths of high school and he asks why it has to be that way, why kids are supposed to respect adults who talk down to them and don’t care what’s going on in their lives. He challenges the rules that they’re being told and the things they’re being taught and the biases that people have and how teachers play favorites.

And the best part of all of it? No one knows it’s him.

Radio Rebel is a mystery.

He has one friend at school. Albert DaSilva. Albert broke into his shell and is the only person Race ever talks to really. Albert is constantly trying to help Race overcome his fears of talking to people. Eventually, he even tricks Race into taking drama with him.

The first day of classes, Race knows he made a mistake, if it’s not the participation grade that’s introduced to him it’s the fact that the guy he’s had a crush on since the sixth grade is in that class for his art credit and the girl who’s been making everyone’s life hell since forever is also there with her ever present sidekick.

The first day of class, the first day, and Race gets picked on by the teacher to write down a scene suggestion. He freezes in front of the class, his hand shaking as he tries to function like a normal person.

See, when he was young, his father died. His father had been the person he looked up to above all else. He was so happy all the time, even when he got sick. After that, it was like a little part of Race died with him and he just never knew how to communicate his feelings anymore. He didn’t know how to function in society because he spent most of his time as a child at his dying father’s bedside instead of out with children his own age.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

Even as he’s clearly terrified, Rafaela, a walking nightmare, decides that this is the perfect time to make fun of him. So Race, still trembling, tries to go back to his seat, knocking down the popular girl’s books and then he tries to pick them up, only hitting his head beneath her desk.

He looked up to find Spot staring at him. Spot Conlon, the hottest boy Race had ever known, was staring at him like he was some kind of freak. So Race ran, hiding in the bathroom completely humiliated.

He tries to calm himself down with some music. Though he still won’t admit it, his step brother’s music really does help him relax. He listens to it when he feels alone.

But in the hallway on his way to his next class, his principal, the ever irritating Mr. Wiesel, or, as Race likes to silently call him, Weasel, confiscates his third pair of headphones this semester, leaving Race to muddle through until he can go home and anonymously let his frustrations out with a microphone, some music and a voice scrambler. He plays one of Jack’s songs on the radio that day.

In the middle of his show, Race is jamming out to his song choice while he’s waiting to go back on when a knock comes at his door.

It’s his stepdad.

Race doesn’t hate the guy, he just barely knows him. They’re practically strangers living under the same roof. But, wanting to form a bond with his new step son, the man asks Race is he’d ever heard of someone called Radio Rebel, stating that the kid was some kind of local sensation and suggesting they listen to him together. Race tries to get rid of him, but doesn’t wanna be rude so he ends up giving in and continuing his show with the man in the room.

He’s terrified of what’s going to happen. His stepdad, however, offers him a job. He doesn’t wait for an answer before telling Race that he’s hired. That’s when Race is even more terrified.

It’s announced the next day that Radio Rebel is going to be on WORLD FM (i don’t know what it stands for). Race is horrified. And it doesn’t help that he has to blow off Albert in order to keep his identity a secret. His best friend is starting to get frustrated and Race knows it won’t be long before he’s had enough.

A couple days later, Race finds out that he will have to perform a Shakespeare scene in front of his whole class with two partners. Rafaela and Spot. Because of course it would be them

On Race’s first day at the studio, his step dad tries to give him a tour of the place only to lose him. Race runs off and tries to find an empty room to have a panic attack in. He only ends up finding Jack in the kitchen. Jack immediately greets him and tells him how happy he is that he tried to put himself out there and he’d tell Race how much he liked his show and how it encouraged so many people to just be themselves and have fun. But Jack turns around for one second to finish pouring himself some coffee, only to turn around and have the room be seemingly empty.

Having been on the verge of a breakdown for days, Race is hiding between the wall and the refrigerator, unable to barely breathe. When Jack finally finds him, he starts rambling, not knowing what to do or say. He tells Jack how scared he is and how different it is to go from pretending no one’s listening to knowing that everyone is.

Eventually, Jack coaxes him out of his hiding spot and gives him a soda, sitting him down and telling him that everybody gets nervous. Even him. He tells Race that it doesn’t help to feed into it and continue telling himself how scared he is, but instead use the adrenaline to hype himself up.

Race actually benefits from the talk and thanks Jack. Jack just tells him that’s what brothers are for before going to show him the ropes. He gives Race a small tour of his live room and explains to him how everything works and lets Race get in a practice run. It doesn’t go extremely well. But Jack just tells him he’ll be great, just like he was when he was alone, and then he’d tell Race that he had fifteen second before he was live and he’d go into the next room to watch and listen and help if Race needed it. Race shuts himself in the room, trying to pretend he’s alone before his show starts up.

He falls back into an easy rhythm.

His show is an immediate hit.

At the end of his show, he talks about the hierarchy of high school and how it’s all a bunch of crap. How differences shouldn’t be outlined as a bad thing and everyone should just learn how to accept each other. Then he asks every listener to wear red the next day, just to show that they were all equal.

He shows up to find a sea of red at school the next day. People were listening.

Albert is still mad at him.

Race tries to just continue on but after having to rehearse his scene with Spot and Rafaela, he just feels overwhelmed and practically begs Albert to talk to him again. When Albert still tries to refuse, he pulls him into an empty hallway and finally tells his best friend that he’s the guy everybody loves so much. Albert almost doesn’t believe him but eventually just kind of hugs him and tells him how proud of him he is.

After school, Race agrees to rehearse the scene with Spot and Rafaela and after being berated a bit by Rafaela, Spot encourages Race to stand up for himself and push back against Rafe, who’s acting as their director.

Race finally admits that in this scene of Romeo and Juliet, the audience would only get real emotion from them if they were closer. Spot is Mercutio and Race is Romeo.

Race has adored Spot for so long. He was always just so genuine and yeah, he was a tough guy, originally from Brooklyn, who plays sports and works out, but he was also in a band. He played guitar.

And after this particular rehearsal, he accidentally leaves behind a demo of his band. And Race picks it up.

Race uses it on his show later as he encourages everybody who’s listening to just get up and dance at eight o’clock tomorrow and just go crazy. Jack and Race dance to it in the studio and Race’s stepdad gets a small video of it, loving how well his boys are getting along now. This is the most of the real Race either of them have ever truly seen.

The next morning, when a full on dance part breaks out, Race gets to dance with Spot for a split second before Rafaela joins in with her weird, jerky movements just to get on his nerves. It’s only moments later that Radio Rebel is threatened by the principal to turn himself in now.  

The principal is not happy with the encouragement from this mystery person to disobey school policy and dance instead of focus on classes and work. He then states that anyone caught listening to Radio Rebel during school hours will be expelled.

But that only gives Race an idea.

He runs to Jack who he feels more comfortable with now than he’s sure he’d ever felt with anyone before and asks him for a favor.

The next day at lunch, Jack shows up with a WORLD FM van and gives the kids a special lunchtime dance party, making sure he’s right on the border of city property as a recording of Race tells everybody that they were taking lunchtime back and making it theirs again.

Weasel is not happy and gets it in his head that the minute he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he will be expelling them.

Later that night, after Jack’s show, Race stays to watch Jack record a new song he’d written with a small team of people. Race is a little nervous still, but feels comfortable enough with Jack there. Jack is singing and playing guitar for this new track (Burnout. A song Jeremy Jordan did in fact write) that Race sort of inspired him to write after opening up to him and telling him about his crush and how he doesn’t know how to talk to him. But while trying to record, something just sounds wrong and Race offhandedly points out that he needs a bottom harmony. So Jack tells him to get into the booth and grab a microphone.

And they record a song together.

The next night, Jack lets him play it on his show.

Jack can see Race starting to open up and gain confidence and just be himself. And he’s so happy for him.

A couple days later, Albert pulls Race into the janitor’s closet to tell him the news. Radio Rebels was nominated for Prom King. Race is immediately terrified and starts having a panic attack as he says he has to stop doing the show because no one can know who he is. Albert calms him down and drives him to the studio where they park three blocks away and wear hoodies and sunglasses to try and hide their faces.

Race finally shows Albert where the magic happens and introduces him to another one of his favorite radio hosts, Jay K.

Just before his show starts, Race’s stepdad makes an appearance, telling him that they have to cancel the show. Outraged by this sudden turn of events, Race asks the man why and he explains that Principal Wiesel just called and that if he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he’ll be expelled and that he’s Race’s stepdad first.

Race just says no. He says that he didn’t come this far to get shut down and he didn’t bend the rules just to be cornered by some lonely, bored old man (Weasel). And his stepdad says that’s the most he’d ever heard Race speak, not Radio Rebel, and that he’s on in fifteen.  

He turns back to Jack who gives him a thumbs up and a grin.

That night, Race asks people to share their fears, to stop being afraid of admitting they’re afraid. He gets calls immediately.

The last call he takes is from Spot. He tells Race that he’s afraid to do his own thing. See, his band used to be made up of his best friends but they only want to make loud, superficial music while Spot wants to make something real. Race admits he was terrified to do his own thing too. He looks at Jack as he said he had somebody who believed in him and told him that if he wanted to, he could make a real difference. And then he’d tell Spot that he believed in him and could do the same.

When Race gets home that night, his mother is waiting up for him, waiting to tell him how proud she is of him and how he inspires people to be themselves and that she knows he’s teaching himself some things along the way too.

The next day, however, the school gets some disastrous news. Weasel is cancelling the prom until Radio Rebel reveals themselves.

Race is devastated. He knows people are gonna destroy him for this.

Sure enough, he’s greeted with an angry mob on his way to the studio. He tried to blend in. Jack meets him at the front doors, trying to figure out a way to get him inside without anyone noticing. So, he pulls a hood over his head and starts running to draw away the crowd while Race and Albert sneak inside.

Eventually, once Jack gets back in the show starts. And it’s brutal.

Race gets through several calls of people yelling at him and calling him names and telling him how much they hate him and Jack can see Race start to shake. So the second they take a music break, Jack goes in and hugs him. It’s the first time in a long time Race can remember being held like this. He cries a bit and tells Jack he’s gonna come clean and Jack discourages that, telling his little brother how backwards this all was.

And that gives Race an idea.

On his way out of the building, the mob is still there, so they ask some guy dressed as a sandwich to distract the crowd while they get away. And he does.

The next morning, WORLD FM hijacks the high schools PA system and announces that WORLD FM will be throwing the school a Morp instead of a Prom. Race recorded himself saying that a Morp was a celebration and encouraged people to come as they are. No limos, no hundred dollar dresses or suits, just a party that celebrates them.

And everyone loves it.

Except for Rafaela, of course. Race teasingly encourages her to call in and tell Radio Rebel her frustrations about the prom court. Later that night, on Race’s show, he talks about prom court, giving Rafe the suspicion that it’s been him all along. So Rafaela decides to find a way to prove it and get Race expelled.

She invites the whole school to a party at her house during Radio Rebels broadcast. Whoever doesn’t show up is the person they’re looking for.

Only… Race shows up.

At the studio, Jack and Race’s mom are going crazy trying to figure out the recordings they made of Race and are trying to navigate a call with Rafaela who calls in only screwing up a line and trying to push her off the phone. Race then finally calls in and tells Jack to patch him into the show. Jack does and Race has to run around Rafaela’s house to hide from her while he takes her phone call.

Race finds her room and remembers that when they were young, Rafe used to dress up in dresses and tiaras at school. Race used to be so jealous of how comfortable she was just being herself. Race tells her that when she walks in before he runs out to find Albert.

A few minutes later, Rafaela sends out her best friend Coffee Bean to “deliver a pizza” to WORLD FM. To end this once and for all. Coffee Bean ends up recording Jack and Race’s mom talking about how far Race had come and how proud they were of him. She also gets a bit of Jack talking about his own past. She feels bad, knowing that Jay K had such a traumatic past. He always kept it a mystery to his listeners. But that’s not as important as finally busting Race.

A few days later is the day of their drama scene presentation. Rafaela tricks Race into following her into the janitor's closet before she locks him in there. He knows Spot will hate him if he misses their scene and he also knows that he hates small spaces.

He calls Jack to beg for help and Jack literally runs to him and gets him out while people are still in class. He calms Race down enough for Race to try and get through the day.

But Rafaela finds Race right after school. She plays the recording, telling him that she knows who he is. Race tries to explain that that doesn’t prove anything but Rafe threatens to forward it to the whole school. Race can’t have that happened, not only to keep his identity safe but also to protect the secrets of his step brother and his step dad from getting out. If people found out the guy who ran WORLD FM was a former alcoholic who used to beat his son, that wouldn’t be good. Race knew that. So he does what Rafaela tells him to do and tells the whole school to vote Rafaela for Morp Queen.

Albert however, after talking to Race and finding out what happened, tells Spot the story of him getting locked in the closet.

Spot confronts Rafaela who he was supposed to be going to morp with and immediately breaks it off, telling her that he’ll be going alone.

The next night is morp. Jack is DJing and Spot’s band has a small time slot. But that’s not what has everyone hyped.

No, what has everyone hyped is that they know who’s gonna be crowned prom king.

Jack announces it. It’s Radio Rebel.

Race panics for a moment before he realizes that he can’t keep hiding. He finds a mic backstage and starts talking, telling everyone how scared he was and how this was all even scarier. He reveals that he didn’t know he could feel so much like himself until now. Then he walks out onstage and reveals himself.

Weasel laughs from the crowd as people cheer. He grabs the mic and tells Race that he’s expelled in front of the whole school and Jack stands protectively in front of him, ready to give Weasel a piece of his mind before Albert shouts out that he’s Radio Rebel. Spot follows suit. And suddenly, the whole crowd is admitting to being Radio Rebel.

So Weasel backs down.

And then Spot gets up on stage to sing a song dedicated to a boy that isn’t afraid to ask a dancing sandwich for help. After this, he reveals to Race that he’s always been afraid to be himself and asks Race to help him do just that, asking him to dance and kissing him in front of the crowd.

And Race thinks just maybe he’s not afraid anymore.

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[bywordofaphrodite]

Book Reviews 5&6: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan & Alpha Force: Survival by Chris Ryan

This review’s theme is action and adventure ! audience age range: roughly 12 and up !

For this review I’m using the first book from two action/adventure series, featuring the only male authors I've selected of the ten books chosen for these posts. Both are action-packed books with ensemble casts featuring boys and girls, though the similarities mostly stop there.

As a lover of Greek mythology and fantasy in general, Rick Riordan’s sarcastic and upbeat hero of Percy provided a hilarious new way to look at the more serious myths concerning the gods and enemies of Mount Olympus (his slightly inaccurate retellings made acceptable because the series was made for a younger audience, not to mention it’s funny so who cares).

Alpha Force is firmly set in the real world, no magic to be seen, just hardened survival skills that seem more sitting to the SAS than a bunch of young teens- but with the author Chris Ryan being a member of the SAS himself, it’s exactly what you’d expect.

Nostalgic review

Rating: ★★★★★

Percy Jackson is one of those famous book series in a long list of teen/YA fiction that has gripped teens by the throat on its basic lore alone. During class my friends and I would go on Tumblr and Pinterest to pass time, and as readers we always ended up on That Side of Tumblr- yes, the side filled with cheesy edits of all the popular main characters of the time: Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games, Clary Fray of The Mortal Instruments, all the usual squad, and of course Percy Jackson himself. In a sea of lead female characters, Percy was a fun male lead to throw in the mix. It felt special too, that Riordan continued to write Percy’s story ageing him up as the books went on. We grew up with Percy too. I still keep collect the series even now; my brother’s gift to me for my 21st birthday was the Heroes of Olympus collection, though I haven’t read the older books in several years. I’ve always thought Riordan’s writing style not only improved over the years, but also adjusted well to writing for an older audience in the newer books, which was impressive. Additionally, Riordan listening to his fans and adding in more and more representation through great diverse characters definitely sweetens the memories attached to this series.

Alpha Force is just so good. And so underrated. It was between Alpha Force and Alex Rider for the second book in this review, but ultimately I decided enough people know Alex Rider (there’s a movie and a new series about him, go check the series out, it’s great!) and Chris Ryan’s hidden gem was something I wanted to discuss more. I went through an Extreme Survival Adventures book phase during early high school, devouring all kinds of action from deep-sea diving to climbing Mount Everest and every shipwrecked story on the shelves. I’ve always been a huge fan of the ensemble character groups where everyone has a distinct role that no one else can fill; I find it prevents boring main character syndrome where one singular person never needs any help and therefore has neither character development nor conflict. The Alpha Force series managed to deliver fantastic action sequences, smart yet surprisingly realistic characters and somewhat rarely in my experience- incredible female characters who actually had real personality and arcs that belonged to themselves and not the male characters. Honestly, this assignment has been a great excuse to make myself read these books again!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Review

Post-read: ★★★★

Synopsis: when struggling student Percy Jackson’s pre-algebra teacher transforms into a monster on school grounds and tries to kill him, Percy runs home to be told the truth by his mother about who he is: a demigod, and upon his arrival at the safe haven for demigods- Camp Half-Blood- Percy discovers he is the son of Poseidon, with water powers to boot. With the help of a satyr named Grover and daughter of Athena, Annabeth, Percy sets course for the Underworld to prevent a war breaking out on Mount Olympus.

(I wanted to make this four and a half stars, but I am incompetent at adding in the half, so if you’d kindly just imagine it is there that would be great.)

Okay! Let’s get into it!

With the first chapter titled ‘I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORISE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER’, I think the tone for the story is established rather immediately. The first-person narrative allows the character of Percy to talk to readers directly, and it creates a very easy feeling of Percy recounting his feelings and adventures as if in a one-on-one conversation. I felt just as drawn in rereading as an adult as I did when I was in school. Percy doesn’t fit it in at any schools and has been kicked out of six when the first chapter begins. His ADHD and dyslexia make concentrating and studying hard, and he’s always restless. The only people he feels are on his side are his friend Grover and his Latin teacher, Mr Brunner, who seems to be the only teacher who doesn’t have it out for him.

As it turns out, neither Grover nor Mr Brunner are people! Grover is a satyr sent to watch over Percy until he reaches Camp Half-Blood, and Mr Brunner is the immortal centaur Chiron and the activities director at the camp, also watching over Percy. When the Fury Alecto- disguised as Percy’s pre-algebra teacher Mrs Dodds- tries to kill Percy on a school field trip, the satyr and centaur jump in to save him. Later at the camp, Percy continues to stay fast friends with the two and confides in them while they teach him everything about his new world. Percy meets many more kids at camp, all of whom struggled in the human world before finding their true capabilities upon discovering their status as demigods. Annabeth is one such kid, the daughter of Athena who is cold to Percy at first, out of loyalty to the history between Athena and Poseidon, but who ends up becoming fast friends with him, and later his girlfriend throughout the series.

Riordan’s writing is fresh, engaging and fun at every turn. His modern takes on the gods and their ancient stories and riddles makes for a terrific adventure, and the ‘quests’ undertaken by the demigods mimic the old mythology in a palatable way for young readers to digest easily and understand what exactly is going on. The best part about Percy Jackson for me isn’t the monsters and battles, but rather Riordan’s intentions when creating the series: he wanted to give his dyslexic son a hero he could relate to, and since the first set of books Rick Riordan has gone above and beyond expectations to create demigod heroes for kids spanning many different ethnicities, genders and disabilities. Of the many series popular among young people, I’m especially glad that this one full of so much representation is maintaining the hype it deserves.

Characters who aged well: Percy! At twelve years old in this first book of the series, and just the right combination of witty, kind, hot tempered, brave and cheeky to make a believable and lovable young protagonist; his diagnosis with ADHD and dyslexia not being portrayed as a weakness but rather a part of him makes Percy a special hero to neurodivergent readers. Annabeth, too, remains a great character, she’s intelligent, logical and ambitious in a positive manner, and never falls into the trap of being ‘not like other girls’.

Characters who aged badly: nobody! All the side characters are great, and even the villains are entertaining, especially alongside Percy’s ridiculous commentary. The gods are portrayed rather mockingly, which is a kindness really, compared to the awful acts they commit in the original myths.

Favourite scene/quote: ‘Deadlines just aren’t real to me unless I’m staring one in the face’ – I first read this book years ago and it’s still relevant. I can’t even be embarrassed to relate to it at this point.

My favourite scenes both centre on Medusa- or rather, her severed head. Furious with the gods- namely, Zeus, Athena and his father Poseidon- for sending himself, Annabeth and Grover on such a dangerous quest so quickly after his first day at camp, Percy stuffed Medusa’s head into a package and wrote the address of Mount Olympus on a delivery slip, ending with ‘best wishes, PERCY JACKSON’. To Grover’s distress at Percy’s being ‘impertinent’ to the gods yet again, Percy simply responded ‘I am impertinent’. 10/10 big mood.

The second refers to Sally explaining to Percy that she can take care of herself, and, leaving Medusa’s head in her fridge, Percy exits their apartment just as Sally’s abusive boyfriend walks in. The last thing Percy sees is his mother, ‘staring at Gabe, as if she were contemplating how he would look as a garden statue’. It’s a nice moment between mother and son, followed by Percy understanding the strength his mother has and how much she does for him.

Alpha Force: Survival Review

Post-read: ★★★★

Synopsis: Five teenagers end up stranded on a desert island after their sailing ship goes down at sea. Enthusiastic Alex, reluctant Amber and Hex and practical jokers Paulo and Li are all part of a ‘working eco-voyage’ that quickly falls apart, leaving them to survive on their skills alone against komodo dragons, sharks and modern day pirates somewhere on the Indonesian archipelago.

The story begins with Northumbrian boy Alex- the closest to a main character out of the five- scrubbing the deck of a ship called the Phoenix and lamenting the fact that he’s been lumped in with four people he would never have chosen to be in a watch with. Assigned to A-Watch by their mean supervisor Heather, Alex finds himself the unofficial watch leader… and the only person who really wants to be there. Also in A-Watch is Amber, the daughter of African-American software billionaires who recently died in an accident and left her the sole heiress to the fortune. Amber, still hurting from her parent’s death, is furious to be on board the eco-voyage organised by her Uncle John, who believes she needs to move on in a place outside her comfort zone. Amber spends a great chunk of time antagonising English hacker Hex, who was sent on the trip as a punishment by his school for ruthlessly hacking into the accounts of a teacher who bullied his younger brother. Rounding out the group are Paulo and Li, both of whom are very athletic and thrive in the outdoors, but also uninterested in doing any real work aboard the Phoenix. Paulo is a charming ranch hand from Argentina who loves food and flirting; Li is the Anglo-Chinese daughter of zoologists who enjoys testing out her martial arts on Paulo.

After an argument with their supervisor Heather, Amber decides A-Watch should steal food and relax in a small boat beside the ship to thwart her- a fine plan at first, which goes haywire after the rope frays and they awaken to find themselves in the middle of the Java Sea with no one knowing they’re missing. Tensions rise between the teenagers as they panic over food and safety as they work to survive. Hex just barely survives a Komodo dragon attack, and their hope for help in spotting a family aboard a yacht goes down the drain when it becomes clear they are hostages of modern-day pirates. Luckily, for the family- the Larousse family who were friends with Amber’s parents, no less- the members of A-Watch manage to put aside their differences and put together their skills to save the day.

By the end of the book, the group have outwitted the pirates, saved the Larousse family and successfully sent an SOS signal leading to their rescue. During their recovery in hospital, Amber learns the truth about her parents: behind their billionaire software company her parents worked as undercover agents around the world, fighting against corrupt governments, powerful cartels and other dangerous ventures. Amber’s Uncle John agrees to let the five carry on her parents work as a team, noting that five teenagers could easily slip into situations that adults can’t. Hex then announces he has a name for the five: Alpha Force, taking the first letter of all their names and representing the new beginning for Amber to move on from the Omega (ending) necklace she wears round her neck to remember her parents.

Characters who aged well: all of them!

Alex’s love of the outdoors is endearing, and he never underestimates anyone else’s skills despite being the most prepared for struggles in the outdoors; he is fairly introverted and thoughtful without being boring, I think he’s very sweet.

Amber’s presence as a billionaire black girl with great navigational skills was a fun subversion of the unfortunate stereotyped roles black characters are given; she has great character development without losing her sharp-witted personality and she’s very funny.

Hex plays off Amber’s banter with ease after their initial clashing, and I like that, though he loves his electronics, he never lets the team down by adapting to the outdoors.

Paulo is just adorable, a charming boy from a ranch who likes to flirt with the girls he likes but always respects their boundaries. His positivity is also very uplifting.

Li: ahh my cool favourite Li. Not just providing Asian representation, but also mixed representation, which I was very pleased about as a kid, and still am. Similarly to Amber, Li subverts a stereotype of her own- she’s knowledgeable about things without being a nerd, and gets to be the most playful character alongside Paulo. In my experiences with male authors, the girls rarely get to be the ‘funny’ character so I always enjoyed this!

Characters who aged badly: no one!

Favourite scene/quote: “‘Or was Heather right? Are you too good for us, Alex?’ said Li, slyly.”

This quote signifies when Alex properly commits to being a part of A-Watch, going along with Amber’s plan to ignore Heather’s disciplinary instructions in favour of ‘stealing’ food. It’s the first time the group work as a team, and his hesitation gives way to helping his new friends even though he never does anything against the rules. I also just enjoy Li’s sneakiness at any time, really. The following scene where the five relax under the stars eating food and getting to know each other before all hell breaks loose is nice to read, and all the action sequences are really great, especially Amber’s dive with the sharks while escaping pirates.

Overall verdict:

I wanted to give both of these books four and a half stars, so let’s pretend I figured out how to do that. The only reason they both don’t get five stars is because the following books in their respective series improve after the first ones- both in writing style and character development- and I’m allowing room for that.

Starting off with The Lightning Thief, the headlong dive into action from chapter one was so fun, and learning about the monsters and mythology in time with the main character is always a welcome addition. As someone who read the original myths before any Percy Jackson novels, hearing them retold from Percy’s humorous perspective is very amusing. Anyone familiar with Percy Jackson knows that the movies released a few years ago were kind of a major letdown compared to the books, so the fact that Disney+ has now taken the series on board and begun casting (worldwide!) is super exciting! In line with Rick Riordan’s mantra of inclusivity, anyone of any ethnicity or gender can apply for the roles, which I think really fits the concept of what Percy Jackson represents.

There were very few reviews for Alpha Force due to how underrated it is, and all I could find was a few comments on Goodreads. One person mentioned that they felt the beginning of Survival was slow. I personally don’t know what ‘slow’ refers to in this case, as I felt the introductions and set up all very natural and in a way, necessary before the serious action kicks in. However, I tend to enjoy a few quiet scenes focused on character development that might not be for everyone. I’m still pretty sad there’s literally nothing else about this series on any fandom pages or anything, but I suppose I’ll just have to resign myself to just me and my brother talking about it!

In the case of both books in this review, my memories of these series were not simply clouded by the rose-tinted lenses of nostalgia. I remain just as impressed and in love with the worlds and characters within the stories, and I hope other people enjoy them as much I continue to.

[365days365movies]

January 3, 2021: Cliffhanger (1993)

Sylvester Stallone.

The Italian Stallion here is one of the most prominent action movie stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s, coming to prominence with Rocky in 1976. And before we even start this review, here’s the deal: I refuse to make fun of the man’s iconic voice. Yeah, I get it, we’ve all shouted “YOADRIAAAAAAH!” at some point, but his voice and face is due to a botched birth, which pinched a nerve and caused permanent facial paralysis. We all got something, and I’m not gonna target him for it. It’s been done enough.

I also can’t really comment on his acting ability. Why? Well...OK, some confession time. I’ve BARELY seen Stallone in a film. That’s going to be fixed this year, as I’ve added many of his films to the list for 2021. So, what have and haven’t I seen? Let’s start with haven’t, shall we?

I haven’t seen:

Rocky (1976): Sports November

Rocky II (1979): maybe Sports November

First Blood (1982): later this month

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992): Please. Please don’t make me.

Cliffhanger (1993): Give it a minute.

Demolition Man (1993): Science Fiction September

Judge Dredd (1995): maybe Science Fiction September

The Expendables (2010): later this month

I have seen:

Tango and Cash (1989): Dumbass buddy cop movie with Stallone and Russell; 2/5.

Antz (1998): Sub-par Dreamworks rip-off of an already kinda sub-par Pixar movie; 2/5

Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003): Yeah...I saw this in theaters, on my birthday. I saw everything in red and green for, like, an hour afterwards. Worth it. 2/5.

Rocky Balboa (2006): Somehow, this is the only Rocky movie I’ve seen, Creed included. And from what I remember, it was fine. 3/5.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017): The ONE good Stallone movie I’ve seen, and it isn’t even a Stallone movie. 5/5.

So, yeah, I haven’t seen any good Stallone movies, sans the one. But now, some of you are probably asking another question: “Why Cliffhanger? You literally haven’t seen any major Stallone movie, so WHY CLIFFHANGER?”

First of all, I think everybody’s kinda slept on this movie. It was a big success back in the day, but people have basically forgotten it at this point. You’ll see in this review that there aren’t even many GIFs from the movie made, and it wasn’t easy to find enough clips to make my own, honestly. Does it deserve to get slept on? I mean, we’ll see, right? 

Secondly, I just watched a Tom Cruise movie where he dangles off of a rope, and I liked that, so why not do that for the next one, I guess! And third...honestly, I saw this on the list, and it kinda just spoke to me. It called to me, like a boxer calling to his love. Hey, look, a reference to a movie I’ve never seen. We’ll get there. We’ll get there. Oh, and SPOILERS from here on out, by the way.

Recap

We start on a cliff. Surprise.

Michael Rooker (y’know, Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy) is hanging out (HA!) with his girlfriend Sarah on a cliff called the Tower. Y’know, third date kinda stuff. First date is dinner, second date is dinner and a movie, and third date is free-climbing up a cliff to your near death. Well...near is a strong word…

ANYHOOOO, We meet Gabe, played by the big man himself, Sly Stallion, who’s a rescue ranger in the Rocky Mountains. So, Rocky, the Rockies Rescue Ranger is sent to save Yondu and Sarah. Unfortunately...someone forgot to check the equipment before the rescue mission…

Not gonna lie, this scene is actually heart-wrenchingly tense. And the ending...well, if you’ve seen Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls...you know what happens here. And it’s actually somewhat traumatic, for Gabe and for me. Seriously. It’s a roughie.

Cut to almost a year later, and Gabe is...NOT OK. He and his wife, Jessie (who is a pilot for the Rescue Rangers, and was there when Sarah fell), have been separate, and Gabe just can’t do it anymore. And I get it, honestly. That was a hard experience, losing someone and blaming yourself. And no, it wasn’t Gabe’s fault. But to add insult to injury, he has NO SUPPORT SYSTEM. His wife doesn’t seem to understand, his former best friend Yondu hates him (getting GotG Vol. 2 flashbacks), and he’s basically all alone. Geez. You guys are jerks.

Meanwhile, a plot is afoot! And hey, it’s Tripp from CSI: Miami, AKA Rex Linn! I always liked him, so it’s cool to see him in other roles. Turns out, though, that Tripp is working with a group of thugs to steal from the US Treasury. This villainous group of 8 thugs is led by John Lithgow, AKA Lord Farquaad from Shrek, who is channeling Hans Gruber from Die Hard, and trying super-hard on that British accent. Anyway, after a pretty great mid-flight action sequence, the group of thugs loses 3 suitcases of money, amounting to millions. In the process, they also lose Expendable Thugs #1 and #2. This will be a trend. 

The thugs crash their plane into the mountain, killing Expendable Thug #3 in the process. They stage a rescue situation to get some expert mountain climbers to help them find the money. Jessie, after having just told her hubby to suck it up like a big boy (I don’t really like Jessie, by the way), begs him to help find these people. Reluctantly, he agrees, and has a tension filled reunion with his former best friend, who blames him (unfairly, in my opinion). That animosity disappears as soon as they find themselves held hostage by the thugs. And so, the money hunt begins!

First suitcase is on a cliffside, and Stallone goes to get it. Some shenanigans quickly ensure, and the thugs shoot at him. An avalanche occurs because these dumbasses have never seen a movie, and in the process, we lose a suitcase of money, Expendable Thug #4 goes the way of Sarah, and Gabe is presumed dead. Farquaad tells Yondu to tell his coworkers that everything is fine, and he’s gonna stay on the mountain to ride out the storm. Which is #5 in the list of “moments in this movie where I would 100% die” I grew up in a warm climate, this is not a comfortable hypothetical situation for me.

Anyway, our intrepid team of criminals takes Yondu to find the next suitcase, while Jessie and Gabe separately make their way to the cabin that Yondu was talking about. They catch each other up, and they can’t contact the main office because...Jessie’s radio died in the cold? You...you work amongst mountains as a rescue officer for stranded hikers. That’s the best excuse the writers came up with? Why the hell didn’t she bring a better radio? They HAD to have spares, right? RIGHT? Geez, no wonder you needed Gabe’s help.

The tracker, with its marvelously outdated computer graphics technology (IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM IKNOWTHIS), leads the thugs to the next package, but not before Gabe and Jesse get there! Gabe leaves a ransom note for the money, holding it hostage. This eventually leads to a nighttime chase in the snow, leading to Expendable Thug #5 going The Way of Sarah.

By the way, it’s also at this point that I notice that it is VERY bright...for being in the middle of the mountains at night. And I get it, you can’t exactly have your movie be shot in darkness, but...look at this.

Like...wow. That’s the fakest outdoor shot I’ve ever seen. I guess I’m glad it isn’t a day-for-night shot, but...yeah. Wow.

Jesse and Gabe find themselves in a cave full of the cutest goddamn bats I’ve ever seen. This is supposed to be a harrowing experience, but simply makes me jealous. They’re fruit bats, by the way, and they’re also WAY too high up, altitude-wise. At least, that’s what I assume. I’m a bird-guy, not a bat-guy. Eventually, they make it out of the cave after Stallone does some free-climbing...loudly. Loud enough for the super-violent, sociopathic, knife-and-gun-loving Expendable Thug #6 to hear them. And that’s when Gabe ICE-PICKS HIM IN THE LEG DAMN

Understandably pissed, and not as understandably still walking around without crying (#6 in that list of me-dying moments), the thug finds and beats the SHIT out of Gabe, handily.  But then, he calls Jessie a bitch, and Gabe is, above all things a feminist. Which leads to him, and read this CLOSELY:

This leads to Stallone, bloodied and beaten, PICKING THE THUG UP OVER HIS HEAD, AND IMPALING HIM ONTO A STALACTITE. Not a stalagmite, a STALACTITE. HOLY SHIT!.

Well, Expendable Thug #6 is dead, there’s a bomb on the mountaintop, Jesse almost goes The Way of Sarah, and Frank (another guy who works with them, don’t know if I mentioned him) gets lured into a trap where he gets killed. An “Aww” moment from me; I liked Frank, he seemed like a really nice guy. This eventually leads to Farquaad and Tripp out-crazy-ing each other, and Farquaad winning by killing Expendable Thug #7, who does not go The Way of Sarah (blessed be her fall).

Gabe finds the remaining money, while Tripp, Yondu, and Expendable Thug #7 get there just after. Tripp leaves, and Yondu then delivers my favorite line of the movie:

Oh, sorry, no, it’s, “In a minute, I’ll be dead. You will always be an asshole.” Thug #7 beats the shit out of Yondu, I get flashbacks to GotG 2, and Thug #8 goes THE WAY OF SARAH, BLESSED BE HER FALL. Tripp finds the tracker without the money, and officially loses it, outing himself and Farquaad to the government officials who FINALLY get here.

Tripp finds Gabe, they make their way to a frozen mountain lake, and Gabe SHOOTS TRIPP FROM UNDERNEATH THE ICE. That shouldn’t have worked for many reasons, but that was cool, so fuck it. Now, it’s just Farquaad, BUT HE HAS JESSIE! OH NOOOOOOOooooooo.

This whole thing culminates in a tense, cool chase sequence between Gabe and Farquad in the helicopter. The helicopter crashes into the mountainside, and the two fight while on the helicopter, which is now hanging from the cliff.

Oh. Oh, I get it.

This inevitably leads to Farquaad and the helicopter going, of course, The Way of Sarah. Blessed Be Her Fall. #BBHF. 

And that’s it. Our three heroes are, themselves, rescued by the government agents, and we pan away from the cliffside, as the credits roll. Boom. Cliffhanger.

Stay tuned for the epilogue, which contains the review!

[briannaswriter]

I was told I should take the high road. I should just accept that Hillary refuses to speak with me again. I shouldn’t expect answers from someone who won’t give them - has never given them. At the same time, I don’t feel like I can genuinely let this go without talking about it in a format that isn’t DMs.

This is really long, sorry? But I wanted to get all of it out because I want to be free of it, I don’t want it to keep being an ache in my heart whenever I think about it. 

tl;dr at the end. Feel free to reply, idc, I’ll get back to it tomorrow.  

I met Hillary in a group called @/heroesrpg in about 2012. While I was there, I operated under two pseudonyms: Miranda/Isa and Bea. The why for that is a long story. I have nothing negative to say about Hillary here! She was a great friend who taught me a lot about writing and challenged me to become a better writer. I don’t think I would have gotten this far without writing with her. When I left heroes in about 2013, we didn’t keep in touch. I didn’t really stay in the RP world so I didn’t pay attention to it.

In 2014, I was invited to join Ashbourne at her behest. I don’t recall the specifics of how I found it, I think it was simply me reaching out to her again and finding out she was in a group which she invited me to join, too. I ended up playing a woman named Nadeya Khan who was in a ship with her that was later discarded. Later I picked up Shiloh Morgan, the best friend of her character, Adam, and later Mira Lowell, the elder sister of her character Meyer.

I won’t lie, these dynamics were a lot of fun and I enjoyed playing them.

I was upset that my ship with Nadeya and Adam was discarded (I have a distaste for Adam and the FC Ben/edict Cumberba/tch now, I’m petty, sue me), but I think it was more sucky when all threads with them trickled to a halt. To me, it felt like my character was no longer important because it wasn’t a ship, even if a friendship dynamic would have been just as interesting. I ignored this feeling.

I was sad to leave the group, but I was uncomfortable with an interaction from another player and feeling pushed aside in favor of other ships so I made the decision to leave.

I did keep in touch with Hillary, or I attempted to, but once we were no longer in a group together, we just sorta drifted. We didn’t talk for the longest time here and I forgot her url for a long time. Frankly, I’m not sure how I found it again!

We started interacting again in about September 2018 when I think I reached out to her. This eventually ended with the creation of @lethe-rpg where we could write about old time favorite characters - and we wrote so much in Lethe’s run. Everything from romances, to long-lost parent, to siblings, to best friends, to unrequited loves. We wrote nearly twenty characters each and over ten ships in the time Lethe ran from September/October 2018 to June 2020 when it closed. Or, I should say, we wrote all of these things in theory and a lot of it happened behind the scenes in DM’s between us. When we did write things, they would frequently reach only a reply or two before we had to move onto the next one because she didn’t want to finish the one before. I’ll fully admit that I found this frustrating after a while - but I found it difficult to say no to her about anything, or to speak out against her.

Not only was she my friend, but I very much looked up to her. I considered her a mentor as much as a friend, and her approval meant a lot to me. It meant agreeing with dynamics I didn’t enjoy

pushing for a ship between my character Wesley and ANY of hers. Even if it was already mentioned to her that I had an ongoing connection with another character. If I tried to make this dynamic a friendly connection instead, it was promptly dropped altogether.

trying to get a ship between Gemma and Nate when I mentioned point blank that I didn’t want a pre-planned romantic thing with him after his other one failed.

the fact that Gemma and Lily didn’t get like any interactions completed together until I relented a little on Gemma/Nate. Any mention of them was largely forgotten. Half the time, Lily was treated like a child who hadn’t experienced any pain. Not just from Gemma, but from Gabe and from Hillary herself, who seemed to think that my young FC meant nothing compared to the history I had written for this character. Lily in general was ignored until she brought Lachlan along and prodded him into a ship with Lily. Do you know how many starters I wrote on Lily that were ignored?

the fact that Pat/Kate were the oldest ship in the group but they had like one completed thread the entire time lol.

the fact that Odette/Kate were the oldest family dynamic in the group who had like three NOTES between them.

the fact that Odette/Orion became a ship later who were just... never written. I can be honest now, I found them boring and I’m wondering if she felt the same, or if the lack of writing made me dislike them. Either way, Orion became a drain on my Odette muse, just as the lack of Kate/Odette was.

most stuff with Odette makes me sad. I feel like I had really good connections for her that... didn’t work out, and maybe I took to long to address it.

Mira/Andreas is a dynamic I blame myself on. I did feel sorta like I wasn’t getting anything written with her old ship, and I think me and the mun were drained on it, so while Mira was on hiatus and the mun for her last ship, Clark, was debating letting him go/killing him off, I didn’t mind discussing a new ship. I wanted this ship to be a slow burn, I wanted proper closer on the last one because it was a good ship and the mun is a good friend. This was handled with so little tact on her part, we were instantly hitting ship dynamics from the beginning and I found it callous. I dragged out replies just to avoid it. A shame, because I loved the dynamic, but the way it was handled put a bad taste in my mouth

she wanted an August/Delilah ship? Which I didn’t really want, but she’s really good at convincing you bit by bit that it’s a great idea. When I finally jumped onto this ship and flung myself into it, we got like two notes into it and nothing. Are you seeing the theme yet?

I got nothing against Arthur/Cora because I loved writing them, the only thing I did dislike is how rushed they were and how little I got to explore some of the Riverborn aspects of Arthur’s story with Cora. Also a pregnancy happened hella fast.

But I did have something against the Meadowes dynamic altogether: we had so many pieces of it to use that were never written. I failed sometimes on my part, but a lot of it was Hillary getting easily distracted by something else. Cora/Faolan were rarely written beyond the first reply to a thread. Gabe/Faolan were often two notes in and done. Faolan/Alistair lasted a bit longer, I was impressed. Gemma/Lily was mentioned above, but I’ll also mention how often she tried to take pieces of Faolan’s history and twist it to be her character’s pain without any consideration to previously discussed lore or connections. It wasn’t even about a connection anymore - it was about making her character the focal point. Look at how the Daniel Bisset, Aurelie, and Gabe things turned out: half of the plots were twisted to benefit Gabe’s momentum in the story, and the pieces of angst that should rightly lingered on Aurelie were shifted to the side. I didn’t even write that ship, and sometimes looking at them made me feel like a discarded sweater, but they were cute. Anyhow, this is long, moving on.

Faolan/Saby. I literally almost forgot about them, but like... Legit, I’m glad this ship ended because Saby was wholly too dependent on Faolan’s feelings for her, which he couldn’t even acknowledge because he was still in love with his two centuries deceased wife. Was this handled gracefully, did we get to slow-burn some of their stuff in writing? Sometimes. But again, they weren’t really written, and the ship was pushed and pushed, even when I wasn’t really interested in writing it because I didn’t want a ship for him yet.

Aliza/Tien was twisted out of me piece by piece, prodding at the parts of the Aliza/James connection I found uncomfortable (like the murder, like how difficult it was to plot after a point) until Tien seemed like the best answer. This was late enough into Lethe that I woke up enough to cut the ship off and drop the dynamic. In hindsight, I regret letting this even get so far.

Jonas. Just... most of the things written with him lol because he was constantly pushed onto my characters and others. Jo was hinted as a thing, Wesley was hinted as a thing, I think Nate was at one time. It definitely opened my eyes to the fact that she wanted a ship and that dynamics outside of that were largely ignored.

Do you know what it was like to put your heart into a character / story that was ignored ENTIRELY because she didn’t ship with them? Do you know what its like to be excited about a friendship or sibling or parental dynamic that... stopped getting written because your friend only wrote the character for a ship and the next shiny thing attracted her attention and instead of letting the character go, she made you think the next reply was right around the corner? Do you know how many threads we wrote that didn’t go anywhere, and how thrilled I was to write them still because I thought each time it would be different?

TL;DR: if it wasn’t a ship dynamic, it wasn’t written. If it was a ship dynamic, it was sometimes written. If you weren’t doing any of those things, you were ignored.

TL;DR 2: Do not misread this, please. I understand that RL comes first, I understand that dynamics change, that you’re allowed to change your mind. But do you realize how often I was strung along, or how often I was shoved aside? How hard it was to keep a character going sometimes because their big connection was only important for about a week?

and biting my tongue when my own feelings were callously ignored

when we wrote a ship between Selene/Gabe which was later discarded for a ship with Aurelie which had a much better chemistry, but was handled with little tact for my own feelings as I received constant updates on how their ship progressed, and also how the friendship we developed between Selene and Gabe was just dropped altogether - as it was with Adam/Nadeya so many years ago - instead of revamped to fit a changed dynamic as we discussed ooc.

when I would message her and be ignored unless it was about one of our ships

like the fact that I became an admin in Lethe to help her out and eventually the burdens of handling it were on my shoulders. I don’t mind this, but when it came to asking her for help on simple matters (sending me the psd for banners when I switched computers and no longer had it, posting a bio, skimming a post so I could verify it was okay to post, plotting out future events, posting unfollows/follows for people) or asking if she could write something from an admin post, getting a “sure! I’ll do that later!” and then finding out it wasn’t done for a week until I sucked it up and did it myself. We addressed this eventually, but Lethe ended shortly afterwards. 

So. That’s how the last two years have gone, and lord knows how much I’ve forgotten. Hillary and I wrote so much over the last two years, and we definitely grew close. I thought we were beyond just writing friends, that we might have been real friends (after all, we sent christmas/birthday gifts to each other. Hell, I still use the mouse pad she gave me).

I ignored the way she ignored me if we weren’t writing something interesting. I ignored the way she didn’t care about my characters even passively until I shipped with her in some form. I ignored how it felt when entire sections of a back and forth DM was ignored if she didn’t care about the character. I ignored how she refused to write with other people because she disliked their FC, or she didn’t want to write with the mun, or she found the character boring. Half the time, she found a character boring because she didn’t bother learning about them, and the moment she did read about them, they were intriguing. I ignored how she belittled my other ships with other players because “oh I don’t think they click” or “imo that one is boring” or tried to poach those characters to one of her ships. I ignored how she made me feel like a part-time friend sometimes and her best friend other times. 

I ignored the way she didn’t help with admin problems even when she knew admin duties were taking a toll on me as people demanded more and more from me. Not even when we discussed ways to handle things on both our parts to make it easier and promptly ignored them the first chance she got.

She made me feel so important when we would headcanon things. It felt like my characters were important, and that I was a good writer with clever ideas and intriguing characters, and that writing her was reaching a pinnacle that others couldn’t reach. She never said this, I’ll give her credit for that, but I have to admit, I felt like my characters didn’t work out unless I had a connection with her.

The last few months were eye opening. I had already spent the last year frustrating from her lack of leadership as an admin, and anger for the way she ignored people’s feelings even when it was pointed out and gave the bare minimum when interacting with other people, and sadness for the fun dynamics we had discussed but never wrote beyond the posted biography. When Lethe ended, I was ready to let it go and move on, I said my peace about my admin things and letting the characters go meant a fresh start. To me, we were friends REGARDLESS OF BEING IN A GROUP TOGETHER OR WRITING TOGETHER. You don’t talk about ooc things and ic things as much as we did only to stop talking the instant you’re done writing together, right?

Wrong. She didn’t even help us close the group that she created, or helped us discuss things with members who weren’t sure what was happening. I gave her time, just short messages about random things because I wanted her to know that I didn’t hold Lethe’s end against her, that we were friends anyway. Those messages were ignored. I gave her more time and then after nearly a month or maybe two, I finally messaged her on tumblr with a brief snippet on how thankful I was to know her because she helped me as a writer, and apologized if I implied Lethe ending was her fault (which I still agree that it wasn’t entirely, it was a situation handled callously and frankly I still think people should have considered that Hillary was barely 3% of the admin team at the time since Ally and I were shouldering the burdens of everything else). I mentioned how I felt like our friendship was being ignored because we weren’t writing together, and how I had thought after nearly two years of talking that we were friends enough to chat once in a while at least, but if we are only RP friends, let me know so at least I don’t have to fucking think about it.

Do you think that got a response?

It didn’t. She didn’t log into discord to chat about it or something else, she didn’t respond to the message, nothing. She quietly unfollowed me and then blocked me. She unfriended me on facebook, I feel like that’s answer enough.

I’ve known her at least eight years and while some of those times were brief, the last two years were most certainly not. And not only does it make me angry that I’ll never know whether she just dislikes me, or whether I made her uncomfortable, or what, I’m also just... really upset that I lost an eight year friendship. There’s only one person I know longer than her and I had hoped that, if not real friends, then we would still be able to meet up in another group together someday. Now it’ll never happen again, and it devastates me. I can count my friends on one hand and I thought, you know, that she was one of them. It feels like a physical blow whenever something comes up on the dash that involves her. I feel so stupid for thinking we were friends when she showed me her priorities in Ashbourne, when she showed me in little pieces here and there throughout Lethe. I feel stupid for writing this entire thing and crying about it. I feel stupid for assuming.

And I don’t know how to talk about this in a way that’ll let me say goodbye to it because I do need to let it go, but I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll lose my ability to write because she’s been such a big part of the writing journey for me.

So here it is. Eight years of friendship summed up in however long this is and here I am, trying to let go - and still a little part of me hopes she’ll see it and reach out about something, anything. And a bigger part that’s angry and doesn’t want to talk to her ever again because I don’t want to do this another time.

tl;dr:

I miss my friend Hillary, but also she’s kind of a shitty friend who only seems to care about people when they are writing with her and I’m an idiot for thinking anything else when I’ve had eight years to learn it. Likely if she did find this post, it’ll be misinterpreted in every way until I’m not only an idiot, but also I’m a bully who didn’t give her time and space, who pushed things on her she didn’t want, who she pitied. Because it just occurred to me now how easily she can warp the truth, how she can prod things bit by bit, until it fits just how she wants things to look that’ll benefit her the most. I love my friend, but I’m done. No matter how much I miss her, I deserve more than to be the butt of whatever joke she wants to say to make this sound cool.

[wildpokemon]

ML Season 3 Rewatch: Ladybug

Production No. 324

Okay, last episode of the regular season - only the two part finale left after this!! I actually can’t believe how close to the end we are lol. I still feel like I JUST watched those episodes. This episode however, feels like a long time ago lol. I was on vacation in England when this one came out and really only watched it the one time, so I am very ready to watch it again within the context of everything else. This episode had all the plot if I remember correctly, and I’m sure everything is gonna hit so much harder after seeing everything that comes before it. I haven’t even seen this since Chat Blanc and Felix came out, so this should be fun!!

theme song ends, and BAM, I’m in tears

HE’S. MAKING. HER. THE. LUCKY. CHARM.

Adrien makes it for her, is happy about it, but then Plagg is mildly discouraging bc it’s a gift that isn’t cheese (🙄), and so Adrien wants a second opinion... So, he asks.. his father.

he’s gushing about her :))))

and Gabriel is a dick about it of course

I wonder now that we know Gabe was previously aware of the birthday party if it'll make watching Befana any different now? Like, did he pick Marinette’s grandma specifically to akumatize or something? (i sorta doubt it, but I don’t remember the episode too well)

i die for the lucky charms holy sheet

ooooooo i never noticed that shot of Lila staring down at Marinette’s birthday party before. that’s new to this episode right?? i don’t remember Lila showing up in Befana at all. that’s siiiiick, good set up for the rest of this ep

Lila is back on her bullshit. And by bullshit, I mean that goddamn bench she’s always sitting on when she gossips with the forty-year old man

wait..... i’m confused about timelines now. after we see Lila looking down at the birthday party, it cuts to her on the bench and Gabe is all mad about Marinette’s “influence” on Adrien. But why is he SUDDENLY mad?? the way the episode is set up makes it imply that this gabe/lila conversation happened soon after the birthday party. but that makes no sense, since lila and gabe don’t make their deal until Chameleon, which was the definitive first episode of this season, sooo it doesn’t line up. I mean, there’s a slightly different color filter used in the bench talking scene that I think is supposed to imply it’s the present, and NOT soon after the birthday party. But now I’m just confused as to why gabe is suddenly mad about Marinette again.

oh, hm, okay. so then it flashes back to Lila threatening Marinette, and then Lila doing the shit with the tests. Both those moments have like a vignette type filter on them, so even her planting the test shit is in the past. okay okay, bench scene takes place in the present. just, dont know why Gabe suddenly all worried about Marinette again. maybe hes just miffed that Lila was supposed to unknowingly be helping him akumatize Marinette and it’s taking a while idk

“You work too hard sir” Nathalie says immediately after Gabe gets done striking a deal with a fourteen year old that involves expelling another fourteen year old girl, who happens to be one of his sons best friends. And they call that “work.” Ya know, just another day at the Hawkmoth Inc. Offices. Tomorrow will be coffin cleaning day smh

“I’m good friends with the best manga publisher in Japan.” fuck you Lila. You don’t have any friends at all, let alone good friends

did Miss Bustier really have to expose Marinette in front of the whole class

Alya immediately standing up for Marinette :))))

Lila half a second later, pretending to help >:((

aaand the only thing Lila IS actually good at? Egging Marinette on so that she reacts too harshly and makes herself look bad

fuck lila

lololol Miss Bustier gives NO fucks, just telling everyone Lila got the worst grade

(surely on purpose ofc)

Aaaaadrieeeen :)))) my boy, YES, defend her!!!

this BITCH and her GODDAMN fake disability/injury lies!!!! aaaaaaahhhh

(also, who tf would EVER believe Marinette would push someone down the stairs? lmao)

ooooooh boy, i’m getting heated lol

the animation is really good though, the shots so far are great, and this scene rn, Marinette is clench fisted in anger and you can see her ribs move as she inhales and exhales. it’s subtle since it’s her parents talking, but a very nice touch

let’s take a tally of reactions of everyone who sees the “proof” that Marinette stole Lila’s fox necklace: Tom and Sabine: shocked/surprised (but maybe unsure), Alya: mainly surprise and disbelief it looks to me, Alix: brows hardened, she looks angry tbh, Mylene: confused and worried, Adrien: the saddest eyes i’ve possibly ever seen. he low key looks distraught, bc he knowwws

and he does defend her too of course. or tries to before Damocles interrupts him

Nathalie as Catalyst got them Kylie Jenner lip fillers

tbh.... Scarlet Moth pretty ugly lmaoo. I don’t really like the all red look on him

Chloe defending Sabrina from the butterflies is almost cute

Princess Justice and Verity Queen, goddamn. what great names

wish we could have seen Adrien’s reactions to seeing them all get akumatized again, and Marinette too

damn, she immediately goes to take of her earrings. just wow. the danger is too real lmao

aaaaaaand Nathalie passes out. of course she does lol

should it annoy me how quickly HM drops his transformation to help a fainting Nathalie, when two episodes ago he was knocking his son around like a punching bag? cause uhh, I’m annoyed

aaaah this is where this episode suffers from only being 20 minutes. it jumps right from the butterflies leaving, to Marinette back in her room with Tikki. We got no Adrien reaction to anything, no reaction from anyone tbh. bummer

Alya is such a good friend, wow i love her

also, you kNOW she thinks Lila having that stupid fake fox necklace is shady af

awww, Marinette called her “Al” I’ve never heard her say that before. not many people in the show have nicknames lol

Marinette’s apron has a version of her signature flowers on it :)

“the wounds on the miraculous become your wounds as well” fascinatinggg

and him saying “never at that cost again,” with the dramatic pan to the family portrait with Emilie in it?? SO good. that (and Adrien’s comment in Feast about the dizzy spells) is confirmation enough for me that Emilie’s coma is indeed from wearing the Peacock Miraculous (hi, Kim from two days later here. i wrote this one before that Nathalie as seen by Gabriel Miraculous Secrets episode, where he mentions that Emilie DID fall into a coma from the Peacock Miraculous. So, hashtag confirmed my dudes)

ooo Alya is doin some sleuthing. I love her

Gabriel being asleep while sitting straight up, head barely drooping at all, is just further proof that he’s insane

why does Nathalie have to buy one of those stupid tourist Eiffel tower key chains lmao. she could have picked  a n y t h i n g as the object, and she goes out and buys on of those lol, like why

something super heroes and super villains have in common? they love the sewers lol

akjdaldksa Duusuu is so fun

Duusuu has a fucked up idea of how romance works lmao

she really is dying for her boss

I gotta say though, Mayura’s movements and everything to create Sentibug is really cool

Adrien overhears Alya trying to help Marinette, starts to walk to confront Lila, but then gets the alert about Ladybug fighting Mayura, and so he leaves but wow it makes me happy that he wanted to help her lol (he even says a scene later to Plagg that he is gonna help her, Ladybug just needs him more immediately)

also, Mayura’s fake evil laugh is funny. she knows how to play it up

man i really wanna know why everyone thinks HM just suddenly unakumatized them all. i need to know how that discussion went down. shouldn’t LB and CN be curious too??? i guess it’d be hard to talk about it together since they can’t admit they were in the room it happened in - but still, they could talk to Tikki and Plagg respectively. i wanna hear that talk so baddd

hahaha she covers herself in flour to get away from her dad for a minute and it doesnt even work lmao

:((( Chat’s so sad when he thinks Ladybug is hurt. “there’s something wrong, we’re supposed to be nearly invulnerable.” his voice does a little crack and i’m sad

really interesting parallel to Felix, in how Ladybug doesn’t believe Felix is Adrien pretty quickly, but Chat is more easily convinced. Then again, Felix as Adrien was a lot more out of character than Sentibug was.

oooooooop and now Mayura knows that Ladybug DOESN’T love Chat

also, i really like that Chat’s first reaction is to be confused, and ask what happened to the other boy (unlike *cough* Marinette in Chat Blanc *cough* i know i know it was probably a timing/pacing thing dw)

this is cruel :( poor Chat aaaaahh he looks so genuinely happy to be hearing his feelings be returned :(((

lips touched!! he kissed Sentibug oh my god

and real Ladybug shows up, and now Chat looks so devastated that it wasn’t real oh godddd

ngl though, the ~listen to your heart~  No! listen to your brain!!, is pretty funny lol

Sentibug sounds so weird lol. She’s more soft spoken

poor Chat, keeps clinging to it being real

she called him kitty :)

“I love you just the way you are My Lady” :))))

Senti-charm lol

heeyy, this time it’s a ridiculously huge gun instead of the Final Fantasy sword lmao

alakjdaljh i love that the fork gives Chat the absolute confirmation she’s Ladybug lmao. i love the lucky charms

Gabe wakes up from his stress nap, sees Nathalie is gone, and his first thought is to check the news... their dynamic is so weird and fucked up lmao

WHY, why did they have to do this whole thing where sentimonsters can be almost human and in control of themselves etc. it’s a cool concept, and it’d be sort of interesting to find out later that like, The Gorilla or someone has been one the whole time (unlikely though I think), but gOD i HATE sentimonster adrien theory. i hate it bc there’s nothing to refute it, and it just makes me feel awful lol. honestly, thinking about it in canon actually puts a pit in my stomach

Cat Noir and His Ladybugs lol

Chat gets so maaaaad when Mayura kills Sentibug

aaaaahhh, and then Gabe/HM being like “getting sentimental about a sentimonster” all sarcastically. like if Adrien WAS a sentimonster, then that would make sense why Gabe doesn’t give a shit about him, cause he thinks he isn’t real or w/e. goddamnit i hate this theory so much, makes me feel yucky

Chat calling Hawkmoth grandpa alkdjalsdhalsd

“regular kids. so fragile, so easy to break” 😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

FUCK YOOOUUU

hawkmoth said yeet

the way Ladybug is holding/cradling Chat rn mirrors the way he was holding Sentibug earlier

they’re so sweeeeet together oh my god

“ladybug doesn’t sound half as cool” :((( this hits so hard post Chat Blanc. he doesn’t really need saving here, and they both know it. But she’ll save him every time so she never has to see him hurt again. i cry

lol Chat referred to Sentibug as “our Bugette” lol that’s cute

it IS cruel, Ladybug!! using the Peacock Miraculous to create real beings, control them, and then destroy them is CRUEL!! (so @ thomas astruc pls let adrien be a real boy thx)

“you disobeyed me again nathalie” alkdjaljdhasdjs why is this funny to me. why is it funny to hear nathalie be scolded the same way he scolds Adrien

she coughed so hard her glasses fell off lol

FUCK LILA

Adrien is all polite about asking to be left alone, but not one second after everyone leaves, he’s scowling

i love him

he’s. so. good.

“you hurt my friend Marinette, and that’s not okay.” NO. IT. IS. NOT. YES.

daaaang Nathalie overheard

A DISEASE THAT MAKES HER LIE//????? AND DAMOCLES IS EATING THIS SHIT??? HE’S CRYING??? IM SO MAD AAAAAHHHHHH

alkdjaldhadjhajh Marinette’s face when she sees the photoshoot of Adrien with Lila is so funny.

can’t wait until marinette finds out he suffered through that for her

Ooooh wow. That was a lot lol. This episode was so so good, so much happening and it all felt really high stakes. But now I’m gonna scour the internet for canon baby photos of Adrien to prove he’s not a sentimonster. Hey, he was longtime childhood friends with Chloe, right? And the Agreste’s have only had the Peacock and Butterfly Miraculouses for about a little over a year? After their trip to Tibet?? Soooooooo, if Chloe was friends with Adrien before his parents got the Miraculouses, then he can’t be a sentimonster. There case closed, I can sleep tonight.

(i know a lot of that isn’t proven yet in canon. but let me enjoy my peace lol)

Anyway, on to the finale next!! Can’t wait!

[howdoyoudothedew]

Another long SPN post

This time it’s notes from my WIPs. I never actually really wrote any of these, but tags and titles are included. Anyone can use these as starting points for a fanfic, have fun

Henry/Balthazar Summary: When Henry’s mentor, Benny, doesn’t return from the war Henry is saddened. He refuses to believe Benny died. Won’t even entertain it. On the way to find his missing mentor/father figure, he meets Balthazar. A strange man with a british accent and a habit of flirting with everyone, especially him. He finds Benny. He finds love. THen Balthazar tells him he’s from another time period and has to go. The last chapter is Balthazar saving Henry from Abaddon. Side note: Henry has blue eyes that Balthy apparently likes to wax poetic about Chapter One The day’s circled on his calendar. ‘Benny comes home’. That would be today. Or, it would’ve been. He had gotten the letter a week ago. ‘Benjamin Lafitte died in the war. We send our condolences.’ The letter, of course, wasn’t actually as cold and unfeeling as that. But it didn’t matter. Because it felt like that. It felt like someone had taken him and shoved him in an ice bath. He couldn’t believe the letter. He wouldn’t believe the letter. Benny had promised he’d live through this war. And if he had to find him, then by golly he’d find him. Even if he had to do it on his own. Henry snuck out of the bunker that night. A pack of food was the only thing he brought with him. That, and a picture of him and Benny. No one caught him on the way out. He knew the passages too well. He stole a bike from the garage, and left. There would be no note left in his absence. No trace of where he’d gone. Because if he’d left one, he worried that they’d try to find him. Find him and drag him back. But he couldn’t go back. Not now. Not without Benny. New section He’d been on the hunt for four days now. Had traveled from Lebanon, Kansas to Chattanooga, Tennessee and was slowly making his way to the Georgia coastline. His plan was to check coastal cities first. Then he’d work inwards till he covered all of the US. He only hoped Benny would return here and not go to another country. This is where he runs into Balthazar It’s when he’s asking a bartender if he’d ever seen Benny, while showing his picture Balthy comes up to him and says “Are you from around here, because you’re a perfect ten.”

----

Don't Make Bets With Love Goddesses Five chapters Alternative meeting, canon divergent, Gabriel is Loki, Aphro has her son arrow multiple people, but Gabe bypasses them all “You cheated!” “That never seemed to matter to you before, now how did I cheat?” “Eros shot Sam with an arrow!” “My son’s arrow never touched the Winchester.” Everyone has what the humans would call a ‘soulmate’, not everyone finds them and they're not always romantic. It looks like Gabe found his, though.

Chapter One Explains how Loki has messed around, yet has never fallen in love “I will never fall in love” the Norse god boasted. He was talking out of his ass, and Aphrodite knew it. Loki bets Aphrodite that he will never fall in love She accepts with a wicked twinkle in her eye Aphro has never been able to pass up bets, especially when they deal with love He was close once, with Kali, but it ultimately fell flat It didn’t even actually fall flat with Gabe, but with Kali who could sense his growing attachment and cut off their involvement before it could happen. They had made a promise to each other that their thing would remain ‘no strings attached’. Then years where nothing happens

Chapter Two Sam enters the scene He’s tall and handsome; funny, sarcastic, witty. And he’s one of the only people Gabe has ever met that won’t take his crap. That will see right through it. Gabriel vows right then and there that he won’t fall in love with Sam.

----

Different Circumstances Summary: Where the first meeting isn't of a boy with demon blood and an archangel, hidden as a trickster god, disguised as a janitor. Nor is the second meeting, or the third, or even the fifth. Until suddenly it is and the world seems just that much more messed up. Six chapters Tags: Canon divergent, Canon universe, 5 + 1 format, fluff, angst

Chapter One High school Gabe is the ‘bad kid’ They bond over pranks, and Gabe teaches Sam a few tricks

Chapter Six Sam connects all the dots and realizes the few people he had met in his life, the ones other than Jess that he had clicked with on automatic, were all the same person. Where all the trickster, Loki the god of mischief, and Gabriel the messenger of God. He hadn’t even clicked with Jess as quickly as he had seemed to click with each and every version of Gabe he had met. And now he was gone.

----

To Heal A Soul Summary: Castiel isn't the only angel who tried to save Sam Winchester from the Cage. But while Castiel got a body, the other found only a soul. Tiny and broken, frayed at the edges, yet still somehow alive curled up in the corner of the Cage. Gabe keeps and heals Sam’s soul until he feels that it could be replaced with minimum consequences, when he does replace it there is still a battle. Gabe can’t help him with this battle, none of Team Free Will can. Gabe's dog is Max Chapter One Gabe gets Sam’s soul, just his soul, from the Cage because he knows what’ll happen if he puts his soul back in his body after Lucifer had ripped it out Sam gets a different… form type thing. Like, I don’t know Gabe uses pagan magic to give Sam a body like his own Explains to Sam the situation

----

Stacy’s Dad (Lafittz) Tags: help me for i know not what im doing, i love this song and had to do this though, babysitter!garth, single father!benny, female teen oc, benny is older than garth by a few years, dilf!Benny, Notes: I'm sorry for the dilf tag, but I thought of it and it was too funny to me to not include it. Garth’s turned twenty a day ago, and is babysitting Benny’s kid (she’s twelve, so it’s not exactly babysitting) Benny’s thirty (his wife and him had Stacy when they were eighteen, they married right out of high school) Garth asks Benny out, saying that he promised him when he was eleven he’d go out with him when he turned twenty Stacy and Garth go to the pool, where Benny may work as a lifeguard Or, Stacy met Garth during her freshman year and they hit it off immediately as friends But Stacy liked Garth, and when he met Stacy’s dad it was practically love at first sight. (Because he's mushy like that) Or Benny and Andrea had her at sixteen, and Benny was estatic. Sure, it was early and he wasn't sure if he was ready, but he'd be damned if he didn't try to be a good father.

----

Scarecrow Summary: Remake where Cas is a “hunter” who Dean picks up on the way to ----, he's working the same case and they decide to pretend to be a couple to solve it. Also, instead of Meg, Sam runs into Gabriel because he picks him up on the road before he got to Meg. Sam’s part is inspired in part by the honeythief amv. Tags: s01e11 Scarecrow, rewrite, i tried, canon divergent, canon hopping, beginning unchanged, fake/pretend relationship, bonding(????) Dean picks up Cas either along the road (a parallel of their brothers) or at the food place he and Sammy split A man slid into the seat Sam had vacated, black hair Dean could only describe as bedroom hair, piercing blue eyes, and a trenchcoat. “So you're going after the missing couples, too?” The other couple isn't there, instead the people there immediately assume they're a couple Cas immediately goes with it and when Dean asks about it later he simply shrugs and explains that this job seemed to require some falsehood

---- Short ficlet where they find Narnia. “I thought you'd already been to Narnia given how deep inside the closet you are,” Gabriel joked.

----

Sabriel Anniversary Sam: Gabriel, I figured we could go where I first fell in love with you. Gabriel: Sam, I'd rather not… Sam: Why not? Gabriel: I have bad memories there. Sam, in surprise: Bad memories? I mean , sure we tried to kill you Gabriel: Lucifer killed me. Sam: Oh… Oh! You were thinking Elysian Fields? I meant Crawford Hall! Gabriel: What? Sam nervously rubs the back of his neck while looking away: Yeah… Could never really get you out of my head after that. *looks back at him* Even when I really wanted to. ----

Everytime they find Gabriel again, Sam wants to ask Gabriel to help. He wants him to stay. Though he tells himself it's not for him, but the world. But then they leave him behind in that ring of holy fire. And he… dies. At the hands of Lucifer. Sam thinks that's it. But then he shows up again, only to save him and leave him. (But it wasn't just him- it was Castiel as well, he has to remind himself for the next few weeks till it sticks.) So this time Sam swallows everything down, and he tells himself it's okay. Gabriel would've never stayed. And that's fine. Then Gabriel's back again, and he finally agrees to be on their team. He finally agrees to simply stay, even if it isn't for him. So of course he has to die all over again. ----

A rebound. Gabriel knows that's exactly what this is. After knowing Sam for all these years, he can read him. Read him easier than he can read himself. Heck, he knew Jess and Sam’d date the second he saw them together. And just as he knew, a month later they were dating. So yeah, Gabriel knew how to read Sam and how he felt about others. Romantic feelings just weren't there for him. Sure, Sam sounded sincere. He truly believed he liked Gabriel, and Gabriel knew that. But he knew his best friend and he knew the feelings were just his body’s half-assed attempt at fixing whatever hole Jess had left him with that he refused to recognize.

“I'm not ready.” It's not a lie. Gabriel isn't ready to date anyone, even if he loves Sam with all his heart. But he refused to be a rebound. He told the girlfriend Sam has before Jess- Ruby- as much when she gave him her twisted blessing after Sam broke up with her. If Sam knew that's what he was looking for in Gabriel, it would crush him. The poor kid would feel terrible, and Gabriel knows it. That is something he won't allow. Sam deserved happiness, but it couldn't be with him. Not now. Maybe not ever.

---- Crime Cleaners crime scene cleaners sam and dean who get roped into something well above their paygrade by two particular Novaks, possible villain being Luci and Lilith, who is his 'queen' they definitely get help from their friend Bobby and the Novak's friends Charlie, Rowena, and Rowena's girlfriend, the coroner Billie Or, serial killers God and his Righteous Man, who are secretly Dean and Cas. Gabe and Sam are the ones trying to find them.

----

John Winchester and Chuck Shurley meet the parents thing. John first meets Cas, and Dean explains that Cas is his husband. Then he meets Gabriel, Sam’s bondmate-husband- and an archangel. When he mentions how weird this is, Gabriel is the one who points out that “If you think it's weird that your son in laws are angels, just remember that their father in law is literally God.”

----

Normal au, Gabriel shows up out of nowhere because he has to do a blood sugar test to check for diabetes or some shit and he just grabs Sam: “I need your blood.”

[percysbluepizza]

Oh we ARE impertinent

okay since @annabetncnase asked for it, my big ole post, UNEDITED about the Lightning Thief Musical on Broadway. good luck to anyone who attempts to read this shit

ACT 1

Prologue/Day I Got Expelled

Alright so there is big boom lightning at the very very beginning of the show because Of Course there is? But it also comes with a huge flash of light, which startled liTERALLY everyone in the audience. Very fun, good use of technical effects. First guy on is James Hayden (Luke + Some) and he opens with the line. Then KRISTEN FUCKING STOKES (whom I have grown to ADORE) and the rest of the ensemble (Sally, Claiese, and Grover) come on and have this AMAZING choreography. They’re singing and all and then these curtains (which have been up and are on my pic) get pulled away from both sides by the whole onstage cast and CHRIS runs up and does this slide thingy to the very tippy top of the stage, where he sat for a moment, then turned to the audience and started. I about screamed and I’m not joking, he’s so expressive and such a great Percy (god I’m in love with him great work). As the song progressed, I was impressed by the ability with lighting use and all these cool stage tricks to have the Mrs. Dodds and also the pen/sword thing! Jorrel plays Grover so well, he’s so empathetic and caring toward Percy and I!!! So the whole story of him getting expelled is explained and god it is so fucking sad. Percy’s voice cracks. Percy’s fucking upset clearly and doesn’t understand and ouch…. ‘So if you think you are a half-blood’ is said so gently, and then THE DANCING. Chris can dance. Like well. Very well. So during ‘THis ain’t Odyssey’s Odyssey” he did a big ole kick and danced his heart out. SO good.

Strong

So obviously there’s some talking in between the first piece and this one, and there was a scene change when the lights went out and now they’re in Percy’s apartment with his mom and Gabe. Gabe is like… god you seem him and you loathe him bc he’s played so well. Percy sprays a chan of ‘aerosol’ at one point bc Gabe smells. And Chris just captures Percy’s compassion so well… He tells his mom that she doesn’t have to stay with Gabe and doesn’t deserve that and ugh so good. There are genuine blue marshmallows. and the way they did the little fire with the fog in the bucket and Percy’s mom’s comforting him hhh.

The Minotaur/The Weirdest Dream

The transfer to this scene/piece is very quick, Grover comes running in with a trash can over his head and he asks if Percy told Sally about the field trip and she said no and it was just a big mess of miscommunication. He basically gets to the point where he says the Minotaur is after Percy and holy shit. This boy is massive. And the design of it is insane and it’s got red eyes and wow. ‘I hope you’re really a SWORD” and he fight and it’s all just great. Sally goes away, Percy kills the beast and then ‘Don’t pass out…” Poseidon is in a tank top and a open Hawaiian shirt as well as flip flops and just “oh look, a man in a Hawaiian shirt’ He takes the seashell and is just the most confused. And then they bring in Annabeth, pushing her on one of those dolly things and she’s ‘floating’ and the whole thing is a big dream. Up until she tells him “You drool when you sleep” right and the thing is… the banner for CHB unfurls and the lights come back up and all of that and just it’s a true rude awakening. Then he looked around the camp and was so confused, Annabeth (beautiful, amazing, badass Kristin) started explaining what was happening and he had no clue. She then calls for Mr. D  

Another Terrible Day

I don’t think you guys realize how good Jorrel is. Maybe you do but we stan Jorrel. But he comes out dressed in not matching clothes with a bright button up (pink) and plaid shirt, suspenders. He’s angry. Percy explains that he has no clue what’s going and everything’s getting explained to him with the other demigods. The other demigods are so cute and I love them so much. And he’s yelling through a megaphone. Jorrel can do so many roles so well and he did a great job. “You’re a horse?!” also he just clops. Like it’s human legs. Clip clop bitch. With a tail.

Their Sign

Again the transition from the first song to this second one is really fast. Chiron’s comforting but god is Percy angry. I love that tbh. Chris is clearly upset and he feels for Percy. And he shows it. He’s upset and then Percy’s voice goes all soft… Love that. Luke starts being buddy-buddy and showing him that it’s gonna be alright. Supposedly.

Put You In Your Place

Fucking. Sarah. Goddamn. I can’t believe how good she is. We stan so hard. Her fit? Great. Her voice? Belted. Awesome. Annabeth truly out here though. SHe’s intimidating as fuck and she knows what she’s about. There’s so much cool battle choreo in this scene and it just looks great. There’s blocking and stabbing and it looks awesome. Also that guitar riff that she comes in with is rad. And then the bathroom thing. Great. Percy’s cornered and it clearly shows that his powers came as a last resort with stress and the way they flashed the blue lights is just great I love that so fucking much. And they’re asking about the way he figured out those powers and they’re freaked out. Cool shit. Also “The plan would have worked either way.” Holy fucking shit. Annabeth is fucking scary as hell. She gives zero fucks about Percy at the beginning

The Campfire Song

The way they made the campfire is so cool! Very techy. And I didn’t realize they’re sitting around the campfire eating dinner together as a camp. Very family much love I’m a big fan. They’re putting the food into the fire and then complaining and I love it. Percy’s so sweet trying to talk about his mom and then come back around once they tell him what’s going on. Also they have a cute dance they do together. SO unified and lovely. And then THE FUCKING SIGN COMES. Percy’s sign. The whole thing. They’re looking and he’s like “Is that a fork?” “I’m the Son of Poseidon? sweet!) Everyone freaks out when they’re sure he’s a son of Poseidon. Percy is told to go see the “Mummy in the attic” “That’s old people talk for Mom, right?” Cue the Oracle.

The Oracle

This sounds so dumb but kinda like… found the Oracle impressive. Spooky. 10/10 Also… side note… Chris plays Percy with a lot of random mannerisms and movement and it’s really quite fun to watch. Anyway the Oracle is big spooky and she’s in a huge dress and she’s pointing to him and it has all the people who are in the next scene sitting there underneath and moving the dress. Big cool. And the vocals! Sis can sing. And it’s just beautiful bc then Percy has to see Mr. D and Chiron, the first of whom wants to turn Percy into a dolphin. “Percy you have no choice.” “You’re expelling me again?” Basically Percy is getting kicked out of camp bc of his unwillingness to do the quest. And there’s the transition to Good Kid my friends.

Good Kid

Guys oh fuck. Oh shit. Chris just really came out here to kill with the vocals tonight. And My heart? He kinda does a fist thing toward what would be the Big House and walks off to sulk, starting the song and walking around being angry ugh. He climbs up the back of the stage (which is essentially scaffolding) and sits at the end to deliver the sad part of the line when everything goes piano-y and soft and essentially that’s him sitting at the docks at the lake and watching the water. Luke later finds him (“If you’re a son of Poseidon, don’t hide at the lake, that’s where everyone will look.” and talks to him about the quest, where they figure out his mom would be in the Underworld if she was anywhere. Also there’s a trident where Percy is the middle prong and the other two are blue and shine on him UGH yeah

Killer Quest

“Yeah I’ll do it!” Was delivered so well, so sweet and innocent. This kid just misses his mom. Also since when did Luke and Percy get a bro handshake? Grover shows up with a bunch of bags and says he’ll go too (Luke’s chilling in the background) and he gives him the official questing backpack. I think Luke leaves at this point to get some shoes. Annabeth is there with a bag telling him that she’s going too and that her mom will be excited and they’re all dancing together and god I’m so emotional. They dance and they all work as a team so well great work you guys. And the lights turn out with them starting their quest!

Lost

Return from intermission with a literal bang, as there are three demon triplet math teachers on the bus, with Percy on top and Grover and Annabeth inside. The driver’s screaming, they’re screaming, Percy hops off the top and then fights the fury outside and eventually… The bus explodes, with confetti raining over the audience. Awesome. The piece of paper is in Annabeth’s bag pocket actually. And Percy’s trying to be a reassuring friend to Grover, who’s freaking out, and he’s trying to keep Annabeth safe too… ugh great stuff. They move all together when they say “We’re lost in the woods” for the first time. Their priorities really become clear later in the song when they talk about what they’re wanting. Grover could not be more enthusiastic about the squirrel. Also this is the first time we see Annabeth laugh at Percy “I think that’s kind of nuts” is the line and she turns around to laugh into her hand. PURE AS HELL. Wandering aimless through the forest occurs for a minute longer until Percy decides. This point in the musical made me realize that these kids are young. Like 11 or 12. I love that. I felt that in this one. The kids go into Auntie M’s art studio. Annabeth’s asked to take a picture and she’s checking her hair in her dagger, meanwhile Percy’s getting a bad feeling now and Grover’s looking more and more intently at Uncle Ferdinand. Percy is then asked to join in. No camera you say? MEDUSA REVEAL. They do a big battle and Grover ends up picking up Percy and swinging him around to cut off Medusa’s head. Which gets thrown in her own fridge for the time being. Grover leaves.

My Grand Plan

Bitch. This was the moment I teared up a lot. She sat down and started singing and I felt. I FELT. I’m depressed as fuck at the moment and I started feeling things bc of this damn song. Kristin Stokes I love you. Anyway, she’s singing and Percy intently watches, and she’s telling the gods to Wise Up by pointing directly to the sky. SHe’s saying BITCH YOU WILL NOTICE ME. And the pain in her voice when she explains her family situation. The soft part? She’s talking directly to Percy and looking at him, telling him what’s going on. Dear god did I feel. I’m so proud of her my queen Annabeth Chase. She finishes explaining and Percy says: “No more fighting” and she says “Not between us anyway” and they shake on it. I love that. Then Percy decides to have a little fun with the gods and boxes up Medusa’s head. “THey’ll think we’re impertinent Percy.” “Oh, we are impertinent.” He writes both Annabeth and his own name on that box and ships it via the Hermes express. Grover comes back in. “While you guys were in here not solving all our problems, I found these!” “Three Amtrack tickets!?”

Drive

We boarding the train. WE singing. Life is dandy again. Percy sticks his hand in a dog cage and it bites him. They take a tractor which is scaffolding tied to a wheelchair which a guy pulls. They meet Bianca and then they meet Ares after arguing with each other. Cool guy. Also Percy looks so free and proud of himself when he’s on the back of the motorcycle “I mean, look at where I am!” He’s so PROUD holy shit. Also they all put one foot forward during the different lines god the Choreography so fucking cute dear lord. Anyway they’re going and going and they meet Bianca who’s got braids and then they move on!!! I love them! I’m proud. They take another bus. “This time we just won’t blow it up.” They’re sitting on the bus (or train not really sure) and all asleep. Percy’s dreaming now. And Annabeth and Grover are also sleeping. Each is on a chair and it’s kind of cute tbh.

The Weirdest Dream (Reprise)

Percy’s standing there in his dream and he’s very confused. This is ‘scary” and I love that. He’s standing and listening to the these people in his dream talking. Kronos is so fucking scary they literally make him scary. His voice is so deep and spooky and fuck man. Luke’s talking to him (downward, into a pit, technically on the top of the scaffolding) and he’s in a cloak and Kronos says Percy’s name and the lights flash all sorts of colors and then he’s back in his seat. Chris does a bunch of spins until he gets back to his seat and Grover’s shaking him awake, saying he was screaming. Annabeth can’t sleep either. Everyone’s on edge. Thalia’s name was mentioned in the dream and Grover sits up straighter and says he hasn’t heard that name in awhile.

Tree on the Hill

Oh shit this was so emotional. So Grover explains that he didn’t tell Percy this any sooner because he was afraid Percy might not want him to come. Big sad. But he starts the song and let me tell you I never felt like crying more. So Grover’s narrating this story and Percy’s listening on the train and above them, like with the main bridge, Annabeth, Luke and Thalia are slow mo acting out the details of the story until Thalia becomes a tree. Thalia is the same girl that plays Clarriese, and every other character almost omg. But when he’s explaining her turning into a tree, Annabeth and Luke stand behind Thalia and become the branches. So symbolic and so beautiful. Percy comforts Grover and then it’s the last stop.

DOA

THis song. At first I didn’t like it on the soundtrack. Skipped it. But goddamn what a bop. The sparkly dress, the funky tunes, the control of all of the kids so they all dance together. Also dying in a really big bathtub. Yeah. Real. The way they did the elevator with the lights moving in the background was actually super convincing and I Loved that. The dress sparkles all over and all the other background people are in cloaks are dancing too, including James who makes this beautiful jump I love it so much. But they’re all scared and cornered against the light and then have to reconvene together. They all get up from the ground frazzled and then Percy’s shoes start doing something weird. His feet start flying away from him and he’s confused and freaking out and all of a sudden they’re in front of the pit. Oh god the pit was so cool. I thought the feet were shaking and it’s so cool and and the pit literally looks like a pit. I know they’re looking into a light but it’s so scary! The shoes go down into the pit and the tartar sauce joke is made. I love this. SO scary. AND BOLT REVEAL. The line that Percy’s says “betrayed by a friend’ that accuses Annabeth after she pulls the bolt from his bag. I gasped. And then Hades comes around and he’s in a sparkly jacket and says he’ll have his friends and his mom back if he gives him the bolt and then gives them a chance to decide. Everyone walks off stage and he stands there and debates.

Son of Poseidon

Percy’s mom comes out and tells him that what belongs to the sea can always return. She does a little loop around him and he spins in a circle and follows her for a moment. He starts singing and GOD CHRIS. He’s realizing that he has the shell and all that. He blows the conch and a blue light shines on the right side of the stage, the PORTAL. They jump through the portal and they’re all excited that they survived. Standing on the beach and Percy pulled new shoes out and starts putting them on. He tells them that they’re his two best friends and he hugs them close and fuck man the original trio feels. They summon Ares. Ares comes out and he’s fucking ripped and got a pipe. A literal pipe. They start fighting and it looks like they’re losing, Annabeth lost her dagger (which was strapped to her thigh goddamn) and Grover’s down, Percy’s lost his sword. “Percy get to the ocean” He runs to the stage, Kristin and Jorrel run backstage and deliver the blowers with TP. “How about a lot of it!”He yelled and theres the music and he’s relishing the moment, Chris is just giving it his fucking all and there’s a lot going on and I just.. Was amazed beautiful. Great work cast. Ares is washed away and then Percy says: “You can escort us, back to camp.” They’re escorted back.

Last Day of Summer

Percy is standing there and he’s stunned essentially. What does he do now? He gets a letter from his mom with her newest sculpture and that she’s going to school. Annabeth passes him and talks to him about going home and she calls him Seaweed Brain. He and Luke battle when he accuses Luke of being the lightning thief. Luke fucking says yes right and then STABS HIM after trying to convince Annabeth to pick the right side (his side) and she disarms him but he takes a knife and stabs Percy. He runs away, Percy’s on the ground, Annabeth’s at his side and holding him. She’s giving him emergency ambrosia as he’s dying and he looks like he’s gone but then he comes back. She says Seaweed Brain and he says Wise girl and hugs him to her and SHIT man.

Bring on the Monsters

Percy motivates the camp. Tells them it’s real, shits getting real and they need to get ready. He’s got his sword and his fresh stab wound and he motivates them to get going, all of them sing and then Chris does his beautiful solo thing and stands in front with his sword and they’re all singing in the background. When he maintains his line on the bottom people are passing back and forth around him and touching his shoulder as they pass him and he yells excitedly back next summer at one point. And they all stand together in the back and the spotlight hits him as he says he’ll be back next summer and the guitar ends. damn.

The curtains come up and they’re all there taking bows and I love them. Main points: these boys flexible, they’re all doing kicks and all sorts of shit like that, jumping up and down and dancing as well as singing, I’m very impressed. also Chris plays Percy so well. He’s got all the things that were in my head for Percy for all the quirks and ADHD and UGH I love that. Kristin rocked my fucking world and Jorrel played every character so cleanly and had such great vocals. I love them. I love them all. The end.

If you made it to the end of this fucking long ass post send me an ask or a message bc I’m proud of you and you deserve a reward 

[endoftheroad1983]

Wish you were Here

Wish you were here

Steve Rogers x Reader

Part two

You woke up to the hot sun in your face. Did you really sleep until the next evening? You open your eyes toward your night stand clock. It was reading that it was a little after four in the afternoon. Yep you did, you moaned as your climbed out of bed.

“Good Afternoon Y/N.” F.R.I.D.A.Y greeted you as you slip over to your vanity table. The night before event was still fresh in your mind.

Peggy Carter was back. Steve was over the moon about this friends being back. So over that he didn't he recognise what he had done. You still could replay the confusion in his eyes as he tried to apologies. Which makes your chest ache even more. And the worst part of it is that you cannot  be mad at her or him.

Steve and Bucky had spoken several times of how Steve and Peggy had unfinished business in the emotion department. But why did it have to happen the night he finally ask you out? What did you do to cause this much heartache for yourself? You huff out a sigh of sadness as you began brushes the nest you called morning hair.

“Ms. Y/L/N? I am to alert you that Captain Rogers is requesting a meeting with you when you are available.” F.R.I.D.A.Y announce a little over fifteen minutes after you got up.

You kept the screaming in your throat. Why now did he want to chat? You gave F.R.I.D.A.Y. A low mutter as you focus yourself into the shower. Your emotions had wipe you of having any energy.

Another half hour and you were dress and ready to pick a meeting please with Steve when knocking erupted on your door. With how the knocking boom into your room you knew it was a certain super soldier.

You open the door only to be greeted with the most beautiful F/C, F/F bouquet in front of you. You gasp at the sight in front of you. You weren't expecting any of this.

“I'm so sorry Doll.” Steve's face finally emerge from behind the flowers, “I didn't mean to stand you up for our dinner date. As you had seen, we had a hiccup that happen last night. Please forgive me. I swear I will make it up to you.”

You heart melted at all the three things in front of you. The flowers, Steve's Apology, and the look on his face. You knew you couldn't stay mad at him for very long with that destroy face. Just the fact that he still called dinner a date was melting the ice that capture your heart.

“Please forgive me?”

His question brought you back to reality as you had never made a sound since opening the door. Hope was dancing in his eyes and it's dance partner was worry.

“I forgive you.” You breathe out with a smile as you took the flowers from him. You step away from the door to let him in. You found yourself on a quest to fine something to put the flowers in. You had never really gotten flowers before. The last was when you were in the hospital for a broken hip. Fun times there.

In the end you cut a soda pop bottle in half, rinse it out and added fresh water to the make shift vase. Steve watch with a loving smile at your actions.

“I'm sorry I don't had anything really to put them in.”

“Well then maybe we can escape for a few hours to go find something that fits you and the flowers.” His words made you blush. His eyes made you forget what was going on around you in the first place.

“Tell me the time and place.” You tease back just like yesterday.

Everything seem to be back to the way it is. Steve worry had fully melted away at your words.

“Maybe this evening? If you don't have any plans that is?” Steve duck his head down and avoided your eyes. He was still a very shy guy. You giggle at his actions.

“I'm never too busy for you.”

Your words made his eyes snap up to you. His smile was even bigger now, if that was possible.  He bid you a quick good-bye with a kiss on the cheek. You thank him for the flowers as he disappear down the hall. The Butterflies in your stomach were dancing around in a wild after party from what just happen. Your heart speed up as your morning attitude had suddenly bloom into this now happy, giddy one.

You were quick out the door to find food and then to train. Since it was too late in the evening to get any real work done you opt to a movie after until Steve beckon you. You pick up your phone and order food to pick up at the base's kitchen. They were more then happy to cook up an order on their off hour for you. You refresh yourself in a better outfit then left to collect your meal.

It was around 7:30 when you got a text from Steve to meet him downstairs in the lobby. You quickly bounce up but made sure to slow down your pace as you made it into the hallway. You greet other co-workers with a polite smile. You kept your beaming sunshine of happiness on the inside. The main lobby was still litter with workers that where either coming in or leaving for the night. Which made the lobby a bit louder then usual.

You turn the corner just in time to hear a piecing female laughter. You didn't have to look to know who it was from. You brace yourself for the sight in front of you. Your heart was already bailing on the trip. And as your eyes took in the scene, there she was back in Steve's arms. You swallow the knot in your throat that had just appeared out of nowhere.

Not again, your brain moaned at the sight but before you were quick to judge you notice that the Howling Commandos were standing around Steve as well. This made your heart leap with a little bit of faith.

“Ah, Y/N! Over here!” Steve had spotted you by now. There was no chance of escape now. You force a smile on your face as you slowly approach them. Steve was quick to drop Peggy from his grasp. He wrapped you into the biggest bear hug you had ever gotten from him.

Steve pulled you closer to him once the hug was down. Heat filled your face as you pray that your face wasn't turning red.

“Y/N, these are my friends.” He was so proud to introduce them. They were all gentleman and greeted you with simple hellos.

“Steve talks about you all the time.”

“All good, I hope.” Gabe Jones said as he rise an eyebrow to Steve. The group of men fell into a laughing fit after the personal joke. Their laughter brought you out of your funk. That was until they bid you farewell.

Where everyone head back to the Personal Lounge except for Peggy. Steve was by the elevators as he walked his friends back. Now your mind was wondering where this was going to go. You could feel Peggy's eyes on you as yours stay train to the floor. Steve jogged back over with a chuckle.

“Alright, Now let's get my girls something to eat!” He clapped his hands before slipping Peggy into one side. You froze when he went to do the same. His girls? The words were invading your mind like an enemy spy. A half a second later your brain caught up with the word eat.

“Eat?” You were now confused he said you were going to look for  a vase.

“Yea, I promise you dinner last night. It will be a great way for us to all catch up.” His eyes never shone that blue to you like they were right now.

So you did what you could only do and call for help.

“Y/N What's wrong?” Steve asked when he notice that your face had fallen just a bit. Was Steve joking? How could he asked that.

“Nothing, I didn't know about food.” The words came out of your mouth but for God sakes you didn't know who spoke those. You wanted to say that something came up and bail out but you knew Steve. He wouldn't let you get off that easy not in front of Peggy at least.

“Oh sorry, Peggy's hungry and thought it would be fun to get out for a bit.” His words were stabbing in your heart. What about the vase? Your brain just had to thrown in there.

That's when you click over to work mode. You morph the confusion off your face with your work smile.

“Sounds great! Then we can look for that vase.” You knew it was wrong to bait him like this. Especially when Peggy was standing right there. But the “His girls.” burn in your mind. You were not the sharing type. It was his turn to have confusion in his eyes. By damn he did it again.

“Yea, sure Doll, whatever you want.” He look back at Peggy. Which was a good thing because your face fell hard. And if he would of saw that it would have lead into a nasty fight that was brewing in you. You quietly follow them to the main doors when someone called to you.

“Please, Wait up! Y/N!” You spun around to be greeted by Pietro. He was sporting a blue T-shirt with loose fitting jeans. You smile at him but was bursting with happiness that Wanda had pulled through.

“Hey Pet, what's up.”

Pietro brush a hand threw his silvery blonde hair while conjuring a very charming smile. How did you miss how handsome Pietro was? Too blinded for Steve maybe? You shake the though out your head.

“I messed up my lap top and I was wondering if you could look at it.” Now you know that this was a set up from Wanda.

“Sorry Maximoff, She leaving for dinner.” To your surprise it was Steve that cut into the conversation. But Pietro was one of rare people that wasn't intimated by Steve authority actions.

“Oh really? I'm sorry but I have some important documents on that computer and I was hoping Y/N could fix it so it doesn't leak into the internet.” You were impress by the cool and pressing demander he was putting up.

“Is it that bad? I told you to have a better fire wall before playing those online games.” You play scolded him.

“I'm sorry but I've been trying to bet your score.” He let his face dropped to the ground. You bark out a laugh.

“Well now I'm not going to fix it...”

“Y/N?” It was Steve's voice that brought you back to why you needed the distraction. You look over to him. His face had a dark emotion on them. It was one that you couldn’t read. But with his lips press tightly together, you knew that he was upset. But that didn't stop you.

“Sorry Steve, can I get a rain check? Fury won't be happy if anything gets leaked.” You patted his on the shoulder before joining Pietro side, “I guess this gives you two more time together. Isn't that important here?” And with that you disappear into the elevator with Pietro trailing behind.

“His girls! GIRLS!” you screamed into one of Wanda's pillow. Pietro was giving instructions to bring you straight to her room after retrieving you.

“I don't know what to say. It's been a long time since they have seen each other...” Wanda began. You could tell that she was trying to defend Steve. But that wasn't the case here.

“I understand that. And I get that it wasn't fair that Steve asked me out on the night she came back But could he do me a favor? Could he just leave me out of it? No! He didn't. He had the audacity to ask me out again! Only this time instead of just forgetting, he just wants to cater to her.”

Wanda rubbed your back as you let out a lot of your frustration. She let you get out all of you before getting up for a glass of water for you. She brushes your hair out of your face. Wanda was the best little sister that you never had until now.

“Thanks. It's just to much emotion to deal with. Maybe I should visit the Professor for a week or something.”

“Yea, that might help but if I can be honest with you?” You look up to her round orbs and nodded. “I don't know Steve's true feelings but I know that my brother has been fawning over you for the last months.” “He has?” You thought back on it. You had been spending more time with him. He just happen to be where you were at the time. And now he was spending more time on a computer game you introduce to him.

Was it ever Steve that you were pinning for?

[returnsandreturns]

Have one whole random chapter from the middle of the novel that I really want to start writing again but I don’t have TIME!!!! 

backstory: Andy’s writing the gay version of 50 Shades of Grey after stumbling into a dom/sub relationship. James and him are totally not in love at all. Laurel is my everything. I love them all so much, I wanna die.

“Are you watching porn at the dinner table?” Laurel asks.

“Well, it’s noon,” Andy says, not looking up from the screen, “so no. And it’s research.”

She bends down to look over his shoulder and whistles low.

“That’s quite a party,” she says.

“I knew sketchy sex clubs were a thing,” he says, pausing it and accepting the orange that she hands to him, “but this is the first time I’ve witnessed one. It’s—interesting.”

She sits across from him at the table and raises her eyebrows.

“You into it?” she asks.

“I think I would have a panic attack and die,” he says, shrugging, “but I can see the appeal.”

“Is your protagonist who definitely isn’t you at all into it?” she asks.

“He’s not,” he says, because he is not. Just because his main character, now generically named Tom, has certain similar characteristics and experiences doesn’t mean that it’s a memoir or something. He’s not writing a sex memoir.

“You might as well have named him Sandy,” Laurel says. Andy frowns at her.

“Anyway, I thought it would be an interesting thing to include, yeah,” he says. “I also thought about maybe—taking a field trip?”

She gasps.

“I wanna go!” she says.

“Seriously?” he asks.

“Strictly for tourism reasons,” she says, “but yes.”

“Okay, then,” Andy says, laughing. “You pull out the leather, I’ll keep talking to strangers on the internet about the best places to get weird in Queens.”

“You laugh but I have some cute leather pants,” she says. She’s been dutifully peeling her orange in one long peel and she sits it down on the table triumphantly. “I’m going to text Stef, we can double date.”

“Double date?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says, like it’s obvious, splitting the orange in half. “Stef, me, you and your sexy lawyer friend.”

He could ask James. It wouldn’t actually be a date, obviously, because who goes on a date at a weird sex club, and he might like it. He marked that he was somewhat interested in exhibitionism on his checklist, at least—Andy wasn’t sure whether that meant screwing in Central Park after dark or just, like, holding hands on the sidewalk, but this might be somewhere in the middle of those two.

“Okay,” he says, digging his thumbnail into the skin of his orange. “I’ll text him.”

After two solid hours of research, he texts James the name of the nicest club he can find that you don’t need a special invitation for and three question marks. In reply, he gets a phone call, which he answers immediately with, “I’m allowed to remind you that you’re older than me if you actually call me on the phone.”

“I couldn’t possibly forget that you’re younger than me,” James says, dryly, but not unkind. Just five years, but James would probably be more notably mature even if they were the same age. “Are you asking me to go to a club with you?”

“For research, not recreation,” Andy says, then, almost hopefully, “Unless you—want to have some recreation.”

“Do you?”

“If you do.”

“Andy,” James says, with a little stern dominant sneaking into his voice.

“Okay, it’s a firm maybe,” Andy says. “I do want you to come with me, though.”

James hums softly.

“If you want it,” he says. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Laurel and Stef are also coming,” Andy says.

“Recreationally?” James asks.

“No, they’re just going to be creepy and watch,” Andy says. “How’s Saturday sound?”

“Saturday works,” he replies. “Your sister isn’t coming, is she? She’s amazing, but I don’t want to publicly spank you in front of her, if it comes to that.”

Andy suddenly has a vivid mental image of being naked and bent over the bar at the place he met James at, skin slick and a little sticky from spilled drinks, being spanked hard in front of a group of people who can talk but not touch. He’s not sure he’s into it.

He might be into it.

“Andy?”

“Sorry, my imagination just took a spin,” he says, weakly. “Sara headed back home to wait and hear about her interview, so it’ll be just us.”

“Okay,” James says. “Let’s do it.”

After he hangs up, Andy goes back to reading the message he got back from some guy on FetLife whose icon is just a mouth with a ballgag in it, going over the description of the place they’re going and realizes that it’s technically a dungeon. Cool.

He might have to buy something latex to wear.

*

Laurel’s leather pants are actually really cute, deep red and tight and kind of like something that Faith from Buffy would wear, which is a compliment that makes her really happy.

“That’s, like, my entire life goal,” she says.

They’re huddled up outside the club, all of them dressed slightly too scantily for how cold it is, waiting for James. Andy’s just wearing tight jeans and a black t-shirt because he doesn’t have enough clothing to have actual outfits and Stef is wearing a little black dress that’s killer.

“If I get drunk enough,” Laurel says, looking Stef up and down for the tenth time tonight, “I might engage in some of that exhibitionism we were talking about.”

“Oh, there’s a one drink maximum,” Andy says. He forgot to mention that. They give him identical looks of horror.

“What kind of place is this?” Stef asks.

“A dungeon,” he says. “Do you really want to be in a room full of drunk people with paddles?”

“I certainly don’t,” James says, and Andy jumps a little and turns around to smile at him.

“You’re here,” he says. “At the dungeon.”

“I’m here,” James repeats, grinning. “At the dungeon. You ready?”

Andy takes a second to look at him, because he looks nice. Dark blue collared shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, a couple more buttons unbuttoned than is necessarily appropriate for polite society. Andy kind of wants to rip the rest of them off, too.

James raises his eyebrows when Andy makes it back to his eyes again.

“Yeah,” Andy says, nodding. “I’m ready.”

“I’m not sure I am,” Laurel whispers, to Stef, as they go inside and immediately head down a large flight of stairs.

“We can leave,” Stef says. “I’ll take you out for ice cream instead.”

“. . .let’s see what it’s like first,” Laurel says, a little more firmly.

At the door, they have to fill out forms about liability and privacy and leave their cellphones, carefully marked so they can give a ticket back and retrieve it. It’s accompanied with a lecture about safety and consent and confidentiality, which makes Andy significantly less nervous about what’s going to happen inside. It seems like an extremely civilized weird public bondage dungeon.

When they step inside, it’s dark but in a mood lighting way, and there’s definitely—a mood. It doesn’t exactly look like a dungeon classically, but there are shackles involved. It’s kind of like a lounge but with a lot of very specific furniture—more specifically, things to be tied to.

There is a bar to the side, and James immediately nods at it and leads them there while they take in the scene.

There’s a woman tied up spread-eagled on the far wall, dressed in pretty black lingerie. She looks like she might be forty or so, and she has her head thrown back laughing while another woman runs a feather across her stomach. Andy waits to see how she reacts when she’s not laughing, when the feather isn’t touching her—she’s grinning. They’re both having fun.

Everyone is milling around in various states of either costume or undress. A guy’s getting flogged over a bench that he’s tied to with pink rope, counting the hits and asking for more. There are a couple of people on leashes, which does something to Andy that he’s not willing to contemplate too much, because he’s not sure he wants to be the kind of person who likes wearing a collar anywhere but the privacy of his own home.

(They haven’t actually done that yet, officially. He might’ve underlined it on his checklist a few times.)

“Okay, I think maybe I’ve seen enough,” Laurel says. She’s blushing bright red when Andy glances back at her, and Stef automatically slips an arm through hers and kisses her cheek. “I’m sorry, we’ve been here two seconds. That’s so lame.”

“It’s not,” Andy says, smiling at her. “I’m a little freaked out, too, honestly.”

“Do you want to leave?” James asks, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Absolutely not,” Andy says, turning to him quickly, and James laughs softly and tightens his fingers.

“We’re going to go get ice cream,” Stef says. “I would say we’ll see you later, but I assume you’ll be busy tonight.”

James’ fingers tighten even more and Andy’s eyes go wide.

“We’ll be busy tonight,” James says.

“Well, have fun!” Laurel says, voice going kind of squeaky, looking up at the ceiling so she doesn’t have to look around her.

“Just shut your eyes, sweetheart, I’ll guide you out,” Stef says, affectionately, wrapping an arm around her instead and leading her back towards the door. Andy suspects that this isn’t the firm time someone has walked in and immediately turned heel and left, and he has those suspicions confirmed by a tall, willowy blonde guy who approaches him with a sweet smile.

“First time?” he asks.

He can feel James go stiff behind him, hand sliding down to hold onto Andy’s elbow instead, and he glances back before he smiles and says, “Yeah. My friends decided it wasn’t for them.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell until you actually see it all happening at once,” the guys confirms, then extends a hand. “I’m Gabe.”

“Andy,” Andy says. “This is James.”

James openly ignores Gabe’s hand when it’s offered and Gabe smiles, dropping his arm.

“You two are cute together,” he says. “I’m guessing tall, dark and handsome here’s your dom?”

“Well, we’re just—” Andy starts, because they’re friends, because they haven’t phrased it in such clear terms. They really aren’t each other’s anything, if they’re being technical, and in the middle of a dungeon full of people who are two steps away from fucking each other just seems like the kind of time to be technical.

“Friends,” James offers, sounding pained.

Gabe looks between them for a moment before he hums softly.

“So, Andy, you wouldn’t mind if I steal you for a dance?” he asks.

“Oh, uhm—” Andy says, glancing back at James whose face has suddenly gotten tight.

“Go ahead,” he says, and Andy feels all of his internal organs sink for a moment—he knows they’re not dating, but he’s just going to let him go off with another guy? He doesn’t look happy about it but he’s willing to, like he doesn’t want Andy to himself enough to put aside the stupid unwritten rules of sex friends and just enjoy this weird sex dungeon together.

“Cool,” Andy says, keeping eye contact with him and smiling before offering a hand to Gabe, who looks amused as he takes it. Maybe not much hand-holding goes on in the weird sex dungeon.

Gabe pulls him over to a small dance floor on the other side of the room, with low jazz music and low lights so he feels like some type of ingenue or something when Gabe circles an arm around him and squeezes his hand.

They move in an unsteady rhythm—Gabe’s clearly good at leading and Andy, for all that he’s apparently extremely submissive, is terrible at being led—and Gabe moves in close to almost rest their cheeks together, practically crouching to do it because Andy’s like child-sized compared to him.

“Don’t look back,” Gabe says, softly, in his ear, “but I think your handsome friend might fight me later.”

“Are you into that?” Andy asks, almost serious.

“I’m strictly a lover,” Gabe says, laughing. “What’s the story here? What are we working with?”

Andy wonders if he should keep all of this to himself but he’s kind of mad and very sober and this guy seems confusingly wise, so he tells him basically everything, wraps his arms around his neck during a slow R&B song and spills all of his feelings—from the night they hooked up to right now, when he thought James would claim him.

“Let’s see if he’s—yep, death glare,” Gabe says, grinning down at Andy. “Want to make him jealous?”

“. . .tell me more,” Andy says.

This leads to Gabe leading him over to a dark corner with a couch and a few chairs, saying low, “I’m gonna sit down and you’re gonna get on your knees for me, okay?”

Andy hesitates for a moment before he murmurs, “Christ,” and sinks to his knees.

Gabe strokes his fingers through Andy’s hair before grinning down at him and saying, “Jackpot.”

“Can we talk?” James asks, from behind him, hands on his hips like a disapproving mother when Andy turns around to look at him.

“I’m kind of busy,” Andy says, raising his eyebrows.

“Andy.”

Gabe laughs and ruffles Andy’s hair, saying, “I think he means business, kid.”

Andy sighs and stands up, throwing a smile at Gabe over his shoulder as James leads him away, to a quiet corner where he surprises Andy by pushing him up against a wall and kissing him.

“What’s that for?” Andy asks, breathlessly.

“Did you want to go with that guy?”

“No, I wanted you to tell him to fuck off,” Andy says, laughing, “but I could. Isn’t that the arrangement? No rules, just right?”

“. . .that’s the Outback Steakhouse motto,” James says, faintly, “but yes.”

“You’re jealous,” Andy says. He was kind of pissed off for a second, but James has this look on his face like he’s been caught in the act and it makes Andy so happy. He’s normally the flustered one. Finally, the upperhand. “You don’t want anybody else to touch me, do you?”

“Not where I can see them,” James mutters, rolling his eyes.

“You want me all to yourself,” Andy says, grinning up at him and stepping in close. “You basically just pissed on me to mark your territory.”

“We both marked no to that on the checklist,” James says, and Andy laughs and pushes up into a kiss, curling a hand around the back of his neck. James looks slightly dazed when he steps back again, and Andy feels something stirring inside of him that he doesn’t want to hide. He doesn’t want to hide.

“Why don’t you show everyone who I belong to?” he asks, dropping his voice but keeping his chin tipped up, watching James’ expression slip from shocked to something sweet and dark. He lets out a shuddering breath before he lifts his hand to run fingers through Andy’s hair.

“What did you have in mind?”

*

They awkwardly talk to one of the employees just to make sure of the rules here because they’re both the least cool people in the world, but now Andy’s standing next to the bench the guy was getting flogged on earlier and trying to get the nerve up to take off most of his clothes in this room full of people. He could do it dressed, but somehow this seems important—being vulnerable and bare. To be looked at but not touched by anyone but James.

It sounds nice.

James sits down on a chair next to it and looks at him, just a little bit out of his element.

“Light?” he asks, when Andy shifts on his feet and smiles at him.

“Green,” Andy says. “Light?”

Andy’s never asked for one before. James actually takes a second to think about it before he says, “Green. Strip.”

The order helps, makes Andy shiver as he immediately takes his t-shirt off. Only a few people are watching them, and Gabe is one of them, draped over a couch and smiling. He looks like he’d probably like to take Andy apart, and Andy probably wouldn’t hate that, but—for this moment, at least, he belongs to someone.

When he’s down to his boxer briefs—thankfully tight and black and not something embarrassing—he steps up so he’s standing in front of James, who looks like he’d either like to fuck him right now in front of everybody or re-dress him and kiss him and go hold hands somewhere where nobody else can see them. It’s a weird look. Andy likes it a lot.

They ask each other for lights again and they’re both still green.

Andy lies across the bench, built with two levels so his chest is pressed up against the higher one and his knees rest on the lower one, putting his ass clearly on display if you’re standing in the right place. There are cuffs for his hands and feet, softly padded, and James puts them on him carefully before he leans down and tips Andy’s chin up, pressing a soft kiss to his mouth.

“Count for me, okay?” he asks. “We’ll do ten.”

Andy nods. This is one of those speechless moments, but he’s pretty sure that he can manage numbers at least. He lifts his head enough to see that more people are watching and he feels himself blush, pretty sure that his whole body’s going a little pink at least.

“Tell me you want it,” James asks, standing behind of him, smoothing a hand over the curve of his ass. It’s loud enough that the people close to them can probably hear.

“Please,” Andy says, and his voice is—shattered, like he hasn’t spoken all day, loud and shaking apart when he continues, “Please, spank me.”

He means it. He wants it, wants to feel what he feels when they’re alone, see how it changes when they’re showing off.

“Good boy,” James says, softly, just for him, and then he pulls back and hits Andy hard.

Andy makes a completely unmanly yelping noise but manages to gasp out, “One!”

With every hit, harder every time, he has no control over what noises he makes and he’s constantly caught between two thoughts, between this is so fucking hot and this is so fucking weird. The first one seems to dominate, though; he’s hard, dick pressed up against the bench and rubbing painfully every time he jerks forward and pushes back to take more.  

Right before James hits him one last time, he looks up to see that people are watching them with undisguised interest and his breath catches, breaking off into a pained sob of, “Ten, ten, ten,” when James hits him again.

When James immediately moves to kneel in front of him and kiss him, when it’s obvious that they’re done, there’s a light scatter of applause which is—somewhere between the fucking hot and fucking weird spectrum, but closer to the weird. He’s got tears running down his face that he didn’t even notice and James asks, “Are you okay?” while he’s already quickly uncuffing him.

“Fine,” Andy says, standing up slowly, leaning all of his weight on James when he wraps his arms around him. “Great, actually, just—wow.”

“Good fodder for your novel?” James asks, wiping the tears off his face and pressing a kiss to his forehead that makes Andy ache faintly. He wants James to take him home and curl up around him so they can fall asleep together almost as much as he wants to grind against him right now until he ruins his underwear. There’s no actual sex allowed in the building, but does it even count if your clothes don’t come off?

“Yeah, really good,” he says, laughing wetly. “My readers will love it. Can we go?”

“Had enough?”

“I would let you fuck me right here if you wanted to,” Andy says, eyes wide and serious. “So let’s not get in trouble and go back to your—my place, actually, my place is closer, c’mon.”

“You have to wear clothes to leave,” James says, amused but gently, like he’s concerned about him. It’s not undeserved. The last time Andy felt this wired and intense, he was in the middle of a manic episode, but—it’s all overeager brain chemicals, in the end.

“Obviously,” he says, laughing breathlessly. He gets dressed quickly and James immediately wraps an arm around his shoulders and leads him toward the door.

“Hey, kid!” Gabe says, approaching them. “Good show.”

Andy’s in no state to talk to anyone right now, anyway, nevertheless someone who just watched him get spanked and clearly love it, so he just smiles at the way James holds him closer and says, “Thanks. We’re headed out.”

“I’m giving you my number,” Gabe says, holding out a receipt with a number scrawled out on it. “I was going to do it just to make your friend jealous because he’s cute when he looks like he’s about to kill someone but I also try to make friends with all the baby kinksters.”

“Friends?” James asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Friends,” Gabe repeats, seriously. “I’ve been around the block and I’m actually not a creep, so—hit me up if you have questions about the scene or whatever.”

“You don’t look that much older than me,” Andy says.

“Started young,” Gabe says, winking. “Have fun, boys.”

As soon as Gabe walks away, James says, “I don’t like him.”

Andy laughs and tugs him towards the door.

“Take me home, sailor.”

*

The next morning, Andy wakes up in his bed alone and immediately makes a sad noise before he hears noise from the living room. He puts on a clean pair of boxers and a t-shirt before he heads out to find Laurel and James sitting at the kitchen table together, talking over big cups of coffee.

“Oh, hi,” Laurel says, when she sees him. “We were just talking about you.”

“. . .why?” he asks, suspiciously, bypassing them to get his own coffee.

“I think I just got the shotgun speech,” James says, sounding like he’s actually uncomfortable, and Andy groans.

“You’re not my real dad,” he says, pointing at Laurel as he sits down with them.

“I thought it needed to be said,” Laurel says, simply, “that if he hurts you in any way that you don’t specifically ask for, then I will physically fight him to the death.”

Andy sighs, turning to smile at James and say, “I apologize for her. She’d probably win, though.”

“I don’t doubt it,” James says, smiling back weakly. “I should probably walk of shame my way back to my place, though.”

“I could make you breakfast,” Andy says, while he’s trying to figure out if they have any food to actually accomplish that. He thinks that they have one single egg left, which could work in a pinch.

“It’s okay,” James says, getting up and reaching over to ruffle his hair. “I’ll talk to you later. Last night was fun.”

“Yeah,” Andy says, lamely, as James immediately heads for the front door. “Later.”

As soon as the door shuts, he turns to Laurel.

“What the fuck?” he asks.

“Geez, calm down,” she says, looking genuinely angry. “That’s a prerequisite best friend speech.”

“For someone you’re dating,” Andy says.

“Oh my god, you might as well be,” she says. “You fell in love with him the first time you slept with him.”

“I didn’t fall—maybe I fell in love with his dick, but that’s it,” he says, firmly.

“Bullshit,” Laurel says. Her voice is flat, a little softer than it was. “You don’t have to lie to me. You know that.”

“I’m not lying. I like him a lot,” Andy says, “but I’m okay with what we are. I mean, shit, we can’t all U-Haul with the first girl we date freshman year like you did.”

Laurel’s lips, once set in a thin angry line, wobble just a little. Andy feels bad because that’s a sore spot between them—once, when he got in a tift with Stef, he said something about how Laurel settled for her and it fucked them all up for a week or two. He shouldn’t have brought it up again.

“You look at him like I look at her,” she says, after a long stretch of silence, “and I’m in love. I just don’t want you to get your heart broken because he’s too much of a dick to realize that you’re worth more than casual sex.”

“We both agreed that it was just—no, you know what, just stay out of it, Laurel,” Andy says, standing up and turning to go back to his room before turning back to grab his coffee. “I didn’t ask you to get involved.”

Laurel’s face gets distinctly more wobbly and he immediately feels terrible, but he’s also mad at her and worried that James is going to back out of this because it’s getting too serious and, also, he’s way hungrier than one egg could possibly satisfy.

“Sorry,” she says, softly, like it hurts to get out. She gets up and leaves her coffee behind, shutting her door behind her, leaving him there to think about how he’s the worst person in the entire world.

When he goes back to his room, he writes two thousand words about how amazing his protagonist’s best friend is. He might email it to her later. He also texts James to apologize and gets back: you’ve got great friends. you should thank her for watching out for you.

God, he’s mature. It’s infuriating.

Andy grabs his laptop and heads to Laurel’s room to read the best friend description aloud to her instead of emailing it.

After that, he might make her muffins or something.

*

They’re sitting on James’ bed, both of them on their laptops working—James on something legal and official and Andy on a scene where his two main characters talk about gangbangs for three pages but no gangbangs actually happen, because the mechanics would have to be difficult.

“How hard do you think it is to choreograph a gangbang?” he asks, without looking up.

“. . .uhm,” James says.

“I’m writing porn,” Andy reminds him, flicking his eyes up, and James huffs out a laugh.

“Oh, right,” he says. “Good. And—well, it depends on how many people are involved, but that’s—a lot of limbs.”

“Yeah,” Andy says, nodding aimlessly. “Too many tabs, too many slots.”

“It’s so hot when you talk about sex like it’s IKEA furniture,” James says. He finishes up what he’s doing and shuts his laptop, putting it on his bedside table before he sprawls out on his back. “Ready whenever you are.”

Andy snorts and finishes his sentence before he follows suit, crawling on top of James to straddle his hips. James smiles up at him.

“What do you want?” he asks.

“. . .uhm, do you think we could go shopping together sometime?” Andy asks.

“For. . .?”

“A collar,” Andy says.

He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about wearing a collar for him—a real one, one that they pick out together. And a leash. And nothing else.

“Oh, wow,” James says, softly. “That’s really hot, Andy.”

“. . .but?” He’s pretty sure there’s a but, because James’ face is doing a thing, kind of hesitant and nervous. James reaches up to brush hair away from his face before sits up with Andy in his lap, steadying them and then kissing him on the mouth.

“Is this about the other night?” he asks.

“. . .I mean, seeing people on leashes did increase my interest, yeah,” Andy says.

“No, I mean—when that guy flirted with you,” James says, then, carefully, “When you said you belonged to me.”

“Oh,” Andy says. “That.”

He’d been a little drunk on the situation at the time, but. He still kind of meant it. It’s not very casual, though. Can you casually belong to someone?

“I wanted to talk about that, too, actually,” he says. “Why were you so jealous?”

“. . .I wasn’t jealous, really,” James says. “I just didn’t want you to go off with somebody you didn’t know, when you’d never been somewhere like that before. It’s not safe.”

“You were just concerned for my safety,” Andy says, humming softly, “and you wouldn’t have been jealous at all if I’d let him take my clothes off and bend me over something and make me cry.”

“No,” James says, unconvincingly.

“You wouldn’t have been jealous,” Andy says, because he knows exactly what’s happening here—or at least half of what’s happening here, “if I’d left you there and took him home and let him do whatever he wanted to me?”

“Not at all,” James says, and Andy grins at him and pushes him down, bending to kiss him.

“I’ll just go do that then,” he says, starting to get up, and James basically growls and drags him back down to flip him over and get on top of him.

“Okay, I don’t like the idea of anybody else touching you,” he admits, “but I wouldn’t stop you.”

“Good to know,” Andy says, even though he really wants to tell him that he doesn’t want anyone else to touch him. That saying he belonged to James made something dark and pleased shoot through him and seeing the look on James’ face made it even stronger.

He wishes there was some way to ask him if they could be monogamous sex friends without actually using the phrase monogamous sex friends. Or sounding like he’s actually proposing.

“What if,” he says, slowly, “when we’re alone, though—we act like I belong to you? Casually?”

“Casually,” James repeats.

“You can own me just for fun,” Andy says, smiling. “Be my dom, not my boyfriend.”

“And we’d buy you a collar,” James says, brushing fingers over Andy’s throat before he circles it lightly, squeezing enough that Andy’s breath catches and he squirms underneath him.

“And a leash,” he agrees, breathlessly.

James leans down to press a kiss to his forehead.

“Want to go now?” he asks, softly, thumb pressed into Andy’s throat.

“After,” Andy says.

“After?”

“After,” Andy repeats, significantly, going for completely unsubtle and wrapping his legs around his waist.

[inquisitivewordsmith]

SAatFF Rewatch Foreshadowing and Details

So, I’ve been rewatching the series and, remembering how Victor Cook mentioned they hid easter eggs and foreshadowing a la The Spectacular Spider-Man in this series, I’m going to write down any bits of foreshadowing I notice Well, some of them are legit foreshadowing. Some are probably just me reading into things too much. Either way, spoilers after the cut. Here we go:

* In the pilot, when Rook’s security notices the break-in, Kane asks if the intruder is Blindstrike. Also, the Cleo Museum featured in the commercial. 

* Around this same scene I think is where Officer Santos shows up. She gets a line here and has a couple of voiceless cameos here and there, but she doesn’t have a significant role until season two, where she becomes Mechanica. 

* Also in the pilot, when the trio runs into an alley to dodge Rook’s security forces, you can see Circuit-Stream’s insignia as graffiti above the dumpster. I think this also shows up in season two, where it’s a bit more obvious. 

* Rook’s mysterious test subject (the cat owner who turned into a monster in “Endgame”) is also seen in the pilot and I think one more episode, both times as a background character riding the train. This isn’t a case of just reusing a background model either, since the beginning of “Endgame”, where we formally meet him, also features him riding the train, with Jake as the background character this time. 

* Mr. Savic’s use of combined AI tech and plants is established pretty early. It makes him seem as a Blindstrike suspect later in the season, but this type of science becomes an important story point way later in season two’s “Biomass”. 

* In “The Ninja and the Ghost”, when the Flex Fighters and Dr. C first meet at one of her lairs in Old Town, Dr. C tells them that she’s doing them a mercy by removing the Flexarium from their bodies. It comes off as villainous banter on the first watch, but considering everything that happened with Rook as seen in “Rook’s Story”, she was probably sincere. 

* In “The Gangs of Old Town”, Kane talks about how moving on from his past as a gang member was “scary” and that “the frightening path” is the one that’s best to take. Is he talking about his time at Rook Unlimited or his immediate move to the Epsilon Society/Tech Men?  

* In “Fast Times”, when we see Grandpa’s basement, we see some newspaper headlines displayed on the wall. One of them is about Smokestack’s domain as the top crime lord, no new info. The second one has a headline about Rook creating his company out of his garage, which we later find out in season two is literally true. There’s also a story about the (ex?) mayor of Charter City getting shot and in critical condition. It doesn’t seem relevant to anything else in the series but it struck me as strangely specific. Maybe some season three and beyond set up? EDIT: I wrote this before I found out the show not getting picked up for a third season.  

* “Crisis at the Cleo”, has Kane taking too long to break into the forcefield to get the Delta Squad into the museum. Anyone else think it was on purpose to give the Tech Men some time to steal what they were looking for?  

* Also, this episode is where we see Mr. Savic rip off some wires from a robot’s leg to save a student. I know that also puts him under the suspicion list when the trio tries to figure out who Blindstrike is. What I also didn’t realize is that this display of strength, and one more in season two, were foreshadowing “Biomass” as well. 

* In “Secret Ninja Party”, when Stretch Monster feeds the Flex Fighters his fake sob story in the abandoned lab, Jake notices a picture of a woman holding her baby, which Jake assumes is Stretch Monster’s wife and baby. That’s clearly likely baby Riya and her mom. Stretch Monster even holds it and looks at it sadly to sell his act, which is honestly pretty twisted. EDIT: Now that I’ve rewatched that AGAIN, is there a possibility that it’s Rook as a baby and his mom instead? I mean, the nose’s not the same, but they have the same thin lips. 

* Not really huge foreshadowing, but in “The New Normal” has Kane giving Rook a big glare after Rook lectures him, followed by a “Yes, sir” under his teeth. 

* “Split Personalities” has Jake saying, “We’re not the only ones hiding our true selves, are we?”, immediately followed by the Delta Squad coming on to the scene. Hmmm. 

*I wonder if they were going to do anything with Gabe temporarily finding out about Nathan. It seems like such a random bit to throw in there just to undo it a few minutes later. Maybe he faked it? Maybe that memories doesn’t come back until later? Who knows. EDIT: Again, wrote this before I found out the show didn’t get picked up for more seasons. So, no one knows. 

*BONUS: In the tie-in comic, Ricardo’s former friend from a previous school/town and his sister have the last name “Reynolds”. Was this going to relate to Officer Reynolds from the show? Or just some incidental characters that happened to have the last name. EDIT: Ditto

*BONUS: The tie-in comic was supposed to have another three-issue story arc and it was going to introduce a villain before the show did properly. I think that arc was cancelled and I guess it didn’t make it to the show. Who was the supposed villain? The Hazard Unit and their boss, Agent Rathjani? The Reynolds siblings? Someone from the cancelled arc? EDIT: Ditto

Anyways, it was fun to revisit this show and catching on to some hints here and there. I might’ve missed more, so feel free to point them out if I did. 

[stusbunker]

For Two

A Supernatural Fan-fiction

Featuring: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Gabriel x Rowena, and Jack

Word Count: 1580

Entry for @winchesterprincessbride ‘Jen Said What?’ Challenge

Prompt #22: If you loved me you would have bought me ice cream.

Summary: Predictable Whammied Winchester Silliness.Do not read too into this. xoxo Stu

“I mean, it can’t be all bad,” Dean cocked his head as he watched the woman across the hallway. They were waiting outside a hospital room to speak to the latest victim in a series of bizarre hallucination sparked panic attacks. The young mother, with a very pregnant stomach, was entertaining a three-year-old girl as they waited for the elevator. “Otherwise we would have died out long ago.”

“Dean, it’s like possession, but for ten months,” Sam shook his head at his brother’s line of reasoning. “And then you have another person to take care of on top of it.”

“Jack turned out okay,” Dean muttered. “Plus, I am great with kids.”

“Well, good thing you can’t get pregnant, otherwise you would be even more moody,” Sam hissed, confounded that this conversation was still happening.

Dean didn’t say anything but the way his face pinched, then softened, as the idea of mindless eating surfaced, earned Dean one of Sam’s bitchiest faces.

“Don’t-”

Luckily for them both, the nurse invited them into the victim’s room.

^*^

Gabriel and Jack returned from the morgue with matching Dum Dum suckers in their mouths. Jack was grinning and trying to balance the candy in his excited mouth without drooling. It would have been gross, if he wasn’t so adorable. The nephil had started to grow on his blood Uncle. Even though the Winchesters only trusted them together in small stretches, those boys were para-noid.

“So, Jack, you settled on being a hunter or are you keeping your options open?” Gabriel watched the innocent young man with the mischievous of millennia in his eyes.

“Uh, well, Sam and Dean help people. I want to be able to do that, like Cas though, since, we have some powers still.”

“Yeah, but won’t it get boring? Always having to go to everyone else’s rescue, not much fun if you ask me.”

“But hunting is a job. Jobs aren’t supposed to be fun. There’s fishing and music and friends for that.” Jack gave Gabriel a serious look, explaining to him as if he was the man-child.

“Yeah, okay, well, looks like you’ve made up your mind,” Gabriel smacked his lips dramatically. “Oh well.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, I was just curious if you wanted to hang out with your Uncle Gabe for a while. Road trip, see the world, get an Archangel’s tour of the family land.”

“That could be very insightful,” Jack pondered. “Could Cas come? He seems like he could use a vacation.”

“Uf! Man, I don’t know, that one has had so many sticks up his ass I don’t know if he will ever have fun,” Gabriel groaned. “We’ll see.” He folded when he saw the bright hopefulness in Jack’s blue eyes.

Finally, the dark suits of Winchesters in uniform crossed the street and met the equally dressed up celestial beings. “I’m thinking Tulpa,” Sam looked to Gabriel for his take.

“Ooooo, a manifested deity, nice. But, no. Sorry, boys, there were no symbols and everyone had a different hallucination before either croaking or being sedated.”

They retreated to a nearby dinner for lunch and continued to piece together the case. Sam tutted over Dean’s sodium intake and Gabriel flirted with the waitress. In all, the case went smoothly, which Gabriel was grateful for, because he wanted everyone to be nice and relaxed once they got home.

^*^

“Who let you in?” Dean snapped at the tiny woman waiting for them in the library. Sam and Dean shared a look, which ended in a Winsynced, “Maggie.”

“Hell-o, Gorgeous,” Gabriel crooned, sneaking a kiss to the witch’s neck.

Dean’s mouth gaped like a fish as Sam and Jack gave him wilted looks.

“Uh, Gabe, buddy, you gotta let us know when you have, *cough* skanks *cough* over,” Dean said to the angel’s back as he continued to snog Rowena.

“What’s that? Oh, sure, you got it, Dean-o,” Gabriel agreed all too quickly, while Rowena cast daggers at the surly hunter trying to keep some semblance of order in his home.

“At least get a room, guys, geez!”

“He’s right, though I do love the, ambience of ancient tomes, pet. A little privacy would be nice,” Rowena purred as she let her magic tickle Gabriel in all the right places. Gabriel snapped his fingers and they were both naked behind locked doors.

^*^

The next morning, Dean woke up feeling like he was wearing a dwarf as a fanny pack. After a quick shower, during which he could have sworn he felt his nipples leak beneath the heat of the water, he became grouchy. When the smells of breakfast hit him, he nearly gagged, choosing to bypass the kitchen entirely. He spent the morning with Jack in the firing range, though his back got increasingly sore the longer he stood.

“Everything okay, Dean?” Jack’s soft voice shouted over the earmuffs.

“I’m good, kid.” He wasn’t.

Later that afternoon he had to restart his show three times because he kept missing parts of different scenes. He had kicked off his socks because they seemed to be pinching at his feet. He was bored and restless, so he decided to wash his Baby. But his legs nearly gave out when he leaned too far over to scrub the rims. He was not suddenly this old, was he?

^*^

Eventually, Dean lumbered into the kitchen, finding Sam back from a supply run. Finally. He rifled through the grocery bags before groaning and turning back to the hallway.

“What?” Sam tisked at the look of disappointment on Dean’s face.

“Nothing, forget it.” He turned and shuffled out of the room.

“You’re leaving the pie untouched?” Sam’s voice tightened.

“You know, if you loved me you would have bought me ice cream,” Dean whined. Actually whined, not growled or barked. Sam froze and then he swallowed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Dean shifted uncomfortably, bowed legs in a wide stance and his stomach jutted out. “Nothing, I just wanted ice cream and now I will have to get it myself.”

“Since when do you pick ice cream over pie?!”

“Since I can’t keep a thought in my damn head, my feet are swollen and my back hurts. I just needed ice cream, Sammy. Just ice cream.” Dean snapped.

“Dean?” Sam approached with caution.

“What?”

“Are you having any other, uh, symptoms?” Sam was still crouched in concern.

“I keep getting these like phantom pains in my gut and my clothes feel tight, but everything still looks okay.” Dean huffed, “I just figured it was gas.”

Sam grimaced at the thought. “Uh, this might sound crazy, but I think you’re pregnant?” Sam pursed his lips and cocked his head.

“Shut up, very funny.” Dean rolled his eyes, noticing too late that he was fondly stroking his stomach.

“No, I’m serious, everything you just said sounds like pregnancy, man.” Sam pulled out a chair to catch Dean just in time. “I mean, obviously it is a psychological pregnancy, because you look the same, but you got whammied.”

And before Dean could say anything else, realization dawned on both of their faces.

“Witch first, ice cream after.”

“What? Why?! You won’t want the ice cream after.”

“Good point.”

^*^

They stared at Rowena as she glared back, hands raised, ready for anything they threw at her.

“Whaaaaaaat is going on here?” A well-timed voice interjected. Gabriel sauntered into the War Room, eyes squinted as he took in the impending battle between the hapless hunters and the ginger witch.

“She hexed me,” Dean barked, free hand pinching the small of his back.

“Uh, no, tub-o, that was me,” Gabriel snapped his fingers, the phantom weight and emotion falling off Dean like a bucket of ice water.

Dean gasped, rolling his shoulders as he straightened to lock eyes on the angel. “What the hell would you do that for?!”

“Perhaps, Gabriel, knows when a man needs to be knocked down a peg or two,” Rowena sniffed at Dean, who was still flummoxed.

“What even gave you the incentive, man,” Sam asked, curiosity always beating out better judgement.

“Um, hello, I am the archangel, Gabriel. You have read about me,” he prodded. “I may have turned a young girl’s entire life upside down by informing her of a similar circumstance?” He plopped down on the nearest table, leaning against his elbow in a dramatically inspired lazy importance.

“You’re talking about Mary, the Virgin Mary?” Dean demanded.

“Ding-Ding-Ding! Very good, Mama, now there are some things men think to be a breeze that they have, no, justifiable, claim to. Childbearing is one of them, cuz it aint all binge eating and being waited on. Dean-o here needed a little dose of reality, with a side order reminder to be R-E-S-P-E-C-T-ful,” Gabriel quipped.

Rowena’s deep chuckle broke through the awkward glances and sheepish stammering. “Well done, I’d say, couldn’t have thought of a better lesson myself, dear. Now, shall I be on my way?”

Sam and Dean shared a look and shrugged, Rowena clipped away up the winding staircase without waiting for their permission. Sam waved after her, remembering too late that she wasn’t giving him the time of day.

Jack entered, intrigued by the raised voices. He remained puzzled but smiled sadly as Rowena closed the door. “I didn’t get to say goodbye. Hey, is she going to come with on our World Tour, Uncle Gabriel?”

Sam and Dean both turned on the Archangel in alarm.

^*^

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