#j my man if u somehow see this i am literally exactly who i was before

[marshmallowloves]

I KNOW you're in tht pkmn mood so give us 🎧, 💿, 🎼, and 🕺 with any of ur pkmn faves and ur si :3c

asfkdjdfh you clocked me… that's pretty much all I've been doing lately >u>

honestly I kinda wanna do these with both Maxie and Arven because I got brainrot on both fronts kdjfg

(also I am SO sorry I answered this so ungodly late. I kind of realized, uh, wow. I know so few songs about faves… holy heck this was. kind of hard actually so it took me a long ass time kdjfhg also I just. really suck at communication sometimes i'm sorry ;_;)

🎧 - Your f/o just found your music player! What song do they find playing on it?

ARVEN: probably one of the tracks from Sinnoh - either the lake theme, Canalave City (or the night version), Eterna Forest or the Pokémon Center (night). When he sees it, he figures Cici probably misses home a lot. Don't mind him as he nonchalantly scours every recipe book in the school library for Old Gateau…

MAXIE: Uh. this one is kind of…inexplicable. Maxie also has a hard time wrapping his head around his Admin's taste in music. He was so certain he'd find soft piano pieces, or that sparkly-sounding j-pop that's certainly an anime OP/ED. What is this vulgarity, and what are these images of his Admin that flash in his brain during the chorus for some reason. why the FUCK is he confined behind his desk right now. He will absolutely blame Team Aqua (and specifically, the friend she has over there) for tainting his proper and civilized Admin with their filth. after he. takes care of this thing.

💿 - give us a song that fits your f/o's vibe!

ARVEN: I know you mean like his whole vibe, like his character, but for some reason all I can think of is this when he's talking about Cici dkjfhg

Okay but answering seriously (cause I thought of it just now) - for some reason I really feel like Apt. 102 fits. It sounds cozy and casual and…domestic…?? Like two people hanging out in a living space and doing chores or cooking together or something... u//v//u

MAXIE: See I WANT to say Bionic Man because it's one of the only lyrical songs I can think of for a calculated man (even if it is kind of weird)…but that's…probably more fitting for a different f/o honestly. (cough N. Ginsdjf no go away this is a pokemon post)

Okay tbh I've been racking my brain forever for this and all I can think of is THIS which…is a little weird considering it's literally the theme (in name, at least) for ANOTHER F/O… but it's all I can come up with atm i'm sorry dfgh. But I think it fits the vibe tbh, it's got the imposing strings, the tiny beat and synth beeps, and the little bells give kind of an air of superiority and…maybe smugness?? Like he's about to verbally decimate the fuck out of you dskjfg

🎼 - give us a song that matches your s/i's vibe!

I am not gonna lie to you I am having the hardest time with this one. Both of my S/Is are pretty much exactly the same with the only difference being who they fall for. It'd probably be easier if she had like…a THEME about her personality or design or whatever, but she's pretty much just "me, but with Pokemon" and as a regular-ass human being I am. very multifaceted and can't pinpoint anything dkjfg

SO! I think I will instead just…repeat the answer to a previous question and say Canalave City (her hometown) or the Lake theme (for the fact that her love of mythicals originated in Sinnoh). And possibly Snowpoint City (I was hesitant to list that one bc as much as she loves Ice-types, she doesn't have any on her team, but...come on. It wouldn't be Cici without snow somewhere dkfjg)

🕺 - what song would you and your f/o dance to?

ARVEN: <<< SPOILERS FOR THE SV DLC (sorry I can't like, put a filter over text so this is the best I can do dkjfg>>> if I'm being perfectly honest. he probably would denounce any and all dancing for a while after the whole mochi debacle cause he was so mortified of how he acted sdkjfg. If he was somehow persuaded to dance it would be completely impromptu (as in, he probably doesn't actively participate and it's mostly just me swinging him around djgf) and to something lively like this or this.

MAXIE: Something like this - classical, a refined vibe, and something where he wouldn't have to do any rigorous movement OR a waltz-sounding song like this (could only find it on soundcloud dkjfg). Maxie is really not a dancing man - he has an image to uphold, after all! (admittedly it's a pretentious one DFJKDG) But…if he WERE to ever dance with his Admin, it would certainly be behind closed doors, and only to remind her that he's not all stuffy and serious all the time - see, look, he's perfectly capable of having """fun.""" And if anyone caught him, they would probably be fired immediately.

Either that, or like…the fuckin. safety dance or something. idfk honestly. for the memes ig (and cause he's old KJDFHG)

[wonshik-as-frick]

im only here when it tastes to bitter to not be

im only here when the house starts to stink with the smell of your cologne because i accidentally opened the closet where I keep everything about you locked away and you don’t know how long ive tried to hide our conversations in some hidden part of my brain but the fact of the matter is you were there and then you weren’t.

im only here because you chose to be here and then you chose to not, im only here because i didnt matter enough to be there but if it had been me, youd be the only one dressed in a pressed suit smiling down at me.

everything i am is everything you told me i could be, all of the love i have to give is everything i couldn’t give you, all of the peace left in my mind is everything you asked me to hold onto in the before

i only come here because some days i can understand and i let myself remember your name and i let myself remember your friend’s names and i remember what your hair looked like but somedays i can only remember the first letter of everything and i can barely recall if it was you who wanted a haircut or your girlfriend.

i only come here because you wouldnt want me there and im really truly trying but i can never wrap my head around how something can be there, and then not, how i could know you for all this time and be you and never be able to see you it’s like you built a prison inside of my lungs and i breathe in your cologne and in return you strangle me with memories and i can feel you crawling up my throat but i cant say your real name anymore because nobody else but you and i will even recognize who im calling for and

i can never wrap my head around how you let me mourn a brother when everyone else was crying for a sister

[wickedpact]

You can't just drop that "I read Forces Multiplied" bomb on us and not give a ten page written reaction.

[cracks knuckles] if u insist

nicky cant drive hc: destroyed. rip. also i loved how andy and nile stole those sports cars and were being badass and driving off the bridge & meanwhile joe and nicky were just absolutely vibing in the van

'heres the thing about power: people who have it think they deserve it' [shot of police car] i see u greg

5 whole panels being dedicated to booker not being able to unlock his door. booker not even seeing noriko sitting RIGHT THERE in the window at first. incredible

noriko being 24/7 horny was surprising. like wow all of the stuff i saw she did out of context was 100% equally horny in context as it was out of context. love that for her

i didnt think the 'andy + slavery' thing was handled as badly as everyone made it out to be when telling me about it. tho from the way it was talked about i had kind of figured the conflict between andy and nile re: slavery would be really racially charged (esp considering nile is a black american and would obvs have Thoughts on the subject in that regard) but like,, done in a cringey 'a-white-guy-obviously-wrote-it' kind of way? but it wasnt that. i mean. it makes sense that andy would be implicit in slavery through the years

i mean, like she says, is that not what people just did to each other in the aftermath of battles for thousands of years? and i really like how its pointed out that it was what she was raised with (in the beginning when you see her put shackles on that guy after the battle) but she also accepts responsibility for it and acknowledges that it was wrong and not just 'what people did'.

i like how from her expressions you can kind of tell baby andy knew it was off but she sets those feelings aside bc she felt angry. it explains how she felt but didnt make her out to be blameless in it. plus i mean. i dont know, the fact that andy was involved in a lot of morally shady stuff for 7000 years is not that wild for me. if you live that long youre just Going to be involved in some shit, and she didnt even have other immortals with her as positive community influences, she literally just did whatever the fuck she wanted for thousands of years

'i was worshipped as a god once' i mean, yeah no shit she wouldve been involved in some seriously fucked up stuff, gods were fucking scary back in the day

tldr it could use some polish but it wasnt that bad

tho everything people said about moose being boring was unfortunately a little true. sorry king i tried to be interested in you

joe and nicky writing verbal fanfiction about nile and moose was iconic. 'you seeing that?' 'i am definitely seeing that'

it was also extremely funny bc that was like 60% of their contribution to the whole comic, besides kidnapping copley. they came, they wrote some fanfic, they left. kings. at least in tog1 they had an excuse to be useless bc they got kidnapped

joe just found out his old friend who he thought was dead is alive (and also probably wants to murder them) and instead of investigating with andy he stopped to help nile up. champ.

nicky shooting noriko through andy was cool. rip to the concept since it wont happen in tog2

wanna see mr ejiofor deliver this line

on that note imo copley was. weirdly enough, more interesting in fm than in tog1. to me at least. the fact that andy let him live and he was so haunted by what had happened that he came back and sought them out despite knowing they would likely kill him for it bc he wanted to not only make up for what hed done but also to tell them what theyd done for the world was admittedly more interesting than andy just kind of drafting him to the cause and him going 'okie'

i like how nicky was drawn in this one. in opening fire he looks like a blob man but in fm he looks more like a very nice grampa with a very good dye job

'theres no pain like a broken heart' andy 🥺

noriko implying andy's never drowned. .. .idk about that one, she musta drowned sometime

joe and nicky came, they waxed poetic about nile's love life, they waxed poetic about grog, and then they left.

sports bras being a reason humanity is good. i mean..... okay, yeah.

i mean. wild but you cant exactly tell her shes wrong

i liked how noriko telling andy that their purpose is to make people suffer coincides with joe and nicky finding out that they actually did good all those years

joenicky in opening fire: jail for booker jail for booker for 100 years

joenicky when copley tells them he knows where booker is: WE'LL KILL YOU WHERE IS HE

joenicky when copley comes back: if your vibes come off as even remotely rancid we Will destroy you

joenicky 2 minutes later when copley helped them find booker: he made up some ground :)))) <3 lov you j cops

theyre forgiving af

moose: how old are you?? a hundred??? a thousand???

nile [vine voice]: I M 2 7 ?

alright andy you got me there

joe texts like my aunt

i dont know why noriko drowning andy in that car tickled me. Bad And Naughty Andromaches Get Put In The Pear Wiggler To Atone For Their Crimes.

the drowning sequence was cool

copley trying to talk to andy while she was like o_o at him was great

ive hit the picture limit but id seen that panel where nicky goes 'forgive me' as he kills a guy out of context and it was HILARIOUSLY anticlimactic for me to discover that there was literally no context to it. nicky just apologizes to random people he kills. i thought that guy was someone he knew or something. nope its just Some Guy that nicky didnt know from adam

nile's complaint that andy was especially brutal to the guys on the boat... i mean. . , how exactly does one kill a man with an axe and not be brutal about it?

it was funny how noriko kissed andy and the only people who seemed surprised by that were nile and also andy

nicky and joe's complete non-reaction to finding out noriko is alive And Evil Now is endlesly funny. they just left her on that boat and neither cared. i get book and nile not caring but joe and nicky knew her, and they just have 0 input on the subject of what to do with her

pinstripe suit guy!

joe and nicky and booker packing up and leaving with nile

andy blowing up at nile was A Moment tho

i dont know, i get why people didnt like the ending but its. .. . it makes more sense in the comicverse. bc the squad doesnt really. .. interact outside of jobs? i mean, think of the moon landing story in ttt. that was booker and joe and nicky doing a job and andy only showed up a for a couple minutes after it was done. or the brunch in the first issue of opening fire. the squad arent as tight in the comic, and andy often seems to do her own thing outside of work, so andy saying 'i dont want to do work anymore' and the squad being like 'alright bye then' makes more sense in this universe than the movie one

also i feel like greg was Trying to set up a thing where nile becomes the Leader of The Squad after andy dies but like. its not very well done since. . . i mean, nile hasnt spoken to booker since opening fire, (and she only knew him A Day). and shes known joe and nicky all that time, but there isnt really anything that indicates that they have any relationship at all, much less one that's grown. in all the comicverse the only time nile and nicky speak is in FM, and in that scene nicky tells nile about noriko. nile goes from someone who needs to be set aside to have background knowledge explained to her to being the Leader of the group with nothing in between. it kind of... comes out of nowhere.

on the other hand tho... i felt really bad for andy thru the whole thing. well, i always felt bad for andy, but in this one she seemed so miserable, especially since it really felt like none of the others actually.... cared about her. when noriko came back no one asked andy how she was doing (big question ik, but it wouldve showed they cared at least), nobody ever expressed any concern for her, no one even really seemed to want to be around her. in opening fire everyone was more distant than in the movie of course, but there were little moments where she would joke with joe, or nicky would try and comfort her, or stuff like that, but in FM it really felt like they just didnt really care about her. & in opening fire it felt a lot like andy's relationship with nile breathed some new life into her, but in FM it felt like all they did was argue. i get theyre not *as* close in the comics but it really felt like the only person who cared about andy at all was noriko (which was probably also how andy felt) but it just seemed to come out of nowhere. honestly i was reading and i was honestly agreeing with andy that she might just be better off if she did just die. opening fire, on the other hand, never make me feel that way

tho everyone made it sound like when the squad split up it was one of those cursed 'the found family leaves each other at the end of the journey' tropes. but guys i mean,,, this is the second installment out of three. that isnt the End. theyll come back in the third one and Dramatically Reunite to fight some baddies (probably those 'others' noriko mentioned). im guessing yitzhak fits into that too somehow.

anyways it wasnt That Bad but it made me kind of sad and the only Sweet Found Family vibes in it were when they saved booker. also they shouldve beefed up that nilemoose romance, it underwhelmed me. 6.5/10

i also ABSOLUTELY understand all of greg's comments about how you couldnt make FM directly into a movie, he always said that it had no plot and. i get it now. it really didnt have a plot sdfghjkl

[thelevelsman]

some (slightly edited) notes from my tfp rewatch (first time watching since it aired)

basically took my liveblogging and expanded upon parts that don’t make sense unless you’re me

‪‪Umbrella sword‬...wasn’t there something about gatiss scoffing at the idea that mycroft’s umbrella was actually a weapon? 

only thing i can find is an unsourced quote from gatiss: “I think it’s his comfort blanket. He may even sleep with it. The umbrella comes from a wonderful old shop in New Oxford St. They still advertise ‘dagger canes’ and ‘sword sticks’ but, to their great regret, are no longer allowed to stock them!” sooo....was this him hinting that it actually was a weapon? either way, it’s ridiculous and OOC 

‪i had it in my head that this first scene was a nightmare, like I remembered it that way - i was convinced i was gonna see mycroft waking up from a bad dream but it turned out that it was...real? that sherlock rigged his house/security to do that? i just...why would they make it seem so nightmarish

When John says “‪221B Baker Street” it feels so weird...J and S always been so recalcitrant about their own fame, to have John talk about their home in that way, almost like an advertisement, feels so strange and OOC

‪“This is family” “That’s why he stays!!!” and John smiles?! Last time I watched T6T I came up with a half-baked theory that John was always cheating on Mary with Sherlock and we just didn’t get to see the beginning of it, and that season 5 will be going back in time and filling in the gaps. Need to make a different post expanding on this but this particular line in TFP does support my theory.

‪‪The way Mycroft explains everything about Eurus is contrary to the way every episode has played out so far - he gives them all the answers right away. Such a red flag for me

Why did Mycroft not get injured in the explosion - I mean, it’s weird that none of them got injured, but we specifically see one of his men saying that he got injured, so...why? 

John answering Mycroft’s earlier question about who originally said “the truth is rarely pure and never simple” - JOHN knew that Oscar Wilde said that, and when he reveals this, Sherlock is shown smiling...WTF! 

‪”Frankly, this is embarrassing.” “Oh. Doing a cavity search?” like...literally why/what the fuck...why does he say this....with this face....

Ok so when John is watching Sister Edgelord’s video as what I presume is an introduction to her personality, she says the bit about good not being really good and evil not being really evil but the next sentence is this: “Bottoms aren’t really pretty and you are a prisoner of your own meat.” 

If this is all actually in John’s mind...interesting. It goes along with the theory that Culverton is John’s nightmare version of himself - a sexual predator type who is enslaved by his own sick desires.

‪Sherlock literally saying WHAT DO YOU MEAN, REWRITTEN‬ khdskfjh

‪John looking Sherlock DEAD in the eye when he says “I was” in response to “are you married” is like...sexy lmao ‬

‪I can’t believe how much like an escape room this stupid episode is‬

‪What if the episode is both J&S’s nightmares combined? The coffin is John’s coffin, and in John’s nightmare Sherlock doesn’t know that John loves him - Sherlock assumes the coffin is Molly’s, he gets the “who loves you?” question completely wrong. ALSO SLDJKSJSJSD WAIT five years ago, was that before Reichenbach? bc it’s explicitly stated in the show that Moriarty DIDN’T think of Molly, he didn’t endanger her bc he thought Sherlock didn’t care abt her. How does it make sense, if this is reality, that Eurus/Moriarty put Molly in harms’ way or knew that she would be of value to Sherlock? Ok anyway that was a separate point but my original point was that it’s both of their nightmares combined somehow and in the same scene we switch to Sherlock’s nightmare of being forced to tell a woman that he loves her in front of the man he actually loves. FUCK SAAAAKE!‬

‪OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!!! WHEN SHERLOCK IS DEDUCING THE COFFIN, JOHN IS SHOWN SAYING “THAT WAS A LONELY NIGHT ON GOOGLE” ITS HIS FUCKING COFFIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!! FUCKING!!!!!!!!!! GOD!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!! I HATE THIS!!!!!!!! FUCKING!!!!! SHOW!!!!!!!!‬

‪I’M LITERALLY GOING TO FUCKING THROW UP I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS.................everything he says regarding the purchaser of the coffin was abt John...also John is the one to challenge the “its for a woman” deduction, like, SHERL, why are u assuming its a woman just bc of height...

‪Sherlock says “I’m remembering the governor” before he goes to kill himself, I have no idea what that means but I feel like it has to be important‬

‪“You were upset, so you told yourself a better story”‬ BIG FUCKING SEASON FOUR MOOD

‪headcanon the cipher riddle is about John (I am lost without your love, save my soul seek my room ksjskjdjskdjdjfjdjdkkdjdjdjdjdjdkkdk)‬

‪How did he escape the well if his feet were chained, how did the police get there, why would Scotland Yard come if Mycroft’s people were already on it, how did they get off the island and to the Holmes’s childhood home, not to mention the mother fucking grenade lmao...so much suspension of disbelief is required for this episode to make physical, geographical sense, it is so SO far removed from the realities and physical constraints of space and time. I’m almost positive it’s a nightmare of some sort‬

‪The flat is destroyed in the beginning of the episode, signifying that the rest of the story is fake?‬

‪Maybe...ok if we are in John’s mind, it would make sense that Sherlock saves him from a completely impossible trap that also involved his brother and sister - John has always been scared of Sherlock’s origin/trauma but he believes so strongly that Sherlock is his savior (I was so alone and I owe you so much)‬

‪Are pirates and/or Victor Trevor queer coded? I don’t know I’m just wondering. Either way VT looks exactly like baby John lmaaaaooooooo so subtle

‪Eurus’s explanation about deep water is just a cover for the casuals, like it’s the show trying to tie it all together from Sherlock’s perspective when they’re concealing that we’re really just in John’s mind‬

‪John says “You gave her what she was looking for. Context.” does this support my “they’ve been together for a while now” theory? ITS A MAD WIDDLE!‬

‪Who the fuck is Uncle Rudi, did he put Eurus away? Why does it matter?‬

‪“If I’m gone, I know what you could become.” WHAT THE FUCK!‬ WHY THE FUCK! WOULD SHE SAY THIS!

“‪there’s always one last hope‬”

‪When they’re rebuilding the flat does it signal that now the show can get back on track?‬

‪The ep ending without a cliffhanger is like...almost a cliffhanger in itself...it’s a super meta cliffhanger bc it’s out of pattern so it signals that something is wrong....THE FUCKING LEVELS MAN‬

[whopooh]

Play it again, Jack – fourth and final post of MFMM fics you love to reread

There is no thing as reading too many times, Dot. And of course I can read this on a public transportation if I want to! 

This post is the fourth and final of ���Play it again, Jack” – posts that collect the fics we love to go back to and reread.

It has been so fun to hear about your thoughts and to put these posts together. Thank you to everyone contributing!

First I want to start with a comment from @bumblemama that fits perfectly to the spirit of this collection:

Aaaaand another thing... despite having read literally every story on ao3 with the mfmm tag, I realised I couldn't actually remember them all. So I've just gone back to the very start and am working my way through again. There are some lovely gems, and it's really cute to see requests for a season 3, or even a few 'wonder where s2 will go' comments. A good reminder of how perspectives change and stories evolve. There would be plenty that would fit into one or more of the year of tropes, but they somehow seem less consciously trope-ish, I guess because they hadn't been done in this fandom before. Anyway. No specific recommendations just the generalized advice to find page 82 (!!!!) of the fics and work forwards!

@chrismarieisme sent me several lovely recommendations I felt I couldn’t cut up and mix, so here they are all together:

This was difficult because I love so many of the fics, but here we go:

“Be still” by @flashofthefuse – very sweet glimpse of a moment between P&J the night before she leaves for England. It's exactly how I'd hope that moment would be.

“He Calls Her Beautiful” by @ladyroxie – simply exquisite.

“A Perpetual Feeling” by @missingmissfisher – so romantic! The intuitive connection between P&J.

“The Actor” by @ollyjayonline – Jack & Jane, Pride and Prejudice. What more does one need?

“Merciful Powers” by @scruggzi – Jack, tights, Shakespeare. Ngggh.

“The Wager” by @soupsouffle – fun, witty, deliciously, steamy URST.

@soupsouffle, “The Wager”. Reread by @kanste

A wager between Phryne and Jack about who gives into seduction first makes for great banter and flirting. I love how they both use every trick in the book to seduce the other. This fic has some of the best flirting/banter and some of the hottest smut scenes ever. Do I need to say more?

@omgimsarahtoo, “A Thief in the Night”. Reread by @rubycaspar

This story is just so much fun. I love the beginning, told from drunk!Phryne's POV, and then the lovely moment when Jack wakes up and finds her there in the morning. I love the characterisation of both of them in this fic, and the concept is so cute and so well-executed.

@ladyroxie, “The Sweetest Fruit”. Reread by @kanste

Can I just say I love Peach and this fic has a lot of it. It has no smut but it is sooooo sexy. I love to imagine Jack in the garden, especially on a hot day like today. The banter/feeding is just like them and turns up the heat some notches.

@jackphryne4eva, “Cafe Blend”. Reread by @omgimsarahtoo

I adore the meta nature of this fic – the story is of a female MFMM fanfic reader who needs to find a quiet place to read the latest chapter of a smutty fanfiction. Her anticipation is delicious, as is the small French cafe she finds! There's an element of all of us in how she is struggling against her impulse to hide her obsession with MFMM and its fic, and how she decides to read on, working to smother any shame she's been made to feel. It's got a million tiny moments that evoke the show, and so many spots that could be any one of the Phrack fangirls we know. I just love it!

@aljwritesphryne, “and stealing my heart...”. Reread by @rithebard

.... Sweet story. Jack takes Phryne home to escape her mean father and it is just such lovely touching story.

@evendale, “Finally”. Reread by @scruggzi

Set after “Unnatural Habits”, this was one of the first fics I read and I was fascinated by the exploration of phrack's developing relationship with a much more inexperienced depiction of Jack than in many other fics. Phryne in this is very much the teacher, ushering him into the modern world through their developing relationship. Their characters take on this nice point and counterpoint dynamic, with her representing the age of modernity and him a traditional approach that he's fairly eager to leave behind. It's mostly a very gentle story with some lovely banter and very sweet moments between the two of them and it's very much a comfort fic for me. Something I tend to re-read when I'm grumpy. Although I think I lean towards a more experienced version of Jack's character now, with its setting at the end of season two I think this one works as an interpretation and it fills me full of the happy feels whenever I go back to it.

@firesign23, “Grasping at Shadows”. Reread by @rithebard

Phryne and Jack go back to Paris after the war and are haunted by their past and have a hard time sharing it with each other. This is sweet and special because it touches on their vulnerabilities. And how their love bridges it. It is a lovely tale.

@aljwritesphryne, “A Collingwood girl for an Abbotsford Man”. Reread by @kanste

Phryne and Jack return to the footy field and it turns out very different then in the show. I love the flirting and how determined Phryne is to "win over" Jack.

There is desk sex too.......

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Power of the Feminine”. Reread by @kanste

Another series of fics. I love all the different aspects Sarah put into the fics. There is young Jack having sex for the first time and Sarah manages to make the life of the woman with whom it happens come alive. She also introduces us to all the different women who made Jack the man and lover he is today. Of course there is Phrack sexy time. She gives us a new family member whom I like very much and I hope makes a return sometimes.

What made me especially happy is the Happy End Concetta is getting after Jack. It is such a wonderful heart-warming story for a lovely minor character.

@phrynesboudoir/Sassasam, “Mirrors into Windows”. Reread by @scruggzi

This fic combines all my favourite elements of undercover phrackvestigation and resolved sexual tension. Phryne and Jack have been estranged since her return from London although Phryne doesn't know why Jack's not sought her out since she's been back. After being thrown together on a case involving slaughtered academics they renew their friendship and try to navigate a big change in Jack's life and what it means for their partnership. There are lots of lovely things I could say about this fic but basically Phryne as a professor was a kink I never knew I had and it made me spectacularly happy.

@promisesarepiecrust, “City that works” and "A Whole World in Here". Reread by @balticprincess

These are two of my special favourites. Unusual, but great!

There are three things that I love best in fics I like: Angst, Modern AU and a happy ending. And while the first two are not mandatory, I enjoy other fics as well, the last one is. As I watch only movies with happy endings, of course this goes for reading fic, too. "A Whole World in here" by @promisesarepiecrust is written as a play. Nevertheless you can suffer and rejoice with Phryne and Jack in this one. It is full of suspense and romantic. And angsty. So angsty. The epilogue is lovely AND it is M-rated, as I like it. So, an unusual one, but so good and well written.

"City that works" is a modern AU. Total AU: Jack is the free-spirited rich guy and Phryne the divorced policewoman with PTSD. It works so well, that one. Romance, suspense, will-they-won't-they, sex, love, misunderstandings, fun: all there. So, also unusual, but so worth reading!

lefaym, “Locked Rooms”. Reread by @whopooh​

I have probably read this fic more than ten times. It’s fun and lighthearted, and it captures awkwardness in such a wonderful way. Phryne is sure she is about to die in a cellar together with Jack, and she decides to kiss him, because she “had no intention of going to her grave without ravishing Jack Robinson at least once”. When they are saved by Dot and Hugh, they are found in the most compromising situation, and from this moment on the fic is all about delicious awkwardness, and Phryne not wanting to admit she feels awkward. She tries to push it away as not important but fails spectacularly. Here comes one of the funniest lines I’ve read: “Phryne was not going to be defeated by a small masturbatory lapse in judgment“. Finally, the people around her decides she needs a push in the right direction, and we meet the lovely concept of Aunt P ex machina. 

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Female Gaze”. Reread by @kanste

Why do I like that fic? Well, it has Jack in a shower (a lot). But that is not all. Every single reaction to Jack is spot on and lovely. Especially Elsie has a soft spot in my heart

YouknowmeasJ, “Before the World”. Reread by @scruggzi

I'm am absolute sucker for a fluffy reunion fic and this is one I especially like. Jack catches up with Phryne before she leaves Australia and they scheme together to get the Baron home without Phryne having to fly him because he's driving her up the wall. Some lovely funny banter, a little bit of smut and that nice 'you and me against all obstacles' aspect of their partnership really comes to the forefront.

@phrynesboudoir/Sassasam, “The Nearness of You”. Reread by @rithebard

I love pretty much everything Sassasam writes but I chose this one because it really touched my soul. Jack dies in 1929 on the way to meet Phryne and his ghost finds it attached to her home but no one can see him for years till her a new Phryne Stanley comes along. I love this story because you love Phryne's decedent and you feel so deeply for both Jack and Phryne Fisher's sadness and loneliness. Incredibly touching.

@gaslightgallows, “Creatures of Stillness”. Reread by @rithebard

Again I really love gaslightgallows's stories. But this one just really touches me. Jack becoming a merchant seaman to get to Phryne in a beard and dirty peacoat all he wanted to do was get to Phryne and she was delighted. She loves taking care of Jack and it is a very sexy story but it was what they discover about their feelings that really touches me.

@jeneenp/ CollingwoodGirl, "A Man in Need”. Reread by @kanste

This fic has so much going on. I love the PhrackAngst, how everyone works together to get our two idiots together, and the little glimpse in Jack's live. It has some of my favourite Phrack scenes in it. Phryne convincing Jack to let himself touch (in the train), Phryne being her goddess self and bathing in the forest lake and Phryne teaching Jack how to use his tongue. As a plus you have Dot in detective mode.

@olderbynow , ”Smoke and Fire”. Reread by @zannadubs23

According to my reading history it’s around five hits. I love this for a couple of reasons. It’s light and sweet, but still smoking hot. Phryne who is normally so wonderful at everything, just can’t handle the baking of the biscuits. I like that she wants to try, not because she’s goo-goo eyes for Jack (well, not only that—thought that’s clearly part of it) but because he challenges her. That’s it right there. It hits the essence of what makes them tick and lights our imaginations on fire with these idiots. He challenges her and she loves it. She challenges him and he loves it.

@ollyjayonline​, “For Fox’s Sake”. Reread by @whopooh​

This fic is such a happy place, it’s a fic that kind of sparkles with fun and companionship and teasing and love. Phryne and Jack are bailing out from a fox hunt to instead first save the fox and then ravish each other in a folly. The way they interact has such energy and at the same time lightness in it, Phryne’s teasing about Jack’s slightly higher levels of embarrassment is lovely, and it’s a delightful fic.

@omgimsarahtoo, “Romantic Overtures”. Reread by @kanste 

This is not a single fic but a whole series worth reading. I'm really, really fond of letters and Sarah writes some of the best letters out there. I love how Jack and Phryne get bolder with the letters and how in the later fics they keep up with the letters. I would love to have something like that in my relationship

Comeaftermejackrobinson, “Method in their madness” & Miss Templeton, Twelfth Night series (starting with “A Willow Cabin”). Reread by @rithebard

Reunion in England, "Method in their madness" is another favorite, so lyrical and poetic. It is really a story for romantics which I am and exploring the inner lives of our heroes. I also love Miss Templeton's Twelfth Night series on ff.net. She creates a fascinating arc in their romantic relationship while they professionally solve case after case. Also it is fun. And they both have their vulnerabilities with real understanding and though they don't say it out loud love.

DivineMissP,  "Impact" and "Pure Bliss". Reread by AnonM

Dark, well written hurt/comfort. Jack gets to be a reluctant hero without taking anything away from Phryne's strength.

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Breathings of Your Heart". Reread by @kanste

This is Sarathoo's take on the soulmate trope and one fic I've turned to many times. The concept of one soulmate is troubling but Sarah did it beautiful. I love that Phryne and Jack aren't really convinced of the concept (Jack marrying Rosie, Phryne is doing Europe) but when they need comfort turning to each other.  The picture of Phryne writing over her bruises without the ink gives me so many feelings. To balance it out, the conclusion and especially her last message made me laugh out loud.

@firesign23, “When I Sorrow Most”. Reread by @omgimsarahtoo

This is one of those stories that I go back to when I just need a moment to cry. It's short, but saturated with emotion, and just perfectly painful to read. It's like those movies you watch, knowing that they're going to tear your heart out and you're going to love every minute. It breaks my heart every single time.

@heavyheadedgal​, “Queen’s Gambit”. Reread by @whopooh​

This is only a ficlet, but I have found myself coming back to it agfain and again. Although Phryne and Jack are only playing chess in this fic, there is still so much happening and so much understanding flowing between them. I love the way they talk about themselves and their possibly developing relationship while they seem to be talking only about the game in front of them.

This was all.  Here are the earlier posts in the series: I ; II  ; III.

I hope I managed to include everything that has been sent to me -- if I missed something, please let me know and I’ll remedy it!

[wtcrs-blog]

South of the border west of the sun

Once i spent 6 wonderful weeks stydying english in New York. ‘Wonderful’ cause those 6 weeks were mostly not about studying english and not even about New York itself, as i expected it to be, but about people who surrounded me there. One of them was a 15yo Colombian guy who was into reading and writing and who gave me a book which turned a whole bunch of stuff in my life upside-down. Here’s the letter i sent to the guy after reading the book. So, meet and greet, “South of the border west of the sun” by Murakami. 

So, firstly, I guess I need to tell you about my relationship with literature in general. I’ve told you already that I love russian literature and that Murakami is far from being my favorite writer. There’s a simple explanation to all of this: tho I read for pleasure mostly, I like to have a feeling of gaining smth while reading a book, and I feel like ‘gaining’ when I read stuff which is written in kind of a sophisticated way and which has smth more than just a cool plot in it. To make it a bit more clear, imagine reading ‘War and peace’ and some teenage stuff like ‘The fault in our stars’ or ‘The maze runner’ (have no idea if u know these two but the point is that it’s just simple stuff for teenagers). All of these books might have a thrilling plot and you might enjoy reading all three but what’s the difference between ‘War and peace’ and ‘The fault in our stars’? To put it in a simple way: ‘War and peace’ is a real piece of literature with not only a fun plot but with all that language and style stuff because of which we call it classic literature while ‘The fault of our stars’ has nothing except the plot and is so freaking easy to read that you’ll probably read it in one day cause you don’t have to make ANY effort to read it as it’s written with the simplest words, with the simplest style and the simplest language you can imagine. So, what I’m driving at is that I do not like reading simple stuff because I do not feel like gaining anything from reading a thing which does not require any effort to be read.

Getting a bit closer to the subject: I haven’t read much from Murakami (to be more specific: ‘Norwegian wood’, ‘The wind-up bird chronicle’ and a few short stories only) but all the stuff I read was pretty simple. I’m not talking about the meaning here, just about the way all of this stuff is written. Obviously I’m not implying that Murakami’s books are written as ‘The fault of our stars’ is written, for god’s sake no, but anyway Murakami’s style is not that sophisticated. And that’s why I can’t say I liked it much cause here’s the main point of Polina-literature relationships: no matter how much I like the plot, I need to like the style to say that I enjoyed the book. And I haven’t read anything from Murakami about which I could’ve said that I liked the style.

Getting to the point exactly (God bless me here cause I have no idea how to put all of this into words). All of those Polina-literature-relationship things which I’ve just told you about went freaking down and do not work anymore because of your book. It just somehow destroyed all the principles I had.

It’s the first book I’ve read in my life which had nothing similar to what I call ‘a sophisticated style’ but which is surely one of my favorite books now regardless of how it is written. I can’t explain it to myself but anyways it doesn’t matter much I guess. Just real fun to suddenly find out that I’m capable of liking smth that has nothing to do with being sophisticated J

Soooooooooooooooo the book itself. Goddamit Pablo GODDAMIT what’s wrong with the ending? How am I supposed to go on with living my normal life after reading this. I feel the same as I felt when I read your ‘Crisantemo’. I have a couple of interpretations of the ending but I’ll never know which one is correct. And maybe it really should be so cause as you’ve told me once, it’s important what I think of it myself and I should find the meaning which kinda fits my own personality and sometimes it’s not that important to know the correct interpretation cause there’s no correct one. It’s just different for everyone.

1.      The first and the most simple interpretation which came to me first was that Shimamoto committed a suicide. So she’s dead and there is not much to think about actually. But if I stick to this interpretation, I have a whole lotta unanswered questions. For example: what for did Murakami put that episode with Hajime following Shimamoto and then that strange man grasping his elbow and giving him that envelope with money? What for did all of this happen? What’s the meaning of this? Who was the man? What was the money for? And why did it disappear at the end of the book? Why don’t we know anything about Shimamoto’s life? Actually there’s no end to these questions. And if you stick to this interpretation you’ll realize that actually we know NOTHING at all. We don’t know anything about anything except Hajime’s life. Just think about it for a second: how strange it is to know all the details of his life and not to know a single thing about Shimamoto’s life, how strange it is that everything in this book is a question except Hajime’s life. All of it looks like a real bad book written by a random person who has nothing to do with literature: someone just sat down with an idea of a trivial romantic story and started writing. He or she wanted to make the story look like a real book and put so freaking many events and so many characters into the story, but this person is not a writer and he knows nothing about writing, that’s why he was just not capable of leading all of this to the end: he invented all those characters and events but put no meaning into them, gave no answers and all of this led to nothing at the end. Those characters, those events led to nothing, the book could easily exist without them. Practically all books arise a whole lotta questions. You read and you wonder why this or that happened but you always get all the answers at the end. This book doesn’t have a single answer. No answers at all. Is it a good book? Is it even literature? Putting random, meaningless stuff? Looks more like a draft to a book, not a real book. But this is a real book, there’s nothing more except those 250 pages. Just a book with no answers, a book by a real bad writer? No, can’t be so, I thought. I might not like Murakami but I’m not that crazy to refuse acknowledging that he’s a writer with big ‘W’ cause the whole world knows him. It means smth, right? So, then, what’s wrong with this book?

 And at this point I came to the second interpretation.

 2.      He left Shimamoto at the age of 12 and he never saw her again. There was no man and no money. None of this ever happened.

At first I thought it was a pretty stupid way to interpret the ending, but then I found so many things to support this interpretation that I’m pretty sure that’s the right way to explain everything. Well, at least for me it is J

a)      There’s not a single moment in the whole book where it’s said that anyone except Hajime ever saw Shimamoto. We never see anyone talking to her, we never see anyone interacting with her in any other way, we never see Murakami saying that there was someone who even SAW Shimamoto. The only person who saw her was Hajime himself. Even when there were situations when there was no way for people not to interact with her, it didn’t happen. She sat in the bar and she wanted a cocktail. Did she ask the bartender for anything? Do we see the bartender saying anything to her? Never. It was Hajime who talked to bartender for her, it was him who the bartender replied to. Do you remember all those ‘soaked to the skin’ moments? She never took a cab, we never saw her interacting with a cab driver, with a bus driver, we never saw her in any kind of transport at all except for Hajime’s car. She never took a cab though it was raining as hell and she was wearing all those expensive clothes and from her description it was absolutely clear that she was not that kind of woman who would prefer getting all soaked and wet to taking a cab. But she never took one. What about Hajime’s night with her? How she disappeared in the morning, how Hajime could never figure out the way she got back to the city cause it was simply not possible: no cabs, no buses there. Moreover, she was wearing high heels. No way she could get back to the city on foot. It took them hour and a half driving to get there, how much it would’ve taken her to get there on foot, wearing high heels?

b)      The present Shimamoto gave Hajime disappeared with her in the morning. Okay, fine, I totally get the fact of her disappearance, but why would she take the present she gave him? She disappeared herself, she knew she’d never come back, so it was pretty logical to give Hajime something that would remind him of her. And she really did give it to him. But then she just took it back all of a sudden. What the hell.

c)      That money in the envelope which disappeared at the end of the book. How do we even know that envelope ever existed? Did we see Hajime taking the envelope out of that drawer? Ever? Somehow interacting with the envelope? Never. He got the money from that mysterious man, he put it in the drawer and then at the end he found out that the envelope was no longer in the place where he put it. We can’t be sure it ever existed. We can’t even be sure he ever met that man.

d)      Shimamoto’s medicine. (I’ll just put a quote here) ‘I looked at the packet. Nothing was written on it, not the name of the medicine, her name, directions. Strange, I thought, considering that such information is usually provided so you won’t take a medicine by mistake, or so others will know what to do’. Not much of a possibility Shimamoto had such a packet, especially considering that she had a really serious health issue (which is obvious cause she was literally dying in Hajime’s car) and she knew that such an attack (or whatever you call it) could happen to her anywhere at any time and she would need a person next to her to help her take the medicine, so the person needed to know exactly how to do this. Surely it was life and death matter to have all the information written on the package. But the information wasn’t there. Because probably there was no medicine at all.

And if all of this is not like that and I interpret it incorrectly then we need to look for an answer to the good old question which I’ve told you already about: what for did Murakami put all those episodes? What for was there that man and the envelope? What for did we see Hajime thinking about why didn’t the package have any information? And, finally, and most importantly, we need to answer this question: freaking why did Hajime ask himself at the end of each chapter whether what had happened to him REALLY did happened? Freaking why was he always searching for proof, for signs which would show him that he REALLY saw her, that they REALLY had that night, that the envelope was REALLY there? Is it even healthy from mental point of view to always doubt the events happening in your life? Do you ask yourself if you really met me? Do you ever try to find a proof of something that you saw with your own eyes?

 ·        ‘Sometimes I’d think it must have all been a delusion, from start to finish a fantasy I cooked up in my head. …… But it did happen. It really happened. It really did happen’

·        ‘Maybe I had had an illusion, I thought. But this had been no illusion. It really did happen’

·        ‘But once I acknowledged that the envelope had disappeared, its existence and nonexistence traded places in my consciousness. A conviction that the envelope had never actually existed swelled up inside me’

So here we come to a pretty obvious question: what the hell was wrong with Hajime? Was he a schizophrenic or what? Well, we’ll never know for sure, and there’s only a couple of things I came up with to support the idea but they are not very persuasive to be honest.

1.      From the very beginning I got that strange sensation of some kind of abnormality in Hajime’s relationship with the world. Something with his wife, something with his children, I still can’t make it out, but the center of all of this lies here: when it came to leaving everything and going to Shimamoto, he said to himself that he didn’t care about anything except Shimamoto. He clearly made a point that he didn’t care AT ALL about what would happen to his children after he left. How could that be? Not caring about two little daughters? At all? Absolute apathy? I’d get it if he felt it towards his wife but not towards his children. Moreover, he was ready to leave his business which he struggled so much about before, ready to forget about returning the money he lent from his wife’s father. It’s not even that he was ready to leave it all, no, he was ready not to care about it anymore. At all. And here it already looks like an obsession with Shimamoto in sake of which he was ready to throw everything away.

2.      Before I came up with the second interpretation I wondered what is the scene with Izumi suddenly appearing in his life again doing in the book. What’s the meaning? But if we stick to my second interpretation, it would have a meaning. It was some kind of a tipping point. After seeing Izumi, Hajime started getting down to earth and all those Shimamoto stuff, all his memories and illusions started fading away. If it’s not like that, I have no idea why Murakami put this thing into the book.

So, everything adds up, right? Seems like I found an explanation for a lot of things and now the book finally makes sense, a whole lotta sense to be honest, but still there’s something going out of tune here.

Why did Murakami put the scene with Shimamoto telling Hajime about her baby’s death? If Shimamoto was only an illusion, why would Hajime need to imagine such an episode? Why would he need that baby in Shimamoto’s life? What does this baby’s death mean? Why would Murakami even bring the baby, the new character into the book? What is the point here? But here’s something which strikes me even more: literally a paragraph after this episode we saw Shimamoto dying because of some breath problems. What did the baby die of? Breath problems. Is that just a coincidence or am I missing something important?

And here we come to the final point. The last sentence in the book.

‘Until someone came and lightly rested a hand on my shoulder, my thoughts were of the sea’. Who was it? Was it Shimamoto?

 ‘probably is a word you may find south of the border. but never, ever west of the sun’