#just like the show itself is a good show trapped within a bad show

[harbingerofsoup]

“dean’s problematic” “no sam’s problematic” “cas is a bad character”

guys, we can’t judge them by the usual standards of morality applied to characters. the writers were all fighting each other over consistency and the network was meddling so their actions episode to episode don’t mean as much for their characters as their essence does or like the core of the characters

[astroboots]

Hmmm ok maybe the three of them going on holiday and making good use of a hotel room and balcony 😉

STRIP POKER

Summary: The trio goes on a beach holiday only to get trapped in their hotel room and you end up playing strip poker.

Rating: Explicit, DP with Frankie's giant cock which needs a warning of itself.

Warning: Writer has no fucking clue about poker (or any card games) and it fucking shows. She did research and friends and family tried to explain it to her but that only confused her more.

Pairing: Frankie x female reader (you) x Santiago

Word Count: 5k

Homecoming Universe | Astroboot’s Masterlist

It's raining outside.

A violent smattering of rain so aggressive it sounds like the window panes are getting the beating of its life.

Frankie sighs. $250 a night for a hotel room with a seaside view and it's just fucking pouring down.

He is standing outside on the balcony, still within safe shelter from the rain. Leaning his elbow against the balcony rail, he peers down at the perfect aquamarine water that glitters like a precious gem underneath, out of reach.

It's his first proper holiday from work in years, and he'd thought it'd be nice to splurge a bit. Big king-sized bed. Hotel Spa. Beach access.

It would have been perfect. And at first it seemed to be. Gorgeous sun as far as the eye could see when the plane touched ground on the tarmac. Then it started raining, and it just didn't stop. Torrential -- there's a typhoon warning on the weather forecast that everyone is recommended to stay inside -- kind of rain.

He throws a glance behind his shoulder, back at the hotel room where Santiago is draped across the large king sized bed with a thick novel he picked up from the airport. Santiago is about three quarters in, which means there's an hour, maybe less, before he's finished.

After that there will be nothing to distract the man and it's only a matter of time before Santiago will get restless. God knows what he'll get up to then.

For once, Frankie won't blame him.

Stuck in a small room with nothing but reruns of telemundo and shitty overpriced hotel service club sandwiches to keep everyone distracted. Frankie's pretty sure that he's going to follow suit with a case of cabin fever not long after Santiago.

From the corner of his eyes, he spots you stomp over to the bed where Santiago is lying. He can't hear what you're saying, but you're waving your hands around animatedly. Santiago immediately puts his novel face-down against the mattress, then he shakes his head adamantly at whatever it is you are saying.

Out of the three of you it looks like your patience was the first to snap.

Your arms cross across your chest, feet stomping down in dismay. Then you turn in the direction of the balcony and Santiago is immediately shooting to his feet to preempt you. He outruns you across the room and flings open the balcony door.

"Frank! Tell your wife it's a bad idea!"

Frankie rolls his eyes at the dramatic outburst. Oh it's his wife now that you have a bad idea, is it?

Cocking his head to the side, Frankie looks to you over Santiago's shoulder. "What's a bad idea baby?"

"Let's go out!" You announce. "So what if it's raining? We can go for a quick swim anyhow. It'll still be warm."

Frankie blinks. He casts his eyes over the cascade of rain that has turned the once white sand into grey sludge. Catches sight of the parasols on the beach that has been uprooted by the winds and are flying wildly, a scene straight out of that 'Twister' movie with Helen Hunt he saw as a kid.

There aren't many occasions in your life together that Frankie has ever said no to you. This though might be one of those rare ones.

"Baby," he starts, voice soft as to cajole you. "That's a bad idea."

You throw your hands out in a dramatic gesture as you stalk your way back inside the room. Frankie barely catches the tail end of your sentence but he hears the string of swears to understand the sentiment of it.

Frankie's left with only Santiago for company on the balcony. The man calmly walks up to the end next to him, leaning out against the railing to assess the weather outside.

To Frankie's surprise, Santiago doesn't say anything. Seemingly content with the companionable silence and the sound of rain smattering all around them. There are no bratty complaints about paying hundreds of dollars only to watch rain. No witty snark.

"You're being uncharacteristically well behaved," Frankie says.

Santiago grins. "I've had a lifetime of experience sitting out shitty weather with nothing to do during missions, Frank. At least this time, I don't have to listen to Firefly's snores."

Frankie snorts at the memory.

"There's much worse things in life than having you and Boa cooped up with me in a fancy hotel room."

There's something soft in Santiago's eyes as he says it. A sentimentality in his voice that Frankie has a hard time placing, because he can't quite recall when Santiago has ever used it with him before.

Before Frankie has a chance to recuperate from blanking out and think of something to say back, Santiago is already leaning away from the balcony to step back inside the room towards you.

"Come on sweetheart. Stop being a brat," he says and playfully swats your backside with a gentle tap that makes you jump.

Santiago leans over the desk and opens a drawer to pull out a pack of cards that he cracks open and your eyes light up at the sight of it.

"If you're bored, let's play a game, yeah?"

In his own humble opinion, Frankie's never been particularly good at poker. He's got the poker face part down, but he never had an interest for gambling and the rules of the game never quite made sense to him.

Santiago on the other hand is a master of it. He's the undefeated champion during their military days and he regularly cleaned out everyone's savings on any given night.

As for you. Competitive as you are, as with every game that you've played more than twice -- you got good at it with practice, but the poker face bit of it is something you are still struggling severely with, because it's always written as plain as day on your face if you have a good or bad hand.

So in a game of strip poker, it's a bit surprising that two hours in, Santiago is the one sat in his underwear, while you and Frankie are still fully clothed.

Frankie's down to his t-shirt and briefs, whereas you have only lost your right sock.

In all honesty, Frankie doesn't quite understand it. Because right now you're sitting across Santiago, a grin so wide you are going to end up with muscle soreness in your cheeks. It's a sign the size of a massive billboard on Time Square lit up in neon and flashing lights that the hand you've been dealt with is good as gold. Yet, despite all the clear signs pointing to only one very clear and undeniable conclusion, for some unfathomable reason, Santiago still refuses to fold.

He tips his chin up in challenge towards you. "What you got sweetheart?"

That grin of yours grow impossibly wider as you set down your cards, revealing them one by one on the wooden floor where you're sat.

First a diamond 8. Then a ace of heart. Then an ace of diamond. Santiago's defiant features fall, pearly white teeth sinking into that pouty lip as he watches you put down a club ace. And as you put down the final card: An ace of spade. Santiago groans in defeat.

"You're cheating," he mumbles indignantly. But his fingers are already dragging his sole remaining garment down over his hips to the sound of your cackling laugh.

If Frankie's eyes linger for a little longer than they should at the round ample curve of Santiago's ass, you don't notice over your absolute glee in defeating the man.

You're already hooting with joy as Santiago demands another round, metaphorically kicking the man when he's already down.

"And what exactly are you going to gamble with for the re-match? You're butt fucking naked Santiago!"

"We'll do different stakes," Santiago shoots back.

"Like what?"

"I'll do whatever you say."

It's like a pin drops in the space between you. Your laughter stops.

"Whatever?" you repeat.

There's a glint in your eye that even Frankie can tell is dangerous, and only an idiot (a competitive idiot) would still go ahead when met with that look on your face.

Santiago is seemingly that idiot.

"Whatever," he confirms. "Carte blanch. Nothing's off the table."

The devious smile on your lips doesn't wane for even a second. You take the deck of cards back into your hands and shuffle them.

"You're on."

Tense is an understatement to describe the next half hour that unfolds in the hotel room.

For a game that was meant to be a fun distraction from the rain outside, it's now turned into something else entirely.

Rundown gambling dens by the border of Colombia are less intimidating than what is going on between you and Santiago right now.

"Antique markets every Sunday at 6am for a month," you threaten him. Santiago practically twitches at the scene you're painting. His fingers grip on tighter on his hand of cards.

You grin at the sign of weakness.

"Oh and you're calling Martina about that time you blamed her for stealing booze from your mom but it was really you."

"What?" Santiago pipes up in alarm, with no trace of his trademark coolness that he usually has for these games. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Whatever I say," you remind him. "Those were the terms."

Santiago seethes. Gritting his teeth as he shakes his head and sits back down firmly on the ground. "Sure," he mumbles like a petulant child. "Whatever. Show your hand already."

You scoot closer to Santiago, cards tucked close to your chest with a smile so wide it lights up the whole room with it.

The first card that comes down is a club of 9. The next is a 10 in the same suit.

Frankie can already see the small muscle in Santiago's cut jaw flex before the man drags his hand over it in a tell-tale sign of displeasure that both you and Frankie recognize all too well.

Normally Frankie would say that with that look on your face, Santiago is in a whole world of trouble.

Normally.

The face of Jack is staring up at the three of you from the floor, and before you even put down the final two cards, Santiago and Frankie both already knows that it is going to be a Queen and a King dressed in black club.

You fling down the duo triumphantly and you're already listing out loud every embarrassing act you are going to force Santiago to endure. There are threats of toilet scrubbing. Brunches with Frankie's mom. Attending a taxidermy class with you.

It lasts for several minutes before you lean down to start gathering the cards to put them away.

"Sweetheart, slow down."

Santiago reaches over. His free hand that's not holding the cards, cupping over yours to stop you. There's a slow and almost gentle smile that spreads across his lips.

Then Santiago finally drops the act.

"I haven't shown my cards yet have I?" he says.

From the way that your smile fades. The way the bright light in your eyes dim, you know it too. The bastard played you. Has been playing you this whole evening, right into his conniving and clever hands.

Frankie suspected as much.

After all, Santiago is brilliant at poker. Undefeated for as long as he's known the man.

As good as you may have gotten with practice, there was no way your long and uninterrupted winning streak of this entire evening was from sheer luck. Especially not when Santiago has not shown his hand a single time this evening.

10 of hearts. Jack of Hearts. Queen and King dotted with red hearts above their crown. Then finally an Ace in the shape of hearts.

A royal flush.

"Soooo," Santiago starts with a slow and meaningful drawl as he grins back at you.

"Whatever I say huh?"

Frankie should probably put a stop to this.

Because you look like you're about to kill someone.

You're kneeling on the floor, tucked between Frankie's legs, as Santiago is right behind you, plastered closely to your back.

The man can't resist the urge to tease you, even if it is under imminent threat to his life. Santiago's nimble fingers tuck a loose curl of your hair behind your ear before pressing a kiss to it.

"You're scaring poor Frankie," he tuts. "It's not good manners to stare daggers at a man when you're inches from his cock, sweetheart."

That comment doesn't make you look any less like a murderess to be.

"Frank," Santiago calls out. "Take out your cock."

Frankie sighs as he reaches for his belt to unbuckle. One hand reaches underneath his boxers as he pulls himself out. He doesn't know why he lets either of you constantly rope you into these situations.

God he feels fucking ridiculous.

"Look at how nice and obedient our husband is being," Santiago goads as his hand comes to your jaw, bridging the span of it. Then he gently tilts you downwards to guide your face forward until you're lips are mere inches from Frankie's cock.

As if by instinct, without further instructions, your mouth already parts for him. Just the sight of your glistening tongue makes the entirety of Frank's back tingle.

He can't help it. It's sense memory at this point.

The tip of your tongue darts out, but before you make any physical contact, Santiago stops you.

"Not yet," he says.

His arm curls around the front of your chest, pulling you back again with an expression of pure schadenfreude.

"I'm gonna have to have you ask nicely for it, sweetheart. Ask Frank to let you suck his cock."

Frankie nearly rolls his eyes at Santiago. The man just has to rub it in doesn't he? Insufferable brat.

If he was Santiago, he'd sleep with one eye open tonight.

Still for all his teasing, it could be so much worse. Not to defend Santiago and his idiocy. But in comparison to what you had in mind for the man, Santiago is going more than easy on you. This is mild for the man.

You must know it too, because you don't protest. Barely even hesitate as you gaze up at Frankie, through your thick lashes, dutifully and do as you're told.

"Please can I suck your cock, Francisco?"

Shit.

Excitement pings across his nerves at your words.

This is a ridiculous situation. Frankie shouldn't get turned on.

But he can't help himself. not when he feels the warmth of your breath exhale gently over his cock and the stupid thing immediately stirs into rapt attention.

Your hands reach over, fingers wrapping around his girth. Frankie doesn't even get a chance to savor it before Santiago is already grabbing for your wrists.

Cock-blocker.

"Nuh, uh," Santiago admonishes. "No hands".

You don't fight him on it. Your hands withdraw to your sides and you keep them there obediently, as you lean down the rest of the way, until your soft gorgeous lips press down against Frankie's quickly hardening cock.

Heat spears through his stomach at your touch.

Soft and almost chaste, your lips linger on his cock and it has Frankie immediately swelling to full hardness, until he can feel it twitching against your soft cheek.

Your tongue darts out, the pink tip gliding along a protruding vein as you pamper his cock with your full attention. Lapping, sucking and kissing at the spot with a quiet moan before you finally move along and slip the head of his cock between your lips.

Dizzying pleasure punches through him and for a brief second, even sat on the bed, Frankie thinks he might pass out from the overwhelming sensation. His mind is in the process of drifting and floating out of his body and away from the room. The only thing that still keeps him tethered to consciousness is Santiago's voice. The gentle mocking praise that spills from the man's filthy mouth.

"Isn't our sweet girl good?" Santiago asks him. "Doing such a good job isn't she?"

Frankie wants to say yes. But his tongue is heavy in his mouth, and he's gone dumb with pleasure to the point that he's forgotten how to speak.

In front of him, Santiago is having the time of his life (because of course the bastard is). There is a sly smile on his lips as that clever hand of his palms the small of your back. He traces the length of your spine until his hand disappears under the edge of your panties.

It doesn't take much detective work for Frankie to guess what Santiago is doing to you as you moan keenly around his cock.

"Look at her isn't she so pretty sucking your cock, Frank?"

For all that the man keeps coddling you with his words, cooing and hushing you with a soothing cadence, Santiago doesn't show you much leniency. His hand isn't stopping, even as you whimper and shake from his touch. He doesn't let up.

Even from Frankie's obscured view from the bed, he can see Santiago's fingers working into you. Finding every perfect angle that has tears stinging in the corner of your eyes until they gaze up pleadingly at Frankie with a wet glossy sheen.

Fuck, you're so fucking pretty like this.

"So fucking perfect for us. I think my only criticism is she gets so easily distracted", he teases as your hips cant up to chase his hand, for Santiago to give you more.

All Frankie can manage is a desperate groan in return. His head tilts back as the overwhelming sensation washes over him. Hips canting deeper into your mouth to have more of your lips, your tongue, more of… anything that you are willing to give him.

Your throat protests at the thick intrusion, swallowing in fits around Frankie. You whine, trying to pull back but Santiago is there pushing you forward with another encouraging string of praise.

Frankie can see the man work his fingers deeper into you and your body is wracked in another series of shivers, mouth parting until his cock slip out. You try to cover your mouth with your hand to stop a moan that breaks out, but Santiago's hand immediately shoot out to grab your wrist again to secure it to your side.

"That won't do. Put your pretty mouth back on Frank's big cock sweetheart."

"Santiago," you protest throwing him a menacing glare, a second away from telling him that it's his fault to begin with.

"Whatever I say," Santiago reminds you, parroting your own taunting words from before. "Those were the terms."

You bite your lip with a pout that is all too similar to Santiago.

In moments like this, Frankie is reminded of the closeness of the two of you. How inextricably intertwined you two are having grown up together. Two sides of the same stubborn, competitive coin. And god he loves both of you.

Swallowing your bruised pride, you bend over again, parting your lips to put your mouth back on his cock.

Heat spears through him until his eyes nearly roll into the back of his head. The last thing he sees before they do is Santiago's eyes gazing back at him.

Even behind closed eyes Frankie can't get away from it. Santiago's sweet and murmured praises as he talks about how good you are. How pretty you look. In the dark it's easy for the lines to be blurred enough that Frankie isn't entirely sure who Santiago is directing the praise at anymore. And that makes it even better.

When Frankie opens his eyes again, blinking away at the watery edges of his sanity, Santiago is right there.

One hand palming languidly at his own cock as he observes Frankie and you.

He smiles at Frankie, holding the eye contact before he moves to position himself behind you, gripping at your hips. Cock lined up and nudging against the cleft of your ass, taking his sweet fucking time like he's putting on a show for Frankie's benefit to make sure he catches every single detail. Then he pushes forward, into you.

You gasp at the new intrusion, hands flying to Frankie's hips to keep yourself steady as Santiago thrusts forward. The momentum forces your entire body further onto Frankie's cock.

It's a struggle for you to keep your mouth on him and it's a maddening sensation for Frankie. The way your tongue darts out, desperately licking and sucking around the tip of him as best as you can. All the while the man is taunting you with unrestrained glee in his tone.

"It's not too much is it cariño? You can do it. You can take me and Frankie both can't you? Be our good girl, don't stop. Keep going."

And fuck, you don't stop. Your mouth envelops the length of his cock. inch by inch as Frankie watch in delirious fascination as the thick girth disappears between your lips.

You take in so much of him, Frankie has a momentary thought of how you even manage to fit it. Then he feels himself hit the back of your throat.

Christ, Frankie's not particularly religious but he's pretty sure he sees heaven as his cock nudges the back of your throat.

Still you continue, past your limits, eyes watering as you swallow desperately around him.

"Good girl. Such a good fucking girl," Santiago repeats, as he grinds his hips into you.

His hand rests on your back, sweeping your hair to one side until your neck is bare. Then he leans over, his chest pressed along your back and presses a kiss onto your nape.

It's such a sweet gesture, completely at odds with what the man is doing to you in this moment. Then his hips come to a still, an indicator that Santiago is well on his way to implement phase two of whatever devious plan he has for the three of you tonight.

Because Frankie knows Santiago. Better than you know Santiago sometimes, it seems. He knows him well enough that what has transpired so far is just the appetizer for what's to come.

That's just Santiago. Always a step ahead of everyone else. Always an opportunist to the core, his mind is always considering and assessing and re-evaluating the situation for changes.

It's where you lose to him. You get too honed in and narrow minded, your eyes too focused on the prize in front of you. Your mind always too occupied with thoughts of winning the battle while Santiago has his eye on the horizon to emerge victorious from the war.

In front of him, Santiago's hand comes to your cheek cupping you gently as he pulls you off Frankie's cock to your confusion.

"So good for us. You wanna claim your prize hmm?" Santiago murmurs in your ear ominously.

With one arm wrapped around your front, the man lifts you up and guides you to your feet. Then he's maneuvering you onto the bed, arranging you to his liking until you're sat in Frankie's lap.

He curls his fingers around Frankie's cock, like it's a trophy for you to claim and guides Frankie to your slick and waiting entrance, until the blunt tip is nudging against your wet clit.

That clever hand steady at the small of your back, in a steady but firm pace until the entirety of Frankie's cock is fully sheathed inside you.

Fuck.

You feel so fucking good. Warm, slick and so fucking perfect. Frankie thinks he's going to lose his mind with it.

His brain cells are melting with pleasure inside his skull and he can barely pay enough attention with the way you're clutched so tightly around his cock to register that Santiago isn't next to you anymore. He's gone off somewhere, fuck knows where, as Frankie palms the soft curves of your hips to press you firmly down on him, pushing as deep as he goes.

Frankie can't stop long enough to think much else, except for the sweet pace that you're rocking forward on his cock with. He's lost in it. Drunk and inebriated on the way you feel in his arms as he rocks you up and down on his cock that he barely even notices when Santiago's back again.

This time with a bottle of lube in his hand and a shit-eating grin on his face.

Of course, that's where the clever bastard went.

"San--" you start, but your voice is cut off at the long drag of Frankie's cock inside of you as he thrusts up again.

Santiago's smile spreads even wider, predatory. "What sweetheart? Don't you want your reward?"

Frankie can hear the click of the bottle, two seconds before he registers the way that Santiago's hand slips between your legs again, and then he fucking feels it. The pressure of Santiago's finger as he presses inside of you, and fuckfuck--shit! It knocks the fucking breath out of Frankie's lungs.

The sound you make is the sweetest fucking thing that Frankie's ever heard. It's needy and desperate. It echoes in his head and he never wants it to stop. Wants to record it so he can replay it a thousand times over.

"You did so well," Santiago says, pressing another kiss to the top of your head. He stills, allowing you to adjust to the new sensation.

"You won the game tonight. Fair and square. I'm just here to give you your hard-earned prize."

Even though Frankie can't see it, he can feel it. The rigid heat of Santiago's cock nudging at your ass, inches from Frankie's cock.

"This good cariño? You want me inside you too hmm? Tell me how you want it," Santiago demands.

But there's no way you can answer the man coherently.

You're an absolute trembling, shaking mess. Can barely form a word and much less a sentence. You just keep nodding, as you keep moving up and down on Frankie's cock with a stuttering "ye-yes."

And that's not enough for the bastard

"Yes what, sweetheart?" Santiago teases.

You sob, knowing fully well you won't be able to give Santiago what he wants in this state.

But he doesn't ease up. "Try again," he says.

"Both," you try, struggling. The word panting and out of breath. "I want-- f-fuck!" It's such a high pitched sound, you practically sound like a damned squeaky to. "Please, please," you cry, tears brimming in your eyes.

That smug bastard likes that, smiling and humming as he rubs the side of his jaw along the back of your neck, scraping his prickly five o' clock shadow against your soft skin until goose bumps form in its wake.

"Ple--please, San--I want--"

"Greedy girl," Santiago rasps out. He moves back for a brief moment, and you squeak in alarm that he's gonna leave. Instead he thrusts forward and fuck, fuckFUCK!

Shit. Frankie can't breathe.

There are bright sparks in his vision. Blood rushes to his head and for a moment Frankie isn't sure if he's going blind or having a seizure.

It's electrifying, a sweet burn that zips through Frankie's spine.

The blood thrashes and swirls inside his ears. It makes every noise around him distorted, like he's under water and drowning in you.

In the far off distance, he thinks he can hear Santiago groan brokenly against your skin. Whatever bravado was there before is all but gone in his voice now.

You're so fucking tight. He can feel Santiago through you. Can feel the way your perfect cunt is clutching onto every inch of his cock... and Santiago's not even all the way inside yet.

He doesn't know if you can fit more. Everything feels tight and overwrought and so so so much. His brain is so overloaded on sensation, it takes him a second to register that both him and Santiago have stopped moving.

None of you are speaking, and Santiago isn't teasing anymore, seemingly at loss of words now.

Santiago hisses out a breath between gritted teeth. His fingers gripping into your hips until it dents the soft flesh as the man tries to hold on by his literal fingernails.

"Fuck sweetheart, you're so tight. Relax for me okay?"

And you're trying to. Frankie can tell that much. You really are. It's not like you're doing this on purpose. It's real fucking easy for Santiago to ask you to relax when Santiago's never had to try to fit two cocks inside his body.

On top of that, while Frankie's never liked to brag, he's self-aware enough to know his own size and how he's a lot to take.

Frankie's hand comes to the small of your back, stroking it to provide you with comfort in the best way he can manage in the circumstances.

"It's ok baby, it's okay. We got you," Frankie murmurs against your skin.

Behind you, Santiago's eyes are squeezed tightly shut. An expression of bliss and torture all blended together. "I'll go slow," he chokes out. "I always do don't I? Let me open you up and make you feel good,"

His voice has gone sweet and indulgent. There's nothing mocking about it now. Just pure unadulterated fondness.

Whatever game he was playing before has ended now. Frankie knows that all Santiago wants in this moment is for you to feel good.

But you're too out of it to notice Santiago's defeat and your own outright victory.

You crane your head back towards Santiago with an indignant glare, no doubt to start off what will be a round of bickering between you and the man.

And that's the last thing Frankie wants in this moment, for either of you.

And maybe Frankie's an opportunist too. Maybe he's just as bad as Santiago. Because he quickly cups your cheek, guiding you back towards his lips to cut off any words you might have for Santiago.

His other hand, moves down to the front of your stomach, sliding his palm down along the inside of your thighs until his fingers can draw along the wetness of your folds, pressing light circles against your clit.

You try to escape it, oversensitive and overstimulated. You try to press back only to be met by Santiago's firm chest caging you in, pushing you forward and back into Frankie hand.

You shake and spasm in between them. Tears brimming in the wet sheen of your eyes.

Frankie's barely done anything to you and, god you're already close somehow.

He can feel it. The rise in the pace of your breathing, the thrum of your heart beating against your chest like your very heart is trying to escape from your ribcage as your impending climax builds and builds and builds from within you.

You come with a defeated whimper into his mouth. To Santiago's rasped groan in your ear and Frankie's low moan into your mouth. Your orgasm cascades over you as you shiver in his arms and squeeze tightly around them both.

Everything is a pleasant buzz thrumming in his veins as he can sense how all of you are unwinding. Your body melting in his arms, pressed between him and Santiago as you are.

They let you recover. Let you calm down. The only movement between them, is Santiago lips dragging against your hairline fondly as if to console you.

"That good baby? Think you ready for us now?" Frankie asks.

You're still swimming in the afterwaves of your pleasure, but you nod drowsily in reply.

Santiago continues to press open mouth kisses against your cheek and jaw, before he moves back to give you space.

You whine, a little bit panicked at the sudden movement. Your hand clings onto Santiago's wrist and the man immediately stills for you.

"Stay," you plead.

"Not going anywhere sweetheart," Santiago says, there's no hint of teasing this time. No lingering bluster of pride or a need to one up you.

"I'm staying right here."

It's soft and loving.

The very same tone in his voice he held when he was gazing out at the rain on the balcony.

Frankie had a hard time placing it when he heard it the first time, but he recognizes it for what it is now.

Contentment... It's a tone so foreign on Santiago but it suits him so well. If he can, then for the rest of his life Frankie wants to make sure the man gets to keep it.

Raising one hand to the back of Santiago's neck, Frankie cups his hand over the old-worn surgery scar as he reels the man closer and seals his mouth over Santiago's.

His lips are soft and pliant against Frankie's own. Then his mouth parts with a sweet little hum that sounds all too similar to the gorgeous whines you've been making all evening.

Outside the rain doesn't stop. It rains for the whole of that week.

But Santiago was right. There are worse things in the world than being cooped up in a room with the two people you love the most.

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Author's note: We're baaaaaaaack! I know it's been a hot minute since we got some proper porn with these three! It's also the first time in months I've written proper porn so I may be rusty. Thank you for your patience everyone while I was off lusting for tall spidermen.

[d6volution]

IDEA FOR CAINE. so you knnow how pomni tought she was in dream? ok so what if we enter the digital circus and thnks its a dream to? where wes tart to do what ever becuase "oh its just a dream" and do it with caine to prove its not but soon later figure that you had actually fucked the ring master and now you have to live with that untill you abstarct. also, i love you...................re writing alot

thank........... you <33

hopefully this is okay! i accidentally made Caine a little mean at the end oops, poor reader.

Caine/Fem!Reader.

nsfw themes. | artwork.

minors dni.

You've been staring at the ceiling all night. Everyone was right.. you don't need to sleep. You don't even feel the urge, it was so.. strange. Unsettling.. it was making your mind feel like an endless void when you thought about it a bit too hard.

You closed your eyes and sighed before hopping out of bed and taking to the halls instead. You needed a walk, get your body moving to distract your mind just a little.

Which did little to help, in fact you were back tracking to your first theory.. surely this all had to just be a dream, you just had to figure out how to wake yourself up. yes that's it! a small sliver of hope.

"Hmm.." You pondered out loud, walking down the long corridor of rooms. Everyone else must be sleep or.. just relaxing their eyes more like. "Caine.. maybe if I.." you were muttering to yourself, walking back and fourth as if you were in some kind of trance.

Little did you know Caine was already watching, one of his eyes were tucked away in the corners of all the large open spaces , including the corridors. He was only half paying attention until you started—

"[Censor] [Censor] [CENSOR!]" Began screaming out every curse word and you would keep doing so until Caine showed up. Which, like clockwork he did.

"Now, now what's all this, y/n!? you'll wake up the others! Not to mention the potty mouth you have! Haven't we been over this already?" Caine said in a cheerful yet assertive tone, staring at you with his hands planted on his hips and waiting for your response.

But you didn't give him one , instead you reached up and gripped his suit collar and yanked him down, planting a kiss onto his jaw just to test the waters. He scrambled and pulled back, "W.. Woah now! What's gotten into your my dear!? You haven't even taken me on a first date yet!" He teased and continued to ramble about how inappropriate and unlike you that was.

Seduce the ringmaster... make him break his own rules, boom. Maybe.. the dream will backfire on itself so bad that you'll wake up?

Or maybe this entire idea was stupid and you're insane!

You shoved that little voice to the back of your head. You had to try something, the whole prospect of being trapped here in the first place was insane!

"A date..? Caine, you've been trapped here for ..well ever! ... Surely you want.. more than just a silly date!" You huffed, and tried to get closer to him but he was keeping his distance. Weary of your actions.

He tugged at his collar as if to fan himself, seemingly a bit tempted by your words, "W—Well , be that as it may, here at the digital circus we have to keep it family friendly we're to be enjoyed by all ages my dear!" He said and twirled his baton a few times within his gloved fingers.

"I know.. but, isn't there somewhere around here we can have a little.. privacy, Caine..~ Just the two of us? I promise no one else will see!"

Caine didn't say anything, he simply cleared his throat and took you by the waist and teleported you both to his quarters. It was grand and a little silly. A red and black theme that matched his outfit, and decor befitting for someone like him.

Caine sat at the edge of his bed and patted his lap.

Oh, god you were really doing this.. was it really this easy??

He tugged you onto his lap, and now you were flushed. But.. he didn't make a move to touch you at all.

"Now my precious , y/n we can start our date! We must take things slow to set a good example!" He said excitedly and flipped on the small tv in front of you both.

Oh we was serious. This.. this wouldn't do... it'd take too long.

You tuned out the television and Caine seemed to just tap his hand on your hip as he laughed at the corny jokes on the tv.

Just then a light bulb went off in your head and you shuffled a little in his lap, ass brushing and grinding against his crotch. You felt him stiffen and try to adjust a little.

"Something wrong?" You said oh so innocently.

"O-Of course not dear! I do hope you're enjoying the show! Bonding is very important for relationships!" He said , seemingly unphased but the sudden hardness poking against your ass was telling you everything you needed to know.

"I agree.. bonding is very important." You said in a low voice while squriming on his lap again, and his hand suddenly gripped your hip. Keeping you still.

"Ahem, heh, I think its best if you keep still dear! Don't want any.. accidents!"

He laughed, albeit nervously.

You took this chance and to turn around on his lap so you were facing him and shoved him onto the mattress. You were straddling him and keeping your palms flat on his chest as you grinded against his clothed erection, "That doesn't feel so family friendly in between your legs Caine.. just loosen up a little.~" You cringed hearing yourself trying to sound sexy but it seemed to be working. He was stuttering and making excuses but didn't push you away. In fact you could feel him twitching beneath you.

Fuck, you were getting more turned on that you thought you would.. when would this dream end..?

You were going to pull back, feeling as if this wasn't working but then you felt two large gloved hands on your ass tugging you back towards him.

"C.. Caine..?"

"Well, it seems I've just thought of way to keep this family friendly and satiate your.. more carnal desires dear! I didn't think you'd be so bold and I must say I'm impressed!"

"W—Well, I just.. I didn't think you'd actually—" You fumbled over your words and Caine took his chance to flip you onto your stomach, snapping his fingers and you were completely naked.

"C.. Caine!? What happened to taking it slow??" You said trying to cover yourself but he made sure you stayed on your stomach , his baton planted on your lower back with a bit of pressure.

"Ubupbup! None of that Y/N," He interrupted and tapped your inner thighs with his baton. Silently signaling you to open your legs and slowly you did, nuzzling the blankets in embarrassment.

"Tsk, tsk, just as I thought! You're making an absolute mess!" He shoke his head in disappointment. Making a spectacle out of your arousal.

"W.. What are you going to do..?" You whined and glanced back at him , his erection straining against his black pants quite clearly.

"Well, I'm going to give you a lesson in sexual education of course! Maybe then you'll believe this isn't a dream."

Your lips cracked into a unsettling smile, realizing the position you were in and.. well you were fucked, literally and figuratively now.

"Oh, don't give me that look dear, where did all that vigor go!?" A silly sound effect followed his teasing words,  "I assure you you'll feel just fine by the time I'm done with you!~ Or... you'll abstract and I'll have to throw you into the cellar with the rest of them! Either way, I have a lesson to get on with!" He said while planting himself behind you , gloved hands gripping your hips.

"Keep still, will you?"

[matan4il]

Buddie 611 meta

I LOVED that the ep showed us how Eddie wasn’t doing compressions on Buck because someone instructed him to. No, he just couldn’t stand by, couldn't let someone else try to bring his partner back to life, so he announced he was taking over, fuck anyone who would try to stop him. No one even tries to, they wordlessly acknowledge Eddie as Buck's mad with worry partner, much like how in 315, the team treated Buck while Eddie was in danger. And then Eddie shocks Buck’s heart back and gets his pulse going again. Eddie literally kept Buck’s heart going, and then he was still so distraught that he yelled at the medical staff (even though as a medic, he knows it’s pointless), “Do more!” 'Coz that’s what Eddie himself was doing, he stepped in and did more than he was asked to, a continuation of us having seen him doing exactly that in 610 as well, when he didn’t wait for Bobby to decide what to do to help Buck, Eddie charged up an electrocuted ladder he was just thrown off of. Because when it comes to Buck, he will always do more. ~~

The significance of the bond between them is also shown when Eddie is the first flashback Buck experiences within the coma dream, the first lifeline to the real world. That’s continued when the second flashback is to the tsunami, where Buck saved Chris. However, Eddie and Chris aren't quite present in these flashbacks. Buck’s subconscious is at war with itself. The Diaz boys are this powerful connection to the real world (much like Buck and Chris were Eddie’s back in 315, as I tried to demonstrate in this gifset), but the coma dream shows the power of childhood trauma and how much we can be trapped by the desire to fix it. The whole dream contrasts Buck having parents who are loving, who want and appreciate him, with everything bad that would happen if he weren’t with the 118. As the dream goes on, the price keeps getting higher, yet Buck still struggles until the very end with letting go of the illusion that his parents love him, and the sense he himself can be fixed if they do, like he’d then finally feel good enough. That’s why, in a sense, Eddie and Chris have to be more absent than present for the coma dream to be seductive. Because if they’re fully present, if he truly engages with their coma versions and remembers the family unit he has outside the dream, the balance would be tipped over, the battle would have been decided before Buck had a chance to learn his lesson.

That’s why he only hears what happened to Eddie, he doesn’t witness it firsthand, and why when the dream's seductive nature is failing, suddenly Chris is there (despite his coma version not being in LA) to tempt Buck into staying. Even then, walking away from the dream version of Chris while telling him that he’s not real is the only thing Buck says he'll always feel guilty about. ~~ 

I just gotta include a small note here on how much I love the progression we���ve had from Bobby saying in 101 that while Buck calls him “pops,” they’re not a family, through Buck telling TK aloud that Bobby’s basically his dad (in the crossover) to Bobby finally admitting this is true for him as well. I’ve pointed out this season repeatedly (like in my 610 meta) that the show’s dealing with questions of fatherhood, including the question of biology in that context, and this ep was no different, yet this truly was one of the highlights for me when it comes to this theme. I love how much Buck and Bobby mean to each other. ~~ 

Buck’s mom saying “your kids” and Buck being confused until she clarifies it’s not his actual children, it’s his students, then his disappointment, that’s one loose end that the ep didn’t wrap up, because that is a continuation of the whole sperm donor situation (with Margaret once more being at the center of confusion on whether Buck is a dad or not). This one is only going to be really addressed once Buck fully deals with his role in Connor and Kameron’s baby’s life, something he can’t properly do until he also faces his role in Christopher’s, a role that this ep really emphasized. No other kids were by Buck’s bed, not even May who has free access as a legal adult and who has now admitted she knows Buck is her step dad’s other kid. Chris needs his Buck in a way that no other firefam kid does. ~~ 

Which brings me to the heart wrenching fate we (and Buck) learn the Diaz boys have suffered in his absence. I have mentioned countless times in my meta posts how important I believe 204 was to Buddie. How critical Buck’s decision to step into Eddie’s mess with him was. Not once, but twice in that ep, first when he helps Eddie by talking to Bobby about Chris spending the day at the station with the 118, then when Buck introduces Eddie to Carla. I have always said Eddie was very attracted (and not just physically) to Buck from the start, but Eddie’s Christopher’s dad first, so he never would have been able to fall for anyone who doesn’t also love his son as much as he does. In other words, I’ve always thought the heart eyes Eddie gives Buck at the end of the Carla introduction scene, that was the moment when he was gone. And now we learn how meaningful Buck himself knows that was. Without that happening, his subconscious just knows Eddie’s parents would have succeeded with their threat of getting Chris away from his dad, leading to Eddie completely falling apart. Buddie's tale is a love story, and this coma revelation is basically the show telling us Buck’s subconscious already knows this. ~~ 

Eddie’s reactions in the real world are also a reflection of how important Buddifer’s little family unit is to all three of them. Keep in mind, even with his therapy, Eddie is still a reserved guy, right? He normally remains calm in the face of adversity, it takes a lot to rattle him, he doesn't easily get to the point where he falls apart emotionally. When he does in this ep, he only allows himself to when his son is looking away. And even then, he just can't go on answering Christopher's questions about Buck's state. So it highlights how important Buck is to Eddie, when the latter DOES fall apart. When he jumps in to take care of Buck on the gurney as it’s wheeled into the hospital. When he shouts at the medical staff. When he looks so wrecked at the hospital, close to what previously it took weeks of insomnia to do to him. When he can’t look at Buck's comatose body or stop himself from crying while he listens to Chris speaking or bring himself to be strong for his son and answer him. And of course, when the reserved Eddie goes against hospital regulations and parental common sense (to keep your kid away from disturbing sights), sneaking his son in to see Buck. But Eddie does it because he gets it. When Chris says he needs to talk to Buck, Eddie knows the full weight of this, because it’s his truth, too. Both Diaz boys need their Buck to wake up. So everything Chris is saying, all the comfort he’s offering, along with the insistence that Buck MUST return to them? He’s speaking for Eddie as well. ~~ 

I also liked that Buck realized during his coma dream two truths that seem, but are not, mutually exclusive: that he does have a family worth going back for, but that ultimately, he’s returning for himself. He’s not trying to please anyone else, he’s not trying to get anyone else’s approval. His adoptive family matters to him, even his bio parents who have failed him repeatedly matter, but at the end of the day, he’s not going back because his loved ones do or don’t need him, do or don’t accept him, do or don’t approve of him. He’s going back because he loves them and he wants to be with them. And that ties in with another thing we see in this ep. 

Bobby describes the coma dream as a world where Buck can fix everything. Buck says not all, seemingly implying he couldn’t bring Bobby back from the dead. But that’s not actually true, is it? 'Coz the coma world is Buck’s subconscious, it can be altered in whatever way he wants. Bobby can be there and talk to him despite being “dead” which means... he’s not really dead, not in the way that makes death so tragic, depriving us of our loved ones. Chris can be at the hospital, despite not being in LA and not knowing Buck. It’s a coma dream, there are no rules! Buck’s subconscious is king! And we know how important it is for Buck to fix things, Eddie pointed it out in 504, and we saw a callback to this just last week. The climax of this ep is even set against the musical backdrop of Coldplay’s Fix You. But this trait stems from Buck feeling like he needs to fix things, to be the hero, in order to be worthy of love. In the coma, Buck realizes he IS loved. And therefore, he doesn’t need to fix EVERYTHING in order to make a difference and be deserving of love. He IS enough, exactly as he is, limited fixing possibilities and all. That’s how he gets to choose both his loved ones and himself in coming back to reality. ~~ 

Oh, can we talk about the heart drawings scene from 514 and how it relates to this ep? I recently answered an ask about it, and pointed out I think Eddie’s heart has been Chris for years now, and for a long time, it was only him. But that scene showed how, thanks to the way Buck has been there for both of them along the years, helping, healing and loving them, Eddie’s heart is no longer exclusively his son. It’s Buck, too. Which explains why the heart theme we’ve been seeing with Eddie since 413 has expanded to include Buck’s in this ep, with Eddie literally restarting it. So 611 really affirms who Eddie’s heart now belongs to. We see how, without Buck, he would have lost Chris as well. Without Buck, he would have lost his whole heart. ~~ 

And that brings us of course to what kind of a person Eddie would be once that happened. We learn he would have become this angry man, drawing on his reaction during the lawsuit story arc. But notice that in both cases, a part of the issue causing Eddie's anger is not having Buck. Yes, back in s3 Eddie was dealing with Shannon’s death, but he doesn’t really start losing it until he also can no longer speak to Buck. Similarly, in the coma dream, he becomes Angry Guy due to the loss of Chris, but that is tied in with the absence of Buck in his life. In other words, losing Buck causes Eddie SUCH grief, that it has no other way out except for rage. ~~ 

Did you notice how once again, Buck got to be Madney’s truth teller? He did that first in 208, when he realized Madney are basically dating. Interestingly, everything he told Maddie about them was also true for him and Eddie. Then in this ep, he tells Chim Madney basically should be married, since they already share every other part of domestic and committed life. Obviously this will come into play soon. So just remember that once again, his words can be easily applied to Buddifer as well, plus Buck’s truth teller status was paralleled back in s2 with Maddie in 204, when she asked her brother about his newfound boy crush on Eddie... ~~ 

Okay, last one, but I just had to share with you maybe my fave parallel from this ep. You might have noticed in my 610 meta how much I think the lightning stroke parallels the shooting arc. Well, this was true with one of the sweetest moments in the ep’s conclusion. Just like how, at the end of 414, we got to witness Eddie hugging Chris while Buck watched on, so we get to see Buck hugging their son while Eddie looks on now. Except Eddie isn’t just looking. He enables the hug by helping Chris into Buck’s arms. Tell me again: how is this not a family? How are these men not partners, dedicated and loving towards each other in every way that matters...? ~~ 

Please enjoy direct links to my weekly meta posts, my Buddie gifs and more of my content in my pinned post. Endlessly thankful to @whosoldherout​, who​ blows my mind away every week with her hard work and beautiful gifs for my meta. Tag list will follow in the reblog, please let me know if you wanna be added/removed here. Thank you in advance for any reblog and like! I’m operating on far too little sleep in order to get this posted quickly, so I can't explain how much any and all encouragement matters to me. Thank you! xoxox

[ravenlly]

(Sun and Moon Show Theory # 1: Ruin Still Does Have Another AI Inside His Body)

I've done a few rants now...time for my first theory post!!

So, Ruin is one of the most mysterious characters in the entire series. When he first appeared, he was a maniac who just wanted to torture and kill everyone in sadistic ways.

Or so he seemed.

It was then revealed that the Creator of his universe inflicted all the animatronics with a virus that made them all evil and sadistic and that Ruin was one of these many animatronics.

Or so he seemed.

When he banished Sun and Moon to Ruin's dimension, they managed to get a cure, return to their home, inject Ruin with it, and possibly cure him.

Ahem... Or so it seemed...

After this, he was always a little suspicious but he at least seemed different from his former maniac self. He was no longer seeking out others to play insane "games" that were very sadistic in nature and usually involved some sort of physical suffering. He seemed meek and shy as well as terribly clumsy as well as a little eccentric and, let's face it...not the brightest.

But there always was still that doubt that he wasn't fully cured and that he was behind the return of the infamous Eclipse. Or, if he was cured, still had some plans going on in the background. After all, not much was known about Eclipse other than that he was the fusion of his Sun and Moon and that he came from a dimension destroyed by the Creator there. It would make sense for him to still have motives that would cause him to do strange things. He was also proven to be a good actor more than once. The fandom was split in half on the decision of whether or not to believe that he was innocent but it has been proven that he was indeed NOT innocent.

Yet the common consensus was that he was faking not being cured or that he was cured and was just pretending he didn't bring Eclipse back and wasn't doing anything wrong. Nobody really thought about the possibility that he had also been pretending to have the virus all along and never really had it! Yet he claims that was the case and that he had simply been a carrier, stating that his whole manic behaviour was all an act to get rid of Sun and Moon so that he could use their home to start prepping his plans to get rid of the Creator Council.

So, it seems that Ruin is a very, very good actor. Most of what he has done has been an act. His manic, sadistic, chaos-loving "virus self" and his shy, clumsy, frankly adorable self were simply personas.

But one thing that has remained consistent is the prospect of him having another entity trapped within his body, one that he's possibly blocking from having control somehow. We've seen this happen quite a few times with characters in this series at this point so it's obviously possible.

There have been a few hints to this being the case, such as when he rescued Foxy (before beating him to a pulp lol), was interrogated the first time, and after Moon and Solar went through his memories. The second instance could quite easily be an act and it would make sense if it was. However...why would he have done so when rescuing Foxy or when waking up after having had his mind scrubbed? These instances also take place in both his virus persona and innocent persona phases.

When he saved Foxy in that one MGAFS episode and beat him up (which I may make a post on itself), another personality seemed to interrupt him beating up Foxy and apologized profusely for what was going on. There was the implication that this personality was his good side and was trapped in his body and couldn't control it, with Ruin somehow suppressing it. Everyone assumed this was his non-virus-afflicted self but in recent episodes, he said he was just actin like he had a virus. Still, this scene is very odd. He seemed to genuinely be losing control and, yes, he is a VERY GOOD ACTOR and all but why would he have done that? Was it because he himself felt bad and he felt so guilty he wanted to act out that second personality apologizing? Was it because he wanted to really hammer in the story that he was under the influence of a virus to the point where he'd pretend his non-virus self came out at that moment to convince Foxy too?

It just struck me as odd, you know? This personality didn't have the accent (though I assumed this could be a retcon at first and it still could be even if my theory is correct). I'm not sure why but I just feel like this was a genuine moment.

But what really made me think someone else is being suppressed in Ruin's mind is when Moon scrubbed his mind and Ruin woke up and said "our head is spinning." When Moon questioned his use of the word "our", Ruin seemed to get quite defensive. For all he acting that he does, I don't think he would incriminate himself by saying something like this on purpose. I believe this was a genuine slip-up on his behalf like there was someone else there he was referring to. After all, he was doing his best to make it so that Moon was not suspicious of him in any way. As far as Ruin was concerned, his innocent persona had no secret side. There would have been no benefit for him to have pretended it did have another personality in it.

He also seemed to be muttering something to himself about someone being free soon during that episode where he reveals himself to Sun and waits for Moon to show up. Sure, he could have been referring to the dimensions that are being saved by the Creator Council's downfall being freed from their grasp, but it's still an odd word choice if that is the case.

It's the mind-scrubbing episode mixed with the Foxy episode that does it for me though. My theory is that there is someone else stuck in his head who doesn't agree with the methods Ruin has for ending the Creator Council. Someone who is a lot more peaceful than he is and who doesn't like that others have to suffer for this goal to be achieved. I think Ruin is suppressing this side of himself but I think he interacts with him from time to time. We know that this is something that can happen.

I think that this is the side of him that has the "sweet Sun voice", as others have called it in the past when wondering why it had an accent and "cured Ruin" doesn't. But just who is it? According to what Ruin said in his backstory episode, his Sun and Moon merged and ended up as him. They weren't separate and became one entity, right? But, with the way the episode ends, he doesn't exactly say much about how the process went or what happened after. Did something go wrong? Did another entity get involved and, perhaps, Moon got merged with them by accident instead of with Sun? (I say Moon due to the non-British voice I mentioned being Sun, meaning it would've had to have been Moon to have been merged or lost had something gone wrong) Could something have gone wrong later down the line, perhaps when the Creator made Ruin into a carrier of the virus? Had he experimented on Ruin and tampered with him, causing something to occur and possibly create a new personality entirely in the process?

I feel like it's really possible that the Creator could have done something that created Ruin as we know it, introducing another new personality to the singular body. Ruin hates the Creators, all of them, with a passion. He clearly has something personal against them on top of the knowledge they will destroy as many universes as they can with their antics.

When telling Moon he should go mourn the loss of Solar with the rest of the family, Ruin also mentions that he knows what it's like to grieve with others. Ruin has obviously gone through a lot... I mean, yes, we knew he went through a lot after what his dimension went through and all but there's a lot more he isn't telling us. I want to know everything about Ruin!

My theory is something tragic caused Ruin to become the way we know him as today and that he does indeed have another personality within him. While I don't think Ruin himself is evil or anything, I do believe whoever's inside his head is a lot more peaceful and doesn't agree with the way he's going about things. I'd assume if there's someone else within him then he is pretty traumatized from the things he's seen Ruin do at this point. We don't know the details of what happened after Sun and Moon merged. Ruin was very vague. For all I know, it's possible the Moon half of him got destroyed entirely at some point.

Hopefully, we learn more about him soon. He is really, really good at hiding things from everyone but it seems like he's willing to reveal everything soon. I just think he's sharing a body with someone. I don't think he hates this other being but I do think he suppresses him because he doesn't want whoever it is getting in his way of stopping the Creators.

Anyway, I doubt he'll die soon. He mystery plot armour!

I wouldn't say I articulated my thoughts the greatest here and I mostly rambled but I'll post it anyway.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: Empire of Death Review (Sutekh is, and I Don't Say this Lightly, a BAD DOG)

Here we are: the conclusion to an eight episode run that’s given us such memorable villains as The Slugs That Didn’t Move While On Camera and Cos-Playing Murder-Owls. Look, I said ‘memorable’ not ‘compelling’. In fairness, it also gave us Jinkx Monsoon hamming it up as the deranged deity of music, Maestro, but the more I think about The Devil’s Chord, the more annoyed I become that it got permission to use the Beatles and then only gave 50% of them speakin’ lines, so I don’t want to dwell on it. This time, the Doctor is facing Sutekh, the god of death, who looks a lot more like a jackal in this episode than he did in The Legend of Ruby Sunday (where he looked suspiciously mouse-like from some angles). And, spoiler alert, he’s the best thing in it. Within a few minutes of the episode opening, he’s turned the entire population of Earth to dust, hijacked the TARDIS to serve as his temple and revealed that he’s been following in the Doctor’s wake for countless millennia in order to plant his sleeper agents on every planet the Time Lord has ever visited. As a result, the entire universe falls to his ‘Death Wave’ and reality dies a tragic (and surprisingly sandy) death. Great! That’s a Doctor Who villain worthy of the finale. But how’s the rest of it?

Well, it’s nice that the Doctor actually gets to do things in this episode: seeking out metal in a dead universe order to create an interface that will let him look backwards in time; hunting down Ruby’s mother because Sutekh can’t see her and she might, therefore, be the key to unravelling his dominion, and finally trapping the god of death in a death-trap of his own, “bringing death to death” and therefore reversing all his little shenanigans. For quite a lot of this season (the murder-owls episode and bits of Boom being the exception) his role has been providing exposition and then crying in a corner. For the entirety of the giant slugs one he was reduced to a floating VT in a holographic box, except at the end when he showed up in person to have a good scream and a weep over how stupid and self-defeating racism is. Not so much Doctor Who as Doctor Boohoo, amiright? Oh, fuck off. I’ll write better puns when you start paying me and not a minute sooner. I also liked the Doctor’s solution to the Sutekh problem itself: dragging him through the Time Vortex on a specialised bungee like a bad dog being dragged home from the park, using his death-energy to bring life until he straight-up fucking disintegrates. It’s just the right combination of silly and bad-ass and suits the general tone of Who very well.

I’m not a fan, however, of the stupid bloody speech he gives while doing it, in which he bangs on about how he represents life and killing Sutekh is a violation of his moral code that he has been driven to only by extremis. Piss off. The Doctor kills people with frankly sociopathic frequency. The first thing this incarnation did after parting ways with Fourteen was impale a giant goblin on the spike of a church (which is murder and desecration-of-a-religious-building at once). Peter Capaldi’s Twelve once shot a fellow Time Lord in the head and acted like regeneration was just man-flu, when we know very well it’s a kind of dying and rebirth. He also might have pushed a cyborg out of a balloon to fall to his death. Eleven used post-hypnotic suggestion to convince the entire human race to slaughter the Silence on sight, planted a missile homing beacon on some dude’s ship, blew up a planet-full of Cybermen and fed a completely different god of death potential memories until he imploded. Ten once tricked Mark Gatiss into falling off a tall building (though, in fairness, he wasn’t Mark Gatiss at the time: he was a big lizard-thing). Nine engineered the deaths of the Slitheen, the Jagrofess and the Last Human without a second thought. And that’s just the ones from the modern series that I can think of off the top of my head. Give me an hour on Google and I could come up with more (though it is weird, in retrospect, to realise just how trigger-happy Eleven was). I think it speaks to a bigger problem with Who at the moment: Americanisation. See, American morality is more Kantian; more dependent on rigid, inflexible rules (which is fucking weird for a nation that still practices the barbarism of the death penalty, by the way). Whereas British morality is typically more utilitarian; more predicated on what will do the most practical good in any given situation and therefore laced with innumerable grey areas. The Doctor suddenly being uncomfortable with killing feels like Disney’s influence at work: an attempt to sand down his more alien and hostile edges to make him palatable to an American audience (who originally got into the show because it was a slice of British culture that they couldn’t get from their own country’s entertainment industry. Look, let me put it this way: As a Brit, I don’t watch anime to see British values and ideals recapitulated, I watch it because I find it refreshing to encounter the heroic ideals of a different culture that doesn’t think the way my own culture does. Same thing).

I’m also not best pleased with the plot holes. Ruby meets her mum at the end and it’s revealed that she’s just… some rando. The explanation we get for why Sutekh couldn’t see her is that her identity and absence were of such critical importance to Ruby that they somehow twisted the universe and made her important. Which would be fine, except that only makes sense if Ruby is some sort of cosmic being with reality-bending powers. But if her mum is just some rando (and her dad’s a feckless adolescent, as it turns out), how can she be a cosmic being with reality-bending powers? Was it her time in the TARDIS? No, because the Doctor’s genuinely surprised by her (apparently unrelated ability) to make it fucking snow. If that was the sign of a deeper malaise, you’d think he’d have spent enough time travelling in the TARDIS to spot the signs.

Anyhoo, I’d like to take a moment to address Ncuti Gatwa’s acting. I’ve been saying all season that he’s a good actor and that the show needs to give him more to do with his talents than get all teary-eyed and spout expository dialogue (my phrasing has not, however, been that concise). Now I get to see him being the Doctor, really for the only time aside from Rogue (Boom doesn’t count: it was amazing, but our hero was stranded on a landmine from beginning to end, which limited the scope of things he could do quite a lot). The point is that, while I’m still convinced there’s a good actor in there somewhere, there’s also something missing that each episode director has failed to request and Gatwa has failed to provide spontaneously. I’m talking about something that’s going to sound stupid until you think about it: superfluous movement. Nine, Ten and Eleven (also Fourteen) were constantly in motion; constantly reacting to their environment and interacting with the set in interesting way, whether it was Christopher Eccleston picking up and toying with the random detritus of human culture or David Tenant constantly fiddling with technology, striding off purposefully at the drop of a hat (sometimes in the wrong direction) and just general projecting physicality, or even Matt Smith bouncing around the whole set and occasionally breaking bits off it, the Doctor’s always felt like a being with a lot of energy. Twelve was stiffer and more rigid in his movements, but that was a specific part of his characterisation: he was older, grumpier, more worn-down. Gatwa’s fifteen, however, is characterised as breezy and bombastic… but he never moves more than the script calls for. It’s hard to spot at first: you just have a vague sense that something isn’t right here, but once you’ve realised what it is that’s up, you can’t unsee it. He reacts and interacts only as literally demanded by the script. There’s no superfluous tics, no kinetic flourishes, no playfulness in how he responds to each environment… and it makes both him and the worlds he visits feel flatter and less alive. I don’t want to blame him too much for it: it might be that the show costs so much to make now that he’s been told to be careful and not risk breaking anything, but it is a problem and it reaches its apotheosis in The Empire of Death. Simply put, David Tenant could make a ball-game on a roof feel like a battle for the fate of the world, but even when Gatwa is dragging Sutekh through the Time Vortex and reality is being ripped open around them, his movements are so economical and rehearsed it’s impossible to forget you’re watching a telly show. You feel nothing. Or I didn’t anyway. Maybe you’re less sensitised to this sort of thing than I am. I do watch a lot of media and know a lot about how it gets made, which means I pick up on issues other people miss. So, er, mileage may vary.

Overall, I did quite enjoy Empire of Death. It’s solid enough cosmic fiction, but is also has that ‘first draft’ quality that turned me against The Star Beast. Everything in it is good enough, but no better. I wonder, maybe, if the root of the problem is RTD himself just taking on too large a portion of the writing duties. Running a show and writing scripts for a show are two very difficult, very demanding jobs, which is why the Showrunner usually farms out a lot of the script-writing to people who have the time and energy to do it well. This also leaves the Showrunner free to focus their own writing efforts on the episodes that really matter. For example, would Empire of Death have been better, if RTD hadn’t stretched himself thin personally scribing Dot and Bubble and The Devil’s Chord? Almost certainly.

Here’s hoping he learns how to delegate in time for Gatwa’s second season. And that they start using sets the actors are allowed to actually interact with.

PS. The new sonic screwdriver is rubbish. It looks like a TV remote fucked the Starship Enterprise. I hadn't mentioned that yet, so there ya go.

[olreid]

it feels like this season would be a lot better if it was aimed snd described to be like. horror *themed* rather than actual horror. Like, D20 is at its core a comedy dnd show, and it's a tight line to walk to get all 3 of those to come together if you want something actually horrifying, but if they just went like. the Nightvale route where it's playing with horror stuff rather than attempting to be legitametly scary, it would work a lot better for their format. but alas :/

yeah i agree, a lot of my frustration comes from the fact that it was specifically billed as horror but isn't doing the work to deliver on that promise. although knowing what we know now, i honestly might still be having these issues if it was a horror comedy. one of my real problems with how the season has been handled is how this weird blend of horrific reality and comedic tone has served to reproduce hegemonic notions of the acceptable forms that bodies and persons can take. brennan introduces a monstrous npc and then makes them available to serve as a punchline, prompting players react to them dismissively and with disgust. there's not much critical interrogation of the circumstances which might produce nonnormative bodies and beings, nor much attempt to get to know these people as people rather than gimmicks and sideshows. rapunzel, for example, is not allowed the space to share her backstory in its full complexity, how the circumstances of her childhood led her to become what she is, because the party is too busy exclaiming at how icky it is that she can climb walls or listen with her hair or whatever. that ableism in horror post was going around again this week but truly one of the easiest shortcuts to take in horror is 'haha look how weird and different this is, isn't it gross and scary and bad?' this despite the fact that the season specifically set itself the task of troubling and critically interrogating the dichotomies of good/bad, hero/villain, monster/human set up in our cultural myths and fairytales.

when people try to emulate horror uncritically and without a working knowledge of generic history and conventions, i do think a lot of the time what happens is they end up just relying on the power of a series of horrific images rather than creating plots and structures that actually produce horror. they're literally supposed to be in a time loop but they're not being forced to repeat anything. instead of trapping the characters within structures social or philosophical, or turning them against each other, or making them question their reality, what happens in almost every episode is that the party encounters an npc they think is gross. they gag and shriek. they move on to the next. the party grows closer, having defined themselves by what they are not. their camaraderie, built on the backs of these people who have adapted to their circumstances in order to survive in ways that are not beautiful or easily understandable, is the force that will save the world, because that's how d&d works.

[natequarter]

💚💖 for ghosts if you please. - thelastplantagenet

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favourite character?

i'd say that everyone gets thomas wrong, but i actually think the problem is that thomas gets no character development, because the writers don't allow it. he's incredibly emotionally stunted because his development is walked back and joked about in pretty much every series. thomas never gets over his obsession! the creepiness is never truly interrogated and just brushed off! so yeah, he is a creep, because he's never allowed to be anything else. beyond that, his life is genuinely really tragic and horrifying if you stop and think about it - he was only a kid, and he was manipulated into death. yeah, he was a bit stupid, but he didn't deserve to die because he was kind of an idiot. and he's treated like a joke by everyone else around him for said incredibly traumatising death. poor boy needs a hug and better friends.

as for humphrey and sophie - i really wish everyone would stop trying to blame one or the other for their communication issues and just accept that they were unhinged. i definitely don't think they'd work romantically within the context of canon, but i also think it would be useful to acknowledge a) that their marriage is fucking weird (even assuming humphrey was the heir to an earldom, it's beyond unrealistic that he'd marry a french noblewoman; this is 1558, not 1158!) and b) that he would have expected to be married off at a young age to someone he didn't love because that's the cultural expectation of nobles at that time. it's a mildly more compelling take on an arranged marriage than most historical romances, but ultimately it still kind of falls into the trap of treating arranged marriage with twenty-first century eyes of 'oh my god, this is horrifying!' rather than the sixteenth century 'yeah it sucks, but that's how the system (horrifying in itself) works'. also, for the last fucking time - they would not have been expected to consummate the marriage when sophie was 12. they wouldn't even have been expected to live together for several years. in fact, they probably would've married at a slightly older age - maybe 14 and 16, or 15 and 17. oh, also? humphrey should speak french, but sophie should speak english (to him, that is) anyway, because they live in fucking england. have i missed anything? probably. ah, yes: en français contradicts humphrey's character - he does listen, he does try to communicate, and it's not his fault sophie doesn't. yᵉ ende.

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

well i don't know if you've noticed but i don't like havers! i think generally my most unpopular opinion is just that some of the writing is, in fact, bad, and that's fine. it's an overall good show, but series five is imo a bit lacking. which, again - most shows aren't perfect. also, i just don't really care about the captain (and, by extension, havers). there's nothing wrong with him, i just don't find his story particularly compelling - for me personally, thomas and humphrey resonate far more as lonely, isolated souls. and i really think havers is flat and not at all tragic. the captain's death had no emotional weight for me. which is fine, it's just not for me - but i don't get the interest.

(link)

[ardenrabbit]

Do you have any tips on how to be more confident in what you write? I feel like no matter what or how I write, it could always be better, and I fall into the trap of comparing my writing to others.

I also feel like my lack of confidence is very apparent and worry that it annoys others or makes for a self fulfilling prophecy.

Ahh pls always take my writing advice with a block of salt! 😅 I'm by no means the most well-equipped writer out there, but I'm happy to share what I've learned.

I truly understand this feeling. It fluctuates for me, like, some days I feel like I'm a writing god, and then some days I feel like everything I touch turns to incomprehensible, structureless, stale, and poorly researched gibberish. Unfortunately, my confidence is largely at the mercy of a personality disorder. 😅 BUT! There are some habits and rules that I've set for myself that make it easier!

Your writing could always be better, and that's okay! You will frequently read back on something you wrote a year ago and wish you had written it differently. That's inevitable and normal. Most of the time, that's just a great indicator of progress that you've made in your writing skill. The important part to remember is that there is no perfect way to write, so cut yourself some slack and just write what you enjoy at the time. Yeah, endeavor to do your best and present a product that you're happy with, but don't ever expect it to be flawless. Embrace imperfection and keep going. It's the only way to practice and get better.

Everyone writes differently, and that's good too! It can be hard to see your own writing as good enough after you read the kind of content that makes you think, "That. That's how I want to write." There are works that have me screaming into my hands and wanting to hold myself to a higher standard, but I can't afford to let that paralyze me and keep me from writing to the best of my ability. The best I can do is take a deep breath, come to terms with the tragic fact that I will never have written Boomchick's No Water Is Enough, and take notes on what I liked about their writing and how I can learn from it. Don't do content that you admire the disservice of letting it make you feel bad about yourself. That's not why its author wrote it.

Do not show weakness. I definitely don't always follow my own advice here, but it's just like in art school: don't point out the flaws in your work to your audience, or it will be all they can see. Resist the urge to type out anything self-deprecating in the author's notes. If you start, hit that backspace key. You can trick yourself into thinking you were more confident when posting it, too.

If you feel like your writing doesn't come across as confident within the work itself—why? Are you pulling punches with narrative decisions to avoid confrontation? Are you leaning into patterns that you've already seen written because you're hesitant to branch out? Find out where and why you're doing it and rework it! Take risks! Ride the adrenaline! Be free!!

Periodically reread your own stuff and take note of what you like about it. Don't just nitpick at it; consciously and deliberately point out to yourself the things you think you did well. It doesn't have to be perfect or the best! Also take note of the things you had the most fun with. What lines of dialogue made you happy to write? What event made you happy to see executed? Example: I'm proud of how I handle characterizations and dialogue, and I have the most fun when there are big turns in events!

Along with that, pick a technical weakness you want to work on. Don't beat yourself up about not being the best in that area; instead, keep it in mind and put a little more effort into that when you write. Again, it's okay if it's not perfect. Don't agonize or let it get you stuck, but gently acknowledge that you want to get better at that specific thing. Shoring up your weak spots will make you feel more confident about the work as a whole, and it's reassuring to feel like you're strengthening your skills. Example: I feel like my weakness is scenery/environment, so I stop and try to add a little more detail about that in each scene that needs it (otherwise I will just breeze right over it and only write dialogue lol). It helps me feel like I'm taking control of my weak spots and improves the scene from the bottom up.

Above all, WRITE FOR YOURSELF. You won't make everyone else in the world happy, and you won't write anything you like if you don't write what you want to read. Be selfish when you write and just do what makes you happy! Dance like nobody's watching and all that.

I hope there was something helpful here for you! The best advice I can give is to be patient with yourself, keep practicing, and write what you're excited about. You've got this!! I believe in you!!

[orpheusilver]

care to elaborate on the miles venom arc?

YES okay so. the thing abt the symbiote is that (like any good corruption arc) it feeds on and amplifies the worst traits of a character, which is pretty straightforward in peters case - his biggest issue is his anger, usually manifesting via retribution (eg. "i missed the part where thats my problem", hunting down uncle bens killer), so his origin story is always the great power/great responsibility thing so he learns to temper that rage. what the symbiote does, practically, is force him to unlearn that foundational character arc and regress to his worst self

since the symbiote really really loves aggression peter parker is literally its dream guy but miles is a little more complex. hes definitely susceptible to that same anger (eg. wanting to "make kingpin pay", the entire sm2 martin li arc) but not as often and nowhere near as hardcore, so the peter playbook wont work as well for him (and also it would be fucking boring. weve seen that shit like 8 times already (not saying symbiote peter is boring i just think modern iterations need to explore new aspects to avoid treading the same ground constantly (sm2 does this very fucking well (also yuri lowenthal is a great va for peter like right up there with josh keaton (i think this many parentheses means im off topic (the adhd demon got me))))))

SO. whats miles' major issue he needs to overcome in his origin story? full disclosure i have not read the comics (but i heard they had some issues with his initial characterization anyway? which is fair enough tbh writing the successor to such an iconic guy is Fucking Hard) so TO ME PERSONALLY!! spider-verse miles is the definitive iteration of the guy and like. we all remember the whats up danger scene, his origin arc is overcoming self-doubt and learning to believe in himself ("its a leap of faith", "youre on your way, just keep going") which, alongside social anxiety (eg. the itsv "everyone knows" scene, sm2 "are you mad at me? it sounds like youre mad at me" dialog), seems to be part of some general anxiety issues. this is pretty well supported by the recent "the spider within" short film (which funnily enough is very fucking reminiscent of some sequences in kravens last hunt, not relevant but kinda cool) which also shows how miles responds by self-isolating, similarly to ps5 miles when peter ignores him

the symbiote can exploit his self-doubt pretty easily, the inherent power boost will do most of the heavy lifting to make him feel like hes not good enough without it - what if he runs out of web at the worst moment? what if hes not strong or fast enough to save someone? what if hes caught mid-costume change because hes so used to the suit changing itself? the more valid the (inital) concerns the better imo

the social anxiety is a tricky one but i think if miles traps himself in a doom loop of self-isolation he might spiral into genuine paranoia, which combined w/ the patented symbiote rage could lead him to lash out at people around him. "everyone secretly hates me so im gonna avoid being around people" -> "i feel alienated from everyone i know so im gonna avoid them even harder" -> "am i 'okay'? why would you care? what are you playing at? fuck off and leave me alone" -> "nobody wants to interact w/ me so everyone who does must have ulterior motives and is therefore a threat to me/my family/my city" -> "im completely isolated but bad things are still happening so people must be conspiring against me w/o my knowledge" -> "literally everyone on earth is out to get me and i need to fight them about it"

from there i think the ideal conclusion is pretty self-evident - miles takes a metaphorical leap of faith (calling back to the lesson learned in his origin arc) by actively choosing to trust someone, reach out and ask for help w/ removing the symbiote and dealing with the contemporary big bad (potentially his local peter variant bc hes got experience w/ symbiote removal and it would tie into the "leap of faith" motif but idk)

so tldr: a miles symbiote arc would be different to peters arcs in some (very interesting) key ways - rather than unbridled aggression he could be characterized by intense anxiety, manifesting as paranoid self-isolation and a sense of dependence on the symbiote suit, and would end the arc by reaching out for help in a symbolic leap of faith

[kkkindered]

MAFIA AU

tw; human tr*fficking themes, abuse, staged kidnappings, mentioned (pseudo) stockholm syndrome, exploitation through work. I think that's all, please let me know if I missed something

°

Overall; Modelling/Art company is a cover-up for a pretty trafficking run. Modelling is such a pop-up market, and not every face is memorable, which makes getting victims easy.

The crime world is needy for all its uprisings and in fighting. Every club needs new attractions and every bed needs a new pretty face.

Stockholm syndrome is a working partner. If you pamper someone enough they forget where the rope burns came from and turn a blind eye to the extra favours. A rosy haze to add to the drugs being dutifully served. They hold major territory and hold many favours with drug circles.

°

K'IN —

• is unknowingly used to test all the drugs given to victims.

• their father stages their kidnappings to see how victims may react and their likely success

• as well as to keep them close to him. trusting

• They've figured it out soon enough when long modelling gigs and out country runway shows are done without a hitch and they're allowed to roam

• However as soon as they return to home base they must be kept inside at all times so they're 'safe'

• plays on their need for independence so they'll go out regardless

• while toying at their newfound fear of being grabbed and carried away the moment they step foot in public

• They've revealed their suspicions to their father and he was content in admitting his actions

• Quietly offering them to be the pretty face of their operation or it continues in more dangerous degrees

• "a lady running a trafficking run seems less grotesque than a man"

• K'in doesn't seem have much of a choice after that; so they accept

• they don't know much about the heist itself aside from taking care of important paperwork they're too terrified to peek at

• Though asking the trapped to take care of evidence leaves them all the more susceptible to 'saviours'

[Kin's brattiness and personality is more subdued in this verse and instead have small bouts of acting out instead of an outright prissy attitude. their masking skills to cater to people's wants are wonky because of them always live on edge and isolated for them to perfect the trait]

ONYX —

She never left her underground fighting behind to turn pro. Too caught up in the violent high that regulated fights can’t give her

Did get caught by the police and was stuck behind bars for a few years but with the crime-ring beginning to become active they needed an in

She was the only one without steady alliance to any group and so their only option

Onyx didn't mind having an excuse to leave the prison. She was already closing in on her time there anyway.

She was promised a pretty penny if all went well and it meant a little less eyes on her while she tried to dig up information

The back and forth with the government only lasted a few months. Enough information for a good run in court. Sadly it didn’t come to pass

She got found out. She herself doesn’t know how it happened.

One moment she was standing over a desk filled of evidence, speaking with whoever, and the next she’s tied up with a stinging something and she’s being questioned

How she found herself an out and a permanent place within this organisation; is completely lost on her and she spent nights pondering on it for years

Nowadays she just lets the cards fall as they may. Questioning never did her any favours

Following the big man just two steps behind while he goes from meeting to meeting is her job now, and it gives her a place to rest her head at the end of the day

So she eyes the new shadow he has trailing him.

Ignoring bad taste coats her tongue when she hears the words ‘Father–’ leave the young thing’s mouth as the door closes

KIO —

• He ends up in two positions; a hitman + a prostitute

• He was caught being a pickpocket by one of Astoria’s rival organisations.

• Was intended to be a mole when offered as a ‘gift’ to the man

• ‘A new pretty face to have around’

• Mr. Astoria was willing

• The mole heist was foiled by Kio being caught and then promptly given an out

• 'Work for me'

• He was a 19/20yr old that's struggling to get by; you can't blame him for accepting

• Great eye for detail and people's faces landed him being taught in a shooting range

• It stayed that way for a good few months before his flirty persona made the rounds

• He could be useful twice over, good for him

• Soon anytime he wasn't set for a kill he had warming a bed to get lazy post nut intel and make connections

• He loves the attention and hates the phantom eyes that comes with it

• It could've been worse, he thinks, as he checks his locks three times

DELTA —

Mother and father are both cops but his mother was corrupt. Falling for a criminal of minimal standing but helping him and his people with crimes enough to change that.

Delta has met the woman a few times. Sees the heart eyes his mother has a turns a blind eye. The woman treats her well enough, and he can't stand being the one to tell his father what's been going on behind his back.

The lady tries to convince Delta to join her and her people. His mother even promises to help him if he truly wishes to. Knowing how severe his rebellion phase could've been if he didn't have his sports to occupy him and now with his leg— it would help him regain some control over his life. In some twisted way he supposes. His curiosity was piqued but he is still on the fence of it all.

[ all depends on the muse he's interacting with i'll decide whether or not he's dipped his toes into the criminal world or not :]

ZARA —

Was caught by some men who her father gambled with while she was couch surfing

She needed a place to stay, and all they wanted was her to help them cheat in a round or three

It was much more than three months

The thrill was nice

She bad warm water and food she didn't have to fight for

She could handle it

Until she got too used to it

This particular round of poker got bloody by the end

She quite literally was scraping blood of the floor to get out of whatever the losers could ask for

She could handle herself— but riding the high cockiness and a few glasses it wasn't a fight ahe could risk

Word gets around

Made a name for herself as a cleaner and it worked.

A nice room, food, and money to spare seemed to make anything bareable

SHILOH

He has a small personal jewelry line that he runs a store for.

It is used to transport small traces of drugs for testing in his father's smuggling trade as well as faux jewelry for other's heists.

He even trades for information with his pieces. In the underground where everyone wants to wear their status around their neck, it is hard not to make money. He doesn't have much qualms with what he does. He's far away from the bloodshed of it all that he can keep his lunch down.

He doesn't know what's happening to K'in and she refuses to tell him. If he did know, well, I'm not quite sure what he'd do but he'd try his best to get them out of it

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Ficfinder finds: firefight

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Summary: No summary

firefight Chapter 2: Appraisal and Ratings

(Don't know what fanfic "Appraisal and Ratings" means? Check out my explanation on my Main Masterpost! Looking for a different fanfic to read? Head on over to my Fanfic List Masterpost!)

Disclaimer: This fanfic is written by, @remedyturtles so go show them some love and support!! They write top notch fic's!

The fanfic ratings are not based on quality, favoritism, or how good I think it is, but rather, how intense a subject may be. Like a movie review, or the tags on Ao3, letting the readers know what to expect.

Plot: 💛🖤🖤🖤🖤

"Plot is one out of five!! This chapter isn't very plot heavy, which makes sense as its only the beginning of the story. However, regardless of having minimal plot, its still a highly enjoyable read!"

Suspense/Mystery: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Suspense/Mystery is two out of five!! This chapter contains minimal amounts of mystery, and is more on the suspense side. While nothing suspenseful in the moment is happening, the whole story itself in this moment is made of suspense, because like, how are the twins gonna get outta this mess?"

Angst/Hurt: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Angst/Hurt is two out of five! Both the twins are just in so much shock, that all that can be conveyed, is confusion and guilt. My favorite little angsty bit in this chapter, is how every time Donnie attempt to talk about how he's there with his twin, all Leo can say is "Not now." This just feels like such a powerful statement to me."

Fluff/Comfort: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Fluff/Comfort is two out of five!! We actually get some comfort in this chapter, so soak it all up!! An equal amount of comfort to the amount of angst in this chapter."

Emotions Conveyed: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Emotions Conveyed gets a two out of five!! While this chapter won't mess with your head to bad, you may find yourself smiling from how precious Donnie is with Leo. In most fanfics, Leo is often turning to Donnie as his safe person, or as the person he feels will understand/ I absolutely adore how the roles are reversed in firefight! Leo is Donnie's safe person, and while Leo feels immensely stressed knowing that his twin is in the prison dimension with him, Donnie can only feel a sense of relief knowing that he's with his comfort person. That Leo is within sight."

Drama/Tension Level: 💛🖤🖤🖤🖤

"Drama/Tension Level gets a one out of five!! Tension is a little high between the twins, though that's to be expected due to being trapped in an eternal hell."

Triggers: 💛🖤🖤🖤🖤

"Triggers for this chapter are one out of five!! Minimal triggers for this chapter!!"

Legibility (Reading): 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Legibility (Reading) is four out of five!! I particularly enjoy the little banter scenes, and when thoughts and/or unspoken words are written in italics."

Legibility (Audio): 💛💛💛💛💛

"Legibility (Audio) gets a five out of five!! Beautiful and fun to listen to!! Would recommend!!"

Length: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Length is three out of five!! Chapter 2 of firefight takes about 27-28 minutes to listen to!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Firefight: Story Ratings and Chapter List

Personal thoughts on chapter below cut (Contains Spoilers)

This chapter just has such a powerful feeling of being lost, and helpless. In the beginning, I really enjoyed seeing the shift Leo displayed, where he's being angry, argumentative, and just hardly holding back tears, switching once Donnie has a question for him, and he's able to revert to a task, his tone becomes very bland, focusing on the information.

Never mind. He was safe as houses. The tension leaked from his shoulders and Donnie turned to hug his pillow. A shocked pause, then a damp laugh. Leo said, "Sleepytello coming in for the cuddles, hey?" "Everythin' okay?" Donnie muttered, disorientated. "Oh yeah." Leo scoffed, voice not quite put together, not quite perfect. "We're doing fantastic, D. You keep sleeping."

This bit right here is so precious to me. Donnie is so innocent in this moment, holding onto his dearest twin, completely unaware how broken Leo is in this moment. Leo is clearly crying, but he keeps it well hidden, hiding away his tears so that his twin would sleep.

"Taps means water." Leo said, full confidence, keeping his grip on Donnie's hand and skating the other on the wall as they moved to the door. His sword was strapped to his back and his soft glowing stripes reminded Donnie of a jellyfish or a cloud of fireflies.

This little comparison is wonderful! Like a jellyfish, Leo goes with the flow, survives on his own, is bright and colorful, and falls prey to turtles, aka his brothers; the only ones he'd do anything for. Like fireflies, Leo is bright, flashy, and lights the way, yet scatters when confronted by others, distracting and dissuading.

"What?" Leo turned and gave his twin one of his shy smiles. It lifted Donnie's heart to see it here. He drew Leo's own sword off his back and bonked him gently in the head with the hilt.

I just wanted to highlight these paragraphs, because Leo's little smile is so precious, and I love it.

[nekupen]

NEKUPEN #06: PORTAL!!!

Our story starts in the year of our lord and savior 2005. The seniors at the DigiPen Institute of Technology have a simple-to-do (Citation needed) senior project: Make a video game. A group of 'em, Nuclear Monkey Software, decided to make a first person puzzle game called Narbacular Drop. What the hell does "Narbacular" mean? No idea, but it makes the game easy to look up. You play as Princess No-Knees. That's not her God given name (Thank God), she's just called that because she can't jump. She got trapped in a dungeon by a demon because she was late on the Hospital bill, but there's a twist - The dungeon's a sentient being called Wally, and he can create portals! And thankfully, Wally's benevolent enough to let you use that to your advantage.

The game is played uniquely from a first person perspective (Hold your applause. No, seriously, your hands will fall off and sewing them back on is not within budget). You place portals at the click of your mouse, two at a time. One has blue eyes, the other has orange. These portals are only allowed on a natural surface and won't work on artificial surfaces, like metal. There's also switches, lava turtles to help you cross that piping hot magma, and boulders that can crush you. That portal thing sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? No? Good, it'd be REALLY bad if we got dragged kicking and screaming into court over this portal thing.

Screenshot of Narbacular Drop

The game was shown at DigiPen's career fair. In the audience was one Robin Walker, who you might know as the person behind Ricochet. 

(Wait, he's NOT known for Ricochet?)

Sorry, what I meant to say was "Who you might know as one parent of the Team Fortress franchise". He thought the display of innovative puzzle design and disability representation was marvelous and contacted Nuclear Monkey Software, offering to show their work to fellow Valve employees. When they presented the game to Valve, jolly ol ' Saint Newell rose up from his dingy folding chair, spontaneously decided that the entire team was on the nice list, and gave them the gift of having jobs working at Valve Software. Two years later, the award-winning video game Portal was born!

[Please note that Narbacular Drop is responsible for the video game Portal and not responsible for the creation of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, which was created in a pursuit of making shower curtains more hygienic.]

Portal itself was sort of like a side project in the scheme of things. It had a measly ten people on board, which might not seem measly with all the solo, self-made indie devs out and about these days, but it wasn't the norm with Valve. And that's not to mention that Half-Life 2's episodes and Team Fortress 2 were in production as well. The small team resulted in a lot of design decisions geared towards smart allocation of resources. Need other characters in the narrative but don't want to model or animate another person? Make spherical robots! Don't want to make a bunch of new assets? Reuse some from another game! Want to justify the use of reusing assets from another game? Make them set in the same universe! The person behind that other universe will complain, but it's a net gain. It's enough to make a grown scientist cry. Except me. I'm too busy taking notes to cry.

Portal is also a REALLY good demonstration of Valve's usage of play tester feedback to determine what sticks and what doesn't, kind of like how we use test subjects to determine what's shippable and what should be destroyed and left to rot in a vault. You know that whole "narrative" thing? Well, that didn't really come up until the testers asked about it. The idea of having Advanced Knee Replacements to justify the lack of fall damage stems from the snotty little know-it-alls yakking about how weird it was that the protagonist was surviving falls that a man from our competing company couldn't. And let's not forget the Weighted Companion Cube, which was brought up to encourage players to bring a vital object with them to puzzles (A box in specific). It also ended up adding to the plot of the game, giving the player a revenge angle while also giving an idea as to what the final boss would play like.

It'd be foolish not to bring up how Portal released. You see, Portal was a part of Valve's "The Orange Box", a collection of older and brand new spanking new games: The older titles make up two of the games (And older is pushing it, they were still pretty young then), Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. The new games were: Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. That's right, those folks at Valve dropped three big hitters on the same day, and they even made ports for the consoles of that generation! Except the Wii. You couldn't get any of these games working on the Wii if you got the finest minds from Aperture Science and the louts from Black Mesa working on it. But enough of all that, let's talk Portal!

Portal puts you into the brain of Chell, a Aperture Science test subject that's been in stasis for quite a while.

Our ever-so stubborn, orphaned, pudgy protagonist.

She finally wakes up but doesn't even get the chance to get her bearings, for a mysterious voice (GLaDOS, or Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) starts yapping about testing! Enticed by the idea of receiving cake (Because who isn't a little famished from stasis?), she complies, and is introduced to portal technology! After getting through all 19 chambers, Chell is rewarded with a nice freshly cooked incinerator. But she's already lost her appetite by then, so she passes, and this annoys GLaDOS, ruining her already cracking guise as an apathetic emotionless robot. After traversing through the seedy unwashed parts of the labs, Chell finally gets face-to-face with GLaDOS, who, after having her morality core incinerated, tries to kill Chell with deadly neurotoxin.

A Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System

Dying's not in her schedule, so Chell proceeds to destroy all of GLaDOS' cores, which causes the facility to blow up, leaving Chell and GLaDOS outside in the aftermath. But Chell, luckily, gets dragged back into the labs by the Party Escort Bot Luckily in a relative sense. better to die in the Aperture labs than to die in the Black Mesa-created hellhole outside.

A still image of the ending

Like the story, the gameplay itself is pretty simple, but it grows more layers over the course of the game. The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is our pride and joy.

The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Or Portal Gun for short)

You place a blue portal, you place an orange portal. Neither specifically are an entrance or exit, whichever one you enter, you go out the other. The fun comes from the tests. A common application of the device is the use of momentum to gain the speed and height needed to reach an area. Or in the brilliantly put words of GLaDOS, "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing goes out". And you might be asking "What the heck's stopping me from just placing a portal where I need to go?". Well, there's various materials that are, in mild terms, absolutely awful as portal conductors, gray tiled floors and metal just to name the main culprits. And that's not to bring up the other part of the tests!

See those buttons? Those are our state-of-the-art 1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Buttons! They activate something if you press stand on them, but they won't stay pressed. That's what our Weighted Storage Cubes are for, and they come in Companion flavor too!

1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button and Weighted Storage Cube Demonstration (Cube and Button for short.)

Your best friend, the Weighted Companion Cube

Generally, you'd want to watch out for all that filthy... Goo down there in the pits. We have no idea what it is or where it came from, but we do know that it's incredibly acidic and you'll probably die in 4 seconds flat.

Goo Demonstration

Look out for our High Energy Pellets! You'll be atomized if you don't. Your job is to lead the pellets from the launchers into the portals with clever placement of Portal. Although the pellets fizzle out after a certain amount of time, as long as they keep going through a portal they'll stay active.

High Energy Pellet Demonstration

You might be asking "What's that thin, blue field of particles in front of the elevator? That's our Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill. It disintegrates unauthorized materials like the cubes, and while it won't disintegrate your portal gun, it'll snuff out your portals.

Emancipation Grill Demonstration

And finally, there's our Turrets. It's all the matter of whoever gets the drop on who. To ensure relatability with children every turret comes with a child-like personality. And if the children wakes up and starts to cry after the turret guns down a home invader, it'll play a lullaby to placate the child!

How to NOT deal with a Turret

How to deal with a Turret

Want some extra challenge in the chambers? Try out the Challenge modes in the Bonus Maps! Don't think those make the chambers hard enough? Well why don't you try out our Advanced Chambers since you think you're such a death-defying acrobatic smartass?

The Bonus Maps menu

Speaking of smartasses, if you want more tests to go through then you can look to the internet, as smartasses all around the world have made their own map packs, which you can download you can install more bonus maps by importing any you’ve downloaded online into the game. Alternatively, some might be “sourcemods”, which you just place in the sourcemods folder (and if you don’t have one by default then you can simply make one yourself). Of course, it’d be silly if we didn’t bring up Portal: The Flash Version, notable in that it came out before the actual game itself did! It’s popular in its own right, having a lot of Portal’s obstacles, but its own puzzles which are presented in a 2D space. It was popular enough to spawn a map pack that has its levels and original obstacles put into the realm of mind blowing 3D!

Portal: The Flash Version's menu

So where is Portal now? Well, it has a sequel (which has its own set of mods and custom maps), some non-canon side games, a compilation with its sequel on Nintendo Switch, a RTX version, a appearance in a LEGO game, a GEICO commercial, a educational program, A LOT of sourcemods for that sequel released on Steam.. I’d say it’s in a good place right now. This has been a Aperture Science blogpost, and we thank you for reading all the way to the end. We hope to see you again soon!

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

Also some more silly Eden stuff,

What was Summum's reaction to them when they resurrected them!

Would Eden like a plushie?

Also Eden interacting with other starfolks, especially wanderers!

Summum's reaction was an interesting mix of surprise, terror, tentative relief, and fondness (and this got long, so putting all this under the cut).

The first thing Summum felt was panicked fear, because to his knowledge, he shouldn't be alive. He should be gone for good. For a brief moment, he felt utter, unadulterated panic and fear that something may have gone wrong. Then he got glomped by Eden, and quickly concluded that no, everything is fine, Eden just...has the power of a god now.... So that shifted to surprise for a moment, then unbridled fondness and a certain amount of concern for Eden (and a lot of mother-hening).

I also have a bit of an angst idea that is going either here, or in the New Management AU, wherein Summum is absolutely convinced that he must be in some kind of dream or illusion, and is struggling to come to grips with the idea that this new paradise is real. He's terrified to trust and let himself believe this is real, because he doesn't know if he can handle having that shattered if it isn't. If that happens in Eclipsed, then Eden is the one who works him through it. If it happens in New Management, then it's Delta who mostly helps him, with a hefty dose of Edda and Aven.

In other news, Eden would love a plushie! They are nodding enthusiastically-

Heehee, yeah, Eden has some fun interactions with the other Starfolk. Partly because post-TOFA, all the Starfolk intuitively know that this is the one who basically consumed a god, and partly because they are Green™ and That's New (for them). However, the general disposition is friendly and grateful, with a great deal of "thank you for restoring our sapience and not just nuking everything to restart or somethin'." There's a lot of check-in visits on Eden's part - sensing where everyone is at, checking up on people and making sure no one is distressed, rescuing anyone who is in an imminently bad spot, etc. There's also some rescue missions from the various quarantined zones, both of the stranded, and of Starfolk that got trapped indefinitely by the environment itself. ...There's approximately a week or two spend just...disinterring Starfolk from the bottom of the Diopside Marina...

Stuff with the wanderers in particular gets interesting, especially between Aziel, The General, and Willow (the Fairy, who I've been referring to as the Willow Wisp. She's not a wanderer, but still). Namely, Eden straight up brings Willow back, and that makes for an interesting little dynamic.

The abrupt absence of TOFA and the return of sanity also did a great deal to remove some physical strain and pain from the Wanderers, and also saw the sudden emergence of several Wanderers who'd been hiding in the shadows or hibernating somewhere inaccessible (Nereo and Dareia being such examples).

Aziel just runs straight up to Eden and starts shaking their hand and chattering excitedly, and Eden is immediately thrown by the fact that there's another Wanderer, and they actually get to talk to him. Then the General shows up and they start questioning just how many Wanderers there are that survived the massacre.

The General is... a little cagier, but Aziel makes relatively quick work of that, and she's too relieved to be too terribly prickly about anything. Eden - particularly Edda from within - is absolutely overjoyed to discover Another Gal who's also a Wanderer, and who in all honesty shares some of her same tendencies, so they hit it off pretty well.

Eden also immediately starts fretting over Aziel's missing arm and asks if he'd like them to fix it. He's...undecided, as of yet. He's got no objections, per se, but he's been enjoying the temporary fix for it...

[sakebytheriver]

God.

That episode was just.

No.

New Leverage is so uninterested in the cons and the stories of individual episodes and more importantly they have almost completely abandoned the original conceit of the OG show, which was at its core telling everyone to eat the rich, instead they are only interested in expanding upon the lore drops and emotional catharsis moments the characters would go through in the OG show, but rather than sprinkle it into the episodes sparingly and with the express purpose of using them to aid in the story that the indivdual episode was telling or letting them evolve naturally from the story at hand, the reboot is instead clearly starting the writing process from these emotional moments and working backwards instead of starting with the con, probably because they think the fans will like these moments more than any other part of the episode and because these writers clearly want to show off how good they are at writing emotional moments that get actors Oscars for crying on cue, (if only they were actually good at writing those moments maybe this post would have a different ending).

This last Magiq Baby episode was just so clearly written around the emotional monologues they gave Sophie, the con and the villain being written not for the episode, but for the writers to have a reason to make Sophie say those words instead, not letting the monologues come from the story and the con of the episode itself, but rather from their own desire to have her be emotional. It's sad and disappointing to see just how far the writing quality in Leverage Redemption has fallen from the original and this episode is just the perfect example of that drop with the con becoming almost nonexistent and nonessential to the plot which has just taken a nosedive into trying to set up this big bad from Sophie's past (and don't even get me started on that dumb little lore drop of Sophie possibly having a secret daughter like come on 🙄) without putting any work into the story of the episode they have at hand. The original show had an entire season building up to Damian Moreau and yet they never let themselves forget the original conceit of the show which was ultimately to shine a light on how rich people will screw over as many poor people as it takes to keep their postition of power, new Leverage is not interested in telling that story, no, this new show is fanfiction, delving into the pasts and the emotions of the main characters separating them from the world around them and in the process from the story the show is supposed to be telling, providing fan service rather than story. The original show used these characters as tools to tell the story that the rich should be eaten, the reboot thinks that the characters are the story. Trying to distract the audience from the lack of substance within each episode and con by overcompensating with characters falling into the "everyone wants to get an A in therapy" trap that so many shows are falling into these days. This episode felt like a fanfiction written by a Sophie stan who wrote the Mama Prosper character as a plot device trying to put Sophie into a situation where she has to tell the truth and be emotional and can't use her superpowers rather than something actually motivated by the story of the episode, it's cliche, it's sloppy, it's a facsimile of what Leverage used to be. This episode was a subpar fanfiction that tries to build upon the solid ground laid by the original show's subtle nods towards Sophie's past by hammering the audience in the face with a bad version of the story we have all been writing in our own heads since the first time the name 'Lady Charlotte Prentice' ever left Sophie's lips, the best part of Leverage's storytelling in the past was that they knew when less was more, Leverage Redemption has completely abandoned that framework to the detriment of the show's canon, happy to instead completely forget about the cons and the artistry and the meticulousness the original writers put into the plots of each episode letting the con become an afterthought rather than the driving force of the episode. It's utterly devestating to watch as the perfectly woven thread of the original Leverage's approach to conartistry is hacked to pieces by the sloppy laziness clearly being shown by Leverage Redemption's writers who can only see the show's characters rather than its universe

[boobachu]

My thoughts on Splatoon 3: Side Order

poilers underneef the read more (which people need to learn to use dammit)

Well, as expected, the story is just Sonic Frontiers. Reenie was trapped in the ball and you had to bust her out and the big evil was set loose so you had to stop it also Sonic Colors ending.

The game itself... ehhhhhh once you beat the tutorial you've seen everything you're gonna see. I guess the bosses are different sorta except for the inklings which are just octamazons again.

Aunno I'm disappointed there's only three bosses with the tutorial final boss and the real final boss being basically the same thing.

Like Octo Docto had all of The Vanishing Sister's bosses remixed at least but aunno Splatoon 3 just feels like "wasted potential" the game

Just no bosses, and the "replay" value is to beat the game with every weapon (Just like The Vanishing Sister, which, who ever 1,000%ed TVS????)

It'd've been nice if similar to Smash Bros. Ultimate each weapon had a different final boss (also if every single level didn't look the exact same, I understand Order is the theme but like... damn bitch do something)

I also hate how like, all of the Side Order trailer stuff just never like, is used.

Like you don't see this shit, but upon further looking, yeah a lot of those pics turned out to just be the boring-ass elevator.

But like this imagry shows something more than what Side Order delivered.

Like the whole thing is somehow the VR was brainwashing people and like... okay but how? Then there's the whole way it starts.

I go to fucking sleep. The other two people ain't sleeping so uhhhh that tells me it's all a dream.

Which isn't terribly bad cuz like despite all that it was pretty fun, like everything but the actual levels were good, so this absolutely wasn't worth $25

and how does Side Order end after the credits? I'm in the plaza, not Agent 8

So that means the lore within the game could not even be real so ehhh

Still enjoy the spectacle tho. That's our Hatchi. I call him Bob, tho my brother calls him Huey.

Aunno I just kinda wanted to ramble and also I've been listening to the Full Throttle Tentacle remix all night it's almost dawn I just love this song I can't wait for Octotune 2 to come out.